“Mindfulness in Plain English” is a book by Henepola Gunaratana (1927-).
“The Cloud of Unknowing” is a work of a unknown Christian mystic written in Middle English in 14th century.
Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was an American poet one described as “an indefatigable guide to the natural world.”
From “The Cloud of Unknowing” (Author unknown, 14th century)
“The skilled contemplative, then, does not depend on discursive reasoning in the same way as beginners… (H)is personal prayers…are wholly spontaneous and not dependent on specific methods of preparation. “Contemplatives rarely pray in words but if they do, their words are few. The fewer the better, as a matter of fact; yes, and a word of one syllable is more suited to the spiritual nature of this work than longer ones….” “A man of woman terrified by sudden disaster is forced by the circumstances to the limits of his personal resources, and marshals all his energy into a great cry for help. In extreme situations like this, a person is not given to many words, and not to long ones. Instead, summoning all his strength, he expresses his desperate need in one loud cry: “Help!”…“….A short prayer prayer pierces the heavens."
August
by Mary Oliver
When the blackberries hang
swollen in the woods, in the brambles
nobody owns, I spend
all day among the high
branches, reaching
my ripped arms, thinking
of nothing, cramming
the black honey of summer
into my mouth; all day my body
accepts what it is. In the dark
creeks that run by there is
this thick paw of my life darting among
the black bells, the leaves; there is
this happy tongue.
© 1978 by Mary Oliver
The Cloud of Unknowing. And blackberries.