A Grail Castle, A Refuge
Others may celebrate the surface you.
But deeper down, where you live
There’s another reality
Shadows and light
Valleys and mountaintops.
The crowd, frivolous and fickle
In a never-ending search for validation
Applaud you
But not for who you are.
At home with yourself
Comfortable in a quiet inner world
Immune to the crowds’ approval
Immune to criticisms borne of insecurity.
Self-love without selfishness
Self-love without self-absorption
The wisdom deeper down
Asks you to create a Grail Castle
A quiet refuge
A welcoming place.
Reflection
The crowd needs something from you that you cannot provide, to quench an unquenchable thirst. The search for validation, the need for the approval of others is not malice, but insecurity. We live on the surface when we have not learned to live in our depths.
It isn’t easy to build a Grail Castle when the noise is still there. To create a quiet refuge not as escape, but as the place to live is real work. It means tending what is true deep down.
Self-love without selfishness. Self-love without self-absorption. Narcissism arises out of a desperate need to be seen and validated. Self-love involves a commitment to know yourself, to honor what you find in that knowing, and let it guide you.
The question is not whether to choose fame or self. The question is: Where do you build your home?
Once you create that quiet refuge, that welcoming place, the approval or disapproval of others becomes what it always was: distant weather moving across a foreign landscape.
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Question to Consider
Have you created a quiet refuge where your inner wisdom is welcomed as an honored guest? If not, would your life be different if you did?
. . .
Everything Heron Dance does and offers is summarized here.
Zen Buddhism resulted from the encounter between Buddhism from India and Taoism from northern China. Poetry was an important part of the tradition of the Taoist hermit monks of the Zhongnan Mountains. The Tao Te Ching is the best known of those poems but there were thousands of others written over two thousand years ago. Many are as beautiful and mysterious as the Tao.
Zen Mountain Journal also draws from the poetry of the Zen Buddhist monks of old Japan.
Zen Mountain Journal offers a Taoist journaling practice for those who seek to connect with inner worlds, with the deep silence and peace within. The poems and paintings in these posts are part of a journal now being created by Heron Dance Press. It will be available for preorder shortly.
The Zen Mountain Journal is reader supported but there is no obligation to contribute. If you would be willing to contribute, please do that here.