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

 

Bamboozled - Carl Sagan

 

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

 

Mining for Jewels - Chuck Surface

For jewels, we dig through the earth or hammer rock.
And upon finding, remove them from their encasement,
Leaving behind the rubbled detritus of earth and stone.

Just so, I approached the world of religion and philosophy,
Digging, sifting, washing away veiling encrustations,
Of hardened orthodoxies and binding dogmas.

The jewels found in that rubble. more or less precious,
Were expressions with which my Heart felt affinity,
And with which my discerning mind did not take issue.

The measure of these jewels, born of another's experience,
However cherished by multitudes over centuries,
Is their resonance with the Diamond of my own Essence.

Lacking this, no matter how treasured by countless others,
I left them in the rubble where I found them buried,
And wandered off, seeking deeper resonance and affinity.

Those jewels I found and kept, are treasured in gratitude,
For the Water of Beauty they offered my thirsting Heart,
And the Manna of Wisdom they fed my starving Mind.

Digging, sifting, washing away the obscuring encrustations,
Of so many binding orthodoxies and rigid dogmas,
I saw refracted, there, in those jewels of many colors...

The Diamond of my own Radiant Essence.

For some, it is best to set aside religion and philosophy,
And undo the conditionings that have accrued within us,
Over a lifetime lived under their tutelage and influence.

Not for everyone, but for some.

For some, our experience must be unwrapped, unveiled,
In interpretations by others, of their unique experience,
However revered or worshiped they may be...

So we can see with eyes afresh in Wonder.

For some, it is best to be liberated even from liberation,
Described and defined by others, long dead, or living,,
However revered or worshiped they may be...

So we can experience freedom anew, in its Purity.

Some of us must discard the burdensome clothing,
Of enlightenment and such, propounded by others,
However revered or worshiped they may be...

And face, naked and wide-eyed, our Radiant Essence.

Chuck Surface
Facebook
Original Title: The Diamond of Our Own Radiant Essence.

Photos Mystic Meandering

 

The Unseen World - Rumi and Misc.

\

Everything you see has its roots
In the unseen world.

The forms may change
Yet the essence remains the same.

Every wondrous sight will vanish,
Every sweet world will fade,
But do not be disheartened.

The Source they come from is Eternal,

Growing, branching out,
Giving new life and new joy.

Why do you weep?
That Source is within you
And this whole world
Is springing up from it.

The Source is full,
Its waters are ever-flowing;
Do not grieve,
Drink your fill!

Don't think it will ever run dry,
This is the endless Ocean.

Rumi

~

From the earliest times, it was understood that the visible
world implied the existence of an invisible world, where
everything was infused with the supernatural and the felt
sense of the sacred.

Thomas Yellowtail expressed: "A man's attitude toward the
nature around him, and the animals in nature, is of special
importance, because as we respect our created world, so 
also do we show respect for the real world that we cannot
see."

Through the traditional wisdom of American Indians we
learn that there are ways of knowing that are obtained
through the earth that allow human beings to listen and
learn directly from the Great Spirit.

Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
Parabola Magazine
Fall 2017 Issue: "The Sacred"

~

Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there
is nothing but the spirits of all things.  That is the real world
that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something
like a shadow from that one.

Black Elk

with thanks to Love Is A Place 
for all entries today

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Light through empty water bottles
on the counter :)

 

The Greater Need - D. H. Lawrence

The rhythm of the cosmos is something we cannot get
away from without impoverishing our lives.  We must get
back into relation, vivid and nourishing relation to the cosmos
and universe.
For the truth is, we perish for lack of fulfillment of our greater
needs, we are cut off from the great source of our inward
nourishment and renewal, sources which flow eternally
in the universe...

D. H. Lawrence

~

Life involves both chaos and order and we sometimes
want desperately to control things, and we become
vulnerable to simplistic answers.

What is needed is courage to live in the midst of the
ambiguities of this moment...

Swimme and Tucker

~

Photo taken by my husband

 

An Inverted Reality - Misc.

The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe, 

because the axe was clever and convinced them that, because
its handle was made of wood it was one of them...

Turkish Proverb

~

We've been pulled into an inverted reality,
an alternate fantasy world
by a powerful narcissistic cult leader.
Up is down, and down is up.

author unknown

~

.....Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget

Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn, a bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will...

Excerpt from the song"Vincent" by
Don McLean
about Vincent Van Gogh

~

Photo taken by my husband 

 

Crazy Comfort - 2...

It happened again - this crazy comfort!

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

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

A word came...
The word was "Comfort" - again...
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
Original Jan 10, 2024

~

It was about 1 year ago that this happened,

and again in Dec 2024

It has since subsided
with all that's happening in the world
at the moment, although I do have moments
of peace and Comfort.  I'm just always surprised
when it happens :)

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Relaxed Snoopy :)

 

The Great "Cosmic Womb"...

Laying down the burdens and chaos
of daily existence,
I come to rest in the "Mother Energies" -
the originating Life energies of the Cosmos...
Unfettered, Unbuffeted 
by the strain of life...
Embraced and infused by this Primordial
Source Energy...

This undefinable, nameless, formless "Cosmic Womb"
invites this mystic meandering in.
I stumble across the threshold of a doorless door...

into an Ineffable space of Silence
that enfolds me in the
Great Womb of Existence
in which we all live...

All existence is the exquisite vibration of
Primal Energy experiencing Itself
in many forms; morphing Itself into
different expressions, softening the harsh residues
of life being lived...

The fluidity of this "Source Energy" innately and
intimately flows through existence - like an
Aurora Borealis.
It subtly streams through this body,
leaving its own illumined energetic signature...
A new spark of Life is lit...

Mystic Meandering

2021

~

Jaw dropping wonder....in unfettered freedom, the cause of
the universe is 
This.

In the beginning the luminous womb is,
and the luminous womb willingly leaps in delight
and lets Herself go...
of Herself, upon Herself....it all comes forth.

She births Herself ....
She confines Herself by the limits
of space and time...
....becoming ordinary individuals...

From an interpretation of the
Pratyabhijnahrdayam
an ancient Kashmir Shaivism text
This version by Joan Ruvinsky

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Starry-Starry Part 2 - Swimme and Tucker

 

The essence of the Universe story is this:

The stars are our ancestors.  Out of them,
everything came forth.  They have a birth.
They go through development.  They come
to an end...

[.....]

In many cultures throughout history humans intuited  that they
descended from the stars, even before they had empirical evidence
from science that our bodies were formed by the elements forged
by the stars.  Humans felt something in the depths of the night
as they contemplated the presence of the stars.  They began to
suspect that the meaning of their lives went far beyond what
preoccupied them during the urgencies of the daytime world.
They knew in their hearts that *their* journey and the radiance
of the stars were interwoven.

[.....]

Stars are the fiery cauldrons of transformation.  Stars are the
wombs of immense creativity and complex interactions.
Certainly there are similarities in the human experience...
Could it be that life is not possible without vast mysterious,
and ongoing transformation...

From:  Journey of the Universe
Swimme and Tucker

~

Art - Vincent Van Gough

The Universe is a Story - Swimme & Tucker

The Universe is not simply a place, but a story -
a story in which we are immersed, to which we
belong, and out of which we arose...

The story has the power to awaken us more deeply to
who we are - we are the universe in the form of a human

And every time we are drawn to look up into the
night sky and reflect on the awesome beauty of the
universe, we are actually the universe reflecting on
itself.

And this changes everything...

A new integrating story has emerged.
It is a story of transformation through time.
It is challenging our understanding of who we are
in the universe.

Are we here by chance, by necessity, by serendipity,
or on purpose?

Swimme and Tucker
From: Journey of the Universe

~

Everything is ultimately a story.

My life is a story,
your life is a story,
all occurring within the vast
Cosmic Ocean...

The Story of the Eternal is being lived

here...

The Ineffable Mystery of the Universe
takes a journey through
the story of life - as us...
The "Divine Drama" is our story -
and our "story" is the "Divine Drama" ...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
2013

~

Photo from the Internet

 

The Cosmic Mystery - a meandering...

Webb Telescope Photo

Spiritually I've gone rogue - LOLOLOL

No, not a mystic gone mad,
just following my "spiritual evolution",
if you will...

No more notions of "Enlightenment", or
"Self-Realization",
or following the "old institutionalized systems"
with their dogmas and doctrines...

The Cosmos calls to me now...

I'm drawn to the incredibly, amazing Vastness
and Mystery of the Universe...

The Cosmos ignites something in me -
an intense energy pervades my body,
unexpectedly.

I am compelled to step into this "new" Reality;
which isn't really "new" to me...
The Cosmos has been calling to me for a long time,
trying to get my attention, but something is
different now - more intense.
Earthling phone Home! :)

I have been weighed down by the "gravity" of 
earth-life:

conflagration, inauguration,
genocide, homicide...

overwhelm...

But there is a Symphony of Energy in the Universe
that I must follow...

And deeply look into Infinity -
and the gate of Eternity...

The Cosmic Mystery...

Blows "me" away...

Mystic Meandering
Jan 11, 2025

~

The goal of life is to match your heartbeat to the beat
of the universe...

Joseph Campbell

 

Deep Looking - Thich Nhat Hanh

Art: Barbara Stone

In spite of the lessons of the collective wisdom of
the world, we rarely satisfy our yearning to know
the Truth of our Existence.

The Mystical approach to the essential questions
about the meaning of life is quite different from
the normal way of learning things through written
teachings, rather, the mystical transmission of the
purpose of life comes through living life with
ever expanding awareness...

author unknown

~

When we practice deep looking, we receive help,
we receive understanding, we receive the
wisdom that makes us free.

Thich Nhat Hanh
Buddhist Teacher

 

"Truth" - LaMotte & Goethe

With general truth our minds swell up,
assuming the abstraction to expand us and
make us smarter.  But a mind turgid with beliefs
is neither clear nor useful.  It is a gray intellectual
thicket that prevents real empathy, real presence.
The general truth, in fact, makes us smaller, because
it confines awareness to a conceptual box
which our ego must argue and defend.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

We can never directly see what is true, that is, identical with
 what is divine: we look at it only in reflection, in example,
in the symbol, in the individual and related phenomena.  We
perceive it as a life beyond our grasp, yet we cannot deny
our need to grasp it.

[.....] the highest achievement of the human being as a thinking
being is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere
what is unknowable.

Johann Wolfgang von Goeth

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Why We "Quest"? - Misc.

A quest ignites you to walk the path you have been chosen for...

It's the undertaking of, or commitment to something deeper
or larger than what we ever thought was possible - the meaning
you give your life to.

[like a quest for the Truth of Existence, or the Mystery of the
Cosmos, etc.]

Google Search :)

~

A quest is not, as most have believed, a rare mystical experience,
but an expression of our most basic human impulses that are
rooted in our nature; man's innate quest for the transcendent:
the "questing impulse."

Robert M Torrance
from- "The Spiritual Quest"

~

A Quest is following a vision, your own vision, that
transcends current reality...

from a conversation with my husband... :)

~

It's following the longing of your Heart...

My favorite song when I was a kid was "The Impossible Dream."
I was a bit of an idealist back then, but still...

:)

Photo by my husband...

 

The Portal of Discovery...

If there is "Enlightenment" perhaps it is when we can
accept that we are ever on the portal of discovery -
recognizing that we only have a glimpse of a larger
Reality...

"The Quest" then, is never really over.
There is no finish line, just an ever expanding
awareness of and deepening into our
True Beingness within the context of
a vaster Reality we have yet to discover.

from a conversation with my husband
12-30-24

~

Photo from the internet

 

Questions for the Quest - Misc.

 

From the Web Telescope

[spiritually speaking:]

What is the deepest longing of your Heart -
that which is more important than anything else?

What in you is being called forward, seeking attentions?

What is the pull, what calls to you?

What is your own inner resource,
sanctuary, refuge?

What is it that you call upon
that helps you connect
with [the inner feeling of stillness]
and being at ease?

What wants to be felt,
acknowledged?

Be open to what reveals itself...

Kathleen Knipp
excerpts from a Yoga Nidra meditation

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

As we embark on a "new" year -
I'm questioning again,
things like these...

why are you questing?
Or - why did you start questing so long ago?

What drew you to the Quest?
What are you trying to pursue?
What calls to you still and
compels you to keep questing?
What speaks to your Soul?

~

I know from my own experience

not to let others determine my "path"
out of obligation or obedience,
no matter what others may tell me the truth is -
or isn't.

I must follow my own "invisible" path
that only I know; the one that is true for me...

That will intuitively lead me Home...

Blessings to us all for a safe passage in the year ahead...

_/\_

MM

~~~~~~~

 The pilgrimage is one that each must make alone...

to that boundary of space and time where
the mind and heart encounter the
"ultimate  mystery",
the known unknowable...

The quest will perhaps require more courage
than you or I can bear...

Chet Raymo
from: The Soul of the Night