The Inner Voice - Janet Conner

There is a Voice inside you.
There is a Voice inside everyone.
Whether you hear it or not, the Voice is there.
Whether you acknowledge it or not, 
the Voice is there.
Whether you ask for help or ignore its guidance,
the Voice is still there.  

Waiting.
It is waiting for you to stop,
if just for a moment, and listen.
The Voice is always there, guiding you,
encouraging you, loving you...
Pick up your pen and penetrate the thin wall
of consciousness that keeps you apart...
Once you start asking for more you will start 
receiving more:
more ideas, more intuition, more inspiration,
more wisdom, more opportunities,
more challenges, and more questions.
Always, there are more questions.
The answers live deep inside the questions.

Janet Conner
from: Writing Down Your Soul

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

My mother's and grandmother's
writing desk, at sunset...  Now topped with
assorted baubles :)

 

Listening for the Whispers of The Beloved - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

...listening is not an effort, not a technique...
Listening springs from the desire to be with the one
whom you want to hear ["The Beloved" - or however one
calls the Source].  Listening is a coming close, waiting for
Presence to materialize into words, to form ItSelf out of Silence.
Listening is a relationship, even in the silence when nothing is
heard.  Learning to listen is to allow our self to be present
without imposing or demanding, to hold a space where something
can be told, where meeting can unfold between.....lover and The 
Beloved; where openness is answered.  The lover is the one who
listens, whose being is born to listen for The Beloved. Without
the lover, how could the song of The Beloved be heard?

At the beginning we have to learn the art of listening, the art of
being present, attentive and empty.  We have to catch the still,
small voice of The Beloved, and not interrupt, not ask too many
questions.  We have to learn to be silent, because listening is
born from silence.  The listening of the heart is always an act 
of love, a coming together [communion], even when nothing is
heard. Listening is wisdom.  It is feminine, receptive, hidden...
Rumi knew how central a part it plays in our wordless
relationship with The Beloved.  He said:

"Make everything in you an ear, each atom of your being,
and you will hear at every moment what the Source is
whispering to you, just to you and for you..."

You are - we all are - the beloved of The Beloved, and in 
every moment, in every event of life, The Beloved is
whispering to you exactly what you need to hear and know.
Listen and you will discover it every passing moment. Listen,
and your whole life will become a conversation in thought
and action between you and The Beloved directly, wordlessly,
now and always.

We need to discover
how the heart listens to its Beloved.

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

Excerpts from an article called:
The Circle of Love
on Spirituality and Practice

~

Photo  from the Internet
Day 6 of "The Pause"

~

Days 7-9 of "The Pause" were spent in deep rest and self-care,
listening to Yoga Nidra - Deep Rest by Kathleen Knipp,
and "Allowing" by Adyashanti on a CD what I've had for
years.  I still take long pauses during the day, resting and 
listening for the whispers of The Beloved.

Namaste
_/\_

 

I'm Baaack :) & Mark Nepo

"The Pause" has ended for now...  I am re-entering blog land. :)
It was an intense "Pause" and life continues to be intense in
many ways, but I wanted to start sharing some of the insights,
poetry that came, and other people's writings that spoke to me
during the pause...
 In a kind of mysterious synchronicity I was
given what I needed to hear or see...

This does not mean that my life circumstances have changed.
  As always, life is an ever-unfolding experience - but I am trying
 to learn to *meet* life differently - trying to be open
 and listen more to where life wants me to go,
 with less resistance - and open more
 to Light - hopefully.

~*~

On Being "Lost" - Mark Nepo

From Day One of "The Pause"

When we lose our "self-created" map,
our real knowledge of the path begins...

...the journey truly begins when we lose possession of what
we *thought* were answers, and are left to accept that we are
not in control.  ...beyond every answer is a larger quest-ion.

Being lost on the inner plane can be understood as a
disorientation that is necessary as we are thrust from what we
*think* we know, into the vibrant field of all we do not know.

Being lost can be a prelude to a deeper way, because once we
admit that we're not sure where life is taking us, then we are
ripe for transformation.  Then we are shapeable.  When losing
our way, we frequently retreat and withhold or take what we
think is a safer path.  This often complicates our confusion.

The reason most people get/feel lost is because they don't go
far enough.  They doubt where they are and change direction
too soon.  Somehow we are called to lean forward [to lean
into life more] with what little light we are given.

There are sudden moments - lightening flashes - by which
we can navigate for a while, sometimes years. And the moods
of confusion in between - those very dark nights - are where
we need to practice patience [waiting].  Too often, when
drifting through a difficult passage of uncertainty, we punish
ourselves for not knowing more, or not being more decisive
[or more "spiritual"].

But the lightening flash to dark night and back again is part of
the journey, despite how hard we work.  When the lightening
flashes - in our mind or in our heart - we glimpse the hidden
order and our changing place in it.

If we can see our way *through* the uncertainty of feeling "lost",
unexpected callings often present themselves.

Mark Nepo
excerpts from Seven Thousand Ways to Listen:
Staying Close to the Sacred

~

Photo from the Internet

 

Waiting - Leza Lowitz

Art - Barbara Stone

You keep waiting for something to happen,
the thing that lifts you out of yourself,

catapults you into doing all the things you've out off,
the great things you're meant to do in your life,

but somehow you never quite get to.
You keep waiting for the planets to shift

the new moon to bring news,
the universe to align, something to give.

Meanwhile, the pile of papers, the laundry the dishes, the job -
it all stacks up while you keep hoping

for some miracle to blast down upon you,
scattering the piles to the winds.

Sometimes you lie in bed, terrified of your life.
Sometimes you laugh at the privilege of waking.

But all the while, life goes on in its messy way.
And then you turn forty. Or fifty.  Of sixty... [or 70] :)

and some part of you realizes you are not alone
and you find signs of this in the animal kingdom -

when a snake sheds its skin its eyes glaze over,

it slinks under a rock, not wanting to be touched,

and when a caterpillar turns to butterfly
if the pupa is brushed, it will die -

and when the bird taps its beak hungrily against the egg
it's because the thing is too small, too small,

and it needs to break out.

And midlife walks you into that wisdom

that is what transformation looks like -

the mess of it, the tapping at the walls of your life,

the yearning and writhing and pushing,

until one day, one day

you emerge from the wreck
embracing both the immense dawn

and the dusk of the body,
glistening, beautiful

just as you are.

Leza Lowitz

~

Many people die with their music still in them.
Too often it is because they are always getting
ready to live.  Before they know it, time runs out...

Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

A Nocturnal Dreamscape - Rod MacIver

In the middle of the night
on the edges of my dreamscape
Caribou race along the rim of distant hills
and disappear.
They offer no words
but somehow they say,
in vague, shifting images of gray and brown
moonlight and  pounding hooves:

Stand still.  Wait for once.
Don't race over there
and stand in the middle.
Let chaos go its own way.
Confused, discordant.

Keep your internal center of balance,
a compass on the bridge of a storm-tossed ship.
What is the destination?
Where do we want to go?
I wish I knew.

In the darkness
just past the light of the campfire
in the wild, nocturnal mystery
Sounds
coming at you from the night,
Footsteps
Breathing
the sound of some big animal breathing.
Something is waiting for you there.

Go
You won't create your new tomorrow
hanging around the fire, waiting,
waiting for tomorrow,
staring at the flames
that become embers
that become darkness.

Embrace your darkness now...

So a road opened up
and I took it.
Down some dark stairways into myself
in search of the sun.

What was supposed to happen, didn't.
And wasn't supposed to, did.
I don't know what is going on,
I don't know how things are
supposed to be...

Rod MacIver
Nature Artist
Heron Dance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Embracing the Reality of Sorrow - Adyashanti

Sooner or later we will all experience the tragic quality of life.
Perhaps this quality of life is brought to us through illness, or
the death of a loved one, or losing a job, or an unexpected
accident, or having your heart broken.  But we will all
experience this tragic quality of life in both small and
overwhelmingly large ways over the span of our lives.
Whether we want to face it or not, life, with all of its beauty,
joy, and majesty, also has a tragic element to it.  This is
exactly what the Buddha saw, and it inspired his entire
spiritual search.

It seems that most people look for various ways to escape
from this tragic quality of life, but ultimately to no avail.
There is no escaping it.  And it must be faced sooner or
later.  The question is, when we are faced with this aspect
of life, how do we respond?  Surely, to avoid it only leads to
denial, fantasy, life-numbing withdrawal, cynicism, and fear.
It takes great courage to face the totality of life without
withdrawing from it or trying to protect ourselves from it.

Paradoxically, to face the totality of life we must face the

reality of death, sorrow, and loss as well.  We must face them
as unavoidable aspects of life.  The question is, can we face
them directly without getting lost in the stories that our mind
weaves about them?  Because if we can, we will find a
tremendous affirmation of life, an affirmation that is forged
in the fierce embrace of tragedy.

At the very heart and core of our being, there exists an
overwhelming 'yes' to existence.  This yes is discovered by
those who have the courage to open their hearts to the
totality of life. This yes is found only by
embracing the reality of sorrow and going beyond it. 

Adyashanti

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Waiting - Leza Lowitz

You keep waiting for something to happen,
the thing that lifts you out of yourself,

catapults you into doing all the things you've put off,
the great things you're meant to do in your life,

but somehow you never quite get to.
You keep waiting for the planets to shift

the new moon to bring news,
the universe to align, something to give.

Meanwhile, the pile of papers, the laundry the dishes, the job -
it all stacks up while you keep hoping

for some miracle to blast down upon you,
scattering the piles to the winds.

Sometimes you lie in bed, terrified of your life.
Sometimes you laugh at the privilege of waking.

But all the while, life goes on in its messy way.
And then you turn forty.  Or fifty.  Or sixty... [or 70] :)

and some part of you realizes you are not alone
and you find signs of this in the animal kingdom -

when a snake sheds its skin its eyes glaze over,
it slinks under a rock, not wanting to be touched,

and when caterpillar turns to butterfly
if the pupa is brushed, it will die -

and when the bird taps its beak hungrily against the egg
it's because the things is too small, too small,

and it needs to break out.
And midlife walks you into that wisdom

that this is what transformation looks like -
the mess of it, the tapping at the walls of your life,

the yearning and writhing and pushing,
until one day, one day

you emerge from the wreck
embracing both the immense dawn

and the dusk of the body,
glistening, beautiful

just as you are.

Leza Lowitz

Thank you to Ivan Granger at Poetry Chaikhana

~

Art by Barbara Stone

Holy Wounds - Pesha Joyce Gertler

Finally on my way to [saying] yes [to life]
I bump into
all the places
where I said no...

all the untended wounds
the red and purple scars
those hieroglyphs of pain
carved into my skin, my bones,
those coded messages
that send me down
the wrong street
again and again
where I find them
the old wounds

the old misdirections
and I lift them
one by one
close to my heart
and say - holy
holy...

Pesha Joyce Gertler

"The Healing Time"

via: Beyond the Fields We know

Sorry the photo is not clear
it was taken many years ago
with a very old camera,
but I like the colored water :)

Curiosity, Intuition and Fluidity

This space of “waiting for the ‘Yes’" that I wrote about in the last post has been an interesting experience. There’s a feeling of freedom here. It’s like a new playing field has opened up. There’s a new sense of being open and playful with Life, seeing where Life wants to go, seeing that it’s all Life doing the doing, and so there’s more curiosity about Life and how it’s expressing Itself – how it’s moving and being open to how it’s moving. And so there’s a deeper listening, if you will, to the Inner Voice that some call Intuition, some call Spirit… And amongst all this there is also the realization of how I have become a Curmudgeon – grumbling and complaining – and trying to control how life has been happening, or resisting what’s been happening, instead of staying open to this inner fluidity of Life moving Itself.

In this space of “listening” a curiosity and an inner sense of “connection” with the fluidity of Life has emerged, with the Flow that underlies existence – being in touch with the deeper Flow within – and a curious and intuitive sense of how to move with it.

And I have been noticing that what I need to hear does in fact come to me in this Flow – things that eerily reflect my experience…

For instance, earlier this past week I just happened to check out Annette Nibley’s Website, and read her January Writing. Certain phrases began to emerge: “…move with What Is …with fluidity and intuition. Be curious. Be fluid. Go with whatever sparks your interest. There is a way to move with a subtler, inner world…..explore it. There are no constraints, and this is freedom. All is Self. This completely frees this life for impersonal play. It is the force of Self that actually propels you.”

It was music to my ears. I listened deeply and felt a sense of freedom flooding in…

Wednesday evening I listened to Adyashanti’s Café Dharma online satsang. Initially there didn’t appear to be anything there for me. But again, certain phrases popped as he was speaking: “Surrender your resistance to what is. See the Divine in the ups and downs of life. Surrendering completely to the moment allows us to spontaneously perceive a whole different reality – to see the peace that is there. Don’t let your non-dual philosophies about life get in the way. Let go of your *idea* of it. It’s all simultaneous Existence.”

More opening into a fluid sense of living…

Thursday evening I listened to an audio recording of a “spiritual teacher” that I have been listening to for over a year now. For several months now I have been feeling a lack of resonance with what is being said. This time I intuitively knew that it was time to move on. There was no ‘Yes’ here anymore.

I realized that sometimes in “waiting for the ‘Yes’” you get a ‘No’ – which is still fluid and open – and still takes you to where you need to go.

Yesterday I logged onto Tammi Brannen’s video blog on her Instinctive Life Website. Now I don’t normally listen to “motivational” type teachers, but my husband has been listening to this woman for several months now and I was curious. So my curiosity led me to where I needed to hear something that profoundly spoke to me. Once again I discovered that it doesn’t always come though the “normal channels” that I expect it to come through – like the “spiritual teachers” that I normally read or listen to, or the particular “path” that I’m following at any given time. But I’m noticing that if I am open and curious I may find Life speaking to me in profound ways. In her blog Tammi said: “Live the life that is true to who you are. There is a connection between who you are and your life. Do they match? How does life want to be lived? What is life showing you, offering you? Don’t approach life in terms of what you want or need, but focus on being absorbed by life. Open and receive what the Ocean of Life has to offer and ride it.”

Another opening to fluidity.

The combined messages I heard this week had a profound impact - all reflecting where I am and what I need to hear in a kind of Divine Synchroncity. “The Mystery” was fluidly and playfully dancing with me this week – leaving a universal thread running through everything I encountered. All I had to do was be open and listen.

Fun-Qi Art™ - :) Christine