Monday, June 14, 2010

Peace: Here & Now

Within the chaos and conflict of the world, we long for peace. Often, peace is defined as some sort of compromise, some sort of restraint of natural impulses. This brand of peace is actually repression and repression breads anger and conflict and you know the rest. I've found that peace is not about comprise or repression. It's not about following rules of conduct. Here are a few thoughts about a different sort of peace, a natural one that is already here within reach.

Peace is lively stillness.

Peace is delighting in the co-existence of opposites.

Peace is seeing thoughts, words and actions as currents within the stillness you are.

Peace is experiencing birth and death as waves within stillness.

Peace is entering the silent gap within conflict and finding aliveness.

Peace is laughing about others being in conflict with what you say.

Peace is engaging Mind's role as definer of characters in the play of Life performed on the stage of silence.

Peace is honoring your role in the world play, whatever it is.

Peace is not something you achieve. It's what you are.

What is your experience of genuine peace?

Truth, Beauty & Other Random Musings

Sometimes, random thoughts connect and inspire better than well-planned essays or strict themes. Last night I let my mind wander through various subjects and recorded what surfaced. If you see a common thread, let me know.

Peace is not something you achieve. It's what you are.

In this matter of reality vs. illusion, everything is spacious consciousness, without exception.

In the matter of Truth vs. Untruth, everything is that which cannot be described.

Beauty is beyond the eye of the beholder in the silent harmony integrating all things.

Encompassing beauty and ugliness is a sublime stillness nurturing all things.

Deciphering all codes, unlocking all doors, Mind arrives at one thing: Silence.

Stillness does not erase duality. It transforms duality from division & conflict into the dynamic harmony of opposites.

Each gesture you make to transform the world infuses it with consciousness and energy.

All great transformers looked through preconceived ideas, saw what was being born & became co-creators with life.

The greatest gift you can give yourself is to let your ego's dreams become transparent to Life's dreams.

Today, as everyday for thousands of years, carpenters, stone carvers, masons, painters and others are translating dreams into material form.

Monet's brilliance was not painting water lilies in a prettier way. It was rediscovering the soul of water lilies & painting what he saw.

Imagine the moment Cezanne saw the essence of a bowl of apples, gave into that vision and transformed the way we see the world.

Shadows are withheld light. Our work is to release the light that has condensed into darkness.

Life is beautiful as it is. This is beyond Mind's ability to comprehend & heart's ability to embrace. Yet this mystery is food of the soul.


Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Courage to Live Your One True Life

Most of us a sense a true life breathing within the masks we employ to get by in the world. We sense an elusive force urging and guiding us toward what makes us spark with creativity and compassion. Yet, we often run from this call of the soul. Instead, we contract into what is "safe" and "prudent." We trade the fire of the gods for the predictable paycheck of mechanical routine. Opening the door of our self-created cell and walking into the true life that has been calling us takes courage. But the fearful mind can forget what real courage is. Here are a few thoughts about what that courage might be.

Courage is seeing that the "safety" of Conventional Mind is suffocating you and walking out the door into Life.

Courage is realizing you have been running from your One True Life for decades and turning to face it.

Courage is hearing the call of your soul and following it, even though the way is obscured.

Courage is moving toward your elusive dream even though you are unsure the universe will support you.

Courage is knowing that your personal dream may mean nothing to others, but pursuing it means everything to you.

Courage is demolishing your carefully crafted life to make way for real change and laughing all the way.

Courage is knowing that life is a dream while compassionately engaging the dream.

Courage is knowing Conventional Mind has proof your Soul Path is wrong and continuing to follow it anyway.

Courage is encountering to the full intensity of life and releasing the distractions Mind uses to numb it.

Courage is knowing that the only master plan that works is opening to life and take the next step.

Courage is allowing the master plan of your life to unfold in Life's way.


Monday, June 7, 2010

Sacred Space: The Womb of Creation

As much as we desire food and clothing, we seek sacred space. We may look for it in the cavern of a vast cathedral or the human scale of a bench under a tree. Yet, physical settings are merely portals to intimate encounters with something vividly real and mysteriously elusive. Here are a few sutras on sacred space that attempt to frame this wordless realm with words.

Sacred space is the stillness embracing you now.

Sacred space is the gap between two breaths.

Sacred space is the opening of each doorway you pass through.

Sacred space is the opening between hope and fear.

Sacred space is a spiral simultaneously expanding inward and outward.

Sacred space offers sanctuary to all forces and beings in creation.

Sacred space is a stillness containing all wisdom.

Sacred space is compassion.

Sacred space hovers between shadow and light, sound and silence.

Sacred space is points beyond itself to the indescribable.

Sacred space is the womb of creation.

Sacred space, moving within itself, sparks the passion of creation.

Within sacred space, life discovers its possibilities.

Sacred space is revealed where nature touches imagination.

Sacred space is found where human desire engages the desires of stones.

Sacred space ignites spirit in matter.

Sacred space is the arc of the heart intersecting the line of the mind.

Sacred space is grace.

Sacred space is the simplest of structures and an endless realm of exploration.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The Real Secret: Silence

Last night, tired and alone, Life pressed me into silence. It looked like it was going to be a dismal evening when I slipped into a calm acceptance of the situation. Then I reconnected with the unseen power of silence. With a little some reflections from my Twitter friends Linda Hollier and SnowandStars the following silent sutras floated through my awareness.

• Sometimes, a lifetime of wisdom, experience and inspiraion becomes meaningless and silence says everything.

• There is no physical silence. In an isolation chamber you will hear the blood circulating in your ears. The only true silence is in that which is aware of your thoughts, words and actions.

• Silence is always present in the spaciousness surrounding your thoughts.

• Your can always find silence in the space within your chest.

• Since silence is always present, it is not the goal of spiritual practices. Silence is the groundless ground from which all practices and creations arise.

• Silence is the womb through which everything comes into being.

• Galaxies, planets, mountains, forests, oceans, cities, bodies, thoughts and everything else all reside in silence.

• We use words to communicate, but it is silence that we truly share.

• Silence, our essential nature, is so alive and vibrant Mind cannot comprehend it.

• Across shooting stars and light years of space/time, silence already and always connects.

• Mind, encountering silence, sees its insignificance and conjures universes to obscure the intensity of silence's shimmering song.

• In the community of silence, saying nothing communicates volumes.

• In the radiant freshness of the thousand petalled lotus, all creation gathers to offer a seat for silence

• Bells ring, flutes sing, guitars wail, drums beat by vibrating silence into sound.

Mind sees silence as its greatest threat when it is everything Mind seeks.

True love is silence embracing and caressing all that is as it is.

From the "empty" space within a seed grows the whole tree.

Notice the simplest particle you can imagine—an atom, a leaf, a drop of water, a dust mote in the morning sun—and see a silent miracle.

Yes,and love is made of silence. Touching silence we touch love

Silence is the primal substance from which all forms are crafted.

Space and time have no dimensions without gaps of silence.

The architecture of the universe would be a black whole without dwelling spaces of silence.

Sound is silence shimmering through Mind.

Color is silence shimmering through eyes.

Texture is silence shimmering though fingertips.

Noise is Mind's resistance to silence.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, taking these broken wings & learn to fly. You were only waiting for this moment to arrive. Paul McCartney

The great surprise: our wounds are openings through which genuine love, wisdom and creativity enter our lives.

When life humbles us into silence, it's not so we become small. It's so the small ego transparent and silent, so the vast power and wisdom of life can pour thru.


Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Co-Creating with Earth

The other day, a friend pleaded with us to develop sustainable energy systems. Since Earth has been researching and developing such things for billions of years, I realized the best way to create sustainable energy systems is to learn from Her explorations and become co-creators with Her. The following thoughts came to mind.

The first step in building renewable energy systems is to get beyond human-centered mind & participate as co-creators with Earth.

The second step in building renewable energy systems is to live as nature lives, in a fluid system that makes dissolution integral to renewal.

To become a co-creator with Earth, spend time with Her, dialoguing with trees and streams, wind and rain. Listen beyond human ears with soul ears.

To co-create with Earth, let go of guilt about dwelling here. Open to silence and listen for your personal connection to dwelling wisely with land, air, plants and animals.

To co-create with Earth experience each building and object as the alchemy of nature and imagination. Then re-imagine your relationship with nature.

To co-create sustainable energy systems, notice that nature does not conserve energy. She guides its flow into continuously renewing loops.

To co-create with nature, let go of distractions. In this moment, open to Earth as the shimmering, dancing, alive being She is. Enter the dance

To co-create with Earth, become aware that we, animals plants & "inanimate" objects are expressions of soul interacting with itself. Let that awareness permeate your being. From that awareness of being act.