The Playground of Life...

We are "The Mystery" come into being...
Consciousness awakened...
Self replicating ItSelf;
or whatever word you give
"The Mystery"...

"The Mystery" dressed up as "me."
Formless as form,
Form as formlessness.
"Divine" and human intertwined...

Opening to "The Mystery"
we are free to be our unique selves,
however defined...

When we know this
"something" wakes up inside
and comes Alive -
it hums...

Everything is
~ humming ~

playing in the play of Life;
a multitude of expressions
all playing together
in this virtual reality...

"The Mystery" playing you, playing me,
each a reflection of the other...
both "The Mystery" playing ItSelf...

When we let go of conceptual words
and frameworks of belief and interpretations
we are just FREE...

Letting go of the non-dual concepts of
i/I, me and "no me", Self/no-self,
we are just Life living ItSelf here...
We are being LIVED

as we are.

There is something authentic
in allowing myself to be
just as i am...

Life is met from a different space -
the space of vast openness
to "The Mystery" of Life ItSelf,
where everything is embraced
as it is...

The deep grief and sadness of loss,
the laughter and joy of new birth,
the physical pain and psychological drama
of being human...

All dancing together in the playground of Life...

Mystic Meandering
2019/2024

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Embrace the Totality of Experience - Kathleen Knipp

It is possible to sink beneath the play of duality
and feel and know the totality in which all of this
play is happening, in whatever drama happens to be
unfolding in your life.  It doesn't diminish the impact
of difficult experience - but creates a bigger picture...

The experience of True Nature is somatic, [a felt experience]
through the sensations in the body; a fluidity of all elements
[sensations, feelings, etc.] that don't contradict each other,
but happen simultaneously, like lightness and density, etc.

Everything is formed out of the element of space and happens
within the element of space.  The body is simply compressed
space.  The space around it, and within it is the same space -
wide open spaciousness.  The spaciousness that just is
even in the presence of solidity of form - being 
simultaneously wide open spaciousness - and - the 
solidification of form.

To the mind it seems contradictory.  In the realm of sensing,
it can be quite apparent.  For is emptiness, emptiness is form
may seem esoteric - yet what is the experience? 
Simultaneously dense - and - wide open; feeling weighted
and light;  feeling still and moving.  All of the apparent
contradictions drop away in the sensory realm.

The totality contains everything, all expressions of the one -
unrecognized:  This that is before time, before words, 
before division.  It's not either/or, it's both/and.

Remembering our infiniteness in the face of finiteness.
Experiencing totality simultaneously,
The unique being that is me - remembering.

Kathleen Knipp
Excerpt from a Yoga Nidra Meditation

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Role I Play - Wislawa Szymborska

[.....]

I know nothing of the role I play.
I only know it's mine.  I can't exchange it.

I have to guess on the spot
just what this play's all about.

Ill prepared for the privilege of living,
I can barely keep up with the pace that the action demands.
I improvise, although I loathe improvisation.
I trip at every step over my own ignorance.
I can't conceal my hayseed manners.
My instincts are for hammy histrionics.
Stage fright makes excuses for me, which humiliate me more.
Extenuating circumstances strike me as cruel.

Words and impulses you can't take back,
stars you'll never get counted,
your character like a raincoat you button on the run -
the pitiful results of all this unexpectedness.

If I could just rehearse one Wednesday in advance,
or repeat a single Thursday that has passed!
But her comes Friday with a script I haven't seen.
Is it fair, I ask
(my voice a little hoarse,
since I couldn't even clear my throat offstage).

You'd be wrong to think that it's just a slapdash quiz
taken in makeshift accommodations.  Oh no.
I'm standing on the set and I see how strong it is.
The props are surprisingly precise.
The machine rotating the stage has been around even longer.
The farthest galaxies have been turned on.
Oh no, there's no question, this must be the premiere.
And whatever I do
will become forever what I've done.

Wislawa Szymborska

with thanks to Being Silently Drawn

~

Photo via Death Deconstructed

 

Everywhere Veiled - Fakhruddin Iraqi

 Art by Joe Maccer at Deviant Art

Everywhere veiled
by Your own Face
You are hidden from the world

In Your very manifestation.
Look where I will
I see your Face alone;
in all those idols
I see only You.

Jealous lest You be recognized
at every instant
You dress your Beauty
in a different cloak.

Farkhruddin Iraqi
English version by William Chittick and
Peter Lamborn Wilson

with thanks to Ivan Granger at Poetry Chaikhana

~

Life is a Cosmic Play, the Divine playing hide and seek,
playing us.

"She" has many disguises...

"Play" of Perspectives - Joan Ruvinsky

 Every philosophy [spiritual teaching] seeks to describe,
even explain, How It All Is.

...the various systems are simply roles that
Consciousness takes on, the way a person changes outfits
from day to day - same person, different look.

All different and divergent philosophical [spiritual] positions
are the outpourings of Consciousness at play.  
Any philosophical [spiritual] position, no matter what, is only
a partial viewpoint, in which only a fragment of the unitary
whole is described.

We can never approximate the capital-t Truth in words...

Joan Ruvinsky

From: The Recognition of Our Own Heart

[brackets mine]

~

Life is simply a Divine "play" of perspectives
that allows every expression/position to be played...

MM

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Life size chess board in atrium of a nearby office building
(notice 2 pieces are missing)
Photo color digitally inverted to show perspective:
Black became White
White became Black
and shades in between

Wait for the Empty Playground - 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

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

The Dance of Light and Dark - Winter Solstice

We are "The Mystery" come into being,
out of the dark and light...
Consciousness awakened,
Self replicating ItSelf;
or whatever word you give
"The Mystery"...

"I" dressed up as "me" - "me" as "I" - i/I
Formless as form,
Form as formless.
Light and Dark entwined...

Opening to "The Mystery"
we are free to be our unique selves,
however that is defined...

When we know this
"something" wakes up inside -
and hums...

Everything is OM -
- humming -
playing in the play of Life
as i/me
with a multitude of other expressions of
i/me...
"The Mystery" playing you, playing me,
each a reflection of the other...
Both "The Mystery" playing ItSelf...

When we let go of the conceptual words
and the frameworks of belief and interpretations

we are just FREE...

Letting go of the concepts of
i/I, me and "no-me", Self/no-self,
we are just Life living ItSelf here...
We are being LIVED
as we are...

There is something authentic
in allowing myself to be
just as i am...

Life is met from a different space -
the space of acceptance,
where everything is embraced
as it is...

The deep grief and sadness of loss,
the laughter and joy of new birth,
the dance of the dark and the light,
dancing together in the playground of Life...

Mystic Meandering
Winter Solstice 2019

~

Happy Solstice/Yule
the real reason for the season :)

~

Photo - Cosmic Swirl Paperweight

The Meaning of it all? - Unmani

Since I was a child I asked myself this question:
"What is the meaning of it all?  Why am I here?
What the hell is going on here?"

I was surrounded by facades and people pretending to know
a lot of apparently very important stuff.  There were so
many rules and so much mental information that must prove
that there is a secret meaning that they all know.  And this
meaning must be very grown-up, important and serious...

That knowing that I knew wasn't intellectual or any kind of
belief.  It wasn't some kind of special experience or state of
mind.  It was beyond all that.  It was, and is, a simple knowing
that whatever is happening.....is part of the movie of life.

Recognizing this and letting go of the usual chase for meaning
can leave you feeling very lost.....empty of anything that means
anything.....

What is left is simply the experience itself.....without needing
a meaning.....  This gives space to really experience Life fully.
Everything is experienced in an open and raw way, without any
overlay of meaning.  None of it needs meaning.  It is enough
as it is.  It is overflowing with Life expression, with Life playing
itself in this way or that.  This is the expression of Love.

Life is Love loving itself in this particular way, now, exactly as
it is in this experience.  This is the true meaning of Life.  The
raw experience without any need of any filter or overlay.
Nothing means anything, and yet, everything means so much
that is beyond all words.

There is no need for any extra meaning or mental labeling
or interpretation to Life because it is enough unto itself.
The only thing the mind can do now is bow down in
absolute reverence to the simplicity of Life as it is.

Our limited minds cannot know the true meaning of Life.....
It is only when you give up trying to know something
that will give you a special 'me' identity, that you see
how simple and obvious the true meaning really is.
Life doesn't care about the meaning you think you know.
It is simply living itself as it is.

Within the movie of a person's life, the only purpose or
meaning is to acknowledge this simplicity and live in
alignment with that.  It is all around you, in you, and
as you.  Just stop for a moment and see the mysterious
love song of Life to ItSelf.

Unmani

excerpt from a larger article
via No Mind's Land

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Free to Be

I am free to be...

Free to Be - just as i am...

I/i am Beingness being...
Consciousness awareing...
Self expressing ItSelf;
or whatever word you give
The Mystery...

"I" - dressed up as "me" - "me" as "I" - i/I
Formless as form,
Form as formless...

Opening to The Mystery
we are free to be our unique selves,
just as we are...

When we know this
"something" wakes up inside -
and hums...

Everything is OM -
the hum of Life - humming -
playing in the play of Life
as i/I ~

with a multitude of other expressions of i/I
all playing in the sandbox of Life...

When we let go of the words
and the frameworks of belief and interpretations
we are free just to Be
~ as we are ~
letting go of the concepts of

i/I, I/me and "no-me"
we are
just Life - being lived
as we are.

There is something authentic
in allowing myself to be

as i/I am...

Life is met from a different space ~

the space of acceptance for all...

Play well!

Ommmmmmm

_/\_

Mystic Meandering

Meditative Writings
2011

~

Photo from a T-shirt

"I sense there is this Mystery" - Rilke

No one lives life...

Disguised since childhood
haphazardly assembled
from voice and fears,
and little pleasures,
we come of age
as masks...

~

And though we strain against
the deadening grip of daily necessity,
I sense there is this mystery.

All life is being lived.

Who is living it then?
Is it the things themselves,
or something waiting inside them,
like an unplayed melody in a flute?

Is it the winds blowing over the water?
Is it the branches that signal
to each other?

Is it the flowers
interweaving their fragrances
or streets, as they wind through time?

Is it animals, warmly moving,
or the birds that suddenly rise up?

Who lives it, then?

God, are you the one
who is living life?

Rainer Maria Rilke

~~~~

Life is the movement of "The Mystery"
Life is the manifestation of "The Mystery."
Life ItSelf is "The Mystery" in movement
with ItSelf in form.

The Formless *is* Form...

We are held in the embrace of "The Mystery."
*It* wants to be known and seen.

*It* wants to play in the seeing of ItSelf.

In looking into "The Mystery" there is a
sense of intimacy.
And there is only deep, deep Love looking back.

We are held in the intimate gaze of
"The Mystery",
like the intimate gaze of lovers seeing
 *into* each other,
seeing *beyond* each other,
seeing beyond the persona, the mask,
into the depths of Pure Being.

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
January 2009

~

Photo - Shadow of Bamboo leaves
creating a face against a reflection
of a rainbow crystal on the wall...

Untitled - Danna Faulds

Put up no resistance to the day as it unfolds.
Watch the play of opposites, your likes
and dislikes, thoughts you would draw
close and those from which you would
recoil.  What if, for this moment, you let
it all be as it is?  What if you interfere
with nothing?

Become the subject - vast, bare, always
aware. Of course there are objects.  Do
not try to shut them out or change what
is.  Sense impressions, circumstances,
the day's events move forward on the
wheel of time while you are timeless, the
silent subject of the whole, pure
potential, simply there.

When the entire universe blazes into
being, take it all inside yourself, without
exception.  When the only word is "Yes,"
when your point of view dissolves into
every viewpoint and no viewpoint at all,
when the Big Bang is happening in
every instant, you are fully and finally
alive.

Danna Faulds
from the introduction to Limitless
2009

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... :)

The Universe is a Story - Swimme, Essman, MM, & Vaughan-Lee

...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 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 [story] of consciousness,
not an unreal illusion.

Excerpt from an article by

Jan Essman

~*~

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 - A mystery :)

Unbreakable Life...

“Everything is a gift on this unbreakable path
that you call your life -
the laughter,
the tears,
the times of great
sorrow,
the experience of

 profound
loss,
the pain,
the confusion,
the times you
believe
you’ll never make it,
even the overwhelming

heartbreak of love -
even if you forget that,
or cannot see that,
or lose faith.

But even the loss
of faith
in the show [life]
is part of the show.

Everything happens
for your awakening,
for your growth,
for your inspiration,
for your exploration -
even if you forget that
and fall
into
distraction
and
despair.

So you are always
exactly
where you
need
to
be

Life can be trusted absolutely,
even when trust seems
a million light-years away,
and life cannot go ‘wrong’,
for all is Life…

Understand this,
know it in your heart.
It is profoundly simple,
as simple as breathing,
as natural as gazing
up at the stars at night
and falling
into
silent
wonder.

The Universe is more beautiful
than you could
ever imagine.”

Jeff Foster

“God hugs you.
You are encircled by the arms
of The Mystery.”

Hildegard of Bingen

The Joy of Rain!

Some of you may think that I spend a little too much time in the ethers, floating in the Cosmos with the planets and stars… J  I can assure you that is not true.  Well actually, we are all floating in the Cosmos of planets and stars on a planet suspended in space.  We just *think* the earth is all there is… LOL J  This morning it was raining on my part of planet earth. And it brought such *delight*!  It brought joy to my Heart and lifted my Spirit.   It was an innocent, playful JOY I had not felt in a long time.  I know some of the world has been getting too much rain, and there are floods, and people have lost homes and been misplaced as a result. And for that I feel sadness and compassion.  And some of you are tired of seeing white all winter long that has caused so much havoc over the south and east.  But here in semi-arid Colorado we haven’t been getting much all winter, except in the mountains.

So when I looked out the window and saw the pavement wet with rain this morning, my heart leaped with JOY!  There’s something “inviting” about rain. It wants you to come play… 

It’s been ages since we’ve had RAIN!  I grew up in New England where we had rainy, wet Springs and I miss it – the *sound* and smell of wetness.  It opens me up and makes me more *aware* of Life!  It has a sound you know – the swish under the tires of passing cars, the patter on my jacket, the clopping of my shoes on wet pavement. And then there’s the exhilerating cool wet feeling on my parched skin, and the earthy smell of moisture filling my dry nostrils, and the movement and fluidity that it creates.

 Just wetness!

I realized today just how much my spirit *needs* it. 

And so I put my play clothes on, and took myself on a little excursion.

I rode around in the rain, until it turned to snow, snapping some photos with my *regular* camera.  I don’t have a camera on my old clunky cell phone.  But I quickly saw how one becomes *distracted* trying to drive and use a camera!!!  Not a good idea… J

It's better if you wait until you're stopped at a light :)

Anyway, here is a link to a poem I wrote several years ago after some rain.   May you find what makes your Heart sing! – no matter what the weather… J

*NOTE* - Top photo is from a greeting card and is copyrighted by
Chris Jones, The Borealis Press 1997

"I" am LIFE...

“I” am LIFE existing here…

“I” am the Essence of Life
 living ItSelf out
 here...

I cannot say that I am “Christine” -
nor a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu,
Sufi, Buddhist, Non-Dualist, Taoist,

or Mystic…

Mother, daughter, sister, friend,
or wife…

nor a dream,
or an illusion…

“I” am simply LIFE ~ existing ~
playing all these roles...

Suffering happens when
I try to claim
and
maintain
a
separate
identity,
a
separate
sense
of
"me"

~

”I am a

f

e

a

t

h

e

r

  on
 the
 breath of God,”
Hildegard of Bingen
says -
and even the
identity of a
”feather”

is
too
heavy
~

It’s only a metaphor

~
~
~

I follow the breath

to its
Source,
the

Silence,
and
realize
I am being
breathed

~
~
~

The “task” then
is to surrender,
to

 the
Infinite
breath of
 LIFE
that
”I”
am
~
~
~

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 25, 2014

~

Photo: “Explosion of Life”

CrayPas Oil Pastels
2012

The Cosmic Play...

Don’t you just love this face – the curiosity in the eye, the willingness to connect – yet tentatively open and receptive, not knowing whether to trust, whether to stay or run, with just a pane of glass between us…

Much like we humans, only “the glass” is the ego, or the personality, that keeps us tentative and attempts to protect and defend  our vulnerable sense of self; that keeps us from really opening, really meeting each other - Being to Being – Heart to Heart - seeing *through* the glass…

It’s been a challenging week here in the “Cosmic Play of Life” with some new insights and perspectives gained along the way, which I will write about in another post in a few days.  But I thought I’d post these photos of my new friend – “the Cosmic Gymnast” – who offered moments of play and comic relief.  Or is that “cosmic” relief. J   We hung a birdseed bell on this pole several weeks ago, waiting for the birds to show up.  Instead after it had been out there about a week, “the gymnast” showed up one day and entertained us with a variety of antics.  We don’t know *how* he got up there, shimmied the pole I would imagine, although we caught him one time trying to figure out how to jump from the nearest tree branch to the pole, giving up and going back up the tree… 

After our initial meeting – above photo – where he chattered and whipped his tail at me through the window, he then gave me the inquisitive eye – looking at the camera lens.  Undeterred, once he knew he was safe, he then went directly to the business at hand – apparently oblivious to my presence, yet cautiously watching for any sign of movement. I made the mistake of tapping on the window to get his attention, as I wanted more connection, and he clamored down the pole.  I imagine in his animal brain he thought it was an act of aggression, which ended our “connection” – now he won’t even look at me… LOL

Seems that happens with humans as well, don’t you think…   We want to love, to be loved, to connect, to be friends, but we don’t always speak the same language, or play life the same way… J  Instead, we fear each other’s differences, criticizing each other’s words or path, indirectly, because it’s not like ours.  Our hearts close down, or we chatter and whip our tails into a frenzy, puffing ourselves up…  We mis-interpret the “sign language” and get offended, causing all kinds of problems – personally and globally.

But I digress - here’s a little light entertainment from the cosmic gymnast feasting at the Play of Life…

Getting into position

The Hang

The other side of the hang

Preoccupied

Enjoying the Feast

The next time we saw him, he brought a friend – a bigger squirrel - whom we think could not climb the pole, instead sat on the ground waiting to eat the seed droppings.   We had hung a different kind of birdseed bell, which did not hold together as well.  At one point I looked out and it was completely gone, and there was at least half of it left!  I looked out and there was his friend eating what was left of it underneath the tree.

 Sorry the photo isn’t good, the limitations of my camera, but you get the idea.  Even those of us who don’t climb the same pole, or play the game the same way, or even play the same game with different intentions, still ultimately win the cosmic prize in the play of Life, with a little help from our cosmic friends of course. J LOL

May your days be filled with the *awareness* of the Divine Play of the cosmos that is taking place here – The Divine playing in its own game…

“You are here – life exists…
the powerful play of life goes on,
and you may contribute a verse…”

Walt Whitman