The Paradox of Meditation

The meditation experience is interesting because on one hand it is about completely letting go of everything, and on the other hand, it is about paying more attention. It's a paradox. Let go of everything and have the courage and faith and conviction to keep letting go, fearlessly, no matter what arises. But don't let go of consciousness, don't let go of attention, don't let go of awareness. Meditation is the paradox between those two positions.

~Andrew Cohen

In the heavens I see your eyes.
In your eyes,
I see the heavens.
Why look for another Moon?
Or another Sun?
What I see will always be enough for me.

~Rumi

On the WAY

Today I woke up with only one aim --
to walk my way to myself.
There were sun and the grass and flowers;
There were river and bridge and animals;
There were also wind and clouds and rain.
There were me and you and others on the way.
Other things and beings, visible and invisible.
Today, while I was walking that way, something happened.
And I see that, while I was walking my way to myself—
it turned into a Way to the Self.
I don’t know if it is a rare mystery,
or ancient alchemy,
or something inevitable and ordinary,
but I stand here still,
going further without making moves,
thankful and peaceful --
needing no more words.

~ Eloratea

Hunger for God: appropos of "Hymn of the Pearl"

If we don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God,
it is not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied.
It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world.
Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for great.

~John Piper

Focusing on the Big Picture

The evolution of our consciousness and our culture is an awe-inspiring task, but I believe it is possible for anyone who cares deeply enough about it. Those of us who feel compelled by the evolutionary impulse must be willing to embrace the dramatic scale at which the life-process is operating. When we awaken to the fact that we are part of a fourteen-billion-year process that is going somewhere, we begin to see our own day-to-day, moment-to-moment choices in a literally cosmic context. We see our own presence here on earth in relationship to the evolution of the cosmos itself.

This cosmic orientation is essential if we are to succeed in taking the next evolutionary step. If our orientation is not that big, we are always going to fall short. Our habitual ways of thinking are just too small-minded, petty, and personal. In order for authentic, profound, and meaningful transformation to occur, we have to make the effort to see all of our choices in this cosmic context. And that, in itself, is evolution. That's what our next step is: awakening to a cosmic orientation to being a human being, here on earth, right now.

—Andrew Cohen

The 7 Modern Sins

Politics without principles
Pleasures without conscience
Wealth without work
Knowledge without character
Industry without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice.
- Canon Frederic Donaldson

Sleep As Devotion

Being observant of God is an act of devotion towards God. Sleep is an act of God drawing us near. That which is conferred upon us by God without our choice is positively superior to that which we send to Him. Sleep therefore is a wonderful gift of God bestowed upon His creatures.

- Junyayd, "The Kashf al-Mahjub"

Spun from the Darkness

I see everywhere

            in this place of shadows and deep sorrow

How love is being created

            and then woven thread by thread

            into some invisible fabric

            stretching across space and time

            and beyond it.

I see how it stretches and strengthens

            between hearts and minds

            being spun out of the darkness itself

            and then dyed by grief into Light.

I see how it unites and binds in the fragmentations

            and changes those who spin or weave

            or are simply covered by the warmth of the cloth around them.

And I see it is a tough love

            and fierce.

And it must be against the dark cold or the fires of grief

            that grip the world.

Yet what comes is a covering for our nakedness

            when the fig leaves were stripped away

            in a garden long ago

            and we began our sojourn into “shadowland.”

This priceless mantel—this robe of Light

            will last beyond the darkness

            for Beauty has allowed us here

            a glimpse of the Eternal

            and the fabric of love fills with Light. 

Freedom's dangers

Freedom is thrust upon us, and we must take it whether
we will or not. Happiest is he or she who takes it
most completely and most joyfully, but also most
seriously and with the deepest sense of its dangers.
- Phillips Brooks (1835-1893),
Life and letters of Phillips Brooks, v. III

Early Morning Dreams

I awoke this morning to a sultry wink
The Lover had donned a sheer, silky veil
and was winking at me with her golden
early morning light.

I awoke this morning prepared to struggle
another day, only to find that the Lover
had other plans.

I awoke this morning to a sultry whisper
and my eyebrows rose at the Lover's erotic
desire for me, just me. No hero, No model,
only SOUL.

I awoke this morning to The Lover's passion,
and I would die another day for Her.

Silver-edged Cloud with a Slice of Moon

A moon white scimitar of wonder sliced
through the ego fog and stopped me in my
tracks. The Beloved had been waiting
for a moment of opening, so of course
She caught me mid-stride, mouth open.

"How do you like my cloud-moon show today?!"

Such child like exuberance over a common
place delicacy, like a cloud, melted my
heart and I saw the cloud and its lace
tatted edges caressing the moon, as if
for the first time.

"I have seen the moon today, I have seen
the clouds in the sky, I have seen, really
seen the buds of the trees and the universes
that are their back-drop."

These gifts that are so present, so delicately
fringed. Where have they been?

THEY ARE PRESENT!

These exquisite wonders are hidden in the mind
fog of our heavy paced world. And we are like
zipping midges, seeing a blur, because a silent
present moment is what is necessary for our
Gifted Moment.

The Beloved beguiled me today and my wanton
quiver of delight was satisfied by a cloud with
silver edges and a slice of moon.

Christ is essentially something different

Social enthusiasms have such power today, they raise
people so effectively to the supreme degree of heroism
in suffering and death, that I think it is as well
that a few sheep should remain outside the fold in
order to bear witness that the love of Christ is
essentially something different.
- Simone Weil (1909-1943), Waiting on God

From Yunus on Friendship

This has been submitted to the blogsite by Ed Clifford


That by which our hearts are held
Whole worlds love it too.
I can't deny the Truth-
Many Ways lead to the One.

Those whom the Beloved loves,
We must also love.
If someone is a friend of the the Friend,
How can we afford not to be friends?

If you would be a lover,
Befriend him who loves your Friend;
And if you cannot,
Don't call yourself a friend of mine.

Whomever you tend to despise,
Hold dear instead.
Don't belittle others, respect them.
This is where the Path leads.

If your heart is filled with love,
Your way is sacrifice,
Through sacrifice you will find your place
In the ranks of Love.

Hearts which truly love the Truth,
Truth will open a door wide.
Dismantle the house of selfishness,
Put a away your self-regard.

High and love, enemy and friend,
the Friend serves them all.
Whoever wants to spread this Word
Must first go out of his home.

This counsel that Yunus gives
Is like buried gold.
Those who love the Friend
and the friends of the Friend,
Find Peace in both worlds.

Before we are required to bear it

I compare the troubles which we have to undergo
in the course of the year to a great bundle of
kindling, far too large for us to lift. But God
does not require us to carry the whole at once.
He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us
first one stick, which we are to carry today, and
then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and
so on. This we might easily manage, if we would
only take the burden appointed for each day; but
we choose to increase our troubles by carrying
yesterday's stick over again today, and adding
tomorrow's burden to the load, before we are
required to bear it.
- John Newton

Friendship

When the conventional mind shatters and one moves from the exoteric forms of religion to their esoteric core, the heart opens and welcomes all mystics of whatever tradition into itself as friends, and some as teachers (just as Yeshua was such a teacher).

All these are friends of the Friend, for they too have found the Beloved One (You) without whom they cannot and will not live. And it has changed everything—transformed every last thing in the universe.  And this “finding” is the key to life, and so now, nothing else, all the details, the obligations, the duties and the rules fail to excite or unite. They simply fall away to meaninglessness, and cannot hold the soul in thrall (or enthralled) any longer.

The household of friends has entirely changed. It is now filled with the lovers, poets, saints, and sages from everywhere, and we all sit down in friendship together at the feast in that vast Kingdom that both is and eternally awaits us. 

Soul Consciousness

"In his book, Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore says that the greatest illness of modern times is ‘loss of soul.’ I do not think that we have lost soul, but simply have not yet discovered it, and therefore live in a soulless way.

The new consciousness on the planet today demands that we no longer neglect this vital aspect of who we are. Ignoring this reality has dire consequences, as Moore points out: “When soul is neglected, it doesn’t just go away; it appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions, violence, and loss of meaning. Our temptation is to isolate these symptoms or to try to eradicate them one by one; but the root problem is that we have lost our wisdom about the soul, even our interest in it.”

Becoming soul-conscious or expanding consciousness is not a choice. It is a deep and natural urge within all of us that is being emphasized by the needs in the world today. The only choice is whether or not we will cooperate or resist the expansion of consciousness once it begins happening. And consciousness expands in all aspects of life where we have gained sufficient awareness and learning.

When we resist this movement of soul within we become ill, we have accidents, we are unhappy, we have money problems, emotional pain is experienced, relationships don’t work well. In general, our life sends us signals to which we must pay attention. Through developing soul consciousness, we learn what these signals are, how to interpret them, and then what to do about them. The Soul Journey will assist you with this.

The evidence of the drive for expanded consciousness, or soul, is found in everyone’s deep yearning to be free. The liberation we want is the release from duality – the very stuff that the challenges of life are made of. But we cannot find this freedom unless we deal effectively with the challenges.

All challenges that we experience are initiated by the soul, even though it can appear that the challenges come from other people, the world around us, society, circumstances and situations. What is the nature of these challenges? What is their purpose? How can we master them?"

~Andrew Schneider

Voice that calls us the beloved

But what I would like to say is that the spiritual
life is a life in which you gradually learn to listen
to a voice that says something else, that says, "You
are the beloved and on you my favour rests."... I want
you to hear that voice. It is not a very loud voice
because it is an intimate voice. It comes from a very
deep place. It is soft and gentle. I want you to
gradually hear that voice. We both have to hear that
voice and to claim for ourselves that that voice speaks
the truth, our truth. It tells us who we are. That is
where the spiritual life starts - by claiming the voice
that calls us the beloved.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen

Non-duality

There is only one Self in all creatures. The One appears many, just as the moon appears many when reflected in different pools of water. The Self appears to change its location but does not, just as the air in a jar changes not when the jar is moved about. When the jar is broken, the air knows not; but the Self knows well when the body is shed.

- Amritabindu Upanishad

In All Our Imperfection

It's important to remember that your ego—your separate personal self-sense and all its culturally conditioned tendencies—is just not awake to the urgent need for your participation in the evolutionary process. That's why your ego is convinced that it has all the time in the world to be eternally busy with its own self-improvement. It says, "Well, I'm not ready because I'm not perfect yet." But that's just the ego's perennial excuse to avoid the overwhelming urgency of the evolutionary context of being alive. Did you ever meet anybody who was actually perfect? I don't think perfection exists within manifestation. If you want to experience perfection—inherent perfection; unborn, uncreated perfection—meditate. As you gain the capacity to transcend a conditioned relationship to thought, memory, and time, you will eventually awaken to the timeless, formless, infinite ground of your own being and you'll experience that which is perfect. But when we reenter the manifest realm of time, space, and form, we leave perfection behind, in order to create ourselves anew through the evolutionary process. And perfection will never be reached here.

So when the ego tells you that because you are not perfect, you are not ready yet, it traps you in a spiritually and evolutionarily self-defeating cycle. A big part of awakening to spiritual maturity is realizing that, even in all your imperfection, you are ready to take responsibility. While you realize that perfection is unattainable, you aspire for it, always reaching higher and further. You are ready to be responsible for creating the future, right now, even though your ego may kick and scream all the way. And your liberation, your enlightenment, in every moment, depends upon that. It's not easy. You have to be a warrior, you have to be an exemplar, even though you know that you're not perfect. So you have to deal with the reality of your human frailty, with the inherent contradictions in your character, and still be bold and brave enough to be willing to take responsibility for all of this. If you do, then the power of spirit will enter into your heart, your body, and your mind and you will begin to express That, in spite of all your imperfection. And then you, as a human being, don't have to be perfect, because Spirit already is.

—Andrew Cohen

Sing everything I am, I AM

When you wake up and
Reality tells you what to be.
Don't accept what looks into your eye.
Breathe a breath and
Look through the Beloved's eye
Fall into the Beloved's eye and See

Don't accept the face of it.
Express the face of it and
Sing a union with the divine.
Look through the eye of the divine and
Intertwined with it, interspersed with it,
Filter reality with the Beloved and

Live a poem, live a song.

When reality lands on you.
Sing everything I am, I AM.

Melancholy

Melancholy may enter your soul, and ambush your happiness; but it will prepare you for true joy. Melancholy drives out all other emotions and feelings, so the source of all goodness may occupy the whole house. It shakes the yellow leaves from the tree, allowing fresh leaves to grow. It pulls up old bodily pleasures by the roots, allowing divine spiritual pleasures to be planted. Melancholy takes many things from the soul, in order to bring better things in return.

- Rumi

Happy New Year

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes,
but in having new eyes.

--Marcel Proust

According to one spiritual tradition, the first 12 days of January represent the whole year. January 1st stands for the month of January, January 2nd stands for February, and so on. By practicing loving kindness, openness, and generosity while giving thoughtful attention to the significance of each day, we can consecrate the coming year. The real spirit of the New Year--the heart and core of inner life--is love. We need to celebrate the beginning of a new year through expressions of love for ourselves, one another, and God.