Free The Body - Gabrielle Roth

We are born into bodies that are fluid and free.
Yet for most of us, this state of grace is sadly short lived.
Judgement, emotional wounds, fear and loss become
stored deep inside our muscles and bones, leaving us
with shoulders that sag, hips that are locked, arms that
can't reach out, hearts that beat behind a stone wall.  When
we move our bodies we shake up firmly rooted systems of
thought, old patterns of behavior and emotional responses
that just don't work anymore.  Rhythm, breath, music and
movement become tools for seeing, then freeing, the habits
that hold us back.  When we free the body, the heart begins
to open.  When the body and the heart taste freedom, the
mind won't be far behind.  And when we put the psyche
into motion, it will start to heal itself.

Gabrielle Roth

with thanks to Whiskey River

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
rock balance

 

Imagine a New Experience - Mark Vernon

 Imagination.....reveals the truth of existence and life.  It converts
everyday incidents into rich perceptions that might amount to
a revolution in experience - seeing not with the physical eyes

but through them; seeing beyond the physical realm into the
Infinite realms, if only with our inner seeing, trusting imagination
as the living power of creativity with which we can cooperate...

~

As things run out of control, life is felt to be complexifying at
exponential rates and panic sets in.  It's not really.  It always was
complex.  Rather, people have lost their bearings for lack of
imagination.  The crisis becomes an opportunity to see more.

People cite rules instead of offering forgiveness, resort to courts
rather than reconciliation and, when culture wars break out, ethics
is weaponized in shaming and scapegoating - dividing and 
ostracizing people.

Tweets of hope are drowned out by threads of hate.
It's a dangerous time.

~

[However] It is no longer about the identification and defense
of principles, but the effort to mutually transcend old patterns of
behavior [old patterns of thinking] - laying open the hidden heart;
to understand, not condemn; to liberate, not subjugate.  It welcomes
mistakes as opportunities for the kind of learning that transforms
the soul as well as the mind.
Life has interiority and soul.

It isn't about dissolving the ego but routing out the desire to
possess life and control others.

~

There is a changed meaning to freedom...

There is a shift in consciousness...

In perceiving Eternity one actually 
gives up any struggle...
[We become} transparent to reality...
Time becomes fluid...

We realize we never possessed life to start with.
[We] live because life pours itself into us...
The everyday deaths through which we pass,
as well as the seemingly final death of passing over,
reveal there's a source of life.  It is timeless love,
which include and transcends death.

We are creatures of Infinity...

Excerpts from an essay on William Blake called
The Four-fold Imagination
by Mark Vernon

see the full, in depth essay here

With thanks to Virginia Lonsdale
at Footnote from a  moment

~

"If the doors of perception were cleansed
everything would appear to man as it is,
Infinite..."

William Blake

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Reflection of sky, clouds and trees in a puddle :)

Guru Cat speaks again

Listen to me...

Just lay it all down - Guru Cat said.
Just let life beeee, for heaven's sake -
What is,
as it is...
There is no other way through
but acceptance - ya know,
sounding exasperated...

Do not pursue the esoteric "answers"
for what cannot be explained:
for your existential angst;
for the frustrations with the way life is;
for the weariness of existence that you feel...
Be at peace with it all,
as it is...

Could this really be the "answer"!? -

I asked... in my head...
Just acceptance of what is?!
Just letting each experience be what it is...?

Guru Cat's eyes just stared.
Life is an interfluidity of experiences.
In the acceptance of each experience
is peace, a deep relaxation, a release
of all tension.
and, an inner movement of fluidity
with the deeper Rhythm of Life...

It's not as complicated as your mind
makes it...

It's not rocket science...
It's just Life living ItSelf...

She gave me that look.

Just rest - Guru Cat went on, trying to soften her tone,
with less sarcasm, more feeling...
Rest in the deep Silence of Being,
not seeking solutions,
or efforting after resolutions,
but deeply relax
into the Unknown,
and the unknowable,
only Aware of the Silence
within you,
the silent Presence of Awareness.
Do you see this yet?
Can you feel it?

Guru Cat continued to stare with steely eyes...

Remain relaxed in
the simplicity of Being
that just IS -
the ISness of Being

as it is-
Only Aware...
Not concerned with anything
that arises
within
or
without

Just Aware...

Yes, Guru Cat - I said

Guru Cat just stared...

and there was only the silence
of being  - Aware.

Mystic Meandering
Sept. 23, 2018

"Wandering"

"Wandering" in the Great Inner Wilderness - the Vastness of Being -
is intentional.  It is not floundering or aimlessness, but a deep
resting in The Silence of The Mystery...I am not renouncing
anything, nor seeking to attain anything - like enlightenment -
but only allowing myself to feel the deeper Rhythm of Life within -
through Silence and Solitude - through moving with the movement
of the Eternal, Infinite Being that arises from the deep inner space
 of Silence.

This is not an escape from the "world", yet to some degree that is true.
It is leaving behind the "surface consciousness" of the world that so
often drives us/me through life, and keeps us/me from deepening
into The Inner Rhythm - until - I am able to intuitively and
and instinctively feel the Internal Rhythm of Being flowing in and
through myself - naturally - usually through being in intentional
Silence...

This Rhythm is a fluid, open movement of unending intimacy with
"The Beloved" (The Formless Silence that animates all Life)...  I
wander this Inner Wilderness bringing my awareness to that internal

movement of Being - seeing how IT wants to move me.  At
times I feel as if "The Beloved" is as much in  my shoes as I am
in "The Beloved's" shoes - walking as one...

The Inner Wilderness is a space of remedial Silence for me that heals
the Heart and Spirit/Soul.  It allows me to be "anonymous" - without
identity, or function - just resting - allowing myself to be absorbed
by the Silence - leaving everything else behind until I am fully
Immersed...

Sometimes I experience an inexplicable, unbidden, palpable all-
encompassing - as if held from within - Presence of the deepest
Peace. Standing int the grocery store one day - yes, I still have to
 tend to the mundane :)  I am not in a cave somewhere :) - I was
acutely aware that I was surrounded and infused with a Great Peace
 in the midst of chaos...  I stood in wonder realizing this as life played
 itself out around me...  I also realized that I was actually functioning
 from that place, even without being aware of it, until I became aware
 of it - if you know what I mean.  A sense of "me-ness" had dropped,
to some degree, and "I" was just Peace - doing the groceries -
living life... But this was only a glimpse...a glimmer of Reality
 that faded over time.

Once, I felt myself fall more deeply into a felt sense of a deeper Inner
Rhythm - a seamless fluidity within - that nothing could interrupt: not
thought or the external distractions of life, nor the deeply ingrained
 emotional and mental patterns that arose as well.  Once again,
I was losing a sense of "me."  It was freeing as "I" was opened up to
the deeper Rhythm of Being; a deeper Awareness...  But this
 too faded in time.

Although these experiences faded, I do not consider them mere
"mystical experiences", but the normal play of the Formless in
Form that we encounter if we are paying attention...  The Formless
dances within us, and comes to us in many Forms, gracing us with
ITs touch...  We only need to be aware...

~

"The Beloved falls in Love with ItSelf...
Inhabits ItSelf - as Form...
and loves the Form of ItSelf..."

MM

~

this post was originally written in 2015

~

Photo from the internet

Nothing is Just One Way - Joan Tollifson

...No words or concepts can capture reality.  Maps are useful,
but they can only describe and point to the territory itself.
Eating the meal is what nourishes you, not reading the menu.
Take what resonates and leave the rest...  Don't believe
anything you read, but instead, question, look, listen, feel
deep into, and see for yourself.  The book that wakes you
up one day may lull you to sleep the next.  Always be ready
to see something new and unexpected.

...stay open to the possibilities, to seeing things in a new way,
to questioning assumptions and conclusions.  ...this living
reality is no way in particular.  It is ever-changing, evolving,
dancing, vibrating, unfolding...  It never resolves into some
final package, some ultimate formulation.  There is no
finish-line on this pathless path, no definitive model or map
that captures reality.  What all true pointers are pointing to
is the living reality, and the living reality is ALIVE - fluid,
spacious, open, ungraspable.  It is not frozen or solid or
only one way.  It can't be pinned down.

Sometimes everything opens up when we hear a teacher say
that there is nothing to do.  Sometimes we need to hear
there is no choice, and sometimes we need to hear that
there is a choice.

Nothing is just one way...

Joan Tollifson

Wonderment - Naomi Stone

When we truly arrive in that vast space
of who we are in purity of being
as we are created to be,

we are the living beauty of an expanding sanctuary,
we are life aware of itself
fluid
changing,
we are the flow of a shifting

transparency

of spirit

the bliss of an unseen kiss

felt in the

rising mist of existence
dissolving in the pure eternal joy
of this eternal moment
of
a thrilling transforming
ever changing
wonder...

Naomi Stone

~

Personal note: My own experience is that
"arriving" simply means we come to see/
recognize the Pure Beingness that we are.
We are, as Naomi says, "Life aware of itself."

~

Photo - Fat globules in a pan of water,
digitally altered :)

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

GSW - Living the Rhythm

There didn’t appear to be any specific grocery store wisdom today, except for this nagging awareness that I am not living in rhythm with “The Rhythm” – the felt sense of the Inner Rhythm that animates my being. So maybe this doesn’t qualify as “Grocery Store Wisdom”, but this is what emerged today, that evidently wants to be written. I felt strangely out of sync with the Self today, out of sync with Life. The requirements of living seem to be taking over and taking me out of rhythm with “The Rhythm” – if that’s even possible. I ended up feeling like I was schlogging through the grocery store with someone else’s goulashes on – at least two sizes too big and very heavy – like schlepping through mashed potatoes and gravy… Clean up on the Deli isle please…

As I schlogged through the store I felt only vaguely aware, as if the glow from Saturday’s realizations had dimmed. Where was the excitement about living “The Mystery?” I had hoped to see how “The Mystery” would reveal Itself today, instead I kept getting tripped up on the stories I tell myself about the way life is going, and how I’m tired of schlogging through life, having to be so focused on the mundane, rather than riding the rhythmic waves of Oceanic Awareness. But I told myself that it’s okay, life continues as it does – chop wood, carry water – keep going. We can’t always be floating in the ecstasy of “awakenings.” Things need to be done. And so I do them. Like we all do…

As I went from isle to isle in my mud sucking boots I pondered: How do I *live* “The Rhythm” when the mundane seemingly weighs me down, taking me in directions my Heart doesn’t want to go, out of the necessity of survival. My Heart wants to create, flow, rest, but I get caught in the mundance - the dance of the mundane. This is not to say that the mundane *isn’t* “The Mystery”, but how do I honor “The Rhythm of The Mystery”, that internal Rhythm that wants to be expressed in and through me… How can I be true to That - *living* “The Rhythm”…

While I realize now that *everything* is “The Mystery,” that there is no separation between the mundane and “the Mystery” - that it is only the *thought* that they are separate that makes it so – my experience of it feels different. It’s as if my whole being is trying to free itself from the confines and constraints that it is experiencing – the roles, the identities – and just BE, fluidly living. But this mundance that I’m caught in seems to suck the heat from the embers of the creative fire that wants to burn…

So - How does one “live life as it is” with its domestic demands and still find the energy to also do the life affirming, creative activities, when ones body lacks the stamina to do it all... I know a lot of you are doing this out there – you who are artists, mothers, writers, contemplatives, caregivers & working women… How do you *live* the excitement of “The Rhythm," of “The Mystery” that rises up from within? Seriously, I want to know! Some days I find it hard to just sit in open-ended meditation without thinking about what needs to be done, or to focus enough to get any creative momentum going, while still keeping the home fires burning – like Hestia, goddess of Home and Hearth: keeping the meals made, the laundry done, the general upkeep, the lists of things to do, and still fully engage in creative, life affirming endeavors. Where do we find time to just BE? Is it just me, or have you noticed that most “gurus” are men?! :) Is there a reason for that? Maybe they have the uninterrupted time to devote to a more contemplative life, to living a mystic’s life in sync with “The Mystery.” I don’t know. And I don’t mean to sound whiney here… but… something is pulling me to live differently, to express in a different way, to see in a different way… And yet, the tune of the mundane keeps pulling me back into the same old dance – the mundance…

And so as I did my domestic duties today, I reminded myself that it’s all “The Mystery” here, breathing me, living me, dancing me through the mundane duties and obligations… I reminded myself to rest in the Embrace of “The Mystery,” that the “mundane” is merely the surface movement that I *identify* with as a problem, an obstacle to the flow. I reminded myself that beyond the roles and identities of “self” we *are* abiding Presence, “The Mystery” – “The Rhythm” - experiencing life.

Shall we dance? Can you hear “The Rhythm?” You take the broom and I’ll grab the duster…