Deepening the Meaning of Erotic: Changing the Meaning of Reality
The Inner Journey demands the bravery of the Spiritual Warrior
The inner journey is not for the faint of heart and it demands the bravery of the spiritual warriors who, as the 14th century Persian mystic, Haifiz, said, “tame the beasts in their pasts so that the knights hoofs can no longer break the jeweled vision in the heart.”
Imagine if we saw our journey through life as
one that protected “the jeweled vision of the heart.”
The Erotic Embrace...
Pause a moment before reading on. Pause but don’t let your mind try and make sense of Haifiz’s words. For the moment we try to grasp their meaning through the mind, we lose the enormous, erotic embrace of the journey that Haifiz offers. Rather open through the heart and fall into the immensity of its vision. “The warriors tame the beasts in their pasts so that the knights hoofs can no longer break the jeweled vision in the heart.”
The first time I came upon these words, I actually gasped. The affect was overwhelming. Yes! the part of me that yearns for connection, union and peace cried out. Yes! Yes! And then my mind kicked in. To what was I saying yes?
Trust the hearts understanding
My heart replied. “To the soul’s yearning.” My mind was unimpressed. I decided to go with my feelings and the images running riot within. The strongest of these was the sense of erotic coursing through Haifiz’s images.
This is why I use the word erotic when referring to the way we must embrace the heart journey, the inner journey that calls us passionately toward wholeness - the inner journey that seems an uphill battle in the face of the relentless call of the outer world, which claims to be the only reality. Why do I use the word erotic for such a journey? Because this journey of the spiritual warrior is nourished by a passionate love of life and demands a reclaiming of the love affair that life is meant to be.
"I am erotic when I bake bread, when I write a poem..."
t is (yet another) sad statement about our culture that erotic has been has become the territory of the XXX rated when the original meaning of Eros was passion for life.
The poet, Audrey Lorde, who examined the question of loving and the tremendous power of the erotic, saw it as a deep enlightening force within women's lives, a source of power and knowledge. She said, “I am erotic when I bake bread, when I make a table, when I write a poem or when I make love. Eros is the passion for life that we bring to our work, to all our relations. What a sick culture we are in when eros has become a naughty word but war is not a naughty word.”
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| Art by Daniel B. Holeman http://www.awakenvisions.com/ |
The inner journey is not for the faint of heart and it demands the bravery of the spiritual warriors who, as the 14th century Persian mystic, Haifiz, said, “tame the beasts in their pasts so that the knights hoofs can no longer break the jeweled vision in the heart.”
Imagine if we saw our journey through life as
one that protected “the jeweled vision of the heart.”
The Erotic Embrace...
Pause a moment before reading on. Pause but don’t let your mind try and make sense of Haifiz’s words. For the moment we try to grasp their meaning through the mind, we lose the enormous, erotic embrace of the journey that Haifiz offers. Rather open through the heart and fall into the immensity of its vision. “The warriors tame the beasts in their pasts so that the knights hoofs can no longer break the jeweled vision in the heart.”
The first time I came upon these words, I actually gasped. The affect was overwhelming. Yes! the part of me that yearns for connection, union and peace cried out. Yes! Yes! And then my mind kicked in. To what was I saying yes?
Trust the hearts understanding
My heart replied. “To the soul’s yearning.” My mind was unimpressed. I decided to go with my feelings and the images running riot within. The strongest of these was the sense of erotic coursing through Haifiz’s images.
This is why I use the word erotic when referring to the way we must embrace the heart journey, the inner journey that calls us passionately toward wholeness - the inner journey that seems an uphill battle in the face of the relentless call of the outer world, which claims to be the only reality. Why do I use the word erotic for such a journey? Because this journey of the spiritual warrior is nourished by a passionate love of life and demands a reclaiming of the love affair that life is meant to be.
"I am erotic when I bake bread, when I write a poem..."
t is (yet another) sad statement about our culture that erotic has been has become the territory of the XXX rated when the original meaning of Eros was passion for life.
The poet, Audrey Lorde, who examined the question of loving and the tremendous power of the erotic, saw it as a deep enlightening force within women's lives, a source of power and knowledge. She said, “I am erotic when I bake bread, when I make a table, when I write a poem or when I make love. Eros is the passion for life that we bring to our work, to all our relations. What a sick culture we are in when eros has become a naughty word but war is not a naughty word.”
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