Ashes of Love

At the heart of experience, there is a fire that

burns all we know.  Offer everything to that

fire.  What remains--the ashes of love--is that

for which we have longed all our life.

--Rupert Spira

A yellow leaf

A yellow leaf

remains attached

through autumn winds

which fell others..

a high perch

overlooking Halloween..

Will I watch

on the frightful night

from my high vantage..?

or a sudden drop

to lawn or gutter

a carpet then for

young tramping feet..?

These fearful questions

we all ask

until remembering

what we truly Are...

Autumn's veiled glow

Autumn's veiled glow

Spinal black branches are the anchors

of the masses of golden leaves

which grace this mountain autumn..

Single leaves glow as lanterns might glow

held by their partnered shadows..

We find them as kin:

 our own glow

with shadow...

The limited viewpoint

The limited viewpoint

self of an object

self of the self

from our small self

a veiling takes place..

our lifetime tasking

to remove the veil

and at last

find Awareness

of the infinite...

Thanks to 

William Blake

and Rupert Spira

Stretching the Now

Stretching the Now

Becoming is the next scene

what is around the bend

the mind stretches to 

reach and discover..

Being is Now and rest

and waiting for arrival

of what is ahead..

These are the poles

of all creativity

and history..

Yet we ask:

Can the Now

be stretched...?

Raindrops

Raindrops

The rainy day ended and a walk revealed

many lone raindrops on leaves and branches..

Water had been reconfigured from its flow

its pooling and singular constitution..

Now we saw individual drops as prisms

each its own reflection and color of light..

Such we are with our makeup of water

each of us a prism and

each of us Water...

Apparently

Apparently

This YouTube portrayal

a young boy repeating the apparently word

has gone viral..

He a momentary celebrity

but the subliminal message

of his word

plys the subconsciousness of

many millions..

the word softens our firm beliefs

of hardness and separation

of our daily  apparent reality...

Non-duality

Non-duality

This is a gift to us living Now in our tumultuous 

time.  It is a treasure not resulting from a search.

Perhaps our search has stalled, perhaps ended.

Perhaps frustration and longing are consuming

 after study and meditation for those long years.

Suddenly in this Now a precious realization

brings dawn of a new morning which has always 

dawned... 

The Cave

The Cave

Who are those

sequestered and quiet

choosing dancing shadows..?

Who are those

alive at intersections

pressing their interests

with laughter and tears..?

Who are those

hearing the cries

serving the hungry

with engaging grit..?

These hardy questions..

Now a pause..

Do these pale

next to this question

asked of all these:

Are you Aware...?

You can't go home again

You can't go home again

Home is where we start

and it is known by a swirl of memories

formed back then in separation and time..

These we recognize now as thoughts

thoughts which live in our experience now..

And the gift we receive is

now to know home as a place

for the first time...

With appreciation to

TS Eliot

PERCEPTION..!!

PERCEPTION..!!

The lunar flights give you a correct perception of our existence. You look back at Earth from the moon, and you can put your thumb up to the window and hide the Earth behind your thumb. Everything you've ever known is behind your thumb, and that blue-and-white ball is orbiting a rather normal star, tucked away on the outer edge of a galaxy. (Jim Lovell)

All women have a perception much more developed than men. So all women somehow, being repressed for so many millennia, they ended up by developing this sixth sense and contemplation and love. And this is something that we have a hard time to accept as part of our society.  (Paulo Coelho)

Artists - musicians, painters, writers, poets - always seem to have had the most accurate perception of what is really going on around them, not the official version or the popular perception of contemporary life.  (Billy Joel)

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it. (Anais Nin)

There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.  (J. Robert Oppenheimer)

From the viewpoint of the earth, the sun comes and goes, whereas it is, in fact, always present. Likewise, from the viewpoint of the body and mind, our essential nature of pure Awareness comes and goes, but, in its own experience of itself, it is ever-present.  (Rupert Spira)

An October walk

An October walk

It seemed November with cold mist 

exchanging places with clarity..

After heavy rains filling the rushing

spraying rapids of the mud drenched creek..

This running path and meeting of runners with

isolating earplugs but with smiles appreciating

 damp outdoor exercise of this late day..

The path revealed rock walls which were

serpentine in slanted perspective 

with graded light in enclosing forms..

A college soccer game in the chill

warmed only by the bright lights of

the scoreboard..

These October etchings splashed upon

 a presence most intimate with these

fleeting impressions...

NOW

NOW

is made of folding and unfolding

of our many experiences so that

we come to know  

Experiencing

is creating

out of itself

all experiences

as they

come and go...

Bidding time to be still

Bidding time to be still

the energy of doing

with care in detail

memory recalls failures

and come predictions of

future dark outcomes

in all of this

time seems as taskmaster

calling the shots..

at last arrives in-sight:

separation now rules

so let us return

to presence and rest

bidding time to 

be still...

for Nancy

for Nancy

We all share with her our gifts of life

the risings and fallings which mark our days..

But hers is one of special courage

 which shines in her diminishing strength..

She rises and comes with her

penetrating eyes of blue  

engaging each in soft conversations

informing of her vulnerabilities today..

Listening.. we pause and allow our own..

May we all know of a presence we share

a presence of stillness within

which assures each of 

permanence and fullness..

of Love...

Something

Something

is what most think they are

others are enlightened

and think

they are nothing

these are necessary

steps

enroute to

Consciousness

which 

does not think

but knows

I am everything...

Bird on a branch

Bird on a branch

We are linked to the great out there..two faithful partners

dance together to keep us aware..one of these.. as in the movies..

projects..the other perceives this bird on a branch..projection and perception..

mind and senses.. in simultaneous dance..we then know of the 

bird and branch and song..begging a simple question: 

is the great out there out there...?

An inkling in Time

An inkling in Time

Center of all our experience..this we know..but

 looms a question..when time appears in its solitude..

lone standing..independence declared..it also echoes of

 separation..suffering..of a brevity with loneliness tinged..

and hope departing..we ask and wait for something 

unknown..clocks persist ticking on and on..gloom directs

 sitting on a storied park bench..then lo an inkling..time is

 not found in this experience while sitting..mind rebels

at this most outrageous inkling and shouts fraud..but 

the inkling is a message with eternal dressing..and 

a primordial center our experience Now claims...

Rainy day

Rainy day

observing

of raindrops falling

in a gathering puddle

this rainy day..

variation and intensity

the drops disturbed

but the surface

seemed to claim

a oneness with each

of the falling drops..

then a hesitation

a placid return

a brief sun

claimed its oneness

with many other

falling variations...