The Essence - a meandering

The Essence of our own Being is felt - not understood...
An animating life energy inherent in

the body system itself...

originating from within;
an innate aliveness
 that lives this body...

A mystery, The Mystery...

And also my felt experience...

And then of course the mind tries to put words
to it, to explain it, interpret it...  :)

Once I recognized it internally, it "awakened", or 
"came alive" in the body, although already there -
but made itself known , as my very own Being
 - embodied - in and through my
recognition of it.

Again, a mystery that I try with words to explain...

Although its movement is now deeply felt within,
nothing actually changes in my
human experience.

I did not become a different "person."
The "ego" didn't suddenly disappear.
Old habits of conditioning still remain -
and yet - there is this recognition of the Source
energy that mysteriously inhabits and animates this body.
Not conceptually known, but a felt movement of Being in 
the body - embodiment...

It's not even the feeling of "love" - as we know love...

It's a tangible felt sense of openness, of 
total acceptance of what is...
of whatever is unfolding in the life experience...

And what is "love" really but
the total acceptance of everything...

The Essence of Being...

_/\_

Namaste

Mystic Meandering
Jan 20, 2022

 

Be Undone - Clare Blanchflower

photo by Martin Stranka

 In the willingness
to be so fully undone
For all strategies to end
Surrender is here...

To see and be seen
in the light
of what is

To rest
as undefended
presence
at the feet of Life

Being humbled
again and again
As threads
of defense
dissolve
and the true power
of Being
is embodied
Life living ItSelf

A pure power
that wants nothing
A power
that says
I don't know...

And the eternal heart
beats in
silent reverence

Clare Blanchflower
Original title - "Devotion Is"

What the Heart Really Wants...

 What the Heart really wants is...

to know "The Sacred" - as Friend...

When we take our seat in the Heart...

we find the Friend...

The Sacred is here...

When we take our seat in the Heart...

we are filled from within...

Embodied with Her Grace...

The Sacred is here...

When we take our seat in the Heart...

our face is Her Face, our body is Her Body...

We are reclaimed...

The Sacred is here...

~

Just take your seat...

You have found the Friend...

The Sacred is here...

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 7, 2021

With thanks to Mitch Rosacker of
Self Discovery Studio
for the line:

"When we take our seat in the Heart,
we find the Friend..."

Note: the line "The Sacred is here..." is
meant to be read as a whisper...

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Inner Passageways - Matt Licata

 The path of opening the heart is not the same as becoming
 an unboundaried, leaky vessel for the unloading of another's
unlived life.  It is to the degree that we are attuned to our
own grief, sadness, shame, and rage that we will most
skillfully navigate within the we-space...

Most of us were not trained in the art of embodied

attunement as we live in an increasingly disembodied
world, where the capacity to hold unfolding emotional
experience was not encoded into a tender developing
nervous system.

The inner passageways, however, are luminous and ache
 for reorganization by way of the slower circuitries of
empathy, curiosity, wonder and awe. 

Inside something is stirring, a longing being awakened to
return home, for new circuitry to encode, for a new pathway

to light up and come alive.

Slowly, one moment at a time.
Safe. Connected. Open.

Embodied.

There is no urgency on the path of love.

Matt Licata

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Children of "The Mystery"...

 As children of "The Mystery"
we wander - sometimes from refuge to refuge,
belief to belief,
trying to find what we originally are -
our Original Face,
our Indigenous Nature - beyond tribe;
not of place or time - but
before beliefs, concepts, dogma and doctrine.
We search until we recognize that
Inherent Nature within again and again;
until we have a felt sense of that which
animates our very being; until that
Intrinsic Fundamental Nature
shines through;
until we feel it as that
which we Are - "The Mystery" - in form -
embodied...

Not unknowable, but viscerally tangible...
the intuitive "knowing" of what we Innately Are -
our Living Naturalness...

And our being delights in the recognition -
as "The Mystery" responds with delight in us!
with playfulness and song!
- at being recognized...

Liberated!

Mystic Meandering
Oct. 20, 2020

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
I was sitting across the room from the window one morning
with the window open, and saw this "Spirit Face" looking in...
the play of light and shadow on the bushes outside the window.
Hope you can see her.  I sat in awe and wonder as "she" peered
through the window with shadowy eyes, looking downward
to the left...

~

What I call "The Mystery" in this poem has many names.
Sometimes I have called it Eternal Being, True Self, True
Nature, Source, The Silence, The Universe, Core Being,
our Essence, The Beloved, and so on...

Paradox - Danna Faulds

Neti-Neti, translates as 'not this, not this.' The basis of classical
yoga, neti-neti is the way of negation.  It is a path that reveals
who I really am by cutting away all the things I am not.  I am not
this body or this migraine pain.  I am not my thoughts, even when
the inner voices grow so loud they drown out everything else.
I am not my personal stories or opinions.  I am not the fear that
threatens to swallow me, not my wisest and most insightful
writing, or even the most profound 'aha' to come out of my
spiritual practice.

The only problem is that after walking the path of neti-neti
for a time, I chafe against saying 'no' to everything.  At my
core there is a 'yes' that must be embodied and expressed...

Asmi-Asmi is the flip side of neti-neti.  Translated as 'this too,
this too', asmi-asmi is a practice that comes from tantra - the
path of immanence.  Identifying with the whole, I find spirit,
truth, and oneness everywhere...  I am this aging body on
its slow march toward death.  I am everything my senses can
experience and more. I am this mind and its dramatic machinations.
I am the yearnings of the heart, and the full spectrum of feelings,
and the peace that passes understanding.  I am the worst of my
poems, and the best.  I am the infinite reach of nature, sky and
stars.  The only word that matters on this path is 'Yes.'  I include,
include, include until the individual 'me' blips out, leaving
only unity.

My personal preference has always been for sensory experience,
embodiment, and inclusion.  For that reason, I resisted the practice
of neti-neti because it felt dry and life-denying.  I wasn't interested
in transcendence if it came at the expense of being fully alive in
my body and actively engaged in life.  Fortunately, I overcame
my resistance and discovered that when I really focused on bare
awareness, on what was not thought, not sensation, not my
personal accumulation of conditioning and beliefs, I landed in
a very spacious place of pure potential.

Exploring that potential, it occurred to me that practicing at
either end of the spectrum - neti-neti or asmi-asmi  - might
result in the same experience.  Inquiring deeper, I asked myself
if ultimate negation and absolute inclusion could exist
simultaneously.  'That's impossible', my rational mind answered.
'It's happening', my experience whispered softly in my ear.
In that moment, I fell into a profound inner silence - the silence
that flashes into existence when opposites unite.  Outside of time,
I disappeared into the limitless.

Perhaps I can best describe my current practice as 'both/and.'
Instead of focusing only on neti-neti, or giving myself entirely
over to the practice of asmi-asmi, I am plumbing the depths
of paradox where 'no' and 'yes' coexist.

In the light and laughing space
where Not-This and All-This
are both true, the whirl of
thought dissolves. The mind
drowns in paradox.  Awareness
neither reaches out, nor reaches in,
and times hangs suspended.

Danna Faulds
Excerpt from the introduction to her book
Limitless - 2009

3 Practices Window

Besides my window sitting practice, and my sitting meditation practice, I have 3 other “practices” that I practice for a greater sense of awareness of the Awareness/Buddha Nature/Self/Inner Being – that enlivens this body-mind-being – that I thought I’d share.

The first one I do every morning before rising. As I come out of sleep mode, and usually just before the mind kicks in, I rest in that spacious place, breath into the lower dantien, and repeat the words: “I am Awareness” or just “Awareness.” When I say this, an amazing sense of energy runs through my body from head to toe – an aliveness that feels like all my cells are “aligning” or harmonizing in some way. There is a sense of being a part of the entire cosmos, like a “cosmic intimacy.” It brings a sense of alive Presence to this body-mind-being. It’s quite delightful actually, and actually grounds me, as well as gives me a sense of inner aliveness with which to meet the day.

This second one I haven’t done in a long time, but remembered to do this just the other evening, and will continue to do so. In Zen they have a saying that says: “step back until you step into the Looking ItSelf” – into seeing what’s Seeing through your eyes. Several years ago I tried this “stepping back” as an experiment. I sat on the cushion in meditation and figuratively, inwardly, “stepped back,” or in this case, sat back until I *felt* what was Looking through these eyes – until I *felt* what was embodying this body. It was very visceral. I felt this body actually sink into this sense of Inner Being. It opened a sense of curiosity in me and I later tried it while watching TV. I “sat back” internally & energetically, and actually felt a shift *in* the body. A sense of Presence opened up and I had a sense of sinking more deeply into the body. Whenever I do this, whether in the shower, or when doing dishes, or when driving the car, it brings a sense of alive awareness *and* a sense of groundedness – embodiment. It gives me a visceral sense of the Beingness that animates this body that experiences this life, that sees and knows from the place of deep Awareness, deep Aliveness. It is a sense of Oneness with That which is Awake and Aware - the Aliveness that we all are.

I’m sure most of us have all felt the sense of separateness from our True Self at one time or another. It’s what sets many of us on our spiritual journeys – seeking for this Beingness that we are. So how would it feel to know that we *are* this Being that we long for? The third “practice” may or may not be considered a “practice.” It is more of a question. It’s one that I intend to start asking myself: What would it feel like to be fully awake? Or, said another way – What would it feel like to really know that I am this Beingness - how would that feel… I will probably ask this one at the window, and see what happens.

I’d be interested to hear what practices help you to have a greater sense of inner awareness of your True Nature/Buddha Nature/Self/Inner Being – your Aliveness! What practices give you a sense of being the awakened Presence that you are?

~*~

Self is what you are…

Fathomless in which experience and concepts appear…

Self is the Heart…Emptiness.

It shines to Itself, by Itself, in Itself.

Self is what gives breath to life.

Only Self is…

Self is the indweller of all Beings.

Enlightenment is always Here.

Presence is always here,

and you are always That…

It is your Heart…

…all comes back to the Heart…

Papaji ~ The Truth Is

~*~