Rest in the Gap - Frank Ostaseski

All things change...
The way we end one experience shapes the way the next one
arises.  Clinging to the old makes it difficult for something 
new to emerge...

Breathing is a microcosm of life itself.  Every breath goes
through a process of birth, growth, and death.  At the very
end of the exhale, there is a gap, a pause.  Breath has left
the body, and we don't know for certain if it will return.
Do you trust that the next in-breath will emerge on its own?
Can you rest your mind in the gap? Can you let the breath
breathe you?

Breath is the most intimate connection we humans have to
the realm of "God."  The breath is the vehicle for reaching
the transcendent.  The breath takes us to that experience that
is deeper than words, deeper than thought, deeper than form...

The breath invites us into the body.  We can learn to align
with the breath and move with it, to allow the breath its own
natural depth and flow.  Every breath takes us to where we 
belong.  As we relinquish command of it, we gradually feel
the breath breathing us.

The breath becomes a resting place...

Frank Ostaseski
From - The Five Invitations

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

World As Paradox - Fred LaMotte

I don't agree with the world,
and I don't disagree with the world.
The world is an ever-turning Kaleidoscope of paradox,
and paradox is neither agreeable or disagreeable.
Paradox is not there to protest, to reform, or to mold into
something that corresponds to our opinion.
Paradox is there for our liberation,
as we gradually learn to stop clinging to preferences,
and to embrace the ineluctably mystery of wholeness.
Then we see the awful beatific truth,
to which almost every religious and political endeavor
is a form of resistance;
things are simply as they are.
Finally, in embracing what IS,
we can love...

Fred LaMotte
writer, philosophy teacher,
interfaith chaplain
Uradiance

(Fred's words, my format)

~

Love is the only reality.
It is not a mere sentiment.
It is the ultimate truth
that lies at the heart
of creation...

Rabindranath Tagore
East Indian Poet

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

Stepping Into The Stream...

About a month or so ago the phrase “stepping into the stream” came to me, and the question – what if I just stepped into the middle of the stream and let go – figuratively speaking.  The insight that came with this was that it meant letting go of the shore of course, not just the one side, but *both* sides.  And that it was not about going from one shore to the other, not about crossing the river/stream, but about letting go of both sides and just being *in* the stream – the Cosmic Stream of Pure Consciousness, the stream of Eternal Beingness – allowing the internal flow of that to take me. I began to understand that what was required was a total immersion in “Divine Consciousness” – a total surrender; a total bowing – not my will but thine kind of bowing.

The letting go was about loosening my grip on *my* hold on life, my take on life, if you will - letting go of holding on to the physical world, the mental constructs of what *seems* to be true that keeps me holding on to the edges.  Buddhists would call it letting go of the attachments we hold onto, the identities, the roles, the beliefs that we have taken on and are attached to – that we *think* gives us a sense of security, stability, permanence, even “spirituality” – but that really keeps us holding on to the edges of the true Living Stream of Divine Consciousness.

In metaphorically “stepping” into this Stream, which is another way of saying becoming more deeply *aware* of what is really Aware within us, becoming conscious of the vast Consciousness that we are, we have to let go of our *identification* with our small self dramas - allowing the Cosmic Stream of Consciousness to take us, absorb us into ItSelf.  By consciously “stepping” into this Stream, turning my awareness towards the Infinite, I am saying that I am willing to let go of my attachments.  I am willing to surrender who I *think* I am to the seamless Divine Flow, trusting that as I step more deeply into the River/Stream, it will dissolve all my ideas and illusions about being a separate self from the Ocean of Consciousness that I/we actually am/are.  This will continue to be the step for me, to knowingly step into this Current and *trust* the River – the Divine Stream of Life – The Mystery of Divine Consciousness, and move in ITs Way more fully.

It’s a lot easier writing *about* this than actually stepping into the Stream and letting go – letting myself just rest in the silent awareness of the vast field of Consciousness that we truly are, which is not affected by our thoughts, feelings, emotions, ambitions, or life circumstances that are happening to us personally – or in the world for that matter.  Ultimately, everything is allowed and everything collapses back into the silent stillpoint of vast Consciousness – while IT remains undisturbed.  But we need to experience this for ourselves, to consciously *feel* what it’s like to step into the Stream of this vastness of awake, knowing Awareness within – the living Consciousness – and see where it goes.  It’s a continuous, ongoing step taken moment to moment…

Photo: Sunrise on Merrymeeting Lake, NH

Taken by my brother 2009