The Rhythm of Rest...

I flow on the swells of the Great Sea.
Out beyond the thought stream,
in the deep calm of the Stillness
rising and falling in the endless, subtle
rhythmic movement beyond time;
a Stillness that ebbs and flows naturally.

Here is the gateway to deep Rest,
an attunement with the deep inner Silence,
where everything falls into
the Rhythm of Rest.

I allow myself to be taken by
"The Rhythm",
suspended in the mystical breath of the Cosmos,
the Silence of pre-existence.

Its Stillness holds me, sustains and supports me -
Is deeply Me...

And I realize everything is suspended in this
Essential Rhythm of Life.
 In some mysterious way,
We breathe, and are breathed by
"The Rhythm."

Immersing myself in "The Rhythm"
I deeply Rest
in harmony with the Universe...

Ommmmm...

Mystic Meandering
March 2022

~

Photo Art - Mystic Meandering

 

Happiness - Hermann Hesse

As long as you chase happiness,
you are not ready to be happy,
even if you owned everything.

As long as you lament a loss,
run after prizes in restless races,
you have not yet known peace.

But when you have moved beyond desire,
become a stranger to your goals and longings
and call no longer on happiness by name,

then your heart rises calmly
above the ebb and flow of action
and peace has reached your soul.

Hermann Hesse
translation by Ludwig Max Fischer

via: The Beauty We Love

Let it go - Danna Faulds

Let go of the ways you thought life
would unfold; the holding of plans
or dreams or expectations - Let it
all go.  Save your strength to swim
with the tide.  The choice to fight
what is here before you now will
only result in struggle, fear, and
desperate attempts to flee from the
very energy you long for.  Let go.
Let it all go and flow with the grace
that washes through your day whether
you receive it gently or with all your
quills raised to defend against invaders.
Take this on faith: the mind may never
find the explanations that it seeks, but
you will move forward nonetheless.
Let go, and the wave's crest will carry
you to unknown shores, beyond your
wildest dreams or destinations.  Let it
all go and find the place of rest and
peace, and certain transformation.

Danna Faulds
From: Go In and In
2002

The Formless Happening - Darryl Bailey

All things are changing, flowing.  They're passing appearances
of a great unformed, and inexplicable happening - an event,
a presence - call it whatever you have to.

If we sit quietly, making no effort, life expresses itself clearly;
it simply happens on its own.  There'e nothing else to get.
The great truth is obvious.  The heart beats, the breath comes
and goes.  Vibrations, pulsations, twinges, feelings, thoughts,
and emotions rise and fall.  Urges rise and pass; some become
 actions, others do not; and so life flows.

Sitting quietly, making no effort, all is revealed; a vibrant,
pulsing, formless happening, simply happening.  There is no
goal in this, no final point; there is only what expresses itself
in this moment, and whatever it appears to be now is unavoidably
on its way to some other appearance.

There are many ways of pointing to this vibrant, formless happening.
Some have called it the Great Spirit.  Some call it the river of life,
or the ocean of existence.  Some call it the flow of nature.  It's been
compared to clouds and water, having no particular shape.  Some
say it's movement.  Some call it God, Tao, or Atman.  Some call it
Mind.  Some call it "original nature."  And some just call it the
universe, which literally means "undivided turning."

Daryl Bailey

The Art of Living - Henry Miller

The art of living is based on rhythm -
on give and take,
ebb and flow,
light and dark,
life and death.

By acceptance of all aspects of life,
good and bad,
right and wrong,
yours and mine,
the static, defensive life
which is what most people
are cursed with,
is converted into a dance,
'the dance of life,'
metamorphosis.

One can dance to sorrow or joy;
one can even dance abstractly.
But the point is that
by the mere act of dancing,
the elements which compose it are
transformed;
the dance is an end in itself,
just like life.

The acceptance of the situation,
any situation,

brings about flow,
a rhythmic impulse towards
self-expression.
To relax is the first thing
a dancer has to learn...
It is the first thing any one has to learn
in order to live.

It is extremely difficult,
because it means surrender,
full surrender.

Henry Miller
The Wisdom of the Heart
(Mr. Miller's words, my format)

via: No Mind's Land

Allow Everything Meditation - Adyashanti

In this form of meditation you are not leading the way,
you're not controlling.
It's almost like being a passenger in a car.

Instead of controlling your experience,
you're a passenger to your experience.

You're watching it and letting it be however it's going to be.
When you're more a passenger to your experience,
you can watch what naturally happens,
when you have no idea of what should happen
or where you're going.

You'll naturally come into more of a state of listening.
Listen, watch, see what happens.
Just allow awareness to flow wherever it wants to;
to be aware of whatever it wants to be aware of.

As you allow awareness to go where it wants,
rather than where you want it to go
it unwinds your thoughts, it unwinds your mind,
and your body.

So instead of seeing where you can direct awareness,
you're actually seeing where awareness will take you
when you let it go wherever it wants.

Nothing is held onto. Nothing pushed away.
Allow everything to take its natural course.

Make no effort to enhance or sustain anything.

Just have the notion that you will continue to allow
everything to be, as it is, as it wants to be,
and that you will continue to allow awareness
to go where it wants to go...

Adyashanti
An excerpt from his guided meditation.
from the CD set: "Spontaneous Awakening"
2005

Ebb and Flow - Ivan Granger

When the face of Ever-Presence is known,
all concreteness spontaneously fades away...
Kelsang Gyatso

The vivid appearance of the external world can become a trap
for the distracted mind.  We can get caught in constant reaction,
running after pleasure, running from pain.

In the truly natural state, awareness is at rest, perceiving without
tension, encountering reality without an overlay of stories,
without attraction or repulsion.
In that Pure Awareness, life becomes a flow of events and
interactions, not pushed by the self-will of likes and dislikes.

We are simply as we are...
Events simply unfold...

...life experience; its waning and waxing is simply its natural flow.

Ivan Granger
Poetry Chaikhana

~*~

Our lives are like rivers.
Eventually they go where they must,
not where we want
them to...

From the movie - "Empire Falls"

Love In Its Own Way...

You pine for Love all your life,
seeking the Essence,
the purity of Love.
Your heart cries out for this Love so many times,
it seems endless - and unheard...

And then - when you least expect it -

Love reveals itself...
Not in big ways -
but in the little things.
Not in romantic ways -
but in the kindness of others.

The clerk at the grocery store and
the smile of a stranger
whose eyes tell you
they know -
they feel it too...

The voice of an estranged friend,
or loved one connecting once again.
Your heart sighs...

The sight of a bright yellow butterfly
playfully bouncing through your
backyard in pure delight of being alive.
The big, loving, black pool eyes of a puppy
eliciting your hidden love in return.
The trill of a Robin
singing for hours out your window
showing you the way out of
your self-imposed struggle.
Your heart lightens,
and sings its own song again.
Free...

You read a poem or story that inspires you to look deeper,
feel deeper, and open the heart - more...
You follow the heart's opening...

And one morning you unexpectedly wake up "happy."
Your heart dances for no reason -
except you know that somehow Love has visited you
when you weren't looking for it...

You find the spot of grace
that lets you know that
everything is deeply okay -
despite life's heartbreaks and tragedies,
yours and others...

You suddenly realize that your fear
has dissolved...
Your heart giggles like a child,
never really knowing why
or where it went -
or why it comes and goes...
You only know that, for today, there is
a new openness,
and softness of Love...

You bask in the bliss...

How this all happens, I don't know.
Life and Love ebb and flow
in their own natural way...
Darkness and Light dance
in and out of time as one movement,
touching us in ways we cannot understand,
revealing Love - in its own way...

The Mystery of Existence:
Pure Love
Inexplicable Love
Unexpected Love
that has its own way of
Loving ~

Mystic Meandering
July 15, 2016

~

Love to all!

  

The Ebb and Flow of Living...

Yesterday Kris left me a wonderful comment about the ebb and flow of energies when I expressed my concern about maybe offending people here, in the blogosphere. She also commented about how impersonal this blogging is, how easily things can be misinterpreted or misunderstood. Her comment opened me to a new way of seeing the situation that I was concerned about. AND opened me up to seeing more clearly the ebb and flow of living… Hmmm… After writing about “The Rhythm” all last week, and specifically asking the question, how does one *live* “The Rhythm?”, you’d think it would be rather obvious to me, but for some reason I couldn’t *see* it… It was as if there was still a veil there. And as I discovered, sometimes I can have great insights about things in meditation, or writing in my journal, and still not be able to *live* it… That seems to be the case here…

As I lay in bed last night, feeling symptoms of the f – l – u (I spell it just in case it’s in the room because I don’t want it to know that I know it’s hanging around) I was thinking of Kris’ comment, feeling the ebb and flow of the breath, the ebb and flow in my body as it labored, the throbbing of the head, the pulsing of the blood pumping through my veins, contemplating how life just ebbs and flows naturally. Everything is a natural cycle of ebb and flow – OF COURSE! Relationships ebb and flow – I know this so well after 30 years of marriage. The body ebbs and flows. Feelings ebb and flow. Our level of engagement with one another ebbs and flows. Our likes and dislikes. Our health. Being internal and external. The not seeing and then seeing of something. The “spiritual path.” Of course, of course, of course! It’s all ebb and flow… Everything is a cycle of ebbing and flowing, rising and falling that occurs naturally. So thank you Kris for that seeing! :)

The little card above has been on my refrigerator for years. It speaks to me of the ebb and flow of living too, of honoring our natural cycles. Which is what I need to do now. Like the bear in late Fall, I am going to lumber back to my cave for some hibernation time and rest in the ebbing energy of my body and maybe Ms. f-l-u will decide to flow right out of here…

With love in my heart for my blogosphere friends who offer your heartfelt insights and wisdoms through your blogs and comments.

Serenity's Sanctuary - Ebb & Flow

Be like the ocean that ebbs and flows –

rhythmic movement that rests,

that is without effort,

just ebbing and flowing.

Allow yourself to be carried by the ebb and flow,

the rhythm,

the ebb and flow at the core of Being.

You must learn to live there.

Practice allowing the ebb and flow to caress you,

to overtake you.

Do not be afraid to let go into the Silence of the Divine.

Find the harmony in this space of Silence,

and allow it to dissolve you;

the you that you think you know.

It is time to live from Being – the tides of Being.

The Ebb and Flow of Existence.

Surrender into the Heart and Rest.

Sweet Serenity...

~

From: Postcards from the Heart

compilations of insights from the Heart of Being

Photo by Bill Kennedy

The inside of a large earthenware flower pot