Balance: Noticing the Opposites - iRest

Artist- Puisi

Our experience always changes.  We have idealized
expectations of what we think life is supposed to be.
Life will do what life does, despite trying to
control our experience.

Balance is born out of transformative embrace of the
fullness of life in its ups and downs, not dependent
upon on external life circumstances.

Flow with the waves of life, noticing the *sensations*
in the body, exploring the opposites in the body,
the heaviness and lightness; feeling both sensations
in the body at the same time; as well as opposite
emotions and beliefs.

Every experience has an opposite.
Once explored and underlying sense of well-being
and ease can shine through, a true balance emerges.

Trying to control our experience [causes stress],
instead set life free to be what it is through allowing
life to be as it is, in balance and harmony with the
opposites, through the simplicity of noticing.

From an iRest meditation
from a free meditation series
through the iRest Institute

~

Photo - Art by Puisi

 

Aging Has Its Own Rhythm...

Legs ache, weak

I shuffle...

I struggle to climb the stairs...

Legs ache, weak
I stumble...

Existence here is getting unstable;
feeling vulnerable...

Legs ache, weak
I wobble...

My Soul and body call me to be still

Legs ache, weak

I hobble...

I must stop -
listen to the rhythm of my Soul;
find my inner balance again

Legs ache, weak
knees buckle...

I fall...

January 2024

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

I took this one night recently while "window sitting."

I turned around from the window and
couldn't help but notice
what lies ahead and what is now...

Aging has its own rhythm...

my new reality...

 

Inner Rhythms - a meandering...

I've been rediscovering my "Inner Rhythms" again through my
funky "art"; the Inner Rhythm of Being, of the Soul, that
John O'Donohue talks about here, and how that wants to 
move in and through me. 

I receive postings from Nature Artist and Writer, Rod MacIver
from his website, Heron Dance.  He has spent a lot of time
in nature, paddling in a canoe, getting in touch with his
Inner Rhythm.  He reflects on the larger context of
"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."  And,
he asks: "To what extent is the rhythm of your life a result of...
adapting...to the flow that surrounds [you]."  Or, I even say,
to the people around you.  Have we entrained to the people
around us so much that we end up living their rhythm?  
I know I have...

I felt  resonance with his words, knowing that I need to find
that sense of the deeper Inner Rhythm again, not just my
own personal daily rhythm with life, getting through the day,
but the Flow with the Inner Rhythm of Being; the undercurrent
of the Flow of Life within - from which all movement arises;
creating color and movement on paper helps me do that...

It calls me into the Silence of my own Being,
and the pulsating Rhythm of Life.
At peace again...

Mystic Meandering

~

Funky Art 
Rhythm

2024

 

Balance - MacIver & Levey

Your inner world guides you without you knowing it.
Our thought patterns determine the quality of our lives.
That inner process works at the depth of each of us
carrying the meaning that has been trying to establish
itself in our existence.  It embodies the potential of who
we are when our life expresses itself as a whole.
Silence helps...

A sign of balance is a comfort with silence, both Silence
within and silence without.

Rod MacIver
Artist/Writer
Heron Dance

~

Balance can be sensed in terms of the waves of the Ocean.
...at a deeper level, the changing tides of such "waves" are balanced
by the profound reality of an unchanging "Ocean" within you;
Just as the Ocean is the water that forms all waves, 
The Ocean within you is the universal reality or essence
that dwells within all beings... 

[Some call this the Silence]
 Discovering the Ocean is vitally important for the
 discovery of balance, because it
provides a place of peace for you to return home to, despite
the chaos of the day.

...keep balanced on the waves of our challenging lives...

Joel and Michelle Levey
From: Living in Balance

~

Personal Note:  For many years the Inner Silence was my refuge.
Then life fell out of balance about 2 years ago through unexpected
life circumstances and I was unable to *access* the Silence,
or maintain balance, literally.
My energy and body are really out of whack.
Returning to doing my funky art vortexes seems to be helping
to find a sense of inner balance again, but I need to rediscover
the deep Inner Silence of Being and align with that.
One step at a time...

MM

~

Photo - Wave Vortex
Craypas oil with fingers
Mystic Meandering
Aug 2024

 

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

 

Pause...

I'm taking a pause for a while...
My life has become way too complicated at this time,
and I need to pause and wait for clarity and inspiration
to arise...  My life has become unbalanced in body, mind
and Soul, and I need some time to find the balance - to align
myself with inner Source and inner resources - intuition and
inspiration.  I haven't been able to write poetry because I have
been unable to be in a place of listening deeply, or hearing the
voice of The Beloved, the Eternal within.

Life has taken me down many roads I did not want to go down
in the past year or more, and I need to find my own way again -
if I can...

In the words of Mark Nepo, in his book: Seven Thousand
Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What is Sacred, he says: 
  "he had to listen to something he couldn't see and trust
the certainty of his inner knowing to find his way..."

That is where I am...  There is a shift underfoot...

Would appreciate your prayers and blessings, if you feel so
inclined, as I lean into life...  And feel free to contact me through
email, or the comment section - if you your Heart pulls you to do so...

Peace and Blessings...
I'll be back :)

MM

 

At the Edge of a Dreamscape - Rod MacIver

In the middle of the night
On the edges of my dreamscape
Caribou race along the rim of distant hills
And disappear.

They offer no words
But somehow they say
In vague, shifting images of blue
Moonlight and pounding hooves
Stand still.  Wait for once.
Don't race over there
And stand in the middle.

Let chaos go its own way
Confused, discordant.
Keep your internal center of balance
A compass on the bridge of a storm-tossed ship.
What is the destination?
Where do we want to go?
I wish I knew.

In the darkness
just past the light of the campfire
In the wild, nocturnal mystery
Sounds coming at you from the night
Footsteps
Breathing,
the sound of some big animal breathing

Go.
You won't create your new tomorrow
Hanging around the fire, waiting
Waiting for tomorrow
Staring at flames that become embers
That become darkness
Embrace the darkness now.

So a road opened up
And I took it.
Down some dark stairways into myself
In search of the sun.
What was supposed to happen didn't,
And wasn't supposed to, did.

I don't know what is going on.
I don't know how things are supposed to be.

Rod MacIver

from the book arts collection,
The Journey Itself is Home
Heron Dance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Eternity Portal...

Awoke 9 months ago and

lost my freedom
to move through life
the way I need to:
my natural rhythms
with life:
playful and free
dancing to a celestial tune;
in sync with the Rhythm of the Soul...

Melancholy takes up residence
in my Heart now - grieving the loss.

The cry of the Soul
trapped inside my Heart,
screaming to be free again.

Physical functioning is
becoming harder...
I have become "old"
in just 9 months.
Hardly able to bear the burden
of living life as it is  - now.

I shuffle through life,
losing my balance.

I heard a distant owl the other night.
Maybe it was calling my name...

I could sense death this morning;
we're all just waiting for the inevitable,
but it's how we wait that matters.
Maybe it's coming for me.

To relieve me from the weight of my
responsibilities here...

Released to the final freedom;
disappearing into a portal of light;
taking flight through the Eternity Portal
to a Greater Freedom...

A Blessing...

Mystic Meandering
July 28, 2023

PS - I woke up this morning in a totally different place
I was at peace, feeling my true nature again, playful and free;
dancing with my Soul
Not ready for the Eternity Portal just yet.  :)

Feeling Blessed

Aug. 2, 2023

_/\_

~

Photo - Dorothea on Beach
a few weeks before her walk into the portal of light.

 

Blessing - John O'Donohue

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets into you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green 
and azure blue,
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,

may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

John O'Donohue

written for his Mother
Original title "Beannacht - A New Year Blessing

~

One of the profound things that O'Donohue's
work suggests is that blessing doesn't erase difficulty,
but rather reaches deeper.  In his essay he argues:

"It [blessing] is not the invention of what is not there,
nor the glazed-eye belief that the innocent energy of goodwill
can alter what is destructive...   Blessing.....issues from the
confident depth of the hidden Self...  When you bless someone,
you literally call the force of their infinite Self into action."

Giving blessings relies on a double capacity.  Its task is to
simultaneously look outward and honor the reality of what is
happening, while looking inward to name the inner experience
and resources within, to make visible the invisible world...

...blessing is gratitude made manifest...

From an Essay by Brittany Deininger MA in theology
and Culture Alumni

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 
 

Receptivity - Rick Rubin

Be receptive to the Source, whatever that mysterious force
may be.  Listen, Meditate, Pay attention...
Take seriously receiving suggestions from friends and
others that you may be immediately inclined to reject.
It may be the Universe trying to bring an important
[message] into your awareness.

In order to make room in your life and consciousness
for incoming messages, you need to be time efficient.
Not rushed, you can't rush from appointment to appointment,
from project to project.  You need to slow down.
You need to protect your interior stability.
Avoid arguments.  Avoid over-committing.
Avoid people who are out of balance and inclined to waste
their time and yours.  Focus on projects that 
multiply your energy.

Rick Rubin

Music Producer

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Your Inner World - Rod MacIver

The Ocean within you is the universal reality or essence 
that dwells withing all beings...  Discovering this ocean is
vitally important for the discovery of balance because it 
provides a place of peace for you to return home to
despite all the chaos of the day.

Joel and Michelle Levy
Living in Balance

~

A friendship with your quiet interior allows you to better
understand the patterns of your life.  A special power comes
from diving deep into that world and accessing the wisdom it
contains.  It is a place of wisdom and peace, but our relationship
with it requires nurturing.

Your inner world guides you without you knowing it.  Our
thought patterns determine the quality of our lives.  The question
is, how can we gain access to the potentials of "knowledge" [knowing]
contained in the depth of us, how can we achieve increased capacities
of direct intuition [experience] and enlarged awareness...

A life journey, a creative journey, grows out of the seed of one.s song.

How would you describe the current of energy, the life force inside
you...?  Our most important relationship is our relationship with our
 self, with our interior world.  What do you do to nurture that
 relationship?  How you nurture that relationship will determine the
 quality of your life.

Rod MacIver
Heron Dance

~

What we call fate does not come to us from outside; it goes forth
from within us.

Rainer Maria Rilke

With thanks to Heron Dance

~

Photo from the Internet

 

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 :)

 

 

"Niksen" - Chuang Tzu

Heaven does nothing: its non-doing is its serenity.
Earth does nothing: its non-doing is its rest.
From the union of these two non-doings
All actions proceed.
All things are made.
How vast, how invisible
This coming-to-be!

All things come from nowhere!
How vast, how invisible -
No way to explain it!

All beings in their perfection
Are born of non-doing,
Hence it is said:
"Heaven and earth do nothing
Yet there is nothing they do not do."

From: Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu

~

I recently read an article in a Time Magazine Special Edition
on Mindfulness, about "Niksen" - the concept of doing nothing.

Here is an excerpt...

It is a Dutch concept that means to do nothing, to be idle, or do
something without purpose.  The idea is to manage stress and
recover from burnout in our chaotic and busy world.  It's as simple
as simply sitting in a chair, looking out your window, or passively
listening to music, or taking a walk in nature.  Where mindfulness
is being present in the  moment with focused attention, Niksen is
more about carving out time to just be, letting the mind wander
rather than focusing on details.

In the Netherlands Niksen has been historically dismissed as
laziness or unproductive.  But as stress levels rise globally, so
does the crushing health impacts, like burnout, that are getting more
and more recognition from the medical community, and doing
nothing is increasingly being reframed as a positive stress
relieving tactic.

Doing non-purposeful, simple tasks allows the mind to wander
which can boost one's creativity and foster creative problem solving
and even induce inspiration, and getting clarity about what action to
take in order to meet a situation.

It can be somewhat challenging for some to just sit and stare out a
window, especially when you are used to *doing* something all the
time.  But dare to be idle - rest - and *allow* life to run its course.  Be
without purpose, carve out time to do something actively passive -
like looking out a window.

Letting the mind wander is not about being caught up in rumination.
We need to train our minds to wander in a way that is imaginative
and creative and ease our way into downtime - doing nothing -
balancing our busyness with non-doing.

Excerpt from:

"Meet Niksen - The Dutch Concept of Doing Nothing"
by Sophia Gottfried
from: Time Magazine Special Edition
Mindfulness: Your Path to Health and Happiness
Aug 15, 2022

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

A Nocturnal Dreamscape - Rod MacIver

In the middle of the night
on the edges of my dreamscape
Caribou race along the rim of distant hills
and disappear.
They offer no words
but somehow they say,
in vague, shifting images of gray and brown
moonlight and  pounding hooves:

Stand still.  Wait for once.
Don't race over there
and stand in the middle.
Let chaos go its own way.
Confused, discordant.

Keep your internal center of balance,
a compass on the bridge of a storm-tossed ship.
What is the destination?
Where do we want to go?
I wish I knew.

In the darkness
just past the light of the campfire
in the wild, nocturnal mystery
Sounds
coming at you from the night,
Footsteps
Breathing
the sound of some big animal breathing.
Something is waiting for you there.

Go
You won't create your new tomorrow
hanging around the fire, waiting,
waiting for tomorrow,
staring at the flames
that become embers
that become darkness.

Embrace your darkness now...

So a road opened up
and I took it.
Down some dark stairways into myself
in search of the sun.

What was supposed to happen, didn't.
And wasn't supposed to, did.
I don't know what is going on,
I don't know how things are
supposed to be...

Rod MacIver
Nature Artist
Heron Dance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Embrace the Day...

Rest Dear Heart, Rest...

Embrace the day with Rest,

with clarity, with ease of mind...

Feel the warm, fluid rhythm
of Life around you;
upholding you,

carrying you
through the day,
landing you safely
on evening's shore,
through the twilight
and into the night...

And out of the darkness
a shining light...

Rest , Dear Heart, Rest...

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 29, 2018

~

Photo - Wave Curl Mandala

~

In 2018 I did an "8 Day Challenge" presented by
Donna Iona Drozda, artist and educator from
Wren House Studio, on becoming aware of our
natural rhythms with life; how we orient ourselves
to the rhythm of each day.  The above mandala was
done as a part of the process, representing the rising wave
of my Inner Rhythm reaching outward to embrace the light/day.

The poem came as a result of drawing the image.

 

Just Breathe...

Late at night,
at the edge of sleep,

I fall into the Rhythm of The Breath…

Content to just breathe ~

The silence outside the window

is pungent,

leaving me rapt,

sinking more deeply

into timelessness beyond time,

letting go of thought,

just awareing the stillness
of the night;

being breathed by

 The Silence of the Unknown…

I hear the sound of the ceiling fan

breathing its own whirling rhythm…

feeling the breeze of its breath

gently move the strands of my hair…

Just breathing ~

And "I" am suddenly gone…
unaware of my – self ~

slipping off the edge

into slumber;
lost in the Breath

until

just

before
the

rising
of

the

next

day

Again finding my-self

at the space at the edge,

before awakening ~
aware of…

Just Breathing ~

Aware of just Being…

Conscious of the Stillness

before thought...

Just breathing ~

Mystic Meandering

July 15, 2015

 

Dance Between the Worlds - Joseph Campbell

As we love ourselves, we move toward our own bliss, by which
Joseph Campbell meant our highest enthusiasm.  The word entheos
means "god-filled." Moving towards that which fills us with the
godhood [or Buddha Nature, The Mystery, Pure Consciousness,
etc.], that place where time is not, is all we need to do to change
our world.  Then we, naturally and without effort, love others
and allow them to move beyond their self-imposed limitations,
and in their own ways.  The goal is to evolve to that place where
the energy that had been projected outward to correct the [them]
 world is turned around to correct oneself - to find your own "track"
[rhythm] and to dance, in balance between the worlds.

Following your bliss, as Joseph meant it, is not self-indulgent
but vital; your whole physical system knows that this is the
way to be alive in this world and the way to give to the world
the very best that you have to offer.

From: A Joseph Campbell Companion
Selected and edited by Diane K. Osbon

with thanks to HeronDance.org/e-journal

Photo from the Internet

 

Our Path is Clearing - Ari Honarvar

 We are wondrous, complex, and resilient beings.
At any given moment, our bodies, minds and the
environment interact with and influence one another.
When we're able to balance these interactions, the result
is harmony,  However, living in this hyper-stimulating and
[chaotic] world, harmony can become compromised, and
after a while we become ripe for disease and disorientation.
The uncomfortable symptoms of disharmony are then often
confused with the root cause, and in our rush to escape
the uncomfortable emotions and sensations, we seek
distractions in the world...

But our wisdom and innate vitality await us and beckon us
to return to ourselves.  When we do our inherent wisdom
shines light on the origin of disharmony, clearing the path...
We can bring back harmony and take responsibility of the
magnificence that is us.  Having cleared the distractions,
life becomes simple again and our path is clear...

Ari Honarvar
From - Rumi's Gift

~

Personal Note -  Now that we have hopefully been
relieved of the political drama and DisTraction of the
last 4 years, maybe we can individually and collectively
find a new sense of balance and harmony.  Clear the
toxicity of chaos, and focus on the priorities of our
collective existence in the ongoing Cosmic Play of Life.

Namaste
_/\_

~

Photo - Sunrise at Sunday River Ski Resort
in Bethel, Maine - taken by my brother on
ski patrol

Weight Shift - Ram Dass

If we can imagine a wheel whose rim is the cycle of births and deaths,
all of the 'stuff' of life, conditioned reality, and whose center is
perfect flow, formless no-mind, the Source, we've got one foot with
most of our weight on the circumference of the wheel, and one foot
tentatively at the center.

That's the beginning of awakening.  And we come in, and we sit and
meditate, and suddenly there's a moment when we feel the perfection
of our Being and our connection.  Then our weight goes back on the
outside of the wheel. Over and over and over, this happens.

Slowly, slowly the weight shifts.  Then the weight shifts just enough
so that there is a slight predominance on the center of the wheel, and
we find that we naturally just want to sit down and be quiet, that we
don't have to say , "I've got to meditate now," or "I've got to read a
holy book." or "I've got to turn off the television set," or "I've got to
do... anything."  It doesn't become that kind of discipline anymore.
The balance has shifted.

And we keep allowing our lives to become more and more simple,
more and more harmonious.  And less and less are we grasping at
this or pushing that away...

[We are no longer trying to make anything happen.]

Ram Dass

[brackets mine]

~

Photo - digitalized Mandala Art

2013

A Different World - Harlan Hubbard

... I myself, I require a more direct revelation,
not one that must come through so many minds
before it reaches mine.

I must have faith that I can see and hear,
that I can feel without thinking, or even trying to put into words.
It's not for anyone else, it's personal...

The interval of solitude is precious.
It is a different world and I am a different self.
I feel relieved of a responsibility that cannot be defined.
I am released from pressure, my mind is free.

Yet, would I not feel a lack of balance if I lived alone all the time?

Harlan Hubbard
1900-1988
from his journal, 1959

Harlan Hubbard was an American painter, writer and poet
who lived a very simple life riding the Missouri and Ohio
Rivers with his wife Anna in a shantyboat, eventually
settling down in Kentucky.

With thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

When you find that your long cherished beliefs
do not agree with your direct experience,
trust your experience.  Prefer the truth of your
experience to your dearest delusions...

Mystic Meandering

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering