Spirit of God in the clear running water
Blowing to greatness the trees on the hill
Spirit of God in the finger of morning
Fill the earth, bring it to birth
And blow where you will
Blow blow blow till I be
But breath of the Spirit
Blowing in me
Spirit of God, the willows are moaning
Sheep in the pastureland cannot lie still
Spirit of God, creation is groaning
Fill the earth, bring it to birth
And blow where you will
Blow blow blow till I be
But breath of the Spirit
Blowing in me.
I loved this song as a child. And now, singing it to put my son to sleep, and after having read Eckhart Tolle, I see it in a new light.
The song presumes that the Spirit of God is on the outside of us, outside of the singer. Thus it implores God to send His Spirit – as if from up there, down to us. As if it were God’s choice to do this, or not.
But of course the God is everywhere, and his Spirit infuses everything. There is no need to ask God to send the Spirit down, because It is already here! What is wanting is merely for us to be aware of it.
Being aware of it means coming into the Holy Presence. That sense of wonder and bliss, where running water assumes a beauty, clarity, and sparkling glory.
We often get this sense of bliss through nature – clear running water, trees on the hill. As if it were on the outside, coming in to us.
But Eckhart Tolle says this is not necessarily an outside-in phenomena. Rather, it is being in the Now.
Often, nature, when we simply see it as it is, without pre-judging it (automatically saying “it’s beautiful” or “it’s delicious” before actually seeing or hearing or touching or tasting it), but just noticing it – the clear running water, burbling, greeny and translucent – has the power to actually put us in the Now. Suddenly, we are in the Present. We are not where our mind is, with its pre-judgments and anxiety, but in the Present – noticing, feeling, tasting it. And thus, we suddenly are also in touch with the Divine – the bliss, peace, and exhilaration which is inherent in the Now. God is Here, as He is in everything, and being in the Present allows us to touch base with the joy and bliss of Source.
While the song implores the Spirit of God to come; actually, what is needed is an inner awareness in order to open ourselves to what is already here. The Spirit is already Here, always, we just need to open ourselves, or use our senses to be present, be here, and thus to appreciate it.
Actually, we do not even need to go out to Nature to be in the presence of the Spirit. One can simply feel one’s inner body. Our inner body is our true Self, that which does not die, that which suffuses the physical body, that which is connected to everything, and most of all to God. Becoming aware of this allows us to connect to the bliss and peace and joy of Source, where the greater part of our Souls reside.
When we feel our inner body, or our souls, we get in touch with bliss. Because these things are Real – our eternal souls, and the souls or beingness of everything else in the planet Now Here. Not the future, which only exists in our minds, nor the past, which only exists in our memories, nor our worries, which only exist in our imagination. These are not Real. What is real is what is in the Present, and this is what we have to appreciate, to see, in order to be in the joy of Presence, which is really being-present-here-now.
Tolle says that feeling this inner self necessarily means letting go of the ego, or rather, escaping the ego. The ego is that incessant thinking voice in our heads – the chatter, the disparaging commentary, the re-living of what has already happened, the pre-judgment on everything that prevents us from actually seeing a thing for what it is. Because the ego cannot survive in the Present. The ego is only in our minds, and would blind us to what actually is front of us, which is what is Present Now.
What is Here Now is our true selves, everything here now is an opportunity to touch and feel God, or the Divine. The Spirit of God is already Here. But are we?
