Riding the Rails

Riding the Rails

When we reflect

On our life

We might resemble

A train passenger 

Riding and attending to

Clocks and destinations..

The rails on our train

Reveal and restrict and

Guide beliefs in the

Severed nature of things..

As a passenger we are

Rattled by a whistle 

High notes we exalt 

Low notes we blanket..

Until the day

We step off the train

Into the station

With its permanence

Recognizing arrival 

Finding our Home...

Similarity

Similarity

Walking

and a photograph of a

sunlit cloud seemingly

next by a tree

with similar features..

This is Subjectivity

expressing itself

in Similarity..

We see things

as we are

not as they are...

The final step

The final step

It seems

there are those who

near the end of

a journey to

Self-recognition..but

hesitate before stepping

into what appears

as self-destruction..

The end would be
the Recognition that
there is no journey
and the small self
making a journey is
  illusionary story...

Purgatory: 

the state between knowing 

i'm nothing 

and not knowing 

i'm everything.

~~Jerry Katz

Old times...

Old times...

Looking over 

Old photographs

And letters sent long ago

Family exchanges mostly 

News and advice flowed 

By slow methods of then..

And seemingly a portrait

Of those daily shadows

Unhappiness with situations

Lingering physical ailment..

Although we have done some 

Rearranging..there remains

A familiarity with these 

Parental generations

Folks who have passed..

There is the equality in

Who they were..their Self

The same as mine..

Are we closer today in the

Recognition of our Self..?

And if not...?

Our Tree

Our Tree

Finding peace 

Amid today's turmoil for

The passing of a Tree

Our many ringed cottonwood

Whose long life has paralleled

Ours for many seasons..

Sensitivities cry out about the

Ending of something within

Remembered as the

Coloring and shading of our

Being for all these seasons.. 

And especially now as the

Paint of autumn promises

New joys and tears...

"Indeed, the absolute knowledge of our own being is the only knowledge there is that could serve as a foundation for world peace, because it is the only knowledge there is that is the same for all people, at all times, in all circumstances, and under all conditions." ~~Rupert Spira

The Perennial Tradition

The Perennial Tradition

Beliefs

Stand shattered

By those searching

To quench desires on  

Unfulfilling old paths..

There is a path..however 

Older than old and

New as the present moment

Which stands ready

For our recognition..

Recognized it appears

As no path at all

This is the Recognition of

Sages and searchers

Startled to find they were

Already that for which

We all search...

Everything Just Is

  

Everything Just Is

When we recognize
Time as illusion
As mind created
Same goes for space..

Then we rely
On direct reporting
From our senses
Just the is-ness
Of it all..

Is-ness is 1st
Then the mind
Climbs aboard
Naming and claiming
And is-ness fades
Into the background
Once more and
Once more...

Everything just is. Just the way it is. Just the way it is. You do not have to do anything about anything. You do not have to change anything or fix anything or improve anything. Everything just is. If you can only understand this great truth you would become the happiest being on earth. For when you realize that everything just is, you are living spontaneously. There is no past, there is no future, there is no birth, there is no death. Everything just is the way it is.

Robert Adams

Starbucks cup of Joy

Starbucks cup of Joy

The cup label said

Let us add a bit of  Joy

To your day..

This is a message

From our culture

Informing us of the 

Experience of Joy

To wit..Joy is available

Here and now within 

This very cup..

Presumably then as this 

Cup is consumed

Joy ends and we are 

Sent on our way

Until another cup offers

A bit more..

Perhaps the Sacrament 

Suggests we need look

For a cup in which Joy
Is much less fleeting...

Acceptance

Acceptance

It is an old truth
That there is 
From a universal
Slant on things
An acceptance of all
Whether good or not..

Many have difficulty
With such acceptance
Wishing for interference
When acceptance seems
Not to their liking..

We need only 
Recognize Ourselves
To discover that we
Are made of Acceptance
Yet appearances of the
 Not so good
Require our attention
Always proceeding from 
Our  Recognition...

RS...True Acceptance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnIhtSDNI7s

Definitions

Definitions

We seek definitions
To satisfy the searching mind
Which must converse in
Subject and object..

God has been the object
Of the mind's attention
For many centuries
Despite sage advice that
A defined God is not..

How might the search end..?
Perhaps by ending the illusion
Of subject and object
Of their created world
Recognizing right now
Their substance and core...






Bishop Spong....defining God
https://mailchi.mp/92da01652708/two-bible-stories-for-our-endangered-times-759207?e=75cfd9ff6f

Loft and Shade

Loft and Shade

When we observe

The human experience

As a roller coaster

Times in the loft

Times in the shade..

A question shouts

How to remain

In the loft..?

Until a whisper

Time creates a

Masquerade which 

You have attended..

The shade has always

Disguised the loft...

Coaxingl of Grace

Coaxing 

Grace
is the substance of
All that is
In our tendency
To see separation in
All that is
Grace appears as
Suffering
Coaxing  a new
Seeing...

RS:  Movement of Grace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrFFCaiwNZE&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR05J-BnQlAu4SCCAsB2Q5MbrSsmPjD1jRgr_2Uj-k-1UstGuwG7Y2Jr2Ao

Self Inquiry

Self Inquiry

Apparently

We all need to inquire

Today or tomorrow

Earlier is better some say

The question in question 

Points to current beliefs

Of who we are or

Of the river or mountain

Or of traffic jams

Questions galore

But the one Answer

We must recognize

Lies hidden in each

Question...

Stories

Stories

We are immersed in stories

Until it seems to most

The story is real and I

Am a character in the story..

Yes..however

What if we were told

That a story must be recognized

As a story..?

And recognizing story as story

Is the key to the Freedom

You have been seeking

Until now

But only if...

"Let attention be at rest in that which is deeper than all stories. There is rest and peacefulness in that which is deeper than mind. Be with your sense of what is. Simple presence. "What is" is more than enough."

~Jac O'Keeffe

Old Rocking Chair

Old Rocking Chair

Old and grain bare

Weather beaten

A touch of sadness

Claiming attention just now

Seeming to say

Focus on me..just me

I have been here for years

Noticed and unnoticed

All objects seem assertive

Declaring their independence

Alone in that outer world

With a history and future

Until I Recognize

This fleeting appearance

In the fictitious out there

A wave denying the ocean...

(Blank Space)

(Blank Space)

Do you notice

the blank space

above..?

The words 

you are reading

diminish

the message

above..

Here are 

more words and

more

diminishment..

You are invited 

to erase the 

words and

Return...

Joy in hiding

Joy in hiding

This is

the mind obstacle

That those on the path

Find tough to encounter..

Some continue on a bypass

Over and around..

Others gently penetrate

The toughness itself

Gazing around 

Finding intense coloring

But no diminishing of

Wholeness by that

Threatening something..

Returning to the bypass

These others are routed

Directly to knowing

That which they and

Everything are

Uncolored and Infinite..

These are two paths to

Uncover the Joy that

Seemed to be hiding

Until now...

Self-Recognition

Self-Recognition

We journey the world

With diligence and hope

Overturning many stones

Seeking a situation

To end our desire

Our desire for home..

It is open to question

Whether this one or that

Will end their desire

With a simple

Self-Recognition...

Lucid Waking

Lucid Waking

explorers
in lucid dreaming
find an experience of
Self Reccognition..
A special gift..

As these dreamers
shift from character
to dreamer..a
revolution occurs
revealing their clear 
Identity as both
dreamer and dreamed..

What remains..?
To recognize now
the same showing
upon waking
this bright morning
in lucid waking...

Making Art

“When we show up to make art, we need to get still enough to hear what wants to be expressed though us, and then we need to step out of the way and let it. We must be willing to abide in a space of not knowing before we can settle into knowing." pg. 159”
― Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics

Sacred Outrage

Sacred Outrage

All is well

All is love

Made of love

So..what's the worry..?

Or..the outrage..?

A quandry arises

The above seems both

True and False..

We witness suffering

And cries for help

Not to be ignored..

Resistance rises

Action asserts

But now something new 

Ancient separation subsides 

As Sacred outrage

Blossoms...


RS: The Sacred Outrage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR6nDfHR5HY&t=606s

Row your boat

Row your boat

gently

and find yourself

in a dream..

going with

the flow..

effortlessly..

paddles  stowed

singing of a dream..

then of a sudden

singing As a dream..

recognizing now

boat and paddles

 stream and you

are the dream..

Who is dreaming...?

Violence

Violence

Lives on..

With rapid-fire multipliers in

The tales of two cities which are

Now in our frightening focus..

As divisiveness thrives

In a numbing atmosphere

Plurality declares independence

Here and then there and then often.. 
We are exploring dark extremities 

No longer serving better 

Expressions of our Whole..

Recognition of our veering
Means of expressing ourselves
Is sharply implored..



from Lucy Bell...

Toni Morrison died today at the age of 88. Her legacy will live forever. 

Her words from her Nobel Acceptance Speech, 1993, speak to what is happening in our country today. Please forward if you wish. Toni would surely hope that her message would be heard and heeded.

From the 2019 book, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches and Meditations by Toni Morrison. page 104:

Oppressive language does more than represent violence, it is violence, does more than represent the limits of knowledge, it limits knowledge ...  Whether it is the malign language of law without ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek—it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under the crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind.


Also see below:


A FEW ACTING FOR MANY
-John McIntosh
Throughout the world at the moment, and for some while now there are those who have been escalating chaos and what you may feel … acting ‘crazy’, particularly people with highly visible profiles. At some point when you hear the phrase: “There ‘are’ no others”, it will shift beyond a simply intellectual concept that you may accept on some level … to an absolute ‘knowing’. In that moment you will realize beyond any doubt that these dramatic events and those that act them out ‘are’ YOU, and that they are shining Light on your own ‘stuff’. Some of it is on the surface where you can easily identify with it but much of it is deeply hidden beneath the endless masks you have worn to hide the Real YOU ‘from’ you for eons.
This chaotic moment in your own ‘unique world’ is a fragile and dysfunctional ‘house of cards’ that is now collapsing and allowing the Light of Truth to become ever more visible. Embrace what is occurring … [this does not mean ‘agreeing’ with the script playing out] and Love the falling prison walls that have held you prisoner for so long.
There is no need to sink into the stories, in the typical analysing way of the false-self … the story is only the trigger. Instead, FEEL the energy of what is being illustrated so vividly and let it burn out without judgment, which would only give it additional fuel. Just let these waves of chaos rise and fall and know the Light, the Love and the Truth You Are is rising through the cracks of this ancient dysfunction.
BOOKS by John McIntosh
https://www.johnmcintosh.info/copy-of-books
SUBSCRIBE to John McIntosh’s BLOG 
https://www.johnmcintosh.info/subscribe

Ego...

Ego

A three letter name
With meaning multiples
Hero to devil..
Advancing:
A dream of creation
Introducing illusion
When the dream
Dances alone...


RS: The Sacred Outrage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR6nDfHR5HY&t=606s

RS: Ego is Not  Mistake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uesJ9nPEUFY

RS:  Ego is the Agency of Creativity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdXAbOoijzU&t=53s

John Mcintosh..THE DIVINE CALL
https://www.johnmcintosh.info/post/the-divine-call

On Kali..
http://www.goddess.ws/kali.html

Religions are...

Religions are...

Mixes of 

Revealed and concealed..

Revealed are laws and stories

Those parabolic metaphors..

All serve as prompts for

Interpretation and protection

For theological plumbing..

Word creations on pages..

What is concealed is a Fire

In which all pages are burned..

Only ashes remain to reveal

Who we already are..

Sea and Sky

Sea and Sky

Let the thought float

Observing it whole

As a fish or plane

In the sea or sky..

Now change focus

To the sea or sky

Allowing the thought

To dissolve as 

All thoughts must..

Bring then notice

to that remaining

which we must Be... 

Serpents and Doves

Serpents and Doves

In our early innocence

We live with appearance

Appearance of an

Amazing plethora
Coloring our innocence
We are doves..

Then we forget as

Appearances declare

Their independence

Introducing the ego
Dove to Serpent

Then the discovery
Serpent is what Dove
Does all day long
Serpent is Dove in action
Dove is Serpent at rest...!

Harvesting (Thanks, Joanna Macy!)

Harvesting

She provides this sequence
Our transitions since infancy
Recognizing that no phase
Is to be disparaged..
Yet to also Recognize that
All of these movements
Seem to hide
Who we have been all along...
~~CC












“In the first movement, our infancy as a species, we felt no separation from the natural world around us. Trees, rocks, and plants surrounded us with a living presence as intimate and pulsing as our own bodies. In that primal intimacy, which anthropologists call "participation mystique," we were as one with our world as a child in the mother's womb.

Then self-consciousness arose and gave us distance on our world. We needed that distance in order to make decisions and strategies, in order to measure, judge and to monitor our judgments. With the emergence of free-will, the fall out of the Garden of Eden, the second movement began -- the lonely and heroic journey of the ego. Nowadays, yearning to reclaim a sense of wholeness, some of us tend to disparage that movement of separation from nature, but it brought us great gains for which we can be grateful. The distanced and observing eye brought us tools of science, and a priceless view of the vast, orderly intricacy of our world. The recognition of our individuality brought us trial by jury and the Bill of Rights.

Now, harvesting these gains, we are ready to return. The third movement begins. Having gained distance and sophistication of perception, we can turn and recognize who we have been all along. Now it can dawn on us: we are our world knowing itself. We can relinquish our separateness. We can come home again -- and participate in our world in a richer, more responsible and poignantly beautiful way than before, in our infancy.” 
― Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self