Finding the Rhythm - a meandering

 

”A balanced life is based on its own rhythm. 
If you don’t set your own rhythm, and have the discipline
 to follow it, your life will move at the speed of
the culture around [you], which moves too fast. 
The space we make for quiet time affects our thought patterns
and, in turn, the quality of our lives.
To what extent is the rhythm of your life a result of…..adapting…..
to the flow that surrounds [you]." 

Rod MacIver

 Or I would even say, to the people around you. Have we entrained
 to the people around us – living their rhythm?  I  know I have…

I feel a resonance with his words, knowing that I needed to find
 that sense of the larger Inner Rhythm again,
 not just my own personal daily rhythm with life,
but the Flow with the Inner Being, commonly called the Tao,
 the undercurrent flow of Life within – from which all movement
arises.

The only way I know to do this is to turn within to The Silence
where  The Rhythm of the Inner Being is felt – the Rhythm of Silence
 ItSelf.  Being in The Sacred Silence is what brings me joy,
and a felt sense of Presence.   Finding that Inner Rhythm,
The Silence of Being, is “Divine Communion.” 
 This, for me, is the True Rhythm, the Rhythm of Pure
 Being ItSelf – the deep undercurrent of Life that animates all life
 – which is The Silence.
  This is what calls to me – over and over again.

But the hypnosis of the world keeps me magnetized to the ways
 of the world and pulls me out of this deeper way of living and
 knowing. We are conditioned to be drawn to the external drama
 of the world, to chew on it, teethe on it…  It’s the pablum
 of the matrix we live in.  But no one trains us to turn within
 to the Quiet Inner Presence of Silence. 
And so we follow the rhythm of the world (the civilized, political,
 chaotic world), with its hypnosis of separation from our Inner Being,
instead of turning  inward to the Awareness of the Inner Rhythm;
to that interior space of The Rhythm of the “Great Mystery”
 that pulsates Its Aliveness within us, and does not depend
on a name, label, or identity – or the world’s rhythms…  

Mystic Meandering
2015

 

~

Mandala Art:  Mystic Meandering
 Bliss Lotus Mandala
2013

Reflections in the Wilderness - Sigurd F. Olson

Life in the wilderness, especially when one is alone, is a continual
contemplation and communion with God and Spirit regarding
eternal values.  One does not have to assume any particular
stance, invoke incantations, repeat over and over again words
such as Om, chant, or sing.  To me these are merely hypnotic
devices used to bring the mind into focus and into the realm
of silence by those who do not have the privilege of living in
situations where peace is all around them.  There is no doubt
of the efficacy of such ways of preparation or they would not
be followed by hundreds of thousands, but when quiet is all
around, with no sounds but natural ones - bird songs, wind,
washing of waters against shores - the stage is always set for
meditation and reflection, whatever one may choose to call
it.  Man may not be conscious of contemplation or seeking
wisdom, for often no revelations come.  Normal and
unplanned contemplation comes as softly as the falling rain
or the first snows in late fall when the entire world is waiting.
While no great answers may come at these times, they do
infiltrate occasionally and unobtrusively into one's
consciousness, but usually there is simple a sense of peace,
removal, and a happiness beyond understanding.

Sigurd F. Olson
Reflections From The North Country

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

Although I may not wander in the wilderness, 
this is why I like the Quiet late at night,
when the house is quiet and I can settle into
a deeper communion with the deep Quiet within -
not always, but often, occasionally hearing
the echo of an owl in the trees... and fall
into sleep...

MM

 

Re-Discovery - Merton & Easwaran

At the deepest level communication
is not communication but communion.
It is wordless, it is beyond words, and
it is beyond concept.

What we have to recover [re-discover] is
our original unity [within].

What we have to be is what we are...

Thomas Merton
from a speech he gave just before he died.

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

Everything we have ever achieved we owe to the inexplicable
urge to reach beyond our grasp, [and] know the Unknown.
This urge is part of our evolutionary heritage, given to us for
the ultimate adventure: to discover who we are, what the
universe is, and what is the significance of the brief drama
of life and death we play out against the backdrop of
eternity.

Nothing can satisfy us but reunion with our real Self...

Eknath Easwaran

From the Introduction to The Unpanishads

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

"Cosmic Blanket" :)

 

A Divine Hug - Jessica Nathanson

I am here, even in this anger and despair
See me here, and you will see me everywhere
How deeply can you enter this moment to be with me?

If you only hear me
In the spaces between sounds
You'll miss me in music
If you only hear me in stillness
You'll miss me in thunder
If you only think of me as light
You'll not see me
When I'm weeping

If you only want me radiant
You'll reject me
When I show up in agony
When I am (you) drowning in darkness
I am with you, wherever you go,
whatever you do...

Let yourself commune with me...

Jessica Nathanson
Excerpt from her poem called:
"Message from God"

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo from the Internet

 

Multiplicity and Unicity - Licata and Ruvinsky

The experience of multiplicity is just as holy, as valid, and
as "spiritual" [as unity]...  God itself has no bias toward
unity or multiplicity, oneness or differentiation, but rather
expresses itself through each of these perspectives to
disclose one of its qualities or fragrances.  We need not
take sides but only enter into communion with each of
these energies...

Matt Licata
From: A Healing Space:
Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times

~

"The question doesn't even arise in Silence..."

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

She ["God"] births herself as the many who interchangeably
play the roles of objects and subjects, reciprocally adapting,
each of the many, even in their individual forms,
embodying the One...

Joan Ruvinsky
From: The Recognition of Our Own Heart

~

Photo from the Internet

 

What Draws You? - Rumi

Artist: Puisi - ambua.id

There are two types on the path, those who come against
their will, the blindly religious, and those who obey
out of love...

The former have ulterior motives.
They want a midwife near because she gives them milk.
The other love the beauty of the Nurse.

The former memorize the proof-texts of conformity
and repeat them.  The latter disappear into
whatever draws them to God.

Both are drawn from the Source.
Any motion is from the Mover.
Any love from the Beloved.

Rumi
From: The Book of Love
translations by Coleman Barks

~

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull
of what you love...

Rumi

~

A baby pigeon on the edge of the nest hears the call
and begins her flight...
How can the soul not fly
when a message arrives saying,
"...come, come back to me!"

What is the secret that opens the door?

The key is the flutter of the heart's wings
and its endless longing.

When the door opens,
walk on the path...
where everything old becomes new,
and never look back...

Rumi

~

On Dec. 17, 1273 the great Sufi poet and mystic, Rumi,
died in Konya Turkey.  He was universally loved by
Muslims, Jews, and Christians.  It was called his
"wedding night" because death to him (and the Sufis)
was the ultimate union with God.

May it be so for all of us, when the time comes,
no matter "who" we know God to be...

"Equinox" - Rumi

Artist: Puisi - ambua.id

Look at love
how it tangles
with the one fallen in love.

Look at spirit
how it fuses with earth
giving it new life.

Why are you so busy
with this or that or good or bad.
Pay attention to how things blend.

Why think separately

of this life and the next
when one is born from the last?

Look at your heart and tongue,
one feels but deaf and dumb,
the other speaks in words and signs.

Look at water and fire,
earth and wind,
enemies and friends all at once.

The wolf and the lamb,
the lion and the deer
far away and yet together.

Look at the unity of this
spring and winter
[or summer and fall]
manifested in the equinox.

You too must mingle my friends...

Be like sugarcane,
sweet and silent.
Don't be mixed up with bitter words.
My Beloved grows right out of my [your] own heart.
How much more union can there be...

Rumi

Translation by Mader Khalili
From: This Dance of Bliss

Poetry Chaikhana

Original title: "Look at Love"

~

The "Equinox" is a "pivotal cosmic hinge"
signifying equilibrium, or equality;
a fluid threshold, poised between 2 seasons.
Or in the case of the whirling dervish,
the union/merging of heaven and earth;

between Divine and human.
The Dervish whirls with one palm open up
to the cosmos and the other palm downward,
open to the earth...
symbolizing the union of our Divine nature
and our human nature...
the fusion of spirit and matter;
being reborn to the Truth of our Being...

As Rumi says -
"how much more union can there be? :)

The Fire of Separation - Mirabai Starr

There is a longing that burns at the root of spiritual practice.
This is the fire that fuels your journey.  The romantic suffering
you pretend to have grown out of, that remains coiled like a
serpent beneath the veneer of maturity.  You have studied the
sacred texts.  You know that separation from your divine source
is an illusion.  You subscribe to the philosophy that there is
nowhere to go and nothing to attain, because you are already
there and you already possess it.

But what about this yearning?  What about the way a poem by
by Rilke or Rumi breaks open your heart and triggers a sorrow
that could consume you if you gave in to it?  You're pretty sure
this is not a matter of mere psychology.  It has little to do with
unresolved issues of childhood abandonment, or codependent
tendencies to falsely place the source of your wholeness outside
yourself.  The longing is your recognition of the deepest
 truth that God is love and that this is all you want.  Every
 lesser desire melts when it comes near the flame.

You realized that not every one experiences this.  For some
people, the spiritual journey is not so dramatic.  It's less about
the overwhelming desire for union with some invisible Beloved
than it is about quietly waking up.  It's about developing
compassion, rather than suffering passion.  There are people who
never doubt that God is with them, and so there is nothing to long
for.

But there are those, like you, who have felt the Divine move like
an ocean inside them, and, incapable of sustaining an unbroken
relationship with that vastness, feel they have been banished to
the desert when the wave recedes.  There is a tribe of holy lovers,
who have tasted the glorious sweetness that lies on the other side
of yearning, when the boundaries of the separate self momentarily
melt into the One, before the cold wind of ordinary consciousness
blows through again, and restores your individuality.  You would
risk everything to rekindle that annihilating fire.  You would leave
your shoes at the door and run after the cosmic flute player, if only
you could hear that music one more time.

You would give up everything for one glimpse of the Beloved's
face.  You sneak into his chamber in the middle of the night and
say "Here I am. Ravish me."  But when you awake the next morning,
swooning, and alone, you realize you missed the entire encounter.
You throw your clay cup on the cobblestones and it shatters.  You
thought you would marry, bear babies, make a career in broadcasting.
You wander city streets during siesta hour and wonder where He is
sleeping.  Your longing and your satisfaction are reciprocal.
The moan of separation is the cry of union...

Mirabai Starr

Excerpt from: Longing for the Beloved
posted in Parabola
via - No Mind's Land

The Infinite is Everywhere - Danna Faulds

I am everywhere present
said the [Infinite.]

Seek me in the stately trees,
or the melodies of sparrows
and you will surely find me.

Look for me in the Buddha's smile,
the countenance of Christ,
the words of the Koran and Sanskrit prayers.
I am always there.

Turn your attention to the sky
where the movements of the moon and stars
trace my beauty...

Experience true emptiness
and my presence permeates the void.
Now bring your focus closer
to your heart.

Grow still and find me within you.

Separation dissolves like salt water
when you experience your true identity as me.

Practice devotion and let go into the ocean
of my love,
or be the open space from which all things arise.

One and two,
duality and union,
are both true.

So I say be jubilant
and be at peace,
for inside you is the seed and the fruit,
the tree and the root.

Choose to be in communion with me
and see the whole of this
creation infused with one energy...

Danna Faulds
Yoga Practitioner and Poet

Excerpt From:One and Two are Both True
From: Prayers to the Infinite

The Ocean of Love - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

The place where the two seas meet,
is the place where there is a simple meeting
of Divine and human:
the Divine purpose coming into form…
Here there is a light
that is held within the Heart.
It is the locus of the mystical journey.

Something comes alive within
our Heart and Soul;
we become nourished,
not by spiritual texts or teachings,
but by direct transmission.

The place where the two seas meet
is where one lives in the currents
of divine consciousness
and yet
is also held in the sea
of human experience.

There is a mystery present
in the real nature of a human being -
as a part of this limited world of forms,
of thoughts, emotions, and sensations…

…Once you have tasted the
Ocean of Love it is in your blood.
It is always calling to you,
sometime from afar,
and sometimes so close
you can feel its Presence.

We are surrounded by Love
in all of its intensity and wonder.
This is the Love that draws us
into the depths.

Through inner alchemy
is the promise of the Heart:
that Love will reveal its secrets…

Excerpts from: Fragments of a Love Story
by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
put into prose poem form.

~*~

Photo: Vortex Art
Mystic Meandering
2010

Inner Rhythms...

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything other than prose poetry.  But I’ve been thinking about “Inner Rhythms” lately; the Inner Rhythm of Being, and how that wants to move in and through me – and wanted to write about it.  I receive an on-line “newsletter” from a Nature Artist in northern Vermont by the name of Rod MacIver who has spent a lot of time alone in nature, getting in touch with his own life rhythm.  He reflects:

”A balanced life is based on its own rhythm.  If you don’t set your own rhythm, and have the discipline to follow it, your life will move at the speed of the culture around [you], which moves too fast.  The space we make for quiet time affects our thought patterns and, in turn, the quality of our lives.”  And, he asks: “To what extent is the rhythm of your life a result of…..adapting…..to the flow that surrounds [you].  Or I would even say, to the people around you. Have we entrained to the people around us – living their rhythm?  I  know I have…

I felt a resonance with his words, knowing that I needed to find that sense of the larger Inner Rhythm again, not just my own personal daily rhythm with life, but the Flow with the Inner Being, commonly called the Tao, the undercurrent flow of Life within – from which all movement arises.

The only way I know to do this is to turn within to The Silence where The Rhythm of the Inner Being is felt – the Rhythm of Silence ItSelf.  Being in The Sacred Silence is what brings me joy, and a felt sense of Presence.  Finding that Inner Rhythm, The Silence of Being, is “Divine Communion.”  This, for me, is the True Rhythm, the Rhythm of Pure Being ItSelf – the deep undercurrent of Life that animates all life – which is The Silence.  This is what calls to me – over and over again.

But the hypnosis of the world keeps me/us magnetized to the ways of the world and pulls me/us out of this deeper way of living and knowing.  We are conditioned to be drawn to the external drama of the world, to chew on it, teethe on it…  It’s the pablum of the matrix we live in.  But no one trains us to turn within to the Quiet Inner Presence of Silence.  And so we follow the rhythm of the world (the civilized, political, chaotic world), with its hypnosis of separation from our Inner Being, instead of turning  inward to the Awareness of the Inner Rhythm; to that interior space of The Rhythm of the “Great Mystery” that pulsates Its Aliveness within us, and does not depend on a name, label, or identity – or the world’s rhythms…   

I’m curious, before your innocent Heart was hypnotized by the rhythms of the world, what did you want deep in your Heart, not what you wanted to be when you grew up, but what did you really long for?  What called to you? Do you remember?  Do you know now?

Photo: Bliss Lotus Mandala
2013

Outside The Walls - Chuck Surface

Mystical Experience, Divine Communion,
Is not confined to the many villages of religion,
Or to philosophical systems, however profound,
However revered their expounders.

For there are those who Wander,
Outside the walls of scripture and stricture,
In the Wilderness of Not Knowing,
Whose Hearts are, none the less…

Illumined with Grace.

Far from the village,
Road vanished into path,
Path vanished into hillside,
Hillside vanished into Vastness…

The Known vanished into Wonder.

For these Wilderness Wanderers,
There are no descriptions of reality,
No systems of belief or faith,
And the name of God is…

”Great Mystery”

And yet, like a Wellspring, their Hearts overflow,
Whenever they find, wherever they find,
In sources so-called “sacred” or “profane”,
That which invokes Within…

The Presence of The Beloved.

Neither a She, nor a He,
Nor a concept of belief of faith,
Or in any way “Known” in word or image,
But Known, palpably, viscerally…

In the Heart’s Direct Experience of Grace.

Here… within the Manifest Being,
Wherein Shines the Garden of The Beloved,
As the Ineffable, Intoxicating Sublimity,
The Inexpressible Ecstasy of…

The Great Mystery.

Chuck Surface

 ~

In The Garden of The Beloved

Chuck Surface on Facebook

Photo provided by Chuck Surface