Real Acceptance - Henry Rollins

If the world gives you the blues, if you wake up in the
middle of the night with waves of fear and senseless
panic washing over you, I am your friend.  If you're
overcome by a desperation that makes your mouth
open for a scream that never comes out but just freezes
your face in mute despair, then you and I have something
in common.  If you can't understand them for the life of
you, even though you've tried so hard, when that
dislocation makes you feel like you're the only one of
your species on the planet, I know I can confide in you.
If this endless ghetto of lies and heart break, this life-
long run of fences and flickering neon signs and night
sweats makes you feel like stopping, just stopping,
wait.  Wait...

You don't have to tell me your name.
You don't have to prove yourself to me.
I accept you...

Henry Rollins

with thanks to Whiskey River

~

Love and Blessings to all who are struggling
in body, mind and spirit...

_/\_

MM

~

Polar Bears Hugging Photo from the Internet

 

It Floats Us - Ivan Granger

The vast flood
Rolls onward
But yield yourself,
And it floats you upon it.

Ikkyu

Day after day, experience after experience, terrors and tragedies,
joys and victories, everything  - life.  It can feel like an onslaught.

Most of us learn to dampen down the awareness in order to cope
and mimic those around us.

Yet even with dimmed senses we feel overwhelmed.

But yield yourself,
And it floats you upon it.

This is the liberating wisdom of surrender.

Most of our intense efforts in life, whether directed toward work,
family, even spirituality, are about trying to control the flow
of life.  We want to master the flood, bring it under our will.
We want to tame it so we can be safe.

But it never really works.

The lifelong effort is like a duck on a great river who imagines
he controls the current by the action of his paddling feet.

When he happens to face downstream - Amazing!  The river goes
just where he commanded!  When he turns left or right, he imagines
that he needs to increase his effort and improve his technique to get
the river flowing where he wants.  And when he turns downstream -
Calamity!  He has lost control of the river.

Or...  he can just sit on top of the river and let its current carry him.

Yielding ourselves to this great river, no longer imagining that we
can control it, we can finally begin to discover its true nature and
direction - and beauty.  We come to see its flow as a unifying harmony
and not a threat. Importantly, we notice our natural buoyancy.  
We are built to float upon it.

Commentary by Ivan Granger
at Poetry Chaikhana

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
(didn't have a picture of a duck :)

 

"Keys" - a meandering

On my "spiritual meanderings" over the years, I have learned
many things, discovered many "truths"; found 3 "keys", although
I'm sure there are more.

Maybe you have discovered a different set of "keys" for yourself.
But I wanted to share the ones I found in this meandering...

Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

Experiencing The Divine Within

Today the "Divine Mother" is silent.
But I feel Her energy in the stillness of waking.
She vibrates in my body, as I hold my heart
with my hands over my chest, grateful for Her
Presence...

My "reason to live" is this felt connection with
"The Divine Mother"; directly experiencing Her
Presence vibrating through me...

I learned from "Her" that I must turn inward and always
keep my awareness open to "Her" - with the inner ear -
listening for Her silent "voice" and unspoken words;
with the inner eye - "seeing" through the mental obscurations
that blind me; and - sensing Her Presence always within me.

"The Mother of the Universe" - however one names "Her" - is
ultimately, for me, not a persona, or deity, although I give Her
a name: "The Divine Mother."  I could call Her "The Sacred",
"The Beloved", "The Ineffable", but "Divine Mother" seems 
more personal, more relatable...

"She, however called, is the Energy that permeates all things;
that becomes all form in matter reality,
the Primal Energy that infuses us and
communes with every cell of our being -
enlivening and comforting...
I need to bask in Her Essence...

In this pool of Primal Energy all worries subside,
mentations give way, and "I" feel closer to my own true
Essence.

Mystic Meandering
Aug. 7, 2023
Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

July 18, 2023

Blessing

Today I started asking for blessings for people in my life.
Don't know why.  It just seemed like the natural thing
to do with so many people suffering in this world now,
feeling helpless to help them...

When I asked a blessing I began to feel a vibration in my
body, as if there was some kind of energy moving through me...

First Blessing

I ask a blessing on "the visitor"
that came to live here 10 months ago,
so that she may be free at last;
not in constant mental torture,
re-hashing her past - but free to
move on.

I ask that "The Divine Mother" would
be merciful to her, and relieve her of her
suffering, so that she can truly be at peace.

I ask a blessing on this whole situation!

I ask a blessing on this house!

Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

Acceptance

I don't know when I first came across the concept of
 "accepting what is" but it has been a recurring theme
 in my life experience.  I remember listening to a
guided meditation in the early 2000's by Adyashanti
 on "Allowing everything to be as it is."  And around
 the same time I read a book by Tara Brach called
Radical  Acceptance.  And Byron Katie's - Loving
What Is.  Then recently a book by Frank Ostaseski
called The Five Invitations.  One of the invitations is
 to Welcome Everything, push nothing away.
And this quote below by Jeff Foster from his book
 The Deepest Acceptance that I read sometime in 2014...

~

"Freedom is found not through escaping the present
experience, but by diving fearlessly into its hidden depths...

If we are to be truly free - we must face reality with open
 eyes. We must move away from denial, wishful thinking,
and hoping and tell the truth about life as it is. Great
freedom lies in admitting the truth of this moment, 
however much it clashes with our dreams and plans
 - self-image [or spiritual teachings]... Acceptance is about
seeing reality, seeing things as they actually are, not
 as we wish them to be.  And from that place of 
alignment with what is, all creative, loving and
 intelligent actions flow naturally.

Great freedom lies in fearlessly facing the darkness
and finally coming to see that the darkness is inseparable
 from light...  Life cannot be good or bad. 
  Life is simply life..."

Jeff Foster

Photo from the Internet

~

Accepting life as it is, is still a challenge for me, but I
 know it is a "key" - for when I "accept" someone the way
 they are,  kindness and compassion arise to meet them.
 Accepting what is means I recognize the things I can
 change, and the things I can't. I give up trying to "control"
the person or situation, and just let things/people be as/
who they are...

Even if I think they should be otherwise :)

_/\_

Blessings

MM

~

Keys Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Acceptance - Werner Erhard

The thought that there is something wrong is an illusion;
there is nothing wrong, there is only what's so.  Notice when
you're comparing what's so to some fantasy about how it
should be.  Bring yourself back to what's so and it will be O.K.
Ask yourself what's so, and align with that.  Align with what's so
and it will not matter.  That is the foundation of transformation...
Not aligning with what's so is the only thing that will ever 
bring you hardship or suffering.  Life in what's so will bring you
harmony and grace and balance...

Werner Erhard

~

"acceptance is the compass"
Mitch Rosacker

~

Acceptance for what is, is not resignation.  It does not
mean one doesn't do anything about their life situation.
It's the acceptance of the way life is - and you use 
acceptance to navigate through life - to see
what actions need to be taken, or not taken, at any
given moment.

Acceptance is the key

MM

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering 

Sometimes your life is just full of weeds :)

 

 

Acceptance - Jeff Foster

 Freedom is found not through escaping the present experience,
but by diving fearlessly into its hidden depths.  You must be
open to exploring suffering - how and why it manifests in you,
where it originates.  You must be willing to look at your pain,
fears, sadness, longings.  They are part of the wholeness of
life.  You must be willing to face them head on and find deep
acceptance for the seemingly unacceptable aspects of yourself...
Beyond the personal story of my own suffering, I discover the
pains is not really my pain.  It's the world's pain.  It's humanity's
pain...

It's one thing to know who you really are [your Beingness]
when life is easy and things are going well for you.  It's
another thing to remember this in the heat of the moment, 
when things fall apart, when life gets messy.  We find another
way of looking at suffering, a radical new way of relating to
it.  We can see the messiness and the beauty of day-to-day
human existence as something to be avoided, or transcended,
or we can see it for what it really is: a secret and constant
invitation to wake up... It's about finding out who you
really are, beyond who you think you are, beyond who you've
been taught you are, beyond the story about who you are,
beyond all your concepts and images of who you are.

...we must face reality with open eyes.  We must move away
from denial, wishful thinking, and hoping and tell the truth
about life as it is.  Great freedom lies in admitting the truth
of this moment, however much it clashes with our dreams and
plans - and self image...  Acceptance is about seeing reality,

seeing things as they actually are, not as we wish them to be.
And from that place of alignment with what is, all creative,
loving and intelligent actions flow naturally.

Freedom is about embracing all that appears in the Ocean
of our present experience.  Maybe the true calling in life is to
accept present experience deeply - to let go of how this
moment should be - letting go of our false self-image.

Great freedom lies in fearlessly facing the darkness and finally
coming to see that the darkness is inseparable from light...
Life cannot be good or bad.  Life is simply life.  It's about
seeing the Mystery of Life that is already here.

Jeff Foster
Excerpts from - The Deepest Acceptance
published in 2012
Facebook

As many of you know Jeff has been dealing with a
severe debilitating illness for the past few years, 
having to come face to face with Acceptance...
He writes about his experience on his Facebook page...

~

Photo - taken by my brother
at Plum Cove, Gloucester, MA

It's All Right - Robert Bly & Werner Erhard

 There are more like us.  All over the world
There are confused people who can't remember
The name of their dog when they wake up, and people
Who love God but can't remember where
He was when they went to sleep.  

It's all right.

A wrong number occurs to you in the middle
Of the night, you dial it, it rings just in time

To save the house.  And the second-story man
Gets the wrong address, where the insomniac lives,
And he's lonely, and they talk, and thief
Goes back to college.  Even in graduate school,

You can wander into the wrong classroom,
And hear great poems lovingly spoken
By the wrong professor.  And you find your soul...

Robert Bly
original title: "People Like Us"

with thanks to Death Deconstructed
for post and photo :)

~

The thought that there is something wrong is an illusion;
there is nothing wrong, there is only what's so.  Notice when
you're comparing what's so to some fantasy of how it 
should be.  Bring yourself back to what's so and it will be
O.K.  Ask yourself what's so, and align with that.  Align with
what's so and it will not matter.  That is the foundation of
transformation....  Not aligning with what's so is the only
thing that will ever bring you hardship or suffering.  Life
in what's so will bring you harmony and grace and balance.
Ask yourself - what's so about your situation?

Werner Erhard

Unconditional Love - Adyashanti

I don't know about you but -
I've been experiencing a lot of anger and frustration lately
with the current world situation, with the crazy politics, and
"the Vid" that has brought drastic changes personally, socially
and economically to many.  Life, as we know it, is changing,
has changed, and obviously will continue to change.  That's
what life does, requiring adjusting and adapting on all levels.
A hidden Movement in the unseen realm is evidently underway
in the current experience that we don't understand...

I know this, but - I'm not "feeling the love",
so-to-speak, toward the current "now."  Instead, I feel
frustration and anger - feeling curmudgeonly...

One day this week, after listening to a Deva Premal
sanskrit chant on you tube, I switched over to a guided
meditation by Adyashanti on "The Unconditioned Nature of
Being.", trying to assuage the inner anger and frustration
that consistently arises within.  But I couldn't listen to it, my
mind was caught in the emotions within, which led to a belief
that I had somehow lost the ability to "love" - overwhelmed
by the intensity of the feelings; defining "love" as the ability to
feel "love" for everybody and everything at all times despite
the current stressful times we live in.  I'm no saint, just a mystic
wanting to realize the Mystery of Existence.

Then something caught my attention in the right hand margin.
Another video by Adya called, "What Is Unconditional Love?"
It was like "The Universe" had responded!
I watched the video, and I listened   He said:

We personalize unconditional love.
We imagine how it should be.
But it's not personal.
It's more like acceptance of what is.

Existence is unconditional love.
Existence allows you to be the person you are.

To *try* to be unconditionally loving will place a demand
on you which will take you away from it.

Existence unconditionally accepts.  It is unconditional love...
[which is acceptance of the totality of life experience].

Realize your Self/True Nature...

Realize what you are and unconditional love will reveal
itself to you...

Don't fight the "conditioned nature", which is the ideas of
unconditional love; images of it, etc.

We don't know what it is.

Allow yourself not to know.

[In other words, don't try to define it, or be it,
just allow it to find you...]

Adyashanti
Excerpts from: "What is Unconditional Love?"

You Tube video

Of course not all may agree, depending on your belief system,
but it was the medicine I needed to hear at that time: that it's
not about trying to be "loving", but that "love" is being able
to accept what is, accepting others as they are, and also,
accepting ourselves and what we are going through -
as we are.

I also found that metaphorically "stepping back" (internally)
from the intensity of my emotions, and how I am playing
 in the Divine Drama, and just resting in the Core of my Being
 helped.  From there I understood that "love"/acceptance will arise
in its own time; that I was grasping after love, because I thought
 I lacked "love",  when what I lacked was the felt sense of my own
 Core Being.   That was the key piece that I needed to realize,
to "step back" into the Core, and ride out the emotional roller
coaster ride that so many of us are still experiencing in this
"now."


Namaste
_/\_

~

Photo - from a friend, of a friend, of a friend

Embracing the Reality of Sorrow - Adyashanti

Sooner or later we will all experience the tragic quality of life.
Perhaps this quality of life is brought to us through illness, or
the death of a loved one, or losing a job, or an unexpected
accident, or having your heart broken.  But we will all
experience this tragic quality of life in both small and
overwhelmingly large ways over the span of our lives.
Whether we want to face it or not, life, with all of its beauty,
joy, and majesty, also has a tragic element to it.  This is
exactly what the Buddha saw, and it inspired his entire
spiritual search.

It seems that most people look for various ways to escape
from this tragic quality of life, but ultimately to no avail.
There is no escaping it.  And it must be faced sooner or
later.  The question is, when we are faced with this aspect
of life, how do we respond?  Surely, to avoid it only leads to
denial, fantasy, life-numbing withdrawal, cynicism, and fear.
It takes great courage to face the totality of life without
withdrawing from it or trying to protect ourselves from it.

Paradoxically, to face the totality of life we must face the

reality of death, sorrow, and loss as well.  We must face them
as unavoidable aspects of life.  The question is, can we face
them directly without getting lost in the stories that our mind
weaves about them?  Because if we can, we will find a
tremendous affirmation of life, an affirmation that is forged
in the fierce embrace of tragedy.

At the very heart and core of our being, there exists an
overwhelming 'yes' to existence.  This yes is discovered by
those who have the courage to open their hearts to the
totality of life. This yes is found only by
embracing the reality of sorrow and going beyond it. 

Adyashanti

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Radical Honesty - Jeff Foster

You don't have to be okay with anything.  It's not about the
me-person being okay.  It's that everything is already embraced
by Life ItSelf.  It is a cosmic okayness that goes beyond "I'm okay"
and "I'm not okay."  We are totally free to respond to life experiences
in authentic, honest, human ways.  We are free not to like our
experiences, and on a deeper level to experience a total, all-
encompassing okayness with the entire situation.  Underneath
everything is a cosmic okayness.  It's not about telling yourself
that you're okay when you are not.  It's not about pretending to be
okay, trying to be spiritual, trying to be peaceful.
You don't have to be anything other than you are in the moment.
It's about radical honesty. It's about seeing reality as it is,
acknowledging it, and discovering that the situation is fully
admitted into life - already.  There is simply life, in all its
mystery, wonder, and timeless simplicity.  And in this
recognition the illusion of separation between us and life
falls away, and we are no longer at odds with life
as it is...

Jeff Foster

From - The Deepest Acceptance

~

This moment in time and space is an eggshell,
personal identity is a sheath.
The breath of God is breathing through it...

Remember the deep root of your being.
Give yourself to the one who already owns
your breath and your moments.

Rumi

~

Photo from the Internet

The Art of Suffering - Etty Hillesum

Most of us in the West don't understand the art of suffering
and experience a thousand fears instead.  Man suffers most
through the idea of suffering, and through his fear of suffering.
We cease to be alive, being full of fear, bitterness, hatred and
despair.  Don't we live an entire life each one of our days,
and does it really matter if we live a few days more or less?
There is room for everything in a single life.

When I say I have come to terms with life, I don't mean I
have lost hope.  It is a question of living life from minute to
minute and taking suffering into the bargain.  But does it
matter if it is the Inquisition that causes people to suffer in
one century, and war and pogroms in another?

Suffering has always been with us, does it really matter in
what form it comes?  All that matters is how we bear it
and how we fit it into our lives.

I can sit for hours and know everything and bear everything
and grow stronger in the bearing of it.  And at the same time
feel sure life is beautiful and meaningful.  Despite everything.
But that does not mean that I am always filled with joy and
exaltation [about life and its circumstances].  I am often dog-
tired after standing in queues, but I know that this too is part
of life, and I know something inside me will never desert me...

We carry everything within us. God and Heaven and Hell and
Earth and Life and Death and all of history.  The externals are
simply so many props; everything we need is within us.  And
we have to take everything that comes; the bad with the good,
which does not mean we cannot devote our life to curing the
bad.  But we must know what motives inspire our struggle
[against] and we must begin with ourselves.

Living and dying, sorrow and joy, the blisters on my feet and
the jasmine behind the house, the persecution, the unspeakable
horrors - it is all as one in me, and I accept it all as one mighty
whole and begin to grasp it better, if only for myself, without
being able to explain to anyone else how it all hangs together.

If you destroy the ideas behind [suffering] which life lies
imprisoned within, you liberate your true life - and then you
will have the strength to bear real suffering...

Etty Hillesum
Jewish Mystic of the Holocaust
from: An Interrupted Life

~

Wishing the Jewish community
a peaceful and light filled Hanukkah
as it comes to an end...

All We Are, We Are

I realized a few years back, and again while experiencing a
recent relapse of a chronic illness, that I was resisting;
resisting the condition, and its related symptoms, as well as
life itself.  The mind was fixating on the bodily symptoms and
resisting what was happening, forgetting its True Essence
and the simplicity of just Being - just living as life presents itself.
When I finally woke up to this, I felt bad that I had fallen into
resistance again...  After all, Life moves the way it moves - right?
But, even so, I resisted the resistance  :) - in subtle ways
resisting what is...

So - I asked to be shown what I needed to see here.

The "answer" came, not through meditation, or sitting in the Silence,
or practicing a "practice", but while at the grocery store...

Several years ago, while waiting in line at the check-out, I heard
the words of a song being played on the PA system.  The words
were: "All we are we are..." lyrically repeated over and over
again.  I couldn't make out the other words in the other verses,
only the chorus: "All we are we are..."  The rhythm of the words
drew me in:  "All we are we are..."

Of course!
How could we be anything else?  As I stood waiting in line,
 listening to the words, I looked around, in a relaxed state of
awareness, my eyes unexpectedly landing on a word over in
the far corner from where I was standing that was printed on the
side of the display shelf.  It said:

"Inclusive"

My mind just stopped - eyes glued to the word - in awe.
I realized - there it was: my "answer."
And it all came together...

All we are, we are...

Inclusive...

Nothing is excluded - no thought, no feeling, no emotion,
not even resistance.  We can't be anything other than we are.
We are who we are...  All of it - not just the parts we like,
but even our hidden parts, the "darker" parts; the depression,
the discouragement, the anger, the anxiety, the restlessness,
the doubts, the uncertainties,the insecurities, the resistance...

I could feel the tears welling up with this recognition - with
the acceptance that everything is included - life as it is -
me exactly as I am.  There is nothing "wrong" with any of it!
It's all embraced as an experience of Being.  It is all expressions
of the Essential Self, in all it's many forms - the waves of the
Ocean rising and falling back into ItSelf - over and over again.
It's inclusive of the hard times and the easy times, not separating
out the good and bad experiences, as I tend to do - still believing
 the distinction in my mind, "complexifying" (I love this word!)
my life.  Pure Beingness embraces everything inclusively as
ItSelf - expressing this "me" as ItSelf - all of me; not the
perfection of me.  Our Beingness embraces it all -
enfolds every part back to ItSelf - our pain, our circumstances,
our life - as we are, as it is - without hesitation - without resistance.
Everything is ALLOWED.

I know this and forget this.
Everything unfolds the way it does, including the "resistance."
And so I once again whisper softly in its ear, as if to a
frightened child:
"You're included, all is well..."

All we are, we are...

Inclusive...

~

Originally written 2010

The song "All We Are" is by Matt Nathanson

~

Photo - light through a blue glass

Guru Cat speaks again

Listen to me...

Just lay it all down - Guru Cat said.
Just let life beeee, for heaven's sake -
What is,
as it is...
There is no other way through
but acceptance - ya know,
sounding exasperated...

Do not pursue the esoteric "answers"
for what cannot be explained:
for your existential angst;
for the frustrations with the way life is;
for the weariness of existence that you feel...
Be at peace with it all,
as it is...

Could this really be the "answer"!? -

I asked... in my head...
Just acceptance of what is?!
Just letting each experience be what it is...?

Guru Cat's eyes just stared.
Life is an interfluidity of experiences.
In the acceptance of each experience
is peace, a deep relaxation, a release
of all tension.
and, an inner movement of fluidity
with the deeper Rhythm of Life...

It's not as complicated as your mind
makes it...

It's not rocket science...
It's just Life living ItSelf...

She gave me that look.

Just rest - Guru Cat went on, trying to soften her tone,
with less sarcasm, more feeling...
Rest in the deep Silence of Being,
not seeking solutions,
or efforting after resolutions,
but deeply relax
into the Unknown,
and the unknowable,
only Aware of the Silence
within you,
the silent Presence of Awareness.
Do you see this yet?
Can you feel it?

Guru Cat continued to stare with steely eyes...

Remain relaxed in
the simplicity of Being
that just IS -
the ISness of Being

as it is-
Only Aware...
Not concerned with anything
that arises
within
or
without

Just Aware...

Yes, Guru Cat - I said

Guru Cat just stared...

and there was only the silence
of being  - Aware.

Mystic Meandering
Sept. 23, 2018

Deconstruction - Danna Faulds

I am deconstructing.

My identity, built
assumption by assumption,
is crumbling at my feet.
It's clear to me the way
of truth leads into the
unknown...

[.....]

Balanced on the rubble,
I grope for
handholds even as I try
to let go.  I am bared to the
bone by pain and the thwarted
desire to maintain control.  I
long to paint the scene the
way I want, while ignoring
how it is.  My practice now
isn't about rebuilding what
I knew.  It's not about
clearing the littered ground
of old illusions only to
construct new ones.
Emptiness has a stark
beauty, noticed only
when I stop looking
for security.  I sit on the
tumble of mortar and brick
and pray for patience,
pray for strength,
pray for the humility
to just keep breathing.

Danna Faulds
Excerpt from: "Deconstruction"
From: One Soul
2003

~

Art - Dissolving the Masks

2017

The Deepest Acceptance - Jeff Foster & Rilke

True freedom is found not through escaping the present experience,
but by diving fearlessly into its hidden depths.  You must be willing
to see *through* the idea of separation from life, in all its forms, in
the midst of your current experience.  You must be open to exploring
suffering - how and why it manifests in you, where it originates.  

You must be willing to look at your pain, fears, sadness, longings.
They are part of the wholeness of life.  You must be willing to face
them head on and find deep acceptance for the seemingly
unacceptable aspects of yourself...  Beyond the personal story of my
own suffering, I discover that pain is not really my pain.  It's the
world's pain.  It's humanity's pain...

It's one thing to know who you really are when life is easy and things
are going well for you.  It's another thing to remember this in the heat
of the moment, when things fall apart, when life gets messy.  We find
another way of  looking at suffering, a radical new way of relating to
it.  We can see the messiness and beauty of day-to-day human
 existence as something to be avoided, or transcended, *or* we can
 see it for what what it really is: a secret and constant invitation to
 wake up - even if we believe we already woke up yesterday.
Life, in its infinite compassion, won't let us rest on our laurels.   It's
about finding out who you *really* are, beyond who you *think*
 you are, beyond who you've been taught you are, beyond your story
 about who you are, beyond all your concepts and images of
who you are.

If we are to be truly free - we must face reality with open eyes.
We must move away from denial, wishful thinking, and hoping,
 and tell the truth about life as it is.  Great freedom lies in admitting
 the truth of this  moment, however much it clashes with our dreams
 and plans - and self-image...  Acceptance is about seeing reality,
seeing things as they actually are, not as we wish them to be.
And from that place of alignment with what is, all creative, loving
 and intelligent actions flow naturally.

True freedom has nothing to do with being a better wave in the Ocean,
or perfecting our story of ourselves,  Freedom is about waking up from
the dream (illusion) that we are separate waves in the first place, and
embracing all that appears in the Ocean of our experience.  Maybe
the true calling in life is to accept present experience deeply - to let go
of how this moment should be - letting go of our false self-image.

Great freedom lies in fearlessly facing the darkness and finally coming
to see that the darkness is inseparable from light...  Life cannot
 be good or bad.  Life is simply life.
 It's about seeing the Mystery of Life
 that is already here.

Jeff Foster

Excerpts from: The Deepest Acceptance:
Radical Awakening in Ordinary Life

~*~

No experience has been too unimportant,
and the smallest event unfolds like fate,

and fate itself is like a wonderful, wide fabric
in which every thread is guided by an infinitely
tender hand

and is laid alongside another thread
and is held and supported by a hundred others.

Rainer Maria Rilke

~

Photo: I noticed the different patterns
in the sheer curtain from the play of light on it.
For me these patterns represent the
"fabric of life", the weave of life,
in all its variations...

The Art of Living - Henry Miller

The art of living is based on rhythm -
on give and take,
ebb and flow,
light and dark,
life and death.

By acceptance of all aspects of life,
good and bad,
right and wrong,
yours and mine,
the static, defensive life
which is what most people
are cursed with,
is converted into a dance,
'the dance of life,'
metamorphosis.

One can dance to sorrow or joy;
one can even dance abstractly.
But the point is that
by the mere act of dancing,
the elements which compose it are
transformed;
the dance is an end in itself,
just like life.

The acceptance of the situation,
any situation,

brings about flow,
a rhythmic impulse towards
self-expression.
To relax is the first thing
a dancer has to learn...
It is the first thing any one has to learn
in order to live.

It is extremely difficult,
because it means surrender,
full surrender.

Henry Miller
The Wisdom of the Heart
(Mr. Miller's words, my format)

via: No Mind's Land

Sabbatical Days...

Surprisingly, this week opened up several “sabbatical days”  in my new experience of “life as sabbatical” – days of quiet inner rest, getting in tune with the Oceanic Rhythm of Life again, moving intuitively and spontaneously, letting the days unfold, meeting each day as it presented itself, without agenda – without should haves, or should not haves – or resistance to what was, but allowing each day to be what it was, moving me through the day, trusting that Life would move in the way it needed to.  And it did…

I started reading a wonderful book by Jeff Foster that is well worth the read, called: The Deepest Acceptance: Radical Awakening in Ordinary Life.  Not surprisingly it is about accepting our life experiences no matter what they are.  But more than that, it is that Life ItSelf (the Being that we are deep within) accepts every experience, including all our feelings and emotions, no matter how we label them.  Life circumstances are already deeply accepted at the depths of Being Itself – the Ocean of Consciousness.  The experiences of our lives are like waves in that Ocean, and are never separate from that Ocean. In that sense, it is about awakening from the illusion of separation from the Ocean of Being that we all are – that deeply connects us all…

This view, which I have heard many times throughout my “spiritual” meandering, is now being heard as if for the first time, and changing my orientation to life and living.  The more I read, the more I realized that *everything* is deeply okay – no matter what the life experience is. That even though our surface life may be painful, filled with challenges, with fear, anxiety, depression, grief, anger, sadness, and dysfunctional families J, those feelings, experiences, and families are just waves on the surface of the Ocean of Consciousness. And ultimately *everything* is allowed, is deeply embraced by this Inner Oceanic Living Consciousness of Life. The waves are not separate from the deep Oceanic movement of Life, but are, in essence, the Ocean ItSelf moving through life.  With this realization I deeply relaxed, letting go of resistances to life, and slept well for 3 nights, instead of fighting the waves.  I began to get a taste of true freedom - no longer fighting with life…. And yet emotions and feelings continue to move through, like waves.  Sometimes I contract as if to keep them away – then remember - “everything is deeply okay.”

As I was being absorbed by this new awareness that “everything is deeply okay”, no matter what the circumstances, I felt the Heart of Love began to open up, ever so slightly, revealing ItSelf for just a few minutes – just enough to catch a glimpse of a larger Love.  It was an all-encompassing, non-perosnal Love for *all* life, all of humanity, and the dance of Life that is being played out here, even what we label as “darkness.”  It is a compassion for the struggles of humanity, which is part of the dance, without being affected by the struggle, or the need to fix it.  It’s more a deep open space of Love that allows everything to be; allows us to be who we are…

In knowing that “everything is deeply okay” there is only a deep bow to life, a deep honoring of life, a deep regard for life, an awe of life and the way Life plays Itself out here.  The  *Essence* of LIFE is living ItSelf in form.  And the miracle is that it’s all deeply okay, however it is. 

“Everything is deeply okay.” I keep repeating these words like a mantra, which takes me to deeper levels of peace, awareness and openness to life. As I feel the truth of this more deeply, I relax and find myself living life *from* a  deeper place of Inner Being that just IS – spacious and open to all of life experiences - where everything is embraced and loved just the way it is.  This is freeing…

~

“Life cannot be good or bad.
Life simply is,
appearing as all there is,
what we label as
good or bad…”

“From a place of deep acceptance of the way things are,
in seeing the inherent perfection of life itself,
one is still totally free to do what one is moved to do:
to help, to change things, to make a difference.

It’s just that our actions are no longer coming from
the root assumption that reality is broken
 and needs to be fixed,
and, underneath that, the assumption that
each of us is separate from life.
Any movement that comes from the assumption
that life is broken will simply perpetuate
the disease it wants to cure.

Acceptance is all about seeing reality,
seeing things as they actually are,
not as we hope or wish them to be.
And from that place of alignment
with what is,
all creative, loving and intelligent
action flows naturally.”

“Great freedom lies in fearlessly facing the
darkness
and finally coming to see
that the darkness is inseparable from light.”

All quotes: Jeff Foster
From: The Deepest Acceptance

~

Photo: Shadows on a Wall

Breakthrough - Acceptance and Awareness...

I’ve been hidden behind a cloud of depression the last couple of weeks.  Dealing with an aging body that doesn’t allow me to do the things I once did with ease; dealing with family dysfunction that tends to keep life in constant chaos, like an undertow of unconsciousness pulling me under; and just the challenges of everyday life with its distractions that keep pulling at me – resisting the pull…

Last week I returned to a regular sitting meditation practice that became part of the breakthrough.  Sitting in meditative Silence without agenda, bringing awareness to what is Aware within, is healing.  Not needing life to *go* a certain way, or needing to *do* something about the way life is going; not needing to *react* to life, but resting in the inner space of Silent Awareness.  Unless one has experienced this deep Awareness of Being, it is hard to explain, and sounds rather boring, maybe even anxiety provoking to sit in the space of Silence.  But it does make a difference.  You become aware of an aliveness in the Silence that speaks, that has rhythm, that is aware.  A recognition arises that you are that Silence, that Awareness.  And you realize that it is this Pure Awareness/Consciousness – the One Reality - that is living us and what we call “my life.”  I must be reminded of this all the time.  It is the mind that keeps dragging me into the shadows of unawareness and non-acceptance, where I beat myself up.

This morning, as I was waking, the words “accept life” came to me.  Really!? J Where have I heard that before! J  Another breakthrough.  Yes, of course!  I was excited as I began to feel “acceptance” for life welling up within.  The cloud started to lift.   I had in mind that I would get up and do my “normal” routine, then meditate, start a mandala, read, do laundry, and maybe do the budget – with acceptance of course - maybe.  Instead, I was distracted by a rather lengthy conversation with my husband, reading inspiring blogs, and unexpectedly wrote this blog post!  I did eventually sit in silent meditation late in the afternoon. J But the day unfolded completely different than I had anticipated.  The mind said: “I should have done such and such…”  Acceptance said, all is as it should be.   

Acceptance is not new, of course.  This is what most great Spiritualities teach – Acceptance and Awareness – the keys to living freely and peacefully…   In seeing life as a distraction, or only seeing the distractions in life that keep *me* from what I *think* I really want, anger and frustration arise - daily, which led to depression (anger turned inwards).  I was identifying with the small disgruntled, unhappy “me”, unaware of the Spacious Awareness of Being that accepts life as it is in a fluid dance of living.  I had forgotten how to dance with life.  It seems for me to be an ongoing process of revelation.

In becoming aware and accepting there was a sense of release and freedom, a sense of anticipation, not expectation, about life without dread of what the day would bring. In Meditative Silence one begins to see life more holistically; that life just is the way it is.  From the space of meditative Awareness there is acceptance and allowing for everything – including depression – that needs to be brought into daily living.  And, I am once again reminded that it’s how we *see* life that makes the difference - the perception.  That too is a key to staying open and aware to what life offers us.

“Think in ways you never thought before.
If the phone rings, think of it as
carrying a message,
larger than anything you’ve ever heard…

When someone knocks on the door,
think that he’s about to give you
something large:
tell you you’re forgiven,
or that it’s not necessary to work all the time,
or that it’s been decided that
if you lie down
no one will die…”

Robert Bly
excerpt from Morning Poems

Via – Love Is a Place

Who’s knocking at your door?
What message is life bringing you
disguised as a distraction, as depression,
as frustration?

You might be surprised!
Knock, Knock… J