Grace - Chuck Surface

Grace does not hold an abacus in one hand,
Tallying karma,
Or a Rubik's cube in the other,
Challenging you to "Figure it out."

Grace knows nothing of such cruelties.

Grace is the power that comes alive
When Attention, wandering in the world,
Turns inward,
In quest for The Heart's Desire.

From the first awakening of Longing,
To the first turning inward,
through the long, wandering trek,
And the vanishing into Pure Being...

Is not everything the functioning of Grace?

Grace is the power of "Fruitioning",
Of the seed to Blossom,
Of the ember to Flame,
Of Longing to Fulfillment.

Grace is the gravity of our own Pure Being,
Pulling "i".
To its Ultimate Oblivion...
And Benediction.

The Heart's Longing
And the mind's Wonder
Arise from Grace,
As Grace.

Is not everything the functioning of Grace?

Grace, as my Heart speaks it,
Is not a "consequence"
Of conditionality,
Of causality.

Do we choose to have a Heart
Drunk with Longing?
Do we choose to have a mind
Moved by wonder?

It is Grace that calls us,
Grace that moves us,
And Grace that sustains us,
Until we Vanish...

In its welcoming arms.

Chuck Surface

Facebook

~

Photo taken by my brother
at Sunday River Ski Resort
in Maine

 

Why We "Quest"? - Misc.

A quest ignites you to walk the path you have been chosen for...

It's the undertaking of, or commitment to something deeper
or larger than what we ever thought was possible - the meaning
you give your life to.

[like a quest for the Truth of Existence, or the Mystery of the
Cosmos, etc.]

Google Search :)

~

A quest is not, as most have believed, a rare mystical experience,
but an expression of our most basic human impulses that are
rooted in our nature; man's innate quest for the transcendent:
the "questing impulse."

Robert M Torrance
from- "The Spiritual Quest"

~

A Quest is following a vision, your own vision, that
transcends current reality...

from a conversation with my husband... :)

~

It's following the longing of your Heart...

My favorite song when I was a kid was "The Impossible Dream."
I was a bit of an idealist back then, but still...

:)

Photo by my husband...

 

Questions for the Quest - Misc.

 

From the Web Telescope

[spiritually speaking:]

What is the deepest longing of your Heart -
that which is more important than anything else?

What in you is being called forward, seeking attentions?

What is the pull, what calls to you?

What is your own inner resource,
sanctuary, refuge?

What is it that you call upon
that helps you connect
with [the inner feeling of stillness]
and being at ease?

What wants to be felt,
acknowledged?

Be open to what reveals itself...

Kathleen Knipp
excerpts from a Yoga Nidra meditation

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As we embark on a "new" year -
I'm questioning again,
things like these...

why are you questing?
Or - why did you start questing so long ago?

What drew you to the Quest?
What are you trying to pursue?
What calls to you still and
compels you to keep questing?
What speaks to your Soul?

~

I know from my own experience

not to let others determine my "path"
out of obligation or obedience,
no matter what others may tell me the truth is -
or isn't.

I must follow my own "invisible" path
that only I know; the one that is true for me...

That will intuitively lead me Home...

Blessings to us all for a safe passage in the year ahead...

_/\_

MM

~~~~~~~

 The pilgrimage is one that each must make alone...

to that boundary of space and time where
the mind and heart encounter the
"ultimate  mystery",
the known unknowable...

The quest will perhaps require more courage
than you or I can bear...

Chet Raymo
from: The Soul of the Night

Silence Calls To Us - Nathalie Delay

Art: Meganne Forbes

It's interesting to observe how hard it is to stay alone,
in silence, without distractions.
We are afraid to be face-to-face with ourselves.
Face-to-face with our impatience, our agitation, our worry.
Face-to-face with the depth of our being.
We are afraid to dive into the infinite space of our true nature,
when no attribute nor any - story covers it up.
And yet it calls to us in silence,
but we don't listen.

And yet we have an acute and painful longing for it,
like exiles too long cut off from their homeland.
So, instead of trying to fill the space which has appeared,
let us give ourselves over to silence, to the absence of certainty.
Let us not miss the incredible opportunity to be,
in all simplicity and humility
and taste the nectar of pure presence
when there are no more expectations, only the gift of self.
Let us not miss this unique chance to taste the substance of the 
moment when no superfluous activity waters it down.

Nathalie Delay.com

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Art: Meganne Forbes

 

The Heart's Journey - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Everything, every particle in creation is surrounded by and
infused with Divine Light,  We do not see it because we
are veiled by our own darkness and forgetfulness, but it is
the Light of creation remembering the Light of The Divine's
own self-expression - the brush stroke of the Great Artist,,,

~

It's our own unique journey, our heart that is being broken
by love, our own sorrow and bliss.  It is called the journey
from the alone to the Alone, because we are left alone with
the cry of our heart and the places it takes us - both terrible
and beautiful - places where there are no books, or stories,
no words to comfort us, except the story of our own heart,
our confusion, longing and love...

~

Love's journey brings many scars, often scars of the heart,
and they do not all fade away, even if their drama has
lessened.  They tell us something about what it means to
be human, to stand at the place where the two seas meet...

And yet, because in the moments of real experience there
is no time,just the instant that is.  These stories do not
belong to any past; they are simply a part of the deepest
knowing of our self.

.~

allow this unending love to live within me...

 Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Quotes from: Fragments of a Love Story

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Longing of the Heart...

The Longing of the Heart is there to draw you in.
It's the Longing for that which is true, pure,
innocent, whole and Alive within you...

It's the Longing for the embrace of the Eternal Being
that animates your being...

It's the call of "The Beloved."

Follow the call...

~

The Longing is your Innocence;
an innocent Longing for
Divine Intimacy;
the Eternal recognizing Itself in you...

It is the Self calling ItSelf back to ItSelf,
like the rhythm of the Ocean pulling the waves
back to Itself from the shore;
reclaiming ItSelf...

Let your innocent Longing carry you to
your Eternal Being within - the Essence of yourself...
Thrive in the depths of its Stillness there...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings

c. 2004

~

Photo/Art - Mystic Meandering

~

Can;t believe this was written 20 years ago!

Longing is not necessarily a painful thing.
It can be quite sweet and tender... as this
evidently was...

 

The Longing - a meandering...

Since I was a young child I longed to know "God" -
the "God' of my childhood religion...

~

Recently longing has arisen again...

I long to know "God" still,
even though that longing has been covered over by layers of
different beliefs and stances - all veils...  And my idea of, and
names for "God" have changed; like "The Mystery", The Beloved,
The Great Silence...

It's time to part the veils so that I may truly know the "God" of my
longing; not the "God" of my childhood religion - not a man-made
"God" - but "The Source" Itself...  The Primordial, Nameless "God"...
Some have called it the Primal Energy, or even the Divine Breath...
But I long for something more personal...

I sense that all our longings and sorrows come from this longing for
"Source"; to know who/what that truly is - our origin, and if we are
that - as the many spiritual teachings say.

So I turn to look for the Source of my longing, that I wish to know 
intimately - again - as in the beginning - before birth.  All others
have been only names, personas, maybe even "lesser gods."

The longing is not for a distant "God - but the "God" who
resides within - the Source or Essence of myself.

Whoa - What?

As those words slipped out onto the page, they caught my attention:
"the 'God' who resides within -
the Source or Essence of myself."

The "Source" is within!
What I long for is in myself! 

This hit me as if this was a "new" revelation,
with a feeling of relaxed awe and wonder...

And yet, I know I know this! - intellectually, in my head.
"God - aka the Primal Source of all that is resides in everyone and
everything...  But I want to know it experientially...
to feel it intimately...

I am not ashamed to feel that longing again; that was hidden by
the veils of the intellect, the intellectualized, conceptualized, and
abstract stances, and belief systems...

It is the Heart longing that will bring me to "the Source" of my
longing; not stances and belief systems, but the innocent, child-like
longing from the Heart - the direct experience that the "God" I long
for resides within myself.

I am finally allowing myself to feel that fire of longing
again...

My child-heart has opened once more...

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 8, 2023

from my journal

After this "revelation" I felt a Presence behind my heart and with it
a deep Quiet came over me internally...

the "God" of my longing dwells within!

Amazing!

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Sunset Heart Leaves

 

Twilight...

There is a seamless "edge" when twilight comes...
And a twinge of melancholy when the
light wanes into twilight,
the edge of the veil;
the threshold between
light and dark...

A knowing that this life
is waning into twilight too,
from one state into another,
forever re-forming Itself...

Tree branches wave in the wind
in homage to the light
dimming in the West...

Owls hoo - calling the night
into existence;
prophets of twilight
standing at the edge
where ending meets beginning
and beginning, ending...

Twilight
the in-between
as Life cycles through time,
through light and dark,
through living
and dying.

At twilight we stand at the edge of time,
and timelessness beyond time...
peering through
for a glimpse
of the Infinite Light
that knows no dimming
and no night;
only Its own Eternal Radiance
of 
Being...

This Light we are...

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 21, 2012

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
January 6, 2012

 

Knock-Knock...

What if I quit knocking at the door of
The Beloved - address unknown...
Would The Beloved still come?

Why do I keep trying so hard?
Doesn't The Beloved already know that I'm here?

So why do I need to keep coming to the door,
begging, like a beggar in the night,
whispering outside the door;
like throwing stones at a window,
trying to entice my "lover" to notice that
I am standing outside - waiting -
unseen, unheard...

knock-knock

What if I quit knocking at the door?
Would The Beloved not hear the longing of my Heart?

Would The Beloved still come?

~

...a door within my Heart opens as if by its own accord...
The Beloved is here - waiting for me
in the deeper Silence at the Core of my Being,
at the Inner Door,
where only a whisper is heard...

Maybe I was knocking at the wrong door...

knock-knock

Mystic Meandering
Sept. 5, 2022

~

Photo - yes that's me :)

 

Guru - Fred LaMotte

A teacher fills you.
A guru empties you.
A teacher gives knowledge.
A guru awakens
the knower.

One transmits information.
The other transmits wonder
without words.
Your mind thirsts
for certainty.
Your heart years for
breaking open.

If the yearning is intense enough,
the guru could be a cricket.

Fred LaMotte

Uradiance

[Or - an Iris with a hidden face :)]

Photo from Uradiance

 

An Affair of the Heart - "A Simple Man"

A Spiritual Autobiography of a fellow traveler and Friend

Free on-line book with PDF here

From the Preface

  

You should only trust what you Know in direct experience. All
else is hearsay, concept, theory, and conjecture; the interpretations,
by others, of their experiences, after the fact.  This book is about
none of that.  I don't present an interpretation of my past experiences
or ongoing experience.  I don't hold forth a theology, cosmology, or
notion of the "Truth."  Any seeming assertions are merely questions,
cloaked in possibility.  Whatever commonalities may exist in our
mutual experience, each of our Paths is unique.  If I describe the
Path I've taken, it isn't to inform, instruct, or suggest such a Path
to you, but only to Evoke Love and Longing, to ignite the Ember
at the Heart of your Being.

the Author

~

The author calls himself "a simple man" - sharing his "spiritual
journey."  I know him as a man of depth and devotion to the path
of Love, and The Beloved.  It's an amazingly authentic story of his
"spiritual quest" from childhood on.  Leaving the walled villages
of traditional religion, to wander in the "Spiritual Wilderness", 
looking for the fulfillment of his Heart's Longing.  He experienced
the Great Sorrow and Suffering of the world and its Breathtaking
Beauty, while tasting different spiritual teachings and philosophies
along the way with various "spiritual teachers."  He relentlessly
questions all he was taught to be "true" - discovering the Perfume
of The Beloved is in the Nature of his own Essence.

His writing is honest, genuine, passionate and humble...
I found much resonance and commonality in our spiritual
experience...

An amazing story.  I loved it!
Take the journey with him!

An Affair of the Heart

~

MM

 

Remembering What You Love - Chuck Surface

What is there to do,
But Remember what you Love,
And ache with all your Heart,
However distant Heaven may seem,
However much a fairytale and a Dream

What is there to do,
But rest, with each breath and heartbeat,
In that U n b e a r a b l e Longing,
Which will not be consumed,
By the fires of doubt and despair.

For you did not choose to be stricken,
But simply found yourself afflicted,
With a Remembering beyond memory,
A Feeling beyond emotion.
A knowing beyond knowledge...

As yet unKnown.

What else...

For when faith fails, Longing endures,
When belief crumbles, Longing endures.
When other's paths prove not our own,
Longing endures.

Longing... endures.

What...
But to Remember what you Love,
However She presents Herself,
Within the Secret Heart,
Of your own unique Longing.

You are not cursed, weary Friend!
For this Longing, Unbearable,
Is both Path and Guru,
For those of us so Blessed.

And Love...

Chuck Surface

Facebook

Website

 

The Inter-Spiritual Heart - Mirabai Starr

For decades I was conditioned to believe that to engage a mature
spiritual life I needed to "pick one tradition and go deep," which
implied that my attraction to the teachings and practices at the
heart of all religions was superficial and indolent.  Also, that the
path of non-dualism - with its affirmation of undifferentiated
consciousness - was superior to my devotional disposition.  Also,
that my experience of longing for God was an illusion - some
kind of unconscious blend of unresolved childhood abandonment
and magical thinking.  In other words, the energy that fueled my
journey was predicated on a perfect storm of delusional inclinations.

It was only when the fire of loss swept into my life and burned the
scaffolding to the ground that all conceptual constructs came
tumbling down and these insidious messages revealed themselves
as 1) unkind, and 2) untrue.  From the ashes of grief a transfigured,
more authentic self began to arise, and she felt no obligation to
choose sides.  She was a Jew and a Sufi, a believer and an agnostic.
She practiced Vipassana and Centering Prayer, observed Shabbat
and received communion.  She rested in blessed moments of
unitive consciousness and sang the praises of Lord Krishna.

I am not alone.  A 'tribe" of people is coalescing around the world
to celebrate a reorientation from religious separation to inter-
spiritual connection.  While many of us have been pilgrims on this
path for decades - sometimes feeling alone in the wilderness,
sometimes gathering with others who are similarly drawn to the
sacred in every single holy house we encounter - now, at last, our
numbers seem to be reaching a tipping point and what was a
fringe phenomenon is become a global movement.

The inter-spiritual path is characterized as much by what it is not
as what it is.  It is not a new religion; in fact many of its most
enthusiastic adherents consider themselves "spiritual but not
religious."  It has no creed or dogma, no tenets or prohibitions. No
special attire sets it apart and so single symbol represents its core
philosophy.  It's "membership" is as diverse as the full spectrum
of humanity.  It is not about belief...

Mystical poetry transcends theological distinctions and neutralizes
ideological ultimatums.  Love poems to God do not describe 
Ultimate Reality: they evoke it.  The poems of the mystics slip
past the thought-guardians and batter down the gates of the heart.
In crying out to the Holy One, the ecstatic poets offer us a direct
connection with the object of our Soul's deepest desire, and ours.

Mystical poetry generates a sacred field, and invites us to step in.

It is here, in the center of the perennial paradox, that it becomes
obvious all spiritual paths emanate from and return to the same
Universal Heart.

Mirabai Starr

read full article here

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Power of Poetry - Ari Honarvar

Artist - Puisi 

...poetry is as much a part of a person as her heartbeat.
We can take refuge in the power of poetry.

Rumi not only understood the power of poetry, but also
found the sweet spot of language somewhere between
the clinical sterility of political correctness and the 
vulgarity of fanaticism.

He brought the traditional masculine God from the sky
and passionately embraced it as his genderless Beloved.
He and other poets like him closed the gap between us
and the divine until the Beloved was inside our beating
hearts - transforming the image of a rigid God of fire
and brimstone into the story of bittersweet longing
and union.

We partake together and the flow of emotion and creativity
merges, making it possible for us to participate in what we
long for: a deep connection with the divine...
[a deep *knowing* of the divine in us/as us].

Ari Honarvar
From: Rumi's Gift

[brackets mine]

Artist - Puisi

"Freinds" - Oriah

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you
dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.  I want
to know if you risk looking like a fool for love,
for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring
your moon.  I want to know if you have touched the
center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened
by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed
from fear of further pain.  I want to know if you can sit
with pain, mine or your own without moving to hide
it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill
you to the tips of your fingers and toes without
cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember
the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is
true.  I want to know if you can disappoint another to
be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of
betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be
faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it's not
pretty every day, and if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours
and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and
shout to the sliver of the full moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how
much money you have.  I want to know if you can
get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and
bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for
the children, [or your elderly parents, your spouse, or a
dying loved one].

It doesn't matter to me who you know or how you came
to be here.  I want to know if you will stand at the center
of the fire with  me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or with whom you have
studied, [what your title is, or "spiritual" status].  I want to
know what sustains you from the inside, when all else falls
away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if
you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

[This - is Love].

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Original Title - "The Invitation"

[brackets mine]

~

Photo - 5 baby raccoons:)
The Mama is on the other side of the fence
coaxing them over...
early June 2020

The Longing...

The Longing of the Heart is there to draw you in.
It's the Longing for that which is true, pure,
innocent, whole and Alive within you...

It's the Longing for the embrace of the Eternal Being
that animates your being...

It's the call of "The Beloved."

Follow the call...

~

The Longing is your Innocence;
an innocent Longing for
Divine Intimacy;
the Eternal recognizing ItSelf in you...

~

It is the Self calling ItSelf back to ItSelf,
like the rhythm of the Ocean pulling the waves
 back to Itself from the shore;
reclaiming ItSelf...

Let your innocent Longing carry you to
your Eternal Being within...
Thrive in the depths of Its Stillness there...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
c. 2004-2006

~

Photo/Art - Mystic Meandering

Kindness casts a different light - John O'Donohue

There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things;
it presides everywhere, often in the places we least
expect.  The world can be harsh and negative, but
if we remain generous, and patient, kindness inevitably
reveals itself.  Something deep in the human soul seems
to depend on the presence of kindness; something
instinctive in us expects it, and once we sense it we
are able to trust and open ourselves...

If we did not feel that some ultimate kindness holds
sway, we would feel like outsiders confronted on every
side by a world toward which we could make no real bridges.

The word kindness has a gentle sound that seems to echo
the presence of compassionate goodness.  When someone
is kind to you, you feel understood and seen.  There is no
judgment or harsh perception directed toward you.

Kindness has gracious eyes; it also suggests that your
vulnerability, though somehow exposed, is not taken
advantage of; rather, it has become an occasion for dignity
and empathy.

Kindness casts a different light, an evening light that has
the depth of color and patience to illuminate what is
complex and rich in difference.

Despite all the darkness, human hope is based on the
instinct that at the deepest level of reality some intimate
kindness holds sway.  This is the heart of blessing.  To believe
in blessing is to believe that our being here, our very presence
in the world, is itself the first gift, the primal blessing.

Given the nature of our beginning [our birth] - nowhere does
 the Silence of the Infinite lean so intensely as around the form
of  a newly born infant - it is no wonder  that our hearts are
imbued with longing for beauty, meaning, order, creativity,
compassion, and love.  

John O'Donohue
From: To Bless the Sapce Between Us

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

The Heart's Longing...

It's your destiny to be Love...
The only "purpose" is to BE - Love.

Rest in the Sacred Silence of the Heart
where the ripples of luminescent Love
form and expand...

It is already there in your Heart -
in the core of your Being.

Love is your sanctuary.

The longing of the Heart
is there to
draw
you
in

.

.

.

It's the longing of the Heart for that which is
True,
Pure, Innocent, Whole,
and Alive
within

you

It's the longing for the Embrace of
"The Beloved."

And...

It's the call of "The Beloved;"
pulling at your Heart.

Follow the call...

The longing is your Innocence;
an innocent longing
for Divine Embrace.

Let that innocent longing carry you Home...
To the Heart of "The Beloved."

You are held there - deep within
the Divine Heart...

Thrive in that Embrace.

That is Love...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
c. 2004-2006

~

Photo/Art - Mystic Meandering

Infinite Hunger - Alan Watts

Man is characterized by a hunger for the infinite.....
 which, whether he knows it or  not,
 can be nothing other than God.  Assuming God exists,
it will follow that God is man's true end...

...man is often mistaken as to the goal of his life, desiring
wealth, power or physical pleasure instead of God.  But
his real appetite continues to be God, for which lesser
goals are always unsatisfactory substitutes.

Alan Watts

via - The Beauty We Love

~

God isn't *a* being, but a state of Being,
and we are that state of Being.  It is our
Essence...

Author Unknown

~

"Our *real* appetite is for God" - as one understands
"God" - has been my experience since childhood.
The deepest longing of the Heart has always been for "God",
called by many names over the years; Love, Pure Awareness,
 Consciousness, The Divine, Pure Being, The Self, The Mystery,
The Silence, etc. The longing  turns out to be "God" calling ItSelf
back to ItSelf.  I am forever grateful that the longing continues
to be there - drawing me ever inward to the "God Space" -
to ItSelf...

MM

~

Photo from the Internet

The Longing of the Heart...

The longing of the Heart is there to draw you in.
It's the longing of the Heart for that which is true,
pure, innocent, whole,
alive.

It's the longing for the embrace of "The Beloved",

Self to Self...

It's the call of "The Beloved",
the pull of the Heart.

Follow the call...

~

The longing is your Innocence,
an innocent longing for the mystery
of Divine Intimacy.

~

It is the Self that calls ItSelf back to ItSelf,
like the ocean pulling the waves back to itself
on the shore; reclaiming ItSelf...

Let your innocent longing carry you to
the still Heart of Being.
Thrive in the depths of the Stillness within.

Come Home...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative writings
2004 - 2006

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering