INNER EMPTINESS POSSESSES CONSCIOUSNESS
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A RELIEF BEYOND BELIEF & EMOTION*
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4:14 AM-12/16/19
*”He came to set the captives free.”
Isaiah 61:1
HE CAME TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE
– Rebecca Brown, MD
https://kupdf.net/download/he-came-to-set-the-captives-free_59f54536e2b6f5c812148bfd_pdf
On wings of living light,
At earliest dawn of day,
Came down the angel bright;
And rolled the stone away.
http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/w/i/owingsll.htm
all that I hope to be,
that I believe I possess.
I let go of the past,
I withdraw my grasping hand from the future,
and in the great silence of this moment,
I alertly rest my soul.
Howard Thurman
Deep is The Hunger
Tired of noisy words,
the "spiritual abstractions"
cleverly strung together
by word-crafters espousing
their mind games - not
from the simplicity of their Heart,
but the complexities of their minds;
having been absorbed by too many
conceptual ideas: "there is only here
and Now"; "there is no other"; "there
is no me"; "'i' does not exist -
creating a phantom reality from those concepts
and ideas on which to hang your mind;
plying their paradoxes into 'non-dual' jargon.
I now seek refuge in the simplicity of the Heart,
and a more "direct experience" of what cannot be
defined by words and abstractions; not philosophical,
existential conundrums that boggle and confuse, but
a simple truth,
untethered and unencumbered...
and be free, than be tethered to the
certainties of noisy words and abstract
mind games that parade as truth.
as I am;
a unique expression of "The Ineffable Mystery" of Life
that animates my being -
living from the simplicity of the Heart...
_/\_
Namaste
Mystic Meandering
Dec. 14, 2019
http://nomindsland.blogspot.com/2019/12/mystic-meandering-mind-games.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NoMindsLand+%28No+Mind%27s+Land%29
as it offers vision not available
in the scramble to put things back together.
An old part of ourselves that has accompanied us for so long,
a fellow traveler is no longer permitted
to continue the journey by our side.
The crumbling of an old dream –
my life and the way I was so sure
it was going to turn out.
Matt Licata
Initiation
also see Read More below afternoon photos for full sharing
As a beginning meditator,
I certainly had a tendency to judge
the way I was performing this new task:
My breath isn't good enough, deep enough,
broad enough, subtle enough, clear enough.
I found that I loaded on to the simple act of breathing
all sorts of pronouncements and projections
about what kind of person I was.
Returning to the breath,
letting go of these judgments,
birth to compassion to myself.
that can steady us even when our lives are in upheaval.
The better you get at concentrating your attention
on the chosen object, the breath,
the deeper the stillness and calm you feel.
fruitless worry, and self-recrimination,
you feel a sense of refuge.
You have a safe place to go,
and it's within.
~Sharon Salzberg
https://makebelieveboutique.com/2019/12/15/31251/
AFTERNOON
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.
who do not tax their lives
with forethought of grief.
https://dorotheamills.weebly.com/oceanspeak-youthanasia-sanctarii/primordials-liminal-silence-lila-leela-divine-creative-play-speak-what-cannot-be-spoken-august-25-2016
https://dorotheamills.weebly.com/oceanspeak-youthanasia-sanctarii/7-its-better-just-to-leave-things-alone-sunriseafternoon-june-26-2015
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.
https://dorotheamills.weebly.com/oceanspeak-youthanasia-sanctarii/pure-transparency-as-breather-and-mind-sunriseafternoon-july-2-2016
For a time
I rest in the grace of the world,
and am free.
~Wendell Berry
https://makebelieveboutique.com/2019/12/16/31258/
Imagine a place right now where
you have gone to rest in the grace of the world
and experienced freedom and
the peace of wild things.
Consider that Creation
is the original icon
revealing the face of the Holy.
a window to the divine presence
at work in the world.
upon an icon or our beloved,
we can also allow our gaze to be drawn to nature,
this most holy and splendid of sights.
with ocean waves lapping the shore,
contemplating the ancient witness
of grand red cedar trees,
delighting in geese flying in patterns of support.
a perspective that opens me up to transformation.
Icon spaces invite me to linger, to relish, to admire.
who wrote the psalms of creation,
celebrating God's grandeur and mystery.
Nature is an icon
that slowly shifts beneath my gaze,
revealing a God who is constantly creating.
I become aware of a holy presence,
the Great Artist, at work in the world around me,
and I begin to connect deeply
to the divine slowly at work within me,
crafting and shaping my life,
inviting me here this day
to sit in stillness
and witness
to the beauty of the world.
~Christine Valters Paintner
https://makebelieveboutique.com/2019/12/16/31258/
I abandon all that I think I am, all that I hope to be,
that I believe I possess.
I let go of the past,
I withdraw my grasping hand from the future,
and in the great silence of this moment,
I alertly rest my soul.
— Howard Thurman
Deep Is The Hunger
Matt Licata
There is a certain death that occurs as part of the healing process, in the deepening of self-awareness, something that does not survive illumination. While it is tempting to spin out of the uncertainty and into rebirth, there is wisdom and a purity within the reorganization itself, which we cannot know if we abandon it prematurely.
The dissolution itself is initiation as it offers vision not available in the scramble to put things back together. An old part of ourselves that has accompanied us for so long, a fellow traveler is no longer permitted to continue the journey by our side. The crumbling of an old dream – my life and the way I was so sure it was going to turn out.
This prior soul-companion can be another person or it can be a member of the inner family - an image, a feeling, a lens through which we’d been seeing ourselves and others; a part of our world that has come to the end of its meaning, the end of its life.
In order to be initiated in this way, we must slow down, return into the earth and the mud and the ground, and somehow cut into the urgency to enter into the next phase while the current one is still being illuminated. To take some time to mourn the reassembling of our world, to grieve all that we will inevitably lose as we heal and awaken. To set aside what we will get, what is coming next, and attune to now.
To tend to the pieces of soul, the shards of the heart, and the fragments of the psyche that are being dissolved, to honor the role they have played, for standing by us for so long, and providing refuge during difficult and transitional times. To grieve the loss of their companionship and allow them to continue into whatever realm is next for them, permission to travel and experience new things.
To stand in awe at this process, despite the profound pain and grief, to care for all of it as we allow the mystery to reveal itself in deeper and deeper ways. To know that healing and awakening is messy, glorious, and full-spectrum… and is not only an act of creation, but one of destruction as well.
Matt Licata