Symptoms of Enlightenment

"There are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don't bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous. (quoted by Carol Lynn Pearson in Consider the Butterfly)”
― Deepak Chopra

picture taken by Emily O'Connor

A New Chant

Many chants seem to "appear." This one based upon a poem by Hafez has arrived. I wanted to share the words, at least:

How did the rose ever open its heart
and give to the world its beauty?
It felt the impress of Light
the touch of Light upon its being
The rose embodied the Light
in fragrance and in beauty.
Otherwise we remain too frightened
we cannot embody the Light. 

Rolling in Ecstasy at Your Feet

You do not need to leave your room......
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not
even wait, be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you
to be unmasked. It has no check. It will
roll in ecstasy at your feet.

- Frank Kafka

Growth

The shift from narcissism to humility to big Self is, and always has been, the journey of the mystic and the realizer. The bigger our self becomes after we've transcended the crippling effects of narcissism, the more powerfully and creatively we will be able to live our precious human lives. Because we've gotten over our small selves, we will be living for a higher purpose. And that's what changes everything.

—Andrew Cohen

Like a Ripening Fruit

A question rose within me,
pushing at my bones and my frown.
What am I to keep before me?
What on this plane will keep my
spirit aloft?

The question stretched me further,
until my head was tilted back and my
eyes were turned up.

A sunrise crisping the edge of the clouds,
pinkly shaded to tangerine the idea
in my heart. Whispers of love and clouds
of shaded coral and peach, tenderness and
lights of the Beloved to assuage the
yearning for Home.

Like a ripening fruit the questions push
and shape me adjusting my vision of
hope and trust.
Letting my heart have room for the
burgeoning, distillation of the Beloved
in the cavern of my soul.

-Sam Roberts

Listening within

Having nothing to do.
I listened within.
Quieting myself and my
mind, voices began to
rise.
Whispers, it seemed,
until I realized that that
was the volume at which
these words were delivered.
The calls to action, the press
for doing something, contin-
ued to rise in waves.

Where were the objectives?
Where are the deeds to be
done?
Where will I be tomorrow?

Whispers in the quiet of my
heart, were clear, warm
comfort in the present.

In the present, where I had
to live, any where else brought
on the fear. In the present
where my heart could rescue
me from the looming disaster.

-Sam Roberts

Impossible Things

I sat in my unity, holding paradoxes.
Tears flowed with each breath,
everyone became the Beloved.
Right and wrong, effort and need,
shielded no one. We looked at
the path and shook our heads,hoping,
knowing the miracle that happened
next would be ... transcendence.

-Sam Roberts

The Equality of Human Souls

Christianity became the greatest moral and
political revolution in the history of the
human race. It . . . preached the equality
of human souls--the true basis for all other
equalities, political, social and economic.

- Otto Rank -

Hidden Sources of Suffering

Suffering chastens us and makes us remember. We are like the child who tries to pick up fire and is unlikely to do it again, once she has seen the consequences. With material things, seeing is easy; but when it comes to picking up the fires of greed, aversion, and delusion, most of us arent even aware were holding fires at all. On the contrary, we misguidedly believe them to be lovable and desirable, and so we are never chastened. We never learn our lesson.

- Buddhadhasa Bhikku, "Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree"

Wisdom

Those who attain perfect wisdom are forever inspired by the conviction that the infinitely varied forms of this world, in all their relativity, far from being a hindrance and a dangerous distraction to the spiritual path, are really a healing medicine. Why? Because by the very fact that they are interdependent on each other and therefore have no separate self, they express the mystery and the energy of all-embracing love. Not just the illumined wise ones but every single being in the interconnected world is a dweller in the boundless infinity of love.

- Prajnaparmita

The Quiet Mind

The most perfect prayer, one well nigh
omnipotent, and the worthiest work of
all is the outcome of a quiet mind. The
quieter it is, the more powerful, the
worthier, the deeper, the more telling
and more perfect prayer. The quiet mind
is one which nothing weighs on, nothing
worries, which is free from ties and all
self-seeking, is wholly merged into the
will of God and dead to its own.

- Meister Eckhart -

Pearls

“there are pearls down there,

she whispered.

i saw one glimmering in the depths.

 i had to look in just the right direciton -

and there it was.

i brought it back with me

 to hold in the hard times

and to remember that good things

hide in dark places.”

 

~terri st cloud

A Ceaseless Creative Striving

When we awaken to the evolutionary impulse, as the urge toward higher creativity, it becomes apparent to us that the energy that is driving the process as a whole is inherently spiritual or divine. Spirit created and is creating the universe. What is this ceaseless creative striving in matter, nature, and culture? And where does it come from? What is it that mysteriously compels the universe to exist, life to emerge, and mind to appear? That which compels this complex and singular process to exist and develop is Spirit as the creative impulse. And when we feel that energy surging through our own bodies and minds, we find our purpose in being here, as ourselves, in the world, so we can consciously create the future as an agent of that impulse itself.

—Andrew Cohen

Perspective

When you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent. When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self.

- "Actualizing the Fundamental Point" by Zen Master Dogen

Clarity

The bottom of the river is full of jewels. Take heed! Do not make the water turbid. The spirit of man is like the air: when dust surrounds it the sky is veiled. Notwithstanding such a state of darkness, God made visions to help you find the road to redemption.

- Rumi

Creating the Future Unceasingly

An interesting distinction:

Evolutionary Enlightenment is about awakening directly to the energy and intelligence that created the universe and is creating the universe. The Big Bang, the birth of the universe, was the unimaginably powerful expression of that energy and intelligence—and still is. The nature of what I call the "evolutionary impulse" is an ecstatic urgency that is always only interested in one thing: creating the future, giving rise to that which is new…unceasingly. What I call "Traditional Enlightenment," on the other hand, is about awakening to timeless, formless Being—that primordial emptiness from which the entire creative process emerged 14 billion years ago. Before the universe was created there was no time and there was no space. That's why when you enter into a very deep state of meditation you experience such deep peace. That's because there you awaken to that deepest dimension of reality and of your own self that is always free from time and history. Traditional Enlightenment is about being free from history altogether. The new Evolutionary Enlightenment is about creating the future unendingly.

—Andrew Cohen

Saved by a Virgin

For as Eve was seduced by the word of an
angel to flee from God, having rebelled
against His Word, so Mary by the word of
an angel received the glad tidings that
she would bear God by obeying his Word.
The former was seduced to disobey God,
but the latter was persuaded to obey God,
so that the Virgin Mary might become the
advocate of the virgin Eve. As the human
race was subjected to death through [the
act of] a virgin, so it was saved by a virgin.

- Irenaeus, Against Heresies, V:19,1 (A.D. 180)

Searching

"In truth everything and everyone
 is a shadow of the Beloved,
 and our seeking is His seeking
 and our words are His words...
We search for Him here and there,

while looking right at Him.
Sitting by His side, we ask:
'O Beloved, where is the Beloved?'"

 - Rumi

The Soul Turns to Fire

Then, by the virtue of love, is the lover
transformed in the beloved and the beloved is
transformed in the lover, and like unto hard
iron which so assumeth the colour, heat,
virtue, and form of the fire that it almost
turneth into fire, so doth the soul, united
with God through the perfect grace of divine
love, itself almost become divine and
transformed in God."

- Angela of Foligno [13th-14th C.],
"The Divine Consolation," Ch. 6 -

God Is...

God is in the water of the lake; he is also in the cracked bed of the lake, when the lake has dried up. God is in the abundant harvest; he is also in the famine that occurs when the harvest fails. God is in the lightning; he is also in the darkness, when the lightning has faded.... Brothers and sisters, you pile up stones to make shrines, imagining that God will make himself present there. Then you are surprised when these shrines do not ease your cares and worries.

- Hallaj, "Tawasin"

Uncertainty

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

 ~ Wendell Berry

Unity

The universe is a complete unique entity. Everything and everyone is bound together with some invisible strings. Do not break anyone’s heart; do not look down on weaker than you. One’s sorrow at the other side of the world can make the entire world suffer; one’s happiness can make the entire world smile.

~Rumi

God's Presence

Were you to simply remain in God's presence,
that would be a great help to you, supporting
you in your troubles and helping you to bear
them patiently. Be sure that God is more ready
than ever to welcome you into his arms, and
that as your distress increases so does his
mercy towards you increase and abound."

- St. John Baptist de La Salle -

Lifting up the Heart to God

We must pray literally without ceasing -
without ceasing; in every occurrence and
employment of our lives. You know I mean
that prayer of the heart which is independent
of place or situation, or which is, rather,
a habit of lifting up the heart to God, as
in a constant communication with Him.

- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton -

Why We Are Here

The creatures that inhabit this earth--be they human beings or animals--are here to contribute, each in its own particular way, to the beauty and prosperity of the world.

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

You Awake in my Heart

How gently and lovingly
You awake in my heart,
Where in secret You dwell alone;
and in your sweet breathing,
Filled with good and glory,
How tenderly You swell my heart with love."

- St. John of the Cross,
Living Flame of Love, st. 4 -

Freedom

If you really want freedom, happiness will arise From happiness will come rapture When your mind is enraptured, your body is tranquil When your body is tranquil, you will know bliss Because you are blissful, your mind will concentrate easily Being concentrated, you will see things as they really are In so seeing, you will become aware that life is a miracle Being so aware, you will lose all your attachments As you cease grasping, so you will be freed.

- Digha Nikaya

A Way of Becoming Prayer

I have stopped praying for people so much.
I try to pray about them instead. It is more
all-embracing as a means of prayer. It seems
that you and I together, Jesus, simply look
with love on those we love. It is as though
we answer people's prayers together. I can
see now that the more detached I become, the
more you will be able to use me to help answer
prayers. It is a lovely way to be used and I
feel honored. It is a way of becoming a prayer."

- Macrina Wiederkehr, A Tree Full of Angels -