Lakeside Advent

Lakeside Advent

From  silent Bethlehem

comes new understanding..

An awareness of our

lives in separation

 longings for return

to home and peace..

From ancient days

from beyond time

the birth of a child

is experienced Now

as simply I am..

A silent recognition

of grace

may arrive with 

longing and searching

or more directly

sitting on a bench

lakeside...

Everything vanishes (Paul Cezanne)

Paul Cézanne said, “Everything vanishes, falls apart, doesn’t it? Nature is always the same but nothing in her that appears to us lasts. Our art must render the thrill of her permanence, along with her elements, the appearance of all her changes. It must give us a taste of her Eternity.”   That statement must be one of the clearest and most profound expressions of the nature and purpose of art in our era. 

~~Rupert Spira

This excerpt comes from an amazing website:

The Awakened Eye

See:  http://theawakenedeye.com/pages/natures-eternity/

Non dual perception

On nondual perception:

I reasoned that if these two elements – the presence of an object in itself and the consciousness to which it appears – are essential ingredients of every object, there must be a relationship between them. So I began to explore the relationship between consciousness and its object, between that which sees, hears, feels and thinks and that which is seen, heard, felt and thought about. I reasoned that if there is a distinction between the two, there must be some perceivable interface or border between them. I looked for such a border between the subject and its object, but could not find one.

– Rupert Spira

Meeting the Self

Understand that what we most need

and love is our own Self, and that it is not

something far away out of reach.  It is this 

very Self which, here and now, is aware of

these words and whatever else you are

experiencing in this moment.  It is also the

same Self that is experiencing everything

that everybody else and every creature is

experiencing in this moment.

~~Francis Lucille, The Perfume of Silence

Having enough

Having enough

On this Thanksgiving Day

tables are filled with 

what are called

blessings of enough..

Yet those fillings

suggest and remind

that there are tables

without enough..

And in truth 

all tables filled

however filled

if standing alone

indulged 

out of Context

will never be

Enough...

Birds are Consciousness

Birds are Consciousness

Naming of birds as birds

and we seem to separate

and find them out there

to be perceived

to be heard..

Removing the name

discovering perceiving 

and hearing

and we observe that

the distances dissolve

into our Knowing...

The Consciousness Model starring Mary and Martha

The Consciousness Model starring Mary and Martha

He told Martha to be more like Mary

and so he is asking for Martha to recognize

her True Self..

Assuming that Martha took this sage advice

she recognized herself as pure Consciousness..

The problem now is that the old Martha and new Martha

are a lingering duality..!

Martha's recognition is a way station

an intermediate hesitation

enroute to a new recognition 

that old Martha resides within the new..

And more..

old is made of the New...!! 

A Barbershop Message

A Barbershop Message

While awaiting a chair

I sought my iPad

conveniently stored in

my briefcase..

Then an interruption

a call for fulfillment

in this place now..

The iPad represented

one more search

and a reading to bring

temporary relief from

an insistent urging

of an apparent
separate self..

The message was

to move attention

away from separation

to a real Self

to real Happiness..

So it appears 

we must be vigilant

to identify the one

we next will serve..

When not to pursue

but more simply

to Be...

Advent Peace

Advent Peace

From  silent Bethlehem

came new understanding..

A new awareness of our

birth as Peace..

From ancient days

from beyond time

and experienced Now

as simply I am...

This silent experience

of Grace

may arrive with labor

 searching and suffering

or more directly

sitting on a bench

lakeside...

Micah 5:2-4New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Ruler from Bethlehem

2 [a] But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,

    who are one of the little clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

    one who is to rule in Israel,

whose origin is from of old,

    from ancient days.

3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time

    when she who is in labor has brought forth;

then the rest of his kindred shall return

    to the people of Israel.

4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,

    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great

    to the ends of the earth;

True Self

True Self

Ordinary but astonishing

not of the mind

but at mind's end

this identity upgrade

available to all..

Simply I am

infinite Consciousness..

Is this radical

or is it news

from our experience..?

This knowing opens gates

to the knowing of

Truth

Beauty

Love...!

Welcoming

Welcoming

is not attending outward

but recognizing and opening

to that which is occurring now

in an infinite welcoming space..

And so the prodigal son

found his welcome not

after travel and return

but most immediately

 turning toward home...

Peace Talks

Peace Talks

It is the season of peace talks..
Remembering the calm and silence
at the origins of  beliefs widely held..
Wishes are expressed to return to that
distant notion of peace..
Might we seed that local vision
in that small insignificant town
to a non-local vision of 
Peace
as the name of our true Self..
And then turning once again
to our threatened Earth
to be astonished:
 It lives within and is made
of That which is our
new and expanded Self..


Excerpts from Rev. Peter Sawmill's Eco-Justice Notes

See: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&shva=1#inbox/15126862bdb2508c
for the entire Notes)

Two days ago, the New Yorker published an excellent article by Jason Box and Naomi Klein, Why a Climate Deal Is the Best Hope for Peace. I encourage you to read it, because it provides the sort of broader perspective that we need to bear in mind in the coming weeks and years. They connect the dots between climate chaos and political chaos. They also acknowledge that when terrorism breaks into the news, "climate reliably falls off the political map."

Box and Klein write, "A climate summit taking place against the backdrop of climate-fuelled violence and migration can only be relevant if its central goal is the creation of conditions for lasting peace." They quote energy expert Michael T. Klare (from before the violence in Paris), that the UN negotiations "should be considered not just a climate summit but a peace conference -- perhaps the most significant peace convocation in history."

We are not trying simply to solve a big engineering problem. We are trying to sustain a viable planet. We are trying to stave off a near-term future where the Middle East can expect "temperature levels that are intolerable to humans." We are trying to prevent devastation and disruption that will lead to hundreds of millions of climate refugees.

Box and Klein make a persuasive case for re-framing the upcoming UN negotiations as peace talks. If we do not reduce emissions, if we do not mitigate damage, if we do not bring justice to climate victims, then our future will hold ever more violence and conflict, more famine and trauma, more suffering and pain.

Peanut man

Peanut man

Peanuts are his habit

which he indulges

in morning discussions..

He also likes information

history and happenings

compilations and numbers..

One might conclude

he sees reality and himself

as these excursions into

this matter-filled world..

But we also know

his goodness and humor

which seem quietly hidden

from his plethora of facts..

We also find impatience

of listeners in listening..

Perhaps we back away

for a wider perspective

finding impossibility

of the gushing of fact

without the Hidden

Im-planting there...

History

History

Textbooks present

markers in the line of time..

Persons and dates and boundaries..

But what is time..?

A housing or container for

a procession of thoughts

as space is a container

for  procession of perceptions..
And of housing and container
more thoughts in 
a search for time..

Radical Truth

World War I

World War I

These reflections
after a lecture
this morning..

It was named

the war to end all wars..
Our experience now
which is never
other than now
and never other
for those fighting
in the trenches..
The historical events:
Lusitania
Zimmerman
Hoover's food
Creel's propaganda
the League
the President..
These are frequencies
within and made of
one Consciousness..
These are projections
rooted in Consciousness
as is a dream
with projections..
History is taught
based on assumptions
of separation
and the student
and her teacher
as participants
as observers
right now
is lost..
Uneasy we should
be with this
huge oversight...

(My father's war
as a postal clerk
in Paris)

Gratitude

Gratitude

Our foregrounds in life

seem so dominant..

Death and hardness
with fleeting joys

fill our senses

sadden our days..

Questions arise on

our identities amid

those foregrounds of

ill news and separation..

Our searches for answers

seem as unfruitful
weary minds need rest..

As we search in shadows

 a glimpse of background 

a touch of light..

Forgotten once

 but now remembered

this moment of grace..

We are filled and become

at last acquainted with

an infinite expanse 

 this our true Self..

Then to turn again

to the foreground

so foreboding before..

Now shining in peace

beauty and happiness

bringing our tears of

Gratitude...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Elaine, Eileen, Anne

Ice crunching under my shoes

Ice crunching under my shoes

After the storm

patches of icy snow

my shoes and car tires

created the crunching..

Jagged miniature ice spires

torn and flattened 

under each step..

A multiplicity reduced

to fine grained simplicity..

And reduced to hearing

the extended crunch

seemingly in time

but in reality only

Awareness crunching...!

The Placeless

Not Christian or Jew or

Muslim, not Hindu,

Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen.

Not any religion

or cultural system.

I am not from the east

or the west, not

out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not

natural or ethereal, not

composed of elements at all.

I do not exist,

am not an entity in this

world or the next,

did not descend from

Adam and Eve or any

origin story.

My place is

the placeless, a trace

of the traceless.

Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved,

have seen the two

worlds as one and

that one

call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner,

only that breath breathing

human being.

~ jelaluddin rumi

Fruits and goals

The placement of goals

in all we do

a cultural persuasion

of lives lived with

eyes to success..

The placement pertains

to goals both 

mundane and subtle..

But what of the advice

of the ancient Gita

to remove our eyes 

from this proclivity

and with direct intent

acknowledge the 

only Reality we

can ever Know...

Light and form..just Now

Light and form

We enter the dark

with our flashlights

there to locate details

of forms not seen..

Both the light and form

are objects of our interest

just now..

Without the light 

forms are unknown

but experience says

forms are there..

What of those

who do not question

and are bored with

these words so far..!?

What if we were

to mark Light

with a capital L

and point to Light

as the subject

within which 

all light and forms

appear..

And this more:

Light and form

end their separation

just Now...

Finding Now

Finding Now

Do we need fear and desire

to find what Wild Things are..

For our minds to confuse

 the nature of what's Real..

Or do the forests and fields

give us understanding of Now

and the unreality and danger

of our fixation on time...

The Divine Image

This woman perhaps homeless
I encountered sitting in the warm sun
behind a food store..
Smoking but with some elegance
and seemingly willing for my 
intruding photo or perhaps
happy with my attention
and small contribution..
On this day of snowstorm
may she be warm
and may we all learn to look 
upon the many images
walking and sitting
each as
Divine...

The Divine Image 

by William Blake

To Mercy Pity Peace and Love,

All pray in their distress:

And to these virtues of delight

Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy Pity Peace and Love,

Is God our father dear:

And Mercy Pity Peace and Love,

Is Man his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart

Pity, a human face:

And Love, the human form divine,

And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man of every clime,

That prays in his distress,

Prays to the human form divine

Love Mercy Pity Peace.

And all must love the human form,

In heathen, turk or jew.

Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell

There God is dwelling too.

Paris travail

Paris travail

Terrorism..

seems as winning

closures and constricts

fear and darkness..

And those who say

we are interlinked

but the pallor of 

duality remains 

separation insists

the Self lies hidden..

Identity is

the only solution

Recognition

Awareness

Consciousness

Grace...

Separate Self

STRETCH

Monday, November 16th

MacKenzie Place, 4:00 to 6:00 PM

Topics:

~~~The Separate Self

~~~The Experience of Resistance and Desire

~~~The Role of the Teacher

"The separate self is not an entity; it is an activity: the activity of thinking and feeling that our essential nature of pure Awareness shares the limits and the destiny of the body and mind."  

Rupert Spira

Facilitator:  Charlie Coon

email:  charlesrcoon@hotmail.com

MIndcamera

Mindcamera

The mind and camera

serve to restrict and focus

our eternal awareness

and bring the world we see

 dimensions of

space and time..

It is a matter

of elimination and sorting

yet with organizing skill

to actually create

a seeming significant

other...

Alone

Alone

So many lonely people

looking for companionship

and conversation..

Lives of seeking for

some relationship to

ease a sensation
of loneliness..
Yet the loneliness
started at birth
as we began 
our lives of denying
the unreality of
separation as creation...