Friday, March 1, 2013

Rumi - So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul.


“For ages you have come and gone
courting this delusion.
For ages you have run from the pain
and forfeited the ecstasy.
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

Although you appear in earthly form
Your essence is pure Consciousness.
You are the fearless guardian
of Divine Light.
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

When you lose all sense of self
the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish.
Lose yourself completely,
Return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

You descended from Adam, by the pure Word of God,
but you turned your sight
to the empty show of this world.
Alas, how can you be satisfied with so little?
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

Why are you so enchanted by this world
when a mine of gold lies within you?
Open your eyes and come ---
Return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

You were born from the rays of God's Majesty
when the stars were in their perfect place.
How long will you suffer from the blows
of a nonexistent hand?
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

You are a ruby encased in granite.
How long will you decieve Us with this outer show?
O friend, We can see the truth in your eyes!
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

After one moment with that glorious Friend
you became loving, radiant, and ecstatic.
Your eyes were sweet and full of fire.
Come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

Shams-e Tabriz, the King of the Tavern
has handed you an eternal cup,
And God in all His glory is pouring the wine.
So come! Drink!
Return to the root of the root
of your own soul.

Soul of all souls, life of all life - you are That.
Seen and unseen, moving and unmoving - you are That.
The road that leads to the City is endless;
Go without head and feet
and you'll already be there.
What else could you be? - you are That.”


Thursday, February 28, 2013

Bentinho Massaro - Re-Union


First there is Personal Victimhood, for example:
“Everybody is against me! Why is this happening to me?”

Then follows Spiritual Victimhood, for example:
“I am not the doer, all is in thy hands, Lord!”

Then follows re-union:
We realize that the freedom that we experienced and glimpsed beyond the borders of our personal self, for example through exercising the thought “I am not the doer, all is your will, I surrender!” is also us, is also our Self.

Bliss indeed is beyond yourself… outside of the sense of ‘me and my ideas’, and yet, that which is beyond ourselves, is also our selves. We are God. Realizing this from a true, humble and genuine place, is the Re-Union.

When we realize this truth, we re-empower consciousness without losing the freedom from knowing ourselves as beyond the personal illusion.

When we don’t realize yet that we are that which we surrendered to, but do realize that life is not in our small self’s control (the stage of spiritual victimhood) we are semi-free, disempowered consciousnesses, possibly well on our way to coming full circle, if we gain the courage to see.

And for a while we may feel like we need to maintain that middle perspective, for re-empowerment would mean ego kicks back in. But this does not have to be so.

The re-empowerment of consciousness happens when we realize:

A) That we’re not our thoughts, emotions and the sense of being a separate isolated individual in an externalized world.

and B) That that which remains without us, is also us…

ShaBANG!!! :-) Hello Self. Hello Me. Wowsers.

That’s when we start to learn to communicate between both worlds, and seat ourselves naturally in that higher consciousness, from which it starts to remember that it is, indeed, a creator of the illusion, not by accident, but filled to the brim with purpose and intention.

Scary to consider as an option, if you’ve gotten used to spiritual victimhood, ain’t it?

That being said, spiritual victimhood, is a great achievement in consciousness already. It is amazingly potent to realize we are not our concerns, and it feels so good being a victim to Spirit, rather than a victim to the world and its inhabitants.

Nevertheless, that which you project you are victim of, servant of, is also You. It is your Home, it is your Self. You ARE, beyond yourself, already.




Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Robert Lax - sentences

Robert Lax  poem by the German architect and artist Susanne Wiegner

sentences

by no means mention
what’s really
on your mind

nothing is
on my mind

don’t mention
it
—-
whatever you have
to say
will get itself
said

don’t worry

who worries?

that’s all i’m
telling
you:
don’t
—-
you go out
to the edge
of the universe,

it’ll still be
on your
mind

nothing
is

it’ll still
be there
—-
you don’t have to
try to remember
it

the fact is, you
can’t forget

forget what?

the nothing.
whatever it
is



-Robert Lax, from the journal A, p. 36 via Who(be quiet)Are You?

Monday, February 25, 2013

Gina Lake - Happiness Is Here Right Now



Many people would define a successful life as a happy one, so we go about trying to be happy in many ways. Some people try to attain happiness through accomplishments and material things, while others use spiritual means.
The problem is that happiness isn't something to attain or achieve, but something to notice. If you are busy trying to achievehappiness, you are probably overlooking it. The ego tries to get happiness from doing,
having, or being someone, while the spiritual ego tries to get it from transcending all of that. For the ego, spiritual freedom, or enlightenment, is just one more thing to be achieved.

Wanting happiness and freedom from the suffering of the ego are worthwhile desires.The problem is that wanting anything implies you don't already have it. You believe you aren't free when you already are. You believe you need to do something to be happy, and you don't. That truth is very hard for the ego to grasp. The ego doesn't notice the happiness that is already present in the moment because that happiness doesn't look like the ego imagines or wants it to look.
When true happiness shows up, the ego is bored withit: It's too plain, too ordinary,and it doesn't leave us feeling special or above the fray. It doesn't take away ourproblems, which is the ego's idea ofhappiness. The ego wants no more difficulties: no more sickness, no more need for money, no more work, no more bad feelings, only unending pleasure and bliss. Such perfection is the ego's idea of a successful life.However, the happiness the ego dreams of will never be attained by anyone. The ego denies the reality of this dimension, where challenges are necessary to evolution and where blissful states and pleasures come and go.

The happiness that underlies all of life is happiness that comes from just existing.Happiness is actually a quality of our true nature,of Essence, which loves challenges because Essence loves the growth that comes from them. It embraces all of life, not only the pleasurable and fun moments, but also the more difficult ones.

Then who is life difficult for? The only thing that experiences life as difficult is the ego, which is made up of ideas about ourselves and ideas the conditioned self has about life. These ideas are all that interfere with true happiness. Ideas—just thoughts—keep us from experiencing life and the happiness that Essence is experiencing as it is living through us.

In any moment, you can experience true happiness if you just notice that true happiness is here right now. True happiness is much more subtle than the giddy high we feel when we finally get what we want, which never
lasts for long. The ego wants happiness to feel like a high that never goes away, which is also why many people want enlightenment. They imagine enlightenment will be a state of unending bliss, which it isn't. In short, the ego wants every moment to be thrilling. But life will never feel that
way. No one has ever had the experience of unendingexc itement or bliss in this dimension, and no one ever will.

True happiness—the happiness that is available and ongoing in this dimension—is a quiet contentment with life and an openness and availability to life. True happiness is steady and constant, although it seems to come and go as our attention shifts. Usually our thoughts take us away from the happy peacefulness of the moment because the ego doesn't appreciate peace and prefers drama and feelings.

If we stay in the Now long enough, we experience Essence rejoicing in life, relishing the experience of being alive in this ever-changing and mysterious moment. That contentment and love of life is true happiness. It doesn't have the excitement or glamour of a spiritual experience or winning the lottery.
But unlike those thrilling experiences, true happiness doesn't come and go.

When we are aware of everything that is arising in the moment, not just our thoughts, we see that life is unfolding perfectly, regardless of the ego's attempts to manipulate it.The ego tries to intervene in every moment, as if it's responsible for shaping life. But the ego isn't that powerful. The ego's interventions take us away from life and bring us into its mental world, where it creates an imaginary life full of dreams, hopes, and fantasies—the life it wants.

The life the ego wants will never come to pass, however. What the ego wants is unrealistic and often not connected to the flow of life, out of which reality is born. Life doesn't follow the ego's desires. Life has its own
momentum and reason, which is mysterious and can't be known ahead of time. The ego doesn't like not knowing and not being in control, so it pretends that it can be the creator of life, and through the mind it is.
But the mental world the ego creates doesn't affectlife except by taking us away from it.

The ego's mental world is an illusion that will never become real. The ego really believes in its illusions, though. It believes its dreams and fantasies may come true if it thinks the right thoughts and does the right things. The ego doesn't recognize that something else is at work, giving birth to life. When we are in touch with what's actually creating life instead of the ego's ideas about life, we stand a chance of being really happy, not because of anything that happens, but just because we exist in this miraculously ever-shifting moment in time and because what we are loves life.

The Now is complete and fulfilling just as it is. Nothing needs to be added to it. The Now can't be made any better because the Now is already as good as it gets. The ego will tell you otherwise and promise you its version of happiness, but the ego's promises are empty. Will you chase after the ego's dreams, or are you willing to see that happiness—true, unshakable happiness—is already here and that what's here is enough?


From Embracing the Now: Finding Peace and Happiness in What Is