Tag: stillness

The Sage Within.

In the earliest hours of morning, before the bustling if day settles in – there is a space that begs our invitation; one that encourages our heart’s rest. In these first fleeting moments, stillness stretches her arms into thoughtful arabesque.

It is here in this space where our awareness begins to form.

Within every spiritual tradition there exists a fundamental opportunity, one predicated on the embodiment of Grace within challenge. It is the irrefutable within the absolute, the ever-present and holy divine that is our true nature

“The human mind has absolute freedom,” Dogen Zenji invites, “Do not doubt the possibilities because of the simplicity of the method.”

How easily we dismiss that which we can not understand. Have faith, have faith… the sage within us all can indeed be awakened.

Wishing you peace and love on this glorious day…

Namaste ❣️

These Tracings of Change.

There’s a pause that exists between emotion and thought. Empty, though it may seem, it is our breath, our focus, our consciousness and being. Without which, we might surely be lost – our efforts relegated to ‘missed opportunity’.

To allow this space is to become the observer. That which initially threatened to entrap, instead transforms and we are finally able to appreciate its courage.

Absent this pause, we can not disentangle from these entrapments of mind. Not, can we engage the freedom that is our birthright. While all around us, the world continues to change – the clock ticks, the seasons unfold…though sadly, our habit remains the same.

Grasp, cling, grasp, cling…is this the nature of our mind?

Longchenpa teaches that there is no movement in the essence of pure mind – that this stillness, itself, is the body of the Buddha. Though, how do we engage and what do we release?

By asking ourselves first, “What moves? And, what is still?”

The answer, in time, becoming a guidepost in this journey – drawing thoughts back to center and heart, to home.

In peace, my sweet friends…

Namaste ❤️

Within the Promise of Crashing Waves.

Someone once shared with me his ‘philosophy on life’, that we may only be truly happy when we embrace the reality of who we are.

“Stop helping others formulate their opinion,” he’d say. “Let them see. Let them breathe you in – and let them discover.”

I was in my twenties at the time; brimming with a confidence that could topple on a hair’s trigger. I worried over the impression of my appearance and the perceived ‘value’ of my accomplishments. At times, it felt as if my mind couldn’t rest – as it struggled to engage measures of outward encouragements.

In spite of my success, I felt empty and discouraged. So I tried harder, pushing forward into an even deeper state of unsettledness.

“You must be so exhausted,” I remember him saying. We’d been driving for hours, pulling off to rest along an old mountain road. In the distance, the shorelines of the Pacific stretched into the horizon. “Close your eyes and listen,” he said. “Really listen…”

At first, it was all just noise – crashing waves interspersed with an increasingly raucous inner dialogue. Like the static between radio channels – bits and pieces, but never the wholeness of one or all.

As the minutes passed, I grew more and more agitated. Until I finally heard it – an unexpected ‘gasp’ of brilliance; a pod of grey whales moving south for the winter.

“Spectacular, isn’t it?” he smiled, leaning in.

Fwissshhhh…fwissshhh…

It was literally the sound of whales ‘breathing in’. The world fell silent around me, as my own breath slowed to match. In that moment, everything came to life. The scent of saturated cedar soils, the chase of squirrels and black-tailed deer. And the particles of air lifting their sound closer still – I could feel those swirling around me, too.

All predicated through the crashing waves, a softness of breath and a promise of better days.

In peace…

Namaste ❤️

The Fullness of Our Emptiness.

There’s an inherent duality manifested in moments of great stillness. Immediately, we may feel a sense of calm, though, not yet owing to source. And, as this lightness of heart descends we begin to understand the value of such emptiness.

“A cup too full will soon be spilled,” Lao Tzu cautions. “A sword too sharp, will soon be dulled.”

Within these words, we find the basis of our dilemma: that fullness is predicated upon emptiness.

Sadly, our nature serves only the contrary. Rush, rush…forage, build; the cycle never ends.

And, leaving us much like the once sharpened sword – ‘too much of anything cannot be kept.’

Save for this emptiness, which makes our spirit whole.

A little something to consider, my loves ~

Wishing you peace…

Namaste ❤

Between Witness and Mind.

It takes time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. The witness, always content to bask within awe – as the mind spins furiously to know reason and cause.

We may stop for a moment to admire the Peony’s emergence from seasoned rest, or the challenge of paled clover through frost covered fields.

Until we are lured by the bolder promises at hand.

We wish to understand awareness, yet submit to the appeal and ponderings of origin. In which case, when shall the mind ever know its rest? To feel a fullness marked only by the Willow’s weeping?

Can we not have one without all the rest? To find grace in the capture of a heron’s swooning.

And, bound by these moments serving to strengthen our pause. That in-between, gasping of breathless wonder.

How can we refute that which the heavens have deemed worthy?

A little something to consider, my loves…

In peace…

Namaste ❤

Until Only the Mountain Remains.

I came across this lovely passage from the poet Ikkyu:

“Every day priests examine the dharma
And endlessly chant complicated sutras
Before doing that, they should learn
How to read the love letters sent by the wind and rain, the snow and the moon.”

In these few short words, the complexities of life are distilled. Angst, upset, willfulness and desire – silent before a near fleeting awe.

We find ourselves within this intimacy of nature; the stark contrast of White Birch against the grey of a wintered sky. And knowing, the cardinals will soon take their place within the advancing lush of the Magnolia bow.

Everything changes, my loves – a continuous unfolding of all into ‘one’. Culminating into the expansiveness of this single moment, in which the subtleties of impermanence yield a far greater value.

In this space, we are so much more than a mere passing of time. Rather, we are boldly uncommon manifestations of light.

“We sit together, the mountain and me,” writes Li Po, “Until only the mountain remains.”

In peace, my loves…

Namaste ❤️

Where the Stillness Greets.

I’m have a ritual which I practice every morning, before sunrise and the waking of day. I sit in the chair nearest my window, and in looking through I allow my thoughts to become still.

I’ll watch the squirrels take chase along a neighbors fence, and the Blue Jays pilfer the last of the autumn berries. And, sometimes the little ones will have a bit more lift to their step (Saturdays work wonders against any childhood woes). Once, I saw a mama cat with burs throughout her tail; proof that her kittens were tucked safely away.

Though the seasons change, the practice remains the same – a quiet mind open to the gloriousness of day.

“I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope,” T.S. Eliot once shared, “for hope would be hope for the wrong thing…There is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting.”

Indeed, the better parts of this life are oft left to the waiting; and our willingness to maintain a warm and direct connection with this world.

This is where our stillness begins…

In peace, my loves…

Namaste ❤️

On the Edge of the Sand, They’ve Danced.

Leonardo da Vinci once wrote that the greatest deception men suffer is from their own perception. And, with every ‘truth’ rooted firmly in the soil of perception.

Our world is viewed through minute slivers – a fracturing of light through filtered prism. We see what we choose to see, in part. Though, can we observe without this burden of bias?

With a mind like the sky, as free-flowing form; resting in the space of whatever is found. True boundlessness, as the Buddha instructed – without cause, without worry, absent heaviness of heart.

In this space, we merely follow our thoughts – though, dare not ascribe this precedence of story upon the willfulness of ego.

And, knowing – sometimes the stillness is our sanctuary.

“Hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, they danced…”

In peace, my loves…

Namaste ❤️

The Motionlessness of Peace.

How often do we sit within the silence, my loves – wanting not for expectancy, rather yielding instead to stillness?

Do we understand the value of its essence? Are we bold enough to hold it within our hands?

Be still and lean in; what does this moment wish to say? Is she sharing with you the fiery brushstrokes of ‘cardinal’ perched high upon the whitened Birch branch?

Walk with me along this path, my loves. Where crystalline waters meet moss covered stone, and the red fox waits for movement.

Walk until your muscles ache, and the path is no longer familiar. And, when labored breath pauses to remind you of presence – take a moment to cherish its blessing.

This cacophony of life waits for no one, my loves. Let it pass, let it go…let it be.

In peace…

Namaste ❤️

The Place.

There’s a place not far from here; I know it well.

Where stillness lay upon a field of softened green, and the morning light ushers a peace within.

High atop the Red Maple, a songbird swoons; “look at the day, look at the day!” While below, the yellow orb spider toils delicately at her loom.

There’s a place not far from here; I know it well.

Where crystalline stream wraps the aimlessness of ‘root’, and the speckled fawn dare not challenge this fleeting grace.

Beyond the hills, a heron rests; captivated by the boundlessness of evergreen cast in mirrored ‘glass’.

Though the body may tire through wearied pace, rest assured…

The restless heart shall know its place.

In peace…

Namaste ❤️