Blessings In the Chaos - Jan Richardson

 

To all that is chaotic
in you,
let there come silence.

Let there be
 a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you,

that go with you
even to the 
holy places
but will not
let you rest,
will not let you
hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace
that fashioned you.

Let what distracts you

cease.
Let what divides you
cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes
and demeans,
and let depart
all that keeps you
in its cage.

Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.

Jan Richardson

The human heart continues to dream of a state of wholeness,
a place where everything comes together,
where loss will be made good, where blindness will transform
into vision, where damage will be made whole,
where the clenched question will open in the house of surprise,
where the travails of a life's journey will enjoy a homecoming.
To invoke a blessing is to call some of that wholeness upon a
person now.

Jan Richardson

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Art - Mystic Meandering
Medieval Mandala

Unknown Wanderer - Ed Crowley

People often
ask me where
I live and what's
the name of my 
hometown road
I smile
as I tell them
it's nowhere

Yet
it's everywhere
and it's simply

my humble abode
I'm the
Unknown Wanderer
and hence
I simply wander
then I pivot
Awareness around
Into the stillness
of the Silence
as I lay my soul
down in Rumi's field
Where the
Beloved Ones
teachings are revealed
If you want to know
where I call home at
the end of the day
look up at the stars
It's beyond your vision
but if you look
long enough you'll
sense me there
spinning like a Sufi
in the boundless
galaxy
of the Milky Way

[.....]

Ed Crowley

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~*~

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.  I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each other'
doesn't make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the door sill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep."

Rumi

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Simply Silence...

In the midst of chaos there is always Silence...
In the midst of complexity there is simplicity...
Being in the Rhythm of Silence unwinds the mind -
unwinds the fears.
It unwinds the contracted body, thoughts, emotions, and feelings
that have become an habituated response to life.

Silence is the medicine that brings us back to the current of Life
again; into the Infinite Presence that lives us...

It is not "mother earth" pulsing through us,
but That which also pulses through "mother earth" -
the Cosmic pulse of Life that infuses all things...

Reach deeply into the Stillness of Silence
within you - the Primordial Space of Silence
and thrive there...

In this stillness is the congruancy of Life...

Feel the Stillness,
the Sacred Silence...
Awaken to its Rhythm...

It is not thought...
Go behind the mind,
to the Essence of Existence -
Silence...

Sweet, Sweet, Silence...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings from the Silence
2006

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Leaves on a branch
color inverted digitally giving
this wonderful oriental, zen-like affect
of simplicity...

 

Notes From The Window - 9-27-24

Sitting at the window in The Silence of just Being
soothes my Soul - it *feeds* the Soul.
The Stillness is powerful tonight...

The Silence within and the night hold me
in Quietude...

I feel emotionally "safe" here in The Silence 
and know that this Silence is my Core,
it is The Silence of the Soul.
I just bask in its Peace...

~

The Silence of the Soul at the window is what
I need.  I've been using bandaids again:
techniques and strategies, though helpful,
they are not what nourishes the Soul...

When I'm at the window at night,
I feel a sense of well-being inside.

I relax and breathe - even when I still
get caught in the negative meanderings of
the mind - I return to The Silence within,
and am at peace...

Mystic Meandering
Sept. 27, 2024

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Silence Called...

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

She waited for me to settle,
to be quiet...

Waited as I deepened
into Her Stillness...

No agenda, she whispered...

I listened...

Put everything aside and just breathe, She said.

Be aware of My Breath, breathing you...

Experience My Presence,
Sense the Intimacy
in every cell...

From the depths of Stillness
I heard Her call again,
calling me back to HerSelf.
Like a Great Ocean pulling back
the waves on shore,
back to ItSelf...

The wave giving in to the pull...

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

The Silence embracing ItSelf,
knowing only
ItSelf...

The Eternal Embrace...

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

Come Home...

Mystic Meandering
Aug/Sept 2010

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Stand Still - David Wagoner

Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here.

And you must treat it as a powerful stranger.
Must ask permission to to know it and be known.
The forest breathes.  Listen.  It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost.  Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let if find you.

David Wagoner
original title: "Lost"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Solitude - the furnace of transformation

Solitude is the furnace of transformation.
Without solitude
we remain victims of our society
and continue to be
entangled in the illusions
of the false self...

Henri Nouwen

~

The great omission in American life is solitude;
not loneliness,
for there is an alienation
that thrives most in the midst of crowds,
but [it is] that zone of time and space,
free from outside pressures,
which is the incubator
of the spirit.

Maya Mannes

~

Awareness of the Divine Essence as our
innermost [Being] requires silence...

It is turning toward what lies hidden within -
to the internal - the all-embracing totality
of Divine Being.

It is the way of meditation,
the way of inner silence before Spirit.

Remaining quiet before Spirit is a prayer of silence,
through which we listen to that which secretly speaks
to us in the inner room of the heart.

What is hidden deep in our innermost being
lies in silence and stillness,

and in the silence of the deep
springs the eternal, inexhaustible, original
source of all being.

Where words fall silent,
the everlasting begins...

Wolfgang Kopp
From: Free Yourself Of Everything

~

Spiritual joys come from solitude.
A little while in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given...

To be one with the truth for just a moment
is worth more than the world and life itself...

Rumi

~

Personal Note:

I am not suggesting that we all live a cloistered life of 
solitude and silence!  We're not all meant for that.  I don't
think I could even do that as much as I need solitude and silence.
As I have discovered, solitude is not always the "answer."
But it is  about going deeper within,
listening and hearing the deeper Voice within,
and responding to the inner movement of That.
We can be in solitude while cleaning or creating, or in nature.
And sometimes that inner Voice speaks to us through the voice
of others, as these quotes here did for me.
I merely wish to point out that part of the angst and entropy
we are experiencing personally and in the world is due to
a lack of spending time in solitude and silence,
becoming aware of and getting to know our deeper,
mostly unknown, Core Being.

MM
_/\_

~

There is no effort that we can make to still ourselves.
True stillness comes naturally from moments of solitude
where we allow our minds to settle.  Just as water seeks
its own level, the mind will gravitate toward the holy.
Muddy water will become clear if allowed to stand
undisturbed, and so too will the mind become clear
if it is allowed to be still.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao, Daily Meditations

~

Photos - Mystic Meandering

Housed in the Quiet...

I am grateful for the Quiet in this House
that I dwell in...

Immersing me in the Quiet within;
the deep Stillness, with only the whir of the ceiling fan
and occasional distant sounds that somehow soothe...

It's as if the "House" is not my house -
but houses me anyway -
like the body "housing" my Being,
allowing IT to dwell here,
living in these spaces...

The "House" is still - yet alive,
breathing in and out with the breeze.
I can tell by the way the curtains softly sway...
Its space holds my "things" - that
aren't my "things" - only accumulated
symbols of a life lived: spiritually, creatively,
intuitively, meaningfully -
mementos for someone else's attic someday.

There is exquisite peace in the mind
in these Quiet spaces...

No stories, no ruminating on the past,
No mental fires to put out,
No trying to fix anyone's problems,
No inner conflict,
just the deep Quiet of Being -
communing with the Stillness within me...

Life goes on as it has been
and I remain in the Quiet of my Soul...

Mystic Meandering
April 2024

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Return to a Deeper Rhythm - LLewellyn Vaughan-Lee

As our world appears to spin more and more out of balance...
there is a pressing need to return to a deeper rhythm, to the 
cycles that belong to healing and transformation, and the
seasons of the soul.  Returning we may find balance resurfacing
from deep within, a balance that reconnects and restores us...

If we are to participate creatively in these toxic times, to bring
rain to a land where the inner and outer wells have run dry,
first we need to be present "in another country where things
are in order."  And this "other country" can be found in the
space between the in-breath and the out-breath, where the
soul is present.  But first we need to reconnect, return to this
place of balance.  And the simplest way is through 
stillness and silence...

Silence draws us inward, away from the clutter and the
distractions of our outer life, to the deeper roots of our Being.

Here our soul nourishes us, here we can be replenished, and
here we can help replenish the world.....  In the silence we can
drink deeply of the waters of life that are still pure, we can
commune with the primal forces of nature, we can return to
what is sacred and essential to our life, and to the life of the
Earth.

Here in this "other country" the air is not toxic, and the miasma
of today's world in this post-truth era is not blurring our vision.
The laughter of children still rings true.  Stillness is here, and
the seasons are in balance.  Every in-breath and out-breath is
sacred.  The breath, the soul, the Earth and its seasons, are
linked together, nourished by each other. 
It is time to heal....

Llewellyn Vaughan-lee
Sufi Mystic
2017

Excerpt from an article published by Garrison Institute

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Release - Plotinus

Let your mind and heart release all that disturbs you.
Let your body be still,
and all the frettings of your body and all that surrounds it -
let the earth and sea and air be still, and heaven itself;
and then think of spirit
as streaming, pouring, rushing, and shining
into you, through you, and out from you in all directions
while you sit quiet.

Plotinus

with thanks to Whiskey River

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Idleness - Csikszentmihalvi

Robertson Davies, the Canadian author, said one of the most
important things in his life was being able to take a nap every
day after lunch for twenty minutes.  That's for two reasons. One
is that by developing a schedule that's under your control, you are
not being flogged around by life, as he puts it; you are not always
jumping to someone else's tune.  You develop your own rhythm...

The other thing is that it's during idle time that ideas have a chance
to recombine in new ways, because of we think consciously about
solving a problem or writing a book, then we are sitting there
forcing our ideas to move in a lockstep, in a straight line, and
probably what comes out is not very new or original.

For original ideas to come about, you have to to let them percolate
under the level of consciousness in a place where we have no
way to make them obey our own desires or our own direction.  So
they find their way, their random combinations that are driven by
forces we don't know about.  It's through this recombination that
something new may come up, not when we try to push them
directly.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalvi interviewed by Michael Toms in the
New Dimensions Newsletter.

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many
 diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve
ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground
that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world
within...  By middle life most of us are accomplished fugitives
from ourselves.

John Gardner

with thanks to Whiskey River

~

Personal Note - this is also why what I call "silent time" is
so important to me.  It doesn't have to be "meditation" but just
getting still, getting quiet, without interruption.  It seems then that
 words for a poem will rise to the surface, or an idea for something
that my mind could not "solve"...  Usually that "silent time" isn't
until the Quiet Hour, between 12 midnight and 1am  :)

MM

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Without Stillness There Can Be No Knowing - Sigurd Olson

The sun was trembling now on the edge of the ridge.
It was alive, almost fluid and pulsating, and as I watched
it sink, I thought that I could feel the earth turning from it,
actually feel its rotation.  Overall was the silence of the
wilderness, that sense of oneness which comes only when
there are no distracting sights or sounds, when we listen
with inward ears and see with inward eyes, when we feel
and are aware with our entire beings rather than our senses.
I thought as I sat of the ancient admonition,
 "Be still and know that I am God," and knew that without
stillness there can be no knowing, without divorcement from
outside influences man cannot know what spirit means.

Sigurd Olson, The Singing Wilderness

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

I turn within...  I am not turning up to the sky - I am not turning
anywhere outside of my own being - I am not looking around for
holy temples or holy teachers or holy books.  I am turning within.

Here am I.  The very seat and source of God [The Divine, or
however one knows "God"] within me.  The abiding place
of God [The Divine].  God is within the inner sanctuary of
my own being.  I am not seeking for my life, what I shall eat or
what I shall drink.  I am not seeking for health, employment 
or opportunities.  I am seeking.....Grace.

Joel S. Goldsmith
Contemplative Mystic

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

"The Silence"...

I come to sit - called by - "The Silence" within -
to rest in the deep Core of my being,
my refuge...
to listen to the "Sacred Silence" of an Alive Cosmos;
to be held in that Rhythm - the in-breath and out-breath
of Life...

I come to feel the depths of Sacred Silence;

to be immersed in the vast Stillness of the Inner Cosmos;
to lay the burdens of the heart down -
and just rest...

Held and supported by the Universe in
some mysterious way - unknown to me...

Mystic Meandering

March 22, 2022

~

Photo from the Internet

 

Fully Human, Fully Divine - Kathleen Knipp

Without ignoring or denying the story of our lives, we
can relax and experience that which is beyond story
through the simple practice of attuning to body and breath.
We can open the lens wider than our dramas and traumas
and reconnect with Source.

We find ourselves in our humanness, our extraordinary
fragility and our extraordinary resiliency - both.  And can,
without denying the story of "my life", the events, the
response I may be having to these events, without ignoring
that, without denying that, we can also open to that which
is beyond this story.  And it is so easy to forget, it's so easy
to have the events of our lives move into the foreground and
just fill the whole field with the dramas and traumas.  And
without ignoring or denying them, we can open the lens
wider and we can, through practice, reconnect with our Source.
It might not be easy.  We do that by beginning to feel our bodies,
feeling each part of the body and experience the sensations,
using all of our senses, while also accessing our inner sanctuary
to feel supported.

Noticing the breath and falling into the rhythmic cycling of
the breath, in a moment of suspension where we can rest.
When life presents its challenges, which it does, we can rest
in the rhythm of the breath - feel its caress.

...[there] may be the sense of slipping below the surface of
turbulence.  Sinking deeper and deeper to an absolute stillness.
Stillness so profound that it is impossible to disturb that which
is beyond time, sinking deeper to the very Source.  The Source
that reveals itself and conceals itself and emerges in infinite
forms... and begin to sense the infinite and the finite expression
as you - this unique set of patterns that form into a sense of me...

Kathleen Knipp
Excerpt from a Yoga Nidra Meditation
Fully Human, Fully Divine

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Still Waters - Tao Daily Meditation

If waters are placid, the moon will be mirrored perfectly.  If
we still ourselves, we can mirror the divine perfectly.  But if
we engage solely in the frenetic activities of our daily 
involvements, if we seek to impose our own schemes on the
natural order, and if we allow ourselves to become absorbed
in self-centered views, the surface of our waters becomes
turbulent.  Then we cannot be receptive to Tao.

There is no effort that we can make to still ourselves.  True
stillness comes naturally from moments of solitude where
we allow our minds to settle.  Just as water seeks its own
level, the mind will gravitate toward the holy.  Muddy water
will become clear if allowed to stand undisturbed, and so
too will the mind become clear if it is allowed to be still.

Deng Ming-Dao, from "365 Tao, Daily Meditations"

with thanks to Heron Dance

 

"The Cave"...

Entering "The Cave"

the place of deep inner Silence and stillness...

Relaxing...

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

It is the space of The Sacred...

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

...and be experienced...

This Space is deeply compassionate,
deeply open,

...and is waiting to be known...

Pure Awareness
flows through here ~

the life blood of The Sacred.
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, listening
and deep rest...

It is a gentle refuge
that feels like Home...

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 2010

Personal Note:  It's been a long time since I've
entered "The Cave."  I've missed it...

~

Photo - Art - Mystic Meandering
Craypas oils with fingers

 

"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 Unknown Wanderer - Ed Crowley

I'm the Unknown Wanderer.
Understand that I speak not 
the language of your mind.

My speech is completely Silent.
It's compassionate and kind

I speak the silent alphabet,
that only talks Heart to Heart.
It immediately quells all fears

If you cannot hear it,
then go ahead and
shut the gates of both
your eyes and ears.

Go within, beyond mind,
far deeper, to the stillness
of the Silence within.

Listen closely and you
will hear the melodies
of Heart to Heart music
within the tranquil stillness,
where truth has always been.

There's only one sound
drowning out all others.
It's the transcendent,
primordial sound of OM.

It's echoing within the
innermost chambers
of your Soul.  I'll be ringing
the sacred inner temple bell,
I'll be calling you back Home.

It's the ecstatic bliss
of the Beloved One,
singing It's loving presence,
Intimately to your Essence.

Now open all your eyes,
the inner and outer ones,
You'll finally see the Reality
of the splendor of Existence.

With an empty mind and
a pure Heart, all of the 
world's miracles abound.

Feel the reverberating,
crescendo culminating.

You'll [be] Consciously
Awake, to Realize, that
It is Love that is indeed
Creation's primordial sound.

Ed Crowley

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

"The Companion" - a meandering...

"The Companion" is unidentifiable, nameless,
identity-less - and - indwells us.
"The Companion" is a felt sense of Presence within;
beyond all concepts of "God", religion, deity, or
enlightenment...

"The Companion cannot be reduced to a name, or
label - it's beyond that...
You can't wrap it, or trap it, in a conceptual framework.
It's beyond concept...

"The Companion" is a felt resonance...
that helps align us with the internal frequency of
our Essence, our Being, our Soul -
even when we don't recognize it.

It's what attunes us to the Essence of our Being -
inexplicably...

"The Companion" is always within us;
noticed as an inner stillness
when we pay attention to it.
It's been there all along - comforting.

We just haven't been aware...

~

Companion from the Unseen
Mysterious Friend of the Heart
You comfort me, and sustain me
and free me from my darkest night.

Mystic Meandering

Sept. 28, 2022

Written after a conversation with my husband
about something we were both experiencing back
in Sept - and we called it "The Companion" to give
a sense of what if feels like within - but which is
beyond even that description...

~

Photo - Northern Lights from a Calendar 

 

Let the Mind be the Mind - Danna Faulds

Photo - Cate Kerr

Let the mind be the mind...

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

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

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

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

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

Danna Faulds
Yoga Practitioner and Poet
From: Limitless

~

Photo - Cate Kerr
Beyond the Fields We Know

~*~

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

Bhagavad Gita