Hold to "The Silence..."

Late at night,
holding my hands over my Heart,
I hold close to The Silence
when all is quiet;
my comfort, companion & Friend.

It's been a couple of years since we've
held each other intimately;
the intimacy of the deep
Silence of Being within...

The abstractions of "non-duality"
do not help me now,
they leave me - untouched, cold.

I'm on a different path now,
that is not yet clear to me...

I want to be deeply touched - by
the Ineffable Mystery - The Silence - at
the core of my Being; to be moved again
by the intimacy of Sacred Silence -
that I once closely knew...

It takes an environment of quietness to quiet the mind -
from the "noise", distractions, and stress of daily living;
accessing a sanctuary of Divine Silence within
so that I may be gently touched by The Mystery
and directly experience Its Fullness....

Not a conceptual Silence - but tangible;
Not an abstraction, but a Living Presence,
that can be touched - that wants to be found...

It waits for you...

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 11, 2024

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Living Silence - Robert Sardello

There is a Living Silence that hears the cry of the Soul.

Each of us has a companion-presence.  Something that is
always with us.  The companion-presence is Silence.
We need to nurture companionship with it [commune with it].

Silence was here before everything else, and it envelopes
everything else.  Silence is prior to sound, not the cessation
of sound.  If we drop into the quietness [within] for just a moment,
we feel the presence of Silence as an invitation.

As we accept the invitation and enter the mystery of Silence,
its presence resonates through the fibers of our flesh while
extending beyond the flesh to the deepest depths of the Soul
inwardly, and to the outermost reaches of the Cosmos
outwardly.  The inward silence of Solitude meets up with the

Great Silence of Cosmic Wisdom.  When we don't cultivate
the meeting point, we lose access to the presence
of the Silence.  Without Silence we are lost and cannot get still
enough to find our way back.

Silence bears the wholeness we are looking for...
Silence goes to the deepest depths of the Soul...

[In communion with the Silence] we feel a new attunement to
Spirit as a directly felt reality.  We have a bodily perception of
being welcomed into the vastness and fecundity of Silence. 
When we find the entry into the large stillness our lives are
irrevocably changed, a transition takes place.  The experience
comes with astonishing intimacy, that feels like the finding of
a long lost beloved.

Silence is palpable.  It's a living presence. It has a rhythm all
its own.  The currents of Silence weave polarities and opposites
and contradictions together.  Within Silence everything resonates
in true intimacy and mystery.

Our Soul connection with Silence is a form of sympathetic
resonance with the currents of Silence [the rhythm and pulsing
of Silence].  We enter into the deepest feeling of communing...

We, along with everything else, are within Silence.
We are held within a tender, loving invisible presence...
A vivid Presence of Silence...

This realm of Silence is pregnant with the ever-living Mystery.
It is the deepest feeling of communing, touched by the 
Ineffable, that keeps us intimately bound with the truth of our
Core Being, the very Essence of our Being; an interiority that
has been waiting for us.

Robert Sardello

Excerpts from: Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

"The Companion" - a meandering...

"The Companion" is unidentifiable, nameless,
identity-less - and - indwells us.
"The Companion" is a felt sense of Presence within;
beyond all concepts of "God", religion, deity, or
enlightenment...

"The Companion cannot be reduced to a name, or
label - it's beyond that...
You can't wrap it, or trap it, in a conceptual framework.
It's beyond concept...

"The Companion" is a felt resonance...
that helps align us with the internal frequency of
our Essence, our Being, our Soul -
even when we don't recognize it.

It's what attunes us to the Essence of our Being -
inexplicably...

"The Companion" is always within us;
noticed as an inner stillness
when we pay attention to it.
It's been there all along - comforting.

We just haven't been aware...

~

Companion from the Unseen
Mysterious Friend of the Heart
You comfort me, and sustain me
and free me from my darkest night.

Mystic Meandering

Sept. 28, 2022

Written after a conversation with my husband
about something we were both experiencing back
in Sept - and we called it "The Companion" to give
a sense of what if feels like within - but which is
beyond even that description...

~

Photo - Northern Lights from a Calendar 

 

The Great Silence - Robert Sardello

We have a strong tendency to imagine Silence as the
absence of sound.  This imagination deprives Silence of
being anything in itself and makes it an emptiness, a void...

But Silence was here before anything else.  It is the most
primary phenomenon of existence, both palpably something
and seemingly nothing.

Silence is prior to sound, not the cessation of sound.  It is
already present.  If we drop into quietness for just a moment,
we feel the presence of Silence as in invitation.  We are being
invited into a new way of being.

Silence is not merely the void from which things spring up;
it is a living presence...  As we enter the mystery of Silence,
its presence resonates throughout the fibers of our flesh,
while extending beyond the flesh...  The inward silence of
solitude meets with the Great Silence of Cosmic Wisdom...

Silence bears the wholeness we keep looking for.  It is around
us and within us.  It goes to the deepest depths of the soul
and to the outermost reaches of the cosmos uniting in our heart.

The experience comes with astonishing intimacy and feels like
the finding of a long lost beloved..

We, along with everything else, are within Silence.  This realm
of Silence is pregnant with the ever-living Mystery.  It is the
deepest feeling of communing, touched by the ineffable, that
keeps us intimately bound with the truth of our core being,
the very essence of our being; an interiority that has been
waiting for us.

~

Silence has a rhythm all its own.  The currents of Silence
weave polarities and opposites and contradictions together.

Within Silence everything resonates in true intimacy and
mystery.

When we perceive through the depths of Silence we discover
the invisible body of the world in which everything is nurtured
into existence at every moment.  We discover ourselves as
participants in the Great Silence.  We are not detached observers
of an independent phenomenon, for we exist within the Silence
we are observing.  The world of subjective experience and outer
presence dissolve into one field.

When we incline toward Silence a resonance is set up within
our heart, prompting an inclination of our heart to enter
deeper into the realm of Silence...  In the interior space of the
etheric heart we feel the currents of Silence as an endless
intimate infinity that we are within.  We are held within a
tender, loving, invisible presence...
A vivid Presence of Silence...

Excerpts from: Silence, The Mystery of Wholeness

by Robert Sardello

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Embrace the Losses - John O'Donohue

May you know that absence is alive with hidden presence,
that nothing is ever lost or forgotten.
May the absences in your life grow full of eternal echo.

May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere,
where the presences that have left you dwell..
May you be generous in your embrace of loss.
May the sore well of grief turn into a seamless flow
of presence.

May you be embraced by God in whom dawn and
twilight are one - within the Great Belonging.

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

Original title: A Blessing for Absence

~

In memory of my mother
who passed from this life into
the "secret Elsewhere"
one year ago today...

~

And this goes out to all
who have experienced loss
around the world in our ongoing
coronavirus crisis...

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
"Mom's last wave"

Mystical Spirituality...

Being an unapologetic "mystic" at Heart, since childhood, means
for me experiencing the Living Presence of Life that animates all
life.  Some call that God, The Divine, The Beloved, The Ineffable,
"The Mystery", Consciousness, Infinite Being, Spirit, Brahman,
The Tao, etc., etc., etc.  It has many names and forms.  It means
being able to see and experience "The Mystery" in the every-day-ness
of life; something I'm still "working" on - being more aware of the
Sacred in a chaotic world, in the mundane personal affairs of living;
the requirements of daily life: in the must do's and the have-to's
that always find their way to the top of my list, and seem to drive
life...

A "mystical spirituality" pertains to direct experience with Ultimate
Reality/The Divine/"The Mystery"...  Some may assume that a
 "mystic" doesn't experience the darker feelings and frustrations with
living the Cosmic Dance of life.  That has not been my  experience. 
A "mystic" just experiences them within context of the Greater Reality
 - and learns to embrace them as part of the totality of  experience. 
Some feel that a "mystic" has special insights, or powers,  or visions, 
or is only interested in seeking "mystical experiences." 
For me it is not about seeking experiences, but being open to the
movement of "The Mystery", the movement of Consciousness
through its many expressions, and at times experiencing an intimate
 encounter with what I know to be "The Divine", like my Epiphany in
Nov. 2013, or Waking Up To Bliss like I did recently, or "meditative
writings" many years ago, and poetry that sometimes just spills
 out onto the page.

Mystical Spirituality acknowledges the universality of what most have
come to call "God," "The Divine", or Buddha Nature (Dharmakaya),
not associated with any particular faith, religion, or practice, but a
transcendent truth - realizing that humans, at the very core of their
being are both "Divine" and human; formlessness and form, spirit
in matter, Timelessness in time...  This "union" takes place within
ourselves with the realization that we are not a separate entity from
our Divinity, from Consciousness ItSelf, needing to grovel our way
back - but that "comm-union" is always happening.  There is always
only the movement of "Divinity" through life, through us.  There is
 no other "Higher" Self to search for.  It's all Here within us...

Wayne Teasdale, a 20th Century Christian Mystic, and author of
A Mystic Heart, says:  "Mystical Spirituality draws us into the depths
of our Being, where we come face to face with ourselves, our weakness
AND with the Ultimate Mystery.  Spirituality is not external religiosity,
not confined to ritual and liturgy.  It is a way of life that affects and
includes every moment of existence.  It is a disposition to a life of depth."

He goes on - "How we make the journey is what spirituality is really
about - finding our own path.  This means finding a way to/awareness
 of the vast unlimited Consciousness of The Divine, The Mystery
within. We are created for this 'spiritual journey' - the direct and
 immediate experience of Ultimate Reality, which knows everything
 as ItSelf. Being infinitely aware, it knows in a unitive and universal
 fashion through awareness of no distance between ourselves and
 the Ultimate Mystery...  The spiritual journey is essentially one of
discovering the roots of our true identity.  It is a process of the totality
 of Consciousness, from which we arise.

He further says - "Everything is part of an undivided wholeness where
each being reflects this totality.  Non-duality means 'not two, and yet,
not one.'  [I know this is not the traditional Advaita/Non-dual
definition, but it is my experience as well.]  That is, the relationship
 between Divine Reality and human being is a subtle distinction,
but not a separation. And so the relationship is said to be non-dual.
Human beings are essentially Divine." [or Pure Consciousness, etc.]

Wayne Teasdale
20th Century Christian Mystic
from - A Mystic Heart

~

"We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others.
[We must] take back our own listening,
use our own voice,
see our own Light."

Hildegard of Bingen
12th Century Christian Mystic

_/\_

Namaste

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

"Shadow Love..."

Don't try to cover things over with a pretense of love...
a shadow love.

Just let things be as they are.
Your responsibility is to be real, authentic -
maintaining integrity.
There is great healing in this.
Maintain your integrity through authenticity.

Go beyond the shadow of love...

Don't allow love to be a pawn, manipulated by the
fingers of delusion,
misdirected energies and perceptions.

Don't aspire to love - but aspire to be real.

Be clear and transparent.

When love is just a covering,
an egoic pretense, it dissipates.
Let love dissipate to reveal what's beyond
love's shadow...

Don't be fooled by the magician's love.

There is something beyond "love"
as we define love.
It is Presence.
Being genuinely present from the place
of authenticity...

Love is that Presence living us...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
2004

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Solitude and the Consensus Trance - Ivan Granger

The idea of retreating into the desert or the forest always had a
romantic appeal to me, especially as a young man.

Thoreau's Walden was a close companion, and I regularly
reread his lines on living the essential life.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to
front only the essential acts of life, and see if I could not learn
what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover
that I had not lived.  I did not wish to live what was not life...

Such a person experiences an intense need to silence the mind,
to settle the heart, and to sweep life clean of everything
unnecessary in order to feel that pulse that proves the living
presence beneath the skin of existence.

To accomplish this.....we want to retreat from the world.  But
what do we mean by "the world"?  We can loosely say it is
society, but that is too simplistic.  The world we are trying to
withdraw from is more of an idea of reality.  By withdrawing,
we are attempting to separate from the consensus trance.

It is the shared trance that we call the world, which [spiritual]
seekers instinctively withdraw from in order to see truly [clearly],
free from the pressures of society to remain within a limited
bandwidth of awareness.  When done with balance, steadiness,
and reverence, such withdrawal from the common bubble of
presumed reality can lead to surprising clarity, opening and bliss.

In the struggle to free oneself from the gravitational pull of
consensus reality, [we need to be careful that] we haven't
divided reality between what is sacred or true from the
mundane and illusory; be careful that we do not [exclude]
the vision of an undivided Whole.

The instinct to separate oneself in order to discover an
awareness that is pure and essential - whether through
literal retreat or some form of internal solitude - can be
enormously helpful along the spiritual journey; no longer
feeling trapped by [the trance's] gravitational pull and
artificial boundaries.

We come to recognize that the constricted space we know
as "the world" is not separate from the wider reality or
in opposition to it.
The Eternal is present in it all.

Ivan Granger
Part of a commentary written on a poem
from: The Dance of Bliss

An inspiring collection of poems from poets
and mystics from many traditions, accompanied
by Ivan's reflective commentaries.

Blissful Comfort...

Leaning back into the soft-pillowed chair...
Feeling the warmth of the morning sun on my face...
I turn inward...consciously,
towards "The Divine",

however named, however known,
and wait...
for "Her" gentle movement
to stir within,
signaling Her
subtle Presence...

In the Deep Quiet,
I feel Her vibration, Her Aliveness
pass through
the visceral senses;
only vanishing from organic awareness
at the slightest attempt
to hold Her here
in the mind...

But She is Here -
a palpable Presence in the body,
effervescing
through
my
whole
Being.

She
is
my
whole
Being!

I can do nothing but
be immersed in
the softness of
Her Bliss ~

She arrives by Grace
then subtly takes Her leave;
leaving only a sweet trace,
a warm afterglow,
of Her Divine Perfusion...

Blissful morning comfort...

Mystic Meandering
Feb 22, 2017

~

Note:  When I use the terms "Her"/"She", it does not refer
to an entity as such, like "God" or "Goddess"; is neither
male nor female.  It is, in my experience, an Ineffable Presence,
an "energetic signature", if you will, of "The Mystery" - which
has many names - that to me has a felt sense of being "feminine"
in nature; which of course is completely subjective,
but experienced by many...

_/\_

A Humble Lover of "The Mystery"

~

Photo - Vortex Art with fingers
and Craypas oils
2011

"Devotion"...

An unexpected visceral longing arises -
again...
A primal Love and Longing for what cannot be named;
like a lover pining away for their "Beloved."
Its intensity nearly snuffs my heart out
and will only be revived by the Silence of "The Presence."

The Heart only wants to touch and be touched
by, "The Divine",
however defined, or undefined.
It only wants to dissolve into
the Sacred Silence of the Inner Room.
Nothing else matters...

Even when "spiritual seeking" ends,
this inexplicable Longing remains
deep within the Heart -
not heeding the dissuasive voices of
the minds of acquired knowledge,
or those who claim "enlightenment"
who would dismiss it,
discredit it,
and say there is no need for it;
as if I were a fool for longing.

It just is...

It is beyond words...

I allow the Longing to be...
following its irresistible pull -
drawing me more deeply inward
to Itself...

Letting go of external "spiritual" constructs
and the conceptual maps of what I assumed to be reality...

Instead

I listen - to The Heart of my heart that Longs for
the undeniable fragrance of "Her" Presence...
the warm touch of "Her" Invisible Hand
upon the Heart,
opening its "gates" to the rush of Love...

The Fire of Love's Longing will not be quelled until it is
quenched with the Golden Elixir of
The Ineffable Living Presence...

Even after seeking ends,
this Heart aches, at times,
to Remember;
to feel the felt sense of "Her";
to hear the whisper of "her" Voice;
to experience the indescribable perfusion
of this Immutable Reality
breathing in and out
through this body...

This Primal Love and Longing IS Devotion...

Unashamedly, I embrace it,
this Love, this Longing,
which at times immerses me in the
Illumined Glow of Love's Furnace...

It is an Invisible Path -
deepening into
the Mysteries of the Heart;
not an outward journey of seeking and arriving,
or finding,
but diving deep
into the
"Mystical Heart"
whose only language is
Love...

Mystic Meandering
Oct. 2016

Note: "The Divine", as I use it here, is not an entity as such with a name "God" or "Goddess."  It is neither male nor female.  It is an Ineffable Presence, an "energetic signature", if you will, of "The Mystery."  When I use the term "Her", it refers to this "energy" that has a felt sense of being "feminine" - which is of course completely subjective, but experienced by many.

_/\_

Photo: Burning Fire Vortex
Craypas Oils
2011

A Mystic's "Spirituality"...

Being an unapologetic "mystic" at Heart, since childhood, means for me experiencing the living Presence of Life that animates all life.  Some call that God, The Divine, The Beloved, The Ineffable, The Mystery, Pure Consciousness, Infinite Being, Spirit, Brahman, the Tao, etc.  It has many names and forms.  It means being able to see and experience "The Mystery" in the every-day-ness of life; something I am still admittedly "working" to try to be more aware of - to be more aware of the Sacred in the entropy of world affairs, in the chaotic mundane personal affairs of life; the requirements of daily living; in the must do's and have-to's that always find their way to the top of my list, and seem to drive my life...

As a "mystic" I long to experience the depths of Ultimate Reality - immersing myself daily in the depths of Meditative Silence, listening to the Hush of "The Mystery."  Some may assume a "mystic" doesn't experience longing, or the darker feelings and frustrations with living the Infinite Cosmic Dance.  That has not been my experience.  A "mystic" just experiences them within the context of the Greater Reality - and learns to embrace them as part of the totality of experience.  Some feel that a "mystic" has special insights or powers, or visions, or is only interested in seeking "mystical experiences."  But for me it is not in "seeking" experiences (I have very few of them), but being aware of and open to the movement of "The Mystery", through its many expressions, living in the intimacy of "The Mystery," and at times experiencing an intimate encounter with what I know to be "The Divine", like my "Epiphany" back in 2013, or through "meditative writings", and celestial songs (poetry) that sometimes just spills out onto the page. Mystical "spirituality" acknowledges the universality of what most have come to call "God", "The Divine", or Buddha Nature (Dharmakaya), not associated with any particular faith, religion, or practice, but a transcendent truth - realizing that humans, at the very core of their being, are both "Divine" and human, formlessness in form, spirit in matter, Timeless in time...

Wayne Teasdale, a 20th century Christian Mystic, and author of A Mystic Heart says: "Mystical spirituality draws us into the depths of our Being, where we come face to face with ourselves, our weakness, AND with the Ultimate Mystery.  Spirituality is not external religiosity, not confined to ritual and liturgy.  It is a way of life that affects and includes every moment of existence...  It is a disposition to a life of depth..."

He goes on - "How we make the journey is what spirituality is really about - finding our own path. This means finding a way to [awareness of] the vast unlimited consciousness of The Divine, The Mystery within.  We are created for this 'spiritual journey' - the direct and immediate experience of Ultimate Reality, which knows everything as ItSelf.  Being infinitely aware, it knows in a unitive and universal fashion through awareness...  The spiritual journey is essentially one of discovering the roots of our true identity.  It is a process of returning to the totality of Consciousness, from which we have arise."

~

We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others.
[We must] take back our own listening,
use our own voice,
see our own Light."

Hildegard of Bingen
12th Century Christian Mystic

_/\_

Namaste

A View of Death - Joan Ruvinsky

Below is a transcript of a conversation that Joan Ruvinsky had with one of her Friends that was sent out in a recent newsletter from Joan's organization: Pathless Yoga.  Joan knew she was facing death, as she had end stage lung cancer.

When this body goes, does THIS [our Beingness] go?

The body is here and THIS is here - both/and...  There is one alive-space of us, and the room, and the wall, and everything else...  If global sensing is primary, the experience of me will become non-localized.  In other words, who I am is being interpreted right now as if I am a body-mind.  But the experience after I die is that there isn't a localization, that essence (called me) is just another flavouring of pure, dimensionless being.

When this body goes, does THIS go?  I'm going to say it the way Jean [Klein] said it because perhaps his wording is better than anybody's: the body is an expression of THIS.  The ocean comes up and makes this Joan wave and then this Joan wave recedes back into the ocean.  If you are looking just from the surface, yes a body has died and that person no longer exists.  If you are looking from beneath the surface, you see that yes, there is no body, but THIS still exists.  Whether I am here or not, IT is still here. This expression of IT, this tip of the wave, has come back into the ocean...  Right now you relate to the tip of the wave as well as the ocean.  The big question now is: "What is going to happen?" In your outer experience there will not be a body, but is your outer experience the truth?  What will happen in your inner experience?

There may be grief because the expression of THIS is going to be gone.  THIS is not going to go away.  And when it happens that the expression goes away, let's see, let's see what's left.  It is an experiment!  We don't know...  This everythingness... this presence... what will happen to it?  When you just stop and just close your eyes and listen within, when the background becomes the foreground, what will happen then?

Joan Ruvinsky was "reabsorbed", you might say, into the Great Ocean of the Ineffable Mystery of Being March 21, 2016.  She was evidently conscious during much of the dying process, and could describe her experience, until she could no longer talk.  Amazing...

~*~

Photo - Craypas Oils Art
Radially Blurred

The Infinite is Everywhere - Danna Faulds

I am everywhere present
said the [Infinite.]

Seek me in the stately trees,
or the melodies of sparrows
and you will surely find me.

Look for me in the Buddha's smile,
the countenance of Christ,
the words of the Koran and Sanskrit prayers.
I am always there.

Turn your attention to the sky
where the movements of the moon and stars
trace my beauty...

Experience true emptiness
and my presence permeates the void.
Now bring your focus closer
to your heart.

Grow still and find me within you.

Separation dissolves like salt water
when you experience your true identity as me.

Practice devotion and let go into the ocean
of my love,
or be the open space from which all things arise.

One and two,
duality and union,
are both true.

So I say be jubilant
and be at peace,
for inside you is the seed and the fruit,
the tree and the root.

Choose to be in communion with me
and see the whole of this
creation infused with one energy...

Danna Faulds
Yoga Practitioner and Poet

Excerpt From:One and Two are Both True
From: Prayers to the Infinite

To Touch "The Divine"...

To touch “The Divine” imbues
a quiet stillness of being;
feeling the pulse of energy

coursing through your body,

feeling yourself in the
 formless field of Silent Aware Beingness,
feeling the Living Presence hum through every cell,

being absorbed in Its Rhythm of Silence;
and feeling the body respond
to ITs Touch…

To touch “The Divine” ~
not an entity - as such,
not a “god” or “deity” – as such
but a formless field of energy
that we float through
and that floats through us,
brings a harmonious wholeness
in reciprocal
 oneness

To touch “The Divine” in the
 Great Silence
is complete rest,
complete release,
complete equanimity,
surrendered wholly to
”the Divine”

Not a surrendering – as such,
only allowing oneself to be
Touched;
to feel the
The intimate Touch of

 “The Divine”

 within ~

It can’t even be called “Love” – as such
It is way beyond “Love” - as we know it...
It is a sublime energy,
a deep stillness
that cannot be
described,

 or named
by words

Only felt,
experienced,
in the body,
in the energy field
and substance of the body,
through direct awareness…

And all one can do is breathe
and say thank you~
Thank you for the Mystery of
this wondrous, ineffable
  Divine Touch

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
Dec. 15, 2015

The "Greater Being" - D.H.Lawrence, Mooji & Papaji

“Be at peace, in peace.
All that matters is to be at one with the living God,
to be a creature in the house of the God of Life.
Like a cat asleep on a chair
at peace, in peace
and at one with the master of the house,
with the mistress, at home,

 at home in the house of the living,
sleeping on the hearth,
and yawning before the fire.

Sleeping on the hearth of the living world
yawning at home before the fire of Life
feeling the presence of the living God
like a great reassurance
a deep calm in the heart;
a presence
as of a master sitting at the board
in his own and Greater Being,
in the house of Life…”

D.H. Lawrence

Via: Love Is A Place

 ~

Photo: Our Beloved “Yoda”
1990 - 2009

~

Our real nature is a formless field of inner Silence and harmony,

the synchronicity of “I” with Universal Consciousness.

Recognize the natural Silence of your own Self…
the natural perfume of Being…

This Pure Harmony is the language and vibration of Holiness.
It is synchronicity with God.

Mooji

A nice place to visit for more Mooji :)
 White Fire

 ~

Rest in peace…
You are the unchangeable Awareness in which
 all activity takes place.
Always rest in peace.

You are eternal Being, unbounded and undivided.
Just keep Quiet.  All is well.

You are Happiness, you are Peace, you are Freedom.

Open to your Heart
and simply Be…

Papaji

Excerpts From: The Truth IS

A Mystical Spirituality...

Being a “mystic”, for me anyway, means experiencing the living Presence of Life that animates all life.  Some call that God, The Divine, Pure Consciousness, Infinite Beingness, Spirit, Brahman, the Tao, etc.  It has many names and forms. It is being able to see the Sacred in the every-day-ness of life – something I admittedly am still “working” on – meaning - I am trying to be more *aware* of the “Sacred” in the mundane affairs of life, in the requirements of daily living; in the must do’s and have-to’s that always find their way to the top of my list, and drive my life...  Learning to actually *see* that it's all “The Mystery” living ItSelf here - as I believe it is; that it is the play of the Infinite Cosmos.

A Mystical Spirituality pertains to direct communion with this Ultimate Reality.  We are always in communion with Ultimate Reality, whether we recognize it or not.  Some may assume this means that a “mystic” doesn’t experience the darker emotions, or frustrations with life.  Some feel that a “mystic” has special insights or powers, or visions, or is only interested in seeking “mystical experiences.”  But for me it is not in *seeking* experiences, but being open to the movement of “the Mystery” and its expressions, *living* in a sense of mystery, and at times experiencing an intimate encounter with what I know to be “The Divine”, like my “Epiphany” back in November, or through “meditative writings” many years ago, and poetry that sometimes just spills out onto the page.  Mystical spirituality acknowledges the Universality of God/Christ Consciousness, or Buddha Nature within, which is not associated with any particular faith, religion, or practice, but is a transcendent spirituality – realizing that humans are both “Divine” and human, both form and formless, spirit and matter.

Wayne Teasdale, a 20^th century Christian Mystic, and author of A Mystic Heart, says:

 ‘Mystical spirituality draws us into the depths of our Being, where we come face to face with ourselves, our weakness, AND with the Ultimate Mystery.  Spirituality is not external religiosity, not confined to ritual and liturgy.  It is a way of life that affects and includes every moment of existence…  It is a disposition to a life of depth…  Mystical spirituality is profoundly transformative when it inspires in us the attitude of surrender to “The Mystery,” to the spiritual awakening of mankind…” 

“How we make the journey is what spirituality is really about – finding our own path.  This means finding a way to the vast unlimited consciousness of The Divine, to The Mystery, (or Buddha Nature) within.  We are created for this ‘spiritual journey’ – the direct and immediate experience of Ultimate Reality, which knows everything as ItSelf. Being infinitely aware, it knows in a unitive and universal fashion through awareness of non-duality and non-separation, of no distance between ourselves, the Ultimate Mystery, and all other beings…  The spiritual journey is essentially one of discovering the roots of our true identity.  It is a process of returning to the totality of Consciousness, from which we have arisen.” 

 “Everything is part of an undivided wholeness where each being reflects this totality.  Non-duality means ‘not-two’, and yet, ‘not-one.’  That is, in the relationship between Divine Reality and human being there is a subtle distinction, but not a separation.  And so the relationship is said to be non-dual.  Human beings are *essentially* Divine.” [or Buddha Nature, or Pure Consciousness, etc.].

In a sense then, Easter points us, not to “redemption”, but to the “revelation” of our “Divinity”, or True Identity – discovering again what is already here, that which we were never separated from, but have not always recognized:  the Infinite that continually shines in the depths of our being - as our origin. 

~

“We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others.
[We must] take back our own listening,
use our own voice,
see our own Light.”

Hildegard of Bingen.

12^th Century Christian Mystic

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Photo: a "mistake" :)

Have no clue what this was.
Digitally colored.

Photo Essay: The Cycle of Change...

 ~~~

 ~~~

Everything

 comes full circle…
Nothing really dies…

The Eternal is always here
in the ordinary,
perpetually present…

It only changes form,
changing expression
of the Light
within

Eternally
 kindling ItSelf
 

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings

2013

Strange Phenomenon...

I did this funky looking stone balance this past Sunday, but it is not the “strange phenomenon.”  (Or maybe it is!)  I spent nearly two hours trying to get different stones to balance, and it just wasn’t happening.  (Am learning a lot about stones, balance, and inner balance – kind of a Zen thing… J).  Just before I gave up, this one came into being, which was not the original version, nor the original stones.  Within 20 mins the top pentagon piece had toppled; pointing out the impermanence of it all.  You can see why in this shot.

It was precariously perched.  And the bottom “see-saw” pieces also toppled.  What remained looked like a little altar of sorts.

And then Monday morning this was my view out the window. The stones completely crumbled.

Something or someone toppled the remaining stones and left this flower pot bottom right next to the pile of rubbled rocks.

 The plastic terracotta bottom piece had been some 30 feet away from the rocks, lying next to the foundation of the house.  We have no idea how it got over here, or how the rest of the rocks fell over.  So we set up the video camera for two nights to see if we could see what might be playing games with my stones J  Do we have a “spirit”, or is this an intelligent raccoon that dragged it to the rocks.  And if so, why – maybe because he/she wanted to be a stone balancer too!  (not stoned balancer, mind you.) :) lol   However, it gave me this clever idea to carry the rocks around in this pot bottom.  Now how come *I* didn’t figure that out before! lol  I’m evidently not smarter than your average raccoon!

Here are a few links to stone balancing websites. They are fascinating stone “sculptures.”   The first is by Adrian Gray from England. He does his incredible stone balances on the seashore.  The second is Peter Juhl who does his exquisite stone balances on the shores of Lake Superior, and Lake Harriett (in Minneapolis, MN).  And of course, Michael Grab at Gravity Glue who got me started. :)  He does his stone balancing  *in* Boulder Creek, Boulder, Colorado...  Also see my other post on Stone Balance...

“All things are living,
even stones.
It has to be that way;
energy pulsates from their bodies,
since all are part of
the Omnipresent Living Being…”

Hafiz

“This is the realm of the passing away.
All that exists does not for long.
Whatever comes into this world
never stops sliding toward
the edge of eternity…”

Stephen Levine

From Breaking the Drought:
Visions of Grace