Holiness Is Still Here - Annie Dillard & The Dalai Lama

There is no less holiness at this time - as you read this - than there
was the day the Red Sea parted, or that day as Ezekiel was a captive
by the river Chebar, when the heavens opened and he saw visions of
God.  There is no whit less enlightenment under the tree by your street
than there was under the Buddha's "bo" tree.  There is no whit less
might in heaven or on earth than there was the day Jesus said
'Maid, arise' to the centurion's daughter, or the day Peter walked on
water, or the night Mohammed flew to heaven on a horse.  In any
instant the sacred may wipe you with its finger.  In any instant the bush
may flare, your feet may rise.  In any instant you may avail yourself
of the power to love your enemies; to accept failure, slander, or
the grief of loss...

Annie Dillard

For The Time Being

~

We can reject everything else: religion, ideology, all received
 wisdom. But we cannot escape the necessity of
 love and compassion...

This then, is my true religion...  In this sense, there is no need for
 temple or church, for mosque or synagogue, no need for
complicated philosophy, doctrine or dogma.  Our own heart,
our own mind, is the temple.  The doctrine is compassion.

Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter
 if we are learned or unlearned, whether we believe in Buddha or God,
 or follow some other religion or none at all, as long as
we have compassion for others, no matter who or what they are:
ultimately these are all we need.

Tenzin Gyatso - The 14th Dalai Lama

_/\_

~

Photo - from the internet

"No More!"...

I heard the voice of a young child as I was waking from sleep one morning back in 2015.  It yelled - "No More!"  The voice came from inside.  How strange, I thought.  I wondered if this was some kind of  "message" for me, or, if it was me screaming from the inside - "No More!" - enduring a particularly stressful time in my experience of life at that moment.  Or, was it my inner psyche calling out to a world gone mad; witnessing a species apparently turning against itself, apparently trying to destroy itself in so many different ways - or so it seems at times.  And the rest of us - onlookers - enduring the dance of darkness that plays itself out here - forced to face the darkness within and without.  I pondered this all day, turning my awareness inward to the fear inside - repeating the phrase internally - "No More!"  At the end of the day's reflection was the sense that sometimes all we can do is endure the way life is - day to day.  And I wondered why - why that is true, why is it that we must "endure" such pain, such heartache, such suffering, both within and without...  But there was no answer...

Maybe the voice was from a dream I didn't realize I was having, as if looking through a blurred window.  And maybe that really is what life is - a dream we don't know we're having - that we must endure for as long as the dream lasts, until we are awakened from the dream by a voice saying "No More!"...?   I don't know...  I cannot presume to know anything anymore - either spiritually or temporally...  It's all a mystery - looking through a glass dimly...   

~~~

Mystic that I am, and usually focused on the inner "spiritual" world, looking for a "spiritual answer", I am frankly encouraged, and impressed, to see articulate, intelligent young people across this country, but especially those from Parkland, Florida, speaking up, rising up like waves out of the Ocean of Being ItSelf, to say "Enough!"  Taking passionate action that may possibly end a cycle of violence and suffering in this country.  This too is the Tao - the movement of Life.  This too is Infinite Beingness moving like a wave in the hearts of fearless young people to give voice to their passion and pain.  Everything is allowed - both passion and pain - and - the waves of passionate action.  We just never know HOW "The Infinite" is going to express ItSelf in each of us...  We do not have to squelch what arises in us, limiting our expression, hiding behind words of conceptual dogma, or lofty "spirituality."  Like the storms at sea, the Ocean is still, but the waves crash and churn in response to the chaos of the storm overhead...  It's all allowed...  The calm and the chaos, the beauty and the destruction, the light and the dark, all serving the unknown purposes of a greater Mystery... Or so I'd like to believe...

~

Oh, and one more thing... Pardon me as I seem to be tapping into my little "activist" here in my passionate self-expression. :)  It occurred to me that when the heart opens the mind, one can no longer detach oneself with abstract, conceptual ideas and forms of "spirituality" that shield us from the suffering of humanity in this manifest world; pretending it doesn't exist, taking the position that this existence is unreal, or even some saying that the person doesn't exist; even if on an Absolute level of Pure Being that may all be true...  The true measure of the Heart, it seems to me, is not intellectual or emotional detachment, but how we see and respond to another Being - turning inward to the Heart of our own True Being and responding authentically from there...

There is a famous saying that goes:

"Before people want to know what you know,
they want to know
that you care."

Namaste

_/\_

Infinite, Self-aware Consciousness (Awareness) is the unlimited, open,
 empty field in which all experience appears, and out of which all
 experiences arise.  Remaining established as the Infinite Being that
we are doesn't mean we don't deal appropriately with
whatever.....arises. We deal with whatever presents itself, at a
relative level, and remember to remain established in Infinite Being,
 which is our Self.
There is only Infinite Being... 
We are a modulation, a vibration of that Infinite Being.

Rupert Spira

Contemporary Non-Duality teacher

~

Photo - Shadows on a wall, color altered

The Invitation - Oriah

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love,
for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own
sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,
If you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to
be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of
being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to
yourself; if you can hear the accusation of betrayal and not
betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore
trustworthy.

I want to know if you cans see beauty, even if it's not pretty,
every day, and if you source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver
of the full moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much
money you have.  I want to know if you can get up, after the
night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone,
and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be
here.  I want to know if you stand in the center of the fire
with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have
studied.  I want to know what sustains you,
from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and
if you truly like the company you keep in the empty
moments.

Oriah

From: The Invitation

~

Art - Woman Dancing in the Fire
(looking down from above, her hands held out in front of her)
Done with Craypas oils and fingers.

c. 2012

The Wound of Humanity...

I resurrected the "poem" below from my journal notes from 2004, because it is something that keeps arising in our present time again and again.  You can see it on the faces of people who are suffering, physically, mentally, and emotionally - the felt sense of separation from Source - which continues to impact our society and the world...  The words, that I turned into a "poem", came during times of deep meditative Silence, as if from a dear friend who understands so much more than me...  Namaste

The "original wound" of humanity is a
perceived separation from the Essence of Life;
from Source, from Self, God; from our True Nature...

The Cry of Separation is the longing of the wounded heart
for its Origin...

Healing this universal wound is a
healing of the consciousness of separation -
The imagined "split" from the Consciousness of Pure Being
that becomes the shadow-self;
a shadow of the Truth...

This wound of separation is just a consciousness
spawned by the belief in separation.
A belief in separation dominates your existence,
creating a consciousness of
fear and darkness and suffering.

It is only a belief, a consciousness.
It is not real.

It manifests a particular reality of darkness,
a shadow, that you believe to be true.

But the consciousness of darkness, of separation,
is only a thin layer, a thin veil, a covering.
It has no power to sustain itself.
It gives the illusion of power
to seemingly rob you of knowing who You really are;
your inherent Beingness...

Whatever your consciousness/belief is, that is your reality.
You have become caught in the net of separation again, and
again, thinking it is real.
Awaken from this shadow-self.

Recognize and Embrace the Presence of your True Nature,
the Pure untouched Beingness that You are
in the Silence of your True Heart, beyond the wound,
the perpetual Light that cannot be dimmed...

It is the place of un-wounding.
The place of unwinding the wound...
The place of a new reality...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
2004

_/\_

~

Photo - shadow of a bamboo plant
on the wall making the form of a face...

Minding What Happens - Chuck Surface

[.....]

...I mind what happens ... immensely.
I mind with the Whole of my Being.
Even as I understand that all that occurs is,
From the Absolute perspective,
in the nature of things...

And as it is.

I mind the suffering of the world, terribly,
With the Whole of my Being.
Even as I understand that all that occurs is,
From the Absolute perspective,
in the nature of things...

And as it is.

I [want] with all my Heart...
For the end of suffering, everywhere, now, and forever,
Even as I understand that all that occurs is,
From the Absolute perspective,
in the nature of things...

And what will be, will be.

This "minding", this "caring"
This Heartfelt "desire for an outcome"...
None of it diminishes the Inner Radiance,
That shines in the Heart of my Being,
Full, Complete, Inexpressibly Ecstatic.

I mind what happens... a lot.

In Union, in the Absolute,
There is no space, time, or self,
To care what happens, or wish for outcomes,
But only Timeless, Spaceless, Objectless
Unalloyed Pure Being...

And what Is... Is.

But here, in this Dream of manifestation,
I pray and act with all my Heart for suffering's end,
Even as I understand that all that occurs is
From the Absolute perspective,
In the nature of things...

And what will be, will be.

It is not a matter of "not caring",
But rather, a matter of accepting.
Of caring deeply, with all your Heart.
But having the Wisdom to understand,
That Heartfelt prayer and effort aside...

What will be, will be.

In Love, I mind; in Wisdom, I accept.

Chuck Surface

In the Garden of the Beloved

Facebook

~

Photo via Love Is A Place

Zeitgeist...

In the first minutes of dawn,
at the edge of the dark of night,
I awake...

Inexplicable dread overtakes me...

.....a dream?

...or the zeitgeist of our time?

~

In the dark hours of time,
a "virus" slipped in;
a failing, narcissistic system;
a divisive ideology,
resurrected from former shadow
minds of tribal hatred,
attempting to invade and isolate
through the power of greed and
self-interest...

Turning us
against ourselves with its myopic lens,
demeaning and deriding
"other" cultures,
"other" races,
"other" religions
"other" peoples -
while pretending
to protect its own...

The "virus" imposes boundaries on a boundaryless world,
polarizing unity into fragments
that shatter,
creating the current paradigm
of Ignorance,
Paranoia,
Protectionism,
Isolationism,
Narcissism,
Nationalism,
Fear and Violence.

But those who know the beauty of true Light,
endure the false light,
knowing that the mindless "virus" cannot
shatter the pristine Light of a radiant Cosmos,
for it cannot be rent in two
by the darkness of ignorant minds
whose pretense and perniciousness
would even attempt to destroy
what cannot be destroyed:

The Eternal, Infinite Light and movement of
a Grand Cosmic Mystery
with its own Rhythms and Purposes
unknown
by
feeble, darkened minds;
by the ineptness of fake power.

Mystic Meandering
January 23, 2017

~

Zeitgeist - the defining spirit of the time, or culture.

~*~

Yet another mass school shooting Weds here in the US,
moving me to tears - children killing children once again;
and what humanity is doing to itself is heartbreaking...
The more my heart opens, the more I feel the emotional
pain of those who have been traumatized for life by
the shadow side of humanity.

May the Infinite Spirit of Love heal our
wounded hearts and help us to endure our
wounded society...

_/\_

Namaste

~

Photo - I don't remember what this is a picture of
but it seemed fitting...

Guardians of Solitude - Rilke

The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality
by tearing down all boundaries;
on the contrary,
a good marriage is one in which
each partner appoints the other
as guardian of his [her] solitude,
and thus they show each other
the greatest possible trust.

A merging of two people is an impossibility,
and where it seems to exist,
it is a hemming-in,
a mutual consent that robs
one party or both parties
of their fullest freedom and development.

But once the realization is accepted
that even between the closest people
infinite distances exist,
a marvelous living side-by-side
can grow up for them,
if they succeed in
loving the expanse between them,
which gives them the possibility
of always seeing each other
as a whole...

Rainer Maria Rilke
"Letter to a Young Poet"

~

Happy Birthday "B"!!
Always walking side-by-side with you  :)

Happy Love Day to all my blog readers!

~

Photo from the internet

Solfeggio Frequencies - Attuned Vibrations

528Hz - The Love Frequency

Excerpts from articles found on Attuned Vibrations about the Solfeggio frequencies:

Solfeggio frequencies make up the ancient 6-tone scale thought to have been used in sacred music, including the beautiful Gregorian Chants of medieval times. The ancient Solfeggio scale can be traced back to a Medieval hymn to John the Baptist (above video).  The original Solfeggio scale was developed by a Benedictine monk who lived between c. 991 AD and 1050 AD.

According to Dr. Leonard Horowitz, 528 Hertz is a frequency that is central to the "musical mathematical matrix of creation."  More than any sound previously discovered, the "LOVE frequency" resonates at the heart of everything.  It connects your heart, your spiritual essence, to the spiraling reality of heaven and earth.

The Love frequency is the "Miracle" note of the original Solfeggio musical scale.  Independently confirmed by researchers, these core creative frequencies were used by ancient priests and healers in advanced civilizations to manifest miracles and produce blessings.

528 Hz is the bio energy of health.  It is the harmonic vibration that lifts your heart and helps you flow in perfect rhythm and harmony.  Tune yourself back to the perfect vibrations.

Albert Einstein stated: "Concerning matter, we have been all wrong.  What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses.  There is no matter."  All matter beings vibrate at specific rates and everything has its own melody.  The musical nature of nuclear matter from atoms to galaxies is now finally being recognized as science.

That is why these frequencies are so powerful.  They can literally bring you back to the original tones of the heavenly spheres and put your body into a balanced resonance.  Solfeggio music is the key to the Universe.  You can either throw it away or you can find healing and harmony, health and well-being.  Just play the music!

~~~~~

I am fascinated by this topic.  I have no idea how valid it is or how effective, so I will continue to do some research on the phenomenon, and am going to be listening to music containing the Solfeggio frequencies for the next 4-6 weeks.  Will let you know how it impacts my health.  There is a plethora of this music on You Tube, if you are so inclined.  Read more of the above articles on Solfeggio frequencies.

Also - if any of you have had any experience with the Solfeggio frequencies please leave a comment and let me know what your experience is/was.  Or you can email me at: mysticmeandering@gmail.com  

Thanks to Alixe at Love Is A Place
for bringing this to my awareness...

Cosmic Origin...

We are equipped with everything we need - right now.
There is no linear self-improvement program
to measure up to;
no spiritual standard to compare our progress with;
achieving lofty goals of "enlightenment" or non-duality.

Everything is open ended, boundaryless,
freely fluid, forever fluctuating - "enlightened."

The key - the one unchanging "truth" -
is Love;
unborn, inexplicable Love;

an "un-dualating" energy vibration of Love

that just IS - that has always existed -
that is the gateway to
knowing our Inner Beingness...

...into knowing
a truer Vibration that lies at
the Core of our Being;
the "mother energy" of
our Cosmology;
the place of no beginning, or ending,
only the infinity of the moment.

Dissolve into your Cosmic Origins...
Return to your "roots";
naked, Luminous, ever-present Love...

Entrain with the Maternal Heart,
where the ripples of  Love
form and expand,
pulsating the Rhythm of Ineffable Love
within you ~

You will know it when you feel it...

Pure, untainted, causeless, objectless

L o v e  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~ ~

Our Cosmic Origin

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 8, 2018

~

Photo - Aurora Borealis over
Yellowknife, Northwest Terr., Canada
Sent to us by a friend...

Walking in Cosmic Shoes...

Give no regard to the voice of Fear that
divides you and conflicts you;
whether from within or without...

Walk as if the "Divine" were in your shoes,
walking you -

undivided by earthly "tribes"
of culture, religion, or hatred;
earthly boundaries...
The divided mentations of
mediocre minds;
yours and others.

Fall into the Inner Rhythm of
the Universal Being that you are;
that ubiquitous Divine Presence
inherently everywhere, at all times,
and walk fluidly through life.

Flow with the Deep Silence of
your Inner Being...

Just Breathe...

Listen...

Wait...

for the Rhythm and the movement of the
Luminous Inner Cosmos to move you...

Then you will know what is true,
which way to go,
and
how to BE
in this world...

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 8, 2018

_/\_

I learn by going where I have to go - Roethke

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.

I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling.  What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground!  I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady.  I should know.
What falls away is always.  And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Theodore Roethke

Original title: "The Waking"

~

It is Grace taking you where you must go...
It is Grace giving you what you need...
Grace is a gift...

Papaji

~

Note:  In one analysis of Roethke's poem,
it suggests another version,
changing the repetitive line:
"I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow", to
"I live to die, and take my living slow..."
It is ultimately a poem of life and death,
while embracing the totality of life experience
while we are here...

I rather like that interpretation...

~

photo: me on path
color digitally inverted

Tell us of Pain - Khalil Gibran & Nisargadatta

And a woman spoke saying:

"Tell us of Pain"

And he said:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your
understanding.  Even as the stone of the fruit must break,
that its heart may stand in the sun,
so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily
miracles of life, your pain would not seem less wondrous
than your joy.  And you would accept the seasons of
your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons
that pass over the fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of
your grief.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within heals
your sick self.

Therefore, trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence
and tranquility.  For his hand, though heavy and hard, is
guided by the tender hand of the Unseen.

And the cup he brings,
though it burn your lips,
has been fashioned of the clay
which the Potter has moistsened
with His own sacred Tears.

Khalil Gibran

The Prophet


~

The real world is beyond the mind's ken;
we see it through the net of our desires,
divided into pleasure and pain,
right and wrong, inner and outer.
To see the universe as it is,
you must step beyond the net.

Look at the net and its many contradictions.
You do and undo at every step.
You want peace, love, happiness
and work hard to create pain, hatred and war.
You want longevity and overeat,
you want friendship and exploit.
See your net as made of such contradictions
and remove them...
Your very seeing them will make them go.

Nisargadatta

Perfect Pleasure...

To be aware of the inner Presence of "The Divine"
gives great pleasure;
the perpetual awareness of Awareness...

To be blessed with the Grace of "Presence"
gives great Contentment;
the realization of ones Divine Nature...

To be embraced by the Silence of "The Infinite"
gives Bliss;
the Peace that passes understanding...

To rest in your "Divine Nature"
gives Perfect Pleasure;
the greatest Happiness...

To know the Ineffable Perfection of Being,
the felt experience of Divine Pleasure within;
is Love...

Mystic Meandering
January 28, 2018

~

Photo - Mandala Art
done by my 90 year old mother
(digitally zoom blurred for affect :)