Peace...

Come into Peace...

Even in the midst of chaos there is Peace...
Even in the midst of complexity there is Peace...

Even in the midst of confusion there is Peace...

In everything there is a Peaceful Silent Presence...

In life and death we are held deep within the
Great Heart of Silent Peace...

Mystic Meandering

~

Photo from Pinterest

 

May Your Heart Fly - Hafiz

The lily-perfumed wings of love
Will lay dust of all your grief.
Patience my heart, and struggle on.

For when love binds,
It binds you to the tyranny of a racing steed,
And when love scatters,
It flings the soul-like fragments of the stars
Out of the ambergris scented woods.

Love makes of each moment an eternity
And tends the garden of the heart's desire.
When love mocks, ruby tears fall heavy as pomegranates
And when love looks, it sees your deepest mystery.

Love seeks out the tears of hidden hearts
And turns not from the Lovers of the Dawn.
Is there a remedy for the pain of love?

Or is it too unbearable for thought?

One taste of the medicine
And you realize just how sick you have been.
Those who plead in the defense of love
In love's judgement shall find grace
And to the court, Hafiz
May your heart fly...

Hafiz

with thanks to Death Deconstructed

Photo from the internet

 

Grief as passageway of the Soul - Matt Licata

Grief is not something we "get over" by following pre-prescribed
stages, but a partner that we dance, play, honor, argue and weep
with as the cycles unfold.  It's appearance and the ways it longs
to be tended are unique for each psyche, heart, and nervous
system.

The timeline for this voyage is not knowable by the psychiatric
community, nor by insurance panels, or teachers of spirituality,
but is birthed in the heavens.  To rush, force, or pathologize
the experience of grief is to work against nature.

The grieving process [for all forms of loss] may not have an
endpoint or state of completion in which we come to some final
resolution, where we "finish" and land in some untouchable [more
spiritual] place, free from our embodied vulnerability, somatic
aliveness, and from falling apart and breaking open yet again.

While some may hold this fantasied end state as a goal which
comes about as we "master" [or "spiritualize"] life, the heart is
not interested in mastery.  But in entering the mystery in more
subtle and sensitive ways.

The heart itself is endless, and the visitors of grief may companion
us in their various forms for a lifetime.  Not come to harm, but
to reveal a portal into depth.  Shifting shapes, circulating, and
rotating, as they open and close passageways in the landscape of
the soul.

Grief is not so much a process that we "make it through", but a non-
linear unfolding, shepherd and emissary of the unknown.  It moves
not by way of straight line, but by that of circle and spiral.

Matt Licata

~

It is not an error
that you have been born
 a sensitive human being,
with a tender nervous system
and a heart that is sometimes
broken.

The tenderness there,
the shakiness, the grief...

not an error
to be remedied

or cured...

[or spiritually bypassed]

But a doorway to Essence,
a portal to Life.

Matt Licata

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

You have not danced so badly - Hafiz

art by Rassouli

You have not danced so badly my dear,
Trying to hold hands with the Beautiful One.

You have waltzed with great style,
My sweet...

[.....]

So what if the music has stopped for a while.

So what if the price of admission to the Divine

Is out of reach tonight.

So what, my dear
If you do not have the ante to gamble for Real Love.

The mind and body are famous
For holding the heart ransom,
But Hafiz knows the Beloved's eternal habits.

Have patience,
For He will not be able to resist your longing
For long.

You have not danced so badly, my dear,
Trying to kiss the Beautiful One.

You have actually waltzed with tremendous style,
O my sweet...

Hafiz
Persian Poet
1320-1389

~

Art: "The Dance"

Rassouli

a wonderful artist!

Holiness Is Still Here - Annie Dillard & The Dalai Lama

There is no less holiness at this time - as you read this - than there
was the day the Red Sea parted, or that day as Ezekiel was a captive
by the river Chebar, when the heavens opened and he saw visions of
God.  There is no whit less enlightenment under the tree by your street
than there was under the Buddha's "bo" tree.  There is no whit less
might in heaven or on earth than there was the day Jesus said
'Maid, arise' to the centurion's daughter, or the day Peter walked on
water, or the night Mohammed flew to heaven on a horse.  In any
instant the sacred may wipe you with its finger.  In any instant the bush
may flare, your feet may rise.  In any instant you may avail yourself
of the power to love your enemies; to accept failure, slander, or
the grief of loss...

Annie Dillard

For The Time Being

~

We can reject everything else: religion, ideology, all received
 wisdom. But we cannot escape the necessity of
 love and compassion...

This then, is my true religion...  In this sense, there is no need for
 temple or church, for mosque or synagogue, no need for
complicated philosophy, doctrine or dogma.  Our own heart,
our own mind, is the temple.  The doctrine is compassion.

Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter
 if we are learned or unlearned, whether we believe in Buddha or God,
 or follow some other religion or none at all, as long as
we have compassion for others, no matter who or what they are:
ultimately these are all we need.

Tenzin Gyatso - The 14th Dalai Lama

_/\_

~

Photo - from the internet

To be kind - Hermann Hesse & Maslow

To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping,
to smile without hostility at people and institutions,
to compensate for the shortage of love in the world
with more love in small, private matters; to show
greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge
attainable from mockery and criticism:
all these things we can do.

Hermann Hesse

~

Let people realize clearly that every time they threaten
someone or humiliate or unnecessarily hurt or dominate
or reject another human being, they become forces for
the creation of pathology, even if these be small forces.
Let them recognize that every person who is kind, helpful,
decent, affectionate, and warm, is a therapeutic force...

Abraham Maslow

~

Compassion is knowing that
you are part of everyone,
and everyone is part of you - is you.
When seeing this there is no longer judgment,
just a deeper understanding and respect
for our humanity -
a deepening of compassion.

Mystic Meandering
Meditative writings
c. 2004 - 2006

Travel Lighter - Rumi

Be foolishly in love,
because love is all there is.

There is no way into presence
except through a love exchange.

If someone asks, But what is love?
answer, Dissolving the will.

True freedom comes to those
who have escaped the questions
of free will and fate....

Love and lover live in eternity.
Other desires are substitutes...

How long do you lay embracing a corpse?
Love rather the soul, which cannot be held.

Anything born in Spring dies in the Fall,
but love is not seasonal.

With wine pressed from grapes,
expect a hangover.
But this love path has no expectations.

You are uneasy riding the body?
Dismount, Travel lighter.
Wings will be given.

Be clear like a mirror
reflecting nothing.

Be clean of pictures and the worry
that comes with images.

Gaze into what is not ashamed
or afraid of any truth.

Contain all human faces in your own
without any judgement of them.

Be pure emptiness.
What is inside that? you ask,
Silence is all I can say.

Lovers have some secrets
That they keep.

Rumi

excerpts from: No Expectations

~

Photo - Mandala Art
digitally altered

The Fathomless Pull - Papaji

There is a perpetual fathomless pull of Love into Love,
an undercurrent of Forever expanding Self into Self.
This is how I experience Love as the depth of Emptiness.
The more you go into this Fathomlessness
the more you will be pulled, attracted, dissolved into It.
...as you go deeper into it you will be more in Love
every moment.

This moment is pure Love
which is Absolutely Forever,
all is Love, everything is this Love,
there is no escape!

Love is the Self
and this is so complete
that it doesn't even need understanding.
There is nothing besides Love.

In the Heart there is no need for maps to get home.
Love, the Heart, this Moment, Is the Truth.
To see this Love everywhere see only from Love.
See from the Heart and you will see only the Heart.
This Love does not belong to a "me", or a "you."

Heart is Self...
Fathomless Love is where
Existence, Consciousness and Bliss
arise from.

Love is always Loving you...

You are this Love...

Be and radiate Love...

Simply Be

Papaji

From - The Truth Is

Repose - Fred LaMotte

...your body and mind
are only very small creatures swimming in the vast
un-created waters of your Self,
who was awake in its own radiance
before the worlds were made.

Indeed, your Self shines through your body.
Your Self shines through your mind.
Your Self shines through the Moon and Sun.
Your Self pervades the stars and the space beyond
the stars.

The body grows old and dies.
The mind dissolves each moment.
But the Self is a continuum that neither comes nor goes,
neither sleeps nor awakens,
changeless and eternal
to every being, more intimate than "I" to "Am."
The Self does not think, feel, or perceive,
but witnesses the thought, feelings and perceptions
that arise and subside in the depths of your stillness,
like clouds in the blue sky.
Motionless yet moving all creation,
silent yet inspiring all harmony,
the Self is beyond birth and death,
beyond happiness and sorrow,
beyond light and darkness.
The Self is pure bliss.
Therefore repose
in the infinitesimal bindhu
at the core of your heart
between the out-breath and in-breath.
There you will enter the dwelling
of the eternal Self
who outshines the universe.
In that space you have no enemy, no fear, no blame,
neither past nor future,
for in that space the earth is created afresh with each inhalation.
Whether you name the Self
Bodhichitta, Christ Consciousness, Shiva, or Guru
makes no difference at all.
What matters is just resting here
as you gaze into the eyes of The Beloved,
even when The Beloved takes the form of a stranger
or an enemy.

This gaze is the victory.
This gaze is the healing.
This gaze is peace.
And to see through the eyes of the heart
is to see your Self in every Thou.
Now, friend, it is time
to stop looking for that place
and start looking from that place.
Truly, the Self is pure bliss.

Fred LaMotte

Rest In The Great Heart...

Rest in the Great Heart ~ and wait...
Entrust yourself to
the Heart of the Great Mystery ~
The Ineffable Mystery ~
Existence...

Let yourself be held by the
rhythm of the Cosmos.
Let it
take you ~ carry you
in its Breath...

Float in the rhythmic
fluidity of its unspeakable Presence
beyond time and space...

Be still...

Allow the "answers" to be revealed
in their own time
by the movement of
Existence,
the movement of Life ItSelf ~ within you...

Trust...

All is held in place by
the Great, ever-lasting
Mystery of Existence
like stars suspended in space...

Rest...

Let go
into the Mystery
the Unknown...
Be absorbed in it ~ by it
Dissolve in it...

Experience the pulse
of the Great Heart
that never
ceases
to
BE

from which we arose...


Mystic Meandering
Dec. 2015

_/\_

A Humble Lover of The Mystery

Listening Within the Heart - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

...listening within the Heart attunes us to The Beloved.
By listening within the Heart we develop the ear of the Heart,
the inner listening of the soul that can perceive at this higher
frequency.  Still, such listening requires both attentiveness and
discrimination, as it is not always easy to discriminate between
the voice of the ego and the voice of The Beloved.  But there is
a distinct difference.  The words of the ego and mind belong to
duality; the words of the Heart carry the imprint of oneness
 [wholeness]. In the Heart there is no argument, no you and me,
 just an unfolding [attitude of] oneness [unity].  The Heart
embraces a difficulty, the ego takes sides...

Listening, waiting for Love's words, turns us away from our
own needs to being attentive to the higher need. [the need of the soul]
In our need we call to The Beloved, and then wait at the doorway
of the Heart, listening for an answer.  But gradually, imperceptibly,
this inner listening becomes more important than our own need.
Our questions become fewer, our inner attention grows.
The Beloved begins to nourish us [the soul's need] with the response...

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

from: Prayer of the Heart

[brackets mine]

Via: No Mind's Land

~

Photo - light through Venetian Blinds
taken by my husband...

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

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

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

Mark Nepo
(Jewish)

Also see "Honoring The Mystery"

~

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

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

Every moment is made glorious
by the light of Love.

Rumi
(Sufi Muslim)

~

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

Bhagavad Gita
Chapter 12 excerpt
(Hindu Scripture)

~

Photo - Buddha Heart

Listen for the Silence - Fred LaMotte

In the white noise
of many opinions
I long to hear the silence
creatures make
when they are listening.

There is no thought,
only the mysterious harmony
of trees and raindrops.

Invisible things appear.

The deer step gently
out of the mist.

When we listen,
the heart opens
fearlessly.

[.....]

Fred LaMotte

Uradiance

Interfaith Chaplain
Instructor of World Religions
Shaman

~

For those who celebrate the Solstice/Yule
may you hear the Silence of Life
singing in your Heart...

_/\_

Where We Began - Chuck Surface

Although we are often driven by sorrow,
To seek the end of sorrows,
It is the desire for Love,
and in the end, Love itself,
Which brings us to Freedom.

For when all Hope is lost,
And only Despair remains,
When all paths have failed,
And all efforts proven vain.

Then we sit alone, with nothing left.
Nothing, that is...
Except what moved us at the onset.
Our Own Shining Heart,
Our Own Inherent Love.

We wander for countless ages,
In the heartbreak of conditionality and causality,
Until, when grasping is exhausted,
We simply rest as the Love we Are.

Simply Here, where we began...

...always within...


Chuck Surface
In The Garden of the Beloved
Facebook

There Is Always An Open Doorway - Licata

Perhaps Life has no interest in us living up to some image.
It doesn't need or want us to be "perfect", or "divine",
 or "awakened", or "healed."  Or manifesting all the things
 we think we want...
It is only ever offering its invitation to fall heart-first
into an immense field of not-knowing - not knowing how to live,
not knowing how to accept, not knowing how to "get awakened",
not knowing how to "heal," and not knowing how to resolve
the ways of love...
And in this not-knowing,
life is there waiting for us,
 revealing its mysteries...

You are so exhausted, so tired of chasing around some fantasy
of a "spiritual" life that you were told was the right one
by some teacher, author, or expert who has figured it out
and come to some fundamental resolution to love
and its untamed creative wildness.

You are longing for rest.
To rest in your True Being.

In the very center of your heart,
there is always an open doorway.

It has nothing to do with wiggling into some conditioned
state of consciousness, other than the pure one that is here,
or with seeking some mythical sustained transcendent experience,
or with any sort of movement beyond the messy world of intimacy,
confusing unresolvable love, and human vulnerability.
It wants so badly for you to walk through, to meet for the first time,
this unbearable longing to go home,
to behold for the first time the
miracle of this precious human body,
of *these* thoughts,
of *these* feelings,
of *these* passing states of consciousness,
exactly as they have been given by an unseen grace.

For in just one moment of caring enough -
of somehow resisting the call to exit this experience for another -
what you see is that it is all made of love,
crafted out of the substance of love,
all the way through,
from inside-out and outside-in.
And no matter what the details,
love has somehow configured itself
as your unique life,
and has offered itself as a gift...
waiting for you to enter inside and hold it,
exactly as it is...

Matt Licata

(Matt's words, my format)

"Here" Is Your Heart - Papaji

"Enlightenment" is not about words
and thoughts and concepts
which can be doubted.
"Enlightenment" is always Here...

By "Here" I don't mean this present space.
Here is somewhere within where the mind cannot reach.
This here is not opposite of "there."
This here is nowhere, it is your Heart.
.....all comes back to the Heart.
All the cosmos is but a speck in your Heart.

Turn your mind over into this "Here"...
You have to take the last half-step
from Peace-Awareness-Bliss
and go deeper,
into the Mystery beyond...
Then - only Love remains...

Papaji
From: The Truth Is

Postcards From the Heart...

Remember the Essence of Love
from which you came,
and which you are.
This is your truth
and your substance…

~*~

Do not be afraid of where Love might take you
or how it will change you.
Allow the stream of Love to carry you,
to flow you through life with its
winding turns, over rapids, through eddies, and around obstacles.
Be at peace in the flow and fluidity of Love’s Presence.
Each day step into the channel of Love’s music.
The music of Life is Love…

~*~

The deep change you desire comes through/from
the confluence of Love within yourself.
Pay attention to its flow, its music, its message.
Look beyond the surface irritations,
the surface constrictions
that seem to
suffocate you.
That is only the surface.
Your True Life is hidden
deep within
the Heart

~*~

Be at peace…
Even in the midst of chaos there is Love.
Even in the midst of collapse there is Love.
Even in the midst of confusion there is Love.

The energy of Creation is Love...

Absorb the truth of this,
the wisdom of this.

In this is healing.

Love is your sanctuary.
You reside in the Great Heart of Love.

~*~

See life through the Innocence of Love -
through the eyes of the Heart,
despite the pains and frustrations,
wounds and traumas that are emerging
through the physical and emotional body -
and the collective body.
Embrace it all in Innocence.
Let your Innocence carry you to
the still Heart of Love.

This is the lesson:
To see Love in everything.
It is the Divine Truth of all things.

~*~

It is your destiny to be Love – to be a presence of Love.
The only “purpose” is to BE Love.

Let the ripples of luminescent Love
form and expand in your Heart
It is already there…

~*~

May your journey to be a journey of Love,
for all is Grace and Love…

~*~

Namaste
_/\_

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
2004-2006

Hold The Silence - Danna Faulds

Hold the silence like
a mother holds her child.

Focus on the still point
…until you are filled with light,

 until

Spirit speaks to you in
words you understand,

until

 the love in your
heart grows…

Excerpt From the poem: “Instructions”

From the book: Prayers to the Infinite
Danna Faulds
Copyright 2004
No website found

~*~

Technically I know “we” do not literally “hold” the Silence,
as it cannot be grasped…
It would be like trying to hold air...
We are, in essence, held in the Vastness of “Silence.”
But I liked Danna’s imagery and where she was taking the poem:
that, in essence, we are in tender relationship with The Silence
at the “still point” of our Being, and that to “hold” the Silence means, for me,
to bring my awareness to that Ineffable Silence.
And, by “holding” (being aware) of the Sacred Silence,
we are in essence deeply listening to that Silence,
until we hear what we need to hear, and
 experience an opening of the Heart.

My interpretation of course…

"Holi"-day Wishes...

Whatever your Holiday tradition is -

May the Mystery and Wonder

 of
Existence ItSelf…

fill
 you with
 Light
 Love,
and
new

Joys
of the Heart

~

Peace and Blessings to All…

Mystic Meandering