One Art

One Art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was
you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

---Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop

I discovered this poem through a movie... it was so touching that I went searching for it in the web. To me it express the action of detachment... from things, situations, people. Detachment is a virtue to be practice as much as patience...

Becoming detached from the things of this world is often a painful process and involves sacrifice. But when the believer gives up something dear to him for the sake of the Cause of God, mysterious forces will be released which will cause the Faith to grow.
(Adib Taherzadeh, The Covenant of Baha'u'llah, p. 23)

just to be clear, it doesn't mean one has NOT to care... on the contrary, detachment has the power to tail off 3 barriers that prevents us from draw nearer to God and humanity.

Such barriers are:

- our own ego

"...genuine detachment from earthly things is achieved when the individual makes the Cause of God the pivot of his life, so that all his personal and material interests may revolve around his Faith. In this case, he can benefit from his material possessions without being attached to them. And since the Cause of God is the prime motivating influence in his life, he will never act against the teachings of his Faith. Every step he takes in his daily activities will be in harmony with the commandments of God. When a person reaches this exalted position, the interests of the Faith take precedence over his personal interests. And when he arises to serve the Cause of God, he will be ready to meet the challenge whatever the cost. Such a person has reached the summit of detachment."
(Adib Taherzadeh, The Covenant of Baha'u'llah, p. 23)

- names (this is interesting as we believe that having A NAME, makes us automatically better... untrue.. as Juliet says: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." ---> what matters is the fragrance, the quality!)

"The soul of man needs to be adorned with the virtues of humility and self-effacement so that it may become detached from the Kingdom of Names."
(Adib Taherzadeh, The Covenant of Baha'u'llah, p. 24)

- reward

"If a man's actions are motivated by the thought that he may reap a reward for himself in the next world, then this is attachment, and a barrier between himself and God. To be detached means to do everything for the sake of God and to seek no recompense."
(Adib Taherzadeh, The Covenant of Baha'u'llah, p. 24)

Trying to develop detachment would offer this prayer:

"Suffer me, O my God, to draw nigh unto Thee, and to abide within the precincts of Thy court, for remoteness from Thee hath well-nigh consumed me. Cause me to rest under the shadow of the wings of Thy grace, for the flame of my separation from Thee hath melted my heart within me. Draw me nearer unto the river that is life indeed, for my soul burneth with thirst in its ceaseless search after Thee. My sighs, O my God, proclaim the bitterness of mine anguish, and the tears I shed attest my love for Thee.
I beseech Thee, by the praise wherewith Thou praisest Thyself and the glory wherewith Thou glorifiest Thine own Essence, to grant that we may be numbered among them that have recognized Thee and acknowledged Thy sovereignty in Thy days. Help us then to quaff, O my God, from the fingers of mercy the living waters of Thy loving-kindness, that we may utterly forget all else except Thee, and be occupied only with Thy Self. Powerful art Thou to do what Thou willest. No God is there beside Thee, the Mighty, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
Glorified be Thy name, O Thou Who art the King of all Kings!
- Bahá'u'lláh