Ron Starbuck - Sūnyatā - Emptiness is Form - Form is Emptiness

emptiness
is a cupless cup
without shape
formless and lucid
luminous with light

precisely positioned
between
heaven and earth
where the space within
is completely transparent
unspoken, without words

where
a single raindrop
fragile and compliant
essential in form
falling quickly or gently
may be caught
and collected

to be seen
as a reflection
unstated in its purity
as a thought
arising out of
of our beingness

coming into being
faintly glowing at first
as the vividness
of daybreak
becomes brighter
and brighter

as we awaken to each day
each thought, understood
explicitly expressed
guided by wisdom

in the mystery, which is God
which is creation
which is infinite
which is reality
which we create
from ourselves

where we hold
with breathlessness,
many new beginnings
being and becoming

where we hold
each new creation
in the holiness
of the heart

arising out of
each sacred moment
of the day,
in the smallest of things
in kindness freely given
and unasked for
accepted with graciousness

in compassion found
in the strangest of places
almost alien in encounter
in grace given
out of our desire

to heal and repair each human heart
where all people
are one

where we empty ourselves
to become
as one

Ron Starbuck
from Wheels Turning Inward
Copyright 2009, 2010

Alan Jacobs read Sri Ramana Maharshi

Alan Jacobs has made a lifelong study of mysticism and is a regularly published author and poet. He is also President of the Ramana Maharshi Foundation, UK. In this beautifully made short film by French director, Jean-Raphael Dedieu, Alan reads from 

Ramana's Talk 146.
Stylishly shot on Hampstead Heath, London, near Alan's home, the film contains black and white still photographs of Bhagavan at the Ramanasramam.

Clara Llum - Infinite space and light

Be aware that you are. Be aware that you are aware, right now.  At any given moment, rest in that simplicity of being yourself, free from labels or concepts of “myself.”  The very beingness, the very awareness is the constant “you”, the true you, faceless, formless, empty, cognizant, all containing, all inclusive.

Be aware of being…  Aware of being aware.

Meditate, stay with this awareness that you are and that is you.

Worship it, dive in it, make of it your home, and all will unfold.

Self-present awareness – awareness that is present in itself. Watch your watchfulness, be conscious of being conscious right now…

Aware-ing is happening, see it, know it, be with it, that’s all.

The mirror looks in the mirror, infinite space and light.

All enlightenment comes naturally from this. All wisdom, all peace, all realization.

Rumi – Inner Wakefulness

This place is a dream 
 only a sleeper considers it real
then death comes like dawn
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought
was your grief

A man goes to sleep in the town
where he has always lived
and he dreams
he’s living in another town
in the dream he doesn’t remember
the town he’s sleeping in his bed in
he believes the reality
of the dream town
the world is that kind of sleep

Humankind is being led
along an evolving course,
through this migration
of intelligences
and though we seem
to be sleeping
there is an inner wakefulness,
that directs the dream
and that will eventually
startle us back
to the truth of
who we are

From The Essential Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks

This place is a dream
only a sleeper considers it real
then death comes like dawn
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought
was your grief
A man goes to sleep in the town
where he has always lived
and he dreams
he’s living in another town
in the dream he doesn’t remember
the town he’s sleeping in his bed in
he believes the reality
of the dream town
the world is that kind of sleep
Humankind is being led
along an evolving course,
through this migration
of intelligences
and though we seem
to be sleeping
there is an inner wakefulness,
that directs the dream
and that will eventually
startle us back
to the truth of
who we are
- See more at: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/#sthash.VPzqI2sx.dpufThis place is a dream
only a sleeper considers it real
then death comes like dawn
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought
was your grief

A man goes to sleep in the town
where he has always lived
and he dreams
he’s living in another town
in the dream he doesn’t remember
the town he’s sleeping in his bed in
he believes the reality
of the dream town
the world is that kind of sleep

Humankind is being led
along an evolving course,
through this migration
of intelligences
and though we seem
to be sleeping
there is an inner wakefulness,
that directs the dream
and that will eventually
startle us back
to the truth of
who we are

Kahlil Gibran - You often say

You often say,
"I would give, but only to the deserving."

The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.

Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights,
is worthy of all else from you.

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life
deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.

And what desert greater shall there be,
than that which lies in the courage and the confidence,
nay the charity, of receiving?

And who are you that men should rend their bosom
and unveil their pride,
that you may see their wealth naked and their pride unabashed?

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver,
and and instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life
while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

~ Kahlil Gibran
From The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

Not One, Not Two

 Not One, Not Two

    How does one seek union with God?
    The harder you seek, the more distance you create between Him and you.
    So what does one do about the distance?
    Understand or recognize that it isn't there.
    Does that mean that God and I are one?
    Not one. Not two.
    How is that possible?
    The sun and its light, the ocean and the wave, the singer and his song. --
    Not one. Not two.

    Anthony de Mello

THE MYSTICS describe reality as an indivisible Unity containing two, apparently distinct, aspects: an eternally unchanging and constant aspect, and an aspect that appears changing and inconstant.

To those who have never experienced that Unity, such declarations about It must appear illogical and self-contradictory. But, say the mystics, however paradoxical it may seem to the rational intellect, that is simply and truly the nature of the one reality.

In order to explain that reality which is both the eternal God and the world of forms, a reality which appears to possess two such incompatible aspects while remaining one reality, it became apparent very early on, historically, that it was necessary to introduce two terms, each to designate one aspect of this dual-faceted Being, yet which would in no way represent two separate and distinct entities, but one -- a One with two faces.

As the mystics tell us, the universe is a manifestation of an insubstantial, creative Energy. This Energy has no independent existence of its own, but is simply a "projection" of pure Consciousness and is similar to the thought-energy projected in the form of a dream-image by an individual mind.

Different cultures and traditions have distinguished between pure Consciousness and the creative Energy with terms such as, Shiva and Shakti in the East and Godhead and Christ (the Logos, the Word, or the Light) in the West. The first is the unmanifest Source and the second, the manifesting Energy that manifests the world.

So it can be said, the transcendent Absolute (Numenon) with its Energy manifests as our inner and outer world (phenomenon) -- these are simply polar aspects of the same one and only Being.

These two are not even a hair's breadth apart; they are but two different perspectives of the same reality. And the duality created by conceptually dividing the formless Source from the world of forms is only an apparent and artificial one, as they constitute an indivisible unity.

The complementarity of the unmanifest/manifesting Energy and the manifestated universe may be illustrated by an analogy with the ocean and its waves: Consider an infinite ocean; if we regard its "water-ness," the ocean is one constant whole. But if we regard its "wave-ness," that same ocean is a multiplicity of incessantly changing forms.

The ocean is the one reality that is manifesting as all the waves; and, though the waves form and dissolve, form and dissolve, the ocean as a whole remains the same, continually unchanged and unaffected.

This is exactly what the mystic experiences in his awakening to the universal Self; he appears to be but one of the many manifestations of reality, but he is, in fact, the one Reality Itself, forever unchanging, eternal.

Shankara, the great expounder of the philosophy of unity, called this apparent duality between the many and the One, a "superimposition":

    Like ripples on the water, the worlds arise from, exist in, and dissolve into, the supreme Lord, who is the material cause and support of everything.

    The manifested world of plurality is superimposed upon the eternal, all-pervading Lord whose nature is Existence- Consciousness, just as bangles and bracelets are superimposed on gold.

Read more

HERE

Maghrebi - Sufi poem

At the moment we saw your sun, we left all particles of dust behind us
On account of that Essence we left all attributes behind us.

All the world is but a stage, displaying the signs of Being
So we have left the search of these signs behind us.

Do not talk to us about revelations and miracles
As we have left such talk behind us.

Do not boast about your many mystic states and stations
As we have left these states and stations behind us.

We have escaped from the Sufi centres, monasteries and convents
As we have been liberated from litanies and we left time behind us.

We have fled from school, lessons and discourses
As we have left obscurities, doubts and questions behind us.

And the ka’ba, the idol temple, the Christian cincture and the cross
And the wine shop and the lane to the tavern of ruin, we have left it all behind us.

We spent some time as an ascetic in our retreat
But even the seven heavens, seen in true dreams, we have left it all behind us.

We saw it all in our sleep and in our imagination,
So like true men, this sleep and imagination, we left it all behind us.

O, shaykh! If this is all you have realised in the field of perfection,
Then rest at ease, as this perfection, we left it all behind us.

All of this is nothing more than difficulties on our path;
These difficulties, thanks to God, we left it all behind us.

We in our search of lights, yes, even the most oriental of all lights:
Maghrebi, the ‘glittering star’, and the ‘niche’, we left it all behind us.

~~~

 

 Maghrebi, a Sufi of the 14th century, who expressed in poetical terms what Ibn al-‘Arabi taught in his many books, recited the following poem for his murshed Isma’il Sisi. He was delighted by the poem and praised his disciple for composing it. The Persian text comes from A Critical Edition of the Divan of Muhammad Shirin Maghribi; ed. By Leonard Lewisohn; Tehran and London; ghazal 122; pp. 253-4.

Nisargadatta Maharaj - dream

See the dream as dream.
There is no need of a way out of the dream!
Can you see that a way out is also a part of the dream?
All you have to do is see the dream as dream.
The very idea of going beyond the dream is illusory.
Why go anywhere? Just realize that you are dreaming a dream you call the world, and stop looking for ways out.

The problem is not the dream.
Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another.
Love all, or none of it, and stop complaining.
When you have seen the dream as a dream,
you have done all that needs be done.

Norman Fischer - intimacy

In Zen literature the word intimacy is often used as a synonym for enlightenment.

In the classical Zen enlightenment stories, a monk or a nun is reduced simultaneously to tears and laughter as he or she suddenly recognizes that nothing in this world is separate, that each and every thing, including one's own self, is nothing but the whole, and that the whole is nothing but the self.

What are such stories telling us if not that love is much wider and deeper than an emotion?

Love is the fruition of, the true shape of, one's self and all that is.

                
–Norman Fischer
Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up