The Jewel in the Heart - Pema Chodron

"Spiritual awakening" is frequently described as a journey to
the top of the mountain.  We [supposedly] leave our attachments
and our worldliness behind and slowly make our way to the top.
We [supposedly] transcend all pain...

On the journey, however, the path goes down, not up...
Instead of transcending our suffering, or that of others, we
move toward our own turbulence and doubt, and that of others,
however we can.  We explore the reality and unpredictability of
insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away.  Even if it
takes years, we let it be what it is.

At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we  move down
and down and down.  With us move millions of others, our
companions in awakening from fear.  At the bottom we discover
water, the healing water of our heart - our wounded, softened heart.
Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that
will not die.  This love is called Bodichitta.  It is gentle and warm;
it is clear and sharp; it is open and spacious...

Healing can be found in the tenderness of pain itself.  Without
realizing it we continually shield ourselves from [emotional] pain
 because it scares us.  Based on a deep fear of being hurt, we erect
 protective walls made of our strategies, opinions, prejudices and
emotions. Yet, just as a jewel that has been buried in the earth
 for a million years is not discolored, the Heart of Bodchitta
is not affected by all the ways we try to protect ourselves from it. 
The jewel can be brought out into the light, and it will glow...

.....tenderness for life....awakens when we no longer shield ourselves
from the vulnerability of our condition, from the basic fragility of
existence.  It awakens through the kinship with the suffering of others.

Pema Chodron
Buddhist Teacher

Excerpts from:  Comfortable with Uncertainty
by Pema Chodron

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Jewel in the Heart

 

The Journey - Henri Bergson

Fortunately, some are born with spiritual immune systems that
sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted
upon them from birth through social conditioning.  They begin
sensing that something is amiss, and start looking for answers.
Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them
a side of reality others are oblivious to, and so begins their 
journey of awakening.  Each step of the journey is made by
following the heart instead of following the crowd and by
choosing [inner] knowledge over the veils of ignorance.

Henri Bergson
Daily Zen

with thanks to Whiskey River

~

Photo Mystic Meandering

 

Weight Shift - Ram Dass

If we can imagine a wheel whose rim is the cycle of births and deaths,
all of the 'stuff' of life, conditioned reality, and whose center is
perfect flow, formless no-mind, the Source, we've got one foot with
most of our weight on the circumference of the wheel, and one foot
tentatively at the center.

That's the beginning of awakening.  And we come in, and we sit and
meditate, and suddenly there's a moment when we feel the perfection
of our Being and our connection.  Then our weight goes back on the
outside of the wheel. Over and over and over, this happens.

Slowly, slowly the weight shifts.  Then the weight shifts just enough
so that there is a slight predominance on the center of the wheel, and
we find that we naturally just want to sit down and be quiet, that we
don't have to say , "I've got to meditate now," or "I've got to read a
holy book." or "I've got to turn off the television set," or "I've got to
do... anything."  It doesn't become that kind of discipline anymore.
The balance has shifted.

And we keep allowing our lives to become more and more simple,
more and more harmonious.  And less and less are we grasping at
this or pushing that away...

[We are no longer trying to make anything happen.]

Ram Dass

[brackets mine]

~

Photo - digitalized Mandala Art

2013

Open to the Dark - Fred LaMotte

We don't need to construct a higher self or a happy face that
denies our pain, our world-weary anger, the devastating loss
we may feel this very moment.  We just need to open.

Open to the dark without resistance, breathing every chaffing
grain of sand into the softness of your heart.  Embrace each
jagged edge and splinter of the world.  Open down deep
to the core...

Unconditional vulnerability is invincible strength.  When we
touch our core, the dark broken flower that seemed so
heavy with the toxins of human fragmentation suddenly
blossoms into fragrant wholeness.  Why?
Because we no longer identify with the content of our
awareness, but Awareness itself.

Beneath the fleeting sensations of the world - some pleasant,
some painful - is the continuum of awakening, the clear mirror
underlying its reflections.  Whether the image is terrible or
sublime (or both?), the nature of the mirror never changes:
bottomless clarity, immaculate stillness.

Awakening is not a miracle.  Wide-open awareness requires
no belief, no transformation, no journey.  Yet this mirror
drowns every fleeting shape in the ocean of transparency
and compassion.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

Awakening From Awakening - Jeff Foster

This is a true story from Jeff Foster

Once, at a conference, I watched a spiritual teacher addressing
a grieving woman whose precious young son had just died.  Her
world had just collapsed.  An old reality had shattered.  She said,
"My heart is broken and raw."  He told her, "Your heartbreak is the
activity of the separate self, and therefore illusory, based in ignorance.
When the separate self dissolves, there will be no more suffering.
In Awareness, there is no death.  Awareness has no son."  He told
her she needed to 'wake up.'  She needed to recognize herself as
'Pure Awareness' - that she was pretending to be a victim, that
she didn't know 'who she truly was.'

And in that moment, I saw a deep sickness and inhumanity at
 the heart of much our contemporary spirituality.
The invalidation and shaming of trauma, the false promises,
the power games, and most of all, the suppression
of the divine feminine.  Making our grief, anger, fear and joy a
'mistake' or some 'sign' that we are not awakened enough, not
spiritual enough, not 'divine' enough in our embodied humanity.
The pathologising of our wildness.  The shaming of our fragility,
our sensitivity.

Friends, if this is 'spiritual awakening', I simply have no interest.
Let us [embrace] our fragile, vulnerable humanity!  Not run from it!
Let us bless our precious broken hearts!  Not pathologise them!
Let us infuse our deepest human experience with empathy.
  Send a curious, warm awareness deep into
the wounds.  Not to mend, not to fix, but to feel!  Not to 'awaken',
but to penetrate and be penetrated by Love.
The awakening of the heart. 
The remembering of the magic we knew when we were very
young.  Let us embrace our painful feelings.  Not see them as a 'sign'
of our spiritual failure, or our inability to manifest, or our ignorance,
or lack of strength.

Let us wake up from the old *concept* of  'awakening'.
Return to the sacredness in our humanity!

and

Meet each other in the fire of living.  Be present with each other,

instead of trying to fix [correct/dismiss] each other.

Jeff Foster
[A Non-dualist with a Heart:)]

Facebook

[brackets mine]

The Stream of Light and Breath - Naomi Stone

I write as I live
in an energizing stream
of light and breath
for love has its own
momentum

*

we feel the rhythm
of the heart
for we are all
contained
in the music
of a larger heart
*
a stream of energy
simply flows where it goes
and the same light
dances on the prairie
as on the ripples
and waves of the sea
in which we are all embraced
*
the same source dances us
into the day
the same pulse of life
beats in all awakening hearts
and the same breath
breathes us into being
*
the music of the heart
rises from the sweep and touch
of divine fingers
and the light that circles there
is as rich and golden
as the pure light pouring
through the sun
*
when the heart begins to sing
the song emerges
springing from joy
whether in the darkness of night
or the glow of morning
*
for it opens
from within the greater heart
and music flows
from a glorious mystery
no one
can truly name
*

music is always new
like the breath
no matter how it sounds
to another

*

for love is encoded
with a beauty only the heart
can recognize
and only unseen eyes
can behold
*
words dance out of the darkness
like our lives dance
and swirl in the curls
of beauty
that have entrapped mystics
through the ages
and time stands still
and falls away as a measure
that has no meaning
to the heart
*

there is no such thing
as separation
to the pulsing heart
of one abiding in the mystery
that listens
to all longing hearts
of countless beings
who have sweetly surrendered
their boundaries
to love
*

everything falls from a source
beyond my ability
to describe or control
it tumbles like a waterfall
into the fall line
of a timeless stream
energizing
this life
moment by moment
*
all the histories of all
of the faces and names
ultimately melt
in the dancing flames
of the beloved
and only the one
who sustains
my heart remains
*
this sweet existence
is the perfect
transparency
for this invisible flame
as the shimmering wings
of poetic vision
are carried by the light
of life itself
*

Naomi Stone

In Delightful Wonderment - Bob O'Hearn

This magical realm we call “the world”

is a wild wonder beyond human reckoning!

The mere appearance of anything at all

is a perpetual mystery of pure awe

and relentless astonishment!

These ever-shifting props that provide

the sense of time and change are nothing

but children’s toys the Great One

juggles like batons in the air!

How thrilling to suddenly realize

we ourselves are This!

The synchronous majesty

of our infinitely expansive being

is the perfect body of the Beautiful One,

the One who is living us now, dreaming

us now as the very miracle we Are.

Any rain-splashed leaf is nothing

but another moistened kiss of Infinity.

Every wandering breeze rustling trees —

the amorous breath of our own Divinity.

Every sigh, every breath, every beat of heart

is an orchestrated choir of regal rapture.

Every molecule of light amazes itself

at its own inexplicable appearance.

Even as we sleep and dream

our sensitive thoughts conduct

a symphony of rippling pleasure.

This body standing here

is a delightful play of Love.

This mind —

an echo of a mystery

fashioned out of speechless Love.

We are Love, and Love must love,

for therein shines our perfect purpose.

Every blink and wink of our eyes

is the grace-bestowing sacred regard

of the original Lover, through Whose Glance

all are blessed, healed, given and taken —

all truly redeemed beyond any need

for make-believe redemption.

The chains that seem to bind us here

are merely our reluctance to forgive

and let go of a non-existent past.

No sad regret,

no hopeful anticipation,

everything just as it is –

this moment!

Each miniscule particle of light

swirling in the wake of our casual passing

ignites the ecstatic birth of galaxies —

we are made of This!

There is one Presence, one Power,

alive in all the universe, being lived

through Its uncountable expressions.

We are all unique projections

of that changeless Divine Energy

in which the myriad sentient personalities

flash and frolic as dreamy thought forms

dancing in the Heart/Mind of Source.

Drawn deeper into this stunning recognition,

all universal nature herself becomes transparent

as the manifestation of the Living Womb

of vast emptiness, delivering everyone

and everything into pure light

and more light still.

Every motion, every breath,

every thought and cessation of thought

is none other than the intense enjoyment,

the utter delight, the supreme pleasure

of the Indescribable Supreme!

This understanding can yield a great relief

of sufficiency and equanimity, regardless

of how things may seem to play out

in the drama’s consciousness’

ceaseless unfolding.

There is nothing that can be done,

no weeping or prayer, no exotic method

or any sort of strategy that can be manipulated

to attain this plain and simple realization;

no heroic gate-storming or self-generated effort

will yield true satisfaction, no practice nor

tweaking of attention can transcend itself.

Doing or not-doing are equally futile.

All achievement is transitory.

Even the most feeling submission

to the Living Source must be seen at last

as arising from a subtle, deluded sense

of division within the body/mind.

The clear light radiance of awake awareness

has no before or after, nor parts

that somehow come together

or randomly divide.

There is only This!

Such recognition is not an acquisition

of the mind, but rather a letting go

and awakening at the Heart —

our destiny and present condition —

when all that would obstruct clear seeing

is sacrificed at the altar of the Unconditional,

for the selfless sake of Love alone.

May all beings awaken to the bliss

of their own true nature –

their own primordial

brilliance!

Only This!

Bob O'Hearn
Feeling To Infinity

 ~

Photo: Glass Menagerie
Mystic Meandering

Love Floats...

~ Love ~
wafted through my being one night;
a simple, unassuming,
gentle, tender, openness of love
that just...
floated
t h r o u g h ~ ~ ~

Don’t know where it came from – or why…

It’s Imponderable…


It moved through
like a feather of light;
a moment of in-spiration
here and gone,
awakening the
Heart.

It came without reason…

Just ~ Love ~ loving.

Somehow I knew
that our deepest purpose,
our deepest Truth
is this “Love”
that softly glided through,
unannounced…

We cannot contrive this
love, this purpose…
grasp it, or hold onto it.

It is not a goal, or concept.
It is not “we” who love
but simply Love loving,
on its own,
without effort.

Love happening…

Unbidden
Unexpected

“We” merely remain open
and allow
Love
to come,
to move in us,
and through us.

Like a fragrant breeze
that drifts
through an open window,

softly kissing the air,
startling the senses
awake…

and before dissipating,
 silently whispers…

All there is,
is
~ Love ~

~

And so it is…

Mystic Meandering
May 17, 2015


Photo: Light reflected on a wall...

Thresholds - John O'Donohue and Rumi...

“Like Spring secretly at work within the heart of Winter,
below the surface of our lives
huge changes are in fermentation.
We never suspect a thing.
Then when the grip of some
long-enduring winter mentality
begins to loosen,
we find ourselves
vulnerable
to
a
flourish
of

possibility

and we are suddenly negotiating
the challenges
of
a threshold…

At any time you can ask yourself:

At which threshold am I now standing?
At this time in my life, what am I leaving?

Where am I about to enter?

A threshold is not a simple boundary;
it is a frontier
that divides two different territories,
rhythms, and atmospheres.

Indeed, it is a lovely testimony
to the fullness and integrity
of an experience or a stage of life
that it intensifies toward the end
into a real frontier
that cannot be crossed
without
the heart being passionately
engaged
and
woken up.

At this threshold
a great complexity of emotion
comes alive:
confusion,
fear,
excitement,
sadness,
hope.

This is one of the reasons
such vital crossings
were always clothed in ritual.

It is wise in your own life
to be able to recognize and acknowledge
the key thresholds;
to take your time;
to feel all the varieties of presence
that accrue there;
to listen inward
with complete attention
until you hear
the inner voice
calling you
forward:

The time has come
to cross.”

John O’Donohue
Excerpts taken From: To Bless the Space Between Us
and put into prose poem format...

“Remember, the entrance door to the sanctuary
is inside you.”

Rumi

~

Whatever “threshold” you find yourself at
in the coming year,
I hope you make a peaceful passage.
May your life journey
be illuminated
from within
bringing
you “home”
to
the
Heart

~♥~

Photos taken by Hubby
Sunrise, Dec. 23, 2013

Notice the “angel wings”
at the top of the top photo J

Mystic Heart...

"Mystical experience is the awakening
to the Mystery within and without
and beyond us;
happening in the pesent moment
of the eternal now.

Mystical experience is always here,
inviting us on a journey of
ultimate discovery.
How we make the journey
is what spirituality
is all about.

Existence is a
summons
to the
eternal
journey
of the sage...
the sage we all are,
if only we could see.
It is our spiritual nature…”

Wayne Teasdale

Christian Mystic
From: The Mystic Heart

“If you could [look beyond] yourself just once,
the secret of secrets would open to you.

The face of the unknown,
hidden beyond the universe
would appear
 on the mirror
of your
  perception.”

Rumi

”The Mystic’s path takes one into
the
 depths
 of
 the
 Heart…

It leads from the known to
the unknown,
and
 then
 further
into
 the
 unknowable…

Nothing can prepare you for
the Heart’s journey…
It is a mystery
 of the
Heart’s
 awakening…”

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic
From:
 Fragments of a Love Story

~



Photos:
#1 - Raindrops on Screen
#2 - Shadow on Wall
zoom blurred
#3 - Shadow on Wall

Soul Windows...

“When your ‘soul’  (Consciousness) awakens,
you begin to truly inherit your life.
You leave the kingdom of fake surfaces,
repetitive talk,
and many weary roles,
and slip deeper into the true adventure of
who you are,
and who you are called to become.

The greatest friend of the soul is the unknown…

Yet we are afraid of the unknown because
it lies outside our vision and our control.
We avoid it or quell it by filtering it
through our protective barriers of
domestication and control.

The normal way never leads home…”

John O’Donohue


~

“The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal.
It can’t be organized and regulated.
We can only keep turning to our Hearts,
listening to what feels right...
It isn’t true that everyone should follow one path.
Listen to your own truth…”

Ram Dass

~

Photo:  This is actually a photo of a curtain on a window
I digitally played with the colors and got this affect
of a building with windows – albeit distorted -
reflecting, for me anyway, that there
are many windows of the soul
we have yet to
open...

Learning about Love...

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves,
and not to twist them to fit our image.
Otherwise we love only the reflection of
ourselves we find in them…”

Thomas Merton

“You have to learn to get up from the table
when love is no longer being served…”

Nina Simone

“Love arises when you die into
the Unknown Mystery of Being -
when you realize that Love
has no intention to change you,
it has no agenda…”

Adyashanti

Do What You Need To Do...

“One day you finally knew
what you had to do,
and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice;
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles…

“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.

It was already late enough,
and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do -
determined to save
the only life you could save.”

The Journey
by Mary Oliver

Photo: Shadow of knive handles in a knife block holder.
To me it gives the appearance of an outstretched hand,
as if inviting me to follow…

PS: I am not suggesting anything morbid here!
Just thought the shadow was interesting...

*

I love this poem, and am letting it speak for me.
I know I have posted it before,
in fact in August of last year
when faced with family drama.
I’m apparently going in circles. :)
It seems appropriate to post it again
 for where I am now
and the pull I feel on my life -
as I go through another cycle of letting go
of the ego-centric dramas of my life
and fully awaken to the True Self…
Maybe this year… :)