Tag Archives: soul work

revisiting love….cracking open the heart….

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the sweeping magnanimity of Buddha nature

On the spiritual path, there’s nothing to get, & everything to get rid of. Obviously, the first thing to let go of is trying to “get” love, & instead to give it. That’s the secret of the spiritual path. One has to give oneself wholeheartedly. If we want to be loved, we are looking for a support system. If we want to love, we are looking for spiritual growth. Love is the warmth of the heart, the connectedness, the protection, the caring, the concern, the embrace that comes from acceptance & understanding for oneself. Having practiced that, we are in a much better position to practice love toward others. We realize they are just as unlovable as we are, & they have just as many unwholesome thoughts. But that doesn’t matter. We are not judge & jury. When we relate to other people, we can let them just be & love them……Ayya Khema

there’s no hiding from an open heart….it radiates out….everyone can sense it…..feel it…benefit from it…..we love ourselves, then we share that love…..

this isn’t trite, banal, idealistic, or childish…this is truth, hard work….& profoundly elusive….

get addicted to big love….

Hemingway got it right when he said that “love is the wanting to do things for.” Can I surrender to what is? This question allows us to do the one thing that can help free us from the domination of our fears: that is,  to welcome them in & actually feel them. As we become more inwardly free from our our fears, the love & connection that are possible in  relationships tend to flow through us more naturally. As our defenses  are lowered, our heart opens, & there is a natural desire to give from  the generosity of the heart. We discover that genuine happiness in relationships is not a product of having our expectations met or getting  what we want but rather it is the consequence of freely giving in order to bring happiness to another…..Ezra Bayda

the landscape of compassion….where angels hover….

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hovering angels

 Compassion may be the single most important trait on the spiritual path, the very essence of enlightenment. On the verse, ‘You shall follow the Lord your God….& to Him you shall cling,’ the Talmud asks, ‘How can one follow after the Divine Presence?’ Just as He is gracious & compassionate, so you should be gracious & compassionate. Compassion is not just another virtue, it is the chief means of attaching ourselves to God……Eliezer Shore

as we move into our lives with a deeper awareness, keen questioning, & a yearning for that which cannot be named, we move into the realm of compassion….testing our boundaries & hitting our ugly spots…..staying present with the bare truth of tough humanity takes an enormous amount of courage & the same self-compassion as we attempt to heap on others….

this life is not a game, & it’s not always nice…..the deeper we practice (whatever your spiritual or human-loving path), the more we realize what compassion is not….it’s not pity, it’s not helping, it is not a deed or kindness….it’s not being able to know why or how we are motivated…

we simply share in the suffering of others….it’s not what we think or feel, it’s what we are……

it is pure…..yet it is found in the gritty space, the uglies…the place where only angels tread….

calling all angels…

Christ’s call to love one another is a call to leave the prison of our fragmented ego, to ‘forget ourselves’…to turn away from our small selves & open to the needs of others. The real significance of Christ’s cross is not a sign of suffering & death, but a sign of God’s humility, his will to empty himself of his divine status to share the sufferings of the world. It is the same compassion that led the Buddha to lay aside his freedom from the cycle of birth & death in order to show all beings the path of liberation from the prison of self. It is the same compassion that countless people in all religious traditions continue to attempt in their own lives…Irma Zaleski

our willingness to be present to another is the ultimate challenge…our finest gift….& the hardest slap in the face sometimes….step into our humanity…..becoming who we were meant to be….

hold ourselves softly…. 

a life of mini deaths & rebirths….

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finding sky

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

we seek the sacred….silent & reverent in our aloneness……that yearning which calls us down sometimes….we don’t know what to make of our crooked hearts…we try to move lightly forward…clinging to the strings of our life….

this profound weekend calls for an inquiry into these baffled hearts….these basic assumptions…a reflection in sweetness….like jelly beans….

 What must die? Any resistance to the bigger truth. Any holding on by the little ego part of me that cannot see beyond its own nose. Practicing dying means living as close to reality as we can in each moment. It is the ultimate bravery. The spiritual warrior stands undefended before the truth. Every day you are given an embarrassingly rich array of opportunities to die to your resistance to what is so about yourself, your life, & those you share it with. Try it….Elizabeth Lesser

how shall we bear our crosses today? 

what does your house hold? where does it crumble?

or is it just letting in more light?

a brighter world seen in one flower, one breath, one awareness

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reveling in our world....

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

& Heaven in a Wild Flower,

hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

& Eternity in an hour.

…..William Blake

Do we really see the flowers? What clarity seeps in when we engage with flowers we’ve never ‘seen?’ This cocooning & blossoming, a fluidity of soul, takes our small selves & embarks them on a bigger journey of seeing & knowing….not so tight…not so small….

when we become vague, left with dogma & disenchanted morality…

fear & pale faces….

we revive in the sun…with the flowers…in simplicity’s wisdom…

the numinous dirt…

drown in flowers once in awhile…. 

The more conscious you are in both body & spirit, when you’re breathing at those deep, deep levels & become keen in all your senses, your life changes. I never saw red until the day I left the cancer ward; then I saw a red tulip. Love is spoken all the time, but how many really live it? Open the body……Marion Woodman

sacred space…..the profound cave where our lives echo….

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a lifetime of preparing for full moons...

When we set aside a certain area as a special or sacred precinct….we are engaging in the ancient act of making ‘temenos’….marking out a space appropriate for a certain spirit that breathes life into our activity…We need thresholds in our daily lives, so that we clearly move from one sphere of life to another. Our souls need a variety of places where they can retreat & disappear from life. Parks, beaches, trails, daydreaming, night dreams, distraction, memory & many other things fit in the category of rapture, each requiring a temenos that is created with imagination & protected firecely & aggressively…..Thomas Moore

the key to temenos seems to be unerring boundaries…. empty & filled require distinct thresholds….mirroring our lives….our relationships……our dreams & our choices…spiraling up from a ‘garden of wildflowers’ & once we understand our soul-roots it becomes ’our garden’…knowing intuitively where our spirit thrives & where enchantment wanes….

The Wanderer explores the interweavings between psyche & nature, how a dream or a place may suggest a place in nature in which to wander or an image to seek in his wanderings. Or he might ramble in the wild & run smack into a repeating dreamscape from childhood, his eyes wide & mouth agape. Now what will he do? Inner & outer wanderings & boundaries support, extend, & enrich one another- a key feature of soulcraft….Bill Plotkin

waxing & waning moons in the sky are subtle reminders to carve out that same moon space in our hearts….to soar up from the canyon, we only need to step outside for a moment at the end of the day….wander in our souls just to seek & disappear in one cycle of breath….

create your own meaning of liminality…..

letting in mercy….armoring with bliss…

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gothic tombs of infinite bliss

After long searches here & there, in temples & in churches, in earths & in heavens, at last you come back, completing the circle from where you started, to your own soul & find that He/She, for whom you have been seeking all over the world, for whom you have been weeping & praying in churches & temples, on whom you were looking as the mystery of all mysteries shrouded in the clouds, is nearest of the near, is your own Self, the reality of your life, body & soul……Swami Vivekenanda

our whole life competes against presence….we struggle through the tombs of our experience…alighting on every little snag….every inevitable wave of ignorance, fear, stress, anxiety or depression….we do not accept the fact that life is difficult….we know, but we do not accept….

Ajahn Chah says. ‘Try to do everything with a mind that lets go…’ Every moment of witnessing brings us to a full life in our body. We naturally feel our interconnectedness with other beings. In these precious moments, we awake from the dream of separation & striving, & we experience the hidden depths of life. We experence the essence of all spirituality: generosity, gratitude, & love. And in these moments of transparency we feel more real than ever…..Stephen Cope

acknowledging that life is hard is far from giving up..

it takes amazing bliss-ness…it’s ok to trust ourselves…

 we can come back to our inherent life..our intuitive generosity….

our courageous, fierce, & radical kindness…..

don’t let ‘em steal your soul….

 

a simple joy mirrors the inner to the outer …..

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moving through fire....

Maybe you’ve had the disturbing experience of misplacing your soul. You might have asked, ‘Is my soul found inside me or is it ‘out there’ in nature?’ The answer surprises: You can learn about your soul by looking ‘inward’ through the windows of imagination & feeling. And you can learn about your soul by looking ‘outward’ to the wild world. But the soul itself is neither inside nor outside. The wild world reflects your essence back to you just like a still lake reflects your image. In the same way, your soul, your essence, is in the world, & nature mirrors that fact back to you…Bill Plotkin

this visionary experience reveals layers….knowing & not knowing…death & life…soul embracing all…..complete with its ambiguity, paradox, & shifty-eyed shadows in the dark….

really though, these ‘big mysteries’ come back to simple joys where soul ignites….

eating an apple, tying your hiking boots, tucking in a cool pillow, waking to birdsong, following the moon behind a tree, cool sand under tense feet, photos of your grandmother, sitting on a park bench, snowballs & a little mischief, picking strawberries, moonless quiet, packing a picnic…

glimpsing the brief thin place between you & soul

when everything around you is enough….

I know that nothing has ever been real

without my beholding it.

All becoming has needed me.

My liking ripens things

and they come toward me, to meet & be met.

…Rilke

 I can hear music…when there is none….

the kingdom of night…wild hearts & wild beasts escape…

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gentle souls of the night...hearts beating...

creating in the night reveals a vast kingdom of exotic animals in the mind…a place to roam….like being blind in a tunnel of white, hot light….sight by osmosis….constructing a new meaning of wild-heart authenticity…

questioning by diving into no-time….unshackling the doors to presence, to vivid color, to a more succinct expression of soul initiation…

The art studio becomes a safe place where ‘escaped goats’ invite the body to speak its own heart through relationships with each other & its works of art. The ancient Greeks believed the organ of perception was the heart, holding a microcosm of the world or natural law connecting all beings with the order of the world…Within the walls of this ancient abode, the imagination resides….Mimi Farrelly-Hansen

this night place allows us to plunge our hearts safely, fully, experientially….the walls of our studio hold the walls of our hearts…..secrets emanating & containing all spontaneity, all honesty, all contradictions of human creativity…

a natural movement into what is…heart pumping a new imaginal intelligence….

The studio creates an environment that supports the soul’s first freedom…the freedom to imagine…& a place where cultivating images for their own sake is supremely valued, quickening the soul to its images in the heart. The heart is not so much the place of personal feeling as it is the place of true imagining …..James Hillman

lead the way oh, ancient heart….dusk is upon us….

so the blind may see… 

the catacombs of the inner life

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effulgent chrysalis

Remember the day when you tore through the fabric of things & you were taken alive, pinned motionless in the racket of rackets of wheels upon wheels turning without turning, & you within it all, always seized by the same motionless moment, repeating, repeating, & time made only one revolution, everything revolved in three innumerable directions, time turned back on itself- & eyes of flesh saw only a dream, there existed only a devouring silence, words were dried peels, & the noise, the yes, the noise, the no, the black & visible howling of the machine denied you,- the silent shout ‘I am’ which the bone hears, from which the stone dies, from which what never lived believes itself to die,- & you were reborn at each instant only to be denied by the great boundless circle, wholly pure, center & only center, pure except for you…..Rene Daumal

the rich fabric of our wanting seizes our questions….shapes them into a love for truth…a love for love’s sake..encountering, enriching, enmeshing…

the disturbing whispers of true reality are the tender pains of our deepest longings…give in to the wrenching beauty of knowing the abyss is there to be discovered….

leaving to come home…

‘I am astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I am distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all these things at once & cannot add up the sum,’ wrote Carl Jung, expressing the powerful experience of being open to the full range of one’s inner life. If we want to live fully, we must also feel fully. In order to feel, we must learn to touch & taste the great pulse of life that moves through our bodies, deep psyches, & hearts…..Mariana Capland

the heart ripped out into blue wonderment

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holiness in a daydream

The Rose Window

In there: the lazy pacing of their paws

creates a stillness that’s almost dizzying;

and as one of the cats then suddenly

takes the gaze that watches it carelessly

and snatches it into its own great eye,-

and that gaze, as if caught in a whirlpool’s

circle, for a little while stays afloat

and then goes under and is lost to oblivion,

when this eye, which apparently rests,

opens and slams shut with a roaring

and yanks it all the way inside the blood-

thus in olden times out of the darkness

the cathedrals’ great rose windows

would seize hearts and drag them in to God.

…..Rilke

this excavation of our bones is like…..

holing up in a cozy cafe with all of the little lovelies that make you feel safe… a cup o’ joe or tea, your favorite shoes, a great pen & crisp journal & few crayons & charcoal, a rough wood grained table with little blue flowers, a polished stone in your pocket, Rilke & Dylan Thomas & a stack of Parabola magazines, music carried in from the warm & sunny streets…nothing you’d really listen to, but right now it’s like angels singing….

working on a poem & a sketch & remembering another sunny day like this a million years ago & you smile just a little at a cynicism that faded somewhere & the little blue flowers would have been plucked & in your hair in a minute back then, but now it’s enough to be in this moment & not create the moment….

you write about it….then color it blue…how the moment is seized into something greater than you…a boundary crossed into the blue flowers, the blue day, the blue souls all around, your blue heart that is yanked like Rilke’s angels into an intangible sanctuary of perfect openness….& the angels just keep singing….

may the excavation of your bones turn your world to blue….

we tether our own boundaries sometimes…