Embracing my Body - a meandering

My Heart calls to me to stop, to just sit
- sitting meditation - breathing -
resting in the inner Stillness of Being...

My Heart wants to commune with
the Infiniteness of Silence.

It is the Light that brings awareness
to all hidden places...

It is the Spaciousness from which all knowing
and all needed action arises
with clarity...

Heart says:
'just sit'
in the depths of Silence

breathing
with the Infinite Silence -
the inner movement of "The Mystery" -
experiencing the Embrace,
and intelligence of what lives us...

~

But, at 75, I have a body that requires a lot of attention
now, which I must attend to...  Sometimes I get
caught in the ailments of the body - its unexpected fragility;
 the body needs to be embraced,
held in the Heart - like a child...

So I started doing what I lovingly call "Body Holding."
I start with the Heart, laying both hands 
over the Heart - embracing the Heart,
until its tingly static feels calm and at peace.
Then I hold the Solar Plexus;
sometimes with both hands,
sometimes with one hand on the Heart -
until its intense waves of pressure feels smooth and calm.
Then the belly just below the navel, and hold
my hands there.  If my mind has been overactive,
as it usually is, I hold one hand on either side 
of the top of my head and feel the electrical
buzziness of thinking, until it subsides.

All the while being aware
of the miracle of my Humanness and Infiniteness -
as One Rhythm - embracing the body...

~

The Infinite manifests in the finite
The Truth of Existence...

The  Pure Vibration of Existence
in form - in a human body...
We are a whole package
an embodied humanity -
enlivened by the Source of Life.

The body is not separate.
Spirit is in matter...

The Light of our Essence is in
the body...

Our Humanity is Embraced...

Mystic Meandering
2025

Art: Mystic Meandering
 Held

 

Entropy...

The shadows have come to roost
and
everything

is
collapsing

~
~
~
~

The tides and ripples of entropy will continue
until all is returned to Source again ~
the Primordial State:
Pure Life Energy...

Entropy is the way of Existence.
It is a telescoping of everything that is,
back to its original Source/State;
a re-homing of all that has manifested in form;
the conceptual structures,
so that only
the Eternal Essence
remains...

Do not be alarmed by the seeming destruction
of what you have believed to be real.
The false must be released, shed - like dross.
In this there is a sense of chaos, destruction, loss, and death;
the crucible affect;
a state of alchemy,
the refinement of all things in existence

to their Original Nature.

Nothing is really lost in the process.

All is coming Home.

The
Divine
Out-breath
Has
Been
Re-called.

Bring your awareness to the place of Stillness within.
Don't try to create order in the chaos.
But be still and let the chaos pass.
"Order" is found in the Stillness,
in returning to the deep Stillness of Being within.

The healing of mankind
is in the recognition of the
Truth of our Eternal Essence,
Our Infiniteness
Our Primal Light...

Entropy is the crucible of that healing...

Endure it...

The invitation
is to expand our view of reality
and return to the awareness of
our Eternal Being...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
between 2004 and 2006

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Blessings In the Chaos - Jan Richardson

 

To all that is chaotic
in you,
let there come silence.

Let there be
 a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you,

that go with you
even to the 
holy places
but will not
let you rest,
will not let you
hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace
that fashioned you.

Let what distracts you

cease.
Let what divides you
cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes
and demeans,
and let depart
all that keeps you
in its cage.

Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.

Jan Richardson

The human heart continues to dream of a state of wholeness,
a place where everything comes together,
where loss will be made good, where blindness will transform
into vision, where damage will be made whole,
where the clenched question will open in the house of surprise,
where the travails of a life's journey will enjoy a homecoming.
To invoke a blessing is to call some of that wholeness upon a
person now.

Jan Richardson

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Art - Mystic Meandering
Medieval Mandala

Solitude - the furnace of transformation

Solitude is the furnace of transformation.
Without solitude
we remain victims of our society
and continue to be
entangled in the illusions
of the false self...

Henri Nouwen

~

The great omission in American life is solitude;
not loneliness,
for there is an alienation
that thrives most in the midst of crowds,
but [it is] that zone of time and space,
free from outside pressures,
which is the incubator
of the spirit.

Maya Mannes

~

Awareness of the Divine Essence as our
innermost [Being] requires silence...

It is turning toward what lies hidden within -
to the internal - the all-embracing totality
of Divine Being.

It is the way of meditation,
the way of inner silence before Spirit.

Remaining quiet before Spirit is a prayer of silence,
through which we listen to that which secretly speaks
to us in the inner room of the heart.

What is hidden deep in our innermost being
lies in silence and stillness,

and in the silence of the deep
springs the eternal, inexhaustible, original
source of all being.

Where words fall silent,
the everlasting begins...

Wolfgang Kopp
From: Free Yourself Of Everything

~

Spiritual joys come from solitude.
A little while in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given...

To be one with the truth for just a moment
is worth more than the world and life itself...

Rumi

~

Personal Note:

I am not suggesting that we all live a cloistered life of 
solitude and silence!  We're not all meant for that.  I don't
think I could even do that as much as I need solitude and silence.
As I have discovered, solitude is not always the "answer."
But it is  about going deeper within,
listening and hearing the deeper Voice within,
and responding to the inner movement of That.
We can be in solitude while cleaning or creating, or in nature.
And sometimes that inner Voice speaks to us through the voice
of others, as these quotes here did for me.
I merely wish to point out that part of the angst and entropy
we are experiencing personally and in the world is due to
a lack of spending time in solitude and silence,
becoming aware of and getting to know our deeper,
mostly unknown, Core Being.

MM
_/\_

~

There is no effort that we can make to still ourselves.
True stillness comes naturally from moments of solitude
where we allow our minds to settle.  Just as water seeks
its own level, the mind will gravitate toward the holy.
Muddy water will become clear if allowed to stand
undisturbed, and so too will the mind become clear
if it is allowed to be still.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao, Daily Meditations

~

Photos - Mystic Meandering

Housed in the Quiet...

I am grateful for the Quiet in this House
that I dwell in...

Immersing me in the Quiet within;
the deep Stillness, with only the whir of the ceiling fan
and occasional distant sounds that somehow soothe...

It's as if the "House" is not my house -
but houses me anyway -
like the body "housing" my Being,
allowing IT to dwell here,
living in these spaces...

The "House" is still - yet alive,
breathing in and out with the breeze.
I can tell by the way the curtains softly sway...
Its space holds my "things" - that
aren't my "things" - only accumulated
symbols of a life lived: spiritually, creatively,
intuitively, meaningfully -
mementos for someone else's attic someday.

There is exquisite peace in the mind
in these Quiet spaces...

No stories, no ruminating on the past,
No mental fires to put out,
No trying to fix anyone's problems,
No inner conflict,
just the deep Quiet of Being -
communing with the Stillness within me...

Life goes on as it has been
and I remain in the Quiet of my Soul...

Mystic Meandering
April 2024

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Silence Lost?...

Entering "The Silence"
the place of deep inner Silence and Stillness...

Relaxing...

Listening deeply for the Inner Voice.
Following its sound.
Finding its Rhythm in the fluid, instinctive
inner River...

It is the space of The Sacred...

This aware, awake space is curious and unafraid,
wants to engage, to see, to know,
to experience ~

...and be experienced...

This space is deeply compassionate,
deeply open.

...and is waiting to be known...

Pure Awareness
flows through here ~

the life blood of The Sacred.
It flows around the obstacles of my mind,
and moves toward every disturbance,

filling every mind-made crack and crevice,
wanting to meet, soothe, comfort, and embrace.

In "The Silence"
there is only patience, listening
and deep rest...

It is a gentle refuge
that feels like Home...

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 2010

~

Vortex Art - Mystic Meandering
Craypas Oils with fingers
March 2024

~

Personal Note:

In 2010, and for many years, encountering the deep
Silence of Being for me felt like encountering "God",
"The Beloved", "The Sacred", "The Ineffable."

I basked in The Sacred Silence, absorbed, feeling the
sense of Presence, of something vaster than an image of
"God" that I hold in my mind; something which is
ever-present and personal...  The Deep Silence within
is the Heart of Being, "The Mystery" - my refuge.

Over the last 17 months I have "lost" the "sense" of
Intimacy with The Deep Silence within, getting
consumed by the *content* of my current life
experience...

The Great Silence has been my Companion, my Helper,
my Sanctuary, my "Teacher" for many years, and I hope
to regain that inner sense of Communion, to be able to
access the Deeper Dimension of The Silence again,
as this is the only way I will get through this period
in time, with its struggles and challenges...

Intellectually/conceptually I understand that "The Silence"
- however one calls it - "God", "The Beloved", "The Divine",

"Awareness" is always here - never "lost."
What is "lost" is the felt sense of intimacy with "The Silence
of the Sacred", my "Source."
I miss it - like a dear Friend...

But as of this post I do feel it slowly returning...
Or is it me that is returning to the Source :)

MM

March 2024

 

Without Stillness There Can Be No Knowing - Sigurd Olson

The sun was trembling now on the edge of the ridge.
It was alive, almost fluid and pulsating, and as I watched
it sink, I thought that I could feel the earth turning from it,
actually feel its rotation.  Overall was the silence of the
wilderness, that sense of oneness which comes only when
there are no distracting sights or sounds, when we listen
with inward ears and see with inward eyes, when we feel
and are aware with our entire beings rather than our senses.
I thought as I sat of the ancient admonition,
 "Be still and know that I am God," and knew that without
stillness there can be no knowing, without divorcement from
outside influences man cannot know what spirit means.

Sigurd Olson, The Singing Wilderness

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

I turn within...  I am not turning up to the sky - I am not turning
anywhere outside of my own being - I am not looking around for
holy temples or holy teachers or holy books.  I am turning within.

Here am I.  The very seat and source of God [The Divine, or
however one knows "God"] within me.  The abiding place
of God [The Divine].  God is within the inner sanctuary of
my own being.  I am not seeking for my life, what I shall eat or
what I shall drink.  I am not seeking for health, employment 
or opportunities.  I am seeking.....Grace.

Joel S. Goldsmith
Contemplative Mystic

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Fully Human, Fully Divine - Kathleen Knipp

Without ignoring or denying the story of our lives, we
can relax and experience that which is beyond story
through the simple practice of attuning to body and breath.
We can open the lens wider than our dramas and traumas
and reconnect with Source.

We find ourselves in our humanness, our extraordinary
fragility and our extraordinary resiliency - both.  And can,
without denying the story of "my life", the events, the
response I may be having to these events, without ignoring
that, without denying that, we can also open to that which
is beyond this story.  And it is so easy to forget, it's so easy
to have the events of our lives move into the foreground and
just fill the whole field with the dramas and traumas.  And
without ignoring or denying them, we can open the lens
wider and we can, through practice, reconnect with our Source.
It might not be easy.  We do that by beginning to feel our bodies,
feeling each part of the body and experience the sensations,
using all of our senses, while also accessing our inner sanctuary
to feel supported.

Noticing the breath and falling into the rhythmic cycling of
the breath, in a moment of suspension where we can rest.
When life presents its challenges, which it does, we can rest
in the rhythm of the breath - feel its caress.

...[there] may be the sense of slipping below the surface of
turbulence.  Sinking deeper and deeper to an absolute stillness.
Stillness so profound that it is impossible to disturb that which
is beyond time, sinking deeper to the very Source.  The Source
that reveals itself and conceals itself and emerges in infinite
forms... and begin to sense the infinite and the finite expression
as you - this unique set of patterns that form into a sense of me...

Kathleen Knipp
Excerpt from a Yoga Nidra Meditation
Fully Human, Fully Divine

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Still Waters - Tao Daily Meditation

If waters are placid, the moon will be mirrored perfectly.  If
we still ourselves, we can mirror the divine perfectly.  But if
we engage solely in the frenetic activities of our daily 
involvements, if we seek to impose our own schemes on the
natural order, and if we allow ourselves to become absorbed
in self-centered views, the surface of our waters becomes
turbulent.  Then we cannot be receptive to Tao.

There is no effort that we can make to still ourselves.  True
stillness comes naturally from moments of solitude where
we allow our minds to settle.  Just as water seeks its own
level, the mind will gravitate toward the holy.  Muddy water
will become clear if allowed to stand undisturbed, and so
too will the mind become clear if it is allowed to be still.

Deng Ming-Dao, from "365 Tao, Daily Meditations"

with thanks to Heron Dance

 

"Stilling" - Kathleen Knipp

Consider what would feel "stilling", calming, settling.
Many traditions teach "be still" and that stillness can be a
stilling of the body.  Finding a position in which the body
can remain still has the effect of stilling the mind to some
extent. Stilling has an effect on the body as well as the mental
and emotional faculties.  Just as emotions have an effect on
the physical body they can influence the experience of 
emotions and thoughts.  So becoming still is happening on
multiple levels simultaneously. As the process of stilling
ceases, you become more aware of the breath that's always
happening...

As we become more still, the more subtle aspects of our Being
are more evident.  In stillness we have a greater capacity to open
to listening, to pure listening, not with the ears, or listening for
something, or to something.  Just listening - availability.

In stilling the body and stilling the mind we become more
present to that which is - what's here - which can manifest in
an infinite variety of ways.  What's here is ever changing, ever
renewing.

Allowing the body to be as it is gives the emotions and thoughts
the freedom to move and change.

As we become more still, that which is essential becomes
more apparent, that which is most important, the sense of a
"greater purpose", the "feeling" of being drawn/called toward
that which may be beyond our comprehension, beyond explanation,
beyond words.  Yet in the stillness it is felt as a bodily experience.
Yield to it, trust, knowing that it takes care of itself.  Just fall into
the stream, as the flow of life flows through us.

As we become still there may be a sense of ease, softening,
equanimity.  Meet what arises with an attitude of openness and
curiosity.  It is constantly changing and ever evolving.  Sensing
beyond the habits of the mind and surface turbulence there is
great stillness, unfathomable stillness...

Stillness that just is....

Kathleen Knipp
excerpts from a Yoga Nidra Meditation

original title - "be still"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

"Sanctuary" - a meandering...

The word "Sanctuary" arose in answer to a question I asked
"The Universe": what is needed now? - with all the emotional
chaos I've been experiencing in life lately - especially the last
6 weeks.  And since I won't be packing up and moving to a
monastery any time soon, I wondered how I could "create"
this "sanctuary" that is required for my well-being - not as an
escape, but as respite for the Soul...

I ended up creating a "Sanctuary" of sorts in our bedroom
several months ago in anticipation of our current "visitor"...

Laying in the "sanctuary" on the bed creates a wonderful
space for rest and silence and solitude, when I can get there,
usually not until late at night.  Laying there I also notice
body sensations - the residual effects of daily engagement
with the "visitor", heaviness and tightness of the gut, chest
and throat; muddled mind, and aching muscles from left
over resistance, and tightness of the jaw; vestiges of the
mental and emotional gymnastics to keep one step ahead
of the "visitor's" manipulations to get her latest "fix": faking
a toothache, and other assorted games, to get what she wants...
Endless wanting...  Endless games...

In the "Sanctuary" however, everything is allowed and 
embraced, seen and acknowledged: the fear, the anxiety,
the anger, the sadness, and even the "visitor" - as the
Presence of Silence envelopes them all.  In "Sanctuary"
they are only waves upon the deeper Ocean of Life

In the "Sanctuary" of inner Stillness I asked:
What is the deeper need?

I listened deeply for the Voice of Silence that always
whispers the Truth...

"Sanctuary" was the reply once again.
"Rest in the inner Sanctuary,
aware of everything: thoughts, feelings, sensations,
body; the pulse of Silence, and the Rhythm of Life
running  through them all."

I relaxed a bit, held in the Infinite that consumes the
past, present and future; experiencing the felt sense
of Presence once again - at least in that moment...

"Sanctuary"

"Sanctuary" is a place of deep nourishment for me and has
been difficult to access lately.  It is a place to incubate, to open
to the depths of the Soul and explore the Ineffable. It offers me
an invitation to turn around, to return to the inner cosmos of
Being; to rest from the thinking mind, and experience the
Primordial Rest and Solace of Silence and Solitude - 

simply Being.  In tune to  some extent with the Inner Cosmos
of deep Silence and Stillness.

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Meditating Monk,
Mandala Art - Cathedral Windows
and OM painting

"Window Sitting"...

I used to have a "practice" that I called "window sitting", where
I would sit in a chair at an open window late at night, leaning on
the windowsill, pressing as close to the screen as possible, breathing
in the night air and the silence.  Gazing out the window into the
night was calming and soothing, heightening my awareness of
the Stillness, the Silence that permeates everything.  It is tangible -
almost magical.  It was a wonderful experience - basking in the 
silence of the night, listening deeply to the sounds of the quiet, smelling
the night air; experiencing the soft aliveness of Nature; opening
into the Silence at the Core of my Being; feeling the Rhythm of
Existence.  I don't remember why I stopped, and may revive it
again.  It is a space where I become more *aware* of the Inner
Landscape as well.  I scribbled notes on scratch paper in near
darkness when Silence sang to my heart.  Every fiber of my
being swooned for this delicious nightly rendezvous with The
Silence of Being.  I am ready to hear that melody once again.

Here's a "scribble" from my first night of "window sitting"
back in May 2010.  The window calls to me again.

Nothing in nature is struggling...
Everything is at peace...
Everything in nature is the peace of the Silent Stream -
the Eternal Stillness...

The trees are peaceful.
The plants in the neighbor's garden are at peace.
The grass sleeps.

Everything is exquisitely - peaceful...

I feel myself returning to what I know to be true -
to the authentic Stillness of Being within,
allowing myself to be touched by this Stillness...
Befriending the Silence...

Recognizing this deep space of Silence as Home...

There is a feeling of intimacy,
as this still Silence wraps itself around me,
embraces everything that is,
infusing everything that lives...
It is so palpable, so Real...

Basking in the Pure Silence of the Night -
just listening,
just experiencing,
just Be-ing - Stillness

Mystic Meandering
May 2010

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Doorways to the Sacred - Frank Ostaseski

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

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

Frank Ostaseski

From - the Five Invitations

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Celestial Symphony...

 The Cosmos plays a continuous symphony of Silence
that only Inner Stillness can hear...
We have forgotten the music of the
Celestial Songs
that sound the stellar light language of 
Love ~

Our remembrance lies hidden deep in
the cave of the Heart - untouched...

The unspoken language of the Heart
longs to be opened - awakened...
The dormant vibration calls to us,
to resonate with the tones of Creation

in the Space of Silence ~

Listen deeply and hear the
Celestial Symphony
within the Stillness
of the Heart ~

Follow the cosmic waves,
the pulsing sound of Life,
into the Vastness
of Silence ~

Find your own resonance
with The Rhythm
in your Heart ~

~ and know ~

we are all a tone of Love
playing our uniqueness in the 
Chord of Life,
reverberating with the
Sound of Source ~

Mystic Meandering
August 1, 2001

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Mandala Art digitally altered

Insistent Grace - Stephen Levine & Ivan Granger

 There is a grace approaching
that we shun as much as death,
it is the completion of our birth.

It does not come in time,
but in timelessness
when the mind sinks into the heart
and we remember.

It is an insistent grace that draws us
to the edge and beckons us surrender
safe territory and enter our enormity.

We know we must pass
beyond knowing
and fear the shedding.

But we are pulled upward
none-the-less
through forgotten ghosts
and unexpected angels,
luminous.

And there is nothing left to say
but we are That.

Stephen Levine
Original title: "Millennium Blessing"

via Death Deconstructed

~

Commentary by Ivan Granger

Most of us spend our entire lives avoiding that inner opening.
Most of the time it is a quiet itch at the back of the awareness
we squirm and turn away from.  And when it really presses
on us, it can inspire terror, as if we were facing death.

It is the death of our old world view, the death of patterned
awareness, the death of our limited notion of who we are.  All
we thought ourselves to be stops - and so it is a sort of death.
To feel that grace approaching, to welcome it, requires a sort
of courage.

It requires courage, and surrender.  We have this idea that
spiritual opening is a terrible effort... No...  That unfolding
wants to occur within us.  The only effort is to let go of our
endless strategies to halt the process.  We all feel it, a gentle
prodding to let the heart open, to know ourselves truly, to be
present and radiate ourselves into the world.  It is insistent,
trying to happen within us.  Call it grace, if you like.  The
question presented to us: Do we courageously accept the
invitation or not?

For those of us who live in contemporary society, how hard
it is to stop the ticking of the clock?  From such an early age
we internalize the sense of time and progress and deadlines.
Yet, in doing so, we forget that these are all just concepts,
just one way to understand the unfolding of being and
experience.  That sense of time is a powerful tool for doing
and accomplishment, but it isn't inherently "real."  It doesn't
have much to do with who or what we are.  There is a flow of
days and months, but they are the surface current of a much
deeper timelessness.

It's fascinating how we use the hyperactivity of thought to
define the world, to frame our perception of the world, and
in some ways to limit our notion of the world.  The other
thing about thought:  It creates time.  When thought settles
down, we discover timelessness.  And as the poet says, the
mind comes to rest, not in the head, but in the heart.

And we remember.  It is not through intellection but through
stillness that we remember.  Look at the word "remember."
Re-member.  To remember is to finally see how apparently
separated reality actually fits together in a single body.
Discursive thought can only ever examine pieces of the whole.
To remember is to have the full vision of Wholeness, as
things actually are.  But this vision is found in timelessness
and stillness, through the quiet mind unfiltered.

Ivan Granger
Poetry Chaikhana

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

A Quiet Spirit - Henry David Thoreau

 When I detect a beauty in any of the recesses of nature,
I am reminded by the serene and retired spirit in which it
requires to be contemplated, of the inexpressible privacy of life -
how silent and unambitious it is.
The beauty there in mosses will have to be considered from
the holiest, quietest nook.

My truest, serenest moments are too still for emotions...

~

To be calm, to be serene!
There is the calmness of the lake when there is not a breath
of wind; there is the calmness of a stagnant ditch.  So it is
with us.
Sometimes we are clarified and calmed healthily, as we never 
were before in our lives, not by an opiate, but by some 
unconscious obedience to the all-just laws,
so that we become like a still lake of purest crystal
and without an effort our depths are revealed to ourselves.

~

I awoke into a music which no one by me heard.
Whom shall I thank for it?  I feel it a blessing.
To the sane man the world is a musical instrument.
The very touch affords an exquisite pleasure.

Henry David Thoreau

taken from a journal entry, June 22, 1851

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

What Remains - Danna Faulds

Despite illness of body and mind,
in spite of blinding despair
or habitual belief,
who you are is whole.

Let nothing separate you from the Truth.
The soul, illumined from within,
longs to be known...

Undying, untouched by fire, or
the storms of life,
there is a place inside
where stillness and abiding peace reside.

You can ride the breath to go there.

Despite doubt or hopeless turns of mind,
you are not broken.

Spirit surrounds, embraces,
fills you from the inside out.

Release everything
that isn't your true nature.
What's left?

the fullness of light...

Danna Faulds
Yoga Practitioner
From the poem" "Birthright"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Living "Sabbatically"...

Over the last several years I've lamented about wanting
to carve out a "sabbatical life" - you know, living a monk's
life :) - spending my days in Silence and Solitude, meditating,
continuously aware of the Divine Presence; living life from
the deep Inner Rhythm within; from the Silence of Being;
not *in* silence, necessarily, but living from the deep pool
of Stillness within and not be driven by the requirements
of daily living.

And yet, in reality, I am continually pulled outward into
the requirements of daily living with its ups and downs;
preoccupations with family and relationship, including
helping to care for my mother for 8 1/2 years, until her death
this March;  and then the practical aftermath of settling her
affairs, which still isn't over; many times not meditating at all
due to exhaustion, as well as dealing with my own health.
I am often weary of existence...

But - that's just how life is...  It's like that for a lot of us;
dealing with what we have to deal with...

Sometimes I think I must be delusional to think that it is
possible to live according to the Inner Rhythm, focusing on
the Inner Life.  I am just an ordinary person wanting to know
the Truth of Existence in the waning years of my existence here...

It's not so much that I want to "take" a "sabbatical" *from*

life - well maybe sometimes - :) as I want to find a way to *live*

"sabbatically" - living a quiet life, unencumbered, according to
my own natural rhythms, and the deeper Rhythm within.  I don't
see it as an escape from life, but a call to a way of being in the
world, and yet it eludes me most of the time...

When I ride the waves of this Inner Rhythm in meditative Silence,
I can feel the chaotic surface waves dissipate as I fall into
Sacred Silence - and rest.  At times it is easy to make the distinction
between life as it is and the *idea* of "sabbatical life" - creating a
separation between the two where there is none.  In fact, it is more
one's orientation to life and living that matters - one's relationship
with life as it is - and with "The Ineffable Mystery"...
I'm still working on that balance...

I know that ultimately it's not either/or, but both/and:
living in acceptance of life as it is - surrendering to where Life
wants to flow - reflecting the wholeness of Being that we are,
and living fully from a deep, abiding *awareness* of the Sacred
Silence that perpetually flows through us - and - the awareness
that it's really all "The Mystery" living ItSelf out here anyway...

So I may have romanticized the "sabbatical life", but it still
calls to me.  Silence and Solitude feel like a very deep and
vital need - like breathing.
The Silence is Home.

The "key" seems to be - to be willing to face into the realities
of living life as it is, the requirements of daily living - while
at the same time being deeply *aware* of the deeper Rhythm
within; not having any preconceived ideas of what "sabbatical
life" should look like, but being open to The Flow of the Inner
Life - while learning to ride the waves of daily life as they come.
They are not in opposition to each other, but flow together.

~

Mystics are people who quest for wisdom or for God,
[or for the Truth of Existence, etc.], not in the world of
externals but in the microcosm of their own soul.  There
they allow themselves to be fully present to the experiences
of a deep-felt joy or sorrow, or beauty or suffering, of gain
or loss, so that these opposing poles might in time reconcile
and grow and ripen into a harmonious whole - which wells
up as peace that defies all rational explanation...

Anne Mari Kidder, Editor of
Etty Hillesum: Essential Writings

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Silence Heals the Brain - Azriel ReShel

The value of silence is felt by everyone at some point in their life.
Silence is comforting and nourishing...  It opens you up to
inspiration, and nurtures the mind, body and soul.  Meanwhile
the madness of the noisy world is drowning out our creativity,
our inner connection [to Source] and hampering our resilience.
Science is now showing that silence may be just what we need
to regenerate our exhausted brains and bodies.

Studies show that noise has a powerful physical effect on our
brains, causing elevated levels of stress hormones.  Sound
travels to the brain as electrical signals via the ear.  Even
when we are sleeping these sound waves cause the body to
react and activate the amygdala, the part of the brain associated
with memory and emotion, leading to the release of stress
hormones.  So, living in a consistently noisy environment will
cause you to experience extremely high levels of these
harmful hormones.

The brain recognizes silence and responds powerfully...
Many meditation teachers and practitioners can attest to this.
 The brain recognizes silence.  Two hours of silence per day
prompted cell development in the hippocampus, the brain
region related to the formation of memory, involving the senses.
And when you are in an environment with lower levels of
sensory input, the brain can 'recover' some of its cognitive
abilities.

While noise creates stress, silence relieves stress and tension
in the brain and body.  Silence helps our cognitive resources,
while noise makes us lose our concentration, decreases
cognitive powers and motivation, as well as overall brain
functioning.  The ancient spiritual masters have known this
all along; silence heals, silence takes us deeply into ourselves,
and silence balances the body and mind.

The healing benefits of nature and stillness are well documented,
but now we can add to this quest for health and well-being,
the nourishment of our brains.  The simple, yet ancient
experience of silence could just be the healing balm we need
to quell our crazy modern lifestyle...

Azriel ReShel
Excerpt from an article entitled:
Silence is Vital for our Brains Well-Being
at https://upliftconnect.com/

via - No Mind's Land

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Inside a large seashell