Mining for Jewels - Chuck Surface

For jewels, we dig through the earth or hammer rock.
And upon finding, remove them from their encasement,
Leaving behind the rubbled detritus of earth and stone.

Just so, I approached the world of religion and philosophy,
Digging, sifting, washing away veiling encrustations,
Of hardened orthodoxies and binding dogmas.

The jewels found in that rubble. more or less precious,
Were expressions with which my Heart felt affinity,
And with which my discerning mind did not take issue.

The measure of these jewels, born of another's experience,
However cherished by multitudes over centuries,
Is their resonance with the Diamond of my own Essence.

Lacking this, no matter how treasured by countless others,
I left them in the rubble where I found them buried,
And wandered off, seeking deeper resonance and affinity.

Those jewels I found and kept, are treasured in gratitude,
For the Water of Beauty they offered my thirsting Heart,
And the Manna of Wisdom they fed my starving Mind.

Digging, sifting, washing away the obscuring encrustations,
Of so many binding orthodoxies and rigid dogmas,
I saw refracted, there, in those jewels of many colors...

The Diamond of my own Radiant Essence.

For some, it is best to set aside religion and philosophy,
And undo the conditionings that have accrued within us,
Over a lifetime lived under their tutelage and influence.

Not for everyone, but for some.

For some, our experience must be unwrapped, unveiled,
In interpretations by others, of their unique experience,
However revered or worshiped they may be...

So we can see with eyes afresh in Wonder.

For some, it is best to be liberated even from liberation,
Described and defined by others, long dead, or living,,
However revered or worshiped they may be...

So we can experience freedom anew, in its Purity.

Some of us must discard the burdensome clothing,
Of enlightenment and such, propounded by others,
However revered or worshiped they may be...

And face, naked and wide-eyed, our Radiant Essence.

Chuck Surface
Facebook
Original Title: The Diamond of Our Own Radiant Essence.

Photos Mystic Meandering

 

The Cosmic Mystery - a meandering...

Webb Telescope Photo

Spiritually I've gone rogue - LOLOLOL

No, not a mystic gone mad,
just following my "spiritual evolution",
if you will...

No more notions of "Enlightenment", or
"Self-Realization",
or following the "old institutionalized systems"
with their dogmas and doctrines...

The Cosmos calls to me now...

I'm drawn to the incredibly, amazing Vastness
and Mystery of the Universe...

The Cosmos ignites something in me -
an intense energy pervades my body,
unexpectedly.

I am compelled to step into this "new" Reality;
which isn't really "new" to me...
The Cosmos has been calling to me for a long time,
trying to get my attention, but something is
different now - more intense.
Earthling phone Home! :)

I have been weighed down by the "gravity" of 
earth-life:

conflagration, inauguration,
genocide, homicide...

overwhelm...

But there is a Symphony of Energy in the Universe
that I must follow...

And deeply look into Infinity -
and the gate of Eternity...

The Cosmic Mystery...

Blows "me" away...

Mystic Meandering
Jan 11, 2025

~

The goal of life is to match your heartbeat to the beat
of the universe...

Joseph Campbell

 

Plumb The Depths...

Do not be afraid to
plumb
the
depths
of 
your 
Being,
of

Truth;
to question
everything
you
have
learned

Take the journey deeply inward
to your beginnings - and endings;
to the Silent hum
in the Heart
of all Life
that sings,
and
see
for
your
self.

There are many caravans to follow,
those aspiring to "enlighten" or "awaken" you
with their words,
left like burning firewood to light your way,
along the road...

But only in Sacred Silence can the journey be made
to the Heart of Being;
to discover the depths of Being ~
of That which you are;
That which wants to 
*live*
within you...

Do not let fear stop your descent
into the Inner Vastness:
the deep Ocean within...

Be still,
and open...
Listening...

Follow the plumb line
of your breath,
past the Furies and the Sirens
into the soft ebullience
of Love
and quiet Joy
waiting for you,
like ethereal
liquid pools
of Light
drawing
you
in

Rest Here

In
the
depths
of
this
Alive
Silent
Spacious
Awareness

Listen to the endless
Rhythm already
holding
you
in the cradle
of
Peace

Feel
the
pervasive
contentment
of Life
Here
in
the
depths of
Sacred
Silence,
that animates
every cell,
every atom,
every sound,
every thought,

every feeling ~

until you *know*
THIS

*as*

yourself.

Simply Living...

Mystic Meandering
April 17, 2012

Vortex Art - Mystic Meandering
2010

 

"Homecoming" - Mirabai Starr

I don't know about you, but I have grown weary of the 
endless quest to uncover and slay the host of inner demons
who have been messing up my plans for enlightenment,
which I have imagined as some pure land of perfect
equanimity in which I hover over my worldly concerns
like a cartoon yogi, forever free from narcissism and other
embarrassing inclinations, reliably dispensing compassion
to the vulnerable....to anyone who comes into proximity
with my purified and perfected (no)self [image]...

[.....]

But the "homecoming" is probably not what we thought it
would be when we signed up for the "enlightenment track."
We have been conditioned by our spiritual communities -
whether traditional religious institutions or alternative
practice spaces - to conquer certain feeling states in favor
of some idealized realm where we are unmoved by these
"lower vibrations", free to claim our birthright of peace,
love, and bliss...

[.....]

What if, instead of rushing to our meditation cushion or
asana practice....ready to vanquish the ego once and for all,
we take our ego into our arms and lean close and hear the
wisdom at the core of its insistent lament?

[.....]

The ancient alchemists did not view the base material [ego]
as merely something to be transcended or gotten rid of, but
as the "substance of the gods."  What if we were to love
reality however it is appearing in this moment, with its
heartbreak, our sadness, our confusion, our depression, or
[rage], our shame?  Rather than muscle our way through
spiritual disciplines and therapeutic interventions, we fall
in love with our brokenness at last and welcome the orphaned
parts of ourselves home.

Mirabai Starr
Contemporary Mystic
Writer, Author

Excerpts from the Forward
in Matt Licata's book:

A Healing Space:
Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times

~

Photo from the Internet

 

A Meanderer's Way - a meandering...

Ever since I was a child I wanted to know God - a child's
understanding of a "religious" God, of course. I had a love
affair with Jesus, believing he would bring me to "God."
Then, as an adult, my search evolved and expanded to include
finding "myself", whoever she was/is :)  Then the search for
 Truth, Wisdom and Enlightenment - through Metaphysics,
Buddhism ( I was enamored with The Buddha, not Buddhism,
although there were many gems there that I have retained),
Advaita and Non-Duality, and Hinduism/Kashmir Shaivism.
with its many deities for all occasions. :)
I mean, what more could there be, right? 
While each had their own unique "Way", they
were really all the same "path," under different disguises,
with different emphases.

And now through all my many meanderings, I am feeling the
need to settle in, deepen into the Depths within myself and see
what's there; not by following yet another particular external
"spiritual" path - but listening deeply to the Inner promptings
 and opening to the Inner animating Life Energies, by spending
 time in the Great Silence - which has been difficult to do lately...

Being on a "spiritual path" has always felt like I was intentionally
going SOMEwhere, seeking "Some-thing" that I would find at
the "end" of my journey; like retirement after a life of working;
or the magical pot of gold at the end of the mythical rainbow; or
even the mystical "Holy Grail."   Or maybe even seeking an
"end" to suffering, pain, ignorance, my humanness, as I turned
 into  "Light" :), or even the end of seeking.  

But what if there is no such "path", no need for seeking the
 illusive big "S"-self that non-duality spiritual seekers are seeking? 
 I discovered for myself there isn't a big "S" "spiritual"-Self that
"we" become.  There is no other "Self" to "find/become." 
There's just our "Natural Self" or Essence that wants to be
discovered, recognized, known; that is playful, creative,
expressive and free...

The path of "Enlightenment"/"Awakening"/"Self-Realization"
(popularly known as "Non-Duality"), is much like all the other
paths I have taken throughout my life.  It's just another construct. 
 I found that the Emperor has no clothes!  And I'd rather not
describe  "Truth" by a negative - with no-me, no-self-, no-other,
no-world - as "Truth" is all inclusive - including duality, me, self,
 other, and world.

Even if one follows "a path" there is no guarantee that we will
discover what we are looking for, and life will not suddenly 
become easy or flowing with bliss.  We won't necessarily lose
 our personality with its quirks, our conditioning, or our neuroses.
The "ego" doesn't die! - gasp...  It's all part of the package, our
uniqueness.  Ego is an interface with the Natural Self/Essence.

Our thoughts will not stop, neither will our surface struggles, or
our pain, or our stories.  Walking "a path" doesn't even guarantee
that we will actually see life differently from either the mountain-
top, or with nose to the ground; or suddenly find our "purpose" -
 as if there was only one.  But no one tells us this about "the path.
  It has to be discovered for ourselves - even if we have a "Teacher",
or use a "Teaching" to point the way...  We still have to travel
our own unique way...

Years of seeking, realization, and recognition brought me to an old
realization that rediscovering the Essence of who I am, the Natural
Self within a Divine Cosmology, is through awareness of and deep
intimacy with the Great Silence within; (the 4th "key" that I found
on the way, although should probably be the first) through
continually coming back to the space of Silent, Still, Innate Knowing -
which of course is wherever we are, not off in the distance somewhere
It's not a place.  "The path" doesn't go anywhere.  There is no 
reward at the end.  It's an inner pathless path...  And that's the "path"
that I keep returning to :) - rediscovering this deep inner Silence
again and again - remembering the underlying Rhythm of the 
Cosmos ItSelf - humming in and through me...

Ommmmmm....

_/\_
Namasate

Mystic Meandering
updated Aug 18, 2023

It's never ending... :)

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

 

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

The Amusement Park - Jed McKenna

Awakening to your True Nature is like dying; it's a certainty,
inevitable.  You're going to get there no matter what you do,
so why rush?  Enjoy your life, it's free.  Cosmic Consciousness
and Altered States and Universal Mind are the names of the
rides in this vast and fascinating dualistic amusement park.
So are Poverty and Disease and Despair.  Enlightenment,
though, is not another ride.  Enlightenment means leaving the
park altogether, but why leave the park?  In the park you can
be a saint or a yogi or a billionaire or a world leader or a
warlord.  Happiness, misery, bliss, agony, victory, defeat, it's
all here.  When the time comes to leave the park, you'll know
and you'll go...

Jed McKenna

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

"Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door" ;)

(a line from Credence Clearwater Revival's song
"Lookin' Out My Back Door" - 1970)

https://youtu.be/Aae_RHRptRg

Take a ride :)

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

Fall Into Your Rhythm - Fred LaMotte

 You don't need to be a rosy-soft new age angel
in order to meditate.

You don't need to sip liquified kale, live in an ashram,
or be politically correct, in order to tap the infinite Source.

You don't need to be someone better, someone higher,
someone purer, someone 'else.'
There's no one 'else' for you to be.

It is the very search that divides us from ourselves...

The beginning and end of spiritual practice is to rest
the mind in [your] own broken heart.

Align your jagged edges.  Tune into the rough, unpolished,
yet sparkling joy of your uniqueness.

The symphony of creation would not resonate in the same
harmony without your singular piercing lovely note.
The world doesn't need another Gandhi, Jesus, or "spiritual
teacher" - it needs You.

"Enlightenment" is more like falling than rising, more like
collapsing than getting it all together.

Fall into your own rhythm: this is perfect stillness.
Collapse into the Grace at the heart of your own chaos:
that is perfect peace.

I did not learn this from the gods.
I learned it from my dogs.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Rainbow light reflected on rug...
(looks like a musical note to me :)

Meeting Life As It Is...

I used to think the goal was to "awaken"
from life as it is - to be "enlightened."
And everything would be "different:"
easier, more fluid; things would just fall into place;
that "I" would be "different" - changed somehow.

But it seems the real "awakening"
is about keeping the heart open to
life as it is - not dismissing it or others
as an "appearance" only;
detached from life...

But seeing beyond the "appearance" to the Real;
the Formless in form;
Seeing the Real Being behind the eyes...

Showing up for life and doing what is needed
with mindfulness, kindness and compassion.

Allowing ourselves to be touched by others
and their life circumstances means being
vulnerable and open -
not having the "answers",
or hiding behind the comforting certainties of
a "belief system."

It means forgiving the frailties of others
and accepting one's own...
Not dismissing others as part of an illusion, part
of a dream; not buying into the dream of separation
by denying life...

"Awakening", it seems  is about meeting life as it is,
living amidst the disturbances of life,
discovering and acknowledging the Real Being in
oneself and others;
surrendering to the immensity of "The Mystery"
living ItSelf in the every-day-ness of life...

Mystic Meandering
Aug 2020

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Red glow of sun from the wildfires in Colorado
and California...

To Meditate or not to Meditate - Amoda Maa

To meditate... or not to meditate?

Is a dedicated mediation practice the only road to
"enlightenment"... or is the direct rout of recognizing
"what is already free" a better way?  Should all effort be
put into achieving a "higher state of consciousness?... or is
it best to simply let go of any effort to do anything at all?

If I discipline myself to meditate, should I sit (preferably
cross-legged) once a day... or is it twice or maybe three times?
And should I watch my breath... or is it my thoughts, or my
sensations?  Maybe I should chant in Sanskrit... or Hindi or
Japanese?  Maybe I should repeat the sacred OM from my heart...
or is my belly a better place?  Maybe I should send loving
thoughts in every out-breath... or visualize golden light from
my third eye?  Maybe I should try to focus on the gaps between
thoughts... or maybe I should just try to stop thinking all together?

And if I make no effort, how do I "awaken"?  Isn't there something
I need to do?  How do I transcend thinking?  How do I shift into an
"awakened state?"  Maybe if I read enough books or listen to enough
spiritual teachers, I will "get it"?

To meditate... or not to meditate?  The question is a conundrum
to the mind that seeks satisfaction.  The mind seeks a definitive
answer, as if this would bring an end to mind's unease.  The
personhood seeks certainty, as if the certainty of "spiritual
progress" would bestow a badge of worthiness or specialness.

But the question of meditation cannot be answered by the mind.
It can only be realized when Silence has become the bedrock of
your life.  This Silence is not about closing the doors, turning off
the phone and lighting candles.  Nor is it to do with trying to get
rid of your thoughts [or your ego, or the notion of I/me]...
or imagining the perfect sanctuary of peace.

This Silence happens when you stop giving attention to the
narratives that wrap themselves around your experience of reality.

This Silence happens when you turn towards tenderness every time
an unwanted feeling enters your inner landscape.  This Silence
happens when you have surrendered all resistance to what is.
This Silence happens when you are no longer the center of your
universe, when you have become without a center and [you realize
that] the whole universe is in you.  Without resistance, there is
no inner conflict, no inner division, no outside and no inside, no
barrier and no boundary.

When you know your true nature as Silence, there is no need to
do meditation... [because] you ARE meditation.  True meditation
is a state of Being.  It is your natural open state, there is nothing to
move away from and nothing to move towards.  You are simply
and irrevocably here.  There is no longer a question... because
in Silence all questions fall away.

So, it is not about whether you meditate or not.  It's about whether
you can fall into the Silence that is always here prior to your
ideas of what meditation is, or what it can give you, or where
it can take you.  Whether you sit in deep stillness or whether you
are doing something in this world, [the requirements of daily living]
 this Silence is always here... it is in you as Being-ness [your inner
Beingness]. Beingness does not need to do meditation... 
It IS meditation...

I am often asked whether I meditate or not... and I sort of shake my
head, unable to give a definitive answer.  Did I used to do meditation?
Yes.  Until meditation swallowed me up and all that was left was
Silence.  Now the whole of life is meditation, without doing a practice,
without trying to get anywhere, without trying to change anything.
Now... I AM meditation.

So perhaps it is wise to ask a different question...  how can I meet
the world [live my daily life] as Silence?  Perhaps the question
will turn the mind around from its horizontal searching into the
verticality of Being that is always here.  And then you discover
what true meditation is...

Amoda Maa

with gratitude to Michel at No Mind's Land

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

If You Seek Reality - Nisargadatta & Adyashanti

If you seek Reality you must set yourself free of all
backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking
and feeling.

Even the idea of being a man or a woman, or even human,
should be discarded.  The Ocean of Life contains all,
not only humans.

So first abandon all self-identification, stop thinking of
yourself as such-and-such, so-and-so, this or that.  Abandon
all self-concern, worry not about your welfare, material or
spiritual, abandon every desire, gross or subtle, stop thinking of
achievement of every kind.

You are complete, as you are...

Nisargadatta

~

You have to be willing to ask, "Who am I?" or "What am I?"
without any script or role, without the story about who you
are and what you are, releasing the script of what you think
your life is about.  Every sense of identity has its script - like,
"I'm a spiritual seeker."  We each have a specific role and our
stories about that role.  But our roles and stories are not
what we are...

When you start to realize what the truth is, you wake up from
the story of you.  You recognize that truth is not an abstraction,
it is not something to learn.  You discover that truth is who you
are without a script or role...

There is a state in which mind says, "I have no idea who I am",
because it can't find the right script.  Awakening is the
realization that happens after the mind says,"I give up.  I just
have no idea who I am."  When you start to understand this,
you realize that if you put down your script and just drop the
roles for a moment, you are not what you have taken yourself
to be.

What you are without your role is often assumed to be hidden.
So when you look past your character called "me" for the truth
of your being, you may think there's someone to find who is
somewhere hidden.  Looking for the "enlightened Self" is just
another role, another script.  If you drop the script, what are you?
Enlightenment is to have no script...

Give up the script, the role, the identity -
even if it is to have no identity..

Adyashanti
from - Emptiness Dancing

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

True Purpose - Author Unknown

What is my purpose in life? - I asked "The Void"

"Your problem is that you equate your purpose with
goal-based achievement, like 'enlightenment.'
The Universe isn't interested in your achievements,
your concepts and beliefs...

Just your Heart...

When you choose to act out of kindness,
compassion and love, you are already aligned
with your true purpose..."

From Facebook
Author unknown

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Wandering Free...

Wandering the woods without a trail,
my focus on finding The Truth
is realized as a self-made illusion.

Not needing to find yet another belief system;
no longer a need for a specific path
cut by others; nor the illusion of
future "enlightenment" through practice,
discipline, or self-control...

Finding comfort in loosening the
constraints of the "spiritual cocoon"
that I wrapped myself in for so long;

even the mantel of meditation
has become too heavy and is unraveling -
becoming frayed... like an old prayer shawl.

Reborn from the Chrysalis of my comforting beliefs,
finding freedom in just BEing ME,
without suffocating concepts or a defined
"spiritual image"; instead finding my true Face...

Breaking free from the conceptual "spiritual"
constructs; the scaffolding of beliefs and ideas
about "spirituality" that propped "me" up;
caged in spiritual ideals, unable to fly...

Freed now from the cage of my own making,
I can breathe, I can LIVE
intuitively, being moved from within,
listening for what calls to me...
discovering freedom in being open to where life goes,
as I wander the woods without a trail...

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 18, 2019

~

With gratitude to Debbie whose email inspired
this poem and her phrase: "wandering the woods
without a trail."

Adyashanti on "Enlightenment"

Enlightenment is a destructive process.  It has nothing to do
with becoming better or being happier.  Enlightenment is the
crumbling away of untruth.  It's seeing through the facade
or pretense.  It's the complete eradication of everything we
imagined to be true.

~*~

All that is necessary to awaken to yourself as the radiant
emptiness of spirit is to stop seeking something more or better
or different, and turn your attention inward to the awake silence
that you are.

~*~

We realize - often quite suddenly - that our sense of self, which
has been formed and constructed out of our ideas, beliefs, and
images, is not really who we are.  It doesn't define us...

~*~

When you get out of the driver's seat, you find that life can drive
itself, that actually life has always been driving itself.  When you
get out of the driver's seat, it can flow in ways you never imagined.
Life becomes almost magical.  The illusion of the "me" is no longer
in the way.  Life begins to flow, and you never know where it will
take you.

~*~

One of my favorite definitions of enlightenment comes from a
Jesuit priest named Anthony de Mello...  Someone asked him to
define his experience of enlightenment.  He said, "Enlightenment
is absolute cooperation with the inevitable."   Enlightenment is when
everything within us is in cooperation with the flow of life itself,
 with the inevitable.

Adyashanti

The Pathless Path - reloaded...

This post was originally written in 2011
but is still timely for me...

I find the older I get the more I want to experience Truth directly,

and leave the many trodden "spiritual paths" that I've been on all my
life behind.  Even as a child I wanted to know "God" - a child's
understanding of God.  Then my search evolved and expanded to
include finding "myself" - whoever that was :), the Truth, Wisdom,
peace of mind, and last, but not least, the search for "Enlightenment."
They are all the same"path" under different disguises.  And now,
through all these many paths, I am feeling the need to settle, deepen,
and re-discover a sense of inner Truth; not by following a particular
external path - but by intuitively listening to the voice of my Heart;
experiencing Inner Beingness directly, through spending time in
Silence (which I avoid so easily).  Now if Life would only cooperate
and provide a less chaotic, disruptive, distracted life!  Just kidding -
maybe...  :)

 Being on a "spiritual path" implies that one is going somewhere,
seeking "Some - *thing*" at the end of the journey - like
retirement after a life of working; or a magical pot of gold at the end
of the mythical rainbow; or even the mystical "Holy Grail."  Or maybe
one is even seeking an end to something, like suffering, pain,
ignorance, their humanness, or the end of seeking.  But what if there
was no need for "a path",, no need for seeking the illusive big
"Some-thing" that spiritual seekers seek?  I find myself in this place
of questioning - again...  I have been down the "seeking road" -
many times.

The path of "Enlightenment"/"Awakening"/"Self-Realization",
particularly the path of what is known as Advaita or "Non-Duality",
has lost its luster, its pull, its certainty for me - much like the other
paths I have taken throughout my life.  It's just another construct.
  And I'd rather not describe Truth by a negative - with no-me, no-self,
 no other, no world - as Truth is all inclusive - including duality,
 me, self, other, world.

Even if one follows "a path" (which can be any path) there is no
guarantee that we will discover what we are looking for, and life will
not suddenly become easy or flowing with bliss.   We won't necessarily
lose our personality, with its quirks, our conditioning, or neuroses. 
Our thoughts will not stop, neither will our surface struggles, or
 our pain,  or our stories.  Walking "a path" doesn't even guarantee
 that we will  actually see life differently from either the mountain top,
 or nose to the ground;  or suddenly find our "purpose" -
as if there's only one. But no one tells us  this about "the path."
 It has to be a Self-discovery - for ourselves -  even if we have a
"Teacher" or follow a "Teaching"  to point the way.

Years of seeking, realization, recognition, and then forgetting, and then
remembering, and then forgetting again - brought me to the realization
that discovering (or rediscovering) this Being Self/Truth that we are,
 is through awareness of and deep intimacy with The Silence within;
through continually coming back to the Heart of Being - the space of
Silent, Still, innate Wisdom - which of course is wherever we are at the
moment, not off in the distance somewhere.  It's not a place. 
"The path" doesn't go anywhere.  There is no reward at the end. 
It's an inner pathless path...  And that's my "path" - rediscovering
 this inner Silent,  Aware Wisdom.  It's an inner pathless path
 of remembering; remembering the underlying Rhythm of
 Life ItSelf -

Ommmmmm...

"A mystic is content with nothing less than
to touch the Truth in its most universal purity"

Ivan Granger
Poetry Chaikhana

~

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest in peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall
while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then
return to source.
Returning to the source is stillness,
which is the way of nature....

Returning is the motion of the Tao.

Lao Tzu

~~

Photo - taken by my father
1952/53

Ordinary Enlightenment - "G", Shinzen Young & Jeff Foster

There are many different definitions of mysticism, but a narrow
description of mysticism is known as the "perennial philosophy",
or "perennial wisdom."  [That Truth is Universal & Eternal].
In this sense, mysticism indicates the dying of the illusion
of selfhood into the greater reality of God, Nirvana, Dao, or a
number of other concepts representing the deathless and
indefinable part of us that is often called the Void. [or Emptiness].

It is the "death" [dissolution] of the individual ego into the
indescribable that characterizes the perennial wisdom. [Or rather]
it is the giving up of identifying with being the individual ego/self.

God, as the mystic understands the term, does not correspond at all
to the commonly held beliefs involving an anthropomorphic deity
gazing down on humanity from on high.  For the mystic, God is
much more subtle and immediate.  In mysticism, God is not a
separate being to us, rather the very "being-ness" that lies
 at the heart of everyone. 

The mystical process, whatever traditions or methods it uses, is
ultimately aimed at breaking through the prison of mortality into

freedom of what both the Buddha and Japanese Zen Master Bankei
called the Unborn.  Living as the Unborn we are no longer tied to
[attached to] a false sense of ego/self... but are liberated as the very
Awareness that is the heart of every being in the universe.

Excerpt from: "Buddha and Religion: Mysticism"
Buddha Space
Read the full article here

This blog also has other interesting topics!

~

Even for a deeply "enlightened" person, the experience of contact
with Flow and Emptiness does not necessarily go uninterrupted.  It
may happen frequently during the day, but not necessarily continuously.
Even a very liberated person still spends a lot of time experiencing
the world in the ordinary way.

What then is the difference between an ordinary person and a liberated
person?  The difference is a matter of freedom.  An "enlightened"
person has the ability to experience self and world as a Source wave.
And when they are not experiencing things that way, they understand
why that is the case. It is just because they are not paying close
attention...

Shinzen Young - The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works

via Markings

Pay attention! :)

~

There is no fixed path to enlightenment.  Enlightenment is not a
destination, a goal, a final resting place at the end of a long journey -

that's the mind's version of enlightenment.  Nobody is the authority
on your path - no teacher, no guru, no religious leader.  Nobody can
tell you the right 'way' for you...

Jeff Foster

via The Dawn Within

~

Photo from the Internet

The Shape of "self" - MM

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

- like contained water -

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

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

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

And fall into the Grace of Silence...

~

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

words that tickle the mind...

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

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

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

~

If only for a moment...

Love your "self"...

Be yourself - as you are

Embrace all of "you"...

As the Infinite Whole...

Mystic Meandering
Feb/Mar/Apr 2018

This poem percolated over a period of 3 months

Namaste
_/\_

Holiness Is Still Here - Annie Dillard & The Dalai Lama

There is no less holiness at this time - as you read this - than there
was the day the Red Sea parted, or that day as Ezekiel was a captive
by the river Chebar, when the heavens opened and he saw visions of
God.  There is no whit less enlightenment under the tree by your street
than there was under the Buddha's "bo" tree.  There is no whit less
might in heaven or on earth than there was the day Jesus said
'Maid, arise' to the centurion's daughter, or the day Peter walked on
water, or the night Mohammed flew to heaven on a horse.  In any
instant the sacred may wipe you with its finger.  In any instant the bush
may flare, your feet may rise.  In any instant you may avail yourself
of the power to love your enemies; to accept failure, slander, or
the grief of loss...

Annie Dillard

For The Time Being

~

We can reject everything else: religion, ideology, all received
 wisdom. But we cannot escape the necessity of
 love and compassion...

This then, is my true religion...  In this sense, there is no need for
 temple or church, for mosque or synagogue, no need for
complicated philosophy, doctrine or dogma.  Our own heart,
our own mind, is the temple.  The doctrine is compassion.

Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter
 if we are learned or unlearned, whether we believe in Buddha or God,
 or follow some other religion or none at all, as long as
we have compassion for others, no matter who or what they are:
ultimately these are all we need.

Tenzin Gyatso - The 14th Dalai Lama

_/\_

~

Photo - from the internet