before the mind gives us perception; name, form, comparison, is awareness

 

 As you realize yourself in manifestation,

 you keep on discovering that you are ever more 

than what you have imagined. 

Consciousness as such is the subtle counterpart of matter. 

Just as inertia and energy are attributes of matter, 

so does harmony manifest itself as consciousness.

 You may consider it in a way as a form of very subtle energy.

 Wherever matter organizes itself into a stable organism, 

consciousness appears spontaneously.

 With the destruction of the organism,

 consciousness disappears.

The mind produces thoughts ceaselessly, 

even when you do not look at them. 

When you know what is going on in your mind,

 you call it consciousness. 

This is your waking state - your consciousness shifts 

from sensation to sensation, from perception to perception, 

from idea to idea, in endless succession. 

Then comes awareness, 

the direct insight into the whole of consciousness,

 the totality of the mind. 

The mind is like a river,

 flowing ceaselessly in the bed of the body; 

you identify yourself for a moment 

with some particular ripple and call it "my thought". 

All you are conscious of is your mind;

 awareness is the cognizance of consciousness

 as a whole.

Consciousness comes and goes,

 awareness shines immutably. 

When there is a person, there is also consciousness.

 "I am", mind, consciousness denote the same state.

 If you say "I am aware", it only means 

"I am conscious of thinking about being aware".

 There is no "I am" in awareness. 

Witnessing is of the mind.

 The witness goes with the witnessed. 

In the state of non-duality,

 all separation ceases. 

It [the witness] is both [real and unreal]. 

The last remnant of illusion,

 the first touch of the real. To say: 

"I am only the witness"

 is both false and true: 

false because of the "I am", 

true because of the witness. 

It is better to say "there is witnessing". 

The moment you say "I am", 

the entire universe comes into being 

along with its creator. 

The witness is merely a point in awareness. 

It has no name and form. 

~ excerpts from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's

I AM THAT

art by Baje Whitethorn, Sr 

Navajo artist

How long does it take to make the woods?

How long does it take to make the woods?
As long as it takes to make the world.
The woods is present as the world is, the presence
of all its past and of all its time to come.
It is always finished, it is always being made, the act
of its making forever greater than the act of its destruction.
It is a part of eternity for its end and beginning
belong to the end and beginning of all things,
the beginning lost in the end, the end in the beginning.

What is the way to the woods, how do you go there?
By climbing up through the six days’ field,
kept in all the body’s years, the body’s
sorrow, weariness, and joy. By passing through
the narrow gate on the far side of that field
where the pasture grass of the body’s life gives way
to the high, original standing of the trees.
By coming into the shadow, the shadow
of the grace of the strait way’s ending,
the shadow of the mercy of light.

Why must the gate be narrow?
Because you cannot pass beyond it burdened.
To come into the woods you must leave behind
the six days’ world, all of it, all of its plans and hopes.
You must come without weapon or tool, alone,
expecting nothing, remembering nothing,
into the ease of sight, the brotherhood of eye and leaf.





~ Wendell Berry
 from A Timbered Choir

the clay jug

...

Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains,

and the maker of canyons and pine mountains!

All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars.

The acid that tests gold is there, and the one who judges jewels.

And the music from the stirings that no one touches, and the

source of all water.

...

It you want the truth, I will tell you the truth:

Friend, listen:  the God whom I love is inside.

...

~ Kabir

mother earth

 

The soul of a culture cannot evolve if the body is not reclaimed and honoured.

 In Navajo mythology, Changing Woman is the creatix. 

She is earth and sky, the Lady of the Plants, and of the Sea.

 She goes beyond the bearer aspect of the mother; 

she is the feminine creator.

Her cosmic cyclic movements-aging each Winter 

and becoming a young beautiful maiden each Spring

-make Her the essence of death and rebirth 

signature of the continual restoration and rejuvenation of Life. 

 This ability to move with the creative impulse 

without trying to force it is an aspect of the feminine. 

There is a quality of the feminine that allows 

things to happen in the natural cycle of things. 

~ from The Heroine's Journey

by Maureen Murdock

art: Navajo sand painting of Mother Earth

by Marie Akee

what you are given

.

You work with what you are given,

the red clay of grief,

the black clay of stubbornness going on after. 

Clay that tastes of care or carelessness,

clay that smells of the bottoms of rivers or dust.

Each thought is a life you have lived or failed to live, 

each word is a dish you have eaten or left on the table. 

There are honeys so bitter

no one would willingly choose to take them.

The clay takes them: honey of weariness, honey of vanity, 

honey of cruelty, fear.

This rebus—slip and stubbornness,

bottom of river, my own consumed life—

when will I learn to read it

plainly, slowly, uncolored by hope or desire? 

Not to understand it, only to see.

As water given sugar sweetens, given salt grows salty, 

we become our choices.

Each yes, each one continues,

this one a ladder, that one an anvil or cup.

The ladder leans into its darkness. 

The anvil leans into its silence. 

The cup sits empty.

How can I enter this question the clay has asked?

~ Jane Hirshfield

from Given Sugar, Given Salt
art by Vic Muniz

pain and healing

And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain.
And he said:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, 
so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, 
your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, 
even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen,
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, 
has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened 
with His own sacred tears.

~ Kahlil Gibran

from The Prophet

 art by Sean Lewis

the nature of thoughts

 

Rupert Spira

silently if,out of not knowable

.

silently if,out of not knowable

night's utmost nothing,wanders a little guess

(only which is this world)more my life does

not leap than with the mystery your smile

sings or if(spiralling as luminous

they climb oblivion)voices who are dreams,

less into heaven certainly earth swims

than each my deeper death becomes your kiss

losing through you what seemed myself,i find

selves unimaginably mine;beyond

sorrow's own joys and hoping's very fears

yours is the light by which my spirit's born:

yours is the darkness of my soul's return

-you are my sun,my moon,and all my stars

~ e.e.cummings

the dark night of the soul (excerpt)

 

In the delicious night,

In privacy, where no one saw me,

Nor did I see one thing,

I had no light or guide

But the fire that burned inside my chest.

.

That fire showed me

The way more clearly that the blaze of noon

To where, waiting for me,

Was the One I knew so well,

In that place where no one ever is.

.

I stood still; I forgot who I was,

My face leaning against Him,

Everything stopped, abandoned me,

My being was gone, forgotten

Among the white lilies.

.

~ Saint John of the Cross

a blessing

.

May the light of your soul guide you.

May the light of your soul bless the work you do 
with the secret love and warmth of your heart.

May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.

May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light, 
and renewal to those who work with you 
and to those who see and receive your work.

May your work never weary you.

May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment,
 inspiration, and excitement.

May you be present in what you do.

May you never become lost in the bland absences.

May the day never burden.

May dawn find you awake and alert, 
approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities, and promises.

May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.

May you go into the night blessed, sheltered. and protected.

May your soul calm, console, and renew you.

.

~ John O'Donohue

(John said, "the soul is not in the body;
 rather the body is to be found in the soul.)

.

insecurity and violence

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.


~ from the introduction to a course in miracles

The major cause of violence, I think, 

is that each one of us is inwardly, psychologically, 

seeking security. 

In each one of us the urge for psychological security

 that inward sense of being safe -projects the demand, 

the outward demand, for security. 

Inwardly each one of us wants to be secure, sure, certain. 

That is why we have all these marriage laws; 

in order that we may possess a woman, or a man,

 and so be secure in our relationship.

 If that relationship is attacked we become violent, 

which is the psychological demand, the inward demand,

to be certain of our relationship to everything.

 But there is no such thing as certainty, security, in any relationship. 

Inwardly, psychologically, we should like to be secure,

 but there is no such thing as permanent security.

So all these are the contributory causes of the violence that is prevalent, 

rampaging, throughout the world. I think anybody who has observed, 

even if only a little, what is going on in the world, 

and especially in this unfortunate country, can also, 

without a great deal of intellectual study, 

observe and find out in himself those things which,

 projected outwardly, are the causes of this extraordinary brutality, 

callousness, indifference, violence.

~ J. Krishnamurti

from The Book of Life

thirst and ... mirage

The appearance of water in a mirage persists after the fact

 that it is a mirage has dawned on us. 

So it is with the world. 

Though knowing it to be unreal,

 it continues to manifest - 

but we do not try to satisfy our thirst

 with the water of the mirage. 

As soon as one knows that it is a mirage, 

one gives it up as useless and does not run after it to get water. 

~ Ramana Maharshi

daydreaming

I believe that the root of evil,

in everybody perhaps,

but, certainly in those whom

affliction has touched,

is daydreaming.

It is the sole consolation,

the unique resource of the afflicted;

the one solace that helps them bear

the fearful burden to time;

and a very innocent one,

besides being indispensable.

So how could it be possible to renounce it?

It has only one disadvantage,

which is that it is unreal.

To renounce it for the love of truth

is really to abandon all one's possessions

in a mad excess of love and follow Him

who is the personification of Truth.

And it is really to bear the cross;

because time is the cross.

In all its forms without exception,

daydreaming is falsehood.

It excludes love. Love is real.

~ Simone Weil

from for lovers of god everywhere

poems of the Christian mystics

by roger housden

art by picasso

.

  Daydreaming - not the activity of having thoughts, 
but allowing one's attention to get lost in them -
 is an obstacle to presence, an obstacle to love 
which exists only in presence, an obstacle to
 our embrace of the fullness of life,  and to 
contemplative practices in all traditions..

.

the tree of love

....

I said to God, “Let me love you.”

And he replied, “Which part?”

“All of you, all of you.” I said.

“Dear” God spoke, “You are as a mouse wanting to impregnate

a tiger who is not even in heat. It is a feat way

beyond your courage and strength.

You would run from me

if I removed my

mask.”

I said to God again,

“Beloved I need to love you – every aspect, every pore.”

And this time God said,

“There is a hideous blemish on my body,

though it is such an infinitesimal part of my Being-

could you kiss that if it were revealed?”

“I will try, Lord, I will try.”

And then God said,

“That blemish is all the hatred and

cruelty in this

world.”

~  Saint Thomas Aquinas

from Love Poems from God, by Daniel Ladinsky

abandon

.

.

The rain has stopped,

the clouds have drifted away,

and the weather is clear again.

If your heart is pure,

then all things in your world are pure.

Abandon this fleeting world,

abandon yourself,

then the moon and the flowers

will guide you along the way.

.

~ Ryokan

photo by  Hideyuki Katagiri

.