This poem by General George S Patton Jr speaks for itself:
Perhaps I stabbed our Savior
In His sacred helpless side.
Yet I’ve called His name in blessing
When in after times I died.
Through the travail of the ages
Midst the pomp and toil of war
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star.
I have sinned and I have suffered
Played the hero and the knave
Fought for belly, shame or country
And for each have found a grave.
So as through a glass and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names – but always me.
So forever in the future
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter
But to die again once more.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
Many battles and many lifetimes,this sharing returned me to a grieving over futility and war. I never knew this general as a poet before.Thank you for sharing.
General Patton’s understanding of reincarnation is good for our minds.
Why does it have to be “as through a glass and darkly”? It’s the “darkly” part I don’t understand too well. If we choose to travel back to past lives, it should be with illumination. We can’t change the past. We can’t change the actions or choices of others. It throws me, I reread it over and over. I’ll keep pondering….
Wow, beautiful, I hope one day I can Live without the fear of dying.
Wow, impressive. General Patton had some depth…
You could always do a rewrite of your Creationism/Darwinism essay. Maybe more along the lines of using the Theory of Evolution and the underlining Source of existence to find metaphors that help integrate the dimension that support both the scientific and the spiritual. Another interesting topic would be comparing the practice of Vendanta with physiological measures within the body, like heart rate, brain wave patterns, neurochemistry, etc.
This leads me to wonder how often we reincarnate into similar lifestyles or occupations.
In a way, the poem reminds me of Please Call Me by My True Names from Thich Nhat Hanh. At the moment, it strikes me as sickening. Not the poems, the whole endless cycle of reincarnation.
I think I knew this man, Patton… I’m sure these words did not make him popular among the political circles of his day.
What a courageous and equally exalted and humble way to live and die. I bow to you General Patton.
These are not times for the mystical indulgences of arm-chair philosophers – to ponder and dream away the years in mystical bliss and frivolity.
These are times to pick up your sword and act.
I find it beautiful that we would revisit aspects of ourselves over time.
Proof of the pudding.:
One day I was making chocolate pudding from scratch. I often take things of the moment and see how they might apply to deeper questions relevant in my life. For example ….I had been convinced thru conditioning that I was separate from God and that was that. This is how iit is and how it will always be. How dare i question? So while cooking the pudding I decided to check out this belief. I told myself the pudding represented God (Consciousness). Then the pudding, at rapid boil, popped bubbles out of the pot onto the counter. My conclusion was immediate. The pudding in the pot and on the counter were one and the same only in different form and place!!! How easy was that.!! Integration took a while and as a result , I lost my fear of dying mostly because I feel full of gratitude and satisfaction of having discerned that God is wherever I am . I am part and I am all. I fought in many guises and under many names to learn the Truth. It was all worth it, me thinks. I am not “done” but
So grateful and humbled I am.
Its quite an amazing poem. To be able to recognize one’s dharma, not just in this life, but in the whole stream of lives, and to recognize that they are all just part of one continuous life is an amazing expression of his own level of consciousness. Thank you Dr. Mamas for sharing the poem.
Like water flowing down a mountain stream, it pretty much continues where it left off. Of course, upon occasion it goes over a waterfall, hits turbulence, etc.