Sunday, January 14, 2007
Ivan Granger's new e-book
Ivan Granger, the gifted creator of www.poetry-chaikhana.com has just posted an exciting e-book on line. This book is a compilation of the many intriguing "thoughts for the day" which Ivan has posted through the years.
Here is his explanation for doing this book:
I am constantly asked about the thought for the day included with the daily poem email. The first question I get is, Who is the author? (I am.) The next is, Are they available as a collection?
With the following ebook I can finally answer yes to that question...The Silence Will Teach You :Sayings and Artwork by Ivan M. Granger
Download 861K
The download is free. If you find it inspiring, a donation is welcome, but not required. I hope you enjoy it!
Ivan
PS - Keep an eye on the Poetry Chaikhana links for other ebooks coming soon.
(Note: see ftp://poetry-chaikhana.com/silence_will_teach.zip_ If this doesn't work, e-mail Ivan at the poetry chaikhana site.)
Foreword
About five years ago, several things in my life seemed to converge into a spiritual crisis for me. At the time my wife and I were living on the island of Maui. A friend sent several tapes of David Whyte's talks, a very engaging combination of poetry and personal anecdotes. Although Mr. Whyte lives in the Pacific Northwest, he still retains a wonderful, mellow British accent that pools and ferments in the mind. So, I was driving the country roads of Maui, among cane fields and cow pastures, listening to David Whyte.
I also started reading the poetry of Ramprasad. I had never come across poetry like that before, deeply devotional, but filled with exuberance, irony, sometimes playfully petulant, even moments of outrage. Ramprasad’s songs felt like a full relationship with the Divine. Every emotion, every thought was allowed; not just allowed, but fully utilized upon the spiritual path. Ramprasad's poems were devout and fierce all at once! For me, it was an electrical combination.
Also around the same time I came across the work of the Sufi poet Shaykh Abu Said Abil-Kheir. Again, I was stunned by the beauty, and humor, and cutting insight.
But in the midst of reading this poetry, I was also going through a personal collapse. I felt as if I had lost all direction. The feeling wasn’t new, but this time I was no longer such a young man. My excuses seemed frail. Instead of fighting that lurking despair, something in me found the courage to just surrender. I found myself thinking, maybe this is all I am, maybe this is all my life is. Not bad, but nothing special. It's just as it is.
That surrendering created an unexpected and profound spiritual opening in my life. Almost immediately I dropped into a state of deep silence and inexpressible joy.
I started journaling about this transformed awareness and perspective as it quietly unfolded within me, but I soon found that what really wanted to come out was poetry… and these short sayings.
I now share them with you in the hopes that they carry the same terse truth and quiet power they continue to hold for me.
Ivan M. Granger Bellingham, Washington January 2007
All of mysticism comes down to this:
to recognize what is already and always there.
1
You can’t think your way to heaven.
2
Be willing to drop all addiction
to mental chatter and the trance it creates.
3
The Divine is experienced by the heart.
The intellect, at best, can only trail behind and take notes.
4
If love does not rule your heart,all activity is just the spinning of wheels.
5
The goal of the ego is not perfection.
It’s ultimate goal
is to fade away in order to reveal the perfection already present.
6
The ego itself is the veil of Maya, both hiding and, ultimately, revealing Divine Reality.
7
How can you settle into yourselfwithoutself-acceptance?
8
You can never be separated from your Self, your being, God.
The only “work” there is to do is to become fully aware of this immutable fact.
(Note: Ivan requests that none of this material be reprinted without his express permission.)
Here is his explanation for doing this book:
I am constantly asked about the thought for the day included with the daily poem email. The first question I get is, Who is the author? (I am.) The next is, Are they available as a collection?
With the following ebook I can finally answer yes to that question...The Silence Will Teach You :Sayings and Artwork by Ivan M. Granger
Download 861K
The download is free. If you find it inspiring, a donation is welcome, but not required. I hope you enjoy it!
Ivan
PS - Keep an eye on the Poetry Chaikhana links for other ebooks coming soon.
(Note: see ftp://poetry-chaikhana.com/silence_will_teach.zip_ If this doesn't work, e-mail Ivan at the poetry chaikhana site.)
Foreword
About five years ago, several things in my life seemed to converge into a spiritual crisis for me. At the time my wife and I were living on the island of Maui. A friend sent several tapes of David Whyte's talks, a very engaging combination of poetry and personal anecdotes. Although Mr. Whyte lives in the Pacific Northwest, he still retains a wonderful, mellow British accent that pools and ferments in the mind. So, I was driving the country roads of Maui, among cane fields and cow pastures, listening to David Whyte.
I also started reading the poetry of Ramprasad. I had never come across poetry like that before, deeply devotional, but filled with exuberance, irony, sometimes playfully petulant, even moments of outrage. Ramprasad’s songs felt like a full relationship with the Divine. Every emotion, every thought was allowed; not just allowed, but fully utilized upon the spiritual path. Ramprasad's poems were devout and fierce all at once! For me, it was an electrical combination.
Also around the same time I came across the work of the Sufi poet Shaykh Abu Said Abil-Kheir. Again, I was stunned by the beauty, and humor, and cutting insight.
But in the midst of reading this poetry, I was also going through a personal collapse. I felt as if I had lost all direction. The feeling wasn’t new, but this time I was no longer such a young man. My excuses seemed frail. Instead of fighting that lurking despair, something in me found the courage to just surrender. I found myself thinking, maybe this is all I am, maybe this is all my life is. Not bad, but nothing special. It's just as it is.
That surrendering created an unexpected and profound spiritual opening in my life. Almost immediately I dropped into a state of deep silence and inexpressible joy.
I started journaling about this transformed awareness and perspective as it quietly unfolded within me, but I soon found that what really wanted to come out was poetry… and these short sayings.
I now share them with you in the hopes that they carry the same terse truth and quiet power they continue to hold for me.
Ivan M. Granger Bellingham, Washington January 2007
All of mysticism comes down to this:
to recognize what is already and always there.
1
You can’t think your way to heaven.
2
Be willing to drop all addiction
to mental chatter and the trance it creates.
3
The Divine is experienced by the heart.
The intellect, at best, can only trail behind and take notes.
4
If love does not rule your heart,all activity is just the spinning of wheels.
5
The goal of the ego is not perfection.
It’s ultimate goal
is to fade away in order to reveal the perfection already present.
6
The ego itself is the veil of Maya, both hiding and, ultimately, revealing Divine Reality.
7
How can you settle into yourselfwithoutself-acceptance?
8
You can never be separated from your Self, your being, God.
The only “work” there is to do is to become fully aware of this immutable fact.
(Note: Ivan requests that none of this material be reprinted without his express permission.)
