Michael Markham - indefinable presence

 

We can never truly know who or what we are because there is no solid, independent "self" to be known. There is only a shifting reflection, a hologram composed of memory, thought, and perception. 
The identity taken for granted, the "me" that feels so real, is nothing more than a collection of past experiences, conditioned responses, and inherited narratives stitched together by the objectifying brain to create the illusion of continuity. 
When examined closely, there is nothing tangible at the center, no fixed essence, no autonomous entity directing the show, only a fluid, self-referential process that arises moment by moment.
Like a hologram, this sense of self appears three-dimensional, vivid, and convincing, yet it has no actual substance. It is generated by the brain’s objectification, which separates and categorizes experience into subjects and objects, past and future, self and other. 
But outside of this mental framework, there is no "self" that exists apart from the thoughts that describe it. We are echoes of memory, patterns of recognition, fleeting reflections shimmering across the surface of sentience.
Because of this, the very act of seeking to know ourselves is paradoxical. The seeker is nothing more than the seeking itself, an illusion chasing its own tale. 
Any answer the mind arrives at will only reinforce the illusion, solidifying the belief that there is someone there to be understood. But when this illusion is seen through, what remains is not a void, not a lack, but an openness, an infinite, indefinable presence that has never needed a name, a story, or an identity to simply be.

facebook

Kabir - It is One

 

Does [the Muslim's God] Khuda, live only in the mosque?
Is [the Hindu's God] Ram, only in idols and holy grounds?
Have you searched and found Him there?
You imagine that Hari [Vishnu] is in the East, and Allah is in the West;
But search for Him only in the heart-that is where Ram and Karim both live.
Which, then, is false, the Quran or the Vedas? False is the man who does not see the Truth.
It is One; It is the same One in all. How can you imagine that It is two?
Says Kabir: 0 Lord, every man and every woman are Your own forms;
I am the simple child of Allah-Ram; He is my Guru, my Pir
Brother, where did your two gods come from? Ram, Allah; Keshav, Karim; Hari, Hazrat-so many names!
There may be many golden ornaments, but there is one gold; it has no two-ness in it.
Merely for the sake of exposition, we make of the One, two.

From The Bijak of Kabir

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī - I Am the One

 

My crazy heart is all tied up again,
but the real crazy is the one who has no idea
about the heart and has never felt its tugging.
I don’t come from the earth or the sky,
nor from fire or water.
I became the One
whose name everybody takes an oath to.
I became Jesus to that moon.
I rose up and passed through the skies.
I am the drunk Moses.
God himself lives inside this patched cloak.
I'm crazy, insane, drunk out of my mind!
I don’t listen to advice and deserve to be locked up.
I'm the tavern’s rind.
Why should I even be called a Sufi?
Who thinks a glass alone is enough?
‘Who can be happy with just one glass?
I've been falling up and down like a drunk,
rolling like a ball in the square.
I've been fully submerged and drawn into that sea.
Why should I just be a drop?
My heart and soul have come alive!
Why should I act as if I'm dead?
‘When Muhammad sees me drunk, my face pale,
he kisses my eyes, then I prostrate before him.
I am today’s Muhammad,
but not Muhammad of the past.
I am the phoenix of the time,
not some small hungry bird.
I am the sultan of today, not yesterday's man.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī - You dance inside my chest

 

Quotes

“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.”

Dancing is not just getting up painlessly, like a leaf blown on the wind; dancing is when you tear your heart out and rise out of your body to hang suspended between worlds.

" In order to understand the dance,

one must be still.

In order to truly understand stillness,

one must dance."

In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.

Whosoever knoweth the power of the dance, dwelleth in God.

Dance where you can break yourself up to pieces and totally abandon your worldly passions.

Arise oh day! The atoms are dancing!

For him the spheres and wind are dancing

Souls ecstatic with joy are dancing

I’ll whisper in your ear where they are dancing

Each atom in the wind or desert

Is good-natured, like this, we are enchanted

Each atom, whether happy or sad

Is bewildered by the sun, happy without reason

There is simply nothing to get

 

Ed Crowley - Unknown Wanderer

 

The Unknown Wanderer

comes upon a bridge 

high in the snow capped 

Himalayan mountains 

The bridge flows as 

smoothly as the Tao

The river is as still 

as the Silence within 

beyond the mind 

There is no past, 

present or future 

There is absolutely 

no time at all, not even 

the moment of Now

The Sage is in the gap 

of Reality between 

all words and Silence 

You may find this description 

unreal and strange to imagine 

The solution is quite simple 

if you read it slowly again

In the snow capped 

Himalayan mountains 

the river is frozen and 

thus appears not to flow

The bridge is the entrance 

to the gateless gate and 

thus it’s just a drawbridge 

that moves up and down 

Those are the logical 

explanations but now 

we enter the realm of 

the mysterious Essence 

of the Indescribable Tao

Now once again

He simply sits Zazen 

Dropping body and mind

Leaving all thoughts behind 

The Sage now passes 

through the gateless 

gate into eternity 

Entering the true 

nature of Reality 

Within here there’s 

infinite realms so

far beyond mind

So you can leave all 

that logic far behind 

The Sage goes beyond 

mind to the stillness of the 

Silence within, this is where 

Wisdom and Creativity reside 

Here the Sage 

is the subtle 

Observer and 

will silently abide

He sees the One perceiving 

every myriad being and thing 

reflecting light and love back 

to Itself throughout infinity 

and attains instant Realization 

With a subtle energy adjustment 

of the frequency of vibration

A sacred secret the

Wanderer was taught 

by ancient Taoist Sages

Passed down to him

throughout the ages

He becomes one 

with the eternal Tao

Which by now 

you’ve Realized is 

the Perceiver Itself,

flowing in the eternal 

stream of the past, 

the future and Now

From the summit of 

Hidden Mountain 

Where Dōgen's enlightened 

moon doesn’t even break 

the surface of the pond 

that may or may not 

indirectly through Zazen

practice contain that elusive 

imaginary youthful fountain 

The Wanderer observes 

time as it keeps flowing 

throughout the ages

It’s a continuous river of 

knowledge that recites 

sutras, doctrines, discourses, 

holy books, ancient bamboo 

Taoist scrolls and scriptures 

that holy men of all walks of 

life drink down believing it’s 

the nectar directly from their 

respective gods, buddhas, 

prophets, Saints and Sages

All the holy men and women 

have faith in all the pages

The Unknown Wanderer 

Knows all these books are 

simply guideposts on the Way 

His mind has transcended 

all book knowledge as he has 

broken through Unmons barrier 

another successful gateway

He’s Consciousness Itself 

Simply Boundless and free 

He Realizes all myriad beings 

and things are One Reality

No books contain

the Consciousness 

within the emptiness 

of the field of Rigpa 

It’s the direct experience 

of the Buddhas dharma

Living each and every 

moment just one by one

It encompasses 

absolutely everyone 

It’s not just 

mine or yours

Realization occurs 

Total Realization 

is as Dōgen stated

“Not anyone in particular;

But, like the deep blue color

Of the limitless sky,

It is for everyone, 

everywhere in the world “

And furthermore 

recalling 

Bodhidharmas 

famous poem:

“Transmission outside doctrine, 

No dependencies on words. 

Pointing directly at the mind,

Thus seeing oneself truly 

Attaining Buddhahood.”

The Sage now experiences the

Middle Way as the Tathāgata

did underneath the Bodhi tree

As the Unknown Wanderer now 

abides in Nirvikalpa Samadhi 

The Sage looks back and sees

as Dōgen did that ‘mountains 

are once again mountains and 

waters are once again waters.’

He arises from sitting 

and carries water 

down from the

Hidden Mountain, 

the physical exercise 

simply feels good

Then arriving at 

his humble abode 

He begins once again 

to simply chop wood 

epc 1956-♾

Quotation Verses from the

Mountain of Eternal Peace

STEVEN HEINE

facebook

Simone Cicic - Satori

 

No exit out of Satori,

Absorbing the whole life experience.

No thing matters anymore,

Any thing remains a matter of temporary exploration,

perception.

No thing to hold on to anymore.

No attachment left.

Individual separation transcended,

Possession of individual identity vanished,

No name, no story.

Lifeforce dwells within,

Spreading into the void.

All life outside, it is gone.

Stories of distraction, chasing behind sensations that will never be caught,

The chase is over, it has lost all of its attraction,

All of its magnitude.

Satori is the death of matter.

The death of the story.

The death of you and me.

Just an infinite sensation of pure vibrancy beyond any idea,

Any attachment.

The death of time.

The unlimited love

https://abyss2bliss.substack.com/

Ella May - Who is aware?

 

Thoughts arise and fall as flowers live and wilt. Stars fade over eons in the night sky and clouds pass and change.

Everything is changing all the time. Thoughts come and go. But who is thinking them?

Some people think liberation is a person with no thoughts, or that to achieve enlightenment one has to have no thoughts! But who would have no thoughts and a quiet mind?

Thoughts happen anyway. No one is "thinking" them. When there is an illusion of self, the self thinks it controls the thoughts. "I must not have these thoughts," or "I must think good thoughts," et cetera.

In liberation, it is recognized that all of life is happening anyway. Thoughts arise with no self that claims them. The idea of self is only another thought, perhaps a more dominant one, one that feels separated from the whole, life, movement/stillness.

To slow down thoughts is mindfulness, awareness, but who is aware? The myth of the self has been seen through, and thoughts still arise, but for no one. Rather like a sea of waves coming and going. Being aware of this is separation. Thoughts are in free fall.

Trying not to think or attempting to quiet the mind is still someone trying to get to wholeness, peace, or awakening. But no one awakens because there is no one there to awaken or be still. There is only stillness and wholeness with thoughts appearing in it.

facebook