how?

how could you not love something like that?

I was poking around one of my favourite poetry sites recently and found some of my own lines. They had been sourced from one of my other blogs.
(Sincere nods of gratitude to the curator.)

I had quite forgotten these lines (unsurprising, since you didn’t write them, says Emptiness), and reading them again delights me. Unashamedly. So I’m sharing them here.

how could you not love something that

never leaves you
regardless of how often you ignore it?

that’s always self-shining –
never needing flint or switch or fuel?

that never changes
regardless of the vicissitudes of your daily experience?

that never takes sides
whatever person, team or nation you’re supporting,
whatever idea or opinion you hold?

that never breaks apart
even though your life appears to?

that never minds
n-e-v-e-r   m-i-n-d-s
that you spend your life running around looking for it
while it’s in your face the whole time?

how could you not love something like that?

something you can never escape,
and that’s so immanent
you are forced to accept it
as your own true identity?

how could you not then love
Y O U R S E L F ?

and everything arising
– thoughts, perceptions, memories, feelings –
within that inconceivable Self?

how could you not love that immensity which precedes
and includes all existence?

how could you not kneel at your own feet
in awe?

how could you pretend that your enlightened
heart-driven passion
was not the Great Passion of That
which holds the planets in their orbit?

how could you ignore the urge to pour
your energy and attention
into whatever opens your heart?

how?

– miriam louisa
August 2013

A train called time

A train called time

Preparing for a future event

  I promised months ago..

Note here the seeming

firm belief in past and future

telltale signs of this apparition

called time..!

Plenty of time I said then

but finding now that

much time has evaporated..

Some concern now about

time slipping away and the

need to make a beginning.. 

Preparation before more

evaporation..

Note how sticky and clinging

is this concept of time..

Note also the slipping away of

freedom while riding on

a  train called time..
However..
wait just a moment
(not really a moment
you understand)
while I realign with
a real Understanding:
I am in stillness
 the train tracks lie within..
Freedom now regained..!

Experience here and now

Thought for the day....... “Experience takes place only in the present, and beyond and apart from experience nothing exists.” 
Ramana Maharshi

I am a Turner

I am a Turner

This is the name

he proudly savored..

Coaxing new pattern from

 places hidden in wood..

His singing lathe

persuading the grain

to reveal what 

has never been seen..

If the forest might speak

it would say of 

this good man:

by  his gentle turning

he has transfigured

our branches and scraps

to beauty and love...

Remembering a friend,  Steve DeJong...

Happiness....STRETCH

STRETCH

May 16th, 2016 

Myron Stratton Home

Facilitator:  Charlie Coon

(charlesrcoon@hotmail.com)

The Evolution of Consciousness

Excerpted from book From Science to God

I have argued that the faculty of consciousness is present in all beings.(See Are All Creatures Conscious). Consciousness is not something that emerged with human beings, or with vertebrates, or at any particular stage of biological evolution. What emerged over the course of evolution was not the faculty of consciousness, but the various qualities and dimensions of conscious experience–the contents of consciousness. 

The earliest living organisms, bacteria and algae, had no sensory organs and detected only the most general characteristics and changes in their environment. Their experience might be likened to an extremely dim, almost imperceptible hint of light on an otherwise dark screen–virtually nothing compared to the richness and detail of human experience. 

With the evolution of multicellular organisms came the emergence of specific senses, enhancing the quality of consciousness. In order to process this information and distribute it to other parts of the organism, nervous systems evolved, integrating the different sensory modalities into a single picture of the world. 

As brains grew in complexity, new features were added to the image appearing in consciousness. With mammals the limbic system appeared, bringing feelings such as fear, arousal, and emotional bonding. With time, the mammalian the brain grew yet more complex, developing a new structure around it, the cerebral cortex. With this came better memory, focused attention, greater intention, and imagination. 

With human beings another new capacity emerged–speech. And with this, the evolution of consciousness took a huge leap forward.

We could use words to communicate experiences with each other. Our awareness of the world was no longer limited to what our senses told us; we could know of events occurring in other places and at other times. We could learn from each other’s experiences, and so begin to accumulate a collective body of knowledge about the world. 

Most significantly, we began to use language internally. Hearing words in our minds without actually saying them, allowed us to talk to ourselves. An entirely new dimension had been added to our consciousness–verbal thought. We could form concepts, entertain ideas, appreciate patterns in events, apply reason, and begin to understand the universe in which we found ourselves. 

Then came the most important leap of all. Not only could we reflect upon the nature of the world around us, we could also reflect upon thinking itself. We became self-aware–aware of our own awareness. This opened the door to a whole new arena of development. We could begin to explore the inner world of the mind and, ultimately, delve into the nature of consciousness itself. 

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn 

has come.

--Rabindranath Tagore

How does a part of the world leave the world?

How can wetness leave water?

--Rumi

Nothing is ever lost. That which took the shape of the object then, is taking the shape of its ‘recollection' now.

--Rupert Spira

The temple bell stops—

but the sound keeps coming

out of the flowers.

--Basho

A drop of water when it evaporates has become infinite. There is no death for anything, everything finishes to become infinite…..The idea of rebirth is a concept, because for something to be reborn something has to die. What is dead? Nothing is dead. Who is there to be reborn? No one was born. 

--Nisargadatta Maharaj

In the moment

In the moment

It seems there is this

about the X generation

with their GPS devices

interested in closeness

only in whether

to interrupt the straight road

with a new move

left or to the right..

Their focus seems to be

on the territory not the map

realizing the map

is not the territory..

Evolving awareness this

may be..

Perhaps all of us

have reached this point

on our maps

and it is time to taste

an unknown territory...!

(reflection on visit by my

grandson, Ryan, and friends)

Speak as your real "I"

Speak as your real "I"

Who are we really

each of us..

most seem to answer

with answers which name

or automatically point to

some immediacy of

each body and mind..

hopefully a teacher
within or without

on each path

reveals the falsity

of such confinement..!

a receipt of this 

astonishing news:

you are not 

after being convinced

for these decades

the I of your 

cold assumptions..

and moreover henceforth

you can speak

without leaning on 

the I of your discomfort

but now with 

sweet freedom as

your real I...