TRIUMPH OF SPIRIT IN LOVE, NATURE & ART

Meditations

When Spiders Rule


A chill wind blows the yellowing leaves off the trees.  They drift down to the ground like giant snowflakes.  The air is pregnant with the feel of the coming holidays.  Fall has truly come with the sudden drop in temperatures.  November appears as a mirror image of March.  November is the vibrant color of decay while March is the decaying color of about-to-burst-forth Spring.

The birds are at the bird feeder all the time now.  They are not stopped by our presence when we come to fill the feeder or blow leaves under it.  Nothing stops them.  They swoop around the feeder and the surrounding trees like Kamikaze pilots, darting here and there recklessly.  The squirrels are in a frenzy as well, stock piling and burying acorns and walnuts which they will retrieve without fail in a month or so in a snow-covered land.

The trees are most beautiful for me at this time of year, when many of them are bare and a scattering of leaves remain on dark brown branches.   The leaves that remain on the trees blow on the limbs with dainty grace in their precarious positions.  Yet these are the survivors.  The other leaves have fallen and gone the way all living things eventually go.  Most trees have lost all their leaves and they stand in stark contrast against the blue sky, the stormy sky, even the night sky.  They are perhaps most beautiful at night, like arms reaching up to the darkness trying to grab at the stars twinkling between the branches.  Moonlight dances on their limbs.

November is the last glimmer of color and in some places the color seems to be predominantly yellow.  A carpet of yellow lines the woods now.  And now one can see inside the woods, so dark and impenetrable in summer. Some forests have carpets of oak leaves– dark brown tan in color.  Or there are forest paths with variegated colors– vibrant crimsons against yellows and faded greens and tawny tans.  The unmown lawns are now taken over by the spiders and, at moments, one can see a world of webs covering fields that only appear in a certain slant of sunlight.  It is the silent take over of the spiders before the snows come.

The yellow, the brown, the crimson leaves are complemented by the ubiquitous yellow, brown and crimson mums that appear on the roadside near mail boxes, on porches or along driveways.  These tough little flowers withstand frosty chills and stand tall throughout most of November.  Hearty souls and so giving in their colorful, velvety splendor.

Soon the season of lights will begin.  Autumn, as a season, seems the fastest to come and go.  I hold each moment in my hands as a treasure, but the moments all sift through my fingers like grains of sand. Then Christmas comes and fades in a flash, and we are into the Nor’Easter blizzards of January.   Another year is gone.  The years do go faster as you grow older.  We go about living our lives, trying, against our natures, to treasure the good moments.  Now in November, at Thanksgiving, it is our time to say thank you. Inspired by the Native Americans let us thank the earth.  Let us say thank you to the trees for their constantly changing beauty, to the stars for their piercing presence in the night sky, to the leaves for their beauteous colors, to the sun for its life-giving power, to the Spring for its awakening hope, to the Summer for its warm, thriving growth, to the Fall for its bounty, to the Winter for a time of renewal, to the snow flakes for their hushed, white silence that transforms our world, to the animals for their pure souls, to our families and friends for their love, and, lastly but mostly, to the Higher Power of our belief.

Happy Thanksgiving and may you each be blessed with the all embracing, pervasive Love in nature.


Thanksgiving From Within


If you look between the buildings you can see the sky and the trees I watch as the seasons change. There are bare branches in between the buildings there now.

But this afternoon my husband called me in to the other room see the leaves still on the tree outside the den window.

The leaves were ecstatically yellow today as I drank in their beauty from my window seat on a stationery bike.

The yellow leaves filled the room with a wondrous yellow light. Migraines and severe arthritis keep me in. But MUCH can be seen from the inside.

Time flew by as fast as the low lying clouds. I felt a form of ecstasy with Spirit and the world outside. A peace that nature gives and one that has been rare for me in these days of deep strife in the world.

The clouds zipping by and the fresh air from the window and the bright yellow brought me great joy that others racing by in their busy lives below do not see. I am blessed though mostly homebound… blessed with a loving husband and breathtaking beauty in the great beyond. I have much to be grateful for and I wish you all many such blessings and the urge to give thanks.

Mostly I give thanks for a sensitive and sensible husband who has stuck by me through thick and thin and my many moods and suicidal depressions– as a person with a major mental illness. Bipolar Disorder. It has not been easy for him. And he has helped many others in his career as a psychiatric social worker. I was able to help him understand some of his clients, yes, but he gave them the greatest gift of all by sharing with them his sense of humor and treating them as normal human beings.

On our first date, almost 40 years ago, a walk in the park, his sense of humor was what I first noticed about him. He scored the first home run. And then moments later, another, with his compassion. And that was the start of the love story of my life.

Today I send my deepest blessings to him, and, too, I want to wish each of you many blessings of love and nature on this fine, yellow day of Thanksgiving week!


Blessed by Spirits


I have had three visits from the spirit world.  Some might say they are “vague imaginings” born of grief and loss.  But I know vague imaginings and these were different.  In each case I had a soul connection with the spirit in question while they were living so it is not so strange that I would connect with them in death.

The first one happened when I was on my first trip to Europe at age 22.  I was off to visit the tiny peasant town where my Grandfather was born.  It was a tiny mountain town in the province of Enna, reachable by train and then a long bus ride up the mountain.  The name,  Valguernera Caropepe.  I was in the train station in Sicily and an old Sicilian man looking very much my Grandfather’s type— short, grey-haired with a warm smile— saw me and started singing the words to Stormy Weather.  I turned to look at him stunned.  When I was a little girl I spent lots of time with my grandparents in Larchmont.  Grandpa and I were inseparable.  We danced and sang to music on the Victrola or his mandolin by day, had our evening cocktail together in the late afternoon (a Shirley Temple for me, Whiskey Sour for Grandpa and I got his cherry).  And, at nights in summer, we went for walks catching fireflies, or sat together in the bedroom, each at our own window, in the silence of our thoughts, watching the neighbors in the courtyard below.   Even as a little girl, I could feel that there was something special about the quiet we shared and that we were always connected.  Physically, emotionally, and I like to think, spiritually.  I took his death very hard.  About Stormy Weather— whenever I walked into the living room where Grandpa was inevitably to be found smoking a pipe or reading, he would sing: “Here Comes Stormy Weather.”  I looked into the smiling eyes of this man in the Sicilian train station as he sang the lyrics of the song Grandpa used to greet me with and I saw Grandpa for a few seconds.  And then I had to leave to catch the train to his town.

The second time I had a brush with the spirit world was when my father died.  Dad had been sick for three years battling colon cancer.  The end was near and I visited the hospital often but had just taken a new job so was not at the hospital every day as, had I been stronger emotionally, I would have liked to have been.  Again Dad and I were very close.  Not like Grandpa.  But in temperament and looks.  My father married a Sicilian and I was the only one of the three children who looked like him with blond hair and light skin.  And I was shy and quiet and liked writing and music like Dad did and didn’t like the screaming and yelling that was much a part of our family life.  Dad didn’t either.  Dad and I were sympatico— even to the point that my mother was sometimes jealous, though she had no cause to be.  A few days before Dad died he went into something like a coma.  His eyes were closed and he was mostly unresponsive.  My Mom in an effort to get a response, teased him (Dad was the tease in the family) one warm November day, one last time, and told him it was snowing outside.  (It wasn’t.)  Dad’s eyes fluttered and he opened them and looked out the window and presumably saw it was not snowing.  A few days later Dad died.  I was at work in the ladies room at the time.  I remember the exact moment.  I knew Dad had died.  I went back into the office.  Moments later came the phone call.  I had the moment down right to the minute.  I called my fiancé to go to the hospital and see Dad before they took his body away.  And then I stood on the street corner waiting for him, frantic with grief and stunned despite all the time we had to “prepare” for Dad’s death.  Suddenly I felt a zephyr pass through me on the corner.  Dad’s spirit.  No mistaking it.  No, for sure it was Dad.  And then it began to snow.  The snow only lasted a few minutes.  A sign.  Dad, a teaser, gave his last tease, for the benefit of my Mom. I told later told her there were a few moments of snow.

I didn’t get a message when my Mother died.  We had quarreled the last night she was alive.  My husband and I had done some fancy footwork to grant her last wish— we had gotten her home so she could die in her own house.  We had been her main caretakers and it had taken a terrible toll on us.  And though I didn’t get a message from Mom when she died, I’ve got her inside of me.  Today even clearer than when she was alive, I hear her telling me how to handle the problems of life.  (I still don’t always listen.) And, we inherited my Mom’s ten-year old dog— a miniature poodle, named Ko-ko.  Ko-ko came to live with my husband and me and we loved her to pieces in our childless marriage.  We never expected her to survive losing Mom (especially after losing Dad a few years before) and losing her home, but she adjusted.  When she lost an eye to my aunt’s cat we again never expected her to pull through, but she survived.  She drank up love like a parched plant and we were only too happy to give it to her.  And then she developed Cushing’s disease and a cataract in her good eye, arthritis and a bad heart—  but she kept on going with the spirit of a puppy.  I almost believed she would live forever— even when she was diagnosed with cancer.  But she didn’t.  And in October, her 17 and ½ years came to a close.  She had an appetite up until the last— eating dinner the night she died.  Ironically it was a stroke or something she ate that impaired her breathing.  It was too late to go to our vet.  We decided to take her in first thing in the morning to be put down by the vet she knew and loved.  I stayed up through the night with her trying to help her make the transition but she clung to life.  And in the morning we brought her in to be put to sleep.  Our tears were joined by a tear streaming down Dr. Howell’s face.  I think he had begun to believe in her immortality, too.  He gave her the shot.  She reared up a moment and then was gone.  We had made plans to meet my aunt and uncle that day.  We could not break the date— it was too late to even call.  They were coming to New York from Connecticut.   I just couldn’t go.  My husband, God bless him forever, went to meet them with out me.  I went home to rest a bit, collect myself and then meet them later.  I was at home on the bed doing Reiki, an ancient Tibetan form of energy healing, on myself.  My eyes were closed but I was wide awake.  And I “felt” Ko-ko.  She was running in a white field filled with white flowers and then going towards a tunnel.  I was with her at her eye level close to the ground and all around was pure white and she was very happy and excited.  Running to be reunited with my parents.  And I felt profoundly blessed by her presence as I did in life, for she had a beautiful soul.  Instead of visiting us in spirit, my mother left us an angel.

I have longed for further contact with these three souls and with my Mom but the longing goes unfulfilled like so many desires in life. I am indeed lucky to have had these three visits.  They are high up on the list of treasures in my life, whispering of a life beyond this one.  Treasures too ephemeral for touch, treasures locked away in the depths of my soul. 


Just Renters


The house that we think of as “our” house does not belong to us.  Not because we are still paying the mortgage on it. This becomes evident one morning while sitting in a moment of calm before the day has begun, watching the bird feeder which my husband lovingly is filling.  He has dumped out the seeds too big to fit through the wire mesh of the feeder.  About 10 little birds, sparrows and juncos and sometimes a dashing male cardinal, are feeding on the seeds on the snow-covered ground.  They are not scared off by the lone squirrel who comes to eat the peanuts from the mix.  Larger birds flock to the now-full feeder. The largest birds, too big to land on the feeder, sometime take over the small bird territory, eating seeds on the ground.

The snow is falling as we prepare to go to work, cleaning up the kitchen and locking up the house.  The birds fly around in my mind.  So vulnerable they seem yet so brave, so tiny yet enormous in their freedom to take to the air.  I want to hold them in my hand and stroke their soft, downy feathers, give them love.  But truth is, this is purely a selfish wish on my part for they don’t need my love.  They don’t really even need the bird seed my husband religiously puts in the feeder.  There are bushes out back with berries which they love.  It is I who need them, to make me feel happy, to make me feel loving, to make me feel alive and connected to something larger than myself.

As we pull out of the driveway I take another lingering look at the birds in the brightening light.   And then it hits me.  They get to stay there all day as we drive off through the snow to our respective jobs in the cement jungle of a nearby city.  We drive past horses, grazing in a neighboring meadow.  Same deal.  Often I make an effort to remember the birds and the squirrels and the horses to bring calm to a fraught work day.  Yet I usually get so caught up in my frenetic, little life that I forget to think of them.  Or if I manage to conjure them up, the image of them in my mind is thin, pale and lacking in substance.

I imagine the animals laughing at us as we have to drive off to go to work.  Our house belongs to them.  Sometimes they even invade our living quarters.  When we first bought the house, it had 50 or so little brown bats in the attic who would occasionally fly around the bedroom at night.  One year we had a pair of squirrels.  We even had the company of a milk snake one afternoon.  And every fall as the weather turns frigid, the field mice run in.

A little more thought on the subject reveals to me that in actuality we own nothing.  Not our house, our spouse, our children nor our pets, not even the body we inhabit.  All of these things are on loan to us, rented to us if you will, by the Maker of the sun and the moon and the stars.  Such a wealth of beauteous bounty is there for us, ours to enjoy for the mere act of attention.  The trees, the summer breeze, the blanket of snow in winter, the flowers of summer, the butterflies, the deer who eat our lilies, the possum, the ever-changing species of birds, the occasional coyote and the thousands, if not millions of insects underfoot in a terrestrial universe, to say nothing of the universe above our heads and the trillions or gazillions of stars, the planets, the sun, the moon.  And yet we are so caught up in the dramas of our mundane lives that we fail to duly honor the ever-present gifts except in periodic snatches, when we turn our attention outside ourselves to the piece of earth we rent.  We may pay a sum to rent a piece of the earth but that piece contains a seemingly infinite multitude of gifts given for the taking.  Or rather, I should say, for the renting.


The Trees of Winter


Every year what budded in autumn, blossoms full blown in winter– my love affair with trees.  Trees that were drop-dead gorgeous in their fall colors are now bare, with the exception of evergreens and a few stray deciduous trees that refuse to relinquish their leaves.  Now the trees are stripped down to their souls and their souls sing a siren song to the universe.

The tops of trees lift my spirit; brushlike they paint the sky the baby pinks and blues of mornings, and the majestic magentas and violets of day’s end.  Each tree has its signature shape against the sky, like a fingerprint or a snowflake, similar yet each unique.  Some treetops in their bare state are shaped like a fancy coiffure; others look like wrought iron filigree.  On distant mountains, against the snowy ground, some look like stubble on an old man’s unshaven face.

It is the colorful winter sky showing through, and showing off, the bare branches that woo me.  The bare curvaceous branches are stark, dark lines against the bright of day and the inky sky of  night.  These resplendent creatures are living lines that explode.  Branches tangle like the lines in a Jackson Pollock painting.  Others curve in the sensuous lines of a Brancusi sculpture.  Buxom tree trunks stand strong surrounded by their dead blossoms and their burgeoning offspring like a Renaissance Madonna. In truth these trees are not like art at all.  Rather art imitates them– their beauty provides the timeless inspiration for artists, writers and poets of all ages and styles. 

Trees not only inspire, they themselves are paragons of diversity.   One look out of a car window while driving on the Taconic and one can see squat pines alongside towering majestic firs, birches interspersed with maple and oak.  And together the different brown and tan barks interspersed with evergreens create not only a mosaic of contrasting colors, but display an example to inspire humans to live together in peaceful unity.

These beneficent beings carry the heavy, dark grey clouds of winter.  When it snows the tree trunks become canvases for the abstract patterns of windblown-snow, while the serpentine branches are outlined in white.  In ice storms their branches become chandeliers, each enveloped in glassine ice, tinkling in the wind.  While in the melancholy of a winter rain, the branches become oiled skins of snakes weeping to the ground below. And finally, in the night sky, the branches hold the stars in their arms, those with leaves holding them in their hands, as they nurse the moon.   

All trees, no matter what their species, age or height, stand tall in proud humility, their arms reaching up to the Heavens to our Creator in prayer– soft-spoken beings of peace and tranquility towering over us, while the little creatures race around distractedly below. 


Beings of Light


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December is my favorite time of year.  In this month of darkness, in this the darkest month, the light of the human spirit shines forth in a fullness shown by so many, in so many ways.  As the days grow shorter in North America, houses and trees are decorated, and snow falls.  In the hushed silence of the nights, lights shine in windows, and the beauty is shared by passersby.  For this season of giving brings the festivals of lights: Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Diwali. Each tradition incorporates light in its ceremonies and decorations.  

A neighbor friend of mine who lived down the road, a donkey in his stable, reminds me of the story of another manger over 2000 years ago.  And seeing him snug in his stable with snow on the ground gave the illusion that all was right in the world.  But all is not well.  Thousands know no peace in any season. Millions are cold and starving.  Racism and religious wars prevail.  Climate change advances in leaps and bounds, faster than most predicted.

Those who live closer to the land are especially blessed.  They share their lives with animals who are constant reminders of humility and simplicity in this rapid, complex, multi-tasking world. They can drive around on a December night and see houses covered in lights with illuminated trees, houses warmed by fires, filled with laughter and conversation and love, and feel blessed.  Blessed to have so much when others have so little.  Blessed to be able to celebrate as they wish when others cannot.  Yet even those living in the worst conditions show the light of the human spirit and celebrate the season of light in personal ways.  For the human spirit is indomitable.

Einstein said: “A human being is part of the whole, called by us the ‘Universe”– a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings, as something separated from the rest– a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”  We are all cut from the same cloth and our inner light unites us.

In December’s darkness we light lights.  For we are beings of light.  A light glows within each one of us. And, at the most basic level, we are beings of light because we are made from stardust.  Perhaps that is why the stars hold such majesty for us– we are all—Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, African, whatever– we are all made from star material.

And in this holiday season we behold the night sky as Christians say shepherds did over two thousand years ago on the birth of the holy infant, in a stable like the one down the road where my donkey friend lives. On that night they say a star lit the whole sky to guide the shepherds to the stable of the infant, Jesus, the son of God.  

In these deep, long, silent nights as we light our houses, our candles, our trees, let us look inside ourselves and find the glow that may guide us each, alone but akin, to THE Light!

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In These Times of High Anxiety


The only meditation that works for me is that of a Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thay, as he was known endearingly.  He taught me to breathe and this is the only natural way I know to calm down.  He has changed my life in my short time with him.  I found him on the day he died.  And now I breathe with him every day, sometimes more. 

Here is his story if you are interested.

https://plumvillage.org/thich-nhat-hanh/biography/

Take 15 minutes and listen and let him guide you in taking a breath and calming down.   You WILL find peace.

https://link.plumvillage.app/DRsq


Beings of Light


December is my favorite time of year.  In this month of darkness, in this the darkest month, the light of the human spirit shines forth in a fullness shown by so many, in so many ways.  As the days grow shorter, houses and trees are decorated, and snow falls.  In the hushed silence of the nights, lights shine in windows, and the beauty is shared by all.  For this season of giving brings the festivals of lights: Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa.  Each tradition incorporates light in its ceremonies and decorations.  

A neighbor friend of mine who lives down the road where we used to live, a donkey in his stable, reminds me of the story of another manger 2000 years ago.  And seeing him snug in his stable with snow on the ground used to give me the illusion that all is right in the world.  But all is not well.  Not now, not then. Millions know no peace in any season. A world-wide pandemic rages. Politics that divide us runs rampant.

This year some have no food, no home. Others fret over how to pay bills. Yet even living in darkest of times we can see the light of the human spirit and celebrate the season of light in personal ways.  For the human spirit is indomitable.

In December’s darkness we light lights.  For we are beings of light.  A light glows within each one of us.  And, at the most basic level, we are beings of light because we are made from stardust.  Perhaps that is why the stars hold such majesty for us– for we are made from star material.

Einstein said: “A human being is part of the whole, called by us the ‘Universe”– a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings, as something separated from the rest– a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”  We are all cut from the same cloth and our inner light unites us.

And in this holiday season we behold the night sky as shepherds did two thousand years ago on the birth of the holy infant, in a stable like the one down the road where my donkey friend lives.  That night a star (maybe the congruence) lit the whole sky to guide the shepherds, and on these deep, long, silent nights as we light our houses, our candles, our trees, if we are blessed enough to have them, let us look inside ourselves and find the glow that may guide us to The Light.


The Grace of Presence


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Oh, God,
your gentle breezes
caress my physical form.
I have been sick,
Pill sick
Mentally sick
Soul sick
for so long,
Overwhelmed by fear,
selfish concerns,
physical ills.
What has changed today?
How come today
I can see beyond the self
To the Self?
Is it so mundane
as to be due to a coolness waft of air?
Or is it a taste of infinity?
A wormhole to your realm?
An undeserved dollop of grace?
You are inside always
and yet so often I cannot feel you
at all!
And I lapse into despondency,
anxiety,
preoccupation with the self,
the person,
the ego.
Why today can I see Thee
In the galaxy of stars within?
Why today?
How can I keep this view
Of you?
Despite problems, illness,
please take me over,
please let me see
Thee daily within.
Please let me love you
and all who live
with wild abandon
and the diamond dazzle of compassion,
without restraint.
Tears cleanse
make amends
for my many sins,
Oh, Zephyr of air,
wafting with the perfume
of the Divine
that permeates
all.
Please stay
forever in my heart,
and blow away
fears and tears
and usurp
the self forever!


Being in Winter


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How higher they be
than me
for they know how
to just Be

always

in the present
in the Silence
so profound in winter
but in the forever now

I look fearfully ahead
towards a future of endings
and losses
of attachments
acquired over the years
none more strong
than our love

I used to know

how to just be
like a tree
spontaneously
when very young
now I seek to Be
as I was in youth

in rapture
not just in nature
but always
as the sheep
in the deep
of winter.


Giving Thanks to the Animals


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On the day those in the U.S. set aside for giving thanks, I thank God for the animals who have led me on a higher path in my life.  Animals have been among my best teachers.

HAPPY DAY OF GRATITUDE TO ALL!

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edited horses (2)

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(Dedicated to Duchie and to Ko-Ko)


“Awareness of Awareness”


My friend, Tiramit, over at DhammaFootsteps.com sent me a reference to the wonderful video on awareness…

To see it, CLICK ON Inner Medium.com.

Don’t be fooled by the cartoon nature at the introductory beginning of the video.  All kinds of experts on consciousness are interviewed, from academics to a homeless man, from a Self-Realization monk to a race car driver, from a scientist to a business man and from a guru to artists and a  psychic.  All speak on thinking, Awareness and consciousness. It ends with Sri Mooji, whose retreat in London I am attending online for the next 5 days.  This video is a perfect segue into the Self-Inquiry process Mooji teaches.

Meantime, till next post, enjoy the beautiful Fall!

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THANK YOU!!


Going to take 5 days off in the country to regroup and hopefully return to health and to celebrate my husband’s birthday.  Will try to read posts but may not have adequate reception.

Meantime to thank all of you I leave you in good company with good thoughts…


Entangled in the Web of Thoughts


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The Simple Path



Life Eternal


On this sad day

13 years ago

unspeakable things happened

to uncountable thousands

we have gone on

aching for those lost

Let us affirm life today

and always

By going to the One within


Transcending Maya


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Some of you may know Mooji.  I have only just found him through Hariod who blogs at Contentedness.net.  I am so grateful to her for introducing him to me because it feels like a relationship started long ago in this life, possibly before.  I am following him as my Guru now and am always amazed at how simply he goes to the right to the truth.  Please just give a listen for less than three minutes.  You may fall in love with him, too.


Who is I?


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  Mooji makes it all so simple.  His gift is to simplify and pare things down to basics.  Hoping that the beautiful, short video below may offer a new awareness. Many of you are way beyond this lesson.  But for those of us struggling to understand, you don’t need to go to the mountain.   Listen to Mooji and “see.” 


Nothing Changes/All is Flux


 

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Objects seem solid
yet
are made up of
wriggling strings
an optical delusion
in the dream
of Maya
3000 years ago
the Rishis said that
the world of forms
was all mind stuff
Maya
In the 20 the century
Sir James Jeans
said the universe
consists of pure thought
each thing a moving,
ever changing manifestation
of the life force
One unity
there are no boundaries

The Magic of Rhythm


Alpha brain waves cycle at 8-12 cycles per second

Alpha brain waves are present in most altered states of consciousness,

as in meditation, flow, creative states, religious experiences,

for example.

In altered states of consciousness we feel one with the earth.

The magnetic rhythms of the earth cycle at 10 cycles per second.

With alpha we plug into the rhythms of the earth,

hence a feeling of unity with our Mother.

Think

pleasure at moving to rhythms of music

as in the Indian dance video below.

Some humor is thrown in for lightness of being,

as Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir dress as women

and try to follow the gorgeous dancing diva, Madhuri Dixit, in Indian dance.

Enjoy

and ponder the importance of cycles and rhythm!


A Universe of Patterns


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A tuning fork
when applied to sand
creates patterns
like those of snowflakes
crystals
water droplets
or larger patterns
of mountains
deserts
lakes
the surface of the moon
What patterns
does the sound of the mantra
create on
the canvas of our minds
in meditation

Starlight, Starbright


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Starlight through the skylight
Moonlight just above the roof
Fireflies flickering flames
Random to our eyes
In a dizzying mercurial display
Flitting to the tune
Of trilling frogs
And the flutter of batwings
I see goblins in the windows
Alone would be terrified
With you here beatified
By the beauty of the silence
Punctuated by the frogs
Spotlighted by the moon
And the sparkling stars
Whose dust makes up
These rented bodies we carry
While inside heartbeats
Tick away our lives
To the beat of a flashing firefly
Or a flickering star.


Good Friday Prayer


In death, decay

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blurred tears

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yet the promise of new life

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The Hum of Life


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The reverberations of love

jump across time and space

to another receptive heart

*

The reverberations of suffering

resound around the earth

picked up by open souls in prayer

*

The reverberations of Aum

most sacred of sounds

pulses through our minds in meditation

*

Love brings the possibility of loss

Suffering brings a totality of pain

Aum brings the reality of God within