Oneness, Peace, Contentment, Happiness

    Everyone at some level is aware that right now, no matter how well we're doing, by whatever measure - loved & respected by family & friends, smart, well-educated, successful, healthy, attractive, financially-secure - our life as we know it & that of our loved ones, can radically change in an instant. Our fragility is partially because for many, happiness depends entirely on how well we can control our environment. But, again at some level we know that we have put our environment & ourselves into crisis. So our anxiety & stress appears to be because we cannot reliably control the basic, universal facts of life: constant change, aging, sickness & death.
    Much of this is based on the simplistic materialist model of reality - a left-hemisphere-dominant perspective - which imagines life AS IF life was nothing more than accidentally-assembled machinery, meaninglessly churning away, then inevitably breaking down, end of story. As a result, a frightening proportion of humanity are electing brutal primitive leaders who are obviously deaf, dumb & blind to essential human values of love, compassion, honesty, truth, empathy, compassion, nurturing each other. http://www.johnlovas.com/2024/09/balance.html

    BUT WHAT IF our anxiety and pervasive sense of 'lack' or 'something missing' were caused not as much by our inability to adequately control life / fear of death, but MOSTLY by the gnawing disconnect between how most of us perceive the world ("relative reality" "consensual reality") and our innate intuitive memory of "Ultimate Reality" which cannot be seen, nor adequately described. And because Ultimate Reality is far more complex than the reductionist model, many are not able to or not ready to deal with it.
    Nevertheless, throughout history, from all traditions, from every corner of the globe, shamans, mystics, saints, philosophers, poets & other deeply spiritual seekers of Truth have continued to point us toward Ultimate Reality in the only possible way - by directly experiencing it.

     In this tradition, Rupert Spira offers very clear, concise pointers to help us directly experience Ultimate Reality in his excellent 40-minute video (at the bottom of this page). His excellent talk (from the video) about how our Essential Nature is Happiness, is partially transcribed here : 

    “Could it be that the entire, what we call the universe, is an appearance within Awareness or Consciousness? After all, that is what our experience tells us.
    Could it be that each of our minds are like localizations of an infinite field of Consciousness, through the agency of which Consciousness knows itself as the world? Just as when we fall asleep at night we dream, we imagine an entire world within our own minds, and yet, we view that world from the perspective of a separate subject of experience within that world.
    Could it be that each of our minds are like dreams, in the mind of Infinite Consciousness? Or to use religious language, each of our minds are like dreams in the mind of God, through which infinite consciousness or God’s infinite being seems to divide itself into two parts: a subject that knows and an object that is known, just as we do at night when we dream.
    Our own mind divides itself into two parts: a dreamed world and a separate dreamed character, from whose point of view that world is known. In other words, the dreamed character – the character in the dream – is the agency through which our mind knows itself as the dreamed world.
    Could it be that each of our minds are like localizations through which Infinite Consciousness knows itself as the world? After all, that is in line with our experience. Is there anyone here who is currently experiencing anything other than the knowing or consciousness of your experience?

    … if we investigate like honest scientists, relying only on the evidence of experience, this knowing or consciousness is all that is ever experienced. And it is possible to explain the whole of reality on the basis of consciousness alone, without recourse to an abstract world made of matter, which nobody has ever, or could ever come in contact with.
    What are the implications of this possibility? It implies that whatever or whoever seems to be outside of ourselves, in other words all others, all objects and the world, although they may be outside of our limited, finite minds, they are not outside of the infinite field of consciousness, out of which our finite minds are made. In other words, the implications of this possibility is that everyone & everything is a modulation of a single infinite indivisible whole, seemingly separate from ourselves, seemingly made out of something other than ourselves, but in reality, an integral part of the same infinite, indivisible whole.
    In other words, although experience seems to comprise a multiplicity & diversity of objects & selves, if we look through that appearance, trusting only the evidence of experience, we find no separate objects, people, entities, selves or things. We find only our Self, not our personal (small) self – a collection of thoughts and feelings, but our Self, that true and only Self of infinite, indivisible, self-aware Being – referred to as God in the religious traditions; referred to as Consciousness in gatherings such as this; and referred to as “I” in common parlance. 

    I’m not speaking of some extraordinary experience to which only a few enlightened sages have access. Everybody knows the experience to which I am referring. The common name for it is love. When you feel you love someone, or are in love, do you not feel, to a greater or lesser extent, that you are one with that apparent other? (Oneness, Unitive Experience, Unitive Consciousness) Is that not precisely what the experience of love is – the dissolution of the sense of separation between yourself & the other. In other words, love is not a relationship. It is the collapse of relationship. It is the absence of self & other. In other words, it is the recognition of our shared being. It is the recognition of Reality.
    Why is it that everybody loves the experience of love above all else? It is because each of us, all apparently finite minds long, above all else, to be divested of their seeming separation. All the separate self truly longs for is to be divested of its sense of separation, it’s limitations.
    The experience of beauty is exactly the same experience but in relation to an object rather than to a person or an animal. When you feel the experience of beauty whilst walking in a landscape or listening to a piece of music, do you not feel to a greater or lesser extent that you merge with the music or the landscape? Is there anyone here who has not had that experience? Is there anyone here who on listening to a piece of music or walking in the landscape has not felt themselves dissolve into the music or the landscape, who has not felt the sense of separation between themselves and the object dissolve? Isn’t that why we love to walk in Nature or to listen to music?
    All the separate self truly longs for is to be divested of its sense of separation, to be relieved of the apparent limitations that seem to confine us to a cluster of thoughts, images, feelings, sensations & perceptions, and returns us, as it were, to our Origin, our Source, or our Essence. 

    In the non-dual traditions there are these two essential pathways.
First of all the inward-facing pathway through which we investigate what we call “I,” which culminates in the recognition that the “I” that we essentially are, the Awareness that we essentially are, is without limits & is inherently peaceful.
    And then there is the outward-facing pathway in which our entire experience is realigned with this new understanding in which we not only understand but feel that everyone & everything is a modulation of our own essential infinite self-aware Being.”
    Rupert Spira, “Your Nature is Happiness” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfQSbc42Uc4 - below

Awakening Patiently Awaits!

    We are FAR FAR MORE than the sad stories we keep telling ourselves. Only after we become sufficiently dissatisfied with "ordinary unhappiness" do we become serious about waking up to who / what we truly are. Awakening is far less exotic & difficult than we assume, and nicely described by Lisa Natoli below, transcribed from the excellent documentary video "Awakening Mind" (link at the bottom of this page).
    We CAN wake up from our sad "story of me"! This is how Lisa Natoli experienced it :

    “I really just love to teach people how ordinary the experience is to wake up to your true nature and know peace, joy & happiness. Many people think it’s an impossible or out-of-reach goal to know the Self. My purpose as a teacher, just because of my own awakening, has really been to make it very practical, very down to earth. I love to teach people how it’s available to everyone.
    Awakening is the recognition of your true nature. It’s the realization of what you really are, which is Consciousness. Consciousness is just one word for many words that people use for Awareness, Life, Love, God, Light, Buddha-nature, Christ-consciousness … It’s like waking up to the recognition that I’m not this body, that I am that which never dies, and that which is never born.
    That was a very difficult idea for me. I’ve been on a spiritual path since 1992. I started with ‘A Course in Miracles’ – I studied it religiously. I was so committed to knowing the self, knowing God, waking up. I couldn’t get it because I was under the belief that Awakening was something mystical, that something would happen and it would be like Jesus or Buddha or all of these enlightened Masters and it wasn’t happening for me. I couldn’t understand. Why when I’m so committed, and having deep moments of peace, happiness & joy, and yet I’m still struggling?
    The thing that changed for me, it was in October 2018, I started to realize the simplicity of our true nature, which is Awareness. So for someone who’s listening to me right now, the Awareness that’s hearing this voice – that’s what we are. And it doesn’t have a location, it doesn’t have a gender, it doesn’t have a color, it doesn’t have a body, and it’s totally unlimited. At first the mind doesn’t know what to do with that, because it’s that Awareness of our experience that is our true nature. It’s without labels, it’s without patterns, it’s without conditioning, it’s that part of each and every one of us that is just aware. We wake up to the realization that I am the Awareness of this experience, right now as I’m here. And it’s so ordinary that we miss it. We think it can’t be that simple. 

    And after October 2018, I began to just entertain the idea, because it doesn’t fit into our thought system. It doesn’t fit in a box because we’re so used to thinking it’s going to look a certain way and it’s always going to be in the future.
    After that there was a period of really starting to live from the Awareness. And that was life-changing. That changed everything. To begin to see when the person Lisa was showing up, when the habits were showing up, the conditioning, the beliefs, the preferences, the likes, the dislikes. Those all belonged to the person – and they’re not good or bad. But when I began to really stay as the Awareness where I could see all that activity, I could see what Lisa was doing. I could see what was happening. And that’s what an Awakening is. It really is that simple.
    And again there are many different ways one can wake up: just in stillness with the eyes closed and being aware of thoughts, feelings, sensations arising, that’s an amazing way to do it. The way I did it was begin to be awake to what I am not. So I was sick with physical symptoms for over 6 years, and I was the sickness – I am sick, I am in pain, these are my physical symptoms, this is when it started, this is what I’m doing to heal it. I didn’t suspect a thing.
    So the Awakening for me was to begin to be awake to those patterns, to be awake to when the thought ‘I am sick’ arises, and so to stay as the Awareness of the thought ‘I am sick’ arising. That which is aware, of the thought ‘I’m in pain’ that arises, is my true nature. So now there’s a distance. You’re no longer so identified with (the story of me) ‘I’m sick, I’m in pain, this hurts, I don’t like this, why is this happening, this shouldn’t be happening, this is how it started, this is how I think it started.’ Awakening can happen many different ways, it can happen very spontaneously for some, or be gradual. For me Awakening was a very gradual thing, where there was a distance between the experience of the body and the awareness of the body. And the more that I stayed as the Awareness of the experience, where I no longer identified myself as someone who is sick, I started to more & more abide as the Awareness, as Consciousness, as Love. And all of that (story) just started to disappear. It was no longer my experience. There was no longer identification with that which was happening. 

    When the world is so full of conflict, and without hope, how does one cope?
    My answer to that is, do not cope. It’s the coping that’s the problem. Everyone is coping with the world problems and what it looks like is addiction, social media, etc we’re doing things because we’re trying to cope with the suffering, we’re trying to manage how we feel and bring ourselves out of the discomfort, so we see just a lot of destruction in the world. So coping is actually the one thing you don’t want to do. You do not want to cope, because coping will keep the personal-self identity, makes you feel like you’re out of discomfort but you’re not. So the thing to do is to be aware of the discomfort, and the conflicts, and how you feel, and the thoughts that are coming up about your own life or the world’s, or your relationships, and stay in the discomfort. That’s the opposite of what we’ve been taught in the world, because we’re taught to do things to get out of the discomfort so we can feel better. To solve it, you go and you start eating, drinking, smoking, watch TV, binge on your devices, whatever people do to cope and manage, because they don’t want to feel these emotions, they don’t want to be with them, so we push them down. That’s never worked!
    So start welcoming the feeling. Welcome the discomfort. Welcome everything without trying to change anything. That’s the key. You’re not trying to change your overeating, or whatever you’re doing excessively, whatever the addiction is, you’re not doing any of this to change the thing that you’re using as the mechanism for coping. But what happens is that when you stand as Presence in the discomfort, things do fall away, and things do change.

     So for me again that was a game-changer, because my whole life was ‘this shouldn’t be happening, I have to do something.’ And I had evidence from the past, where I had maybe lost weight, I had been on a diet and I lost weight, but then I gained it all back again, because I hadn’t gotten to the cause of the problem. I was dealing with the effect. But as soon as I started getting to the cause, which is the personal-self identity, which is the problem, and I just let myself welcome the overweight body, welcome the sickness, welcome the alcoholism, welcome the cigarette smoking, welcome all of those things without trying to change them, one by one things just started falling away. And the paradox is, I didn’t need them to fall away. I wasn’t trying to make them fall away. I would have been happy even if nothing changed. Because the mind will get in there – ‘Oh, we’re doing this technique now so I can lose weight,’ or ‘I’m doing this technique now so I can have a better life.’ So you just want to be aware, ‘Oh that’s the pattern, that’s the personal-self identity.’ This is why I think a teacher is important, because a teacher can really highlight the roadblocks for a moment. You just need a teacher for a moment, to just guide you, who can really shine a light on the path and can see, ‘Oh, I see what’s happening here, no judgment.’ It just makes things much easier and faster. So that would be my answer, ‘Don’t cope.’ 

    What does one need to Awaken?
    I think someone who’s interested in these matters, who’s interested in waking up, who’s hearing what’s being said in this documentary, to simply really begin where you are. This is always going to be the spot. It’s not later. Just know that what is in your heart is all that’s needed.
    The personal-self identity (self-talk, small self, ego, ordinary mind, left hemisphere dominance) makes it way more complicated. It just thinks ‘I have to do something, I have to go somewhere, I have to pick up another spiritual practice, I have to read something.’
    My experience really came from this place of stillness. It’s like that because that call for Awakening is from the Self. It’s coming from the Self. It’s coming from Consciousness. It’s calling us back, because we tend to look outside of ourself for happiness, peace & joy. It’s been calling us back forever. Every single thing in life is trying to get our attention, for us to turn our attention from the external to within. And you later discover there is no external and there is no within (- it's all One).
    But that’s the starting place, when you really can say, ‘I want this.’ ‘I don’t know how to get there, I don’t know the journey, I don’t know what it’s going to look like, I’m scared.’

     Most people when they hear these ideas, there’s a tremendous amount of fear that comes up, because somewhere deep inside, each and every one of us, we know this is going to change our lives. We know it is probably going to dismantle certain elements of how we live, it could change our relationships, it could change our job, but, that call from the Self is so deep, ‘Yes, let’s go!’ So to me, that’s how someone begins.
    If someone is hearing this and they’re listening, and they say, ‘I want to know the Self. I want to experience peace, joy & happiness. I want to stop struggling. Yes, yes, take me there. Show me. Tell me.’ It really does begin right here in this moment with that desire.
    For me, it began with that one word, ‘Welcome.’ Welcome everything. Just welcome everything exactly as it is. That’s how it happened for me. Many different people explain it in different ways. They say, ‘All paths lead to God.’ ‘All paths lead to the mountain top.’ Whenever someone is feeling that in their heart, and they’re feeling that call, to me that’s all that’s needed.”
    “The Simplicity of Awakening: An Interview with Lisa Natoli” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoV7pw6wiog

    For the important CONTEXT, I HIGHLY recommend watching this 67-minute high-quality FREE documentary video "Awakening Mind" Part 1, “Know Thyself” (2023) https://triality.nl/index.php/2024/04/10/awakening-mind-part-1-know-thyself-2023-complete-hd-film/

 

Love and Presence

    In this follow-up to last week's introduction to Presence, Eckhart Tolle discusses the critical role of Presence in our relationships:

    “What is the connection between love and Presence? That’s an interesting question. Of course, first of all, we need to look at love and what that is. Love is usually interpreted as being an emotion. And in a conventional sense, love is when you feel a strong attachment to a person, for example another human being that you fall in love with. And that is a very strong emotion, a clinging emotion. There’s nothing wrong with it.
    But when you look at it more closely, you will find, and you may already have discovered that in your own life how quickly that emotion, that love, can actually turn into its opposite, and suddenly turn into hate. In relationships, how quickly the honeymoon, one, two, four years later, there’s the most intense hatred between the same human beings, who had not long before professed eternal love and thought this person is definitely the person who is going to make me happy. So there’s an emotional thing that’s called love that usually does not last that long and can easily turn into its opposite. 

    There’s also something deeper in human beings. There’s something deeper than an emotion, a certain state of being. And that deeper thing, where you recognize something in the other that is not separate from who you are, something that deeply connects you to the other, that is something different.
    How can you love another human being in a way that is deeper than the transient emotion of love? The only way that the deeper state of love can arise, is by being in that state of consciousness that we call Presence. When you are Present with another human being, then you’re not trapped in the judgments of your mind. You’re not imposing labels on that person. You’re able to look at a person in that space of clear Presence when look at a person, and at the same time feel or sense the Presence that you are, which ultimately is the Presence of Consciousness. And at that moment, you look deeply into that person, and you can sense the same Consciousness that gives you life, in the other person. Regardless of the personality of that person which is the conditioning, regardless of the conditioning of their minds, you can sense something in them, that is One with who you are. So you’re only able to do that when you are Present.

    When you are not Present, you’re identified with your mind, and then all you have are concepts about the other person, or emotions, emotional needs and so on, projected onto the other person. 

     Ultimately, true love, beyond emotion, is the recognition of yourself in the other. So ultimately, you recognize the other, essentially as yourself. Not the personality, but the essence of the other as your Self.
    Somebody already talked about that 2,000 years ago, but it was misunderstood. When you are Present, you love the other as yourself. It does not mean you love the other person as much as yourself. It means you love the other person because you recognize the essence of who you are, in the other. Then you love your neighbor as yourself, to quote from what Jesus said. So that does not require you, necessarily, to be in a so-called relationship with that person. You can encounter a person casually in a restaurant, in an elevator, or buying something. And there can be a moment where you connect with another human being and you sense that essential space of Presence between you. You can sense that this Consciousness that is you, is ultimately also the Consciousness that is the essence of the other person, no matter what their personality manifests at that moment. And that’s a deeply satisfying thing actually to feel the Oneness with the other. So whether or not you are in a relationship with that person, doesn’t really matter. Actually it means that you could have that love emanating from you whenever there is an encounter with another human being. And that is true love. 

    Now when you have a relationship with another person, then it is likely that the emotional love is also present. So in addition to that deeper love, which is the recognition of the other as yourself, you will also have the emotional attachment. But as you start living with the person, you notice that the emotional attachment continues to be there, but is not as important as before. The deeper recognition of the other as yourself, really becomes the foundation for your relationship. And that is spiritual.
    So in any relationship, if the relationship is to last & be satisfying, then you need to actually become Present in that relationship. This means get out of the judgments of your mind and the conditioning of your mind, become Present in the relationship. Becoming Present with the other person for example, is being able to interact and look at the other human being, without any kind of mental labeling, just in this clear space of Presence of Awareness. Then this true love arises. And that means the spiritual dimension becomes the foundation for that relationship where you transcend. Something arises that transcends both your personalities.
    The personalities still operate. There may occasionally still be disagreements and so on, on the purely human level, but something else is present in the relationship that transcends all that. And that can only arise through being Present. So Presence is actually a prerequisite for a deep relationship and a deeply satisfying relationship with another human being.
    And until that happens, relationships are very frustrating. And as you might have noticed, for many people, one of their main sources of suffering are their relationships. The very thing that they look to for fulfillment and happiness, so often turns into their main source of suffering. And that is sad. It doesn’t have to be like that. But for it not to be like that, you need to learn to be Present.”
    Eckhart Tolle Video #2 – Love and Presence https://teachings.eckharttolle.com/love-and-presence-power-of-presence-2021/

"To be enlightened is to be intimate with all things." Zen Master Dogen 

Love + Presence = Intimacy, Oneness, Co-creation

As we learn to fully inhabit the just now, the just this, over & over again,
until it becomes effortless, we begin to sense that
all of this is somehow just emanating out of us.
Millisecond by millisecond, thrillingly, lovingly,
we are dreaming everything into being.
Our universe appearing & disappearing -
'refreshing' - every fraction of a second,
is the subtle tingly sensation, Ezra Bayda's 'anxious quiver of being,'
we feel throughout our body
whenever we simply relax & stop to notice.
Recognizing this central creative role is
vibrantly energizing & empowering.

We recognize how fleeting life is (anicca), how up & down it is (dukkha), and
how radically our body of flesh (anatta) differs from our authentic Self.

“Wisdom tells me I am nothing.
Love tells me I am everything.
And between the two my life flows.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj

   The ancient traditional greeting, "Namaste" encapsulates much of the above : http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=Namaste

 Namaste

Anxious, Afraid & Confused?

    We are ALL anxious, afraid & confused! The most important difference among us is how aware or conscious we are - a major determinant in how we deal with our anxiety, fear & confusion.

    There are still populist politicians / dictators, CEOs, & less visible sociopaths who seem to be full of aggressive conquering bravado but are actually running SCARED and UNCONSCIOUS. Amazingly, they cling to a certainty that by following a few simple (-minded) rules they're guaranteed to emerge a 'winner' from (the rest they regard as) losers. 'Grab what you can!' 'Anything goes!' 'Winner takes all!' And only 'winners' deserve & get the spoils of war. After all, it's 'survival of the fittest,' 'law of the jungle,' and 'if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!'
    Sadly, more and more countries are democratically electing such 'strong men' (sociopaths). This trend has historically lead to catastrophic wars. And despite annual Remembrance Day ceremonies, most world leaders, & those who elected them, fail to learn from deadly mistakes from history.
    At least a bit more curiosity, courage, imagination, energy and, perhaps above all else, good will towards our fellow humans, other life forms and the Earth itself, would really help!

    “The government you elect is the government you deserve.” Thomas Jefferson

    "... the external world that humans have created is a reflection of egoic patterns in the human mind. So that is your function, to be a midwife to help bring about the birth of the new consciousness ..." Eckhart Tolle

    PRACTICAL alternatives to today's spiritually-bankrupt populism ARE WISE, CONSCIOUS, PEACEFUL ways of managing our 'anxious quiver of being.'  

    For thousands of years, people from every part of the world & every culture, have been devoting their lives to finding answers to our most important questions: who we truly are; how we deeply relate to ourselves, each other, to life itself; what is the meaning of life; and most importantly how can we live meaningful lives. 

    These mystics - ancient to current Shamans, Yogis, Taoists, Monks & Nuns of all wisdom traditions, but mostly anonymous serious individual seekers of Truth - evolve well beyond religious customs for the masses, to directly experience profound understandings beyond words & concepts. And yet, there's a striking commonality to their insights because these are the pinnacle of human understanding, hence the term, 'perennial philosophy' : http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=perennial

 

 

    “The real question is: Are you willing, whether your experience is tranquil, turbulent, ecstatic, tragic, opulent, or austere, to give yourself wholeheartedly to what is truly alive in you?”
    Amoda Maa. “Embodied Enlightenment. Living Your Awakening in Every Moment.” Reveal Press, 2017. HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED WISE, VALUABLE BOOK

 

 

"I've been asked many times whether this is the Aquarian Age, and it's all just beginning, or Armageddon, and this is the end. And I have to admit, I don't know,
but whichever way it goes,
my work is the same.
My work is to quiet my mind
and open my heart and relieve suffering wherever I find it.
May that be the work for all of us.”
Ram Dass

 

“Deeply rooted in the present moment
With a clear open spacious mind
Seeing beyond doubt and fear
Abiding in the luminous heart of equanimity
The way unfolds before me.” Atum O’Kane

John McDermott's cover of Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"

Saying YES! to EVERYTHING!

    “Contemplation is being open to all of the reality we can stand.” Richard Rohr

    YES. AND we're more deeply conditioned than we realize, to quickly, instinctively say NO! to anything unpleasant, uncomfortable, painful, distressing, and even 'different' than what we're used to! A LOT of today's reality is far from likeable and very difficult to accept! So mostly unconsciously, we tend to shrink back & shrivel up, further & further away from the full spectrum of reality.

    “The smart way to keep people passive & obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.” Noam Chomsky, “How the World Works”

    A rigid defensive posture - whether self & or externally imposed - imprisons us in a small, narrow, constricting, supposedly 'safe' box. 'Ordinary unhappiness' or much worse, is the inevitable result. We feel trapped, like a caterpillar stuck in a cocoon. Fearful defensiveness easily turns into offensiveness, and much worse - the violent polarization in politics, race, religion, social media, etc & the endless slaughter of wars that we witness on the news daily.
    Brian McLaren's 45-minute overview from a Developmental Psychology / Mystical Christian perspective is imho excellent : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TrhL8VOUB0 .
    Kelly Noonan's 2017 (1hr 46min) documentary "Heal" on Netflix is also imho very applicable & well worth watching : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5239942/ 

    “Of all the ways you can limit yourself, your own self-definition is the most powerful.” Michael Crichton

    "Letting go of our suffering is the hardest work we will ever do. It is also the most fruitful. To heal means to meet ourselves in a new way - in the newness of each moment where all is possible and nothing is limited to the old." Stephen Levine

    By saying YES! to ALL of life's 10,000 joys AND 10,000 sorrows we free ourselves, spread our wings, and fly!

    Mindfulness practice - and really all deep spiritual practice - is about "cultivating a certain kind of intimacy with the core of our being."
Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD
    Gradually we learn to practice remembering, feeling, recognizing & re-connecting with who / what we can sense we are in the depths of our being – our true self – love.

    "Wisdom comes when we live from the heart. It’s the recognition that love is the only power that is moving any of this." Jac O’Keeffe

    “A mystic sees beyond the illusion of separateness into the intricate web of life in which all things are expressions of a single Whole. You can call this web ‘God, the Tao, the Great Spirit, the Infinite Mystery, Mother or Father,’ but it can be known only as love.” Joan Z. Borysenko PhD

    THIS is the mystics' level of consciousness, expressed in Rumi's
"The Guest House" :

"This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond."

     “I share poetry when speaking about mystery, because as a great poet said, ‘You can’t get the news from poetry, but men and women die every day from lack of what is found there.’
    Poetry connects us to the mystery. This is in the same spirit as Buddhist texts that begin with the words, ‘O Nobly Born, remember who you really are, you are the sons and daughters of the awakened ones.’ You are in the lineage of those who have awakened before you. Look directly at the mystery of love and existence. It is your birthright to remember freedom and awakening.
    ‘If I had influence with the good fairy who’s supposed to preside over the birth of all children, I should ask her gift to each child in the world a sense of wonder so indestructible it would last throughout their life.’ Rachel Carson
    This is one of the gifts of poetry. We can meditate to quiet the mind, we can calm ourselves, we can de-stress, and we can see in new ways. And with this mindful presence, poetry invites a sense of wonder and mystery, and with that, an opening to love.”
    Jack Kornfield https://jackkornfield.com/poetry-of-awakening-navigating-the-great-mystery/?mc_cid=f635f4b32e&mc_eid=cd718e6a49

 

      "Imagine love wants to see
your true face
    Imagine that nothing matters
except love
    Imagine love as you
    Imagine love as everything
you’ve ever given attention to
    Imagine love abides in difference
    Imagine love as a force
that gives us meaning
    Imagine love abhors a vacuum
    Imagine love wants to know love
    Imagine everything matters
because love is real
    Imagine love is a power
uncontainable & inconceivable
    Imagine love as language, as selfless action,
as water, as purslane, as voles, as dragonflies, as wind
    Try to imagine a love
able to rise whole into thin air,
invisible to our eyes
holding our entire awareness
on the thin new blade
of a brightness soon to come
    Imagine the imperfections of love
that love adores
    Imagine love imagining
your radical truth &
trusting your courage
your vision
your journey
to recognize
your self
in vastness."              Poem by Qayyum Johnson

 
        “Your task is not to seek for love,
         but merely to seek & find all of the barriers
         within yourself that you have built against it.” Helen Schueman

     More about love : http://www.johnlovas.com/2022/11/calling-all-wise-elders.html

Yuval Noah Harari, "What it Means to be Human" (in 3 minutes!)