Sacred Outrage - Rupert Spira

 

...look behind the resistance you feel to what is happening
 [in this country, the world].
See if the resistance comes from Love of Truth...  If it does then
 it is not an egoic resistance to what is.
It is Sacred Outrage because you know that things are
not in line with Love.

Love is God's Being [Pure Beingness] shining through us.
We are the modulation of that Infinite Being...
Everyone has something unique to offer...
Each person will be motivated to express Love and understanding
in different ways - some as activists, some as teachers, writers,
artists, poets, doctors, nurses, etc...
Don't inhibit your action with pseudo non-dual reasoning.
Resistance at the relative level of existence is necessary.
Ask: What is my resistance motivated by - fear and neuroses,
or Love and Intelligence...
Act from the place of Love and understanding.
Engage...
 from the Heart.

Rupert Spira

~

We weep when light does not reach our hearts.
We wither like fields if someone doesn't
rain their kindness upon us.

Meister Eckhart

~

Photo from the Internet

Just Below Our Fear - Stephen Levine

There are words in us
that don't know how
to get to the surface.
Words hidden in our marrow
afraid to show themselves
concerned the world will end
it they are uttered.
Words that cross
the river of pain
that wish to tell the world
that love is hidden
just below our fear.

And some of these words
sometimes find their way
to live among us
in the trust to hear them,
words that spin our compass...
words we never trusted to exist.

Words hide in the strangest places,
under stones, in clouds,
in a moment of a friend's kindness,
in a moment of generosity;
in poems beginning their first line
climbing happily into the heart singing,
how close the moon comes
when we trust the night.
Words even hide in other words.
Mercy hides in the hesitant pause,
questioning how much can be trusted
to the tongue, to the pen,
invoking their true voice
rise to the surface
to sing their original song...

Stephen Levine

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Wisdom in the Storms - a meandering

Not everyone makes it through... and what tries to kill you
takes a lot of energy that makes you tired and anxious, and
might be better used elsewhere...

Rebecca Solnit
Recollections of My Nonexistence

~

What I call "unnecessary storms" are the ones that are created
by those in your life who have refused to take responsibility
for their own lives - whose life choices continue to impact you
in a negative way.  They can kill your spirit, your creativity
and your motivation, as well as drain your life energy, affecting
your health and well-being.  I almost drowned in another person's
addiction through "care taking", "rescuing", and enabling,
discovering how easy it is to get entangled in their "unnecessary
storms" - their crises, their dramas - that they create through their
addictive behavior; blaming you for their circumstances; calling
you names.  And no matter what you do for them, it is never
enough... (Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.)

The "unnecessary storms" keep you focused on "the elephant in
the room" - keeping things in chaos and stress.  How interesting
that they have the power to do that - to distract and disrupt your
life rhythm - even your inner life - in their boredom, needing
your attention, time, and presence - in their self-induced
helplessness....

And yet... I have found there is wisdom gained in enduring these
"unnecessary storms."

A friend once told me, it is important to follow the wisdom of 
compassion, and I would add - kindness and even empathy.  We
all have our "addictions", even"spiritual" ones, and a common
dysfunction, which the Buddhists call conditioning.  The Hindus
call it Samskaras - the psychological wounds or imprints in the
mind, or innate behavior inclinations.  As a Professional advised:
Be compassionate - yes - but don't get into the water and drown
with them.  Don't get sucked into their vortex.

So I've had to learn to listen to and trust my inner instincts and
intuition, the whispers of the Heart...

Not to judge, but to find a way to relate in as compassionate way
as possible - seeing their pain, and reasons for their addiction;
often using humor when needing to set boundaries.  I recently
moved into acceptance mode: accepting them and their life
experiences as part of a larger Tapestry - a diverse human
tapestry inclusive of all life experiences - each expressing a
unique piece - even the darker ones.  I dropped the old, hard
stances, (as Alanon and CODA use) and my old roles; learning
the hard lesson to accept who they are and their path - not trying
to control their behavior - or what I think "should" be happening.

But - I also have to remember to step back, to not go down the
rabbit hole with them, but find ways to compassionately take
care of myself, tending to my own soul and sanity - putting on
some music and dancing, finding my natural rhythm again -
my own flow, freeing myself from entanglement in the
"unnecessary storms."

_/\_

MM

I share this personal meandering in the hopes that it might
strike a chord with those who might be experiencing
"unnecessary storms."

Even mystics have messy lives :)

May we somehow find our way through them...

Blessings

~

 

Quantum Strangeness - Fred LaMotte

Here's another secret of quantum strangeness from the annals
of the quark.  All events, as to their quiddity, are equally
significant.

The daring leap of a tree frog from the spigot of your garden
hose, to her sanctuary in a pot of begonias, is as important as
the birth of a new political party, or an earthquake in Brooklyn.

The universe is not just as you see it, but as the frog sees it.
Your attention magnifies a breath of August breeze into a
hurricane; but for the frog, all human catastrophes are as
weightless clouds in a distant sky.  They pass soundlessly
overhead.

Why do you assume that your chief concern should be mine?
The liberal wants to convince me, the conservative wants to
convert me.  Neither allows me to create myself.  But that is
one task I can do better than anyone else.  Let me follow the
wondrous river of my own interest over all its rocks, through
the rough waters of responsibility and consequence, and I will
learn my lesson much better than you can teach me.

A Greek philosopher said, 'Be kind: everyone you meet is
fighting a great battle.'  A Jewish carpenter said, 'Judge not,
lest ye be judged.'  Here's another piece of advice: if you want
to see radical transformation in humanity, stop trying to change
each other.

Have you ever walked the labyrinth?  One who seems closest
to the goal may suddenly find their way veering far off.  When
two pilgrims pass, they don't know who is nearing the center,
and who is drifting further from it.  Compassion is precisely
this not knowing.  All they can do is bow...

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Purpose

 What is my purpose in life? I asked "the Void"

Your problem is that you equate 
your purpose with goal-based
achievement.

The Universe isn't interested in your achievements...

Just your heart...

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

author unknown

~

On any given day it's not about the goal.
it's about the experience of living...

of simply being...

author unknown

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Soul Breath...

 Late at night,
my mind sits at the edge of these chaotic times...

And, despite the turmoil of "life as it is" ~

I become aware of the deep Silence of the Soul ~

and fall into the Rhythm of Its Breath;
sinking ever more deeply
into timelessness beyond time;
letting go of the distressing thoughts,
just following the Rhythm of Stillness...

the Breath of the Soul...

I hear the sound of the ceiling fan
breathing its own whirling rhythm...
feeling the breeze of its breath
gently move the strands of my hair...

Just breathing...

And "I" am suddenly "gone"...
unaware of myself ~

slipping off the edge
into slumber;
lost in Soul Breath
until just before the rising
of the next day...

~

Upon awakening

I breathe a sigh of relief,
sensing a shift,
and welcome
the turning of the page...

Letting go of the suffocating contractions
of the collective dis-ease;
I breathe...
hoping that stability and kindness
will make its way across the land again...

Keep breathing through...

Mystic Meandering
Nov 6&7, 2020

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Meeting Ourselves with Kindness - Stephen Levine

 When we turn toward our pain instead of away from it,
self-mercy enters those parts of ourselves we had closed off,
withdrawn from, or abandoned to feelings of impotence.  When
it seems there is nowhere else to turn, when all our prayers and
strategies [practices] seem to be of little avail, something deeper
arises: a mercy that leads toward the heart.

Without mercy (a quality of loving kindness that is the tender
acceptance of even that which might be otherwise unacceptable) as an
alternative to holding our pain, we abandon those most painful
memories within us to harsh judgment and merciless reflection.

The appearance of mercy ,...compassion... is absolutely
unmistakable as we learn to open into that which once was
closed off.

Memories may always be bittersweet, but me may also find
peace flickering at the edges of what once caused us agitation.
Healing, then, becomes not the absence of pain, but the
increased ability to meet it with mercy instead of loathing.
No one can wholly remove our pain.  All we can do is increase
the spaciousness of mind and heart in which it is allowed to
decompress.

We meet ourselves with simple kindness that confounds our
addiction to critical self-judgment.  We find ourselves more
likely to meet others' confusion and helplessness open-heartedly.
We find less need for others or ourselves to be different in order
to be loved.

We find ourselves...

Stephen Levine
from - Unattended Sorrow

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

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...

Kindness casts a different light - John O'Donohue

There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things;
it presides everywhere, often in the places we least
expect.  The world can be harsh and negative, but
if we remain generous, and patient, kindness inevitably
reveals itself.  Something deep in the human soul seems
to depend on the presence of kindness; something
instinctive in us expects it, and once we sense it we
are able to trust and open ourselves...

If we did not feel that some ultimate kindness holds
sway, we would feel like outsiders confronted on every
side by a world toward which we could make no real bridges.

The word kindness has a gentle sound that seems to echo
the presence of compassionate goodness.  When someone
is kind to you, you feel understood and seen.  There is no
judgment or harsh perception directed toward you.

Kindness has gracious eyes; it also suggests that your
vulnerability, though somehow exposed, is not taken
advantage of; rather, it has become an occasion for dignity
and empathy.

Kindness casts a different light, an evening light that has
the depth of color and patience to illuminate what is
complex and rich in difference.

Despite all the darkness, human hope is based on the
instinct that at the deepest level of reality some intimate
kindness holds sway.  This is the heart of blessing.  To believe
in blessing is to believe that our being here, our very presence
in the world, is itself the first gift, the primal blessing.

Given the nature of our beginning [our birth] - nowhere does
 the Silence of the Infinite lean so intensely as around the form
of  a newly born infant - it is no wonder  that our hearts are
imbued with longing for beauty, meaning, order, creativity,
compassion, and love.  

John O'Donohue
From: To Bless the Sapce Between Us

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Briefly Here - Jim Wilson

Briefly
We walk this earth.
We have
But a short time.
We resemble grasses;
Green in the spring,
Brown in the summer heart,
Withering in the winter wind.
Those who understand this
Put aside their useless quarrels.
The cosmos is unfathomably vast.
The human mind is very small.
An act of kindness is never wasted;
it is the gateway to the deathless and unborn,
it is the exultation of the heart.

Jim Wilson

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

Photo via No Mind's Land

Kindness and Sorrow - Naomi Shihab Nye

[.....]

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters
and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crown of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

Naomi Shihab Nye

from: Words Under the Words: Selected Poems

[this is only an excerpt from one of the poems
in that collection].

Photo from the Internet

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

The Traveler - Alexandra David-Neel and Lama Yongden

The traveler who finds his road blocked by a river will use
a raft to reach the opposite shore, but, this shore, once
reached, he will not take the raft on his shoulders while
continuing his journey.  He will abandon it as something
which has become useless.

The raft represents the different kinds of methods, intellectual
training, or moral discipline, which are available as means to
bring the seeker of liberation to the "other shore."  On this shore,
both have lost their value; they bear no relation to the conditions
existing on the "other shore" and, like the raft in the parable,
they are only a useless burden...

To go beyond virtue and vice, opinions and beliefs, is to go
beyond the mental constructions which are built by the mind,
unceasingly, and to recognize, by transcendent insight, that
they are void of reality.  It is also to recognize, by transcendent
insight, that which has been imagined as practicing virtue,
surrendering to vice, as holding opinions and elaborating theories,
as traveling towards a goal and reaching a goal, is nothing but
an inconsistent phantom, devoid of reality.

Alexandra David-Neel and Lama Yongden
from - The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhists Sects

with thanks to  - The Beauty We Love

~

I have been a seeker and I still am,
but I stopped asking the books and the stars.
I started listening to the teaching of my soul...

Rumi

~

Photo - taken by my brother

A Bridge to a Kinder World - Diane Walker

We pray today, not just for ourselves,
But for all in need of prayer.
We act, not just on behalf of ourselves,
But for those who will benefit.
...and we reach out today, not just to those
Whose opinions mirror our own,
But in hopes of building a bridge to a kinder world.

Diane Walker

Contemplative Photography

Photo and verse by Diane Walker

Just Below Our Fear - Stephen Levine

There are words in us
that don't know how
to get to the surface.
Words hidden in our marrow
afraid to show themselves
concerned the world will end
if they are uttered.
Words that cross
the river of pain
that wish to tell the world
how much love is hidden
just below our fear.
And some of these words
sometimes find their way
to live among us
in the trust to hear them,
words that spin our compass,
anger and loneliness redirected
by insight and forgiveness,
words like mercy and compassion,
words we never trusted to exist.

Words hide in the strangest places,
under stones, in clouds,
in a moment of a friend's kindness,
in a moment of generosity;
in poems beginning their first line
climbing happily into the heart singing,
how close the moon comes
when we trust the night.
Words even hide in other words.
Mercy hides in the hesitant pause,
questioning how much can be trusted
to the tongue, to the pen,
invoking their true voice
rise to the surface
to sing their original song.

Stephen Levine


via - The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Can you see the two "eyes" in
the cloud looking down ? :)

Self-Compassion - Matt Licata

It is important to realize that the path of opening the heart
is not the same as becoming a receptacle for the unloading
of others' unconscious. unresolved beliefs, unprocessed
feelings, and unintegrated behaviors.  While "appearing"
compassionate on the outside, being an emotional doormat
involves the re-enacting of early unconscious dynamics.
We learned that devaluing ourselves, often in very subtle
ways, was the best route to get out needs met, to fit in,
to receive attention and affection, and to maintain a
precarious tie to an unavailable attachment figure
[parent]...to work through overwhelming states of
survival-level anxiety.

But the pathways within are luminous - neither solid
nor fixed - and can be reorganized around empathy,
kindness, and presence...  ...this possibility occurs
only by way of self-compassion and the unconditional
commitment to no longer abandon yourself...which
will require immense courage, care, curiosity and
embodiment.

Look carefully and see the ways you habitually
place others' needs over your own...not out of
true compassion for them, but a re-enactment of
an early environment of shame and unworthiness...
...lay down a new pathway [through self-compassion].
The pathway is grounded in self-care, which wisely
expresses itself in the skillful care of others, and
opens the doorway into the unfolding dance of self
and other and the eternal mysteries...

Matt Licata

Constant Kindness - Albert Schweitzer & Cheri Huber

[We] must oppose all cruel customs, no matter how
deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo.
When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing
torment and injury into the life of another...

Constant kindness can accomplish much.  As the sun
makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding,
mistrust and hostility to evaporate...

Albert Schweitzer

~

Being kind to yourself lets you be kinder to others -
and that just might be the finest gift we can give
to the world...

Cheri Huber
Zen teacher

~

Photo - mittens left on a bench 2012
One day in the winter of 2012
 when I walked to the park I found
these "mittens" on the bench there.
I arranged them in a certain configuration.
When I went back the next day they had
been rearranged in a different configuration.
I then rearranged them again...
And the following day they had been reconfigured.
This went on for several days.
To this day I still don't know who the stranger was
who engaged in this playful game...  But it lifted my
heart.
Kindness through the invisible hand of a stranger :)

There is a Deep Kindness - John O'Donohue

There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things; it presides
everywhere, often in the places we least expect.  The world can
be harsh and negative, but if we remain generous and patient,
kindness inevitably reveals itself.  Something deep in the human
soul seems to depend on the presence of kindness; something
instinctive in us expects it, and once we sense it we are able to
trust and open ourselves.

The word kindness has a gentle sound that seems to echo the
presence of compassionate goodness.  When someone is kind
to you, you feel understood and seen.  There is no judgement or
harsh perception directed toward you.  Kindness has gracious
eyes; it is not small-minded or competitive; it wants nothing
back for itself.  Kindness strikes a resonance with the depths
of your own heart; it also suggests that your vulnerability,
though somehow exposed, is not taken advantage of; rather,
it has become an occasion for dignity and empathy. 

Despite all the darkness, human hope is based on the instinct
that at the deepest level of reality intimate kindness holds sway.
This is the heart of blessing.  

John O'Donohue
from - To Bless the Space Between Us

Via - The Beauty We Love

~

Photo

Can you see the big open heart shape in the tree on the right ? :)

~

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the  hope of loving,
or being loved.

We weep when light does not reach our hearts.
We wither like fields if someone close
does not rain their
kindness
upon
us.

Meister Eckhart

Kindness - Penn Jillette

...All I want of America now is kindness.  That's all.
The past few years have filled too many of our friends and
neighbors with hate, and it breaks my heart.  Some people
started acting hateful, crazy and nasty so that they could win,
and then people who disagreed with them acted the same way.
They disagree in content but agree wholeheartedly in tone.

So many of us now agree with the message of hate, and play
"ideology" as team sports.  The message doesn't matter when
the medium is hate.  My friends who work on TV, people I
love personally, are using a tone and a meanness in their jobs
that they never used before.  Is hate where the money is?
I don't know if fighting fire with fire actually works, but I
do know that fighting hate with hate never works.

It makes me cry.  I've read about family members not invited
for Thanksgiving dinner because of political disagreements.
The Clash sang "anger can be power" and I believed it.  Maybe
I still believe it, but maybe I don't want power any more.
Can't we replace the word "evil" with the word "wrong?"
Everyone is wrong sometimes and nobody is ever evil.
The America I want is kind to people who are wrong.

I'm like a dog.  I don't hear words anymore, I just hear tone.
Anyone whose tone is kind will get my complete support.
Libertarian, Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Green...anything
else you got.  I've always been left out of team sports.  I don't
want to win enough.  I'm not part of a team.  I'm part of
humanity.  I want kindness.  There's no other team for me.
Let's love each other, and then discuss how to run the country
together.

Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller

With thanks to The Beauty We Love
for content and photo

To be kind - Hermann Hesse & Maslow

To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping,
to smile without hostility at people and institutions,
to compensate for the shortage of love in the world
with more love in small, private matters; to show
greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge
attainable from mockery and criticism:
all these things we can do.

Hermann Hesse

~

Let people realize clearly that every time they threaten
someone or humiliate or unnecessarily hurt or dominate
or reject another human being, they become forces for
the creation of pathology, even if these be small forces.
Let them recognize that every person who is kind, helpful,
decent, affectionate, and warm, is a therapeutic force...

Abraham Maslow

~

Compassion is knowing that
you are part of everyone,
and everyone is part of you - is you.
When seeing this there is no longer judgment,
just a deeper understanding and respect
for our humanity -
a deepening of compassion.

Mystic Meandering
Meditative writings
c. 2004 - 2006