The Melody of Silence - from the Quran

In the depths of the soul, where words dissolve,
Sounds a secret melody,
A music that no ear can hear,
For it is woven from the very silence,
This sacred silence, where the world ceases to whisper,
And where the eternal song of the Divine begins.

This melody has neither beginning nor end,
She is the echo of an ancient Love,
A Love that exists before time,
Before the stars are lit,
Before the universe was woven,
She is the first breath,
He who gave life to clay,
And which continues to resonate in the hearts
of those who listen,
With the ears of the soul.

In the melody of Silence,
Each note is a prayer,
Each break, a return to the Source.
Those who have passed through the tempest of the ego,
And the torments of the spirit,
Know that this music is not found in the noise of the world,
But in the inner quietude,
Where heaven and earth meet,
In the sacred union of being and non-being.

The melody of Silence is the voice of Love,
Who speaks without words,
Who touches without touching,
Who kisses without hugging,
It is the melody that the prophets heard
in their hears,
When they were alone with the Beloved,
When the night enveloped the world,
And the whole cosmos seemed to hold its breath,
Waiting for the Light to reveal itself.

from the Quran

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

The Silence of the Soul is my Home, my Friend...

 

Inner Rhythms - a meandering...

I've been rediscovering my "Inner Rhythms" again through my
funky "art"; the Inner Rhythm of Being, of the Soul, that
John O'Donohue talks about here, and how that wants to 
move in and through me. 

I receive postings from Nature Artist and Writer, Rod MacIver
from his website, Heron Dance.  He has spent a lot of time
in nature, paddling in a canoe, getting in touch with his
Inner Rhythm.  He reflects on the larger context of
"inner rhythms."

"A balanced life is based on its own rhythm.  If you don't set
your own rhythm, and have the discipline to follow it, your
life will move at the speed of the culture around [you], which
moves too fast.  The space we make for quiet time affects our
thought patterns and, in turn, the quality of our lives."  And,
he asks: "To what extent is the rhythm of your life a result of...
adapting...to the flow that surrounds [you]."  Or, I even say,
to the people around you.  Have we entrained to the people
around us so much that we end up living their rhythm?  
I know I have...

I felt  resonance with his words, knowing that I need to find
that sense of the deeper Inner Rhythm again, not just my
own personal daily rhythm with life, getting through the day,
but the Flow with the Inner Rhythm of Being; the undercurrent
of the Flow of Life within - from which all movement arises;
creating color and movement on paper helps me do that...

It calls me into the Silence of my own Being,
and the pulsating Rhythm of Life.
At peace again...

Mystic Meandering

~

Funky Art 
Rhythm

2024

 

The Peaceful Hour...

Listen to the Wisdom in the peaceful hour,
when no other voices are heard,
only the wisdom of a Quiet Heart and mind,
immersed in the stillness of just Being;
an Oceanic Rhythm of Stillness and Silence that
arises naturally...

In the peaceful hour I withdraw from the day
and come back to myself
and listen to the Silence within,
in the silence of the night...

Anxiety and Stress are gone.
I take my first real deep breath of the day
and sink into peace and inner stability,
loving the silence that surrounds me,
unfettered, unencumbered,
just resting,
comforted in serenity...

Finally, slowly, coming back into sync
with the Rhythm of my Being -
an exquisite pause fills my body from the
stresses of the day and I slow down.
It's now that I feel that everything will be okay,
if only in the peaceful hour...

Restful, Rhythmic Peace...

Mystic Meandering
Aug 16, 2023

1am

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Your Inner World - Rod MacIver

The Ocean within you is the universal reality or essence 
that dwells withing all beings...  Discovering this ocean is
vitally important for the discovery of balance because it 
provides a place of peace for you to return home to
despite all the chaos of the day.

Joel and Michelle Levy
Living in Balance

~

A friendship with your quiet interior allows you to better
understand the patterns of your life.  A special power comes
from diving deep into that world and accessing the wisdom it
contains.  It is a place of wisdom and peace, but our relationship
with it requires nurturing.

Your inner world guides you without you knowing it.  Our
thought patterns determine the quality of our lives.  The question
is, how can we gain access to the potentials of "knowledge" [knowing]
contained in the depth of us, how can we achieve increased capacities
of direct intuition [experience] and enlarged awareness...

A life journey, a creative journey, grows out of the seed of one.s song.

How would you describe the current of energy, the life force inside
you...?  Our most important relationship is our relationship with our
 self, with our interior world.  What do you do to nurture that
 relationship?  How you nurture that relationship will determine the
 quality of your life.

Rod MacIver
Heron Dance

~

What we call fate does not come to us from outside; it goes forth
from within us.

Rainer Maria Rilke

With thanks to Heron Dance

~

Photo from the Internet

 

The Still Point - Rod MacIver

The source of your [authentic] power is your still point.
Your power comes from harmony with your inner world.
That relationship is nurtured in silence, in solitude, in reflection.

Joseph Campbell said much depends on knowing who you are
and what you want out of life.  The self-knowledge requires
reflection, quiet time to nurture and build.  Before expending energy,
build energy.  Spend time in contemplation, in a pre-verbal state
of receiving, waiting for guidance.

The still point is that place of quiet reflection, meditation or
prayer, time for rest and relaxation and contemplation.

Rod MacIver
Heron Dance
Excerpt from his latest post in his Art Journal

~

Still point = sanity :)

~

Within each of us , there is a silence, a silence as vast as
the universe,  And when we experience that silence, we
remember who we are...  It is a paradox that we encounter
so much internal noise when we first try to sit in silence.

Gunilla Brodde Norris

With thanks to Heron Dance

~

photo Mystic Meandering

 

Peace in the Attic ...

Photo by Dan V on Unsplash.com

I am grateful for the Quiet in this "House"...
Immersing me in the Quiet within;
The Stillness - with only the whir of the ceiling fan
and occasional distant sounds that somehow soothe...

It's as if the "House" is not my house -
but houses me anyway -
like the body "housing" my spirit,
allowing me to dwell here,
living in its spaces...

Its space holds my "things" - that
aren't "my" things - only accumulated
symbols of a life lived - spiritually, creatively,
intuitively, meaningfully -
mementos for someone's attic someday.

The "House" is still - yet Alive,
breathing in and out with the breeze;
curtains softly sway at the window...

When there is peace in the Attic of the mind there are
no addicting stories, no ruminating on the past, no trying
to fix anyone's problems - 
just quiet peace...

"The Mystery" of Life itself also
inhabits this "House"
- untouched - undisturbed -
filling every closet, drawer and cabinet;
and every space of my Being,
with its Fullness...

~

A dog barks sharply, breaking the Quiet...

But the "House", and its inhabitant, remain still -
breathing with the breeze...

Mystic Meandering
Sept, 20, 2022

 

The Power of Quiet - Malidoma Patrice Some

The power of quiet is great.
It generates the same feelings in everything one encounters.
It vibrates with the cosmic rhythm...
It is everywhere, available to anyone at any time.
It is us.
The force within that makes us stable, trusting and loving.
It is contemplation contemplating.
Peace is letting go - returning to the Silence that cannot enter
the realm of words because it is too pure to be contained
in words.

Malidoma Patrice Some

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo from Death Deconstructed

 

Cosmic Meditation - Robert Rabbin & Adyashanti

Meditation doesn't promise anything
It isn't a strategy,
It simply is.

When we exist within meditation,
there is no room for strategies of
becoming, achieving, attaining, owning.

Within meditation,
Silence is the only strategy,
because everything [just] is...

Robert Rabbin

With thanks to No Mind's Land
for photo too :)

~

Real meditation is not about mastering a technique
True meditation is letting go of manipulating our experience.
Stop seeking something more or better or different, and turn
your attention inward to the awake Silence that you are...

Adyashanti

 

Wrapped in Silence - Rumi

 Last night,
I begged the Wise One to tell me
the secret of the world.

Gently, gently, he whispered -
"Be quiet,
the secret cannot be spoken
it is wrapped in Silence."

All is known in the Sacred Silence

Rumi

Original title: "Last Night"

from the collection
Whispers of the Beloved
translated by Maryam Mafi & Azima Melita Kolin

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

May Peace Prevail Within Our Hearts!

Weight Shift - Ram Dass

If we can imagine a wheel whose rim is the cycle of births and deaths,
all of the 'stuff' of life, conditioned reality, and whose center is
perfect flow, formless no-mind, the Source, we've got one foot with
most of our weight on the circumference of the wheel, and one foot
tentatively at the center.

That's the beginning of awakening.  And we come in, and we sit and
meditate, and suddenly there's a moment when we feel the perfection
of our Being and our connection.  Then our weight goes back on the
outside of the wheel. Over and over and over, this happens.

Slowly, slowly the weight shifts.  Then the weight shifts just enough
so that there is a slight predominance on the center of the wheel, and
we find that we naturally just want to sit down and be quiet, that we
don't have to say , "I've got to meditate now," or "I've got to read a
holy book." or "I've got to turn off the television set," or "I've got to
do... anything."  It doesn't become that kind of discipline anymore.
The balance has shifted.

And we keep allowing our lives to become more and more simple,
more and more harmonious.  And less and less are we grasping at
this or pushing that away...

[We are no longer trying to make anything happen.]

Ram Dass

[brackets mine]

~

Photo - digitalized Mandala Art

2013

The Simplicity of Silence...

~

The Rhythm of Silence within is simply found through sitting in meditative silence and listening for the Inner Flow, the Inner Rhythm of Silence, and bringing our awareness to That…  Being in the Rhythm within unwinds “you” – the little me with its stresses and worries and fears.  It unwinds the body, and the thoughts, emotions and feelings that have become our habitual response to life.  It is the medicine that brings us back into the current of Life again – the Inner Life of Spirit…

In the midst of chaos there is always Silence.  In the midst of complexity there is the simplicity of Awareness – if we just notice.  If we just get Quiet and listen…  Each of us has our own way of experiencing this deep Silence within, that brings us to a greater awareness of our “Divine” Nature within.  Simply be open and It will find you…

Reach deeply into the Stillness
within you…
The Primordial Space
of Silence
and thrive there…

In the Stillness is
the congruency of Life…

Be with this Stillness,
with Sacred Silence
and awaken to Its Rhythm…

Mystic Meandering

Meditative Writings

2006

~

Photo of Fall leaves remaining on a branch
 color inverted digitally

Finding The Rhythm of "Silence..."

Photo and Quote by: Larry Kanfer
Photo called “Gatekeeper” from: “On Second Glance”
Published by the University of Illinois Press

~

Winter is upon us, much like the above photo; intuitively the time for hibernation.  And I’ve been a cranky contemplative because I am not getting enough solitude, quiet, and meditative Silence…  I’m needing to be in "The Stillness", finding the Rhythm of Silence within again – just BEing in that space of Divine Silence until my entire Being feels “nourished” and restored.  It appears that life may soon afford me this deep necessity, allowing me to spend more time in Inner Quiet– the “Gatekeeper” of the Inner Life - listening to "The Silence"; which does not mean I won’t be *doing* anything. HA! There is always "doing" to be done.  But there are some life changes on the horizon that I hope to write about in some future-now…

Finding the Rhythm of Silence is simply sitting in silence, listening for the Inner Flow, the Inner Rhythm and bringing the awareness there...  Finding the Rhythm of Silence within unwinds you - unwinds your thoughts, your feelings, emotions and stresses of the day.  It is the medicine that brings us back into the current of Life - the Inner Life...

From The Silence today:

“You must come into the eternal Rhythm of ‘The Quiet…’
You must learn to live in and from ‘The Silence’
which does not mean
live *in* silence,
but to live *in*
’The Silence...’
from

the eternal vastness
and depth
of
’The Silence’

~

Find your truth
*in*
’The Silence’”

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
Nov. 21, 2013

~

Also see: Perfect Pulsing Silence


May we all find The Rhythm of Silence in our lives...

Photo:

I just love this photo,

the simplicity, the zen-like quality;
the tangible silence…
It is an old newspaper clipping from years ago
found in one of our archive boxes recently.

Tending The River Within...

Sometimes you read something and it just really resonates, either in whole or in part.  Recently I read the poem below from a link on – findingmybliss – and it touched me deeply.  It reminded me once again how necessary it is to tend the Quiet place within – the River of  Sacred Silence that flows within us all…   The poem speaks to what I aspire to, but certainly have not achieved…  Maybe that’s why it touched me.  I have highlighted the lines that spoke to me the most…

The Quiet Power

By Tara Sophia Mohr

“I walked backwards, against time
and that’s where I caught the moon,
singing at me.

I steeped downwards, into my seat
and that’s where I caught freedom,
waiting for me, like a lilac.

I ended thought, and I ended story.
I stopped designing, and arguing, and
sculpting a happy life.

I didn’t die.  I didn’t turn to dust.
Instead I chopped vegetables,
and made a calm lake in me
where the water was clear and sourced and still.

And when the ones I loved came to it,
I had something to give them,
and it offered a soft road out of pain.

I became beloved.

And I came to know that this was it.
The quiet power.

I could give something mighty, lasting,
that stopped the wheel of chaos,
by tending to the river inside,
keeping the water rich and deep,
keeping a bench for you to visit.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Photo: Light in the kitchen sink
digitally enhanced

Fall's Last Flash...

The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same...

Concentrate on essence,
concentrate on Light…

In lucid bliss,
calmly smoking off its own holy fire,
the Light streams towards you from all things...

The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same…

One matter, one energy, one Light,
one Light-mind,
endlessly emanating all things.
One turning and burning diamond.

One, one, one…

Ground yourself,
strip yourself down,
to blind loving silence.
Stay there, until you see
you are gazing at the Light
with its own ageless eyes…

Rumi
“One, One, One”

Inside this new love die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly
born into color.

Do it now.
You’re covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side.
Die,
and be quiet.

Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.

Your old life was a frantic
running from Silence...

Rumi
”Quietness”

"Stillness-waiting..."

Come into the place of “still-waiting” -

inner Quiet…

Not trying to make anything happen,

not seeking solutions,

just ~ “Stillness-waiting…”

Listen deeply…

Hear the Stillness…

Open to the Stillness ~

The Primordial Space of Life.

Rest there.

Sink deeply and listen…

Suspend in Stillness.

Re-direct all thought into Stillness.

Re-direct all energies into Stillness.

BE the Stillness that you are…

Bring everything into Stillness.

Entrain with this Stillness of Being.

Everything is deep peace, deep Stillness

at its core.

Everything that arises in the mind

is false identity, false reality.

The key is to stay within

the depths of Stillness ~

suspended in its fullness.

Keep returning to Stillness.

There is nothing but Stillness.

Alive Stillness – Beingness – fllowing

through everything.

Rest in the comfort of this Stillness

and *allow* things to unfold in their own time…

Let everything be as it is.

Repose

Be still

Wait

“Stillness waiting…”

~*~

Mystic Meandering
copyright 2004/06

Photo - Christine