A Quiet Spirit - Henry David Thoreau

 When I detect a beauty in any of the recesses of nature,
I am reminded by the serene and retired spirit in which it
requires to be contemplated, of the inexpressible privacy of life -
how silent and unambitious it is.
The beauty there in mosses will have to be considered from
the holiest, quietest nook.

My truest, serenest moments are too still for emotions...

~

To be calm, to be serene!
There is the calmness of the lake when there is not a breath
of wind; there is the calmness of a stagnant ditch.  So it is
with us.
Sometimes we are clarified and calmed healthily, as we never 
were before in our lives, not by an opiate, but by some 
unconscious obedience to the all-just laws,
so that we become like a still lake of purest crystal
and without an effort our depths are revealed to ourselves.

~

I awoke into a music which no one by me heard.
Whom shall I thank for it?  I feel it a blessing.
To the sane man the world is a musical instrument.
The very touch affords an exquisite pleasure.

Henry David Thoreau

taken from a journal entry, June 22, 1851

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Solitude - Zat Rana

"All of man's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly
in a room alone..."

Blaise Pascal

According to Pascal, we fear the silence of existence, we dread
the boredom and instead choose aimless distractions, and we can't
help but run from the problems of our emotions into the false
comforts of the mind.

We never learned the art of solitude.  And now we live in a world
where we're connected to everything except ourselves.  Everything
 that has done so much to connect us has simultaneously isolated us.
We are so busy being distracted that we are forgetting to tend to
ourselves, which is consequently making us feel more and more
alone...

Never being alone is not the same as never feeling alone.  The less
comfortable you are with solitude, the more likely it is that you
won't know yourself.  And then, you'll spend even more time
avoiding it to focus elsewhere.  In the process, you'll become
addicted to the same technologies that were meant to set you free.
Just because we can use the noise of the world to block out the
discomfort of dealing with ourselves doesn't mean that this
discomfort goes away.

Almost everybody thinks of themselves as self-aware.  They
think they know how they feel and what they want and what
their problems are.  But the truth is that very few people really
do.  And those that do will be the first to tell you how fickle
self-awareness is and how much alone time it takes to get
there.  In today's world, people can go their whole lives
without truly digging beyond the surface level masks they
wear...[How interesting that we are required to wear masks
these days.] We are increasingly out of touch with who we are...
[Maybe this is why so many are having a hard time with
the "stay-at-home" orders - feeling confined, like their freedom
 has been taken away - acting out].

Almost anything that controls our life in an unhealthy way
finds its roots in our realization that we dread the nothingness
of nothing.  We can't imagine just being rather than doing.  We have an instinctive aversion to simply being.   And there-
fore, we look for entertainment, we seek company, and if
 those fail, we chase every higher highs.

We ignore the fact that never facing the nothingness is the same
as never facing ourselves.  And never facing ourselves is why
we feel lonely and anxious in spite of being intimately connected
to everything around us.

Fortunately, there is a solution.....  When you surround yourself
with moments of solitude and stillness, you become intimately
familiar with your environment in a way that forced stimulation
doesn't allow. [Forced socialization]  The world becomes richer,
the layers start to peel back, and you see things for what they
 really are, in all their wholeness, in all their contradictions,
 and in all their unfamiliarity.

You realize there are other things you are capable of paying
attention to than just what makes the most noise on the
surface.  [Solitude] allows you to discover the novelty in things
you didn't know were novel; it's like being an unconditioned
child seeing the world for the first time.  It also resolves the
majority of internal conflicts.

Without realizing the value of solitude, we are overlooking the
fact that, once the fear of boredom is faced, it can actually
provide its own stimulation.  And the only way to face it is to
make time to just sit... with our thoughts, with our feelings, with
a moment of stillness...

Zat Rana

Excerpt from: "The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You"
an article in Medium.com

[brackets mine]

~

Your solitude will be a support and a home for you,
even in the midst of very unfamiliar circumstances,
and from it you will find all your paths...

Rainer Maria Rilke

Excerpt from: Letters to a Young Poet #1

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

A Zen Moment

Each of us needs to withdraw
from the cares which will not
withdraw from us...

Maya Angelou

~

Our State of Colorado is now under "lock down" for the
next 4 weeks, due to the coronavirus, as many others
are as well...  During this period of sequester I hope to
stay as healthy as I can, and use this time of "sheltering"
to nurture myself, to turn inward and experience Peace and
 a sense of inner Presence, and the deep inner Silence once
again; to de-stress and disentangle from the collective energy
 of fear and panic...
May you all stay well during this stressful time...

I'll still be posting along the way :)

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

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

Authentic Allowing - Clare Blanchflower

Make no mistake
There is no goal
There is no path
Your quest ends
Here
In the
absolute
authentic
allowing of
this moment's
raw expression

In the deepest surrender
to what is
the lens of
limited focus
softens into
unbounded emptiness
Revealing
the infinity of you

If you truly desire
to know
your Self
Awaken to
Honesty
Let go of everything
that keeps you from
authentic Being

Allow the awakeness
of the moment
to meet your
wholehearted
openness

Give up all roles
Surrender all masks
Melt
Into the radiant gaze
of wholeness

Clare Blanchflower

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

On Being Authentic - Elizabeth Lesser

The irony of hiding the dark side of our humanness is that our
secret is not really a secret at all.  How can it be when we're all
safeguarding the very same story?  That's why Rumi calls it an
Open Secret.  It's almost a joke - a laughable admission that each
one of us has a shadow self - a bumbling, bad-tempered twin.
 Big surprise!  Just like you, I can be a jerk sometimes.  I do
 unkind, cowardly things, harbor unmerciful thoughts, and
mope around when I should be doing something constructive. 
Just like you, I wonder if life has meaning; I worry and fret
 over things that I can't control; and I often feel overcome
 with a longing for something I cannot even name.  For all of
 my strengths and gifts, I am also a vulnerable and insecure
 person, in need of connection and reassurance.  This is
the secret I try to keep from you, and you from me, and in
doing so, we do each other a grave disservice.

Rumi tells us that the moment we accept what troubles we've
 been given, the door will open.  Sounds easy, sounds attractive,
but it is difficult, and most of us pound on the door to freedom
 and happiness with every manipulative ploy save the one that
actually works.  If you're interested in the door to the heavens
opening, start with the  door to your own secret self.  See what
 happens when you offer to another a glimpse of yourself.  Start
slowly. Without getting dramatic, share the simple dignity of 

yourself  in each moment - your triumphs and your failures, your
 satisfaction and your sorrow. Face your embarrassment at being
human, and you'll uncover a deep well of passion and compassion.
  It's a great power, your Open Secret.  When you heart is undefended
you make it safe for whomever you meet to put down his/her
burden  of hiding, and then you both can walk through the
 open door.

Elizabeth Lesser

from: Broken Open

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

There Is Room in the Heart - Ameeta

What distresses you
my friend?

Isn't it mostly
what your mind says
should not be?

The mind says
it should not be
and yet it is.

There is room
you know
there is room
in the heart
for what the mind
won't allow.

There is room
in the heart
for what the mind
can't understand.

There is room
in the heart
for every
contradiction
and conflict
for every pair
of opposites
to co-exist.

No no
shouts the mind again
it is wrong
and I won't allow it.

There is room
in the heart
for all of
shouting mind.

There is room
in the heart
for reality
as it is.

Recognize
your open heart
my friend
and receive life here.
Receive life
in this home of love
and know your heart
as the birthplace
of everything.

Ameeta

2011

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

A Bridge to a Kinder World - Diane Walker

We pray today, not just for ourselves,
But for all in need of prayer.
We act, not just on behalf of ourselves,
But for those who will benefit.
...and we reach out today, not just to those
Whose opinions mirror our own,
But in hopes of building a bridge to a kinder world.

Diane Walker

Contemplative Photography

Photo and verse by Diane Walker

Talk/Sound and Silence - Kahlil Gibran

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.
And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your
heart, you live in your lips.

Sound is a diversion and a pastime.

For thought is a bird of space,
that in a cage of words may indeed
unfold its wings, but cannot fly.

Kahlil Gibran

~

There are those among you who seek the talkative
through fear of being alone.
The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes
their naked selves and they would escape.

And there are those who talk
and without knowledge of forethought
reveal a truth which they themselves
do not understand.

And there are those who have
the truth within them, but they tell it not
in words.
In the bosom of such as these the spirit dwells
in rhythmic silence ~ ~ ~

Kahlil Gibran

Thanks to Dorothea Mills

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Cosmic Stirrings - Author Unknown

The Cosmic skies are stirring, there is a change in the air
that may awaken us to some new truths.

How beautiful that we don't yet know the way.
How beautiful that there are elements of life
that still confuse us, make us feel deeper than
we could have imagined, and remind us of
what is real and pure in our hearts.

How beautiful, that even though we don't yet
know "the way", we can spread our wings,
shift our awareness, and trust that there is a
new unfolding that is destined to come.

It is the journey of metamorphosis that we
are being guided to walk down.

Whatever comes, know that it is part of how we
move through our own cycle of ego into the
dark night of the soul, and then finally, into
spiritual wisdom.

Sometimes we need intensity to drive the
vehicle of transformation.

While we want to remain strong and centered,
we also don't want to limit or cut ourselves off
from allowing whatever comes to move us,
change us, and transform us.

We have to remember to keep shifting our
awareness of what life is and what role we are
here to play; to allow ourselves to keep dying
and being reborn.  Keep questioning, keep growing,
keep allowing things to shock and surprise us, for
they are often the fuel for our continued growth.

author unknown
found on Facebook

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
water droplets on a white background
color inverted and zoom blurred :)

of Being - Denise Levertov

I know this happiness
is provisional:

the looming presences -
the great suffering, great fear -

withdraw only
into peripheral vision:

but ineluctable this shimmering
of wind in the blue leaves:

this flood of stillness
widening the lake of the sky:

this need to dance,
this need to kneel:

this mystery:

Denise Levertov

via - Being Silently Drawn

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Recognize Your Eternal Self - Mooji

The mind fears...
What is the message in fear?
Find the message in fear...

Fear empties itself as soon as there is revelation...

YOU (theTrue Self) are before the movement
of fear that arises...

Realize your Self that is before time,
before phenomenon...

Wake up to the recognition of your Eternal Self.
[That is] the Awareness in which fear occurs.

Just keep quiet...

Don't identify with the reactions and interactions,
just feel your Existence and let the fear burn off...

Identify with the Presence that sees,
and stay with this Presence,
and you'll come to a place of
complete [internal] Stillness...

There is Stillness in that space of fear...

When fear is met
what expands is a sense of spaciousness...

There is an intuitive sense that you and the
spaciousness of Stillness are one.

There is no separation...

In this place your mind of fear will not have
much power because you're in your Natural State
of Awareness.

Mooji

~

"On acquiring strength of vision she recognizes
the Universe as Her very own Self"

verse 15, The Pratyabhijnahrdayam

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

True Silence - Fred LaMotte

"In meditation, Silence is Mother."

Amma Karunamayi

Let us speak of true Silence.  No, it's not negation.
Not the silence of suppressed speech, which is no
silence at all.  Suppressed speech, or repressed thought,
is a scream.  And the more we repress, the louder our
voiceless keening.

Let us tell of the inmost Silence, omnipresent, effective,
whether we speak or not.  Silence infusing the best words
with their Truth.  Silence is a real mantra, guiding the
mind to the hollow in the seed, through Winter root,
Spring flower, or Autumn leaf.

The Silence of emptiness pervades all forms.  It is the
primordial Silence of God, gushing tears from the spring
of bliss in the womb of creation.  True Silence is the
mother of poetry, the mother of art, the mother of music.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Silence (True Silence) is the Self.
Experiencing True Silence is
Self-Recognition.

MM

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Everything is Vibration - Rupert Spira & Alan Watts

There is infinite Consciousness (Beingness) shining
in each of our finite minds. The feeling of Being is
"God's" Presence shining in each of our hearts.

Self-aware Being shines in the midst of all experience.
The Isness of things is the same infinite indivisible Being.
There is only God-space.

Awareness ItSelf assumes name and form.  It begins to
vibrate within ItSelf.  Every thought is a particular
vibration of Awareness.  Awareness ItSelf vibrates
within ItSelf.

[And at some point] it ceases to assume that particular
name and form...  

[I assume he's talking about death
of the body].

Rupert Spira

~

Life is a dance of energy

The ordinary, everyday experience is the same thing
as "God" realizing its own Presence.

Experience polarizes itself as self and other -

but it's all one - like a magnet.  It's all one
magnet with different poles.

Alan Watts

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Remembering My Origins...

Molten golden Light
splays itself out within a fathomless darkness,
like a million jewels tumbled into the Stillness of the Universe;
dancing particles of Divine Illumination...

The shutter of Infinity opens and the Light
imprints its glittering image within Divine Darkness.

In a moment of stillness, a moment of no breath,

a moment in the timelessness of deep space,
The Light and the Darkness are one...

In this space of Primordial Existence,
The Darkness and Light intermingle
in the purity of cosmic fusion;
forever "blended" - like twilight...
Neither the enemy of the other,
neither opposed to the other,
both expressing the same Source...

In the depths of The Deep
there is a dance of Life -
an inexpressible expression of
the Aliveness of the Absolute -
revealed in time as a movement of creation,
a movement of birth,
a movement and breath of
Light and Darkness - breathing as one...

In "Deep Space" - the Primordial Womb,
the Light and the Dark
exist together within the wholeness of
the Infinite Mystery
replicating ItSelf
through eons of time...

Mystic Meandering
April 2001

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
street light through tree branches
digitally altered to create this affect...

"Edgewalkers" - Elias Amidon

"Edgewalkers" are drawn to boundaries, to the edges that
define their existence, curious about what lies beyond.
They actively seek out these edges and surf them for
openings into vistas or larger possibilities.  So for
edgewalkers, "self" is a continual inquiry into what lies
beyond these edges, while at the same time acknowledging
and honoring what is inside them.  These edges we walk
are not just the perimeters delineating our "territories,"
they are dimensions in which we can live in an awakened
state while being engaged in the requirements of the
conditional, phenomenal world.

Elias Amidon

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
spindles of a railing

Graced with Gratitude...

Last night
Gratitude arose
like a warm flame
in my Heart;
a flame that
came alive
on its own
from within.

Overtaking me by surprise
as I lay there waiting for sleep...

It was a gratitude of
unknown origin -
not contrived,
or cultivated,
but
deeply felt in the
core of my Heart;
just there...

Only awareness was
needed...

It was a gratitude,
not for being alive,

but for Aliveness ItSelf,
for the Aliveness that
is Life;
that dances and sings
the Cosmos
into being;
that imbues existence
with LIFE!

For the color and movement
of life being lived
in every minute detail;
for the opening and
unfoldment of life
that has its own
course,
its own
way,
unfolding ItSelf in
total freedom of Being.

I am truly graced...
With Gratitude -
beyond words...

Mystic Meandering
Oct. 2015


~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
street light through ice on window
2011

The Tendency Toward War - Gangaji

When you are called home, when you are somehow struck by
the absolutely mysterious and irrevocable desire to know the
truth of who you are, then you must be willing to put aside
every story of separation.  Every story of separation is a story
of war.

Human beings have been making war in every culture for a
very long time.  Culture is a reflection of the individual mind,
and the individual mind is a reflection of the cultural mind.
Since you are reading this, I assume you are interested in
peace in your own mind.  You are not waiting for "them"
to make peace.  This is good news, because war is fought
to get others to do it our way so that we can be at peace.
When you stop waiting for them, instead shift your attention
to your own mind, then you can recognize the tendency toward
war in your own mind, the tendencies of totalitarianism, hate
revenge, and holding on.  And you can recognize the suffering
that those tendencies continue to deliver.

Somehow, in the face of it all, you find you want peace.
You are sick and tired of the war within your own mind.
You only need to accept the invitation of your own heart,
regardless of outer or inner circumstances, and let
yourself sink into the peace of your innermost Being.

Unless all of us take responsibility for our own inner peace,
the wars will continue.  We cannot wait any longer for
someone else to change.  We cannot wait for someone else
to forgive us so that we can forgive them.  We cannot wait
for someone else to say they are sorry.
Peace cannot be postponed.

Gangaji

From - The Diamond In Your Pocket

via - The Beauty We Love

~

"Separateness is an experience in the field of unity."

Joan Ruvinsky
From - The Recognition of Our Own Heart

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Utter Stillness...

Utter Stillness,
within and without,
comforts, nurtures,
claims me as its own...

Sweet repose in Stillness...
beyond noise,
beyond feeling,
beyond thought,
beyond story.

Utter Stillness does not anticipate,
does not seek.
It just IS...
aware-ing,
seeing,
knowing.
To reside in Utter Stillness
is pure Being,
pure Awareness of Being,
pure Life...

From the Spaciousness of Utter Stillness
life is just experienced...

no conclusions,
no interpretations,
no judgments,

no reactions,
no labels...

Just Life being lived...

Utter Stillness...

Sweet Refuge...

Mystic Meandering
2010

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

What's So - Werner Erhard

What's so is always just what's so.  What's so doesn't care what
you think, feel, intend or wish; it will not bend.  You can be
freaked out or driven over what's so, and it won't change what's
so.  If you're late for an appointment, getting freaked out about
it won't have you arrive any earlier.  If you're having a bad day,
being freaked out won't change what's so.  That which you seek
will not bring you satisfaction - aligning with what's so will.
When you're upset, you're never upset over what's so.
What's so is just what's so.

If your house burns down and you get upset, does it bring your
house back?  What's so doesn't care if you're upset; it's up to
you how you handle what's so.  There is no confusion in
what's so.  When you don't know you just don't know - there is
no confusion there.  There's nothing right or wrong about
what's so.  What's so is always open to different interpretations.
There's always just what's so, and then you have an interpretation.
What scares you isn't what's so, it's your interpretation.  The
interpretation is never true; what's so is real, the interpretation
is not.

Who you're being is just who you're being, and what's so doesn't
care if you're happy with it or not, so why should you?  When
you're not being with what's so, that's also just what's so.  Why
should you concern yourself?  Other people should always be
the way they're being; if you think they shouldn't, that's your
interpretation.  Bring yourself back to what's so about them. Until
you can be with what's so, you can't be with anything or anyone.
You may have control over other people's what's so, but none
over their interpretation - give it up.

If you take action or not, it's still just what's so.  If it works out
well or not, it's still just what's so.  You can never make a right
or wrong decision, or take a right or wrong action.  Whatever
you do will always bring you more of what's so, and then you
have an interpretation about it.  Whatever you don't have, so
what?  Whatever you've done or thought in the past, again so
what?  Whatever happens in the future is not to be feared.  It's
just going to be more of what's so.  The challenge is to spend as
much time in what's so as you can.  The chatter in your head
is more interpretation, and it has nothing to do with what's so.
There is nothing wrong with chatter, it's just you listening to
a fantasy.

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 of 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 and
satisfaction.  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 [to face what's so :)].

Ask yourself - what's so about your situation?

Werner Erhard

via No Mind's Land

~

The opportunity to trust is never a given.
It isn't that life is testing us so much as offering us
the next chance to gain insight into what makes for
stability.

Donna Iona Drozda

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering