Turning Towards Life - a Thirdspace podcast 139: No Conflict With Anything I Do
May 31, 2020
38:56
It's a necessary part of our growing up that we learn to get along in the culture into which we were born. But, on the way, we easily lose touch with what is most life-giving for us, and cover up our truer desires with a crowd of wants and needs that help us to fit in, or stand out, or keep a particular kind of image going. So much becomes possible when we start to strip away the cloud of distractions from our truer longings and start to find out what our hearts are really calling for. A conversation about the vulnerable, generous, courageous work of being clear about what we most desire, with Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.
This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. We’re also on YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website.
This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. We’re also on YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website.
Our source for this week is written the poet Rumi, translated and interpreted by Daniel Landinsky in his book ‘The Purity of Desire’, and chosen this week by Justin.
No Conflict With Anything I Do
God’s face gradually fades from the infant’s sight.
If this did not happen, you would never be able to
recognise and converse with the things you do.
A soul’s blindness most always increases as the body
grows, and certain hungers set in, and one’s attention
is turned that way.
Now that you have traveled so far and have seen so
much, what is it you most prize?
What pack horse does not feel relieved when its
burden is lifted? Desires, narrowed down, can do the
same, decrease the weight you carry, and unveil the
wonder in the present.
Just a single movement, a single impetus, I now have.
This, there is no conflict with anything I do.
What kind of man would ask his breath the reason
for its actions? Less demanding, questioning, I now
am of all I see.
God’s face will gradually return to your perception. My
words will help draw back the curtain from your eyes.
Rumi
Translated by Daniel Landinsky
from The Purity of Desire