The Playground of Life...

We are "The Mystery" come into being...
Consciousness awakened...
Self replicating ItSelf;
or whatever word you give
"The Mystery"...

"The Mystery" dressed up as "me."
Formless as form,
Form as formlessness.
"Divine" and human intertwined...

Opening to "The Mystery"
we are free to be our unique selves,
however defined...

When we know this
"something" wakes up inside
and comes Alive -
it hums...

Everything is
~ humming ~

playing in the play of Life;
a multitude of expressions
all playing together
in this virtual reality...

"The Mystery" playing you, playing me,
each a reflection of the other...
both "The Mystery" playing ItSelf...

When we let go of conceptual words
and frameworks of belief and interpretations
we are just FREE...

Letting go of the non-dual concepts of
i/I, me and "no me", Self/no-self,
we are just Life living ItSelf here...
We are being LIVED

as we are.

There is something authentic
in allowing myself to be
just as i am...

Life is met from a different space -
the space of vast openness
to "The Mystery" of Life ItSelf,
where everything is embraced
as it is...

The deep grief and sadness of loss,
the laughter and joy of new birth,
the physical pain and psychological drama
of being human...

All dancing together in the playground of Life...

Mystic Meandering
2019/2024

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Embrace The Day...

Rest, Dear Heart, Rest...

Embrace the day with Rest,
with clarity, with ease of mind...

Feel the warm, fluid rhythm
of Life around you;
upholding you,

carrying you
through the day,
landing you safely
on evening's shore,
through the twilight
and into the night...
And out of the darkness
a shining light...

Rest, Dear Heart, Rest...

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 29, 2018

~

Photo - Embracing the Day Mandala Art
Mystic Meandering

The Mandala Art was done as part of an "8 Day Challenge"
I did back in 2018
presented by
Donna Iona Drozda

She is currently doing an online series of video presentations called:
Exploring the Creative Energy Levels here.

Reminding me that creativity also brings harmony and balance to
body, mind and soul...

~

"Dance and Endure what comes to meet you on the path."

Donna Iona Drozda

~

"We must be willing to let go of the life we've planed, so as to
have the life that's waiting for us."

Joseph Campbell

 

Listening for the Whispers of The Beloved - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

...listening is not an effort, not a technique...
Listening springs from the desire to be with the one
whom you want to hear ["The Beloved" - or however one
calls the Source].  Listening is a coming close, waiting for
Presence to materialize into words, to form ItSelf out of Silence.
Listening is a relationship, even in the silence when nothing is
heard.  Learning to listen is to allow our self to be present
without imposing or demanding, to hold a space where something
can be told, where meeting can unfold between.....lover and The 
Beloved; where openness is answered.  The lover is the one who
listens, whose being is born to listen for The Beloved. Without
the lover, how could the song of The Beloved be heard?

At the beginning we have to learn the art of listening, the art of
being present, attentive and empty.  We have to catch the still,
small voice of The Beloved, and not interrupt, not ask too many
questions.  We have to learn to be silent, because listening is
born from silence.  The listening of the heart is always an act 
of love, a coming together [communion], even when nothing is
heard. Listening is wisdom.  It is feminine, receptive, hidden...
Rumi knew how central a part it plays in our wordless
relationship with The Beloved.  He said:

"Make everything in you an ear, each atom of your being,
and you will hear at every moment what the Source is
whispering to you, just to you and for you..."

You are - we all are - the beloved of The Beloved, and in 
every moment, in every event of life, The Beloved is
whispering to you exactly what you need to hear and know.
Listen and you will discover it every passing moment. Listen,
and your whole life will become a conversation in thought
and action between you and The Beloved directly, wordlessly,
now and always.

We need to discover
how the heart listens to its Beloved.

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

Excerpts from an article called:
The Circle of Love
on Spirituality and Practice

~

Photo  from the Internet
Day 6 of "The Pause"

~

Days 7-9 of "The Pause" were spent in deep rest and self-care,
listening to Yoga Nidra - Deep Rest by Kathleen Knipp,
and "Allowing" by Adyashanti on a CD what I've had for
years.  I still take long pauses during the day, resting and 
listening for the whispers of The Beloved.

Namaste
_/\_

 

The Ocean and The Wave - Fred LaMotte

...a wave does not need to go anywhere to merge with the sea.
No distance ever exists between the wave and the water.  At
it's peak, the wave may appear to be an individual, but at its
base, every wave is already the whole ocean.  Therefore, no
energy is required for a wave to return to its resting state. As 

the wave returns, in fact energy increases.  The practice of
meditation is not an effort to rise upward: it is settling down
to rest in the simplest state.

Meditation is not concentration, but de-concentration.
When the wave settles into the sea, it does not become
more concentrated, but gracefully expands into boundlessness.

Returning to the sea, a wave makes a gentle sound, sizzling
cool, fresh over sand.  As mind settles back into Source, there
is a faint whisper: the sound of the finite dissolving into the
Infinite...

Real meditation is not an attempt to rise above the physical
body.  Meditation is listening to what the body actually is:
infinite spiritual energy.  For every photon and atom of the 
body is permeated with the same creative sound - waves merging
with the sea...

The sea whispers in the wave:
so the Almighty whispers in every particle of the body.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance
excerpt from his post:
"What the Ocean Whispered to the Wave"

~

Photo from the Internet

~

Day 4 of "The Pause"

 

A Deeper Light...

One must dig deep
*through* the dark night
and mine the darkness
to find a Deeper Light -
within...

Aligning with the Breath of the
Inner Cosmos - the Rhythm of 
the Universe...

Releasing burdens and responsibilities
too heavy to carry - suffocating mind, body -
and dimming the light...

Breathe the Deeper Light
vibrating *inside* the darkness,

Shining through densified layers,
like a soft light shining through an
alabaster vase - a warm honey glow...

*This* Light - shone through stone -
lights the way to a Deeper Reality,
a deeper peace, and opens the body to
Deep Comfort...

Mystic Meandering
Jan. 13. 2024
Day 5 of "The Pause"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Comfort...

I woke relaxed! -
as if a burden had been lifted
and my whole body had opened up
to a vastness within,
a deep openness...

I breathed in the Universe
and the Universe breathed me...

A word came...
The word was "Comfort" -
I *felt* it... viscerally, tangibly,
and let myself sink into it...

- Comfort -

Immersing myself in the feeling of the word,
letting it fill me,
expand me...

I felt exhilarated once again -
wide open,
*feeling* an internal
Comfort
from an unknown
Source within,
an unknown spring,
flooding the system...

~ Comfort ~

Mystic Meandering
Jan. 10. 2024

Day 3 of "The Pause"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

My "meditation" cushions :)

 

self-abandonment - April Tierney

Anger is a teacher
so let her teach you.

Let her point out all of the places
where you abandoned your sincerity [integrity]
along the side of the road

simply to appease
someone else-

Where you stopped following
the great arch of your mythic life.

Let her show you where you have
held yourself silent when the world

needed you to speak:
where your fierce wisdom
was cut off at the knees.

Our shadows have grown so grotesque,
we've mistaken them for culture,

but now is the time to re-member
what has been deliberately suppressed;
to prepare a grand feast for all the 
ghosts who've been starved by neglect.

Do not apologize when feathers fall
like nighthawks from your fiery eyes.

April Tierney
from Memory Keeper
note: I could not find the original title to this poem

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

I found this poem on January 8th,
the second day of "The Pause."
I titled it "self-abandonment"
because that is what I've been doing
for the last 15 months - becoming a shadow
of myself - becoming angry about "the visitor"
living in my house...

The poem reminded me that I don't have to sacrifice myself,
that I need to reclaim my authentic self that has been lost
for over a year, and embrace my humanity as part of my wholeness.

It feels good to refocus - not sacrificing myself just to appease
"the visitor"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

I'm Baaack :) & Mark Nepo

"The Pause" has ended for now...  I am re-entering blog land. :)
It was an intense "Pause" and life continues to be intense in
many ways, but I wanted to start sharing some of the insights,
poetry that came, and other people's writings that spoke to me
during the pause...
 In a kind of mysterious synchronicity I was
given what I needed to hear or see...

This does not mean that my life circumstances have changed.
  As always, life is an ever-unfolding experience - but I am trying
 to learn to *meet* life differently - trying to be open
 and listen more to where life wants me to go,
 with less resistance - and open more
 to Light - hopefully.

~*~

On Being "Lost" - Mark Nepo

From Day One of "The Pause"

When we lose our "self-created" map,
our real knowledge of the path begins...

...the journey truly begins when we lose possession of what
we *thought* were answers, and are left to accept that we are
not in control.  ...beyond every answer is a larger quest-ion.

Being lost on the inner plane can be understood as a
disorientation that is necessary as we are thrust from what we
*think* we know, into the vibrant field of all we do not know.

Being lost can be a prelude to a deeper way, because once we
admit that we're not sure where life is taking us, then we are
ripe for transformation.  Then we are shapeable.  When losing
our way, we frequently retreat and withhold or take what we
think is a safer path.  This often complicates our confusion.

The reason most people get/feel lost is because they don't go
far enough.  They doubt where they are and change direction
too soon.  Somehow we are called to lean forward [to lean
into life more] with what little light we are given.

There are sudden moments - lightening flashes - by which
we can navigate for a while, sometimes years. And the moods
of confusion in between - those very dark nights - are where
we need to practice patience [waiting].  Too often, when
drifting through a difficult passage of uncertainty, we punish
ourselves for not knowing more, or not being more decisive
[or more "spiritual"].

But the lightening flash to dark night and back again is part of
the journey, despite how hard we work.  When the lightening
flashes - in our mind or in our heart - we glimpse the hidden
order and our changing place in it.

If we can see our way *through* the uncertainty of feeling "lost",
unexpected callings often present themselves.

Mark Nepo
excerpts from Seven Thousand Ways to Listen:
Staying Close to the Sacred

~

Photo from the Internet

 

Pause...

I'm taking a pause for a while...
My life has become way too complicated at this time,
and I need to pause and wait for clarity and inspiration
to arise...  My life has become unbalanced in body, mind
and Soul, and I need some time to find the balance - to align
myself with inner Source and inner resources - intuition and
inspiration.  I haven't been able to write poetry because I have
been unable to be in a place of listening deeply, or hearing the
voice of The Beloved, the Eternal within.

Life has taken me down many roads I did not want to go down
in the past year or more, and I need to find my own way again -
if I can...

In the words of Mark Nepo, in his book: Seven Thousand
Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What is Sacred, he says: 
  "he had to listen to something he couldn't see and trust
the certainty of his inner knowing to find his way..."

That is where I am...  There is a shift underfoot...

Would appreciate your prayers and blessings, if you feel so
inclined, as I lean into life...  And feel free to contact me through
email, or the comment section - if you your Heart pulls you to do so...

Peace and Blessings...
I'll be back :)

MM

 

Simple Life - J. Krishnamurti

Simple life does not consist in the mere possession of a few
things but in the freedom from possession and non-possession,
in the indifference to things that comes with deep understanding.
Merely to renounce things in order to reach greater happiness,
greater joy that is promised, is to seek reward which limits it
and prevents it from flowering...

Simplicity of life comes with inner richness, with inward
freedom from craving, with freedom from acquisitiveness,
from addiction, from distraction.  

Simple life is not the result of outward circumstances...
If you depend on circumstances to make you satisfied
with life then you will create misery and chaos [for yourself
and others], for then you are a plaything of the environment, and
it is only when circumstances are transcended through understanding
that there is order and clarity.  To be constantly aware of the process
of acquisitiveness, of addiction, of distraction, brings freedom from
them and so there is a true and simple life.

J. Krishnamurti
from The Collected Works Volume III Ojai
8th Public Talk 2nd July, 1944

With thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Quality of Life - Rod MacIver

The tendency is to trade our time, our lives, on unnecessary
distractions...

Simplicity... - allows us the freedom to say no to activities and
projects [or to people].  Simplicity contributes to independence
from the dominant culture and its preoccupation with the extreme,
the ridiculous, the trivial.  Simplicity enhances our ability to
create a work of beauty, to be independent, to deal in truth.

In that way, simplicity contributes to the courage of conviction.

The spiritual life has always been the simple life, the reflective
life.  Simplicity enhances your relationship with your inner
world.  Reducing clutter and focusing on the essential [the Essence]
is an important aspect of slowing down.

The soul is simple; it doesn't relate to complicated.  It needs
simple pleasures.  Wisdom asks for simplicity -- the elimination
of unnecessary distraction...  What is the essence here?  What
can be removed without detracting from the whole?  Where's the
juice?

...

What can you cut out that you wouldn't miss?  What can you give
away without impacting the quality of your life?  Where's the juice
of your life? What can be removed to allow you to focus on that?

...

The thoughts offered above were originally written to myself in
my journal.

Rod MacIver - Heron Dance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Still - and still moving - T.S.Eliot

"Home" is where we start from.  As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living.  Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after, 
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album.)
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.

Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity

....for a deeper communion.....

T. S. Eliot

from East Coker V, Four Quartets

With thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Still your mind in me, still yourself in me
and you shall be united with me,
the One Love, dwelling in your heart.

Bhagavad Gita

With thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Life is a Stream - a meandering...

While lying in bed late one night, many years ago,
talking to my husband about "life events", groping
for perspective, recognizing how I continue to live
from habituated patterns, reacting to life events,
swimming up stream, trying to keep my head above
water, feeling drowned by the stream of life (which
I still do, especially all this past year), he made this
statement: "Life is a stream of events.  Events will
always happen.  Events come and go."  The context
of his statement was to say - if we see that life is
always a stream of events, or experiences, always
in flux, then we won't feel so overwhelmed by
them, they won't trip us up as much because we can
adapt and adjust and manage them.  Sounds a little
like the Tao to me - to see that no matter what
happens Life is Flow, and we are in that Flow as well.
It was helpful to begin to see a way to navigate my
way of going down stream...

In essence, he told me, what it is about is meeting life
as it comes by plugging in to the Cosmic Flow of the
Universe, of Life - meeting the "events"/experiences of
life through seeing the Cosmic Flow of all things,
and through all things; flowing with life as it happens,
not getting focused on the obstacles/events, or seeing the
events as obstacles. He said by seeing that everything is this
Cosmic Flow, we can be assured that it is flowing the way
it is supposed to - no matter what happens...  When you
don't fight it, you can begin to experience the harmony
of Flow.

B knows nothing of Taoism, but he intuitively "tapped in"
to "The Tao" - The Flow....

~

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall
while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish
and then return to the Source.
Returning to the Source is stillness,
which is the way of nature.

If you are willing to be lived by it,
you will see [the Tao] everywhere,
even in the most ordinary things.

Lao Tzu

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering