No Simpler, Easier Way

All will come as you go on.
Take the first step first.
All blessings come from within.
Turn within. `I am' you know.
Be with it all the time you can spare,
until you revert to it spontaneously.
There is no simpler and easier way.

                                                                     ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sometimes life seems so difficult; every step is an effort. But in reality, life simply IS. There is nothing to DO, no one to BE. Everything just unfolds. Though that may not make sense to the mind, the heart knows when you turn inward and connect with your true nature ('I am'), there is no easier way.

All blessings come from within...

Each Note...

God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.
Each note is a need coming through one of us,
a passion, a longing-pain.

Remember the lips
where the wind-breath originated,
and let your note be clear.

Don't try to end it.
Be your note.
I'll show you how it's enough.

Go up on the roof at night
in this city of the soul.

Let everyone climb on their roofs
and sing their notes!

Sing loud!

                        ~ Rumi, Ghazal 532, The Essential Rumi

Remember where the life-breath originates and know that each note is unique. Each has her own song to sing. Sing with a passion for life, your own genuine reflection of the divine.

Sparkling Starfishes

On the tidal mud, just before sunset,
dozens of starfishes were creeping.
It was as though the mud were a sky
and enormous, imperfect stars
moved across it as slowly as the
actual stars cross heaven.

All at once they stopped, and,
as if they had simply increased their
receptivity to gravity, they sank down
into the mud, faded down into it and lay still,
and by the time pink of sunset broke across
them they were as invisible
as the true stars at daybreak.
                                       ~Galway Kinnell


One of the best things about being near the beach is the astounding connection to being alive. The sand grounds you into the earth as the water brings fluidity to mind, the breeze offers the elements of air and space as the Sun brings the glow of fire.

In Yoga, there's a pose called Starfish where you open the arms, set the feet wide apart, and feel the heart open. Energy flows through the cells of the body sparkling like starfish. Standing on the beach in starfish, you shine like a star!

A Place for Angels

There must be always remaining in every life, 
some place for the singing of angels, 
some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful.

~Howard Thurman 


Yesterday afternoon my sister and I went to the beach. We spread out our towel, settled back on the sand and watch the clouds dance through the sky. Seagulls played in the warm air. Clouds magically changed into shapes as our imaginations recognized some and not others. Tuning into nature so deeply in that moment we felt we had found such a place ~ breathless and beautiful ~ a place for the singing of angels.

Invisible Lifebird

hiding in this cage
of visible matter

is the invisible
lifebird

pay attention
to her

she is singing
your song

~Kabir


How easy it is to turn away from who you truly are; to lose track of the invisible lifebird nestled deep in your heart. Finding it opens the throat to the loveliest of melodies ~ your song.

---

Surrender

One of two things must be done. Either surrender because you admit your inability and also require a High Power to help you; or investigate into the cause of misery, go into the source and merge into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. God never forsakes one who has surrendered.

                                        ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi (from "Talk 363"; 20th Feb., 1937)

I have wrestled with this concept of "surrender" for most of my life. Perhaps I would be an entirely different person had I surrendered years ago. I grew up a "people pleaser." I always felt I was hiding part of myself in order to be accepted or to keep the peace at home or to achieve whatever perceived goal I had at that moment.

When I began investigating "spiritual" paths, the idea of surrender turned up again and again. Many groups and philosophies that initially held my interest quickly faded when I felt pressure to surrender to someone or something other than myself.

Now my idea of surrender has evolved and I recognize that the only one to surrender to is your inner guru, your own higher self. The ancient wisdom teachings remind me there is an ease of being. This seems natural; it feels "right."


As Ramana so succinctly says, "surrender, and all will be well."

Life is Shaking You...

If you really live
deeply in spiritual practice
then this moment is intense.

Moment to moment,
life is shaking you
out of what you know;
shaking you out of everything
that is comfortable.

So much so that
all you can do is surrender
to this moment.

All you can do
is allow everything
to be as it is
and fall deeply
into impersonal being.

It is in this that
deep transformation happens.

It is in this that
you really realize
that you exist beyond everything.

That you are the personal yet
you are completely beyond the personal.

The intensity of the Shakti
pushes you beyond yourself
and you learn to remain
surrendered in this intensity
with great silence,
great humility
as consciousness itself.

So do not be afraid
to let yourself
be in such intensity.

It may be challenging,
but if you run away
from that challenge
back into everything you know
and what is comfortable,
you will miss it.

Because it is in this intensity
that you feel the most alive.

There is some part of you
that recognizes
that this is the doorway
to your freedom.

~Kip Mazuy


Last night the full moon was incredibly beautiful. The breeze was soft and gentle and the night air wrapped around me like a fine silk sheet. The palm trees swayed and the moon and I played hide and seek. Surrendering to the intensity of each moment, awareness shook me into deep silence and I bowed in gratitude to the Great Mystery that is life.