Thrive - Leo Hartong

What environment do you thrive in?
Plants need different conditions to thrive in
and when you try to grow it in a different environment -
it can't thrive.

It's not about preferences,
or about "accepting life as it is" -
but knowing what you need for your spirit to thrive.

It is about the recognition of what it truly is
that lives, thinks, sees and breathes
through and as you...
The Essence of your Being
that appears as you.

Leo Hartong
Excerpt from: From Self to Self

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

The Longing...

The Longing of the Heart is there to draw you in.
It's the Longing for that which is true, pure,
innocent, whole and Alive within you...

It's the Longing for the embrace of the Eternal Being
that animates your being...

It's the call of "The Beloved."

Follow the call...

~

The Longing is your Innocence;
an innocent Longing for
Divine Intimacy;
the Eternal recognizing ItSelf in you...

~

It is the Self calling ItSelf back to ItSelf,
like the rhythm of the Ocean pulling the waves
 back to Itself from the shore;
reclaiming ItSelf...

Let your innocent Longing carry you to
your Eternal Being within...
Thrive in the depths of Its Stillness there...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
c. 2004-2006

~

Photo/Art - Mystic Meandering

Regaining the Rhythm of "Self" - John O'Donohue

When you regain a sense of your life as a journey of discovery,
you return to rhythm with your self.  When you take the time
to travel with reverence, a richer life unfolds before you.
Moments of beauty begin to braid your days.  When your
mind becomes more acquainted with reverence, the light,
grace and elegance of beauty find you more frequently.
When the destination becomes gracious, the journey
becomes an adventure of beauty.

John O'Donohue
Excerpt from: Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

                                                                                        

Kindness casts a different light - John O'Donohue

There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things;
it presides everywhere, often in the places we least
expect.  The world can be harsh and negative, but
if we remain generous, and patient, kindness inevitably
reveals itself.  Something deep in the human soul seems
to depend on the presence of kindness; something
instinctive in us expects it, and once we sense it we
are able to trust and open ourselves...

If we did not feel that some ultimate kindness holds
sway, we would feel like outsiders confronted on every
side by a world toward which we could make no real bridges.

The word kindness has a gentle sound that seems to echo
the presence of compassionate goodness.  When someone
is kind to you, you feel understood and seen.  There is no
judgment or harsh perception directed toward you.

Kindness has gracious eyes; it also suggests that your
vulnerability, though somehow exposed, is not taken
advantage of; rather, it has become an occasion for dignity
and empathy.

Kindness casts a different light, an evening light that has
the depth of color and patience to illuminate what is
complex and rich in difference.

Despite all the darkness, human hope is based on the
instinct that at the deepest level of reality some intimate
kindness holds sway.  This is the heart of blessing.  To believe
in blessing is to believe that our being here, our very presence
in the world, is itself the first gift, the primal blessing.

Given the nature of our beginning [our birth] - nowhere does
 the Silence of the Infinite lean so intensely as around the form
of  a newly born infant - it is no wonder  that our hearts are
imbued with longing for beauty, meaning, order, creativity,
compassion, and love.  

John O'Donohue
From: To Bless the Sapce Between Us

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Everything flowers from within - Galway Kinnell

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing.

Galway Kinnell

Excerpt from: "St. Francis the Sow"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Follow the Warmth - Fred LaMotte

When you were a
very young child
you used no esoteric practice,
no spiritual technique.
You just honored people
who made your chest expand
with silent warmth.

You stayed away from those
who chilled and shrank
your heart.
How does the orchid open
in the wilderness?
It bends toward light,
away from cold.
Follow the sacred scripture
of your body.
Walk through the forest
at midnight holding
the candle of your breath.
You don't need to see far.
Just step into the next
lit pool of silence.
Ways will open,
ways will open surely.
Now is the time to depart
from the kingdom of fear
and travel towards the golden
palace of your [True] Self.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Art - Mystic Meandering
Vortex Art with Craypas oils
c. 2011

Loss after Loss - Mark Nepo

...Somehow we go on
loss after loss, like seeds
drowning in their possibilities
under all that snow.

From a distance, stars
are pins of light
pushing back the dark. 

But inside, each
is a world of light.

And the Spirit we carry -
that carries us - flares like a
star, everywhere we go pushing
back the pain and loss.

Still, a star can't be seen
without its covering of night,
nor a soul without its
human skin.

I don't know why -
It has nothing to do with
optimism or pessimism
or with triumph and defeat.

More, the impressible reach
of a beam of light entering the
darkest place it can find,
because that is how it
fulfills itself.

Mark Nepo
Excerpt from "Still"
From: Inside the Miracle

~

...[when the heart] is ripped apart
nothing makes sense while
in this re-arranging pain.
Nothing.
No matter what others say,
nothing is of comfort while
the heart is reforged in
the furnace no one asks for.

...Against our will, our heart
is remade by the angel of grief
who grips the center of our life,
shaking everything dead within us
from our branches, until
the heart condenses into a diamond.

Hard as this is to endure,
this too is a miracle.

Mark Nepo

Excerpts from: "After Mira"

From: Inside the Miracle.

~

Photo: Mystic Meandering

No Such Things as Death - Sadhguru

Most people are investing their whole lifetime
just for their material well-being.
Dying to live, this is called.
When you are constantly in pursuit of security,
you are in pursuit of death.

There is no such thing as death.

There is only life, life and life alone..
moving from one dimension to another,
another and another.

Most people only experience peace and
transcendence when they are dead.
But in the yogic tradition, the word 'samadhi'
is used to describe a state in which one has
transcended the limitations of the body and mind,
in this life.

If you work five to ten years for your security,
that's okay...
But if you are going to work all your life
for your security, you are seeking death
because death is the only secure thing
in existence.

Life is never secure...

Death - An Inside Story
Sadhguru
Feb. 19, 2020

With thanks to Ocean Speak

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Our Cosmic Vibration...

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 - a Cosmic 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 True 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,
no birth, no death,
only the Isness and Eternality of our Essence.

Dissolve into your Cosmic Origin...
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

Love ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Our Cosmic Origin

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 2018

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Pondering Impermanence...

With my mother's death last year and now with the COVID
Pandemic - feeling surrounded by death - I have become more
aware of my own mortality, especially at my age, with a body
malfunctioning, broken since birth.

So I have been pondering "death" - not morbidly, but with a
sense of the reality of the impermanence of this life of
physicality.  What can you do...  It's going to happen...
It's just the nature of time for things to fall away in the
cycle of life...

~

A few months ago, in my ponderings, I wrote this -

The "I" (the Eternal Being) that inhabits this body is not aging -
but "i" am surprised by the body's increasing decline - knowing
where it is headed - the inevitable...

death...

Saddened by the prospect -
although grateful that the end
to the body's struggles is closer -
how close "she" doesn't know -
but wonders what that will be like;
to witness the death of her body
and the possibility of a
"cosmic birthing" into a new "form"
of the Formless; or maybe dissolve
back into cosmic dust, or be absorbed
by the Vastness of the Eternal.
Sentience dissolving into the Eternal...

Who really knows...

All is transient here.
We're just passing through.

I shouldn't be surprised by this,
feeling the body's decline as I do -
but still -

gives me pause...

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 23, 2020

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Your Outlook Matters - John O'Donohue

Sometimes when we look out, the world seems dark.
War, violence, hunger and misery seem to abound.
This makes us anxious...  What can I do in my private little
corner of life that could have an effect on world events?
Believing ourselves to be helpless, we hand over our
power to forces and systems outside us that then act in
our names; they go on to put their beliefs into action; and
ironically their actions are often sinister and destructive.

We live in times when the call to real presence is urgent.
We need to rediscover the careless courage, yet devastating
simplicity of the little boy who, in the middle of the
numbed multitude, in naive Socratic fashion, blurts out:
"But the emperor has no clothes."
When spoken, the truth can bring down citadels of falsity.

The spirit of a time is incredibly subtle [or not], yet a hugely
powerful force.  And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit
of all individuals.  The way you look at things is not actually
a private matter.  Your outlook actually and concretely affects
what goes on.  When you take back your power and choose
to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your
creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of
renewal and encouragement in the world.  In this way, even
in your own hidden life, you can become a powerful agent
of transformation in a broken, darkened world.

John O'Donohue
From: To Bless the Space Between Us
(written in 2008!)

~

Intuitive Art - Mystic Meandering

If you look closely you can see little "beads"
scattered in the painting and the larger one in the purple heart.
They are Snowflake Obsidian from a bracelet I once wore,
and just happened to find them in a little plastic cup.  I had placed
them in a particular order on the painting that was lying on
my work table, and then accidentally hit the canvas, scattering
the little beads over the black and white swirls of the painting. 
I left them where they were, and glued them to the painting. :)

The properties of Snowflake Obsidian are:
Brings about balance, removes negativity from
 a space or person, and  promotes a sense of calm and
 inner centering - where our real power lies.

Amazing!

The Real Virus...

In the first minutes of dawn,
at the edge of the dark night,
she awakes...

Inexplicable dread overtakes her...

... 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,
Racism,
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
and the ineptness of
fake power.

Mystic Meandering
January 23, 2017

~

May the Infinite Spirit of Love heal our
wounded lives and help us endure what
is happening in our country and the world...

Namaste

_/\_

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Free to BE - Fred LaMotte

The first discipline of non-violence is to honor every human
being as a unique soul-body, refusing to identify them by
race, gender, religion, or political party.

Yet just as much as right-wing movements, today's "progressive"
movement often promotes conflict and division by labeling
individual Persons by their group identity.  Some of us who
talk about "diversity" actually stifle it, because real diversity
is not to promote tribalism [or nationalism], but to recognize
the incomparable [unique] Personhood of individuals.
[As it also says in the Declaration of Independence.]

It is much easier to hate a category than a Person, whether
your animosity is toward Muslims or Christians, "black people",
or "white people", liberals or conservatives.

The beginning of world peace is to free each human soul-body
from racial, political, or religious abstractions.  Our incidental
association with a group is not who we really are.

I do not identify my Self [Eternal Being] as a color, as rich
or poor, capitalist or socialist, Republican or Democrat,
Christian or Pagan [or American].  I am neither "good" nor
"evil."  Those are just conceptual chains with which your mind
attempts to enthrall me.  But I am not your concept of me:
you are.

If you want to superimpose a group identity on me, that is your
act of violence against the singularity of my Personhood.  You
are free to label me, but I am also free...  I refuse to identify with
your label...

I Am who I Am...

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance
(from a 2018 post)

[brackets mine]

Photo from Stillness Speaks

~

This is a newspaper clipping from 1968 that I still have.
The same year that Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy
were assassinated...

~

We are truly Free when we recognize our Eternal Beingness
in each other, and, the diverseness of our individuality
that expresses that Beingness, and treat each other with
respect and compassion...

Holy Bellows...

She enters the Quietness of Her Being
and waits...

Breathing into the Quiet,
salvaging the remnants from
previous excursions here.

Waves of The Quiet that still
remain, before the mind
usurped the calming rise and fall
with its staccato tempo...

Finding the deeper Rhythm again,
she returns to the Core of Her Being,
unperturbed by the flailing mind
that wants attention.

Following the rhythm of the breath;
breathing in the Holy,
breathing out the Holy...
The Sacredness of The Breath
brings her back;
being breathed by the
Holy Bellows...

Resuscitating the Quiet Core,
she falls back into deep Rest -
just breathing...

The Holy Quiet permeates
her body again with the gentle
vibration of her Aliveness...

Mystic Meandering
June 18, 2020

~

Mandala Art
Mystic Meandering
2013