Equal to Now
1st September 2022
By Samantha Hall
Equal to Now – Poetry Collection
In 2018 following completion of an MBCT teacher training course, I attended a weekend retreat with Suryacitta, where I was introduced to the art of simplifying mindfulness - not only from a teaching point of view but in respect of my own practice. So much of what Surya said resonated with me and this is when the poetry really started to flow. In the knowledge we are not trying to get anywhere in meditation, simply being at one with the isness of life, it was not surprising the poetry soon sang with non-dual understanding. Out of the head and into the heart - one heart: the heart of life.
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I have recently published a collection of poems and I am honoured that Suryacitta – teacher, mentor, friend – offered to write the introduction. Thank you, Suryacitta, for so much more than this Introduction.
“I first met Samantha in 2018 and could see very clearly there was a genuine yearning to discover life’s truth.
It wasn’t long until I learned she wrote poetry and on one of our retreats I suggested she read one out. I was amazed! The first one I heard was called
Surrender…
“Like the plants surrender to the earth
the trees surrender to the breeze
No willpower required
just life living with ease…”
These words described exactly all that I set out to convey on the meditation retreat and with such clarity, simplicity and beauty.
On our extended retreats I often attempted to explain silence - why we have it, what it is and its benefits. However, I don’t need to go into expanded explanations any longer, all I need to do is read Samantha’s beautiful poem below, which points to the spirit of silence better than any discourse. On reading this I was stunned into silence myself!
The Stillness of Silence
When we trust in what we know
at one with our inner glow
the stillness of silence settles us so
Questioning all we perceive as real
abandoning commentary in order to feel
the stillness of silence helps us to heal
Releasing beliefs once held fast
no longer under the spell they cast
the stillness of silence embraces until at last
The doors of perception open wide
no sense of separation, no divide
the stillness of silence with our being collides
Resting in this place of knowing
aware of life, ebbing and flowing
the stillness of silence is us, love growing
The words at the end of the second stanza are full of insight and wonder: “abandoning commentary in order to feel, the stillness of silence helps us to heal”. Healing, we could say, is what meditation, silence, going on retreats is all about. Not just emotional healing but the deeper healing found in the last stanza: “The doors of perception open wide, no sense of separation, no divide.” Through meditation and silence we heal the division not only between ourselves and others, but between ourselves and life itself, because there is only One and we are all it.
What is most striking about Samantha’s poems is the depth with which they convey the eternal presence that is everything, by stirring that “place” beyond the thinking analytical mind. In such a few words she can touch the fabric of non-dual reality, allowing you – if only for a moment - to taste it for yourself.”
Please contact me at hallofmindfulness@gmail.com if you would like me to mail you a copy (£8.99 + £1.65 UK Postage) or alternatively it is available on Amazon - www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B62XWKGL
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