Still - and still moving - T.S.Eliot

"Home" is where we start from.  As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living.  Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after, 
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album.)
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.

Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity

....for a deeper communion.....

T. S. Eliot

from East Coker V, Four Quartets

With thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Still your mind in me, still yourself in me
and you shall be united with me,
the One Love, dwelling in your heart.

Bhagavad Gita

With thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Peaceful Hour...

Listen to the Wisdom in the peaceful hour,
when no other voices are heard,
only the wisdom of a Quiet Heart and mind,
immersed in the stillness of just Being;
an Oceanic Rhythm of Stillness and Silence that
arises naturally...

In the peaceful hour I withdraw from the day
and come back to myself
and listen to the Silence within,
in the silence of the night...

Anxiety and Stress are gone.
I take my first real deep breath of the day
and sink into peace and inner stability,
loving the silence that surrounds me,
unfettered, unencumbered,
just resting,
comforted in serenity...

Finally, slowly, coming back into sync
with the Rhythm of my Being -
an exquisite pause fills my body from the
stresses of the day and I slow down.
It's now that I feel that everything will be okay,
if only in the peaceful hour...

Restful, Rhythmic Peace...

Mystic Meandering
Aug 16, 2023

1am

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

"Stilling" - Kathleen Knipp

Consider what would feel "stilling", calming, settling.
Many traditions teach "be still" and that stillness can be a
stilling of the body.  Finding a position in which the body
can remain still has the effect of stilling the mind to some
extent. Stilling has an effect on the body as well as the mental
and emotional faculties.  Just as emotions have an effect on
the physical body they can influence the experience of 
emotions and thoughts.  So becoming still is happening on
multiple levels simultaneously. As the process of stilling
ceases, you become more aware of the breath that's always
happening...

As we become more still, the more subtle aspects of our Being
are more evident.  In stillness we have a greater capacity to open
to listening, to pure listening, not with the ears, or listening for
something, or to something.  Just listening - availability.

In stilling the body and stilling the mind we become more
present to that which is - what's here - which can manifest in
an infinite variety of ways.  What's here is ever changing, ever
renewing.

Allowing the body to be as it is gives the emotions and thoughts
the freedom to move and change.

As we become more still, that which is essential becomes
more apparent, that which is most important, the sense of a
"greater purpose", the "feeling" of being drawn/called toward
that which may be beyond our comprehension, beyond explanation,
beyond words.  Yet in the stillness it is felt as a bodily experience.
Yield to it, trust, knowing that it takes care of itself.  Just fall into
the stream, as the flow of life flows through us.

As we become still there may be a sense of ease, softening,
equanimity.  Meet what arises with an attitude of openness and
curiosity.  It is constantly changing and ever evolving.  Sensing
beyond the habits of the mind and surface turbulence there is
great stillness, unfathomable stillness...

Stillness that just is....

Kathleen Knipp
excerpts from a Yoga Nidra Meditation

original title - "be still"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Resting in the Womb of Creation - Kathleen Knipp

...The body is one radiant mass of Aliveness,
the Aliveness that just Is...  Feel the pulse of the Universe throb
through, giving up any struggle, any need to do or know; to 
figure out...  Just resting, being breathed...

The natural flow of thoughts and emotions will continue...
Slip behind or below the thoughts and emotions like an
ocean with waves and froth on the top - surface turbulence.
Sink down beneath, deep down, below all the movement
of the mind, resting in absolute stillness; the vast silence
of the Ocean of Pure Awareness, Pure Beingness...

There may be a sense of being pulled, drawing you deeper
and deeper into the silence, into a stillness beyond
comprehension and words, receding into the womb of
creation before time, deeply resting, being held in a feeling
of ease and well-being that is familiar...

Kathleen Knipp
Excerpt from a Yoga Nidra Meditation
Resting in the Womb of Creation

~

Photo from the Internet

 

Let the Mind be the Mind - Danna Faulds

Photo - Cate Kerr

Let the mind be the mind...

Behind its restless activity,
just one layer deeper is stillness,
and beneath even that,
is an ocean of mystery and truth.

Swim in this eternal sea
until you know yourself
to be infinity,
and bring that knowing
back into your day.

Let the mind be the mind,
but don't bind yourself
to its limited reality.

Trust your experience of vastness.
Trust the truth that never
loses potency
or disappears 
in fear.

Let the mind be the mind
and identify not with thought
but with with Silence...

Danna Faulds
Yoga Practitioner and Poet
From: Limitless

~

Photo - Cate Kerr
Beyond the Fields We Know

~*~

Still your mind in me,
still yourself in me,
and without a doubt
you shall be united in me,
Lord of Love,
dwelling in the Heart.

Bhagavad Gita

 

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

 

The Homing Call...

I have heard the Homing Call of the Cosmos.
The deep soundings of stars and galaxies
singing the Cosmos ~

drawing me into their luminous waters...

I step through the gateway of this mortal land of
Earth and Stone
into the Eternal Cosmic Ocean ~

The Illumined hush of "The Mystery"...

Following the call,
I recognize the Celestial Songs...

Venturing into the Vastness of the Cosmic Sea,
oceanic movement becomes a pulsating permeation
of deep Stillness...

Suspended in this silent etheric fluid
~ the womb of Creation ~

everything once known to be real
is held motionless in translucent radiance.
Not needing identity or conceptual framework.
Only the immediacy and spontaneity of pure Being...

Mystic Meandering
May 6, 2001

Photo from the Internet

 

Stillness Speaks - Ginny Lonsdale

Photo: David Peters - Milky Way

 a field, transparent expanse
no inside, no outside,
no boundary
though all things
underneath all things
before all things
from which all things arise -
just movement rising and falling

no agitation
no naming
no reference - one thing to another
nothing is object
and no attributes
thus nothing strikes -
one thing against the other
no agitation

It is peace, utter peace
'the peace that passeth understanding'
the words 'peace' and 'calm'
are limp slivers of linguistic conceit
they cannot transmit this knowing

HOME of pure freedom
all-embracing
no me - no past, no identity - completely unbound
immersed
merged
dissolved
no-longer
only awareness
deep unfathomable peace

just the gift that always is
Reality's Self

emerging through the door of this transcendent HOME
one last kiss and wave off:
"this is Stillness. people live in this Stillness"

a respectful, gentle invitation...

with a dash of humour, like...
'you might like to give this a try ... there's nothing stopping you'
(nudge, nudge)

a white liquid light
poured
through the head into the crevices of the brain
down into the body
filling every vibrating molecule with
exquisite sweetness
scintillating divine light nectar
of which I had never known before
nourishing this material form.
A loving embrace - divine LIGHT pouring itself into 'me'
Every part of this body responded with delight
and 
fell asleep.

Ginny Lonsdale
Footnote from a moment

The Felt Sense of Silence - Devaji

When we speak of silence here, it has nothing to do with the
perceptive quality of your ears.  It is a feeling; the feeling
of stillness.  It is a feeling in the heart of what is silent.
What is unchanging, which has always been with you.
It is just that the habit of attention is always falling into
perceptive sense...  But amongst the ever changing
phenomenon of the body - thoughts always changing,
sensations always changing, emotions always changing,
situations always changing, there is something that is
constant.  Something that lays witness to all that is
changing, but itself is changeless.

The feeling of silence is felt equally everywhere.  It is
not found in a particular location. It unifies what the
perceptive senses experience as separate.  In other words,
when you are feeling what is still, when you are feeling
silence [within], there are no boundaries in it.  And all of a
sudden, perceptive awareness is experienced to all be
occurring within the boundaryless space of what is felt
as silence.  There is no distance in it because there is
nowhere it is not.  It is the ground in fact of your Being.
It is the depth of peace and wholeness.  And it feels itself
everywhere, in everything.

It is through the silence that all wisdom arises.  It is the
language of the Heart.  The more the habit of following
mental movement is released, the deeper you fall into this
beauty that is always present...

In the beginning it feels like space, a sense of stillness.  But
as the falling into it deepens, there begins to be the flavor
of this unspeakable love.  It is not because of something.  It
has always been.  It has just been bypassed because of
conditioned thinking, busyness, preoccupation with sense
perception.  And out of this stillness infused with this love,
flowers joy,  Pure joy.  Eternal joy.  It is felt in the silence.
You can feel it in everything.  It is the natural state.  It is
not temporary, it is not in a particular place, it is not
dependent on the ever-changing phenomena arising in the
body that the mind has hypnotically conditioned you to
believe is 'me.'

[It's] like a wave in the ocean.  And this ocean is pure silence,
out of which arises the bliss of your natural state.

Devaji

via No Mind's Land

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Listen from the Depths...

In Deep Silence
In Deep Rest
In Deep Quiet
In Deep Awareness
Deeply listen...

Deeply unwind
the wounds
the dramas
the stories
that
create
your
pain

Sit
in the depths
of the Silence
of Existence
and
listen

Suspended
in
Pure
Awareness

Touch and be touched by it -
this Sacred Silence,
this Awareness
that holds your
stories,
your
woundings
your
brokenness

From the depths of
your Being

Listen ~

to the whisper of
The Wound

Touch its depth
and
allow it
into the liquid flow
of Life

again...
resting in
the Depths
of the Heart

Thrive

in
the Depths

Be absorbed by
IT...

Keep vigil

from this space

of
Sacred Silence

From here all things
are made
clear...

\

Mystic Meandering
May 4, 2012

istock photo

~

Personal Note: Thank you to those who commented,
either directly on the post or through email re: my last post,
"Life Postmortem."  I appreciate your kindness and offerings...
And to DK who posted an inspiring post that rekindled the
Inner Spark - Thank you...

And to Ori and Lydia - you make my Heart dance.
Much gratitude

The Liberated Soul - Marguerite Porete

I am God, says Love, for Love is God and God is Love...
...and the Soul is God by condition of Love,
thus I am God by divine nature...

(The liberated soul) loses her name in the one in whom she
is melted and dissolved.  Thus she would be like a body of
water which flows from the sea.  And when this water returns
to the sea, it loses its course and its name, and is now in the
sea where it rests...

This Soul is always in full sufficiency, in which she swims
 and bobs and floats, is surrounded by divine peace, without
any movement in her interior, and without any exterior work
[effort] on her part.

(The liberated soul) is at rest without obstructing the outpouring
of divine Love.  She no longer seeks God through penitence, nor
through any sacrament; not through thoughts, nor through words,
nor through works, nor through divine understanding, nor through
divine love, nor through divine praise.

Her will is planted in the One...  She is dissolved into that prior
existence where Love has received her.

She has fallen into certainty of knowing nothing and into
certainty of willing nothing.  And this nothingness...gives her
the All...

Marguerite Porete
14th Century French Mystic
Her writings, of which the above is only a
small excerpt, were considered heretical.
She was burned at the stake in Paris in 1310.

Porete's vision of the Soul is one of ecstatic union with God...
Once united with God the Soul's will becomes that of God's.

Interestingly 200 years later St. John of the Cross
expressed an almost identical view of the nature of the
Soul's union with God in his Ascent of Mount Carmel, i.e.
that once united with God the Soul's will becomes that of God's,
but he was not denounced as a heretic.

Source - Western Mystics
via No Mind's Land

~*~ 

The naked, open, loving, Self-aware, luminous Being
within, our Essential Nature, is God...
God is The Silence within us...
God is the Self...

Rupert Spira
Contemporary Non-Dual teacher

~

Photo - rainbow light on wall

Perfect Unfolding - David Carse

The ultimate understanding is a seeing
and a knowing rather than a comprehending.
And it does satisfy all questions,
though not answer them.
Answers become as irrelevant
as the questions themselves;
both cease in the seeing.

Do not judge the questioning or the longing,
the seeking or the sadness,
the impatience or the resistance,
the opening or the letting go.
It is all the perfect unfolding as it is;
only watch it and know you are not that.

You are Loving Awareness in which all this arises.
You are Quiet Compassionate Space in which the life
that you think of as 'yourself' unfolds.

The Still Expanse of Acceptance between the thoughts
is All That Is.
That is What You Are.
Let the Love that is this Stillness that You Are
Embrace you,
Overcome you.

David Carse
from - Perfect Brilliant Stillness
no longer in print


Via - No Mind's Land

~

Photo - Folds in a curtain
photo turned on its side

The Silence Calls...

Silence called me to the window again last night.
She beckoned me to come and be still,
to listen...

She waited for me to settle,
to be quiet...
Waited as I deepened
into Her Stillness...

No agenda, She whispered...

I listened...

Put everything aside and just breathe, She said.
Be aware of My Breath, breathing you...
Experience My Presence,
Feel My Fullness,
Sense the Intimacy
in every cell...

From the depths of Stillness
I heard her call again,
calling me back to HerSelf.
Like a Great Ocean pulling back
the waves on shore
back to ItSelf...
The wave giving in to the pull...

The Great Silence called
again and again;
the silent rhythmic intimacy of wave and Ocean,
one and the same...

The Silence embracing ItSelf,
knowing only
ItSelf...

The Eternal Embrace...

Come - She whispered...
Follow the pull...
Give in...
Come Home...

Mystic Meandering
Aug/Sept 2010

~

Photo: The inside of a seashell

In Troubled Times - Dive Deep...

In these turbulent political times of upheaval
on the surface of life,

we need to dive deep and refocus
on the depths of the Stillness of Being within,
where nothing is disturbed, nothing is harmed.;
moving beyond the politics of polarization,
no matter who we were for or against...
It doesn't matter now...

We need to find a deeper unitive place of Restful Presence within,
realizing that externally it's all just "The Mystery" playing itself out
in the construct of time - the Unmanifest in form.

In the Greater Context in which life takes place,
everything is allowed...
The world will go the way it goes -
life will continue to unfold the way it unfolds -
the light and the dark will continue to dance together -

in time-bound reality.
If we focus only on the divisive chaos we will
react out of the mind-created contractions of fear and ignorance;
the Henny Penny mind...

But the sky isn't falling - even metaphorically.
Because "the Sky" is the Formless Presence;
That which cannot be destroyed...
Our true "Home."

If we are able to experience the depths of this True Silence,
the Silence of The Everlasting Deep,
we can experience what's beyond the chaos and fear
- what holds the Cosmos together -
the enduring hum of the Universe within all form;
the Hush of the Mystery...

Grounded in The Rhythm of the Silence that sustains Existence
we Rest... in the True Heart of That which animates Life...

The True Timeless Heart of Reality...

_/\_

Namaste

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
Nov. 13, 2016

istock photo

Comments are closed for this post...

Silence is Universal...

Midnight...
Sitting at the window again...
Sinking deeply into
the peace of Stillness,
leaning into the night
in awe... of its Silence...

The one constant is Utter Silence...
tangible; a felt sense
that undulates ItSelf through form
in Silent Rhythms...

The Universal Silence of all existence...
The Energy of Being that pulsates through all life...
manifesting many different faces of the Formless,
reflecting ItSelf in many expressions,
all "different", yet all the same Life Energy...

The mind focuses on differences,
instead of That which unifies;
the common thread of Living Silence...

Beyond seeming "difference"
is the same Infinite, Resonant Vibration of Being ~

Wondrous, Ubiquitous Silence in varying vibrations...

Every utterance from Infinite Silence
is an expression of the Eternal;
is a wave in the Ocean of Infinity...

Every life form is The Formless Silence...
It's Sound is an undulating OM ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And

This "me" experience, then, is the expression of
That ~ an emanation from Pure Silence...
in all Its disguises...

Mystic Meandering
Oct. 16, 2016

Want Only What Is True - Jennifer Welwood & Licata

There will always be voices that promise you greatness and glory;
They call out from the worldly marketplace;
They call out from the spiritual marketplace;
They call out from the bigger-better-more marketplace.

Do not buy their false promises, or purchase their ephemeral wares;
What fulfills for a moment is not worth the price of your soul.
There are heights that will lift you,
 but not when you try to ascend them;
There are powers that will fill you,
 but not when you make them your own.
There are treasures, and there are imitations of treasures.
If you have lost your true gold, at least turn away from the glitter.

Want only what is true.
This will lead you to the well of your deepest sorrows.
Follow that passageway, all the way down;
Become the dark emptiness of your core.
Be still.  Don't measure the waiting.
Be still.  Let the waiting become a fire.
Be still.  Let the fire show you its secret heart;
A strand of clear light running through you.
Gather yourself there, and the luminous universe opens.
In the vast expanse, fathomless, infinite ocean of light,
lose yourself, and find yourself, and become what you already are.

Jennifer Welwood
"Renunciation"

~

We can descend into the fire of direct experience of our feelings.
It is within the very core of this holy fire, in the alchemical crucible
of the body where the naked, groundless somatic territory of
illumination occurs, where healing emerges, and a new pathway
of love, care and compassion unfolds and illuminates within you.

Matt Licata

~

Photo - Woman Whirling in the Fire
(looking from overhead)
Vortex Art with Craypas oils

Let the Mind Be the Mind - Danna Faulds

Let the mind be the mind...

Behind its restless activity,
just one layer deeper is stillness,
and beneath even that,
is an ocean of mystery and truth.

Swim in this eternal sea
until you know yourself
to be infinity,
and bring that knowing
back into your day.
Why struggle to be what
you already are?

Let the mind be the mind,
but don't bind yourself
to its limited reality.

Trust your experience of vastness.
Trust the truth that never
loses potency
or disappears
in fear.

Let the mind be the mind
and identify not with thought
but with Silence...


Danna Faulds
Yoga Practitioner and Poet
From: Limitless

~*~

Still your mind in me,
still yourself in me,
and without a doubt
you shall be united in me,
Lord of Love,
dwelling in the heart.

Bhagavad Gita

Still Point of the Heart...

Empty your self out
until all that is left is Silence,
the still hush
of

S
i
l
e
n
c
e

in
the
deep
Stillness
of the Heart…

Lay it all down ~ and let the Silence breathe you.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve been taught,
what words you have heard,
what beliefs you have believed…

Lay it all down ~ and just listen to the
Sound of Sacred Silence,
the deep Rhythm in the Heart.

Unconcern yourself with words,
beliefs, concepts of the dreaming mind.
Fill yourself with the Rhythm of the Stillness;

the living atmosphere of Love…

Live from the silent Flame
that burns in your Heart;
brighter than any words,
any teachings, any beliefs,
revealing everything…

Lay it all down ~
and Live!

Unencumbered…

 Resting in the still-point of the Heart

*

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 2010

How Big Is Reality?...

“There once was a beautiful white swan
 that came from the great ocean to the North.
After being in the South for the winter,
 it was ready for the return journey home.

So it took off and with its big wing span
 and shining white feathers,
it soared effortlessly through the blue sky.

After a long while, and far along the journey,
 the swan began to tire and came down to land for a rest.
  It landed right on the edge of a water well
and let out a deep sigh.

In the bottom of this well there lived a frog.
The frog said,
’Well, who are you and where do you come from?’

‘I am a swan,
 and my home is on the water
 of the great northern ocean,’
answered the swan.

‘Ocean? How big is this ocean?’ asked the frog.

‘Very big’, said Swan.

‘Is it this big?’ Frog asked, taking two hops backward.

‘No, much bigger,’ said Swan.

So the frog took five huge hops backward, saying,
’Is the ocean this big?’

Swan said, ‘No, it’s much bigger than that.’

And so the frog went around the entire well -
his whole reality, as he knew it -
and asked the swan,
’Now, is the ocean as big as this?’

And the swan said,
’No, it’s much, much bigger!’

Thereupon the frog said,
’Well, you’re a fool and a liar!’

because he knew there could be nothing
bigger than his world and his well.”

Author Unknown…

~*~

How big is your Reality? J
I’m slowly climbing out of that well!

~*~

Photo: The inside of a large earthenware flower pot

We're All One Symphony...

This video is so inspiring!!!

We truly are all One in Essence...

~

Star Symphony

The Cosmos plays a continuous
Symphony of Silence
that only Stillness can hear.
We have forgotten the music of the
Celestial Songs,
the sound of the stellar Light language
of Love…

Our remembrance lies hidden deep in
the cave of the Heart ~ untouched.
Our unspoken language of the Heart
longs to be opened ~ awakened.

The dormant vibration calls for us to resonate
with the tones of Creation in the
Space of Silence,
in unified expression with
All That Is…

Listen deeply and hear
the Celestial Symphony
within the Stillness.
Follow the pulsing sound
into the vastness,
into Silence.

Find your resonance with the Rhythm
in your Heart ~ and know
we are all a tone of Love
playing our uniqueness in the
Chord of Life,
reverberating with the
Sound of Source…

Mystic Meandering

© August 1, 2001