Ageless and Brainless :) - a meandering

Last week I had two MRIs,
one for the brain, (to see if I actually had one :))))
and the other the lumbar spine because of the problems
I've been having with balance and walking and tingling
in my legs, and ache in the sacrum...

The night of the MRIs I had a felt sense that there is something
within that doesn't *feel* 75.  I guess what the non-dualists
call "The Self."  It's like there's something inside the body-me
that doesn't age - is Ageless.  Maybe some call it the Soul.
The Inner Being, the Inner Spirit, The Essence, The Ineffable, etc.

But it's like I became *aware* of its Presence.
I woke? :):):):)

I'm aware that my/the body *is* aging, declining, losing its
functioning, including my brain/mind.  But there is this other 
"me" (non-dualists won't like that) - which isn't another "me" -
which isn't "me" - but something that isn't aging - watching all
this happen - which I now call "The Watcher" :)
But which is also known as The Source, the Infinite Self, and
sits at the very Core of my Being behind the Heart...

But this awareness of that didn't make "me" *feel* any better
physically.  Physically I'm still declining...

~

It also occurred to me, in that same flow that night, that the
brain *has* to be connected to, or *is* the mind.
(I have been told otherwise - that the mind is not the brain.)
You can't locate the mind - although people seem to point to
the head.  But it's apparently free-floating somewhere,
I guess... :)

But the brain has a "thinking" function...
I contemplated that the mind and the brain may not be
separate entities...
because... when the brain (the physical organ) starts to not
function properly, then the "thinking" function (of the brain)
is diminished or diminishing.  Thinking becomes garbled,
mixed up and unclear.  You lose cognition.
Then there's also a memory function of the brain, which also
deteriorates and you lose your memory because that section of
the brain has lost its functioning.  And there is a language function,
that when it declines you begin to lose your words, etc.
Hopefully you get where I'm going. :)

The mental functions apparently correlate information,
which become thoughts (?)

Where are these thoughts coming from now - once the brain
starts to deteriorate - is there a separate thing called mind - that
thinks....  hmmmmm

Geez - maybe I need an MRI of the brain more often.
It seemed to open up a new pathway?  LOLOLOL

Just ramblings, I know - with a little humor on the side...

But still....
something to ponder....

Mystic Meandering
April 5, 2025

~

Photo from the Internet

 

"Home"...

Never lose sight of "Home" -
your inner "Home"...
The deep Silence of your Being -
The Essence...

that sustains you -
that in-spires you -
through every life experience...

Through physical pain -
and emotional heartache...
The Silence waits for you -
like a dear Friend...

Welcomes you "Home"
again and again and again -
when you have wandered away -
into the chaos of the world...

You are loved beyond measure...

Mystic Meandering
March 11, 2025

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Water Bottle Reflections

 

Dissolve - Fred LaMotte

Rosette Nebula - From: The Invisible Universe
by David Malin

 Stars dissolve into a rose. A rose dissolves into stars. Ask Dante.

The solution is dissolution.  What dissolves?  Separateness.

I am not my skin color.  I am not my tribe.  I am not even my
gender.  I wear these veils and garments, just as I have a red
shirt or a Yankees cap on: but they are not my Self.

Nor am I my political party, my nation, or my religion.  And I
am not my ancestors.  These are marvelous incidents, but not
my Essence.  The core of my existence is prior to labels,
identifications, masks.  Yes, I enjoy wearing them, dancing in
them, playing in their forms.  I need not renounce them,
because they were never really "mine" to begin with.  In deep
meditation, these forms dissolve like the dreams they are.
Then I Am.

In deep meditation, the core of existence reveals itself as the
One who cannot be divided into races, tribes, religions, parties,
yet who plays in them all as light playing in a kaleidoscope.
The revelation transcends thought and imagination.  It is the
Self-image of the Imageless.  Groundless, brilliant, empty, it
is nowhere and everywhere.  It is the Holy of Holies.

Emerging from meditation, I need no longer look for that place.
I look from that place.  Then it is impossible to identify any
color or creed, any political or spiritual movement, as "me."
I am simply who Am.

The verb "Am" is solid as a diamond, boundless as the sky.
Who needs to say, "I Am a man, I Am a liberal, I Am a Buddhist,
I Am a white or a black?  Not I.  Just Am.  Those labels of
identity make the mind small.  No noun, no-thing, ever really
follows the verb To Be.

Fred LaMottte
Uradiance

Thrive - Leo Hartong

What environment do you thrive in?
Plants need different conditions to thrive in
and when you try to grow it in a different environment -
it can't thrive.

It's not about preferences,
or about "accepting life as it is" -
but knowing what you need for your spirit to thrive.

It is about the recognition of what it truly is
that lives, thinks, sees and breathes
through and as you...
The Essence of your Being
that appears as you.

Leo Hartong
Excerpt from: From Self to Self

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

The Code of Authentic Living - Joan C. King

Physics teaches us that, at its essence, everything is energy.
We are beings of energy.  A mysterious life force, made up of
the Source Energy that reverberates within each molecule is
in every cell of the body.

Source Energy animates every living being and [is] eternally
creative, ever seeking new dimensions, relentlessly pursuing
new expressions...

Source Energy is our link to the creative energies of the
Universe.  We thrive when our actions and interactions are
aligned with the energy that animates and sustains our cells.

Out of the Source Energy of the Void, the energy that powers all
creation, the energy that resonates within our cells, something
new is being born at every transition in life...  A new reality is
unfolding from the field of possibility.  At moments of transition,
the vortex of creative energy that is our life force is activated.
Its waves carry the blueprint that informs every new aspect of
our lives.  If we surrender to the vortex of energy Cellular Wisdom
will direct us on a path that leads to emerging new dimensions of
our lives...

We cannot find this energy in our minds, because our thoughts
are not our actual experience.

Any journey within leads, paradoxically, to heightened awareness
of the expansive energy which permeates all life.  The energy
that we encounter when we look inside ourselves is the same
energy that guides the movement of the heavenly spheres - the
stars, galaxies, universes.  Each living being has a characteristic
profile of energy frequencies expressed within his or her body, but
our spirits are not confined by physical limits.  Our individual
energies pulse in and out of the sea of all energy...  When we tap
into that confluence of energy we arise renewed, knowing that
the energies in our bodies are moving within the harmonies of
vast cosmic music.  There's nothing that you have to do to earn
the presence of Cellular Wisdom [i.e. Source Energy], for it is
nothing less than the essence of who you are.

Joan C. King
From - The Code of Authentic Living

~

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for
the sound of the genuine in yourself.  It is the only true guide
you will ever have.  And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your
life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.

Howard Thurman

~

Photo - Vortex Art
Mystic Meandering
2012

The Light is the Same - Rumi

The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same.
So many garish lamps in the dying brain's
lamp-show.

Forget about them.

Concentrate on the essence,
concentrate on the Light.

In lucid bliss, calmly smoking off its own
holy fire.

The Light streams towards you from all things.
All people, all possible permutations of good, evil
thought, passion.

The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same.

One matter, one energy, one Light,
one Light-mind,
endlessly emanating all things.

One turning and burning diamond.
One, one, one.

Ground yourself, strip yourself down,
to blind loving silence.

Stay there until you see
you are gazing at the Light

with its own ageless eyes.

Rumi

Be a Child of Fantasy - Pema Chodron

Regard everything as a dream/illusion/fantasy

Regard everything as transparent.
See *through* everything

See that everything is in transition,
always changing

Liberate concepts and beliefs

Let go of the need for an"answer"/solution

Rest in the nature of Essence ~
The Primordial State of everything

Be a child of fantasy
Be curious instead of afraid...

You are the sky.
Everything else ~

"it's just the weather."


Quotes from
Pema Chodron
Buddhist Teacher/author

~

Photo - have no idea what this is.
Think it was a "mistake" digitally altered. :)

Duality Is Not Separateness...

Oneness
 is a concept
not something to be sought after,
but only recognized as what already is…

Non-Duality is a concept as well…

Advaita says -

Not two – yet not one…

One in Essence…

A Synchronous Singularity

~

Non-duality/Duality
a conundrum -
word games for the intellect…

Neither one *or* the other – but
Both/And…
Not two,
yet not One…

“different” yet the “same”

but

Never~Separate

Formlessness infusing Form,
manifesting ItSelf
dualistically
in manifest experience…

~

The Eternal Now

Pure Formless Being

Exists
in endless multiplicity,
yet singular.

What greater Love could there be
than the Heart of Pure Being

Emanating ItSelf
endlessly
into
Form

An Immersion in the Pure Golden Love
that lives and breathes our being…

A Pure Intimacy of the Heart…

The Beloved: Formlessness
in Form, as me, as ItSelf…

The same synchronous movement

a

Singularity of Being…

Mystic Meandering
Jan/Feb 2015

Fall's Last Flash...

The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same...

Concentrate on essence,
concentrate on Light…

In lucid bliss,
calmly smoking off its own holy fire,
the Light streams towards you from all things...

The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same…

One matter, one energy, one Light,
one Light-mind,
endlessly emanating all things.
One turning and burning diamond.

One, one, one…

Ground yourself,
strip yourself down,
to blind loving silence.
Stay there, until you see
you are gazing at the Light
with its own ageless eyes…

Rumi
“One, One, One”

Inside this new love die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly
born into color.

Do it now.
You’re covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side.
Die,
and be quiet.

Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.

Your old life was a frantic
running from Silence...

Rumi
”Quietness”

Spring's Furry Fuzzies

Connect with the Essence of Nature:
Innocence, Purity, Simplicity…

Let them
speak to your heart
and guide your steps…

Love supports you in every moment…



~*~

Simply Sitting with Nature...

Nature, like art and music, is a great equalizer it seems, where we can get past the dramas of life and see into the Heart of things as they *truly* are – to what’s underneath it all – the Essence of Life. And Nature provides such wonderful metaphors for this, if we just sit and listen… So I have resolved to spend as much time out in Nature as possible – simply sitting with Nature. Oh and doing some yard work and gardening and puttzing as well, but mainly sitting, watching, and re-connecting.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday I spent several hours out in this chair, just sitting in the alive Stillness - *feeling* Nature – noticing Nature - sometimes morning, sometimes late afternoon. It’s been a very long time since I’ve spent this kind of quiet time just sitting out in Nature. There have been various excuses. But I am committing to “sitting with Nature” again – and reconnecting with my True Nature. It kind of feels like I’m starting all over again: this connecting with Nature, this getting to know Self. She’s been hidden under layers of drama – contracted - and needs to relax and open up – again.

When I first went out into the yard and placed the chair under the tree on Saturday morning there was an awkwardness there, like I was a stranger in my own back yard. I sat with it, looking for connection. And as I sat, it allowed me to connect inwardly, to become aware of the body sensations and the feelings that have accumulated and been trapped there over time through 3 months of family drama – and before. And so I became aware of the little orphans inside me that wanted to be heard. So I listened and felt their pain, their tightness, their constriction, their fear. I noticed that there is a very deep pain that I haven’t allowed to be met, acknowledged and expressed – maybe ever. So I spent some time meeting her, ever so gently, acknowledging her - noticing where in the body she was trapped. It took about an hour of sitting before I took my first deep breath and opened to her. And then the emotions flowed. Am sure it will take a few more meetings with this orphaned one before she’s willing to come home. All in time…

I read about John Daido Loori one time. He was a Zen monk as well as a photographer who took photographs of Nature (amongst other things). I remember in one write-up he talked about approaching and greeting the subject in nature that you want to photograph – be it tree, leaf, flower, bush or bird – and *wait* to be acknowledged, as if creating relationship with the Essence of it first, and waiting for the reply. At least that’s what I remember from the article. I tried to find it again on line, but couldn’t, so those of you who know about him can probably speak to the accuracy of this. So Sunday when I sat, I did so with a different approach, with respect and awareness, and *I* felt greeted, received and welcomed by Nature – especially from the trees; except maybe the Honey Locust. She’s still a bit reserved, not fully open yet. But the Maple that I sat under greeted me with her energy and welcomed me there, as if welcoming an old friend who forgot they knew each other. The two small adolescent conjoined cottonwood twins across the yard acknowledged my presence, (they are only 13 years old), and Grandfather Spruce just stood there – observing it all, like a protective sentinel.

I watched a Robin perched on a low branch in one of the cottonwoods as she sang her song. She hopped down from the branch and zigzagged her way across the lawn. I say zigzagged because there was a pattern: wait, head cock left, then right, look and listen to the ground for movement, dig with her beak, run off in an angle to the next spot; wait, listen/look, dig, run and so on across the yard. Mr. Black Bird flew in to scold Ms. Robin on the lawn. She just stood still, not a move, while Black Bird squawked at her from his lofty perch. Robin just waited until Black Bird was through squawking and flew off, and *then* she resumed her pattern of waiting, listening, hearing/seeing, and acting as she *gradually* made her way across the back yard.

And of course I couldn’t help but see the metaphor in all this about how I move through life. If I sit and wait in stillness, listening, watching, I *see* and *hear* what I need to see and hear. It happens every time. And then I can act accordingly – I know what action to take. And with this inner knowing I can just keep going – undeterred – zigzagging through life. Even when heckled by the so-called “Black Birds” in my life, I could still move (or not move) in such a way that I meet the *Essence* of others. It seems then that drama would turn into Dharma… Nature is a wonderful teacher…

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing

there is a field.

I’ll meet you there…"

Rumi

~*~

The Good "What Ifs..."

It seems so many of us are presented with so many challenges of just living these days, of just making it through life, whether it’s physical challenges, health challenges, emotional, financial. We’re even facing challenges of a more spiritual nature as we collectively shift into a new consciousness – being challenged to go beyond our traditionally held belief systems and ways of being in the world.

They all have their litany of “what ifs.” What if I become physically incapacitated? What if we go bankrupt? What if we lose the house? What if the business fails? What will happen then… Even “spirituality” seems to offer its challenges, which creates its own set of “what ifs.” For instance, when I left the religion of my childhood 22 years ago I wondered – what if I am condemned to hell for “leaving the faith?” Or, what if I’m going down the wrong path? What if I lose favor with “God”? - as if any of these were possible. At the time the questions seemed pertinent. But I couldn’t focus on the “what ifs” – I had to follow the longing of my Heart.

This weekend while hibernating in my cave with flu-like symptoms, I browsed the bookshelves for something light to read, something inspirational that would take my mind off how I was feeling. I pulled out another book by Oriah Mountain Dreamer that I had read about 8 years ago, called: The Dance: Moving to the Rhythms of Your True Self. (Okay, there’s that little theme again – Rhythms).

I flipped the pages open to the “Prelude” and started reading. It was a list of “What If” questions. I’ll share the ones that spoke to me.

What if your contribution to the world and the fulfillment of your own happiness is not dependent on discovering a better method of prayer, or technique of meditation; not dependent upon reading the right book or attending the right seminar, but upon really seeing and deeply appreciating yourself and the world as they are right now?

What if there was no need to change, no need to try to transform yourself into someone who is more compassionate, more present, more loving or wise?

What if the task is simply to unfold, to become who you already are in your essential nature – gentle, compassionate and capable of living fully and passionately present?

What if the essence of who you are and always have been is enough?

What if you knew that the impulse to move in a way that creates beauty (peace, love, compassion, etc) in the world will arise from deep within you and guide you every time you simply pay attention and wait?

She then asks:

How would (all) this shape your stillness, your movement, your willingness to follow this impulse, to just let go and dance?

Wow – now there’s a list of “what ifs” to ponder when faced with life challenges! I obviously needed to read this list! How would asking these questions change the way we look at our challenges and *where* we look for our answers?

It seems the “good what ifs” turn us inward to find the “answers” within ourselves, to follow the longing of the Heart and not focus on a frail and fragile future “what if” that may never come about, and only keeps us in fear-thinking.

What if the “what ifs” brought us back to our True Self, where we see that we are inherently imbued with the capacity to meet *any* life situation with grace and equanimity, where we discover our capability to move with the ebb and flow of life’s events. And what if we could *know* this in our Heart of Hearts!? And what if all it takes is a shift in perception, a shift in *identity* with the fearful “what if” self to the Beingness that we truly are – The Essence that dances with life as it is… Even saying this feels foreign to me. Like it’s a new dance, and I don’t know the steps.

I’m signing up for dance lessons…

Serenity's Sanctuary - The Vastness of Being

What rises and falls, rises and falls within the context of

the Vastness of Being.

What arises are adaptations, not aberrations, not even fragmentations.

What arises are conditioned reactions, based on the lack of

knowing your Beingness –

your true Presence, the backdrop for everything that happens.

~

Mind creates and functions in predictable, habitual patterns.

Being responds spontaneously in the immediacy of the moment –

to meet each moment with freshness, newness, innocence,

curiosity, delight, with un-focus – that is – it can be

distracted by whatever grabs its attention with a sense of

discovery and openness.

~

Life happens.

Conditioning happens as a result.

Unwrap yourself from the shell of conditioning and

rest in the ever-stillness of Primordial Presence.

See and experience everything within that context.

Keep sitting back into the lap of Being –

The Embrace.

~

To be free is knowing yourself *as* Being –

the Essence of our Divine Nature.

Sweet Serenity...

~

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings

Photo: Street light through Birch branches