A Mystic's "Spirituality" - a meandering...

Being an unapologetic "mystic" at Heart, since childhood,
means for me experiencing the living Presence of Life that
animates all life.  Some call that God, the Divine, The Beloved,
the Ineffable, The Mystery, Pure Consciousness, Infinite Being,
Spirit, Brahman, The Tao, the Cosmos, etc.  It has many
 names and forms. It means being able to see and experience
 "The Mystery" in the everyday-ness of life; something I am still
admittedly trying to be more aware of - to be more aware of a
 felt sense of The Sacred in the Entropy of world affairs, in the
chaotic mundane personal affairs of life circumstances as they are;
 the requirements of daily living; in the must do's and have-to's that
always find their way to the top of my list, and seem to drive my
life...

As a "mystic" I long to experience the depths of Ultimate Reality -
immersing myself in the depths of Meditative Silence, listening
to the Hush of "The Mystery."  Something I have missed being
 able to do over the last 2 years due to life circumstances.
It seems I am on a dark passage now...
Some  may assume a "mystic" doesn't experience the darker
 feelings and frustrations of life - but is always in some catatonic
 state with The Beloved...  That has not been my experience.
I try to experience the darker emotions within the context of the
Greater Reality as part of the totality of life experience...

Some feel that a mystic should have special insights or powers,
or visions, or is only interested in seeking "mystical experiences."
But for me it is not in "seeking" experiences (I have very few of
them that just happen), but being aware of and open to the movement
 of "The Mystery" within me, through its many expressions, living in
 the intimacy of "The Mystery" and at times experiencing an
intimate encounter with what I know to be "The Divine", like my
Epiphany back in 2013, or through meditative writings", and 
celestial songs (poetry) where sometimes the words just fall
 out onto the page - surprising me...

Mystical "spirituality" acknowledges the universality of what 
most have come to call "God", The Divine, or Buddha Nature,
not associated with any particular faith, religion or practice,
but transcendent truth - realizing that humans, at the very core of
their being, are both Divine and human, formlessness and form,
spirit in matter, Timelessness in time...

Wayne Teasdale, a 20th century Christian Mystic, and author of
A Mystic Heart says: "Mystic spirituality draws us into the depths
or our Being, where we come face to face with ourselves, our
weaknesses, AND with the Ultimate Mystery,  Spirituality is not
external religiosity, confined to ritual and liturgy.  It is a way of life
that effects and includes every moment of existence...  It is a disposition
to a life of depth..."

He goes on - "How we make the journey is what spirituality is really
about - finding our own path.  This means finding a way to
 [awareness of] the vast unlimited [mystery] of The Divine,
 the Mystery within.
We are created for this 'spiritual journey' - the direct and
immediate experience of Ultimate Reality, which knows everything
as ItSelf.  Being infinitely aware, it knows in a unitive and universal
fashion through awareness...  The spiritual journey is essentially one of
discovering the roots of our true identity.  It is a process of returning
to the totality of Consciousness, from which we have arisen." 
(Wayne Teasdale)

Mystic Meandering
2016

~

"We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others.
[We must] take back our own listening,

use our own voice,
see our own Light"

Hildegard of Bingen

12th Century Christian Mystic

_/\_

Namaste

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

The Problem With Words - Ivan Granger

There's a real dilemma at the heart of religion and spiritual
endeavor.  The Eternal, the Whole cannot be adequately held
by such small containers as words.  Yet we humans are
instinctively communicators and word-makers.  What are the
sages and saints to do with their perceptions?  How do they
render the Eternal comprehensible to others and inspire new
seekers?  Describe the profound love and bliss and unity,
and we naturally name it Mother.  Convey the immensity and
power, we name it Father.  Or we say Beloved.  Or Friend.

All of these are valid ways to begin to form a notion of the
Eternal.  Through these words we as individuals can form a
relationship to this vast Reality.  And through this relationship
 we can be drawn into deeper awareness, into deeper opening,
and into our own direct encounter... at which point we realize
how inadequate all words are.

The problem arises when the mystics are no longer heard or
are relegated to history, when too few people have their own
direct wordless encounter.  Then we end up with entire
religions stuck at the level of words.  No matter how sacred
and truth-filled those words may be, words are always
incomplete.  Words alone are soon taken literally, and then
true knowledge is lost.  Not knowing what is real, religion
becomes embalmed, self-protective, sectarian, and sometimes
violent...

The wounds of religion are healed....through direct perception,
instead of forcing meaning....

Ivan Granger - Commentary
Poetry Chaikhana

~

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao;
the name that can be named is not the 
eternal Tao.

Lao Tzu

~

3D Art - Mystic Meandering

 

Within This Body - Tulsi Sahib and Ivan Granger

 

Within this body
breathes the secret essence.
Within this body
beats the heart of the Vedas.
Within this body
shines the Universe,
so saints say,
Hermits, ascetics, celibates --
all are lost
seeking Him
in endless guises.
Seers and sages perfectly parrot
the scriptures and holy books,
blinded by knowledge.
Their pilgrimage,
and fasting
and striving
but delude.
Despite their perfect practice,
they discover no destination.
Only the saints
who know the body's heart
have attained the Ultimate,OTulsi.

Realize this, and you've found your freedom
(while teachers trapped in tradition
know only the mirage
in the mirror.)

Tulsi Sahib

English version by Ivan Granger

of Poetry Chaikhana

~

Commentary by Ivan Granger

This poem really cuts right through the delusion of
fundamentalism on the one hand - and being overly
enamored with the spiritual practices and rituals, on
the other -

This is not to say that one should not study sacred texts or
that we should ignore the value of spiritual practices.  The
problem is that it's easy to forget what their true purpose is.
Sacred writing, sacred striving, they are signposts that remind
us to turn inward and discover the true heart that shines with
the light of the universe.

If we just memorize words or pray in the mountains, even if
we do it perfectly, we are idolizing the trappings of
spirituality, without understanding, without making the real

journey.  This is one of the reasons why there us so much
anger among fundamentalists in all traditions - they push
to fit into an externalized idea of what it means to be perfect,
yet they are not transformed, and they secretly know it.

Unable to face the pain of that failure, they externalize it, and
blame the imperfections of the world around them for holding
them back.  That pain becomes anger at the outer world, and
that anger is reflexively attributed to God.  Then that angry
God is imagined to punish by withholding heaven from the
individual until the whole world rigidly falls into order.
The more desperate these individuals become for release 
from spiritual pain, the more violently they try to enforce
their vision upon society in the hopes that they will finally
appease God and find freedom.

So sad, when all that is necessary is to slip through that pain,
let go of self-importance, and discover the immense joy
quietly glowing deep within.  No one and nothing else
holds us back.

More important is to yield and open and finally settle
into the secret shining heart [essence] that awaits discovery...

~

...Okay, Ivan will now step down from his soapbox. 
Have a wonderful weekend, and remember to take some
sweet quiet time to settle within.

Ivan Granger
Poetry  Chaikhana

~

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

 

The "Spiritual Journey" Is Unique - Matt Licata

The "spiritual journey" is by its very nature unique...
It must be explored by way of primary, first-person experience.

Contemporary spirituality is filled with all sorts of ideas and
concepts about what it means to be "spiritual" and we must
find the courage to question even the most sacred of these ideas,
trusting the path of direct revelation as we come to have more
and more confidence in our own unique experience.  There
are infinite number of ways to open to, touch and enter the
mystery, and the right way for us might look quite different
from others, even our "spiritual teachers."

At some point on our journey, we might hear a call to set aside
the beliefs, teachings and practices we've gathered throughout
our lives and rest.  This "rest" is not passive, cold or resigned
but lit up from within...  we open to a more paradoxical 
invitation that comes roaring out of thundering silence.  Just
what this is must be discovered by each of us in the fire of
our own direct experience.  We cannot take anyone's word
for it.

In this "rest" we are taken inside a dimension of experience
where we honor the entirety of what we are - [we are] drawn
to bring more awareness to this dimension of experience.
Something mysterious, magical, alive and sacred is wired into
this moment by its very nature and carries the fragrance of the
holy.

...something is granted permission and space to emerge - exactly
as it is.  We are invited into a deeper, richer exploration of the
dimension of the soul; re-entering the state of pure wonderment.

Matt Licata

From: A Healing Space:
Befriending Ourselves In Difficult Times

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Inner Flame - Duran, Lanzetta, Granger

If we can hear LIFE we can hear Silence
because the in intensity of this pure energy
manifests itself through the sound of
Existence.

Yolande Duran

~

Rather than a detriment, it can be healthy to be alone.
In solitude, we can find the Heart of hearts,
the inextinguishable flame that burns brightly within.

The call to silence and solitude occurs int he depth of
the soul and is not dependent on or subject to whether
the seeker resides in a monastic enclosure, wears the
proper religious garment, or spends hours in prayer
[or meditation].

Beverly Lanzetta

~

You must step outside society's norms.
You must be willing to abandon everything...

every fixed perception of reality...

True holiness comes from the direct experience
of communion - not from following prescribed actions.

Ivan Grander
Poetry Chaikhana

 

A New Dance - a meandering

I thought I had to follow a prescribed path of "enlightenment."
I thought I had to climb the highest "spiritual" mountain seeking
the "Truth."
I thought I had to find the "right" door, and then
I thought I had to knock and beg for it to open.
I thought I was being kept from the "Truth" -
that only the privileged "spiritual" elite could know...

My experience showed me otherwise...

I only had to turn inward to the Inner Sanctuary of my own Being
and truly See what was there - the "Mystery" Itself...

Over many years of "turning inward" to the Silence at my core,
I discovered that I did not need to be "purified" in order to be an
expression of "The Mystery"; I did not have to become a "perfect"
human being, or polish my heart.  My psychological wounds, my
samskaras, and conditioning still arise... and yet - I realized that
I am still a "Divine Vibration" in form...  Every part of me, and you,
vibrates subtly with the living Cosmos - even if not directly felt at
any given moment. 

An incredible mystery of Being...

In the deeper spaces of our Being we are enveloped in "The Mystery"
from which each one of our unique expressions of 
that "Mystery" arises...

Sometimes all I do to feel it, is to sit quietly in the deep Silence at
the core of my Being, my Inner Sanctuary, listening and attuning to
the Primordial Rhythm:
The Deeper Silence
The inbreath and the outbreath,
the Stillness of Being,
The Rhythm of birth, life, death, expansion and contraction.
In that space I feel suspended (held) in that Cosmic Rhythm; a
self-creating energy, expressing the rhythm of the
"Mystery" Itself...

And there I discovered that the Essence of our very Being is beyond
the intermediaries of the earthly "murtis" of our worship...

I am having to learn to move to a different Rhythm now,

to dance with the Mysteries of the Inner Cosmos...
Immersing myself in the Primordial Energy of
an Alive Cosmos - ever-unfolding into a new
Cosmology of Being...

Mystic Meandering
March 29, 2022

~

Photo from the Internet

Tend to Your Soul - Matt Licata

Art by Joe Maccer at Deviant Art

There are times in each of our lives when a chapter comes to
an end, when we find ourselves on the precipice of rebirth
and renewal.  Something has dissolved - the dream of me and
my life and the way it was all supposed to turn out - but it's
not yet clear what's going to arise from the ashes to take its
place.  As disorienting as these times of transition can be, they
are evidence of a sacred process occurring deep in the personal
and collective soul.

The question now for so many of us is: what is it that the soul
wants? Not what I thought I wanted, what I should want, or what
others want for me, but what is calling to me from the depths of
who and what I am, into a life of new vision, purpose and meaning?

As we engage in this holy reassembling, it can be so easy to lose
track of our home base, whether we imagine this center as the
palace of the soul, or the light of the spirit...  The great poets,
alchemists, wayfarers, and mystics have declared that the path is
everywhere, but it can take a slowing down and a cleansing of 
our perceptions for this to become a living reality.

The very foundation of transformation and healing is our capacity
to slow down and bring new levels of awareness to our experience,
as a way to cut through the billions of moments of habitual
consciousness and collective networks of trance. In the Daoist
alchemical text, The Secret of the Golden Flower, we are invited
to "turn the light around," which is an evocative metaphor for
inner work as alchemists of our own lives.

The reality is that most of us were not trained to practice embodied,
compassionate self-attunement and our increasingly electronic,
speedy, and fragmented world does not always provide a sensitive
holding environment in which to be a true friend to ourselves.

The spiritual path is a matter of direct revelation,
of primary first-person experience, and must be lived... 
Contrary to the beliefs of a world steeped in networks of
transgenerational trauma and trance, our unique sensitivities,
vulnerabilities, and eccentricities are not obstacles to our path,
but are the very path itself.

The soul is always calling to us, but often in ways that are hidden
to ordinary perception.

What is it calling you to?

Matt Licata

From: Tending the Soul

 

Dancing In The Fire - Jennifer Welwood

There will always be voices that promise you greatness and glory;
They call out from the worldly marketplace;
They call out from the spiritual marketplace;
They call out from the bigger-better-more marketplace.

Do not buy their false promises, or purchase their ephemeral wares;
What fulfills for a moment is not worth the price of your soul.
There are heights that will lift you,
but not when you try to ascend them;
There are powers that will fill you,
but not when you make them your own.
There are treasures, and there are imitations of treasures.
If you have lost your true gold, at least turn away from the glitter.

Want only what is true.
This will lead you to the well of your deepest sorrows.
Follow the passageway, all the way down;
Become the dark emptiness of your core.
Be still.  Don't measure the waiting.
Be still.  Let the fire show you its secret heart;
A strand of clear light running through you.
Gather yourself there, and the luminous universe opens.

In the vast expanse, fathomless, infinite ocean of light,
lose yourself, and find yourself, and become what you already are.

Jennifer Welwood
Original title "Renunciation"

~

We can descend into the fire of direct experience of our feelings.
It is within the very core of this holy fire, in the alchemical crucible
of the body where the naked, groundless somatic territory of
illumination occurs, where healing emerges, and a new pathway
of love, care and compassion unfolds and illuminates within you.

Matt Licata

~

Art - Mystic Meandering
Woman Whirling in the Fire
(looking from overhead)

Craypas Oils
2012

 

Doorways to the Sacred - Frank Ostaseski

To know the sacred is not to see new things, but rather to see
things in a new way.  The sacred is hidden in all things...

The sacred is the nature of reality - yet most of the time we
walk around in a sacred world with ordinary vision.  We see
in a conditioned way, staying on the surface of life.  When we
pay attention, however, we realize that the sacred reveals itself
continuously.  Ordinary people, like you and me, can and do
regularly experience the sacred in myriad ways and forms.
Recognition that the sacred is present may also arise suddenly
and spontaneously, as the sacred makes surprise appearances.
We may sense an inner stillness, as if the momentum we have
counted on to keep us moving through life is no longer needed.
Deep silence is not merely a pause between sounds.  It is an
inner felt quietness.  This silence strips us both of belief and
disbelief.  It takes us beyond the known, beyond language and
into the sacred.  Silence is the natural response to the presence
of the sacred, no matter where it appears.  Stillness and quiet
are the doorways to the sacred.

Frank Ostaseski

From - the Five Invitations

~

Photo - 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...

"Out of Our Minds"...

 Oh how we try to maintain our mental constructs and
beliefs about the "truth"; about "The Mystery"...

Clinging to intellectual exegesis,
interpretations from"the Guru";
linear thinking...

Mental gymnastics about "IT",
trying to understand how "IT" "works",
rather than just experiencing how "IT" Is -
the felt sense of "The Mystery" that is Alive
within us...

Avoiding fluctuations of ever-unfolding Realizations.

Wanting static truth in a
nice neat unflappable package,
maintaining our stance of what
we want to believe to be true;
not allowing "The Mystery" to
work in us, to reveal ItSelf
without didactics;
only the direct experience of "The Ineffable."

Leaving us splayed open and raw,
vulnerable to the effulgent Luminosity
of "The Mystery" revealing ItSelf
in us - again and again.

Once you've experienced "IT" - "The Mystery" -
why would you want to maintain any stance?

If we could only allow ourselves to
be "out of our minds" and truly feel "IT"

LIVING us...

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 15, 2020

~

Photo via No Mind's Land

Our Fundamental Nature - Zen Master Daehaeng

The invisible energy of the Universe
is our Fundamental Nature, our underlying Essence,
the True Self, the Mind of the mind.  It is the
Essence that moves us; is not separate from the
"false self".  Our "True Self" is the basis of the "false self."
 There is nothing that is not my-self.
If I know something, the Universe knows it; nothing
is secret.  "The work" is to experience this True Nature
for yourself; to completely rely upon our True Nature,
our inherent Nature.

Entrust everything that confronts you, both good
and bad, to that Fundamental Inherent Nature.

~

Truth does not depend upon the existence of the
teachings of an "enlightened" person.

~

Inside death, life already exists.  And inside life,
death already exists.
Death is just putting on a new set of clothes.

Zen Master Daehaeng

Korean Buddhist

Excerpts from - No River To Cross

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

Let everything touch your Heart
and see how your view of the world changes.

MM

...Lalla - Ivan Granger - Rupert Spira

I have traveled a long way seeking God
but when I finally gave up and turned back
there He [She] was within me!

Lalla
14th Century Mystic
of the Kashmir Shaivism tradition

For so many mystics it is this way.  After intense searching
without "success",  what can be done but give up or collapse?
Yet a special thing happens at that very moment.  We drop
our expectations, our hopes, our projections about this
external thing called "God" [Self/Enlightenment].  For the
first time we have truly let go of the story we've been telling
ourselves about what "God" is...  It is only then that the
scales fall way from our eyes.

We stop straining to look, and finally see.
And we see the Eternal already here, within.

Ivan Granger
Poetry Chaikhana

~

After the current of seeking gives up and sinks back down
into the depths of the Ocean of which it is itself a
modulation, it finds the peace for which it was in search...

Rupert Spira

~

Photo - Colored in Mandala
digitally blurred
Mystic Meandering

~

Nothing is more important in these polarizing, unsettled
 times than directly experiencing the Presence of our
Eternal Being within, and knowing that we *are*
that...  That's what will get us through... 
I endeavor to *feel* this Presence daily...
Try to find a quiet space to be in each day
and enter the Quietness within
and just breathe

Namaste

_/\_

"Seeing" MySelf...

I recently saw a video of my present self...
These were the "reflections" that came...

~

Seeing myself I immediately felt compassion and empathy for "her";
for the way she walked, the way she held herself, and how she had
aged, since the last time I saw "her", as if it wasn't me, but a dear
friend that I had known for a long, long time, and knew all that she
had been through...  There was a recognition of something in "her"
that I could not name at that moment...

Days later the "recognition" began to unwind itself.
I was awestruck that I could see myself as not myself, as if I were
someone else seeing "her", as if the true Presence at the Core of my
Being was seeing me/her...

I internally gasped...

There was a recognition of myself as that Presence...

It was the recognition that it was the Core Being that was
recognizing ItSelf as "me."

It was a spontaneous moment of truly "seeing" that which inhabits
and animates this "me"...

~

There was an awareness of myself being like an echo of that Inner
Being which was seeing; seeing an image of ItSelf as "me" -
as if 2, but which is really only an echo of ItSelf.

As the days passed beyond these initial "recognitions" there was
yet another recognition:

I am that which Sees from the Core of my Being.
And my Core Being sees "me" as ItSelf,
not "me" as I know myself to be through the mind.
The self that we think we are is only an echo of our
Eternal Beingness, or Essence...

~

I was seeing through the eyes of mySelf (the Eternal Being)
within myself, seeing/recognizing ItSelf within myself - as myself.

Instead of seeing myself through the eyes of my mind,
I was seeing myself through the eyes of the Eternal Being
that abides at the Core of my Being - here.

This changed the perception...

Seeing "her" from Beingness ItSelf,
seeing ItSelf in myself...

~

"She" (Source/Presence/Eternal Being) resides in us,
recognizes HerSelf in us as us.
The Eternal Being is the one Seeing,
without the mind's conditioning...

Namaste 

_/\_

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Meanderings
June 2020

~

Mandala Art - Mystic Meandering
"Eternal Echoes"

2013

Mystical Spirituality...

Being an unapologetic "mystic" at Heart, since childhood, means
for me experiencing the Living Presence of Life that animates all
life.  Some call that God, The Divine, The Beloved, The Ineffable,
"The Mystery", Consciousness, Infinite Being, Spirit, Brahman,
The Tao, etc., etc., etc.  It has many names and forms.  It means
being able to see and experience "The Mystery" in the every-day-ness
of life; something I'm still "working" on - being more aware of the
Sacred in a chaotic world, in the mundane personal affairs of living;
the requirements of daily life: in the must do's and the have-to's
that always find their way to the top of my list, and seem to drive
life...

A "mystical spirituality" pertains to direct experience with Ultimate
Reality/The Divine/"The Mystery"...  Some may assume that a
 "mystic" doesn't experience the darker feelings and frustrations with
living the Cosmic Dance of life.  That has not been my  experience. 
A "mystic" just experiences them within context of the Greater Reality
 - and learns to embrace them as part of the totality of  experience. 
Some feel that a "mystic" has special insights, or powers,  or visions, 
or is only interested in seeking "mystical experiences." 
For me it is not about seeking experiences, but being open to the
movement of "The Mystery", the movement of Consciousness
through its many expressions, and at times experiencing an intimate
 encounter with what I know to be "The Divine", like my Epiphany in
Nov. 2013, or Waking Up To Bliss like I did recently, or "meditative
writings" many years ago, and poetry that sometimes just spills
 out onto the page.

Mystical Spirituality acknowledges the universality of what most have
come to call "God," "The Divine", or Buddha Nature (Dharmakaya),
not associated with any particular faith, religion, or practice, but a
transcendent truth - realizing that humans, at the very core of their
being are both "Divine" and human; formlessness and form, spirit
in matter, Timelessness in time...  This "union" takes place within
ourselves with the realization that we are not a separate entity from
our Divinity, from Consciousness ItSelf, needing to grovel our way
back - but that "comm-union" is always happening.  There is always
only the movement of "Divinity" through life, through us.  There is
 no other "Higher" Self to search for.  It's all Here within us...

Wayne Teasdale, a 20th Century Christian Mystic, and author of
A Mystic Heart, says:  "Mystical Spirituality draws us into the depths
of our Being, where we come face to face with ourselves, our weakness
AND with the Ultimate Mystery.  Spirituality is not external religiosity,
not confined to ritual and liturgy.  It is a way of life that affects and
includes every moment of existence.  It is a disposition to a life of depth."

He goes on - "How we make the journey is what spirituality is really
about - finding our own path.  This means finding a way to/awareness
 of the vast unlimited Consciousness of The Divine, The Mystery
within. We are created for this 'spiritual journey' - the direct and
 immediate experience of Ultimate Reality, which knows everything
 as ItSelf. Being infinitely aware, it knows in a unitive and universal
 fashion through awareness of no distance between ourselves and
 the Ultimate Mystery...  The spiritual journey is essentially one of
discovering the roots of our true identity.  It is a process of the totality
 of Consciousness, from which we arise.

He further says - "Everything is part of an undivided wholeness where
each being reflects this totality.  Non-duality means 'not two, and yet,
not one.'  [I know this is not the traditional Advaita/Non-dual
definition, but it is my experience as well.]  That is, the relationship
 between Divine Reality and human being is a subtle distinction,
but not a separation. And so the relationship is said to be non-dual.
Human beings are essentially Divine." [or Pure Consciousness, etc.]

Wayne Teasdale
20th Century Christian Mystic
from - A Mystic Heart

~

"We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others.
[We must] take back our own listening,
use our own voice,
see our own Light."

Hildegard of Bingen
12th Century Christian Mystic

_/\_

Namaste

~

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

Into The Forest Alone...

"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 though 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 framework which gives
structure to my life, when I must find my own way, and be
true to the call of Self,  Shamans, poets, holy men and women
sought refuge in the forest, as a healing place.  Going into
The Forest represents a return to the Primordial Self - beyond
societal, cultural, conceptual and spiritual frameworks.  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 forest next to our house as a place
just to sit, to listen and commune with nature, and write
poetry.  It was a place of directly experiencing what I knew
then to be "God."  Now known by other names...

And, since I don't have a "Dark Forest" handy, and I am spooked
by the things that go bump in the night, my Forest will have to
be that interior space of Silent Awareness - navigating the inner
Forest of the Unknown - as well as the unknown difficult
practicalities of everyday living.

I am willing, I say inwardly, to enter the Unknown - the Forest.
To trust Intuition to take me through.  I am ready to step over
the threshold and see where the Unknown takes me...

Care to join me :)  Are you willing...

~

"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 Alighieri
The Inferno

~

Also see my post The Pathless Path

A Symbolic Universe - Ernst Cassirer

...man lives in a symbolic universe.  Language, myth, art,
and religion are parts of this universe.  They are the varied
threads which weave the symbolic net, the tangled web of
human experience.  All human progress in thought and
experience refines and strengthens this net.  Physical reality
seems to recede in proportion as man's symbolic activity
advances.

He has so enveloped himself in linguistic forms, in artistic images,
in mythical symbols or religious rites that he cannot see
or know anything except by the interposition of this
artificial medium.  His situation is the same in the
theoretical as in the practical sphere.  Even here man does
not live in a world of hard facts, or according to his immediate
needs and desires. He lives, rather, in the midst of imaginary
emotions, in hopes and fears, in illusions and disillusions, in
his fantasies and dreams.  'What disturbs and alarms man,'
said Epictetus, 'are not the things, but his opinions and fantasies
about the things.'

Ernst Cassirer

German Philosopher

From - An Essay on Man:
An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture

via - The Beauty We Love

~

Fun-Qi Art - 2009

Craypas oils
done with fingers

Perspective - Carse, Lin Chi, Kastrup & Bailey

How we perceive things, and therefore what we call
'real,' or 'true,' or 'right,' has to do with our perspective
from where we sit in the overall continuum.

The tendency is to absolutize one's own perspective,
to make everything relative to that, when in fact our
perspective is what is relative...

David Carse
Advaita
Perfect Brilliant Stillness

~

If you want to perceive and understand objectively, just don't
allow yourself to be confused by people.  Detach from whatever
you find inside or outside yourself - detach from religion, tradition,
and society, and only then will you attain liberation. When you're
not entangled in things, you pass through freely...

Lin Chi
Buddhist

~

All explanations are myths whose truth-value we assign
subjectively.  They are true only insofar as we say that they are
true.  They are stories we conjure up and tell ourselves in order
to make sense of the disconnected, context-free phantasmagoria of
present perception.  It makes no sense to proclaim any explanation
for the present to be objectively true...

Bernardo Kastrup
Philosopher
More Than Allegory

~

Stories about existence can't be fact.
What is your actual experience?
What has life been presenting all along?
Don't deny your day-to-day experience.

We are the dance of the universe.
All the story lines are a legitimate
expression of Existence...

The Formless is form...

Darryl Bailey

unaffiliated

~

Photo - shadow of the spindles in the back of a chair
on a wall...