The Inner Sanctuary - Mirabai Starr

There is a secret place.
A radiant sanctuary...

This magnificent refuge is inside you.

Enter

Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway.

Be bold.  Be humble.

Put away the incense and forget the incantation
they taught you.  Ask no permission from the
authorities.

Slip away...

Close your eyes and follow your breath
to the still place that leads to the invisible path
that leads you home.

Listen...

Softly, the One you love is calling...

Listen...

At first you will only hear traces of his [her] Voice.
Love letters he [she] drops for you in hiding places -
in the sun dipping down below the horizon,
in the nameless sorrow that fills your heart when you
wake in the night and remember that the world has gone
to war and you are powerless to break up the fight.

Let the idle chatter between friends drop down to
what matters.

Listen...

his [her] Voice will come closer.
A whisper you're almost sure is meant for you
fading in and out of the cacophony of thoughts
clearer in the silent space between them.

Listen...

Be brave and walk through the country of your own
wild heart.
Be gentle and know that you know nothing.

Be still...

Listen...

Keep walking...

Crossing the moat between this world and that...

This is The Beloved reclining in the innermost chamber,
waiting for you...

The Beloved has chosen for his [her] dwelling place
the core of your own being because that is the single

most beautiful place in all creation.

Enter the center of your Soul...

Mirabai Starr

Excerpts from the Introduction to:

The Interior Castle
by St. Teresa of Avila

translation by Mirabai Starr

~

Vortex Art - Mystic Meandering
2012

 

Koviashuktok - Sam Wright

Koviashuktok is an Eskimo word, loosely meaning,
"the inner dream." It is one with the living water welling up
from the very springs of being that nourish and sustain all life.
Without it life becomes a dreary, dead place and deep within,
our spirit begins to rot.  The inner dream need not be some 
great and overwhelming plan; it need not be a dramatic
picture of what might or must be some day.

Koviashuktok is the quiet persistence in the heart that 
enables us to ride out the storms of churning experiences.
Koviashuktok is the exciting whisper moving through the isles
of our spirit answering the monotony of limitless days of
dull routine.  It is the ever-recurring melody in the midst of
broken harmony and harsh discords of human conflict.  It is the
touch of significance which highlights the ordinary experience,
the common event, the wonder of each hour, the beauty of the
Earth.

Koviashuktok is not an outward thing.  It does not take its rise
from the environment in which we move and function. It lives
in the inward parts, it is the deep within where the issues of life
and death are ultimately determined.

We need to keep alive the exciting whisper, for as long as we are
Koviashuktok, we cannot lose the significance of living.

Sam Wright 
from: The Edge of Tomorrow

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

Photo from an ad featuring
"Cool Night" by Paul Davis

 

Knock-Knock...

What if I quit knocking at the door of
The Beloved - address unknown...
Would The Beloved still come?

Why do I keep trying so hard?
Doesn't The Beloved already know that I'm here?

So why do I need to keep coming to the door,
begging, like a beggar in the night,
whispering outside the door;
like throwing stones at a window,
trying to entice my "lover" to notice that
I am standing outside - waiting -
unseen, unheard...

knock-knock

What if I quit knocking at the door?
Would The Beloved not hear the longing of my Heart?

Would The Beloved still come?

~

...a door within my Heart opens as if by its own accord...
The Beloved is here - waiting for me
in the deeper Silence at the Core of my Being,
at the Inner Door,
where only a whisper is heard...

Maybe I was knocking at the wrong door...

knock-knock

Mystic Meandering
Sept. 5, 2022

~

Photo - yes that's me :)

 

The Troll in the Mind - Mark Nepo

We spend so much time
anticipating what will happen next that we miss
the whisper of Heaven that unfolds wherever we are.

Though I have known and survived
many forms of pain,
fear is the troll in the mind
that anticipates more.

And just as a loud noise prevents us
from finding the peace in the center of silence,
fear prevents us from finding
the inch of Heaven in the center
of whatever moment we are in.

Yet, no matter how much I've been through
and how much I've learned,
I can't stop the wave of anticipation.
No one can.

It is part of being human.

Mark Nepo
(a cancer survivor)

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
 A dried rose petal with one eye
at the top and a big schnozz.
Looks like a troll to me :)

Intimacy With Silence

There is an intimacy with Silence
that is indefinable,
luminous and still...

A fluidity of

s p a c i o u s

Silent Awareness

A limitless depth and breadth,
that embraces, surrounds, and fills
every crack and crevice
of the body and mind,
soothing and aligning the "energies"
softening their flow ~ ~ ~ 

There is a sanity in this Silence
that is beyond
any acquired knowledge...

It is felt as

The Breath of the Infinite
The Kiss of the Mystery
The Whisper of Love...

~

I know that I am Home...

...resting in
The Primordial Womb
of Life!

~

Mystic Meandering
Aug. 8, 2018

Whispers of the Heart - Stoneman, Rumi, Barrett

There is a whisper,
but it's louder than the wind.
It calls to us, "Come Home.
The story is over,
the pages are worn thin.
Come Home."

It's like a chant,
a sacred OM
underlying all else.

It requires not doing anything,
or going anywhere,
or becoming anything.

If only we see that we are this
whispering sound,
all else will dissolve
into peace.

Rafael Stoneman

~

Make everything in you an ear,
each atom of being,
and you will hear
at every moment
what the Source
is whispering
to you...

You are the beloved
of The Beloved...

and in every moment,
in every event of your life,
The Beloved
is whispering to you
exactly what you need
to hear and know...

Rumi

~

Put your ear to the wall of your heart...
Listen to the whisper of knowing there.
Love will touch you if you are
very still...

Tom Barrett

"The Pull"...

There is an intimacy of the Heart in turning inward,
following the pull of "The Mystery" into The Silence
that is hauntingly
sublime...

A magnetic pull of
Pure Being
calls
from within...
pulling ItSelf back to ItSelf...

In fluidity of being one feels suspended in a
deep internal womb-like Cosmos,
where there is endless depth and breadth,
fullness and emptiness,
all at the same time;
a subtle movement of awareness
aware-ing everything at once...

Collapsing into the Cosmic Waves of Being,
into Existence prior to manifestation,
everything within softens and opens,
like a delicate flower,
including the body,
touched by the subtle
rhythmic caress
of
the Unknown
 ~ breathing ~
~ embracing ~
surrounding ~ and filling;
unwinding the contractions
of body and mind.

There is a "sanity" in this Cosmic Silence
that bestows a soundness of Heart through Grace
that is beyond mere mental reason
and cognizance...

Finding this deeper Rhythm within
one loses a sense of "self"
and becomes...
"The Mystery"  ~

Breathing ItSelf...

The Breath of The Infinite

The Whisper of Love

Mystic Meandering
March 1, 2017

_/\_

A Humble Lover of "The Mystery"

~

Photo - Craypas oils, done with fingers

The Space of Silence

Today while cleaning I became acutely aware of this inner, fluid space of Silence. It was so palpable. It is similar to that inward “sensing of Being” that I felt last week – yet slightly different in quality. I stopped what I was doing, and paused to listen, to *feel* it - to acknowledge the Quiet Presence within. I felt as if I was being drawn in by the Absolute Stillness of a reflecting pool. I wanted to wade in, to experience it, to immerse in it – to bathe in the clarity of this fluid Silence. I acknowledged Silence’s Presence, as one does in a moment of silence for those passed on, and continued with my cleaning, checking in from time to time to see if it was still there, hoping it would wait for me to finish and be still - which never happened. A lost moment. And yet, it was still there, offering its invitation in muffled tones – come be with me, come and be still.

It’s the feel of the Eternal Pull of Presence within… This “pull” or “longing”, I realized, is really just an invitation to what is already there – waiting; what Colleen Loehr over at A Window is Where the Wall is Absent calls being “reeled in by the attraction of the invisible heart.” Yes, that’s it! It is the invitation of the Eternal Silence, like a homing call.

It’s the feeling of something unborn, yet making Itself known - in little whispers – letting me know It’s there... This whisper of this still, silent Beingness within - calls for our attention even in the midst of “noise”. This space of Silence is not the *lack* of sound, but the absence of external stimulation - or “noise:” thought, emotional agitation, mental restlessness, as well as the interruptions of external influences that bind my mind to them and redirect the flow… It wants to be met. It wants to express, to feel, to BE… But “I” have become entangled in the externals of life - the surface clutter – and find excuses to avoid surrendering completely into the space of Silent reverie of complete and utter Stillness.

In this invitation today I was reminded once again that this space of awake, aware, enlivened Silence is the Primordial Womb of Being from which all things are birthed. It is what everything rests in, what everything is made of: the song of the bird, the noise of the traffic, the buzz of the weed-whacker, the hum of the plane, the rustling of the leaves, the rippling of water. It’s where everything rises from and falls back into. It is the ground of Being ItSelf… It is Pure Awareness that just IS. The boxcar named “Emptiness.” The No-thing-ness. And the “train” to “nowhere.” It is the felt experience of our very Beingness. The Silence that isn’t silent. And yet, even with this knowing, this seeing, it seems – well, unavailable at times – like a child playing hide and seek, hiding behind trees and rocks, yet you know they’re right there in front of your face… And maybe it’s me who’s hiding, playing hard to find! Ah-HA! :) I also realized that this longing of the Heart doesn’t mean that there’s anything really missing. It’s just the Silence revealing ItSelf, reminding me of Its Presence, like an old friend that shows up and says – hey, I’m still here. Come sit with me, come and be still. Or, wanna go to lunch? How bout’ weeding the garden? What about organizing that closet, painting that picture… You get the idea… It’s always there - inviting.

So this longing for “Home” – the longing of the Heart that I’ve been experiencing – is really an invitation from this primordial space of Silence to follow Its whisper back to ItSelf - the Silence of the Heart…

“…all moving is from the mover. Every pull draws us to the ocean.”

Rumi

“There is the Pure Awareness that is with you all the time,

just waiting for your recognition.

The Self will pull your ego into the Heart.”

Robert Adams – Silence of the Heart

~*~

photo - Christine