Into the Forest - a meandering...

"The Forest" traditionally is a threshold symbol of entering
the unknown, the deeper nature, or the spiritual world.  In
fairy tales it usually represents a passage through difficulties
and an opportunity for "transformation" of some kind.  I also
see it as a sanctuary, refuge, a place of deepening. This entering
the "Dark Forest" happens sometimes when I have lost
(intentionally or otherwise) the frameworks, or beliefs,
 which have given structure to my life; when I must find my own
 way, and be true to the call of the Soul, despite the difficulties
 encountered.  Shamans, poets, holy men and women sought
refuge in the forest, as a healing place.  Going into The Forest
represents a return to Primordial Being - beyond societal,
cultural, conceptual and spiritual frameworks; beyond dogma
and doctrine... In a way, it is like returning to the child's heart
of innocence - just following the longing of the Heart once
again; trusting that I will emerge from "The Dark Forest" with
clarity.  As a child I often went into the woods next to our
house to just sit, to listen and commune with nature, and 
write poetry - at the ripe old age of 11 :)  It was a place of
directly experiencing what I knew then to be "God."  Now
known by many other names...

And since I don't have a "Dark Forest" handy to enter, and I'm
spooked by things that go bump in the night, my "Forest" will
have to be the Interior spaces - navigating the inner Forest of
the Unknown - as well as the difficult practicalities of everyday
living that I'm now faced with.   It will be an interesting 
sojourn, if I can pull it off...  What better time of year
than approaching the Winter Solstice to go within...

Mystic Meandering
originally written 6-22-2019
updated Dec. 6, 2023

~

The familiar horizon has been outgrown;
the old concepts, ideals,
and emotional patterns no longer fit.
The time for the passing of a threshold is at hand.

You enter the forest at the darkest point
where there is no path.
Where there's a way or a path
it is someone else's path; each human being
is a unique phenomenon.

The idea is to find your own way...

Joseph Campbell

~

Midway upon the journey of life
I found myself within a dark forest,
for the straightforward pathway
had been lost...

Dante Alighgieri
The Inferno

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Love Yourself - Fred LaMotte

Who led us to believe we must dissolve our "separateness".
destroy our little "i", and merge with a flatline of "non-duality?"
That's a lot of work!  It's the work of the mind, chewing on
itself, creating concepts.  "Separateness" is a concept.
"Non-duality" is a concept.

The Divine Mother's ocean of love is not like the intellect
of man.  We can drop this mind into the starry night of the
heart.  When the little droplet of "i" falls into the ocean of
Her love, it won't dissolve into impersonal nothingness.
Rather, the ocean will become the drop.

As the drop merges with the ocean, the ocean merges with
the drop....

Surrendered to the love that enwombs the stars, You are no
longer just a little "i." You irradiate the cosmos.  You don't
need to rise above your Being, but sink into it.  Love yourself.

Countless galaxies whirl out of your unbreathed unborn stillness.
And every star in the cosmos is imbued with the sweetness
of your own peculiar light...

With this very breath, love yourself!

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Pulsation of Life - Fred LaMotte

 The sign of life is pulsation. 'Spanda' in Sanskrit.
From Spanda comes our word 'expand.'  That which expands
must also contract, must pulse.  That which does not pulse
cannot play, cannot live.

Pulse is the nectar of creation, and the wine of health.  Atoms,
hearts, moments of time, cycles of history, worlds and
galaxies, all bubble up and dissolve as the pulse of the Infinite.
Music is the pulse of silence, dance is the pulse of stillness,
art is the pulse of the formless.  Spirit pulses into Matter.
Shiva pulses into Shakti.

If we are going to pulsate and live, we must not only know 
how to act, but how to rest; not only how to swell, but how
to empty; how to listen as well as speak; how to be dark as
well as radiant.

We learn to rest between the pulses.  Between our days. 
Between our moments.  Between our heartbeats.  And right
in the midst of busy lives, to be so vulnerable that we can
fall into the gaps and silences, coming Om even for an instant,
which could be an instant of eternity, as we let go of Doing to
sink into Being.

But we get stuck in the mind, do we not?  In dry abstractions,
brittle concepts.  Whether religious or political, is the same 
arid paralysis: lack of pulse.  Weak pulse is dis-ease. The
organic vibrancy of our body goes numb.  Confined to the 
cage of the intellect, we have no juice, and cannot feel the
kiss of God.

Ideology will never save the world.  Our world will be saved
by the call of a robin at dawn, the flavor of your grandmother's
mashed potatoes, the sting of dew on your bare feet.  Whatever
the question is, the answer is not an idea.  Nor will the answer
ever come as the conclusion of an argument.

The answer is returning to pulsation.  When you are stuck in the
mind, drop those inflexible concepts and come home to what
pulsates, the rhythm that softens and expands our heart.  This
life-giving pulse of Spanda need not be sensational or
dramatic.  It could be as gentle and intimate as your next breath.

Fred LaMotte

Uradiance

~

Photo - Mandala Art

Mystic Meandering

"The Mystery" is more than real...

 What is this "Mystery" that
abides in the depths of me?

Who is "She" that lives me?

"She" rises up in me as Energy
from the very core of my Being,
letting Herself be known in Her whirling
through the spine - dancing me;
the heart quivering, the intensity breathtaking -
The Alive Presence of "The Mystery."

"She" is Here - in us - always,
making Herself known as the Infinite Source of all,
ever abiding within the 
subtle realms of Being.

Not just believed to be true,
but felt to be true...

For what we believe to be true
in our minds,
becomes our "truth" -
our view of "Reality"

until - our inner eyes open to see
"The Mystery" revealed,
as a subtler Reality beyond Form...

"The Mystery" - a subtle Reality
that can be felt
beyond matter reality -
beyond conceptual ideas of reality;
and experienced as
"more than real."

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 27, 2020

Shivoham
_/\_

~

Photo - Aurora Borealis from a calendar

~

May we all experience the healing subtler realms of Being
in the new year, giving birth to new perspectives - new ways
of seeing and being in the world...

The Natural Mind - Robert Wolfe

You want to know what is meant when you see the phrase
"thought-free."

If you [question] whether you are thought-free or
not thought-free, would it be possible to be "thought-free",
in that circumstance?

As the Dzogchen Rinpoche Tulku Orgyen has commented:

When you ask: "Is there a thought; or (am I) free of thought? -
 isn't that just another thought?

The following teachers speak of a "natural" mind.  During your day,
all sorts of thoughts come and go, spontaneously arising and
dissolving, like surf washing upon a beach.  Isn't this what is
natural to all of us?

Tulku Rinpoche has said: "It is not beneficial to continuously
pursue a special, thought-free mental state. Rather, simply
allow yourself to be in naturalness, free of any fabrication";
that is, conceiving of, and attempting to engineer, some
special state of mind or condition of thought.  "Thought-free
means free of conceptual thinking."

Tulku's eldest son, Chokyi Nyima also says:

"When leaving this fresh ordinary mind as it is, without
correcting or modifying it, without altering it in any way,
without accepting and rejecting, there is no fixating on
anything.

In the present moment, do not correct,
Do not modify,
Do not accept or reject.
Don't try to rearrange your present wakefulness.
Instead, leave it as it naturally is
Without any attempt to alter it in any way.
That is called sustaining your natural face."

Another son of Tulku Rinpoche, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche,
speaks in detail about the innate naturalness of the mind free
of such dualistic concepts as thought versus no thought:

"Like many of the people I now meet on teaching tours, I
thought that natural mind had to be something else, 
something different from, or better than, what I was already
experiencing.  Like most people, I brought so much
judgment to my experience.  I believed that thoughts of anger,
fear and so on (that came and went throughout the day) were
bad or counter productive - or at the very least inconsistent
with natural peace!  The teachings of the Buddha is that if
we allow ourselves to relax and take a mental step back, we
can begin to recognize that all these different thoughts are
simply coming and going within the context of an
unlimited mind, which, like space, remains fundamentally
unperturbed by whatever occurs within it.

"All you have to do is rest your mind in its natural openness.
No special focus, no special effort, is required.  And if for
some reason you cannot rest your mind, you can simply
observe whatever thoughts, feelings, or sensations come
up and acknowledge, 'Oh, that's what's going on in my
mind right now.'  Wherever you are, whatever you do,
it's essential to acknowledge your experience as something
ordinary, the natural expression of your true mind.  If you
don't try to stop whatever is going on in your mind, but
merely observe it, eventually you'll begin to feel a 
tremendous sense of relaxation, a vast sense of openness
within you mind - which is in fact your natural mind,
the natural unperturbed background against which 
various thoughts come and go."

Robert Wolfe

With thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo - From a CD cover

Bee-lief - J.Krishnamurti & Adyashanti

You believe in God, and another does not believe in God,
so your beliefs separate you from each other.

Belief throughout the world is organized as [Religion],
and so it divides man from man.  We are confused, and we
think that through belief we shall clear the confusion; that is,
belief is superimposed on the confusion, and we hope that
confusion will thereby be cleared away.

But belief is merely an escape from the fact of confusion;
it [belief] does not help us to face and to understand the fact
but to run away from the confusion in which we are.

To understand the confusion, belief is not necessary, and
belief only acts as a screen between ourselves and our
problems.  So, religion, which is organized belief, becomes
a means of escape from what is, from the fact of confusion.

J. Krishnamurti

~

All barriers are conceptual - made of ideas, beliefs and opinions.
Outside of concepts and beliefs there is no barrier. Belief is what
the mind does to fill up emptiness, to give it something to look at,
to play with, to hide behind...

So let us understand that Reality transcends all of our notions [beliefs]
about reality.  Reality is neither Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Advaita
Vedanta, nor Buddhist.  It is neither dualistic nor non-dualistic,
neither spiritual nor nonspiritual.  We should come to know that there
is more reality and sacredness in a blade of grass than in all of our
thoughts and ideas about reality.  When we perceive from an undivided
consciousness, we will find the sacred in every expression of life.
...we must let ourselves be led by the inner thread of Silence into
the unknown, beyond where all paths end, to that place where we
go innocently or not at all....

Adyashanti

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Neither "Separate" nor "One" - Matt Licata

We are neither "separate" nor "one", but the erupting holding
field in which the energies of "separate" and "one" interpenetrate
and dance the relative into being.  Neither of these concepts
are majestic enough to contain the mystery of the soul.  While
we may have a preference over unity and oneness, over
multiplicity and differentiation, it would appear that Love
does not share this bias and is ready at all times to equally
employ either of its manifestations to be its envoy here.

Those visitors of raw, achy, lonely, broken openness are not
neuroses to be cured or mistakes to be remedied. The shaky
vulnerability is not pathology, it is path.  As our perception
is cleansed, we see that they are not obstacles, but passionate,
yearning requests, tending to the lost grief, joy, rage
and peace of the unlived life.

The freedom we long for will never be found in the eradication
of the unwanted, but only in deeper layers of attunement to the
love and information it carries.  At times the burning can seem
unbearable.  Such is the nature of the human heart.  We may
burn until we are translucent, but it is by way of this burning
that wholeness is revealed.

Matt Licata

True Emptiness - Dorothy Hunt

True Emptiness - which we could also call formless Spirit -
fills the universe and is filled by the universe.  It contains
everything, yet is not separate from a single moment's arising,
or dissolving.  What I am calling Emptiness is simply empty of
self, and empty of definition.  The word "Emptiness" is not
really it, neither are any of our ideas about it, including the
ones I use to try to point to the Mystery that is Unnamable
and indefinable.  To be emptied of our attachment to
definitions and concepts - especially our self-concepts - is
to be unburdened, whole, fluid and free to truly be.

To be empty means we are open; to be empty means we are
available for whatever or whoever is in front of us; to be
empty means we are not stuck anywhere, but can experience
the fullness and the flow of life unhindered.  Our seeing is
empty until it lands on an object, is it not? Our freedom,
inherent wisdom and selfless love arise right out of
Emptiness...

For a moment, just allow yourself to be the emptiness, open
and without definition, yet intimate with the moment as it is.
You might discover a vast and spacious Presence that feels
more real, more connected, more meaningful and lovingly
your truest Self than anything you could ever imagine.  And
even though the mind cannot say exactly what this is,
something knows; something in you remembers.
And what remembers tenderly holds anything that may arise
to be seen, experienced or liberated...

Dorothy Hunt
Buddhist Teacher

 

Truth is an Oasis - Jinendra

Truth is a pathless Oasis
Who can show you the path?
Have faith in yourself...
And begin the inner walk

To experience Truth
Put all aside
All that you have heard
All that you have ever read
All knowledge of scriptures
and the philosophical tenets
Put them all aside

[.....]

Just simply be Aware
Of the Reality within you...
Observe through your Inner Eyes

As the inner walk progresses
Awareness of space
and time ceases

Always remaining Equanimous
Alone you walk ... ...
and walk ... and ... walk
To the deeeeeepest depth
Of your mind and heart
To arrive at the Whole Truth

To live truthfully
Let each moment of Truth
Bring you to the next moment
of Truth

And so, from this moment's Truth
to the next moment's Truth
From Truth to Truth ... to Truth
On this pathless path you move
Until you finally arrive
In this pathless journey
To the Oasis of Truth

As you continue your "inner walk"
The observer merges with the observed
In a flash is revealed the Unknowable
The Truth - the Self is now Known
Beyond all doubts

[.....]

Now don't hold on
to your preconceived ideas and beliefs
Let go of all your old conceptions
You will understand and see
the meaning that hides behind these words

The Truth brings total synthesis...
Inward-Outward you now exist
In total peace and harmony

Be aware and perceive rightly

Then the words come alive and become meaningful
If not, they are like writings on water
Soon to disappear into meaninglessness!

Jinendra
Center for Sustainable Happiness

Photo and text via No Mind's Land

Entropy...

The shadows have come to roost
and
everything

is
collapsing

~
~
~

~

The tides and ripples of entropy will continue
until all is returned to Source again ~

the Primordial State:
Pure Life Energy...

Entropy is not necessarily a "bad" thing.
It is the way of Existence.

It is a telescoping of everything that is,
back to its original Source/State;
a re-homing of all that has manifested in form,
the conceptual structures,
so that only
the Eternal Essence
remains...

Do not be alarmed by the seeming destruction
of what you have believed to be real.
The false must be released, shed - like dross.
In this there is a sense of chaos, destruction, loss, and death;
the crucible affect;
a state of alchemy,
the refinement of all things in existence
to its Original Nature.

Nothing is lost in the process.

All is coming Home.

The
Divine
Out-breath
Has
Been
Re-called.

Bring your awareness to the place of Stillness within.
Don't try to create order in the chaos.
But be still and let the chaos pass.
"Order" is found in the Stillness,
in returning to deep Stillness of Being.

The healing of mankind
is in the recognition of the
Truth of our Eternal Essence -
Infinite Beingness...

Entropy is the crucible of that healing.,,

Allow it...

The invitation
is to expand our view of reality
and return to the awareness of
our Eternal Being...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
written between
2004 and 2006

~

Photo - A pan of grease blobs
zoom blurred...  :)

Our Concept of "Reality" - Bohm, LeShan & Brunton

Reality is what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is what we believe.
What we believe is based upon our perceptions.
What we perceive depends upon what we look for.
What we look for depends upon what we think.
What we think depends upon what we perceive.
What we perceive determines what we believe.
What we believe determines what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is our reality.

David Bohm
Quantum Physicist

~

The trouble is we have a basic commitment to the *idea*
that there is one true, valid concept of reality
(ours, of course) and that all others are primitive,
childlike, mythological or pathological.
[or false].

Lawrence LeShan
Psychologist
From: Landscapes of the Mind:
The Faces of Reality

~

There is no single path to enlightenment.
Life itself is the great enlightener.
Do not submit to the pressure of those who say
there is only a single way.....the way they follow
or teach.  Do not let the mind be trammelled or
narrowed.  The truth is that the ways are many,
are spread out in all directions, and are individual.

Paul Brunton
Mystical Philosopher

In The Autumn Of Life (excerpt) - Chuck Surface

In the Autumn of life...

I no longer care for "knowledge of",
In words, concepts and theories,
For the highest knowledge possible
Remains but yet another veiling.

And yet...

The mind continues as it has,
Reveling in its noble quest,
Behaving according to its nature,
Only now, knowing full well the futility.

In the Autumn of life...
I no longer care for "understanding",
Arriving at logical "conclusion",
For the deepest understanding possible,
Remains but yet another veiling.

And yet...
The mind continues as it has,
Devouring whatever crumbs might fall,
From the Table of The Great Mystery,
Only now, knowing full well the futility.

[.....]

And yet, in the Autumn of life...

I see the Blessing is born of our entirety:
The mind's desperate need to Know,
The Heart's desperate desire to Feel,
The Soul's desperate longing for Union...

[.....]

Here... in the Autumn of life...

Chuck Surface
Excerpt: In The Autumn Of Life

Garden of the Beloved

Facebook

The Shape of "self" - MM

The Infinite Beingness that we are
takes the shape of
"self" - "you"...

- like contained water -

The Source of our Essential Beingness,
whether we call it God,
Buddha Nature, Consciousness,
Non-Dual Awareness,
Great Spirit, or
Infinite Being
is like fluid light;
refracting ItSelf
in order to make ItSelf
appear in form -
as "self"...

Our Being
takes the form of matter reality;
a modulation of Its Pure Beingness,
vibrating ItSelf uniquely into
the shape of "self."

Don't be deluded by prescriptive dogmas and
doctrines of hierarchies
selling you the steps to "enlightenment."
Instead, unshape your "self" from
the conceptual overlays
that man's finite mind devised
to try to explain what IS...

And fall into the Grace of Silence...

~

Don't entrap your "self" in intellectual argumentation,
and interpretations of
Self/No-self, Duality/Non-Duality, Just This/only Now;
frameworks of distortion; 

words that tickle the mind...

Instead, let the Shapelessness of your Eternal Being
take shape within you,
let It shape you -
and feel the authentic Being that you are.
Let It form and inform your
"self"...

The "self" cannot be discarded.
It is part of the whole
of who we are.
There can be no "separation"
or denial of who we are
as the wholeness of Being,
including the "self"...

Feel into the fluidity of
your Whole Being;
the essential feeling of Being.
Let your "self" be
the Luminous Infiniteness
with its myriad expressions,
its multiplicity and diversity...

~

If only for a moment...

Love your "self"...

Be yourself - as you are

Embrace all of "you"...

As the Infinite Whole...

Mystic Meandering
Feb/Mar/Apr 2018

This poem percolated over a period of 3 months

Namaste
_/\_

Fully "ME" - Anna Wood & MM

One of the most valuable insights I've gained through yoga
and meditation is that I've lived most of my life estranged
from myself as a whole, compartmentalizing aspects of my
existence into heart/mind/instinct/left foot/daydreams/ love
handles.  Thus segmented "I" was (am) never fully "me,"
and I never had (have) to come to terms with the actual
density and simultaneous emptiness of being alive as a
human being on planet earth.
...it seems to me like we've collectively designed a global
system that prevents most of us from accomplishing it
even we had the will to.

Silence, by clarifying our senses, invites us to witness
ourselves as we are.

Anna Wood
From: A More Intricate Cup of Tea

~*~

What I seem to understand - what I have always known, but
have felt constrained by mental/conceptual frameworks - is
that Life/Existence/Awareness *delights* in expressing
 ItSelf, and *how* It expresses ItSelf really doesn't matter
 to It. Awareness has no concept of non-dual awareness,
 of non-dual language. It *sees* everything as ItSelf, and
 therefore as not  separate from ItSelf.  The idea that it is
 "non-dual" does not even occur to It.  It does not concern
 ItSelf  with "non-duality," or duality for that matter.
It doesn't *see* duality, the self, the me, as a problem to
 overcome, or be seen through, or merged with, as other than
 non-dual. The whole me/no-me, self/no-self concept
doesn't matter anymore.  I somehow had constrained my
 Self by subtly making those very linear delineations,
splitting Existence in two - creating duality; becoming more
 *self* conscious -  trying to fit this expression of Being into
 a "non-dual" conceptual framework instead of just Being what
 I already knew myself to be.  My SELF!
 Beingness being ItSelf - as me...

What a relief!  Such freedom!  I can just be ME! - living from
the Heart of Being, and not the framework, the scaffolding.  In
 a sense I muted this innate Aliveness that wants to express here
*through* constraining myself to the frameworks and scaffoldings
of *conceptual* "non-dual" ideas, interpretations, language and
beliefs - trying to fit myself into a nice neat "spiritual" box.
When all along it was about coming Alive again, rekindling the
Life that already lives here - "outside the box."

Infinite Beingness expresses Aliveness.
Its only purpose, evidently, is to express Life, in all its forms.
Aliveness expressing ItSelf as Life - all life, not just
"non-dual" life -
whatever that might mean...

Mystic Meandering

Meditative Writings
2011

An Unseen Hand...

I took these pictures of the "mittens" over a period of weeks
on my "twilight walks" from January to February 2012.

I first found them on the ground behind a bench.
I picked them up and laid them out on the bench
hoping their owner would see them...

The next time they had been only slightly moved
and covered with a light dusting of snow...

Then ~

neatly laid together
at one end of the bench;
one holding the other
as if content to wait
for their owner to
retrieve them...

I left them as they were...

On the next visit one was on the bench,
delicately laid out
in this dainty hand position,
almost as if an invitation to sit...

and the other on the ground
in the shape of the peace sign,
as if to say everything is okay...

Once again I left them as they were,
wondering what unseen hand
was sculpting them...

After two large snow falls
and a couple of weeks of
60 mile an hour winds
I found one here

sculpted into the ice...

And finally, out of curiosity,
I made a quick trip back to the park
that March to see if I could find them again...

And there they were on another bench,
flattened and weather-worn...

So I did a little sculpting of my own
in a funky finger mudra :)

We are all each other's "unseen hand",
appearing and disappearing when needed,
lifting each other's spirits,
unknowingly shaping,
influencing and rearranging
life perspectives
in slight and subtle ways,
through our presence...
Each offering something
in our own way,
inviting each other to sit a while;
offering signs of encouragement
and inspiration,
lending each other
a hand
to extricate each other
from the frozen constructs of our minds;
melting away the outmoded concepts that
keep us frozen
with the warmth of a
loving "unseen hand"...

Thank you to the "unseen hands"
in my life
who have inspired and opened
this Heart...

_/\_

The Golden Chain of "Spirituality" - Chogyam Trungpa

As long as we follow a spiritual approach promising salvation,
miracles, liberation, then we are bound by the
'golden chain of spirituality.'  Such a chain might be
beautiful to wear, with its inlaid jewels and intricate carvings,
but nevertheless, it imprisons us.

As long as one's approach to spirituality is based upon
enriching the ego, then it is spiritual materialism...

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Buddhist Meditation Master

Personal Note: Chogyam was evidently a controversial figure, as one can see with this provocative piece, which may seem a little harsh to some...  My personal experience is that "spirituality", in its many forms, can actually constrain and contain the natural expression of our True Beingness, because with any *form* of "spirituality", or religion, there is a certain conformity to that ideology/belief.  The expression of our Pure Beingness then, often becomes stifled by that ideology/belief, which then becomes an obstruction, or constriction, to the freedom of the Pure Being that is within; that wants to express ItSelf through this mechanism we call "me", because we try to fit into a conceptual mold of a particular form of "spirituality" that we have identified with.  The point, IMHO, is to remain open to how Pure Beingness, (aka The Mystery, Life) beyond belief, beyond form, wants to come alive in us and express ItSelf in, through and as us, which may not be what we *think*... :)  _/\_

Collapse the Scaffolding...

Allow everything to collapse…
All the structures that you have erected,
that you cling to;
beliefs, opinions, self-images, self-identities;
self-definitions;
what you *think* you are;
believe you are;
want life to be;
desire to have;
and feel about
your ‘self.’

Collapse everything
that you hold onto
as your ‘self.’

Collapse into the Ineffable Mystery of Being;
with no sense of I am this or that;
no sense of a separate ‘me’;
just pure Life
expressing
the
stream
of
Living
moving
in,
through,
and as
’you.’

Collapse into the Fullness
of
Emptiness,

of
Silence,

of
Stillness…

Experience what’s
beyond the structures
that you’ve tried
to hold in place for so long
with your scaffolding:
your “ego”,
your “personality”…

Feel the Vastness of Being when there’s
nothing to cling to…

No identity
No self-image
No plan
No concept of life
No belief
No opinion
No judgment
No *sense* of 
’self’
to hold
’you’
up.

When the false scaffolding collapses

What is “behind” this “you”
that you *think* you are?

Nothing but the Ineffable Mystery of Life ItSelf…

~ ♥ ~

Mystic Meandering

Meditative Writings

July 2011

Out Beyond - Rumi

Out beyond the ideas of right-doing and wrongdoing
there is a field…
I will meet you there…

Rumi

~

Beyond all polarities, mental concepts,
and the shadowy forms of beliefs about

 “God” or “no-God”,
duality or non-duality,
or the language we use for what we call “God”,
or “Oneness”,
there is an Ineffable, untouched
Mystery of Being
  within us…
A stillness...
where we can lay our “self” down in the Sacred Silence
and rest -

Meet me there,
no matter what your beliefs…

MM

Life's Eerie Glow...

Muted golden sunlight came through the living room window Monday evening just before 6pm with the strong smell of smoke filling the air. I looked out the window and saw an eerie glow in the sky. A forest fire was burning out of control in the foothills only about 30 miles from here, as the wind blows. And it was blowing in our direction. I saw the red ball of the sun just above the roof top across the street and went for the camera. As soon as I stepped out the front door I gulped in smoke filled air. I snapped a few pictures and went back inside and closed up the house. Unbeknownst to me, DH had gone down the street to the park to see if he could get some pictures with his cell phone. Those are the ones that came out here. The bright yellow globe and bright light is the sun in a yellow sky. Filtered through the smoke it cast an eerie light on the landscape. Sitting at dinner we could see the smoke wafting through the trees, as the smell of smoke continued to seep through house.

The fire still burns. Two people have died, one is missing. 24 homes were burned to the ground. Homeless in an instant. I can’t imagine. And it wasn’t an act of Nature. It started from a prescribed burn… Some knuckle head in the government allowed a planned burn to take place in the driest, windiest March on record… Go figure.

March is usually our snowiest month, but we haven’t gotten any precipitation at all. We are already breaking temperature records. Summer has arrived, apparently skipping Spring. Today they say we will reach 84 degrees and break a record. The wind has been relentless. Everything is already parched, and everything is blooming. The Maple tree leaves are already out, small as they are. Cottonwoods have budded out. Crab Apple trees are beginning to bloom. Beauty is happening despite the desert-like conditions. Everything is two months ahead of schedule. I’ve been noticing this for 10 years now - this slowly creeping shift in seasonal time, as if the earth itself has shifted to a new rhythm – ever so slowly.

It’s also hard to believe that something so devastating could create such an eerie beauty – from a distance. In an instant it became clear how I often take life for granted, always counting on it being the same – day after day. We, in the “spiritual community” often give lip service to the inevitability of change and suffering, (as long as it’s not happening to us), as we get comfortable with the life we think we have created for ourselves. Or we become ensconced in our “spiritual” search for “enlightenment” (as I have – meandering as it is), only wanting to see beyond: beyond duality, beyond the here and now, beyond life as it is. And it is sometimes hard to come "back to earth" so-to-speak, and surrender to what is, to the immediacy of the moment, to “just this” - seeing life as it is in its rawness. Or some only see this world, and the people in it, as an illusion, a dream – and shut themselves off from life. And some focus only on beauty and what gives pleasure, overlooking the pain of the mundane all around us – and in themselves. In some instances denying that there is a “self” that suffers, that hurts, that grieves… But, if we are paying attention at all, we are reminded by life that the structures (and illusions) that we have built for ourselves – physically, conceptually and spiritually - crumble, and the life (and beliefs) we *think* we have earned and achieved, that we subconsciously feel in control of and entitled to, can go up in smoke.

So what is left when our illusions and beliefs about life and self burn away and we are left standing – naked – in the eerie glow of life…? The Heart of Compassion - for the nakedness of life… That’s all that really matters…

“Only when we know our own darkness well
can we be present with the darkness of others.
Compassion becomes real
when we recognize our shared humanity.”

“To be fully alive, fully human
and completely awake
is to be continually
thrown out of the nest.”

“Life’s painful aspects soften us up.
Gloriousness and pain...
One inspires us, the other softens us.”

Pema Chodron
From The Places That Scare You

"The Ineffable Mystery of Being"

Not much going on here, except a lot of family involvement with errands and doctor appointments this week; and trying to take my “twilight walks” each evening, which I hope to write about at some point. But nothing arises to be written, no inspiration visits. And yet there was the impulse to post this article by Rob Matthews, called, "The Ineffable Mystery of Being," that I read on Non-Duality Highlights more than two weeks ago. I so deeply resonate with what he articulately writes that really all I can say is: “what he said…”

“What I have discovered through my spiritual practice is an
increasing self-intimacy...a sense of authenticity and real-ness,
that has become the cornerstone of my daily life. I cannot
imagine how I could have lived without this living presence
and sense of emerging fullness.

Our awareness is incredibly powerful at enabling the unveiling
of ourselves, revealing a fuller picture, illuminating our
experience, but only if we are willing and committed to
knowing the fullness of what we are.

I find as I continue noticing and encountering this awareness in
my life what comes into view is both particular and vast,
discordant yet harmonious, life sustaining yet challenging
and not necessarily easy. This active engagement demands
my courage and honesty, this is no walk in the park.

As I continue, the sense of congruence and authenticity begins to
sprout and this self-intimacy becomes the rule, in time. Although
it is not as though there is one mode of being, that of self-intimacy,
no, it is more like that a dance has begun.

This dance, fueled and enabled by the openness and desire of
wanting to know myself, is both exhilarating and liberating and,
as I develop trust in the unfolding, I soon begin to recognize that
any ideas or desires for Awakening need not concern me....it no
longer is of interest as my life has filled up with a delicious
fragrance of authenticity.

I no longer care for anything other than supporting what has taken
root within me…if the self concept or ego continues I don't care,
the teachers and teachings tell me this and that and I don't care,
life is its usual mix of struggle and strife, joy and love, and I no
longer care...why would I care when I know the golden key is within?

Why search for anything when the very fabric of experience is the
path of unfolding. Everyday experience reveals this once we get a
little more familiar with ourselves and stop trying to awaken, stop
meddling with our experience long enough to notice what is.

At some stage there was a key realization, one among many, when
I realized I can let go of all concepts about the teaching and just
feel comfortable in everyday experience without any framework
or concepts about how it ought to be. Is their a doer? Is there an
ego? Is there an awakening? Are we perfect? None of these
conceptual frames of reference are important. Instead I relax
and notice that all that stuff is just ideas about...
about the ineffable mystery of being.”

I too feel this sense of “self-intimacy, authenticity and realness” stirring, simmering deeply within, calling to me *from* within. And I am committed to listening to and following the call - *living* the call of deeper intimacy with Self – Beingness – “The Beloved” - Life, which I think is part of what my “twilight walks” are all about – allowing myself to experience this ineffable mystery of Being…

Note: I emailed the editor of Non Duality Highlights who posted this particular piece to see if there was a link for Rob Matthews. There was no response. Whoever he is, I thank him for putting into words what I feel in this heart…

~


I also found what I consider to be one of the simplest and clearest “definitions” of “non-duality.” It was spoken by Joan Ruvinsky in reference to the question “what is a non-dual retreat” – but her answer spoke to me in the broader sense of the word “non-dual”, and thus life itself. She says:

“Ultimately a non-dual retreat is where it is all welcome,
the fragmentation and the wholeness,
the confusion and the clarity.
It is a place where it is no longer necessary
to be spiritually correct…”

“Life has always been a spiritual practice
in its ordinariness – just happening -
just living it.
A simple silence underlies life happening -
the simple silence of the perfection
of things as they are…”

Joan Ruvinsky