The Greater Need - D. H. Lawrence

The rhythm of the cosmos is something we cannot get
away from without impoverishing our lives.  We must get
back into relation, vivid and nourishing relation to the cosmos
and universe.
For the truth is, we perish for lack of fulfillment of our greater
needs, we are cut off from the great source of our inward
nourishment and renewal, sources which flow eternally
in the universe...

D. H. Lawrence

~

Life involves both chaos and order and we sometimes
want desperately to control things, and we become
vulnerable to simplistic answers.

What is needed is courage to live in the midst of the
ambiguities of this moment...

Swimme and Tucker

~

Photo taken by my husband

 

Ride the Light Rhythm ~ ~ ~

Ride The Rhythm ~

The deeper Rhythm within you
that arises like warm liquid light
from the deepest part of your being.
Let it soothe you like a lullaby...

Put all your burdens of the heart to rest now
in The Rhythm: the heaviness of sorrow, the fear
of loss, the angst, the edginess,
and the grief...

Feel them integrate with The Rhythm.
Feel the fluidity that arises in the body ~

loosening the constraints of form...

Breathe with The Rhythm ~

as you are breathed by The Rhythm...

No intention, no agenda, no expectation ~

just listening to the whispers of The Rhythm
in total immersion in The Rhythm...

Ride the Rhythm ~ ~ ~

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 8, 2021

This is the gift of The Silence...
We listen, we hear, we Ride ~ ~ ~

_/\_

 

Inner Life - John O'Donohue

The visible world is only the shoreline of the magnificent
ocean of the invisible.  The invisible is not empty, but is
textured and tense with presences [energies].  These
presences cannot be named; they can only be sensed, not seen.

When you name a dimension of your experience, one of your
qualities or difficulties...you give it an identity.  It then responds
to you according to the tone of its name... 

The wildness of the invisible world is nameless.  It has no name.
A first step towards reawakening respect for your inner life
may be to become aware of the private collage of dead names
you have for your inner life.  Often the experiences of
wilderness can return us to the nameless wildness within.  
Sometimes, go away to a wild place of your own. Leave
your name and the grid of intentions and projects and images
which mark you out as citizen Z.  Leave it all and let yourself
just slip back into the rhythms of your intimate wildness.[rhythm]
You will be surprised at the lost terrains, wells, and mountains
that you will rediscover,  territories which have been buried
under well-meant but dead names.  To go beyond confinement
is to rediscover yourself.

John O'Donohue
from Eternal Echoes

~

Photo taken by my brother
Plum Cove Gloucester MA

 

The Rhythm behind the rhythm...

I've heard a deeper rhythm...
Composed of cello, viola and oboe, I think.
I heard it when I was in the kitchen
cooking dinner one night,
a few years ago,
and every other night after that,
for several weeks,
until it stopped...
when the noise of my life
became too loud - again,
and the weight of my weary heart
drowned it out...

There was no music playing on the stereo,
just the sound of the meal cooking,
and the sounds of daily living
outside the window:
children playing,
dogs barking,
lawn mowers,
power saws,
and birds -
chirping...

Underneath it all was a Rhythm
so melodious I could even hum it;
forgotten now...

I just listened, and hummed, with wonder...
Where was this coming from -
this music -
this slow, deep melodic rhythm,
drawing me into itself...

I didn't even have to try to listen,
it was just there

soft - in the distance,
barely audible,
as if in another room,
through another door,
maybe even in another realm;
a cosmic rhythm...

I knew then, somehow, that my own life rhythm
was hidden in this deeper Rhythm...

But I no longer hear it now;
drowned out by the 
noise of living
other people's 
rhythms -
and the endless
rhythms
of daily
existence.

But I know it is there -
playing somewhere.
I listen for it -
this deeper Rhythm,
that underlies
all other rhythms...

The Rhythm behind the rhythm...

Mystic Meandering
Nov, 5, 2015

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Divine Wind...

This body, the vehicle I inhabit,
needs deep rest...

Relief - from the constant stimulation of life and living -
and the unbalance that it brings...
Shutting out the "worldwind" that spins
 out of control around me;
Not obliged to enter its chaotic storms,
I turn to the rhythmic pace of the Soul...
The Holy Space...

Even my Soul needs quiet "shelter"...
Respite - from the endless sucking winds of the demands of
others who are lost in an addiction to themselves...
Empty shells wanting to be filled;
grasping at me, drowning in their dark, distorted shadow,
as they try to pull me under to save them from themselves -

like hungry ghosts...

And my Heart needs to feel the Stillness
at the Core of my Being - again;
to hear the comforting sound of the Divine Wind,
restoring me to
sanity and wellness of being;
whispering Life into my Heart,
as I surrender
to its soft, silent Breeze...

Mystic Meandering
January 12, 2022

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Inner Life - John O'Donohue

The visible world is only the shoreline of the magnificent
ocean of the invisible.  The invisible is not empty, but is
textured and tense with presences [energies].  These
presences cannot be named; they can only be sensed,
not seen.

When you name a dimension of your experience, one of
your qualities or difficulties... you give it an identity.  It
then responds to you according to the tone of its name...

The wildness of the invisible world is nameless.  It has no
name.  A first step towards reawakening respect for your
inner life may be to become aware of the private collage
of dead names you have for your inner life.  Often the
experiences of wilderness can return us to the nameless
wildness within.  Sometimes, go away to a wild place
on your own.  Leave your name and the grid of intentions
and projects and images which mark you out as citizen Z.
Leave it all and let yourself just slip back into the rhythms
of your intimate wildness.  You will be surprised at the
lost terrains, wells, and mountains that you will rediscover,
territories which have been buried under will-meant
but dead names.  To go beyond confinement is to
rediscover yourself.

John O'Donohue
from: Eternal Echoes

~

Photo - taken in Gloucester MA
 by my brother

Cosmic Breathing...

Photo - Johannes Plenio at Unsplash

Sitting in the Silence of the Inner Landscape,

I suddenly realize the Cosmic Breath of Infinity
is slowly breathing this body -
breathing in... breathing out...

Held in the pause between breaths -
I recognize that "I" am being breathed
by an unheard Rhythm...

From the Inner Window,
at the edge of Infinity
I see beyond this world,
into the formless void,
beyond moon and stars,
into the Infinite Cosmic Ocean
that holds it all...

Aware of what is aware within:
Life - breathing ITSelf...

Every Breath is the Primordial Breath
rippling through space...

Hush
Be Silent
Listen

Entrain with the Cosmic Rhythm
that is breathing you...

Slow down and breathe
the Infinite Breath -
that whispers...

All will be infinitely well...

Mystic Meandering
April 12, 2020

~

Photo - Johannes Plenio at Unsplash

Lay Low - John O'Donohue

This is the time to be slow.
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain [low to the wall]
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning...

John O'Donohue
From: To Bless the Space Between Us

~

Art - Barbara Stone

"A Glimpse of the Larger Story"

Holy Rhythm - Stephen Jenkinson

People in our culture play the polyrhythms of their life,
but don't play or tell the Rhythm inside those rhythms.
They know it - but they don't play it, and they don't
tell it; that is the work of "the Gods", they say, to play
that simpler, steadier Rhythm...  That Holy Rhythm that
 is the signature of life itself.

As you get into the sway of that Rhythm, you realize
you've been playing everything around the Rhythm,
everything but the Rhythm itself, trying all the
possibilities you found until all that's left is to be
told and played by the simple, ragged syncopation of
your days.

That's when the Rhythm finally is able to have its way
with you.  It's like answering at last somebody who's
been calling your name for years.  You play the rhythms
and you learn the Rhythm, and you move accordingly...

Stephen Jenkinson
from: Die Wise

~

Vortex Art - Mystic Meandering
2012

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

_/\_

For A New Beginning - John O'Donohue

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

John O'Donohue

From: To Bless the Space Between Us

Seasons of the Soul - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

For our ancestors the rhythms of the seasons were their calendar,
the rising and setting of the sun their only clock.  Today our clocks
 seem to spin much faster and it is easy to ignore, or even forget
these more primal seasons and their meaning.  And yet as our world
appears to spin more and more out of balance.....there is a pressing
need to return to a deeper rhythm, to the cycles that belong to
healing and transformation, and the seasons of the soul. 
Returning we may find a balance resurfacing from deep within,
a balance that reconnects and restores us...

If we are to participate creatively in these toxic times, to bring
rain to a land where the inner and outer wells have run dry,
first we need to be present "in another country where things are
in order."  And this "other country"can be found in the space
between the in-breath and the out-breath, where the soul is present. 
But first we need to reconnect, to return to this place of balance. 
And the simplest way is through stillness and silence.

Silence draws us inward, away from the clutter and the distractions
of our outer life, to the deeper roots of our being.  Here our soul
nourishes us, here we can be replenished, and here we can help
replenish our world.....  In the silence we can drink deeply of the
waters of life that are still pure, we can commune with the primal
forces of nature, we can return to what is sacred and essential to our
life and to the life of the Earth.

Here in this "other country" the air is not toxic, and the miasma of
today's world in this post-truth era is not blurring our vision.  The
laughter of children still rings true.  Stillness is here, and the seasons
are in balance.  Every in-breath and out-breath is sacred.  The breath,
the soul, the Earth and its seasons, are linked together, nourished by
each other.  It is time to heal.....

LLewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic
2017

Excerpt from an article published by Garrison Institute

Happy Spring Everyone!
Or Fall, as the case may be :)

~

...your breath is a bridge between you.....and the universe.

The breath is also a bridge between you, and space and time.
Breath touches the body and the universe,
 it touches you and that which transcends the universe.

Osho
The Book of Secrets

The Rhythm behind the rhythm...

I've heard a deeper rhythm...
Composed of cello, viola and oboe, I think.
I heard it when I was in the kitchen
cooking dinner one night,
a few years ago,
and every other night after that,
for several weeks,
until it stopped...

when the noise of my life
became too loud - again,
and the weight of a weary heart
drowned it out...

There was no music playing on the stereo,
just the sound of the meal cooking,
and the sounds of daily living
outside the window:

children playing,
dogs barking,
lawn mowers,
power saws,
and birds -
chirping...

Underneath it all was a Rhythm
so melodious I could even hum it.
I just listened, and hummed, with wonder...
Where was this coming from -
this music -
this slow, deep, melodic rhythm,
drawing me into itself...

I didn't even have to try to listen,
it was just there
soft - in the distance,
barely audible,
as if in another room,
through another door,
maybe even in another realm;
a cosmic rhythm...

I knew then, somehow, that my own life rhythm
was hidden in this deeper Rhythm...
But I no longer hear it now;
drowned out by the
noise of living
other people's
rhythms -
and
the endless
rhythms
of daily
existence.

But I know it is there -
playing somewhere.
And I listen for it -
this deeper Rhythm,
that underlies
all other rhythms...

The Rhythm behind the rhythm...

Love mysteriously playing its song...

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 5, 2015

~

Photo - the inside of a sea shell

digitally altered

For A New Beginning - John O'Donohue

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
where your thoughts never think to wander,
this beginning has been quietly forming,
waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
feeling the emptiness inside you,
noticing how you willed yourself on,
still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
and the gray promise that sameness whispered,
heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
and out you stepped onto new ground,
your eyes young again with energy and dream,
a path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear,
you can trust the promise of this opening;
unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
that is at one with your life's desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
for your soul senses the world that awaits you.

John O'Donohue
"For A New Beginning"

~

Photo - Portal Cloud

The Second Music - Annie Lighthart

Now I understand that there are two melodies playing,

one below the other, one easier to hear, the other

lower, steady, perhaps more faithful for being less heard

yet always present.

When alll other things seem lively and real

this one fades.  Yet the notes of it

touch as gently as fingertips, as the sound

of the names laid over each child at birth.

I want to stay in that music without striving or cover.

If the truth of our lives is what it is playing,

the telling is so soft

that this mortal time, this irrevocable change,

becomes beautiful.  I stop and stop again

to hear the second music.

I hear the children in the yard, a train, then birds.

All this is in it and will be gone.

I set my ear to it as I would

to a heart.

Annie Lighthart

~*~

Also see my post A Deeper Rhythm

~*~

Photo - The inside of a seashell 

A Deeper Rhythm...

I’ve been hearing a deeper rhythm lately…
Composed of cello, viola and oboe.
I heard it when I was in the kitchen
cooking dinner one night,
a few weeks back,
and every other night after that
until recently
when the noise of my life
became too loud.

There was no music on the stereo,
just the sound of the meal cooking,
and the sounds of daily living
outside the window:
children playing,
dogs barking,
lawn mowers,
power saws,
and birds -
chirping…

Underneath it all was a Rhythm
so melodious I could even hum it,
but I just listened, with wonder…
Where is this coming from -
this music -
this slow, deep, melodious rhythm,
drawing me in…

I didn’t even have to try to listen,
it was just there
soft – in the distance,
barely audible,
as if in another room,
through another door,
maybe even in another realm…

I knew somehow that my own life rhythm
 is hidden in this deeper Rhythm…
But I keep losing it,
drowned out by the
*noise* of living
other people’s
rhythms -
and
the external
rhythms
of
life

But now I know it is there -
somewhere,
in an experiential way,
and I listen for it -
this deeper Rhythm,
that underlies
all rhythms..

The Rhythm behind the rhythm…

Mysteriously playing…

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 5, 2015

~*~

“The real music happens between the notes…”
Louis Armstrong

~*~

Photo: Mandala Art
Original: Winter’s Jewel Mandala
radially blurred

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.

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