outside window falling, falling... leaves rust and yellow
trees being trees leaf and leaf leaving... limbs left unclothed, unadorned
leaves trees limbs not grieving they know -... they yield -...
the way of leaves trees limbs... you and me... graced leavings
the Self self-emptying hollowing out a space to receive
blessed! fortunate! fallings away past repast
gone gone... - welcome!
what?
wisdom speaks:
to live, die to know, unknow to receive, release to walk on, leave behind to love deeply, cease trying to love deeply (yield like leaves trees limbs)
see?
blessed are the poor in spirit!
* * *
John Main (1926-1982), the Benedictine monk who founded the Christian Meditation movement, wrote regarding the use of the Christian New Testament as a source of spiritual inspiration, yet a guidance applicable to reading any sacred writing -
When we look at the New Testament, at least when we look at it with eyes enlightened by the spirit of Christ burning in our hearts, we cannot but become intoxicated, amazed at the sheer wonder of the destiny that is given to each of us. But, we must always remember that the condition of being open to this, and of responding to our destiny, is always simplicity, poverty of spirit. It means we are invited by the same destiny to leave behind all complexity, all desire to possess God or to possess spiritual knowledge and to tread the narrow way of dispossession.
* * *
Simplicity has become a popular and big-selling topic. Yet, primarily, what we see and read refers to material possessions. Main and other spiritual guides across varied spiritual paths teach of an inner simplicity.
Terms such as "poverty of spirit" - a monastic concept - and "dispossession" are counter the culture of acquisition and accumulation. The spirit of acquisition is easily converted into a religious or spiritual path, where the same consumerism is self-consuming, rather than being a denuding of willfulness.
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Gospels, provided a new way of living: not by religious law but interior disposition. His teaching was not written law but subtle wisdom. He gave ten blessings, called the Beatitudes, to contrast with the Ten Commandments of his predecessors. In modern terms, his blessings were spiritual rather than moral or legalistic. They were not even religious. This may be a simplistic contrast, yet it highlights a significant difference.
There is a big difference between "Do this" or "Don't do that" and "Blessed are," and the felicity arising has nothing to do with merely not doing some things and doing some other things, like an obedient child who has no other choice, or they will get disciplined; in fact, it is not about outward behaviors. Jesus was offering a radically different way of life, based on natural wisdom rather than religious law - any law. Law is just only to the extent it mirrors a prior wisdom.
* * *
Jesus cannot be rightly blamed for the fact that a large part of the church has failed even to try to follow his blessing way, instead converting Christianity into a way of moralism, law, and reward or punishment by a mythical celestial judge. Accordingly, seeing Jesus' wisdom teaching, this means they are not essentially Christian at all; they are wisdom, and they agree with like teachings across times and cultures, and religions and non-religious spiritual paths. Law is particular, wisdom universal.
Now, one of those Beatitudes is, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God!" Does that sound weird? Impossible? Like something said by someone needing admission to a mental health facility? Main, as well as wisdom teachers of varied paths through the centuries, however, have pointed to this same guidance on how to align with Reality. This is the path of ultimate practicality, profound efficiency.
And, in this wisdom, unlike law, it is not imposed from without and the effects arise naturally, intimately. Intimately, for within. One sees from within, seeing the within of what appears outside, rather than from outside to outside. That is, you see things, human or otherwise, intimately, and not merely in an emotional sense. This is not emotional, at all. It is insight: in-seeing. And it does not pass through self-consciousness.
In this wisdom, there is no judge, cosmic or otherwise, to impose a sentence, like going to heaven or hell, or getting a blessing or not getting one. In fact, by keeping the wisdom, you are neither good nor bad; instead, you remain just you. Now, people who want to use their religion or spirituality to be special or chosen, even to be good while others are seen to be bad, one can see why they might not be attracted to this wisdom we speak of.
* * *
"Blessed are the poor in spirit!"
"Blessed" - can read, "How fortunate!" "How lucky!" does not work. This blessedness - being blessed, feeling blessed - is not by luck, for it is not by chance. The effect aligns with the posture of heart, is not mere coincidence. If you plant an apple seed, then apple tree, not plum tree.
"Blessed" is an exclamation. There is energy, joyful ecstasy in that one word. The spiritual life, even with its ups and downs, confusions and challenges, and sometimes downright pain, is a joyful way - yes, even when it does not make you happy. Joy is a more subtle experience than happiness.
"poor in spirit" - this is the detachment taught in Buddhism, the poverty in Christian spirituality. In Buddhism, "clinging" is one of the three poisons that lead to inner suffering. Poverty of spirit is the internal denuding, the hollowing out of a space to receive. This is the limbs bared of leaves. This is the nude tree.
The leaves fall when it is time for them to fall. In our spiritual practice, we engage a path to cultivate the conditions for internal possessions, even what we call spiritual, to drop. We cannot let them go; they drop like leaves. So, this is a natural process of nonaggression. When they can no longer hang on, they drop. We may practice letting go along the way, but that is a temporary matter, and it can easily be counterproductive to the natural denuding. Letting go is easily a repression.
What are inner possessions of spirit? We can easily become attached to, for example, spiritual knowledge and accomplishments, which leads to spiritual pride. We can cling to our own felt-sense of being enlightened or trying to be, holy or pushing to become. Other such possessions: resentment, guilt, greed, jealousy, envy, sloth, arrogance ... They are possessions, for they possess us. Freedom is no possessions. We are only stewards. We care for what belongs to Life.
* * *
"for they shall see God" - Yes, some people see God. I mean, while in a body on Earth. This beatitude is not about an afterlife of seeing a god somewhere else, seeing a god in any physical sense, or having some celestial vision. There is no god with his or her or its butt sitting on a throne in the sky, way way up beyond the clouds, as I was taught, and many believe. Anyway, why would a god need a butt? Or somewhere to sit it?
So, what does "see" connote? "God"? You can see God now, yet to see God may challenge everything you thought God is or would be. Walk out your door, see, and you will see God. God is everywhere. When the mirror is clean, God is reflected back to the eyes of your heart. In seeing, God sees God.
You do not need to try to see God; God just appears when the eyes of your heart see. Trying to see God can hinder seeing. God shows up, but God was never absent.
I am not spending more time here with effort to explain seeing God. I cannot explain that: the seeing or God. No one can. Not even a Jesus or Buddha. So, if you read anything about that written here as an explanation, it is not: it is an invitation.
* * *
When we see, we see. Jesus shares wisdom, the same wisdom taught by sages across the ages, even long before him, on "poverty of spirit," the way to that insight. Could it be, too, falling leaves and naked trees in the Fall point to the same wisdom?
(C) brian k wilcox, 2025
Quote from John Main, in John Main. Our Hearts Burned within Us. Ed. Gregory Ryan. Original Source, John Main. The Way of Unknowing.
