So in the spirit of Mr. Stevens and all who seek out greater truth and beauty in their lives here are some recommended links. Enjoy the ride.

 I. Zen Meditation (www.mro.org)

An excellent introduction of the how and why of meditation. Walks the reader step by step through the fundamentals of meditation including how to prepare, how to sit, etc.  Tidbit : check out the Art Gallery "Making Love With Light".

Recommended reading : Principles of Meditation : Eastern Wisdom for the Western Mind by Simpkins & Simpkins (Tuttle Publishing) ; Stages of Meditation by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

II. Poetry

A. Wallace Stevens (The Wallace Stevens Journal www.wallacestevens.com)

Poet of the imagination. Underappreciated most of his life as a poet Stevens did not gain widespread recognition for his craft until he was in his 70’s. Today he is regarded as one of the most significant poets of the 20th Century. Sunday Morning, The Snowman, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, The Man With the Blue Guitar. The list goes on.

Wallace Stevens mined the imagination for answers to the often harsh questions posed by reality and artfully explored that relationship most of his adult life. As he wrote in 1949 in Man Carrying Thing : "The poem must resist intelligence/almost successfully."

Tidbit : Click on the link to the Academy of American Poets (www.poets.org) and listen to his reading of The Idea of Order at Key West.

Contemporaries : Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, E.E. Cummings, Marianne Moore, Robert Frost.

B. Jalalu’ddin Rumi (www.khamush.com)

Poet of the heart. Born in 1207 Rumi was a religious leader and teacher of the mystical branch of Islam called Sufism. To quote from Huston Smith in his excellent foreword to The Illustrated Rumi (Harper Collins Books www. harpercollins.com ) : "Only by distancing ourselves from the surface immediately before us can we hope to find its meaning and our own place in the tapestry. Each moment God manifests Himself to us in creation. In order to see the truth, a Sufi must see with his inner being, in harmony with divine nature. Through devotion to and selfless rememberance of God the Sufi’s attention to self falls away, and in turning to God, his heart and soul are transformed by God’s divine attributes. In this spiritual state of self-having-passed-away-in-God a Sufi existentially realizes the Truth. This Divine Unity is the aim of Sufism."

Compare the foregoing to the following quote from B.K.S. Iyengar in his recent book Light on Life ( Holtzbrinck Publishers) : "Yoga releases the creative potential of Life. It does this by establishing a structure for realization, by showing how we can progress along the journey, and by opening a sacred vision of the Ultimate, of our Divine Origin, and Final Destiny. The Light that yoga sheds on Life is something special. It is transformative. It does not just change the way we see things; it transforms the person who sees. It brings knowledge and elevates it to wisdom."

In the Shi’ite order of Sufism the whirling of ritual dance aims to induce "God – intoxicated ecstasy"… aka the modern phrase of "a whirling dervish". This same form of dance could be often be seen at Grateful Dead concerts where fans would swirl to the music for hours in search of the ecstatic state, 800 years later and across the cultural divide. In yoga through its methods developed over thousands of years, the practitioner is given a road map for the integration of body, mind and soul. The means may differ but the objective is essentially the same : to get in touch with and stay as close as possible to the Divinity within. Why? Because as His Holiness the Dalai Lama put it in characteristic profound simplicity in his book The Art of Happiness :

"I believe the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether we believe in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we are seeking something better in life. So, I think the very motion of our life is turned toward happiness."

There are several books of Rumi's poetry, narratives and parables. Two I can recommend are The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks (Harper Collins) and
The Illustrated Rumi, Philip Dunn, et al (Harper Collins).

III. Music

 A. George Winston (www.georgewinston.com)

Solo piano brilliance. I play his music quite often while writing and meditating. Stimulating and soothing at the same time. Mr. Winston is an enormously talented musician with a significant body of work. Tidbit : check out the link to his Dancing Cat Records for an introduction to Hawaiian Slack Key guitar music and musicians.

In the same genre and spirit I recommend Patrick Gorman's stunning piano solo debut entitled Sounds from the Wishing Well. Recorded in one session (yes, one session!) by Will Ackerman, founder of Windham Hill Records, this is a sensual and evocative piece of work that resonates long after the music has stopped. It can be ordered through his website at www.patgorman.com. Tidbit: Pat's song "Bella" is the soundtrack to Midnight Tea's homepage."

B. Grateful Dead (www.dead.net)

What is there to say that has not already been said? True spiritual seekers and providers of ethereal transportation. Don’t be mislead by pop media accounts of hippies and drugs. Dig deeper. Experience this universe for yourself. For a world view of the Grateful Dead phenomena see Joseph Campbell and his works at www.jcf.org  

For those with a love of words, myth and imagery consider purchasing The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics (Free Press). Annotated and compiled by David Dodd a librarian and devoted fan this book is full of great surprises and rich detail. It also has an excellent foreword written by the Dead’s main lyricist Robert
Hunter.

IV. Yoga (Back to top)

Much has been written about yoga and at the end of this section are links to learn more about the various methods of yoga, the eight limbs or petals of yoga and its integration of body, mind and spirit. Whether beginner or advanced the benefits of yoga can be felt immediately and last a lifetime. Along with its companion of meditation, it is my preferred vehicle of transportation. As B.K.S. Iyengar states "If you think learning to touch your toes or even stand on your head is the whole of yoga, you have missed most of its bounty, most of its blessings, and most of its beauty."

If you have read any of the foregoing sections of "Links" I hope you have seen a pattern emerge. Various methods, religions, expressions all dancing around and within what I refer to as The Spiritual Triangle : Art, Culture and Religion.

Joseph Campbell was a master of Cultural Anthropology, exploring, among other things,  the variety and purpose of Myth in societies, modern and ancient, East and West. His findings were remarkable and, at the time, groundbreaking. His observations and wisdom as relevant today as in 1949 when he wrote his seminal book The Hero With A Thousand Faces (Princeton University Press). What follows is an excerpt from the Joseph Campbell Foundation newsletter (4/15/06).

ImageryofRebirth…Yoga

In this talk, Joseph Campbell contrasts his earlier comments on the disintegration of man's modern religious practices with what he calls "symbolic systems of rebirth in time." For Campbell, the most fascinating systems are "myths to live by," beliefs and practices to help individuals with the frustrations in life that come from not living our "true self." The goal of the ancient discipline of yoga was important to him because it emphasizes the discovery and experience of the true self. The heart of this lecture is an explanation of the chakras in the body and the meditation techniques that connect daily consciousness to the eternal self, which has been symbolized for thousands of years by the roar of a lion! Through the practice of rousing the kundalini energy of the serpent coiled up at the base of the spine, it's believed one might go to "the place beyond dream." Campbell was personally intrigued by this "place" because, as he said many times, it is the same generating place of myths. As he was fond of saying, "myth is a public dream, and dream is a private myth."

By contrasting the Western philosophies and religions that divide God, nature, and humanity with oriental techniques of yoga, Campbell is able to emphasize his belief in the need to identify with the divine energies of the universe. "You are the mystery you seek to know," he often said, "and all gods are within." As his last story, borrowed from Shri Ramakrishna, vividly illustrates, the trick is to remember -- again and again -- that we all have a noble hidden nature, a "tiger face" that we each have to find.

TheWorldSoul...

In this talk, Joseph Campbell discusses the links between the ancient Hindu practice of Yoga and the modern depth psychology. He then reviews the seven chakras or energy centers of kundalini yoga, and describes how in yoga one may raise the energies up the spine from the first to the seventh chakra by activating the serpent, as it is called, and if this is accomplished, the veil of Maya is raised, and the world of illusions becomes transparent.

For Campbell, Maya is a pivotal point in Hindu thought and is comprised of three distinct powers: The Obscuring Power, The Projection Power, and The Revealing Power. In the language of myth, what is revealed if the illusions of life are seen through is none other that the Mother of the World, the mighty powers of existence in her feminine aspect. The Western counterpart of this image is the sixteenth century statue of the Madonna in the Cluny Museum in Paris. When small doors are opened on the statue, all of the imagery of heaven and hell are represented in a globe that is also her womb. For Campbell, this is one of our prime divine image--the Goddess herself in both creator and consumer aspects, both horrendous and transcendent. In Indian mythology, she is represented as being completely black, an image of the imperceptible abyss that lies at the beginning and the end of life.

Powerful stuff. For more on Joe Campbell click on the website www.jcf.org

For additional yoga references I recommend any of  Dr. Georg Feuerstein's books (he has over thirty) from his edited Yoga for Dummies to the rich and voluminous  The Yoga Tradition : Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice (Hohm Press). Visit www.yrec.info

For health, diet and lifetstyle information as it relates to Yoga and its traditions both ancient and modern click on Dr Dean Ornish www.ornish.com (modern) ; The Ayurvedic Institute of America www.ayurvedic.com (traditional); 

The book that many consider to be essential to understanding the depth and breadth of yoga is the Yoga Sutras by the Indian philosopher Patanjali. There are several English translations.Mine is entitled Yoga : Discipline of Freedom, translated by Barbara Stoler Miller and can be ordered through www.amazon.com

And, finally a quote to meditate on:

"Knowledge does not mean mastering a great quantity of information, but understanding the nature of mind. This knowledge can penetrate each one of our thoughts and illuminate each one of our perceptions"
                                                                                    -- Matthieu Ricard

Thank you for visiting www.midnightteapoetry.com.

Brian Michael Tracy