The Beauty Way

Stumbled upon the core of Dine'é spirituality, the Beauty Way, last night and was reminded of how much I personally resonate with it.  

"Let me be clear: I didn't write this song. When I saw it at the Anasazi Museum at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, I was so impressed that I copied it for the introduction of my novel, Anasazi Harvest."
R. Leland Waldrip

Today I will walk out, today everything evil will leave me,
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever,
nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.

In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty,
lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty,
living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful.

From here: http://www.pathwaysforhealing.com/node/160

Anything that reminds me of this is healing. The face of the beloved, for example. Because (in part) the face of the beloved is a window that opens onto the rest of the world and offers the sacred reminder that, as the Jewish mystics say, there is nowhere God is not. 

Playa la Perla, Bahía Concepción, BCS

Being human, at least for the time being, I need regular reminders. 

My aggravating and perfect first AA sponsor, who always uttered the aphorisms that would circle around and around in my mind for days, weeks, years, was fond of saying "Love is. And it's the only thing that's going on." Ugh. wtf. Dude, it is most def not the only thing going on. Are you not paying attention?

But the core framework of his entire world view was unitarian- that all dualities or other fragmentations or splits are delusional and that the ultimate reality isn't in anyway either dual or many. He gave me this excerpt from something by philosopher-madman-possible charlatan Ken Wilber where Wilber talks about finding the many in the one, versus finding the one in the many. Finding the many in the one is similar to our ordinary experience-- simply, the apparent multiplicity of consciousness-- this and this and this, a "manifold," (pace Kant), except that (as opposed to Sartre for example) the multiplicity of "thises" emerges and returns to a fundamental unified ground of being. Wilber suggests that finding the many in the one is compassion. 

Finding the one in the many, on the other hand, is the mystical impulse or experience that sees the essential unity of every apparently distinct phenomenon. Each appearance insofar as it seems separate is an illusion and temporary, merely a facet or face of the one, which is the only reality. Wilber suggests finding the one in the many is love. 

This was very heady stuff for someone newly sober, but my sponsor knew me well enough to know that I "love" this kind of shit. If my mind is going to be kept occupied, especially in the process of recovery which occurs holistically and in all dimensions of one's being, not merely thoughts, then it might as well be kept occupied by paradoxes that also seem to bear some fruit in daily life. 

I was reflecting this morning on combining the Beauty Way with loving kindness devotions based on the heart of compassion, as reflected in the Brahma Viharas. The simplest translation I've found is:

May all sentient beings be well

May all sentient beings be happy

May all sentient beings be peaceful and at ease

May all sentient beings be full of lovingkindness

With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.

Incantations, fearless on my breath. The kind of shield that is not a defense, but an arms-wide welcome. I'm always brought to this clear view by what people call "falling in love." It has to start somewhere and return somewhere in this flesh and blood and rooted in the wet earth, for me. Or I forget. And what could be more unforgettable than the beloved?