Jeff Foster - Choices & miracles

You choose, or you make the choice not to make the choice today. 

You decide, or you decide that now is not the time for decisions, it is a time for honouring uncertainty, holding it close, making sacred this familiar place of no-answers-yet.

There is no choice but to be here, where you are now, an ancient place where both certainty and indecision are allowed, both choice and lack of it, both answers and these unanswered questions, and the most profound doubt. 

There is no choice because this moment is already exactly as it is, 

this breath, these thoughts, this glorious uncertainty, 

this vastness in which everything is possible. 

You choose, and you have no choice but to choose. 

Or you don't choose, and you have no choice but to sink into your lack of choice, bow to it, today.

And then the entire notion of choice, and with it, the notion of an individual chooser, dissolves into sunsets and swallows and the scent of lavender, and laughter, and the next exhale, and the next inhale, the breath breathing itself; 

and this is the age of miracles.

http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/ 

 

"I am the Great Sun" commented by Ram Dass

I am the Great Sun

A poem from a Normandy crucifix of 1632

I am the great sun but you do not see me.
I am your husband but you turn away
I am the captive but you do not free me.
I am the captain; you will not obey
I am the truth but you will not believe me.
I am the city where you will not stay.
I am your wife, your child but you will leave me.
I am that God to whom you will not pray.
I am your counsel but you do not hear me.
I am the lover whom you will betray.
I am the victor but you do not cheer me.
I am the holy dove, whom you will slay.
I am your life but if you will not name me [acknowledge me]
seal up your soul with tears and never blame me.

 

At this moment, next to you on left and right, behind you and in front of you, sits the divine mother. Sit Shiva, Krishna, Christ, the Buddha, Allah, Yahweh. Everybody you know, you see, you remember, and everyone you will meet is another face of God. Every person is another doorway through. It’s another way that God has come to you to awaken your attachment and your clingings, to bring them to the forefront and allow you to see through them.

And so be as Sri Radha. Be so in love that the love prevents the veil from coming between you and the beloved. When this journey has wended its way, you finally become like Hanuman, who kneels at the foot of Ram. And Ram, in love of Hanuman, tries to raise Hanuman to sit beside him, at which point Hanuman would merge into Ram. But Hanuman makes himself so hard and heavy that Ram cannot lift him. He wants to stay separate in order to remain with the beloved.

Finally, we play right at the fine line between becoming the beloved and standing back one pace, one breath…. And then the breath changes and we merge once again, and then, in the next breath, here we are. It’s the two and the one in a delicate play of love. It’s the whispering of pillow talk between lover and beloved.

source Ram Dass

David Whyte - ‘Pilgrim’

Photo © David Whyte
Morning Misted Valley :
Puget Sound, January 2015

I bow to the lark
and its tiny
lifted silhouette
fluttering
before infinity.
I promise myself
to the mountain
and to the foundation
from which
my future comes.
I make my vow
to the stream
flowing beneath,
and to the water
falling
toward all thirst,
and
I pledge myself
to the sea
to which it goes
and to the mercy
of my disappearance,
and though I may be
left alone
or abandoned by
the unyielding present
or orphaned in some far
unspoken place,
I will speak
with a voice
of loyalty
and faith
to the far shore
where everything
turns to arrival…

Excerpted from ‘Pilgrim’ in
PILGRIM: Poems by David Whyte
©2012 David Whyte

 http://www.davidwhyte.com/

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Taya Malakian - Sutra Of Stars

picture source here

There is a web that weaves 

the fabric of creation together

in a net that contracts and expands.

Eons pass with each inhale and each exhale.

From the tiniest fiber

to the whole of the infinite Universes,

there is no separation from the rhythmic dance

of creation.

There is a Sutra of Stars

that draws the heavens together in its spiral.

There is an orchestra amongst the atoms

so that even the most miniscule 

is a seed of the profound.

The countless threads that spin 

through every moment, every particles

like beads of a necklace,

pearls on a web.

Each strand stimulating the others,

in a cosmic cascade of energy.

The journey from here to the farthest reaches 

would take you right back to where you began.

If you pluck just one string

they all will vibrate 

with the same song. 

 

http://www.tiffanaya.com/sutra-of-stars/

https://www.facebook.com/tiffanaya

Greg Goode - Nondualism in Western Philosophy: a Series of Pointers

Nondualism

Nondualism is an experience, a mode of existence of the self and world, and a metaphysical1 view about reality. As an experience, it is a sweet, nonobjective sense of presence, of borderlessness, and lack of separation. As a mode of existence of the self and world, it is said to be a matter of fact. As a metaphysical view, nondualism holds that reality is not composed of a multiplicity of things. This seems vague, and it is because beyond this point, the varieties of nondualism disagree. If reality is not a multiplicity of things, is it then just one thing? Or less? Just what is reality? Some nondualists say that reality is awareness. Some say it is voidness. Some say it is a net of jewels, where each jewel is composed of the reflections from all the other jewels. And some nondualists say that the nature of reality is that it has no nature.

What’s Wrong with Dualism Anyway?

So why is nondualism a goal? Does it feel better? Is it more true?

Most of the philosophers who write on nondualism argue that dualism falsely claims to be an accurate picture of our experience. They also argue that it causes suffering. These are two slightly different approaches...

Continue reading:

HERE

Nondualism
Nondualism is an experience, a mode of existence of the self and world, and a metaphysical¹ view about reality. As an experience, it is a sweet, nonobjective sense of presence, of borderlessness, and lack of separation. As a mode of existence of the self and world, it is said to be a matter of fact. As a metaphysical view, nondualism holds that reality is not composed of a multiplicity of things. This seems vague, and it is because beyond this point, the varieties of nondualism disagree. If reality is not a multiplicity of things, is it then just one thing? Or less? Just what is reality? Some nondualists say that reality is awareness. Some say it is voidness. Some say it is a net of jewels, where each jewel is composed of the reflections from all the other jewels. And some nondualists say that the nature of reality is that it has no nature.
What’s Wrong with Dualism Anyway?
So why is nondualism a goal? Does it feel better? Is it more true?
Most of the philosophers who write on nondualism argue that dualism falsely claims to be an accurate picture of our experience. They also argue that it causes suffering. These are two slightly different approaches
- See more at: http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/nondualism-in-western-philosophy/#sthash.7LzUcW4H.dpuf

Charlie Hopkins - Every moment, I am kneeling

for Carol

 

To everything alive,
to strangers and to moths around the open fires of light bulbs,
my common heart is opening.
In every rounded corner of the world there is a laughter
I can hear,
a joy I share with falling leaves and sparrows.

Inside his prison cell, the condemned man is awake,
overcome with joy,
his floor worn smooth with dancing.
The sand bags packed around his eyes are there to stop the river overflowing.
Hear church bells ring in the palms of his hands!
There is happy static jumping in the blood.
Across his ribcage, waving pastures, fireflies humming!

The pain that comes with love is taken down into the body,
locked in cells designed to open.
That pain is free to go now.
Born naked into fire, that pain, is forgotten!
The pain of Earth confined in solitary space,
all that is over now!
From here, I see a billion suns are clustered in your crown.

Some like to take the shape of planetary nebulae falling past the world
as flaming dust.
I follow the blood, returning to the heart.
Every moment, I am kneeling with an ear against my prison wall
and the breathing heart I listen for is yours.

 Marc Chagall-les amoureux de Venise

 https://charliehopkinspoetry.wordpress.com/

Lao Tzu - Empty yourself

"We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want."
- Lao Tzu "

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.
Knowing constancy, the mind is open.
With an open mind, you will be openhearted.
Being openhearted, you will act royally.
Being royal, you will attain the divine.
Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao is eternal.
And though the body dies, 

the Tao will never pass away.

Sri Anandamayi Ma - All there is

"How Much More Time 'will you Spend' at a Wayside Inn?
Don’t You Want to Go Home? How Exquisite it all is....
One is, in his Own 'Self,' the Wanderer, the Exile, the
Homecoming and the Home....
One 'Self,' is All that There Is…."

"Selected Discourses" by Sri Anandamayi Ma HERE

Mystic Meandering - When the Heart opens...

When the Heart opens
nothing else matters:

not trying to “figure ‘it’ all out,”
or to “make ‘it’ happen”,
or “understanding” anything…

When the Heart opens
you know that you are loved
beyond measure,
from a space beyond
known love...

Embrace this Love
that arises in the
 Heart of Hearts.
Feel its joy, its comfort,
and play in the channels
of Its Love.

It is not difficult to open to Its flow,
but you have erected many barriers
and limitations
through the years of hiding
who you are
as

 ~ Love ~

Don’t be afraid of where this Love might take you,
or how it will change you.
Allow the stream of Love to carry you,
to ~ flow ~ you ~

 through life ~

Allow the Truth of who you are to emerge:
~ Love ~
the Essence of your Being,
and all constrictions will release,
and
 Love will
flow ~ ~ ~ ~

Unrestrained…

All that is necessary is to Remember
the Essence of Love
that you are,
 from which you came,
in the Stillness of
your Heart…

It is your truth
and your substance…


Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
circa 2004/2006

 

http://mysticmeandering.blogspot.gr/ 

Jnaneshwar - The Refutation of Knowledge

As for ourselves,
We possess neither knowledge nor ignorance.
Our Guru has awakened us
To our true identity.

If we attempt to see our own state,
That seeing itself becomes ashamed.
What, then, should we do?

Fortunately,
Our Guru has made us so vast
That we cannot be contained
Within ourselves.

Our identity is not limited
Solely to the universal Self,
But we are not disturbed
By perceiving our separative existence;
We remain, after final liberation,
The same as we were before.

The word that can describe our state
Has not yet been uttered.
The eyes that can see us
Do not exist.

Who could perceive us,
Or enjoy us as an object of enjoyment?
We cannot even perceive ourselves!

The wonder is that we are
Neither concealed nor manifest.
Ah -- how amazing it is
That we even exist!

How can mere words
Describe the state
In which we are placed by Sri Nivritti?

How can ignorance
Dare to come before us?
How can illusion
Come into being after its death?

And can there be any talk of knowledge
Where ignorance cannot gain entrance?

When night falls,
We light the lamps;
But what is the use of such efforts
When the Sun is here?

Likewise,
When there is no ignorance,
Knowledge also disappears;
Both of them have gone.

Actually,
Knowledge and ignorance are destroyed
In the process of discerning their meaning.

Both the husband
And the wife lose their lives
When each cuts off the other's head.

A lamp held behind a person
Is not really a light;
If it's possible to see in the dark,
It's not really darkness.

We may call that which is utter nescience
"Ignorance,"
But how can we call by the name of "ignorance"
That by means of which everything is known?

Knowledge turns into ignorance,
And ignorance is dispelled by knowledge;
Each is canceled by the other.

Thus, he who knows does not know,
And even he who does not know, knows.
Where, then,
Could knowledge and ignorance dwell?

Since the Sun of Self-realization
Has arisen in the sky of pure Consciousness,
It has swallowed up
Both the day of knowledge
And the night of ignorance.

 from Amritanubhav...

 English version by S. Abhyayananda Original Language Marathi

Rumi ♡ - Whoever brought me here

    All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.

My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.

This drunkenness began in some other tavern.
When I get back around to that place,
I’ll be completely sober. Meanwhile,
I’m like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.

The day is coming when I fly off,
but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?
Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.

If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.

This poetry. I never know what I’m going to say.
I don’t plan it.
When I’m outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.