Welcome...

Come meander with me on the pathless path of the Heart
in these anecdotal,
sometimes inspiring, sometimes personal meanderings of the Heart's opening in the every-day-ness of life...

Saturday, March 1, 2025

Mystical Peace...


A stranger arrived yesterday,
unexpectedly,
engulfed me in Her Peace...

In Her Presence
everything settled...

everything let go of me..
all entanglements
all resistance
all struggle

everything became strangely Quiet within...

everything rested within me,
not lifeless - just rested...

It was like a mystical fog of Peace
surrounding me,
holding me -
and I was still - 
at my core...

When She arrived
life was allowed to be as life is,
despite what was going on externally.

I listened deeply to her whispers...

She felt 'strange' to me
only because She
was just there
unbidden,
a softening presence....

She was larger than life;
beyond mental understanding
or explanation...

Yet, I knew that I know this "stranger."
She was strangely familiar...
I'm sure we have met before...

I welcomed her with gratitude...

She drew closer and wrapped Her mantel of Peace
around my Heart...

The Fire-Light within began to brighten...
Love emerged...

She was Home...


Mystic Meandering
adapted from a poem written in 2015


~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Winter 2015


~

 Even in the midst of chaos there is Peace...
Even in the midst of complexity there is Simplicity...
Even in the midst of confusion there is Stability...
 

I keep reminding myself to
stay rooted in my Eternal Nature at the 
Core of my Being...

MM


Friday, February 28, 2025

"Revolution" - The Beatles


For those who are old enough to remember The Beatles :)

Their song "Revolution" was written in 1968 when the country
was in political upheaval (once again:).  This time over the
Vietnam War.  Lyndon Johnson was in office, and considered
the "New Left."  Richard Nixon was running for office ,
 a conservative... After he was in office, he was found to be
 a "crook" - hmmmm.  He eventually resigned...
I was 18 at college in Boston going to peace rallies on
Boston Common :)

John Lennon, one of the writers of the song, wasn't sure he
wanted to publish it because he felt it might be considered
too controversial...

One evening recently the words of the song just popped into
my head...  So I looked up the lyrics and felt it was appropriate
to post for our times as well...

I've taken the liberty of adding a heading just before each
refrain in brackets - a little dark humor - as we move through another
dark passage in our history...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Revolution


You say you want a Revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all wanna change the world

But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out


[MAGA refrain]

Don't you know it's gonna be alright
Alright
Alright


You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We are doing what we can

But if you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait



[MAGA refrain]

Don't you know it's gonna be alright
Alright
Alright


You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You'd better free your mind instead


[MAGA refrain]

Don't you know it's gonna be alright
Alright
Alright

Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright

~

Vortex Art - Mystic Meandering

 

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Circles of Support - Starhawk


We are all longing to go home to some place we have 
never been - a place half-remembered and half-envisioned
we can only catch glimpses of from time to time.
Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak
with passion without having the words catch in our
throats.  Somewhere a circle of hands will open to
receive us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will
celebrate with us whenever we come into our power.
[And speak truth to power]
Community means strength that joins our strength to do
the work that needs to be done  Arms to hold us when we
falter.  A circle of healing.  A circle of friends.
Someplace where we can be free
[to be who we are, as we are.]

Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark

~

   Circle of Hands Mandala - Mystic Meandering
(unfinished)

 

Monday, February 24, 2025

Does the Path have a Heart? - Carlos Castaneda


You must always keep in mind that a path is only a path.
Each path is only one of a million paths.
If you feel that you must not follow it,
you need not stay with it under any circumstances.
Any path is only a path.

There is no affront to yourself or others in dropping a path
if that is what your heart tells you to do.
But your decision to keep on a path or to leave it
must be free of fear and ambition.

I caution you: look at every path closely and deliberately.
Try it as many times as you think necessary.
Then ask yourself and yourself alone this one question:
Does this path have a heart?

All paths are the same.  They lead nowhere.
They are paths going through the brush or into the brush
or under the brush of the Universe.
The only question is: Does this path have a heart?

If it does, then it is a good path.
If it doesn't, then it is of no use.

Carlos Castaneda

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Inverted color



 

Saturday, February 22, 2025

Embracing my Body - a meandering


My Heart calls to me to stop, to just sit
- sitting meditation - breathing -
resting in the inner Stillness of Being...

My Heart wants to commune with
the Infiniteness of Silence.

It is the Light that brings awareness
to all hidden places...

It is the Spaciousness from which all knowing
and all needed action arises
with clarity...

Heart says:
'just sit'
in the depths of Silence
breathing
with the Infinite Silence -
the inner movement of "The Mystery" -
experiencing the Embrace,
and intelligence of what lives us...

~

But, at 75, I have a body that requires a lot of attention
now, which I must attend to...  Sometimes I get
caught in the ailments of the body - its unexpected fragility;
 the body needs to be embraced,
held in the Heart - like a child...

So I started doing what I lovingly call "Body Holding."
I start with the Heart, laying both hands 
over the Heart - embracing the Heart,
until its tingly static feels calm and at peace.
Then I hold the Solar Plexus;
sometimes with both hands,
sometimes with one hand on the Heart -
until its intense waves of pressure feels smooth and calm.
Then the belly just below the navel, and hold
my hands there.  If my mind has been overactive,
as it usually is, I hold one hand on either side 
of the top of my head and feel the electrical
buzziness of thinking, until it subsides.

All the while being aware
of the miracle of my Humanness and Infiniteness -
as One Rhythm - embracing the body...

~

The Infinite manifests in the finite
The Truth of Existence...

The  Pure Vibration of Existence
in form - in a human body...
We are a whole package
an embodied humanity -
enlivened by the Source of Life.

The body is not separate.
Spirit is in matter...

The Light of our Essence is in
the body...

Our Humanity is Embraced...


Mystic Meandering
2025


Art: Mystic Meandering
 Held

 

Thursday, February 20, 2025

Prayer for the World - Mirabai Starr


Beloved One,
Living Light
Spirit of all that is...

Be with us now
As we lean in to hear your call...

Divine Mother,
Embodiment of Mercy and Compassion,
Enfold us in your protective cloak
As we dare to take in the pain of the world.
Comprised of every hue on the spectrum
Of the human community.
Give us the courage and strength
To drop our preconceptions
[and our prejudices]
And step onto the field of global strife
Armed with the flaming arrow of love.

Sacred Friend,
Hidden behind the eyes of the broken,
Reveal yourself,
Let us behold the beauty of your face
In all beings, everywhere, always.
Where once we perceived only the impossible,
Blinded by our desire for circumstances, people,
And our own sweet selves to be different,
Let us rest now in what is
Alert to your power to astonish us
With the global awakening.

Holy One,
We carry legacy of our ancestors
In the marrow of our own souls.
We are all reluctant prophets.
We must be called and called again,
And yet again.
We turn and turn away,
We yield and bow and rise,
Until at last,
Clasped by the ferocious wings of your angels,
We declare, Hineyni.
Here I am.
Make me a vessel of divine will...

Great Spirit,
Fill the hearts of our leaders
With humility and holey awe.
Embolden them not to turn away from the Other
But to lay down their weapons
And take the adversary in their arms.
Infuse them with the fire
That melts swords into ploughshares
And spears into pruning hooks.
Show them the secret passageway from hopeless conflict
Home to love. [to tolerance and acceptance].

Father-Mother God,
May the Children of Abraham and Sara
At last fall silent in the face of your radiance.
May our hearts soar in remembrance.
May our knees bend and bodies bow down,
And our spirits rejoice,
Overflowing with unceasing prayer,
Resounding and cleansing and blessing all the land...

AMEN


Mirabai Starr

Excerpts from a prayer written in 2015
during the Iran and US peace agreements

~

Photo from the Internet
digitally altered



 

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Entropy...


The shadows have come to roost
and
everything
is
collapsing
~
~
~
~

The tides and ripples of entropy will continue
until all is returned to Source again ~
the Primordial State:
Pure Life Energy...

Entropy is the way of Existence.
It is a telescoping of everything that is,
back to its original Source/State;
a re-homing of all that has manifested in form;
the conceptual structures,
so that only
the Eternal Essence
remains...

Do not be alarmed by the seeming destruction
of what you have believed to be real.
The false must be released, shed - like dross.
In this there is a sense of chaos, destruction, loss, and death;
the crucible affect;
a state of alchemy,
the refinement of all things in existence
to their Original Nature.

Nothing is really lost in the process.

All is coming Home.

The
Divine
Out-breath
Has
Been
Re-called.

Bring your awareness to the place of Stillness within.
Don't try to create order in the chaos.
But be still and let the chaos pass.
"Order" is found in the Stillness,
in returning to the deep Stillness of Being within.

The healing of mankind
is in the recognition of the
Truth of our Eternal Essence,
Our Infiniteness
Our Primal Light...

Entropy is the crucible of that healing...

Endure it...

The invitation
is to expand our view of reality
and return to the awareness of
our Eternal Being...



Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
between 2004 and 2006

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Sunday, February 16, 2025

A Mystic's "Spirituality" - a meandering...



Being an unapologetic "mystic" at Heart, since childhood,
means for me experiencing the living Presence of Life that
animates all life.  Some call that God, the Divine, The Beloved,
the Ineffable, The Mystery, Pure Consciousness, Infinite Being,
Spirit, Brahman, The Tao, the Cosmos, etc.  It has many
 names and forms. It means being able to see and experience
 "The Mystery" in the everyday-ness of life; something I am still
admittedly trying to be more aware of - to be more aware of a
 felt sense of The Sacred in the Entropy of world affairs, in the
chaotic mundane personal affairs of life circumstances as they are;
 the requirements of daily living; in the must do's and have-to's that
always find their way to the top of my list, and seem to drive my
life...

As a "mystic" I long to experience the depths of Ultimate Reality -
immersing myself in the depths of Meditative Silence, listening
to the Hush of "The Mystery."  Something I have missed being
 able to do over the last 2 years due to life circumstances.
It seems I am on a dark passage now...
Some  may assume a "mystic" doesn't experience the darker
 feelings and frustrations of life - but is always in some catatonic
 state with The Beloved...  That has not been my experience.
I try to experience the darker emotions within the context of the
Greater Reality as part of the totality of life experience...

Some feel that a mystic should have special insights or powers,
or visions, or is only interested in seeking "mystical experiences."
But for me it is not in "seeking" experiences (I have very few of
them that just happen), but being aware of and open to the movement
 of "The Mystery" within me, through its many expressions, living in
 the intimacy of "The Mystery" and at times experiencing an
intimate encounter with what I know to be "The Divine", like my
Epiphany back in 2013, or through meditative writings", and 
celestial songs (poetry) where sometimes the words just fall
 out onto the page - surprising me...

Mystical "spirituality" acknowledges the universality of what 
most have come to call "God", The Divine, or Buddha Nature,
not associated with any particular faith, religion or practice,
but transcendent truth - realizing that humans, at the very core of
their being, are both Divine and human, formlessness and form,
spirit in matter, Timelessness in time...

Wayne Teasdale, a 20th century Christian Mystic, and author of
A Mystic Heart says: "Mystic spirituality draws us into the depths
or our Being,
 where we come face to face with ourselves, our
weaknesses, AND with the Ultimate Mystery,  Spirituality is not
external religiosity, confined to ritual and liturgy.  It is a way of life
that effects and includes every moment of existence...  It is a disposition
to a life of depth..."

He goes on - "How we make the journey is what spirituality is really
about - finding our own path.  This means finding a way to
 [awareness of] the vast unlimited [mystery] of The Divine,
 the Mystery within.
We are created for this 'spiritual journey' - the direct and
immediate experience of Ultimate Reality, which knows everything
as ItSelf. 
Being infinitely aware, it knows in a unitive and universal
fashion through awareness...  The spiritual journey is essentially one of
discovering the roots of our true identity.  It is a process of returning
to the totality of Consciousness, from which we have arisen." 
(Wayne Teasdale)

Mystic Meandering
2016

~

"We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others.
[We must] take back our own listening,
use our own voice,
see our own Light"

Hildegard of Bingen
12th Century Christian Mystic


_/\_

Namaste


~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Friday, February 14, 2025

Rest Your Heart in Love - Fred LaMotte


The purest meditation is just to rest in Love...

Our love is often toward what we know to be God.
The "toward" of love is like an in-coming or out-going breath.
Its flow may proceed from my heart toward the Divine,
or from the Divine toward my heart,
until the two tides equalize in one serenity;
the silence between breaths... inhalation kisses exhalation.

Words cease.
Prayer becomes deep meditation,
and there is no more "toward"...
It is effortless repose through love, as love...
Just be with the formless feeling.
The little thread of formless love expands to fill the cosmos,
because it has no boundary, no image.
In a moment, you have captured the ocean of love
in the cup of the heart.

The tiniest thread, the faintest impulse of love,
is a breath of the Cosmic Mother,
felt as a sense of the heart.
Surrender to that subtle intuitive sensation,
without attaching any picture or face.
This ripple of affection will lead you to the sea.
Depth calleth unto depth.
In the formless abyss of love, one depth touches another.
The depth of God merges with the depth of You.

If images of an Avatar or a Master appear, let them.
They are delightful bubbles playing on the surface of
love's formless ocean.
They are all facets of one diamond,
the brilliance of your divine heart.
Your heart is a little hologram that contains the cosmos,
the forms of every Avatar, every God or Goddess.

Whatever sadhana we practice, just rest in the heart,
filling the empty silence where thought used to be.
This silent glory is the substance of creation itself,
suffusing every cell of the body.
Then it pours out through our eyes, our words, and our hands
in blessing...


Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

Excerpts from a blog post.
Fred's words, my format.

~

Art - Mystic Meandering

 

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Grace - Chuck Surface


Grace does not hold an abacus in one hand,
Tallying karma,
Or a Rubik's cube in the other,
Challenging you to "Figure it out."

Grace knows nothing of such cruelties.

Grace is the power that comes alive
When Attention, wandering in the world,
Turns inward,
In quest for The Heart's Desire.

From the first awakening of Longing,
To the first turning inward,
through the long, wandering trek,
And the vanishing into Pure Being...

Is not everything the functioning of Grace?

Grace is the power of "Fruitioning",
Of the seed to Blossom,
Of the ember to Flame,
Of Longing to Fulfillment.

Grace is the gravity of our own Pure Being,
Pulling "i".
To its Ultimate Oblivion...
And Benediction.

The Heart's Longing
And the mind's Wonder
Arise from Grace,
As Grace.

Is not everything the functioning of Grace?

Grace, as my Heart speaks it,
Is not a "consequence"
Of conditionality,
Of causality.

Do we choose to have a Heart
Drunk with Longing?
Do we choose to have a mind
Moved by wonder?

It is Grace that calls us,
Grace that moves us,
And Grace that sustains us,
Until we Vanish...

In its welcoming arms.


Chuck Surface



~

Photo taken by my brother
at Sunday River Ski Resort
in Maine



 

Monday, February 10, 2025

The Blessing of the Deer - Jane Hirshfield

 


A house of a person
in age sometimes grows cluttered
with what is
too loved or too heavy to part with,
the heart may grow cluttered.
And still the house will be emptied,
and still the heart.

As the thoughts of a person
in age sometimes grow sparer,
like a great cleanness come into a room,
the soul may grow sparer;
one sparrow song carves it completely.
And still the room is full,
and still the heart.

Empty and filled,
like the curling half-light of morning,
in which everything is still possible...

Filled and empty,
like the curling half-light of evening,
in which everything now is finished...

Beloved, what can be, what was,
will be taken away from us.
I have disappointed.
I'm sorry.  I knew no better.

[.....]

This morning, out the window,
the deer stood like a blessing, then vanished.


Jane Hirshfield
Original title: "Standing Deer"
from The Lives of the Heart

~

Photo of Deer - Mystic Meandering


Saturday, February 8, 2025

Love Letter to my Body...


Dear Body,

After 75 years I am aware of your fragility and impermanence,
and yet you still struggle to remain -
as difficult as that has become...

I know this life experience has been very hard for you...
I will do my best to take care of you - to comfort you...
Body, just rest now; allow yourself to sink down
and relax - sleep...

You don't have to keep it all together...
(deep breath and body releases its tensions)

I know you suffer - and I'm sorry for
how you labor and struggle.
You have done well to house me here with all that
you have been through - and I have taken you for
granted.

I will help you as much as I can while you still continue
to support me here...

I am sad that you are declining - my companion.
I don't know how much longer you can sustain me here.
I am sorry that I haven't always treated you well;
not eating the right foods; indulging in what *tastes* good
to the palate - and gave me comfort.

Needing care for yourself - you help me to caregive another -
draining your life energy...
But you just keep going as best you can...

I will give you rest and comfort now...
In the elder years...

With deep gratitude...

Your Indweller...



Mystic Meandering
Jan 25, 2025

~

Photo - moi 
1949





 

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Primordial Light - Misc.



Almost none of us knows our true identity...
We forgot that we do not know our true identity...
We think of ourselves as Americans or Chinese,
as Republicans or Democrats, as believers or
atheists.  Each of those identities might be true,
bu each is a secondary truth.

There is a deeper truth.

We are the Universe...

The Universe made us...
{our bodies are made of the same elements]

In a  most primordial way, we are cosmological
beings...


The Primal Light, the light from the beginning
of time [and beyond time] - the Primordial Light -

We are that...


Brian Swimme
From: Cosmogenesis

He goes on:

The Primal light was discovered in 1964 by
Penzias and Wilson.
We know that each of these photons comes from a
place near the origin of the Cosmos, so if we trace
these particles of light backward we are led to the
birthplace of the Universe,

We have discovered our [cosmic] origin in a colossal
sphere of light.  This colossal sphere, fourteen billion
light years away from us in every direction, is the
origin of our universe.  And thus the origin of each of us.

The empirical evidence points to a time fourteen billion
years ago when our universe consisted of a colossal sphere
made of light, as well as the primal atoms of hydrogen and
helium.
The colossal sphere transformed itself into stars and galaxies
and everything else in the known universe.

Brian Swimme
From Cosmogenesis

~


There is a synchronicity between the world 
and the Universe; a symphony of energy
complimenting and working together.
There is an underlying order.
We must get in tune with the energy of
the Universe.

author unknown

~

I am part of a vast network, an unbroken legacy of
evolved thinking sentient beings that is older than
myself, older than my ancestors, older than my species,
older than the rocks and trees and even the planet we
live upon.

.....my origins go back even further, to the Big Bang and
beyond...  eons ago, to a time before time.

Poffo Ortiz

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering


 

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Stand Still. Listen. - Kathleen Knipp


I returned to the cabin at dusk.  As I was unlocking the door,
I heard a panicked voice leave a message on my answering
machine (yes, an actual answering machine - remember
those?)  My guest, who had set out for a hike with promises
to turn back early, was lost.  Very lost.  Darkness falls quickly
in the winter desert; the temperature can drop 20 degrees in an
hour.  She'd gathered her altitude, longitude, and latitude from 
her technology, but her data points did not reveal the trail.

So, I did what any experienced hiker would do.  I commanded
her to stop speaking and to listen carefully.  Then, I read her
a poem.

It was the same poem I'd received almost a decade earlier from
a wise and seasoned outdoorswoman one evening when I had
gotten turned around in the woods behind my home in Quebec.
It begins:

"Stand still.  The trees ahead and the bushes beside you
Are not lost.  Wherever you are is called Here...
The forest breathes.  Listen.  It answers..."

By the time I'd ascended 500 feet, running full throttle with
my headlamp lighting up loose rocks, roots, and downed
trees - hazards for chronically sprained ankles - we made
contact again.  She had located the elusive path shortly after
our call and was now making her way down.

Stand still.  Listen.

When we can't find our way, we try our best to figure out
what to do.  We look for solutions, consult, gather information.
Do I turn left or right?  Speak up or hold silence?  Innovate or
uphold tradition?...

Listening - true listening - is not an activity.  It's not about
listening to something,or even for something.  It's not
listening to the mental chatter or the wisdom of the body.
Rather, it's about dropping into the primacy of experiencing,
into the field of pure receptivity, free from egoic interference.
It's resting in complete availability until the next step becomes
perfectly clear.

Listening.  It's what I teach.  It's what I practice.  It's what I
humbly learn and relearn daily through my own missteps and
moments of distraction.  When I fall into the habit of believing
that "I" can figure it out, that "I" make the decisions, that "I"
must find my way, the field narrows and"I" end up running
around in circles.

"Stand still.  The forest knows
Where you are.
You must let it find you."


Kathleen Knipp
Pathless Yoga


The poem "Lost" by David Wagoner

~

Photo taken by my brother
at Sunday River Ski Resort
in Maine.  He is a volunteer
ski patrol there...

~

Personal Note:

I love this piece by Kathleen.  It moved me deeply, not only
for it's message but because Kathleen did not give a "non-dual"
answer, dismissing her predicament, she gave a loving, caring,
compassionate answer to the woman who had gotten lost on
the trail - by reading comforting words from a poem about
 not being lost, about standing still and listening to the trees
 for the way to go.
And then Kathleen took action and went to help her friend
in trouble.  She acted with love from her heart...

In these very troubling times around the world, we need to
support each other in dealing with the reality we are faced with
 - in our  seeming"lostness"; as we navigate
a way "Home..." and remember our Infiniteness...

MM

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Blessings In the Chaos - Jan Richardson

 


To all that is chaotic
in you,
let there come silence.

Let there be
 a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you,

that go with you
even to the 
holy places
but will not
let you rest,
will not let you
hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace
that fashioned you.

Let what distracts you
cease.
Let what divides you
cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes
and demeans,
and let depart
all that keeps you
in its cage.

Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.


The human heart continues to dream of a state of wholeness,
a place where everything comes together,
where loss will be made good, where blindness will transform
into vision, where damage will be made whole,
where the clenched question will open in the house of surprise,
where the travails of a life's journey will enjoy a homecoming.
To invoke a blessing is to call some of that wholeness upon a
person now.


with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Art - Mystic Meandering
Medieval Mandala

Friday, January 31, 2025

Between Two Houses - a meandering...



Sitting watching the evening news,
I looked out the living room window - to the space
between my neighbors' houses.

Looking through
the bare branches of the trees between their homes,
I saw the pinkish, orange, gold-yellow of the sunset
fading in the West.

It occurred to me, in that moment,
that no matter what is happening on the earth,
and my personal life - the Cosmos still "works"!
The sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, the galaxies
all dance the Dance of the Cosmos -
for eons -

giving us beauty, wonder, and awe - and peace.
It's us humans that don't seem to be "working" well -
on this little planet - divided...

It also reminded me that there is a greater context
in which we live - a vaster Reality - hidden -
that I want to be aware of...

Sometimes this world seems so gray
- run by lunatics -
that I miss the beauty in
The Cosmos,
and in between spaces...

I really need to
look out my window more often! :)
And expand my view of the Universe...

Mystic Meandering
January 30, 2025

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
The photo was actually taken in April 2023



 

Monday, January 27, 2025

The Problem With Words - Ivan Granger


There's a real dilemma at the heart of religion and spiritual
endeavor.  The Eternal, the Whole cannot be adequately held
by such small containers as words.  Yet we humans are
instinctively communicators and word-makers.  What are the
sages and saints to do with their perceptions?  How do they
render the Eternal comprehensible to others and inspire new
seekers?  Describe the profound love and bliss and unity,
and we naturally name it Mother.  Convey the immensity and
power, we name it Father.  Or we say Beloved.  Or Friend.

All of these are valid ways to begin to form a notion of the
Eternal.  Through these words we as individuals can form a
relationship to this vast Reality.
  And through this relationship
 we can be drawn into deeper awareness, into deeper opening,
and into our own direct encounter... at which point we realize
how inadequate all words are.

The problem arises when the mystics are no longer heard or
are relegated to history, when too few people have their own
direct wordless encounter.
  Then we end up with entire
religions stuck at the level of words.  No matter how sacred
and truth-filled those words may be, words are always
incomplete.  Words alone are soon taken literally, and then
true knowledge is lost.  Not knowing what is real, religion
becomes embalmed, self-protective, sectarian, and sometimes
violent...

The wounds of religion are healed....through direct perception,
instead of forcing meaning....

Ivan Granger - Commentary
Poetry Chaikhana

~

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao;
the name that can be named is not the 
eternal Tao.

Lao Tzu

~

3D Art - Mystic Meandering