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 Universe's Story - Misc.

...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.

This story has the power to awaken us more deeply to who we are.
For just as the Milky Way is the universe in the form of a galaxy,
and an orchid is the universe in the form of a flower,
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.

Journey of the Universe
Brian Swimme and Mary Evenlyn Tucker

~*~

The Absolute is both unmanifest and dynamic creative force.
From the creative force everything arises;
both the world as well as personal consciousness.
Everything is a play [story] of consciousness,
not an unreal illusion.

Excerpt from an article by
Jan Easman

~*~

Everything is ultimately a story.
My life is a story,
your life is a story,
all occurring within the vast cosmic
Ocean of Consciousness.
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

~*~

The real mystery is how It
unveils Itself within us;
how the Beloved makes Itself known
to ItSelf in the fragile container of the 
human being.

In the midst of the Divine Drama
there is a human story to be told.
But it's all "God's" story
being lived in human form...

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Sufi Mystic

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

A mystery :)

 

Time Passage...

So much of this life gone-by now;
remembering previous chapters
of the Fiction called "my life",
as if they never really happened -
or did they...
Some so distant in the mind they
are more like dreams, some nightmares;
and the characters I played - some good,
some bad.

Now nearing the end of the story I am an elder
character, losing her grip on life and time,
wondering what death will be like.
Will there be awareness after death?
Or, like a mist, will I dissipate back into the
Cosmos with no memory of this "journey"
on this planet spinning in a galaxy in space?
Maybe become an Aurora Borealis -
Pure Energy -
Pure De-Light...

How strange this novel turned out to be,
more drama and struggle than I would have liked,
but also more poetic than prose...

Mostly the story didn't go
the way I had in mind...
In this passage through time...

Mystic Meandering
Sept. 1, 2023

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Ancient Path of Dying - Sam Keen

 The basic motivation for human behavior is the need
to control our basic anxiety, to deny death in a world
where we are fated to die.  This is the terror: to have
emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness
of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning
for life and self-expression - and with all this yet die.

Since the terror of death is so overwhelming we conspire
to keep it unconscious.  The "vital lie character"
[personality] is the first line of defense that protects
us from the painful awareness of our helplessness...

Every child creates a personality...
So long as we stay obediently within the defense
mechanisms of our personality, the "character armor"
we feel safe and are able to pretend to avoid death.
And life escapes us while we huddle within the defended
fortress of "character" [personality].

But there's an ancient path of wisdom: practice dying.

Cultivating an awareness of death leads to disillusionment,
loss of the "character armor", and a conscious choice to
abide in the face of terror [death].  Instead of hiding
within the illusion of "character" we see our impotence
and vulnerability.  Living with the voluntary consciousness
of death, we can choose despair or trust the "vitality of the
cosmos", in the unknown god of life whose mysterious
"purpose" is expressed in the overwhelming drama of
cosmic evolution.

Sam Keen

From the Forward to
The Denial Of Death
by Earnest Becker
1973

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Unconditional Love - Adyashanti

I don't know about you but -
I've been experiencing a lot of anger and frustration lately
with the current world situation, with the crazy politics, and
"the Vid" that has brought drastic changes personally, socially
and economically to many.  Life, as we know it, is changing,
has changed, and obviously will continue to change.  That's
what life does, requiring adjusting and adapting on all levels.
A hidden Movement in the unseen realm is evidently underway
in the current experience that we don't understand...

I know this, but - I'm not "feeling the love",
so-to-speak, toward the current "now."  Instead, I feel
frustration and anger - feeling curmudgeonly...

One day this week, after listening to a Deva Premal
sanskrit chant on you tube, I switched over to a guided
meditation by Adyashanti on "The Unconditioned Nature of
Being.", trying to assuage the inner anger and frustration
that consistently arises within.  But I couldn't listen to it, my
mind was caught in the emotions within, which led to a belief
that I had somehow lost the ability to "love" - overwhelmed
by the intensity of the feelings; defining "love" as the ability to
feel "love" for everybody and everything at all times despite
the current stressful times we live in.  I'm no saint, just a mystic
wanting to realize the Mystery of Existence.

Then something caught my attention in the right hand margin.
Another video by Adya called, "What Is Unconditional Love?"
It was like "The Universe" had responded!
I watched the video, and I listened   He said:

We personalize unconditional love.
We imagine how it should be.
But it's not personal.
It's more like acceptance of what is.

Existence is unconditional love.
Existence allows you to be the person you are.

To *try* to be unconditionally loving will place a demand
on you which will take you away from it.

Existence unconditionally accepts.  It is unconditional love...
[which is acceptance of the totality of life experience].

Realize your Self/True Nature...

Realize what you are and unconditional love will reveal
itself to you...

Don't fight the "conditioned nature", which is the ideas of
unconditional love; images of it, etc.

We don't know what it is.

Allow yourself not to know.

[In other words, don't try to define it, or be it,
just allow it to find you...]

Adyashanti
Excerpts from: "What is Unconditional Love?"

You Tube video

Of course not all may agree, depending on your belief system,
but it was the medicine I needed to hear at that time: that it's
not about trying to be "loving", but that "love" is being able
to accept what is, accepting others as they are, and also,
accepting ourselves and what we are going through -
as we are.

I also found that metaphorically "stepping back" (internally)
from the intensity of my emotions, and how I am playing
 in the Divine Drama, and just resting in the Core of my Being
 helped.  From there I understood that "love"/acceptance will arise
in its own time; that I was grasping after love, because I thought
 I lacked "love",  when what I lacked was the felt sense of my own
 Core Being.   That was the key piece that I needed to realize,
to "step back" into the Core, and ride out the emotional roller
coaster ride that so many of us are still experiencing in this
"now."


Namaste
_/\_

~

Photo - from a friend, of a friend, of a friend

The Play of the Universe - Swimme, Esmann, Vaughan-Lee, DH Lawrence

...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.

This story has the power to awaken us more deeply to who
we are.  For just as the Milky Way is the universe in the form
of a galaxy. and an orchid is the universe in the form of a  flower,
we are actually the universe reflecting on itself.

from - Journey of the Universe
Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker

~*~

The Absolute is both unmanifest and a dynamic creative force.
From the creative force everything arises; both the world
as well as personal consciousness.  Everything is a blissful play
of consciousness, not an unreal illusion.

Excerpt from an article by
Jan Esmann
Shaktipat Master

~*~

Everything is ultimately a story.
My "life" is a story,
your "life" is a story,
all occurring simultaneously within the
vast cosmic Ocean of Consciousness/Awareness.
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

~*~

The real mystery is how IT unveils ItSelf within us:
how the Beloved makes ItSelf known to ItSelf
in the fragile container of the human being.

In the midst of the Divine Drama there is a
human story to be told. But it's all "God's" story

being lived in human form...

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

~*~

We must get back into relation,
vivid and nourishing relation to
the cosmos and the universe...
For the truth is,
we perish for lack of fulfillment
of our greater needs.
We are cut off from the great sources
of our inward nourishment and renewal,
sources which flow eternally in
the universe...

D H Lawrence

~

Photo - The Om Universe
Craypas oils over acrylic
a work in process... :)

The Universe is a Story - Swimme, Essman, MM, & Vaughan-Lee

...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.

This story has the power to awaken us more deeply to who we are.
For just as the Milky Way is the universe in the form of a galaxy,
and an orchid is the universe in the form of a flower,
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.

Journey of the Universe

Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker

~*~

The Absolute is both unmanifest and a dynamic creative force.
From the creative force everything arises;
both the world as well as personal consciousness.
Everything is a blissful play [story] of consciousness,
not an unreal illusion.

Excerpt from an article by

Jan Essman

~*~

Everything is ultimately a story.
My life is a story,
your life is a story,
all occurring within the vast cosmic
Ocean of Consciousness.
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

~*~

The real mystery is how It
unveils ItSelf within us;
how the Beloved makes ItSelf known
to ItSelf in the fragile container of the
human being.

In the midst of the Divine Drama
there is a human story to be told.
But it's all "God's" story
being lived in human form...

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

*

Photo - A mystery :)

Threshold - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee...

In silence we become and then unbecome,
 know and are unknown.

For so long we have searched…..hoping,
 expecting to find something.

Always you thought there was something to seek,
 a journey to make. Now you stand on the precipice,
 looking out over the horizon of your self,

and you know it is otherwise.

Here there is no seeking, no lover lost and found.

There is no looking, nothing to reach for, no path to follow.

But within there is an answer, not in form but in substance.

The source brings something beyond the passions
 of day-to-day life to the surface,
 something we need to nourish rather than define.

There is a bigger wholeness hidden,

waiting at the corner of the moments,

watching from behind the thoughts.

You wait for something to happen,
 and there is nothing to happen,
 yet the happening comes closer,
 like a map that reveals your own garden
 as an undiscovered place,

that comes from across time and beyond space.

There is another presence, another pattern,
 not hidden but unrevealed.

There is a tender sense of silence…..

In the moments of our own silence we are welcomed,

as both stranger and friend.

We need to allow the presence to become present,

not defined in moments, but as a flow.

The river is here.

The silence, unbidden, is always present.

In the tranquility of the moment nothing is defined or captured.

This world is infused with the other,
 steeped in the dew of timelessness.

Just Isness.

In that Isness everything is included –

you, the Beloved, the will to unfold the eternal into the present,

to cross the borders of time and space,
 and saturate the now with eternity.

Yet, there is no other…

You were always alone but you thought it was
 a state of incompleteness.

You waited for someone to come,
always waiting at the bus stop for the bus
that never comes,

because there is nowhere to go…

You wait at the threshold of the other world,

struggling with your self…

when the other world is already present.

The real mystery is how IT unveils itself
within us;
how the Beloved makes ItSelf known
to ItSelf
in the fragile container
of the human being.

In the midst of
The Divine Drama
there is a human story…
But it’s all God’s story
being lived in form.

Excerpts from: Fragments of a Love Story

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

Please note: I have taken excerpts from various pages
of the book, put them together and created this prose poem.

The Cosmic Play...

Don’t you just love this face – the curiosity in the eye, the willingness to connect – yet tentatively open and receptive, not knowing whether to trust, whether to stay or run, with just a pane of glass between us…

Much like we humans, only “the glass” is the ego, or the personality, that keeps us tentative and attempts to protect and defend  our vulnerable sense of self; that keeps us from really opening, really meeting each other - Being to Being – Heart to Heart - seeing *through* the glass…

It’s been a challenging week here in the “Cosmic Play of Life” with some new insights and perspectives gained along the way, which I will write about in another post in a few days.  But I thought I’d post these photos of my new friend – “the Cosmic Gymnast” – who offered moments of play and comic relief.  Or is that “cosmic” relief. J   We hung a birdseed bell on this pole several weeks ago, waiting for the birds to show up.  Instead after it had been out there about a week, “the gymnast” showed up one day and entertained us with a variety of antics.  We don’t know *how* he got up there, shimmied the pole I would imagine, although we caught him one time trying to figure out how to jump from the nearest tree branch to the pole, giving up and going back up the tree… 

After our initial meeting – above photo – where he chattered and whipped his tail at me through the window, he then gave me the inquisitive eye – looking at the camera lens.  Undeterred, once he knew he was safe, he then went directly to the business at hand – apparently oblivious to my presence, yet cautiously watching for any sign of movement. I made the mistake of tapping on the window to get his attention, as I wanted more connection, and he clamored down the pole.  I imagine in his animal brain he thought it was an act of aggression, which ended our “connection” – now he won’t even look at me… LOL

Seems that happens with humans as well, don’t you think…   We want to love, to be loved, to connect, to be friends, but we don’t always speak the same language, or play life the same way… J  Instead, we fear each other’s differences, criticizing each other’s words or path, indirectly, because it’s not like ours.  Our hearts close down, or we chatter and whip our tails into a frenzy, puffing ourselves up…  We mis-interpret the “sign language” and get offended, causing all kinds of problems – personally and globally.

But I digress - here’s a little light entertainment from the cosmic gymnast feasting at the Play of Life…

Getting into position

The Hang

The other side of the hang

Preoccupied

Enjoying the Feast

The next time we saw him, he brought a friend – a bigger squirrel - whom we think could not climb the pole, instead sat on the ground waiting to eat the seed droppings.   We had hung a different kind of birdseed bell, which did not hold together as well.  At one point I looked out and it was completely gone, and there was at least half of it left!  I looked out and there was his friend eating what was left of it underneath the tree.

 Sorry the photo isn’t good, the limitations of my camera, but you get the idea.  Even those of us who don’t climb the same pole, or play the game the same way, or even play the same game with different intentions, still ultimately win the cosmic prize in the play of Life, with a little help from our cosmic friends of course. J LOL

May your days be filled with the *awareness* of the Divine Play of the cosmos that is taking place here – The Divine playing in its own game…

“You are here – life exists…
the powerful play of life goes on,
and you may contribute a verse…”

Walt Whitman

Divine Drama...

I'm feeling a little myopic posting about my struggle with my creative process again when the world struggles in so much pain, unrest and violence.  And it seems that those of us on a “spiritual path” can sometimes get cloistered and self-absorbed in this way, as if we don’t see anything but our own path, our own struggle. Partly that is true…  And partly everything begins to be seen in context, within the context of the Divine Drama that is being played out here, that we are all a part of whether we realize it or not.  And so I speak of my experience with the creative process as part of the Divine Drama, as it seems a universal metaphor….

 

I am still “struggling” with this new creative process - although that is too strong a word.  I’m experiencing the creative tension between spontaneity and limitation, as Rollo May calls it.  I’ve been trying to pin-point what it is that I am “struggling” with or against, resisting and avoiding – and why…  For some reason what I paint and how I paint doesn’t feel like - me – my essential Self – doesn’t feel like it’s coming from an open, authentic place…  Maybe that’s what happens when one steps outside their comfort zone, and explores something new, one contracts - at first, even when one wants to open to the process. But maybe I should speak for myself.

What I want most is that which is Real in me to emerge – the Essence, Spirit – to express ItSelf – on canvas.  Instead, I feel like a sea anemone on a rock at the shore at low tide - vulnerable.  When being poked and prodded by a curious inquisitor - it closes.  I continue to feel like I am *trying* to paint, instead of being curious and playful and allowing – although I had a somewhat surprising breakthrough with that today.  But I’m still painting from my conceptual mind that wants to know what to do and how to do it and where it is going and how it will turn out – afraid to risk…  Painting does not flow naturally from somewhere deep within as I had anticipated it would, like it did when I “painted” with Craypas oil sticks.  As one dimensional as that was, I felt connected to something beyond my self…  It is safe to say that I have not found that Rhythm with laying paint on canvas – yet… I anticipate that will happen.  But it seems I have hit my edge early on… 

I expected everything would just flow easily, that art would be a vehicle to tap into that deep space of Inspiration – that deep well of Inner Beingness that *wants* to express, to create…  But I’m still waiting for that authentic expression to emerge – although I am beginning to see glimpses of it.  I realize that this is all part of the process – awareness of what’s going on internally, noticing how I approach creativity - and life: with anxiety, with a sense of fragmentation, vulnerability and protectiveness – which can only come from a fragmented mind; a mind set of separateness and alienation from the wholeness of my Self – and life - and “other.”  It gets reflected in the creative process – art reflecting life…  In that sense it has been an eye opener, and I need a different lens in order to see through the veil of separateness and fragmentation that causes so much unrest in “the system” - both individually and universally…  When we see life with a sense of separateness there is unrest, frustration, confusion, and struggle…

I read from Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee’s book (Fragments of a Love Story) one morning this week where he refers to a story he wrote several years ago about his spiritual journey.  He says: “it (the journey) is fundamentally the story of a fragmented self struggling to find something, to uncover and claim a deeper meaning.  But – it is also the Divine story (however you call the Ineffable), finding ways to bring ItSelf into consciousness.”   Interesting...  The Divine Drama *is* our story...  And our "story" is the Divine Drama...

What a paradox this art work is – adding layers of paint to a canvas, waiting for “The Mystery” to reveal ItSelf, while at the same time “uncovering” layers within myself that keep me from seeing “The Mystery” that is there…   For some reason that resonated with me as the “struggle” I am having with the creative process, which reflects the universal struggle with life - uncovering the layers of conditioning in order to see the Real within...

The ego-mind is beginning to lose its moorings – which is actually a good thing - but is also creating this struggle to maintain its hold, its grip on the process… But what is there to struggle about?  After all it’s really the Divine Drama playing ItSelf out, whether on canvas or in life. The mind evidently doesn’t know this. 

“The real mystery
is how IT unveils ItSelf
within us;
how the Beloved
makes ItSelf known
to ItSelf
in the fragile container
of the human being.

And in the midst of
the Divine Drama
there is a human story
to be told.
But it’s all ‘God’s’ story
being lived in human form.”

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
From: Fragments of a Love Story

Note: When Vaughan-Lee speaks of “God”

he is speaking of the Nameless, all-pervasive
Mystery that is everywhere, at all times,
 not a persona or image we have of ‘God’
separate from us that we normally associate
 with the word…

Photo: Just a little corner piece of a painting I’m working on…

If you are curious about the e-course I am taking,
it is Bloom True with Artist Flora Bowley.
It is a wonderful course, presented very well.
My "struggles" with the *process* are not a reflection
on the course, but of my own internal process.