Muhammad Shirin Maghribi ~ Non-existent and existent

 

 O end of every beginning,
O beginning of every end,
O manifest of every hidden,
O hidden of all revealed!

The light of Your beauty
In every believer's eye does shine;
The sign of Your anger
In every denier's heart we find.

You thank him and he is You,
Himself giver and receiver,
Himself the gift and the thanking.

None but You, the worshipped;
None but You, the worshipper;
None but You, the witness;
None but You, the speaker.

When the Saqi gave Maghribi the wine
Of eternal life
He was annihilated and eternal.
He was non-existent and existent!

 

 

Fakhruddin Iraqi ~ The pot of love-madness

 

 Love, Love is both wine and cup,
Love is a wine that puts all rivals under the table.
That first world-displaying cup is but
a reflection of the purity of Love's glass
and the half-drunk glance of the saki also drinks
from this wine, whose ultimate end is desire.
This cup was drained, and from its outpouring
the water of life drenched the world;
from that water a bubble arose
and was called 'the 18,000 worlds'...
You who have no news of this intoxicating vintage
(never for a second having stepped outside yourself)
how long have you boiled the pot of love-madness
there in your monastery – and still the stew is raw!
Now come to the tavern, for a few days
sit from morning to night;
drink a toast to the desires of the friend of wine
till you're drunk enough to see through his eyes.
Look: the saki's face
how it swells the soul
the saki's eternal face in the
world-displaying cup.

 

 

Jeff Foster ~ Love song to myself

 

You are the one I wake with every morning.
The one I breathe with,
the one whose every heart beat I feel as my own.
You are the one I walk with,
the one I speak and sing with,
the one who stays with me
through every waking moment of every sacred day.
You are the one I get sick with,
the one I cry with,
the one whose anger and joy and doubt
surges through me like fire.
You are the one I will die with,
the one whose arms I shall return to.
You are the one I see in every face,
shining through every pair of eyes,
shimmering through the silences,
the trails of dust and the spaces in the canopy.
You are my constant companion,
my home, my reason, my joy, my life.
We cannot be divided,
we cannot be two,
and even 'One' is too far for us.
I sing this song to myself,
disappearing into the song,
and I am never alone.

https://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/

Sattva Lynn ~ Loving Aliveness

 

art Meganne Forbes

 

Don’t try to control the noise;
just notice what is always Quiet -
which is the Noticing Itself.

That Noticing
is Loving Aliveness,
Pure Awareness or Light.

Only what is
total silence, stillness,
unmoving, and unchanging...
can possibly notice anything.

Or else it would be
another changing thing.
Therefore, what is unchanging
must be Eternal.

It must be Invulnerable -
meaning, without influence.
It cannot be affected
or influenced in any way,
or it would change.

Just notice what is
always unmoving -
always Here to
notice anything at all.

That is where true power lies.
BECAUSE it does not change.
It is always what It Is.

Then you don’t have to
try to control, alter
or overcome the noise
of thoughts and feelings,
and habits of identification.

You just keep noticing,
or open your heart
to the Unchanging Reality -
and ask inside how
to know it as your Self.  🌹

 

 

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS

&

HAPPY EVERYDAY 

 

 

Chuck Surface ~ The Beloved's Embrace

 

 

 

What do I care for a Transcendent Absolute,
Devoid of qualities and attributes?

Give me the Rapturous Ecstasy,
Of The Beloved's Embrace!

Let me Dance with The Beautiful One,
While I exist to Dance.
For if, in Heaven, She and I are no more,
I will linger here, in sha' Allah*.

Let me gaze upon Her Beautiful Face,
As all that fills my sight.
For if, in Heaven, The Beloved is hidden,
I will linger here, in sha' Allah.

Let me hear Her wordless Whisper,
In still silence, and clamorous din.
For if, in Heaven, Her Voice is unheard,
I will linger here, in sha' Allah.

Let me savor the taste of Her Radiance,
As the Wine of my own Existence.
For if, in Heaven, The Tavern is closed,
I will linger here, in sha' Allah.

Let me feel Her Touch, palpable and real,
As a Rapturous Presence, within.
For if, in Heaven, She is far removed,
I will linger here, in sha' Allah.

Let me inhale Her Fragrance,
As the Perfume of Grace, here on Earth.
For if, in Heaven, Love is unscented,
I will linger here, in sha' Allah.

What do I care for a Transcendent Absolute,
Devoid of qualities and attributes?

Give me the Rapturous Ecstasy,
Of The Beloved's Embrace!

 

 

 

 https://gardenofthebeloved.com/

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Shushtari ~ Laylâ

 

  You seek Layla, but she reveals herself within you
You think she’s other, but she’s not other than you
And that’s a madness that is apparent to the cult of lovers
So be careful, for otherness is the essence of being cut off
Don’t you see how her beauty envelops you?
She disappears only when you reject part of yourself
“Come close to me,” you say to she who is your All
And when she loves you, she leads you to yourself
Meeting her is bliss beyond description
and none reach her, save those who see meaning without forms
I was so in love with her that I would have vanished in her love
had she not sworn that I only obey her
I concealed her from people with fantasy
After having revealed her, truly, inside my cloak.
I hid her from myself, with the robe of my worlds,
And from my envy, out of the severity of my jealousy
O Dazzling beauty! Should the light of your face
Touch the eyes of a blind man, he would see every atom
She is adorned with each and every charm and grace of beauty
And wherever she appears, she is desired by those who love.

 

Paintings in video: 

https://rassouli.com/

 

 

Amoda Maa ~ The bifurcation point

 

 

 The world is breaking, down or open, or both. We stand at a major bifurcation point, like never before seen in our human story. It is an inner and outer breaking point, a point of maximum stress (for that is what "bifurcation point" actually means). A point when we the "system" (whichever system we're talking about, it could be a physical thing like a piece of metal or a psychological thing like the ego-mind or a biological thing like a cellular organism or a collective thing like a species) is under severe pressure to evolve.

But this evolution is not guaranteed. The system could totally break down and devolve. It could collapse into insanity or chaos. It could fall into further unconsciousness, fear and hysteria. It could only barely survive. Or it could start the process of breakdown and at the critical point break through to a new level.

Each of us holds this bifurcation point within. And each of us is called to listen from a deeper place to what is demanded by the reflection of the outer world. Do we continue to operate from a divided state, a state of fear and panic and noisy narratives that lock us into armored perspectives and narrow pedestals? Or do we open so wide that we can hold the totality of the mess, the loss, the grief, the horror and the agony in that openness, and then remain as this openness come what may? Can we truly take up the invitation for an inner revolution of consciousness?

Today, my heart weeps for those whose lives are torn apart by ruthless acts that strip them of true sovereignty. Today, a well of sorrow for the insanity that floods humanity and keeps on coming. Today, a whisper of light on the horizon of darkness as the potential for transformation and evolution beckons.

May we each rise up in our deep hearts and remember who we really are. And live as that, in the face of all that comes.

 

 

 

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Jim Carrey ~ Take it all in

 

"I am here to plant a seed that will inspire you to move forward in life
with enthusiastic hearts and a clear sense of wholeness.
I used to believe that who I was ended at the edge of my skin,
that I had been given this little vehicle called a body from which to experience creation,
and though I couldn’t have asked for a sportier model,
it was after all a loaner and would have to be returned.
Then, I learned that everything outside the vehicle was a part of me, too,
and now I drive a convertible. Top down wind in my hair!
I am elated and truly, truly, truly excited to be present and fully connected to you
at this important moment in your journey.
I hope you’re ready to open the roof and take it all in?!"

 

 

Hafiz ♡ Spin and Surrender

 

 

I wish I could speak like music.
I wish I could put the swaying splendor

Of the fields into words
So that you could hold Truth
Against your body
And dance.

I am trying the best I can
With this crude brush, the tongue,
To cover you with light.

I wish I could speak like divine music.

I want to give you the sublime rhythms
Of this earth and the sky's limbs
As they joyously spin and surrender,
Surrender
Against God's luminous breath.

Hafiz Wants you to hold me
Against your precious
Body

And dance
Dance. 

 

 

Hafiz ♡ For no reason

 

 

               And
                For no reason
                I start skipping like a child. And
                For no reason
                I turn into a leaf
                That is carried so high
                I kiss the sun's mouth
                And dissolve.

                And
                For no reason
                A thousand birds
                Choose my head for a conference table,
                Start passing their
                Cups of wine
                And their wild songbooks all around.

                And
                For every reason in existence
                I begin to eternally,
                To eternally laugh and love!

                When I turn into a leaf
                And start dancing,
                I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
                And I dissolve in the Truth
                That I Am.

 

 

Mary Oliver ~ Living

 

Katsushika Hokusai 1760 – 1849: 'Self Portrait as a Fisherman'
Color woodblock print with metallic pigments; surimono shikishiban.
Art Institute Chicago

 

The witchery of living
is my whole conversation
with you my darlings.
All I can tell you is what I know.
Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.
It's more than bones.
It's more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It's more than the beating of the single heart.
It's praising.
It's giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life - just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another.

 From “To Begin With, the Sweet Grass”
‘Evidence: Poems’  Beacon Press, 2010

 

With thanks to Miriam Louisa Simons
 

Shiv Sengupta ~ What is spiritual anarchy?

 

INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS SPIRITUAL ANARCHY?

Anarchy and chaos seem to go together like peanut butter and
jelly, like macaroni and cheese, or Thelma and Louise. The two
seem inseparable in our minds because we have no idea what
this word “anarchy” really means. It conjures images of rioting
in the streets, burning cars, broken shop windows, rampant
looting, bands of armed militia terrorizing innocent civilians,
bodies on the street, starvation … but that’s just the Hollywood version.

Anarchy is rst and foremost about self-governance. Yet,
self-governance is not something most people are capable
of. Most people need to be led, guided, instructed, advised,
rewarded and punished for them to feel as if they are on the
right path in their lives. They need this structure put in place
for them so that they may feel a sense of value, contribution,
progress and meaning. Without it they feel lost—cast adrift
upon a vast ocean of experience with no real markers by which
to chart their progress.

If you were to take a person like that and suddenly strip
them of the scaffolding that society has built around them, they
would most likely react by either going berserk or falling apart.
Most people are simply not ready to have the dual training
wheels of meaning and identity taken off their bicycles.

They are better off doing as they are told.
They are better off maintaining an illusion of freedom and choice
They are better off believing that their opinions and
beliefs are proof of a uniquely forged identity.
They are better off believing that the more they protect
and craft that identity the more secure they are going to be.
They are better off believing that the more people they
can get to agree with them, the more proof they will
have of the rightness of their perspectives.

Without others to provide them with a context for their experiences,
such people are totally lost. Without someone to agree
with and someone to oppose, it is hard for them to know where
they stand. Those who have spent their lives living in castles in
the sky will have no idea what to do when they see that the sky
is just a great blue void that they are endlessly falling through.
They will simply flail in desperation. And flailing people certainly look chaotic.
But flailing is not anarchy. It is just chaos.

When the Buddha spoke of enlightenment, he was speaking
about spiritual anarchy. When J Krishnamurti talked about a
“total revolution”, he was talking about spiritual anarchy.

Anarchy is a process that begins with the stripping away
of all the narratives we have invented as a civilization—until
there is nothing left of a person but spirit encased in flesh.
The experience of living is whittled down to the very core until we
are brought to the heart of it—the self in its rawest and most
unadulterated form. The book of life is torn apart—one page at
a time, chapter by chapter—history, race, religion, nationality,
gender, spirituality, ethnicity, politics—all the accumulated
knowledge of the world expunged.

We stand face to face with the universe just as we once did
on the day we were born. We recognize that the essence we
call a “self” and the essence we call a “universe” are one and the
same even if their forms may differ. Finally, we choose to take
responsibility for this essence in all its forms—including that of
our self. This is spiritual anarchy.

It is governance not just of a separate individual self. It is governance
of the whole as our self. Such governance doesn’t happen
by force. It is not an assertion of our own will upon the universe,
nor is it the submission or surrender of our will to the universe. It
is a governance that happens by listening, adapting and responding
to the ow of life itself. Then at times when this ow aligns
with that of society, we may appear to “conform”. And when this
flow appears to misalign with that of society, one may appear to
“oppose”. Yet, this aligning and opposing has nothing to do with
being “for or against”. The direction in which we move has not
been primarily set within a social context.

When I gaze up at a starry night sky, my eyes can see stars
that exist hundreds of light years away. And if I close my eyes,
I can still feel the aftershocks of the Big Bang resonating within
my body. This moment encompasses all of space and time. This
whole universe has been gifted to me as a canvas. Am I going to
listen to someone telling me what to draw on it?

Spiritual anarchy is the process by which the control of the
social self-construct is relinquished and restored to the spirit.
The only law that applies henceforth is spiritual law. Yet, this
is not something cast in stone like commandments on a tablet.

It is a truth that reveals and rewrites itself afresh moment after moment.

 

 Advaitaholics Anonymous Vol.II
A Manifesto for Spiritual Anarchy

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 https://advaitaholics.com/

 

The Doors ~ The end

 

 This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes... Again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need... Of some... Stranger's hand
In a... Desperate land
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die
This is the end.

 

 

 

Rashani Rea ~ The unbroken

 

 Rashani

 

 

Ramana ~ Silence

•     

 

Anandamayi Ma ~ Beauty in everything

 

 

 There is nothing in this universe that may be treated with disregard or contempt.
He acts His Divine Play
in infinite ways,
through infinite forms, and
in an infinite variety of settings.

Without appearing as the many, how can this Play be staged?
Do you not see how
light and darkness,
joy and sorrow,
fire and water,
are inextricably linked together
in one unbroken chain?

Remember that spiritual endeavour must be coupled with purity of heart. To the extent that we harbour unkind or narrow thoughts, we increase the cause of evil in the world.

What necessity is there to pay attention to what others have or have not?

Far better be intent on your own improvement.

If you can develop inner beauty, and enshrine Him, the ever Beautiful, in the glorious temple of your heart, you will then be able to perceive beauty in everything.

 

 

 

Jeff Foster ~ Love is the only answer.

 

 

 I excavated the ruins of the lost city of my youth and I discovered my inner child buried there.

I did not have to heal him for he healed me, exalted me to the highest of places and gave me the Name above all other names.

Myself.

I was raised from the dead by the dead and given new life by the ones I had betrayed and insulted in my ignorance.
 
That seems to me to be the definition of grace.

There is so much beauty and healing power in the night and fog, my love, in the destructive impulse and the timeless tragedy of the forgotten and the lonely.

We are much, much younger than we dream in our hubris and we are far greater than we could possibly know.

And I tell you now - Love is the only answer.

Yes, Love is the only and final answer.

It resurrects the dead, laughs at time and stretches its arms out wide in childlike expectation to the great mother.

 

 

 

http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/ 

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Nancy Neithercut ~ The song of our aliveness sings itself

 

 
This is closer than the tongue in your mouth, your breath, your heart beat…
blooming and wilting simultaneously
we are this flowering beauty, not ever becoming,
yet utterly obvious and so familiar it cannot be found
or lost.

The song of our aliveness sings itself
erupting and dissolving without time or timelessness
rainbows cascading through infinite colors
never separate never joined
the silence the hush the rush of unknowing
pervades the song of silence

Nothing can be known or unknown, there are no things
yet stars bloom in your eyes,
and starlight hovers in your breath
you are the sparkling in between the between
that never was nor will ever be…

The wings of this and that soar into a heart beat of time and space
and an imaginary existence
no center or edge to the swirling dream scape can be found

Without before or after
without solidity or liquidity,
neither real nor unreal the dream is only what it seems…
yet

How marvelous
how stupendous
how excruciatingly beautiful
this love that seems to swallow it all
swallow herself
taste itself
through your heart your eyes your lips your beautiful beautiful eyes.

 

 

 

 

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Mary Oliver ~ When I Am Among The Trees.

 

 When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

 

 

art Adam Oehlers

 

Amata Goldie ~ The Jewel of Love That We Are

 art Duy Huynh

 

 Fly with me, to the horizon of eternity

Let us cast away our mortal suits

Let us fly into the divinity,

Of who we truly are

Come and fall into my embrace,

Only the holy, can reach us here

And the demands of tomorrow shall disappear

Into the continuum of time forgotten

Follow me into the light, of your longing

The desert of your soul is parched Beloved

Turn away from it all,

In surrender to the holy,

To the pulse of your immortality

Do you hear your soul humming?

Come, unfurl your petals of purity,

Turn now, towards only the light

Come and fall into my embrace,

Only the holy can reach us here,

Fly with me, to the horizon of eternity

Let us taste once again,

The jewel of Love that we are

 

 

ashram of the ethers 

 

 

Rumi ♡ Songs of not knowing

 

′′ Come and join the lovers, let us open the gates of the Garden of Love.
Take refuge in the shadow of our home for we are the neighbors of the Sun.
We may be invisible like the soul and senseless like love, but we are with you in all moments.
Don't try to define us, for we are above all concepts.
You are like a stream, a prisoner of the underground, join us and flow with us towards the sea.
We bet everything and reach the state of absolute emptiness.
Knowing that we don't know we now sing songs of not knowing ′′  

 

 

John O'Donohue ~ Blessing

 

Homeless by Lee Newman

 

 On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets into you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green
and azure blue,
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

John O'Donohue, from Echoes of Memory (Transworld Publishing, 2010) 

https://www.johnodonohue.com/

Thanks to Miriam Louisa Simons

 

 For all who ache, sorrow, despair:
"may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life."

 

David Whyte ~ The edge

 

THE EDGE YOU CARRY WITH YOU

You know
so very well
the edge
of darkness
you have
always
carried with you.
You know
so very well,
your childhood legacy:
that particular,
inherited
sense of hurt,
given to you
so freely
by the world
you entered.
And you know
too well
by now
the body’s
hesitation
at the invitation
to undo
everything
others seemed
to want to
make you learn.
But your edge
of darkness
has always
made
its own definition
secretly
as an edge of light
and the door
you closed
might,
by its very nature
be
one just waiting
to be leant against
and opened.
And happiness
might just
be a single step away,
on the other side
of that next
unhelpful
and undeserving
thought.
Your way home,
understood now,
not as an achievement,
but as a giving up,
a blessed undoing,
an arrival
in the body
and a full rest
in the give
and take
of the breath.
This living
breathing body
always waiting
to greet you
at the door,
always prepared
to give you
the rest you need,
always,
no matter
the long
years away,
still
wanting you,
to come home.

 

~~~

From ‘The Edge You Carry With You’
in ‘Still Possible’ David Whyte

https://davidwhyte.com/ 

 

 

Nisargadatta Maharaj ~ Love and silent peace

 

 

 "I found myself without desires
  and without knowledge.

 There was nothing left but love,
 the state of witness was left behind;
 there was only love, all pervading,
 all embracing, absolute.

 There were no crucial experiences,
 no soul-shattering visions.
 I just ceased imagining myself to
 be what I never was and there was
 nothing to replace the unreal with.

 There was no need to look for
 replacements - the nothingness
 was the fullness of understanding,
 love and silent peace."

 

 

Jean Klein ~ To be

 

 

 In true listening, you are nothing,
and in this nothing is everything!
The true conclusion is imposed at the moment
when everything dissolves, fades away in silence.

 

 

BE WHO YOU ARE

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The Boy And The Starfish And The Yawning Chasm Of Infinity

 

 

Going Rogue With Caitlin Johnstone · The Boy And The Starfish And The Yawning Chasm Of Infinity

 

 

 

 READ THE TEXT HERE

 

 

Nancy Neithercut ~ Love sings me

 art Gun Legler

 

 

 How many see the self as the enemy? They feel that something is wrong and hear that there are some who live in apparent bliss, without attachment, and they long to get rid of that as well! They love so many things with an ache that they feel is wrong somehow.
They desire love and feel they cannot find it... yet they are looking at it always.... it is just the idea of love that seems to block this obvious recognition

I see you and I know you are love...
You are the jewel of the universe... through your eyes, love catches a glimpse of its own reflection...
and I weep and I weep and I weep...

in love as love through love
love in love with itself...
through your beautiful beautiful eyes

I wandered to the edge of all and everything...
The known world exploded and every shard pierced my heart and eviscerated me, love burned every secret place I thought I could hide in... found the deepest darkest places I never knew existed... acres of blood soaked meadows and ashes of bones blowing away...
....until there was not even nothing...

But no one fell off that cliff, as there is no where to fall and no one who could...
This unutterable vacancy swept through my brain like a great wind, blowing away all that I thought I knew... all ideas were seen to be false... including all ideas of truth...
and love...

I returned to the known world, knowing I was a flowing thought dream... that all things were mental fabrications...
Yet the infinite beauty of thingness, wondrous beyond compare...
The amazing beauty of all the stories ever written, the heartbeat of humanity... love and love lost, and longing for love... and the pain we get to feel so deeply... all of it feels like love...
the exquisite story of love sings me... sings these words these lines
...these tears

 

 

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Ales Us ~ What all this is

 

art Akiane Kramarik

 

 What happens can even after so called shift, as it usually does, appear as a feeling that it is you who are doing what body does, though that is of course also just what appears to be happening. Even deep comprehension that what happens is just a life happening all by itself, an automatic streaming of seeming events, does not prevent the sense of doership to appear. Just the same is with thoughts and the thinker, feelings and the feeler.
  The I am sense, appearing as a by product of social interactions, is as natural for humans as is chirping and posing of birds for attracting the mate, or communicating by chemicals through roots, air, or via insects, for trees, what all displays the sense of individualness in a certain form. A sense of being a separate entity seems to be a prerequisite for the survival and successful functioning of the specie.
  All those mystical experiences, of oneness, of no-self, of being the pure awareness, or being one with everything or with god, are but mental phenomenons and have as such no importance outside of narrow context of personal story.
  As I see, it is the very comprehension of own uniqueness and simultaneous illusoriness of the person together with utter impossibility to ever know and understand what all this is, what makes life feel as unfathomable mystery and wondrous beyond comprehension. And knowing that this too is just a fleeting experience, just a by passing mirage, does not diminish it but rather makes it even more wonderful and precious.

 

 

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Adyashanti ~ from "The End of Your World~

 pic by Martin Stranka

 

 

 "When we see this moment as it truly is, we see something extraordinary. 'We' don’t feel the need to turn this moment into anything other than what it is, because it is extraordinary as it is. When we perceive this, we have healed the illusory split within ourselves, and we have started to heal the illusory split within the greater consciousness of humanity. Our greatest contribution to humanity is our awakening. It is to literally leave the state of consciousness that the mass of humanity is in and discover the truth of our being, which is the truth of all beings. When we do this, we come back as a gift, a newborn. We are, in a certain sense, reborn.
That force, that energy that moves us, is at the same time the very substance of our own being, our own self. This energy is undivided. It is forever completely transcendent and forever completely right here, right now, this moment. There is never a need for a different, better moment.

The great definition of enlightenment is simply the natural state of being. We have been hypnotized into thinking that the perception of division and fear and conflict is actually the natural state of humanity. But at another point, when we’ve become more conscious, we see that this state of division is not natural. As I’ve said before, it takes a ***tremendous amount of energy to maintain the illusion of division, because it’s not the natural state.
 This fact should be obvious, because division doesn’t feel natural. It may feel common, it may feel like it’s the usual thing, you may see it all around you, but when you feel that same conflict inside yourself, you realize it doesn’t feel natural. It feels divided; it feels conflicted. the natural state.  
So the state of consciousness that a great majority of humanity is in is not natural. It’s altered. We do not need to go looking for altered states of consciousness; humanity is already in an altered state of consciousness. It’s called separation. Separation is the ultimate altered state of consciousness.

 Contrary to a popular misunderstanding, enlightenment has nothing to do with an altered state of consciousness. Enlightenment is an unaltered state of consciousness. It is pure consciousness as it actually is, before it is turned into something, before it is altered in any way. The kingdom of heaven is the natural state of being.

This simple and natural state of awakening, this allowing ourselves to literally disappear into absolute simplicity, is not seen as a big deal. It’s just natural. It’s not better than or higher than anything or anybody. It’s simply the natural state of being. It’s totally democratic. It’s the inheritance of 'everybody'."

 

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 http://www.adyashanti.org/