In the Core of the Contradictions - Matt Licata

At some point, how you thought it was all going to turn out
will crumble away into dust.....all that remains is your raw
burning heart...

It is the nature of form to take birth, to dance, to play, and then
to fall back into the unknown.  This is not some sort of cosmic
error, but the way of things - creative, intelligent, and a reflection
of universal flow.

Relationships, work, family, friends, our health ... ideas about
ourselves, others, and the world.  What we thought would
provide ongoing meaning and purpose. Even what we were so
 sure about just a few days ago - the great realizations, discoveries,
 and insights about who we are, what is most true, what will
 provide lasting peace... no longer quite as convincing.  A dream
 has vanished and has not yet been replaced by a new vision.
 But inside the shards of the broken world, pure

life awaits.

All form must end, departing through a portal into darkness, so that
new forms may emerge from the crucible of clear space.  But what
is emerging in the womb of Now is not knowable ahead of time,
and is not subject to our hopes, fears or fantasies of control.
While the mind will struggle with the wrathful nature of this truth,
the heart knows... the body knows...

See that the death of form is filled with erupting particles of life,
with magic, and with the fragrance of the holy.  You can relax...
and rest inside the core of the contradictions.  Here, the chaos
and the glory are one.

Matt Licata

Rumi's Silence - Michael Shepherd

Rumi wrote much about silence.
Does that seem strange?

Poets live with silence:
the silence before the poem;
the silence whence the poem comes;

the silence in between the words, as you
drink the words, watch them glide through your mind,
feel them slide down your throat
towards your heart;

the silence which you share with the poet
when the poem ends, sitting side by side,
feeling one another being one heart;

the silence after the poem,
when you are a different person
from the person who started reading the poem,
think differently, move differently,
act differently; know Rumi a little better
as a friend; know yourself a little more
as a friend.

Rumi was asked, why do you
talk, talk, talk, so much
about silence?

He said, the radiant one inside me
has said nothing.

And that's the silence which we listen to
and hear in Rumi's heart,
here, sitting in the cool shade
which the scent of roses seems to love,

while the fountain gently plays like a poet
with sound and silence.

Michael Shepherd

via: No Mind's Land

~

Photo - actually a picture of a cloud formation.
Color was digitally "inverted" and created a totally
different affect, which now looks like the ocean
coming up on shore... magic :)

Silence is Radical - Anna Wood

Silence [is] the crux. The vehicle. And not silence as in
soundlessness...  The type of silence I'm talking about,
isn't about not hearing; on the contrary, it's about listening.

Silence is radical.  When sustained, it has an effect on your
perception comparable to that of any number of chemicals
with which you might seek change.  Your vision transforms;
you suddenly find yourself absorbing what's on the periphery,
massive amounts of once-invisible data assailing your pupils.
When you're not preparing your next remark, your hearing
capacity expands, too; the changing rhythms of the wind;
the muted thud of a teardrop hitting the wooden floor;
your neighbor's beating heart.  And taste, and smell,
they're amplified and shifted, as well - a cup of tea sipped
without the surrounding dialogue is a more intricate cup of tea.

Silence gives you the opportunity to know any number of
object's facets that typically disappear behind the verbal
screens we erect constantly, unthinkingly, between our
selves and our environments.  And surely the power of
wordless touch is one each of us knows...

Anna Wood
Excerpt from "A More Intricate Cup of Tea"

Wonderment - Naomi Stone

When we truly arrive in that vast space
of who we are in purity of being
as we are created to be,

we are the living beauty of an expanding sanctuary,
we are life aware of itself
fluid
changing,
we are the flow of a shifting

transparency

of spirit

the bliss of an unseen kiss

felt in the

rising mist of existence
dissolving in the pure eternal joy
of this eternal moment
of
a thrilling transforming
ever changing
wonder...

Naomi Stone

~

Personal note: My own experience is that
"arriving" simply means we come to see/
recognize the Pure Beingness that we are.
We are, as Naomi says, "Life aware of itself."

~

Photo - Fat globules in a pan of water,
digitally altered :)

Effortless Joy - Sandy Jones

Love leaves the confines of ideologies, doctrines, dogma and
the restricting limitations of regulations and rules.  Love is
freedom.  Love makes it easy to see in new ways.  It opens
the heart to expansive vistas, to freedom.  Love and freedom
go hand-in-hand.  Love and Reality reside right here as the
very identity I am.  Each of us can put our self here because
this unbound Self, this tranquility, this joy, this peace and
beauty is your identity as well.

A rush of passion celebrates the joy of this simple, everyday
existence of my being, of life, this marvelous magic that is
being me.  I am this living mystery of ever-flowering beauty.
The moonlight song ten thousand fathoms deep is a fact quite
plenty enough for me.

I'm filled with this awe and wonder that is living here in the
middle of an infinity of myself.  Life is an enigma, a mystery
so extraordinary, veiled in the soft pink light of the ordinary.

I am a million joys, living irresponsibly and aimless, carried
by this river of fearless love that upholds me...

It is not mine to tell others what to do.  Mine is this wind
blown freedom of an irresistible and effortless joy...

Sandy Jones

via: No Mind's Land

Paradox - Danna Faulds

Neti-Neti, translates as 'not this, not this.' The basis of classical
yoga, neti-neti is the way of negation.  It is a path that reveals
who I really am by cutting away all the things I am not.  I am not
this body or this migraine pain.  I am not my thoughts, even when
the inner voices grow so loud they drown out everything else.
I am not my personal stories or opinions.  I am not the fear that
threatens to swallow me, not my wisest and most insightful
writing, or even the most profound 'aha' to come out of my
spiritual practice.

The only problem is that after walking the path of neti-neti
for a time, I chafe against saying 'no' to everything.  At my
core there is a 'yes' that must be embodied and expressed...

Asmi-Asmi is the flip side of neti-neti.  Translated as 'this too,
this too', asmi-asmi is a practice that comes from tantra - the
path of immanence.  Identifying with the whole, I find spirit,
truth, and oneness everywhere...  I am this aging body on
its slow march toward death.  I am everything my senses can
experience and more. I am this mind and its dramatic machinations.
I am the yearnings of the heart, and the full spectrum of feelings,
and the peace that passes understanding.  I am the worst of my
poems, and the best.  I am the infinite reach of nature, sky and
stars.  The only word that matters on this path is 'Yes.'  I include,
include, include until the individual 'me' blips out, leaving
only unity.

My personal preference has always been for sensory experience,
embodiment, and inclusion.  For that reason, I resisted the practice
of neti-neti because it felt dry and life-denying.  I wasn't interested
in transcendence if it came at the expense of being fully alive in
my body and actively engaged in life.  Fortunately, I overcame
my resistance and discovered that when I really focused on bare
awareness, on what was not thought, not sensation, not my
personal accumulation of conditioning and beliefs, I landed in
a very spacious place of pure potential.

Exploring that potential, it occurred to me that practicing at
either end of the spectrum - neti-neti or asmi-asmi  - might
result in the same experience.  Inquiring deeper, I asked myself
if ultimate negation and absolute inclusion could exist
simultaneously.  'That's impossible', my rational mind answered.
'It's happening', my experience whispered softly in my ear.
In that moment, I fell into a profound inner silence - the silence
that flashes into existence when opposites unite.  Outside of time,
I disappeared into the limitless.

Perhaps I can best describe my current practice as 'both/and.'
Instead of focusing only on neti-neti, or giving myself entirely
over to the practice of asmi-asmi, I am plumbing the depths
of paradox where 'no' and 'yes' coexist.

In the light and laughing space
where Not-This and All-This
are both true, the whirl of
thought dissolves. The mind
drowns in paradox.  Awareness
neither reaches out, nor reaches in,
and times hangs suspended.

Danna Faulds
Excerpt from the introduction to her book
Limitless - 2009

The True Teacher - Francisco Albanez & Nisargadatta

Each day I long so much to see
The true teacher.  And each time
At dusk when I open the cabin
Door and empty the teapot,
I think I know where he is:

West of us in the forest.

Or perhaps I am the one
Who is out in the night,
The forest sand wet under
my feet, moonlight shining
On the sides of the birch trees,
The sea far off gleaming.

And he is the one who is
At home.  He sits in my chair
Calmly; he reads and prays
All night.  He loves to feel
His own body around him;

He does not leave the house.

Francisco Albanez
Original title: "The One Who is at Home"
translation by Robert Bly

~

Confide in your inner Self.
The greatest Guru is your inner Self.
Truly, he is the supreme teacher.
He alone can take you to your goal
and he alone meets you at the end of the road.
Confide in him and you need no outer Guru.

Nisargadatta

"The Chair..."

Relaxing deeply back, back,
sinking into "the chair."
It feels familiar - this chair.
It welcomes me "home"
to my Self...

Opening itself to me,
allowing me to slip deeply into
The Beloved's Silence...

I've been holding stress in the body.
"The Chair" allows it to let go,
and supports the body in the release,
like no one else can - no other person,
with their practical prescriptions,
or "fixes" propagated by the mind without
the compassion and empathy of the Heart;
who cannot respond from the Heart,
but only with empty words.
Hollow advice grasping for an "answer."
They cannot hear the cry of the Heart
that only needs to be heard and held...

It's only "The Chair"
that doesn't care who I am,
or what I know, or don't know,
or what words I use;
or how "evolved" I am;
if I am "enlightened" or "liberated";
if I shine or if I'm dark;
whether I'm Advaitan, Buddhist, Christian,
Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Sufi
or any religion, philosophy, or belief.
Only Being - just being,
without structure, concept, or label...
Only Self, sufficient in ItSelf

in "The Chair"...

It's only "The Chair"...
open, supportive, holding me in
whatever space I am in,
not trying to feed me an
intellectual "answer"
or correct my perceptions...

When I sit in this chair
I feel the tangible Presence
 of The Beloved within;
the warmth, the tingling of
the Divine Prsence
in the body
returning,
though never gone.

I feel the "connection"
with The Beloved in the body again,
though never "disconnected",
only the feeling momentarily lost.

The whole body begins to let go.
An involuntary breath deeply breathes me,
as my head gently collapses
against the back of "the chair"...

My Heart rests - soothed in "The Chair",
like a soft lap,
and finally opens like a lit orchid in a dark forest;
grieving for lost love, never really lost...

My whole body and being are fully supported
in "The Chair";
deeply at rest in the body,
in "The Chair";
fully embraced by my soft Friend -
"The Chair"

- who knew...

Mystic Meandering
July 4, 2017

~

"The Chair" is not only a literal chair that I refer to
but also becomes a metaphor for resting in
"The Beloved" - the True Friend.

_/\_

Untitled Prose - Danna Faulds

Use your discontent, your longing, the sense that you are bereft
of connection, use everything around you to nudge you into
choosing joy.  Make the choice not because life is as you wish,
but because life is as it is.  Resist and you know suffering.
Jump in with both eyes open and you can drown in bliss.

It doesn't seem possible, I know.  You feel broken, disconnected,
less than whole.  Ask if Awareness shares your restlessness.
Ask if the Infinite cares that your emotional state is tenuous at
best.  Ask if your dreary thoughts should be believed and if
anything real stands between you and All That Is.  Use the
answers you receive to open a crack in the wall of separation.
Find a door and stick your foot in so it can't close even if your
doubts grow huge.

[.....]

Danna Faulds
From: Limitless
2009

Personal Note:  I know from personal experience that it is not
often possible to "choose joy" - still I like this piece.  It is
possible, however, to observe our feelings as they rise from
within, and just be with them, not resisting them, but allowing
them to speak to us just as they are, through inquiry, which
she seems to allude to in the second paragraph...

Rendezvous With Silence...

Rendezvous with The Great Silence
through the Inner Window
of your Heart -
the portal to "The Mystery."

Sit quietly and listen deeply,
with no agenda or expectation,
leaving the window of your heart open -
waiting for the song of Silence...

Feel the caress of Silence begin,
inviting you in
with Her gentle breath,
breathing in your Heart...

The Silence that is always there
opens HerSelf to you - always.
Turn inward to the Inner Window,
bow to the Sacred Silence within and
enter Her Cosmic Mystery,
Her endless Vastness...

Settle into the Rhythm of Primordial Silence.
Feel the soft dance of intimacy absorb you,
in this silent rendezvous...

Nothing disturbs The Great Silence.
Nothing disturbs the depths of It.
Nothing prevents Its Song
from being sung...

Everything occurs within this Great Mystery of Silence.
All life, all breath, all death , all movement.

In the intimate awareness of Silence
know that everything is living according to Its
natural order, is following Its
natural Rhythm,
the Rhythm of The Tao of Life,
including this life you think you have created...

All life is being lived by the Great Mystery...

All is the pulse of Silence...

The pulse of the Cosmos.

Mystic Meandering
May 2016

~ 

Photo - Northern Light Swirls of an
Aurora Borealis over Yellow Knife, Canada

No False Steps - Agnes Martin

Of all the pitfalls in our paths and the tremendous
delays and wanderings off the track I want to say
that they are not what they seem to be.  I want to
say that all that seems like fantastic mistakes are
not mistakes, all that seems like error is not error;
and it all has to be done.  That which seems like a
false step is the next step.

Agnes Martin

Writings

Artsy

~

Photo - a rock pathway, color inverted...