The Pulse of Life...

\

Perfect Pulsing Silence...
Utter Stillness...
Breath-giving Life...

This is what I come to sit for;
to sit in utter and complete Silence of Being -
the pulse of Life;
to feel and sense "The Silence",
to feel its Aliveness,
to hear its Song...

Sitting in the silence of not-knowing
puts one in a place of really listening,
with no agenda or expectation,
leaving the space open for "The Silence" to speak,
to calm the mind and soul
and sing Its Song to the Heart...

I listen deeply for the Song of Silence...

A breeze touches my arm gently from the window
inviting me to stop and listen more deeply...

I gaze inward
to "The Song of Silence" within,
that is mirrored
in the sounds of silence in the night,
just outside my window...

It's all the same Silence, infusing everything...

I feel "The Rhythm" of Silence begin -

I bask in my chair
listening to the pulsing Silence
within and without,
feeling Its familiar Rhythm
through my body,
feeling the dance of intimacy begin again...

Nothing disturbs The Silence...
Nothing disturbs the depth of It...
Nothing prevents Its Song
from being sung ~

In this intimate Silence I am reminded that
everything occurs within this Divine Silence.
All life, all breath, all death...
 All movement occurs within this vast space of Silence
that WE  ARE...

In "The Sacred Silence"
I know everything is living according to Its
natural order - is following Its natural order,
including this life I call mine...

All life is being lived
by the hush of this Ineffable Mystery...
that birthed the Cosmos...

All is the pulse of the Great Silence ~

the Pulse of Life ~

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
May 2011
updated Dec 12, 2024

~

I know I've posted this one many times,
under a different title,
but *I* needed to hear it again :)
to type it out...

And actually made some changes...
May it soothe your Soul...

_/\_

 

 

Facing the Wound - Jeff Foster

You have been afraid to break down...

You've been carrying so much...

Do not fear the grieving and terrible
ache of existence.  For sure, there will be
times when the pain is so intense you will find
it difficult to breathe and your mind may project
death and oblivion for you...

But, you will keep on breathing, and you will be
breathed through the abyss and carried lovingly
by nameless forces through the voided voids and
out again into the awe and vastness of living.  Your
breath will not fail you, but your mind may make
you doubt it.  There is a terrified child in you who
just wants to be reassured and held.  She lives inside

us all.

Be kind to your trauma, be gentle and soft, but don't
forget to be fiery and fierce when the moment calls
for it.  There is time for sweet talk and soothing
words and there is time for the sword too.  Let your
trauma know, it will not dictate the passage of your
life any longer.

[.....]

Weep and rage if you need to, let your trauma witness
the primordial power that boils in your heart...
Weep and rage if your need to, let your precious
raw heart be seen!

Your trauma will not take you down,
it will enrage and enliven you and push you
to the raw edge of sanity, yes, but it will 
 not take you down.

Remember the fire and forgiveness,
and the unbearable love that moves all things.

Breathe into the void now.
It's never as bad as it looks through the
filter of the mind.

Do not fear the oblivion,
it is the only place where you will find
your true freedom...

Jeff Foster

Excerpt from:
"Trauma: Do Not Fear The Oblivion"

You tube video: https://youtu.be/KMj9cP_gnf4?si=YEbBi76f3sIOk2NB

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Rest in the Breath - David Whyte

Rest is the conversation between what we love to do and
how we love to be.  To rest is to give up on the already
exhausted will as the prime motivator of endeavor, with its
endless outward need to reward itself through established goals.
To rest is to give up on worrying and fretting and the sense that
there is something wrong with the world unless we are there to
put it right; to rest is to fall back literally and figuratively from
outer targets, and shift.....to an inner state of natural exchange.

The template of natural exchange is the breath, the autonomic
giving and receiving that forms the basis and the measure of
life itself.  We are rested when we are living [that] exchange...

In rest is the sense of stopping, of giving up on what we've been
doing or how we have been being.  It is the sense of slowly coming
home...

Deep in the primal exchange of the breath, is the give and take,
the blessing and the being blessed and the ability to delight
in both.  In rest there is a sense of presence, a delight in and
anticipation of the world and all of its forms [in which]
receiving and responding occur in one spontaneous movement.

A deep experience of rest is a perspective from which we are
able to perceive the outer specific forms of our work [and life]
and our relationships whilst being nourished by the shared
foundational gift of the breath itself.

Rested, we are ready for the world,
but not held hostage by it...

David Whyte

Excerpts from a writing called "Rest"
From the book: CONSOLATIONS

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Cosmic Breathing...

photo - Johannes-Plenio at Unsplash

Sitting in the Silence of the Inner Landscape,
I suddenly realize the Cosmic Breath of Infinity
is slowly breathing this body -
breathing in... breathing out...

Held in the pause between breaths -
I recognize that "I" am being breathed
by an unheard Rhythm...

From the Inner Window,
at the edge of Infinity
I see beyond this world,
into the formless void,
beyond moon and stars,
into the Infinite Cosmic Ocean
that holds it all...

Aware of what is aware within:
Life - breathing ITself...

Every Breath is the Primordial Breath
rippling through space...

Hush
Be Silent 
Listen

and I hear:

Entrain with the Rhythm
that is breathing you...

Slow down and breathe
the Infinite Breath of the Cosmos -
that whispers -
All will be infinitely well...

Mystic Meandering
April 12, 2020

~

Photo - Johannes Plenio at Unsplash

 

Who Is God? - Fred LaMotte

Be still and know that I am God

Who is God?  The answer comes not as thought, but as breath;
or rather, as the energy of Grace in the inhalation.  This energy
is Shakti.  Breathing Shakti is the answer to the question, who
is God?  Shakti is the Holy Spirit, the divine breath, the supreme
Mother of creation.  In ancient scriptures, whether in Chinese,
Arabic, Hebrew or Greek, the same words is used for both
breath and spirit.  And the Spirit of God is portrayed as
feminine.  Her all-mothering power of creation is God's active
energy, while God himself is the witnessing Silence, the
un-created Source.

What is the experience of God?  Not a belief, nor a remembered
image, nor an esoteric vision - for mystic visions are also
thoughts and activities of the mind [?]  But the experience of God
is simpler than any vision or arousal of imagination.  It is the pure
energy of Silence, Shakti herself...  Therefore the classic Yogic
scipture Vijnana Bhairava declares: Exhalation goes out, inhalation
comes in.  At the still point where they merge, one experiences the
state from which Creation comes forth and into which it is absrobed...

~~

"Gateh, Gateh, Para Gateh, Bodhi Svaha!

Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond.  Gone beyond the Beyond:

At some point, images get in the way, even our favorite image
of God: so we pass beyond it.  At some point words get in the
way, even the divine name: so we pass beyond it.  And at some
point, the soul itself gets in the way: so we pass beyond it.  This
is the meaning of Gateh in the great meditation mantra of Tibet.

Don't assume that this is simply an Eastern teaching.  It is also

the age-old practice of Christian Mystics.  In the early Church,
these mystics were called hesychasts, which means practitioners
of silence.  In the 7th Century, St. Hesychius of Jerusalem wrote
that the core of Christian mysticism is, "The heart's silence, 
undisturbed by any thought."

The heart's silence at first may seem like a negation, yet it is
the most positive experience possible.  For this silence is the
soul and source of creation,  the silence that was here before
God said, "Let there be light."

Fred LaMotte
Interfaith Minister

Uradiance

excerpt from his post:
"To Breathe God"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Invisible One - Nag Hammadi Scrolls

I am thought that lives in the light.
I live in everyone, and I delve into them all...
I move in every creature...

I am the invisible one in all beings...
I am the voice speaking softly...

I am the real voice... the voice from the invisible thought...

It is a mystery...  I cry out for everyone...

I hid myself in everyone, and revealed myself
within them, and every mind seeking me longs
for me...

I am she who gradually brought forth
everything...

I am the image of the invisible spirit...
The mother, the light... the virgin... the
womb, and the voice...

I put breath in all beings.

Nag Hammadi Scrolls
from: Why Religion, Elaine Pagels

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo - Sri Yantra necklace

 

 

The Solace of Solitude...

My Soul needs the solace of Solitude,
finding its Rhythm again
in the deep silent space of "Home";
The Sacred Silence within...

The comfort of the deep Silence
brings everything into perspective...

I breathe into my Soul
and my Soul breathes into me...
a mutual breath...

I fall into sleep, into the deeper
 Rhythm of the Sanctuary of the Soul -

and rest...

Mystic Meandering 
Nov. 25, 2022

~

Photo - Mandala Art
Mystic Meandering
2013

 

 

The Current of the Breath - Kathleen Knipp

.....set aside our habitual way of being,
befriend our woundedness, our fragility -
personally and collectively.

Be in the place of utter receptivity, listening to the sound of
our own Heart.  Feel its pulsation, that's not uniquely your own -
not just the physical beating.  The unique heartbeat is just an
expression of the pulsation of Aliveness that just is - infinitely
recreating Itself in each moment.  Sense the breath [the rhythm
of the breath], absorbed in the sensation of the cycle of breath.
It nourishes, it revitalizes, it sustains the body, and it disappears.

Breath washes through the stuck and sticky places, soothing
the places that hurt, whether physical, emotional, or psychological,
softening resistance, resolving tension.

Receive breath as a soothing balm - the current of breath -
flowing into a vast ocean of pure Awareness - beyond words,
beyond understanding.

The breath animating this form, this body
is infinite and finite...

Excerpt from a Yoga Nidra Meditation
The Gift of Breath
by Kathleen Knipp

You might also like this wonderful Yoga Nidra Meditation
called Deep Rest, especially in these chaotic times.
  It's one of my favorites.

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Life Blooms Through You - Ilchi Lee

 Observe your body.  It breathes.  You breathe
when you are asleep, when you are no longer
conscious of your own ideas of self-identity.
Who, then, is breathing?  The collection of
information that you mistakenly think is you is
not the protagonist in this drama called the
breath.  In fact, you are not breathing; breath
is naturally happening...  You can purposely
end your own life, but you cannot purposely
keep your own life going.  The expression,
'my life' is actually an oxymoron, a result of
mistaken assumption.  You don't posses life;
Life expresses itself through you.  Your body
is a flower that Life let bloom, a phenomenon
created by Life.

Ilchi Lee

with thanks to Whiskey River

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
The Many Faces in the Blossoms

Can you see some of the little faces?! :)))

A Prayer...

Call my name...  Call my name...

My unborn name...

The name that only You know...

When I danced with the unnamed stars
and unknown galaxies...

Let me hear Your voice again...

Let me sink into Your depths...
Let me feel the warm glow of Your
hidden light...
Let me hear the soft sound of Your
unplayed music -
dancing through the Cosmos -
before You were called
Shakti, Shiva, The Buddha, Allah, The Christ;
or however You reveal Yourself,
in the land of myths and stories...

Let me rest in
Your Primal Energy at the Core of my Being,
That which infuses all life
and lights everything from within.
The Breath of the Eternal Source...

Amen

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 7, 2021

Photo from the Internet

 

Pulsation of Life - Fred LaMotte

 The sign of life is pulsation. 'Spanda' in Sanskrit.
From Spanda comes our word 'expand.'  That which expands
must also contract, must pulse.  That which does not pulse
cannot play, cannot live.

Pulse is the nectar of creation, and the wine of health.  Atoms,
hearts, moments of time, cycles of history, worlds and
galaxies, all bubble up and dissolve as the pulse of the Infinite.
Music is the pulse of silence, dance is the pulse of stillness,
art is the pulse of the formless.  Spirit pulses into Matter.
Shiva pulses into Shakti.

If we are going to pulsate and live, we must not only know 
how to act, but how to rest; not only how to swell, but how
to empty; how to listen as well as speak; how to be dark as
well as radiant.

We learn to rest between the pulses.  Between our days. 
Between our moments.  Between our heartbeats.  And right
in the midst of busy lives, to be so vulnerable that we can
fall into the gaps and silences, coming Om even for an instant,
which could be an instant of eternity, as we let go of Doing to
sink into Being.

But we get stuck in the mind, do we not?  In dry abstractions,
brittle concepts.  Whether religious or political, is the same 
arid paralysis: lack of pulse.  Weak pulse is dis-ease. The
organic vibrancy of our body goes numb.  Confined to the 
cage of the intellect, we have no juice, and cannot feel the
kiss of God.

Ideology will never save the world.  Our world will be saved
by the call of a robin at dawn, the flavor of your grandmother's
mashed potatoes, the sting of dew on your bare feet.  Whatever
the question is, the answer is not an idea.  Nor will the answer
ever come as the conclusion of an argument.

The answer is returning to pulsation.  When you are stuck in the
mind, drop those inflexible concepts and come home to what
pulsates, the rhythm that softens and expands our heart.  This
life-giving pulse of Spanda need not be sensational or
dramatic.  It could be as gentle and intimate as your next breath.

Fred LaMotte

Uradiance

~

Photo - Mandala Art

Mystic Meandering

Ride The Rhythm...

 Slow down...
Ride The Rhythm ~
The deeper Rhythm within you
that arises like warm liquid light
from the deepest part of your being.

Let it soothe you like a lullaby...

Put all your burdens of the heart to rest now
in The Rhythm: the heaviness of sorrow, the fear
of loss, the angst, the edginess,
and the grief...

Feel them integrate with The Rhythm.
Feel the fluidity that rises in the body -
loosening the constraints of form...

Breathe with The Rhythm -
as you are breathed by The Rhythm...

No intention, no agenda, no expectation -
just listening to the whispers of The Rhythm
in total immersion in The Rhythm...

Ride the Rhythm ~ ~ ~

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 8, 2021

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Your Body Is The Universe - Fred LaMotte

Photo from Dreamstime.com 

Your body is not a tomb, or a trap, or punishment.
Your body is the universe inviting you to wake up and dance.

Your body has no edges. It is an ocean of energy expanding
in waves of breath, teeming with stars, swirling with galaxies,
overflowing with the very rim of time and space.  And your
dance can be wild as a whirlwind, or as quiet as a heartbeat.
You need not even move; your body is moving anyway, hosts
of cells, countless atoms in the marvelous ballet of
incarnation...

The axis of infinity runs up your hollow spine, a silver thread
of silk to tether your skull to the most distant star, and your
belly to the fire of darkness in the center of the planet.

Your body is a lightening bolt, connecting heaven and earth.
In truth, it is only the limited mind that insists on
distinguishing the spiritual from the physical...

But please, don't mistake the mind for the Self.

You are not the mind.

Bathe in the sea of the Breath...

You are the cosmos, flowing in gratitude through the energy of
your flesh, dissolving your mind into the infinite sky.  Be bold.
Leap into the unfathomable ocean of your body.  Live in the
silent grace beyond thought.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

Indwelling - Fred LaMotte

 As you fall asleep tonight,
do not take this Breath
for granted.  Honor Her
as a royal guest, making
a spacious tent of your flesh.

For she who contains the galaxies
has come to dwell in you,
pouring her gift of starlight
down your backbone.

...Your exhalation
will lead you to a crystal door.
The key is silence.
Step through.

Follow her dark rainbow
into the golden void.
Let the wings of astonishment
carry your from death to death
until you gaze into your own
original face, floating
in a vastness with no name.

A scent of blossoms
from the garden of the unborn
will guide you home...
Just make the pilgrimage, friend,
the journey of one breath
from the mind to the Heart.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Photo - a note card I've had for years
credit on back: Francene Hart

Soul Breath...

 Late at night,
my mind sits at the edge of these chaotic times...

And, despite the turmoil of "life as it is" ~

I become aware of the deep Silence of the Soul ~

and fall into the Rhythm of Its Breath;
sinking ever more deeply
into timelessness beyond time;
letting go of the distressing thoughts,
just following the Rhythm of Stillness...

the Breath of the Soul...

I hear the sound of the ceiling fan
breathing its own whirling rhythm...
feeling the breeze of its breath
gently move the strands of my hair...

Just breathing...

And "I" am suddenly "gone"...
unaware of myself ~

slipping off the edge
into slumber;
lost in Soul Breath
until just before the rising
of the next day...

~

Upon awakening

I breathe a sigh of relief,
sensing a shift,
and welcome
the turning of the page...

Letting go of the suffocating contractions
of the collective dis-ease;
I breathe...
hoping that stability and kindness
will make its way across the land again...

Keep breathing through...

Mystic Meandering
Nov 6&7, 2020

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Holy Bellows...

She enters the Quietness of Her Being
and waits...

Breathing into the Quiet,
salvaging the remnants from
previous excursions here.

Waves of The Quiet that still
remain, before the mind
usurped the calming rise and fall
with its staccato tempo...

Finding the deeper Rhythm again,
she returns to the Core of Her Being,
unperturbed by the flailing mind
that wants attention.

Following the rhythm of the breath;
breathing in the Holy,
breathing out the Holy...
The Sacredness of The Breath
brings her back;
being breathed by the
Holy Bellows...

Resuscitating the Quiet Core,
she falls back into deep Rest -
just breathing...

The Holy Quiet permeates
her body again with the gentle
vibration of her Aliveness...

Mystic Meandering
June 18, 2020

~

Mandala Art
Mystic Meandering
2013

Cosmic Breathing...

Photo - Johannes Plenio at Unsplash

Sitting in the Silence of the Inner Landscape,

I suddenly realize the Cosmic Breath of Infinity
is slowly breathing this body -
breathing in... breathing out...

Held in the pause between breaths -
I recognize that "I" am being breathed
by an unheard Rhythm...

From the Inner Window,
at the edge of Infinity
I see beyond this world,
into the formless void,
beyond moon and stars,
into the Infinite Cosmic Ocean
that holds it all...

Aware of what is aware within:
Life - breathing ITSelf...

Every Breath is the Primordial Breath
rippling through space...

Hush
Be Silent
Listen

Entrain with the Cosmic Rhythm
that is breathing you...

Slow down and breathe
the Infinite Breath -
that whispers...

All will be infinitely well...

Mystic Meandering
April 12, 2020

~

Photo - Johannes Plenio at Unsplash