Saturday, January 3, 2015

Bulleh Shah - Lost in the City of Love



" I have got lost in the City of Love.
I am being cleansed, withdrawing myself
from my head, ... hands and feet.

i have got rid of my ego, and have
attained my goal.
Thus it has all ended well.
O Bulleh, ....
the Lord pervades both
the worlds;
None now appears .... a stranger
to me. "




Jean Houston - Mystical Dogs



Mystical Dogs: Animals As Guides to Our Inner Life


 "For many years, I have been a student of spirituality and states of consciousness. For many more years than that, I've been a student of dogs," says bestselling author Jean Houston, whose study of this subject is the basis of Mystical Dogs. Houston has spent a lifetime bridging the worlds of animals and humans, exploring a realm that pet owners have glimpsed and indigenous peoples have known for millennia. The author identifies dogs, with their deceptively uncomplicated, joyous, loving nature, as custodes animi, guardians of our souls. She shows how animals, particularly dogs, are often the best spiritual teachers. For example, in Houston's hands, a seemingly simple story, such as a man saying goodbye to his beloved dog, becomes a striking metaphor about personal and planetary transformation. 




Barnaby was like a mood, a fragrance of the harmonious inner life, permeating everything with which he came into contact. He knew sorrow and he knew joy, and he held them in a delicate balance of serenity and peace. He knew how to respond equally joyfully to an invitation to walk or talk or sit together, which seems to me to be a particular kind of training in grace -- a willingness to respond easily and happily to even the most modest adventure together. Perhaps it could be said that within his framework of being a dog, he lived life as a spiritual exercise.






Friday, January 2, 2015

Antonio Machado - There is no road




“Wanderer, your footsteps are the road,
and nothing more;
Wanderer, there is no road.
The road is made by walking…

By walking one makes the road,
and upon glancing behind
one sees the path that will
never be trod again…

Wanderer, there is no road –
only wakes upon the sea…”





Marianne Williamson - Our deepest fear



Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.




~~~~~~

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Oriah Mountain Dreamer - Beloved Beginnings



The blessing of a new year is the reminder that we can begin again and again- not just in January, but whenever we need to, with each dawn, each breath. Some days I begin again dozens or hundreds of times. We are human, so we will inevitably at times become distracted and weary. We will wander from the clarity of knowing that is beyond articulation and understanding, the moments of sitting in the centre of what we are and why we are here, the awareness that is rooted in Love.
Often it is the deep longing to reach for the Beloved within and around me that helps me begin again. But sometimes I lose even this, cannot find the end of the thread of that longing that will take me home to the Infinite Love I have tasted in moments of grace. And then I find, to my astonishment, that even this lack, this loss of feeling and faith, when willingly experienced fully, can make me available to the longing that guides me home.

Ah, words are inadequate to convey the gift of beginning again remembering those moments when the whole ball of wax (including myself) was revealed as the sacred unfolding, the Love that sustains it all. But still I try to touch it with my words, gently asking myself- Have I been faithful to what I knew in those moments when the Beloved broke through to me? What would it look like today to be faithful to knowing myself and every other as Beloved? How would I prepare food, speak to a friend or a stranger, walk on the earth, be with myself if I allow this awareness to permeate and guide me?

And I begin, again. 


~Oriah (c) 2014


 Oriah's site

Oriah's Blog 

No Mind's Quotes....in images


Quotes in images from the last couple of years on my facebook account



Jiddu Krishnamurti - Comparing oneself



  It is always difficult to keep simple and clear. The world worships success, the bigger the better; the greater the audience the greater the speaker; the colossal super buildings, cars, aeroplanes and people. Simplicity is lost. The successful people are not the ones who are building a new world. To be a real revolutionary requires a complete change of heart and mind, and how few want to free themselves. One cuts the surface roots; but to cut the deep feeding roots of mediocrity, success, needs something more than words, methods, compulsions. There seem to be few, but they are the real builders--the rest labor in vain.
          One is everlastingly comparing oneself with another, with what one is, with what one should be, with someone who is more fortunate. This comparison really kills. Comparison is degrading, it perverts one's outlook. And on comparison one is brought up. All our education is based on it and so is our culture. So there is everlasting struggle to be something other than what one is. The understanding of what one is uncovers creativeness, but comparison breeds competitiveness, ruthlessness, ambition, which we think brings about progress. Progress has only led so far to more ruthless wars and misery than the world has ever known. To bring up children without comparison is true education. 


J. Krishnamurti, Krishnamurti, A Biography
by Pupul Jayakar, 1986, pp. 255-256 





Tuesday, December 30, 2014


Dadu Dayal - The one Spirit

art by Alphonse Mucha-1860 1939


Be done with self and worship Hari;
cast off worldly desire in mind and body.
Cherish goodwill towards every living creature;
this, says Dadu, is the sum of religion.
He is the true saint who bears enmity to none;
There is but one Spirit, and he has no enemy.
I have made diligent quest: truly, there is no second.
In every man is the one Spirit,
whether he be Hindu or Muslim.
Both brethren have alike hands and feet, both have ears;
Both brethren have eyes, be they Hindus or Muslims.
When you look in the mirror of ignorance,
there appears to be two;
When error is dispelled and ignorance vanishes,
there is no other?
To whom then will you bear enmity, when there is no other?
He from whose Being all sprang, the same One dwells in all.
In every man is the one Spirit;
hold Him therefore in reverent respect.
Recognize that Spirit in yourself and others;
it is the manifestation of the Lord.
Why give pain to any when the indwelling Rama is in every man?
0 revered Self, give peace and contentment;
For there is none but Thee in all the three worlds.
When the soul perceives the Self, then are all souls brethren;
Give your heart to Him who is the Creator of all.
When a dog wanders into a palace of mirrors,
it sees its own reflection everywhere, and begins barking.
See how the One has likewise become many,
and angrily seeks to destroy itself.
All souls are brother-souls, the offspring of one Womb;
Consider this truth! Who, then, is the other, 0 foolish man?
All came in one likeness; it was the Lord who sent them;
They have all taken different names, and thus become separate.
Worship the divine Self, and bear hatred toward none;
In this worship you will find peace, in hatred only sorrow.


, (1544-1603), saint from Rajasthan

Mystic Meandering - The Morning Kiss





I am kissed every morning;
a gentle kiss from behind a cloudy veil…

I long for the veil to lift;
to fully awaken to
”the Beloved”
in ITs Brilliance…

I am tired of *trying* to “know”
*trying* to “see”;
chasing misty shadows
of
the Real.

Yet “IT”
calls to me from
behind a veil of mystery.


When my trying and chasing stops,
the veil opens.


Silence comes
– and I wait…

”The Beloved” reveals ItSelf
in
Divine Intimacy
in
Total Awareness

A love affair with
Grace and Love

A Mysterious Embrace

The Morning Kiss…



Mystic Meandering
Dec. 17, 2014



Monday, December 29, 2014

Wu Hsin - Reality remains

 




 There is the Formless appearing as forms.
There is the Unity and the apparent multiplicity.
There is the Wholeness appearing as separate fragments.
There is the Imperceivable appearing as phenomena.
There is the Unchanging and the apparent changing.
There is the Unconditional and the apparent conditional.
There is the Infinite Eternal appearing in space and time.
There is the Limitless appearing with limitations.
There is Constancy and apparent presence and absence.
There is the Background and the apparent foreground.
There is I-am appearing as I-am-this.
There is the Immortal and the apparent birth and death.
There is Being appearing as being Wu Hsin.
Everything perceived is changing.
Reality remains.

(from Being Conscious Presence, p. 13)



Sunday, December 28, 2014

Mooji - Merge me in You



Sometimes I meet beings who say they have realised the Self. 

They believe or claim that they know and understand the Truth.
They say they sense it, feel it and are convinced it is what they are and so on. However, it is often sensed here that the mind takes delivery for this understanding and purchases further life as the egoic ‘achiever’ of ultimate Truth. Consequently, the realisation does not get baptised in the Heart and a real chance of freedom gradually fades away.
Therefore, such beings can retain their sense of personhood, unknowingly. Some even edit my words to fit in with their personal inclinations, projections and spiritual fantasies, but I want to burn all of this to the ground in order that they attain true freedom.
What we speak about here is authentic transcendence, you see?
One has to overcome the hypnosis of personal conditioning.
They have to be free from the psychological influence of the mind.
I don’t mean that you should ‘stop’ your mind but rather, focus on the witness of mind. Therefore, it has to be an authentic transcendence, not a Hollywood awakening.
Sometimes I say I don’t want or feel for your company.
You indulge too much mental and psychological noise.
There are too many relationships going on inside your mind.
Your representations of yourself mentally, emotionally, psychically are not authentic expressions of the Self. Such a localised identity is not enough at this level of understanding, insight or, we could say, Self-knowledge.

So what has to happen?
You have to be That.
How are you going to be That?
The ‘you’ who you take yourself to be cannot be That.
Being That is not a verb, an action you will take.
It is an awakening, a recognition so profound that it changes your mind’s orientation immediately and irreversibly.
As real understanding takes over, it will be a life changing experience.
It is as though I am telling you to do something ‘you’, as ego, cannot do.
Your mind cannot do it, but it is required of you to, acknowledge and be That which you are.
You have to be open to expose what is not in service to your true nature.
It is the highest aspect of my work, guidance or teaching and it is more like an energetic correspondence, not only a verbal one.

Let the untrue be exposed and thoroughly burned.
Sometimes the way into that completeness, that recognition, is that whatever is untrue is rejected as it is recognised as false, either by you or by me.
And you may be thinking, ‘Oh my god, I really thought I was getting somewhere! This is so discouraging’… and so your world feels like it is turned upside down.
Do not be disheartened, instead keep an attitude of gratitude.
It is your good fortune that your ‘world’ is being crushed.
I myself don’t have a world. Let yours be upside down so that what is true in you can reveal itself and begin unfolding in its authentic expression as true life and being.
Grace is helping you in every way. Trust it.
Say, “Yes, I am here, remove this sense of separation, this arrogance of separateness and merge me in you, oh God, oh Universe Being, Self, Truth, Life. Don’t give me any technique.
Absorb me. Replace me with You.”
And finally: Trust your master.