Silence Beyond Mind - Maitreya Upanishad

It has been said:
There is something beyond our mind,
which abides in silence...

It is the supreme mystery beyond thought.
Let one's mind and subtle spirit rest upon that mystery
and nothing else...

...When the mind is silent,
beyond distraction,
then it can enter into a world
which is far beyond the mind...

Then one knows the joy of Eternity...
Words cannot describe the joy of the Soul
when one is one with Itself...

As water becomes one with water,
fire with fire,
and air with air,
so the mind becomes one with the Infinite Mind
and thus attains freedom.

Maitreya Upanishad

~

When I can intrain with a deeper Silence of simply Being,
the mind is not in chaos and I can experience the Sacred
in the chaos...  I have only known a few of such
fleeting moments... :)

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Multiplicity and Oneness - Kripal and Licata

Each human being is two, that is, each person is simultaneously
a conscious constructed self or socialized ego and a much larger
complexly conscious field that normally manifests only in
non-ordinary states of consciousness and energy, which the
religious traditions have historically objectified, mythologized,
and projected outward into the sky as divine, as "God", or
introjected inward into the human being as nirvana, brahman, or
located in some sort of experienced paradoxical state that is
neither inside or outside, as in the Chinese Dao...

Jeffrey J. Kripal
Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought

via - Markings

~

We are neither "separate" nor "one", but the erupting holding
field in which the energies of "separate" and "one" interpenetrate
and dance the relative into being.  The allies of multiplicity are not
at war with oneness, but fellow travelers with them on a journey of
wholeness. While we may have a bias for oneness over multiplicity,
it would appear that Love does not share this bias and is ready at all
times to employ either equally as its envoy here.  The freedom we
 are longing for will never be found in the eradication of the
unwanted, but only in attunement to the Love
and the information it carries.

The goal is not to eliminate multiplicity and scramble to replace it
with oneness, but something a bit messier, more creative, more fertile,
more earthy.  A bit more risky, not as clean, white, solar, or safe.

When we become too literalized in our fantasies of unity and oneness
 - and also in those of multiplicity and separation - we lose touch with
the mystery that these concepts can only point to...

We can play in the mountain peaks of unity and oneness, and also
in the rich, lush generative meadows of separation and multiplicity,
without taking sides.  Willing to fully participate in each,
as equal expressions of the Beloved.

Matt Licata

~
photo - Face Reflection Mandala
2013

The Soul of the Whole - Emerson

We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles.
Meantime, within man is the soul of the whole;
the wise silence; the universal beauty,
to which every part and particle is equally related;
the eternal One...

And this deep power in which we exist, and whose
beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only
self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of
seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle,
are one.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
from The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The Over-Soul"

via: The Beauty We Love
and Love is a place

~

Photo - White Orchids color digitally inverted

The Weaver and the Loom - Danna Faulds

Sit here for a bit.
Place yourself outside the frenzied pace of life.

Slow down long enough to appreciate birds in flight,
water drops like prisms in the grass and countless
shades of green.

Step off the fast track and listen to the sound of breath
and birdsong.

Take a moment to just be,
and in being, know the whole of this creation,
mystery and madness, passion and profanity,
know it all as one, stunning tapestry.

Sit still
and the thin line between sacred and profane simply
fades away.
There is nothing then to reconcile.

All the disparate are woven on the loom of life.

Sit here a bit
and your unique place in the pattern becomes clear.
Take the still point with you when it's time to walk away.

Make the choice to see affinity,
to watch the picture taking shape as thread joins thread.

Dare to be the weaver and the loom,
creator and creation, the sower and the sown.

In a moment of stillness,
all that came before is seen as one.

Danna Faulds
From: Go In and In

Danna is"...a long term practitioner of Kripalu Yoga.

She writes:
"Some days, the first line of a poem interrupts me and insists on
being written down - NOW!  Other days, I write the words 'This
is what I have to say to you' at the top of the page and see what
comes.  Like a faucet dispensing water from a hidden reservoir,
this kind of writing allows the formless mystery to flow into my
conscious life.  What I tap into when I write from the quiet of my
meditation cushion feels limitless.  Each morning finds me at the
edge of my current experience, writing about where I am stuck,
where I am learning to go, and what is calling me forward right
now.  Words on the page, both poetry and prose, are the bread
crumbs left behind as I move beyond my comfort zone and into
the unknown..."

(excerpt from Amazon.com)

Out Beyond - Rumi

Out beyond the ideas of right-doing and wrongdoing
there is a field…
I will meet you there…

Rumi

~

Beyond all polarities, mental concepts,
and the shadowy forms of beliefs about

 “God” or “no-God”,
duality or non-duality,
or the language we use for what we call “God”,
or “Oneness”,
there is an Ineffable, untouched
Mystery of Being
  within us…
A stillness...
where we can lay our “self” down in the Sacred Silence
and rest -

Meet me there,
no matter what your beliefs…

MM

Duality Is Not Separateness...

Oneness
 is a concept
not something to be sought after,
but only recognized as what already is…

Non-Duality is a concept as well…

Advaita says -

Not two – yet not one…

One in Essence…

A Synchronous Singularity

~

Non-duality/Duality
a conundrum -
word games for the intellect…

Neither one *or* the other – but
Both/And…
Not two,
yet not One…

“different” yet the “same”

but

Never~Separate

Formlessness infusing Form,
manifesting ItSelf
dualistically
in manifest experience…

~

The Eternal Now

Pure Formless Being

Exists
in endless multiplicity,
yet singular.

What greater Love could there be
than the Heart of Pure Being

Emanating ItSelf
endlessly
into
Form

An Immersion in the Pure Golden Love
that lives and breathes our being…

A Pure Intimacy of the Heart…

The Beloved: Formlessness
in Form, as me, as ItSelf…

The same synchronous movement

a

Singularity of Being…

Mystic Meandering
Jan/Feb 2015

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

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

From "The Hood"

Yes, here is yours truly conked out for a couple of hours this morning after a day of yard work and cleaning yesterday - and not much sleep last night.  Thought I’d give you just a little peek into my world.  See my little fat foot sticking out… J   And yes, that is Eeyore, my guru, at my head, eyeing me, waiting for me to “awaken.”  Eeyore’s not the only one! J    It was a delightfully cool morning in the 60’s – a nice break from the 90’s that we’ve been having here.  A cool breeze wafted through the window along with the smell of wet earth (after watering the lawn the night before); and birds chirped and sang.  Snow White’s delight J  Apparently so wonderful that she slipped into Never Land… Or maybe that was deep Samadhi… A moment in time of pure Oneness - resting in/as Awareness…J

Shortly after hubby snapped the shot with a flash, she "awakened," as she - “saw the light!” J  lol

I took this one from “under the hood” through the fabric - from beyond "the veil"…

 Now for my afternoon nap…

I hope wherever you are
 this moment of Divine comedy
brings a smile to your Heart...

Sacred Circles - Mandala Art

This is my new creative endeavor – creating and painting mandalas - also known as “sacred circles,” or Yantras, using sacred geometry, as taught by Guada in a Free Class at Guada’s Circle.

In a recent previous post – Focus As A Gateway – I was explaining how I felt a need for focus and balance as a way to bring the mind to a place of stillness.  Creating and painting this mandala gave me that focus and balance, and an inner meditative Stillness of Being.  I’m hooked! :)

Geometric mandalas are a sacred anciet art based on the language of patterns, like an underlying cosmic blueprint, an art form of the cosmos, revealing that our existence is inseparably and inherently one with the matrix of the Infinite – an inseparable, *inherent* union;  the circle being the symbol of this wholeness, or Oneness.  My limited understanding is that this oneness with the Divine, the interconnectedness of matter and spirit, is symbolized in the space where two circles cross each other forming what is called a Vesica Piscis – symbolically where Divine Consciousness and Human Consciousness are One; reminding me as I make the mandala that the Sacred is intimately present within – is both Here and Everywhere in the Universe simultaneously - meaning everything is sacred.

The seed of life at the center of many mandalas represents the heart of Existence itself, expanding into form; a symbol of sacred propagation of Life ItSelf; the Vesica Piscis symbolizing the Womb of the Universe from which all life arises.  Of course not all mandalas start with the seed of life pattern; but are obviously just as sacred, using other sacred symbols, such as the sanskrit OM(AUM) symbol at the center.   Buddhists and Hindus have used sacred geometric mandalas as symbols of the interconnectedness of the workings of the cosmos and meditative aids – or Yantras.  The Buddhists are also well known for their incredible sand mandalas that are “destroyed” after being meticulously created by monks over days and days as a symbol of the impermanence of life, and non-attachment.

I love creating mandalas as an art form; the creative design using the precision of sacred geometric patterns, and the detail of painting them in; the focus in the creating of it, and the balance that emerges in the design.  Just like the “spiritual path” – a combination of focus/practice, balance/equanimity, and the meditative Silence of just Being.  In most of my art experience I seem to work in circular fashion naturally, either circles, spirals or vortexes, as if it is primordial. See Something About Circles for an explanation and a look at my early Vortex art.

This is the basic seed of life pattern made with a compass:

See the Vesica Piscis in each intersection of a circle

From this template you can create a different design by erasing lines and adding other lines to make different shapes and designs.  The possiblilities are infinite. :)  In the mandala that I created, I added straight lines and a star pattern emerged, so I just went with it, making it a focal point; erasing parts of the outer circular lines around it, except the ones surrounding each point of the star.  I also created a wave line through each petal of the seed of life at the center, giving it a more fluid look.

I darkened this so you could see the design better

I then outlined each petal, and started filling in on one side with a water color pencil, which turns into water color paint when water is applied with a brush!  Quite amazing actually.  I like the effect in the purple star points.  They look like amethyst crystals with varieties of shading and light…

Not quite complete?

I contemplated filling the rest of the circle in with more color, but intuitively it felt complete.  Part of the process is listening intuitively to how the “painting” expresses itself, how it speaks to you, as in any artistic process….

Be sure to check out Stacy Wills’ mandala creations at A Magic Mom and Her Mandalas.  Some of them look like stanined glass windows!    Be sure to scroll down to see a variety of her mandalas using geometric design patterns.  She has recently begun using a different creative style and technology to create a more fluid affect.  

~*~

“In reality only the Ultimate (Infinite) is…
the rest is a matter of name and form.”

Nisargardatta

Nature's Canvas...

I wish I could say this was my art, but no, they are Nature’s canvases, with a little help from Adobe Fireworks. J The Fall colors around here were not all that spectacular this year, and none of my photos came out all that well, so I used the “Invert” function to create these photos of nature that look like paintings!

  

“When your heart sees Reality
then every atom of creation
is a window…”

Llwellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

“There is no distinction
between reality and unreality.
It’s all a perceived experience…

There is only Isness.
Everything just Is.

Everything is the Real.
There’s no distinction
between Real and Illusion…”

Author unknown

Photo: Tree trunk reflected in a pond…

“Oneness = Divine Nature and man’s human nature,
Spirit one with its own human nature,
God’s indivisible oneness with the
essence of mankind…”

Bernadette Roberts

Christian Contemplative

Photo: Tree fallen in a pond with its top branches
half in and half out of the water, reflecting themselves…

“All things are living,
even stones.

It has to be that way;
energy pulsates from their bodies,
since all are part
of the Omnipresent
Living Being.”

Hafiz
Sufi Poet

Photo: Tree and Bridge reflected in pond

“If there is light somewhere
there is darkness.
The brighter the light
the darker the darkeness,
inseparable twins…

Something holds them both equally,
light and darkness,
surrendering itself joyfully
to the play of duality…”

Ameeta
Non-Duality Teacher

Photo: Tree stump reflected in a pond.

“We are fingers of God’s Awareness.
We are all God’s perception.”

Ram Dass

Hindu

“It’s all the Self-existent
uncreated Absolute.”

Huang Po – Zen Master

Serenity's Sanctuary - The Heart

What we look for in another is what our Being is:

unconditional Love – Acceptance – Compassion.

Everything that we long for is just an *expression*

of that longing of the Heart ~

For Being – For Love

which gets substituted with longing

for objects, things, people, experiences.

What’s behind it is an innocent longing for “Home”

~ Oneness with the Divine ~

Freedom.

Let your innocent longing carry you to

the still Heart of Being.

Be at Home in the Heart of Being

within you.

Come into deep communion with

the Heart of Being.

Recognize IT in you.

Being is like a lover who knows you intimately -

an intimate knowing that holds who you are

in deep acceptance.

You are embraced,

you are touched,

like smooth ripples on a pond

that gently caress everything in their path -

and kiss everything in their unfolding.

You are deeply Loved…

Sweet Serenity…

Notes from my journals 2005

Fun-Qi Art™ :) - Christine

Wide Awake Fluidity

Over the last 10 years I have experienced many “awakenings” or “openings,” glimpses beyond the veil. For the last couple of months I’ve been experiencing a “call”, if you will, to “deepen”, although I have not understood what this means – deepen into what? Then last Saturday I experienced what Meg Hitchcock calls a “reality peel” – where you see beyond this reality into Reality. (See her posts: Brick Wall, William James & the Reality Peel, Further Musings on Enlightenment). And yet, it’s hard to put into words. So I’ve been waiting for the words to arise. At the very least it will make for an interesting blog post. :)

Internally I have been feeling as if I am in suspended animation, despite all the outward chaos going on in my life. In this suspended “state” it has felt as if I have been “waiting” for something, although that’s not quite the right word either. It’s a feeling of dynamic, restful suspension, as if I am waiting, but not like a person waiting for a bus to arrive, just an inward sense of waiting in Stillness, with no expectation, no anticipation, no *needing* for anything to happen, just feeling this pull into something deeper internally, while the surface chaos around me continues.

This past weekend there was an understanding that this “call” is a call to “return”, if you will, although it’s not really a “return” in the sense of two separate entities, one returning to the other, but more like something falling back in on itself, coming back around to itself, like coming full circle, being seen by itself. I remembered a phrase I’ve heard several times: “Enlightenment is really just the Self calling the Self back to Self” (or Itself). I resonate deeply with this. “We” are being called back to That which we inherently are! The Self becoming aware of Itself. Awareness aware of Awareness. It feels like the movement of the Self, waking up to Itself – the wave “returning” to the Ocean, and realizing that it *is* the Ocean. It’s a movement that just happens. It cannot be summoned, or created. It’s like all that is being lived outwardly is being called back to Itself – the in-breath after the pause after the out-breath. And in this there is deep rest. In this suspended “state” all the issues that my mind wraps around don’t really matter anymore: Mother issues, basement issues, Duality/Non-Duality, Enlightenment. They all become transparent, fluidly rising and falling within this spacious awake awareness. I have felt this before and yet the conceptual scaffolding always comes back into play – as it did this time.

For the past couple of weeks when I *look* at things they don’t seem like what they are. A window doesn’t *seem* like a window – although it is. It’s just an opening in a wall that is called “window.” As I sat in the living room Saturday I looked over at the couch, and that’s when the “reality peel” happened. I didn’t seek it, wasn’t meditating on it, was just sitting there and everything looked a little “different.” I realized that the couch *appears* as a couch, but it’s not really – a couch. The couch didn’t actually morph into something else, but there was a *sense* that it exists within a larger context of Existence; that there is a greater energy existing there/here. There was the sense that the things that we *see* are really a reality within Reality – within this Greater Context – not separate from It, but as *appearances of* It - appearances in/of the field of Awareness that *contains* everything that It is. It’s as if this field of Awareness, this Mystery, sees Itself *through* the seeing of this, through the awareness of this…

Every *thing* (including us) is really fluidly suspended in this Greater Context. From this perspective “things” are no longer seen as just objects, or just things – but appearances of Reality. Everything is surreal. Nothing is what it seems. It’s as if a sensory shift has taken place. It is a recognition of the fluidity of Being. It’s right here, behind what we *believe* in our minds to be real. Thought, feeling, emotion, objects, people all exist in a fluid dynamic of Oneness. And, it’s as if this Self/Being/Oneness *wants* to reveal Itself, wants to be *seen*, wants to be known – intimately – through the scaffolding.

Sweet Serenity ~~~~~

"What has been calling you throughout time.....is the flame of Consciousness

that is the essence of your being. When you meet yourSelf...

you are fulfilled, you are home.... to be home is simply to be here....

....discover directly for yourself this jewel that is alive within you."

Gangaji

The Diamond in Your Pocket

Funky Art :) - Christine