The Path of Awakening: Exploring Mary Oliver's 'The Journey'

In this talk to the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, we explore Mary Oliver's celebrated poem 'The Journey' through the lens of the Buddha's teachings of awakening. We discuss key themes raised in the poem: intention and clarity; the difficulties of stepping out of habitual behaviors and relationships; determination, effort, and perseverance; the difficulties and obstacles we confront on the path; the ability to connect with the quiet inner voice of knowing; and the potential to ‘save the only life that you could save.’

Transcript

In the talk today,

I'd like to focus on,

Particularly on a poem by the beloved poet Mary Oliver,

Her poem,

The Journey,

And explore,

Really explore that poem through the Buddha's,

Through the lens of the Buddha's teachings.

Just as a kind of a little bit of a background,

I've,

In recent sessions over the,

Over recent months,

I've been focusing very much on the Buddha's teachings of awakening,

The potential for experiencing freedom in this lifetime,

That our practice really is about being able to live our life in a different way,

You know,

So that we're not burdened,

As it were,

By life,

You know,

We're not,

You know,

Stressed out by all the things we have to do or annoyed by the people who are rubbing us the wrong way.

And all of that,

You know,

Frustrated by all the things that we think we should have,

But we don't have.

And,

You know,

Those,

You know,

And the many,

Many,

Many forms of suffering that we experience of difficulty,

Unpleasantness,

Life not being the way we want it to be.

And the Buddha's teachings are really about being able to live a different kind of life in the midst of life and connected with everyone we're connected with,

But experiencing it in a wholly different way,

With a different sensibility,

If you like,

Without clinging,

Without attachment to,

I want things to be the way I want them to be,

And I want the things I don't like to be gone.

So all of this really,

You know,

I've been speaking about the,

You know,

To encapsulate it,

I could say that all of the Buddha's teachings are focused on the journey from suffering to freedom.

Almost all of us,

I'd say,

Probably all of us here and almost everybody experiences life in a less than complete way,

You know,

A less than fully enlightened way,

You know.

And the teachings are really about pointing the way to how we can free ourselves from the kind of entanglements and confusion and kind of stuckness that we can find ourselves enmeshed in and caught up in.

And I've spoken a lot,

Quite a bit about that.

And all of the Buddha's teachings were really for the purpose of helping beings,

Obviously beings in,

You know,

People who were living around northern India at the time he was alive,

But obviously concerned that those teachings come down through time,

You know,

To help other beings and solely for the purpose of,

You know,

For compassion,

For caring about suffering,

You know,

Seeing suffering around us,

Just as we see people suffering.

If we see people are homeless or people who are lacking in food or basic necessities,

I think the natural response of the heart is to care and to do something that we can do,

Do anything we can to,

You know,

If we haven't shut down those,

That faculty of compassion to really be responsive.

And that's really where the Buddha's own teachings come from and the Buddha's own search for the end of suffering.

And his realization that there is an end to suffering,

Really his enlightenment is really an archetypal story of this journey from suffering to freedom.

Now,

He taught that we all have the capacity to awaken from suffering.

It wasn't just something about him personally,

You know,

That,

You know,

That wasn't,

That isn't available to all of us.

We all have the capacity to wake up to a deep freedom that is available,

That is truly available to all of us.

And he taught a path he called the Noble Eightfold Path.

Noble because it leads to deep freedom,

A path,

A path of training.

And I've been speaking in recent times,

Including the last session a couple of weeks ago,

How really the present moment and our relationship to the present moment is really at the heart of,

Is really the doorway to freedom from suffering.

You know,

How am I meeting this moment?

You know,

This one right now,

The one where I'm saying this one right now,

And the one that you are listening and,

You know,

Whatever else is going on,

How am I,

How are you,

How,

You know,

How are we meeting this moment?

And that's really the kind of the fork in the road,

You know,

How we meet this moment will determine our,

You know,

Our future happiness or our future suffering.

You know,

If we meet this moment with resistance,

With anger,

Or this shouldn't be like this,

And we're struggling with like,

I don't like this,

I don't want this,

Then we're creating the conditions for further suffering.

We're creating,

You know,

The conditions for more resistance,

More anger,

More,

You know,

Pushing away of experience.

But if we meet this moment in the way that we,

You know,

We do when we practice meditation,

Say,

Okay,

Can I welcome,

You know,

Can I open to this moment?

Can I be present with this?

Then we're creating the conditions for greater freedom in the future.

You know,

If you like,

Every moment is like a fork in the road,

You know,

Do I go this way or do I go this way?

Do I go to suffering or do I go to greater freedom?

And all of the teachings,

You know,

Particularly the teachings of,

You know,

The Four Noble Truths about suffering,

You know,

The existence of suffering and why we suffer because we're in some way we're in a relationship of resistance to life,

Resistance to how things are,

Wanting them to be different,

Not wanting them to be the way they are.

And that the Buddha spoke about as craving or clinging,

You know,

That we're holding on and that holding on is really the cause of suffering,

He said.

And that we can let go that when we see that that's causing us suffering,

Like holding onto a rope and burning our hands or holding onto a lump of coal and getting burned,

We drop,

You know,

The first thing we want to do is we drop it.

We stop doing the thing that keeps causing us suffering.

But we got to see clearly in order to do that.

Otherwise,

We just keep in that cycle.

Probably we're all familiar with that.

We keep doing things that don't actually serve us.

Anyone experience that?

I know I have,

You know,

Just keep on that cycle.

You know,

It's on the treadmill.

You've got,

You've set something in motion and it's very hard.

It can be very hard to get off.

You know,

There can be something very enticing,

Very comfortable in our suffering.

We're used to it,

You know,

The relationships,

Which where we get in arguments with people and we push each other's buttons.

But we can't seem to resist doing those things.

And in order to be able to move in a different direction,

We've got to be willing to be present with our suffering,

To be present with the difficulties,

To see clearly what we're doing that isn't serving us and let go of that clinging.

And then that's the path to freedom.

And the Buddha then spoke about kind of in a more detailed way about that path of,

You know,

Living wisely and compassionately,

Wise speech,

Wise action,

Wise livelihood,

Training the mind through meditation,

Wise effort,

Wise mindfulness,

Wise concentration,

And cultivating wisdom,

You know,

Wise understanding.

How do we see things in a big way?

And how do we cultivate the intentions to move in a more wholesome direction?

So all of the teachings are designed to kind of take us on this journey from suffering to freedom.

Sometimes the teachings are framed that it's not really a journey at all because we're already here.

You know,

We don't need to do anything or get somewhere because we're already here.

We're already free.

You know,

A lot of teachings about we're already free,

But you can still see it as a journey to the realization that we're already free.

Because for most of us,

We're not actually living as though we really knew that we were already free.

You know,

We might know it maybe in a conceptual way,

But in a deeper experiential way,

We don't tend to know.

And we don't tend to act as though we know freedom is here right now.

So it's a journey there to that.

It's maybe not to somewhere else,

But it's a journey to realization.

And,

You know,

I was thinking about,

You know,

What is it that helps us to see clearly?

What is it that helps us to let go?

What is it that helps us to gain insight that is freeing?

You know,

The seeing clearly that frees us from suffering.

And ultimately,

It has to come through our own experience.

You know,

Nobody can say,

You know,

Some magic words and then you wake up.

Then you're free from suffering.

Nobody can do it for you,

You know,

As a gift.

Oh,

I'm going to free you from suffering.

You know,

Maybe in some traditions,

That's the case,

You know.

But in the Buddha's teachings,

It has to,

And I think we know it from our experience,

It has to come from within.

It has to come from our own seeing clearly,

Our own understanding and our own letting go.

Teachings can be very,

Very helpful and teachers can be helpful,

But really just to point the way.

You know,

In Zen teachings,

They often use the metaphor of the finger pointing at the moon.

You know,

It's good to have a finger pointing at the moon if you don't know where the moon is.

Where's the moon?

Oh,

It's right there.

The finger points at the moon.

But people mistake the finger for the moon.

You know,

They think that the one who's pointing is the answer rather than the thing that's being pointed to.

You know,

I think of it as well as,

You know,

Eating the menu rather than the meal.

You know,

The menu points to what the meal is going to,

Could give you,

You know,

And the enjoyment that you could get from the meal.

But the menu isn't going to be very nutritious,

Is it?

It might give you indigestion or some other thing.

So I think that's a good metaphor for how we can get confused in thinking that the thing that's the point.

I mean,

Fundamentalism is that,

Isn't it?

You know,

In any tradition,

Fundamentalism is eating the menu.

You know,

The teachings of almost all traditions have something really wise and compassionate and useful.

But people think it's not about that.

It's about this book.

What did this book say and this line and all of that?

And then it becomes,

You know,

It becomes a form of idolatry.

You know,

We're worshipping false idols,

You know,

As in the Christian Jewish Bible,

The ancient,

You know,

Those teachings of the Bible.

But all that to say that,

You know,

Teachings and teachers can point the way.

Stories are wonderful in helping us to see things more clearly.

I mean,

The story of the Buddha's awakening and of his journey is,

I find,

An extremely,

A very inspiring story,

You know,

Of this going from,

You know,

From illusion,

You know,

Living in wealth and comfort and luxury and thinking that that was where happiness lay.

But then coming to the understanding that there must be more to life than this,

And then embarking on the search,

You know,

Studying and practicing austerity and all of these methods of seeing if he could find the end to suffering,

You know,

Encountering all the obstacles on the way.

And then,

And then through his own practice and through his own clarity,

Being able to find freedom from suffering.

That's,

I think,

A wonderful kind of story that can help inspire us in our own practice.

I think images and metaphors can be really helpful in the Buddhist tradition.

You probably heard the story of,

You know,

The raft,

You know,

How do you,

You know,

The Buddha talked about,

You know,

If you wanted to get across a river,

You would,

You know,

You could use a raft to get you across the river.

And in,

You know,

Using this as a metaphor for the teachings that help you get across the river.

But once you get across the river,

You know,

He asked his followers,

Do you carry the,

You know,

The raft on your shoulders everywhere you go?

And they said,

No,

You wouldn't do that.

In the same way,

You don't carry,

You know,

The burden of anything,

You know,

Even the teachings on your shoulder,

You use them to get across the river,

You know,

Get across from suffering to freedom.

You know,

And the Buddha,

So that image of the raft,

The image of a lamp,

The Buddha said,

Be a lamp unto yourselves.

Trust in your own capacity to wake up.

You know,

And the metaphor of the arrows,

You know,

The first arrow is the,

You know,

Just the pain that can come,

That will come in life.

The second arrow that is the resistance to the difficulty,

The resistance to what we're experiencing.

The second arrow is what is optional,

Is unnecessary.

And we can let go,

We can let go of the second arrow.

All of these are,

I think,

Really helpful metaphors,

Images that can help us in our practice.

And what I want to look at today,

Though,

Is the role that,

You know,

Of poetry as,

You know,

It's another form of,

Can be another form of telling a story,

You know,

And I find myself that poetry can be really helpful and I use it,

You know,

I bring poems into talks and into meditations.

I think for three main reasons,

One,

To help bring us back to the present moment.

You know,

You think of,

You know,

The lines from,

You know,

Rumi's The Guest House,

Welcome the guests,

You know,

And inviting that welcoming,

You know,

Can be,

That image can be can be quite,

Quite helpful,

I think.

So,

You know,

Bringing us back to the present moment,

Mary Oliver's line at the end of the summer day after walking through the fields all day,

She says,

What else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last and too soon?

Tell me,

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

So whenever I hear that,

Or think of that,

I think of,

Okay,

What is it I'm doing with my life,

With this wild and precious life?

You know,

It kind of brings me back in a very clear way and maybe hopefully for others as well.

That poem I shared from there,

Martha Postle's weight of called Clearing,

You know,

Creating a clearing in the dense forest of our lives,

That sense of,

You know,

Why are we doing this?

You know,

And what are we doing when we're coming into stillness,

Coming into silence and quietness?

I think of Wendell Berry's piece of wild things where he says,

I rest in the piece of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

I love that line,

Taxing our lives with forethought of grief.

We're creating problems in the future for the present and we suffer when we do that.

So rather than that,

Rest in the piece of wild things.

And he says,

You know,

For a time I rest in the grace of the world and I'm free.

So I think these,

The poetry can bring us back into the present moment.

It can help too in providing insights.

You know,

I think a metaphor can be an insight for us.

Oh yeah,

Guests.

I could welcome those guests,

You know,

Or I could rest in the piece of wild things,

You know,

Things that can help us remember,

Help us open our minds,

Open our hearts.

And that's the third thing,

To help us open our hearts,

Help us connect.

You know,

I shared a poem,

Maybe I'll share it later again,

That poem from Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi about,

There was a time I would reject those who are not of my faith.

Maybe I'll finish up with that later.

You know,

So I find that poetry can be very helpful.

And I want,

You know,

In the time we have today,

I want to just focus on a poem by Mary Oliver,

Very celebrated poem of hers.

And I'll share it and I'll just kind of walk through it.

And from a standpoint of the teachings of the Dharma,

Of the Buddha's teachings.

And it begins,

It's the poem,

The Journey,

And it begins,

One day you finally knew what you had to do and began,

Though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice.

You might just kind of listen to it as a meditation,

Shouting their bad advice,

Though the whole house began to tremble,

And you felt the old tug at your ankles,

Mend my life,

Each voice cried.

But you didn't stop,

You knew what you had to do,

And though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations,

Though their melancholy was terrible.

It was already late enough on a wild night,

And the road full of fallen branches and stones,

But little by little,

As you left their voices behind,

The stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,

And there was a new voice that you slowly recognized as your own,

That kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world,

Determined to do the only thing you could do,

Determined to save the only life that you could save.

So I'm going to just kind of explore that.

I don't know how it lands for you,

But for me,

It really is a kind of a teaching in itself,

Just to take in that sense of the journey.

And I'm just going to walk through my own kind of understanding and interpretation and looking at it through the lens of these teachings of the Buddha.

So he begins by saying,

One day you finally knew what you had to do.

And for me,

These two,

These opening two lines speak to the recognition that our practices,

Our habits,

Our ways of living aren't working for us.

Maybe they never worked for us,

But we didn't realize it.

But now there is that realization.

You know,

It begins there,

You know,

It's a nice place to begin.

You know,

One day you finally knew what you had to do and began.

We don't know what the specifics are about what went on before,

You know,

What were the difficulties,

What were the challenges,

Except what we can learn from the lines that follow.

But most of us,

Probably all of us are quite familiar with coming to a time and a place in our life where there's a realization and recognition that things have to change.

You know,

We all have our unique and individual versions,

Perhaps,

Of that story in our lives.

But I think the underlying pattern is a familiar one,

Some version of things aren't working,

I need to make a change.

Can you think of some time in your life where you've had that kind of recognition?

That something isn't working here or things aren't working here,

I need to make a change.

Maybe we've heard that inner voice and we say,

Yeah,

But it's too hard,

It's too difficult.

I need whatever it is that this relationship or this situation gives me,

Even though it may not make me happy,

I have to stay.

And maybe sometimes we do because sometimes we may not have an alternative.

But just that recognition,

I think that's a very powerful beginning because that's really a recognition,

You know,

In the Buddhist teachings would be a recognition of suffering.

This is suffering,

Things aren't working here.

You know,

The realization in the poem comes in the midst of past and current challenges.

You know,

The voices shouting their bad advice,

The house trembling.

You know,

I think of that as trembling with the implications of the change that we're going to make.

You know,

Maybe people feeling challenged,

Family,

Friends or colleagues.

When we're making a change,

You know,

That makes them feel uncomfortable.

Maybe they feel,

Who would they be if we make this change?

Or maybe the change we're making,

You know,

Puts a mirror up for them and makes them feel uncomfortable.

You know,

Maybe we felt that in relation to other people,

You know,

When they make change.

And there's the resistance of others to the change.

You know,

The old tug at your ankles.

You know,

Don't leave,

Don't change,

Don't leave me,

Don't change.

Mend my life,

Each voice cries.

The poem goes,

You know,

I hear this as a demand that we work,

Not just on our own suffering and our own tangles,

But that we solve the problems of those,

You know,

Maybe it's our family or maybe loved ones or friends,

Those around us.

But in the midst of all these voices,

These demands that we not change,

That we mend others' lives,

The poet Mary Oliver says,

But you didn't stop,

You knew what you had to do.

Even while the change that you're making feels maybe like an earthquake,

You know,

She says,

Though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations,

Though their melancholy was terrible.

Nonetheless,

There's a clarity,

There's a clarity.

You didn't stop,

You knew what you had to do.

And then she goes on.

So here in that knowing what you have to do,

There's this fundamental intention.

And intention is at the very heart of our practice.

You know,

If we don't have intention,

We can't really know where we're going.

Yogi Berra said,

If you don't know where you're going,

You'll end up somewhere else.

If you don't know where you're going,

You'll end up somewhere else.

We will.

We need to know where we're going.

And in the poem,

It's not necessarily knowing where we're going,

So much as knowing that we have to go,

That we have to embark on a journey from,

You know,

What isn't working for us,

You know,

What isn't working for us.

The renowned Zen teacher of the 20th century,

Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi said,

The most important thing is to remember the most important thing.

The most important thing is to remember the most important thing.

I understand this as a reminder of how important it is to know what matters most to us,

To connect with what we care about most deeply,

And to follow our deepest intentions.

So,

You know,

Just maybe pausing for a moment and invite you to reflect on,

You know,

What are your deepest intentions,

You know,

In your life,

You know,

In your practice,

What is it that you,

What is it that you want?

What is it that you wish for?

Maybe that's different from what you have,

Or,

You know,

Where is it that you see yourself going?

And just open to whatever,

If anything comes up,

Meet it with kindness and with care,

With acceptance.

So intention.

So the poem emphasizes this clarity and the intention to move forward in a new direction.

When we do move out of a situation of suffering and difficulty and entanglement,

The path forward is really an easy one.

So Mary Oliver speaks of the challenges on the path.

She says,

It was already late enough and a wild night,

And the road full of fallen branches and stones.

You know,

They're kind of a lovely metaphor for the difficulties that are there,

The stones and the branches and the stormy night,

You know,

It's not,

It's not,

Doesn't feel like,

You know,

The ideal kind of conditions where we'd have a nice open road and everything would be smooth,

But it doesn't tend to happen that way.

So,

You know,

But as you move forward,

You know,

And this points to effort and perseverance,

Which are very much at the heart of our practice,

Of going forward even where it's difficult,

Staying with the difficult emotions and mind states.

She says,

Little by little,

As you left their voices behind,

Leaving those old habits,

Those old voices,

That old conditioning,

Letting go of the gravitational pull of the past entanglements and habits and conditioning,

As you do that,

The stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,

You know,

Which I think is a lovely metaphor for clarity and insight,

Moving from confusion,

You know,

Clouded,

The clouds,

You know,

Blocking the view and the clarity.

And moving towards,

You know,

Moving from confusion and doubt and uncertainty towards a deeper knowing,

Really knowing that you're on the right path,

That you're going in the right direction,

That you've made the right decision.

So coming out of the entanglements,

Out of the suffering,

The difficulties,

The challenges on the way,

The intention,

The determination,

All of this is very much at the heart of these teachings,

These teachings of the Dharma.

And as you move forward,

The stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,

And there's a new voice,

Which you slowly recognized as your own,

You know,

That inner voice,

That inner knowing,

What Arjun Chah,

The great Thai teacher,

Spoke of as the one who knows,

You know,

That inner knowing,

That inner clarity,

That sometimes maybe we don't connect with that inner voice often enough,

But it is there.

You know,

The Quakers talk about it as of that of God within us,

You know,

That inner knowing.

So that new voice,

Which you slowly recognized as your own,

That kept you company,

You know,

That leads you forward really into a new life.

As you strode deeper and deeper into the world,

Determined to do the only thing you could do,

Determined to save the only life you could save.

So the striding deeper and deeper into the world,

You know,

So it's not a journey away from the world,

Or a pulling back from life and from others,

But it's really engaging from a new standpoint,

A new vantage point,

With a new understanding.

You know,

It brings to mind,

For me,

The lines at the end of T.

S.

Eliot's Four Quartets,

Where he says,

We shall not cease from exploration,

And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started,

And know the place for the first time.

To arrive where we started,

The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started,

And know the place for the first time.

You know,

We come back to where we started,

But we've come back to know it in a different way,

To know our lives in a different way,

To know our life in a different way.

And then the final lines of resolution,

Determined to do the only thing you could do,

Determined to save the only life that you could save.

And as I understand it,

The only thing you could do is really the right thing.

It's right action.

It's knowing what leads to freedom rather than to suffering.

And the recognition that the only life you could save,

The only life any of us can save is our own.

The only life any of us can save is our own.

We can't ultimately control the lives of anyone,

Even those we hold most dear.

You know,

Their life ultimately depends on their own actions and their own choices.

We know this.

Maybe quite a few of us have maybe learned it the hard way,

You know,

With our children and,

You know,

Wanting them to deal with life in different ways.

But ultimately,

The choice will be their own.

There's a phrasing,

A term in the,

Or a,

You know,

Reflection in the practice of equanimity that goes,

Your happiness and suffering depend on your actions and not on my wishes for you.

Your happiness and suffering depend on your actions and not on my wishes for you.

It's not that sound,

May sound a little cold,

But it's really true.

You know,

We can do all we can to support people,

Those we love,

You know,

And that,

And it's wise and helpful to do that and kind to do that.

But ultimately,

The happiness,

Their happiness depends on their choices,

Their choices and their actions.

Again,

T.

S.

Eliot says,

Teach us to care and not to care.

Teach us to sit still.

And I understand that as caring,

Meaning,

You know,

Having our hearts open,

Doing everything we can,

And the not caring being more not clinging,

Not clinging to outcomes.

So holding that caring without it turning into a controlling kind of caring of relationship.

So I just want to finish off by saying,

As I read the journey,

I read it really as a poem about waking up,

Realizing that the life we're living,

The habits that we're repeating,

The actions we're taking aren't leading us to where we want to go and where we need to go,

And that we need to go,

Embark in a new direction,

A new path,

A new life.

You know,

Not necessarily,

It may not necessarily be physically moving out or moving out of a relationship,

But certainly changing the way we engage,

The way we relate with others,

In our relationships and in our lives.

It's also a poem about letting go,

Letting go of old patterns,

Letting go of old ways,

Relationships that aren't serving us.

It's also very realistic about the obstacles that we'll meet,

That change isn't easy,

That we will meet difficulties and barriers on the path.

And it's about clear intention,

About resolution,

Determination and effort,

And about trusting that inner voice that knows what leads to freedom and what leads away from suffering.

And it's ultimately,

It's a poem of trusting in ourselves,

You know,

That that inner voice is trustworthy,

That it will take us in the direction we need to go.

And the poem ultimately isn't a poem,

It's a poem about the journey,

About that going on the journey.

It's not so much a poem,

It's not really a poem about enlightenment itself.

You know,

Like the Buddha and his enlightenment saying,

You know,

Done is what needed to be done.

The house builder,

You'll never build the house again,

Your rafters have been broken,

Your ridge pole shattered.

My mind has attained to unconditional freedom.

That's the kind of the Buddha's poem of awakening.

Mary Oliver's poem isn't that,

But it's about going in that direction.

It's about embarking on a path to freedom.

You know,

Entering,

If you like,

A stream or a river that takes us to greater happiness and freedom.

It's really about living an authentic life.

You know,

Taking refuge in our own capacity for awakening,

Taking refuge in the truth,

In reality,

Rather than wishful thinking or habits or conditioning.

And it's taking refuge in community,

Coming back into our lives.

So just take a,

You know,

So finishing off here.

You know,

If this is helpful,

Just kind of reflecting for a minute.

You know,

Does this,

You know,

The poem,

Does it speak to you in your own life about challenges,

Difficulties,

Maybe things that need to change,

Qualities that you might cultivate in yourself,

You know,

Perseverance,

Effort,

Determination,

You know,

Cultivating wise intention,

Really cultivating courage,

You know,

The courage to meet our experience wholeheartedly.

So thank you for your kind attention.

Reviews

🙏🏼

Aon

I live this poem. Will listen again.

Thank you dear Hugh for your beautiful and generous words and sharing of the poetry that opens our hearts. Your gift is deeply appreciated. ❤️

Wonderful talk! Thank you! 🙏

Mary Oliver is the Best. Unless I'm reading Rumi or Dylan or Dr Seuss; then they're the best. Meister Eckhart? The Best.
So many beautiful words inspire beautiful thoughts and contemplations. Thank you for sharing yours.

Dear Hugh, thank you for this potent frame for actionable inner guidance. Sending good wishes. 🌻

Profound and meaningful. Thank you 🙏

Thought provoking. Insightful. Thanks 🙏🏽.

Really lovely! Thank you. ✨🙏✨ . . . I listened to the ending minutes again and again this evening, such depth. ✨🌸💕

A wonderful talk and exploration about one of my favourite poems. Thank you Hugh !

I will have to listen multiple times. I love this poem and I want to live it. The letting go and so very very hard! Thank you teacher!

Hugh, thank you so much for this talk! It’s so practical and immediately applicable to our lives. Your wonderful discussion of a favorite poem is really helpful🙏❤️

South a generous summary! Thank you for sharing your wisdom. This helped me in a very dark hour🫂