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

Listening at the level of the Soul - Danna Faulds

I'm trying to listen
at the level of the Soul,
to hear the liquid gold
that flows in from Source,
to receive the mystery
with all my inner senses.
I can't tell you how I
do this exactly.  It's a
matter of attuning and
also choosing to receive.

It isn't so much a practice
as a way of life --

opting for quiet so I don't 
miss the gifts that come
from who knows where...

I'm not sure why
inner listening means so
much to me, but I think
it's why I'm here. Today,
what the universe has to
say to me is this:
By being yourself without shame
or excuses, you add your 
small puzzle piece to the
infinite frame of the unknown.

Danna Faulds

with thanks to No Minds Land

This is why I sit at the window at night,
to hear the Quiet of my Soul...

MM

~

Beyond the "cloak of spirituality" that we wear,
in its many guises, is the unconditional Nature
of our own Being - the" Genuine Self",
the "Authentic Self" at the depths of Beingness;
not the super-imposed conditioning of belief systems,
but the pure state of Being from deep within the
Quietness of the Soul
that has no "belief", no conditioned *idea* of
"spirituality" - just pure Being,
living as we are...

Mystic Meandering
May 2019

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Remembering The "Inner Life" - a meandering...

What is the "inner Life"?  For me it is that Stillness of the
innermost Being, and attuning to the Rhythm of The Silence within -
just BEing in that internal space of Divine Silence - the "Gatekeeper
of the Inner Life" - experiencing "The Silence" that holds all -
until the entire Being feels "nourished" and restored - which 
does not mean I don't do anything.  There is always "doing" to be
done.  But there needs to be some life changes for me, so that I
may return to the Rhythm of the Inner Life.  I am fortunate as
a "caregiver" that I'm still able to get a lot of "downtime" - 
especially for my health..  But there needs to be some inner life
adjustments to help me access the "Inner Life" again...  Like:

The other morning as I lay in bed, waking.  Instead of getting up
right away, I started mindfully breathing in Light, bathing the cells
 of my body in Light, riding the Rhythm of the Breath; feeling the
Rhythm within again - laying there in silence breathing the Cosmic
Light, listening for the Inner Flow of Energy, and bringing my
awareness there...  Accessing the Space of Silence within settles me -
unwinds my mind, and fears, and stresses of the day.  It is the
medicine that brings me back into the current of the Inner Life
that abides in and animates this body...  Ultimately it's about 
remembering who/what I really am at a deeper level, beyond the
surface existence of being human...

Several years ago when I used to spend a lot of time sitting in
The Silence, just listening, and breathing, this came:

"You must come into the eternal Rhythm of "The Quiet..."
You must learn to live in and from"The Silence"
which does not mean 
live in silence,
but to live in/as
"The Silence" that is
from the eternal vastness
and depth of
True Silence...

~

Find your authentic self 
here...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
Nov. 21, 2013

~ 
Photo - Northern Lights
from a calendar

 

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

 

The Peaceful Hour...

Listen to the Wisdom in the peaceful hour,
when no other voices are heard,
only the wisdom of a Quiet Heart and mind,
immersed in the stillness of just Being;
an Oceanic Rhythm of Stillness and Silence that
arises naturally...

In the peaceful hour I withdraw from the day
and come back to myself
and listen to the Silence within,
in the silence of the night...

Anxiety and Stress are gone.
I take my first real deep breath of the day
and sink into peace and inner stability,
loving the silence that surrounds me,
unfettered, unencumbered,
just resting,
comforted in serenity...

Finally, slowly, coming back into sync
with the Rhythm of my Being -
an exquisite pause fills my body from the
stresses of the day and I slow down.
It's now that I feel that everything will be okay,
if only in the peaceful hour...

Restful, Rhythmic Peace...

Mystic Meandering
Aug 16, 2023

1am

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Power of Quiet - Malidoma Patrice Some

The power of quiet is great.
It generates the same feelings in everything one encounters.
It vibrates with the cosmic rhythm...
It is everywhere, available to anyone at any time.
It is us.
The force within that makes us stable, trusting and loving.
It is contemplation contemplating.
Peace is letting go - returning to the Silence that cannot enter
the realm of words because it is too pure to be contained
in words.

Malidoma Patrice Some

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo from Death Deconstructed

 

The Unchanging Reality - Sattva Lynn

Art by Meganne Forbes

Don't try to control the noise;
just notice what is always Quiet -
which is the Noticing Itself.

That Noticing
is Loving Aliveness,
Pure Awareness or Light.

Only what is
total silence, stillness,
unmoving, and unchanging...
can possibly notice anything.

Or else it would be
another changing thing.
Therefore, what is unchanging
must be Eternal.

It must be Invulnerable -
meaning without influence.
It cannot be affected
or influenced in any way.
or it would change.

Just notice what is
always unmoving -
always Here to
notice anything at all.

That is where true power lies.
BECAUSE it does not change.
It is always what It Is.

Then you don't have to
try to control, alter
or overcome the noise
of thoughts and feelings,
and habits of identification.

You just keep noticing,
or open your heart
to the Unchanging Reality -
and ask inside how
to know it as your Self.

Sattva Lynn

With thanks to No Mind's Land

 

A Sense of Presence - Howard Thurman

 The true purpose of all spiritual disciplines is to clear away
whatever may block our awareness of that which [some call]
God in us...

It will be in order to suggest certain simple aids to this end.

One of these is the practice of silence , or quiet.
As a child I was accustomed to spend many hours alone in
my rowboat, fishing along the river, when there was no sound
save the lapping of the waves against the boat.

There were times when it seemed as if the earth and the river
and the sky and I were one beat of the same pulse.  It was a
time of watching and waiting for what I did not know -
yet I always knew.

There would come a moment when beyond the single pulse
beat there was a sense of Presence which seemed always
to speak to me.  My response to the sense of Presence 
always had the quality of personal communion.

There was no voice.  There was no image.
There was no vision.

There was God.

Howard Thurman

from Disciplines of the Spirit

With thanks to The Beauty We Love

Personal Note:  I shy away from using the word "God"
in my own experiences now because it holds religious
connotations from the religion of my childhood
 that I no longer relate to.  I use names now that don't hold
  identifications with the word, such as "The Mystery",
"The Beloved", "The Ineffable", "The Sacred" etc. 
I especially like the words The Silence, or The Quiet
as representations of what I experience when I sit in silence
Encountering the deep Silence of Being for me feels like
encountering "God", like "personal communion."

I bask in The Sacred Silence, absorbed, feeling the sense
of Presence, of something vaster than an image of "God"
that I hold in my mind; something which is ever-
present, and personal...  The Deep Silence within is the
Heart of Being, "The Mystery", The Ineffable" - my refuge.

_/\_

Namaste

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

The "Noisemakers"...

 I have entered a desert place...
The desert of "noisemakers",
both internal and external;
creating stress and tension
in the mind and body;
from the dramas others have created
denying that they are the Elephant in the room;
going from crisis to crisis - drowning out
the Great Silence within.

The "noise" robs you of the felt sense of "The Mystery."
The veils of stress cloud the clarity of energy and perspective.
They rob you of what feeds the soul and nurtures the very
Essence of your Being.

Impossible you say?
But have you experienced it...  this drowning in "noise"...

One can get lost in the stress of too much "noise" if one is
not aware - not vigilant of the "noisemakers";
the thoughts and people that create distress in your life...

We cannot let the "noise" of others' dysfunction and disease
disrupt and distract, nor invade the deep Silence and Stillness
of our Being, and Indigenous Wisdom;
distorting our life energy with their "noise'!

We must tend to the Essential Nature of our very Being -
finding tender nurturance there from the
weariness of the world and its "noise"...

We need to feel the lightness of "The Mystery" again,
and reclaim the Sanity and Clarity
of the Stillness of the Quiet place...

And leave the "noisemakers" drowning in their own "noise."

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 4, 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

The Abode at the Core of Her Being...

The Unamable suddenly moves in Her,
felt from the very core of Her being,
pulling Her awareness inward from the chaos
of the world trance.

Energy currents surge through Her Body
opening an internal space,
unlocking an inner door,
to the deeper "Abode at the Core of Her Being."

She enters...
breathing into the Core,
in deep gratitude...

She asks - "What do I need to "see" here?

A silent whisper replies:

"Abide at the Core of your Being."

Peace suffuses the very core of Her Body.
She settles into the timeless Quiet...
the healing balm for a restless mind,
in a troubled culture...

Finally, after years of meandering,
She's at home in Herself - Her True Abode -
Her Being.

Not needing to find a truer Self -
a "spiritual" Self - a Higher Self...

Just being Herself...

Accepting Her flow with life,
as it is...

Open to the movement of the Universe.

Mystic Meandering
June 12, 2020

~

Art - Mystic Meandering
"Eye of God" Mandala Art
2013 (?)

Blessing 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.

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

~

Photo taken at Keukenhof Tulip Garden in Holland
by Ellen Ratmeyer

Healing Silence...

Find the inner Flow with Life again.
Turn inward to the Quiet, to the rhythm of
the breath that leads to the pool of Stillness
and breathe the Inner Rhythm;
just being...just resting.

Let life go - for now - just let it go...

"Sabbatical" is what is required;
the deep, inner rest...

Immerse yourself in the Silence;
the Luminous Mother Energy of all that is manifest;
the hum of the Universe that slowly pulses through you...

Let your life be a "sabbatical", resting in this Sacred Silence.
Move intuitively, spontaneously, and fluidly through life,
from the Stillness at the core of your Being;
untouched by the constant chaos of the world...

Turn inward again and again
feeling the Inner Rhythm;
breathing the Rhythm of Silence;
living the Rhythm of Silence,
until you intuitively feel the movement
of Life - moving you...

Live from the core of your Being...

Mystic Meandering
Sept. 13, 2019

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Personal Note:  My poems sometimes come across as "directives."
That is how they have come to me in meditative Silence - directives from
The Silence.  They are not me telling you what you should do.  I merely write
the words that come and put them in poem form and share them...

Inner Rhythms

"A balanced life is based on its own rhythm.  If you don't set your
own rhythm, and have the discipline to follow it, your life will
move at the speed of the culture around [you], which moves too
fast.  The space we make for quiet time affects our thought patterns
and, in turn, the quality of our lives.  To what extent is the rhythm
of your life a result of.....adapting.....to the flow that surrounds you?"
Rod McIver - Artist

I feel a resonance with his words, knowing that I need to find that
sense of my own rhythm.  But I also want to find the deeper
 Rhythm of Life; not just my own personal daily rhythm with life, but
 the Flow of the Inner Being, also called the Tao, the undercurrent flow
of Life within - from which all movement arises.

The only way I know to do this is to turn within to The Silence within
where The Rhythm of the Inner Being is felt - the Rhythm of Silence.
Finding that deeper Inner Rhythm is, for me, the Rhythm of Pure
Being ItSelf - the deeper Rhythm that animates all life... 
 But the "externals" of life distract me and distort the felt sense
 of this Inner Rhythm.

The hypnosis of the world keeps me/us magnetized to the ways of the
world, and pulls me/us out of this deeper way of living and knowing.
We are conditioned to be drawn to the external drama of the world, to
chew on it, teethe on it...  I recently started using my husband's FB
account, just to see what it would be like...  I was hooked within a
couple of days.  It sucks you in, and displaces all other attention... I
have since tried to wean myself off of this "obsessive attention
disorder." It's the pablum of the matrix we live in. 
But no one trains us, when we're young, to turn within to the
 Quiet Inner Presence of Silence.
And so we follow the rhythm of the world, the civilized, political,
chaotic world, with its hypnosis of separation from our Inner Being,
instead of turning to that interior space of The Rhythm that pulsates
Its Aliveness within us, and does not depend on a
 name, label, or identity - or the world's rhythms... 
I'm still using training wheels...

Before your innocent Heart was hypnotized by the rhythms of the
world, what did you want deep in your Heart?  Not what you wanted
 to be when you grew up, but what did you really long for?  What
 called to you?  Do you remember?  Do you know now?

~

Photo - Bliss Lotus Mandala
digitally blurred

2013

~

Personal Note: I am aware that there are FB pages out there that are not part of the manipulative matrix of superficial social media - that offer substantive and inspiring writings.  For them I am grateful...

Exquisite Silence

Sitting in my chair one morning there was a sudden,
spontaneous awareness of exquisite Silence
 permeating the room.

It was a tangible Silence
pulling me inward - inviting me into its intimacy -
absorbing me...

Then mind said:
the faucet in the kitchen sink is broken,
gotta get a new faucet.

Silence silently said;
Follow Me...

Mind said: there are several piles of laundry
needing to be done.

Silence quietly said:
Be absorbed in Me...

Mind said: clean your house!

Silence merely said:
Be undisturbed...

And so I sat - within Exquisite Silence -
undisturbed, absorbed, at peace -

communing with Silence in silence...
sensing it, tasting it, feeling it,
experiencing it...

Delighting in the Silence of Being...
Like the way of "the ancients" - like Rumi
who knew the intimacy of the
Rhythm of Silence in his whirling...

Experiencing Exquisite Silence is
experiencing the presence of Pure Awareness,
the simple Isness of Being - just Being...
which is never disturbed by thought,
while thinking occurs  simultaneously...
It's just Beingness being what It is -
Silence...

touching you,
whispering to your Heart to come and be still -
to listen...

Exquisite Silence is the thread that runs through everything -
infusing all life with its Quietness...

Following the Silence takes you to the Eternal Ocean of Being,
where Silence continuously rolls in upon ItSelf,

wave after wave...

What ecstasy to be absorbed in Exquisite Silence...

I didn't want to move from my chair,
but to move only as Silence moved me...

Everything else can wait...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
Sept. 2012

Rumi

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.

Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.

Escape.

Walk out like somebody suddenly born into color.

Dot it now.
You're covered with a thick cloud.
Slide out the side.

Die,
and be quiet.
Quietness is the surest sign that
you've died.

Your old life was a frantic running
from silence...

Rumi

~

Let yourself be silently drawn by the
stronger pull of what you really love...

Rumi

~

Longing is the core of mystery.
Longing itself is the cure...

Rumi

~

Photo - downpour in the sun

The Space of "The Quiet"...

I awoke to "The Quiet" filling this space...

A palpable Nameless Presence...
As if "It" had taken up residence here,
in this space of my dwelling...

I breathed in "The Quiet"
as It breathed me,
and with curiosity
turned my inner awareness more keenly to
"The Quiet" that filled the space of me -
and was comforted
by this unbidden
Presence...

Through fluid inner eyes I understood that
only "The Quiet" truly occupies this space,
not the things in the rooms, or the rooms themselves.
but only the ubiquitous space of "The Quiet"

that matter reality dwells in
beyond sight, beyond form...

Every manifest being dwells within
"The Quiet"
and "The Quiet" dwells within them...

The pure unadulterated, untainted Silence of Being...

I surrendered in Love and Gratitude to "The Quiet"
subtly filling the space here - tangibly -
forever present in each breath
of this space that "I"
occupy as well...

Hush...

"The Quiet"
dwells among us
and in us...

Holy-Holy

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 5, 2016

~

Photo - have no idea what this is,
probably a "mistake", but can you see
the faint outline of a heart in the center
of that "cloud"?  :D

Quietude - Dada Gavand

So we have to work with ourselves and go directly to that core,
to that center, to that root wherein lies the whole secret and mystery
of life.  You need not depend upon anyone, or on any book, in fact not
on anything that is outside.  Just be quiet into yourself.  There will not
be any thought to imagine or demand a thing.  Simply be quiet
with the total fund of energy within, and in such quietude you are
going to discover something new.  You will then experience what
humility is, and what innocence is.  The mind which is quiet into itself
is innocent, humble, transparent and open to discover that which is real.

Then you will know what meditation is.  Meditation is not the chanting
or singing of devotional songs, nor the repetition of any word or
phrase. You will then be in a state of total surrender,
alone within yourself.

You have to be really alone and anonymous to be with the inner spirit.
When you are somebody, you are related to the world, you belong to
the world.  And as long as you are of the world, you cannot move
toward the inner spirit; you will have no relationship with it.  So to
have a contact with the spirit, you will have to be alone, on your own.
Then you will get a helping hand from within.  The whole secret is to
come back into yourself by gathering all your energy, and to be there
in quietude and silence.  To be in silence is to be near one's own inner
spirit.

To be in such silence within is the highest form of prayer.  Prayer is not
chanting or singing praises to someone, nor asking and begging for
rewards of the other world.  Desires and supplication of thought on any
level are not prayers.  The silence of one's own total energy in the inner
domain is the true state of prayer.  Such prayer finds its own reward in
a very mysterious way.  The innate energy, when it regains its balance
and stillness, finds its own fulfillment...

Dada Gavand
East Indian Mystic

From: Beyond the Mind

via: No Mind's Land

~

Photo - two shadows on a wall
digitally colored

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

Blessing 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

~

Photo - Craypas oils
2009