The Inner Cosmos...

Give no regard to the voice of Fear that
divides and conflicts you;
whether from within or without...

Walk as if the Divine were in your shoes,
walking you -

The Inner Cosmic Divine;
undivided by earthly "tribes"
of culture and religion, and politics;
earthly boundaries;
or the divided mentations of
mediocre minds...

Fall into the Inner Rhythm of 
the Universal Eternal Energy,
the ubiquitous Pulse
inherently everywhere at all times,
fluidly in and through life.

Do not listen to the 10,000 teachings
in your head that you have
accumulated over the years,
all trying to tell you what is true,
which way to go,
and how to be.

Just sit, be still, breathe, and listen...

for the Inner Cosmic Rhythm,
until you feel the
Inner Cosmos
move
you

Fall into the Deep Internal Silence of the
Inner Cosmos,
beyond artificial boundaries and lines,
beyond the bluster of buffoons and bullies
with mouthfuls of meaningless words....

Just Breathe....

Wait....

for the movement of the
Inner Cosmos to lead you...

Then you will know what is true,
which way to go,
and
how to Be...

Mystic Meandering
2017

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

looking into a blue glass partially
filled with water...
looks like a window
with city lights,
or the night sky...

It's magic  :)

 

Fragmented Culture - J. Krishnamurti

We have broken up the earth as yours and mine -
your nation, your flag and his flag, this particular religion
and the religion of the distant man.  And for it we fight
and wrangle, and the politicians exult in their power
to maintain division, never looking at the world as a whole.
They haven't gotten the global mind.  They never feel nor
perceive the immense possibility of having no nationality,
no division...  They maintain a tribal attitude towards life.
They do not have a mind that steps beyond the division
of race, culture, and the religions that man has invented.

We carry on like machines with our tiresome daily routine.
How eagerly the mind accepts a patter of existence, and
how tenaciously it clings to it!  As by a driven nail, the
mind is held together by idea, and around that idea it 
lives and has its being.  The mind is never free, for it is
always anchored within the radius of its own center.
It is lost in fear...

Fear is not of the unknown,
but of the loss of the known.

One wonders how long it will take for man to learn to live
on this earth without wrangles, rows, wars and conflict.
Man has created the conflict by his division of the earth,
linguistically, culturally, superficially.  One wonders how
long man, who has evolved through so many centuries of
pain and grief, anxiety and pleasure, fear and conflict, will
take to live a different way of life.

J. Krishnamurti

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

A Call to Awareness - Mystic Meandering

Humanity is living out the drama of the "original wound" of
 mankind, where we "fell asleep", numbed, fractured, fragmented
 from our original innate Beingness - our Original Self.
(Some call it our "Divine" or True Nature).
That Original Being became seen as something separate that
mankind continually tries to reconnect with - instead of
knowing it is already within us.

The shadow drama that we live in is a play of the split off
parts of consciousness - the splits in consciousness due to the
"original wound"; a perceived separation from the Essence of
who we are: our Original Being...

We fractured into illusions of self, disguises, rather than
retaining the truth of who we are - our true untouched
Beingness.  We fractured into a life of suffering, pain and
struggle.

The "original wound" is a deep hole in the psyche of man -
the dark heart of mankind, a split in the Innocence of the Heart,
creating a shadow of the Real.

The "original wound" holds the phantoms and ghosts of pain
and suffering that separated into a shadow self, a shadow belief
in separateness, disempowerment, and victimization.  Fear and
anger wield power from the shadows.

However, there is no real power in the shadow.  It is a false power
based on false beliefs about ourselves and others that are only a
shadow of who we really are...

"The Shadow" aspect is just a mist, an illusion, an "imprint" in the
psyche of man; a consciousness like everything else.  It is the
consciousness spawned from the belief in separateness...
A belief in separateness creates a consciousness of darkness and
fear.  The mind of man functions from this consciousness.  A
consciousness of separateness dominates our existence - creating
suffering.  The fear feeds on fear creating more darkness.
But it is only a consciousness.  It is not real.  It manifests a
particular reality of darkness that you believe in.

But the consciousness of darkness is only a thin layer, a thin veil.
It creates much dysfunction, but it really has no power to sustain.
It gives the illusion of power to seemingly rob you of your Essence,
which frightens you.

You have become caught in the net of fear, thinking it is real.  You
can emerge through this layer of darkness by becoming aware of
the Consciousness of your own Original Beingness -  "The Divine"
within you.  This consciousness of awareness creates a new reality,
a new consciousness.  Whatever your consciousness is, that is your
reality.  So shift the consciousness that you now hold onto and
 create a whole new reality.

Love creates love. Fear creates fear. Hate creates hate.

Be mindful of what you create and how you create.
Don't create from the wounds of fear and separation.
Create from the Essence of your Being -
from the deeper Rhythms of your True Being...

The gift of "the shadow" is a call to Awareness,
a call to a change in consciousness...

~

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
c. 2004-2006

These writings came when I was practicing sitting meditation
nearly 2 hours a day.  I don't remember what was going on
during this time period that would have allowed these words
to come.  But I wanted to share these now as they seemed
relevant and appropriate to what we are all experiencing at
the moment, a "darkness" of mankind, "the shadow" aspect
of mankind, the real virus, that has emerged in so many ways...
Hopefully from this double pandemic, that has the ability to
suffocate, will be birthed a new consciousness...

It is our wake up call...

Namaste
_/\_

MM

~

Art - Mystic Meandering
June 4, 2020

a moment of anger and frustration,
experiencing my "shadow self" :)

(sorry for the glare)

Race and Walls - Kendi and O'Donohue

What a powerful construct race is - powerful enough to consume us.
But for all that life-shaping power, race is a mirage, which doesn't
lessen its force.  We are what people see ourselves as,
whether what we [they] see exists or not.
What people see in themselves and others has meaning and
manifests itself in ideas and actions and policies....

Race is a mirage but one that we do well to *see*,
while never forgetting it is a mirage, never forgetting that
it's the painful light of racist power that makes the mirage.

Ibram X. Kendi

from: How To Be An Antiracist

A provocative and fascinating look
at how to end racism in the Western mind,
and to see that beyond race we are all fully
human.

~

Your complicity with other people's images and expectations
of you allows them to box you in completely.  It takes a long
time to recognize how some key people on your life's
journey exercise so much control over your mind, behavior,
and actions.  Through the image they project onto you
through the expectations they have of you, they claim you.

Most of this is subtle and works in the domain of the implicit
and unstated subtext; it is, of course, all the more powerful
for not being direct and obvious.  When you become conscious
of these powerful builders and their work of housing you in,
something within you refuses to comply; you begin to send
back the building materials.

Such projection and expectation is based on their fear and the
need to control.

John O'Donohue
from: Eternal Echoes

~

Photo from the internet

Hate - Baldwin, Kornfield & Seng T'san

I imagine one of the reasons that people cling
to their hate (prejudice and racism) so stubbornly
is because they sense that once hate is gone,
they will be forced to deal with
their own pain...

James Baldwin

~

We project our fears and hate onto others
because we can't look honestly
at ourselves...

Jack Kornfield
Buddhist Teacher

~

When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction, however
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinion for or against anything.

To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the minds essential peace is disturbed....

Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
that we do not see the true nature of things.

Seng-T'san

Chinese Poet

~

Photo from the internet

The Troll in the Mind - Mark Nepo

We spend so much time
anticipating what will happen next that we miss
the whisper of Heaven that unfolds wherever we are.

Though I have known and survived
many forms of pain,
fear is the troll in the mind
that anticipates more.

And just as a loud noise prevents us
from finding the peace in the center of silence,
fear prevents us from finding
the inch of Heaven in the center
of whatever moment we are in.

Yet, no matter how much I've been through
and how much I've learned,
I can't stop the wave of anticipation.
No one can.

It is part of being human.

Mark Nepo
(a cancer survivor)

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
 A dried rose petal with one eye
at the top and a big schnozz.
Looks like a troll to me :)

Facing Into the Light...

Facing into the Sun for my daily
dose of warmth and light,
weeks of information overload
and overwhelm regarding
"the pandemic" has taken its toll
on my psyche...

Waking each morning
wondering - am I going to "catch it"?
watching for the signs;
wondering - will there be enough food
in the stores to last the *months* they
say it will take for the virus to dissipate?
What would be the "best" day to go
foraging for food in our big box
grocery stores, where food once
filled the shelves and cases, but
which has become sparse in the
panic of the pandemic?
What day would the shelves be
stocked the most - with the least
people to navigate?
One doesn't know these things now...

Who would have thought we would
become hunters and gatherers again,
searching for our daily bread...

Ominous...

But...

Today is not a day for mental discursions
of what I cannot control;
nor for fear of the unknown.
I must turn, instead, within
to the Sanity of my Inner Being,
and *stay* there, shelter there;
"stay home" in the Core of my Being,
if I can find "Her" again;
feel "Her" Presence, "Her" Light.

But it was not "She" who wandered off,
or was deluged with the collective fear
of the pandemic.
It was only my mind that fell into
the scare...

The Beauty of the World still exists.
The Earth is still suspended - stable - in space;
rotating around the warmth of the Sun
that lights us daily.
The Universe still sings its song
- uncalamitous -

ever-present in its
*essential* movement.

So I thank the Luminous Universe for being
- for perspective.

For I am not "earthbound" in this madness,
but am part of a celestial movement of stars and
planets dancing together, where the Hush of The
Mystery was once experienced viscerally in a moment
of Pure Silence...

I remember...

It fills my being and warms me to the core,
quelling the fear all the way to the heart,
piercing the veils of ignorance that covered
my mind.

Facing into the Sun, absorbing its warmth,
begins to ignite the Light within.

Facing into the Light within, I am prepared to
move through the day - unfettered by the
unessentials of the madness around me.

At peace in the Celestial Movement of Life...

Mystic Meandering
March 29, 2020

10:10 am

~

Thank you to Alain Joly at The Dawn Within
for the spark of inspiration that ignited this poem...

~

Photo - the Flammarion Engraving
from the Internet

Fear - The Drug of Despair...

I keep trying to change the all-consuming music
running in my head ~ coronavirus ~
and listen for the soothing tones of
the deeper Inner Rhythm that will subdue
the fear of the body-mind in theses
stressful times...

But now the sun is almost past the eve,
and the collective shadow has overtaken me,
with thoughts of the state the world is in now...
Sometimes losing perspective, the bigger picture...
Unable to see beyond the maze mentality...
Losing touch with the deeper Music within...

Fearing my own vulnerability,
as well as that of humankind.
Startled by scarcity of necessities.
Shocked by man's unkindness to man -
hoarding...

Triggered by a virus...

Exposing man's darker side:

its selfishness, arrogance and greed;
its fear of the unknown,
and death;

Not Buddha Nature...
Not Compassion,

nor Christ Consciousness -
but the primal brain of fear and
survivalist consumption...

Fear - the drug of despair...

The new "normal"...

We have to change the music...

Mystic Meandering
March 15, 2020

Photo via The Beauty We Love

of Being - Denise Levertov

I know this happiness
is provisional:

the looming presences -
the great suffering, great fear -

withdraw only
into peripheral vision:

but ineluctable this shimmering
of wind in the blue leaves:

this flood of stillness
widening the lake of the sky:

this need to dance,
this need to kneel:

this mystery:

Denise Levertov

via - Being Silently Drawn

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Zeitgeist...

In the first minutes of dawn,
at the edge of the dark of night,
I awake...

Inexplicable dread overtakes me...

.....a dream?

...or the zeitgeist of our time?

~

In the dark hours of time,
a "virus" slipped in;
a failing, narcissistic system;
a divisive ideology,
resurrected from former shadow
minds of tribal hatred,
attempting to invade and isolate
through the power of greed and
self-interest...

Turning us
against ourselves with its myopic lens,
demeaning and deriding
"other" cultures,
"other" races,
"other" religions
"other" peoples -
while pretending
to protect its own...

The "virus" imposes boundaries on a boundaryless world,
polarizing unity into fragments
that shatter,
creating the current paradigm
of Ignorance,
Paranoia,
Protectionism,
Isolationism,
Narcissism,
Nationalism,
Fear and Violence.

But those who know the beauty of true Light,
endure the false light,
knowing that the mindless "virus" cannot
shatter the pristine Light of a radiant Cosmos,
for it cannot be rent in two
by the darkness of ignorant minds
whose pretense and perniciousness
would even attempt to destroy
what cannot be destroyed:

The Eternal, Infinite Light and movement of
a Grand Cosmic Mystery
with its own Rhythms and Purposes
unknown
by
feeble, darkened minds;
by the ineptness of fake power.

Mystic Meandering
January 23, 2017

~

Zeitgeist - the defining spirit of the time, or culture.

~*~

Yet another mass school shooting Weds here in the US,
moving me to tears - children killing children once again;
and what humanity is doing to itself is heartbreaking...
The more my heart opens, the more I feel the emotional
pain of those who have been traumatized for life by
the shadow side of humanity.

May the Infinite Spirit of Love heal our
wounded hearts and help us to endure our
wounded society...

_/\_

Namaste

~

Photo - I don't remember what this is a picture of
but it seemed fitting...

A Wish for the World - Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear...
Where knowledge is free...
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls...
Where words come out from the depths of Truth...
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit...
Where the mind is led forward...
into ever-widening [inclusive] thought and action...
Let my country [the world] awake...

Excerpt from Verse 35 of the Gitanjali
by Rabindranath Tagore

~

Only the inspired should make decisions
that effect the lives of many,

never a man who has not held God in his arms
and become the servant of unity...

St. Teresa of Avila
(1515-1582)

Culture of Fear - Krishnamurti

We have broken up the earth as yours and mine -
your nation, your flag and his flag,
this particular religion and
the religion of the distant man.
And for it we fight and wrangle,
and the politicians exult in their power
to maintain this division,
never looking at the world as a whole.
They haven't gotten the global mind.
They never feel nor perceive the immense
possibility of having no nationality,
no division...
They maintain the tribal attitude
towards life.
They do not have a mind that
steps beyond the division of race,
culture, and the religions
that man has invented.

We carry on like machines with our
tiresome daily routine.
How eagerly the mind accepts a
pattern of existence,
and how tenaciously it clings to it!
As by a driven nail, the mind is
held together by idea,
and around that idea it lives
and has its being.
The mind is never free,
for it is always anchored
within the radius
of its own center.
It is lost in fear...

Fear is not of the unknown,
but of the loss of the known.

One wonders how long it will take
for man to learn to live on this earth
without wrangles, rows, wars and conflict.
Man has created the conflict by his division
of the earth, linguistically, culturally, superficially.
One wonders how long man,
who has evolved through so many centuries of
pain and grief, anxiety and pleasure,
fear and conflict,
will take to live a different way of life.

J. Krishnamurti

(his words, my format)

This is a newspaper clipping from the Boston Globe from the late 1960's
It reads:

There is no mind more open or
heart more willing to love than
that of a young child.
But teach a child hatred and
prejudice and the mind begins to
close, the heart to harden. Until
finally, a bigot is born.
Sometimes what we don't teach
our children is more important
that what we do.

Learning to Live Together.
The Unfinished Task.