Saturday, March 14, 2020

Gerald Rhoades - Mad with joy

art  Rassouli



 You are filled with God’s glow.
It radiates out pure sparking light
making you appear as a mystical flower.
So why the sad face?
You have a bonfire of happiness within.
Why don’t you immerse your heart
in its blissful sweetness?
Do you still think it’s outside?
Listen, my friend,
the gold mine of all gold mines
is underfoot.
Won’t you feel foolish
when you discover
your father has bequeathed
immense wealth?
All your wandering and begging
has brought you naught.
Come sit by the fire
and feel it’s warmth.
Let’s drink wine
and look at the moon
until we become mad with joy.






more of his poems here

 

 

Nathalie Delay - Freedom





The need to possess and control comes from our mental conditioning.
These demands are not a native part of life, because everything in life is completely full, 
and in perpetual transformation.
Our mental faculties are unable to comprehend this beauty.
Giving ourselves to the contemplation of life makes it possible to touch the substance of reality.
Mental activity then becomes quiet, and settles to the bottom of our being.
There, need is absent and endless fulfilment appears.

An infinite treasure is waiting within us, if we turn our gaze toward the immensity 
and depth of our being.
We intuit that external security is a snare which puts us to sleep 
and keeps us from tasting true freedom,
but we dare not pay attention to this intuition, out of fear. 
One day the call of the open sea becomes too strong,
we dare to face the fear and explore the unknown without trying to master it.

The taste of freedom has become irresistible; we are at last ready 
to let our mental blueprints, our beliefs, our opinions, die. 








Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Kaygusuz Abdal - The Hidden Treasure Is In Me

 




The ocean, the endless sky,
the quarry and the gems are in me.
Open your eyes, look carefully:
both worlds are in me.

The spirit and the body,
the proof and the evidence,
both profit and loss—
the whole marketplace is in me.

I am the purpose of mankind,
the whirling movement of the earth;
I am the school and the knowledge—
the seal of completion is in me.

I am the Muslim. I am the Christian.
I am the place they both consider holy.
I am the crucified savior, the good and the evil—
whatever is—is in me.

I am the Infinite, the Eternal;
I am the wealthy and the poor;
I am the rememberer and what is remembered—
Faith and faithlessness are in me.

I am the idol that is worshipped,
the Kaaba* and the sacred relic—
the purpose of human beings
and all that comes with them
is in me.

I am the light particle and the sun itself,
the hidden and the seen;
I am everything existing under its rays—
Lover and Beloved are in me.

I am Kaygusuz Abdal, the soul in everyone.
I am the infinite and the eternal.
The hidden treasure is in me.




thanks to stillness speaks


 

José M. Tirado - The circle of awareness




I.
Widening our circle of awareness
We stretch out-
Expanding so far
We come to embrace everything.
Like a clear sky
Which holds nothing:
Not clouds or birds
Who leave no traces,
Remembered only as
Phantoms of light and sound,
And rainbow-like bursts of
Shimmering color.

II.
Look at mind looking:
Easy, without straining
Holding nothing
Grasping nothing
Allow the natural radiance
To shine.
Rest there.
The whole universe
Is present.

III.
Welded to the near-frenzied appearance
Of mountainous obstacles
Is the ruin of attention.
Monkey-minded blips,
Cherry blossom permanent.
None so pretty-
None so deadly.

IV.
Tongue pressed tightly to
Palette, innumerable regions of
Attention, bared equally
Between longing and the interminable
Suggestions for pop songs
And Snapchatted insights.
The mind moves.

V.
Within the expanse
Breathes the same thing
As did before,
Neither holding,
Nor retaining,
Cycling between rhythm,
Regular as
The breath
Is constant.





 

Leonard Jacobson - Silence




When you become fully present, thoughts stop and your mind is silent. You are not trying to stop the thoughts. It simply happens as you become present. Thoughts stop as you become present, because thoughts are always about the past or future. You cannot think about the present moment. You would have to take yourself out of the present moment in order to think about it. So if you bring yourself fully present with something that is actually here now, you must emerge out of the mind, and the world of thought. It cannot be otherwise. A noticeable shift will occur within you as you transition from the past and future world of the mind, to the world of now.

You cannot stop thoughts. It is impossible. The very effort to stop thoughts is a reinforcement of the thinking process. All you can do is relax, notice that you are in the mind, and then bring yourself present with that which is already present. If you can see it, hear it, feel it, taste it, touch it or smell it, in this moment, then it is of the present moment.

It is not something you are remembering or imagining with your mind. And so you can be present with it. You are not thinking it into existence. It is actually here now and so you Thoughts will stop, and you will experience a deep feeling of peace as your mind falls silent.

But there is an even deeper level of peace and silence waiting to emerge, as you become more and more present. As your mind becomes more silent, an inner door is opened, allowing an infinite and eternal silence to emerge. This infinite and eternal silence is the very essence of your Being. It is your true nature. It is the essence of all existence. It is the eternal silent presence of pure consciousness. It is the "I AM" of you. It is that dimension of you that exists in this moment and only this moment. It is that dimension of you that exists in Oneness.

It is your Buddha nature. It is the Christ of you, which exists in Oneness with God. It is awakened man. It is awakened woman.








Sunday, March 8, 2020

Rumi ♡ Gazing at the Light





Concentrate on the Essence, concentrate on the Light.
In lucid bliss, calmly smoking off its own holy fire,
The Light streams towards you from all things,
All people, all possible permutations of good, evil, thought, Passion.
The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same.
One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind,
Endlessly emanating all things.
One turning and burning diamond,
One, one, one.
Ground yourself, strip yourself down,
To blind loving silence.
Stay there, until you see
You are gazing at the Light
With its own Ageless eyes.