Prayer for the World - Mirabai Starr

Beloved One,
Living Light
Spirit of all that is...

Be with us now
As we lean in to hear your call...

Divine Mother,
Embodiment of Mercy and Compassion,
Enfold us in your protective cloak
As we dare to take in the pain of the world.
Comprised of every hue on the spectrum
Of the human community.
Give us the courage and strength
To drop our preconceptions
[and our prejudices]
And step onto the field of global strife
Armed with the flaming arrow of love.

Sacred Friend,
Hidden behind the eyes of the broken,
Reveal yourself,
Let us behold the beauty of your face
In all beings, everywhere, always.
Where once we perceived only the impossible,
Blinded by our desire for circumstances, people,
And our own sweet selves to be different,
Let us rest now in what is
Alert to your power to astonish us
With the global awakening.

Holy One,
We carry legacy of our ancestors
In the marrow of our own souls.
We are all reluctant prophets.
We must be called and called again,
And yet again.
We turn and turn away,
We yield and bow and rise,
Until at last,
Clasped by the ferocious wings of your angels,
We declare, Hineyni.
Here I am.
Make me a vessel of divine will...

Great Spirit,
Fill the hearts of our leaders
With humility and holey awe.
Embolden them not to turn away from the Other
But to lay down their weapons
And take the adversary in their arms.
Infuse them with the fire
That melts swords into ploughshares
And spears into pruning hooks.
Show them the secret passageway from hopeless conflict
Home to love. [to tolerance and acceptance].

Father-Mother God,
May the Children of Abraham and Sara
At last fall silent in the face of your radiance.
May our hearts soar in remembrance.
May our knees bend and bodies bow down,
And our spirits rejoice,
Overflowing with unceasing prayer,
Resounding and cleansing and blessing all the land...

AMEN

Mirabai Starr

Excerpts from a prayer written in 2015
during the Iran and US peace agreements

~

Photo from the Internet
digitally altered

 

"Keys" - a meandering

On my "spiritual meanderings" over the years, I have learned
many things, discovered many "truths"; found 3 "keys", although
I'm sure there are more.

Maybe you have discovered a different set of "keys" for yourself.
But I wanted to share the ones I found in this meandering...

Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

Experiencing The Divine Within

Today the "Divine Mother" is silent.
But I feel Her energy in the stillness of waking.
She vibrates in my body, as I hold my heart
with my hands over my chest, grateful for Her
Presence...

My "reason to live" is this felt connection with
"The Divine Mother"; directly experiencing Her
Presence vibrating through me...

I learned from "Her" that I must turn inward and always
keep my awareness open to "Her" - with the inner ear -
listening for Her silent "voice" and unspoken words;
with the inner eye - "seeing" through the mental obscurations
that blind me; and - sensing Her Presence always within me.

"The Mother of the Universe" - however one names "Her" - is
ultimately, for me, not a persona, or deity, although I give Her
a name: "The Divine Mother."  I could call Her "The Sacred",
"The Beloved", "The Ineffable", but "Divine Mother" seems 
more personal, more relatable...

"She, however called, is the Energy that permeates all things;
that becomes all form in matter reality,
the Primal Energy that infuses us and
communes with every cell of our being -
enlivening and comforting...
I need to bask in Her Essence...

In this pool of Primal Energy all worries subside,
mentations give way, and "I" feel closer to my own true
Essence.

Mystic Meandering
Aug. 7, 2023
Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

July 18, 2023

Blessing

Today I started asking for blessings for people in my life.
Don't know why.  It just seemed like the natural thing
to do with so many people suffering in this world now,
feeling helpless to help them...

When I asked a blessing I began to feel a vibration in my
body, as if there was some kind of energy moving through me...

First Blessing

I ask a blessing on "the visitor"
that came to live here 10 months ago,
so that she may be free at last;
not in constant mental torture,
re-hashing her past - but free to
move on.

I ask that "The Divine Mother" would
be merciful to her, and relieve her of her
suffering, so that she can truly be at peace.

I ask a blessing on this whole situation!

I ask a blessing on this house!

Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

Acceptance

I don't know when I first came across the concept of
 "accepting what is" but it has been a recurring theme
 in my life experience.  I remember listening to a
guided meditation in the early 2000's by Adyashanti
 on "Allowing everything to be as it is."  And around
 the same time I read a book by Tara Brach called
Radical  Acceptance.  And Byron Katie's - Loving
What Is.  Then recently a book by Frank Ostaseski
called The Five Invitations.  One of the invitations is
 to Welcome Everything, push nothing away.
And this quote below by Jeff Foster from his book
 The Deepest Acceptance that I read sometime in 2014...

~

"Freedom is found not through escaping the present
experience, but by diving fearlessly into its hidden depths...

If we are to be truly free - we must face reality with open
 eyes. We must move away from denial, wishful thinking,
and hoping and tell the truth about life as it is. Great
freedom lies in admitting the truth of this moment, 
however much it clashes with our dreams and plans
 - self-image [or spiritual teachings]... Acceptance is about
seeing reality, seeing things as they actually are, not
 as we wish them to be.  And from that place of 
alignment with what is, all creative, loving and
 intelligent actions flow naturally.

Great freedom lies in fearlessly facing the darkness
and finally coming to see that the darkness is inseparable
 from light...  Life cannot be good or bad. 
  Life is simply life..."

Jeff Foster

Photo from the Internet

~

Accepting life as it is, is still a challenge for me, but I
 know it is a "key" - for when I "accept" someone the way
 they are,  kindness and compassion arise to meet them.
 Accepting what is means I recognize the things I can
 change, and the things I can't. I give up trying to "control"
the person or situation, and just let things/people be as/
who they are...

Even if I think they should be otherwise :)

_/\_

Blessings

MM

~

Keys Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Inner Gate...

Dreading the entry into another day
I turn my attention to
The Great Mother once again
hoping She will companion me
through the veils that block my sight...

She didn't come last night in a dream,
nor leave me a message at the door of dawn.

Where did She go...
The elusive Companion of the Unseen;
the Comforter from the inner world...

The ease of living evades me...
Weariness fills my Soul...

I must enter through another gate - unknown...

I ask the Great Mother to meet me there...

But will She show...

I patiently wait...

at the Inner Gate...

For Her familiar Fragrance
to waft me through...

and I enter the day...

Mystic Meandering
Aug 13, 2022

~

Photo from Unsplash
Color digitally inverted

 

Mighty Mother - AE (George William Russell)

Unto the deep the deep heart goes,
It lays its sadness nigh the breast:
Only the Mighty Mother knows
The wounds that quiver unconfessed.

It seeks a deeper silence still;
It folds itself around with peace,
Where thoughts alike of good and ill

In quietness unfostered cease.

It feels in the unwounding vast
For comfort for its hopes and fears:
The Mighty Mother bows at last;
She listens to her children's tears.

Where the last anguish deepens - there
The fire of beauty smites through the pain:
A glory moves amid despair,
The Mother takes her child again.

AE (George William Russell)

Irish Poet and Painter

with thanks to Death Deconstructed
and photo too...

 

The World Shines Forth - Joan Ruvinsky

The world shines forth as the embodiement
of the Divine Mother;
the eternal Feminine -

the Ultimate Reality
never separate from
its Source.

~

She births Herself as the many...

even in their individual forms,
embodying the One,
the One who condenses into the mind...

She confines Herself by the limits
of space and time...

Contracting Her powers, She
explores limitations -
becoming ordinary, isolated
individuals...

She knows fully Her own play of
contractions and realizes Herself
as these.  Even by her descent into
contraction She recognizes
the Universe as Her own very Self.
Blossoming forth from her own Heart,
the play of the One and the many...

~

Everything becomes potentially
a doorway to the Infinite
since it is simply a coagulation
[contraction] of this Infinity.

Joan Ruvinsky

Center section is excerpts from the
Pratyabhijnahrdayam - an ancient Hindu
text from the Kashmir Shaivism tradition
meaning - The Recognition of our own Heart
(aka - The Recognition of the Self)

From the Joan Ruvinsky interpretive version,
in her book: The Recognition of Our Own Heart

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Prayer for the World - Mirabai Starr

Beloved One,
Living Light,
Spirit of all that is,
Thank you for welcoming us
To this sacred circle,
Comprised of every hue on the spectrum
Of the human community.
Be with us now
As we lean in to hear your call.
Stay close as we stand up
To speak your message of unconditional love.

Divine Mother,
Embodiment of Mercy and Compassion,
Enfold us in your protective cloak
As we dare to take in the pain of the world.
Give us the courage and strength
To drop our preconceptions
And step onto the field of global strife
Armed with the flaming arrow of unconditional love.

Sacred Friend,
Hidden behind the eyes of the broken,
Reveal yourself,
Let us behold the beauty of your face
In all beings, everywhere, always.
Where once we perceived only the impossible,
Blinded by our desire for circumstances, people,
And our own sweet selves to be different,
Let us rest now in what is
Alert to your power to astonish us
With the global awakening of unconditional love.

Holy One,
We carry legacy of our ancestors
In the marrow of our own souls.
We are all reluctant prophets.
We must be called and called again,
And yet again.
We turn and turn away,
We yield and bow and rise,
Until at last,
Clasped by the ferocious wings of your angels,
We declare, Hineyni.
Here I am.
Make of me a vessel of your divine will,
The will of unconditional love.

Great Spirit,
True Self and No-Self,
Fill the hearts of our leaders
With humility and holy awe.
Embolden them not to turn away from the Other
But to lay down their weapons
And take the adversary in their arms.
Infuse them with the fire
That melts swords into ploughshares
And spears into pruning hooks.
Show them the secret passageway from hopeless conflict
Home to unconditional love.

Father-Mother God,
May the Children of Abraham and Sarah
At last fall silent in the face of your radiance.
May our hearts soar in remembrance.
May our knees bend and our bodies bow down,
And our spirits rejoice,
Overflowing with unceasing prayer,
Resounding and cleansing and blessing all the land:
There is nothing but you,
Nothing but God,
Nothing.

AMEN.

Mirabai Starr

written in 2015
during the Iran and US peace agreements


With thanks to Michel at No Mind's Land

~

Photo from the Internet
digitally altered

"Consciousness" is Vibration - Joan Ruvinsky

Kashmir Saivism (pronounced shaivism), specifically the
School of Recognition, assumes Consciousness, not matter
or energy, to be the basic stuff of the universe and that
manifestation is simply Consciousness vibrating at
grosser and grosser frequencies.  Spirit becomes Matter.
Divine Awareness solidifies from the formless through
denser mind and senses, all the way to the densest, most
basic elements of earth, water, fire, air and space.  The
world shines as the embodiment of the Divine Mother,
the eternal feminine - the Ultimate Reality...

Everything becomes potentially a doorway to the Infinite -
since it is simply a coagulation of this Infinity, in a play of
unfolding and refolding...

~

All manifestation, things, people, occurrences, effects and
affects are made of the self-same Consciousness [Infinite
Beingness] coagulated into form.

All pairs of opposites emerge from, are enfolded in and are
made of Pure Consciousness [Beingness].  Everything is
Consciousness[Beingness].  Everything happens.
Consciousness does not have a point of view.

Duality proceeds in non-duality.
It's not either/or - it's both/and.
The Infinite contains everything.

There is nothing that is not swept up in this fundamental
movement of Being-in-form.

~

"Consciousness" can also be called Awareness, Universal
Consciousness, Being, The Divine Feminine, The Divine
Mother from which manifestation materializes
according to the culture and background of Kashmir
Saivism.  It is also referred to as "This" - meaning
the Omnipresence of Ultimate Reality without
image or name.

~

Steep in the Unfathomable,
let the Mystery communicate ItSelf...

Joan Ruvinsky
Excerpts from -
The Recognition of our Own Heart
Pratyabhijnahrdayam

Love this book! :)

Read a "review" by Miriam Louisa Simons
at This Unlit Light

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
 Mandala Art