The Breath of Sacred Silence

Beyond all concepts of duality and non-duality
there is only the Breath of Sacred Silence...
Here is neither oneness or two-ness,
only the exquisite Rhythm of
the Infinite Breath
IN which Existence exists.

In this space
everything else falls away -
all breathing falls into The Rhythm
of the Ineffable - the Unknown -
The Mystery...

The inhale and exhale
of the Cosmos,
one Rhythm.
No longer aware of
separation,
only unspeakable Silence
breathing...

The mind tries to hold onto concepts,
through thought patterns,
thought processes;
an automated mechanism
that just runs,
creating scenarios of I/me/other.

BUT

Here - in the river of direct experience,
only the Breath of the Sacred breathes,
unencumbered by thought...

In this space of Grace
there is no sense of
union,
or dissolution,
or surrender...

One is simply - absorbed -
into the Ineffable Breath.
A natural, organic absorption of the whole being
in the ongoing stream of the
Pure Isness of Being...

The Ecstatic Mystery of the Breath of Sacred Silence...

_/\_

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
July 19, 2018

Politics and Meditation - Fred LaMotte

The irony is this, that the greatest energy and healing we can
bring to our world today is not through political opposition,
not by feeding the polarization of energy between two sides,
and not by repeating the narrative of hate that each party
constructs about the other; vilifying each other...

This is precisely NOT the time to be swept into the negative
energy of party politics.  Let go of all such anxious thinking
and simply rest the mind in the Heart.
in the Heart is unity, not division.
The practice of meditation is a life-line to free our hearts
[and minds] from this endless strife and division.

When we practice the most ancient form of meditation, to
simply rest the mind in the Heart, we are practicing the most
radical politics.  We are dissolving the dysfunction and healing
the national wound.

The revolution is to breathe.  The radical act is to be present.
Rest the mind in the Heart.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

This of course doesn't mean that we don't have our opinons
about what is happening in our country, but I know that
"sitting meditation" helps me to keep perspective and calm the mind.
It is exquisitely depolarizing...  :)

The Pathless Path - reloaded...

This post was originally written in 2011
but is still timely for me...

I find the older I get the more I want to experience Truth directly,

and leave the many trodden "spiritual paths" that I've been on all my
life behind.  Even as a child I wanted to know "God" - a child's
understanding of God.  Then my search evolved and expanded to
include finding "myself" - whoever that was :), the Truth, Wisdom,
peace of mind, and last, but not least, the search for "Enlightenment."
They are all the same"path" under different disguises.  And now,
through all these many paths, I am feeling the need to settle, deepen,
and re-discover a sense of inner Truth; not by following a particular
external path - but by intuitively listening to the voice of my Heart;
experiencing Inner Beingness directly, through spending time in
Silence (which I avoid so easily).  Now if Life would only cooperate
and provide a less chaotic, disruptive, distracted life!  Just kidding -
maybe...  :)

 Being on a "spiritual path" implies that one is going somewhere,
seeking "Some - *thing*" at the end of the journey - like
retirement after a life of working; or a magical pot of gold at the end
of the mythical rainbow; or even the mystical "Holy Grail."  Or maybe
one is even seeking an end to something, like suffering, pain,
ignorance, their humanness, or the end of seeking.  But what if there
was no need for "a path",, no need for seeking the illusive big
"Some-thing" that spiritual seekers seek?  I find myself in this place
of questioning - again...  I have been down the "seeking road" -
many times.

The path of "Enlightenment"/"Awakening"/"Self-Realization",
particularly the path of what is known as Advaita or "Non-Duality",
has lost its luster, its pull, its certainty for me - much like the other
paths I have taken throughout my life.  It's just another construct.
  And I'd rather not describe Truth by a negative - with no-me, no-self,
 no other, no world - as Truth is all inclusive - including duality,
 me, self, other, world.

Even if one follows "a path" (which can be any path) there is no
guarantee that we will discover what we are looking for, and life will
not suddenly become easy or flowing with bliss.   We won't necessarily
lose our personality, with its quirks, our conditioning, or neuroses. 
Our thoughts will not stop, neither will our surface struggles, or
 our pain,  or our stories.  Walking "a path" doesn't even guarantee
 that we will  actually see life differently from either the mountain top,
 or nose to the ground;  or suddenly find our "purpose" -
as if there's only one. But no one tells us  this about "the path."
 It has to be a Self-discovery - for ourselves -  even if we have a
"Teacher" or follow a "Teaching"  to point the way.

Years of seeking, realization, recognition, and then forgetting, and then
remembering, and then forgetting again - brought me to the realization
that discovering (or rediscovering) this Being Self/Truth that we are,
 is through awareness of and deep intimacy with The Silence within;
through continually coming back to the Heart of Being - the space of
Silent, Still, innate Wisdom - which of course is wherever we are at the
moment, not off in the distance somewhere.  It's not a place. 
"The path" doesn't go anywhere.  There is no reward at the end. 
It's an inner pathless path...  And that's my "path" - rediscovering
 this inner Silent,  Aware Wisdom.  It's an inner pathless path
 of remembering; remembering the underlying Rhythm of
 Life ItSelf -

Ommmmmm...

"A mystic is content with nothing less than
to touch the Truth in its most universal purity"

Ivan Granger
Poetry Chaikhana

~

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest in peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall
while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then
return to source.
Returning to the source is stillness,
which is the way of nature....

Returning is the motion of the Tao.

Lao Tzu

~~

Photo - taken by my father
1952/53

Ordinary Enlightenment - "G", Shinzen Young & Jeff Foster

There are many different definitions of mysticism, but a narrow
description of mysticism is known as the "perennial philosophy",
or "perennial wisdom."  [That Truth is Universal & Eternal].
In this sense, mysticism indicates the dying of the illusion
of selfhood into the greater reality of God, Nirvana, Dao, or a
number of other concepts representing the deathless and
indefinable part of us that is often called the Void. [or Emptiness].

It is the "death" [dissolution] of the individual ego into the
indescribable that characterizes the perennial wisdom. [Or rather]
it is the giving up of identifying with being the individual ego/self.

God, as the mystic understands the term, does not correspond at all
to the commonly held beliefs involving an anthropomorphic deity
gazing down on humanity from on high.  For the mystic, God is
much more subtle and immediate.  In mysticism, God is not a
separate being to us, rather the very "being-ness" that lies
 at the heart of everyone. 

The mystical process, whatever traditions or methods it uses, is
ultimately aimed at breaking through the prison of mortality into

freedom of what both the Buddha and Japanese Zen Master Bankei
called the Unborn.  Living as the Unborn we are no longer tied to
[attached to] a false sense of ego/self... but are liberated as the very
Awareness that is the heart of every being in the universe.

Excerpt from: "Buddha and Religion: Mysticism"
Buddha Space
Read the full article here

This blog also has other interesting topics!

~

Even for a deeply "enlightened" person, the experience of contact
with Flow and Emptiness does not necessarily go uninterrupted.  It
may happen frequently during the day, but not necessarily continuously.
Even a very liberated person still spends a lot of time experiencing
the world in the ordinary way.

What then is the difference between an ordinary person and a liberated
person?  The difference is a matter of freedom.  An "enlightened"
person has the ability to experience self and world as a Source wave.
And when they are not experiencing things that way, they understand
why that is the case. It is just because they are not paying close
attention...

Shinzen Young - The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works

via Markings

Pay attention! :)

~

There is no fixed path to enlightenment.  Enlightenment is not a
destination, a goal, a final resting place at the end of a long journey -

that's the mind's version of enlightenment.  Nobody is the authority
on your path - no teacher, no guru, no religious leader.  Nobody can
tell you the right 'way' for you...

Jeff Foster

via The Dawn Within

~

Photo from the Internet

Rumi

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.

Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.

Escape.

Walk out like somebody suddenly born into color.

Dot it now.
You're covered with a thick cloud.
Slide out the side.

Die,
and be quiet.
Quietness is the surest sign that
you've died.

Your old life was a frantic running
from silence...

Rumi

~

Let yourself be silently drawn by the
stronger pull of what you really love...

Rumi

~

Longing is the core of mystery.
Longing itself is the cure...

Rumi

~

Photo - downpour in the sun

The Radiance of 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, religion, and politics,
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,
simultaneously,
 in and through 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, and listen...

Fall into the Silence and Radiance of

the Inner Cosmic Rhythm,
until you feel the
Inner Cosmos
move
you

Just Breathe...

Wait...

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

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 6, 2017

_/\_

Happy Birthday Dalai Lama

Today is the Dalai Lama's 83rd birthday.  I am not a Buddhist,
but I have, for a long time now, felt an unexplained "connection"
to The Buddha and Buddhist Heart Wisdom.  I have
experienced many "mystical moments" with The Buddha energy
in sitting meditation.  In a sense you could say I am a
"Buddha Mystic" :DDDDD

(one of my many self-imposed labels :)

I am also drawn, at times, to the Dalai Lama, to his heart of
compassion, his grandfatherly demeanor, and his innocent,
childlike happiness. His Presence (thru photos and the media) elicits
compassion and innocence in me, and my heart sighs.
There is an inexplicable resonance there, allowing me to feel
my own "Buddha Nature" - that Core Beingness within.

Here's a link about his exile from Tibet in 1959
before the invasion of Tibet by China.

Beyond the World's Horizons - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Beyond the horizons of the world is a place that few know,
a place without borders, without loss or gain...  Something
within you mysteriously recognizes this primal emptiness,
the vast unknowing, the wonder of what is not.

There is no substance to form even images.  And yet, there is
a belonging that is stamped in the core of one's being, a belonging
that nothing can break.

Far away [from this place] is a place called existence.  It's full of
dreams. of opportunities, of life and death.  But here, in the world
beyond, there are no such dramas...  When all is dissolved, lost,
undone, we are what we [truly] are.

But the tears call us back into what people call life, into the strange
substance that weaves itself into form.  Yet even when we seem
stranded on this shore of existence, we can never forget that place
beyond the worlds that is always with you [within you].  It is at
the end and the beginning of every breath, more primal than even
silence...

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

Excerpt from: Fragments of a Love Story

~

Let me sit here on the threshold of two worlds,
lost in the eloquence of silence...

Rumi

~

Photo - Sunset reflected on the top of the car

taken by my husband

Free to Be - Fred LaMotte

The first discipline of non-violence is to honor every human being
as a unique soul-body, refusing to identify them by race, gender,
religion, or political party.

Yet just as much as right-wing movements, today's "progressive"
movement often promote conflict and division by labeling individual
Persons by their group identity.  Some of us who talk about "diversity"
actually stifle it, because real diversity is not to promote tribalism
[or nationalism], but to recognize the incomparable [unique]
Personhood of individuals. [As it also says in the Declaration of
Independence].

It is much easier to hate a category than a Person, whether your
animosity is toward Muslims or Christians, "black people", or
"white people", liberals or conservatives.

The beginning of world peace is to free each human soul-body from
racial, political, or religious abstractions.  Our incidental association
with a group is not who we really are.

I do not identify my Self [True Inner Being] as a color, as rich or poor.
capitalist or socialist, Republican or Democrat, Christian or
Pagan, [or American].  I am neither "good"nor "evil."  Those are just
conceptual chains with which your mind attempts to enthrall me.  But
I am not your concept of me:
you are.

If you want to superimpose a group identity on me, that is your act
of violence against the singularity of my Personhood.  You are free to
label me, but I am also free...  I refuse to identify with your label...
I Am who I Am...

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

[brackets mine]

~

My note: It's an act of aggression when we impose prejudicial categories and labels on "others"; when we don't see that we are all a unique expression of our shared Core Beingness; when we've been enculturated to hate "other" people's cultures through fear because they are not like "us"...  We are all "free" when we recognize each other's Core Beingness as our own, and the diverseness of our individuality that expresses that Beingness and treat each other with respect and compassion.

And, oh btw, we are all immigrants here, unless you were born 100% Native American.  I am .2% Native American, but the rest of "me" comes from other countries, other cultures.  My English ancestors arrived here in the 1600-1700s and populated much of New England, and evidently somebody intermarried with a Native American.  My Irish and Scottish ancestors arrived probably in the 1800s and intermarried with the English ancestors, and my Norwegian ancestors arrived int he late 1800s, intermarrying with...  well you get the idea.  We are mongrels! :)  Essentially, however, we all share an Essential Beingness far beyond our ancestry, our humanness, far beyond personalities and character traits, beliefs, patriotism, opinions, DNA and intelligence.  And we are inherently Free to Be who and what we are!

And on another note:  My father was greeted by the Statue of Liberty coming back from Europe on a ship with thousands of other soldiers, (given to America by the French, btw), after serving in WWII at age 19-20 in Germany, being hit in the face with shrapnel from "enemy" mortar fire.  That was  his path, his journey, and that of his generation - to fight "the enemy" for an idealized freedom...  I don't think he (or that generation) understood things with the same "spiritual" lens that I do, but he did what he felt was right at the time, believing it was the right thing to do.  And I respect him for that, because his perceptions were different, although his war experience wounded him emotionally for life.  But he not only fought for America, he fought for the freedom of the Europeans in Northern Europe as well, and for the hope of freedom in the world... And yet we are still fighting!  Building walls instead of welcoming statues of liberty - because "we"/humanity (in general) lack the understanding of Who we all essentially are...

Namaste
_/\_

~

Photo -
via Stillness Speaks

Silence Beyond Mind - Maitreya Upanishad

When a wise man has withdrawn his mind from all things without,
and when his spirit has peacefully left all inner sensations,
let him rest in peace, free from the movement of will and desire...

For it has been said:
There is something beyond our mind,
which abides in silence within our mind.
It is the supreme mystery beyond thought.
Let one's mind and subtle spirit rest upon that
and nothing else.

....When the mind is silent,
beyond distraction,
then it can enter into a world
which is far beyond the mind...

Then one knows the joy of Eternity...
Words cannot describe the joy of the soul
who is one with the Atman, his own Self.

Only those who experience the joy know what that is...

As water becomes one with water,
fire with fire,
and air with air.
so the mind becomes one with the infinite Mind
and thus attains freedom.

Maitreya Upanishad

Via - The Beauty We Love

The Invisible Flame - Eric Baret & Mooji

The heart is yearning to be open.
When a heart meets an open heart,
when a match approaches a lighted match,
it rejoices in unity, in the flame;
there is no longer a match.
This is called transmission.
But nothing is transmitted.
No one transmits, no one receives.
There is heart-to-heart transmission.
There is only one heart...

Eric Baret

~

Don't take the behavior of the mind and body
to be a reading of your true Self.
Let everything happen,
but know and confirm inwardly,
you are watching everything from a very stable place...

There is a stillness there.
There is an untouched silence.
You must acknowledge this.
You must be like the Polar Star in the heavens.

Your heart is the Polar Star, the North Star.
Everything is revolving but it is still - unmoving.
You are the stillness,
the Silence inside which all is moving.
You only have to recognize and love that.
and nothing will trouble you.

Everything is the flow of time.
Everything is coming and going,
including even this body.
It is like a burning candle.
But there is an invisible flame inside
that never goes out.

Fix your attention inside the Formless
and leave the rest to God.
[However we know "God" to be]

Mooji

Om is the Sound Inside Silence - Fred LaMotte

Om is not just a chant. Om is the vibration of absolute Silence.
It is the paradox of trembling stillness, Silence rising and falling
in waves of itself.  Creation is born from the womb of a paradox -
Om.

Om is the unstruck sound whose resonant womb bears heaven
and earth, the galaxies, and all the space beyond the rim of time.

Physicists tell us that emptiness shimmers with "fluctuations of
the vacuum" - the virtual photons and electrons of light and energy
that burst forth as the physical universe, created from nothing.

Om is the sound of this fullness in the harmony of emptiness, the
mysterious Word that speaks the worlds out of Silence.  Om is
not human speech, but divine wonder.

...you can hear it.  Just be quiet and listen.  Om is the sound inside
the Silence.

When you truly listen, your mind does not make the noise of
thinking. Then you hear the thunder of quarks and neutrinos.
You hear the chorus of a trillion suns in a single proton.

...Drown in the oceanic waves of quietness.  There is no more
listener, only boundless Listening...

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Photo - Vortex Art
done with craypas oils
and fingers...

2012

Perfect Pulsing Silence...

This piece below was written during a "practice" I call
"window sitting"
when I sat at an open window late at night in silence,
experiencing the "Rhythm of Silence";
 just being aware, just noticing -
just listening to the "sound" of Silence,
experiencing the smells and the feel of Nature
out the open window -
writing in the dark of night, or sometimes in the moonlight,
at the window sill...

Perfect Pulsing Silence

Perfect pulsing Silence
Utter Stillness
Breath-giving Life.

This is what I come to the window for -
to sit in utter and complete Silence - the pulse of Life;
to smell, feel and sense Silence;
to feel its Aliveness,
to hear Its Song...

Sitting in the Silence of
not "knowing" puts one in a place of really listening,
with no agenda or expectation,
leaving the space open for Silence to speak,
to calm the mind and
sing Its song to the heart...

I listen deeply for the song of Silence...

A breeze touches my arm gently,
inviting me to be aware...

I gaze inward
to the Silence within,
that is mirrored
in the silence of the night.
It's all the same Silence...

The Rhythm of Silence begins ~

I sit back in the chair
listening to the pulsing Silence
within and without,
feeling Its familiar Rhythm,
feeling the dance of intimacy begin again...

Nothing disturbs IT

Nothing disturbs the depth of IT
Nothing prevents Its song
from being sung ~

In this intimate Silence I am reminded that
everything occurs within The Silence;
all life, all breath, all death, all movement
occurs within this vast space of Silent Awareness
that we are...

In the Silence of Awareness
I know everything is living according to ITs
natural order ~ is following ITs natural order,
including this life I call mine...
All life is being lived
by the hush of The Mystery...

All is the pulse of Silence ~
The pulse of Life ~

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
May 2011

Guru Cat says...

Peering over the computer screen, with serious piercing eyes,
Guru Cat said:

Slow Down...
Listen to your Inner Being...
Lighten your burdens...
Create the environment that you need
to be whole, to be fully Alive in your Being -
from the core of your Being...

This requires you to be in touch with
the "Untouched Silence" within - she said...

I listened...

Step off the treadmill of life...
Be intuitive...  Be creative...
Release the entanglements
that keep you bound to the treadmill
going nowhere...

Just Stop!
Rest!

Just Be!

Yes, Guru Cat, I said - sheepishly...

Re-align with your own Rhythm of Being...
Don't live up to anyone's expectations of who you are
supposed to be;
the roles they gave you to play,
the identities they projected onto you to wear,
just to please them...

Yes, Guru Cat, I said - feeling dejected...

Quit pushing so hard - she said stoically...
Retire your overactive mind with its
mental gyrations of thoughts and stories
*about* you;
your obligations, your duties,
and do what makes your Heart smile.
What makes your Heart smile?

I don't know, Guru Cat, I said - sadly...

Find out, before it's too late, Guru Cat said...

Yes, Guru Cat...  I knew she meant business...

Guru Cat sat - reading my troubled heart,
as if seeing right through me - and said:

The darkness, the fear, the stress, the weight,
*everything* that you carry will dissolve
when you're doing what your *Heart* wants to do.
Do you know what your Heart wants?

No, Guru Cat, I said - but I will know it when I
 *feel* it... right?

Guru Cat sat staring at me,
then said:

Love what you love - it's that simple.
Be what/who you are in your Heart.
Relax...  Breathe...
Open...

She lowered here eyes, turned away,
jumped down off the table
and disappeared.

Mystic Meandering

June 16, 2018

Silence is a Living Space - Therese Schroeder-Sheker

Silence is a Living Silence that is needed to hear the cry of the soul.
Abandon surface impressions and patterns, abandon what has become
comfortable, and embrace the sacred depth of being that asks us to
enter that which is wholly unknown and that which fosters genuine
metanoia [a transformative change of heart].  The Holy Silence
creates an inner clearing that makes room for new life, including
living, breathing Silence.  In this dimension
where time becomes space, life is enlivened.

Blocking the light of the soul results in a need to pre-package things,
ideas, emotions because they provide a semblance of light.  When
light of the soul is blocked, we develop a desire for things, not for
Silence.

[Through Silence] we can enter that which is wholly unknown with
a creative purity that is startling, because we are accompanied by
the companion-presence: Love.

Therese Schroeder-Sheker
From the introduction to:
Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness
by Robert Sardello

~

We need to re-orient our lives to be in constant resonance with
The Silence.  We have to rediscover lost realms, and at the same
time, clear away our deeply engrained desire to live by what
others have said, rather than discover inner truths for ourselves.

Robert Sardello
From: Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness

The Solace of Silence - Cheryl Sanders-Sardello

The enormity of life's tasks weigh and press on the day...
they demand and insist on a constancy of attention that is relentless.
But we are fortunate to have night's solace - in the silence that is
created by the dark.  Night... that melancholy time, when the stars
remind us of the Silence of God.  Here we can lean into the
unknown, setting aside the oppressive weight of our carefully
constructed version of who we think we are.  We can remember
how to see in the dark... with our ears... perceiving the Silence in
its holy echoing and resonance, its calling forth a knowing that is
from the soul.

The Silence sends us on a different pilgrimage.  It guards the heart's
fire and teaches us to speak from within with a language that is
imbued with the Sacred.  Words thus nurtured in the Holy Silence
fly forth to lead us back to the Silence from which they were born.

Cheryl Sanders-Sardello
From - Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness
by Robert Sardello

~

Several years ago I "practiced" what I called "window sitting."
I would sit in the window in the dark late at night when the "noise"
of the day had settled.  It was an incredible experience - just
listening to the silence of the night, leaning into the darkness, the
silence at the window, which drew me into the
deeper Silence of Being - the Sacred Silence within, as Cheryl describes.
I have gotten away from this "practice" of "listening" at the window
 to the Silence, but am rediscovering my way back...

~

What is necessary, after all, is only this; solitude, vast inner solitude.
To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours...

Rainer Maria Rilke

~

Photo - clouds, color inverted digitally

The Exquisite Ineffable...

Deeply, deeply return to the
Realm of the Exquisite Ineffable,
the Great Ocean of Primordial Silence
that pervades all life...

Quiet yourself into It and
recognize the pulse of Silence
reverberating through the body,
and the soul of your being.
Notice the subtle nuances of the
Ineffable's signature vibrations...

Feel a new aliveness rise up from the root of
manifest existence,
from the subtler realms of the Ineffable -
the unborn Living Silence...

Awareness heightens to this
Reality underlying all reality - all existence;
the deep Awareness of Being
where "Truth" is reborn within -
as a living, spacious, open-ended "knowing" -
that just "knows"...

Hold fast - be still - allow this "new" sense of Life
to give birth - to rise from The Deep
through your being, until the Ineffable
ItSelf becomes your Reality, your life,
your way of being in the world...

And so it is...

Mystic Meandering
June 11, 2018

Entropy...

The shadows have come to roost
and
everything

is
collapsing

~
~
~

~

The tides and ripples of entropy will continue
until all is returned to Source again ~

the Primordial State:
Pure Life Energy...

Entropy is not necessarily a "bad" thing.
It is the way of Existence.

It is a telescoping of everything that is,
back to its original Source/State;
a re-homing of all that has manifested in form,
the conceptual structures,
so that only
the Eternal Essence
remains...

Do not be alarmed by the seeming destruction
of what you have believed to be real.
The false must be released, shed - like dross.
In this there is a sense of chaos, destruction, loss, and death;
the crucible affect;
a state of alchemy,
the refinement of all things in existence
to its Original Nature.

Nothing is lost in the process.

All is coming Home.

The
Divine
Out-breath
Has
Been
Re-called.

Bring your awareness to the place of Stillness within.
Don't try to create order in the chaos.
But be still and let the chaos pass.
"Order" is found in the Stillness,
in returning to deep Stillness of Being.

The healing of mankind
is in the recognition of the
Truth of our Eternal Essence -
Infinite Beingness...

Entropy is the crucible of that healing.,,

Allow it...

The invitation
is to expand our view of reality
and return to the awareness of
our Eternal Being...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
written between
2004 and 2006

~

Photo - A pan of grease blobs
zoom blurred...  :)

I AM - Jeff Foster

[.....]

I take all forms, yet I cling to no particular form.

I do not say "I am form", I do not say, "I am not form."
I do not say "I exist." I do not say "I do not exist."
I do not call myself God, consciousness, awareness,
presence, spirit... or even Life.

I have no name for myself. I am anonymous.
Yet all names are my own.

Humans fight and kill and die over the names they gave me.

They form religions, dogmas, systems of thought.
They claim I am on their "side"
(I take no sides).
They say I belong to them
(I belong to nobody and everybody).

They try to figure me out.  They even claim to be me,
know me, channel me.
Some of them claim to have found The One Path that leads
to me.  They always have, they always will.

They do not know.  Their minds are too limited.

Yes 'mind' is one of my many ingenious appearances.

I appear as everything, yet when you stop and look for me,
you cannot find me.  I play in the cosmic hide and seek.  I
sometimes appear when you stop looking.

I am these words, and all the spaces in between them.  I am the
silence at the end of the sentences... and the expectation at their
beginning.  I am the black and white of it, and every shade of
grey, and every colour.  I am the understanding and the lack of
understanding. I am the similarity and the contrast.  I am the
separation and the unspeakable unity.

[.....]

I am male and I am female.  I am East and West.  I am inside and
outside.  I speak every language fluently.  I am all that is, all that
has been, and all that will ever be.  I am now, and never now.  I
cannot be reduced to anything.  Eternities pass in the space of a
breath.  Aeons are my lifeblood.

I am breathing you now.
I am the in-breath and the out-breath of you.  I am every sacred,
intimate breath.  I am every one of your thoughts arising and
dissolving in the vastness.  I am every feeling surging like a comet
through the universal body. 
I am sorrow, I am anger, I am fire, I am water.
I am always here, whether I am recognized or not.

I am nothing and everything, nobody and everybody.

[.....]

The story of "I" is always different, yes.  That's my creativity.
But "AM" is always the same.  AM. OM. 
That is my unchanging nature.

Do not seek me.  Do not look for me in time.  Do not be proud
that you have found me.  I am not your trophy.  I am not food
for your hungry ego.  Simply admit that I am already here.
Admit that I have always been here.
And live your life as a constant remembrance of me.  Devote
yourself to the joy of being...  Let your life be your love song.
Let your actions and words express me, bring me into form.

I am your deepest wisdom.  I was there at your birth.
Do you remember?

With love,

The Beloved

Jeff Foster
Excerpt from "I AM"

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One Underlying Undivided Reality - Brian Thompson

Life,
is sustained by life.

This,
is living.

We rely upon another.

There is no living,
outside of the continual process,
of our mutual interdependence;
which co-mingles with our pending
temporal dissolution.

Life is change.
Life is impermanence.

There is no being without non-being.
From nothing comes something,
and to nothing, all things shall return.

Life requires life,
for without this principle,
no-thing could possibly be.

Life is seen
only through its own reflection.

Our only experience
is that of ourselves.

There is only one life;
one consciousness, one awareness;
one spirit, one energy;
one source.

One life, being lived through infinite lives,
one life, being lived through infinite manifestations,
one life, as seen through infinite points of view.

One life,

appearing as an ever-flowing stream
of unique reflections.

Despite the infinite phenomena that appears to arise,
and no matter the myriad manifestations that seem to be,
there is only one underlying reality,
and it remains undivided,
empty of independent name or form,

pervading all that Is - and you are That.

One consciousness experiencing itself,
through all that it dreams into being.

Life is simply happening,
and you are That;
the essence in which
this present moment
is now happening.

Be not mistaken;
you are not subject to whatever happens,
for that is merely a conception of the mind,
a mental byproduct of the non-existent past.

What you are,
is the infinite field of awareness,
in which all happenings appear,
but you remain unaffected and free
from whatever form it assumes.

You are the theatre of consciousness,
in which all happenings appear;
remaining free from them all.

You are the knowing
that knows all that is known.

The eternal witness.

And this is the suchness
of our shared Universal Self;
an empty and limitless presence,
in which all of our human
conceptions, perceptions, and sensations
are imagined into being.

In truth,
no-thing can divide us,
regardless of the thoughts
that the mind tends to think
and project onto whatever we perceive.

We, the aware sentient,
are mutually interdependent
co-arising together,
as a single and harmonious whole.

One life.
One consciousness.
My breath is yours.

Brian Thompson

Zen Thinking

via - No Mind's Land

~

Sri Yantra artist - J.C. Quintin

When it is one-sided - Hermann Hesse

I have found a thought, Govinda, which you'll again regard
as a joke or foolishness...

It says: The opposite of every truth is just as true!

That's like this: any truth can only be expressed and put into
words when it is one-sided.  Everything is one-sided which can
be thought with thoughts and said with words, it's all one-sided,
all just one half, all lacks completeness, roundness, oneness.

When the exalted "Gotama" [Gautama] spoke in his teachings
of the world, he had to divide it into "Sansara" [Samsara] and
Nirvana, into deception and truth, into suffering, [and freedom
from suffering, into "enlightened"and "unenlightened"].  It cannot
 be done differently, there is no way for him who wants to teach.

But the world itself, what exists around us and inside of us,
is never one-sided.

A person or an act is never entirely "Sansara" [Samsara] or
entirely Nirvana, a person is never entirely holy or entirely
sinful.  It does really seem like this, because we are subject to
deception and the confines of time, which causes us to adhere
to one fixed belief and does not account for the fullness of truth.
Every entity carries in it the potential for its opposite and so the
world is considered complete.  And so we must love the world
in its completeness...

...love, oh Govinda, seems to me to be the most important thing
of all.

Hermann Hesse
From: Siddartha

via - The Beauty We Love

[brackets mine]

~

Photo - Yin-Yang Mandala

Being Authentic - Elizabeth Lesser

The irony of hiding the dark side of our humanness is that our
secret is not really a secret at all.  How can it be when we're all
safeguarding the very same story?  That's why Rumi calls it an
Open Secret.  It's almost a joke - a laughable admission that each
one of us has a shadow self - a bumbling, bad-tempered twin.
Big surprise!  Just like you, I can be a jerk sometimes.  I do unkind,
cowardly things, harbor unmerciful thoughts, and mope around
when I should be doing something constructive.  Just like you,
I wonder if life has meaning;  I worry and fret over things that I
can't control; and I often feel overcome with a longing for
something that I cannot even name.  For all of my strengths and
gifts, I am also a vulnerable and insecure person, in need of
connection and reassurance.  This is the secret I try to keep from
you, and you from me, and in doing so, we do each other a grave
disservice.

Rumi tells us that the moment we accept what troubles we've been
given, the door will open.  Sounds easy, sounds attractive, but it is
difficult, and most of us pound on the door to freedom and happiness
with every manipulative ploy save the one that actually works.  If
you're interested in the door to the heavens opening, start with the
door to your own secret self.  See what happens when you offer to
another a glimpse of who you really are.  Start slowly.  Without
getting dramatic, share the simple dignity of yourself in each moment -
your triumphs and your failures, your satisfaction and your sorrow.
Face your embarrassment at being human, and you'll uncover a deep
well of passion and compassion.  It's a great power, your Open Secret.
When you heart is undefended you make it safe for whomever you
meet to put down his/her burden of hiding, and then you both can
walk through the open door.

Elizabeth Lesser
from: Broken Open

~

...the person you think of as "yourself" exists only in you, and
even you don't really know who that is.  Every person you meet,
have a relationship with, or make eye contact on the street with,
creates a version of "you" in their heads.  You're not the same
person to your mom, your dad, your siblings, [that] you are to
your coworkers, your neighbors, or your friends.  There are a
thousand different versions of yourself out there, in people's minds.
A "you" exists in each version, and your "you", "yourself", isn't really
"someone" at all.

Commentary on a chapter in a book called
One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand
by Luigi Pirandello

Thirst Listens - Fred LaMotte & Rumi

At dawn, raindrops
in dogwood blossoms,
a thrush among alders,
the plaintive yelp of seals
from the rocks over still water,
almost as if they call
from deep inside
over the mythic sea
your ancestors crossed
to bring your bones
to this shore...

Now, for certain, you hear
the deepening silence
between all voices
born and unborn.
Drink of this.
A well makes no sound.
Yet you are beckoned
and approach
because your heart
is an empty pail,
and thirst listens.

Fred LaMotte
original title: "Hearing"

Uradiance

~

Yearn for more
...don't linger in any spiritual benefit
you have gained,
but yearn for more,
like one suffering from illness
whose thirst for water is
never quenched.

Rumi

~

I have been an [explorer] and still am.
But I stopped asking the books and the stars.
I started listening to the teachings of my own soul.

Rumi