Room For Sadness - Jeff Foster

Your sadness doesn't say,

 "Please fix me,

heal me, or release me".

It doesn't say, "Please get rid of me,

 numb yourself to me, pretend I'm not here".

Sadness does not come to punish you,

 or reveal to you what a 'spiritual failure' you are.

 Sadness is not a sign that you are unevolved

 or far from healing, awakening, enlightenment, peace.

The presence of sadness is not an indication

 that you've done something wrong.

True healing is not the fixing of the broken,

But the rediscovering of the Unbroken.

…we bow to sadness then,

 we recognise how it's already allowed in,

 how there's enough room in us for sadness,

 how we are not 'the sad one',

 not contained within sadness,

 but the room for sadness,

 its space, its home,

 its salvation,
 its loving embrace;

 not as a goal,

 but as our nature - consciousness itself,

 already free.

Don't heal yourself from sadness; let sadness heal you.

 Let it show you the way when you have forgotten.

 Let it reveal to you the mysteries of love.

 Let it remind you of your vast heart,

 your refusal to split off from any part of your ancient Self.

Let sadness help you remember that

 bigger Happiness you danced when you were young.

Jeff Foster

Jeff Foster on Facebook

Life Without a Center
website

I have put Jeff's words
into prose poetry form.

~*~

Also see my poem:
The Rhythm of Sadness

Awareness Simply Is - Leo Hartong

If you want the truth, you have to look beyond the concepts of the individual ego and self-improvement, and beyond the states of mind that you’d like to acquire, and the belief that you are a separate entity.  You are the sourceless source from which all arises. Know yourself as the limitless field of Pure Awareness in which the drama of life merely arises.  Once this is recognized and it is clear what you truly are, you’ll see that everything is exactly as it should be.   Everything emanates from the same Source beyond space and time, which escapes all attempts at labeling and yet has been given many names, such as God, the Ultimate, the ground of Being, The Tao, your original face, or the deep Self. 

Awareness is the consistent characteristic in and behind ALL experience, yet it is also what which most easily escapes our attention.  We see the stars and ignore the space; we read this text and ignore the page; we see the movie and ignore the screen; yet it is obvious that the ignored space, page, and screen are as fundamental to our observations as the stars, the text, and the movie, which hold our attention.  Awareness is the space that sustains both the noticed and the ignored.  Awareness simply is.  Everything that comes up/happens is contained in and embraced by this Awareness, including objects perceived as “out there” (rocks, cars and other sentient beings, events) and emotions, thoughts and feelings experienced as “in here.”  In this sense, Awareness is as much in the body-mind as the body-mind is in Awareness.

Pure Awareness is what you truly are.  Know yourself as the limitless field of Pure Awareness in which the drama of life merely arises.  This Awareness is That Being which we all have in common, the luminous, self-aware center of our collective Being. In knowing this we are released from the burden of trying to control life, and constantly improve one’s self.  The ego has the same level of reality as an echo… The sense of a separate ego can only be an activity of the true Self…  The Self loses itself in the dream of existence…..and creates an illusory ego.  You are the living Awareness, which is the clear and open space in and from which everything arises, including your sense of individuality.  Pure awareness is simply present with no beginning or end.

So just sit down and relax…

Leo Hartong
Awakening to the Dream

The World's Insanity - Ivan Granger

Islamic extremists have certainly grabbed headlines in recent years, but the world also has its Christian extremists, Jewish extremists, Hindu extremists… as well as plenty of atheist and non-religious extremist groups. Extremism is not a problem of a particular religion; it is a disruption in the human psyche in general.

Religious extremism has very little to do with religion, if you think about it. It is partly a reflexive response to the intensely fragmenting nature of the modern world. And it is partly a reaction against unavoidable, sometimes unsettling encounters with different peoples and cultures and beliefs in our ever more integrated and multi-layered world. But mostly—mostly it is an act of desperation when the heart of true religion has been lost. People become violently obsessed with rules and traditions and texts only when they have lost the sense of what they really point to.

If you know where the Beloved lives, you are content, no need to argue with others over street names. Conflict only arises when you aren’t so certain you know the way; that’s when another person’s map threatens your certainty. Fundamentalism and extremism are an admission of that spiritual uncertainty. Absolutism is not an expression of faith; it is a symptom of the lack of faith. It is a symptom of the lack of true spiritual experience and knowledge.

The real long-term solution to the problem of violent religious extremism in the world is to reawaken that sweet, secret, sacred bliss within ourselves, to gently and generously share it with others, and to create environments nurturing to that continuing quest. The more we fill the world’s dry troughs with fresh water, the less likely it is that people will go insane with blind thirst.

Ivan Granger
Poetry Chaikhana

Written in 2010

Hokusai Says: Let Life Live Through You

 Hokusai says –

Look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.
He says keep looking, stay curious.
He says there is no end to seeing.

He says Look Forward to getting old.
He says keep changing,
you just get more who you really are.
He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself
as long as its interesting.

He says keep doing what you love.
He says keep praying.
He says everyone of us is a child.

Every one of us is ancient,
every one of us has a body.
He says every one of us is frightened.
He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.

He says everything is alive -
shells, buildings, people, fish, mountains, trees.
Wood is alive.
Water is alive.
Everything has its own life.
Everything lives inside us.
He says live with the world inside you.

He says it doesn’t matter if you draw, or write books.
It doesn’t matter if you saw wood, or catch fish.
It doesn’t matter if you sit at home
and stare at the ants on your verandah or the shadows
of the trees and grasses in your garden.

It matters that you care.
It matters that you feel.
It matters that you notice.
It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is life living through you.
Joy is life living through you.
Satisfaction and strength
are life living through you.
Peace is life living through you.

He says don’t be afraid.
Don’t be afraid.
Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.
Let life live through you.

Roger Keyes

Hokusai (1760-1849) was a master Japanese artist, painter and printmaker.  He was best known for his woodblock print, the famous Great Wave off Kanagawa. 

Roger Keyes – is/was an art historian and writer who traced Hokusai’s works and wrote about them.  How he came to write this poem is unknown.

~

Photo - Sunlight through glass

Mystic Meandering

On the Threshold of Winter...

Well actually I think we’ve crossed it.

Winter arrived this morning in all its beauty...

At least 6-8 inches of snow covered everything.

The leaves still on the trees twittered in the wind.

Evidences of an invisible hand leaving its signature behind…

~

Excerpt from: Eternal Echoes
by John O’Donohue

“Within and around us there is an invisible [Formless] world; this is where each of us comes from.  Your relationship to the invisible influences so much of your life.  When you cross over from the invisible into the physical world, you bring with you a sense of belonging to the invisible that you can never lose or cancel.  Under the guise of emptiness, the invisible keeps its secrets to itself.  Yet the invisible remains the great background.  There is always some magnet that draws your eyes to [It] or invites you to explore behind things and seek out the concealed depths.  Your longing for the invisible is never stilled.  You know that the real nature of things is hidden deep within them.  When you enter the world, you come to live on the threshold between the visible and the invisible.  You are both artist and pilgrim of the threshold…”

A Deeper Rhythm...

I’ve been hearing a deeper rhythm lately…
Composed of cello, viola and oboe.
I heard it when I was in the kitchen
cooking dinner one night,
a few weeks back,
and every other night after that
until recently
when the noise of my life
became too loud.

There was no music on the stereo,
just the sound of the meal cooking,
and the sounds of daily living
outside the window:
children playing,
dogs barking,
lawn mowers,
power saws,
and birds -
chirping…

Underneath it all was a Rhythm
so melodious I could even hum it,
but I just listened, with wonder…
Where is this coming from -
this music -
this slow, deep, melodious rhythm,
drawing me in…

I didn’t even have to try to listen,
it was just there
soft – in the distance,
barely audible,
as if in another room,
through another door,
maybe even in another realm…

I knew somehow that my own life rhythm
 is hidden in this deeper Rhythm…
But I keep losing it,
drowned out by the
*noise* of living
other people’s
rhythms -
and
the external
rhythms
of
life

But now I know it is there -
somewhere,
in an experiential way,
and I listen for it -
this deeper Rhythm,
that underlies
all rhythms..

The Rhythm behind the rhythm…

Mysteriously playing…

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 5, 2015

~*~

“The real music happens between the notes…”
Louis Armstrong

~*~

Photo: Mandala Art
Original: Winter’s Jewel Mandala
radially blurred

The Return Journey - In Memoriam...

My Dad
birthed into form - April 23, 1924
returned to formlessness - Nov. 4, 1985

My Beloved Maternal Grandmother
birthed into form - April 30, 1905
returned to formlessness - Nov. 2, 1998

The Journey of Return

By Dorothy Hunt

When The Beloved wants to take you Home,
extend  your hand to the welcoming
even though your body may be trembling
and your mind may want to flee;
even though those around you grieve,
and you yourself have mourned, even before they,
the changing form of your body.
Tears are not the final truth
though they will come and go
like stars that need a dark sky to be seen.

Death is not a failure of a mind
that is not strong enough,
or positive enough, or pure enough.
Those who hold such views are simply
masking fear with ideas of being in control.
We are being lived by the Creator of this life.
Do you really think a finite mind can change
the mind of God?  Jesus tried and failed.
”Please take this cup from me!” He begged,
as we all do in the midst of anguish.

But anguish, fear, or deepest grief
cannot alter Who you really are.
The beautiful Spirit that extended Itself
in space and time, and called Itself by your name,
is simply ready to return, unencumbered by a body,
to Its vast and spacious Unborn Self,
that kisses you at birth,
and holds your hand in death,
and never for a moment
forgets you are Itself.

The mind imagines you are leaving,
but where could you truly go?
You are Life Itself!  Unceasingly flowing,
moment to moment unfolding Yourself.
A body is born; a body dies; but you do not.
Deep within your heart, you know this Truth.
Rest there…
Rest in the knowing that opens your Heart
to all that IS,
that loves Itself in all that comes
and returns Itself in all that goes.

Dorothy Hunt

Zen Buddhist

For Samhain - "A Morning Blessing"

“I bless the night that nourished my heart
to set the ghosts of longing free
into the flow and figure of dream
that went to harvest from the dark,
bread for the hunger that no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
welcome the wonder of this day,
the field of brightness it creates
offering time for each thing
to arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
the tent of thought where I shelter,
wave of desire I am shore to,
and all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
to the invisible geography
that invites me to new frontiers,
to break the dead shell of yesterdays,
to risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
to live the life that I would love,
to postpone my dream no longer
but do at last what I came here for
and waste my time on fear no more…”

John O’Donohue
”A Morning Offering”
From: To Bless the Space Between Us

~

For those of the ancient Celtic and Druid traditions Samhain
 (Nov. 1) is the beginning of a new cycle in
 the Great Round of Time - recognizing the cyclical nature
 of manifest existence.

Warm Blessings to all no matter what your tradition…

The Ocean of Love - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

The place where the two seas meet,
is the place where there is a simple meeting
of Divine and human:
the Divine purpose coming into form…
Here there is a light
that is held within the Heart.
It is the locus of the mystical journey.

Something comes alive within
our Heart and Soul;
we become nourished,
not by spiritual texts or teachings,
but by direct transmission.

The place where the two seas meet
is where one lives in the currents
of divine consciousness
and yet
is also held in the sea
of human experience.

There is a mystery present
in the real nature of a human being -
as a part of this limited world of forms,
of thoughts, emotions, and sensations…

…Once you have tasted the
Ocean of Love it is in your blood.
It is always calling to you,
sometime from afar,
and sometimes so close
you can feel its Presence.

We are surrounded by Love
in all of its intensity and wonder.
This is the Love that draws us
into the depths.

Through inner alchemy
is the promise of the Heart:
that Love will reveal its secrets…

Excerpts from: Fragments of a Love Story
by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
put into prose poem form.

~*~

Photo: Vortex Art
Mystic Meandering
2010

Echoes of "The Nameless..."

The Silence of the Great Void,
where “The Nameless” dwells – Formless,
bathes the manifest world
in Infinite Cosmic Waves
of Grace…

We are echoes of
”The Nameless”,
the Face that lights our face -
inseparable…
You can feel it in the Great Silence -
the undulating pulsation of Life within,
reverberating through Form…

The Infinite Cosmic Emptiness
echoes Its Light into Form,
and we are birthed ~
from the Cosmic Heart,
Loved beyond measure,
held in Infinite, rippling waves
of Love ~ ~ ~

When we know this – instinctively -
in our being,
we will heal…
individually,
collectively
and
globally


Be still…
Turn your face to “The Nameless.”
Recognize your wholeness
in the Great Silence…


Mystic Meandering
Oct. 2015

~*~

“Face that lights my face,
you spin intelligence into
these particles [that] I am…”

Rumi

~*~

Photo: Mandala Art
Digitally altered

~*~
Watch this beautiful video
that Michel Bellegarde of No Minds Land
made of this poem
here

Beyond Words - Wu Hsin & La Motte

Silence is the most powerful instruction.
It is the global solvent in which all doubts
and questions dissolve…
It is the Silence that is eloquent,
not my words…

The Silence speaks louder than any words….
Words consistently fail to express the Ineffable…
Words produce concepts…

…bask in Silence and in so doing
discern the deeper meaning…
do not attempt to understand…

Let the words pass through you,
piercing through the mind and
through the intellect,
and returning to their true Source…

Excerpt from
Behind the Mind:
The Short Discourses
of Wu Hsin

God’s native language is silence.
To meditate is to listen to God’s words of silence,
God’s breath of silence…

[Meditative Silence] is the deepest prayer,
the deepest conversation,
like the movement of waters in the ground
before they spring up into light.
Meditation is not a mute silence,
an empty silence,
but a silence filled with the juice of mutuality,
the flow of yearning and love.

There are tides in silence.
There are voices in silence.
There is giving and receiving.
But there are no words.

This is the Mystery of our union with God.

Fred La Motte
Uradiance


Photos: Sunrise
taken by hubby

Infinite Light...

Infinite Light -
A vast, spontaneous eternal emanation of
endless, beginning-less Light,
outside of time…

A deep, vibrant energy of Light
that subsumes all life…

The orginal potentiality
for all that is…

It is the Light
that is beyond
all existence;
that *generates*
all existence.

Is Self-generative;
not creating in ITs image,
only generating ItSelf…

The Light that is beyond all “light…”

It is
Beingness ItSelf…
being
Light

It is fully Knowing – Self-knowing…

And yet,
does not consider things like
awareness, or being, or knowing,
duality or non-duality…
It is beyond all such concepts.
It only IS.
The Light of Being – being Light…

Centrifugal Light,
ever-expanding,
always radiating
ItSelf;
silently,
endlessly,
like a great pulse,
a hum,
a vibration
throughout infinity…

The Light that
never goes out,
never goes silent,
but continuously hums
with Life…

The Light that knows all “light”,
and all emanations of “light”,
as ITs Self…

Infinite Light…

Infinite Love…

Mystic Meandering
July 2011

Photo: Camera Flash reflected in window at night
zoom blurred

Beyond/Behind Mind - Nisargadatta & Wu Hsin

The mind must learn that beyond the moving mind there

is the background of awareness, which does not change.

The mind must come to know the true self and respect it and

cease covering it up, like the moon which obscures the sun

during solar eclipse.

What you need

is to be aware of being aware. Be aware deliberately and

consciously, broaden and deepen the field of awareness.

Look at it this way. The mind produces thoughts ceaselessly,

even when you do not look at them. When you know what is

going on in your mind, you call it consciousness. This is your

waking state—your consciousness shifts from sensation to

sensation, from perception to perception, from idea to
 idea, in endless succession. Then comes awareness,
the direct insight into the whole of consciousness,
 the totality of the mind. The mind is like a river,
 flowing ceaselessly in the bed of the body;

you identify yourself for a moment with some
particular ripple and call it: 'my thought’. All you are conscious of is your mind;

awareness is the cognizance of
 consciousness
 as a whole.

Our minds are just waves on the ocean of consciousness.
 As waves they come and go.
 As ocean they are infinite and eternal.

 Know yourself as the Ocean of Being,
the womb of all existence.
These are all metaphors of course;
 the reality is beyond description.

You can know it only by being it."

Nisargadatta 

Via: No Mind’s Land

Awareness is primordial;
it is the original state of
Pure Potentiality.
It is beginningless and endless…

Go behind all perceptions, conceptions
and ideas to that which is aware…

Free your self from preoccupation
with names and forms
and see what remains...

No Source of illumination is
required in order to see the sun.
One simply turns toward it and
rests in the attention of it.
How can you expect to
see the sun if your
attention is
fixated
elsewhere?

The peace you seek
is where you are.
Merely stop masking
it with thought.

Wu Hsin
Excerpts from

Behind the Mind:

The Short Discourses
of Wu Hsin

The Same Yet Different...

Sitting at the window again…
Sinking deeply into
the peace of Stillness,
listening to the night,
I am aware
that...

Every night at the window
is the same yet different.
The one constant is the Utter Stillness
that runs through everything…

It’s all the same Essence...
The same Stillness of Being…

I can rest in this…
 sitting in the dark,
at the window:
The Universal Silence of all things,
the Energy of Being that runs through all life,
expressing differently,
reflecting ItSelf in many expressions.
all “different”, yet all the “same” Life Energy…

But tomorrow the mind will feel separate again,
the mind will focus on differences,

instead of sameness;
instead of That which unifies:
the common thread of the Living Silence within…
”i” will have issues with “others”,
and “i” once again won’t recognize
the resonance within this
Universal Life

   that lives us…

”i” will forget that
it’s all the “same”, yet “different.”
Life living ItSelf in different forms…
And everyone expressing that Life
differently.

”i” will forget that
beyond the seeming “difference”
is the same Infinite, Resonant Vibration of Being,

even if it appears dissonant…

I will need to be ‘re-minded’ - that

Every expression is a manifestation of this Eternal Beingness ~
is a wave on the Ocean of Infinity; that

Every life form is The Formless…

and that…

This “me” experience is the reflection of that “I”,
the True "I"...
seen in the face of "other."

The same, yet different…

Mystic Meandering
Oct. 2010


Photo: Mandala Art
Image from Infinite Cosmic Waves Mandala

Threads of Connection ~ Rig Veda, Rilke, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

“There is an endless net of threads throughout the Universe.
The horizontal threads are in space.
The vertical threads are in time.
At every crossing of the threads,
there is an individual,
and every individual is a crystal bead.

The Great Light of
’Absolute Being’
illuminates and penetrates
every crystal bead.
And every crystal bead reflects
not only the light from every other crystal
in the net, but also every other reflection
through the entire universe…”

The Rig Veda
The earliest Veda

~.~.~.~.~

“No experience has been too unimportant,
and the smallest event unfolds like a fate,
and fate itself is like a wonderful, wide fabric
in which every thread is guided by an
 infinitely tender hand and is laid alongside
 another thread and is held and supported
 by a hundred others.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

~.~.~.~.~

“…it is really just about love…
More and more I feel that all that matters
is the link of love that we each have within the heart,
and how we are drawn by
our longing for this love…
Follow the love,
be drawn by the
longing…”

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

~.~.~.~.~

Photo: Mandala Art
Indra's Net of Jewels
Slightly Radially Blurred

2013

Be The Energy - Danna Faulds

That’s how you came here,
like a star without a name…
Rumi ~

Be The Energy

Trust the energy that courses
through you. Trust – then take
surrender even deeper.
Be the energy.

Don’t push anything away.
Follow each sensation back to
its source and focus your awareness
there.

Be the ecstasy…

Be unafraid of consummate wonder.
Emerge so new, so vulnerable,
that you don’t know
who you are.

Be the energy,
and paradoxically,
be at peace.
Dare to be your own illumination,

And blaze a trail across
the clear night sky…..

Danna Faulds

From: Prayers to the Infinite

Copyright 2004
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