Courage - Matt Licata

A certain 'death' occurs as part of the ["spiritual"] process;
in the deepening of self-awareness...  There is a fantasy that we
can come out the other side intact, without having to sacrifice
some aspect of ourselves in the fires of transformation.  But it
doesn't really seem to work this way...  There is wisdom within
the reorganization itself that we cannot know if we abandon
[the process] prematurely.

When we engage in any work of depth, we inevitably come up
against a cultural bias toward the light, the upward, and the
brightened dimensions of the path.  We cannot sidestep or bypass
the darkened condition, those parts of the psyche buried and
hidden beneath ordinary awareness. This turning into the dark
can be quite challenging, especially if we identify as a 'spiritual
person' - kind, compassionate, giving, selfless, [loving], grateful,
forgiving, at peace, and not ever caught in the so-called
negative emotions of fear, rage, and depression.....but we must
find the curiosity and courage to engage this dimension.

[In this dimension] we see things that could not be seen from
the held-together state.  The old dream crumbles - the image
through which we'd been seeing ourselves, or any emotionally
significant part of our world - has finished its time here.

The wisdom in the dark is preparing the vessel [us] for the
next illumination.  The invitation is to allow the old to wash
away, and let our perception be reorganized.  New images, new
myths, new lenses must emerge through which we can navigate
a new world. [A new way of being in the world.]  A shift in the
heart is most required, a willingness to befriend ourselves at
levels previously thought impossible.

We must clarify within us what is most wanting and needing 
our attention, awareness, care and love.....even if it feels
unspiritual.  The intelligence in the heart brings forward the
prima materia for us if we slow down and open into the
unknown - and the unknowable...
We must honor the realities of our hearts...

Matt Licata
from - A Healing Space:
Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Yin/Yang Bowl

 

You can stop worrying now - Czeslaw Milosz

In advanced age, my health worsening,
I woke up in the middle of the night,
and experienced a feeling of happiness
so intense and perfect that in all my life
I had only felt its premonition.
It didn't obliterate consciousness:
the past which I carried was there,
together with my grief.
And it was suddenly included,
was a necessary part of the whole.

As if a voice were repeating:

"You can stop worrying now;
everything happened just as it had to.

You did what was assigned to you,
and you are not required anymore
to think of what happened long ago."

The peace I felt was a closing of accounts
and was connected with the thought of death.
The happiness on this side was
like an announcement of the other side.
I realized that this was an undeserved gift
and I could not grasp by what grace
it was bestowed on me.

Czeslaw Milosz

original title "Awakened"

with thanks to Being Silently Drawn

~

Photo from the internet

 

The River of Silence - Kahlil Gibran

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind
and to melt into the sun?  And what is it to cease
breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides,
that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you
indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then shall
you begin to climb.  And when the earth shall claim your
limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Kahlil Gibran

with thanks to Death Deconstructed

~

If we can hear life, we can hear Silence
because the intensity of this pure energy
manifests itself through the sound of existence.

Yolande Duran

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Everything is this Primal Energy - the Primal Source of life;
not a persona, or god, or goddess or even Pure Consciousness;
just the fluid Energy of Life running through all living beings.
We are that Energy...

MM

~

Photo - my late blog friend Dorothea...
Walked into the Light - Jan 17, 2021

 

Heart Sutra Discourse #2 by Osho

Photo by David Peters

At the very core of life, death exists.
Hidden in it is the greatest freedom.

Death is not an ax that cuts down the tree of life.
Death is making love to God, or God making love to you.
Death is cosmic.

You don't remain like you.
You don't remain as an entity.
You don't remain defined,
identified with anything.

You disappear into the Whole.

Learn to die consciously...

excerpt from The Heart Sutra, Discourse #2 by Osho