Saturday, June 20, 2015

Bob O’Hearn - Only This!




This magical realm we call “the world”
is a wild wonder beyond human reckoning!

The mere appearance of anything at all
is a perpetual mystery of pure awe
and relentless astonishment!

These ever-shifting props that provide
the sense of time and change are nothing
but children’s toys the Great One
juggles like batons in the air!

How thrilling to suddenly realize
we ourselves are This!

The synchronous majesty
of our infinitely expansive being
is the perfect body of the Beautiful One,
the One who is living us now, dreaming
us now as the very miracle we Are.

Any rain-splashed leaf is nothing
but another moistened kiss of Infinity.

Every wandering breeze rustling trees —
the amorous breath of our own Divinity.

Every sigh, every breath, every beat of heart
is an orchestrated choir of regal rapture.

Every molecule of light amazes itself
at its own inexplicable appearance.

Even as we sleep and dream
our sensitive thoughts conduct
a symphony of rippling pleasure.

This body standing here
is a delightful play of Love.

This mind —
an echo of a mystery
fashioned out of speechless Love.

We are Love, and Love must love,
for therein shines our perfect purpose.

Every blink and wink of our eyes
is the grace-bestowing sacred regard
of the original Lover, through Whose Glance
all are blessed, healed, given and taken —

all truly redeemed beyond any need
for make-believe redemption.

The chains that seem to bind us here
are merely our reluctance to forgive
and let go of a non-existent past.

No sad regret,
no hopeful anticipation,
everything just as it is –

this moment!

Each miniscule particle of light
swirling in the wake of our casual passing
ignites the ecstatic birth of galaxies —

we are made of This!

There is one Presence, one Power,
alive in all the universe, being lived
through Its uncountable expressions.

We are all unique projections
of that changeless Divine Energy
in which the myriad sentient personalities
flash and frolic as dreamy thought forms
dancing in the Heart/Mind of Source.

Drawn deeper into this stunning recognition,
all universal nature herself becomes transparent
as the manifestation of the Living Womb
of vast emptiness, delivering everyone
and everything into pure light
and more light still.

Every motion, every breath,
every thought and cessation of thought
is none other than the intense enjoyment,
the utter delight, the supreme pleasure
of the Indescribable Supreme!

This understanding can yield a great relief
of sufficiency and equanimity, regardless
of how things may seem to play out
in the drama’s consciousness’
ceaseless unfolding.

There is nothing that can be done,
no weeping or prayer, no exotic method
or any sort of strategy that can be manipulated
to attain this plain and simple realization;

no heroic gate-storming or self-generated effort
will yield true satisfaction, no practice nor
tweaking of attention can transcend itself.

Doing or not-doing are equally futile.
All achievement is transitory.

Even the most feeling submission
to the Living Source must be seen at last
as arising from a subtle, deluded sense
of division within the body/mind.

The clear light radiance of awake awareness
has no before or after, nor parts
that somehow come together
or randomly divide.

There is only This!

Such recognition is not an acquisition
of the mind, but rather a letting go
and awakening at the Heart —

our destiny and present condition —

when all that would obstruct clear seeing
is sacrificed at the altar of the Unconditional,
for the selfless sake of Love alone.

May all beings awaken to the bliss
of their own true nature –

their own primordial
brilliance!

Only This!


Paul Brunton - A Search in Secret-India



How divorce oneself from the age-old tyranny of thoughts?
I remember that the Maharishee has never suggested
that I should attempt to force the stoppage of thinking.
"Trace thought to its place of origin," is his reiterated counsel,
"watch for the real self to reveal itself,
and then your thoughts will die down of their own accord."
I have repeatedly interrogated my consciousness
of physical, emotional and mental sensations in turn, but,
dissatisfied in the quest of self,
have eventually left them all.
I have then applied the attention of consciousness to its own centre,
striving to become aware of its place of origin. 




download the book  here

Friday, June 19, 2015

Rabia al Basri - In My Soul



In
my soul
there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church
where I kneel.
Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.
Is there not a region of love where the sovereignty is
illumined nothing,
where ecstasy gets poured into itself
and becomes
lost,
where the wing is fully alive
but has no mind or
body?
In
my soul
there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque,
a church
that dissolve, that
dissolve in
God.

 From ‘Love Poems From God‘ by Daniel Ladinsky.



Franklin Merrell-Wolff - The Nameless



Above, below, to right, to left, all-encompassing,
Before and after and all between,
Within and without, at once everywhere,
Transforming and stable, ceaselessly;
Uncaused, while fathering all causes,
The Reason behind all reasoning,
Needing nought, yet ever supplying,
The One and Only, sustaining all variety,
The Source of all qualities, possessing no attributes,
Ever continuous, appearing discrete,
Inexpressible, the base of all expression,
Without number, making possible all number,
Containing the lover and the beloved as one,
Doing nought, remaining the Field of all action—
The actor and the action not different—
Indifferent in utter completion;
Diffused through all space, yet in the Point concentrated,
Beyond time, containing all time,
Without bounds, making bounds possible,
Knowing no change;
Inconceivable, yet through It all conceiving becoming;
Nameless ever and unmastered;
THAT am I, and so art Thou. 



read more here

Wayne Teasdale - Mystic



“Every one of us is a mystic. 
We may or may not realize it, we may not even like it. 
But whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, mystical experience is always there, inviting us on a journey of ultimate discovery. 
We have been given the gift of life in this perplexing world to become who we ultimately are: 
creatures of boundless love, caring compassion, and wisdom. Existence is a summons to the eternal journey of the sage
 – the sage we all are, if only we could see.”



Read more here

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Wei Wu Wei - Practice of non-practice



Hommage à Hui Neng

Replacement of Responsibility


The usual displacement of responsibility is on to the object! But objects have none whatever: total responsibility lies with their subject.

Bring it home! Keep it at home!

Where is the flag flapping, and what causes it to flap?

Where is the cow-bell ringing, and what causes it to ring?

Where is the shoe pinching, and what causes it to pinch?

Where is the odour of the rose, and what causes it to smell so sweet?

Where is the flavour of the wine, and what gives it that flavour?

Where is the knowledge of these phenomena, and what causes them to be known?



Re-establish responsibility where it belongs. Return it to its source (which it has never left).

Return every thing to its source, to which it belongs, and which it has never left!
That is the practice of non-practice.



from "The open secret"
read more here
or
download book here

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Oriah Mountain Dreamer - What Ripples Out




What ripples out from us
Is what lives within us.
I stop trying to manipulate my breath
Stop hoping to get it “right”
Letting the breath be natural, gentle
Feeling how it calms the nervous system
Quiets the mind, nourishes the body
Unhooks me from overstimulation
Immobility is not what it’s about
Moving from this centre I am guided to act
Out of love for my small life
And all that is alive
 
 


Let’s try it together now:
For just one inhale, one exhale
Let the breath be gentle
Let the nervous system quiet
Allow action to arise from this center of being.
What ripples out from here
Is what feeds the soul of the world
 



Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Rumi - Me without I...



I went through a journey without I
There, my heart opened up to joy without I
The Beloved who always hid His face from me
Suddenly showed His beautiful face to me without I
I died from the pain of not finding you
A new birth came and I was reborn without I
Now I am always drunk without any wine
Now I am always happy and joyful without I
Do not ever remember me for who I was
I am the remembrance of me without I
I say happy and loving words without I
It is I who is always alive without I
All the doors of fortune and joy were closed on me
Suddenly they were opened to me without I
With I, even if I am a king, I am a slave of time
Without I, there is no slavery in all my kingdom
I am drunk with the wine from Shams Tabriz
May this drunkenness of love be always without I


``````````````

 Rumi's Selected Poems from the Divan Shams Tabrizi translated by Alexander King




Monday, June 15, 2015

Rig Veda - Who really knows?



“Who really knows?
Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced?
Whence is this creation?
The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?
Whence this creation has arisen
– perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not –
the One who looks down on it,
in the highest heaven, only He knows
or perhaps even He does not know.”


Rig Veda – (Hymn of Creation) (transl. Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty)
                                                                         PDF HERE 

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Ramakrishna - When ecstatic love awakes



How foolishly you try, O mind,
to know the nature of Reality.
You are searching in vain,
as a mad person seeks treasure
in a pitch-black, empty room.
God is known by ecstatic love,
there is no other adequate mode.
Truth is only experienced
by recognizing all as God,
never by discriminating neti, neti:
“This is not God. That is not God.”
Nor is God encountered
through Vedas, Tanstras,
or any system of philosophy.
The elixir of pure love
delights Divine Reality,
who dwells secretly and joyously
in this chamber of the human body.
For a single drop of pure love,
yogis meditate for ages.
When ecstatic love awakes,
Reality absorbs the soul.



Kabir - Swing




Between the conscious and the unconscious, the mind has put up a swing:
all earth creatures, even the supernovas, sway between these two trees,
and it never winds down.

Angels, animals, humans, insects by the million, also the wheeling sun and moon;
ages go by, and it goes on.

Everything is swinging: heaven, earth, water, fire,
and the secret one slowly growing a body.
Kabir saw that for fifteen seconds, and it made him a servant for life.


 English version by Robert Bly