This poem arrived today. I waited for it and did not chase after it. When I read it, the words spoke to me.
The Zen Master Ryōkan reminded me that change is inevitable. It happens. Like yesterday’s post, chasing after and holding things, as if they were permanent, is done in vain.
To take time, to be mindful, and sit quietly can bring peace in which one can discover the essence of things and understand mistaken views. Hans-Georg Gadamer said dialogue begins not through shared understanding, but mis-understanding. This includes inner dialogue one has with ones’ self.
Past has passed away.
Future has not arrived.
Present does not remain.
Nothing is reliable; everything must change.
You hold on to letters and names in vain,
forcing yourself to believe in them.
Stop chasing new knowledge.
Leave old views behind.
Study the essential
and then see through it.
When there is nothing left to see through,
then you will know your mistaken views.
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About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Beautiful! It is the truth 🙏🏻
It is.
🙂 – I love those golden threads of truth that pop up in widely diverse places – sometimes, I question whether I’m just laying over what I want to hear, BUT, I can truthfully say, Yup – same thing I’m being reminded of while reading up on permaculture – 🙂 I’ve worked my way back to a gent that started his ‘path’ in 1938, in Japan, and, to my mind, came to the same conclusions as above – 🙂 Fantabulous – Now, going to spend tomorrow implementing what I think I’ve learned, instead of what I planned 3 years to do – on the other hand – – what shows up will probably surprise me (if it turns out good) or teach me, (Um…you’re still trying to truck out and use what you think you know…aren’t ya….silly human….) LOL
Sometimes, wandering and wondering come together creating miracles. It is good to feel surprised.
” study the essential, and then see through it” spoke to me today. Thank you for an astute share 💛
You are welcome Val.
fabulous period, thank you ….this poem is a keeper for me
I am glad you enjoyed it.