Spirituality and Genius

Posted on October 25, 2016 by rita kowats

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
― Albert Einstein

Far be it from me to debunk the left brain. This artist has struggled too long and too hard to integrate the gift of the left brain to do that. However-news flash western world- it is not our only reality! This op-ed from the Washington Post confirms my own experience and some of the whisperings that have leaked out over the years.

Five Myths about Genius
By Eric Weiner October 21

Eric Weiner is the author, most recently, of “The Geography of Genius: Lessons from the World’s Most Creative Places.”
Einstein’s genius rested not with amassed knowledge but, rather, with his ability to make leaps of understanding that others couldn’t. Einstein wasn’t a know-it-all. He was a see-it-all.

Genius clusters. Certain places, at certain times, produce a mother lode of brilliant minds and good ideas.

As Plato said, “What is honored in a country will be cultivated there.” Geniuses are less like shooting stars and more like flowers, a natural outcome of a creative ecology.

Over the past 70 years, the scientific community has published exponentially more research papers, “yet the rate at which truly creative work emerges has remained relatively constant,” historian J. Rogers Hollingsworth writes in the journal Nature. We are producing a greater number of competent scientists, talented ones even, but not necessarily more geniuses.

We are also producing an unprecedented amount of data, but that is not to be confused with creative genius. After all, if genius were simply a function of the amount of data at your fingertips, then every smartphone owner would be another Einstein.

You can find the whole article here Five Myths about Genius

Photo credit: http://www.biography.com

Slouching Toward Bethlehem?

Posted on October 23, 2016 by rita kowats

So. As the U.S. presidential election draws to a close, are we “slouching toward Bethlehem” or are we slouching toward Armageddon? Regardless of our hope or fear, this pair of poems by William Butler Yeats offers us a rich reflection. They were Crittenden the world was at war and tensions between Ireland and England were at the boiling point.

The Second Coming

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

January 1919

Remorse For Intemperate Speech

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

I ranted to the knave and fool,
But outgrew that school,
Would transform the part,
Fit audience found, but cannot rule
My fanatic heart.

I sought my betters: though in each
Fine manners, liberal speech,
Turn hatred into sport,
Nothing said or done can reach
My fanatic heart.

Out of Ireland have we come.
Great hatred, little room,
Maimed us at the start.
I carry from my mother’s womb
A fanatic heart.
28th August 1931

ENOUGH!

Posted on October 20, 2016October 20, 2016 by rita kowats

I. I push against
The wild errant energy
Of this malicious aura
That holds me in its spell,
Lilliputian hands alone impotent
To break through the lure
Of its siren song.

II. Some demons
Can only be cast out
By prayer and fasting

And Fire in the Belly.

I reach into the center of power
And snatch up a fireball,
Heaving it into the surrounding sludge
Separating atom from atom
Until fire has reconstituted
The errant energy
Into radiant redeemed

Hope.

© rita h kowats 10-20-16

Photo Credit:

“SoulCards” by Deborah Koff-Chapin. The technique Deborah has created is called “touch drawing.” The cards come in two decks of 60 images and can be used alone or with others as reflection tools. They have enriched my meditation for years and have helped those I companion with. www.soulcards.com

Used with permission from the artist

Truth Power

Posted on October 18, 2016November 12, 2016 by rita kowats

I Ching Oct. 17,2016

“What has been weak is ascending…
goodness in human nature is like the dim but beautiful early morning light.”

On Thursday, October 13, 2016, Michelle Obama responded to the allocations of sexual harassment made against Donald Trump. The effect of her words still reverberate today because Mother Michelle lifted up her stong, tall frame and swayed across deep desert recesses picking up the abandoned pieces of our dark experiences as she went. She called them by name and redeemed them with the power of her truth and love.

Here is a taste of her power:

It has shaken me to the core in a way I couldn’t have predicted.

I feel it so personally.

It is cruel. It is frightening. And the truth is it hurts.

We as women
We as Americans
We as decent human beings
Can come together to stand up and say,
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

A Spiritual Practice for Developing Satyagraha, Truth Power

(For Gandhi satyagraha was more than a movement of nonviolent resistance. The word comes from Hindi to Sanskrit. sat= being satya= truth graha= fervor or power.)

In my deepest being, my Self, I am strong.

Breathing in I rest in being.
Breathing out I release fear
Breathing in I am true
Breathing out I release deception
Breathing in I am powerful
Breathing out I release doubt
Breathing in I am peace
Breathing out I send peace.

May it be so.

photo credit: Patrick_Down <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/97206958@N00/22811267325″>Morning mist (312/365)</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/”>(license)</a>

The Impossible Dream is Possible

Posted on October 15, 2016 by rita kowats

windmills-in-la-mancha

I have to believe that we have it in our power to diffuse this miasma of hate and despair that holds the American electorate in its grip. We must protect our souls from its onslaught in these final days of the campaign and in the aftermath. Pray protection prayers. Surround ourselves with images and actions that exude positive energy. Avoid media binges.

One Positive image

The Impossible Dream
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To write the unrightable wrong
[1]To be better far than you are[1]
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
[2]To be willing to give when there’s no more to give[2]
[3]To be willing to die so that honor and justice may live[3]
And I know if I’ll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I’m laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star