"New Seeds of Contemplation" by Thomas Merton [more]

"If we could let go of our own obsession of what we think is "the meaning of it all," we might just be able to hear his call and follow him in this mysterious cosmic dance.

We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that dancing.

When we are alone on a star lit night.

When we see by chance the migrating birds of autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat.

When we see children in a moment they are really children.

When we know love in our own hearts.

Or when, like the Japanese poet, Basho, we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash.

At such times, the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the newness, the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a vision of the cosmic dance.......

The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair.

But it does not matter very much because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there.

Indeed, we are in the midst of it and it is in the midst of us for it beats in our very blood whether we want it to or not.

Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose and cast our awful solemnity to the winds, and join in the general dance."