Crossing the Threshold - John O'Donohue - for Solstice...

The following piece is an excerpt from a book called 
To Bless the Space Between Us, by Irish poet, philosopher,
author and priest, John O'Donohue

Sara Smeaten shares his words about what it means to move
from one experience to another, to cross into new ways of being,
what it means to end one thing and begin another, and 
ultimately, what it means to trust in the possibility that each
new threshold offers.

He reminds us that change has its own rhythm, its own course...
That it is happening even when we can't see it, and that it
can also be sudden and absolute.  His words are magical
and yet deeply practical

Sara Smeaton

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

Change arrives in nature when time has ripened.  There are no
jagged transitions or crude discontinuities.  This accounts for the
sureness with which one season succeeds another.  It is as though
they were moving forward in a rhythm set from within a continuum.

So often we opt to continue the old pattern, rather than risking the
danger of difference.  We are also often surprised by change that
seems to arrive out of nowhere.

We find ourselves crossing some new threshold we had never
anticipated.  Like Spring secretly at work within the heart of winter,
below the surface of our lives huge changes are in fermentation.
We never suspect a thing.  Then when the grip of some long-
enduring winter mentality begins to loosen, we find ourselves
vulnerable to a flourish of possibility and we are suddenly
negotiating the challenge of a threshold.

To acknowledge and cross a new threshold is always a challenge.
It demands courage and also a sense of trust in whatever is
emerging.  This becomes essential when a threshold opens suddenly
in front of you, one for which you had no preparation [or choice].
This could be illness, suffering or loss.  Because we are so engaged
with the world, we usually forget how fragile life can be and how
vulnerable we always are.  It takes only a couple of seconds for
a life to change irreversibly.  Suddenly you stand on completely
strange ground and a new course of life has to be embraced.

Especially at such times we desperately need blessing and
protection.  You look back at the life you have lived up to a few
hours before, and it suddenly seems to far away.  Think for a 
moment how, across the world, someone's life has just changed -
irrevocably, permanently, and not necessarily for the better -
and everything that was once so steady, so reliable, must now
find a new way of unfolding...

.....we never know what destiny shapes each life.  The script of
individual destiny is secret; it is hidden behind and beneath the
sequence of happenings that is continually unfolding for us.
Each life is a mystery that is never finally available to the
mind's light or questions. Acceptance of this can free us into
natural courage that casts out fear and opens up our lives to
become voyages of discovery, creativity, and compassion.
No threshold need be a threat, but rather an invitation and a
promise.

.....listen inward with complete attention until you hear the
inner voice calling your forward.  The time has come to cross.

John O'Donohue
via Sara Smeaten

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

In the Universe there are things that are
known and things that are unknown and
in between there are doors.

William Blake

~

Solstice Blessings
as we cross the threshold today

~

Photo - A panoramic view of the Gloucester coast in Mass
Taken by my brother.

It reminded me of a threshold, or an opening/door to 
something beyond...

 

Into the Forest - a meandering...

"The Forest" traditionally is a threshold symbol of entering
the unknown, the deeper nature, or the spiritual world.  In
fairy tales it usually represents a passage through difficulties
and an opportunity for "transformation" of some kind.  I also
see it as a sanctuary, refuge, a place of deepening. This entering
the "Dark Forest" happens sometimes when I have lost
(intentionally or otherwise) the frameworks, or beliefs,
 which have given structure to my life; when I must find my own
 way, and be true to the call of the Soul, despite the difficulties
 encountered.  Shamans, poets, holy men and women sought
refuge in the forest, as a healing place.  Going into The Forest
represents a return to Primordial Being - beyond societal,
cultural, conceptual and spiritual frameworks; beyond dogma
and doctrine... In a way, it is like returning to the child's heart
of innocence - just following the longing of the Heart once
again; trusting that I will emerge from "The Dark Forest" with
clarity.  As a child I often went into the woods next to our
house to just sit, to listen and commune with nature, and 
write poetry - at the ripe old age of 11 :)  It was a place of
directly experiencing what I knew then to be "God."  Now
known by many other names...

And since I don't have a "Dark Forest" handy to enter, and I'm
spooked by things that go bump in the night, my "Forest" will
have to be the Interior spaces - navigating the inner Forest of
the Unknown - as well as the difficult practicalities of everyday
living that I'm now faced with.   It will be an interesting 
sojourn, if I can pull it off...  What better time of year
than approaching the Winter Solstice to go within...

Mystic Meandering
originally written 6-22-2019
updated Dec. 6, 2023

~

The familiar horizon has been outgrown;
the old concepts, ideals,
and emotional patterns no longer fit.
The time for the passing of a threshold is at hand.

You enter the forest at the darkest point
where there is no path.
Where there's a way or a path
it is someone else's path; each human being
is a unique phenomenon.

The idea is to find your own way...

Joseph Campbell

~

Midway upon the journey of life
I found myself within a dark forest,
for the straightforward pathway
had been lost...

Dante Alighgieri
The Inferno

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Twilight...

There is a seamless "edge" when twilight comes...
And a twinge of melancholy when the
light wanes into twilight,
the edge of the veil;
the threshold between
light and dark...

A knowing that this life
is waning into twilight too,
from one state into another,
forever re-forming Itself...

Tree branches wave in the wind
in homage to the light
dimming in the West...

Owls hoo - calling the night
into existence;
prophets of twilight
standing at the edge
where ending meets beginning
and beginning, ending...

Twilight
the in-between
as Life cycles through time,
through light and dark,
through living
and dying.

At twilight we stand at the edge of time,
and timelessness beyond time...
peering through
for a glimpse
of the Infinite Light
that knows no dimming
and no night;
only Its own Eternal Radiance
of 
Being...

This Light we are...

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 21, 2012

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
January 6, 2012

 

The Inner Sanctuary - Christiane Singer

It is essential to take care of that heaven within us, 
invisible to others, this sanctuary that life has built us and
populated by the messengers, those who, in multiple ways,
have inspired us, led us to the best of ourselves.
In all the places inhabited by suffering there are also guards,
thresholds of passage, intense knots of mystery,

These areas so feared, however, reflect the secret of our being
in the world, or as mythological saying puts it: where the dragons
are laid, treasures are hidden.  Hope should no longer be looking
to the future but to the unseen.  Only the one who bends towards
his heart as in a deep well finds the lost track.

Christiane Singer
French-Austrian writer, essayist and novelist

with thanks to Michel at No Mind's Land

Photo - the internet

 

The "Cosmic Womb"...

Laying down the burdens and chaos of existence,
coming to rest in the 
"Mother Energies": the "originating
feminine energies" of the Cosmos...

Unfettered, Unbuffeted
by the strain of life circumstances of the day...

Embraced, and tangibly infused by
this Primordial Source Energy - Always...

This undefinable, formless "Cosmic Womb"
invites this meandering mystic in.
 I stumble across the threshold of a doorless door...

into an Ineffable space that holds me...

There is no chaos here,
no troublesome thoughts of the mind;
yet "thinking" still occurs
as mental images and constructs
of present life occurrences pass through,
which hold no reign in the mind -
 in this Great Womb of Silence...

The past - just fleeting memories passing through
with no mental or emotional attachment - surprisingly;
like wandering through an unfamiliar land...
The shift to a new orientation - re-framing perspectives,
untangling what I perceived to be real is still occurring...
A new spark is felt within...

Pathways of the Primal Mother Energies leave their
imprint in the brain and body - very subtly...

The body tries to self-correct after a life-time of walking
the energetic History Trail of Family Dysfunction in physicality -

core survival issues, that have left residual scars - beginning to release...

Realizing that All That Is is this exquisite Primal Energy
expressing Itself through every experience; experiencing Itself
in many forms; morphing Itself into different expressions,
softening the hard residues into compassion and kindness that heals...

Now beginning to experience the fluidity of the "Mother Energy"
that innately and intimately flows through me/us - like an
Aurora Borealis subtly streaming through this body,
leaving its own illumined energetic signature...
A new spark of Life is lit...

Mystic Meandering

~

Reality cannot be mapped.
It is not a single static truth,
but rather an endless,
unfolding mystery.
It is alive, dynamic,
and constantly being expressed
through form and formlessness.

Frank Ostaseski
From The Five Invitations

 

Thresholds - John O'Donohue

Like Spring secretly at work within the heart of Winter,
below the surface of our lives
huge changes are in fermentation.
We never suspect a thing.
Then when the grip of some
long-enduring winter mentality
begins to loosen,
we find ourselves
vulnerable
to
a
flourish
of
possibility

and we are suddenly negotiating
the challenges

of
a threshold...

At any time you can ask yourself:
At which threshold am I now standing?
At this time in my life, what am I leaving?
Where am I about to enter?

A threshold is not simply a boundary;
it is a frontier
that divides two different territories,
rhythms, and atmosphere.

Indeed, it is a lovely testimony
to the fullness and integrity
of an experience or a stage of life
that intensifies toward the end
into a real frontier
that cannot be crossed without
the heart being passionately
engaged
and
woken up.

At this threshold
a great complexity of emotion
comes alive:

confusion,
fear,
excitement,
sadness,
hope.

This is one of the reasons
such vital crossings
were always clothed in ritual.

It is wise in your own life
to be able to recognize and acknowledge
the key thresholds;
to take your time;
to feel all the varieties of presence
that accrue here;
to listen inward
with complete attention
until you hear
the inner voice

calling you
forward:

The time has come
to cross.

John O'Donohue
Excerpts from: To Bless the Space Between Us
(I put the excerpts into prose poem format)

~

...I find myself navigating the challenges of a major
threshold - an unexpected visitor has arrived, creating
an unexpected threshold and transition in life -
from a fairly quiet, slower paced, contemplative lifestyle,
now thrown into the role of a caregiver for a sibling, who
requires my constant attention - while the TV runs all
day long; background noise to a life thrown into chaos

I am having to find my own little quiet sanctuary both within
myself and in the house; as my house is no longer
my "sanctuary."

My life is cluttered with noise - full of distractions and
interruptions that muddle the mind with the over-stimulation.

And I wonder, why I must cross this particular threshold at this
time in my life - my elder years.  And how do I navigate and
negotiate the challenges that are being presented and still
maintain a sense of sanity...

It has been a difficult threshold for sure: exhausted and
stressed most of the time - unable to keep up the pace;
needing to remember to "step back", to disengage from the
emotions that are rising up, and bring my attention to the
Essence of my own Being; not allowing the stress and
anxiety to engulf me - and the new way I am living -
which is so foreign to my own rhythm with life,
and with my soul...

I know many of you out there have been "caregivers" for
a family member.  I would be interested in hearing your experience
 and how you were able to transition into a new way of living
without losing yourself - your own rhythms with life...

You can email me at:
mysticmeandering@gmail.com

_/\_

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Equinox - Rumi

Artist - Puisi

Look at love
how it tangles
with the one fallen in love.

Look at spirit
how it fuses with earth
giving it new life.

Why are you so busy
with this or that or good or bad.
Pay attention to how things blend.

Why think separately
of this life and the next
when one is born from the last?

Look at your heart and tongue,
one feels but deaf and dumb,
the other speaks in words and signs.

Look at water and fire,
earth and wind,
enemies and friends all at once.

The wolf and the lamb,
the lion and the deer

far away and yet together.

Look at the unity of this
spring and winter
[or summer and fall]
manifested in the equinox.

You too must mingle my friends...

Be like sugarcane,
sweet and silent.
Don't be mixed up with bitter words.
My Beloved grows right out of my [your] own heart.
How much more union can there be...

Rumi
Translation by Mader Khalili
From: This Dance of Bliss
by Ivan Granger
Poetry Chaikhana
Original title: "Look at Love"

~

The "Equinox" is a "pivotal comic hinge"
signifying equilibrium, or equality;
a fluid threshold, poised between 2 seasons,
[or even between life and death].
Or in the case of the whirling dervish,
the union/merging of heaven and earth;
between Divine and human.
The Dervish whirls with one palm open up
to the cosmos and the other palm downward,
open to the earth...

symbolizing the union of our Divine nature
and our human nature...

the fusion of spirit and matter;
being reborn to the Truth of our Being...

 

 

Doors through which we pass - Thich Nhat Hanh

 This body is not me.
"I" am not limited by this body.
"I" am life without boundaries.
"I" have never been born,
and I have never died.

Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,
manifestations from my wondrous true mind.

Since before time, I have been free.
Birth and death are only doors through which we pass,
sacred thresholds on our journey.
Birth and death are a game of hide-and-seek.

So laugh with me,

hold my hand,
let us say good-bye,
say good-bye,
to meet again soon.

We meet today.
We will meet again tomorrow.
We will meet at the source...
We meet each other in all forms of life.

Thich Nhat Hanh

via - Death Deconstructed

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Liminal Thinking - Wurman and Gray

 Liminal means a doorway, or portal, or threshold,
not this or that, not the old way or new way,
but neither and both.  It's a state of ambiguity or
disorientation that precedes a breakthrough, a
new kind of thinking...

Liminal thinking is a kind of agility that enables you
to successfully navigate times of transition.  It
involves the ability to read your own beliefs and needs -
and the ability to continually change beliefs in order
to better meet those needs, and the needs of others...

Richard Saul Wurman
From the Forward to Liminal Thinking
by Dave Gray

~

Your beliefs inform your actions and your actions are
interpreted by others, and those interpretations become
the basis for their beliefs, which inform their actions...

"Story webs" create a shared world.  They are co-created
by the people who participate in them.  A "story web" gets
created through our own beliefs about an experience and
other people - and we create a shared world based on our
story webs.

Over time, these beliefs become deeply embedded habits
that become invisible; a complex, dense, interconnected
system of beliefs and behavior that become "social
agreements" that go unspoken and are not easy to
untangle.  The more we reinforce the habits [beliefs]
the more invisible they become, until one day they are
just "the way it is."  But - "the way it is" is
something we have created together...

Changing stories can change reality.
So what story are you choosing to believe?

Changing a shared world requires
changing its underlying beliefs...

Dave Gray
Excerpts from - Liminal Thinking

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Into The Forest Alone...

"The Forest" traditionally is a threshold symbol of entering
the unknown, the deeper nature, or the spiritual world.  In
fairy tales it usually represents a passage though difficulties
and an opportunity for "transformation" of some kind.  I also
see it as a sanctuary, refuge, a place of deepening.  This
entering the "Dark Forest" happens sometimes when I have
lost (intentionally or otherwise) the framework which gives
structure to my life, when I must find my own way, and be
true to the call of Self,  Shamans, poets, holy men and women
sought refuge in the forest, as a healing place.  Going into
The Forest represents a return to the Primordial Self - beyond
societal, cultural, conceptual and spiritual frameworks.  In a
way, it is like returning to the child's heart of innocence -
just following the longing of the Heart once again; trusting
that I will emerge from "The Dark Forest" with clarity.  As a
child I often went into the forest next to our house as a place
just to sit, to listen and commune with nature, and write
poetry.  It was a place of directly experiencing what I knew
then to be "God."  Now known by other names...

And, since I don't have a "Dark Forest" handy, and I am spooked
by the things that go bump in the night, my Forest will have to
be that interior space of Silent Awareness - navigating the inner
Forest of the Unknown - as well as the unknown difficult
practicalities of everyday living.

I am willing, I say inwardly, to enter the Unknown - the Forest.
To trust Intuition to take me through.  I am ready to step over
the threshold and see where the Unknown takes me...

Care to join me :)  Are you willing...

~

"The familiar horizon has been outgrown;
the old concepts, ideals,
and emotional patterns no longer fit.
The time for the passing of a threshold
is at hand.

You enter the forest at the darkest point,
where there is no path.
Where there's a way or a path,
it is someone else's path;  each human being
is a unique phenomenon.

The idea is to find your own way..."

Joseph Campbell

~

Midway upon the journey of life
I found myself within a dark forest,
for the straightforward pathway
had been lost...

Dante Alighieri
The Inferno

~

Also see my post The Pathless Path

Into The Twilight - Winter Solstice

There is a seamless "edge" when twilight comes...
And a twinge of longing when the
light wanes into twilight,
the edge of the veil;
that threshold between
light and dark...

A knowing that this life
is waning into twilight too,
from one state into another,
forever re-forming Itself...

Tree branches wave in the wind
in homage to the light
dimming in the West...

Owls hoo - calling the night
into existence
from the East;
prophets of twilight
standing at the edge
where ending meets beginning
and beginning, ending...

Twilight
the in-between,
as Life cycles through time,
through light and dark,
through living
and dying.

This night we stand at the edge of time,
and timelessness beyond time...

peering through
for a glimpse
of the
Infinite Light
that knows no dimming
and no night;
only Its own Eternal Radiance
of
Being...

This Light we are...

Mystic Meandering
Winter Solstice
Dec. 21, 2012

Unknown Territory - Matt Licata

At times, our reference points will be taken away, revealing
a shimmering, pregnant, endarkened void.  What were so
clear about just a few days ago is nowhere to be found.  The
inspiration in our spiritual lives, our deepest insights and
realizations - recycled in the activity of the vast - somehow
no longer reachable.

The solid ground [of beliefs] we once took refuge in has
disintegrated underneath us, sending us into unknown
territory.  We were so sure were beyond breaking yet again,
that we finished all that, but the Beloved is not interested in
maintaining the status quo.  It is the nature of all form to
disintegrate, so that new forms may emerge.

Between the worlds.....longing for an end to the contradictions,
we find ourselves in the liminal, but how do we rest there? How
could we be asked to surrender more?

It can seem that we are falling apart, but were we ever together
to begin with?  Is that even the right lens from which to attempt
navigation? Or were we always something more whole?
Today may not be the day for answers, but to let your heart
break open to the vastness of the questions.

Something is longing to be born, in you, as you, as the poetry
of your life and as the gifts you will share with others.  Lay
your hands on your heart.  Listen.  Receive.  There are blues
coming into existence that have never made their way into this
dimension.  Oranges, reds, yellows, and purples that have been
sent to remind you of the rarity and outrageousness of one human
heart...

Stay right here.  Don't move from this moment.  Open your senses.
Step into the Mystery.  See through the veil.  Everything that has
ever happened and everyone you have ever met, has led up to this
moment.  Trust in the fires of disintegration and renewal, and in the
timeline that is written within the cells of your heart...

Matt Licata

Full Spectrum Experience - Jeff Foster

Don't judge your sorrow too quickly or too harshly, friend.  Honouring
the darkness within is not the same as 'wallowing'.  And cultivating
deep trust in all of life's movements does not equate to self-indulgence
or a 'pity-party'.  Please don't misunderstand this.  Find a space in your
heart for the unwanted, the unloved, the rejected aspects of experience.

If we refuse to plumb the depths we are left only half alive, however
'enlightened' we claim to be.  Artists, musicians, poets of all cultures
throughout the ages have understood this.  See your life as an art
gallery.  Embrace the full spectrum of experience, from the light to
the dark. Hold it all in your prayers, illuminate it all with the light
of loving awareness.  Be that awareness!

Perhaps your frustration just wants to frustrate itself fully and be
felt, fully.  Perhaps this moment contains no mistake!  Perhaps the
relief you will feel in time will be infinitely sweeter for having
suffered so deeply.  Perhaps your suffering is teaching you humility,
gratitude, quietude, and compassion - and trust - unbreakable trust
in life's strange processes.

Don't judge your sadness, your depression, your feelings [your illness].
And don't judge the process of another, for you really don't know
what's best for anyone, and you really don't know more than life itself.
  That which you reject (in another or yourself) may actually be
much-needed medicine, a misunderstood teacher, inviting you to an
 awakening deeper than you ever thought possible.  It may be a
threshold guardian, a gatekeeper of a forgotten kingdom. 
The glory of a life fully felt!

And to your demons say -

Namaste!

Jeff Foster

Vigil of "The Eternal Presence"...

Beholding the Beauty of the Placeless Place,
the Invisible Space of "The Eternal Presence",
prior to the world of form,
where You exist before your "self",
before the "you" was born...

Enfolded in the Embrace of Existence...
Surrendered to The Silence...
Immersed in the deep internal River of Stillness...
You find yourself
in the Hush of the Mystery:
the indwelling realm of "The Eternal Presence..."

Effortlessly breathing a cyclical rhythm.
Overtaken by Pure Silence.
Resting in the In-between:
The Liminal space - holding vigil -
at the threshold between time
and timelessness...

Awake - in the pre-birth twilight
within the Primordial Womb of Being,
from which all things are birthed,
and in which all things exist,
there is a profound sense of completeness;
a place of being fulfilled and emptied out
- simultaneously...

No "self"-realization, no holy revelations...
Only Awareness, and the pure ISness of Being - just being,
 in the fullness of the timeless Presence of Being - within...
Where Everything unfolds
in one continuous, ongoing moment.
No "present moment", nor past, nor future,
only the ceaseless unfurling
of the Liquid Life Stream,
without time...

~ as the body-mind wanders
through time ~

~

What words can convey
what can only be experienced...
And these jumble of words are only distortions
of the pureness of "The Eternal Presence."

_/\_

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
Nov. 22, 2016

~

The Divine is experienced by the heart.
The Intellect, at best, can only trail behind and take notes.

Ivan Granger
Poetry Chaikhana

The Portal of Wholeness - Matt Licata

At times, you may be asked to travel into the very groundless and contradictory landscape of the emotional world, without any understanding of what is being asked of you.  It is so open here, but simultaneously disorienting to the mind that is longing for answers.  It is as if everything you were so sure about only days before has fallen away…

Unmetabolized feelings, orphaned sensations, and vivid images are surging in the somatic field, seeming disconnected and…..chaotic.  But things are not always as they seem as you approach the threshold of wholeness. The invitation has been made: trust in the process of disintegration and the intelligence of immediate experience.

Yes, it may always be disturbing to stay embodied to the burning feelings and sensations that appear alongside the dissolution of old dreams and the way you thought it was all going to turn out.  But in the commitment to meet what is appearing with presence, you may discover that this destruction is sacred, unbearably creative, and soaked with reorganizing wisdom.

Before you turn from the confusion and scramble to transform or heal it with learned process, open into the uncertainty, the hopelessness, and the breaking of your heart.  It is there you will find life, longing to erupt and shatter the dream of partiality [fragmentation].  For each visitor of the inner and outer worlds is unfolding in the radiant [moment] as an unprecedented portal of wholeness…

Matt Licata

~

Photo - reflection of the sky on the hood of a car
Photo upside down :)

On the Threshold of Winter...

Well actually I think we’ve crossed it.

Winter arrived this morning in all its beauty...

At least 6-8 inches of snow covered everything.

The leaves still on the trees twittered in the wind.

Evidences of an invisible hand leaving its signature behind…

~

Excerpt from: Eternal Echoes
by John O’Donohue

“Within and around us there is an invisible [Formless] world; this is where each of us comes from.  Your relationship to the invisible influences so much of your life.  When you cross over from the invisible into the physical world, you bring with you a sense of belonging to the invisible that you can never lose or cancel.  Under the guise of emptiness, the invisible keeps its secrets to itself.  Yet the invisible remains the great background.  There is always some magnet that draws your eyes to [It] or invites you to explore behind things and seek out the concealed depths.  Your longing for the invisible is never stilled.  You know that the real nature of things is hidden deep within them.  When you enter the world, you come to live on the threshold between the visible and the invisible.  You are both artist and pilgrim of the threshold…”

For Samhain - "A Morning Blessing"

“I bless the night that nourished my heart
to set the ghosts of longing free
into the flow and figure of dream
that went to harvest from the dark,
bread for the hunger that no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
welcome the wonder of this day,
the field of brightness it creates
offering time for each thing
to arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
the tent of thought where I shelter,
wave of desire I am shore to,
and all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
to the invisible geography
that invites me to new frontiers,
to break the dead shell of yesterdays,
to risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
to live the life that I would love,
to postpone my dream no longer
but do at last what I came here for
and waste my time on fear no more…”

John O’Donohue
”A Morning Offering”
From: To Bless the Space Between Us

~

For those of the ancient Celtic and Druid traditions Samhain
 (Nov. 1) is the beginning of a new cycle in
 the Great Round of Time - recognizing the cyclical nature
 of manifest existence.

Warm Blessings to all no matter what your tradition…

Threshold - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee...

In silence we become and then unbecome,
 know and are unknown.

For so long we have searched…..hoping,
 expecting to find something.

Always you thought there was something to seek,
 a journey to make. Now you stand on the precipice,
 looking out over the horizon of your self,

and you know it is otherwise.

Here there is no seeking, no lover lost and found.

There is no looking, nothing to reach for, no path to follow.

But within there is an answer, not in form but in substance.

The source brings something beyond the passions
 of day-to-day life to the surface,
 something we need to nourish rather than define.

There is a bigger wholeness hidden,

waiting at the corner of the moments,

watching from behind the thoughts.

You wait for something to happen,
 and there is nothing to happen,
 yet the happening comes closer,
 like a map that reveals your own garden
 as an undiscovered place,

that comes from across time and beyond space.

There is another presence, another pattern,
 not hidden but unrevealed.

There is a tender sense of silence…..

In the moments of our own silence we are welcomed,

as both stranger and friend.

We need to allow the presence to become present,

not defined in moments, but as a flow.

The river is here.

The silence, unbidden, is always present.

In the tranquility of the moment nothing is defined or captured.

This world is infused with the other,
 steeped in the dew of timelessness.

Just Isness.

In that Isness everything is included –

you, the Beloved, the will to unfold the eternal into the present,

to cross the borders of time and space,
 and saturate the now with eternity.

Yet, there is no other…

You were always alone but you thought it was
 a state of incompleteness.

You waited for someone to come,
always waiting at the bus stop for the bus
that never comes,

because there is nowhere to go…

You wait at the threshold of the other world,

struggling with your self…

when the other world is already present.

The real mystery is how IT unveils itself
within us;
how the Beloved makes ItSelf known
to ItSelf
in the fragile container
of the human being.

In the midst of
The Divine Drama
there is a human story…
But it’s all God’s story
being lived in form.

Excerpts from: Fragments of a Love Story

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

Please note: I have taken excerpts from various pages
of the book, put them together and created this prose poem.

Struggle...

Is there a threshold to cross over?

What is the threshold that takes us into
a deeper Reality?

Can we cross it…
or are we forever imprisoned
in the cocoon of time,
when we know there is something more,
because we have seen it, felt it, intuited it;
something timeless beyond human existence
with its pain, sorrow and suffering;
even beyond fleeting happiness;
even beyond what some call
”the awakened life” –
if we are fortunate enough to
experience whatever that is …

How can “i” continue on “here” – “i” wonder daily,
struggling…
immersed in the “i” dramas;
grasping, clinging,

wanting something,
something that would forever awaken this Heart
to the Bliss of Eternal Reality…

The Eternal Vastness beckons…

But “i” continue to struggle;
the body struggles to relax and live,
the mind struggles to be at peace,
the heart struggles to stay open and Love,
the “i” struggles within
to sustain its identity,
still attached to the idea
of itself,
of its importance…

How can it be so…
If all there is, is “God”,
that is – Pure Consciousness, Pure Awareness,
Pure Beingness…
Then why does this “i” struggle
in ignorance,
keeping itself trapped in time,
and in the mind…

Am “i” forever cowled to the Truth,
unable to pierce the veil,
or find the Holy Grail…?

If “i” already have,
”i” keep forgetting,
and struggle to remember…

Maybe it will never happen -
the “awakening.”
And the glimpses i’ve had
will only remain a forgotten memory,
like a dream…

I am so ready to leave the struggles behind
for the privilege of experiencing
the Unknown,
The Mystery that waits
in the Depths of Silence…

Mystic Meandering
April 22, 2015

~~~Post Script~~~

Having said all that, written one morning in a period of struggle,
dealing with intense physical issues,

 and extremely dysfunctional family issues,

I know that the “Threshold” is through the inner

 Sanctuary Door of Silence…

 In the depths of Silence
we become aware of the Intimacy with Infinite Silence -
the Pure Primal Existence,
the Realm of “the Beloved”– if you will –
The Primordial Womb of Stillnes;
not “out there” somewhere, but “in here”

where there is only The Rhythm of Sacred Silence,
as I have so often written about here in this blog…

In the deep fluid flow of Silence
there is no struggle...
because there is no little “i”
with its issues,

only the Ineffable Mystery
that infuses everything,
and lives everything
in Silence…

~~

Photo/Art: Loon Morning
Artist: Rod MacIver
 from: Heron Dance Art Studio

www.herondance.org