Don't Complain...

Don't complain of affliction,
for it's a smooth-paced horse
carrying you towards non-existence.
                               ~ Rumi



Often life brings unwanted afflictions: sickness, personal problems, career issues, family disagreements, chronic conditions, whatever. It can be so overwhelming to feel that all is lost or the pain will never leave. But the reality is that everything in life changes. Nothing lasts forever. 


Recognizing that who you are is so much more than all of the things that happen to you brings a deep sense of peace. Understand that, beyond all doubt, you are the changeless awareness within which all happens. Dissolve into who you are and let "a smooth-paced horse" carry "you towards non-existence."

The Background of Awareness

The mind must learn that beyond the moving mind there is a background of awareness which does not change. The mind must come to know the true self and respect it and cease covering it up, like the moon which obscures the sun during a solar eclipse.
                                                      - Nisargadatta Maharaj


This morning as I rested in the place between sleep and waking, the thought arose "the ease of being." In an instant I knew what that meant. I've heard teachers say it; I read it; I agreed with it; I thought I understood it. But this morning in instant, I KNEW it.

We are traveling to Florida for the last of a very mild winter. As we drive south, the world seems to be waking up. Trees just barely beginning to bud, then redbuds opening their tiny blossoms. Today we'll see palm trees and sand and the mysterious ocean. I wonder what will this moment bring... Staying present, filled with gratitude and deep respect for the changeless background of awareness.

Forgive the Dream

All your images of winter
I see against your sky.

I understand the wounds
That have not healed in you.

They exist
Because God and Love
Have yet to become real enough

To allow you to forgive
The dream.

You still listen to an old alley song
That brings your body pain;

Now chain your ears
To His pacing drum and flute.

Fix your eyes upon
The magnificent arch of His brow

That supports
And allows this universe to expand.

Your hands, feet, and heart are wise
And want to know the warmth
Of a Perfect One's circle.

A true saint
Is an earth in eternal spring.

Inside the veins of a petal
On a blooming redbud tree

Are hidden worlds
Where Hafiz sometimes
Resides.

I will spread
A Persian carpet there
Woven with light.

We can drink wine
From a gourd I hollowed
And dried on the roof of my house.

I will bring bread I have kneaded
That contains my own
Divine genes

And cheese from a calf I raised.

My love for your Master is such
You can just lean back
And I will feed you
This truth:

Your wounds of love can only heal
When you can forgive
This dream.

~Hafiz

Hafiz does it again. Words that touch so far into the depths of my unconscious mind. What is this mystery that brings joy and sadness, pain and pleasure, winter and summer, hard and soft? Grace has brought me to a point of stillness, able to gaze upon ~
                   The magnificent arch of His brow
                   That supports
                   And allows this universe to expand.

The wounds exist because love is not real enough to allow the healing. Reading this takes me back to places I don't want to be; to pain I no longer feel. And yet, if the experiences never existed, I would not be here in the moment. Resting on a carpet of light, encirlced in the warmth of just being.

When you have traveled too fast

You have traveled too fast over false ground;

Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up

To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain

When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,

Taking time to open the well of color

That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone

Until its calmness can claim you.

Be excessively gentle with yourself.

Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.

Learn to linger around someone of ease

Who feels they have all the time in the world.

Gradually, you will return to yourself,

Having learned a new respect for your heart

And the joy that dwells far within slow time.

John O’Donohue

This is just a portion of a poem entitled "For One Who Is Exhausted."  I find refuge in the image of my soul coming to take me back. There are times when we all move too fast and miss the small miracles that are always nearby.  Why not come into the present moment and the "joy that dwells far within slow time?"

Rivers of Light

I hear bells ringing that no one has shaken,
inside "love" there is more joy than we know of,
rain pours down,
although the sky is clear of clouds,
there are whole rivers of light...
                                                       - Kabir

Why is it in winter, light is so much in my mind's eye. The mystics equate love and light and why not. This image of Kabir's "rivers of light" pouring through the sky to earth is majestic. It's so comforting to rest in this place of "bells ringing that on one has shaken."

The morning silence brings a deep sense of Presence and I let go of all the ways my mind keeps me small. I move inside love to find that joy ~ timeless, ageless, just being...

Thoughts are like actors

Thoughts of themselves have no substance; let them arise and pass away unheeded. Thoughts will not take form of themselves, unless they are grasped by the attention; if they are ignored, there will be no appearing and no disappearing.
                                                                            – Ashvaghosha

I remember when I first heard the Shakespeare quote about being actors on the stage of life. I was in high school English class and it really struck me in a way that not many things had previously. As a small child I did have several experiences of feeling so open and spacious, so filled with light and curious about what life is and what my place in it might be.

Often as we grow up, we lose that natural curiosity and fall into our roles on the stage of life without questioning why. We become quite expert at playing our part and the emotions we experience become so real as we attach to them.

In meditation, we detach from our thoughts and emotions and become the audience. To continue the analogy of life being a play, our thoughts and emotions are the actors. Like actors and actresses everywhere, they love a responsive audience. But if no one shows up to watch the play, they give up and close the show. If we can allow the emotions and thoughts to be there without responding to them, they will soon dissolve and the mind will grow stronger and more one-pointed.  The more we practice meditation, the easier it is to see emotions and thoughts for what they really are and to know who we are.

Gratitude

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing 

that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. 

And because all things have contributed to your advancement, 

you should include all things in your 

gratitude.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

This morning as i sit by the window, I am grateful. The moon is clearly winking at me as it sails slowing through the morning sky. The little dogwood is naked except for three thistle socks lovingly providing food for all the finches. Goldfinches, Purple finches, House Finches, all busy pecking at the seed and vying for a place on the feeders. 

In the quiet of the morning, I am grateful for each moment. I've not posted for a long time and it just feels like time to begin again. I welcome myself back.