What does "I" stand for..??

 

The "I" word..

The most common word in every language

For centuries has stood for the person reading these words..

Sages are known to possess a much larger I..but the

Secret..that you and I might claim an expanded

Version..has found its home only on fringes..hiding a

Reckless bounteous Freedom..yet..there are those who 

In desperate times..found the Joy of this delicious word..

But..alas..have settled for a mirrored image..reflected 

Most clearly on their driver's licenses...

‘I’ stands for indivisible, infinite, intimate and innocent. It is the substance of all experience.~~Rupert Spira

The Tao that can be told..

 

“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.

The named is the mother of ten thousand things.

Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.

Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.

These two spring from the same source but differ in name;

this appears as darkness.

Darkness within darkness.

The gate to all mystery.”

~Laozi, Tao Te Ching.

Appearance w/o an Opposite..

 

Appearance w/o an Opposite..

Oppositions

We observe today with expectation

In that stretch of the future..

But in a new time..as time is exposed

Oppositions are also exposed..and the

Seamless sounds..quivering and revealing:

Appearances..beauty expressing

Nothing at all..

Karma..

 

Karma..

Springs from the separation thing

Which says that we need improve

In this life..so not to be recycled..or 

Leastwise recycled in a more 

Comfortable way..

So..apparently..we need go back to

That separation thing..and excavate.. 

Unearth our illusion..putting an end to

The Karma thing...

Searchers...

 

Thought for the day....... “There seem to be two kinds of searchers: those who seek to make their ego something other than it is, i.e. holy, happy, unselfish (as though you could make a fish unfish), and those who understand that all such attempts are just gesticulation and play-acting, that there is only one thing that can be done, which is to disidentify themselves with the ego, by realizing its unreality, and by becoming aware of their eternal identity with pure being.” Wei Wu Wei

What is Dialogue..??

 

David Bohm:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/12/05/david-bohm-on-dialogue/

Pandemic Walks..

 

Pandemic Walks..

Daily walking and taking photos during this pandemic, has been for me 

a fulfilling experience.  The kind of walks I enjoyed most are sometimes 

called a "Saunter," that is,  slowing down, removing a destination, and 

allowing a spontaneity in the discovery of new photo possibilities.  I 

learned there is nothing I observe out there that is unimportant,

which made the same walk  always somehow different.  The use of the 

camera on my iPhone, with several amazing photo apps, allowed much 

surprising variation and combination.   All in All..these walks revealed

that Amazing Grace appears as every-thing...

Inauguration..

 

Inauguration..

A preliminary incitement

Ignited the chaos..featuring 

Sharpness and compression and 

Macabre hilarity.. penetrating Our

Heart of Democracy..the wounding

We seemed to harbor.. in that

Moment..dark futures projecting..

Until a mirror revealed our darkness

Bolstered with a glimpse.. inaugurating 

A Bend on our homeward road...

The body is not your enemy..(Pat Nolan)

 

The Body..

Is an appearance 

Created from a multitude of perceptions and conceptions..

Each of the multitude arising in This..and seemingly

Integrated to be you and me.. thus birthing a new perception

And conception..which may arise with a nagging belief in 

The end all of a reality of birth and death..

This story may resonate..suggesting an awakening to the

Vastness and Oneness of This..or perhaps not..

If not..new stories may arise continuing the warfare

Story of ages..affecting the body with bouts of discomfort..

New body stories arising..rearranging and disguising This..

Yet..Perfect it is for this moment...

The body is not your enemy.

The body is your best friend.

It is the litmus paper that reflects your mistaken beliefs or your correct alignment with your True Nature.

If the body is stressed and suffering from anxiety and fear it is because there is still a  belief that you are a separate self.

If there is a realization of our True Nature the body becomes  aligned with the Peace, Love and Joy of the Source it is appearing in.

The bodys neutrality is a sacred gift to the ego. 

It is a compass to help to point you home to the Source you have mistakenly believed you left.

To use the compass correctly is not to identify with how it feels but rather to see it as a reflection of how intimate or disconnected it is  with its Source.

Looking at the compass without judgment or blame orientates it to the Loving place that you are Now looking from.

~~Pat Nolan

Whatever arises.. (Tony Parsons)

 

Whatever arises..

Comes into apparent being..

And we fail to experience

The exhilaration of knowing

That we are the source of

This spontaneous arising..

This failing results from the

Veil of time..as we imagine

What came before and after..

We look for this timeline

Which is simply appearing as

A mindful contribution to

All that is arising..yet

The complicit time

Does..and does not..hide

Our Arising Joy...

"You can’t do anything because you can’t do what you already are. You are the light, which allows creation to be. Look, it is happening right here, right now, in everything that’s taking place for you. Simply let it be there…no questions, no judgments, no wish to change anything or make it better.

Fall in love with this. Fall in love with it intimately, and everything else will “emerge". And don’t stay fixed with one thing. Let whatever arises come to the forefront and fall away back into `emptiness.”

Tony Parsons~

All there is this…being - “The unknown appearing as the known, the impersonal appearing as the personal, the one appearing as two, nothing appearing as everything, emptiness appearing as fullness, the uncaused appearing as the caused, the subject appearing as the object, the singular appearing as the plural, unicity appearing as separation. It is silence sounding and stillness moving and these words appearing as pointers to the wordless.” ~ Tony Parsons ~

Democracy..

 

Starting with Democracy as the Light of our life as community and nation..

Democracy as Equality stands in our founding days..and point to the recognition

Of Who we are..These words..based in our Declaration..were followed by our

Constitution which was the first Limitation placed on our real Identity.  

Democracy recognizes Equality as its substance..All are created equal..which

Is a stumbling block for those with a focus on the doings..the externals..which

Color our everyday lives..When the externals are found to be fleeting and illusory..

And the root of much suffering..There is a chance one might recognize Equality

As the Reality we are..Failing this recognition brings the history we have been

Taught in our schools..First the Constitution recognized these failings..Laws

Restrained lives which..living in desperation..quiet and not..so to allow a

Community known as a nation..The externals in the Constitutional beginning

Were extensive..slavery and women's status..were dark coverings of Democracy..

Our History has recorded the slow progress of removing some of these 

Coverings..With setbacks..which offer lessons for the days we are now living..

Unfolding..

 

Unfolding..

"Doing" is resisting

What is unfolding..

The unfettered Truth is that

Unfolded appears as unfolding

But we dislike the folds..

The folds are not recognized as 

Unfolded/unfolding..

And the shadow of doing

To change the folds

Takes its toll..

Apparently..this is

The price we pay...

The persona...Jean Klein

 

Personas..

Are maskings..our presentations

To those over there..

The assumption of separation

Fuels the fires of this deception..

Personas populate an everyday stage

As we engage our persona with

That one over there..

Personas in love and war..provide us

A seeming elixir of life..until we tire

Of the bliss and the wounding..

To discover one day the culprit

As we drop our personas on the stage..

Finding a freshness of Freedom

Which we are amazed to find has

Always lived upon that stage...

Q. So the individual does not exist as an isolated entity. But does not the personality exist as a unique part of the whole?

A. The 'person' is really only persona, mask, but it has come to be synonymous with the idea of an individual, separate and continuous entity. The personality is not the constant we imagine it to be. In reality it is only a temporary re-orchestration of all our senses, imagination and intelligence, according to each situation. There is no repetition in life and each re-orchestration is unique and original like the design in a kaleidoscope. The mistake is to identify with the personality, to conceptualize it in memory and then take ourselves for this collection of crystallized images rather than letting all emotions, perceptions and thoughts arise and die in us. We are in the theatre watching our own play on stage. The actor is always ‘behind’ his persona. He seems to be completely lost in suffering, in being a hero, a lover, a rascal, but all these 'appearings' take place in global presence. This presence is not a detached attitude, a witnessing position. It is not a feeling of separateness, of being ‘outside’. It is the presence of wholeness, love, out of which all comes. When no situation calls for activity we remain in emptiness of activity, in this presence.

~ Jean Klein ~

Everywhere..

 

For a thing to be found,

It must have a specific location.

That which is everywhere,

Can never be found.

~Wu Hsin -

God's Holding...

 

God's Holding in Virus times..

God's Holding..for me..is demonstrated in several lessons..seemingly taught 

by the virus.  Many of us look forward to a return to quote "normal" after 

this challenging period..but the virus teaches us that the normal was not sustainable, 

and not for our benefit.  Here are some other lessons..lessons which may not 

 have been as effectively taught in any other way:

We had glimpses of clean cities without fossil pollution.  However, the apparent 

origin of the virus in polluted places..cries out for attention to environmental 

urgencies. The experience of many who were denied  access to dying family members..

offers a meditation on all of Life.  The very serious challenges to our democracy..

during this same time.. warn of a deterioration of respect for vital governmental 

functions.   Lastly...these difficult lessons.. and the accompanying fear..and the 

desperate  search for Answers..prompts us to turn Inward..to recognize our true 

Identity..as Jesus..and many others..have elucidated over the centuries.  

Thank you...

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Some of you may be familiar with a documentary produced by Netflix, entitled

"My Octopus Teacher."  The film has deeply touched many people in this 

pandemic time.  A good friend has seen it several times (Dan Schwartz).  In the film,

a man established a loving daily relationship with an octopus over the course of a year, 

which is the lifespan of this creature.  Highly recommended.  So...I have found it useful

to similarly consider the Virus as a teacher, and offer the following:

My Virus Teacher..

The virus has placed a focus

On our assumptions of  "normal"

Normal..these were the habits

Taken for granted as they

Settled into our lives as

Benchmarks and addictions..

We so fondly remember the

Unceasing participation..tight

Schedules..with expected

Plentiful accumulation..then 

Enter the virus..pushing back on

Artificial guide rails..and 

Inviting our attention to..Yes 

A frightening Freedom..

A Freedom forever available

With accompanying Joy..

But alas.. went unnoticed

Until the virus erased our

Habitual and imagined 

Prison bars... 

Preparation.. (based on Mark 1..)

 

Preparation..

Dear John knew his audience

Their assumptions and beliefs

Rooted in the sin of separation..

He could not say the Kingdom is here

That each is Already the Son or 

Daughter of God..for that he may have

Been stoned..!

Preparation was prudent..

Baptism with water..and then with Spirit:

These were safe steps..and apparently

Love as a Dove..fully approved...

(See Gospel of Mark, Chapter 1)

Taking sides..(Mother Teresa)

 

I even dared to ask one of the leaders about one of the most common criticisms of Mother Teresa: “Why did Mother not speak out against social injustice? Why did she not point out the evil systems and evil people that are chewing up the poor? Why did she not risk some of her moral ‘capital’ to call the world, and even the church, to much-needed reform?”

The answer was calm, immediate, and firsthand. Mother Teresa felt that if she took sides, or played the firebrand, that she could not be what Jesus had told her to be—love to and for all. She said that if she started correcting and pointing out “sinners” she could no longer be an instrument of love and reconciliation for them. Humiliated and defensive people do not change. Like her patron Thérèse of Lisieux, “her vocation in the church was to be love.” She knew that her primary message had to be her life itself, not words or arguments or accusations. She had found that “third something” that is always beyond the calculating and dualistic mind.

~~Richard Rohr..Meditation for January 1st, 2021

The Selfie..

 

The Selfie..

Self-ie

Photos in reverse with

Appearances of self..

Breaking the silence of

A blank lens..and

With our writing

Breaking the silence of

A blank page..

Haste might be projected

Or anger or concern

Seeming what we are..

Yet..Silence stands

Appearing as selfie

Awaiting recognition...

Getting to the bottom of it all..!

Getting to the bottom of it all..!

There is one "I"

The I of One..

I appear as

Splitting worlds..

As I name them

Something seems awry 

Until that too is

Recognized as I..

Yet..I am now wary of

Names..I and One..?

Might these names 

Also quiver with the

Unnamed..Or might we

Replace all these words

With new Spontaneity...?

“The ‘I’ of the separate self is the true and only ‘I’ of infinite awareness, seemingly mixed with, and, therefore limited by the objective qualities of experience.

With this apparent limitation of awareness comes a limiting of the peace that is inherent within it. It is for this reason that the primary motivation of all apparently separate selves to find peace or fulfillment.

The wound of separation that lives in the hearts of most people is an invitation from the heart of awareness, drawing the mind inwards to the peace and fulfillment that live at its source and essence.

~~Rupert Spira, Being Aware of Being Aware, p. 100