The Longing of the Heart...

It is your destiny to be Love...
The only "purpose" is to BE - Love.

Rest in Sacred Silence
where the ripples of luminescent Love
form and expand...

It is already there in your Heart ~
in the core of your Being.

Love is your sanctuary.

The Longing of the Heart
is there
to
draw
you
in
.
.
,

It's the Longing of the Heart for Divine Love,
for that which is True, Pure, Innocent,
 Whole and Alive
within
you

It's the Longing for the Embrace of
"The Beloved."

And...

It's the call of "The Beloved",
the pull of the Heart.

Follow the call -
the pull

The Longing is your Innocence;
the innocent Longing
for the affection
of Divine Embrace.

Let that innocent Longing carry you
Home...

Where you are held -
deep within
the Divine Heart...

Thrive in that Embrace.

That is Home...

That is Love...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
circa 2004 - 2006

~

Photo - Mandala Art digitally altered

"The Pull"...

There is an intimacy of the Heart in turning inward,
following the pull of "The Mystery" into The Silence
that is hauntingly
sublime...

A magnetic pull of
Pure Being
calls
from within...
pulling ItSelf back to ItSelf...

In fluidity of being one feels suspended in a
deep internal womb-like Cosmos,
where there is endless depth and breadth,
fullness and emptiness,
all at the same time;
a subtle movement of awareness
aware-ing everything at once...

Collapsing into the Cosmic Waves of Being,
into Existence prior to manifestation,
everything within softens and opens,
like a delicate flower,
including the body,
touched by the subtle
rhythmic caress
of
the Unknown
 ~ breathing ~
~ embracing ~
surrounding ~ and filling;
unwinding the contractions
of body and mind.

There is a "sanity" in this Cosmic Silence
that bestows a soundness of Heart through Grace
that is beyond mere mental reason
and cognizance...

Finding this deeper Rhythm within
one loses a sense of "self"
and becomes...
"The Mystery"  ~

Breathing ItSelf...

The Breath of The Infinite

The Whisper of Love

Mystic Meandering
March 1, 2017

_/\_

A Humble Lover of "The Mystery"

~

Photo - Craypas oils, done with fingers

The Mystery That She Is - Chuck Surface

Whatever words you can speak of Her,
Are no more than sounds,
Echoing through The Mystery that She is.

Whatever image you may hold of Her,
Is mere imagination,
Appearing within The Mystery that She is.

Whatever concepts the mind births,
Are mere apparitions,
Conceived within The Mystery that She is.

But... the Longing in your Heart,
That ache, more ancient than time,
That, my friend, is Real.

For it does not arise from you,
Being a Gift of Love, immeasurable,
Placed there by The Beloved Herself.

Unspoken.
Unseen.
Beyond conception.

A Perfume, lingering, of Unutterable Beauty,
A heartbreaking memory of Love known,
And then, tragically forgotten.

A Longing that will, in time,
Carry you beyond time,
Where word, image, and concept, cannot go.

A Longing that will Blossom within you,
Until The Mystery that She is,
Becomes inseparable from, Shining within...

The Mystery that you are.

Chuck Surface

In The Garden of The Beloved 

Facebook

Blissful Comfort...

Leaning back into the soft-pillowed chair...
Feeling the warmth of the morning sun on my face...
I turn inward...consciously,
towards "The Divine",

however named, however known,
and wait...
for "Her" gentle movement
to stir within,
signaling Her
subtle Presence...

In the Deep Quiet,
I feel Her vibration, Her Aliveness
pass through
the visceral senses;
only vanishing from organic awareness
at the slightest attempt
to hold Her here
in the mind...

But She is Here -
a palpable Presence in the body,
effervescing
through
my
whole
Being.

She
is
my
whole
Being!

I can do nothing but
be immersed in
the softness of
Her Bliss ~

She arrives by Grace
then subtly takes Her leave;
leaving only a sweet trace,
a warm afterglow,
of Her Divine Perfusion...

Blissful morning comfort...

Mystic Meandering
Feb 22, 2017

~

Note:  When I use the terms "Her"/"She", it does not refer
to an entity as such, like "God" or "Goddess"; is neither
male nor female.  It is, in my experience, an Ineffable Presence,
an "energetic signature", if you will, of "The Mystery" - which
has many names - that to me has a felt sense of being "feminine"
in nature; which of course is completely subjective,
but experienced by many...

_/\_

A Humble Lover of "The Mystery"

~

Photo - Vortex Art with fingers
and Craypas oils
2011

Plumb the Depths of Being...

Do not be afraid to
plumb
the
depths
of your Being;
or what you have believed
to be the Truth...
Question
everything
you
have
learned.

Take the journey deeply inward
to your beginnings - and endings;
to the Silent hum
in the Heart
of all Life
that sings,
and
see
for
your
self.

There are many caravans to follow,
those aspiring to "enlighten" you
with their words,
left like firewood to light your way,
along the road...

But only in Sacred Silence can the journey be made
to the Heart of Being;
to discover the depths of Being - of Primordial Love...
the depths of That which you are;
That which wants to
live,
express,
and Love

Here...

Do not let fear stop your descent
into the inner Vastness;
the Deep Ocean
of your illumined
Heart...

Be still,
and open...

Follow the plumb line
of your breath,
past the Furies and the Sirens
into the soft ebullience
of Love...
and quiet Joy,
waiting for you,
like ethereal
liquid pools
of Light
drawing
you
in

Rest Here

In
the
depths
of
this
Alive
Silent
Loving
Awareness

Listen to the endless
Rhythm already
holding
you
in the cradle
of the Heart...

Feel
the
pervasive
Divine Presence
of Life

in
the
depths of
Sacred
Silence
within
that animates
every cell,
every atom,
every sound,
every thought,
every feeling ~
until you know

THIS

as

your
Self

Simply Living...

_/\_

Mystic Meandering
April 17, 2012

A Humble Lover of "The Mystery"

~

Photo - Vortex Art
done with fingers and craypas oils
2012

Love Awaits You - Christiane Singer

When there is nothing left,
when you are on your last adventure,
in deteriorating descent,
[from disease/illness]
the mystery of suffering
[is that it] takes you to transparency
where there is only Love...
...liberates the power of Love...
in our lives...

All the dams break and
there is nothing but Love
all around you...


At the end of the worst,
Love awaits you...

There is nothing to fear
...receive Love...

Love is not an emotion,
it is the substance of life itself.

Christiane Singer
French Writer/Novelist

Excerpts from her video
"The Gifts of Suffering"

~

She writes:

I wrote a book on Les Ages de la vie.  I tried to show these
metamorphoses of being in the course of life.  It is obvious
that all this is only valid if one has learned to die in the course
of existence.  And these occasions are given us so often.
All crises, separations, and diseases, and all forms,
everything, everything, everything,
all invites us to learn and leave behind.
Death will take away only what we wanted to possess.
The rest, it has no hold on the rest.
And it is in this progressive deprivation that an
 immense freedom is created...

Christiane died of Cancer in 2007 at the age of 64

Divine Courage - Hafiz

We have not come here to take prisoners
but to surrender ever more deeply
to freedom and joy.
We have not come into this exquisite world
to hold ourselves hostage from love...

Run my dear, from anything
that may not strengthen
your precious budding wings.

Run like hell, my dear,
from anyone likely to put a sharp knife
into the sacred, tender vision
of your beautiful heart...

[.....]

For we have not come here to take prisoners,
or to confine our wondrous spirits,
but to experience ever and ever more deeply
our divine courage, freedom, and Light!

Hafiz

Excerpt from:
"We Have Not Come To Take Prisoners"

Photo: Mandala Art digitally altered

Caverns of the Heart...

How does one express
what is unspeakable
when the deep caverns
of the Heart, once closed,
open...
and...
Primordial Love begins
its ascent...

 "Love"

emerges
from an unfiltered,
unguarded space
where Pristine Love ItSelf
breathes
the
Rhythm of the Heart.

Sitting on the clef of this new Inner Rhythm
the word "Love" hardly seems adequate,
as this "Rhythm" has much more
depth, richness and fullness...
where
one experiences the Breath of the Formless
breathing ItSelf through the Heart;
a soft, clear Rhythm
continuously
unfolding ItSelf in the caverns of the Heart,
wave by wave...

It is a synchronous Rhythm of
Form and Formlessness;
Pure Sublimeness,
and much, much more...

It is the human heart entraining
with the Primal Rhythm of
the Heart of Pure Being;
felt as endless Openness, Bliss
and Aliveness,
much more profound
than the word "love"
can possibly convey -
as we experience it
in manifest existence...

There are of course no words
to truly describe the experience
of unconditional Primordial Love...
as words are only phantoms of our
felt experience...

There is only the visceral sense of an
undulating Rhythm
rising from the deeply lit caverns of the Heart
experienced as "Love..."

Wondrously Inexpressible...

Mystic Meandering
June 22, 2015

_/\_

A Humble Lover of "The Mystery"

Photo: A picture of my hands/fingers
held together up to the sunlight, turned on its side...
Light seeping through the cracks
in what looks to me like caverns of the Heart...
(my interpretation of course :)

Only Breath - Rumi

Not Christian or Jew, or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, Sufi or Zen...

Not any religion or cultural system.

I am not from the East
or the West,
not out of the ocean

or up from the ground,
not natural or ethereal,
not composed of elements at all.

"I" do not exist,
am not an entity in this world
or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve
or any origin story.

My place is the placeless,
a trace of the traceless.

Neither body or soul.

I belong to The Beloved,
have seen the two worlds as one
and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner,
only That Breath breathing
human being.

Rumi

recited by Coleman Barks

A note to my email subscribers:
When Feedburner delivers my posts to you
the video is not included in the email,
so all you will see is the poem.
In some cases it doesn't even indicate that
there is a video...
If you want to view the video
you will have to click over to my blog...
Thanks :)

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 Divine;
undivided by earthly "tribes"
of culture and religion,
earthly boundaries,
or the divided mentations of
mediocre minds;
yours and others.

Fall into the Inner Rhythm of
the Universal Eternal Being,
the ubiquitous Divine Presence
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 Deep Internal Silence of the
Inner Cosmos,
beyond artificial boundaries and lines,
beyond the bluster of buffoons and bullies
with mouthfuls of meaningless words...

Just Breathe...

Wait...

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

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

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 6, 2017

_/\_

Remembering - again & again...

Sitting in the Sanctuary
of  Silence,
the deep space of  Formlessness
keeps pulling me in,
enticing me to
remember,

to listen
D
E

E

P

L

Y

.

.

.

In this space of Pure Awareness,
beyond thought,
I can feel the intimacy of Silence
once again;
the organic Rhythm,
immersed in its Flow...
Out of which all movement arises
and takes form...

Formlessness-Form
Form-Formlessness,
Not two - yet not one;
not either/or
but
both/and

The Ineffable Mystery

I sometimes call it "The Beloved."

It has many names -
this Aware Silence,
this Hush of The Mystery

that we are,
that we emerged from,
Life ItSelf;
and is no-name as well...

The Unknown

In this Sea of Silence
I remember the feel of
Its Rhythm - again;
the transparency and
boundarylessness
of Its S p a c i o u s n e s s
that just IS...

The Mystery of Life living ItSelf
in/as
the rhythmic
pulse of Living Silence

recognizing ItSelf as "me",
and "me" recognizing It
as my
Self

I had forgotten
this Sacred Silence
that knows us intimately
as ItSelf...

Our pain, sorrow, grief;
our laughter and joy,
are inexplicably
Its own

Inseparable


It knows our shadow
and embraces
all darkness
as Its own -
because
It is
Its own

Light

that knows
no darkness

The grief, the loss,
the sadness, the suffering,
the woundings...
ALL Its own;
feeling what we feel,
experiencing what we experience

as ItSelf...

Ever-present
Ever-aware
Ever-open
to all experience

Not a cold, conceptual,
hollow vacuum of Nothingness...

But the A L I V E N E S S of Life ItSelf
intimately living ItSelf...

OMing pre-Existence into Existence...
Breathing ItSelf into Life...
into every wound of pain
and suffering

with Its soft caress...

Aware Living Silence
knows our Hearts
as Its own,
and dances with
Joy
in
the
delight
of
knowing
it

.

.

.

I have forgotten THIS - many times...
The feel of this deep Love
in Its complete and utter Embrace:
Its total enfoldment
Its inclusiveness
of all that we are;
forgotten the once known
innocence of
being touched
by the
Depth
of
Love
in the
Heart of

"The Mystery"

~

Mystic Meandering
April 11, 2015

A Humble Lover of "The Mystery"

_/\_

"Mystical Alchemy"...

We are born from the fathomless Cosmic "darkness,"
the Eternal Depths of the Primordial Womb
before Light began...
from which Light emerged;
a mystery...

Without knowing how or why...
We simply are...
Life ItSelf - simply being...

Born of the Ineffable Mystery,
the Cosmic Igniter of the Divine Flame
ignites the Ember of our Heart
through the remembrance of Love ~

in "Mystical Alchemy."

Without the need for certainties of the mind,
or intellectual "understandings."
Only visceral awareness of the
Presence of Divine Love

Illuminating the Heart
through Grace...

Pure Bliss...
Pure Blessing...

~

Ever in Gratitude,
a humble Lover of The Mystery...

_/\_

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 2, 2017

Humble Lovers of The Mystery - Nepo, Rumi, Bhagavad Gita

I don't know why I was born
with this belief in [awareness of] something
deeper and larger than we can see.
But it's always called.  Even as a boy [child],
I knew that trees and light and sky all point
to something timeless...

I have spent my life listening to that
and filtering it through my heart.
This listening and filtering is the music
of my soul, of all souls.
After sixty years, I've run out of ways
to name this...
Even now my heart won't stand still...

Mark Nepo
(Jewish)

Also see "Honoring The Mystery"

~

Both light and shadow
are the dance of love.
Love has no cause;
it is the astrolabe of God's secrets...
Lover and loving are inseparable
and timeless...

Although I may try to describe Love,
when I experience it, I am speechless.
Although I may try to write about Love,
I am rendered helpless;
my pen breaks, and the paper slips away
at the ineffable place
where Lover, Loving and Loved are one.

Every moment is made glorious
by the light of Love.

Rumi
(Sufi Muslim)

~

Still your mind in me, still yourself in me,
and without a doubt you shall be united with me,
Lord of Love, dwelling in the heart...

Bhagavad Gita
Chapter 12 excerpt
(Hindu Scripture)

~

Photo - Buddha Heart

Unbearably Holy - Matt Licata

Today may not be the day for answers,
but let your heart break open to the vastness
of the questions, the longing, the burning, the uncertainty;
the sense that a miracle is here,
just beyond the veil, but how to reach it?

How to fully show up and participate
in your immediate experience
and be fully alive...

All the teachings.....and worn out ideas about who you are
and why you've come here, about the true source of meaning...
At times, can be overwhelming...
The questions that once had answers...only a tenderness remains,
with no sign or resolution.

Only a burning where the questions once existed...

An old vision seems to be dissolving...
There is no life without the willingness to fully participate
in the shattering and the death of an ancient dream.
No life without embodiment to the vulnerability
as it surges in its eternal forms within you.
Perhaps it was never resolution you were after,
but the pure surging of life.

The heartbreak found here is not a mistake,
but to let your heart break open to the vastness
of the questions.
To fall to the ground as a humble lover of the mystery.

Trust in the flow of your immediate experience,
exactly as it is,
and participate in the raging truth that nothing is wrong with you...
For what you are is unbearably Holy...

Matt Licata

Matt's words, my format.
This is also a synthesis of two
different posts:
Unbearably Holy
and
A Humble Lover of the Mystery

~

Photo - Vortex Art Digitally Altered.

Riding A Pale Horse...

A Pale Horse of an unpredictable destiny
arrived at my door recently;
an intense illness,
causing the body to feel disembodied
and disconnected from Source...

It invited me to ride...

I was anxious, unsure of where it would take me.
But I had no choice,
I had to ride;
to ride the illness out - half willingly, half resisting.

Strangely, all awareness of "Presence" vanished.
as if I had been cowled to the Truth
that I had "known" for so long -
or thought I knew -
that ultimately we are Pure Awareness...
But "I" was caught in the body-mechanism
and its struggle...

Frightened

I rode - as if in a weird dream,
through a strange land of un-awareness,
while still *trying* to be aware
of "The Truths"
that I had known...

But they eluded my senses, my awareness, my mind -
even my Heart...

Confused

I rode for 3 weeks - empty,
until, fatigued,
I faintly felt the exuberance and euphoria of Life
bubble up from within...
The veil of un-awareness had briefly lifted...
and with it, the shattering of all certainties
I once held to be true;
a burning away of the dross
in the alchemy of fever...

The fever broke
and I relaxed...

into Gratitude...

just Gratitude...

- and breathed...

Sometimes that's all you can do...

fall into Gratitude and Breathe...

_/\_

Mystic Meandering
January 27, 2017

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!

Keeping Perspective

I take comfort in this video by Nicholas Buer,
reminding me that no matter what is taking place on planet
earth, or the circumstances of our lives, and how the paradigms
of our culture are shifting, for some not in directions we
want to go, we are part of a Greater Reality.
Whatever we experience is taking place in a larger context.
Beyond the polarization of politics, there is always the awe
and mystery of an inclusive, radiant cosmos...
Be sure to click on the Full Screen icon.

In Dark Times - John O'Donohue

[.....]

In the glare of neon times,
Let your eyes not be worn
By the surfaces that shine
With hunger made attractive.

That our thoughts may be true light.
Finding their way into words

Which have the weight of shadow
To hold the layers of truth.

That we never place our trust
In minds claimed by empty light,
Where one-sided certainties
Are driven by false desire.

When we look into the heart,
May our eyes have the kindness
And reverence of candlelight.

That the searching of our minds
Be equal to the oblique
Crevices and corners where
The mystery continues to dwell.
Glimmering in fugitive light.

When we are confined inside
The dark house of suffering
That moonlight find a window.

When we become false and lost
That the severe noon-light
Would cast our shadow clear.

When we love, that dawn-light
 Would lighten our feet...

[.....]

Excerpt from: "For Light"

by John O'Donohue
From: To Bless the Space Between Us

Ending Suffering - Joan Tollifson

If we truly want to end suffering, we must move from our self-centered drama and story line, to the open surrender of "Thy will be done."  It involves a shift in attention - a shift out of the entanglement in and identification with the thought-stream - and open into awareness of Presence - a shift from thinking to sensing and awaring.  It involves a surrender, or opening, into the whole body-mind, a dissolving of the felt sense of separation, and duality, a melting into the spacious undivided, luminous and inseparable; noticing what is ever-present regardless of the experience that is arising.  

Surrendering is an opening of the whole body-mind, a dissolving of the solidity of the body-mind, a letting go into boundlessness, [realizing] that it is all appearing in a larger context - the open space of awareness.  The true "I" to which we all refer is ultimately this unbound awareness that is being and beholding everything.  We are not limited to the body-mind, and the body-mind is not really a separate, solid, autonomous "thing."  In fact there is no real boundary between "awareness" and "the body."  The words seem to divide what is actually seamless and whole.  So we don't need to deny the body or the person or relative reality, because all of that is appearing in a much larger context, and all of that is really very ephemeral and fluid and ungraspable...

There are many words for surrender: dissolving, opening, relaxing, softening, melting, letting go, resting, allowing, welcoming.  What matters is not the word or some idea of this, but discovering this for oneself experientially.  Surrender is a discovery that we each have to make for ourself.

In surrendering there is a letting go, an opening - allowing everything to be as it is, not resisting anything, and not trying to get anything.  Simply stay with the living reality itself, just as it is.  Awareness always allows everything to be as it is.  It never rejects or hates anything.  It is never really harmed or destroyed by anything that appears to happen in waking life.  All the apparent darkness and getting lost is always happening in this bigger, vaster context.  To realize this is to be free from suffering...

Joan Tollifson

Honoring The Mystery - Mark Nepo

Somehow we have been dropped into the Mystery, below role,
fallen through our maps into one stream of love.
Some moment or circumstance becomes and unexpected doorway
into the Mystery,  We never know how it will appear, or how we will
be drawn into it...

Honoring the Mystery is what opens us to the powers of wholeness -
this unknowable totality that we live in.  To honor the Mystery is
not just to glimpse the whole, or even acknowledge the whole, but
to live our days with [as] that wholeness...  Commit to leaning into
life until it drops us beneath our surface maps of reality...

Though we pray to the many faces of God, each is a changing
wave in a sea of Divine Being...  Any circumstance that
awakens us to that divine sea is a holy gift...

If courageous enough we might just slow down to the pace of
creation, where the pulse by which the mind thinks touches the
pulse by which the heart feels, and together they equal the rhythm
where Being plays in exact motion with all beings...

Nothing matters but emptying...
until the softness we call Spirit bubbles through the tongue and
words fail in utter adoration.
Nothing now but the need to be...

Mark Nepo
Quotes from: The Exquisite Risk

~

Photo - Windshield going through car wash :)

An Unseen Hand...

I took these pictures of the "mittens" over a period of weeks
on my "twilight walks" from January to February 2012.

I first found them on the ground behind a bench.
I picked them up and laid them out on the bench
hoping their owner would see them...

The next time they had been only slightly moved
and covered with a light dusting of snow...

Then ~

neatly laid together
at one end of the bench;
one holding the other
as if content to wait
for their owner to
retrieve them...

I left them as they were...

On the next visit one was on the bench,
delicately laid out
in this dainty hand position,
almost as if an invitation to sit...

and the other on the ground
in the shape of the peace sign,
as if to say everything is okay...

Once again I left them as they were,
wondering what unseen hand
was sculpting them...

After two large snow falls
and a couple of weeks of
60 mile an hour winds
I found one here

sculpted into the ice...

And finally, out of curiosity,
I made a quick trip back to the park
that March to see if I could find them again...

And there they were on another bench,
flattened and weather-worn...

So I did a little sculpting of my own
in a funky finger mudra :)

We are all each other's "unseen hand",
appearing and disappearing when needed,
lifting each other's spirits,
unknowingly shaping,
influencing and rearranging
life perspectives
in slight and subtle ways,
through our presence...
Each offering something
in our own way,
inviting each other to sit a while;
offering signs of encouragement
and inspiration,
lending each other
a hand
to extricate each other
from the frozen constructs of our minds;
melting away the outmoded concepts that
keep us frozen
with the warmth of a
loving "unseen hand"...

Thank you to the "unseen hands"
in my life
who have inspired and opened
this Heart...

_/\_

Devotion - Nirmala

...When devotion has claimed you for its own
no longer any chance to stray
a brief fling with illusion no longer satisfies.
The truth demands utter fidelity...

All pain must be faced
and embraced as the true countenance of
your beloved.

All fear must be met
and recognized as the thrill of tasting
the unknowable.

All joy must be surrendered
and acknowledged as a gift with
no giver.

This union only requires telling the truth
even when the truth shatters your dreams
even when the truth leaves you emptied out
even when the truth reveals your counterfeit
existence...

[.....]

Nirmala
Gift With No Giver

via: Being Silently Drawn

Illuminating the Way - Matt Licata

...there is something illuminating the way, but just what this is
cannot often be apprehended by ordinary means.
There is no external map here that you can rely on, only the
one that is written inside you.  While at times we sense the
presence of this inner guidance, it often comes by hidden
and symbolic means.  We must learn to listen for it in a
non-ordinary manner, not  just with our ears but with the
wisdom of the body, with the cells of the heart.

The mysteries of separation and union are already wired
into you... We are invited to meet them, in an inclusive embrace
of life -  the wholeness that we already are...

Matt Licata

~

Photo - Sunlight through a thinning cutting board...