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Dan · 05-31-2004, 02:24 PM

We Build Temples in the Heart
By Patrick Murfin

We have seen the great cathedrals, stone laid upon stone, carved and cared for by centuries of certain hands:
seen the slender minarets soar from dusty streets to raise the cry of faith to the One and Only God:
seen the placid pagotas where guilded Buddhas squat amid the temple bells and incense.

We have seen the tumbled temples half-burried in the sands, choked with verdant tangles, sunk in corralled seas - old truths toppled and forgotten.
We have even seen the wattled huts, the sweatlodge hogans, the wheeled yurts, and the Ice Age caverns where unwritten worship raised its knowing voices.

But here we build temples in our hearts.
Side by side we gather.

We mix the mortar of the scattered dust of the Holy of Holies with the sacred water of the Ganges:
lay Moorish alabaster on the blocks of Angkor Wat and rough-hewn Stonehenge slabs:
plumb Doric columns for stregnth of reason, square them with the stern Protestant planks, and illuminate all with Chartres' jeweled windows and the brilliant lamps of science.

Yes here we build temples in our hearts.
Side by side we come, scavenging the ages for wisdom, cobbling together as best we may the stones of a thousand altars, leveling with doubt, framing with scepicism, measuring by logic, sinking firm foundations in the earth as we reach for the heavens.

Here we build temples in our hearts-
a temple for each heart, a village of temples, none shading another, connected by well-worn paths, built alike on sacred ground.

05-31-2004, 02:24 PM	#4 (permalink)
Dan Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 8,710	We Build Temples in the Heart By Patrick Murfin We have seen the great cathedrals, stone laid upon stone, carved and cared for by centuries of certain hands: seen the slender minarets soar from dusty streets to raise the cry of faith to the One and Only God: seen the placid pagotas where guilded Buddhas squat amid the temple bells and incense. We have seen the tumbled temples half-burried in the sands, choked with verdant tangles, sunk in corralled seas - old truths toppled and forgotten. We have even seen the wattled huts, the sweatlodge hogans, the wheeled yurts, and the Ice Age caverns where unwritten worship raised its knowing voices. But here we build temples in our hearts. Side by side we gather. We mix the mortar of the scattered dust of the Holy of Holies with the sacred water of the Ganges: lay Moorish alabaster on the blocks of Angkor Wat and rough-hewn Stonehenge slabs: plumb Doric columns for stregnth of reason, square them with the stern Protestant planks, and illuminate all with Chartres' jeweled windows and the brilliant lamps of science. Yes here we build temples in our hearts. Side by side we come, scavenging the ages for wisdom, cobbling together as best we may the stones of a thousand altars, leveling with doubt, framing with scepicism, measuring by logic, sinking firm foundations in the earth as we reach for the heavens. Here we build temples in our hearts- a temple for each heart, a village of temples, none shading another, connected by well-worn paths, built alike on sacred ground.