Welcome...

Come meander with me on the pathless path of the Heart
in these anecdotal,
sometimes inspiring, sometimes personal meanderings of the Heart's opening in the every-day-ness of life...

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Go Lightly - Aldous Huxley


It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

[…..]

…throw away your baggage and go forward.
There are quicksands all about you,
sucking at your feet,
trying to suck you down into fear
and self-pity
and despair.
That’s why
you must walk
lightly.

Lightly my darling, on tiptoes
and no luggage,
…completely unencumbered.


Aldous Huxley

from: Island




Saturday, September 26, 2015

The Way to the Woods - Wendell Berry & Ivan Granger



Sabbaths 1985, V

[…..]

“What is the way to the woods, how do you go there?
By climbing through the six days’ field,
kept in all the body’s years, the body’s
sorrow, weariness, and joy.
By passing through the narrow gate
on the far side of that field
where the pasture grass
of the body’s life
gives way
to
the high, original
standing of the trees.
By coming into the shadow,
the shadow of the grace of the strait
way’s ending, the shadow of the mercy
of light…

Why must the gate be narrow?
Because you cannot pass beyond it burdened.
To come in among these trees you must leave behind
the six days’ world,
all of it,
all of its plans
and hopes.

You must come without weapon or tool,
alone,
expecting nothing,
remembering nothing…”


Wendell Berry
Excerpt from: A Timbered Choir





Something so healing, so earthly — in the most sanctified sense — in this Sabbath meditation by Wendell Berry.

His phrases of the “six days’ world” and the “six day’s field” are references to how we see the world and interact with the world on all the other days of the week, the non-Sabbath days. In the “six days’ world” we work, we do, we accomplish, we acquire. Often it is a world of control and burdens, “plans and hopes.” It is a world of objects and tools to manipulate those objects. Too often it is a world of domination and separation.

An essential reason for the Sabbath is to remind us that that “six days’ world” is not the real world nor is it the whole world, it is only one way of interacting with the world. When we take a true day of rest, and enter a majestic space not made by men — like the ancient, silent woods — we remember that we participate in a larger life, eternal, eternally recycling itself. We are reminded that there is a wholeness to the world we live in, something we can’t segment and sell without harm to ourselves. The Sabbath, the woods, the wilds, these remind us of the sacred, whole, eternal spaces within the human spirit. In true rest and quiet awe, we return to ourselves.

Ivan Granger at Poetry Chaikhana


http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

The Rhythm of Sadness...

A deep rhythm of sadness
arises from within
this body-mind mechanism -
unexpectedly,
spontaneously,
inexplicably.

It rises even though
I “know”
that before thought and feeling
”I” am Eternal Beingness.

The rhythm of sadness
is not assuaged
with the knowledge
that “I am” That…

It will not be held back
by the sand bags of knowledge
from the caverns of the mind…

It matters not to
”The Eternal”
that sadness and grief
arise in the mechanism called
“me”,
like the tides of the ocean,
rising and falling
in a darkened harbor;
felt not seen…

It is all held in Its Awareness…

Knowledge of its existence
is of no consequence
to “The Eternal…”
It just is – sadness
rising and falling,
breathing
through
”me”

I follow the rhythm of sadness
as it rises through the gut
into the Heart
where it meets
The Rhythm
of
“The Eternal”
and
dissolves
~
~
~
into
rivulets
of energy;
decreasing in
intensity.

Only to rise again
another day, or
on the next tide…

Unbidden

Just a wave of living energy in
this body-mind…

~

Eternal Being
holds the rhythm of sadness
within
The Greater Rhythm of ItSelf…
as
“i” ride the waves…


Mystic Meandering
Sept. 20, 2015



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: The same thing is true for all “feelings”, all “states”,
even happiness and joy.  They all rise and fall, come and go
with the tides of life.  One is not immune to the “darker” feelings
or emotions just because one realizes their True Beingness…
There are always habituated patterns – i.e: “rhythms” – that arise
in the body-mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Saturday, September 19, 2015

Surrender...

Quiet Solitude
invites me to listen,
to soften the heart
and rest the mind…

Breathing deepens and slows.
This “wave”, this “me”
folds back into the Ocean of Being
in the Quiet Solitude,
finding the Inner Rhythm
in the depths of Silence…

Pulled
 in
 by
 simple
 silence
 and
 solitude
.
.
.

In the deep internal Stillness
everything is allowed to be…
Every thought, every feeling
 can arise,
can emerge;
embraced
without judgment,
held in the starry womb
of still Awareness,
rocked in the cradle
of the Great Mystery ~

Just Surrender…



Mystic Meandering
Sept. 2015



Thursday, September 17, 2015

The "Greater Being" - D.H.Lawrence, Mooji & Papaji

“Be at peace, in peace.
All that matters is to be at one with the living God,
to be a creature in the house of the God of Life.
Like a cat asleep on a chair
at peace, in peace
and at one with the master of the house,
with the mistress, at home,
 at home in the house of the living,
sleeping on the hearth,
and yawning before the fire.

Sleeping on the hearth of the living world
yawning at home before the fire of Life
feeling the presence of the living God
like a great reassurance
a deep calm in the heart;
a presence
as of a master sitting at the board
in his own and Greater Being,
in the house of Life…”

D.H. Lawrence


 ~

Photo: Our Beloved “Yoda”
1990 - 2009


~



Our real nature is a formless field of inner Silence and harmony,
the synchronicity of “I” with Universal Consciousness.
Recognize the natural Silence of your own Self…
the natural perfume of Being…

This Pure Harmony is the language and vibration of Holiness.
It is synchronicity with God.


A nice place to visit for more Mooji :)
 
White Fire


 ~



Rest in peace…
You are the unchangeable Awareness in which
 all activity takes place.
Always rest in peace.

You are eternal Being, unbounded and undivided.
Just keep Quiet.  All is well.

You are Happiness, you are Peace, you are Freedom.

Open to your Heart
and simply Be…

Papaji

Excerpts From: The Truth IS




Saturday, September 12, 2015

Take Refuge in Silence - Kalidas and Kopp


All sound arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
All thought arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
The universe arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
Suffering arises out of Silence
     and dissolves into Silence.
The unbounded spaciousness of Silence,
     filled with the clear light of Awareness,
     dissolves the roots of pain and sorrow.
Take refuge in Silence and know
     unshakable joy.


Kalidas Western Hindu Yogi





Awareness of the Divine Essence as our innermost
true Self requires silence.
It is turning toward what lies hidden within -
to the internal – the all embracing totality of
Divine Being.
It is the way of meditation,
the way of inner silence before Spirit…

Remaining quiet before Spirit is a prayer of silence,
through which we listen to that which secretly speaks to us
in the inner room of the heart.

What is hidden deep in our innermost being lies
in silence and stillness,
and in the silence of the deep
springs the eternal,
inexhaustible,
original
source
of
all
being.

Where words fall silent,
the everlasting
begins…


Wolfgang Kopp – Western Zen Master


~

Top Photo: Snow on screen
Bottom Photo: Rainbow Lights on wall


Wednesday, September 9, 2015

The Rhythm In Stillness....


Utter Stillness
within and without
claims me as Its own…

Sweet repose is this Stillness…
beyond mental chatter,
beyond endless thinking,
beyond the chaos of the world…

Utter Stillness does not anticipate…
does not seek – “answers.”
It just IS…
awareing
seeing
knowing
being
only
what It Is…

Stillness….

To *reside* in the Utter Stillness of Being
is pure Bliss,
pure Peace,
pure Awareness,
pure Knowing;
the purest of movements arise,
in the pureness of Inner Stillness…


From the Spaciousness of Utter Stillness
life is just experienced…

no conclusions
no interpretations
no judgments
no reaction
no labels

Just Life being lived…

in/as the

Utter Stillness of Eternal Being
that we are…


Sweet Rhythm...



Mystic Meandering
Sept. 2015




Sunday, September 6, 2015

Inner Rhythms...

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything other than prose poetry.  But I’ve been thinking about “Inner Rhythms” lately; the Inner Rhythm of Being, and how that wants to move in and through me – and wanted to write about it.  I receive an on-line “newsletter” from a Nature Artist in northern Vermont by the name of Rod MacIver who has spent a lot of time alone in nature, getting in touch with his own life rhythm.  He reflects:

”A balanced life is based on its own rhythm.  If you don’t set your own rhythm, and have the discipline to follow it, your life will move at the speed of the culture around [you], which moves too fast.  The space we make for quiet time affects our thought patterns and, in turn, the quality of our lives.”  And, he asks: “To what extent is the rhythm of your life a result of…..adapting…..to the flow that surrounds [you].  Or I would even say, to the people around you. Have we entrained to the people around us – living their rhythm?  I  know I have…

I felt a resonance with his words, knowing that I needed to find that sense of the larger Inner Rhythm again, not just my own personal daily rhythm with life, but the Flow with the Inner Being, commonly called the Tao, the undercurrent flow of Life within – from which all movement arises.

The only way I know to do this is to turn within to The Silence where The Rhythm of the Inner Being is felt – the Rhythm of Silence ItSelf.  Being in The Sacred Silence is what brings me joy, and a felt sense of Presence.  Finding that Inner Rhythm, The Silence of Being, is “Divine Communion.”  This, for me, is the True Rhythm, the Rhythm of Pure Being ItSelf – the deep undercurrent of Life that animates all life – which is The Silence.  This is what calls to me – over and over again.

But the hypnosis of the world keeps me/us magnetized to the ways of the world and pulls me/us out of this deeper way of living and knowing.  We are conditioned to be drawn to the external drama of the world, to chew on it, teethe on it…  It’s the pablum of the matrix we live in.  But no one trains us to turn within to the Quiet Inner Presence of Silence.  And so we follow the rhythm of the world (the civilized, political, chaotic world), with its hypnosis of separation from our Inner Being, instead of turning  inward to the Awareness of the Inner Rhythm; to that interior space of The Rhythm of the “Great Mystery” that pulsates Its Aliveness within us, and does not depend on a name, label, or identity – or the world’s rhythms…   

I’m curious, before your innocent Heart was hypnotized by the rhythms of the world, what did you want deep in your Heart, not what you wanted to be when you grew up, but what did you really long for?  What called to you? Do you remember?  Do you know now?



Photo: Bliss Lotus Mandala
2013



Thursday, September 3, 2015

Outside The Walls - Chuck Surface


Mystical Experience, Divine Communion,
Is not confined to the many villages of religion,
Or to philosophical systems, however profound,
However revered their expounders.

For there are those who Wander,
Outside the walls of scripture and stricture,
In the Wilderness of Not Knowing,
Whose Hearts are, none the less…

Illumined with Grace.

Far from the village,
Road vanished into path,
Path vanished into hillside,
Hillside vanished into Vastness…

The Known vanished into Wonder.

For these Wilderness Wanderers,
There are no descriptions of reality,
No systems of belief or faith,
And the name of God is…

”Great Mystery”

And yet, like a Wellspring, their Hearts overflow,
Whenever they find, wherever they find,
In sources so-called “sacred” or “profane”,
That which invokes Within…

The Presence of The Beloved.

Neither a She, nor a He,
Nor a concept of belief of faith,
Or in any way “Known” in word or image,
But Known, palpably, viscerally…

In the Heart’s Direct Experience of Grace.

Here… within the Manifest Being,
Wherein Shines the Garden of The Beloved,
As the Ineffable, Intoxicating Sublimity,
The Inexpressible Ecstasy of…

The Great Mystery.



Chuck Surface

 ~





Photo provided by Chuck Surface



Thursday, August 27, 2015

Luminous Repose...

The body’s frailties
slow me down
and draw me closer to
 The Beloved…

I feel Her sweet breath drawing me in
to Her abode of repose…
The body and spirit nurtured
by the cocoon of
 Her Silence

I feel Her Heart Rhythm,
the Quietness of the pulsations
rhythmically lulling me into deeper rest…

I breathe the breath of Her Pure Essence

~ Silent Love ~

The Elixir of Life

poured from within
like warm golden honey
gliding through every fiber,
cell and atom;
in-lightened
with Life
from
w/in

Her undulating Rhythm
awakens the body,

in surges of...
wonderment,

calling it to
the
Dance


One cannot *stop* this dance
One can only resist or Flow


Surrendering,
my body entrains with
The Divine Rhythm,
the Flow of Liquid Light…

In this Mysterious Divine Dance,
glowing, vibrating energies circulate
through the body in
waves ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 spiraling through
the portal of
Her Heart


Sweet Luminous Repose



Mystic Meandering
Aug. 18, 2015


Photo: Mandala Art
2013

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Please Note: I use the word “Her” referring to “The Beloved”
because the “energy” has always felt more “feminine” to me.
But it really is the Primordial Cosmic Energy which flows through
all of us, with no specific gender.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Sunday, August 23, 2015

Ultimate Reality - Robert Adams


The highest teaching in the world is Silence.
There is nothing higher than this.
A devotee who sits with a sage purifies his mind
just by being with the sage.
No words exchanged, no words said.
Silence is the Ultimate Reality.
Everything exists in this world through Silence.
True silence really means going deep within yourself
to that place where nothing is happening,
where you transcend time and space.
You go into a brand new dimension of nothingness.
That is where all the power is.
That's your real home.
That's where you really belong where there is no good and bad,
no one trying to achieve anything.
Just being - pure being.
The only freedom you will ever have
is when you go deep into the Silence...











Tuesday, August 18, 2015

The Great Silence - Robert Sardello


We have a strong tendency to imagine Silence as
the absence of sound.
This imagination deprives Silence of being anything in itself
and makes it an emptiness, a void…
But Silence was here before anything else.
It is the most primary phenomenon of existence,
both palpably something and seemingly nothing.

Silence is prior to sound, not the cessation of sound.
It is already present.
If we drop into quietness for just a moment,
We *feel* the presence of Silence as in invitation.
We are being invited into a new way of being.

Silence is not merely the void from which things spring up;
it is a living presence…
As we enter the mystery of Silence, its presence resonates
throughout the fibers of our flesh,

 while extending beyond the flesh…
The inward silence of solitude meets with the
Great Silence of Cosmic Wisdom…

Silence bears the wholeness we keep looking for.
It is around us and within us.
It goes to the deepest depths of the soul
and to the outermost reaches of the cosmos
uniting in our heart.

The experience comes with astonishing intimacy
and feels like the finding of a long lost beloved.
It requires going to the edge of selflessness
and we discover that we are part of the depth of
everything around us.

Separation between ourselves and the world is illusion.

We, along with everything else, are within Silence.
This realm of Silence is pregnant with the ever-living Mystery.
It is the deepest feeling of communing,
 [of being] touched by the ineffable,
that keeps us intimately bound with the truth of our core being,
the very essence of our being;

 an interiority that has been waiting for us.
~
Silence has a rhythm all its own.
The currents of Silence weave polarities and opposites
 and contradictions together.
Within Silence everything resonates in true intimacy and mystery.

When we perceive *through* the depths of Silence
we discover the invisible body of the world in which everything is
 nurtured into existence at every moment.
We discover ourselves as participants in the Great Silence.
We are not detached observers of an independent phenomenon,
for we exist within the Silence we are observing.
The world of subjective experience and outer presence dissolve into one field.

When we incline toward Silence
a resonance is set up within our heart,
prompting an inclination of our heart to
enter deeper into the realm of Silence…

In the interior space of the etheric heart
we feel the currents of Silence as an endless
intimate infinity that we are within.
We are held within a tender, loving, invisible presence…
A vivid Presence of Silence…




Please Note: I have taken excerpts and lines from
various pages 
of the book: Silence: The Mystery
of Wholeness
by Robert Sardello 
and put them
together creating this prose poem with the publisher’s
and author’s permission.  For me his words here capture
the Essence of Silence and my experience of the
Great Silence as well…


Copyright - Publisher’s Credit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpts from Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness by Robert
Sardello, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright
© 2006, 2008 by Robert Sardello. Reprinted by permission of
publisher. Reposting or reprinting of material strictly forbidden
except by express permission of publisher.

Note:
Permission was granted me by the publisher for this
material to be presented in this format for this blog post.
If you wish to repost it you must contact the publisher at:
permissions@northatlanticbooks.com.
Please honor the publisher’s/author’s copyright.
Thank you…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Thursday, August 13, 2015

Just Breathe...

Late at night,
at the edge of sleep,
I fall into the Rhythm of The Breath…

Content to just breathe ~

The silence outside the window
is pungent,
leaving me rapt,
sinking more deeply
into timelessness beyond time,
letting go of thought,
just awareing the stillness
of the night;
being breathed by
 The Silence of the Unknown…

I hear the sound of the ceiling fan
breathing its own whirling rhythm…
feeling the breeze of its breath
gently move the strands of my hair…

Just breathing ~

And "I" am suddenly gone…
unaware of my – self ~
slipping off the edge
into slumber;
lost in the Breath
until
just
before
the
rising
of
the
next
day

Again finding my-self
at the space at the edge,
before awakening ~
aware of…

Just Breathing ~

Aware of just Being…

Conscious of the Stillness
before thought...

Just breathing ~


Mystic Meandering
July 15, 2015



Photo: My husband found this on Facebook :)



Monday, August 10, 2015

Come to the Window...


Come to the window tonight…

Become Friends with the Night
 and The Silence…
Let The Silence strengthen you.
Surrender the day into
the night;
into The Silence…
and
Find the Treasure of Silence
that lifts the veil…

Hear the OM of Silence
that pervades all sound.
Fathom the depth of OM
as it reverberates *through*
the Silence;
the pulse of the Universe;
the Rhythm of Life
sung ~ in silence – by The Silence

Drop into The Silence and rest…
The mind lets go
rocked by The Rhythm
of Silence
that cradles
its weariness…

Love begins to soften the eyes,
the brow, the tension;
Love of The Silence;
the Love that inhabits The Silence.

The day dissolves,
fixations loosen,
thoughts become insignificant.
There is only the Aliveness of the Night,
enfolded in Silence…

Everything is magical
when seen from the window
of Silence…


Mystic Meandering
August 10, 2015


~



Photo: a blue glass partly filled with water – back-lit.
Gives the illusion of a window
looking out on city lights – and -
there’s a reflection of a “person” (eyes)
looking through the window!
It’s magic!




Saturday, August 1, 2015

Seeing God's Eyes...

There is a wonderful Black woman at the Super Market where I shop.  We have chemistry.  I am drawn to her for some inexplicable reason.  Her black pool-like eyes shine and dance with aliveness and love from behind her personality.  She can be a bit of a pistol and cracks me up with her dry sense of humor.  I just love going through her line, and don’t mind waiting, so I can see those big beautiful loving eyes. I know she is a religious woman as she often mentions God. I expect an “Alleluia” out of her mouth at any time.  I do not share her religion or beliefs, but there is something in those eyes that I see whether one calls it God, The Divine, The Universe, Emptiness, Consciousness, Presence, Beingness, Allah, Brahman - or maybe just - Love…  She is not a guru, spiritual teacher, or anyone on a special “spiritual path” – just an ordinary woman who is a cashier at the market.

The other day she spotted me in her line, we gave one another a wide-eyed grin and a wave.  She finished with the person ahead of me, then pushed my carriage aside and gave me the biggest hug.  Imagine that, right there in the grocery store – as if we had been best friends forever!  A big Heart Hug.  After we embraced, while still holding onto each other, I looked into her big beautiful eyes and said “You have God’s Eyes. I can see it.”  We both almost started to cry.  Me - because I recognized something in her looking back at me.  I was looking into her True Being, seeing the reflection of True Beingness (“God”?) in her deep Being, beyond personality… Isn’t that really what we all want in an other, to see the reflection of our deepest Being, our Truest Self…

Afterwards there were few words, only silence between us; not her usual chatter and bantering humor…  She hardly said a word as she checked me out.  I worried that I had made her uncomfortable; that it was too awkward for her for me to tell her that I saw God in her eyes.  I could have said, I see love in your eyes, or you have loving eyes, but what rolled out of my mouth was “You have God’s eyes.” (like I know what that is!?)  At one point she just looked up at me and said: “I am so Loved.”  And I responded – “Yes you are.”  And we both smiled…  Isn’t that what we want the most – to know that we are truly Loved…

It doesn’t matter what one’s “religion” is.  It’s all about opening to Love.  Love shines through it all, whatever “God” one believes in, or does not believe in, or however we call that “God” - as it’s all the same “God” - the same Love shining through the Inner Being...  Who can claim “God” as their own?  Who can take a stance that “God” is only on their side?  For who is “God” anyway?  A persona that we have created?  A cosmic energy?  The Great Mystery…?  Clearly I don’t know with certainty, as my beliefs *about* “God” have changed over the years.  I only know what my experience is – and I saw “God’s” loving eyes looking back at me through the eyes of an ordinary woman at the check-out counter…

As Lydia said - “I am so loved.” 

Alleluia, Lydia, Alleluia… 

And thank you for your loving eyes…




Photo: Eye of God Mandala
Mystic Meandering
2013