Pluviophile

Pluviophile

(n) a lover of rain; someone

who finds joy and peace of

mind during rainy days.

are we all lovers of rain

a time of sharing and a 

common recognition that

sunshine is hidden..

but knowing that sunshine

is only interrupted and

that sunshine shines with

more beauty with a surprise

reentrance..

in the meantime

anticipation will do

and the rain turns 

our focus within

to another light

 Awareness...!

Rain (by Rose)

   Rain

                                                               

                                    The rain
                                        washes    
                                          splashes                     
                                            clears the
                                                streets  the
                                                    gutters
                                                       of debris
                                                          and of people


                                                   Rose                        

                                                              

morning rain

morning rain

rain falling this morning..

walking away in the rain

 a hemingway ending..

the rain encloses walking

seeming quiet resignation..

love found but now lost

the mind stretches

finding elementary comfort

in sheets of dark wetness

the rain..

yet is the rain hiding

the closeness of Love..

and is the mind sensing

but not understanding

this closeness in rain...

(ending referred-

Farewell to Arms)

Cold War

Cold War

an airline downed

photographers sickened 

in their imaging...

a nation's leader remains

aloof in his reaching for

new power in energizing

a new fractal iteration

of his nation's past..

so we ask what is

necessary to interrupt

this and every pattern

in which similarities

unfold and repeat..?

what is the waking

we are waiting for..?

 is the strong belief 

in the separate self

and seeking solutions

immersed in this belief

the simple but hidden

root of these realities

of all suffering...?

The Grammar Secret

The Grammar Secret

those parts of speech

learned very early

taken for granted

now might serve

to trigger an entry

to Happiness

to Beauty

to Awareness..

subject and object

are the benchmarks

of the dualistic world

and with dissolution 

we become Aware..

the object's existence

is our senses

a simple stimulation

and nothing more..

with externals dissolved

we then find

the subject has

no object and so

makes an exit

leaving only That

which we are...

crucial...!!!

Taste of Awareness

Taste of Awareness

words are indeed power

but also limitation

a severe limiting

when we long

to taste Awareness..

our identities seem to

be made of words

nouns and verbs

subjects and objects..

yet in our quiet

we see that words

are seeds of division..

to reach Awareness

the object dissolves

and then the subject..

so our poet must

choose her words

as if painted on

simple Awareness

coloring not changing..

  a taste of boundless 

Awareness...!

No Worthless Place (Rilke)

If your daily life seems of no account, don't blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its treasures. For the creative artist there is no impoverishment and no worthless place. (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Paris, February 17, 1903

Letters to a Young Poet

Healing over distance

Healing over distance

is supported by awareness

and a recognition that

awareness is not one's alone

and that pain in the distance 

is the coloring of common awareness..

and this recognition

in simultaneous fashion

is healing itself..

and more

a new glimpse to show

distance and color

never were...

Butterfly's Sabbath

Butterfly's Sabbath

after the soaring
a landing and spreading
of wings accepting the
sun's warm light..
a morning model
of a sabbath taken
a return to her Source..
but then her recognition
there is no return
that her Source had
been soaring..
Now still in landing
a new wind and
we imagine interruption..
yet does she know
wind also as Source..?
Now a cloud cover
entering and leaving..
is there now distress
forgetting and remembering
or is her sabbath
enriching even now
when her Source
seems hidden...?

What butterfly knows

What butterfly knows

a seeming effortless

movement of wings..

there must be subtle flows

tunneling in air

which she senses

knows and rides

with only slight

flutter of wings..

then to confirm

an airborne seed

with inert extensions

flies butterfly paths

and if knowing knows

that these paths assist

for going with flows...

That which is

That which is

There is that

each morning which is new

but also that

which is...

the new makes us

different this day

what seemed important

yesterday

the in-sight then

today is replaced with

morning displays of now..

But this now of morning

which is

of all mornings

 makes each morning

new...!

Multiplicity

Multiplicity

Sitting in a spacious hotel lobby

which enclosed a carpet with repeating designs

Large TVs with changing projections on screens

These assertions of apparent separations in life

Two boys playing pool and a narrator on TV

speaking with all certainty proclaiming his side

A swinging lamp in pendular motion announced

the obvious rulership of linear time

However, remembering now that all these are

the making and iterations and extensions which

brighten in the light of our Awareness

But not yet home these brightened extensions

remind us that Awareness is only aware of itself

Next time might we start in Awareness and

watch the extensions arrive  ?

Aridity

Aridity

is a presence

a creator of the West

when the presence becomes:

clear dry air

brilliance of a starry night

grass bunches and clumps 

and piling tumbleweed..

carvings in cliffs

sculptured arches of beauty

earth's pigments unveiled..

yucca and her moths

in symbiotic dance and

warm walks in the woods..

and not forgotten

Western aridity which

as presence becomes...

(with gratitude for

Wallace Stegner's

Thoughts on the West)

Generations

Generations

What can we make

of evidence showing

generational linkages

such that healing 

of grandparents also

and simultaneously

heals grandchildren..

then follow questions

is healing available

for passed generations..?

are future generations

engaged in our healing..?

Our time concepts

shout a negative

but may their short view

be subverted in a 

quick transcendence...?

(an IONS reflection..see http://noetic.org)

Storms

Storms

This morning's list

of what-to-dos

these pulls outward

resisted by a wish

for settled quiet..

after giving in

to pulling of weeds

the aftermath was

a calming recognition

that the settled quiet

ventured and returned..

the life challenge

to gain recognition

of settled quiet

in the midst of

the storms...

Work

Work

the energy is found

a connecting circuit

whole to less

less to whole..

the work presents

awareness to become

what will be done..

this plan rehearses

for a realizing of

what will be done..

but alas

as ground is broken

obstacles loom and

awareness oft retreats

the connecting circuit

stretches to breaking..

a suggestion of rest

promises restoral 

whole to less

less to whole...

the cycle of

the Perennial Philosophy...

The significant Question

The significant Question

We want the mind to confront

a Question of significance

for the mind to struggle

and finally report that 

I know not..

A Question such as

What am I?

will reduce the mind to

a not-knowing friend

melding into simple

happiness of Awareness...

Let Everything Be

Let Everything Be

as it is

and those distractions

be as they may

rising and falling away..

let awareness be

that no-thing-ness

it's own substance

forming itself into

and curious about

those distractions 

which wander and go..

meditating on

meditation...

The Doors of Perception

THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION

STRETCH: July 14th, 2014

MacKenzie Place

Facilitator:  Charlie Coon

"I continued to look at the flowers, and in their living light I seemed to detect the qualitative equivalent of breathing -but of a breathing without returns to a starting point, with no recurrent ebbs but only a repeated flow from beauty to heightened beauty, from deeper to ever deeper meaning. Words like "grace" and "transfiguration" came to my mind, and this, of course, was what, among other things, they stood for. My eyes traveled from the rose to the carnation, and from that feathery incandescence to the smooth scrolls of sentient amethyst which were the iris. The Beatific Vision, Sat Chit Ananda, Being-Awareness-Bliss-for the first time I understood, not on the verbal level, not by inchoate hints or at a distance, but precisely and completely what those prodigious syllables referred to. And then I remembered a passage I had read in one of Suzuki's essays. "What is the Dharma-Body of the Buddha?" ('"the Dharma-Body of the Buddha" is another way of saying Mind, Suchness, the Void, the Godhead.) The question is asked in a Zen monastery by an earnest and bewildered novice. And with the prompt irrelevance of one of the Marx Brothers, the Master answers, "The hedge at the bottom of the garden." " 

---Aldous Huxley

Set and Setting

Set and Setting

for a meditation

What we are    and

Where we are

bring us to our

unfolding experience..

What..?

this our interior

our awareness state

coming from before

and after our

birth and death..

Where..?

this our exterior

our location and

that yellow rose

but now made

of awareness light..

Set and Setting...

Time Expands

Time Expands

yellow swallowtail with

expanding flight

seems to slow smaller

with rapid wings..

the hummingbird's 

hovering stillness

a moment stalled

on beating wings..

a pole vaulter's pause

before the fall..

a photo brings stillness

in midst of a blur..

these expansions inform

our awareness and acquaint

with an eternal home...

Buttery Yellow

Buttery Yellow

of a summer rose..

immersing in white rimmed 

light tinged yellow

awareness becoming

in around and through

yet remaining untouched

while making itself

spontaneously

buttery yellow...

the interlocking grip

the interlocking grip

the world is a splitting

splitting and splintering

accelerating separation and distance

creation making new difference

a downward and outward progression

often a painful procession..

but when we are watchful

occasions are present for reversals

unifying the separated

transforming our vision

finding new beauty in splinters...

for non-golfers please provide

your own title...!

Mardi

Mardi

our cat at the screendoor

is curious and fearful

of the squirrels and work noises..

she wishes for the door ajar

for quick excursions and escapes

sitting on the edge

Mardi's morning paradoxical

stimulation...

STRETCH...Neurons-to-Nirvana

STRETCH...

July 14th, 2014

MacKenzie Place

(Union and Fillmore)

4:00 to 6:00 PM

No Cost
Facilitator:  Charlie Coon

Neurons to Nirvana

A Mind-Blowing Documentary about the resurgence of psychedelics as medicines

Through interviews with the world’s foremost researchers, writers, psychologists and pioneers in psychedelic psychotherapy, Neurons to Nirvana explores the history of five powerful psychedelic substances (LSD, Psilocybin, MDMA, Ayahuasca and Cannabis) and their now established medicinal potential. 

Strictly focusing on the science and medicinal properties of these drugs. The filmmakers understand that this film touches on controversial territory but are committed in their belief in the message. Giancarlo Canavesio (Founder/President) of Mangusta Productions states:“This is an extremely important film. We understand that it challenges the standard perception of the war on drugs but our aim is simple, to help alleviate human suffering." 

For the first time in two generations, the use of these drugs is not being presented as harmful or as self-indulgent, but as a rational and valuable addition to therapeutic practice.

 

Several well-respected researchers are conducting clinical trials to treat a range of afflictions: PTSD, addictions and the psychological stresses suffered by late-stage terminal cancer patients. The initial results of all these studies are remarkable.

The story extends beyond these trials however. Clients of licensed therapists are using psychedelics not as escape routes or addictive crutches, but in a quest for transformation, mental health, creativity, intellectual and spiritual enhancement and insight.

polarization

polarization

thought by many

as a pejorative

a name of illness..

might we inquire

of a benefit hiding..

pointing to a split

a duality

we are bombarded

with duality's insistence

of independent truth..

might a question arrive

sooner or later

on sole right to

represent our

Truth...?

Missing the Mark

Missing the Mark

we need expect

to miss the mark

with the shadow

such missing makes..

but the knowing that

under the shadow

lies the mark

the glowing mark

becomes a teacher

dissolving the shadow

then we know

we are the mark

and the mark now

knows itself...

Reset

Hints

Hints

Disparate morning events I am recounting:

breakfast preparation of coffee and oatmeal

attention to programs for a week yet to be

newspaper accounts of wars of separation

re-seeding an empty birdseed feeder..

this brief portrait of mind and body 

especially a most sequential passage..

now seated and noting my time assumption

time provides notions of events quite separate

but is there a witness of this procession

and was the witnessing then as it is now..?

these seem clarifying questions

Questions of the morning with hints of joy...

Staying awake

Staying awake

how is it done..?

mindfulness is life lived with awareness foremost

yet we are interrupted distracted and blinded..

awareness then must be renewed by new waking

again and again when sleeping seems to reign..

and new waking is waking from what majorities

claim is our real waking state..

but awareness knows that real waking is simply

our awareness aware of itself

and venturing forth to make and

discover a shining creation...