Balance - MacIver & Levey

Your inner world guides you without you knowing it.
Our thought patterns determine the quality of our lives.
That inner process works at the depth of each of us
carrying the meaning that has been trying to establish
itself in our existence.  It embodies the potential of who
we are when our life expresses itself as a whole.
Silence helps...

A sign of balance is a comfort with silence, both Silence
within and silence without.

Rod MacIver
Artist/Writer
Heron Dance

~

Balance can be sensed in terms of the waves of the Ocean.
...at a deeper level, the changing tides of such "waves" are balanced
by the profound reality of an unchanging "Ocean" within you;
Just as the Ocean is the water that forms all waves, 
The Ocean within you is the universal reality or essence
that dwells within all beings... 

[Some call this the Silence]
 Discovering the Ocean is vitally important for the
 discovery of balance, because it
provides a place of peace for you to return home to, despite
the chaos of the day.

...keep balanced on the waves of our challenging lives...

Joel and Michelle Levey
From: Living in Balance

~

Personal Note:  For many years the Inner Silence was my refuge.
Then life fell out of balance about 2 years ago through unexpected
life circumstances and I was unable to *access* the Silence,
or maintain balance, literally.
My energy and body are really out of whack.
Returning to doing my funky art vortexes seems to be helping
to find a sense of inner balance again, but I need to rediscover
the deep Inner Silence of Being and align with that.
One step at a time...

MM

~

Photo - Wave Vortex
Craypas oil with fingers
Mystic Meandering
Aug 2024

 

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

Peace Window

Peace is at the window tonight…
It is tangible.

There is just a sense of well-being in the night -
a sense of calm…

I feel into The Rhythm of the Inner Wave
through the breath more easily.

The eerie sound of a lone coyote howls,
but doesn’t break the peace…

Momentary thoughts pull me away from the window,
and The Rhythm,
until I realize I’m in my head – thinking.

I bring my awareness back to window –
the opening of Awareness;
to the feel of the air at the window,
the sound of the crickets,
the Spaciousness,
the experience in the moment,
the felt sense of peace
that is right here…

The window, awareness, is an invitation
to settle into The Rhythm…

Aware of thoughts.
Aware of peace.
Aware of feelings.
Aware of peace.

like the rhythm of the in-breath and out-breath…
automatic…

Thought – no thought.
Feeling – no feeling.

Only when thought and feeling are grasped,
held onto, believed, identified with
do they get stuck, frozen…
Otherwise they just pass through – like light waves.
They just rise and fall like the breath,
in the deep Internal Rhythm
of Stillness…

Let them dance…

Peace….


~*~

Inner Wave "Window"

Wednesday I did the “Inner Wave” video by Gabriel Roth as my “exercise.” It was a video I had stashed away in my cabinet, in the same stack with Richard Simmons… The back cover says – “Surrender to the Dance” – “With ‘The Inner Wave’ you will investigate stillness, the mother of all rhythm, through a meditative dance journey with this pioneer of ecstatic dance… As you surrender to the dance, exploring and improvising with every part of your body, you will experience how ecstatic dance can clear your mind and open your heart, and allow you to touch the stillpoint within.” Oooo, my kind of exercise!

I cleared the den of clutter and coffee table, put the video on and stood waiting – poised. As soon as the video started playing I *knew* intuitively that this was what I was meant to be doing. You intuitively know when something feels “right” for you. Emotions stirred from within.

As soon as I started moving with the music there was a huge emotional release, as if years of stuffed feelings and stifled life let go. Feelings of grief and sadness broke free from the body, mind and heart, along with feelings of longing for the Divine. I know, here’s that separation thing again – but this was my experience. The movement immediately got me in touch with the *flow* of emotions that were just waiting under the surface. As I moved, I emoted. As I expressed I felt my heart open and let go of its contents in torrents and waves of emotion – washing through me from deep within – releasing pain, grief and sadness. It was quite intense, and very freeing… No drama, just pure expression…

It was a natural dance, rising up from within: a natural, spontaneous movement of life and a natural expression of the feelings that had been trapped in the body and heart - being stuffed with food… They were now moving through - dancing them out, letting them move me, and moving with them.

Maria, from Liminal Light, left a comment a few posts back that said in part: “Feel the movement of the emotion. Pay attention to the movement of emotion.” The dance physically allowed for awareness of this inner movement of the emotion… Ecstatic dance gave spontaneous expression to what’s inside, which ultimately turns out to be the Aliveness within – the alive, aware, awake Stillness that moves all life. Through this creative and artistic form the Formless is met and feelings are danced out in natural rhythms that rise and fall from the space of Origin; danced out from the space beyond ideas, concepts, feelings and compulsions – the field of Awareness.

The music that played in the background was a gentle pulse of drums called “Bardo” by Gabriel Roth and the Mirrors. How appropriate – taking me to the in-between space, the place of alchemy, dissolving the “self” and just purely Being… One with the movement. One with the moment. Sweet Ecstasy…

There is nothing that could be more symbolically suited for me at this time than this dance exercise. It felt deeply spiritual, like a Divine Dance with The Essence of all Dance, as well as the shadows of the “self” – in an alchemy of movement. It was like returning to an inner Flow – the Tao – the Inner Wave - as the sense of self dissolved in the Dance, and each movement became the expression of the deeper Rhythm.

However, in my exuberance I over-stressed this aging body with its chronic kidney and health issues. I haven’t felt well for the past few days. It has affected me internally. I’m sure I opened a few meridian points and channels, releasing blocked energy. So there’s probably a little cleansing going on as toxins leave my system, both physically and emotionally. Consequently my “exercise” regimen is on hold for the time being until this body re-harmonizes itself. Honestly I’m a little bummed because I love this form of “exercise!” - dance as "spiritual practice." But I continue to watch the video as there is something that moves me within even watching it….

~*~

You can view a small portion of “The Inner Wave” with Gabriel Roth on YouTube. The first couple of minutes, as she is speaking, is especially moving :)

Gabriel Roth’s website is: http://www.gabrielleroth.com/

May we all dance in beauty…
May we all dance in peace…
May we all dance as One…

In Stillness let your dance be...

Gabriel Roth

~*~

Fun-Qi Art™ - Christine