Anita Avent - Glimpsing perfection

art Rassouli

 I kiss the lips of oblivion and my name is abyss.
So deeply washed as this mystery I cannot comprehend
or explain how
I've awakened as an endless swoosh of the cosmos through my heart.

The ideas and beliefs conjured as imaginary Anita seem so selfish and small now as seamless emptiness
breathes the body and dances the music of radiant pulsing energies
complete with impersonal thoughts and images for seeing what is here now.

No where and no one to be and no thing to be or do as this imaginary symphony
of lights and sounds and yet
just for this precious moment,
an intimate view of limitless infinity...... and then it's gone......beyond gone
as flow-less flow, as perfection, a whisper of blissful not knowing, not being,
and yet being and knowing this is all there ever is,
or could be, as this appearance dissolves
as the vastness of oblivion.

Beginning and ending finally unite and ignite a flicker as this moment.
A thorn of loving loss as they spark union and disappear as the edgeless edge.
Such sweet sorrow and joy for the momentary gift of unicity when all distinctions are seen
as false and the fullness of aware emptiness is all there is.

Oh sweet sailor of the vastness......lover of tides, winds, and deep oceans.......
let go and surrender your heart and head in personal destruction

 to the ravages of the deep
and death, to the thin shadows of bravery peering towards dawn
offering herself fully to the sun.

Let go and breathe the last breath of surrender while falling deeply and
swiftly as silent emptiness where fear and suffering await your personal death.
Be still and offer your personal treasures to the dark.
Laugh at your insanity of believing, naming, and charting a personal you apart from infinity.

And as you seek to find what you never lost,
and then see what you have always been,
just let go into death and give thanks for the infinite swirling
edgeless possibilities of appearing
as an instantaneous imaginary being....
beholding the amazing grace of raw wonder
and loss for this tiny glimpse of perfection.

Copyright (c) 2012-2018 - All rights Reserved - Nonduality/Anita Avent - Raleigh, NC, USA

http://www.nondu.org/ 

 

Mark Nepo - The mystery of the moment

art Gun Legler

The mystery of the moment is that it opens all moments. I know this in a felt way because of the brief and total feelings of Oneness I have fallen into during my life. This can be affirmed but never verified. It is something to be experienced, not proved. Life presents itself constantly through the miracle of the smallest part containing the whole while the Infinite Whole is always greater than the sum of its parts. It is we who fall in and out of our awareness and experience of Oneness. In the same way the eye dilates and constricts, our sense of being opens and closes. It is the way the soul breathes on Earth. These openings and closings are not to be judged or censured, any more than we would censure exhaling over inhaling. We need both to live.

Most of the practices extolled by the spiritual traditions are aimed at restoring our openness of being, so we might fall into the mystery of the moment. Repeatedly, we chance to experience the eternal perspective animated by entering any moment completely enough that it reveals the vibrant pulse of all life. Even when blessed to experience this, we often don’t know what to do with this blessing. Do we quit our job? Sometimes. Do we stop denying the love we feel? Hopefully. Do we deny the undeniable fragility of life that is never far from us? Often. Mostly thought we are simply asked to be awake, to stay awake, to live more compassionately, to be more aware.

Once we are exposed to the power of being in the moment, it is easy to want to stay there. But what does this really mean? I can only speak from my own experience. The life-force waiting in the moment helped me survive cancer. It was only in the moment that I was free of fear, because fear lives in the future and calls us to it. Between the fear of trying to anticipate where cancer was leading me and the exhausted peace of collapsing in the moment, I came to understand that I couldn’t think my way out of cancer. But from the eternal perspective opened to me in each moment, I could inhabit the inner resources to meet the journey as it was unfolding. What has stayed with me all these years is that I experience the moment with my heart and the future with my mind.

It’s common to get distracted by working to stay in the moment above all else, but these blessings of complete immersion will happen. We don’t have to work at them. I’m learning that when present in the moment, I view life more deeply. I meet life through an awakened sensibility, and I make more peaceful decisions.  From the experience of Oneness that the moment opens, I am engaged with my heart and consider life choices from that felt, eternal perspective. When tripping along the gravel of circumstance, not able to to enter any moment, I am engaged with my mind, trying to stay alert, trying to negotiate the obstacles of life without falling.

From the press of isolated experience, the mind feeling out of control tries to control everything. From the felt knowledge of the web of life, the heart tries to participate in the rush of life of which it is a part. Like all of us, I struggle with both: trying to control what happens and trying to participate in what happens. Today I feel clear enough to share these reflections. But if this makes sense to you, please remind me when you find me next week stirring my coffee nervously, staring off into the future, biting my lip.

from "Seven Thousand Ways to Listen" 

 http://marknepo.com/

 

 

John O’Donohue - For a new beginning

art Rassouli

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

from 
" To Bless the Space Between Us "

Hafiz - Old sweet beggar

This
Path to God
Made me such an old sweet beggar.

I was starving until one night
My love tricked God Himself
To fall into my bowl.

Now Hafiz is infinitely rich,
But all I ever want to do

Is keep emptying out
My emerald-filled
Pockets

Upon
This tear-stained
World.

~Hafiz, The Subject Tonight is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz

Shanmugam P - You are the Truth

Carrying the weight of past in my head
And dragging the scenes which were old and dead,
I ran to grab the bliss of the future;
The more I ran, the more was the torture..

The torture of the hedonic treadmill
Followed me as I continued uphill;
I was caught in the prison of craving
With tedious thoughts, my mind was raving.

I met an ugly old man on the way
who had a long thick beard with shades of grey.
His face was shining with heavenly bliss;
In his eyes I saw an endless abyss!

“What makes you so happy in this rat race?”,
I asked him as he slowly turned his face.
He replied,”The answer is within you!
The grand kingdom of God is within you!”

“That’s a joke”, I said “Are you kidding me?”.
“No!” He said, “Turn inward, you’ll become free!
You’ve made your own boundaries inside your mind,
You’ve closed your eyes and think you’ve become blind”.

I said, “How can I get out of this trap?
I want to find the way, give me the map”
He said, “You’re the way, the truth and the life!
Be still and know you’re that, and end this strife!

You’re not your body and you’re not your mind;
Not knowing the timeless truth makes you blind;
You’re not your story and you’re not your thoughts;
You’re not those age old, buried mental knots.

You’re not that chattering voice in your head;
You’re not anything that you did or said;
You’re not anything that you have or know
You’re the truth that is watching all this show!

You’re not anything that can be perceived;
You’re not an object that can be observed;
You’re the screen where the world is being played;
You’re the emptiness where the form is made.

You’re the one witnessing the mind and breath;
You’re one without two, beyond birth and death;
Like the air trapped in a small round bubble,
You feel separate which brings all the trouble.

Inquire inside and wake up from this dream!
Let truth alone shine like a bright white beam!
By inquiry, your illusions will break;
You’ll stop mistaking the rope for a snake”

Hearing these words stopped my thoughts for a while.
Looking in, I slowly began to smile.
I watched my thoughts as they slowly passed by;
I observed my mind like a secret spy.

For years, I contemplated on his words;
I watched my thoughts fly like a bunch of birds.
One day, I woke up and realized the truth;
Since then my life has been peaceful and smooth!

 Shanmugam blog

 

Sufism (description of) by Al-Qushayri

Sufism is entry into exemplary behavior and departure from unworthy behavior.
Sufism means that God makes you die to yourself and makes you live in him.
The Sufi is single in essence; nothing changes him, nor does he change anything.
The sign of the sincere Sufi is that he feels poor when he has wealth, is humble when he has power, and is hidden when he has fame.
Sufism means that you own nothing and are owned by nothing.
Sufism means entrusting the soul to God most high for whatever he wishes.
Sufism means seizing spiritual realities and giving up on what creatures possess.
Sufism means kneeling at the door of the Beloved, even if he turns you away.
Sufism is a state in which the conditions of humanity disappear.
Sufism is a blazing lightning bolt.

PDF

 

Svein Myreng - Grace

There is a stillness

simpler than silence

a peace deeper

than calm.

There is a shimmering

in the dark soil,

shades of trees,

in old moss, and the twisted

forms of branches,

that hold us, carry us

and nurture us.

In the flash of the eye,

laughter, or a tear.

No effort needed, no self to seek,

just grace remains.