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

 

"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

 

The Peace of Wild Things - Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of the wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.  I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.  For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry
from: Collected Poems

with thanks to Beyond the Fields We Know

~

Photo - Cate Kerr
from Beyond the Fields We Know

 

The Refuge Within - St. Teresa of Avila & Angeles Arrien

There is a secret place.
A radiant sanctuary.
As real as your own kitchen.
More real than that.
Worlds within worlds.
A clarity so complete you will
never again forget.

This magnificent refuge is inside you.
Enter. Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway.
Step around the poisonous vipers that slither
at your feet to throw you off course.
Be bold.  Be humble.
Put away the incense and forget
the incantations they taught you.
Ask no permission from the authorities.
Close your eyes and follow your breath
to the still place that leads to the
invisible path that leads you home.

St. Teresa of Avila
Mirabai Starr translation

~

I trust the mystery.  I trust what comes in silence
and what comes in nature where there's no diversion.
I think the lack of stimulation allows us to hear and
experience a deeper river that's constant, still, vibrant,
and real.  And the process of deep listening mobilizes
exactly what's needed at that time.

Angeles Arrien

With thanks to Michel
at No Mind's Land

Healing Silence...

Always come back to the great space of Silence...
In stillness, aware, with barely
a perceptible movement - only breathing;
feeling the pulse of Silence
through the core of your body;
feeling the pulse of Aliveness
in the Nadis - the Rivers of the body;
resonating with the movement
of The Silence of Life that prevails everywhere,
in everything...

Fall back into the ever-sustaining Silence
that infuses all existence;
the Internality of Deep Rest...

In this is "healing"...

Mystic Meandering
May 28, 2017

~

Photo - the Savannah River Walkway
Augusta, GA
April 2017
taken by my husband

Quiet Grace...

Quiet Grace made Herself known today,
rising up from within,
surrounding from without,
like a familiar fragrance that wafts through,
only - felt by the senses,
recognized in the Heart...

She drew me in with the clearness of Her Quietness;
an invitation I could only accept,,,

I floated in Her clear, deep Stillness - unfettered.
The tangible, soothing quintessence of Quietness
filled all my fractured places,
smoothed all the jagged edges, and
unwound the choking tension of
body and mind...

Without asking,
She knew just where to go...

Her Essence moved in me...
Her gentle, clear, and fluid Presence
drew me ever more deeply
into Her receptive tenderness,
allowing me to experience
Her pristine Stillness,
like that of a sacred hidden pool,
unexpectedly discovered.

I waded in Her waters,
surprised and blessed by
this unbidden revelation of
Quiet Grace...

Mystic Meandering
April 28, 2017

_/\_

A Humble Lover of "The Mystery"

~

Photo - The Savannah River
Augusta, GA
taken by my husband

The Timeless Moment - Bodhipaksa & Hesse

Time was no longer a path with the past behind me
and the future before me, as we commonly conceive of it.
Instead there was a sense of an eternally unfolding present moment.

Rather than time being a journey along a linear path, change
 appeared to be mandala-like.  It seemed to be like a flower
 seen from above, endlessly unfolding from within,
 or like a kaleidoscope's image forever rearranging itself.

It struck me as highly misleading to think in terms of there being a
 past behind us and a future ahead of us.  Instead there was only
 this one present moment, eternally unfolding, according to its
 nature. I found myself in an eternal, timeless present...

Bodhipaksa - Living As A River

via: Markings

"I would like to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise
of its own unfolding"
John O'Donohue

~

Have you learned that secret from the river;
that there is no such thing as time?
That the river is everywhere at the same time,
at the source, at the current, in the ocean, and
in the mountains,

 everywhere...

And that the present only exists for it,
not the shadow of the past, nor the shadow of the future.

Herman Hesse
Siddartha

via: Love Is A Place

~

Top Photo: Mandala art digitally altered
2nd Photo: An Aurora Borealis in Yellow Knife, Canada
 - a "river" in the sky :)
Sent to us by a friend

Vigil of "The Eternal Presence"...

Beholding the Beauty of the Placeless Place,
the Invisible Space of "The Eternal Presence",
prior to the world of form,
where You exist before your "self",
before the "you" was born...

Enfolded in the Embrace of Existence...
Surrendered to The Silence...
Immersed in the deep internal River of Stillness...
You find yourself
in the Hush of the Mystery:
the indwelling realm of "The Eternal Presence..."

Effortlessly breathing a cyclical rhythm.
Overtaken by Pure Silence.
Resting in the In-between:
The Liminal space - holding vigil -
at the threshold between time
and timelessness...

Awake - in the pre-birth twilight
within the Primordial Womb of Being,
from which all things are birthed,
and in which all things exist,
there is a profound sense of completeness;
a place of being fulfilled and emptied out
- simultaneously...

No "self"-realization, no holy revelations...
Only Awareness, and the pure ISness of Being - just being,
 in the fullness of the timeless Presence of Being - within...
Where Everything unfolds
in one continuous, ongoing moment.
No "present moment", nor past, nor future,
only the ceaseless unfurling
of the Liquid Life Stream,
without time...

~ as the body-mind wanders
through time ~

~

What words can convey
what can only be experienced...
And these jumble of words are only distortions
of the pureness of "The Eternal Presence."

_/\_

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
Nov. 22, 2016

~

The Divine is experienced by the heart.
The Intellect, at best, can only trail behind and take notes.

Ivan Granger
Poetry Chaikhana

The Same Yet Different...

Sitting at the window again…
Sinking deeply into
the peace of Stillness,
listening to the night,
I am aware
that...

Every night at the window
is the same yet different.
The one constant is the Utter Stillness
that runs through everything…

It’s all the same Essence...
The same Stillness of Being…

I can rest in this…
 sitting in the dark,
at the window:
The Universal Silence of all things,
the Energy of Being that runs through all life,
expressing differently,
reflecting ItSelf in many expressions.
all “different”, yet all the “same” Life Energy…

But tomorrow the mind will feel separate again,
the mind will focus on differences,

instead of sameness;
instead of That which unifies:
the common thread of the Living Silence within…
”i” will have issues with “others”,
and “i” once again won’t recognize
the resonance within this
Universal Life

   that lives us…

”i” will forget that
it’s all the “same”, yet “different.”
Life living ItSelf in different forms…
And everyone expressing that Life
differently.

”i” will forget that
beyond the seeming “difference”
is the same Infinite, Resonant Vibration of Being,

even if it appears dissonant…

I will need to be ‘re-minded’ - that

Every expression is a manifestation of this Eternal Beingness ~
is a wave on the Ocean of Infinity; that

Every life form is The Formless…

and that…

This “me” experience is the reflection of that “I”,
the True "I"...
seen in the face of "other."

The same, yet different…

Mystic Meandering
Oct. 2010


Photo: Mandala Art
Image from Infinite Cosmic Waves Mandala

Let Go and LIVE...

Let go

Let it all go:

Hope for the future.
Regret for the past.
Expectations for the present.

LIVE

Embraced in the space of
 Divine Emptiness,
resting at the still-point

with no conceptual framework for your life.
No scaffolding of thought or plan
to hold “you” together…

Dissolve in the great Ocean
 of your Infinite Beingness…

LIVE

without requiring life to be different,
without wanting to change what is
to suit you…

LIVE

Surrendered and emptied out
of the way your conditioned mind
 tells you that life must be…

Let go of your attachment to
 your inexhaustible patterns of fear
that keep you safe, but confined…

Let go

 into the Living Stream
that already carries you…

LIVE

Mystic Meandering

June 2014

Tending The River Within...

Sometimes you read something and it just really resonates, either in whole or in part.  Recently I read the poem below from a link on – findingmybliss – and it touched me deeply.  It reminded me once again how necessary it is to tend the Quiet place within – the River of  Sacred Silence that flows within us all…   The poem speaks to what I aspire to, but certainly have not achieved…  Maybe that’s why it touched me.  I have highlighted the lines that spoke to me the most…

The Quiet Power

By Tara Sophia Mohr

“I walked backwards, against time
and that’s where I caught the moon,
singing at me.

I steeped downwards, into my seat
and that’s where I caught freedom,
waiting for me, like a lilac.

I ended thought, and I ended story.
I stopped designing, and arguing, and
sculpting a happy life.

I didn’t die.  I didn’t turn to dust.
Instead I chopped vegetables,
and made a calm lake in me
where the water was clear and sourced and still.

And when the ones I loved came to it,
I had something to give them,
and it offered a soft road out of pain.

I became beloved.

And I came to know that this was it.
The quiet power.

I could give something mighty, lasting,
that stopped the wheel of chaos,
by tending to the river inside,
keeping the water rich and deep,
keeping a bench for you to visit.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Photo: Light in the kitchen sink
digitally enhanced

Sharing the Love ~ ~ ~

To my blogger Friends and readers near and far…

No matter where you all are today,
or how you are spending your day,
or what your life situation is,
or how dysfunctional your family is, J
or whether you celebrate the Holiday or not,

may Love and Grace be at your table…

~*~

 Don’t be afraid of where Love might take you,

or how it will change you.
Allow the Flow of Love
to show you the way.

Mystic Meandering
circa 2004-2006

 Deep change comes through

the confluence of Love within you…

Listen to its Flow,
its music,
its message:

‘There is nothing but Love…’

Mystic Meandering
circa 2004-2006

 Be with Stillness,

with Sacred Silence,
where the ripples of

Luminescent Love
form and expand…

Mystic Meandering
circa 2004-2006

With gratitude for your presence here…

The Eternal Joy of Deep Silence...

Devote your life to the eternal joy of deep Silence,
to the *awareness* of the deep,
 eternal Silence of the Cosmos -
the hush of The Mystery -
that enlivens your Heart from within…

Let this Silence be your resting place.
Abide here.
It *is* your Home…

Allow the Sacred Silence to carry you -
sustain you -
uphold you –
with its Silent Rhythm…

Do not be deterred from this Sacred Silence,
the warm flame of Eternal Presence…

Wrap the Quiet of Silence around you,
like a soft mantle,
and be still in your Heart…

The deep Silence is your comfort;
is the Presence of The Mystery ItSelf,
infusing and embracing you simultaneously…

Everything is THIS -
this Sacred Silence
that animates and illumines life from within…

Come Home to the deep hum of Silence,
the OM of Silence…
Let it expand your Heart
and sing its Joy…

It is the Eternal Joy of the Heart.

Do not be distracted
as you enter the abode of
The Infinite…

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings from Silence
Novermber 12, 2012

Photo: I have no idea what this was supposed to be.
The camera went off by mistake and left this mysterious image…

~*~

The “Silence” that is spoken of here
is a deep meditative Silence,
that brings one into
communion with
the Infinite,
with Home.

Winter Walk - "Hibernating Land..."

Frozen earth bound in time,
waiting for the thaw;
allowing flow and movement
to regain rhythm and rhyme…

Frozen streams of frosted glass,
crystallize the sun;
creating an opaque light

that illuminates the path...

The silence of the hibernating land,
speaks in loud whispers
through the firs,

as life still stirs -
while lying dormant…

Soul callers of the sky
fly in familiar formation,
following their
homing call;
unaffected by the
earth’s quiescent luminescence
of hibernation…




Mystic Meandering
From: “Hibernating Land”
originally written Jan. 1998
Revised Dec. 2011
copyright

The Flame of Stillness...

Move
into
the
depths
of
Stillness

~ Internal Stillness ~

as
Stillness
draws
you
in
d
e
e
p
e
r
.
.
.



Touch the depths of Stillness within…
The Dynamic Stillness that is the core of all Life…

Feel the movement of It.
the subtlety,
the fluidity,
the rhythm ~


~ Just suspend in the embrace of Stillness ~


~ Just Being ~


Do not come seeking solutions,
remedies, or answers…
Just settle
into
the
deep
Stillness
that is
Life
ItSelf,
and let It
nourish
you.


Breathe
into
S
t
i
l
l
n
e
s
s
~
~
~


When movement comes from
deep Stillness within,
from Silence,
it has no fore-thought,
no thinking,
no planning,
no deciding.

It just
flows
from
the
depths
of
Life
ItSelf,

for the simple delight
of Being ItSelf ~
the delight of Life ~
animating ItSelf…

~

There is only the deep Stillness;
the deep, impenetrable, enfolding,
Light of Stillness,
shining Its brilliance
unendingly,
inextinguishable;
an eternal Flame,
Ever-Present

S
t
i
l
l
n
e
s
s
.
.
.

~

Mystic Meandering
copyright
August 2011


Art: The Flame of Stillness

Taking Refuge...

I realized through this ‘bout with illness the last few weeks that I have just been dancing on the surface of life, leaping from wave to wave, being driven by life events, life circumstances, family needs, focused only on what’s happening at the surface, trying not to be overwhelmed by other waves crashing around me. But of course, there it was, overwhelm that lead to illness. And most recently discovering that when one is “ill” one tends to fixate on the body and what’s wrong with the body – losing sight of the *depth* of Being that underlies it all.

It was also realized that what is needed here is deep rest and taking refuge in this deep Stillness of Being that is the Ocean of Life; sensing – again - what it feels like to live life from and as this deep place of Stillness – from the awareness and *knowing* of this Stillness that is Life.

So I am diving deep these days, taking refuge and resting in the deep Stillness of Being that is Home – experiencing what it feels like to BE well again in the core of my Being…

“I” shall return to blogging as the Ocean moves me, as the Inner Voice leads, as Stillness speaks, etc. In the mean time I’ll enjoy being inspired by all your wonderful blogs!

~ ♥ ~

The Space of Grace Window...

Sinking into stillness comes easier now
as I feel the closeness of Beloved Awareness ~
waiting…

The rhythm of Awareness is like a lullaby,
holding me in the splendor of Grace…

Awareness awareing me ~
me awarening Awareness…
The River of Awareness flowing as One…

Not two ~ just Awareness,
awareing ItSelf sitting at the window…
An embrace of One…

Awareness, The Beloved, is right here,
right now,
always;
as close as the breath.

The pure open space of Grace
allows everything, welcomes everything;
Awareness ItSelf inviting ITself to Be…

The purity of this
vast space
is clean and clear,
drawing me in;
inviting me to surrender;
to
dive
into
the
depths
of
wide-awake
Awareness

Pure Grace…


~*~

Mystic Meandering
copyright
May 2011

Still Point...

Empty out everything except Silence,
the
still
hush
of

S
i
l
e
n
c
e

the
deep
Stillness
of the Heart…


Lay it all down – just breath the Silence,
the Stillness of Being.

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

Lay it all down – just listen to the Silence,
the deep Rhythm of the Heart.

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

Lay it all down – just *live* from the Silence;
the still space within the Heart.

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

…

Live
in
the
Still
Point
of

S
i
l
e
n
c
e
.
.
.



Mystic Meandering
copyright
December 19, 2010


~*~


“Every other creature on the face of the Earth
seems to know how to be quiet and still…

We (humans) seem to have lost
the ability to just be quiet -
to simply be present in the stillness
that is the foundation of our lives.
Yet if we never get in touch
with that stillness,
we never fully experience our lives…

Reaching the Still Point is not something
unusual or esoteric.
It is a very important part of
being aware and staying awake."

John Daido Loori
from: Finding the Still Point

Return to Stillness...

Return to the consciousness of Stillness
that speaks through your Heart
from the in-between spaces in the
Celestial Ocean of Creation…

Stillness expresses
through vibration,
through resonance
in and through the inner Heart
~ the Inner Being…

Quiet the mind and the heart
of thoughts,
of emotions,
of pain,
of struggle,
and just listen…

Reach deeply into the Stillness of pre-creation
~ the Primordial Space ~
and allow it to permeate you,
to thrive in you…

Be at one with Stillness,
with Sacred Silence,
where the seeds of luminescent L0ve
form and expand,
through ripples of
pure Innocence,
reverberating in a pool of Stillness…

Allow Stillness to emerge from Its
place of solitude in the womb of the Heart;
from Its sanctuary of wholeness,
and give it voice…

Allow Stillness to be your Truth,
And Truth your Stillness…

~*~

Mystic Meandering
copyright
October 8, 2001

~*~

Entering "The Cave..."

For the last several nights I have been able to enter “The Cave” and just relax. By “The Cave” I mean the deep caverns of inner Stillness. The physical “cave” of my meditation room serves as a metaphor for entering this space within and just sitting in Silence – being aware of Awareness and whatever else arises in this space. By Silence I mean the deep space of Awareness – in which existence exists – beyond the sense of “I am”, beyond the sense of the individual “I” existence – beyond form. Here is a writing from “The Cave.”

~*~

Entering “The Cave”
the place of deep awareness and
knowing Stillness…

Relaxing…
Listening deeply for the Inner Voice.
Following its sound.
Finding its Rhythm in the fluid, instinctive
inner River of Awareness.

It is the space of “The Beloved.”

This aware, awake space is curious and unafraid,
wants to engage, to see,
to know, to experience ~

and be experienced…

The Beloved is deeply compassionate,
deeply open,

…and is waiting to be known…

Pure Awareness
flows through here ~
the life blood of The Beloved.
It flows around the obstacles of my mind,
and moves toward every disturbance,
filling every mind-made crack and crevice,
wanting to meet, soothe, comfort, and embrace.

In “The Cave”
there is only patience, waiting, and listening
in deep rest…

There is refuge in this space,
this Cave of Awareness…
The Cave of the Beloved…

The Cave of the True Heart…

Home…

~*~

Photo - specialty scrapbooking paper