The Universe is a Story - Swimme & Tucker

The Universe is not simply a place, but a story -
a story in which we are immersed, to which we
belong, and out of which we arose...

The story has the power to awaken us more deeply to
who we are - we are the universe in the form of a human

And every time we are drawn to look up into the
night sky and reflect on the awesome beauty of the
universe, we are actually the universe reflecting on
itself.

And this changes everything...

A new integrating story has emerged.
It is a story of transformation through time.
It is challenging our understanding of who we are
in the universe.

Are we here by chance, by necessity, by serendipity,
or on purpose?

Swimme and Tucker
From: Journey of the Universe

~

Everything is ultimately a story.

My life is a story,
your life is a story,
all occurring within the vast
Cosmic Ocean...

The Story of the Eternal is being lived

here...

The Ineffable Mystery of the Universe
takes a journey through
the story of life - as us...
The "Divine Drama" is our story -
and our "story" is the "Divine Drama" ...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
2013

~

Photo from the Internet

 

The Cosmic Mystery - a meandering...

Webb Telescope Photo

Spiritually I've gone rogue - LOLOLOL

No, not a mystic gone mad,
just following my "spiritual evolution",
if you will...

No more notions of "Enlightenment", or
"Self-Realization",
or following the "old institutionalized systems"
with their dogmas and doctrines...

The Cosmos calls to me now...

I'm drawn to the incredibly, amazing Vastness
and Mystery of the Universe...

The Cosmos ignites something in me -
an intense energy pervades my body,
unexpectedly.

I am compelled to step into this "new" Reality;
which isn't really "new" to me...
The Cosmos has been calling to me for a long time,
trying to get my attention, but something is
different now - more intense.
Earthling phone Home! :)

I have been weighed down by the "gravity" of 
earth-life:

conflagration, inauguration,
genocide, homicide...

overwhelm...

But there is a Symphony of Energy in the Universe
that I must follow...

And deeply look into Infinity -
and the gate of Eternity...

The Cosmic Mystery...

Blows "me" away...

Mystic Meandering
Jan 11, 2025

~

The goal of life is to match your heartbeat to the beat
of the universe...

Joseph Campbell

 

The Universe's Story - Misc.

...the universe is not simply a place but a story,
a story in which we are immersed, to which we belong,
and out of which we arose.

This story has the power to awaken us more deeply to who we are.
For just as the Milky Way is the universe in the form of a galaxy,
and an orchid is the universe in the form of a flower,
we are the universe in the form of a human.

And every time we are drawn to look up into the night sky
and reflect on the awesome beauty of the universe,
we are actually the universe reflecting on itself.

Journey of the Universe
Brian Swimme and Mary Evenlyn Tucker

~*~

The Absolute is both unmanifest and dynamic creative force.
From the creative force everything arises;
both the world as well as personal consciousness.
Everything is a play [story] of consciousness,
not an unreal illusion.

Excerpt from an article by
Jan Easman

~*~

Everything is ultimately a story.
My life is a story,
your life is a story,
all occurring within the vast cosmic
Ocean of Consciousness.
The story of The Eternal is being lived
here...

The Ineffable Mystery of the Universe
takes a journey through
the story of life - as us...
The "Divine Drama" is our story -
and our "story" is the "Divine Drama"...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
2013

~*~

The real mystery is how It
unveils Itself within us;
how the Beloved makes Itself known
to ItSelf in the fragile container of the 
human being.

In the midst of the Divine Drama
there is a human story to be told.
But it's all "God's" story
being lived in human form...

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Sufi Mystic

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

A mystery :)

 

"The Eclipse" - a meandering...

One of the things that the recent eclipse of the sun
reminded me of was the larger Cosmos, of which
we are all a part.  And the Cosmos is working!
The planets and moons and suns align, then move
apart in their perpetual orbits, doing what they
were "designed" to do.  The Universe works -
it's humans who can't seem to do that, to align,
to "get it together" as they are "designed" (?)
Or maybe I just have an idealized perception
of how a human being is supposed to be...

Anyway - it - the eclipse - reminded me that there's
a greater intelligence at work in the Universe, a
Deeper Reality beyond what we experience on
earth as humans.  So the earth, moon and sun
were aligned - briefly.  I have no idea really what
the significance of that is - just that it reminded me
of a Deeper Reality behind what we know as reality -
working in the Cosmos...

~

And so - "The Quest" - for me - is to discover, or
re-discover, the Deeper Reality of myself - my Essence
of Being in the Greater scheme of things...

I have forgotten how to BE what I am!
In a sense what "I" was designed for;
one could say my "Soul's" task - or
even my Being's purpose - if there is one...

Some call it the Self, but I get hung up on that word,
because the big "S" Self is not another self
hidden somewhere inside us that we have to "become."
But it's a discovery, a remembering, having a felt sense
of, the Deeper Reality of one's very Being - the Essence
of one's Being; our Natural State of Being, beyond
personality, beyond conditioning, beyond mind, beyond
religion, beyond "spirituality." 

Who are we really?

I thought I knew, but...

I haven't really met "Her" yet... ;)
Well, maybe on occasion...

Now if I could only remember to learn to see and approach
life from that Essence of my very Beingness...

Ahhhh - Peace...

Mystic Meandering
Oct. 14 & 15, 2023

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Deeper Needs - D. H. Lawrence

 Photo by David Peters

We have fallen into the mistake of living from our little needs,
til we have lost our deeper needs.  We are perishing for lack of
fulfillment of our greater needs.  We are cut off from the great
source of our inward nourishment and renewal.  Sources that 
flow eternally in the universe.   Vitally the human race is dying.
We must plant ourselves again in the universe...and prepare for
the re-emergence in a bigger life in touch with the moving cosmos.

D.H. Lawrence

Photo - David Peters

 

A Deeper Reality ? - a meandering...

Photo by Johannes-Plenio on Unsplash
Johannes Plenio website

 "I turn everything over to 'The Universe'!
The Beautiful, Beautiful 'hidden' Universe..."

These were the words I wrote in my journal late one
night recently, listening to the Deep Quiet within...

I used the term "Universe" because it is free of
religious persona, identity, and association;
is free of concept...

then came:

In the "hidden" Universe everything is all OK!

But why did the word "hidden" emerge?

What is this "hidden" Universe?

More words came:

The "hidden" Universe is behind matter reality;
the spatial intelligence behind
manifest existence...

(Maybe some of you already know this...
But it felt new to me that night.)

I didn't get the sense it was the universe of microbes,
or DNA, or ghosts, or aliens, etc.  But the "Universe" that
is behind the manifest Universe;
an animating universe of Source Energy...

I felt a vibration in my body resonating with the words...

~

The thought arose that maybe I've been trying too hard 
to "spiritualize" everything -
that is - impose a certain "spirituality/or belief onto life
circumstances, which has caused stress in the system...
Like there's some kind of "spiritual" standard that I'm 
supposed to live up to, like self-sacrifice, duty, obligation,
being responsible, etc.  That I'm not being "spiritual" enough,
or doing it "right";  that it's something I have to earn by "doing"
something; but I am unable to live up to the "spiritual" standards
others have set.

~

So I, for some innate reason, turned that night to what I call
"The Universe"
- and gave it all up:
"spirituality";
the struggle about what I should "do",
about my current life circumstance;
my sense of obligation, and my fear-filled mind
about what might happen,
and started trusting that everything would be alright...

Again - a full body vibration...

My pen kept writing:

The "spirituality" that we practice is "flat."

(but what did that mean?)

With the introduction of the word "hidden" the "Universe"
became/felt dynamic and full.  And I had the sense that "worship",
or belief in one figure or religion is like - obsolete - because
that is an earthbound construct!  "Spirituality" is an earthbound
construct!  The Universe is much "fuller" and has no need for
"spiritual" constructs.  "Spirituality" keeps you constrained,
confined, limited.

What have I come across here!?

Can this be true?  - I wrote...

It was as if I suddenly realized that I had been focused on the
wrong things all these years.  "Spirituality", deities, personas,
and concepts like "enlightenment" and "awakening."
Flat concepts and constructs.

Somehow I *felt* that there is a much fuller range of Reality
...behind everything seen...

And with that I felt a vibration go through my body again...
And knew that my experience here is just a blip in a bigger
Universe, and maybe doesn't exist at all!

This reality, in some sense, is like living on a flat screen TV
with events taking place on the surface.  But there is depth to
"The Universe" that is multi-dimensional or more holographic;
and empty of anything contrived.

~

Maybe I was given a glimpse of a deeper Reality.

Maybe...

I don't know.

Mystic Meandering
Aug. 22, 2023

~

You are detaching, the old is over and the new
is yet to come.  The Soul has cast its moorings and
is sailing for distant places.

Remember the instruction:
Whatever you come across - go beyond.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo - Johannes-Plenio on Unsplash
website

 

A Creative Universe - Thomas Berry

Empirical inquiry into the universe reveals that from its
beginnings in the galactic system to its earthly expression
in human consciousness the universe carries within itself
a spiritual as well as physical dimension.  Otherwise human
consciousness emerges out of nowhere.  In reality the human
activates the most profound dimension of the universe itself,
its capacity to reflect on and celebrate itself in conscious
self-awareness.

[we need to]...establish a deeper understanding of the spiritual
dynamics of the universe as revealed through our own empirical
insight into the mysteries of its functioning...

When we create, it is not purely out of ourselves, but out of
a continuation of the creativity of the universe...


Thomas Berry
From: Dream of the Earth

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

Intuition is the mainline to the Universe. It's how the
Universe communicates.  It's the flow of Awareness
that comes from the Universe...

my husband :)

~

Photo from the Internet

 

You are "The Force" - Don Miguel Ruiz

You are Life,
passing through your body,
passing through your mind,
passing through your soul.

Once you find that out, not with logic, not with the intellect,
but because you can feel that Life, you find out that you are
the force that makes the flowers open and close, that makes
the hummingbird fly from flower to flower.

You find out that you are in every tree, and you are in every
animal, vegetable, and rock.  You are that force that moves
the wind and the wind breathes through your body.

The whole universe is a living being that is moved by that foce,
and that is what you are.

You are Life.

Don Miguel Ruiz

with thanks to Death Deconstructed

~

Photo: Mystic Meandering

Christmas Cactus flower zoom blurred :)

 

"Sacred Silence"...

I come to sit - called by "The Silence" within -
to rest in the deep Core of my Being,
my refuge...

to listen to the "Sacred Silence" of an Alive Cosmos;
to be held in that Rhythm ~ the in-breath and out-breath
of Life...

Lately,
I come to sit - to mourn the losses of life
and losses of ways of life in a a troubled world;
to mourn the living and the dead,
for the suffering they have endured;
for the collective grief - 
unending grief...

But mostly,
I come to sit - to feel the depths of Sacred Silence;
to be immersed in the vast Stillness of the Inner Cosmos;
to lay the burdens of the heart down -
and just rest...

Held and supported by the Universe in
some mysterious way...

Mystic Meandering
March 20, 2022

~

Photo from the Internet

 

Gift from The Mystery - Danna Faulds

When I listen, words are everywhere,
riding the air currents like broad-winged hawks.
Poems are born in the molten centers
of stars.  Exploding into supernovas,
they travel light years to reach this spinning
ball of water and dirt, then wait eons more
to tell their tale.

When I'm lucky, a whole poem
arrives at once, sliding out of my psyche
as if it was mine, unexpectedly illuminating
this corner of the universe.

Words are everywhere when I grow still.
Whispered by lovers in mid-kiss
or sung as a lullaby; shouted in rage or prayed
by a saint whose face is lit with inner flames,
it's all fuel for my fire, grist for the turning
wheel of transformation, a gift from the
mystery to this finite world of form.

Danna Faulds
From: Limitless

~

Photo from the James Webb Space Telescope
from the Internet

 

The Universe is the Great Self - Thomas Berry

The universe must be experienced as the Great Self.

Each is fulfilled in the other.
The Great Self is fulfilled in the individual self,
the individual self is fulfilled in the Great Self.

Alienation is overcome as soon as we experience this
surge of energy from the Source that has brought the
universe through the centuries...

New fields of energy become available to support
the human venture.

It is all an exuberant expression of Existence ItSelf.

Thomas Berry

with thanks to The Beauty We Love
and the photo too :)

~

All is the Sacred Mother of all existence...
Rest in that...

MM

 

The Inner Cosmos...

Give no regard to the voice of Fear that
 divides you and conflicts you;
whether from within or without...

Walk as if the "Divine" were in your shoes,
walking you -
The Inner Cosmic Being that you are;
undivided by earthly "tribes"
of politics and religion,
earthly boundaries,
or the divided mentations of
mediocre minds...

Fall into the Inner Rhythm of
the Inner Universe,
the ubiquitous Primordial Essence
inherently everywhere at all times,
fluidly in and through all life.

Do not listen to the 10,000 teachings
in your head that you have
accumulated over the years,
all trying to tell you what is true,
which way to go,
and how to be.

Just sit, be still, breathe, and listen...

for the Inner Cosmic Rhythm,
until you feel the
Inner Cosmos
move
you

Fall into the Internal Silence
beyond artificial boundaries,
beyond the bluster of buffoons and bullies
with mouthfuls of meaningless words...

Just Breathe...

Wait...

for the movement of the
the Inner Cosmos to lead you...

Then you will know what is true,
which way to go,
and
how to be...

Mystic Meandering
2017

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Perceptions of The Universe - Selected Quotes

The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean.
Some part of our being knows this is where we came from.
We long to return, and we can because the cosmos is
also within us.

We are made of star stuff.

Carl Sagan
Cosmos

~

photo - Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

What are we?

A fleeting, intricate presence riding a tiny speck of water
and rock, out here in the dark, sailing the ship of wonder
ever more deeply into the void from which we came...

Whitley Strieber and Jeffrey J. Kripal
from: The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained

~

When dew falls as tears from the morning sky,
When riverside trees sparkle in sunlight,
So close in my heart their shadows fall,
Then I know
That the Universe is a floating lotus
In the holy lake of my mind.
Then I know:

I am the voice within the Voice,
The song within the Song,
The life within the Life,
The light breaking through the heart of darkness.

Rabindranath Tagore
from - "A Flight of Swans"
translated by Aurobindo Bose

Photo - Mystic Meandering

~

... thus you came into being
from non-existence...

...like a star without a name...

Move across the night sky
with those anonymous lights...

Rumi

~

How we perceive affects what we believe,
what we believe affects what our perception is...

MM

Namaste

_/\_

Facing Into the Light...

Facing into the Sun for my daily
dose of warmth and light,
weeks of information overload
and overwhelm regarding
"the pandemic" has taken its toll
on my psyche...

Waking each morning
wondering - am I going to "catch it"?
watching for the signs;
wondering - will there be enough food
in the stores to last the *months* they
say it will take for the virus to dissipate?
What would be the "best" day to go
foraging for food in our big box
grocery stores, where food once
filled the shelves and cases, but
which has become sparse in the
panic of the pandemic?
What day would the shelves be
stocked the most - with the least
people to navigate?
One doesn't know these things now...

Who would have thought we would
become hunters and gatherers again,
searching for our daily bread...

Ominous...

But...

Today is not a day for mental discursions
of what I cannot control;
nor for fear of the unknown.
I must turn, instead, within
to the Sanity of my Inner Being,
and *stay* there, shelter there;
"stay home" in the Core of my Being,
if I can find "Her" again;
feel "Her" Presence, "Her" Light.

But it was not "She" who wandered off,
or was deluged with the collective fear
of the pandemic.
It was only my mind that fell into
the scare...

The Beauty of the World still exists.
The Earth is still suspended - stable - in space;
rotating around the warmth of the Sun
that lights us daily.
The Universe still sings its song
- uncalamitous -

ever-present in its
*essential* movement.

So I thank the Luminous Universe for being
- for perspective.

For I am not "earthbound" in this madness,
but am part of a celestial movement of stars and
planets dancing together, where the Hush of The
Mystery was once experienced viscerally in a moment
of Pure Silence...

I remember...

It fills my being and warms me to the core,
quelling the fear all the way to the heart,
piercing the veils of ignorance that covered
my mind.

Facing into the Sun, absorbing its warmth,
begins to ignite the Light within.

Facing into the Light within, I am prepared to
move through the day - unfettered by the
unessentials of the madness around me.

At peace in the Celestial Movement of Life...

Mystic Meandering
March 29, 2020

10:10 am

~

Thank you to Alain Joly at The Dawn Within
for the spark of inspiration that ignited this poem...

~

Photo - the Flammarion Engraving
from the Internet

The Play of the Universe - Swimme, Esmann, Vaughan-Lee, DH Lawrence

...the universe is not simply a place but a story,
a story in which we are immersed, to which we belong,
and out of which we arose.

This story has the power to awaken us more deeply to who
we are.  For just as the Milky Way is the universe in the form
of a galaxy. and an orchid is the universe in the form of a  flower,
we are actually the universe reflecting on itself.

from - Journey of the Universe
Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker

~*~

The Absolute is both unmanifest and a dynamic creative force.
From the creative force everything arises; both the world
as well as personal consciousness.  Everything is a blissful play
of consciousness, not an unreal illusion.

Excerpt from an article by
Jan Esmann
Shaktipat Master

~*~

Everything is ultimately a story.
My "life" is a story,
your "life" is a story,
all occurring simultaneously within the
vast cosmic Ocean of Consciousness/Awareness.
The story of The Eternal is being lived here...

The Ineffable Mystery of the Universe
takes a journey through
the story of life - as us...
The "Divine Drama" *is* our story -
and our "story" is the "Divine Drama"...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
2013

~*~

The real mystery is how IT unveils ItSelf within us:
how the Beloved makes ItSelf known to ItSelf
in the fragile container of the human being.

In the midst of the Divine Drama there is a
human story to be told. But it's all "God's" story

being lived in human form...

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

~*~

We must get back into relation,
vivid and nourishing relation to
the cosmos and the universe...
For the truth is,
we perish for lack of fulfillment
of our greater needs.
We are cut off from the great sources
of our inward nourishment and renewal,
sources which flow eternally in
the universe...

D H Lawrence

~

Photo - The Om Universe
Craypas oils over acrylic
a work in process... :)

Resilience - Nepo and Tesla

Some days I wake with a cloud around my heart,
and it dulls everything except the weight I carry deep inside.
Yet, just because I can't make it to the light today doesn't mean
that the light has vanished...

Mark Nepo

In the first hours post dawn,
at the edge of a dark night,
I awake,..

breathing labored,
fever peaked,
sweat running down my spine...

Inexplicable dread overtakes me...

But somehow the Light finds me
and I rise again to a new day,
facing the merry-go-round of life,
as we all do...
Needing a dose of inspiration,
and a bit of wisdom...

Here is my inspiration for the day.
Once again recognizing the larger context
in which we exist...

If you want to find the secrets of the universe,
think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.

Nikola Tesla

Transcription of Narrative:

Like a wave in the physical world, in the Infinite Ocean of the medium which pervades all,so in the world of organisms, in life, an impulse started proceeds onward, at times, maybe, with the speed of light, at times, again, so slowly that for ages it seems to stay, passing through processes of complexity inconceivable to men, but in all its forms, in all its stages, its energy ever and ever integrally present.

A single ray of light from a distant star falling upon the eye of a tyrant in bygone times may have altered the course of his life, may have changed the destiny of nations, may have transformed the surface of the globe, so intricate, so inconceivably complex are the processes of Nature.

In no way can we get such an overwhelming idea of the grandeur of Nature than when we consider that in accordance with the law of conservation of energy, throughout the Infinite, the forces are in perfect balance, and hence the energy of a single thought may determine the motion of a universe.

Nikola Tesla
The Electrical Review, 1893

via: Love is a Place
Thank you Alixe!

The Universe is Vibrating Strings - Kaku

...the subatomic particles we see in nature,
the quartz, the electrons,
are nothing but musical notes on a tiny vibrating string.

What is physics?

Physics is nothing but the laws of harmony that you can write
on vibrating strings...

What is chemistry?
Chemistry is nothing but melodies you can play on interacting
vibrating strings...

What is the universe?

The universe is a symphony of
vibrating strings...

What is the mind of God?
It's the cosmic music resonating
through hyperspace...


Michio Kaku

Physicist

Photo - Indra's Net of Jewels Mandala Art
digitally altered

The Universe is Sound - Fred LaMotte

The Universe is sound.
The subtle essence of light shines as sound.
Each star has a sound.
Every galaxy is a resolving chord,
the harmony of a trillion worlds.
We are each a unique resonance of
grace notes.

The atom of your body chimes.
Our subatomic counterpoint trembles
and dances over the scale of humanity,
and humanity's music co-mingles in the
cosmic chorus.

My heart is a receiver of your elegy,
and a transmitter of my own love song.
Inside the ribs of every man and woman,
the hollows of a well-carved instrument resonate,
softly playing notes
deeply personal,
yet pervading the universe.

With the vibrant sounds of our minds,
we contribute to the harmony of All,
or we grind out dissonance.

The day will come,
the day is here,
when you merely call
the Beloved's most secret name,
and the Beloved is with you,
nearer than this breath!

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

(Fred's words, my format)

~*~

Om is the primordial word [sound].
All that is, was, or will be is Om.

Mandukya Upanishad

Solace...

What remains...
when all surface identities,
all beliefs and facades of truth have
proven to be untrue,
and the mental constructs begin to fail...
is a more softened, innocent perspective;
a simplified view of reality...

One begins to feel more,
viscerally,
the finer, subtler vibration
of the Ineffable;
which was here long before we were born...

There is no need to remember...
The mind and body may fail in their functions
may still contract
around old thought and feeling impulses
of the brain...
But trust that the Ineffable in you
Remembers Its Origins...

So Rest...
Let the mind float...

Be still, aware...
Keep feeling...
Keep listening inwardly,
for the Music,
The Divine Rhythm,
the pulse of the Universe
playing subtly,
the original Rhythm of your pre-conceived life...

Find solace in the Rhythm
that plays you;
the Breath within the breath
that breathes you;
the Rhythm of
That which is
eternally Present *in* you;
That to which you have
devoted your
Heart...


Mystic Meandering
April 22, 2016

~*~

Wait and Remember - Li-Young Lee

Wait for evening.

Then you'll be alone.

Wait for the playground to empty.

Then call out those companions from childhood:

The one who closed his eyes

and pretended to be invisible.

The one to whom you told every secret.

The one who made a world of any hiding place.

And don't forget the one who listened in silence

while you wondered out loud:

Is the universe an empty mirror? A flowering tree?

Is the universe the sleep of a woman?

Wait for the sky's last blue

(the color of your homesickness).

Then you'll know the answer.

Wait for the air's first gold (that color of Amen).

Then you'll spy the wind's barefoot steps.

Then you'll recall that story beginning

with a child who strays in the woods.

The search for him goes on in the growing

shadow of the clock.

And the face behind the clock's face

is not his father's face.

And the hands behind the clock's hands

are not his mother's hands.

All of Time began when you first answered

to the names your mother and father gave you.

Soon, those names will travel with the leaves.

Then, you can trade places with the wind.

Then you'll remember your life

as a book of candles,

each page read by the light of its own burning.

Li-Young Lee
Poem: "Become Becoming"

From Behind My Eyes