< SPEAR >
strength · transcendence · insight
strength and discipline
is required to wield this weapon
which transcends
the physical stature of the bearer
to pierce and perceive
the essential
core
Seattle 2016
“The dimensions of the [spear] dramatically elongate the figure’s reach and accords a capacity for survival that transcends natural stature.
While the sword is often seen as divisive, cutting in two, the spear carries the sense of penetrating the vitals of something, piercing its essential core.”
book of symbols, p. 494
MYTH
ODIN
“We must have the
courage to face
whatever is present - our pain, our desires, our grief, our loss, our secret hopes, our love -
everything that moves us most deeply.
jack kornfield, a path with heart
WARRIORS’ HEARTS BEAT AS ONE.
love conquers all.
don howard lawler
When we stop and listen, we can feel how each thing we fear or crave (really two sides of the same dissatisfaction) propels us out of our hearts into a false idea of how we would like life to be.
From this small sense of ourselves, we often believe that our own happiness can come only from possessing something or can be only at someone else’s expense.
To stop the war and come into the present is to discover
a greatness of our own heart
that can include the happiness of all beings as inseparable from our own.
jack kornfield, a path with heart
Napoleon I
Bonaparte on the Bridge at Arcole, 17 November 1796, oil on canvas by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1796; in the Versailles Museum.
© Photos.com/Thinkstock
Napoleon Bonaparte, at the end of his life:
Do you know what astonished me most in the world?
The inability of force to create anything.
In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the
SPIRIT.
With wise understanding we allow ourselves to
contain all things, both dark and light,
and we come to a sense of peace.
This is not the peace of denial or running away,
but the peace we find in the heart that has rejected nothing,
that touches all things with compassion.
jack kornfield, a path with heart
According to Buddhist scriptures, compassion is the
“quivering of the pure heart”
when we have allowed ourselves to be touched by the pain of life.
The knowledge that we can do this and survive helps us to awaken the greatness of our heart.
With greatness of heart, we can sustain a presence in the midst of life’s suffering, in the midst of life’s fleeting impermanence.
We can open to the world - its ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows.
jack kornfield, a path with heart
