Quieting the inside noise

I have been spending this summer learning about prayer - particularly about Centering Prayer. More on that will come in a future blog post once I have absorbed and digested all I am processing. In the meantime I came across the most awesome poem that speaks to where I am right now in my journey. I never really thought about the danger of "spiritual materialism" - that desire to repeat spiritual experiences just for the sake of acquiring them the same as we would acquire other goods. It didn't occur to me that this could actually begin to build a wall between myself and my Master. So that is what I am processing through right now, how to become pure in the cave of my heart as well as the cave I occupy on earth...

This poem is by Rabindranth Tagore:

Time after time

I came to your gate with raised hands,
asking for more and yet more.

You gave and gave, now in slow measure, now
in sudden excess.

I took some, and some things I let drop; some
lay heavy on my hands;

Some I made into playthings and broke them
when tired;

Till the wrecks and hoards of your gifts grew
immense, hiding you, and the ceaseless
expectation wore my heart out.

Take, oh take - has now become my cry.

Shatter all from this beggar's bowl;

Put out the lamp of the importunate
watcher

Hold my hands, raise me from the
still gathering heap of your gifts

Into the bare infinity of your uncrowded

Presence