Just as I was sitting down to dash out a Church of the Churchless post before leaving for an Academy Awards potluck, where I will selflessly share one of the last Now & Zen Unturkey's left on earth, I got an email from a friend, Joelle.
I liked it so much, I'll share her words today instead of mine. Which leaves me free to see more of the Red Carpet arrivals. From Joelle to me to you, Alan Watts' "Seven Secret Sayings of God." I like them.
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From Joelle Martin Leath:
You know when a verse or lyric or book pops into and stays in your consciousness that you haven't thought of in years and you know it's time to pay attention?
I was led yesterday to remember Alan Watt's witty 'creation theory' brief and wondered where had I put the torn page? out of - which of his books was it?
I wondered if I had included it in one of the many journals or binders on spirit-wisdom compiled through the years, or if it ended up as a bookmark in one of many hundreds of metaphysical books I have sitting on shelves, tabletops, in crates, boxes, baskets . . .
I set the intention, tuned in and started looking through some of my binders, when I turned towards a basket of books and was led to "Spiritual Awakening" by Sant Darshan Singh, and Voila! there was Alan's page in a plastic sheath along with a photo of my late mother modeling when she was about 12 years old and a postcard of the Court of Two Sisters courtyard-restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans (where my sisters and I were born).....of course, all very symbolic to me.
I had torn the sheet out of the same book, "Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown" in 1973, that I had taken from a bookshelf just the other day, for bedtime reading.
As it called to me, I thought you might enjoy it as well; Watts was brilliant at injecting wit and humor into deeper thought: Alan Watts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
My boyfriend in Los Gatos at the time Watts wrote "Cloud Hidden" (1972-73) was his (Watts') apprentice - - - one of our "Lights along the Way" during those years - - in company with Yogananda, Terry Cole Whittaker, Swami SatChitAnanda, Krishnamurti, and so many masterful teachers whom we love and revere.
SEARCHING FOR THE HERMIT IN VAIN
I asked the boy beneath the pines.
He said, "The master's gone alone
Herb-picking somewhere on the mount,
Cloud-hidden, whereabouts unknown.
Chai Tao (777-841)
Trans. Lin Yutang
The Seven Secret Sayings of God
From "Cloud Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown" by Alan Watts (1972)
- Before the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep, God said I AM THAT. And it is so.
- Also, being in eternity which is neither linear nor sequential, where all is nowever, God said, YOU MUST DRAW THE LINE SOMEWHERE. And it was drawn.
- But, it was no dreary straight line or flat wall, for God then said, HAVE A BALL. And there was a ball, in the image whereof all stars and planets came to be formed.
- Thereupon, God said, THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERYTHING. And there are: the inside and the outside, the dense and the spacious, the right and the wrong, the left and the taken, for, as it is written, "One shall be taken, and the other left."
- And God said, IT MUST BE IN TIME. And thereafter it was, is, and will be, for as it is written again, "As it was in the beginning is now, and ever shall be, through all ages of ages. Amen."
- And forthwith, God said, SPACE IT OUT. Whereupon it came to pass that, beside this and that and now and then, there is also here and there.
- And God beheld how firm a foundation this was and said unto himself, GET LOST. And there you are.
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