Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Tomorrow and tomorrow... (Shakespeare)

 















Act 1..Scene 1

Witches pose the time and place:

When the hurly-burly's done

And the battle's lost and won..

Fair/foul (fog and filthy air)

Mark appearing oppositions

And forebodings in Scene 1...


Scene 2

A bleeding Captain reports well

Of a brave Macbeth

Who overcame a doubtful clinging

As swimmers choking their art..

And brandishing steel accomplished 

valiant beheading..

We view here the planted seed of

A looming path of destruction... 





Folger Shakespeare Library...


Saturday, December 26, 2020

Concepts..

 










Concepts..

Thoughts and perceptions expressed

Are concepts..formulations..

This finite processing of everything

From oranges to quantum theory to

Esoteric spiritual experiences 

Seems to fog our Self-Recognition...

We wait for Silence to tell us that 

Concepts Point to our Identity...

Sheer Delight.. (Sri Aurobindo)

 










Delight..

A name pointing to that which

Has no name..

Appearing as trillions of forms..

To remind us of 

Separation's illusion...




Delight is the secret. Learn of pure delight and thou shalt learn of 'God'. What then was the commencement of the whole matter? Existence that multiplied itself for sheer delight of being and plunged into numberless trillions of forms so that it might find itself innumerably.

 ~Sri Aurobindo~

Forming and Transforming...(Goethe)

 









Formation, transformation
Eternal mind’s recreation.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Thursday, December 24, 2020

When all the stars are dead.. (Rilke)












Conjunction..

Some say

We are witnessing a conjunction

Named the Christmas Star.. 

Yet vast separation remains as

Precision eyes report:

Jupiter and Saturn seem to

Stand alone..but let us consider  

Conjunction as a message

From the Star..YOU found a Shift:

Conjunction posing as separation... 



 "A billion stars go spinning through the night,

blazing high above your head.

But in you is the presence that will be,

when all the stars are dead."

 ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Christmas Tidings..!!

 











Christmas Tidings..!

Beneath a story many celebrate

Of a birth beneath a star..

There lies a latch..when

Opened..will set us free..

On this celebrated night

The Truth..apparently hidden

And remaining hidden now

Was unlatched for those then

And now..

~One-being-all-there-is~

This simple news about what 

Has always been..That's it..!

Christmas Tidings..!

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Waiting.. (with Paul Tillich)

 











Waiting..

We wait and watch

For a mark in time

Which will relieve the

Numbness of waiting..

Many marks appear

And re-appear..without

Rewarding a promise..

Unexpected..a footstep

Out of time..removes the

Waiting...


Our time is a time of waiting; waiting is its special destiny. And every time is a time of waiting, waiting for the breaking of eternity. All time runs forward. All time, both history and in personal life, is expectation. Time itself is waiting, waiting not for another time, but for that which is eternal.

~~Paul Tillich

The virus..

 













The virus..

Dead and seeking

For a life-force

For a host..

Death seeking Life..

As do we

Suffering as separate

Seeking  our Freedom

Dying to falsities

Resurrecting...



Coronavirus is a virus.  Viruses are unusual in that they can be crystalized, just like table salt can be crystalized. So they behave like a chemical, albeit an extremely complicated chemical. You might be surprised to learn that viruses can't propagate!  A virus particle enters a cell, opens up to release genetic material, in the case of Coronavirus that's m-RNA, and that genetic material is then used by the cell's ribosome to manufacture new virus particles.  When there are enough of these, the cell membrane bursts, and the virus goes on to infect other cells.

~~Jimmy Stewart (friend in Philosophical Cafe)

Friday, December 18, 2020

Apparently...(with Tony Parsons)

 
















NONDUALITY... THE MYTH
"Apparently . . .
Although there is no such thing as nonduality it seems that there are many different ideas about what it could be.
Because the separate seeker experiences everything as a subject object reality it is inevitable that it will see nonduality as a something that can be personally attained and experienced. It will also be seen as a state of no-self that can be taught or energetically transferred.
Attempts are made to use the idea of nonduality as a description of the unknown?
It is often talked about as a something that needs to be integrated, nurtured and supported?
There are even conferences held about its evolutionary development and its possible outcome in another something called the future?
It is amazing how many different beliefs and theories can arise about nothing.
The term nonduality is just that. It is a term similar to Advaita, and refers to the concept of “not two”. The idea of there being “not two” is attempting to define a mystery. The mystery cannot be named or known, of course, but there are certain descriptions which get somewhere near: the formless form, the relative absolute, the empty fullness or what is and is not, which all defy definition and make no sense.
All of these ideas are immediately rejected by the separate seeker who is entirely invested in its own survival and seeks an answer that will satisfy its own experience of reality.
Empty fullness cannot be taught or experienced, for how and where would it be found if it is already all there is? Where would there be a place to stand and know or be aware of nothing and everything?
However, isn’t it wonderful that the dualistic confusion which surrounds something called nonduality is already empty fullness."
~Tony Parsons~

Monday, December 14, 2020

Perceptions..

 











What are

Those perceptions we experience

Without distance and time which

Conventional beliefs deplore..?

Ponder those astronomical wonders..

Unimaginable distances which 

We perceive with awe..

Are we prepared for a Shift:

Trillions upon trillions

These numbers collapsing in our

Recognition of the nearness of

Star constellations and coffee cups..

With nearness dissolved...


Saturday, December 12, 2020

Appearances..

 












Appearances..

When we discover the Reality of Appearances..we have

Awakened in our journey..The dream state of separation

Finds these same appearances as standing alone..as solid..

And convincing in their forthright presentation.. Dreaming

Separation is the backdrop of the story on which we..as

Characters..play our roles.. in days of joy and sorrow.. 

When the discovery is made.. the Reality of Appearances..

Who is awakened..?  Our Real Self has awakened our

Real Self ..with  Appearances..Now blessedly known 

As fleeting..and joyous..Self-Attire...


Thursday, December 10, 2020

Perception..

 














Perception

Takes place through lenses

Which are ground based upon

Varied assumptions of

Separation..our culture is stamped

By a belief of an independent

Out-there..with separation as the

Herald of truth..but there are

More and more lenses these days

Perceiving the same out-there..yet

Knowing it as a "seeming" truth

An appearance Here and Now 

With no out-there out there...


Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Oases...

 














Between  Oases

Are the dry patches of

Misdirecting and wanting

To find a trail to the comfort

Of the next Oasis..

The secret 

Yet to be discovered by many

The weary traveler:

Pause on your trail and

Be introduced to the You

Who has never departed

One Oasis...!

The Symphony I Am.. (With Miranda Warren)

 










The Symphony I Am..

And we are..

Each of us..

Is shaped by instruments

Of the noisy quiet world..

Our inward stage

Where the music plays

Cacophonies and arias 

The clash of cymbals

And  pregnant pauses.. 

All allowed and welcome

For their brief stay..

As we note their

Composition of the

Symphony I Am...






Miranda Warren's website:  This Terrible Love..

https://thisterriblelove.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-song-of-life.html?fbclid=IwAR1dFj6PrmN-AaeqKegrt_VfD0lnreu_njzUr18qPKvc2aOCcc-j2zEYu9w


They send me words, and little pictures of themselves light up the screen and reflect off my face in the darkness of the wee hours. Outside, the sounds of the forest hum a lullaby. The seekers that came here the past few years called this silence. How funny that seems, for I hear a symphony--- life singing in so many voices; a choir of love carried in the wind.

They want to know what they can do about something or other. Or they want to know how to escape the pain of something or other. They wonder if I have an opinion on what they say is going on. If they are not specific, I have to ask them what they think is going on.

For I am aware of no thing that is going on. Just the wind and the music of the dream of life that is playing a love song in my brain's theater of everything and nothing at all. And yet it is not a song you have to go to some retreat in the woods to hear.

The notes may vary, but I have heard this song everywhere it seems I have been. It sings in the heart of London, the remote Highlands of Scotland, the cities in flames, and the rooms where people take their final breath. It sings in the gunshots in an alley in Chicago, the labored breath of lovers after orgasm, and the cries of grief of the newly widowed. It echoes in the poignant wail of a baby's first cry, and in the quiet despair of people sitting alone in their rooms...never knowing they are not alone. It soars like an orchestra in the billions of songs of insects and birds and wildlife--- in the wilderness and the urban enclave.

It is the song of life and love that is weaving a dream undreamt, and what is going on is not any thing or event that appears to be happening in a separate place and time, for there is no place and there is no time. Nothing is happening to you and nothing is happening to me. And yet, I am you and you are me. And even that is as impossible and true and untrue as your beating heart, your heart which I hear right now, drumming a song of beauty so miraculous you would fall to the ground in tears if only you could hear the luminous music that you are...and aren't at all. ♥

~~Miranda Warren

Monday, December 7, 2020

The Social Dilemma..(based on the Netflix film)

 













The Social Dilemma

Attraction and attachment

Hooked and holding..

Many momentary "highs"

Of Likes..Loves..Wows..

But of short duration as

Thirst returns seeking for

More highs..finding instead

Those confining pains..

Allowing others to define

Who we are..is the basic

Sin of social media..

We are tangled in a

Hidden matrix..with many

Not locating the simple exit:

Asking the perennial questions

Perhaps..Who am I..??...


The Open Secret..

 














The Open Secret by Tony Parsons...

https://fliphtml5.com/atca/vhou/basic

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Walking and preaching...Francis of Assisi

 



Walking and preaching

We find ourselves walking

Somewhere to meet and speak..

Speaking seems to be

Our destination..until we

Discover our speaking

Simply is a form of

Our Being..here named:

Walking...

Friday, December 4, 2020

Fairy Tales..

 










Fairy Tales..

Fairy tales ride

On the feathers of time..

The feathers fall 

Revealing the wisp of time..

Rendering the sky

Not-ending and open

For new tales arising

And feathers falling...



Everything perceived and thought to be known is an illusion constructed by the mind, a fairy tale world of beings and things that are not beings and things at all.  The quantum physicists and the neuroscientists and the nonduality speakers all tell me this, yet they are also illusions. They speak and my mind dances with them, and then they vanish into thin air, their enigmatic smiles lingering a moment like the Cheshire cat, and I run to the mirror and what do I see….?

An imagined Miranda, invented by no one, a fictional character, who one day in an imagined past saw that everything seemed to be a dream I could not remember from moment to moment. It felt as if some strange surreal world was being invented each instant, but I could not find the flow of time. It was beyond disorienting, for I couldn't even locate the center of it all, and yet these made up people and a make believe world appeared.

I was one of the fairy tale characters, and it was always clear it was not my dream. And maybe that world stopped spinning, or really it was like getting on a moving carousel and finding your seat on the merry-go-round horse, and the lights and colors and names of people places and things, the noun-known world, was so clearly a fantasy---I couldn't even say it came from my brain or have any idea from what or how or why....

Yet all these appearances, even now a panorama of seamless perception containing the illusion of separation, seem to happen, and somehow it seems as if there is wine and a glass and a hand reaching out and then drinking, and yet there is nothing at all. Only an unfathomable, ineffable, inexplicable fairy tale fantasy love story that is not even that, or this, or any thing imagined or unimagined at all ❤

~~Miranda Warren

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Journeys are dreams..

 












Journeys are dreams..

Here to there

Marks on a map..

These arguments for

Our seeming journeys..

Of journeys past and

Cruises in planning 

Journeys we know..yet

In this lockdown interlude

We might discover 

All of these journeys

As simply dreams

Of the Ocean I am...

Monday, November 30, 2020

The Virgin Mary..

 













The Virgin Mary..

For some~~

The Advent season brings us

To the story of Mary with her

Fears and misgivings after 

Angelic conversations..

Her status as a virgin pointed

To an angelic mistake..does not

A conception require separation..? 

A new question:

Might there be inner Birth

Recognizing Virginity

Appearing as separation...?

Sunday, November 29, 2020

The Prodigal Son..

 




“It is difficult to persuade me that the story of the Prodigal Son is not the legend of one who didn't want to be loved. When he was a child everyone in the house loved him. He grew up knowing nothing different and, being a child, he grew accustomed to their tenderness of heart. But once he became a youth he wanted to cast all that aside. He wouldn't have been able to say it, but even when he spent the whole day wandering around outdoors he didn't want the dogs with him ever again because they loved him as well; because looking in their eyes he could read watchfulness, sympathy, expectation, and concern; because when they were with him there was nothing he could do that didn't either delight them or hurt their feelings. But what he was aiming for at the time was that indifference of heart which early in the morning out in the fields sometimes seized him inwardly and with such purity that he would start to run in order to leave himself no time or breath to be more than a weightless moment in the morning's returning consciousness.

― Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge


Love in relationship..

Is our common context..

And we find examples of

What seems as genuine love

Between and among..

But let's ask:  can this love

Cover and smother..and

Steal our knowing of 

Freedom..as our birthright..?

~~CC

Dualistic devotion..

 












It appears that most prayers

Assume a separation..separation of

God and of others..even when a

Unity is accepted through intellect..

Read or listen to most prayers and

Find the gaps and spaces..

The question for our time is how

Might this assumption be uprooted..?

Most simply..by recognition of That

In which prayers are rooted..which

Is a Presence never absent..still...


Swami Sarvapriyananda: "I'm one with you absolutely, I don't disagree one bit. But we must admit there's a vast number of people in this world who would not want to go so far, who would want to hold on to their individuality, and have God as an 'other', finding a distinction between God's being and our being, and set up a loving but dualistic relationship based on faith, and worshipping God. So where would you stand on this? Ultimately one has to come to the realization that 'I am Brahman', 'I am the infinite', for enlightenment and liberation."

Rupert Spira: "The dualistic devotion towards God is valuable. It weakens the ego. But it does not uproot the ego. In fact, for the ego to be truly uprooted - it cannot be uprooted because it doesn't really exist as such - but for the illusion of separation to be dissolved, this dualistic relationship between self and other (whoever that other is; whether it's a person or a God) must come to an end. Even from the point of view that the world is created by or emerges out of this magnificent, infinite God at a seeming distance from ourself, if the world is a creation of that and we as individuals are a creation of the world, then whatever the essence of the world is - which is God - must be the essence of what we are. So even if one follows the common dualistic idea all the way, one must inevitably at the end come to the realization that the being that I am is a localization of the only being there is. If we go deeply into the dualistic approach, there is only room for one being, there is only room for God's being. Sooner or later one must come to the realization that there is no self in me other than God's being. That to me is true devotion to God."

Saturday, November 28, 2020

LIFE being life..











LIFE being life..

Regrets in this life

Transport us outward

And mark a duration

To some remembered place..

Yet there is a tension 

Accompanying 

To turn us once more with

A relieving recognition:

LIFE being life...


She was getting old, she wrote me, and she was filled with regret that she had spent decades at satsangs and retreats and watching videos and reading books about enlightenment. She said she felt that her life had passed her by and she had nothing to show for it.

I told her that was her life, every smile and hug she shared with everyone else at every talk and every retreat, seeker and sage alike, simply human animals singing and talking and meditating and doing yoga and laughing and crying and sleeping and breaking bread together; her life was in every beautiful word that touched her, and that feeling of longing the words evoked was none other than her own love and beauty; her life was there in all the videos that perplexed her and annoyed her and also filled her with wonder and awe.

I told her there is no this to get, no journey to nowhere, and your life was never your own, it never passed you by, it is you, it is all and everything and no thing at all. No one has ever had more, known more, or felt more than you do right now in this apparent instant, and that is as enlightened as any of us are ever going to get. This is your life, and it is love, and it is not even that, yet it is always so beautifully and wonderfully and mysteriously more than enough.

~~Miranda Warren

Friday, November 27, 2020

A Messy Advent..

 



A Messy Advent..

For some~~

It is time for Advent

That special season of waiting

For a birth in a storied event..

Incarnation it is called..with a

Child arriving to save us from

Sins construed as so messy..

Re-contemplating that

Child.. recalling our own  

Innocence..before our many 

Journeys to far places

Seeking in messiness

Our illusive Innocence..

Until..with joyful Surprise 

A discovery..at journey's end:

From our Innocence

We have never departed...!


Matthew 18: 2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.



Thursday, November 26, 2020

Thankful Thursday..

 













Thankful Thursday..

In this year of

Virus and chaos

We have arrived at

This Thursday for Thanks..

The outward turn

Of daily attention

Has immersed us and

Grayed inner vision..

So perhaps this Thursday

We might pause to reveal

Our inner Light of

Thankful  Thursday...

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Reincarnation...with Krishnamurti...

 











In the envelope of time

Reincarnation appears 

Soothing as we dwell in

The seeming reality of the

Day..a settling into this

Plenitude of time..if not now

Another lifetime will do..

The lonely self grasps this

Logical story to fill a gap..

That is..until time is found

Crumbling in the explosion

Of a Birdsong...  


Question: What do you think happens when the physical body dies? Reincarnation?

Krishnamurti: The whole of Asia believes in reincarnation, that there is such a thing as the soul, as the self, which is being constantly made perfect though time. Which means repeated births. If one believes in that, that you will be born next life in a better condition in order to become more and more perfect, until you reach whatever you reach, it implies that you must behave rightly now. If you believe in reincarnation, what is important is what your conduct is now, how you live now, what kind of person you are now, because if you are brutal, if you are violent, if you are ugly, you are going to continue that same thing next life. But most people who believe in this don’t care two pins how they live now – it is just a theory to them. It gives them a kind of comfort because they don’t know what death is, and at least they have some belief.

So there is this whole theory or belief in reincarnation, in the perfection of a human mind growing through time becoming perfect. And you say, ‘What do you believe?’ I say I don’t believe in anything. Now wait a minute, it is not agnostic. I see a different way of living. That is, if you are interested in it, death is something extraordinary, as love, not something to be afraid of. And to find out what it means, one must die every day. To die to every event, every pain, every ambition, to die to all that you have cherished as important. Otherwise you are just living in the past, as most people are. Or rather, not living in the past – they are the past. So can one die to yesterday, to everything? Not just to one particular form of pain or one particular form of fear or pleasure, but the feeling of emptying the mind of all the problems of yesterday.

Interview with Wilfred Thomas at Brockwood Park, 5 October 1970

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Faces and Dreams...

 








Why not a dream..??

Forms of faces by the 

AI Artist ensconced in the

Dreaming Mind

We all are..


Do these people look real to you..??

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/21/science/artificial-intelligence-fake-people-faces.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR3d1wSZUwZUKTgyY0hXKmErIJY75cuX1s98y_jBsdpLRfy2eBBHo9rodJI




Violence..

 



"Any doing in any direction is violence. Any effort is violence. Anything you do with thought to create a peaceful state of mind is using force, and so, is violent. Such an approach is absurd. You are trying to enforce peace through violence. Yoga, meditation, prayers, mantras are all violent techniques. The living organism, the peacefully functioning body doesn’t care one hoot for your ecstasies, beatitudes or blissful states. Man has abandoned the natural intelligence of the body. That is why I say -it is my ‘doom song’ -that the day man experienced that consciousness that made him feel separate and superior to the other animals, at that moment he began sowing the seeds of his own destruction. This warped view of life is slowly pushing the entire thinking towards total annihilation. I am not an alarmist. I am not frightened; I am not interested in saving the world. All I am saying is that the peace you are seeking is already inside you, in the harmonious functioning of the body." ~ U G Krishnamurti~



Violence..

If a basic separation is assumed

To be fundamental..then.. until

An awakening..discovering 

Separation as illusion..

We might expect that

Doing and moving may wreak

Violence in large and small ways..


Quantum Dimensions of Healing..Robin Starbuck..

 













Amazon review:

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1OCNJTYBYXCFV/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv



It appears this will be one more in the string of "5" ratings for this book!  Dr. Robin Starbuck has provided a modern commentary on the convergence of quantum physics, spirituality, and healing.  Yet, it is much more than a commentary..she is speaking to all of us about the possibility of healing from a new understanding--and more importantly, an experience--of who we are.  Really!  Her own experiences of physical illnesses are the foundation for her discoveries and her writing.  A significant uniqueness of the book is Dr. Robin's use of scriptural (primarily New Testament) language as a framework for her entry into the vastness of the quantum and spiritual worlds. She uses religious language despite her dislike for religion!  This book is one from which the Christian religion might derive much benefit, noting that her usage of words is likely closer to original holistic meanings. Her book is a deeply personal portrayal of her life of discovery and recognition.  The writing is informal, and should be a comfort to many who appreciate her manner of speaking.  Some might claim that there is too many quotes from her sources (perhaps there are) but the quotes are stepping stones on her path to discovery of what the world is looking for: an immediate knowing of the Peace and Joy which are features of our Real Identity.  Take a look..!!  




Thursday, November 19, 2020

A grammar lesson..

 













A grammar lesson..

Start with a polarity

Those many dualities

We have believed are

Separation's truth..

Recognize then the

Play of Subject / object..

As the object wishes to

Stand alone..the Subject

Expresses the Truth of

Oneness:  dissolving 

Separation so that

At last we recognize 

Beauty and Truth:

Subject being object...


Monday, November 16, 2020

Retreat..

 













Retreat..

A retreat is available

When we are right busy

Riding our range..

This retreat..when 

Frequently visited becomes

Shorter and shorter..leading

To recognition of Retreat

As our new Name.. 

We are ReNewed  

Riding a new Range...

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Journeys..

 













Journeys..

Direct and Indirect

Portrayed as choices sometimes..

But are they choices..?

The direct journey has no

Geography or duration..and

Those arriving tell the joke:

There is no journey..!

The indirect journey is

Composed of stops and starts

Searching for what might be

Directly discovered... 


Naming..

 












Naming..

Proclaims separation..!

That's it..






We give everything a name, that’s the problem. We say this is cancer, this is poverty, this is an earthquake, this is a million dollars, this is a new home, this is a new car, this is a war, this is a dog, this is a cat. We have names for everything. What if we forgot about those names, and we stopped seeing things as something? What if we just observed things, watched things without giving them a name, without coming to a conclusion? What do you think would happen? You would transcend everything. Whatever you’re no longer attached to, gives way. Whatever you’re no longer holding on to, no longer holds on to you. And as you let go of your opinions toward person, place and things, you find that you’re growing, you’re evolving. You’re beginning to become something that is ineffable, something that cannot be explained, something that’s so wonderful, you never dreamed that something like this existed. Yet it does.


Robert Adams

Friday, November 13, 2020

Democracy..

 











Democracy..

This hidden diamond

In our culture..is

Buried by layers of

Distrustful hedging..

Constitutions and governments

Are molded with trappings to

Protect from a fearful notion..

History gains glimpses..yet

The diamond hides

Until one day

(Right Now for some..)

The diamond's gift is

Freedom exposed...!