Anam Cara

I will be reposting this as a reminder from time to time.


In the spirit of light and love, we are here in one another’s
presence to enable the spaces of our shadow-selves to be enlightened
by one another’s presence. We do this in many many ways. One of
which is to show one another the spaces in our hearts where light
has not yet reached. In the spirit of love and friendship: 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The Buddhist tradition has a lovely concept of friendship. This is
the notion of the ‘Kalyana-mitra’, the ‘noble friend’. Your Kalyana-
mitra, your noble friend, will not accept pretension, but will
gently and very firmly confront you with your own blindness. No-one
can see their life totally. As there is a blind spot in the retina
of the human eye, there is also in the soul a blind side where you
are not able to see. Therefore, you must depend on the one you love
to see for you, where you cannot see for yourself. Your Kalyana-
mitra complements your vision in a kind and critical way. Such
friendship is creative and critical, it is willing to negotiate
awkward and uneven territories of contradiction and woundedness.”

John O’Donohue “Anam cara”.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




As we are group of poets and writers with varied strengths, weaknesses,
abilities and disabilities coming together here in the NEOPOET COMMUNITY
from a variety of countries, cultures, of various ages, male and female, religious,
atheist,  moral  and/or spiritual...  inclinations...traditions....this means an
endless variation on the theme of writing, poems, conversations, gatherings,
understandings, and gleanings.

We all have our blindside.  With an open mind and an open heart we learn
to recognize our *mirrors*, so to speak.  Usually that's something that
causes great internal turmoil. 

Hopefully, we can work it out with loving-kindness, compassion and a sense
of humility.  None of us know the whole truth about ourselves much less each
other. 



~Anna