The Guest

Friend, hope for the guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think...and think...while you are alive.

What you call 'salvation' belongs to the time before death.
If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic
Just because the body is rotten -
that is all fantasy.

What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.

If you make love with the divine now, in the next life
you will have the face of satisfied desire.

So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,
Believe in the Great Sound!

Kabir says this: When the guest is being searched for,
it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that does all the work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.


Kabir

(trans. Robert Bly)

Radiance

"The snow in the air could have been flying seeds, the snow on the ground could have been fallen blossoms. The rounding of the image gave emptiness a radiance."

From The Afternoon of a Writer
by Peter Handke

Decision

Walk around feeling like a leaf

Know you could tumble any second

Then decide what to do with your time

~

- Naomi Shiab Nye

Already, Always Blessed

It is easy to listen, and it is hard.
It often crushes me with wonder.
I am helpless against this flow
of grace, of love, of a presence
miraculous, yet light as a feather,

brushing by with a faint breeze, and then,
perhaps, out of sight again. This presence
seems miraculous, but really, it is just ordinary,
blissfully ordinary.

I do not know how it is that we are gifted
with this... the presence of these gods,
why they visit, showering our ordinary lives,
filling our souls with fountains of light;

sweeping into all the corners our cottage,
here, in our home, with you,
sharing these blessings.

But still they asked for nothing.

This melts me. All the blessings
and still they asked for nothing.

This old couple were already, always blessed,
already enfolded in light. This drew the gods
to them. They were listening, noticing,
before that knock on the door.

Standing at the edge of the field
our poet was opening, listening;
ready for the god's visit, ready
to be shaken with understanding.

She asked for nothing, and the gods smiled
in just the same way her poem
- fountain of light showering -
smiles upon us.

Mockingbirds

Here is a little Mary Oliver gift:

This morning
two mockingbirds
in the green field
were spinning and tossing

the white ribbons
of their songs
into the air.
I had nothing

better to do
than listen.
I mean this
seriously.

In Greece,
a long time ago,
an old couple
opened their door

to two strangers
who were,
it soon appeared,
not men at all,

but gods.
It is my favorite story--
how the old couple
had almost nothing to give

but their willingness
to be attentive--
but for this alone
the gods loved them

and blessed them--
when they rose
out of their mortal bodies,
like a million particles of water

from a fountain,
the light
swept into all the corners
of the cottage,

and the old couple,
shaken with understanding,
bowed down--
but still they asked for nothing

but the difficult life
which they had already.
And the gods smiled, as they vanished,
clapping their great wings.

Wherever it was
I was supposed to be
this morning--
whatever it was I said

I would be doing--
I was standing
at the edge of the field--
I was hurrying

through my own soul,
opening its dark doors--
I was leaning out;
I was listening.
~
As you are,
listening,
~M

A Light Touch

Sometimes a photo will capture my imagination, as this one does. In this, I see hands - open, exposed, relaxed, ready, waiting, receiving. And I see the light touch of presence, wooing these open hands, so near, even alighting on and in them, stroking - as light as a feather, brushing by with a faint breeze, and then, perhaps, out of sight again. This presence seems miraculous, but really, it is just ordinary, blissfully ordinary.


Read more on the story of these hummingbirds here: http://www.abigailsings.com/hummingbirds/

The Touch of Grace

Sometimes, after dreams, I feel the emotional weight of the conditioned self, thick like a blanket of clay; I feel the texture and substance of the conditioning - guilt and shame, worthlessness, the whole lot bedded there, covered with cold heavy air. I have been told by the wise that awareness of this suffering arising is simultaneously the arising of freedom. I have been shown how all of our frailties and negative emotions are no other than this, the ungraspable this... And this seems right, these forms (thought forms, emotional forms) like all form are a manifestation of freedom, consciousness, being, the very presence itself, the flowering of purity and perfection. Through love and communion I smile now when these troubling forms arise. There is a vast consciousness that is holding them, allowing them, loving and saying "yes" to them, "Yes, you too have a place here, obviously." (The problem, the mug, being unmistakable.) With this "problem" arising we are reminded, we are given the opportunity of instantly seeing the gate, here, now. The path of release is suddenly open before us, outside of time. In a flash of insight we are presented with complete freedom, though we may not recognize it. We are given the opportunity to open our heart, unveil our fidelity to our true nature - the ungraspable this, which never leaves, never comes and goes, but abides, calm and clear.

In that line, "The problem, the mug, being unmistakable," it is all too easy to slip past the most significant word in the passage: being. It is hidden in the wide open, easily glossed over because we human beings focus almost exclusively upon our "human" and generally neglect our "being," which is the infinite and eternal in us. "Problem" and "mug" are much more accessible and familiar, like that pure word the wanderer has brought to the valley from the mountain slope; the blue and yellow gentian. "Are we here perhaps just to say: house, bridge, well, gate, jug, fruit tree, window-- at most, column, tower... but to say, understand this, to say it as the Things themselves never fervently thought to be." The wanderer does not bring the unutterable being from the mountain slope to the valley, it is already here. But he has to say it somehow, and what is there to say other than through form, through a "pure word he has learned, the blue and yellow gentian."

"The Things themselves never fervently thought to be." This is our gift, to realize and say their being, which is our being. The paradox is saying, realizing, the unutterable, that which already, always is. This is our dance, our celebration and our bliss. Even a "problem" - the mug with its white ring marring the dark table - is a "pure word" that comes to us from the mountain slope. Everywhere the white rings of our conditioned existence mar the dark table of our being. The problem, the self-identification is, for most of us, far from unmistakable. In the poem the ring is white, the table dark. Our attention is focused upon the white ring, not the dark table, our being, which receives and holds all forms, yet remains "dark" to us, hidden, unconscious. We especially focus our attention on the forms that mar, that cause suffering to self and others. In so doing we most often miss the "problem," misperceive it, again and again do we not? We are fixated on these white rings that brightly mar our existence, unable to see the root cause of this suffering; unable to see through the conditioning, to see the impermanence and limitations of the personal center, we misperceive form, we do not realize its emptiness.

Held in the light of love, and through humility, I have come to see my problems as the touch of grace, reminders of blessed emptiness, that form is no other than emptiness. With this realization a natural fidelity emerges to that which is here, now, ungraspable, unmistakable being.

Dewdrop

This world is a

dewdrop world

and yet, and yet

~

-Issa

Philosophy

Heidegger's A.M.

Coffee breaks
the chain
of neglect
of the problem of being.

Coffee grounds
the problem in ancient inquiries
concerning being not being beings.

Before coffee
what is not sought
is not unfamiliar
though ungraspable, hot,

but after the first shot
everyone understands
"The sky is blue," "I am happy,"
statements like that.
A white ring mars a dark table.

The problem, the mug
being unmistakable.


By Les Gottesman
from the Spring issue of The Antioch Review

This Light Glimmers Within You

Once you have tapped your inner self,
the one has made contact with the One sitting inside;
you have met with God.
Then what kind of fear can exist?
What is there to be fearful about, and what worries are left to encounter?
When you go within, you become still, you become peaceful.
All the waves, those generate within you;
they all originate at the level of your mind.
They all come to a stop.
There is a light within you, and you are also a light.
Both lights assimilate into one.

Kabir

Grand Canyon

`

I just returned from a rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. As you can see from the photos (more available by clicking the sidebar Flickr pictures), it was a beautiful trip, in which I was daily filled with an extraordinary kind of AWE - which layered itself atop of my usual state of being easily amazed.

Here is a poem that reflects aspects of the feeling of being deep within the Grand Canyon:

`

They say the layered earth rose up
Ancient rock leviathan
Trailing ages in its wake
Lifting earthness toward the sun
And coursing water cut the rock away
To leave these many-storied walls
Expose’ of ages gone
Around this breathless emptiness
More wondrous far than earth had ever known
`
My life has risen layered too
Each day, each year in turn has left
Its fossil life and sediments
Evidence of lived and unlived hours
The tedium, the anguish, yes the joy
That some heart-deep vitality
Keeps pressing upward toward the day I die
`
And Spirit cuts like water through it all
Carving out this emptiness
So inner eye can see
The soaring height of canyon walls within
Walls whose very color, texture, form
Redeem in beauty all my life has been
The darkness and the light, the false, the true
While deep below the living waters run
Cutting deeper through my parts
To resurrect my gravebound heart
`
Making, always making, all things new

`
Poem by Parker J. Palmer
Photos by Meredith

Furry Friend

Grace

Landlocked in Fur

I was meditating with my cat the other day
and all of a sudden she shouted,
"What happened?"

I knew exactly what she meant, but encouraged
her to say more - feeling that if she got it all out on the table
she would sleep better that night.

So I responded, "Tell me more, dear,"
and she soulfully meowed,

"Well, I was mingled with the sky. I was comets
whizzing here and there. I was suns in heat, hell - I was
galaxies. But now look - I am
landlocked in fur."

To this I said, "I know exactly what
you mean."

What to say about conversation
between

mystics?


Tukaram

Wholeness Exposed

The notion of ego-fixation "superimposed" upon Wholeness fits as a useful way to look at liberation or realization. We are fixated on the world of ego perspective, the horizontal dimension, the world of separation. Yet there is the possibility of realizing this "other world" here, a presence or being veiled by our exclusive fixation on the world of appearances.

Our egocentric perspective is superimposed on the One. When two people fall in love, Wholeness is exposed; the formerly distinct boundary markers for self and other dissolve somewhat; the demarcation between ego perspective and Unity blurs, in Meredith's words, becomes soft, indistinct or evaporates altogether. This occurs to greater or lesser degrees as a couple experiences the vertical dimension of non-separation. Realizing this is experienced as blissful. It fosters the possibility of further enlargement and expansion.

With the experience of love the individual is given a glimpse of that "other world" upon which the familiar world of ego perspective is superimposed. Formerly, ego-perspective was not recognized as a perspective. It was like water to a fish - unseen and unquestioned. With love there is the possibility of "seeing through" ego perspective, seeing its outline so to speak, and simultaneously the openness of the vertical dimension. If we accept the invitation of love, we may surrender or relinquish the exclusivity of ego perspective, our conditioned understanding of self, of who or what one is.

We do not lose our individuality in love, yet we open to the vast non-dual perspective of the cosmic mirror, or God, or Wholeness.

Through love we are invited into this openness, and we step into it, unafraid, moment-to-moment. Through love we enjoy the intimacy and bliss that is inherent with this communion.

I Live

I live
enfolded in your curves,
and the flow of your spirit.

Arch Bend of the John Day River

Photo by David Jensen

Begin and End

Yeshua said:
This sky will pass away;
and the one above it will also pass away.
The dead have no life,
and the living have no death.
On days when you ate what was dead,
you made it alive.
When you are in the light, what will you do?
When you were One, you created two.
But now that you are two, what will you do?

(The Gospel of Thomas, Logion 11, Leloup-Rowe translation)

Meredith: I’m curious about this question, “What will you do?” It suggests a question about volition, about free will. This has always puzzled me. Where/when does free will begin and end?

But there is also something else in this passage that I find interesting. It is that distinction between One and Two. Where is the distinction? What defines the edge - that invisible line that marks the separation between this material world and that other one, the One that we swim and breathe in but seem to only glimpse or recognize once in a while? One may think of this boundary or distinction as a precipice, or a place where we come to the rim and ‘let go’, or even fall into this other thing. Others may speak of this as a height, such as on the top of a peak where we can now see it All clearly, where before we only could see partially. Where does this distinction begin and end, start or stop for you?

For me, I sense the spiritual world exists at all times and in all places in this herenow, and yet somehow I/we get caught into thinking it is somehow different, apart from us, and that we may only see it when “Awakened”, or when something miraculous happens to us. I’m inclined to see this division, this edge as no edge at all. I see this edge as one not unlike the point of dissipation between steam and air, or the line on the beach between wet and dry sand. This is a ‘soft edge’, blurry, impossible to distinguish where one begins and the other ends. Spiritual is superimposed in/on material, not separate from it. From this, we can realize the “One” or the wholeness, in the apparent “two”, or separateness.

Aki: Here is another way to look at free will, choice and volition. We're moving along in space and time on the horizontal dimension, choosing, exercising free will, growing, gradually cultivating, approaching... And then "suddenly" we realize the vertical dimension, "superimposed" to use your word, upon the horizontal dimension, and what a realization this is! On the vertical dimension, there is Wholeness, no space and time, no choosing. In my experience there is rising on the vertical dimension; rising in grace, a deepening or rising in the field of grace. The experience is one of freedom, warmth, light and bliss; a feeling or presence of Wholeness, connectedness, non-separation.

Floating

A blog friend, Fiz, posted this on another site, and I fell in love with it. I don't know the photo's source.

Moving in Wholeness

To stir you up,
to turn you in,
and open you out,
and then
to eat you!
Yum, yum,
~M


~~~
A new challenge awaits us at the beginning of the twenty-first century: to go beyond fragmentation, to go beyond the incompatible sets of values held even by serious-minded people, to mature beyond the self-righteousness of one's accepted approaches and be open to total living and total revolution. In this era, to become a spiritual inquirer without social consciousness is a luxury that we can ill afford, and to be a social activist without a scientific understanding of the inner workings of the mind is the worst folly. Neither approach in isolation has had any significant success. There is no question now that an inquirer will have to make an effort to be socially conscious or that an activist will have to be persuaded of the moral crisis in the human psyche, the significance of being attentive to the inner life. The challenge awaiting us is to go much deeper as human beings, to abandon superficial prejudices and preferences, to expand understanding to a global scale, integrating the totality of living, and to become aware of the wholeness of which we are a manifestation.

As we deepen in understanding, the arbitrary divisions between inner and outer disappear. The essence of life, the beauty and grandeur of life, is its wholeness. Life in reality cannot be divided into the inner and the outer, the individual and social. We may make arbitrary divisions for the convenience of collective life, for analysis, but essentially any division between inner and outer has no reality, no meaning.

We have accepted the watertight compartments of society, the fragmentation of living as factual and necessary. We live in relationship to these fragments and accept the internalized divisions—the various roles we play, the contradictory value systems, the opposing motives and priorities—as reality. We are at odds with ourselves internally; we believe that the inner is fundamentally different from the outer, that what is me is quite separate from the not-me, that divisions among people and nations are necessary, and yet we wonder why there are tensions, conflicts, wars in the world. The conflicts begin with minds that believe in fragmentation and are ignorant of wholeness.

A holistic approach is a recognition of the homogeneity and wholeness of life. Life is not fragmented; it is not divided. It cannot be divided into spiritual and material, individual and collective. We cannot create compartments in life—political, economic, social, environmental. Whatever we do or don't do affects and touches the wholeness, the homogeneity. We are forever organically related to wholeness. We are wholeness, and we move in wholeness.

--Vimala Thakar

Article on Vimala

Monument of Love

On the final days of my visit to India, I visited the Taj Mahal. I had wanted to see this monument as it is regarded to be one of the eight wonders of the world, and some Western historians have noted that its architectural beauty has never been surpassed.

It is said that the Taj is the most beautiful monument built by the Mughals, the Muslim rulers of India. The Taj Mahal is built entirely of white marble. On my way to Agra, I passed many businesses where white marble is sold, and many trucks hauling huge chunks of marble on the back of their flatbeds. It was amazing to see the potential transformation of this raw material in such a stunning architectural masterpiece. Indeed, the sight of this monument is beyond adequate description.


I loved the excitement of entering the monument park, where I could not even get a peak at the great building until I entered through an enormous gate. (These two photos are from 7is7.com) This main gate is said "to be like a veil to a woman’s face which should be lifted delicately, gently and without haste on the wedding night. In Indian tradition the veil is lifted gently to reveal the beauty of the bride." As one stands inside the main gate of Taj, your eyes are directed to an arch that frames the Taj.

The Taj Mahal was built as a tribute to a beloved wife and as a monument for enduring love. I took my time at the Taj, because I sensed that it would reveal its beautiful subtleties if I was not in a hurry, and indeed, this was true. The dome is made of glittering white marble with perfect angles from every position. Because it is set against the plain across the river, the background becomes a mosaic of colors that, through their reflection, change the view of the Taj. The colors change at different hours of the day and during different seasons. I felt fortunate to see it both in the morning, with a pinkish glow, and as the evening sunset, changing from its color from a milky white to a golden glow. It is like a jewel; the Taj sparkles in moonlight when the semi-precious stones inlaid into the white marble on the main mausoleum catch the glow of the moon. On a foggy morning, the Taj seems to be suspended midair when viewed from across the Jamuna River. These changes, they say, depict the different moods of woman.















Walking around the Taj I noticed a freshness in the air, as a delicate breeze blew from around its corners. The breeze lifted the scarves and saris of the women there, creating this beautiful and delicate dance. In the presence of the Taj Mahal, you walk in beauty. Look at these random snapshots of women visiting the Taj the day I was there, reveling in this, and their own beauty.

Gandhi

My travels to India were made special by a visit to Mahatma Gandhi's memorial site. Here, there is a reprieve from the bustle of Delhi's streets, and visitors enter barefoot in hushed silence, remembering this great man of peace.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Gandhi guided the people of India to self-rule through his plan of non-cooperation and civil disobedience. Even though he was jailed many times, he always reached out to the people and moved them to act.

Here is a spinning wheel set outside a 'junk' store. The spinning wheel is a reminder of Gandhi, and also as a symbol of the swadeshi movement. Gandhi started the swadeshi movement to encourage Indians to make their own cloth and use their own goods instead of British imports. Gandhi also planted the seeds of satyagraha, a non-violent, strategical means of resisting British rule.

India

For the past two weeks I have been traveling in northern India. It was an exciting adventure for me, and everything I dreamed it would be. After reading Roger Housden's book, Travels Through Sacred India, I have been wanting to experience India for myself. It would be difficult to summarize this experience in a few short paragraphs, but I can say that this was an amazing time, and that I am still being seasoned by what I saw and learned.

I began my trip in Delhi, and traveled by car through Rajasthan, through the cities of Mandawa, Khimsar, Jaisalmar, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Pushkar, Jaipur, and finally to Agra to experience the Taj Mahal.

As a tourist, one is offered an itinerary that includes seeing a lot of famous and historical sites, such as the Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur, and many temples, shrines and palaces. After a while, though these were all very interesting, I found I was gravitating to just wanting to find out more about the people of India - experience their schools, see their hospitals, their market places, their farming and industry, experience the riverbank laundry, learn to cook traditional Indian foods, and visit a children's home. So that is what I did. These experiences enriched my time tremendously, giving me a feel for India that as only a 'site-tourist' I would not have had. Here are a few favorite photos...

All for now (Blogger is sooo slow). Watch the photo stream on the right for photo snippits. I'll post more soon, when I recover from my jet lag.

It is so good to be home!