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

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"