Category Archives: Gateways

this life…a fool’s game for cheap players….

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luminous depths

To take full responsibility for ourselves is to discern the impact of our experience on all of life. The discovery of the truth about ourselves is not gained easily or cheaply. There is a price for growing up spiritually, & that is to discern clearly & take full responsiblity for our own internal & external world, particularly the aspects of our experience that we choose to leave just beneath consciousness. We must be willing to face illusions & limited ideas upon which we have hung our whole identity, to look at the many things within ourselves we would rather not see, to lose face & suffer the loss of our identities & dreams to whatever degree is required by the path…….Mariana Caplan

wow….heavy….a certain call to run away comes up with a directive such as this…a need to find the end of the line….no, not me….I just want to live a sweet & happy life….and yet….here we are….

wake me when it’s over?

You will see that in life you receive exactly what you give. Your life is the mirror of what you are. It is in your image…..The first requirement, the first condition, the first test for one who wishes to work on himself is to…see things in himself which he has never seen before, see them actually…And in order to see, he must learn to see; this is the first initiation of man into self-knowledge. But you will see that it is not easy. And it is not cheap. You must pay dearly…You must pay in advance. The more you are prepared to pay without economizing, without cheating, without any falsification, the more you will receive…….Jeanne de Salzmann

relaxing into innate wisdom…the secret of human nature…

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life, like mancala...a game of hope & mystery...

I find you, Lord, in all Things & in all

my fellow creatures, pulsing with your life;

as a tiny seed you sleep in what is small

& in the vast you vastly yield yourself.

The wondrous game that power plays with Things

is to move in such submission through the world:

groping in roots & growing thick in trunks

& in treetops like a rising from the dead.

…Rilke

the promise of the spiritual quest is this…..to linger in the lightness of heart…an abiding awarensess….not cajoled into perfection….knowing the tranquil fearlessness which comes from breathing in the human condition….a life lived…..

longing for that place of grace & sureness…

Opening up the secret of our human nature, revealing to ourselves & to each other our deep & soulful longings, our fear & sadness, our joy & wonder, is the critical step on the spiritual path. It is the step that makes the difference between living our own, real spirituality & just acquiring someone else’s beliefs. We could say that the history of human suffering is our inability to come to terms with our spiritual hunger. Like one big cosmic joke, humans were born yearning, yet without the map to get ‘there.’ The source of our spiritual longing resides in a place deep within us. It is a quiet & faithful place that can become our most dependable friend when we learn to access its powerful wisdom…….Elizabeth Lesser

un-grid your still point….

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buddhas & saints….where earth meets sky & water seeps ’round…

The Hindu scriptures say Self is self-luminous, vibrant energy & vigor, vitality, power, tranquility, wisdom, & love. This is who you really are. This is the inner self which is hidden at the center of life, it undergrids all our activities. We are encouraged to seek it out, to go for the inner place & ‘be still’ there. ‘Be still & know that I am God,’ say the Jewish scriptures. It is there you find Being-Awareness-Bliss, your true nature……Matthew Fox

are we really that pure? can we quiet ourselves enough? don’t you, like me, find deep resistance & yet feel completely intrigued by this idea of ‘waking up?’ does the ‘discursive intellect’ have to rule everything, all of the time? can the luminous imagination really un-grid our skepticism, just long enough to know the divine?

to un-grid, to look behind, be in you….

Consciousness is the highest word you will ever utter. It is pure awareness. What would it be like if your awareness didn’t exist? It’s actually pretty simple- you wouldn’t be there. There would be no sense of ‘me.’ And without awareness of being, there is nothing. If you are conscious, however, there can be nothing in front of you but you are fully aware that there is nothing. So now if I ask you, ‘Who are you?’ You answer, ‘I am the one who sees. From back in here somewhere, I look out, & I am aware of the events, thoughts, & emotions that pass before me.’ If you go very deep, that is where you live. A true spiritual being lives there, without effort & without intent. Behind all thoughts, & emotions, there you are. Now you are in the center of your consciousness. You are behind everything, your true home. The great mystery begins once you take that seat deep within…..Michael Singer

the luminous human experience….humble cycles of light & dark….

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on the threshold of light….looking for magic on the other side….

The blind rolls up. Light enters

& shows us where we are.

Windows allow for no fooling.

What would it mean to realize

that every one of us is a window

where life shines through?

Could we stand to know how

every moment reveals this?

Anyone paying attention could see if we were open

or shut, spattered or clear?

A blind could not hide us-

we would only be revealed as covered.

No one would be fooled.

Could we trust that it is safe to be

without subterfuge?

Then we would be clear enough

for light to come through us naturally.

…..Gunilla Norris

are we ever safe enough to practice transparency? can we find our shadow selves? can we notice how the light falls through our window? what becomes more clear?

the architecture of the universe…so big…so small….

At our birth we emerge from the root mystery of the cosmos, a deep & silent mystery into which we will one day be reabsorbed. Our own lives are a spiral pattern of creative unfolding into light. Fashioned out of the creative power of starlight & the fecund body of the Earth, we are the children of Earth & starry heaven caught up in the timeless rhythm of the celestial dance……David Fideler

the peephole reveals the other side….just a little distorted….

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the kissing fields

The Soul should always stand ajar

That if the heaven inquire

He will not be obliged to wait

Or shy of troubling Her

Depart, before the Host have slid

The Bolt unto the Door-

To search for the accomplished Guest,

Her Visitor, no more-

….Emily Dickinson

these doors we peer in to seek our own cosmos, complete with its sensitive vernacular…..rich & studded with labels, eternities, & infinite imagination….tentatively reveling in the heart….& at times the abandon we seek by slipping through an unguarded door doesn’t reveal the spontaneity we had dreamed to find on the other side….we still wear the same clothes, fit in the same molds, & drink our coffee at dawn….

was it the door of iniquity? or simply the desire to shed skin?

the breathless, childlike ways endure….

So, dear Sir, I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself & see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the question of whether you must create. Accept that answer, just as it is given to you, without trying to interpret it. For the creator must be a world for himself & must find everything in himself & in Nature, to whom his whole life is devoted…..Rilke

where we cross over….where Mary Poppins lands….

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everyday magic

The outer world is the world of manifestation, the inner world that of imagination. Yet in many respects it is the inner world that makes possible the outer. We do not just reflect the outer world, we create it. In many circumstances we order it-prevent its fall into disorganization, driven by entropy. Yet nature is also highly ordered, by what are ultimately mathematically inevitable patterns & relationships. If a God created the world it is through these laws;  perceiving & manipulating them, we resemble the creator….Christian Wertenbaker

it’s comforting to know that many concepts move in realms outside of science….imagination, time, consciousness….science isn’t big enough…somewhere in between the past & the future our self-awareness ‘occurs’……opening a gap…..seemingly whooshing in the flow of creativity on the wave of imagination….

this ‘everyday magic’ is available at all times…..like carrying an upside-down parasol…..like understanding your purpose….like being excited about growing old….like seeing possibility everywhere…

 Imagination lies at the juncture of death & life,

 absence & presence….Patrick Laude

quenching the thirst of imagination…

 

light in the morning dew is our ancestors light…

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one touch

I remember walking to the meditation hall with others as the bell sounded, feeling as if I were being led out of a wilderness on to an ancient path. Thich Nhat Hahn speaks of waking the bell so that it can call us to our true home. I began to understand that true independence isn’t individuality, which is clinging to self, but falling more deeply into life & into my true humanity. I came to realize that the light of mindfulness was the strongest force in me because unlike other parts & attachments that changed, this light seeemed to be independent of outside circumstances…..what was most abiding….Tracy Cochran

this is the one touch of understanding…..the seed of a long life of descending into wonders…joined & connected to our ancestors…roots of old souls abiding with us…

 rhythms of ancient bells…..

shedding….spiritual aging…

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detail

The world is more magical, less predictable, more autonomous, less controllable, more varied, less  simple, more infinite, less knowable, more wonderfully troubling than we could have imagined being able to tolerate when we were young…..James Hollis

being in our own skin means being…& this being day after day calls up a profound intimacy with our essential self…the one we actually befriend through time….slowly shedding….

spiritual discernment means feeling every nuance of grief & ego-pain that comes with the shedding….no bypassing…to the beautiful beyond….an aged & weathered wisdom…

youth & the beauty beyond…

The spiritual life is about becoming more at home in your own skin…Parker Palmer

where twilight takes you…

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black & white

At the end of my suffering

there was a door.

Hear me out: that which you call death

I remember.

Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.

Then nothing. The weak sun

flickered over the dry surface.

It is terrible to survive

as consciousness

buried in the dark earth.

Then it was over: that which you fear, being

a soul & unable

to speak, ending abuptly, the stiff earth

bending a little. And what I took to be

birds darting in low shrubs.

You who do not remember

passage from the other world

I tell you I could not speak again: whatever

returns from oblivion returns

to find a voice:

from the center of my life came

a great fountain, deep blue

shadows on azure sea water.

Louise Gluck

where is that thin blue line? that hazy place in our lives where we cross over? even more interesting, is when we don’t realize when we’re in it…when things have shifted….suddenly a conversation, an encounter, a glimpse of someone or an instant which you recognize….a cold wind blows over you….

where are you then? do you choose to come back? or do you linger a while….belonging elsewhere just for an instant…..

hang it up…

Each & all, the subjective & objective

Spheres are related

And at the same time independent.

Related & yet working differently,

Though each keeps its own place….

Within light there is darkness,

But do not try to understand that darkness.

Within darkness there is light,

But do not look for the light.

Light & darkness are a pair,

Like the foot before & the foot behind in walking.

Each thing has its own intrinsic value

And is related to everything else in function & position.

Ordinary life fits the absolute as a box & its lid.

The absolute works together with the relative

Like two arrows meeting in midair.

…Shitou Xiquian

the palpable silence of the unknowable

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simplicity in stillness

Silence turns out to be not the absence of sound but a presence in its own right, always there, noticed only when we become quiet. And how rich the silence is when we come in through the doorway of a particular kind of agenda-free attention. Silence proves to be full of subtle & intrinsically rewarding sounds that grow ever more absorbing as the mind settles, words are forgotten, & names drop away, no longer important. Whenever we find our way into such a silence, it is a little like remembering a child’s kind of trust in what is happening, in which whatever we are sensing begins to recover an original strong autonomy. We’re not focused on past memories or what we already know. The feeling of being in control can graciously give way to a more mature possibility of resting in what is, no longer mentally demanding how we want it to be…..Susan Murphy

the ethereal silence surrounding our heart is our purest reality….a calling of our deepest roots….when we sit, we are permeated by a new kind of grounding….rooting & emerging….this may be our most elusive practice….the most difficult to enter deeply…

in silence we hear all of these concepts as tangible realities scooping us up in the hands of deepest calm…..existence, awareness, prayer, mercy, essence, waiting….

Ever abiding within & without, overlaid with the mutable patchwork garment we know as this visible universe, silence forms the woof & warp of all things seen & unseen. To the mystic, silence is the ground, the core of reality…John Roger Barrie

echoes….