Saturday, April 30, 2011

The maze of mind unravels where we act

Religion and Faith are complex for me.  At one time, I thought that I might be able to deliver a message of hope and salvation in the role of a pastor.  But I think I always knew that my own path would not be a path that others ought to follow.  I was more spiritual than religious and ultimately more carnal than spiritual.  This book, The Saviors of God shaped and changed my way of looking at myself and my spiritual journey. When Kazantzakis wrote in the chapter First Step, the Ego, " I am not good, I am not innocent, I am not serene. My happiness and unhappiness are both unbearable; I am full of inarticulate voices and darknesses; I wallow, all blood and tears, in this warm trough of my flesh." , I knew I had found a voice who knew me. I am not an ascetic, as Kazantzakis strove to be,  but his insights have inspired me.  They also inspired this poem.  In my handwritten notes are two quotes from The Saviors of God, although they are not quoted in the final typewritten version of the poem.  Nor does the poem have a title or date.
"The ultimate most holy form of theory is action" p.99
"It is not God who will save us - it is we who will save God, by battling, by creating, and by transmuting matter into spirit." p. 106 
I also have a note of my own: "To fear and in that fear to weep for God for hope for love. Death"


The maze of mind unravels where we act,
Pursue our thoughts to logic's ending place,
Where dreams like mist drift off the cliff of fact;


Where theory arms us, praxis sets the pace.
To act can answer queries of the heart;
To win the prize we must endure the race.


The die is cast when we decide to start,
Bolt out from logic, theory's starting block
To merge with racers who seek their part,


Like you, to act to break in God's deadlock.
God runs, He falls, we carry on to make
A place for God where with us he may walk.


The road of action God commands we take
So He we save in our warm body's meat.
We burn an arc across the sky for sake
of God's salvation . . . and our moment, fleet.

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