At the Edge - Czeslaw Milosz

A valley and above it forests in autumn colors.
A voyager arrives, a map led him here.
Or perhaps memory.  Once, long ago, in the sun,
When the first snow fell, riding this way
He felt joy, strong, without reason,

Joy of the eyes.  Everything was the rhythm
Of shifting trees, of a bird in flight.
Of a train on the viaduct, a feast of motion.
He returns years later, has no demands.
He wants only one, most precious thing:
To see, purely and simply, without name,
Without expectations, fears, or hopes,
At the edge where there is no I or not-I.

Czeslaw Milosz

translated by Robert Hass

with thanks to Whisky River

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Moment of Joy - Mary Oliver

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don't hesitate...

 ....sometimes something happens better than all the
riches or power in the world.  It could be anything, but
very likely you notice it in an instant...

 Anyway, whatever it is, don' be afraid of its plenty...

Mary Oliver
from: Swan

Original Title - Don't Hesitate

With thanks to Whiskey River

~

Personal Note:  This happened to me a couple of days ago
Suddenly the shroud of darkness lifted, and there was causeless joy,
and LIFE, and gratitude, peace and contentment
just waiting underneath...
It was joyous :)
And then it disappeared after a day just as it had arisen...

A moment of Joy...

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Alegria! - Joy - a meandering...

"If you have no hope - Create!"

"I see a light shining - Alegria!"

Two nights ago (Aug 11) we were watching the closing ceremonies of
the Paris Olympics.  As the athletes walked into the stadium,
I tried to read what country they were from printed on their
clothing.  I could have sworn one said "Alegria."
And I said: "Alegria?  Where's that!?"
Later I read it again, it said "Algiers."

Something went off inside when I read it as Alegria.
That was a Cirque du Soleil artistic circus performance many
years ago that we watched, and one of the opening lines was:
"If you have no hope - Create! Alegria!" (which means Joy)

Two nights ago that remembrance sparked a light in me to
Create again...

I got out the card table and pulled the poster board and Craypas
oil sticks from beneath the bed, set up a space and began to
Create...  Resulting in the above picture - just movement and color.
That's all that was needed.

I felt the heaviness that I've been carrying lift; a release occurred 
as something within gave expression through color and movement...

I felt the stuck energy unlock.  Having been swallowed up by my
current life experience, I knew my energy was out of sync.

The act of creating heals, frees,
and ignites something within...

I thought: Maybe creating is a way through;
a reclaiming of myself; a realignment...

I'm sure most true artists know this...
I just had to experience it for myself;
to feel it...

And how awed I was to experience that
"The Divine" (however called) speaks
through ordinary means,
like watching TV :) not just in moments
of silent meditation...

Alegria!

Mystic Meandering
Aug 12, 2024

~

Photo: Funky Vortex Art
Aug 2024
Mystic Meandering

 

Cosmic Light...

Sadness gives way to spontaneity...

The inner child of the Cosmos
has come to play...

There's a hidden joy inside that shimmers up
- playful,
tickling the heart...

Subtle joy turns into Love for the whole experience of
LIFE

knowing it's all the "Play" of the Cosmos...

The Light of the Cosmos
hidden within myself
begins to glow -
an unlit light.

It's the rhythm of the Cosmos that moves me,
taking my breath away,
making my heart skip;
and the realization that

I am Cosmic Light -
lit from within!

I am the Cosmos!

I am the joy of the Universe...

It's all the Play of Cosmic Light!

Mystic Meandering
Sept. 21. 2020

Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

Here's a woo-woo story about how I found this poem again... :)

One night I was checking the stats on my blog, and saw my
URL with a number after it.  I had never seen this before.  So I
clicked on it, and it gave me two links.  I recognized the first
link, so I clicked on it.  And it took me to a fellow blogger's blog,
now deceased!  And right there on the page was the poem, 
"Cosmic Light" that she had posted in 2020.  She passed away
in January 2021.  How strange!  A "voice" from beyond?
However it came, it was as if someone was trying to remind me,
that even though I have been going through dark and challenging
 times the light is still there. And I still have to embrace it all everyday,
the dark and the light.  I even mentioned to a friend that
I thought my Light  was going out - he too reminded me that there
 is still a light within that never goes out.
 We ARE that Light!  And that life is a play of the 
Cosmos :)

I have since tried to enter that same combination of URL with 
the number again and it tells me "site not found"

:)

 

The Loom of Creation - Ginny Lonsdale

called out
sung into being
through the loom of creation
dipped
coloured
immersed
kneaded
patterned
woven again

re-woven
I
came to Be, HERE.

Somewhere, along the
colour, spin and weave
of YOUR material story,
I remembered:

it is YOU

singing and breathing me.

- the rapture and exultation,
ardent love for YOU,
the treasure of your earth,
tears of joy outpour from a heart
filled with gratitude and wonder
for the privilege of being called forth,
to take a place HERE.
it is Our joy to hug and welcome each other.
Why not love
that which you have made?

it is Our joy to hold hands and dance.
Why not love
that which breathes me, adores me?

it is Our unity
that allows me to disrobe
and live in your clearing

HERE...

I am enfolded in your eternal embrace
naked and secure
in Your immeasurable Peace.

[.....]

Ginny Lonsdale

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Light shining in sink :)

 

Delightful Distractions - Fred LaMotte

Honor the slight distractions
that keep you sane.
These are not distractions.
These are the essentials.
A titmouse at the thistle feeder.
Wing-beat of geese
navigating by the moon.
A glistening spider's web
in the withering hyssop.
Exultation of a turquoise moth
who will only live until sunrise.
The motionless explosion of a rose.
Are you not redeemed by the sure
sweet vision of particulars?

What else is faith?
The baby's ancient gaze
from a supermarket shopping cart.
Elegant cracks in a hand-made tea bowl.
Two dragonflies dancing at the edge
of a spring-fed forest pond.
Fragrance of honeysuckle
on a broken fence.
Sound of a horse's tail
swatting flies on a summer morning.
These are not distractions.
These are every flame-tipped thing
conspiring in a ceaseless revelation
to whisper yes, you are here.
The splendor of Sri Yantra
seen in the camellia blossom
that fell in the night by your back door,
its empyrean petals, choir upon choir.
The crown of an infant against your cheek.
Bamboo wind chimes in an empty temple.
Whisper of waves dissolving on sand.
The silence between raindrops.
This breath.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

My personal delights:

Crickets chirping their chorus in the quiet of night.
The sound of rain hitting the elephant ear leaves of
 a zucchini plant in the garden.

Sitting in the open window late at night
breathing in the silence, as the cool night air
brushes my face.
The early morning echo of the birds wake-up call,
or their haunting goodnight song.
Sunlight through glassware... :)

What are some of your delights? 

 

Accepting the Seasons of the Heart - Kahlil Gibran

 Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses
your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart
may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily
miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less
wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of the heart,
even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass
over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters
of your grief...

Kahlil Gibran

With thanks to Death Deconstructed

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Joy Returns - a little (maybe)

 I have recently experienced illness with a fever. 
During the night the fever broke, and I awoke
feeling lightness and Joy - if only for a few moments -
as I scurried to the bathroom and back to bed, excited
to be feeling Joy again :)  It lasted only a few moments,
but I felt relieved...

In my journal I wrote:

 the weight of illness,
 how heavy it is and how it
weighs you down,
like the dampening sound of a bell
 when struck - dampened by the weight of illness -

dis-ease...
dis-pair...
grief...

in this case a fever of unknown origin. I know that many 
have experienced this great weight of illness in the past year.

And yet - for a short moment
Joy breaks through
and sings from within the bell.

I am grateful knowing that Joy returns for
many of us - no matter what the illness, even if only a
little, for only a moment, and our bell begins to ring again...

Many Blessings

_/\_

~

Don't try to find it in the future.  Joy is not hope.
Don't try to find it in the past.  Joy is not an ancient story.
And all our stories are ancient, even the tale of yesterday.
And please don't travel to a higher plane, an elevated state
of consciousness, in search of joy.  You will never find it
there, because joy is not a "state" to be gained - or lost.

Neither is joy a condition of circumstance, the good fortune
of some but not others.

Joy is what Existence is doing...

It glows from the Heart of Presence...

Does the light of joy descend from "above"?
No, it wells up like a tear from within.

Joy is the light already embedded in the darkness,
the fragrance of the void, the music in the hollow
of the bell not struck, the overflowing wealth earned

by not-doing.  If you need a reason for joy,
it isn't joy.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Cosmic Light...

 Sadness gives way to spontaneity...
The inner child of the Cosmos
has come to play...

There's a hidden joy inside that shimmers up
- playful,
tickling the heart...

Subtle joy turns into Love for the whole experience of
LIFE
knowing it's all the "Play" of the Cosmos...

The Light of the Cosmos
hidden within myself
begins to glow -
an unlit light.

It is the rhythm of the Cosmos that moves me,
taking my breath away,
making my heart skip;
and the realization that

I am Cosmic Light -
lit from within!

I am the Cosmos!

I am the Joy of the Universe...

It's all the Play of Cosmic Light!

Mystic Meandering
Sept 21, 2020

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

71 years around the Sun-star today!

Hard to believe...

More playful, "light-hearted", and unencumbered...
Intuitively listening to where she wants to spend her
heart beats in these waning years....

_/\_

Namaste

Waking Up to Bliss...

I woke this morning surprised by Bliss...

It was just there -
undisturbed by my mind...

Just this Bliss
bubbling up through me.

There was only Openness...
with/about life...

And there was Gratitude,
that apparently comes with Bliss...

Gratitude for my bed, my pillows,
for the sheets, and the body "I" inhabit,
that struggles so often...

I woke this morning feeling FREE...

Not free from anything -
just Freeness - unencumbered...

I was Freeness ItSelf...

And there was LOVE...
As if I could reach out to everyone with my Heart,
and just Love them!

It was a natural, organic urge for love and kindness
that rose from somewhere inside...

I woke this morning feeling - JOY!~

Quiet Joy...
Internal Joy...

I did not conjure up any of these...
I did not meditate on them,
or "practice" them...

They were already here...

They just happened!

I was graced - unexpectedly
when I wasn't looking for them...

I didn't want to lose this -
this Bliss, this gratitude,
this joy and love for life;
this unfettered Freeness.
So I just lay there...
basking in Bliss -
until it left, just as it came...

It was all inside;
not happening TO me,
but was taking place inside me...
It had nothing to do with me at all!
Something was coming alive within...

Was this "The Kiss of The Mystery"?
Most assuredly...
unbidden...

This realization arose from the Silence of Bliss:
One cannot "Awaken" one's self.
One's self does not "Awaken" - but
Something inside us
Opens
for no apparent reason,
spontaneously...

and creates in us a new way of seeing and being
in the world...

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 7, 2020

~

Photo - Mandala Art
Mystic Meandering

When Dark Clouds - Jamie K. Reaser

When the dark clouds lay thick
before you and the wind has
lifted your hair and taken it
someplace wild, do nothing.
Be no one known.
What has happened is moving
on to new horizons.  What remains
are the desires withstood and
all the unfinishedness that will
see you through to the next day.

copyright/ Jamie K. Reaser
From "Truth and Beauty"

~

The hurt you embrace becomes joy...

Rumi

The Root of All Things - Chuang Tzu

The non-action of the wise man is not inaction.
It is not studied.  It is not shaken by anything.
The sage is quiet because he is not moved,
Not because he wills to be quiet.
Still water is like glass.
You can look in it and see the bristles on your chin.
It is a perfect level;
A carpenter could use it.
If water is so clear, so level,
How much more the spirit of man?
The heart of the wise man is tranquil.
It is the mirror of heaven and earth.
The glass [mirror] of everything.
Emptiness, stillness, tranquility, tastelessness,
Silence, non-action: this is the level of heaven and earth.
This is the perfect Tao.  Wise men find here
Their resting place.
Resting, they are empty.

From emptiness comes the unconditioned.

From this, the conditioned, the individual things.
So from the sage's emptiness, stillness arises:
From stillness, action.  From action, attainment.
From their stillness comes their non-action,
which is also action, which is, therefore, their attainment.
For stillness is joy.  Joy is free from care.
Joy does all things without concern:
For emptiness, stillness, tranquility, tastelessness,
Silence, and non-action
Are the root of all things.

Chuang Tzu

translation by Thomas Merton

with thanks to The Beauty We Love!

Tell us of Pain - Khalil Gibran & Nisargadatta

And a woman spoke saying:

"Tell us of Pain"

And he said:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your
understanding.  Even as the stone of the fruit must break,
that its heart may stand in the sun,
so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily
miracles of life, your pain would not seem less wondrous
than your joy.  And you would accept the seasons of
your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons
that pass over the fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of
your grief.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within heals
your sick self.

Therefore, trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence
and tranquility.  For his hand, though heavy and hard, is
guided by the tender hand of the Unseen.

And the cup he brings,
though it burn your lips,
has been fashioned of the clay
which the Potter has moistsened
with His own sacred Tears.

Khalil Gibran

The Prophet


~

The real world is beyond the mind's ken;
we see it through the net of our desires,
divided into pleasure and pain,
right and wrong, inner and outer.
To see the universe as it is,
you must step beyond the net.

Look at the net and its many contradictions.
You do and undo at every step.
You want peace, love, happiness
and work hard to create pain, hatred and war.
You want longevity and overeat,
you want friendship and exploit.
See your net as made of such contradictions
and remove them...
Your very seeing them will make them go.

Nisargadatta

Wonderment - Naomi Stone

When we truly arrive in that vast space
of who we are in purity of being
as we are created to be,

we are the living beauty of an expanding sanctuary,
we are life aware of itself
fluid
changing,
we are the flow of a shifting

transparency

of spirit

the bliss of an unseen kiss

felt in the

rising mist of existence
dissolving in the pure eternal joy
of this eternal moment
of
a thrilling transforming
ever changing
wonder...

Naomi Stone

~

Personal note: My own experience is that
"arriving" simply means we come to see/
recognize the Pure Beingness that we are.
We are, as Naomi says, "Life aware of itself."

~

Photo - Fat globules in a pan of water,
digitally altered :)

Effortless Joy - Sandy Jones

Love leaves the confines of ideologies, doctrines, dogma and
the restricting limitations of regulations and rules.  Love is
freedom.  Love makes it easy to see in new ways.  It opens
the heart to expansive vistas, to freedom.  Love and freedom
go hand-in-hand.  Love and Reality reside right here as the
very identity I am.  Each of us can put our self here because
this unbound Self, this tranquility, this joy, this peace and
beauty is your identity as well.

A rush of passion celebrates the joy of this simple, everyday
existence of my being, of life, this marvelous magic that is
being me.  I am this living mystery of ever-flowering beauty.
The moonlight song ten thousand fathoms deep is a fact quite
plenty enough for me.

I'm filled with this awe and wonder that is living here in the
middle of an infinity of myself.  Life is an enigma, a mystery
so extraordinary, veiled in the soft pink light of the ordinary.

I am a million joys, living irresponsibly and aimless, carried
by this river of fearless love that upholds me...

It is not mine to tell others what to do.  Mine is this wind
blown freedom of an irresistible and effortless joy...

Sandy Jones

via: No Mind's Land

The Unbroken Space - Rashani

There is a brokenness
out of which comes the unbroken,
a shatteredness
out of which blooms the unshatterable.
There is a sorrow
beyond all grief which leads to joy
and a fragility
out of whose depths emerges strength.

There is a hollow space
too vast for words
through which we pass with each loss,
out of whose darkness
we are sanctioned into being.

There is a cry deeper than all sound
whose serrated edges cut the heart
as we break open to the place inside
which is unbreakable and whole,
while learning to sing.

Original title: "The Unbroken"
by Rashani
1991

~

Photo - Craypas oils done with fingers
2010

Plumb the Depths of Being...

Do not be afraid to
plumb
the
depths
of your Being;
or what you have believed
to be the Truth...
Question
everything
you
have
learned.

Take the journey deeply inward
to your beginnings - and endings;
to the Silent hum
in the Heart
of all Life
that sings,
and
see
for
your
self.

There are many caravans to follow,
those aspiring to "enlighten" you
with their words,
left like firewood to light your way,
along the road...

But only in Sacred Silence can the journey be made
to the Heart of Being;
to discover the depths of Being - of Primordial Love...
the depths of That which you are;
That which wants to
live,
express,
and Love

Here...

Do not let fear stop your descent
into the inner Vastness;
the Deep Ocean
of your illumined
Heart...

Be still,
and open...

Follow the plumb line
of your breath,
past the Furies and the Sirens
into the soft ebullience
of Love...
and quiet Joy,
waiting for you,
like ethereal
liquid pools
of Light
drawing
you
in

Rest Here

In
the
depths
of
this
Alive
Silent
Loving
Awareness

Listen to the endless
Rhythm already
holding
you
in the cradle
of the Heart...

Feel
the
pervasive
Divine Presence
of Life

in
the
depths of
Sacred
Silence
within
that animates
every cell,
every atom,
every sound,
every thought,
every feeling ~
until you know

THIS

as

your
Self

Simply Living...

_/\_

Mystic Meandering
April 17, 2012

A Humble Lover of "The Mystery"

~

Photo - Vortex Art
done with fingers and craypas oils
2012

Divine Courage - Hafiz

We have not come here to take prisoners
but to surrender ever more deeply
to freedom and joy.
We have not come into this exquisite world
to hold ourselves hostage from love...

Run my dear, from anything
that may not strengthen
your precious budding wings.

Run like hell, my dear,
from anyone likely to put a sharp knife
into the sacred, tender vision
of your beautiful heart...

[.....]

For we have not come here to take prisoners,
or to confine our wondrous spirits,
but to experience ever and ever more deeply
our divine courage, freedom, and Light!

Hafiz

Excerpt from:
"We Have Not Come To Take Prisoners"

Photo: Mandala Art digitally altered

Devotion - Nirmala

...When devotion has claimed you for its own
no longer any chance to stray
a brief fling with illusion no longer satisfies.
The truth demands utter fidelity...

All pain must be faced
and embraced as the true countenance of
your beloved.

All fear must be met
and recognized as the thrill of tasting
the unknowable.

All joy must be surrendered
and acknowledged as a gift with
no giver.

This union only requires telling the truth
even when the truth shatters your dreams
even when the truth leaves you emptied out
even when the truth reveals your counterfeit
existence...

[.....]

Nirmala
Gift With No Giver

via: Being Silently Drawn

A Pause for Gratitude...

A Pause for Gratitude...

Gratitude for the Beauty of the Natural World

with its contrasts...

For the Joy of Imagination and Play

And Meditative Moments

For Moments with Mom - coloring

one of her mandalas

she is blind in one eye and losing her sight in the other
and yet she colors!

For Mystical Moments

And an unexpected November Rose

Whether you celebrate the American Thanksgiving or not,
may Peace, Joy, and Gratitude sit at your table today...
and every day...