Turn Inward...

Turn...

inward,

toward "The Silence;"
The Light in your Heart;
the space of Pure Awareness...

Turn from the voices of an unconscious world;
the voices of confusion, hatred, and ignorance;
the ones who distract you from *knowing*
the Truth of who you are...

~ Turn ~

Turn and Listen

in the deep Silence,
in the chalice of the Heart,
until you hear what needs to be heard...

Turn inward from the stimulation of empty words
being "sold" to the masses with the false delusions
of the Real, selling you their "frameworks" of reality,
leaving you empty...

Come - Sit in The Silence...

Sit in solitude...

Silently listening within...

Thrive in The Silence
of your own Being,
that waits for you to
Turn...

Mystic Meandering
April 2020

~

"There is a huge silence inside each of us 

that beckons us into itself, and the recovery 

of our own silence can begin to teach us 

the language of heaven." 

 Meister Eckhart

~~

Photo - the 2011 Full Moon through a skylight...
What captured my attention was the reflection of
what appears to be an "inner window" or door.
You can see the square-like image to the right of
the ball of light (moon).  In a sense it is what this
poem is about - turning inward through the inner
window/door, and meeting the Spaciousness that
 is always there...

Vulnerability - David Whyte

Vulnerability is not a weakness, a passing indisposition, or
something we can arrange to do without.  Vulnerability is not a
 choice, vulnerability is the underlying, ever present and abiding
undercurrent of our natural state.  To run from vulnerability is to
run from the essence of our nature.  The attempt to be invulnerable
is the vain attempt to become something we are not and most
especially, to close off our understanding of the grief of others.
More seriously, in refusing our vulnerability we refuse the help
needed at every turn of our existence.

To have a temporary, or isolated sense of power over all events
and circumstances is a lovely illusionary privilege and perhaps
the prime and most beautifully constructed conceit of being human
and especially of being a youthful human, but it is a privilege that
must be surrendered with that same youth, with ill health, with
loss of loved ones who do not share our untouchable powers;
powers eventually and most emphatically given up, as we
approach our last breath.

The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our
vulnerability, how we become more courageous and  more
compassionate through our intimacy with disappearance.

Our choice is to inhabit vulnerability as generous citizens of
loss, robustly and fully, or conversely, as misers and complainers,
reluctant and fearful, always at the gates of Existence, but never
walking fully through the door...

David Whyte

Excerpt from
Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying
Meaning of Everyday Words

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Waiting for the Words - Etty Hillesum

The only words I want to write are those normally woven
into great silence, not those merely that serve to drown out
silence and to pull it apart.  They should simply emphasize
the silence..... and around it space, not empty but inspired.
The few great things that matter in life can be said in a
few words.  I hate the accumulation of words.  I would like
to brush in a few words against a wordless background.  To
describe the silence and the stillness and to inspire them.

What matters is the right relationship between words and
wordlessness, the wordlessness in which much happens
than all the words one can string together...

We must speak about the Ultimate only when the words
well up inside us as simply and as naturally as water
from a spring...  Say only what is absolutely essential...
and become more concentrated in yourself...

I cannot stop searching for.....the one word that sums
up everything within me...  So I shall wait patiently
until the words have grown inside me...

Etty Hillesum

from: Etty Hillesum - Essential Writings
by Annemarie S. Kidder

Etty was a 28 or 29 year old Dutch Jewish girl
when she died at the Nazi camp in Auschwitz...

~

I wish I could find some inspiring words to offer

during this stressful time...  Like Etty I wait for
the words, and if they arise, or if I find inspiration
from others, I will post them...

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Passion for Being...

I want to walk through life truly seeing - truly Aware...
Awake to the Presence of the Eternal Being that lives this life...

- the Life that animates all life...

I want to See everything as Living Aliveness;

with the same innocent wonder and amazement
as I did as a child, as if seeing Life living for the
first time...

I want to be in Love with life again -
if I ever was...

Maybe loving, and living life in new ways...

I want to Hear
the laughter of Life

in my Heart.

I want to Experience the Euphoria of
Life ItSelf, living ItSelf
in all its unfolding luminosity,
in the every-day-ness of life...

I want to Embrace
every thought,
expression,
and feeling
as it arises
without
trying
to
confine it,
or suppress it,
or correct it
before it is expressed.

Let me be free from entanglements
of the mind that keep me compliant
and complicit with the world's ways...

I want to risk not following the rules,
the protocols, the agendas of others;
the well-worn paths.

Instead - rising above the familiarity
of any "path" to see what's really here...

May I have the courage to speak
with fierce grace to those who
would try to quell this passion,
to strip this enthusiasm, to
suffocate this spontaneity,
to dim the radiance and
clarity of
the

Passion of Being!

Mystic Meandering
Jan. 2011

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
reflection of stained glass on wall

(Holy Fire :)

Mind and Consciousness - Rupert Spira

There is no distinction between Essence of Mind
and the expression of mind...

There is no entity called mind in Consciousness...

Mind is the activity of Consciousness.
Thought is just the activity of Mind
in the activity of Consciousness.

Perception appears in Consciousness.
The mind is not the container.
There are thought perceptions in
Consciousness.

Thought, choice, desire, feelings are a
movement of Consciousness.

Consciousness in its naked form is empty
of thought, choice, desire, and feeling.

Rupert Spira
Non-Duality teacher

Excerpts from one of his YouTube video talks

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
 Clear Cut Glass Crystal
in a stoneware candle holder

Spirit and Mind - Etty Hillesum

Spirit and mind should feed each other.  What you must
not do is rely on some external certainty, and that means
being secure in yourself and at peace with yourself, but
also that your mind is allowed to explore what makes life
hang together, not because you want to achieve something
or you want to succeed at something that interests you, but
because you happen to have been created with a passionate
and honest concern for what goes on in the world, and
above all for what goes on in your inner world.

You shouldn't live on your brains alone but on deeper, more
abiding sources...  You should gratefully accept your brains
as a precious tool for delving into what problems your soul
brings forth... And have ever greater trust in intuition...

Etty Hillesum
from: Etty Hillesum - Essential Writings

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Quartz Crystal with reflection of light

Cosmic Stirrings - Author Unknown

The Cosmic skies are stirring, there is a change in the air
that may awaken us to some new truths.

How beautiful that we don't yet know the way.
How beautiful that there are elements of life
that still confuse us, make us feel deeper than
we could have imagined, and remind us of
what is real and pure in our hearts.

How beautiful, that even though we don't yet
know "the way", we can spread our wings,
shift our awareness, and trust that there is a
new unfolding that is destined to come.

It is the journey of metamorphosis that we
are being guided to walk down.

Whatever comes, know that it is part of how we
move through our own cycle of ego into the
dark night of the soul, and then finally, into
spiritual wisdom.

Sometimes we need intensity to drive the
vehicle of transformation.

While we want to remain strong and centered,
we also don't want to limit or cut ourselves off
from allowing whatever comes to move us,
change us, and transform us.

We have to remember to keep shifting our
awareness of what life is and what role we are
here to play; to allow ourselves to keep dying
and being reborn.  Keep questioning, keep growing,
keep allowing things to shock and surprise us, for
they are often the fuel for our continued growth.

author unknown
found on Facebook

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
water droplets on a white background
color inverted and zoom blurred :)

Birthing... - Stephen Levine

There is a grace approaching
that we shun as much as death,
it is the completion of our birth.

It does not come in time,
but in timelessness
when the mind sinks into the heart
and we remember.

It is an insistent grace that draws us
to the edge and beckons us surrender
safe territory and enter our enormity.

We know we must pass
beyond knowing
and fear the shedding.

But we are pulled upward
none-the-less
through forgotten ghosts
and unexpected angels,
luminous.

And there is nothing left to say
but - we are That...

Stephen Levine
from: Breaking the Drought, Visions of Grace

~

Photo - Beautiful Mammatus clouds at sunset
taken by my husband a couple of nights ago.

Live In Wonder - Bach, Monroe, Einstein

It must happen to all of us...  We pack up what we've learned
so far and leave the familiar behind.  No fun that shearing
separation but somewhere within, we must dimly know
that saying goodbye to safety brings the only security
we'll ever know.

Richard Bach

Quote from: Live In Wonder
a journal book
by Eric Saperston

~

Take wrong turns.  Talk to strangers.  Open unmarked doors.
There are so many adventures that you miss because you are
waiting to think of a plan.  To find them, look for tiny
interesting choices.

Randall Monroe

Quote from: Live In Wonder
a journal book
by Eric Saperston

~

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existence.
One cannot help but be in awe when he
contemplates the mysteries of eternity,
of life, of the marvelous structures of
reality.

Never lose a holy curiosity.

Albert Einstein

Quote from: Live In Wonder
a journal book
by Eric Saperston

~

Photo - Leaves on grass, color digitally inverted

Intuition as Mystical Illumination - Henri Bergson

The real world, the world revealed during mystical illumination,
is not like our everyday world and within it our everyday ways
of knowing and understanding simply don't work.

...the philosopher Henri Bergson realized this earlier in the century.
Bergson argued that while excellent for enabling us to maneuver
through the world, the intellect is not very good at grasping reality,
When we try to do this, it slips through our fingers.

What is time?  Where does space end?
Our minds are numb when faced with these questions...

What is needed for this, Bergson said, was intuition, which is a way
of getting inside the world, knowing it from within.  The
 intellect looks at things from the outside and analyzes experience
 into parts. That is good for obvious uses, but it is useless if we
want to grasp the reality [nature] of things.  The intellect falsifies
 reality to a great extent in order to make it manageable...

What seems to happen in mystical moments is that we see the world
through intuition, not intellect...

From: Gary Lackman - Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of
Colin Wilson

Henri Bergson (1859 - 1941) was a French Philosopher
He is known for his influential arguments that processes of
immediate experience and intuition are more significant than
abstract rationalism for understanding reality.

Intuition - the act or faculty of knowing without the use of
rational processes; immediate cognition.  Sharp insight...

And I would also add a personal note here:
There are different comprehensions of reality
because of the limitations of the mind/intellect;
different ways of seeing the same reality;
different ways of perceiving the same reality.

It is a fallacy to believe that there is no "other" world,
when Quantum Physics has proved there is a subtle,
energetic world that infuses and informs this reality.
There is a "mystery" behind all this - and not just the "this"
that we see - but something behind what we see with our
superficial seeing...
Who/What is seeing...
All is not what it seems...

~

Photo - rainbow lights on a wall... :)

The Second Music - Annie Lighthart

Now I understand that there are two melodies playing,

one below the other, one easier to hear, the other

lower, steady, perhaps more faithful for being less heard

yet always present.

When alll other things seem lively and real

this one fades.  Yet the notes of it

touch as gently as fingertips, as the sound

of the names laid over each child at birth.

I want to stay in that music without striving or cover.

If the truth of our lives is what it is playing,

the telling is so soft

that this mortal time, this irrevocable change,

becomes beautiful.  I stop and stop again

to hear the second music.

I hear the children in the yard, a train, then birds.

All this is in it and will be gone.

I set my ear to it as I would

to a heart.

Annie Lighthart

~*~

Also see my post A Deeper Rhythm

~*~

Photo - The inside of a seashell 

Collapse the Scaffolding...

Allow everything to collapse…
All the structures that you have erected,
that you cling to;
beliefs, opinions, self-images, self-identities;
self-definitions;
what you *think* you are;
believe you are;
want life to be;
desire to have;
and feel about
your ‘self.’

Collapse everything
that you hold onto
as your ‘self.’

Collapse into the Ineffable Mystery of Being;
with no sense of I am this or that;
no sense of a separate ‘me’;
just pure Life
expressing
the
stream
of
Living
moving
in,
through,
and as
’you.’

Collapse into the Fullness
of
Emptiness,

of
Silence,

of
Stillness…

Experience what’s
beyond the structures
that you’ve tried
to hold in place for so long
with your scaffolding:
your “ego”,
your “personality”…

Feel the Vastness of Being when there’s
nothing to cling to…

No identity
No self-image
No plan
No concept of life
No belief
No opinion
No judgment
No *sense* of 
’self’
to hold
’you’
up.

When the false scaffolding collapses

What is “behind” this “you”
that you *think* you are?

Nothing but the Ineffable Mystery of Life ItSelf…

~ ♥ ~

Mystic Meandering

Meditative Writings

July 2011

Timelessness...

I have conversed with the Universe,

commiserated and cogitated,

ascended, descended,

polarized, conceptualized and spiritualized,

dis-membered and re-membered ~

and still I find no “plan” ~

Only vastness and immensity

beyond theory, framework, and concept.

The Greatest, Grandest Mystery

procreating itself

in endless infinity;

without beginning or end,

Sound beyond sound,

Light beyond light ~
Mystery of mysteries…

Expressing ItSelf in timelessness,

through time, and space beyond time,

with one vibration:

~ Love ~

From this mysterious pulse of Love

we are coalesced into Form,

and dance the dance of duality ~

our light and our dark
seamlessly woven

as one thread within the
 cosmic fabric of Timelessness
 dancing in Time…

~*~

Mystic Meandering

Originally written on Winter Solstice

1999
revised December 2015

Graced With Gratitude...

Gratitude arises
like a warm flame
in the Heart;
a flame that
comes alive
on its own
from within

Overtaking me by surprise…

It’s a gratitude of
unknown origin -
not contrived,
or cultivated,
but
deeply felt in the
core of my Being;
only awareness is
needed….

A gratitude
not for being alive,
but for Aliveness ItSelf,
for the Aliveness that
is Life;
that dances and sings
the Cosmos
into being;
that imbues existence
with LIFE!

For the color and movement
of life being lived
in every minute detail;
for the opening and
unfoldment of life
that has its own
course,
its own
way,
unfolding Itself in
total freedom of Being

I am truly graced with Gratitude -
beyond words…


Mystic Meandering
Meditative writings
October 2015

~

Photo: street light through ice on window
2011

Take Refuge in Silence - Kalidas and Kopp

All sound arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
All thought arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
The universe arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
Suffering arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
The unbounded spaciousness of Silence,
     filled with the clear light of Awareness,
     dissolves the roots of pain and sorrow.
Take refuge in Silence and know
     unshakable joy.

Kalidas – Western Hindu Yogi

Via: No Mind’s Land

Awareness of the Divine Essence as our innermost

true Self requires silence.

It is turning toward what lies hidden within -
to the internal – the all embracing totality of
Divine Being.
It is the way of meditation,
the way of inner silence before Spirit…

Remaining quiet before Spirit is a prayer of silence,
through which we listen to that which secretly speaks to us
in the inner room of the heart.

What is hidden deep in our innermost being lies
in silence and stillness,
and in the silence of the deep
springs the eternal,
inexhaustible,
original
source
of
all
being.

Where words fall silent,
the everlasting
begins…

Wolfgang Kopp – Western Zen Master

From: Free Yourself of Everything

~

Top Photo: Snow on screen
Bottom Photo: Rainbow Lights on wall

Come to the Window...

Come to the window tonight…

Become Friends with the Night
 and The Silence…
Let The Silence strengthen you.
Surrender the day into
the night;
into The Silence…

and

Find the Treasure of Silence
that lifts the veil…

Hear the OM of Silence
that pervades all sound.
Fathom the depth of OM
as it reverberates *through*
the Silence;
the pulse of the Universe;
the Rhythm of Life

sung ~ in silence – by The Silence

Drop into The Silence and rest…

The mind lets go
rocked by The Rhythm
of Silence
that cradles
its weariness…

Love begins to soften the eyes,
the brow, the tension;
Love of The Silence;
the Love that inhabits The Silence.

The day dissolves,
fixations loosen,
thoughts become insignificant.
There is only the Aliveness of the Night,
enfolded in Silence…

Everything is magical
when seen from the window
of Silence…

Mystic Meandering
August 10, 2015

~

Photo: a blue glass partly filled with water – back-lit.
Gives the illusion of a window
looking out on city lights – and -
there’s a reflection of a “person” (eyes)
looking through the window!
It’s magic!

Infinite Unfolding - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

The Mystical Path
takes one into the depths of the Heart.

It leads you from the known to the unknown,
and then further into
the unknowable,
into a darkness brighter than
any light.

Nothing can prepare you for the Heart’s journey,
for the places it can take you,
the depths and the heights
that are within you.
So many times you think you are crazy,
bewildered and lost.
There are few signposts,
often little sense of direction.

It is our own unique journey.

It takes us to places where there are no
books or stories, no words to comfort us,
except the story of our own Heart,
our own confusion, longing and love.

We discover the illusory nature of the ego.

The “I” is just an illusion, a veil of separation.

We awaken to the simple and fundamental truth
that there is nothing other than God.

Even the idea of a path is an illusion…

~

So what is this love story that unfolds within
the Heart of a Mystic?

How much of “our story” is [really] “God’s story”?

…all one story,
One Light
split into many fragments,
yet always remaining
One Light…

This one story
is lived in millions of ways,
each story a unique fragrance of Love.
Every cell in creation lives its own love story,
its longing for the Source.

Human beings have the capacity
to make this story conscious,
to know the nature of their
hidden longing.

There can only ever be
one story,
because
there is only one Beloved,
and yet
we are part of this story;
our little “i”
must also be
a part of
The Beloved…

Infinitely Unfolding

Excerpts from:
Fragments of a Love Story

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

Please note: I have taken excerpts from various pages
in the book and arranged them in the form of a prose poem.

~

Photo: Lotus Heart Stained Glass Zoom Blurred

The Hush of "The Mystery..."

The Hush of “The Mystery”
silently moves through time and form…

Can you feel it? -
this silent hush
that embraces you
that communes with you
even when you don’t know it!?

It waits for you to stop and listen -
to sense Its Hush
surrounding you,
infusing you -
beyond hearing,
beyond seeing,
beyond knowing

It comes in sudden,
unexpected
breezes of awareness
wafting through your being -
in and out of your noticing,
but never really
gone ~

It invites you to enter
the cosmic seduction of
Its Love,

to

follow Its Silence
more deeply,
into the inner cavern
of Its Heart
that awaits you

 in the depths
of Its repose

Succumb
to what awaits you
in
the Heart of “The Mystery”

Love’s Illumination

~*~

Mystic Meandering
based on a poem written in 2013

Revised Version May 29, 2015

~

I use the term “The Mystery” here, but one can call it:

The Infinite, the Unknown, the Ineffable,

The Unamable, the Ultimate Reality, The Beloved,

and, of course,

God.

~

Photo: A glass sphere sitting in glass floral pebbles

back lit from underneath.

~

“The Mystery”, like Life ItSelf, is ever unfolding,
 ever revealing ITself.
We are always in a state of discovering “The Mystery”
and what IT is revealing to us - ongoingly.
What IT offers each of us is unique, yet universal:

Speaking directly to our Hearts…

When I speak of “The Mystery”, as in this poem
 or the previous one,
 it is always from my own *experience* of it,
 for I am acutely aware
that I *know* nothing *about* “The Mystery”,
only how “The Mystery” reveals ItSelf to and in
 my Heart…

Namaste…