Don't just DO something, SIT there

Today is officially the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the Equinox - equal day and night.  It's also the anniversary of Osho's enlightenment as a young man in 1953.   But why 'a love supreme'?  For lovers of jazz and soulful music,  A Love Supreme is John Coltrane's masterpiece.  I chose this title after last week's live gig by the 'Coltrane Dedication Quintet' in Narberth, Pembrokeshire.  Hearing the four notes by the bass player repeated again and again - 'a love su-preme, a love su-preme'   ("Acknowledgement", Part I) I was transported back to hearing this amazing LP decades ago.  It  is a spiritual work -  Coltrane admitted that he didn’t own his talent but was channelling a higher power. He had the discipline, the tools and the technique, but the actual music seemed to happen by itself.  This is an example of skill combined with 'allowing love to happen' leading to sublime results.  Archie Shepp who pla

Since my last blog, we watch as horror descends on the Ukrainian people.  Military aggression and massive displacement of people has been happening around the world for decades, but this time it's on Europe's borders.  How can we presume to talk about it, safe in our homes when others are fleeing or waiting for the next bomb blast? Now, 'don't just do something, just sit there' sounds very hollow.  It is, because the opposite is always true too.   Action is needed -action that is a response or necessity arising from a situation.  Action is different from random and unfocused activities that serve as distractions.  But in this situation, what can we 'do' apart from donating money or signing up as volunteers in a war zone? There's two things we can do - and they bring together the both/and, the paradox of doing and not-doing.  We look within at the same time as looking outwards at our world.  I quote from Marianne Williamson's book 'The Gift of Cha