Overwhelm - Jeff Foster

Oh sweet little boy, beloved little girl,
you are so overwhelmed by life,
I know,
by the enormity of it all,
by the myriad perspectives available to you.

You feel so pressed down sometimes,
by all the unresolved questions,
by all the information
you are supposed to process and hold,
by the urgency of things.

You are overcome by powerful emotions,
trying to control,
or at least influence,
everything and everyone around you,
trying to hold yourself together,
trying to make it all 'work out' somehow,
trying to get everything done 'on time',
trying to resolve things so fast,
even trying not to try at all.

You are exhausted, sweet one,
exhausted from all the trying
and the not trying,
and you are struggling to trust life again.
It's all too much for the poor organism, isn't it.
You are exhausted, you long to rest.
And that is not a failing of yours,
nor a horrible mistake,
but something wonderful to embrace!

For the exhaustion is pure intelligence,
and it says, let go, let go! Stop trying so hard!

Stop pushing for answers right now.
Allow everything to rest right now.
Take a sacred pause.

Allow questions to remain unanswered, for now.
Allow space for yourself to breathe today.
Allow everything to fall out of control today.
Allow yourself to not be able to hold it all up today.
Allow yourself to not know how, to not know at all.

Allow the heart to break, if it needs to,
and the body to ache, and the soul to wake.

Everything is okay, when you get down to it.

And know you are loved, little one.
Know you have always been loved,
long before you were named,
long before you were even born,
long before overwhelm came to show you the way.

Jeff Foster

The Light is the Same - Rumi

The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same.
So many garish lamps in the dying brain's
lamp-show.

Forget about them.

Concentrate on the essence,
concentrate on the Light.

In lucid bliss, calmly smoking off its own
holy fire.

The Light streams towards you from all things.
All people, all possible permutations of good, evil
thought, passion.

The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same.

One matter, one energy, one Light,
one Light-mind,
endlessly emanating all things.

One turning and burning diamond.
One, one, one.

Ground yourself, strip yourself down,
to blind loving silence.

Stay there until you see
you are gazing at the Light

with its own ageless eyes.

Rumi

Fully "ME" - Anna Wood & MM

One of the most valuable insights I've gained through yoga
and meditation is that I've lived most of my life estranged
from myself as a whole, compartmentalizing aspects of my
existence into heart/mind/instinct/left foot/daydreams/ love
handles.  Thus segmented "I" was (am) never fully "me,"
and I never had (have) to come to terms with the actual
density and simultaneous emptiness of being alive as a
human being on planet earth.
...it seems to me like we've collectively designed a global
system that prevents most of us from accomplishing it
even we had the will to.

Silence, by clarifying our senses, invites us to witness
ourselves as we are.

Anna Wood
From: A More Intricate Cup of Tea

~*~

What I seem to understand - what I have always known, but
have felt constrained by mental/conceptual frameworks - is
that Life/Existence/Awareness *delights* in expressing
 ItSelf, and *how* It expresses ItSelf really doesn't matter
 to It. Awareness has no concept of non-dual awareness,
 of non-dual language. It *sees* everything as ItSelf, and
 therefore as not  separate from ItSelf.  The idea that it is
 "non-dual" does not even occur to It.  It does not concern
 ItSelf  with "non-duality," or duality for that matter.
It doesn't *see* duality, the self, the me, as a problem to
 overcome, or be seen through, or merged with, as other than
 non-dual. The whole me/no-me, self/no-self concept
doesn't matter anymore.  I somehow had constrained my
 Self by subtly making those very linear delineations,
splitting Existence in two - creating duality; becoming more
 *self* conscious -  trying to fit this expression of Being into
 a "non-dual" conceptual framework instead of just Being what
 I already knew myself to be.  My SELF!
 Beingness being ItSelf - as me...

What a relief!  Such freedom!  I can just be ME! - living from
the Heart of Being, and not the framework, the scaffolding.  In
 a sense I muted this innate Aliveness that wants to express here
*through* constraining myself to the frameworks and scaffoldings
of *conceptual* "non-dual" ideas, interpretations, language and
beliefs - trying to fit myself into a nice neat "spiritual" box.
When all along it was about coming Alive again, rekindling the
Life that already lives here - "outside the box."

Infinite Beingness expresses Aliveness.
Its only purpose, evidently, is to express Life, in all its forms.
Aliveness expressing ItSelf as Life - all life, not just
"non-dual" life -
whatever that might mean...

Mystic Meandering

Meditative Writings
2011

Self-Discovery - Sandy Jones

I discovered there is no reason to try to pull life apart
into 'ego and not ego' or self and not self, or real and
unreal, higher self or lower self.  As if we could
possibly separate Life and all that it is, from itself
and its very own totality of self-knowingness.

No, I found it can't be done.  It's not the way to love
and peace and joy and the unbridled being of who we are.

One day I discovered.....that I am the living awareness of
Something that is infinite and forever.  Life is the Living
Divine Mind being this awareness [that] I am.  It is my
very Self-knowing.  It is me and it is all that Life is.
It is nothing but love and Light and Self-knowing. And
this Awareness does not come from out of me, I do not
possess this Awareness, this living infinity of me, but it
does live as the life and light of all that I am.

We are the Light of the All in all.  Living awareness,
knowing itself as Identity, as you and me.  I am the
Self-Knowing Identity of the Ineffable All That Is.

And yes, I can only speak for me and what I have
found.  But for me, the journey here, in this world of
time and matter, is not about achieving some void of
no-me, to become emptiness or living without a sense of
self.  No, not at all, for me, it has proven itself to be
totally the opposite.

Life led me home, the ups and downs, the painful losses,
the tears of love, the anguish, it all brought me home.
It was the hard teachings led me back to myself, this
childlike innocent beauty and happiness, back to my heart,
to understanding the unbound freedom from fear.

Life is about Self discovery, walking into it all and seeing
the beauty of everything, including our self.  There is no
way to know Life/Presence without you and me, this self
we are, right here in the middle of it all.  I am an aspect of
this All inclusive wholeness, this ineffable Mystery that is
knowing itself to be.

It took me a long time to find this freedom, this fearless
knowing of this eternal light that is being who I am.  It
took a conscious choice to be brave, at first, trusting what
had been revealed to me, leaping in and living it all.
I cannot be otherwise.
I am the wonder of its ever unfolding beauty and grace...

Sandy Jones

In the Core of the Contradictions - Matt Licata

At some point, how you thought it was all going to turn out
will crumble away into dust.....all that remains is your raw
burning heart...

It is the nature of form to take birth, to dance, to play, and then
to fall back into the unknown.  This is not some sort of cosmic
error, but the way of things - creative, intelligent, and a reflection
of universal flow.

Relationships, work, family, friends, our health ... ideas about
ourselves, others, and the world.  What we thought would
provide ongoing meaning and purpose. Even what we were so
 sure about just a few days ago - the great realizations, discoveries,
 and insights about who we are, what is most true, what will
 provide lasting peace... no longer quite as convincing.  A dream
 has vanished and has not yet been replaced by a new vision.
 But inside the shards of the broken world, pure

life awaits.

All form must end, departing through a portal into darkness, so that
new forms may emerge from the crucible of clear space.  But what
is emerging in the womb of Now is not knowable ahead of time,
and is not subject to our hopes, fears or fantasies of control.
While the mind will struggle with the wrathful nature of this truth,
the heart knows... the body knows...

See that the death of form is filled with erupting particles of life,
with magic, and with the fragrance of the holy.  You can relax...
and rest inside the core of the contradictions.  Here, the chaos
and the glory are one.

Matt Licata

Rumi's Silence - Michael Shepherd

Rumi wrote much about silence.
Does that seem strange?

Poets live with silence:
the silence before the poem;
the silence whence the poem comes;

the silence in between the words, as you
drink the words, watch them glide through your mind,
feel them slide down your throat
towards your heart;

the silence which you share with the poet
when the poem ends, sitting side by side,
feeling one another being one heart;

the silence after the poem,
when you are a different person
from the person who started reading the poem,
think differently, move differently,
act differently; know Rumi a little better
as a friend; know yourself a little more
as a friend.

Rumi was asked, why do you
talk, talk, talk, so much
about silence?

He said, the radiant one inside me
has said nothing.

And that's the silence which we listen to
and hear in Rumi's heart,
here, sitting in the cool shade
which the scent of roses seems to love,

while the fountain gently plays like a poet
with sound and silence.

Michael Shepherd

via: No Mind's Land

~

Photo - actually a picture of a cloud formation.
Color was digitally "inverted" and created a totally
different affect, which now looks like the ocean
coming up on shore... magic :)

Silence is Radical - Anna Wood

Silence [is] the crux. The vehicle. And not silence as in
soundlessness...  The type of silence I'm talking about,
isn't about not hearing; on the contrary, it's about listening.

Silence is radical.  When sustained, it has an effect on your
perception comparable to that of any number of chemicals
with which you might seek change.  Your vision transforms;
you suddenly find yourself absorbing what's on the periphery,
massive amounts of once-invisible data assailing your pupils.
When you're not preparing your next remark, your hearing
capacity expands, too; the changing rhythms of the wind;
the muted thud of a teardrop hitting the wooden floor;
your neighbor's beating heart.  And taste, and smell,
they're amplified and shifted, as well - a cup of tea sipped
without the surrounding dialogue is a more intricate cup of tea.

Silence gives you the opportunity to know any number of
object's facets that typically disappear behind the verbal
screens we erect constantly, unthinkingly, between our
selves and our environments.  And surely the power of
wordless touch is one each of us knows...

Anna Wood
Excerpt from "A More Intricate Cup of Tea"

Wonderment - Naomi Stone

When we truly arrive in that vast space
of who we are in purity of being
as we are created to be,

we are the living beauty of an expanding sanctuary,
we are life aware of itself
fluid
changing,
we are the flow of a shifting

transparency

of spirit

the bliss of an unseen kiss

felt in the

rising mist of existence
dissolving in the pure eternal joy
of this eternal moment
of
a thrilling transforming
ever changing
wonder...

Naomi Stone

~

Personal note: My own experience is that
"arriving" simply means we come to see/
recognize the Pure Beingness that we are.
We are, as Naomi says, "Life aware of itself."

~

Photo - Fat globules in a pan of water,
digitally altered :)

Effortless Joy - Sandy Jones

Love leaves the confines of ideologies, doctrines, dogma and
the restricting limitations of regulations and rules.  Love is
freedom.  Love makes it easy to see in new ways.  It opens
the heart to expansive vistas, to freedom.  Love and freedom
go hand-in-hand.  Love and Reality reside right here as the
very identity I am.  Each of us can put our self here because
this unbound Self, this tranquility, this joy, this peace and
beauty is your identity as well.

A rush of passion celebrates the joy of this simple, everyday
existence of my being, of life, this marvelous magic that is
being me.  I am this living mystery of ever-flowering beauty.
The moonlight song ten thousand fathoms deep is a fact quite
plenty enough for me.

I'm filled with this awe and wonder that is living here in the
middle of an infinity of myself.  Life is an enigma, a mystery
so extraordinary, veiled in the soft pink light of the ordinary.

I am a million joys, living irresponsibly and aimless, carried
by this river of fearless love that upholds me...

It is not mine to tell others what to do.  Mine is this wind
blown freedom of an irresistible and effortless joy...

Sandy Jones

via: No Mind's Land

Paradox - Danna Faulds

Neti-Neti, translates as 'not this, not this.' The basis of classical
yoga, neti-neti is the way of negation.  It is a path that reveals
who I really am by cutting away all the things I am not.  I am not
this body or this migraine pain.  I am not my thoughts, even when
the inner voices grow so loud they drown out everything else.
I am not my personal stories or opinions.  I am not the fear that
threatens to swallow me, not my wisest and most insightful
writing, or even the most profound 'aha' to come out of my
spiritual practice.

The only problem is that after walking the path of neti-neti
for a time, I chafe against saying 'no' to everything.  At my
core there is a 'yes' that must be embodied and expressed...

Asmi-Asmi is the flip side of neti-neti.  Translated as 'this too,
this too', asmi-asmi is a practice that comes from tantra - the
path of immanence.  Identifying with the whole, I find spirit,
truth, and oneness everywhere...  I am this aging body on
its slow march toward death.  I am everything my senses can
experience and more. I am this mind and its dramatic machinations.
I am the yearnings of the heart, and the full spectrum of feelings,
and the peace that passes understanding.  I am the worst of my
poems, and the best.  I am the infinite reach of nature, sky and
stars.  The only word that matters on this path is 'Yes.'  I include,
include, include until the individual 'me' blips out, leaving
only unity.

My personal preference has always been for sensory experience,
embodiment, and inclusion.  For that reason, I resisted the practice
of neti-neti because it felt dry and life-denying.  I wasn't interested
in transcendence if it came at the expense of being fully alive in
my body and actively engaged in life.  Fortunately, I overcame
my resistance and discovered that when I really focused on bare
awareness, on what was not thought, not sensation, not my
personal accumulation of conditioning and beliefs, I landed in
a very spacious place of pure potential.

Exploring that potential, it occurred to me that practicing at
either end of the spectrum - neti-neti or asmi-asmi  - might
result in the same experience.  Inquiring deeper, I asked myself
if ultimate negation and absolute inclusion could exist
simultaneously.  'That's impossible', my rational mind answered.
'It's happening', my experience whispered softly in my ear.
In that moment, I fell into a profound inner silence - the silence
that flashes into existence when opposites unite.  Outside of time,
I disappeared into the limitless.

Perhaps I can best describe my current practice as 'both/and.'
Instead of focusing only on neti-neti, or giving myself entirely
over to the practice of asmi-asmi, I am plumbing the depths
of paradox where 'no' and 'yes' coexist.

In the light and laughing space
where Not-This and All-This
are both true, the whirl of
thought dissolves. The mind
drowns in paradox.  Awareness
neither reaches out, nor reaches in,
and times hangs suspended.

Danna Faulds
Excerpt from the introduction to her book
Limitless - 2009

The True Teacher - Francisco Albanez & Nisargadatta

Each day I long so much to see
The true teacher.  And each time
At dusk when I open the cabin
Door and empty the teapot,
I think I know where he is:

West of us in the forest.

Or perhaps I am the one
Who is out in the night,
The forest sand wet under
my feet, moonlight shining
On the sides of the birch trees,
The sea far off gleaming.

And he is the one who is
At home.  He sits in my chair
Calmly; he reads and prays
All night.  He loves to feel
His own body around him;

He does not leave the house.

Francisco Albanez
Original title: "The One Who is at Home"
translation by Robert Bly

~

Confide in your inner Self.
The greatest Guru is your inner Self.
Truly, he is the supreme teacher.
He alone can take you to your goal
and he alone meets you at the end of the road.
Confide in him and you need no outer Guru.

Nisargadatta

"The Chair..."

Relaxing deeply back, back,
sinking into "the chair."
It feels familiar - this chair.
It welcomes me "home"
to my Self...

Opening itself to me,
allowing me to slip deeply into
The Beloved's Silence...

I've been holding stress in the body.
"The Chair" allows it to let go,
and supports the body in the release,
like no one else can - no other person,
with their practical prescriptions,
or "fixes" propagated by the mind without
the compassion and empathy of the Heart;
who cannot respond from the Heart,
but only with empty words.
Hollow advice grasping for an "answer."
They cannot hear the cry of the Heart
that only needs to be heard and held...

It's only "The Chair"
that doesn't care who I am,
or what I know, or don't know,
or what words I use;
or how "evolved" I am;
if I am "enlightened" or "liberated";
if I shine or if I'm dark;
whether I'm Advaitan, Buddhist, Christian,
Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Sufi
or any religion, philosophy, or belief.
Only Being - just being,
without structure, concept, or label...
Only Self, sufficient in ItSelf

in "The Chair"...

It's only "The Chair"...
open, supportive, holding me in
whatever space I am in,
not trying to feed me an
intellectual "answer"
or correct my perceptions...

When I sit in this chair
I feel the tangible Presence
 of The Beloved within;
the warmth, the tingling of
the Divine Prsence
in the body
returning,
though never gone.

I feel the "connection"
with The Beloved in the body again,
though never "disconnected",
only the feeling momentarily lost.

The whole body begins to let go.
An involuntary breath deeply breathes me,
as my head gently collapses
against the back of "the chair"...

My Heart rests - soothed in "The Chair",
like a soft lap,
and finally opens like a lit orchid in a dark forest;
grieving for lost love, never really lost...

My whole body and being are fully supported
in "The Chair";
deeply at rest in the body,
in "The Chair";
fully embraced by my soft Friend -
"The Chair"

- who knew...

Mystic Meandering
July 4, 2017

~

"The Chair" is not only a literal chair that I refer to
but also becomes a metaphor for resting in
"The Beloved" - the True Friend.

_/\_

Untitled Prose - Danna Faulds

Use your discontent, your longing, the sense that you are bereft
of connection, use everything around you to nudge you into
choosing joy.  Make the choice not because life is as you wish,
but because life is as it is.  Resist and you know suffering.
Jump in with both eyes open and you can drown in bliss.

It doesn't seem possible, I know.  You feel broken, disconnected,
less than whole.  Ask if Awareness shares your restlessness.
Ask if the Infinite cares that your emotional state is tenuous at
best.  Ask if your dreary thoughts should be believed and if
anything real stands between you and All That Is.  Use the
answers you receive to open a crack in the wall of separation.
Find a door and stick your foot in so it can't close even if your
doubts grow huge.

[.....]

Danna Faulds
From: Limitless
2009

Personal Note:  I know from personal experience that it is not
often possible to "choose joy" - still I like this piece.  It is
possible, however, to observe our feelings as they rise from
within, and just be with them, not resisting them, but allowing
them to speak to us just as they are, through inquiry, which
she seems to allude to in the second paragraph...

Rendezvous With Silence...

Rendezvous with The Great Silence
through the Inner Window
of your Heart -
the portal to "The Mystery."

Sit quietly and listen deeply,
with no agenda or expectation,
leaving the window of your heart open -
waiting for the song of Silence...

Feel the caress of Silence begin,
inviting you in
with Her gentle breath,
breathing in your Heart...

The Silence that is always there
opens HerSelf to you - always.
Turn inward to the Inner Window,
bow to the Sacred Silence within and
enter Her Cosmic Mystery,
Her endless Vastness...

Settle into the Rhythm of Primordial Silence.
Feel the soft dance of intimacy absorb you,
in this silent rendezvous...

Nothing disturbs The Great Silence.
Nothing disturbs the depths of It.
Nothing prevents Its Song
from being sung...

Everything occurs within this Great Mystery of Silence.
All life, all breath, all death , all movement.

In the intimate awareness of Silence
know that everything is living according to Its
natural order, is following Its
natural Rhythm,
the Rhythm of The Tao of Life,
including this life you think you have created...

All life is being lived by the Great Mystery...

All is the pulse of Silence...

The pulse of the Cosmos.

Mystic Meandering
May 2016

~ 

Photo - Northern Light Swirls of an
Aurora Borealis over Yellow Knife, Canada

No False Steps - Agnes Martin

Of all the pitfalls in our paths and the tremendous
delays and wanderings off the track I want to say
that they are not what they seem to be.  I want to
say that all that seems like fantastic mistakes are
not mistakes, all that seems like error is not error;
and it all has to be done.  That which seems like a
false step is the next step.

Agnes Martin

Writings

Artsy

~

Photo - a rock pathway, color inverted...

Who then is breathing? - Ilchi Lee

Observe your own body.  It breathes.
You breathe when you are asleep, when you are no longer
conscious of your own ideas of self-identity.
Who then is breathing?

The collection of information that you mistakenly think is you
is not the protagonist in this drama called the breath.  In fact,
you are not breathing; breath is naturally happening.

You can purposely end your own life, but you cannot
purposely keep your own life going.  The expression, 'my life'
is actually an oxymoron, a result of mistaken assumption...

You don't possess life; life expresses itself through you.
Your body is a flower that life let bloom,
a phenomenon created by Life.

Ilchi Lee

Non-Duality - Monk in the World

...non-duality.

It's really not a place we go to but a place we realize.

And we realize it by taking the time to be silent,
to be in solitude, to breathe and wait for the
grace to be given by the Mystery we call
Love.

Alan - Monk in the World

Excerpt from a post written for his grand-daughters

The Play of Emotion - Rafael Stoneman

Here I am Here again
Not again
But only Now
Though it seems that moments are repeating
It is really One continuous moment.

What changes and what remains the same?
Somehow through the prism of the mind
many moods appear in consciousness
although there is only one Ultimate mood.
This is the miracle of color
The play of emotion.
On the negative end of the scale
we condemn the negative.
But we imagine that we are on the positive end
when we seek ways to remove the negative.
How positive would we feel if there was only
the positive end of the scale?
If we are willing to sacrifice the pain
are we willing to sacrifice the pleasure?
Equanimity is a dear friend.
One that holds the same embrace
for praise and for blame.
The same space for fortune and

for misfortune.
The same face for respect
and betrayal.

Rafael Stoneman

via my friend Michel
at No Mind's Land
where I get a lot of
wonderful posts to reblog :)
Thanks Michel!

~

Photo - original pic was a fire in the fireplace,
digitally zoom blurred and color altered - magic :)

The Days are Round - Jean Giono

Days begin and end in the dead of night.
They are not shaped long, in the manner of things which
lead to ends - arrow, road, a person's life...
They are shaped round, in the manner of eternal things...

Civilization tried to persuade us we are going towards something,
a distant goal.  We have forgotten that our only goal is to live,
to live each and every day, and that if we live each and every day,
our true goal is achieved.

All civilized people see the day beginning at dawn or a little after,
or a long time after or whatever time their work begins;
this they lengthen according to their work,
during what they call "all day long;" and end it
when they close their eyes.
It is they who say the days are long.

On the contrary, the days are round.

Jean Giono
Rondeur Des Jours
French Novelist

~

For Summer Solstice and the Natural Cycles of Life

~

Photo taken by my brother somewhere in New Hampshire

The Weaver and the Loom - Danna Faulds

Sit here for a bit.
Place yourself outside the frenzied pace of life.

Slow down long enough to appreciate birds in flight,
water drops like prisms in the grass and countless
shades of green.

Step off the fast track and listen to the sound of breath
and birdsong.

Take a moment to just be,
and in being, know the whole of this creation,
mystery and madness, passion and profanity,
know it all as one, stunning tapestry.

Sit still
and the thin line between sacred and profane simply
fades away.
There is nothing then to reconcile.

All the disparate are woven on the loom of life.

Sit here a bit
and your unique place in the pattern becomes clear.
Take the still point with you when it's time to walk away.

Make the choice to see affinity,
to watch the picture taking shape as thread joins thread.

Dare to be the weaver and the loom,
creator and creation, the sower and the sown.

In a moment of stillness,
all that came before is seen as one.

Danna Faulds
From: Go In and In

Danna is"...a long term practitioner of Kripalu Yoga.

She writes:
"Some days, the first line of a poem interrupts me and insists on
being written down - NOW!  Other days, I write the words 'This
is what I have to say to you' at the top of the page and see what
comes.  Like a faucet dispensing water from a hidden reservoir,
this kind of writing allows the formless mystery to flow into my
conscious life.  What I tap into when I write from the quiet of my
meditation cushion feels limitless.  Each morning finds me at the
edge of my current experience, writing about where I am stuck,
where I am learning to go, and what is calling me forward right
now.  Words on the page, both poetry and prose, are the bread
crumbs left behind as I move beyond my comfort zone and into
the unknown..."

(excerpt from Amazon.com)

Realization - Darryl Bailey

You simply need to acknowledge the life experience you already have.
Most people do not acknowledge, in any clear way, what their life
experience is or has been.  This acknowledgement is not about coming
to another idea or description.  It's not about a focus on new and
complicated thoughts.  It's a simple acknowledgement of something
we already know.  It's about realizing the vital, moving, shifting
liveliness that this moment is.

The basic happening of this moment is a moving, shifting, dancing
event presenting itself.  Even if we don't call it anything - if we
make no attempt to do it - it still happens.

[.....]

Everything is changing.  Whether it's a body, a thought, a mood,
a situation, a relationship, a career, and so on, everything is changing.
Atoms, chairs, planets, galaxies - it doesn't matter what it is - it has
an apparent beginning, ageing, and ending.  Even the sense of
existing disappears every night.  All forms that appear to exist are
moving on to some other appearance.

What is has no form.

...There is no storyline.  No one is doing the happening.  It's a formless,
buzzing, pulsing, tingling - a streaming, flowing event.
That's all there is.

No matter how much you think you've created this basic happening,
you haven't.  It doesn't matter how many meaningless sounds get
attached to illusions of form, all of this is formless and beyond any
possible explanation.  You can call it no-self, or God, or whatever you
feel you have to; words aren't that important.

Without forms and labels what is there to question?  What is there
to describe?  There is only an inexplicable, formless dance
presenting itself...


Darryl Bailey

Excerpt from his writing - "Realization"

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Photo - pattern created by a visualizer
to the sound of music playing... :)

The Silence Calls...

Silence called me to the window again last night.
She beckoned me to come and be still,
to listen...

She waited for me to settle,
to be quiet...
Waited as I deepened
into Her Stillness...

No agenda, She whispered...

I listened...

Put everything aside and just breathe, She said.
Be aware of My Breath, breathing you...
Experience My Presence,
Feel My Fullness,
Sense the Intimacy
in every cell...

From the depths of Stillness
I heard her call again,
calling me back to HerSelf.
Like a Great Ocean pulling back
the waves on shore
back to ItSelf...
The wave giving in to the pull...

The Great Silence called
again and again;
the silent rhythmic intimacy of wave and Ocean,
one and the same...

The Silence embracing ItSelf,
knowing only
ItSelf...

The Eternal Embrace...

Come - She whispered...
Follow the pull...
Give in...
Come Home...

Mystic Meandering
Aug/Sept 2010

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Photo: The inside of a seashell

What Is Left To Say - Lisel Mueller

The self steps out of the circle;
it stops wanting to be
the farmer, the wife, and the child.

It stops trying to please
by learning everyone's dialect;
it finds it can live, after all,
in a world of strangers.

It sends itself fewer flowers;
it stops preserving its tears in amber.

How splendidly arrogant it was
when it believed the gold-filled tomb
of language awaited its raids!

Now it frequents the junkyards
knowing all words are secondhand.

It has not chosen its poverty,
this new frugality.
It did not want to fall out of love
with itself.  Young,
it celebrated itself
and richly sang itself,
seeing only itself
in the mirror of the world.

It cannot return.  It assumes
its place in the universe of stars
that do not see it.  Even the dead
no longer need it to be at peace.
Its function is to applaud.

Lisel Mueller

via Poetry Chaikhana

see Ivan's commentary on
Lisel's poem here

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Photo - Face Reflections Mandala

2013