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

Amidst Transitions - Rainer Maria Rilke

It seems to me that almost all our sadnesses are moments of
tension, which we feel as paralysis because we no longer
hear our astonished emotions living.  Because we are alone
with the unfamiliar presence that has entered us;
because everything we trust and are used to is for a 
moment taken away from us; because we stand in the midst
of a transition where we cannot remain standing...

[.....]

And that is why it is so important to be solitary and
attentive...  The quieter we are, the more patient and open
we are, the more deeply and serenely the new presence can
enter us, and the more we can make it our own, the more it
becomes our fate; nothing alien happens to us, but only what 
has long been our own...

What we call fate does not come into us from the outside,
but emerges from us...
We move in infinite space...

[.....]

We must accept our reality as vastly as we possibly can.

Only someone who doesn't exclude any experience,
even the most incomprehensible, will live the relationship
with another person as something alive and will himself
sound the depths of his own being.

[.....]

Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest sense,
something helpless that wants our love.

So you mustn't be frightened, dear Mr. Kappus, if a sadness
rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if
anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands
and over everything you do.  You must realize that something
is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds
you in its hand and will not let you fall...

Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any
misery, any depression, since, after all, you don't know what
work these conditions are doing inside you?  Why do you
want to persecute yourself with the question of where all this
is coming from and where is it going?  Since you know, after all,
that you are in the midst of transitions...

[.....]

Rainer Maria Rilke

Excerpts from "The Eighth Letter"
From: Letters to a Young Poet

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Twilight Edge

 

Embrace the Totality of Experience - Kathleen Knipp

It is possible to sink beneath the play of duality
and feel and know the totality in which all of this
play is happening, in whatever drama happens to be
unfolding in your life.  It doesn't diminish the impact
of difficult experience - but creates a bigger picture...

The experience of True Nature is somatic, [a felt experience]
through the sensations in the body; a fluidity of all elements
[sensations, feelings, etc.] that don't contradict each other,
but happen simultaneously, like lightness and density, etc.

Everything is formed out of the element of space and happens
within the element of space.  The body is simply compressed
space.  The space around it, and within it is the same space -
wide open spaciousness.  The spaciousness that just is
even in the presence of solidity of form - being 
simultaneously wide open spaciousness - and - the 
solidification of form.

To the mind it seems contradictory.  In the realm of sensing,
it can be quite apparent.  For is emptiness, emptiness is form
may seem esoteric - yet what is the experience? 
Simultaneously dense - and - wide open; feeling weighted
and light;  feeling still and moving.  All of the apparent
contradictions drop away in the sensory realm.

The totality contains everything, all expressions of the one -
unrecognized:  This that is before time, before words, 
before division.  It's not either/or, it's both/and.

Remembering our infiniteness in the face of finiteness.
Experiencing totality simultaneously,
The unique being that is me - remembering.

Kathleen Knipp
Excerpt from a Yoga Nidra Meditation

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

"it happens" - Kathleen Knipp

.....in our "practice" of life, we can just rest back and experience
how it's being done.  We don't have to do life, life happens in
whatever way it happens.  [But] we claim the activity that
happens as something volitional.

Observe the belief, explore the belief that I am in control, that
 I am the "doer" [of what happens].  Question the belief.
Life is happening, just as breathing is happening or thinking is
happening.

What would it feel like to slide out of the picture into an
observer position, being aware of thoughts that are generated
by the mind and emotional states that arise and pass - watching
it all happen.  It plays out like an old show on a big screen.
Step back and watch with a sense of curiosity.  See yourself as a
"character" that you observe - watching, observing, noticing all
the different sensations of the body - the different experiences.
Have compassion for your "character."  Life is changing out of
our control, our expectations, our wants.

Surrender to the Great Mystery, beyond comprehension, before
time, before conceptualization; inexplicable but palpable.
Source reveals itself in all of its different manifestations - as
profound tranquility and turbulence, as mind stuff, as breath
and body: the totality of all of its expressions.
Rest deeply in this knowing.

Kathleen Knipp

Excerpts from a Yoga Nidra Meditation
"it happens"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Exploring Emotions - Kathleen Knipp

The goal is not to replace one's experience with another...
but accepting the entirety of life...  Be fully present for
what is here - instead of distracting ourselves...
Be intimately with yourself [using] somatic inquiry
into what's being felt and how it expresses itself as
sensation [in the body] getting a sense of what is
felt in the body.

You can also use inquiry to get a sense of what is
really Essential, what is really pulling you to what really
matters for you, using whatever we have as inner resource
or inner sanctuary...  What helps us to feel safe and feel what
is here.  Make the feeling sense as vivid as possible.

Our approach to meeting whatever is present is not aggressive,
but of receiving and welcoming.  What is seeking to be felt -
feel what presents itself.  What is the sensation you are drawn
to repeatedly?  Can you feel it without interpretation?

Let the emotion present itself and meet it.
What does it actually feel like?  Is there a part of the body
where this emotion expresses itself, or does it move around?
If there is no particular emotion present, be with what is here...

Slide behind the emotion, even dive inside, feel it from the
inside without conclusions, explanations, or stories.  Focus on
the sensation and be curious with wide open availability and
fully embodied...

Kathleen Knipp
Excerpts from a Yoga Nidra Meditation

 

Broken...

I'm going to hang a shingle out -

"Not Available Today
Taking Care of Myself.
And don't ask me about tomorrow..."

We'll see how far I get with that.

I'm finally being honest with myself,
and everybody else - well almost...

Is this unloving, uncompassionate;
to save one's sanity;
to not put others first;
to not be self-sacrificing...

I finally "let go" of having to be available,
trying to be available
I finally just stopped...

No more clenched teeth,
no tight jaw -
well almost
Tension drains from the body...
I stare into nothing

But it didn't last...
The "hungry ghosts" kept gnawing at me
with their crises...

~

Numbing sleep is wearing off...
And the ache in the stomach is
coming back, or maybe it's hunger -
or maybe I just can't stomach life the way it is anymore...

I cannot engage in life "as it is" anymore.
"Acceptance" of it is only cursory, momentary.
There are no "magic keys."

A change is needed...

Life as it is, as I'm living it, is a spirit killer
and I can't apply more "spiritual band aids"
- I bleed right through them.

~

So here I am in bed - waiting
for a different life to rise up within me;
one that nurtures and sustains me...

I'm  not able to attend to life,
I need Life to attend to me...
Is this self-centered, narcissistic,
indulging in my dark side?

Or Life-centered...
I don't know...

I only know I'm broken...
Coming face to face with my brokenness...

Although the "spiritual pundits" will
tell me "I" can't be broken;
that somewhere within there is an
"unbrokenness" that can't be broken;
once found, never lost.

But the broken pieces are still there...

So I'm embracing my brokenness
and letting it be real,
letting it be seen - no longer hidden
behind "spiritual words."

"Not Available"
"Broken"

Mystic Meandering

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Acceptance - Werner Erhard

The thought that there is something wrong is an illusion;
there is nothing wrong, there is only what's so.  Notice when
you're comparing what's so to some fantasy about how it
should be.  Bring yourself back to what's so and it will be O.K.
Ask yourself what's so, and align with that.  Align with what's so
and it will not matter.  That is the foundation of transformation...
Not aligning with what's so is the only thing that will ever 
bring you hardship or suffering.  Life in what's so will bring you
harmony and grace and balance...

Werner Erhard

~

"acceptance is the compass"
Mitch Rosacker

~

Acceptance for what is, is not resignation.  It does not
mean one doesn't do anything about their life situation.
It's the acceptance of the way life is - and you use 
acceptance to navigate through life - to see
what actions need to be taken, or not taken, at any
given moment.

Acceptance is the key

MM

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering 

Sometimes your life is just full of weeds :)

 

 

Lessons of Life - Philip Jacobs

There are several lessons that I have learnt from my observations
of life, that I wished I had known from the very start.  The first
is that you can trust the process of life and it's unfolding.
So many times in my life journey, I have experienced deeply
traumatic events that I could not see the purpose of at the time.
These events have ranged from chronic illness and the loss of
those I love, and loss of home. Yet when I look back on the
events from a fuller perspective, I always see how they led to
deeper insight and creativity that I could not foresee at the time
and they also pushed me into where I needed to be in life.  It
was as if I had been seeing the world just through a letter box
and could not see the whole picture.  I have observed this so
often in life, which is why I now trust life's unfolding, even if
I cannot see or understand it at the time.

That leads to my second insight, which is that things never 
turned out the way I anticipate them.  When the future prospects
have looked very grim, at a certain point there has always been
an unforeseen intervention that makes the outcome quite
different from what I would have expected.

The third and most important of my life lessons, is quite
simply that I'm not who I think I am.  It's as if there are two
of me.  One identity I call "Philip." [my identity in time.]
  Philip is a man and an artist and does Philip things, like
designing textiles and looking for dinosaurs and Hiroshige
paintings. But behind Philip there is another identity that
quietly observes the ever changing drama of life, all without
comment. It was there when I was five and it's exactly
the same when I'm sixty five.  Compared to Philip,
this other identity is like the still depths of the ocean.  Like
the ocean it is totally still, even when a life storm rages on the
surface.  This other identity is also always unconditionally
happy.  Almost like happiness just shines out of it, and it takes
great delight in everything it encounters: people, nature, art,
animals, etc.  The art of life I've discovered is knowing that
your true identity is this much deeper unchanging sense of self.
It is necessary in life to play the "Philip" role, but at the same
time to have the background awareness that what you really
are is this great ocean of stillness, which in a strange way also
includes everybody and everything.

Sometimes when life is very difficult it is as if the curtain of
time parts and we become aware of the underlying mystery
that has been there all along.  This can also happen with great
beauty, such as when we look up at the night sky at the
vastness of the night sky.  It is as if the boundary between
"self" and "other" dissolves and we see that we are the whole
universe.

So when you are in the middle of the life dance and it seems
overwhelming, remember your real identity that is always
present as your safe place and true home and that is always
beyond trauma and illness.  It is even beyond birth and death.

Philip Jacobs
Sufi

with thanks to No Mind's Land

and photo too...

 

Dare To Be Imperfect - Fred LaMotte

A life-coach told me,
"you're perfect right now."
So I went home and tried it,
but found it boring.

Who would be Me
if I didn't keep

[messing] things up
in my own peculiar way?
Blemishes delight me,
define me, jagged edges,
the letters of my true name.
Call me Broken Buddha,
the Half-Awake.
This universe just wouldn't
be the same without
my sins.
I am more priceless uncut,
like a ruby in the mud
that looks like a fallen berry.
What is the sign of progress?
I'm even less
perfect than I was
yesterday.
I dedicate this poem
to you, dear, who discovered
the hot mess of your body
on the kitchen floor
slobbering tears
into the linoleum
with Good Morning
America bleeding out
in the living room.
I honor the unconditional
catastrophe of your hair,
your crow's feet, the
droop of udder destruction,
the spreading warmth
of your wounded
mysterious smile
in the compost of uprooted
plans and scattered
possibilities,
when you finally realize
that no matter
how deeply you fall,
you are caught,
you have plunged
into the hug
that was always
there.

Fred LaMotte

Uradiance

~

Photo from the Internet

 

A Nocturnal Dreamscape - Rod MacIver

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

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

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

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

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

Embrace your darkness now...

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

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

Rod MacIver
Nature Artist
Heron Dance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Grief is Sacred - Francis Weller

No one escapes suffering in this life.
None of us is exempt from loss, pain, illness and death.
How is it that we have so little understanding of these
essential experiences?  How is it that we have attempted to
keep grief separated from our lives and only begrudgingly
acknowledge its presence at the most obvious times, such
as a funeral?

'If sequestered pain made a sound,' Stephen Levine says,
'the atmosphere would be humming all the time.'

It is the accumulated losses of a lifetime that slowly weigh
us down - the times of rejection, the moments of isolation
when we felt cut off from the sustaining touch of comfort
and love.  It is an ache that resides in the heart, the faint echo
calling us back to the times of loss.  We are called back, not
so much to make things right, but to acknowledge what
happened to us.

Grief asks that we honor the loss and, in doing so, deepen
our capacity for compassion.  When grief remains unexpected,
however, it hardens, becomes as solid as stone.  We, in turn,
become rigid and stop moving in rhythm with the soul...

When our grief stagnates, we become fixed in place, unable
to move and dance with the flow of life.  Grief is part of
the dance.

As we begin to pay attention, we notice that grief is never 
far from our awareness.  We become aware of the many ways
it arrives in our daily lives.  It is the blue mood that greets us
upon waking.  It is the melancholy that shades the day in
muted tones.  It is the recognition of time's passing, the slow
emptying of our days.  It is the searing pain that erupts when
someone close to us dies....  It is the confounding grief when
our life circumstances are shattered by the unexpected.....

It is essential for us to welcome our grief, whatever form it
takes. When we do, we open ourselves to our shared
experiences in life. Opening to our sorrow connects us with
everyone, everywhere.  There is no gesture of kindness that is
wasted, no offering of compassion that is useless. 
We can be generous to every sorrow we see.
It is sacred work.

Francis Weller
from - The Wild Edge of Sorrow

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Hiding The Shadows - Toko-pa Turner

 What if [negative emotions] have something essential
to communicate to us and each other, and the real problem
is the misguided attitude that negative feelings make us less
evolved and need fixing?

In the same way that we hold others at arm's length when they
are too different from us, we avoid the inner encounter with
otherness, excluding anything that doesn't fit the image we've
been building of ourselves.

'Negative emotions' don't cease to exist because we ignore
them.  They just find other ways to express themselves.
Sometimes inappropriately, having confusing crying fits, or
feeling protractedly numb.  Most commonly we slip into 
depression and anxiety...

If not addressed in a person's life, these issues can harden into
ideologies which are then passed through the generations.
When you add to this equation a loud or charismatic leader,
movements like Nazism will be born from the corroborative
fear of otherness.

Most of us have been raised to be moral, good, and agreeable,
putting all of our 'unacceptable' qualities in what Robert Bly
calls "The Long Black Bag" we drag behind us, or what Jung
termed the personal "Shadow."  The Shadow is the place
where everything we have forgotten, denied, rejected, or not
yet discovered goes to live.

When we try to live up to the impossible image of a spiritually
enlightened, knowledgeable, selfless, forgiving, easy-going,
supportive, generous superhuman, the dark side of our nature
just gains in power...

You always have a choice to turn away or to look for redemption
in the shadows.  Sometimes turning away is exactly what you
need in the moment, especially if you're tired from toiling there.
Trust that whatever you decide is the right decision.  Also
know that if the issue being presented has roots, it will still
be there when you're ready to look at it...

We cannot simply remove the Shadow all at once.  It takes
wisdom, courage and forbearance for our shadows to reveal
themselves to us so they can be faced and dealt with gently,
compassionately, and firmly.

Toko-pa Turner
from: Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

This shadowy, sunglass-wearing figure revealed itself in
the grains of the cutting board I recently acquired - wearing
his silly little hat - as if hiding in the shadows behind a
curtain... :)

Acceptance - Jeff Foster

 Freedom is found not through escaping the present experience,
but by diving fearlessly into its hidden depths.  You must be
open to exploring suffering - how and why it manifests in you,
where it originates.  You must be willing to look at your pain,
fears, sadness, longings.  They are part of the wholeness of
life.  You must be willing to face them head on and find deep
acceptance for the seemingly unacceptable aspects of yourself...
Beyond the personal story of my own suffering, I discover the
pains is not really my pain.  It's the world's pain.  It's humanity's
pain...

It's one thing to know who you really are [your Beingness]
when life is easy and things are going well for you.  It's
another thing to remember this in the heat of the moment, 
when things fall apart, when life gets messy.  We find another
way of looking at suffering, a radical new way of relating to
it.  We can see the messiness and the beauty of day-to-day
human existence as something to be avoided, or transcended,
or we can see it for what it really is: a secret and constant
invitation to wake up... It's about finding out who you
really are, beyond who you think you are, beyond who you've
been taught you are, beyond the story about who you are,
beyond all your concepts and images of who you are.

...we must face reality with open eyes.  We must move away
from denial, wishful thinking, and hoping and tell the truth
about life as it is.  Great freedom lies in admitting the truth
of this moment, however much it clashes with our dreams and
plans - and self image...  Acceptance is about seeing reality,

seeing things as they actually are, not as we wish them to be.
And from that place of alignment with what is, all creative,
loving and intelligent actions flow naturally.

Freedom is about embracing all that appears in the Ocean
of our present experience.  Maybe the true calling in life is to
accept present experience deeply - to let go of how this
moment should be - letting go of our false self-image.

Great freedom lies in fearlessly facing the darkness and finally
coming to see that the darkness is inseparable from light...
Life cannot be good or bad.  Life is simply life.  It's about
seeing the Mystery of Life that is already here.

Jeff Foster
Excerpts from - The Deepest Acceptance
published in 2012
Facebook

As many of you know Jeff has been dealing with a
severe debilitating illness for the past few years, 
having to come face to face with Acceptance...
He writes about his experience on his Facebook page...

~

Photo - taken by my brother
at Plum Cove, Gloucester, MA

Simply Living...

 I've been revisiting the view that life is a story being lived
by Life ItSelf; That "I" am being lived; that we are the living
story of Life.

Life lives the story of "me" that I've identified with all these
years, and believed, for a while at least, that "I" needed to be
"enlightened" - and have once again returned to the sense
that "I" am simply living.  Just Being.

In this there is an internal "letting go" - or "giving up" - or
some would say "surrender"...  And as a wise friend explained:
"In that, an ancient tension and stress is released.  And in the
deepest instance of 'giving up', even the somatic aspect of our
being feels a tremendous relief, and a Serene Emptiness where
a contraction had formerly been felt; as much in our physical
body as in our subtle energetic nature.  Struggle ceases, no longer
driven by the engine of dissatisfaction with 'what is', with 'how
we are.'  No longer driven by the engine of self-judgment and 
self-qualification, by the desire to be better or worthy, or
finally 'understanding', or the desire for
'enlightenment.'"

~

There is only the immediacy of the current experience -

just living that experience, whatever that experience is,
whether it is one of joy, or sorrow and grief, however it
unfolds, without the sense of a "self" striving for something
"better", or to do anything to improve it, or to create
strategies to become "enlightened;"  the struggle of the "self."

Everything is allowed...

"Enlightenment" is just untangling what you believe to be
true - your belief constructs.  Just live life intuitively,

with no strategies for "awakening."  Don't get trapped in
the mind, or try to figure out how to play the game.

"We", the "Beingness" that we are, just experiences 
whatever is occurring without a framework of time,
or reference point, or concept...

It's just Life being - life!

It is Existence experiencing ItSelf as "me", or "you" -
as an occurrence within ItSelf...

Simply Living...

We, as waves of the Ocean of Existence, are continually
occurring - unfolding fluidly, seamlessly, reverberating
through the concept of time, and is what the wrinkle of
time happens in - the Timeless Ocean of Existence.

And so the realization seems to be that we simply
recognize Life living ItSelf as us...

...Simply Living

As we are...

Our Natural selves...

Now if I could only remember this...  :)

_/\_

Mystic Meandering

~

photo taken by my brother
Sunset over the Parker River in
Newbury, MA

The Totality of Experience - Shinshu Roberts

 ...As soon as we return to the totality of this moment's complete
expression, responding to the whole of our situation, we are
not caught by anything.  Even though we are still subject to
the repercussions of our past actions, we are free to
respond skillfully in the present moment/situation.

If we have been rude to someone in the past and that person
is wary of us [or if they have been rude to us], our total
participation in this moment of meeting that person will not
necessarily take away the effects of our past meeting.  What
it will do is free us to respond skillfully in this situation.
Since we are not caught by "piled up" or overlapping
experiences, we are freed to enact the new paradigm of 
[seeing the whole of the situation] and being present for
the next opportunity...

Holding on to a past mistake will often hinder your ability
to respond skillfully in the present, although you still file
away your mistake and make adjustments.

Our understanding of self can become a fixed idea of
accumulated ["piled up"] traits and experiences.  The self
 is both independent and the totality of all being-time.  We are
no-self and a particular self at the same time, caught by
neither and more than both.  [This] realization is not
predicated upon a particular set of circumstances.
Realization is present in each moment.
Realization is each moment.

Shinshu Roberts
from an article on Dogen in Insight Journal
from Barre Center for Buddhist Studies

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

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Photo - Mystic Meandering

Cosmic Light...

 Sadness gives way to spontaneity...
The inner child of the Cosmos
has come to play...

There's a hidden joy inside that shimmers up
- playful,
tickling the heart...

Subtle joy turns into Love for the whole experience of
LIFE
knowing it's all the "Play" of the Cosmos...

The Light of the Cosmos
hidden within myself
begins to glow -
an unlit light.

It is the rhythm of the Cosmos that moves me,
taking my breath away,
making my heart skip;
and the realization that

I am Cosmic Light -
lit from within!

I am the Cosmos!

I am the Joy of the Universe...

It's all the Play of Cosmic Light!

Mystic Meandering
Sept 21, 2020

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Photo - Mystic Meandering

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71 years around the Sun-star today!

Hard to believe...

More playful, "light-hearted", and unencumbered...
Intuitively listening to where she wants to spend her
heart beats in these waning years....

_/\_

Namaste

What Calls the Eye to See - Adyashanti

What calls the ear to listen or the eye to see
more than the surface facade that shrouds our essential spirit?
Parting the strata and dross, what is essential picks its way
through the manicured narrative of endless lives.  In each
moment of every day, Truth is not lacking or held in
abeyance for some later date; it is given in full measure,
and abundantly so.  Do not be afraid of what appears to be
chaos or dissolution - embrace the full measure of your life
at any cost.  Bare your heart to the Unknown and never
look back.  What you are stands content, invisible,
and everlasting.  All means have been provided for our
endless folly to split open into eternal delight.

Adyashanti
2012

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Photo - Mystic Meandering
Storm Cloud at Sunset

"Spiritual Teachers" - Jeff Foster

'Spiritual teachers' [of certain traditions] often talk of pure
Awareness that doesn't suffer, a formless consciousness
untouched by form...

They speak of a state in which anger, fear, confusion and doubt
do not arise.  Or if they do it's a 'sign' that we are 'not there yet.'

How ironic, a non-dual teaching that is deeply dualistic at its core,
and deeply shaming of our vulnerable humanity,
and deeply, deeply unconscious of this.

What kind of 'Oneness' does not radically include all of her forms?
What kind of ocean does not embrace, and infuse, every single one
of its precious waves?

'Spiritual teachers' tell us that there is no goal, nothing to attain,
and they are not special in any way.

Yet - in the same breath, they speak of the 'falling away' of the
'separate self'', the sudden or gradual 'death of the ego', the
silencing of their mind, and how they achieved states of
permanent bliss, peace and equanimity.

They speak of non-judgmental love, yet judge and guilt-trip
and correct their students for having fears, doubts, annoying
questions and... resistance!  They make their students doubt
their own experience.  They claim to be 'enlightened', yet
judge others as not being 'enlightened.'

They identify themselves as having lost their separate self,

yet speak of having no identity at all....

The mind is an addict.  It is desperate for somewhere to land.
Some certainty. Some dogma. Some 'true teaching'.  The mind
will addict itself to even the most beautiful, refined,
spiritual concepts:
'I am pure Awareness.'
'I am not the body.'
'There is no separate self.'
'It's all an illusion.'

Avoiding the tender, moment-by-moment embrace of our
fragile, fleshy, muddy, messy humanness.

Our confusion is clearly lovable.Our doubts are certainly sacred.
Our longings, aches and wounds are not signs that we haven't
 reached the correct state, or that we are far from the Promised Land.
They are holy sites in us themselves, expressions of the
One Life that cannot be uttered.

There are no experts, no 'enlightened' ones,
no authorities...

Just willingness to not know.
To begin again.  And again.
To soften into the grieving heart...

The broken heart is holy.

I reject any spirituality that cannot see the grace in that.

I reject any spirituality that doesn't allow us to be fully human.

If "spiritual teacher" means someone who sees the 'fierce grace'
in the pits of suffering, and the unspeakable beauty in our
wounded and tender places, and the non-duality shining brightly
in the damn chaos, and the ever-present existence of a Love so
vast, it cannot be understood by mind - a Love that loves our
imperfections and mistakes, and embraces them in loving
awareness in each and every moment of our lives -
then sign me up!

Jeff Foster
Former Non-Dual "Spiritual Teacher"
Excerpt from - "Why I Resigned As A "Spiritual Teacher"

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Photo - Mystic Meandering

Unconditional Love - Adyashanti

I don't know about you but -
I've been experiencing a lot of anger and frustration lately
with the current world situation, with the crazy politics, and
"the Vid" that has brought drastic changes personally, socially
and economically to many.  Life, as we know it, is changing,
has changed, and obviously will continue to change.  That's
what life does, requiring adjusting and adapting on all levels.
A hidden Movement in the unseen realm is evidently underway
in the current experience that we don't understand...

I know this, but - I'm not "feeling the love",
so-to-speak, toward the current "now."  Instead, I feel
frustration and anger - feeling curmudgeonly...

One day this week, after listening to a Deva Premal
sanskrit chant on you tube, I switched over to a guided
meditation by Adyashanti on "The Unconditioned Nature of
Being.", trying to assuage the inner anger and frustration
that consistently arises within.  But I couldn't listen to it, my
mind was caught in the emotions within, which led to a belief
that I had somehow lost the ability to "love" - overwhelmed
by the intensity of the feelings; defining "love" as the ability to
feel "love" for everybody and everything at all times despite
the current stressful times we live in.  I'm no saint, just a mystic
wanting to realize the Mystery of Existence.

Then something caught my attention in the right hand margin.
Another video by Adya called, "What Is Unconditional Love?"
It was like "The Universe" had responded!
I watched the video, and I listened   He said:

We personalize unconditional love.
We imagine how it should be.
But it's not personal.
It's more like acceptance of what is.

Existence is unconditional love.
Existence allows you to be the person you are.

To *try* to be unconditionally loving will place a demand
on you which will take you away from it.

Existence unconditionally accepts.  It is unconditional love...
[which is acceptance of the totality of life experience].

Realize your Self/True Nature...

Realize what you are and unconditional love will reveal
itself to you...

Don't fight the "conditioned nature", which is the ideas of
unconditional love; images of it, etc.

We don't know what it is.

Allow yourself not to know.

[In other words, don't try to define it, or be it,
just allow it to find you...]

Adyashanti
Excerpts from: "What is Unconditional Love?"

You Tube video

Of course not all may agree, depending on your belief system,
but it was the medicine I needed to hear at that time: that it's
not about trying to be "loving", but that "love" is being able
to accept what is, accepting others as they are, and also,
accepting ourselves and what we are going through -
as we are.

I also found that metaphorically "stepping back" (internally)
from the intensity of my emotions, and how I am playing
 in the Divine Drama, and just resting in the Core of my Being
 helped.  From there I understood that "love"/acceptance will arise
in its own time; that I was grasping after love, because I thought
 I lacked "love",  when what I lacked was the felt sense of my own
 Core Being.   That was the key piece that I needed to realize,
to "step back" into the Core, and ride out the emotional roller
coaster ride that so many of us are still experiencing in this
"now."


Namaste
_/\_

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Photo - from a friend, of a friend, of a friend