Kundalini Splendor

Corporations Are People? Larry Robinson

2012-01-26T14:01:00.001-08:00

The is not a political blog, but sometimes it is important to offer material to help clarify the difficult situation our country now faces. Unrestrained corporate growth is, I believe, at the heart of many of our problems. Have we had a corporate takeover of our democratic rights? Would the founding fathers recognize the society of today, where wealth rules and and money controls elections?

Corporations Are People? Really?

by Larry Robinson

Once upon a time in America corporations did not enjoy the privileges they do today. The Founding Fathers would have been appalled at the idea that "corporations are people." The modern business corporation is an artificial creation which shields its owners and managers from accountability and public scrutiny.

The American Revolution was as much a revolt against British corporations as it was against the English parliament and king. The Boston Tea Party was, in fact, a protest against the monopoly on tea sales by the royally chartered British East India Company. It is ironic that today's "tea party" movement is primarily funded and directed by corporate interests.

The newly-formed United States of America was rightfully mistrustful of corporate power; the states were very careful in how they granted charters. Most of the early corporations were for the express purpose of establishing towns and colleges, or for building roads, bridges and harbors - endeavors that were prohibitive for individuals. Business corporations were the exception. In fact, nowhere does the U.S. Constitution mention the rights of corporations.

For the first 100 years of our nation's history corporations were chartered by individual states for a specific purpose and for a specified and limited time. When they had achieved their purpose - or failed to - they were dissolved. They were prohibited from participating in politics and from owning stock in other corporations. In most cases their charters did not shield owners from responsibility for harm done by the corporation.

In the early 19th century bank charters were limited to 3 to 10 years and they were prohibited from engaging in trade. Corporations that abused their charters were dissolved and their owners held liable for any debts or damages. Most states had statutes specifying that corporations existed only to serve the public good. In 1809 the Virginia Supreme Court wrote: “If the object is merely private or selfish; if it is detrimental to, or not promotive of, the public good, they have no claim upon the legislature for the privilege (of being granted a charter)”.

Over time, however, corporate interests were able to convince courts to grant them increasingly greater powers and privileges. In a landmark case in 1886 (Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad), the U.S. Supreme Court declared that a corporation was a “natural person” entitled to all the rights of a real human being. Unsurprisingly, the clerk of the court who wrote the summary was a former railroad company president.

This decision opened the floodgates for what has amounted to a hostile takeover of America’s political system. The 14th amendment, which was intended to redress some of the evils of slavery by recognizing the humanity and citizenship of African Americans, has since been used as the pretext for extending corporate pregogatives and privileges.

However, Mitt Romney’s protestations notwithstanding, the distinctions between corporations and human beings are obvious and significant. Corporations enjoy the power of succession, which means that they can continue to live and accrue capital beyond the possibilities of mortal humans. They are bound by no moral strictures or conscience; in fact, they are usually bound by their charters to place profits ahead of moral and ethical considerations.

Because corporations tend to accrue capital and influence, it is no surprise that this capital and influence are used to affect public policy in ways that grant greater influence and profit. Lucrative defense contracts, farm subsidies and tax breaks for oil companies are examples of how corporations use this power. The greatest return on investment is from lobbying. A $10,000 investment in a political action committee can yield a $10,000,000 government contract.

Regulatory agencies established to safeguard the public welfare are eventually captured by the very industries they regulate. In short, corporations are able to game the sytem in their favor and at the expense of ordinary working people.

Two years ago, in the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court struck another body blow against democracy by equating money with speech, allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. It is indisputable that money determines the outcome of elections.

Why aren’t we more outraged? Why do we accept this assault on democracy? Isn’t it time we real and human citizens of the United States reclaimed our country? Can we at least level the playing field so our voices can be heard as loudly and clearly as Goldman Sachs or Exxon?

Larry Robinson

Ley Lines and Sacred Poetry

2012-01-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

Ley Lines (Definition) :

Ley lines are invisible energy lines that run below the surface of the earth and mark various sacred sites and settlements along their trajectory.

I think of them as the unseen threads that connect each of us to others as well as to divine source.

What Is Sacred Poetry?

Sacred Poetry is the ongoing effort of the soul to capture in syllables the relation of the self to the larger reality which we call the divine. It seeks to outline in graspable ways the connection of the mortal to the immortal, the confined to the boundless. It is the arriving spirit’s lament for the lost paradise, and its celebration of recurrent joy at its earthly home.

Poetry issues from the realm of the mysterious, that region which resides within us all but which we can explore only through indirect and imprecise means. This realm is not available for direct scrutiny. Occasionally we catch strains of its distant song, or stumble upon fragments of its secret messages. When this happens, we call it a poem.

Poetry weaves the ley lines of the soul.

Commentary: Recently I posted the cover for my upcoming book, "The Ley Lines of the Soul, Poems of Ecstasy and Ascension."
Here are two definitions I placed on the opening pages. I thought they would be helpful for those uncertain of the meaning of "ley lines" as well as for those interested in perspectives on sacred poetry

"Kindness" (poem by Naomi Shihab Nye

2012-01-24T14:58:00.000-08:00

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
—Naomi Shihab Nye

Kundalini and the Aging Process

2012-01-23T20:34:00.000-08:00

Kundalini and the Aging Process

After the Fact

The people of my time are passing away: my
Wife is baking for a funeral, a 60-year old who

Died suddenly, when the phone rings, and it’s
Ruth we care so much about in intensive care:

It was once weddings that came so thick and
Fast, and then, first babies, such a hullabaloo:

Now, it’s this and that and the other and somebody
Else gone or on the brink: well, we never

Thought we would live forever (although we did)
And now it looks like we won’t: some of us

Are losing a leg to diabetes, some don’t know
What they went downstairs for, some know that

A hired watchful person is around, some like
To touch the cane tip into something steady,

So nice: we have already lost so many,
Brushed the loss of ourselves ourselves: our

Address books for so long a slow scramble now
Are palimpsests, scribbles and scratches: our

Index cards for Christmases, birthdays,
Halloweens drop clean away into sympathies:

At the same time we are getting used to so
Many leaving, we are hanging on with a grip

To the ones left: we are not giving up on the
Congestive heart failures or brain tumors, on

The nice old men left in empty houses or on
The widows who decided to travel a lot: we

Think the sun may shine someday when we’ll
Drink wine together and think of what used to

Be: until we die we will remember every
Single thing, recall every word, love every

Loss: then we will, as we must, leave it to
Others to love, love that can grow brighter

And deeper till the very end, gaining strength
And getting more precious all the way….

~ A. R. Ammons ~

(Epoch)

At first glance, this poem may seem to have nothing to do with Kundalini. But the fact is, that Kundalini does not take place in a vacuum. It occurs within a matrix of many features and aspects, and an important one of these is age itself.

Kundalini awakening in a young person may show a very different face than the same process in someone more mature. The young person in his/her twenties may feel an extremely heightened sex drive and wonder how to deal with it. Someone awakened in their thirties or forties may suddenly feel great surges of “practical” energy and throw themselves into their career or creative activities. Those in their late forties or fifties may suddenly turn their focus on inner rather than outer existence (individuation), whereas those even older may spend time integrating and assimilating their total life experience, including Kundalini itself.

Of course, these are not fixed categories, but suggestions as to how Kundalini may interact with other features of one’s particular life stage. Kundalini may erupt at almost any time of life—I know one woman who was awakened in her nineties (fortunately, she recognized what was happening.) I have also read of children who underwent Kundalini awakening.

One of the great joys of the later stages is that, though the experiences themselves may be less intense, the memory of what is possible is always present to encourage and comfort, the sense that one has “been to the mountain” and the conviction that this state is also that which awaits us once we leave, even though right now we may indeed not remember why we came into the room.

Creative Ecstasy by Robb Smith (Integral Institude)

2012-01-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a reflection by Robb Smith of the Integral Institute on "creative ecstasy," a topic I am much interested in. In fact, many of my "creations" (poems") are about ecstasy itself, for it has been a frequent visitor in my life (now much less often and less intense). I have just finished a new book called "The Ley Lines of the Soul, Poems of Ecstasy and Ascension," to be published in a few days by xlibris. When I looked over some of these poems, I realized that some readers might wonder what a practitioner of my age is doing writing about ecstasy, but I did indeed follow the admonition to be true to yourself and present yourself as you truly are. It seems that Kundalini ecstasy knows no boundaries of age and situation.

Here is Robb's essay:

Dear friends:

On behalf of Ken and the entire Integral Life and Integral Institute staff I’d like to wish you the very best in this New Year. As ever, we are grateful to you for your love and support of the integral movement and the many ways you’re exemplifying wholeness for a world in transition.

As you take on new things this year I’d like to offer you what I learned in 2011 about how to integrate one’s work in the world with the stillness of a spiritual practice, a question that was raised frequently a few weeks ago at ISE 3: Kosmic Creativity. The question always boiled down to this: How do I help to change the world while also not needing to change it? How do I integrate my creative passion while also cultivating my spiritual peace?

These two ends of the spectrum—deep passionate engagement to something larger than ourselves and enough detachment to not become part of the problem—often seem to be at odds with each other. And yet they are profoundly important questions at a time when the world’s prevailing systems—from economic to education to healthcare—are disintegrating because their current stage of operating is neither complex enough nor conscious enough to meet the life conditions of the 21st century. At ISE 3 I briefly mentioned “four rules of creative ecstasy” and below I offer you a specific praxis of how I achieve this balance (haha, on my good days).

The Four Steps of Creative Ecstasy

Here is a brief summary of the steps, after which I’ll describe how they are also a deep spiritual map of working both in and on a world in transition:

Be unflinchingly honest with yourself and others about who you are and what you are called to do. It is unique and valuable, and at its core will be driven by love as all creativity is.
Take radical responsibility for that vision and never rely on validation from others in order to execute it; your vision is fully your responsibility.
Tap the self-emptying courage required when the terror of that responsibility meets you face to face and forces you to surrender your ego into that fear.
Cultivate the affectionate detachment to the results of your actions that will sustain your presence and courage and ultimately keep your vision fresh, alive and unstoppable.

These four steps represent a cycle that compels an ongoing integration between emptiness and form, between the peace of resting in stillness (no mind) and the passion of executing one’s uniqueness (my mind).

Here is the cycle in greater detail. As you read notice the movement into stillness and out to motion. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Let’s start by bringing motion to rest.

Step 1: Unflinching Honesty
Rest in emptiness in order to cultivate unflinching honesty.

Let go of who you think you are or want to be in order for the truth of who you really are to emerge. You are timeless, spacious and ever-present. From here there is no fear, nothing to be achieved, nothing to be gained. Nothing ever happens. As Junpo Roshi says, “now we’re getting nowhere.” The ability to be absolutely honest arises from a deep practice of emptiness because deception cannot survive without duality.

When you start to differentiate the stories your ego tells you about what you want and the truth of what lies deeper beneath, a funny thing begins to happen: you start to get unflinchingly honest about who you are and what you really are called to do. Not as a clinging, grasping or needy desire to become something different, but a deep and mature recognition that you have a unique vision and to admit merely that it is so. This move brings you into a powerful and grounded posture of responsibility to the world as we know it, that of evolutionary form. We shift from Nirguna Brahman here to Saguna Brahman, next.

Step 2: Radical Responsibility
Embrace form in order to take responsibility.

If you don’t know what you’ll die for, you won’t know what you’re alive for. You will feel fully alive when you’ve told the truth about who you are (step 1) and you’ve taken complete responsibility for your unique vision (step 2). Getting out there on the edge of your own capability and daring to say to yourself exactly why you live is simply the most powerful and sure proof way to feel fulfilled. Said simply, it’s easy to take responsibility when there’s no risk or fear; this step is about seeking responsibility precisely where it becomes it’s scariest and hardest to do so. It will be irresistibly exciting.

Really you have no choice than to be that which you are. You have a unique vision and when it derives from a place of stillness it will, in its essence, be love by any other name. You might call it your unique self. Take full responsibility for it. No one needs to validate your uniqueness or your vision. The more powerfully situated in love that it is—consider Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi here—the more people will feel called towards it. (But be careful not to mistake your individual responsibility with social regard from others, an instant ego trap that will make step 3 very hard.)

In my experience, when done properly there should be the onset of a feeling of terror. Not a “Nightmare on Elm Street” kind of terror but an awesome, exciting terror that you have found your edge: you are staring into the abyss being called to do something you have no guarantee you can do or whether you’ll succeed. Unfortunately, with that excitement usually comes an over-attachment to a new story of yourself and a new self-identity. Now the hard part … you have to let it go. It’s time to move back to Nirguna Brahman.

Step 3: Self-Emptying Courage
Rest again in emptiness to tap courage beyond self.

There is only one way through the terror of taking full, personal responsibility for your deepest vision, which is to tap the inexhaustible courage that comes from letting go of the results of your actions. Which means letting go, again, of who you think you are. It is counter-intuitive that it takes courage in order to act fully with affectionate detachment (coming in step 4). But this is the proverbial leap of faith: the decision, sourced quietly in the stillness of your heart (for it is rooted there), to let go of your story, your vision and your need to be anything other than what you already are. Done properly, this will bring another kind of terror: “I won’t amount to anything.” “How can I be happy if I let go?” “Won’t I just fall into a mush of nothingness?” “Will I be bored?” “What about my damn vision!?” and a hundred other terrifying prospects.

This third step is the hard part. It’s where many of us get stuck and where the ego loves to keep us stuck. As we know, it’s easy to be passionate about something if we’re curious. It’s even easier to be indifferent about everything if we’re cynical. The magic, the real tricky bit of a life in practice, is to be so wildly passionate about something that you’re indifferent about nothing and in turn not attached to anything. Give that some thought. Then let the thoughts go, because it’s time to get busy.

Step 4: Affectionate Detachment
Embrace form while resting in emptiness to act with affectionate detachment.

You’re now ready to act. Acting without being attached to the result is the height of artistry and creative flow. Affectionate detachment will sustain your presence and courage and keep your vision fresh, alive and unstoppable. Here is the mantra: Expend energy, not effort. The real giveaway when you’re attached to your actions as downstream outcomes is when you are struggling with effort. By my usage, effort implies psychological and emotional strain. Expending energy can be intense, even physically taxing, but it need not be hard. If you find your energy is becoming effort, reexamine where you’re attached to outcomes and go back to practice in step 3.

For some real practice, see if you can generate real, genuine passion about a complete failure of your vision. How might your failure lead to a more profound success for the next effort of its kind? How can you possibly know? We love to imagine that if we achieve what is in our mind’s eye all will be well. What fools we are! We simply do not have the wisdom or the prescience to know what a certain happy future looks like. We only ever know what causes suffering in the present, and it always is when we hijack the present with our imaginative future fantasies or our retrospective memories. By acting from a place founded in the first three steps, our actions, vision and determination remain fresh, centered and alive. And because we’re not fatigued by the slings and arrows of disappointed expectations, our energy remains abundant.

Many people will think that this step is very hard, but I contend that if you stay deep in practice in step 3, you’re already partly home for step 4. Step 4 is about acting fully and forcefully from emptiness. It is not weak, soft or limp. It is focused, passionate and engaged. And yet it also allows what will come and lets go moment by moment. It allows a deeper intelligence in the fabric of reality to work how it will. It is humble yet strong and the power one can feel from someone in this space is JUST…PLAIN…AWESOME.

(The video to watch here is Jill Bolte Taylor’s presentation at TED. Watch how she led an audience that was still largely afraid of tapping stillness and the way in which it moved them beyond themselves with her courage.)

I’d like to think that in the 22nd century an embodiment of this cycle will be minimally required of a future “President of the United Nations.” Indeed it is pivotal to how power and leadership is crafting the world we know and so far the record is very mixed. Just imagine if the leaders of the 20 largest nations and the 20 largest companies in the world were able to articulate a compelling vision in service to love, have the courage to stand up for it against all odds, and most importantly encourage it to find its healthy expression through an example of non-grasping, non-attached leadership that inspired others to do the same. The result might be a natural upwelling of “right action,” selfless and loving service that acted with discernment and precision in the moment but then allowed the next moment to be encountered afresh.

So let me close with a provocative idea: these leaders need their own leaders to look up to and follow. I’d invite you to consider the very real possibility that one of these people, the person who these CEOs, world leaders, and even community leaders can look up to—a person who is setting a groundbreaking example of leading from love, a person who is integrating passion and peace in a serious and focused way, a person who is moving the needle for a world in transition, that this person, this unique individual leading from creative ecsasty, is none other than you. And that 2012 is the year in which you tap the courage and engage the practice to do so.

Here is wishing you a terribly exciting 2012. Go get on the edge and stay there.

Warm new year regards,

Robb Smith

Robb Smith
Robb Smith is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Integral Life, Inc. and Chief Executive Officer of Integral Institute, Inc. Previously, Robb pioneered Nevada's technology economy by founding Nevada Ventures, the state's first venture capital fund. He was a director of Alere Medical, a three-time "Inc. 500" awardee and was Nevada's Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

(image from internet source)

God Talk (poem by Dorothy)

2012-01-19T19:56:00.000-08:00

God Talk

Nobody wants it,
all this talk of God stuff,
visions, apparitions,
things that go bump
in the night.

Has anyone ever seen him,
this so called savior
with a halo of iight,
a face that glows.

Michaelangelo had
the right idea:
put him up on
the ceiling,
where he belongs.
Let him reach out
and touch Adam alive,
genitalia and all.
Genitals are real,
useful,
something we can
all agree upon,
like a good martini,
or the smell
of a brand new car.

As for the rest,
it is merely
divine deception,
a trick played on us
by pastors and priests
who want us to bow down,
kiss the ground in front
of them.
.
Dorothy Walters
January `5, 2012

The above poem is not intended to be taken at face value. It is ironic, spoken by a presumed "intellectual" who has "seen through to where nothing is" (Flannery O'Connor). It is meant as a protest against the overwhelming tendency in modern writers to exclude all references to "the divine" or "creative source" or 'higher dimensions" or even transcendence from their writings. Many of their poems and other works are well written, indeed are extremely effective as poems or fiction. But it is as if this point of view is the single perspective that the modern reader is exposed to.
Would Rumi be appreciated if he were writing today? Or even Graham Greene?
Kundalini has been described as "God moving through your body." What would such folk make of Kundalini when it arrives in its blissful form? If this were their experience would they continue to be in denial?

The Under Water Poems--Dorothy

2012-01-18T10:25:00.001-08:00

The Under Water Poems

1.

The Frond

My job is to yield.
I like to sway,
letting the currents lift me
this way and that.

Even when the mood
is blustery,
when gales sweep
above,
I feel pleasure
in my fringed body,
my elements stroked
as if by an earthly
lover.

2.

What the Fish Said

I dart hither and thither
as I please.
No one tells me
when to move,
when to pause,
when to hurry
or slow.

I like this sense
of mastery,
of guiding my
own compass,
of being alone
in my search.

What I discover
is mine alone,
to feed hunger
or pass by.

I am the sum
of movement
and grace.
What I value
is freedom,
my right
to choose.

3.

What the Empty Shell Said

I once held a treasure
in my swirling arms,
a prize to adorn
my secret heart.

Now I am empty,
vacant as a skeleton’s eye,
useless as a necklace
that has lost its jewel.

Who will want me now?
Who will admire me,
remember my lost charms?

Dorothy Walters
January 17, 2012

Daniel Odier interview on Kashmiri Shaivism

2012-01-17T11:26:00.000-08:00

Here is an interview I recently ran across from Daniel Odier, Tantric Master, translator of Spanda Karika (divine pulsation). This is the tradition I identify strongly with, since it stresses that everything is vibration, from the beginnings of the cosmos to everything contained in it. It is also the tradition that practices the tandava, a very slow series of free movements (dance) to awaken and circulate the inner energies. Although Odier includes much on tantra as sexual practice, there is much in Kashmiri Shaivism that has to do with non-sexual approaches, for tantra extends to various somatic experiences, not necessarily sexual in nature. (I follow the latter variety).

Dr. Patti Taylor: For those of you new to all of this, Tantra is an eclectic collection of practices passed down through the ages leading to the expansion of consciousness, divine bliss, and awakening. Welcome, Daniel Odier.

Daniel Odier: Yes.

Dr. Patti Taylor: We are talking to Daniel Odier in France. I understand you are in Normandy at the moment?

Daniel Odier: Yes

Dr. Patti Taylor: Daniel Odier is a Tantric Master initiated into the lineage of Kashmiri Shaivist Tantra. He has been ordained as well into the Zen Soto tradition and received transmission into the Chinese Chan lineage. As a university professor, Daniel taught both Tantra and Buddhism. Presently he gives workshops and seminars all over the world. He is a prolific author. Two of his best-selling books include Desire: The Tantric Path to Awakening, and Tantric Quest: An Encounter with Absolute Love.

I am pleased to have with you today. I think our listeners would love to hear what these masters of consciousness have to say about desire. I think there a lot of confusion out there: Can desire really be a good thing, or better yet be a path to bliss? And if so how can we have more of it? So today we will find out what Kashmiri Shaivist Tantra is, why is desire is considered a blessing and what happens to our lives, including our love lives when we infuse our every waking moment with desire? So let’s get this started.

Kashmiri Shaivist Tantra—Daniel, can you tell us what it is?

Daniel Odier: It comes from the sacred tradition from the Hindu valley that thrived very widely in Kashmir in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. There were many, many great masters. Then in the thirteenth century it disappeared a little bit and became more secret. This is really the tradition that seems to disappear and surface again. But it is rejoicing to see that it never disappears; in fact it just goes into hiding and suddenly reappears. The very original approach is based on the vision of Vasagupta in which he links the all desire to all movement of the human mind on the path to awakening.

So, there is absolutely nothing which is withdrawn or forbidden. We use absolutely all emotion, all desire, all tradition, very much in the world, to become more vibrant.

The whole thing is based on the idea of Spanda. Spanda means vibration. It is a little bit like a musical instrument. In order to get the vibration, which is our own nature, we have to practice very special yoga which is called Tandava, which is a dance. It is a most ancient form of pure efforts of mystical dance, very beautiful, that may look a little bit like tai chi but is completely different.

Dr. Patti Taylor: So you interpret one of the most beloved Kashmiri Shaivist doctrines, the Yoga Spanda Karika, which I might say is one of the most incredibly poetic and amazing Tantric doctrines I have every read. The principles in there could have been written on the subway yesterday. They are so relevant and crisp. Could you just tell us a few of the principles as well as the part about desire, just as a foundation for where we’re are going? Just a few more of these Tantric principles for us, perhaps from the Yoga Spanda Karika?

Daniel Odier: The main idea of the Spanda Karika is to take the whole human being as one and not to divide it into purity or impurity. And this is really the whole tradition of Tantra which is the vision of the most ancient text of yoga. Of course, to achieve this unity you have to go back and to accept all the different faces of yoga. Finality and the liberation are going to blow this finality to a state of illumination where all the choices are going to vanish into space. Space is another word for Spanda. if you reach liberation you reach illumination and space.

Dr. Patti Taylor: Wow. So the whole point of the Kashmiri Shaivist is to go into liberation and to get that we are this beautiful space, and to end the separation, and to get that we are this amazing wholeness. And these separations, that I think we all have, we see a lot of people that say well, how do I reconcile my sexuality with my spirituality? But I guess for a Kashmiri Shaivist that’s kind of a silly question, wouldn’t that be?

Daniel Odier: Yes because the practical event is completely open to sexuality. There is absolutely no contradiction, no difference. The fact is that the body is totally the integrated to the past. We have to reconcile the body and the mind and the emotion as one thing. This is the yoga, to be one again without separation, without distinction, without anything that is taken off of the body to be considered impure. Impurity is a word that does not appear in the Tantra. It is a concept that we don’t have.

Dr. Patti Taylor: So, thank you. But you do have Shiva and Skakti now and many listeners may be hearing that word for the first time. That is the essential male and female principle, is that correct?

Daniel Odier: Yes. In the constant love play they are one in every Tantric text. Most of the Tantric texts state that Shiva and Shakti are one in the knowledge and one in the body. It just divides the dialogue which is the teaching of the Tantra.

When the Tantra is explained, or shown, the sexual union is one again. The teacher is teaching that they should be regarded as one thing. This is exactly what the yogi or yogini try to achieve— to be this one thing. Not to be a male, not to be a female, not be anything but the space where everything is alive.

Dr. Patti Taylor: You tell a beautiful story in your book Desire, about an ancient legend where the gods and goddesses gave the power of divine pleasure to women to give to men to absorb all the strong male energy back into balance on the earth. And everyone was happy with this arrangement. I love that story from your book Desire. And I was wondering what does that story have to say to us today in today’s world?

Daniel Odier: I think it’s very important today because there is still a kind of struggle between the genders with each one try to get the most. If you consider the human being as the unity of both, then you can explore the path you miss and integrate the path you miss. Good yogis or yoginis integrate both parts of Shiva and Shakti and this is one of the ends that you get to—to be this one union of the masculine and feminine.

In the past it was very frequent that the male master would wear women’s dresses or a female master would wear men’s dress to express this unity that they were not really a man or not really a woman but the union of both.

Dr. Patti Taylor: So it’s more about really embracing our fullness of all of our energy. So for the woman, is it really for the woman to embrace her Shiva nature and for the man to embrace his Shakti nature? Is it for all of us to come into that balance within ourselves then?

Daniel Odier: Yes because in a way the yogi or yogini has to be sensitive to vision, and if he is not the incarnation of the Shiva/Shakti then a part is missing. The beautiful thing is that when you are one you feel that nothing is missing because you are both parts.

Together--poem by Dorothy

2012-01-16T15:19:00.000-08:00

Together

We decided to do it together,
my new friend and I,
she had arrived here
recently,
didn’t know many people,
and I, carless,
was glad for the good company
as well as the ride.

And so we headed out to the
old Chautauqua center,
one of the few still going
in the country,
set at the bottom of a great mountain,
where a massive upheaval once
occurred,
and now a place much frequented
by hikers and sight seers,
particularly on days
like these.
when the sun was bright,
polished coins glinting
on autumn boughs.

We started low
(on my account),
where the trail did not climb,
but meandered flat
along the base,
sinuous as a snake,
easy walking,
gorgeous views
of mountains
carved from eternity.

I told her to go ahead,
not wait for me,
I wasn’t really expecting much
from this venture
beyond some healthy exercise,
when suddenly
I paused
and then it happened,
I was swallowed by
a stillness,
a silence so vast
I thought I had
fallen
into a deep well
of quietude,
where nothing existed,
not me,
not things,
not God,
only the mountains
austere in the distance
and the hollow spaces that held
me now.

Dorothy Walters
January 15, 2012

New book out soon

2012-01-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

The above is the cover design for my newest book, due out very soon. It is called "The Ley Lines of the Soul, Poems of Ecstasy and Ascension." The designer was N. M. Rai, my gifted photographer/artist/poet friend who kindly offered to do the cover. I will keep you posted as to actual publication date. The publisher is xlibris, a self publish firm. You may not know it, but most traditional publishers today will not consider poetry at all, so you must self publish if you want to produce a print volume of poetry.

Others also helped me on this project, including Maggie Powell who did all the preliminary set up, and Peggy Wrenn, who sent off the final fax for me last night. It is truly great to have such helpful friends--I am deeply appreciative for the work that everyone put into this project.

Poem by Naomi Shihab Nye

2012-01-12T20:14:00.000-08:00

Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal - Naomi Shihab Nye

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,

I heard the announcement:

If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any

Arabic,

Please come to the gate immediately.

Well -- one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own

gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,

Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor,

wailing loudly.

Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her.

What is her

Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four

hours late and she

Did this.

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly.

Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway,

min fadlick,

Sho bit se-wee?

The minute she heard any words she knew -- however

poorly used -

She stopped crying.

She thought our flight had been cancelled entirely.

She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical

treatment the

Following day. I said no, no, we're fine, you'll get

there, just late,

Who is picking you up? Let's call him and tell him.

We called her son and I spoke with him in English.

I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on

the plane and

Would ride next to her -- southwest.

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just

for the fun of it.

Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while

in Arabic and

Found out of course they had ten shared friends.

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call

some Palestinian

Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took

up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her

life. Answering

Questions.

She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies --

little powdered

Sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts --

out of her bag --

And was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It

was like a

Sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler

from California,

The lovely woman from Laredo -- we were all covered

with the same

Powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better

cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from

huge coolers --

Non-alcoholic -- and the two little girls for our

flight, one African

American, one Mexican American -- ran around serving

us all apple juice

And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar

too.

And I noticed my new best friend -- by now we were

holding hands --

Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some

medicinal thing,

With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling

tradition. Always

Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones

and thought,

This is the world I want to live in. The shared world.

Not a single person in this gate -- once the crying of

confusion stopped

-- has seemed apprehensive about any other person.

They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other

women too.

This can still happen anywhere.

- Naomi Shihab Nye

Towards Bethlehem--poem by Dorothy

2012-01-11T15:36:00.000-08:00

Toward Bethlehem

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
W. B. Yeats (1865-l939)

Yes, I know.
This is the time
of the second coming.
The great beast lurking,
the savage heart
beating once again.

Somewhere in the desert, yes,
that blank and pitiless stare.
The haunches moving.
The stealthy advance.

Shall we watch in horror and dismay?
Do we turn away
or witness in silence and despair?.

The vision falters,
the image fades again.
That distant struggle
in the clouds of dust--
is this the specter
we ourselves have made,
created from our inner dreamscape
of grasping and desire?
Are we ourselves
the approaching shape
of darkness drawing near?

- Dorothy Walters

This poem is written in response to W. B. Yeats' famous poem, "The Second Coming." The title of his poem refers not to the return of the Messiah, but rather to the appearance of a "great beast" with an expression "blank and pitiless as the sun" which is "slouching toward Bethlehem" to be born. He locates the appearance of the beast in the Middle East, and describes him as half human/half brute animal.

Yeats (one of the most renowned poets of the last century, one who was often considered one of the "last romantics") was himself very much interested in the occult. He went to seances, knew Madame Blavatsky, was connected for a time with the Golden Dawn (an esoteric society), and himself had various visions. He even wrote a book (actually, it was dictated by "spirit guides" to his wife, who transcribed their dictations through automatic writing). His book is called "A Vision.'' It is very complex and difficult to comprehend. Many of his poems were very affirming, for he looked to the glories of the past in myth and literature, and also wrote of his own longings and loves in extremely romantic (not realistic) terms. He sought to affirm the beauty in human experience, rather than exposing humanity in all its flaw and frailties, as so many contemporary "realists" do.

Yeats (who died in l939, just at the outbreak of WWII) was convinced that we were approaching a turning point in human history. He felt that each age was followed by its opposite, though each also contained the seed of the coming era. He represented these cycles of history by what he called gyres--based on the winding spools for thread in local factories. Thus, we are (according to him) now nearing such a turning point--the end of a Grand Cycle and the beginning of another. The new cycle will contain more violence and chaos, more devastation and dissolution of old structures.

When we look around us, Yeats' prediction appears to be true. We are ending one cycle, beginning another of vast destruction, with terrors committed by those whose faces are indeed "blank and pitiless as the sun." At the same time, the seeds of a different society are also present.

My poem asks if the destructive aspects of "the great beast" are in fact created by humans themselves, if we are not responsible (perhaps through greed and lust for power) for the devastation now overtaking the world.

This is a dark poem, one I wrote to express my concerns of the moment. However, I personally, do not believe that the future is totally bleak. I often say that the world is falling apart and rebuilding itself--through personal revelation and spiritual transformation--all at the same time. Kundalini, in my view, is an essential aspect of this process. Kundalini can infuse the individual and the world with love beyond measure and once the tipping point is reached--who knows?--we may be in for a massive transformation of the planet and the human species beyond anything we can imagine.

Perhaps this is why we have come here at this time in history--to help humanity survive this seeming holocaust and be reshaped into a new image.

Here is Yeats famous and frequently quoted poem that I refer to:

THE SECOND COMING

by: W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

W B. Yeats

Shakespeare Sonnet--When in Disgrace

2012-01-09T09:34:00.000-08:00

William Shakespeare - Sonnet #29

When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

This is one of my favorite Shakespearean sonnets. It describes how we may feel when "things are not going right" in our lives. In the first line, he speaks of "fortune and men's eyes." During the Renaissance, "Fortune" (what we might call "Lady Luck") was of major importance. She was often depicted as sitting atop a wheel (the wheel of chance?) and as she moved up and down she carried us with her. In this poem, the speaker is definitely "in the pits" as we might say.

He cries out to heaven for help, but his cries are "bootless". Perhaps he means they are as useless as a swift kick would be with bare feet.

These are the times when we compare ourselves to others and feel that "they have it made"--some seem to have better prospects, are better looking, are blessed with more friends, and have more talent. At times like these, nothing satisfies us, even those things that usually give us the most delight.

And then, at the end, the mood shifts. "Haply I think on thee"...obviously the speaker here is referring to a lover or friend, But what if, instead of a human subject, we thought of this line as referring to Kundalini itself and the deep sense of divine connection and exhileration that it brings. We realize how very lucky we are to have such experiences in our lives. Even the memory of such times of connection helps to lift our spirits, reminding us that we need not succumb to despair, for we know at our deepest level that the sacred is real and that we are a part of it, no matter what our external circumstances may be.

Poem by T. S. Eliot

2012-01-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

Excerpt from "The Four Quartets" by T. S. Eliot (l888-l965)

Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.

T. S. Eliot was one of the major voices of twentieth-century poetry. His life was quite interesting--it involved a major shift of perspective--indeed, a deep spiritual transformation-- rather late in life. In his earlier years, his writing was marked by a sense of despair and also an elitist attitude toward the "lower classes" as well as certain minority groups (especially Jews). He later converted and became a committed Christian (high Anglican), and from that time on his poetry became much more spiritual and compassionate, with focus on the ultimate questions rather than offering a superficial critique of those he considered inferior. He also gave up his earlier sense of impotence and ineffectiveness (as in the famous "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock").

Although he underwent a conversion to the Christian faith, his work from this time also included elements of Buddhism and universal spiritual concerns. If we look at this excerpt from a general spiritual perspective--more specifically as it might be applied to Kundalini itself, with the inner transformation it brings--we note some major parallels. Thus he speaks first (here) of the "intense moment"--and indeed Kundalini awakening is one of the most intense moments we can experience on this plane. And, after the initial shock of awakening, there is a seemingly endless period of moving into deeper and deeper levels of the experience, even when nothing seems to be happening.

He then implies that all of history is involved in this seemingly personal experience (the whole tradition of belief and practice which precedes one's subjective transformation), and causes us to reflect that each moment of our lives is also involved in every other moment of what seems to be the "present." (Eliot was a great believer in the importance of tradition as that might impact one's personal life.)

As for the experience of love--whether or not it is on the human or what is acknowledged as the "spiritual level" (love of God and the divine)--each of us likely has had such moments, when one is so captured by the burning of love within the self that all awareness of time past and time future fade out of consciousness and only the present sense of love/bliss connection is with us. He calls us to move always into "a deeper intensity," a fuller communion with the ultimate, even when we lapse into times of despair and disillusionment.

"In my end is my beginning." Every single experience we have ever had--probably even those we encountered as babes in the womb--has marked us forever--thus my 'beginning" is incorporated into "my end"--where I am now in my life and where I will be at its end.

For those who undergo Kundalini awakening and wonder how it all started--it (the preparation) began at the moment of birth (or before) and all of life since then led to this present expression. We are the sum of each preceding moment, just as our present experience will lead us into ever more complex and comprehensive states of being.

(The above is not a "critical interpretation" such as we might find in an academic tome, but rather my own personal rendering of how this expression of faith might be applied to an experience as deeply transfiguring as Kundalini, which I think of as a totally sacred experience, leading us to ever deeper connection with the divine.)

Did William Blake See Aliens?

2012-01-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

William Blake (1757-1827), best known perhaps for his "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience," was also an advanced mystic. Even as a child he saw angels, and he "channeled" volumes of esoteric poetry, which scholars sometimes dedicate whole years to interpret. When his beloved brother died, he saw his spirit ascending to heaven, clapping his hands as he went. His brother's departed spirit became Blake's own guide, and his brother even gave him the formula for the engraving method that Blake subsequently used to dramatic effect.

Blake was an artist, and, when another of his spirit guides appeared to him, he was able to draw his picture. The form he drew was not truly humanlike. Dressed in the clothing (male) of the age, the figure had a face suggesting an insect or reptile. Blake was on close terms with his guide, but the appearance of the latter makes one reflect on accounts or at least speculations that aliens from other realms might in fact have an appearance resembling insects or reptiles (some speculate that this is the reason they do not appear to humans--for fear we might be too disturbed by this appearance. Others claim to have seen figures with reptilian features moving among us today.)

Blake got little encouragement or recognition (and less money) during most of his lifetime, but he is now rated as one of the greatest writers of his time.

“To see a world in a grain of sand And a Heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an Hour.”

"If the doors of perception are cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern."

"The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

"Blake's greatest disciple . . . W. B. Yeats, announcing the end of a cycle and the advent of the 'rough beast,' was but following Blake. 'The rise of soul against intellect, now beginning in the world,' announced by Yeats, has brought with it a return to the excluded knowledge -- Neo-Platonism, alchemy, astrology, Cabbala -- besides the more recent studies of Indian metaphysics, comparative mythology, psychical research, and the psychology of the unconscious. All these and other related fields of knowledge, once dismissed piecemeal, are now seen to belong to a coherent way of understanding and exploring what we choose to call 'reality.'"

Kathleen Raine, "Blake and Antiquity"

Obviously, ours is also an age of "return to the excluded knowledge." This return began in the fifties, with renewed interest in the areas such as tarot and astrology that Raine lists above.

poem by Phillip Appleman

2012-01-03T10:45:00.000-08:00

New Year's Resolution

Well, I did it again, bringing in
that infant Purity across the land,
welcoming Innocence with gin
in New York, waiting up
to help Chicago,
Denver, L.A., Fairbanks, Hon-
olulu--and now
the high school bands are alienating Dallas,
and girls in gold and tangerine
have lost all touch with Pasadena,
and young men with muscles and missing teeth
are dreaming of personal fouls,
and it's all beginning again, just like
those other Januaries in
instant reply.

But I've had enough
of turning to look back, the old
post-morteming of defeat:
people I loved but didn't touch,
friends I haven't seen for years,
strangers who smiled but didn't speak--failures,
failures. No,
I refuse to leave it at that, because
somewhere, off camera,
January is coming like Venus
up from the murk of December, re-
virginized, as innocent
of loss as any dawn. Resolved: this year
I'm going to break my losing streak,
I'm going to stay alert, reach out,
speak when not spoken to,
read the minds of people in the streets.
I'm going to practice every day,
stay in training, and be moderate
in all things.
All things but love.

~ Philip Appleman ~

This is a poem that reveals a sensibility very different from that of Rumi or Rilke. It is extremely modern, given over (in its opening) to irony and objectivity--until the end, when the poet softens, becomes more optimistic, and speaks of love.
I think one of the challenges for us in today's world--especially those of us who have experienced deep spiritual awakening--is to live in both worlds--to appreciate the contemporary sensibility (which may involve ironic detachment and exclude transcendence)--and also to be in deep resonance with the truly great visionaries, who affirmed divine presence and holy love.
I think our challenge is greater than it would have been in other eras--when one could more easily tread a sacred path--and made ever more difficult today, when irony and skepticism seem to prevail.
Thoreau had a phrase I love. He speaks of "innocence clarified by experience." None of us today can claim to be totally innocent--we see too much of the world for this. But, if we are lucky, we can still retain much of our original innocence, not rejecting it and becoming disillusioned or bitter, but allowing it to be "clarified" (made more pure) by experience.
Thus we are able at times to connect through Kundalini bliss states or other moments of transcendence with primal purity, the unadulterated truth of our being, the state we recognize as our true selves.

(photo found on Photobucket)

"I've come again"--poem by Rumi

2011-12-31T20:12:00.000-08:00

i've come again
like a new year
to crash the gate
of this old prison

i've come again
to break the teeth and claws
of this man-eating
monster we call life

i've come again
to puncture the
glory of the cosmos
who mercilessly
destroys humans

i am the falcon
hunting down the birds
of black omen
before their flights

i gave my word
at the outset to
give my life
with no qualms
i pray to the Lord
to break my back
before i break my word

how do you dare to
let someone like me
intoxicated with love
enter your house

you must know better
if i enter
i'll break all this and
destroy all that

if the sheriff arrives
i'll throw the wine
in his face
if your gatekeeper
pulls my hand
i'll break his arm

if the heavens don't go round
to my heart's desire
i'll crush its wheels and
pull out its roots

you have set up
a colorful table
calling it life and
asked me to your feast
but punish me if
i enjoy myself

what tyranny is this

(tr. by Nader Khalili)
(Picture from internet source)

Perhaps at this new year we should, like Rumi, break all he old molds, smash to pieces all the restrictions of habit, and toss out the window all our familiar conceptions. Perhaps we should--like some of the early American tribes--burn all our possessions and begin anew, born into new bodies, clothed in new raiment. Perhaps we should truly be "born again".

Kundalini makes such demands upon us. It tells us we must give up the old ways and the old self in order to emerge into our new identity, and allow ourselves to be conducted by fate itself into our new way of being.

The Lens You See Through

2011-12-30T13:57:00.000-08:00

The Lens You See Through

On the one hand, there are the holocaust and the tragedy of 9/11, and many other such horrific examples of human actions gone awry.

On the other, there are the countless and continuing acts of generosity and compassion by persons and nations and—above all—the awakening of Kundalini energies for many across the planet.

I think of it as a kind of spectrum, or perhaps a see-saw, with negative forces on one end balanced by positive on the other. Many choose only to see one or the other end of the scale, filtering out the opposite. Some choose only to admit the reality of the dark vision—they are often among the most highly educated and intellectually gifted among us. Like Flannery O’Connor’s character in one of her stories, they have “seen through to where nothing is,” and will admit no evidence to the contrary.

Others insist that the shadow is a fiction, and that only the sunny side of the street is real.

To me, both perspectives contain a certain amount of truth. Kundalini bliss leads one to acknowledge that there is more to our human experience than grief and suffering, although certainly these exist. The shadow enters into individual and societal experience, but so does the light, the revelation of ultimate connection with that which is greater than ourselves.

Fortunately, Kundalini awakening does not depend on arguments or conceptual approaches. It is a gut felt, visceral experience that convinces by its bodily/spiritual authority. One cannot deny its power and its presence. One recognizes it as one’s own ultimate destiny, one’s source and end.

I think that the best course is not to deny either pole of experience, to acknowledge the shadow but live in the light. This is the wisdom contained in the ancient Taoist emblem of the yin/yang, opposites eternally balanced, each containing the seed of the other.

More on Consciousness, Mysticism, and Kundalini from Eileen Holland

2011-12-29T14:19:00.000-08:00

Transformation of Consciousness

The transformation of consciousness resulting from a mystical experience brings with it, along with an enhanced sense of morality, compassion and detachment , a continuum of experience, with the gifts of genius, inspired creativity and paranormal gifts on one end to revelation on the other. Often, this transformation manifests in new knowledge, revolutionary ideas, new forms of writing or art, and what the yogic tradition call siddhis or boons, i.e., paranormal gifts.

Walt Whitman's poetry in itself was a departure from a standard literary style and its structure was a new and revolutionary expression. He brought the gift of physical and emotional healing in his extraordinary ministering to the wounded and dying soldiers of the American Civil War.

He prophesied the coming turbulence of the 20th century in his poem, ‘Starting from Paumanok’

O expanding and swift! O henceforth,
Elements, breeds, adjustments,
turbulent, quick and audacious;
A world primal again, vistas of glory,
incessant and branching
A new race, dominating previous ones,
and grander far - with new contests,
New politics, new literatures and
religions, new inventions and arts
These! My voice announcing - I will
sleep no more, but arise;
You oceans that have been calm
within me! How I feel you,
fathomless, stirring, preparing
unprecedented waves and storms.

Whitman believed that sublime knowledge and enlightenment was accessible to all. "A prophet," he said, "is one whose mind bubbles and pours forth like a fountain from inner divine spontaneities revealing God…The great matter is to reveal and outpour the God-like suggestion pressing for birth in the soul."

After Hildegarde of Bingen's profound mystical experience in 1141, the voice in the vision commanded her to "say and write" what she "saw and heard" in her visions. At first she refused and as a result, she soon fell ill. The moment that she began to do as the voice within the light had commanded, her illness lifted and one of the most phenomenal creative outpourings in history began. Between her forty-third year and her death at the age of eighty-one, Hildegarde produced a monumental amount of literary, poetical, musical, medical and scientific material. In total she wrote three lengthy books on her visions, two books on medicine, a book depicting the cosmology of the world, two biographies of saints, liturgical poetry and the words and music to a cycle of over seventy songs. She wrote a mysterious and apparently unfinished dictionary containing the definitions of some 900 words that appear to be from a completely unknown language. Beyond all this, Hildegarde expressed herself artistically by illustrations (some done with the help of others) that depict elements from her visions.

In addition to her visionary, musical and medical writing, Hildegarde produced the very first morality play - a drama form that would become the standard for theatre in the Middle Ages. In his classic work, From Magic to Science, written in 1958, Dr. Charles Singer gives Hildegarde a pivotal place in the history of science. He states that her writings on Cosmology "are heralds of the dawn of a new movement" and says that "with her we have left the Dark Ages and the Dawn of Science has begun."

Along with this new knowledge, Hildegarde was instrumental in the development of sapiential theology—a tradition in Christianity that focuses on the divine feminine that is expressed as Wisdom or Sophia in such texts as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Wisdom of Solomon.

Victor Hugo's exceptional gifts included a creative energy that often resulted in a staggering output. His daily schedule of exercise, writing, spending time with family and reading left little time for sleep. Even with only 3 or 4 hours sleep he would not stop work until he had finished 100 lines of poetry or 20 pages of prose. Yet he lived in good health and active creativity until his death at age 83.

His mystical and visionary attributes aside, Hugo stands as a great literary genius. In Victor Hugo, A Tumultuous Life, Samuel Edwards summarized, "It is said even by his detractors, that no one ever expressed the French language in such a unique fashion…He was acclaimed as the greatest lyric poet of the century and one of the greatest who had ever lived. 'A Ville Quier' is a lyric elegy of unsurpassed beauty and is recognized as one of the greatest poems ever written in the French language."

Certainly, Hugo was a visionary. He once wrote that the complete poet is composed of these three visions: Humanity, Nature and the Supernatural. "Man always dreamed," he wrote, "always went beyond reality."

The divine inspiration that Mahadevi embodied was not only evident in her courage but in her creative expression. Her deepest yearnings resulted in the powerful imagery of her poems:

For hunger,
there is the town's rice in the begging bowl.
For thirst,
there are tanks, streams, wells.
For sleep,
there are the ruins of temples.
For soul's company,
I have you, O Lord
White as Jasmine.

There can be no doubt that Mahadevi knew that she was receiving this inspiration from God:

Knowledge is like the sun;
Devotion, like his rays:
Without the sun, there are no rays;
Without the rays, no sun.
So, how can ever be
Devotion without knowledge, knowledge without
Devotion, O Cenna Mallikajuna?

Like many before and since, St. John of the Cross was transformed by his experience of illumination, becoming "a poet unsurpassed in the Spanish language". In the decade that followed his transformation, he completed his three major poems, ‘Dark Night of the Soul’, ‘Spiritual Canticle’, and ‘Living Flame of Love’ and wrote lengthy treatises to explain them in detail. St. John has given the world a wealth of spiritual guidance, his writings give us but a glimpse into the depth and scope of his insights into the union of the soul with its creator. At his beatification process, a nun, M. Francesca de la Madre de Dios, testified that on two separate occasions when he was preaching, St. John was "rapt and lifted up from the ground". In addition to writing poems and treatises in record time, St. John knew the Bible by heart and completed a two-to-three year course in theology in one year. His literary style was quite unique and highly individualistic. E. Allison Peers, his biographer, concludes that, "nothing but natural genius could import the vigour and the clarity which enhance all of St. John of the Cross's arguments and nothing but his own deep and varied experience could have made him what he may well be termed - the greatest psychologist in the history of mysticism".

Ralph Waldo Emerson, it is said, was not a great writer, but he was a writer with a greatness of mind. He has been compared to Walt Whitman in that they both overcame the suppressive nature of their cultures and each produced a body of writing that was uniquely American. Emerson's belief that science and religion could be unified was a revolutionary concept. In his outstanding work, The Esoteric Emerson, Richard Geldard explains: "In our secular world Emerson's world view is lumped into so-called paranormal phenomena and is often discredited as sentimentalism. In science the subtle is merely what is yet to be fixed by experimentation and demonstrable proof. For Emerson, subtle meant unseen, what had to be intuitively known. It also meant "real" and he defined it as a "source of energy by which life was generated and sustained."

Emerson's gift of genius might not be original in thought but there was originality and beauty in its expression. A precocious child, an unusually thoughtful young man, Emerson's genius matured in his mid-30s with the publication of Nature. His essays and poems were a marvel of intellectual clarity, depth and range; their vision, revelations and practical wisdom causing one biographer, George Woodbury, to say, "No man rises from reading him without feeling more unshackled."

Stephen Whicher calls Emerson's idea of man's entire independence one of the most startling new notes in American literature - "The aim of this strain in his thought is not virtue, but freedom and mastery. It is radically anarchic, overthrowing all the authority of the past, all compromise or co-operation with others in the name of the Power present and agent in the Soul."

The expansion of consciousness attendant to the mystical experience, St. Teresa of Avila explains with a warning to the beginning spiritual seeker: "There is another kind of rapture - I call it flight of the spirit - which though substantially the same as other raptures, is interiorly experienced very differently. For sometimes suddenly a movement of the soul is felt so swift that it seems the spirit is carried off, and at a fearful speed especially in the beginning. This is why I have told you that strong courage is necessary for the one to whom God grants these favors and even faith and confidence and a full surrender to our Lord so that He may do what He wants with the Soul."

St. Teresa of Avila wrote about her mystical experiences in the language of her people and displayed her genius by expressing the ineffable in a way that could capture the essence of her spiritual life. She wrote spontaneously with very little erasing nor revising her words and her work belongs in the top echelon of spanish literature. The Interior Castle stands as an example of divine inspiration and a practical road map to a spiritual transformation.

After Krishnamurti's mystical experience in 1921, people who had known him from an early age reported that the change in him was marked. Mary Lutyens, his biographer, called him "almost vacant" in his early years. But in the years 1926 to 1931, Krishnamurti wrote sixty poems. From 1926 until his passing in 1986, he gave innumerable talks world-wide, published dozens of books and founded eight schools.

From a very early age, Krishnamurti had a tendency to be clairvoyant, seeing deceased and absent loved ones, occurrences that could be brushed off as fanciful if they hadn't been witnessed in some cases. When asked about his ability, he said it was a faculty he could still have but did not choose to. He felt the ability was a distraction from real spiritual development.

According to Mary Lutyens, he also had the power of healing. Krishnamurti had written to friends years earlier that he had success in this area but later down-played the assertion because he did not wish to be known as a healer. He emphasized throughout his teaching that internal personal growth is far more important than development of psychic abilities. He never rehearsed his teaching —"It is like what the Bible terms revelation", he said "It happens all the time I am talking. This simple person Krishnamurti has not come to the teaching through thought. The core of his teaching is that each individual must hold a mirror to his own consciousness and strive to develop freedom. There is a direct line to Truth within each individual."

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, mastermind behind the historic expeditions of Lewis and Clark, architect and founder of a great University, was also an accomplished naturalist, musician, inventor and lawyer. He could converse expertly on art, science, religion, physics, astronomy and literature. He spoke several languages fluently and could read the classics in the original Greek and Latin. These astonishing gifts of genius have been documented in numerous volumes over the years. Was Jefferson a prophet, also? In his writings, he often predicted the evils, upheavals and disasters that later came upon the American people in consequence of violation of economic balance, political justice and social fair dealing. His mind was always open and young. Phillips Russell writes, "One of Jefferson's distinctions was that increasing age found him neither cynical nor conservative. During a long life, he remained an inquirer and student."

This has been but a brief examination of the lives of enlightened mystics and extraordinary geniuses. Some diversity in the accounts of their experiences are due to variations in mental levels, ideas, and cultural development but the common features of the characteristics displayed certainly give credence to the Kundalini hypothesis. Research into the kundalini phenomenon remains embryonic at this stage but its importance for our planet cannot be overestimated. Gopi Krishna makes this prediction:

The possibilities inherent in Kundalini are unlimited. Its implications in respect of every sphere of human life are enormous. What the seekers often believe to be a power they can activate for their own spiritual or material benefit, is the Power that rules the Universe, the Infinite Intelligence of which we are a tiny speck. Once the existence of an organic evolutionary mechanism in human beings is confirmed, Kundalini will assume an importance that is unimaginable at present. It will decisively influence every field of human activity and thought. The whole atmosphere of the earth will be saturated with the idea that man is a pilgrim on the way to the Shrine of God-Consciousness.

Kundalini and Some Great Mystics (Eileen Holland)

2011-12-28T15:47:00.000-08:00

There is a close relationship between Kundalini and the mystical experience. I think all of us experience "mystical moments," when ordinary consciousness subsides and a sense of a larger, mysterious reality takes its place. Such moments lead to intense, heightened awareness of ourselves and the world. They can happen in nature, in devotional practice, when listening to music, when creating something of beauty, or even when being in love (as well as other states of consciousness). I think that those who are universally recognized as "mystics" are simply those whose lives are marked by a near constant stream of such moments--these states then become the dominant "reality" rather than "ordinary consciousness."

Here is an excerpt that I found on a new website at http://www.icrcanada.org (Institute for Consciousness Research). The full entry (well worth reading) is printed under the section called "Literary Research."

It is gratifying to know that those of us on the Kundalini path share certain kinds of consciousness states with great mystics, who have themselves significantly impacted the world.

The Institute for Consciousness Research did not supply information as to the original source of this article nor background information on the author. The site contains much additional information of value on Kundalini as a whole, especially the role of Gopi Krishna, one of the pioneers of the Kundalini phenomenon.

The Mystical Experience

(excerpted from an article by Eileen Holland)

Mystical experience is generally described as being some type of direct experience of the Divine. In virtually every spiritual tradition, mystics talk about this experience as a "union" with the Divine or as a "oneness" with all things. Gopi Krishna says that "In the highest states of mystical ecstasy every object springs to life and the whole of nature becomes alive. One incredible living, feeling Ocean of Being connects the mystic with every object in the Universe."

In examining these lives, we present several examples of people who had these profound mystical experiences. They may differ somewhat, but their similarities are far more notable than their differences. Regardless of when or where they occurred, they all contain the elements of the mystical experience the Yogic tradition tells us are characteristic of kundalini awakening. This awakening is usually accompanied by an experience of cosmic light, sometimes sound, a feeling of bliss, and expansion of consciousness and a lasting transformation in the life of the experiencer.

Walt Whitman in ‘Song of Myself’ expresses the transformation:

Loafe with me on the grass, loose
the stop from your throat,
Not words, not music or rhyme
I want, not custom or lecture,
not even the best,
Only the lull I like, the hum
of your valved voice…
…Is this then a touch quivering
me to a new identity?
Flames and ether making a rush
for my veins…
…My ties and ballasts leave me…
I travel…I sail…My elbows
rest in sea gaps,
I skirt Sierras…my palms cover
continents,
I am afoot with my vision.

And in his poem ‘Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking’

Never again leave me to the peaceful
child I was
before what there in the night
By the sea under the yellow and
sagging moon,
The messenger there arous'd, the fire,
the sweet hell within,
The unknown want, the destiny of me.

In Hildegarde of Bingen: A Visionary Life, Sabina Flanagan quotes Hildegarde's description of the experience as it appears in the introduction to Scivias:

And it came to pass in the eleven hundred and forty-first year of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, Son of God, when I was forty-two years and seven months old, that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And to it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming…and suddenly I understood the meaning of the expositions of the books, that is to say of the Psalter, the evangelists, and other catholic books of the Old and New Testaments.

In her 70s, Hildegarde again describes her vision, this expansion of consciousness:

From my early childhood…this vision, my soul as God would have it, rises up into the vault of heaven…and spreads itself out among different people…far away from me in distant lands and places…The light I see… is far, far brighter than a cloud that carries the sun…Sometimes I see within this light another light…all sorrow and anguish leave me, so that then I feel like a simple girl instead of an old woman.

With Victor Hugo, the mystical experience was often expressed in his fictional characters e.g., The Bishop of Digne in Les Miserables, who meditates in his garden at night:

…opening his soul to the unknown…offering up his heart at that hour when the flowers of night emit their perfume…expanding in ecstasy in the midst of creation's universal radiance…He felt something floating away from him; and something descending upon him, mysterious exchanges of the soul with the universe…

In Hugo's poems, the sound that has been heard by mystics of all ages rings out:

First 'twas a voice, immense, vast, undefined
More vague than through the forest
sounds the wind
Music it was, ineffable and deep,
Which vibrates, flows and round the
world doth sweep…

And in the poem ‘Dreams’, the "voice" again appears:

Let me in dreams ascend
To heavens of love and shade
And let them never end,
But night the vision lend
That in the day was made.

It is a voice profound
Creation's total song:
It is the Globe's vast sound
The world as it turns round
The Heavenly space along.

Mahadevi Akka, whose short but passionate life was spent in intense devotion of Shiva, recounts her experiences of bliss and light in her poetry much the same way as Hildegarde:

A light excelling a billion suns and moons
Came down and lodged itself within my mind;
At sight whereof I crossed this life's pitfalls

When Mahadevi reached marriageable age and her parents began to seek a husband for her, her worship of Shiva became clear, as she refused all eligible suitors saying she loved only Shiva whom she had given the name, Chenna Mallikarjuna (My Lovely Lord White as Jasmine). In her poetry, this love is portrayed as pure joy and a sense of expansion:

I saw the Absolute,
I saw the Mystery,
I saw the joy that comes, the joy
That is possessed, the joy that is lodged
When knowledge had been won, I lost
All trace of ignorance;
While still hemmed in
Within the fascination of the Sign
I shed my bounds on knowing Thee,
O Cenna Mallikarjuna.

St. John of the Cross, whose experience of fire and light is the core of his writings, expressed his spiritual awakening in ‘Living Flame of Love’:

Oh living flame of love
How tenderly you wound
the innermost center of my soul…
Oh gentle cautery!
Oh delicate wound!
Oh soft hand! Oh gentle touch
that tasted of eternal life
and repays every debt!
By killing, death into life you have transformed.

He explains the purifying flame further: "The fire…is able to consume to an extent which cannot be measured…since God is an infinite fire of love, when therefore He is pleased to touch the soul with some severity, the heat of the soul rises to such a degree that the soul believes that it is being burned with a heat greater than any other in the world."

While imprisoned at the age of 35, St. John experienced a mystical ecstasy he described as a presence of light. One of his biographers describes it: "His cell became filled with light, even though it was night and there was no lamp or other source of light. St. John…later…told one of his brethren that the heavenly light, which God so mercifully sent him, lasted the night through, filled his soul with joy and made the night pass away as it were but a moment".

Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke of "one central fire which flaming now out of the lips of Etna…and now out of the throat of Vesuvius…It is one light which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one soul that animates all men."

Emerson's mystical experiences were many and profound, finding expression in Nature, where he wrote…"Standing on the bare ground…my head bathed in the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space - all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all, the current of the Universal Being circulates through me."

St. Teresa's descriptions of her mystical experiences are not only scrupulously detailed, they flow with a literary beauty that carries the reader along with her:

If I should have spent many years trying to imagine how to depict something so beautiful, I couldn't have, nor would I have known how to, it surpasses everything imaginable here on earth even in just its whiteness and splendor.

The splendor is not one that dazzles, it has a soft whiteness, is infused, gives the most intense delight to the sight, and doesn't tire it; neither does the brilliance, in which it is seen, the vision of so divine a beauty, tire it. It is a light so different from earthly light that the sun's brightness that we see appears very tarnished in comparison with that brightness and light represented to the sight, and so different that afterward you wouldn't want to open your eyes.

The expansion of consciousness attendant to the mystical experience, St.Teresa explains with a warning to the beginning spiritual seeker:

There is another kind of rapture - I call it flight of the spirit - which though substantially the same as other raptures, is interiorly experienced very differently. For sometimes suddenly a movement of the soul is felt so swift that it seems the spirit is carried off and at a fearful speed, especially in the beginning. This is why I have told you that strong courage is necessary for the one to whom God grants these favors, and even faith and confidence and a full surrender to our Lord , so that He may do what He wants with the soul.

Jiddu Krishnamurti wrote in his Note-book — "…there was an intense bright light at the very centre of the brain and beyond the brain at the very centre of consciousness, of one's being. It was light that had not shadow nor was it set in any dimension…with that light there was present that incalculable strength and beauty beyond thought and feeling."

And in another description of the experience… "Suddenly one felt this immense flame of power…It is beyond all thought and words to describe what's going on, the strangeness of it and the love, the beauty of it. It's beyond and above all faculties of man."

Thomas Jefferson, who chose not to dwell too deeply on the ‘mystical’ but yet from his youth had a serene sense of an indwelling God, instead took the path of reason and religious freedom. He was interested in Eastern philosophy and there are intriguing hints that he may have turned away from the powerful experiences that often accompany esoteric disciplines. In a letter to Isaac Story, a Massachusetts minister, who was questioning Jefferson's beliefs, he answered…"When I was young I was fond of the speculations which seemed to promote some insight into the hidden country but observing at length that they left me in the same ignorance as they found me, I have for many years ceased to read or think concerning them and have reposed my head on the pillow of ignorance which a benevolent creator has made so soft for us…"

Jefferson had a deep conviction that men should answer to their own God and to "question with boldness even the existence of God." In a letter to his nephew urging him to selfless action, he wrote, "if you find reason to believe there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting under His eye and that He approves of you, will be a vast incitement (to virtue)."

These examples of mystical experience are but a small sampling of the highly evolved individuals who have reached these higher states of consciousness. These higher states should not be confused with ‘altered’ mind states that are often drug-induced. The true mystical experience may be perennial, i.e., the person lives in a permanent state of luminous thought-energy, or the experience can be of short duration. In either case, the person is changed forever, the feeling of ‘oneness’ with all living beings causing a transformation endowing the person with a deep sense of morality, compassion and humanitarian characteristics, detachment from the material and an unshakable belief in a Divine Intelligence or God.

Then as Now (poem by Dorothy)

2011-12-27T16:03:00.000-08:00

Then as Now

(another poem for the Beloved Within)

How long this has been happening,
how many days, years, eons,
none of the measures matter.

I think we two met in eternity.
I think I was you,
then as now,
and you were me as well.

We did not need names.
We saw ourselves
reflected in each other’s faces,
though of course,
we no longer had faces.
Features, aspects,
these no longer counted.

We each were drowned
in the sea of love,
then as now.

Dorothy Walters
December 27, 2011

Alienation on this celebrated day

2011-12-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

Today, once more, those of us who feel alienated from "mainstream culture," may feel isolated and perhaps depressed. There are, of course, many ways of feeling alienated. Often this feeling derives from renewed awareness of a childhood lacking in love, perhaps marked by physical or sexual abuse. Such backgrounds can produce a life time of mourning, of grieving for the "lost" parent, the mother or father who failed to extend sufficient tokens of nurturance and acceptance.

Another state of alienation is produced when one is a creator, by definition someone who does not see the world as the majority perceive it, a person who expresses in deeply felt ways a vision unique to the self. Even geniuses can suffer this fate--consider Beethoven who had virtually no one to love or be loved by in his life, who was further isolated by his deafness in his later years. And of course, there is also Mozart, who was buried in a pauper's grave, lacking even the modest fee required for proper burial.

Spiritual alienation is another common state of all who have penetrated to the "secret realms" of spirit, places where the masses often do not go nor even guess exist. Such is often the fate of those who undergo deep spiritual transformation, especially through the process of Kundalini awakening. Often "initiates" who have experienced the sacred inner energies feel quite isolated from family or friends. They are unable even to tell others of their profoundly transformative experiences, for those who are still "unawakened" to this new reality are unable to comprehend or interpret.

Yet, such states also may produce great benefits. The abused child may well develop a sensitivity, an empathy, beyond what is felt by many others. The artist may break through to a new revelation, a stunning vision produced by transcending the bounds of familiar perceptions. And, as for Kundalini, it introduces us to new realms of being and seeing, lifts us to a new level of consciousness, and reveals astonishing insights as to wht the human is capable of.

Here is a little exercise that may help some to overcome feelings of depression or isolation on this day when it seems the entire world (except oneself) is reveling and celebrating: Instead of dwelling on losses and feelings of isolation, find reasons to be grateful. In terms of past negative experiences, be grateful one is no longer caught up in those settings or circumstances. In terms of one's present condition, be grateful that one has a roof over one's head, sufficient food to eat, enough heat to stay warm. Send blessings and hope to the millions driven from their homelands, living perhaps in tents, whole families dying of famine or disease.

Above all, be grateful that one has been "chosen" by grace itself to participate, through Kundalini, in what is perhaps the greatest venture ever conducted on the human species--evolution of consciousness to the next level. Be glad you are here as a participant and do your part to move the effort forward.

Speaking of a Merry xmas

2011-12-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

To really get in the spirit of joy and celebration, go to youtube and then to "A Giggle with the Goats". Trust me!

Http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/b4_EdJ-XkUA?rel=0

blog for Michael Davies (renegade poet)

2011-12-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we mislay things and think they are lost forever. Then, when they magically reappear, we are doubly delighted. That is what happened to me recently. Michael Davies sent me the link to his wonderful blog, and, before I could post the site on my own blog, I lost sight of it among my many unsorted e-mails. Yesterday, I was gratified to find it once more, and decided to publish Mike's self-description (do you recognize some aspects of yourself here?) as well as some choice quotes from his blog. He describes himself (modestly) as a "master of Kundalini and Goddess energy" and I wonder how many of us who also follow a Kundaini/goddess path might also be "renegades.' One of the marvels of the internet is that it allows us to contact others like ourselves, and thus feel some connection with like minded souls on this "lonely planet.

I encourage you to look up his blog at:http://renegadepoet.wordpress.com

About

Reprobate, na’er do well, slacker, fearless warrior of the heart, jobless defiant beatnik , keeper of frequency, champion of laughter, advocate of orgone and spiral energy, natural born renegade and troublemaker, maverick and curmudgeon, patron saint of all flash mobs and unassuming master of kundalini and Goddess energy, tireless defender of sacred ground, husband and father, pet owner and system buster, distinguished psychonaut, award winning performance poet and semi-retired raver, whose root glyph is the sign of infinity and birth number the symbol for three, currently residing in the foothills of Lancashire where he burns fires at night to purge his spirit of the mendacious urban mind.

“The true seeker of knowledge naturally strives for truth, and is not content with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion until he grasps the essential nature of things…”

Plato’s Republic 490b, translated from the original Greek

“The mind is like a parachute, it only works when it’s open.”

Anon

“All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Edmund Burke

“Don’t let school interfere with your education.”

Mark Twain

The warrior of light is aware of his or her immense strength, and will never fight with anyone who does not deserve the honor of combat.

Paulo Coelho, Ode

True imagination follows nature, false imagination deviates from it.

John Lash, The Promise of a Lonely Planet

In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.

Henry Miller

Christmas Reflections from Anam Cara

2011-12-22T12:06:00.000-08:00

The following quotes are from the newsletter of the Anam Cara Foundation, offered by Lawrence Edwards, Ph. D. (Kalidas)

Dear Friend
This month brings so many ways of celebrating revelation and divine incarnation. Contemplating these brings the mind back to its own origin, its own calling, its own higher purpose.

May everyone realize the fullness of their abilities to give generously, to love boundlessly, and to breathe with compassion and kindness for all!

December Quotes For Reflection

"Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us we're here for something else besides ourselves."
Eric Sevareid

"When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?"
G.K. Chesterton

Chanukah Blessing
"Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has kept us alive, and has preserved us, and enabled us to reach this time."

Rohatsu - December 8th celebration of Buddha's enlightenment
"The traveler has reached the end of the journey! In the freedom of the infinite he is free from all sorrows, the fetters that bound him are thrown away, and the burning fever of life is no more."
Dhammapada - Sayings of the Buddha

The flute doesn't claim credit
for the alluring sound of Lord Krishna's
breath vibrating with life,
blowing through it
into the world.

The faucet can't claim credit
for the life-giving qualities
of the pure water
that flows through it.

Mother Mary didn't claim credit
for the grace that flowed through her
into this world through her son.

Eternal Mayadevi, Buddha's mother,
doesn't claim credit for what issued
forth from her.

Mothers surrender to the humble tasks
asked of them.

Simply be open, clear, pure,
surrendered and willing.
And surely the One
will find you
an irresistible
instrument of service!

Kalidas
December 2011

poem by Rebecca Baggett

2011-12-21T21:46:00.000-08:00

Testimony

(for my daughters)

I want to tell you that the world
is still beautiful.
I tell you that despite
children raped on city streets,
shot down in school rooms,
despite the slow poisons seeping
from old and hidden sins
into our air, soil, water,
despite the thinning film
that encloses our aching world.
Despite my own terror and despair.

I want you to know that spring
is no small thing, that
the tender grasses curling
like a baby's fine hairs around
your fingers are a recurring
miracle. I want to tell you
that the river rocks shine
like God, that the crisp
voices of the orange and gold
October leaves are laughing at death,

I want to remind you to look
beneath the grass, to note
the fragile hieroglyphs
of ant, snail, beetle. I want
you to understand that you
are no more and no less necessary
than the brown recluse, the ruby-
throated hummingbird, the humpback
whale, the profligate mimosa.
I want to say, like Neruda,
that I am waiting for
"a great and common tenderness",
that I still believe
we are capable of attention,
that anyone who notices the world
must want to save it.

- Rebecca Baggett

Devoured by Love, poem by Dorothy

2011-12-20T10:27:00.000-08:00

Devoured by Love

The hunger of the soul
is vast
and immeasurable.

It is a like a ravening beast
that will gnaw your heart
until you faint
with delight,
a great tree of light
that will plunge
its invisible roots
into your
flesh
and suck out
your marrow
as you groan
in pleasure,
then make of you
a swooping falcon,
predator and prey,
wondering what you
did before
for food.

August 21, 2011
Dorothy Walters

What many do not realize is that the "hunger for the holy" is not always a gentle, soft impulse. It can be quite intense, like a "predator and its prey," and give little rest until its needs are met--but of of course, then one always hungers for more.

(photo found on internet)

Poem by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

2011-12-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

/Users/dorothywalters/Desktop/one.jpg

Refuse to Fall Down

Refuse to fall down.
If you cannot refuse to fall down, refuse to stay down. If you cannot refuse to stay down,
lift your heart toward heaven and like a hungry beggar, ask that it be filled and it will be filled.
You may be pushed down. You may be kept from rising.
But no one can keep you from lifting your heart to heaven--only you.
It is in the middle of misery that so much becomes clear.
The one who says nothing good came of this, is not yet listening.
-Clarisse Pinkola Estes

Poem by Rumi

2011-12-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
By Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi
(1207 - 1273)
English version by Coleman Barks

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down the dulcimer.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

As Christmas approaches, many of us feel more or less like the opening line in Rumi's poem.
Somehow the holiday season, with its emphasis on merriment and joy, brings on inner feelings
of loss and things that are lacking in our lives. We too "wake up empty and frightened," even though
we might not be able to say exactly what we are frightened of. Times are uncertain. 2012 is rapidly
coming nearer, with all its dire predictions for the future. We wonder "what we have done wrong" in our
lives to be so far from our goals. We may feel that family or good friends are wavering in
their support.

I think Rumi offers valuable suggestions as to what to do in such moods. Music itself can often be of
great comfort. We can immerse ourselves in those projects that we love and that reassure us that we are
connected to something meaningful in our lives. We can turn to our spiritual practices, which we may have
neglected in the recent past.

All of these are helpful, and may help to heal the "primal wound," caused by the separation from source
that occurred when we were born and came into an unfamiliar world.

These periods of grief are part of a recurring cycle in all our lives. We can't wear a smiley face all the
time, but we can also know that the good times of love and joy will return, as they too are part of
the constant cycle.

SHORT TRANCE DANCE

2011-12-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

TO HEAR ABOUT FOUR MINUTES OF "TRANCE DANCE" DEVOTIONAL MUSIC,
GO TO:
WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/NANDHI108

poem by Teresa of Avila

2011-12-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

You are Christ's Hands
By Teresa of Avila
(1515 - 1582)

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ's compassion to the world
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

(Teresa of Avila was known for her many "raptures." The image depicts an archangel opening her heart to ecstasy. Some believe her "raptures" were in fact Kundalini bliss.)

Poem by Rilke

2011-12-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

Why am I reaching again for the brushes?
When I paint your portrait, God,
nothing happens.

But I can choose to feel you.

At my senses' horizon
you appear hesitantly,
like scattered islands.

Yet standing here, peering out,
I'm all the time seen by you.

The choruses of angels use up all of heaven.
There's no more room for you
in all that glory. You're living
in your very last house.

All creation holds its breath, listening within me,
because, to hear you, I keep silent.

~ Ranier Maria Rilke ~

(Rilke’s Book of Hours:Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)

Poem by Wendell Berry

2011-12-12T15:19:00.000-08:00

To A Siberian Woodsman
(after looking at some pictures in a magazine)

1.
You lean at ease in your warm house at night after supper,
listening to your daughter play the accordion.
You smile with the pleasure of a man confident in his hands,
resting after a day of long labor in the forest,
the cry of the saw in your head,
and the vision of coming home to rest.
Your daughter's face is clear in the joy of hearing her own music.
Her fingers live on the keys
like people familiar with the land they were born in.

You sit at the dinner table late into the night with your son,
tying the bright flies that will lead you along the forest streams.
Over you, as your hands work, is the dream of the still pools.
Over you is the dream of your silence while the east brightens,
birds waking close by you in the trees.

2.
I have thought of you stepping out of your doorway at dawn,
your son in your tracks.
You go in under the overarching green branches of the forest whose ways,
strange to me,
are well known to you as the sound of your own voice
or the silence that lies around you now that you have ceased to speak,
and soon the voice of the stream rises ahead of you,
and you take the path beside it.
I have thought of the sun breaking pale through the mists over you
as you come to the pool where you will fish,
and of the mist drifting over the water,
and of the cast fly resting light on the face of the pool.

3.
And I am here in Kentucky in the place I have made myself in the world.
I sit on my porch above the river that flows muddy
and slow along the feet of the trees.
I hear the voices of the wren
and the yellow-throated warbler whose songs pass near the windows
and over the roof.
In my house my daughter learns the womanhood of her mother.
My son is at play,
pretending to be the man he believes I am.
I am the outbreathing of this ground.
My words are its words as the wren's song is its song.

4.
Who has invented our enmity?
Who has prescribed us hatred of each other?
Who has armed us against each other with the death of the world?
Who has appointed me such anger that I should desire the burning of your house
or the destruction of your children?
Who has appointed such anger to you?
Who has set loose the thought
that we should oppose each other with the ruin of the forests and rivers,
and the silence of birds?
Who has said to us that the voices of my land shall be strange to you,
and the voices of your land strange to me?

Who has imagined that I would destroy myself in order to destroy you,
or that I could improve myself by destroying you?
Who has imagined that your death could be negligible to me
now that I have seen these pictures of your face?
Who has imagined that I would not speak familiarly with you,
or laugh with you,
or visit in your house and go to work with you in the forest?
And now one of the ideas of my place will be
that you would gladly talk and visit and work with me.

5.
I sit in the shade of the trees of the land I was born in.
As they are native I am native,
and I hold to this place as carefully as they hold to it.
I do not see the national flag flying from the staff of the sycamore,
or any decree of the government written on the leaves of the walnut,
nor has the elm bowed before monuments
or sworn the oath of allegiance.
They have not declared to whom they stand in welcome.

Wendell Berry

Poem by Vilma Ginzberg

2011-12-09T19:46:00.000-08:00

Miracles

Here I sit at my computer on 11-11-11, reading hours of emails and petitions and forwards about Delaware River fracking, and Mississippi’s rejection of personhood for women’s eggs, and move-your-money-day, and tar sands pipelines, and constitutional amendments to limit campaign funds, and Occupy Oakland’s massive challenge to stay non-violent in this most violence-racked city, and polar bears without ice floes, and torture of lesbians in Ecuador, and, and,............ and I am overcome with gratitude:

.... to Hippocrates and Hahnemann and Curie and Pasteur and Salk and my Dr. Michael and Debbie and herb gardens and bees and sunshine and rain and the loyalty of seed, for helping me be here still, octogenarian on fire

.... to my parents and grandparents and their ancestors for their good genes and their good sense to cross the daunting Atlantic to labor in coal mines and cigar factories to make me, to make me better, to make me a better life

.... to Ben Franklin and Tom Edison and Singer and to my furnace for keeping me warm, and to all the other comforting and safety-making inventions in this shelter where I can close my eyes in sleep unafraid

.... to those who created language out of grunts, and Gutenberg, and my Dad who taught me to read while tending to my sixth-year chickenpox, and to Miss Hanson who liked my third-grade poems, and to those colonials who created Rutgers University without ever having me in mind

.... to a lifetime of listening wonderment for the Mozart melodies that reside in my head, my brain’s personal MP3 downloads

.... to Susan and the other suffragettes who marched and suffered nights in jail for my right to be a woman voting, though they never knew me personally

.... to Ghandi and MLK and Mother Theresa and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Friends and COs and Occupy-all, all those who hold the light

.... to the power of those who loved me and love me still, and by so doing keep me whole still, whether they walk the earth or no longer grace it

.... to whatever mysteries keep my mind alert and capable of outrage, keep my soul alive and capable of gratitude

.... to my diaphragm that keeps me breathing, I know not why

- Vilma Olsvary Ginzberg

Kundalini and Diet

2011-12-08T11:10:00.000-08:00

During the time of your Kundalini awakening process, your body--and especially your nervous system--is undergoing major changes. It will need all the support it can get as it adjusts to the new energies coming in. One of the areas you can utilize to aid in this process is by following a more careful diet, one that will enhance the function of your entire system

Last night I watched a very interesting program on PBS from Dr. Joel Fuhrman, a board certified physician who specializes in nutritional medicine. The information he presented was not necessarily new, but it reaffirmed some of the basics that we all need to review from time to time.

Essentially, his message was similar to what most of us already know--the road to health consists of eating more fruits and vegetables, less meat and carbohydrates. His view is that by improving our diets and thus our health, we will automatically loe weight until we reach the most desirable reading for us.

Dr. Fuhrman made a clear and convincing presentation explaining why a raw fruit/vegetable diet is a superior one. Certain ones of these in particular contain micronutrients not found in the macronutrient/high calorie foods most of us rely on. In particular he recommended the following (using the acronym "gombs":

g---greens--most important--"let the salad be the most important part of the meal"

o---onions---very high in micronutrients

m--mushrooms--a kind of "miracle food''--the top of his list

b---berries

s---seeds and nuts---put some in your salad for best results

He also praised beans and flax, and said to eat meat only once or twice a week

Cut out salt, sugar, dairy, and all processed foods

Some critics dispute his contentions as to the relation of this kind of diet and health and longevity, but many of his patients have lost huge amounts of weight and also have been cured of serious diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. He says that when one follows this regimen, one no longer feels hungry and thus the diet is much easier to stick with than other forms of diet.

Some people undergoing Kundalini awakening feel they need a heavier diet to "ground" them. Each person is different and has individual needs. You much always find what is right for you and act accordingly.

Fuhrman's website is http://www.drfuhrman.com The section called "library" has some very interesting articles.
His books are available through Amazon.

Poem by Rilke

2011-12-07T08:22:00.000-08:00

Before He Makes Each One

Before he makes each one
of us, God speaks.

Then, without speaking,
he takes each one
out of the darkness.

And these are the cloudy
words God speaks
before each of us begins:

"You have been sent out
by your senses. Go
to the farthest edge
of desire, and give me
clothing: burn like a great
fire so that the stretched-out
shadows of the things
of the world cover
me completely.
Let everything happen
to you: beauty and terror.
You must just go--
no feeling is the farthest
you can go. Don't let
yourself be separated
from me. The country
called life is close.
By its seriousness,
you will know it.
Give me your hand."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

(Translated by Annie Boutelle)

Pictures from San Francisco

2011-12-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

During my holiday visit to San Francisco, I took several pictures which I am sharing here. My visit featured reunions with old friends, resampling the incredible Asian food of S. F., and visiting the museums and their ever interesting exhibits. The latter included Venetian masters of the Renaissance, a sculpted head of Medusa (before her transition to an ugly hag) by Bernini, and certain photographs at MOMA by someone whose parents once lived near earlier friends of mine. I also attended a fascinating performance in Berkeley called "A Soldier's Tale", with music by Stravinsky and a talented (but small) cast.

When in San Francisco, one wants to immerse oneself in the high culture as well as the exquisite cuisine of that area. However, it was bitterly cold and damp there and these conditions reminded me of why I left that city and fled to the brilliant, invigorating sun of Colorado.

The pictures: (top to bottom):

The scene that awaited me a few days after I got home.

An ancient Fiat parked as an advertisement in front of a restaurant named the Mona Lisa (in "North Beach") --appearing here twice by accident.

A dear friend in reverie.

An installation in Grace Cathedral dedicated to aids victims--it is made of hypodermic needles. When it revolves, the dark image of a man is visible within.

This is Maude Gonne (named for the beloved of W. B. Yeats), my hostess where I stayed.

This is Nora Barnacle (named for the wife of James Joyce), also my hostess where I stayed.

San Francisco at twilight, taken from the top of Coit Tower.

Tesla Energy Healing Frequencies

2011-12-05T13:40:00.000-08:00

Tesla was one of the great pioneers of electricity and its uses as an energy source. Many of his inventions are still in use today and he is recognized as a giant in the field of electrical technology.

One of his inventions has to do with the use of various energetic frequencies for healing purposes. He invented a machine that can deliver energies of various frequencies to heal different ailments. These machines are currently in use by certain alternative energy healers, and mainstream scientists are coming to be more open to their possible uses.

Energy for healing is not a new concept. Such techniques as acupuncture, tai chi, chi gong, and energetic healing from actual practitioners also utilize energy infusions or openings of certain channels in the body for the purpose of healing. (And, of course, Kundalini also opens various channels in the body to allow the energies to flow and thus healing can occur.) What is "new" is the use of an actual electronic device for such purposes.

The first reference below includes a fascinating audio discussion of this approach by Dr. Claude Swanson, a practicing scientist with impressive credentials. The second is a talk by an M. D. who uses the Tesla frequencies in his practice. Both are truly amazing discussions and well worth your time. From my perspective, science is finally coming to realize that approaches long accepted in the metaphysical community can now be tested and utilized through more technical means.

Claude Swanson, PhD.: http://globalpreneurs.com/play.php?s=b92aa

Massey, MD: http://globalpreneurs.com/play.php?s=a2896

Kent Noonan, electronic researcher and inventor: http://globalpreneurs.com/play.php?s=a216a + http://globalpreneurs.com/play.php?s=522fa

And here is a little anecdote related to the above, though somewhat different. There is another similar machine called a "beam ray" which purports to cure through settings of various frequencies. I once had a "treatment" by such a machine that a friend owned. While I was receiving the frequencies, I felt nothing unusual, but I did have a sudden flash of insight. What, I wondered, if it is not the frequencies that actually do the healing, but E. T's, who are able to come in and do their healing work on these particular frequencies. I drew no conclusion, but was intrigued by the idea.

A few days later I was crossing an asphalt street pondering this question. Just as I thought to myself, "Is it frequencies or E. T.'s that do the healing?" I looked down and there, on the pavement, embossed in silver letters, was the raised inscription,
"E T s". I was quite startled and do not insist that it was a valid response, but it was certainly one of the most remarkable synchronicities I have ever experienced.

poem by Shodo Harada Roshi

2011-12-02T12:17:00.000-08:00

In this passing moment

By Shodo Harada Roshi
(1940 - )

"In the presence of Sangha, in the light of Dharma,
in oneness with Buddha -- may my path
to complete enlightenment benefit everyone!"

In this passing moment karma ripens
and all things come to be.
I vow to choose what is:
If there is cost, I choose to pay.
If there is need, I choose to give.
If there is pain, I choose to feel.
If there is sorrow, I choose to grieve.
When burning -- I choose heat.
When calm -- I choose peace.
When starving -- I choose hunger.
When happy -- I choose joy.
Whom I encounter, I choose to meet.
What I shoulder, I choose to bear.
When it is my death, I choose to die.
Where this takes me, I choose to go.
Being with what is -- I respond to what is.

This life is as real as a dream;
the one who knows it can not be found;
and, truth is not a thing -- Therefore I vow
to choose THIS dharma entrance gate!
May all Buddhas and Wise Ones
help me live this vow.

Going off line and two wonderful photo sites

2011-11-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

I will be going off line as of tomorrow and will be returning a few days after December 1. Have a great Thanksgiving, all.

My friend NM. Rai sent me the following link to her beautiful blog that is devoted entirely to flower photography.

She says:

have put up some new ones and will be putting up more in the next couple of days
http://flowersthrumylens.blogspot.com/view/snapshot

click on any photo to enlarge - they come up two to a post

And Patricia Lay-Dorsey (see entry on her of a few days ago) has been participating in the Occupy Detroit encampment and photographing the activites there, in order to "get an inside view" of the events. This occupation, unlike many others, has been totally peaceful--no police presence was needed and none existed. The participants were incredibly organized and the atmosphere was calm but determined.

You can view these fascinating photos at: http://www.patricialaydorsey.com

To see the photos from Detroit, pull down the menu for Portfolios and click on Occupy Detroit. Patricia has also posted an entry on Occupy Detroit on her blog. You can access it from her website. Be sure to take time for her other portfolios as well--there are some amazing photos here.

"Sometimes" (poem by Dorothy

2011-11-15T19:52:00.000-08:00

Sometimes

Sometimes it is as if
Nothing is happening,
Nothing you have called for,
Or come to expect.

No unexpected knocks
At the door,
No strange and lovely
Scents in the house.
No midnight love play.

All is empty, void,
Self left to its own devices.
Did someone take a knife
And cut the connection?
Is there a thief in the basement
Severing all our close ties
Of feeling,
Threads of memory?

Then one day,
Surprise reappearance.
Do not ask where “it”
Has been,
What its purpose or
Goal.
Revel in its
Forgotten splendor.
Give thanks
For its sudden return.

Dorothy Walters
November 14, 2011

poem by Denise Levertov

2011-11-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

Primary Wonder

Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; cap and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng's clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.

- Denise Levertov

Visarga

2011-11-12T12:05:00.000-08:00

Recently I attended a sound healing workshop, in which the instructor offered a quite unfamiliar sequence of sounds (all vowels) to awaken the chakras. I had trouble learning this technique, and later realized that I prefer the more traditional soundings for the chakras as follows (moving from number one at the bottom or root chakra and then up):

Chakra sounds—(bija sounds)

Lum (base, root chakra at base of spine)

Vum (second chakra, sexual feelings)

Rum (third chakra, solar plexus, personal power center)

Yum (fourth chakra, heart, love)

Hum (fifth chakra, throat)

Aum (sixth chakra, pituatary, third eye)

Visarga

I had looked this information up on the internet, but when I reached the last term (visarga) I realized I did not know what it meant.. So I googled this term on the internet, and came up with the following. Now I do not pretend to understand all the information offered in this excerpt, but for some reason I am quite captivated by discussions of certain ancient Indian terms and
beliefs, even when I do not fully comprehend their meaning. It is as if I get the "gist" of them, without full rational cognition. So I am reprinting here some of what I found and perhaps you too will gain from "osmosis" if not full comprehansion.

Bindu Visarga - A drop of moon on the crown of Tripura Sundari
Tripura Sundari Mandir, Banswara Rajasthan

In the definition of Kundalini, this is the source of creation, represented by the dot or Bindu in the center of the Sri Chakra. The Bindu means the drop or the point, or literally Bindu Visarga which is the falling of the drop. This is represented by the crescent moon and a white drop which is the nectar that is dripping down from the Vishuddhi chakra. It is the ultimate source of immortality, that state which is called bliss when this chakra is activated through sadhana.

"From that Bindu came ether, air, fire, water, earth and the letters of the alphabet" - Kama Kala Vilasa

The Bindu is connected with the Vishuddhi Chakra and its seat is at the back of the head, typically where brahmins leave a tuft of hair growing. It is believed during sandhya, the brahmin ties this tuft of hair tighter, and while he practices mantra, he develops a powerful and continuing awareness of this Bindu point. This is one of the traditional methods of accessing the Bindu Visarga consciously.

In Tantra, Bindu is depicted by the crescent moon on a moonlit night. The Bindu is closely related to the kalas, that is the waxing and waning of the moon. The Bindu gives a hint towards the vast void beyond, the Sahasrara. It is said when the Bindu is awakened, the sound of OM is heard within the self. It is also believed that this Bindu, or the moon, produces a very intoxicating secretion, which is nectar or ambrosia or amrita or soma. At this point, the bhakta enters the state of complete bliss and is no longer dependent on the world for sustenance.

Other explanations to the same Bindu define this as the red and the white Bindu, where the red represents the Goddess, alias blood of menstruation. White represents the sperm or shukla. The red Bindu is established as the sun and the white Bindu as the moon, representing the ida and the pingala. There are various interpretations to what the Bindu really is, but what strikes out most is that which is depicted on the crown of Goddess Tripura Sundari or that of the great Lord Kameshwara.

This is a phenomenon that renders the bhakta immortal, supreme and one with the divine. Great sages have made this secret phenomenon understandable to the masses by simple depiction. Simple depiction that hides within itself a supreme phenomenon unknown until contemplated upon.

This is embedded in the depiction, in the music, in the verses, in the songs to the great Goddess Kamakshi, Tripura Sundari. Quoting...

Tripurasundari Vijaya Sthava
[Ode of Victory to Tripurasundari]

Lakshya bhakthi rasardhra hruthsarasije sadbhi sadaradhitha|
Sandrananda mayi sudhakara kala gandojjwalanmoulike||
Sarvani sarana gatharthi samani sachinmayee sarvadha|
Srichakradhi nivasini, vijayathe Srirajarajeswari|| 14

Victory to the Goddess who resides in the center of the Sri Chakra, who lives among those hearts drenched in devotion towards her. She resides in the realm of happiness among those good. She wears the crescent moon on her crown and is the consort of Lord Shiva in her all pervasive form. She consoles those who seek protection in her, who is true knowledge, who is wisdom, who is Bindu, who is bliss all within the self.

Hreengarathraya saputathi mahatha manthrena sampoojitha|
Hothri Chandra sameerana agni jala bhobaswannabhoroopini||
Hamsa sohamithi prakrushtadishanair aradhitha yogibhi|
Srichakradhi nivasini, vijayathe Srirajarajeswari|| 15

Victory to the Goddess Rajarajeshwari who resides at the center of the Sri Chakra, who is invoked by the great chant in the three hreem, who is in the sacred offerings, moon, air, fire, water, earth, sun and sky. Who is worshiped by great yogis who look upon her in the divine form of Hamsa Soham.

Tripura Thilakam
[The Ornament to the Tripurasundari]

Eeshashad unmishada marthya sakhi kusumaavalee vimala tharakaa|
Vrunda Sundara sudhamsu ganda subhagee kruthathi guru kaishikaam||
Neelakunchithga naalakaam nitalabhooshanayatha vilochanaam|
Neelakandasukruthonnatheem, sathathasraye Tripurasundareem|| 3

My heart depends on the Goddess Tripura Sundari who is the greatest treasure of Lord Shiva, who is beauty described in her dense crown of hair which is embellished by the crescent moon she wears, that is surrounded by the very stars of the night sky. This appears like a fully opened flower of the Kalpaga tree. Among her blue locks of hair that gently flow down her crown, and frame her half open eyes that are like lilies blooming in the full moon night.

Lakshm aheena vidhu lakshanairjjitha vichakshanana saroruham|
Yikshukarmuka sarasanopamitha chillkayugamamathallikam||
Lakshaye manasi santhatham sakala dushkrutha kshaya vidhayineem|
Uksha vahana thapo vibhuthimahadaksharam Tripurasundarim|| 4

My mind remains awake towards the Goddess Tripura Sundari, who is beauty personified within the lotus face she has, growing like that of a million moons, and has teeth like the bow of a sugarcane of the God of love, who reduces the effect of all bad acts done, whose blessings is the greatest gift gotten from the worship of Lord Shiva.

The realm of the Goddess, the awakening of the Bindu is a drop of moonlight that descends into the consciousness of the Bhakta awakening him into the Sahasrara, the path to the realization of the void, of the universe beyond. The experience of this is probably far, but the very thought that the moon makes a poetic drop of elixir, brings intrigue and mystery into the subtlety of this great phenomenon, represented by a silver glow of the crescent moon on the face of the Goddess.

References:
Kundalini Tantra: Swamy Satyananda Saraswati, Bihar school of Yoga
Vedanta Spiritual Library.
Posted by Kavitha at Sunday, March 22, 2009
Labels: banswara, bindu visarga, Kamakshi, kameshwara, Kanchipuram, kundalini, Nataraja, Rajasthan, Shiva, tripurasundari, yoga
55 comments:

JC said...
Tripura literally means 'Three cities', which refer to Earth surface/ mean sea level that acts as abode for the relatively superior 'animal world'; Sky or Space as the abode of Heavenly Bodies, having Tripurasundari, that is, one of the members of our solar system, moon (virtually on the 'forehead of earth' and called Tripurasunderi teh most beautiful Queen of queens) as the 'true likeness' of the Nirakar Nadbindu (like the symboloc 'bindi' on the forehead of any person, representing 'sahasrara' that believably houses the essence of moon); and the netherland (underground/ below the mean sea level) that acts as the abode of burowing animals/ innumerable aquatic life forms...

"Hari anant/ Hari katha ananta..." conveys possibility of innumerable paths to reach the above realisation through eyes and the 'shabd' or words (in various alphabetic/ graphical symbols) of different Yogis who apparently act as different characters at different times repeating the 'Truths' for the 'common man' as well as the 'Absolute Truth' for teh 'seekers'...
7:49 AM
Kavitha said...
Joshi Uncle,

the essence of the moon, i have come to believe is before one attains samadhi, or activates the sahasrara chakra.

Its beyond this that the void or universe is experienced within the self.

Yosee,

I hope my previous comment didnt offend you. Apologies if it did. I tend to get carried away.
8:05 AM
JC said...
'Reading between lines', the mythological stories, 'Vishuddhi chakra' is indicated as the house of the 'mayavi rakshashas', literally 'defensive mechanism', interpreted by 'west' as the demons/ Satan,

(image found on internet)

"Going Beyond" (poem by Dorothy)

2011-11-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

Going Beyond

Once you arrive at the crossroads,
You must choose
From three paths.

One is the path of fire.
To enter it,
You must take off
All your clothes,
Fasten your tongue
To the roof of your mouth,
Shut your eyes,
No longer breathe.

The second is the way of water.
To go here,
You must relinquish your boundaries,
Make of yourself a drop of rain,
A splash of ocean water,
A handful drawn from a well.

The last is the journey by night
Along earth’s ridges and descents.
Thls will take a long time.
It will be filled with terrors,
Spouting dragons,
Monsters threatening.
When you finally arrive,
You will be nothing
But air,
Mist,
Burning sunlight.
You will be other.

Dorothy Walters
November 9, 2011

(Inspired by “The Way In” by Linda Hogan)

Jonathan Goldman and ll:ll:ll

2011-11-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

11:11:11
Sound For Planetary Peace

Join Us in the Temple Of Sacred Sound

Dear Sound Friends:
On Friday, November 11th, there is a unique time sequence occurring. As many of you know, at 11 minutes past 11 o'clock on this day it will be 11:11 on 11.11.11. This seems to be an extraordinary numeric event that many perceive has great significance as a potential cosmic portal for great shift and change.
No one really knows what this means or if indeed there is any significance to it--perhaps it is simply a unique chronological and numerological experience. Or perhaps, as some suggest, it marks the beginning of a unique evolutionary landmark. Rather than add more speculation about what it means, perhaps it is best that we go within, open our hearts and find the meaning of this event for ourselves.

I'd like to suggest that if it resonates with you, we take this unique time signature as an opportunity for Global Harmonization--to project Light & Love through Sound for planetary peace and healing. At around 11:00 that day (either AM or PM), go to to the "AH Toning Chamber" at templeofsacred sound and sound along with others for the purpose of helping to bring balance and harmony to our beloved Earth.

There's all sorts of activities planned for 11.11.11 that are happening throughout our planet with all different focuses--most associated with some sort of evolutionary ascension. Perhaps you are planning to take part in one yourself.
Here in Boulder, we're doing a workshop to celebrate this event, scheduled to be sounding the Divine Name on 11.11.11 . At 11:11 AM Mountain time, (at during any 11:11 time throughout the planet) you are invited to etherically join us, letting the energy of love and compassion ring out throughout our beloved Gaia via sounding at the templeofsacredsound,

Many of you have seen this video "How the 11.11.11 Becomes the Divine Name" on YouTube. I personally make not statement about what this means. Is there a specific code or other significiant aspect with regard to this phenomenon? Once again, we need to go within to decide. It is nevertheless quite interesting and I am very glad that so many of your have resonated with this video. At the very least, I trust that this unique time signature presents an opportunity for those of us into sound to tone together via the Temple of Sacred Sound in order to utilize the power of our consciousness and love coupled with sacred sound to help assist the vibrational shifts on our beloved planet.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email. Let's resonate together at 11:11 on 11.11.11 at www.templeofsacredsound.org

Blessings of Light & Love through Sound,
Jonathan
Jonathan Goldman

(Jonathan Goldman is a pioneer in the field of harmonic resolution and is rated as one of the major authorities on the use of sound as a healing modality. See his website for a list of his many CD's and books on sound.)

Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: info@healingsounds.com
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Forward email

poem by Linda Hogan

2011-11-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

The Way In

Linda Hogan

Sometimes the way to milk and honey is through the body.
Sometimes the way in is a song.
But there are three ways in the world: dangerous, wounding,
and beauty.
To enter stone, be water.
To rise through hard earth, be plant
desiring sunlight, believing in water.
To enter fire, be dry.
To enter life, be food.

More about Patricia

2011-11-08T15:09:00.000-08:00

As those of you who read this blog likely know, it was set up by my long time friend, Patricia Lay-Dorsey. Patricia is one of those people I admire most in the world. She is a woman of many talents, and in her time has participated in a wide range of activities, from long distance runner to social worker to teacher to political activist to artist--and now, in recent years, emerging photographer whose work is attracting notice and admiration from the highest quarters.

Patricia always seems to find the center of the action, whether that is political or artistic or something other. Although she is now confined to a scooter (MS), she still swims a half to three-quarters of a mile four days a week, and works out once a week with her trainer at the gym.

Patricia seems to move from one celebration to the next, as she continues to receive new honors for her photography. Here is where you can find some of her work: www.american-journal.org. During the debates about gays' right to marry, Patricia did a series of pictures called "Just Another Married Couple" depicting the day to day activities of a male gay couple who are her long time friends. She said that she wanted to show that gays truly were just like other people, not the horned creatures the opposition described. The accompanying interview is extremely perceptive and revelatory.

And to find Patricia today, you would need to go to the "Occupy Detroit" movement now taking place. She is there with her ever ready camera, recording these historic events for the present and future. She takes great pride in the fact that she is now "part of the community" (she has a remarkable knack for gaining acceptance with any group she enters).

She doesn't like to be called an "inspiration," but how could we not be inspired by her example as political activist, artist, and loving friend whose heart reaches out to others in need, whatever their background or social status. I have never seen Patricia refuse to offer a gift or speak words of encouragement to those on the street. She is precious, one among many, and, if she believed in angels, I would say she is one.

About 11:11"11 Stargate Activation of Divine Love Hide Details FROM: The Melchizedek and Pleiadian Light Network TO: dorothywalters72@yahoo

2011-11-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

As Nov. 11, ll a.m (or is it p.m.?) approaches, various groups are preparing rituals, celebrations, and other kinds of activities associated with this special date. Here is one such announcement, that I received via e-mail. I do not know who this group is, but I find their approach interesting. Obviously, I am not endorsing the group or its activities, but just pass the information along for your perusal.

11:11:11 Stargate Activation of Divine Love

The Melchizedek and Pleiadian Light Network

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

11:11:11 ~ Stargate Activation of Divine Love

Mp3 download http://www.pleiadianlight.net/dl.htm [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hh4qeqcab&et=1108447807215&s=6455&e=001EvAkfapy3T2agR67SkJqOpfTSX6-WRFjA621G_m1W_zKbFnjv256QNDEylud2nHGHi415StseQCaiKNUJ6VHC-t69_6bguzvhycxixjIOMPcHwT91WGZWCkYLlJTjNQq]

You Tube Video http://www.youtube.com/user/childrenofthesun1 [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hh4qeqcab&et=1108447807215&s=6455&e=001EvAkfapy3T2av6oZDSgqvvRYZZXu4QEj52sWufW39GRbOb-EBnOoW1y664O4w4VLZ-W0pa1Ff7EisUAu4MBecKVK4BTaywxZIbTPzyARURXYqB7Tt1NODjsoGTHO1hrIh_4uynDKWUtd7PyYmHz1wg==]

You Tube Video http://www.youtube.com/user/AnritaMelchizedek [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hh4qeqcab&et=1108447807215&s=6455&e=001EvAkfapy3T288suPwQ7iXPI_9_7wU6Bhj_T1QJ6opt1mlReADaDoOzCZO8c14n8ZeZQGBDCO8PVvZCXEr_DQPc0Nw9erCqN1MuA-Wyl7q4kEE-JY7kmDmPc7sgLwtp42O8mPBszhWc4n2eP9gMsk2g==]

On November 11th, 2011, we are presented with an unparalleled, unprecedented Now

moment through the 11:11:11 Stargate activation of Divine Love to collectively ascend

these first wave souls in human embodiment of the I AM Avatar Blueprint of Light,

and become these become these Flames of Divine Love with the new DNA encodings of

Light activated at this time, while lifting ourselves in cosmic consciousness awareness

into the Golden Age of Atlantis.

This glorious activity of Light, heralded as the gateway into this Golden Age and

New Earthis amplified and activated through the Arkansas, Lake Titicaca and Sedona

stargates and Golden Solar Sun Disc discs, and from here moves through all the Golden

Solar Sun Disc discs, vortices, leylines, sacred sites and chakras of Mother Earth,

attuning us to a fifth dimensional frequency of Divine Love and experienced through

the 144 Crystalline Unity Grid of Divine Love.

To re-experience our Highest Potential through the Patterns of Perfection, just

prior to the Fall of Atlantis, the High Priests to the Order of Melchizedek sealed

the etheric records ofour Highest Potential and Master key codes of Light in the

One Unity Consciousness Portal in the land of Khem, later to be called Egypt, builtunderground

Cities of Light and additionally relocated nine of the Atlantean extraterrestrial

crystals within and around the crystalline field of Atlantis. Three of these primary

crystals were relocated to Arkansas, with other locations in Brazil, Mt. Shasta,

Bolivia and the Sargasso sea. The Golden Solar Sun Disc discs through the Crystalline

Cities of Light were further activated as these stargate portals of Light linking

us into the higher dimensions, with the Lake Titicaca Golden Solar Sun Disc disc

and Crystalline City of Light serving as an interdimensional Portal of Divine Love

through which the first wave of human ascensions could occur. The Company of Heaven

knew that when we were at a point to collectively ascend, to become the I Am Avatar

race, taking on our Patterns of Perfection and garments of Light, these Atlantean

crystals would be reactivated, and this time is Now for the first wave Souls, with

the second wave of spiritual ascensions occurring in 12:12:12 through the Golden

Flame of One UnityConsciousness, and the full actualization of all Patterns of

Perfection and geometries of Light within the Unity Grid of Divine Love.

As the Cystro-Sun-Disc activation takes place within the Arkansas stargate, amplified

through the Platinum Flame of Universal Christ Consciousness and the Overlighting

of the Melchizedek Brotherhood of the Light, this activation will "Fire the Grid"

and in particular the 144 Crystalline Grid and all the Golden Solar Sun Disc discs,

bringing in the new DNA encodings of Light through the 12 helices to these Golden

Solar Sun Disc discs. Simultaneously, as this Platinum Flame of Melchizedek Consciousness

travels through all the Grids of Light, it ignites within Lake Titicaca to activate

this Golden Solar Sun Disc disc as the Portal of Divine Love. As this Divine Feminine

Portal of Light is activated in the beautiful Pink-Orange Flame of Illumined Truth

and Divine Love, the ray Overlighting us in this year of 2011, these key codes trigger

the activation of the Divine Masculine Portal of Light within Sedona, merging these

Divine archetypes of Light within ourselves and that of all Life through the clockwise

rotating vortex within Lake Titicaca and that of the counter clockwise rotation

of the Sedona vortex, amplified through the Golden Flame of One Unity Consciousness.

As this unity between the Titicaca-Sedona vortex fields occurs, we actualize the

new DNA encodings of empowerment, Love and wisdom and merge into a fifth dimensional

stargate of Divine Love as these Flames of Divine Love and Group I Am Avatar Body

of Light.

Additionally, the universal axiatonal lines will be amplified through the Unity

Grid of Divine Love and through this fifth dimensional stargate of Divine Love,

assists in the activation and actualization of the new DNA encodings of Light, through

the spin points found along the acupuncture meridian lines in our bodies, and the

spin points found along the meridian points and leylines of Mother Earth. As we

release our human mis-creations, and actualize these new DNA encodings of Light

through the 12 helices of the Golden Solar Sun Disc discs, our chakras start to

merge in one unified column of Light. As all the Golden Solar Sun Disc discs, Crystalline

Cities of Light, sacred sites, vortices and chakras of Mother Earth are wrapped

in the Platinum Flame of Universal Christ Consciousness, the Pink-Orange Flame of

Divine Love and the Golden Flame of One Unity Consciousness, we take these ray frequencies

within and around this Earth plane to assist in the clearing of all human mis-creations

so all Life may choose to experience themselves as Flames of Divine Love.

Furthermore, these pulsating waves of Divine Love will assist in actualizing the

Crystalline

City of Light within Sedona into the physical/etheric realms, becoming the blueprint

of Light

for the actualization of all the Crystalline Cities of Light within and around this

earth plane.

We are Overlighted in this stargate activation of Divine Love on 11:11:11 by the

entire Spiritual Hierarchy, including the Christed Extraterrestrials, the Pleiadians,

the Sirians, the Andromedans and the Arcturians, all of the Light, as well as the

Archangels and Angels, the Trinity Lords of Light, the Chohans of the Rays, the

Galactic Federation of the Light, the Mighty Elohim, the Brotherhood of the Light,

the Planetary, Solar, Galactic and Universal Logoi, the Mahatma, and Mother/Father

God, as well as the Divine Unfolding Light of the Platinum Ray of Universal Christ

Consciousness, the Pink-Orange Flame of Illumined Truth and Divine Love and the

Golden Flame of One Unity Consciousness. All eyes, hearts and minds from On High

are upon this sacred jewel on which we physically exist, as we truly become these

Flames of Divine Love, in service to Mother Earth and all her Life, re-experiencing

the parallel reality of the Golden Age of Atlantis. As we take on our Patterns of

Perfection as our I Am Presence through our I Am Avatar Blueprints, our etheric

electronic bodies of Light and Adam Kadmon Bodies of Light, we are encoded through

the rays of eternal Light with the new DNA activation key codes of Light of empowerment,

Love and wisdom, and the memories of our multidimensionality as Master Beings and

co-creators to the Company of Heaven. As the left and right hemispheres of our brain

are perfectly balanced through the merging with our Divine Masculine and Feminine

archetypes of Light, we have the ability to truly become these Flames of Divine

Love and Spiritually ascend in our physical bodies as Mother Earth Herself ignites

to hold the Flame of Divine Love for all Life on this earth plane through a group

collective Planetary Merkaba Vehicle of Light.

(more follows)

Poem by Michael Black

2011-11-04T12:39:00.000-07:00

Crossing Wildcat Creek

There, far below us, lay Wildcat Canyon.

We scampered down an unmarked trail,

Beneath magnificent, gnarled California Live Oaks,

Acorns and leave mold gnawing at our feet and nostrils.

Down, down, down we dropped, descending

Into a riparian woodland which once housed Ohlone dreams.

One by one, trees peered inside each of us, perhaps assessing

Whether our hearts were sufficiently clear, open and tender

To proceed?

At creek side, live oaks mixed with alders and other

Vertical record keepers, welcoming fairies home.

Boulders and trickling water our companions,

We both knew to remain silent. Often speaking is

Best done by Being.

Passing through the sheltering tree canopy, we

Walked along this spur and that, until the shadows

Enveloped everything and everyone. The light turned

Liquid orange, with a hint of yellow, magenta and

Purple. Quietude washed over the land.

Sunset reminded us to take the return trip home.

Dropping down creek-side, there we stood for the longest

Time, listening to the mesmeric sounds of water,

Counterpointed by gently conversing Owls.

Standing there together, drinking in the beauty, I

Felt a knowing in my heart. Some soul or souls

Sought our help in that moment, from another dimension.

Grounding deeply, we dropped into Dream Time.

A peaceful Ohlone Village once occupied this land

And its people sought our help. A child once drowned

In the creek, and its soul was trapped on the astral.

Would we assist in reuniting it to its family in the

Light?

I’ve grown accustomed to often saying “Yes,” while

Walking in this world, as “Seva” has become as deeply ingrained

As breathing.

I spoke with the child’s soul, thanking it for its prodigious gifts,

And offered, on behalf of the Great Spirit, to reunite it with its

Tribe. Would the child’s soul trust that our hearts were

Sufficiently pure to proceed?

“Yes,” came its answer, and supported by

The Ohlone themselves, we created a sacred

Caldern to contain the disembarking Being.

As owl man, I called upon owl woman to kindly

Assist this most precious soul in crossing over

Into the Light. Would they kindly assist? “Yes.”

I also called upon the Angelic Keeper of Souls, in case

Fragmented soul shards needed to be gathered for the

Imminent journey home. Would they help us? “Yes.”

Next I asked the Ohlone whether they were prepared to receive their

Little Great One? “Yes.”

At twilight, I felt deeply moved as the child’s soul rode out of

Wildcat Canyon, atop owl’s own gracious back. Tears of gratitude

Welled up as the child was, at last, reunited with a once-grieving tribe.

All was made right again within the peaceful Water Temple below.

When all was unsaid and done, the Canyon’s Apu—and

Especially the Creek itself—sought acknowledgement for having

Held sacred container on behalf of so many for so long. I found a

Stone that was just right. My companion reverentially returned it

To its precise place amongst free flowing waters. After calling out to me,

A second stone, too, sought to be honored, loosened from the creek bed and

Released. I asked whether it was a gift? “Yes, for Wildcat Creek.”

We returned that stone, with Thanksgiving, to now jubilant

Waters.

With winged hearts, we scrambled up the steep hillside that evening,

saying reverential “Thank yous!” and “Goodbyes!” to the trees, the Apu,

The Ohlone, to owl woman, to the Angelic Keeper of Souls, to the

Devas, elementals, fairies, elves, gnomes and All-that-is who made this

Resurrection possible.

The next time you cross Wildcat Creek, or one possessing perhaps a different name,

Consider bearing unspeakable gifts on behalf of a magnificent Earth.

Give your love away, like a Blessed

Consecration. It becomes you. . .

Michael Black

(Michael is a dear friend, a poet/mystic, nature lover and in general one who has one of the most open hearts of anyone I know.)

About the Three Part Nature of the One Creator

2011-11-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

Recently, I received this perceptive letter from someone who had read "Unmasking the Rose." At the risk of seeming to be too egoic, I am including her complimentary words about this text, as well as her rich and discerning analysis of the "One Source." She makes an important point: (several, actually) and that is that Kundalini bliss is but one aspect of the divine creative force and that a complete view will take into account the other aspects of 'his" nature as well. As she notes, when we are in the grips of intense Kundalini bliss/pleasure, it is difficult if not impossible to think in a rational, analytical fashion. Only before and after intense awakening can we think in a more analytical way (but we can learn to alternate between the two modes.)

Dear Dorothy,

In the public library here in Eugene, I happened across your unique memoir, Unmasking the Rose, and I am writing to express my appreciation.

The disclosure of your kundalini awakening is far more informative than other such accounts I have read, and this is largely because of your unflinching honesty. I consider it an immense act of generosity that you have been so frank, neither minimizing nor exaggerating the character of your experience. Furthermore, the detailed account of your spiritual odyssey is fully contextualized by your personal life in such a way that I can better understand how a sublime transformation of consciousness—indeed veritable identification with Source Consciousness—still leaves room for the homeliness, doubts, and intrinsic imperfection of individual life. I am so very grateful you decided to publish rather than give in to the idea that your memoir was somehow incomplete. To my mind, the non-finality of your spiritual enlightenment constitutes a seal of its truthfulness and authenticity.

I would also like to remark that I admire your fidelity to the inner guru. It is not only exemplary, but also it is an encouragement to those of us who, for whatever reason, could not get ourselves situated, much as we might wish for it, within the community of a compatible human guru.

You may wonder what factors in my personal history move me to write you. The thing is, I have familiarized myself with this general subject matter through years of reading and intensive solitary contemplation. Yet I am not a meditator. Rather, as you describe in Part One of your memoir ("Preparation: mind encounters Mind"), there has been in my case "a passion of writing." I have spent the major energies of my life in "essays/reflections on certain fundamental truths." Rather than extensive mystical experience, I have a theological orientation. What makes me happy is revelatory ideas about the Creator, the Source Consciousness.

I value your memoir for a variety of reasons, but especially for the light it throws on human union with a particular aspect—the bliss aspect—of Source Consciousness. As you have pointed out, the extremity of spiritual bliss tends to resist (or postpone) objective comprehension. At the height of bliss, there is an annulment or eclipse of the Examiner. Thus, mystical theology, which depends on the Examiner, must usually precede or else follow in the wake of bliss consciousness. When bliss has subsided or is not yet in full flower, intellectual apprehension of Source Consciousness can filter into the human mind though intuitions or sudden knowledge-nuggets.

For me, theologically, there is the tri-unity of Shiva, indicated by his trident. For Mother-worshippers, the same tri-unity is indicated by the inverted equilateral triangle. As I see it, there are three aspects of the One Creator:

First is Presence or Omnipresence. Your memoir, Unmasking the Rose, throws very great light on the character of the divine presence, which is all presence. i.e., omnipresence—the original substance or existence, potentially capable to manifest as all the limited objects and subjects of the universe. Eternally, from the no-beginning, the aspect of Presence is creative bliss. Even before the worlds come to be, there is OM, the creative bliss ocean, characterized by the love/joy of ever-becoming-one. Within that perpetually confluent primordial maelstrom of harmonic forms there are no discrete individuals, but only the original identity, Shiva or Source Consciousness. The creative bliss so eloquently described in your memoir is, to my mind, none other than the original presence/body/world of Shiva. If and when the original presence/body/world of Shiva becomes contracted or coiled, it is known as kundalini, the vibrantly ingenious and dynamic stuff of the universe.

The second aspect of Source Consciousness is Omniscience, i.e., comprehensive understanding and also the perception of unrealized possibilities. What unrealized possibilities? In the original bliss, certain creative possibilities are foreclosed, because they can manifest only in conditions of darkness and limitation. The Omniscience of Shiva is aware of these latent possibilities.

That leaves the third aspect of Source Consciousness, which is Omnipotence—the original, almighty I, the so-called Will of God, by which Maya is activated. Maya, the limitation of consciousness, is the prerequisite of individuation. By the power of Maya a secondary reality, a contingent and inferior reality, shows its effects. This secondary reality is the universe, which comes to be because Shiva is not attached to perfection. Shiva, the original I, is absolutely free and wild. Inherently, he is beyond all obligations, and he has such a nature, he is possessed of such awful, wild asceticism, that he can actually sacrifice perfection in order to manifest the creative possibilities of good-and-evil. When the universe comes to be, it is as if original Bliss becomes the sacrificial animal, drawn and quartered to make the myriad worlds. The beauty and horror of this divine act is aptly illustrated by the sacred person of Shiva—a magnificent figure, crowned by the moon, entwined with deadly serpents, loins wrapped in the skin of a tiger, with the heavenly Ganga spilling from the tangled heap of his dreadlocks.

Again, Dorothy, I am thanking you for clarifying to your readers the originally blissful nature of Nature. This original bliss is well concealed by Shiva. What he has concealed, he alone can reveal. It seems that Shiva has arranged for certain persons to get acquainted with Original Nature through the medium of your frankly shared life experience. Hence we have been blessed to read your wonderful memoir Unmasking the Rose.

With my gratitude, admiration, and best regards,

Pavani

Jonathan Goldman and Internet Radio

2011-11-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

Healing Sounds Radio November 9, 2011

HEALING SOUNDS RADIO with Jonathan Goldman & Don Campbell

www.healthylife.net--November 2011

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please tune in November 9, Wednesday, at 12 noon US Eastern Time, to www.healthylife.net when I present "The Healing Sounds Show". My guest for this show will be Gregg Braden.

Gregg Braden is internationally renowned as a pioneer in bridging science and spirituality. A New York Times best selling author, Gregg spent many years as a scientist working for major corporations before the global crises of the late 20th Century inspired him to begin a full-time quest for the solutions that he believes survive in the oldest records of our past. For more than 20 years Gregg has searched high mountain villages, remote monasteries, and forgotten texts to uncover their timeless secrets.

To date, his work has led to such paradigm-shattering books as The Isaiah Effect, The God Code, The Divine Matrix ,The Spontaneous Healing of Belief, Fractal Time and his latest, Deep Truth: Igniting the Origin of Our Origin, History, Destiny and Fate. Gregg's work is now published in 17 languages and 23 countries and shows us beyond any reasonable doubt that the key to our future lies in the wisdom of our past.

Through Gregg's work, we discover that we have the power to reverse disease, re-define aging and even change reality itself, by embracing the focused power of human belief as the quantum language of change.

Gregg is both a colleague and a friend who has collaborated with me on the co-creation of several projects including the CD of "The Divine Name:Sounds of the God Code". I am so very pleased to discuss Gregg's new work in what will undoubtedly be an extraordinary vehicle for transformation.

In addition, please tune in on December 14th for what I promise will be a most intriguing and captivating radio show.

If you have a question and would like to be "live" on the air with us on the Healing Sounds show, here's the audience call in telephone number: 800 - 555 - 5453.

Please tune in to this Internet Radio Show Wednesday, November 9th, at 12 noon Eastern Time to healthylife.net

Harmonically Yours,

Jonathan Goldman

If you like, please connect with us on Facebook and Twitter

Contact Information

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

email: info@healingsounds.com

phone: 303-443-8181

web: http://www.healingsounds.com

"When Death Comes" (poem by Dorothy)

2011-11-01T16:20:00.001-07:00

WHEN DEATH COMES

I HOPE THERE WILL BE

A GENTLE DARKNESS,

A SLOW DIMMING

OF THE CLAMORING WORLD,

AS IF SOFT MUSIC

PLAYED

IN THE OTHER ROOM,

AS IF TENDER BREEZES

OPENED

AND TOOK YOU

INTO THEIR ARMS,

AND YOU WILL MORE OR

LESS DRIFT AND THEN

LOOK DOWN

AND SEE A FORM

LYING BELOW

AND WONDER WHO

THAT COULD BE.

DOROTHY WALTERS

OCTOBER 26, 2011

Things to be Emptied (poem by Dorothy)

2011-10-31T10:14:00.001-07:00

Things to be Emptied

Now at last

I have become

Buddha.

That is to say,

When I bow

And close my eyes

Before my tongka,

I see myself sitting

As he does,

Lotus pose,

Eyes shut,

Hands arranged

In delicate mudra.

I move a bit,

Feel soft energies

stir within.

Soon it will be time

To turn

To doing—

Things to be emptied,

Things to be filled,

Walks outside

To greet the new fallen snow

Weighting the boughs

With their heavy love.

Dorothy Walters

October 26, 2011

(Note: After many weeks of feeling "nothing," the sweet energies returned today. I had assumed (as I have many times before) that the process was finished at last, forgetting that I was not allowing time for it to happen.

But this morning all was restored--the sweet, soft, blissful energies opening th cellular body from root to ears, each gentle movement stirring the feelings ever more. Again, I felt the "energy body"by moving my hands a few inches away from my arms. Again, I could move the energies here and there by rotating my eyes.

Why did this happen? Last night I was in the company of a very advanced soul, someone who dedicates his life to the Mother, with little compensation or scant recognition. His presence was quiet, soothing. Before dinner, I had not felt quite well (stomach ache, eyestrain.) When I got home, everything was healed. And this morning the healing was further expressed as gentle bliss in the body.

I mention all this partly because I wish to keep a record of my own progress and partly because I am convinced that this is the path that the majority of the race will follow as evolution occurs. Human evolution is not merely a mental process. It will-must--include the body, which will open to ever higher levels of delight as it is infused with what we call "light"--divine energies descending to transform our "earth bodies" into true "light beings."

Bruce Lipton

2011-10-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

Bruce Lipton is one of the most evolved thinkers of our time. He is always worth hearing. I realize that this post is so late that many will miss the audiocast, but note that it is possible to download his presentation later by going to the Beyond Awakening Audio page.

TODAY: Spontaneous Evolution with Bruce Lipton

Please join us TODAY for:

Bruce Lipton:

"On the Brink of Spontaneous Evolution"

TODAY, Thursday, October 27th, 2011

at 5:30pm Pacific; 8:30pm Eastern; UTC/GMT-7

Dear Friends,

We've all heard stories of people who experienced seemingly miraculous recoveries from illness, but can the same thing happen for our planet?

According to pioneering biologist Bruce Lipton, it's not only possible, it's already happening. We are surrounded by the proof that we are poised to take an incredible step forward in the growth of our species. He offers a new and hopeful story about humanity's evolutionary destiny.

In fact, according to Bruce Lipton, changing our understanding of biology and human history will help us navigate these turbulent times

He invites us to reconsider:

The unquestioned pillars of biology including random evolution, survival of the fittest, and the role of DNA;

the blueprint for our sustainable, life-affirming future that is literally inside us - encoded in each of the trillions of cells comprising our bodies

how our beliefs about nature and human nature shape our politics, culture, and individual lives; and

how each of us can become planetary "stem cells" supporting the health and growth of our world and every individual in it.

By releasing the old beliefs that keep the status quo in place, and by building our lives and world on this heartening new story, we can trigger the spontaneous evolution of our species.

Please join us!

Co-Evolutionarily,

Terry Patten

How to Participate:

Bruce Lipton:

"On the Brink of Spontaneous Evolution"

Thursday, October 27th at 5:30pm Pacific*; 6:30pm Mountain; 7:30pm Central; 8:30pm Eastern

*Find your local time

Listen live by phone or online, or download the recording anytime.

Access Instructions

To listen live by phone, dial: 206-402-0100 (alternate #: 501-707-0312)

Then, enter Access Code: 272072#

To listen live online go to:

http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=20955216

To download the audio after the teleseminar is complete go to the Beyond Awakening Audio Page

Join the Dialogue: About one hour into the dialogue, we'll open up the lines and you'll have the opportunity to interact with us directly over the phone or via Instant Message. Here's what to do:

1. To interact live by voice, dial into the conference line and wait until we ask for questions

2. Send us your question via Instant Message in the teleseminar window in the webcast interface on your computer.

Connect with us! You can always join the dialogue, before and after all the Beyond Awakening dialogues by posting your questions and comments on our Beyond Awakening blog.

You can also engage with Beyond Awakening's many fans, on our Facebook page.

About Our Guest:

Bruce H. Lipton, PhD is a stem cell biologist on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine, where he has done original research on muscular dystrophy and human stem cells, eventually producing breakthrough studies on the cell membrane, which revealed that this outer layer of the cell is an organic homologue of a computer chip, the cell's equivalent of a brain. His research at Stanford University's School of Medicine, between 1987 and 1992, revealed that the environment, operating though the membrane, controlled the behavior and physiology of the cell, turning genes on and off, presaging the emerging science of epigenetics.

His deepened understanding of cell biology highlighted the mechanisms by which the mind controls bodily functions, and implied the existence of spirit. He applied this science to his personal biology, and his physical well-being and the quality of his daily life was greatly enhanced. He has taken his award-winning medical school lectures to the public and is currently a sought after keynote speaker and workshop presenter. He is the author of The Biology of Belief, and Spontaneous Evolution, Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here.

To listen to all the Beyond Awakening dialogues, please visit our audio archive page, where you can browse, preview and download our complete collection of dialogues.

About Our Host:

Terry Patten co-developed Integral Life Practice with Ken Wilber and a core team at Integral Institute. He hosts the acclaimed online teleseminar series Beyond Awakening: The Future of Spiritual Practice. He speaks and consults internationally--inspiring, challenging, and connecting leaders and institutions worldwide. In his cutting-edge writings, talks and teaching, he not only inspires transcendental awakening, love and freedom, but calls us to accept and incarnate our full humanity. He was the senior writer and co-author, with Ken Wilber, of Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. His 8-session course, Integral Spiritual Practice guides students step-by-step in establishing a heart-centered do-able daily integral practice. His personal web sites are http://integralspiritualpractice.com, http://gobeyondawakening.com, and http://theispcommunity.com.

Evolving Wisdom

369-B Third Street, Suite 302

San Rafael, CA 94901

About Gurus

2011-10-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

In ancient times in India and other regions of the far East, the truths of the traditions were "ear whispered" from guru (teacher) to follower. This knowledge was considered sacred, and the disciple was expected to follow a severe regime to make himself worthy of receiving such precious teachings.

Today, similar teachings are much easier to obtain--as print, as internet information, even on youtube. On the one hand, this is a momentous leap forward in the availability and dissemination of spiritual wisdom. On the other, there are also dangers that accompany such an advance.

One possible result is the desacralization of sacred knowledge. What is so easily obtained (at least as text) may be dismissed as irrelevant or unimportant by those who approach it on a superficial rather than a profound level. Without proper guidance, some may misinterpret meanings or deliberately skew them to suit their own purposes. And some may take passages literally that are intended to be interpreted symbolically or to be seen simply as examples.

There is also the danger that inauthentic teachers or gurus may present themselves and claim to be steeped in holiness when the opposite is the case. We have all heard of the gurus who abuse their power for sexual or financial gain.

Here are some suggestions for testing whether the"guru" is authentic and trustworthy.

l. Never trust a "guru" who offers to cure all ills, reward with all possible benefits, or offers a "swift path" to enlightenment. Enlightenment comes after serious and dedicated searching. It is a blessing to be received, not a frivolous favor to be bestowed on anyone who asks. As I mentioned earlier, the result of "enlightenment" may not be what the disciple was expecting.

2. Be wary of those who claim to be themselves "enlightened," or even avatars. An avatar in its original meaning is a reincarnation of a god. It seems unlikely that an avatar would try to sell his wares on the internet like any huckster.

3. Consider teachers as opposed to gurus. Gurus claim to possess all knowledge and demand total dedication from their followers. Teachers offer what wisdom they possess, and do not make such demands on their students. Instead the latter are invited to test each assertion for themselves and draw their own conclusions.

(The pictures above are those I took from my front window this morning. Two days ago the temperature was in the eighties. Yesterday, it dropped 40 degrees with the results you see in these photographs. The landscape is beautiful, and today we have sun and blue skies to make the world especially filled with magic.)

POEM BY JEANNINE GOODE-ALLEN

2011-10-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

WHEN DEATH COMES

(by Jeannine Goode-Allen, inspired by Mary Oliver)

When Death comes

opening the door into Eternity,

when Death comes

letting me fall into the Beloved,

when Death comes

I do not know when or how,

I will hold it's tender hand

full of trust and awe.

Every soul I meet on this earthly path

will pass through this door,

I do not know when or how.

And I think of each life as a flower,

each one vibrant, each one growing,

with a song in its heart,

with a rhythm in its swaying,

and I feel each one's courage.

It is not a journey for wimps.

When it is over I want to say

all my life I have found

the strength to breath deeply,

the strength to look around the next corner,

the strength to continue to climb,

no matter how great the pain,

no matter how much the wind is howling.

When it is over I want to say

all my life I have looked for and expressed beauty,

I have heard and responded to the cries for love,

and I have found the Peace that surpasses all understanding

no matter how deep it is hidden

no matter how long I have had to sing.

World Wide Meditation 11-1-11

2011-10-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

Fwd: 11-1-11 Worldwide Meditation

Greetings, loved ones,

It seems like a good time to pray or meditate or whatever you do to touch god.

Love,

Peggy

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Evolutionary Leaders"

Date: October 24, 2011 2:16:19 PM MDT

To:

Subject: 11-1-11 Worldwide Meditation

Countless individuals around the world share the belief that humanity's next evolutionary leap will be achieved by collectively serving conscious evolution. They support the need to build a global community, restore ecological balance and encourage social transformation that optimizes human potential. Let us together reflect upon our own individual and collective part of the evolutionary process. We invite you to join with members of the Evolutionary Leaders circle who will be meditating at their annual retreat in northern California at 11:11 AM PST on November 1, 2011.

Please begin by repeating the collective intention provided by Lynne McTaggart below and join us in silence wherever you are. You may log on to the Institute of Heartmath /Global Coherence Initiative’s Global Care Rooms to view where other participants are located through a beautiful representation of our Earth.

An audio recording of the 11-1-11 Guided Meditation will be available on the following day on the Global Care Rooms site and on the Evolutionary Leaders site at www.evolutionaryleaders.net, allowing you to continue to do the meditation and hold the intention in the coming weeks.

11-1-11 Meditation Intention:

Our intention is to transcend superficial differences that divide us – race, religion, politics, beliefs, culture – to acknowledge, experience and honor the essential bond that unites us all as one interdependent organism.

We also intend to evolve in both consciousness and action so that each of us learns to perceive the whole, relate to others in wholeness, widen our definition of ‘we’ to be all inclusive and become evolutionary leaders for a peaceful, holistic, sustainable world.

(Note from Dorothy: Lynn McTaggert's book called "The Field" is now a classic. Be sure to read it if you haven't already.)

Who knows what we might achieve if we tune our collective minds to the same frequency.)

Enlightenment Once More

2011-10-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Enlightenment, Again

I have discussed the question of enlightenment before, but now I wish to turn to this topic once again, viewing it from the perspective of more years and experience, perhaps of more wisdom.

During my experience of deep spiritual transformation in l981, I became enlightened. This may seem like a grandiose claim, so I want to explain more precisely what I mean.

When Kundalini arose—totally spontaneous, totally lacking any of the disciplinary preparations of those who follow rigorous paths to awakening—my energies—ecstatic and sensuous—literally shot from my root and second chakra into my head, which itself became enraptured in a totally sensuous way. My crown opened, and I literally felt the “ten thousand lotus petals” unfolding within as an ecstatic flow of energy entered from above. It was then, at this crucial moment, that I became enlightened.

The culmination of the experience came as an overwhelming insight. The insight was the realization that I did not exist, that “I’ was a fairy tale, something I had in fact made up myself to carry me as a psychic construct along in my role as an “actor” in this world. If this invented “I” did not exist, then what was real?

And the answer flooded in: the only reality was this overwhelming, all consuming, all enveloping and totally rapturous “energy” now flowing through my head and through my body. My physical form, my thought system, my “me”—these together made up an infinitesimal particle in this great, surging, all pervasive conscious and utterly blissful energy. I was now privy to a small taste of this mighty force, for to confront it in its full intensity would be to court death. There are many myths and stories of those who “came too close” to divine essence and were annihilated as a consequence. Even Moses was allowed merely to see the backside of God as He passed by.

So—for a few minutes I realized this incontrovertible truth: only “God” (creative source) is real, and we are insignificant “molecules” in his vast body.

And thus it was that I became enlightened.

Now, many who undergo such illumination are quite disturbed, even embittered by the truth they have encountered. They are incensed to think that they are insignificant “players” on a manufactured screen. They want “enlightenment” to mean a state of perpetual bliss, all problems solved, all wisdom theirs. They wish to think of themselves as those who have transcended the human condition and attained a superior state of being.

But the opposite is true. “Enlightenment” as I encountered it is a totally humbling experience. It occurs when we realize our ultimate insignificance as separate entities apart from our source. It brings about understandings which reduce us to our proper dimension in the great scheme of the universe.

My illumination did not last in the sense of a continuing state of bliss and of “tne thousand petals opening.” I ultimately “came back” to what we on this plane call “reality.” But I did retain a strong memory of that pivotal episode in my life. And from then on I had to learn to walk in the “two worlds,” the mundane and the sublime,

And I came to realize that, although in the absolute sense, I was “nothing,” on the human plane, my life—like that of each of us—had meaning and purpose. I realized that compassion itself was the highest expression of divine service. Though we could not fathom the totality of “God’s”

nature, we could each dedicate our gifts and our spirits to the service of humanity, for this was our rightful destiny, despite what some might call a contradiction of logic. This dedication without expectation of reward was how we redeemed ourselves, how we proved our worth to ourselves and to our fellows.

Thus, though I experienced a brief taste of enlightenment, I make no claim to “be” enlightened. I am grateful for that experience, as if I had been, momentarily, lifted to the top of the mountain and given a glimpse of the Edenic realms beyond. And I wonder, even though we are “nothing” on this plane, what will we be when we ascend in light to source once we leave behind this level of existence?

"Role Models" (poem by Doothy)

2011-10-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

Role Models , or How I Became a Lesbian

Every day in the summer I was ten

I ran the four blocks

to the library of the teachers’ college

where they had a magic corner

called “the children’s collection” and let

you check out books.

Two was the limit at one time

So as soon as I got my quota I rushed

Back home to read as fast as I could,

Then dashed back for two more.

That way I got to read almost

All the books in the children’s collection

That summer,

And also found my role models

For life:

Jo in a window seat,

bent over her book as she

munched an apple,

Her mane of chestnut hair

Cascading down her back.

And then there was Heidi,

Always sledding down

The mountain,

Or toasting cheese

over her open fire.

I had never seen an “open” fire

But faithfully held my Velveeta slice

Over the blue orange flame

Of the front burner

Of our gas stove

Each day

And prayed it didn’t melt

off the fork,

But usually it did.

I also had never seen a mountain,

For I lived on a prairie,

which was flat,

but planned to visit Switzerland

as soon as possible

when I grew up,

and there I would dance

among the wild flowers

in spring

and ride a sled down to

the valley during winter

and then go home

and get warm

in front of the great open fire

and eat more cheese.

In fifth grade,

I met a real life role model—

Miss Johnson, our teacher, whose hair

was quite short and who later served

in the WAACS during the war.

She had a booming voice

And sparkly brown eyes and

lived with her female partner--

something about her

seemed familiar,

as if Jo and Heidi

had gotten melted

into a single person

and I knew I wanted

to be just like her

when I grew up,

cut my hair short

and have another girl

for my roommate

and indeed,

that is pretty much

what happened.

I still read books

and eat cheese

and think of Miss Johnson

often

and wonder

where she is now,

whether she ever

reads in a window seat somewhere,

while nibbling

on pieces of apple

and toasted cheese.

Dorothy Walters

Oct. 14, 2011

Nathalie Delay in Boulder

2011-10-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

Nathalie Delay of the Kashmiri Shaivite tradtion comes to Boulder

I am printing the following information because it so happens that Kashmiri Shaivism is the tradition I feel the closest alliance with. I was never formally initiated into this tradition, but when I discovered it, I realized that I had an important link to this lineage. It is basically a Tantric tradition, which some approach from a sexual perspective. For me, it is the delight of feeling the inner energies flow from simple arm and hand movements in a non-prescribed (intuitive) fashion. This practice is called a "Tandeva" dance (the dance of Shiva) in the Shaivite tradition. I discovered that I had been doing it for years before I found out it had a name and was a regular practice for some.

Nathalie received her transmission from Daniel Odier, who writes sometimes about sexual tantra, sometimes not. She currently lives in Berkeley, so it is a real treat to have her come to Boulder. After the evening described below, she will be giving a two day workshop at another location in Boulder--you can get more info by calling or e-mailing Yuko as listed below.

Shaivism of Kashimir: a non-dual tradition with Nathalie Delay

October 28, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM | Public Talk

Nathalie is considered one of the masters of Shaivism of Kashmir, and particularly its Pratyabhina lineage, a non-dual authentic tradition. She embodies perfectly the ideal of Pratyabhijna, which...

resorts to no ritual, no form, no stratagem, but proposes a direct dive into the source of the Self. Please join us!!!

Category: Awakening

Location Charlie & Lyra's home

1340 King Ave.Boulder, CO, 80502

map

Date(s) October 28, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Fee At the door $20.00

Contact Yuko Hashimoto, 303-443-3237

yukofreedom@gmail.com

Can You go Home Again?

2011-10-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

This is a personal entry. It has to do with a recent experience I had just this past weekend, when I returned to my home town for my brother's 90th birthday. I had not visited "home" for 15 years, nor had I had any regular contact with him. The event was celebrated with an open house for some 100 people, and, since I do not like crowds and did not expect to know anyone there outside of family (my brother and his wife, and some three nieces and nephews and their spouses) I was not looking forward to the event with any enthusiasm. It was a "duty visit," rather than a pleasure trip.

I was in for a great surprise. My brother and his wife, neither of whom had hugged me or even shaken my hand in past times, greeted me cordially, hugged me, and did all they could to make me feel welcome. My brother had changed considerably over the years (as had I), and now seemed to be a gentle, sweet elder, someone who had finally come to terms with life, and was happy to be reunited with his "little sister."

The open house had barely begun when someone I did not recognize sat down next to me (chairs were lined up against the wall) and asked me if I had attended the local college. I of course had, starting with my senior year in high school when I enrolled in algebra and Freshman composition at the college, for I was eager to begin my academic career.

My freshman English teacher was someone who made a profound impression on me. She was a deeply spiritual woman (Christian Science) who considered all writing a sacred activity and all writers part of the chosen ones. Her favorites were Emerson, Wordsworth, Thoreau and the like, and thus she fed my great hunger for contact with great minds by focusing on exciting writers of vast wisdom and vision. For her, these were not simply texts to be dissected, but invaluable repositories of eternal truths, deep wells to quench our thirst for connection with that which was greater than ourselves. She was the first to encourage me in my writing, and to point me toward an authentic awakening from the cultural trance (see Plato's allegory of the cave, for example, or Wordsworth's sonnet "The World is too much with us.") I felt I had entered a new realm, a world where reality as opposed to mere appearance prevailed. I was giddy with my new knowledge, and vowed to beeome a writer worthy of my teacher's trust. At age 16, I underwent a deep spiritual transformation into mystical consciousness, and the world turned beautiful in every sense, for I seemed to perceive the underlying sacredness of all objects and every person. Divine love was the key, and I felt bathed in its tender rays.

For the next two years, I took every course I could from this master teacher. I traveled with her each Sunday to her "Church of Christ, Scientist" in a nearby city and with the others repeated "There is no life, truth, substance or intelligence in matter: all is infinite mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is all in all." Although a few years later I drifted away from this unquestioning faith, I never forgot this woman, for she was indeed one of the great shaping forces of my life. I felt very blessed to have encountered such an amazing soul so early in life, and felt that i carried her blessing with me thereafter.

So--imagine my surprise and near disbelief when the woman who had sat down next to me announced, 'I remember you, for I was your English teacher's assistant and I graded your themes for freshman composition." I was, in fact, a bit stunned. How was it that this particular woman, who shared my admiration and love for this marvelous woman, had manifested beside me, as if by fate. How did she remember grading my essays some 67 years later? We shared precious memories and agreed that Miss Molly Ruth Bottoms was indeed a unique spiritual being.

But there was more to come. As various persons came by to introduce themselves, I sometimes remembered them from long ago, sometimes not. And then one man appeared, said his name, and asked if I remembered him. Indeed I did, for when our grade school performed the operetta "Peter Rabbit," he was the lead character . (I was "First Lettuce.") It so happened that I had been smitten with deep love for this boy (I was about ten at the time) though I never "spoke my love", but I confessed to him now. This "crush" (for it was never acted on or openly acknowledged) lasted for many years, and I mourned deeply being separated from him the following year when he was assigned to a different school. In fact, I grieved for this "loss" for several years, almost as if I were acting out a script of "abandonment" (how could there be abandonment in such a secret relationship?) which was to recur in actuality in my life later. (I am a Pisces, and Pisces likes to suffer.) So this relation also was an important landmark in my life, the first of many such episodes in my life.

Then "Peter Rabbit" asked if I had done my graduate work in Englsh at the state university, and I had, taking the PHD in English in l960. He said that he had also attended this institution (in another department) and knew many of the English professors there, and wondered if I had known Victor Elconin. The man he named was my beloved dissertation director, again someone who had had a vividl impact on my life. We then reminisced about the others in that department, which was, in fact, outstanding in the caliber of the faculty, who loved literature and taught with enthusiasm and dedication.

Keep in mind that this trip down memory lane includes connections from the beginnings of my life (my brother remembered the day of my birth), then as a young child, my early teen years, then my graduate school days. It was a life review in every sense, more or less like the old "This is your life" program that used to be on T. V. As one friend put it, it was like a tapestry that was missing some threads that were now restored and rewoven, the fragments now arranged in order and integrated into a whole.

I did not sleep much that night, for I had great deal to process. It was, for me, a truly significant occasion, linking past to present, memory to current life.

Where did such synchronicities come from? If I had talked with others in that room of 100 people, I don't think I would have made such significant connections. It felt as though the entire sequence of unlikely discoveries had been orchestrated elsewhere, perhaps from an unseen benevolent presence in the other realms who wished to endow me with a blessing of grace.

(The picture is of me standing in front of the "Old North Tower," on the campus where I attended my first two years of college. At that time (during WWII and soon thereafter) the enrollment was about 500. Today it has expanded into a university with an enrollment of about 15,000. The town as well has expanded vastly in geography and population (about 150,000 now). It was a little village when I was born there (about 2,000 souls). It now is one of the wealthiest communities in Oklahoma. Since I left that "village" in l946 to go away to college, my life has unfolded in many chapters, and I have become in some ways a vastly different being--through such experiences as becoming a professor, setting up an early women's studies program when such areas were extremely controversial, discovering I was a lesbian, living for 21 years in San Francisco with its vast array of cultural and spiritual offerings, and, of course, awakening the Kundalini energies in such a dramatic fashion and experiencing them play out over 30 years, publishing various books, including two (in my seventies) of spiritual poetry and one of spiritual autobiography. But I believe those early years set the tone, "planted the seeds," of all I was to become later. They were extremely important in laying the foundation for a much more complex life in later years, but I treasure them still.)

Poem by David Whyte

2011-10-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

The Faces at Braga

David Whyte

The Faces at Braga

In monastery darkness

by the light of one flashlight

the old shrine room waits in silence

While above the door

we see the terrible figure,

fierce eyes demanding, "Will you step through?"

And the old monk leads us,

bent back nudging blackness

prayer beads in the hand that beckons.

We light the butter lamps

and bow, eyes blinking in the

pungent smoke, look up without a word,

see faces in meditation,

a hundred faces carved above,

eye lines wrinkled in the hand held light.

Such love in solid wood!

Taken from the hillsides and carved in silence

they have the vibrant stillness of those who made them.

Engulfed by the past

they have been neglected, but through

smoke and darkness they are like the flowers

we have seen growing

through the dust of eroded slopes,

then slowly opening faces turned toward the mountain.

Carved in devotion

their eyes have softened through age

and their mouths curve through delight of the carvers hand.

If only our own faces

would allow the invisible carver's hand

to bring the deep grain of love to the surface.

If only we knew

as the carver knew, how the flaws

in the wood led his searching chisel to the very core,

we would smile, too

and not need faces immobilized

by fear and the weight of things undone.

When we fight with our failing

we ignore the entrance to the shrine itself

and wrestle with the guardian, fierce figure on the side of good.

And as we fight

our eyes are hooded with grief

and our mouths are dry with pain.

If only we could give ourselves

to the blows of the carvers hands,

the lines in our faces would be the trace lines of rivers

feeding the sea

where voices meet, praising the features

of the mountain and the cloud and the sky.

Our faces would fall away

until we, growing younger toward death

every day, would gather all our flaws in celebration

to merge with them perfectly,

impossibly, wedded to our essence,

full of silence from the carver's hands.

- David Whyte

David Whyte will be giving a workshop in Boulder October 22 (Friday).

Poem by Joyce Sutphen

2011-10-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

Bookmobile

by Joyce Sutphen

I spend part of my childhood waiting

for the Sterns County Bookmobile.

When it comes to town, it makes a

U-turn in front of the grade school and

glides into its place under the elms.

It is a natural wonder of late

afternoon. I try to imagine Dante,

William Faulkner, and Emily Dickinson

traveling down a double lane highway

together, country-western on the radio.

Even when it arrives, I have to wait.

The librarian is busy, getting out

the inky pad and the lined cards.

I pace back and forth in the line,

hungry for the fresh bread of the page,

because I need something that will tell me

what I am; I want to catch a book,

clear as a one-way ticket, to Paris,

to London, to anywhere.

The first stage of the path to God in the Sufi tradition is the stage of longing. Even when we are children, we often yearn for "something more," something larger, more stimulating, some kind of escape from the tedium of the everyday life. Many of us, like the author of this poem, sought such expansion of soul and insight as children through reading. Books opened a door into another world, perhaps magical realms where miracles occurred.

I think that that such longing in childhood can lead us into the "longing for the divine" that drives many into the arms of God as adults. We are seeking a different world, a "higher" version of reality than that found in the shrunken landscape about us. We are not willing to settle for "it is what it is," but seek ceaselessly for the truth beneath the surface, the hidden connection that points us toward the treasure within.

And for many, Kundalini is the key, the secret implement that unlocks the door, reveals the enchanted landscape we have unknowingly prepared for all of our lives.

Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches? (poem by Mary Oliver)

2011-10-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?

Have you ever tried to enter the long black branches

of other lives --

tried to imagine what the crisp fringes, full of honey,

hanging

from the branches of the young locust trees, in early morning,

feel like?

Do you think this world was only an entertainment for you?

Never to enter the sea and notice how the water divides

with perfect courtesy, to let you in!

Never to lie down on the grass, as though you were the grass!

Never to leap to the air as you open your wings over

the dark acorn of your heart!

No wonder we hear, in your mournful voice, the complaint

that something is missing from your life!

Who can open the door who does not reach for the latch?

Who can travel the miles who does not put one foot

in front of the other, all attentive to what presents itself

continually?

Who will behold the inner chamber who has not observed

with admiration, even with rapture, the outer stone?

Well, there is time left --

fields everywhere invite you into them.

And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away

from wherever you are, to look for your soul?

Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!

To put one's foot into the door of the grass, which is

the mystery, which is death as well as life, and

not be afraid!

To set one's foot in the door of death, and be overcome

with amazement!

To sit down in front of the weeds, and imagine

god the ten-fingered, sailing out of his house of straw,

nodding this way and that way, to the flowers of the

present hour,

to the song falling out of the mockingbird's pink mouth,

to the tippets of the honeysuckle, that have opened

in the night

To sit down, like a weed among weeds, and rustle in the wind!

Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?

While the soul, after all, is only a window,

and the opening of the window no more difficult

than the wakening from a little sleep.

Only last week I went out among the thorns and said

to the wild roses:

deny me not,

but suffer my devotion.

Then, all afternoon, I sat among them. Maybe

I even heard a curl or tow of music, damp and rouge red,

hurrying from their stubby buds, from their delicate watery bodies.

For how long will you continue to listen to those dark shouters,

caution and prudence?

Fall in! Fall in!

A woman standing in the weeds.

A small boat flounders in the deep waves, and what's coming next

is coming with its own heave and grace.

Meanwhile, once in a while, I have chanced, among the quick things,

upon the immutable.

What more could one ask?

And I would touch the faces of the daises,

and I would bow down

to think about it.

That was then, which hasn't ended yet.

Now the sun begins to swing down. Under the peach-light,

I cross the fields and the dunes, I follow the ocean's edge.

I climb, I backtrack.

I float.

I ramble my way home.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems)

More Recommended Books

2011-10-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

More books recommended by Ivan Granger from http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/books/

Sacred Poetry – General Anthologies

The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry

by Stephen Mitchell

This is a compact anthology, but a wonderful collection that includes Li Po, Wu-Men, Rumi, Kabir, Mirabai, Rilke… And the added bonus of Stephen Mitchell’s way with words. One of my personal favorites.

Music of the Sky: An Anthology of Spiritual Poetry

Edited by Patrick Laude / Edited by Barry McDonald

A shorter anthology of world sacred poetry with an emphasis on rhymed verse translations. Selections from Sufi, Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian traditions. And several beautiful Native American and African poems and songs.

To Touch the Sky: Poems of Mystical, Spiritual & Metaphysical Light

Translated by Willis Barnstone

Willis Barnstone’s translations balance the scholarly with the poetic — a real treat! This anthology ranges from Sappho and early Biblical utterances, to Wang Wei, Rilke, and St. John of the Cross. I like to leaf through the pages until something catches my attention and I’m pleasantly lost in the poem.

The Soul is Here for its Own Joy: Sacred Poems from Many Cultures

Edited by Robert Bly

Another good, wide-ranging selection of sacred poetry gathered by Robert Bly. From Hafiz to Freidrich Holderlin, Mirabai to Mirza Ghalib, Rumi to Rilke. A very good book to pick up, open to a random page, and then disappear…

The Winged Energy of Delight

Translated by Robert Bly

A very nice collection with a modern feel. Poetry ranges from Rilke, Antonio Machado, and Juan Ramon Jimenez, to Rumi, Hafez, Kabir, and Mirabai.

News of the Universe: Poems of Twofold Consciousness

Edited by Robert Bly

Another good collection of world poetry selected by Robert Bly. The collection feels a little scattered to me, but contains many treasures too.

Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty

Edited by Alan Jacobs

This is a treasure chest of world sacred poetry, especially in Western, Hindu, and Sufi traditions. I’ll admit that the translations aren’t always my favorite, and you won’t find biographical notes about the poets, but this book will introduce you to many new voices. Recommended for sheer scope and enthusiasm.

The Essential Mystics: Selections from the World’s Great Wisdom Traditions

Edited by Andrew Harvey

An excellent anthology from Andrew Harvey. Poetry and brief excerpts from sacred writings among many world traditions: primal cultures, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Ancient Greece, Christianity, and Islam. Open to any random page and you’ll find an uplifting verse, saying, explanation, or wisdom story.

Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women

Edited by Jane Hirshfield

This is the first anthology I got years ago that made me say, Wow! Includes Sappho, Rabia, Yeshe Tsogyel, Hildegard von Bingen, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch of Antwerp, Lalla, Mirabai, Bibi Hayati, Marina Tsvetaeva. The best collection I’ve found of women’s voices in sacred poetry.

The Shambhala Anthology of Women’s Spiritual Poetry

Edited by Aliki Barnstone

Another very good anthology of spiritual poetry by women, from ancient to modern times. Covers many of the same poets as Women in Praise of the Sacred, like Mirabai, Mahadevi, Lal Ded, Sappho, Sun Buer, Dickenson, Tsvetaeva, but also several different poets. The two books together make a good collection.

Technicians of the Sacred: A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe & Oceania

Edited by Jerome Rothenberg

A wonderful collection of songs, chants, and poetry from primal and ancient cultures around the world. African, Native American, Pacific Islands, pre-Christian Europe… The renderings into English have a very fluid feel. Often it works well, avoiding too much form or forced rhyme; sometimes it may feel a little too modern. Overall, though, an excellent collection.

Sufi Poetry

The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry

Translated by Peter Lamborn Wilson / Translated by Nasrollah Pourjavady

One of my favorite collections of the Persian Sufi poets, some you may have heard of and others who may be new to you: Jami, Attar, Hamadani, Iraqi, Hafez, Ibn Arabi, Sanai, and many others. If you like Sufi poetry, this is a book you should have. Excerpt…

Love’s Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition

Translated by David Fideler / Translated by Sabrineh Fideler

Another very good collection of Persian Sufi poetry. This book focuses on poems and poets that are not as well known in the West. A good place to discover some new names.

Islamic Mystical Poetry: Sufi Verse from the Early Mystics to Rumi

Translated by Mahmood Jamal

Highly recommended for its broad range of Sufi poets, some hard to find in English translation, as well as for it’s approachable translations. Excerpt…

Perfume of the Desert: Inspirations from the Sufi Wisdom

by Andrew Harvey / Eryk Hanut

Something about Andrew Harvey’s selections and translations always strike a pure note. This book is a delightful collection of poetry and Sufi wisdom stories. Rumi, Kabir, al-Hallaj, Shabistari, Ansari… This is one I return to again and again.

Quarreling with God: Mystic Rebel Poems of the Dervishes of Turkey

Translated by Jennifer Ferraro / Translated by Latif Bolat

This is an excellent sampling of poetry of Turkish Sufis, most of whom haven’t been translated into English until now. You’ll find a few poems by well-known figures, like Yunus Emre, but many other stunning works by names you’re less likely to have heard of, such as Ummi Sinan, Kul Himmet, Seyh Ibrahim Efendi, and Niyazi Misri. Recommended.

Umar Ibn al-Farid: Sufi Verses, Saintly Life

Translated by Th. Emil Homerin

Umar Ibn al-Farid’s poetry is often considered to be the pinnacle of Arabic mystical verse, though surprisingly little known in the West. His two masterpieces: “The Wine Ode,” a beautiful meditation on the “wine” of divine bliss, and “The Poem of the Sufi Way,” a profound exploration of spiritual experience along the Sufi Path. I keep returning to this book for another taste of the “wine.”

Fakhruddin Iraqi: Divine Flashes (Classics of Western Spirituality)

by William Chittick / Nasr Seyyed Hossein

Iraqi bridged several Sufi traditions and traveled through much of the Muslim world. Born in Iran (not Iraq), he became a member of an important Sufi order in India/Pakistan. For political reasons, he escaped to Turkey. There he studied the philosophy of Ibn Arabi, inspiring his stunning “Divine Flashes” — spiritual commentaries, peppered with short poetic verses. Very highly recommended!

Nobody, Son of Nobody: Poems of Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

Translated by Vraje Abramian

I read this book early in my exploration of Sufi poetry — and I was hooked! Abu Said Abil-Kheir’s poetry ranges from the ecstatic and celestial, to struggles with abandonment. His poetry has an immediacy and even a sort of devoutly wry petulance. This book remains a personal favorite of mine.

The Illuminated Rumi

Translated by Coleman Barks

Excerpts of Rumi’s poetry accompanied by digital collage artwork that draws you deeply into each page. This book entrances on several levels. An excellent gift book.

The Conference of the Birds

Translated by Afkham Darbandi / Translated by Dick Davis

Attar’s masterpiece about a group of birds (human souls) under the leadership of a hoopoe (spiritual master) who determine to search for the legendary Simurgh (God). The birds must confront their own individual limitations and fears before they ultimately find the Simurgh and complete their quest. This translation is the best I’ve found — though I’m still waiting for a translation that transports me in the same way that FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam does.

The Conference of the Birds: The Selected Sufi Poetry of Farid ud-Din Attar

Translated by Raficq Abdulla

Not a complete rendering of the Conference of the Birds (see the Penguin Classics version for that), but a nice selection of “highlights” paired with beautiful Persian paintings. Makes a nice gift book.

The Drop That Became the Sea: Lyric Poems of Yunus Emre

Translated by Kabir Helminski / Translated by Refik Algan

I found this book by accident. I had read a single poem by Yunus Emre and, transfixed, I blindly ordered this book of translations by Helminski and Algan. This “sea” is beautiful and deep. His poetry expresses a deep personal mysticism and humanism and love for God. If you like Rumi, do yourself a favor and read this too.

Wine of the Mystic: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyan: A Spiritual Interpretation

by Omar Khayyam / Paramahansa Yogananda

A 20th century Indian Yogi commenting on the spiritual meaning of an 11th century Persian Sufi’s poetry. That combination yields both perfume and controversy — but plenty to contemplate. Lovely artwork and border scrollwork. And Fitzgerald’s delightful translation of this classic. Recommended.

The Secret Rose Garden: Mahmud Shabistari

Translated by Florence Lederer / Edited by David Fideler

Shabistari’s “Secret Rose Garden” expresses a unified vision of Reality similar to the perspective of the great Sufi philosopher Ibn Arabi, but expressed through the rich Persian poetic tradition. Every page contains meditative treasures.

Perfect Harmony: (Calligrapher’s Notebooks)

by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi

Brief selections from Ibn Arabi’s metaphysical love poem “The Interpreter of Desires” combined with the amazing Arabic calligraphy of Hassan Massoudy. If you didn’t think calligraphy could be fine art, you have to look at this book. Find a quiet place, open this book, and lose yourself in any page…

The Shambhala Guide to Sufism

by Carl W. Ernst PhD

Not a collection of poetry, but good book to help you begin to understand who the Sufis really are. It’s been a couple of years since I last read this book, but I remember it as an intelligent, insightful look at the history, practices, philosophies, schools, and even politics of Sufism. If you’ve loved the poetry of Rumi but only have a vague idea of how Sufism fits within the Islamic faith, this book is an excellent place to start.

Buddhist and Taoist Poetry

The Poetry of Zen: (Shambhalla Library)

Edited by Sam Hamill / Edited by J. P. Seaton

A very nice sampler of Japanese and Chinese Zen poetry. Han Shan, Li Po, Wang Wei, Basho, Soseki, Ryokan, Issa… The book fits well in your hand when you’re walking to the riverside or the local coffee shop.

Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry

Edited by Wu-chi Liu / Edited by Irving Yucheng Lo

An encyclopedic anthology of Chinese poetry. You’ll find selections from every major and many lesser-known Chinese poets, including Li Po, Wang Wei, Han Shan, Tu Fu, Tao Chien, and far too many more to list. If you’re a lover of Chinese poetry, this is a must have book!

The Shambhala Anthology of Chinese Poetry

Edited by J. P. Seaton

Another excellent collection of Chinese poetry. Less voluminous than Sunflower Splendor, and thus less disorienting. A very good collection if you are just becoming familiar with the rich world of Chinese poetry.

Songs of Spiritual Experience: Tibetan Buddhist Poems of Insight & Awakening

Translated by Thupten Jinpa / Translated by Jas Elsner

Believe it or not, I found this one in a discount bin at my local bookstore — but what a find! One of the best general anthologies of Tibetan Buddhist poems I’ve found. Several verses attributed to Milarepa, as well as many other Tibetan yogis and masters. If you haven’t read much Tibetan poetry, this book is an excellent place to start.

Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter

Translated by Lucien Stryk / Translated by Takashi Ikemoto

A good collection without being overwhelming. I especially like it’s selection of Japanese haiku: Basho, Buson, Issa, Masahide…

A Drifting Boat: Chinese Zen Poetry

Edited by J. P. Seaton / Edited by Dennis Maloney

Although it has an unassuming cover, this book contains a very good collection of Chinese Ch’an (Zen) poetry. Several different translators, often rendering the work with a modern touch. The world of Chinese poetry can be disorienting; this is a good place to get your bearings.

The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

Translated by Red Pine

Han Shan (Cold Mountain) is one of the great figures of Chinese Ch’an/Taoist poetry, playful, cantankerous, rich with insight. There are several other good English renderings of his work, including by Gary Snyder. But in my mind this collection by Red Pine is the authoritative English version. The whole collection is here, along with the poetry of Han Shan’s companions, Feng-kan and Shih-te.

The Zen Poetry of Dogen: Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace

by Steven Heine

Although best known for his Zen discourses and his role establishing Zen practice in Japan, Dogen was an excellent poet too. Quiet moments of insight expressed in a bare minimum of lines. One of my favorites.

Sun at Midnight: Muso Soseki – Poems and Sermons

Translated by W. S. Merwin / Translated by Soiku Shigematsu

A friend introduced me to this collection, and I was entranced. Muso Soseki is known today for establishing rock gardening as meditative Zen practice, but his poetry — wonderful! And with translations by WS Merwin, you can’t ask for more!

Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan

Translated by John Stevens

It’s hard not to like Ryokan – his poetry, yes, but the man behind them too. A hermit and Zen practitioner, at times a comical figure, losing himself in the moment, in a game of ball with the local children, chasing down a thief who left something behind. His poetry encompasses the fulness and absurdity of life.

Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Poetry by the beloved modern master Thich Nhat Hanh, exploring service and suffering, humanity and interbeing, breath and stillness, beauty and bliss.

Hindu/Yoga Poetry

Speaking of Siva

by A K Ramanujan

This book became an immediate favorite of mine ever since I picked up a copy of it a few years ago. Stunning poems from the Shiva bhakti tradition of India. Basava, Devara Dasimayya, Akka Mahadevi, Allama Prabhu. The commentary in the book, though a little academic, is genuinely insightful. Enthusiastically recommended! Excert…

The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice

by Georg Feuerstein

This is not a collection of poetry, but an excellent book to help you make sense of the ancient, complex philosophies, practices, and beliefs that make up yoga. The Yoga Tradition is truly encyclopedic. This book will free you from the misconception that yoga is just an elaborate form of stretching. It introduces us to ancient and modern yogic philosophies and practices. The many expressions of Hindu yoga, Jain yoga, Buddhist yoga, Sikh yoga, saints, philosophers, and reformers… This book helps us to get oriented amidst thousands of years of complex history with a refreshingly coherent approach. Very highly recommended.

Christian Poetry

Christian Mystics: Their Lives and Legacies throughout the Ages

by Ursula King

This is not a book of poetry, but highly recommended if you want a brief survey of important visionaries and trends within the sometimes hidden history of Christian mysticism. Francis of Assisi, Hildegard von Bingen, the Beguines, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, Jacob Boehme, Symeon the New Theologian, and many others. The author of this book has done a nice job of balancing history with spirituality. This little book makes an excellent introduction to depths of the Christian tradition that are too often overlooked.

For Lovers of God Everywhere: Poems of the Christian Mystics

by Roger Housden

This has quickly become one of my favorite collections of sacred poetry within the many Christian traditions. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Hildegard von Bingen, Kahlil Gibran, Dante, Angelus Silesius, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Meister Eckhart, William Blake… and Roger Housden’s brief, thoughtful insights. Another excellent book by the editor of Ten Poems to Change Your Life, Ten Poems to Open Your Heart, and Ten Poems to Set You Free.

And I’m pleased to be able to point to an example of my own work in this book, my translation of “The Sum of Perfection” by John of the Cross.

The Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on the Soul’s Ascent from the Desert Fathers and Other Early Christian Contemplatives

Translated by John Anthony McGuckin

This is the book that, years ago, introduced me to the stunning poetry of Symeon the New Theologian, igniting my passion for his visionary poetry of light and transformation. You’ll also find poems and poetic renditions of writings from many other saints and mystics of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Still a favorite of mine.

German Mystical Writings: Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, and others

Edited by Karen J. Campbell

The commentary is a little dry, but an excellent selection of poetry by Hildegard von Bingen, Mechthild of Magdeburg, the Granum Sinapis, Angelus Silesius, as well as writings by Eckhart, Boehme, and others.

Francis and Clare: The Complete Works: The Classics of Western Spirituality

Translated by Regis J. Armstrong, OFM CAP / Translated by Ignatius C. Brady, OFM

I discovered this book years ago in a used book store on Maui, early in my days of reading sacred poetry. I was instantly hooked because, for some reason, it never really occurred to me that you can read the actual personal letters of such great saints of the Catholic tradition, like Francis and Clare of Assisi. But here they are: letters, spiritual guidelines… and poetry. If you’re new to medieval Christian mysticism and thought, this probably isn’t the place to start. But I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to cultivate a more intimate understanding of the spiritual life of one of the most loved saints of the West. Excerpt…

Hadewijch: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality)

by Mother Columba Hart

I was introduced to the divine love poetry of the Flemish mystic Hadewijch in the excellent anthology Women in Praise of the Sacred, edited by Jane Hirshfield. I knew I had encountered something amazing, but the sampling in that book was frustratingly small. I finally found this book with the complete works of this mysterious Beguine spiritual figure — visions, letters, and a beautiful collection of sacred poetry. The love mysticism of her poetry rightly draws comparisons to the rich traditions of Sufi and Bhakti poetry.

Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality)

Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes

The Lauds is a series of ecstatic poems praising love and the total transformation of self through love. Dive deep and explore.

Selected Poems of Thomas Merton

by Thomas Merton

I can’t recommend this collection highly enough. Merton, in addition to being a deep mystic, was a truly excellent contemporary poet. His poems feel entirely modern, yet touch on the eternal. While drawing on Catholic imagery, one can hear whispers of Eastern philosophy and insight in his words. Poems to reread and meditate deeply upon.

Jewish Poetry

The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse

Edited by T. Carmi

The most complete collection I’ve found of sacred Hebrew poetry, including Judah ha Levi, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Samuel Hanagid, the early Hekhalot Hymns, and many more. My only complaint: the translations are not versified, even though the Hebrew originals were. Still, worth reading.

The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492

Edited by Peter Cole

A very good collection of the great Hebrew poets and writers who emerged from the flowering of Jewish culture in Medieval Spain. A nice sampling of important figures of Kabbalah, philosophy, and culture, like Hanagid, ibn Gabirol, Halevi, Abulafia, and many more.

Modern Poets

Why I Wake Early

by Mary Oliver

You can’t go wrong with anything by Mary Oliver, but if you’re looking for a good introduction to her poetry, Why I Wake Early is a nice place to start. This collection is one to enjoy, one poem at a time, in those quiet moments before the busyness of the day starts.

Book of My Nights

by Li-Young Lee

Rise early for Mary Oliver and stay up late with Li-Young Lee. Something so direct yet startling in the quiet revelations of his poetry. Book of My Nights is the perfect place to start with his poetry.

Where Many Rivers Meet

by David Whyte

Adventurer, contemplative, business consultant — but, most deeply, poet. David Whyte is one of the most dynamic and insightful poets today. Where Many Rivers Meet is an excellent introduction to his voice.

To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

by John O’Donohue

I keep being told by people how much they love this book of poetic blessings from the Irish philosopher, poet, and mystic, John O’Donohue. These poetically crafted blessings and meditations on the passages of life manage to elevate the spirit, warm the heart, and, on occasion, bring a tear to the eye.

Other

Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making

by John Fox

Not a book of poetry, but a book that belongs on every poetry lover’s bookshelf. This is a book about the transformational nature of poetry – reading it, speaking it, writing it. Poetry as therapy. Poetry as a pathway to self-exploration. Poetry to rediscover your true voice. I was surprised how much I liked this book.

Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words

by Kim Rosen

What can I say? Read the first few pages and you won’t want to stop. An exploration of the power of poetry to open our lives in surprising, healing ways and, at the same time, an engaging personal memoir. Highly recommended.

Spiritual Books--Ivan Granger

2011-10-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

The following books are all recommended by Ivan Granger, the editor and publisher of the Poetry Chaikhana. As always, his taste is quite discerning:

Christian Mystics: Their Lives and Legacies throughout the Ages

by Ursula King

Highly recommended if you want a brief survey of important visionaries and trends within the sometimes hidden history of Christian mysticism. Francis of Assisi, Hildegard von Bingen, the Beguines, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, Jacob Boehme, Symeon the New Theologian, and many others. The author of this book has done a nice job of balancing history with spirituality. This little book makes an excellent introduction to the depths of the Christian tradition that are too often overlooked in favor of creeds and rites. Even if you were raised within the Christian tradition, my guess is that much of your own spiritual history was not handed down to you. Here is a good place to start to regain that connection.

(I will post more titles tomorrow--when I try now, I lose this post.)

The Shambhala Guide to Sufism

by Carl W. Ernst PhD

I am currently re-reading this book. It as an intelligent, insightful look at the history, practices, philosophies, schools, and even politics of Sufism. It doesn't get deeply into the more esoteric aspects of the Sufi world, but it gives a good overview. If you've loved the poetry of Rumi but only have a vague idea of how Sufism fits within the Islamic faith, this book is an excellent place to start.

The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice

by Georg Feuerstein

Unlike the other two books, which are relatively brief introductions to their subjects, The Yoga Tradition is truly encyclopedic. Dubbed "The Blue Phonebook" for its size and color, The Yoga Tradition completely dispells the misconception many have that yoga is just an elaborate form of stretching. It introduces us to ancient and modern yogic philosophies and practices. The many expressions of Hindu yoga, Jain yoga, Buddhist yoga, Sikh yoga, saints, philosophers, and reformers... This book helps us to get oriented amidst thousands of years of complex history with a surprisingly readable, coherent approach. Very highly recommended.

"Ego" by Peter Baumann and Michael W. Taft

2011-10-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

Ego

by Peter Baumann and Michael W. Taft (found on SoundsTrue website)

The Fall of the Twin Towers and the Rise of an Enlightened Humanity

Albert Einstein wrote of the human condition:

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us “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 to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Trapped in a complex web of emotion and thought, we understand ourselves as a cluster of identifications with race, nationality, religion, political beliefs, age, gender, and profession. Alone, these concepts would be ephemeral, but they are underpinned by knee-jerk emotional reactions, intense pleasure-and-pain conditioning in our bodies that resists any change or insight. Cobbled together, these concepts lock us in a sense of permanence and isolation, disconnected from the visceral common sense that would tell us at every moment just how wrong we are in our daily apprehension of reality.

Evolution acting through the mechanism of natural selection created the emotions that motivate and direct our behavior, as well as the imagination we use to model possible outcomes for that behavior. Over millions of years, these developed in our animal and proto-human ancestors into an extremely potent combination. As a system, our thoughts and feelings have ratcheted our species up the escalator from harsh, brutal survival in the dirt to the comfort, cleanliness, and convenience of sipping tea on a transcontinental flight.

And yet, like any technology—our body/brain system represents a highly advanced biological technology—there is almost as much of a downside as there is an upside. The same imagination that allows us to build jet airliners can dream up a plan to crash them into skyscrapers full of people. Our religious feelings motivate us to feed and clothe the needy, or to kill nonbelievers. The same empathic emotions that allow us to care for our families and children can motivate us to annihilate anyone we think threatens our loved ones. This downside doesn’t just drive international terrorists or even the murderer down the block. It drives the anxiety, depression, and alienation that plague us today.

Given that our bodies and brains, and therefore our thoughts and feelings, are the result of evolution, it is likely that evolution will also adapt in us a trait or capacity that provides a way out. Our genetic makeup is not written in stone, and is constantly changing. And although Einstein talks about taking individual responsibility to free ourselves from this prison—he was, after all, writing this quote in a letter to a rabbi—it may turn out not to be a personal matter at all. Perhaps it is more an issue of humanity, as a species, slowly marching toward an escape hatch.

The evolution of our species has not come to an end. Human beings are not a finished product, but instead a perpetually unfinished process, a moving target, and our current state, the human condition, is not the final word on the subject. Humanity is in motion as the wave of evolution continues to push us forward. The expansion of awareness that originally allowed us to become conscious of our thoughts and feelings is still under way. The rise in brainpower has not only created an explosion of skills—inventing tools, language, medicine, technology, civilization—it has at many times during the last two thousand years allowed some random outliers to glimpse something shocking: that who we think we are—our mental self- concept, or ego—is not actually what we are. Our self-concept is a symbol, an idea like any other. As evolution stumbles forward in its blind march of accidental brilliance, this radical insight that was once the province of a special few will slowly become the normal viewpoint: nothing special. The unfolding of the physical universe, the laws of nature, and evolution of life are generating the expanded perspective that will allow humanity to make the biggest prison break of all time—escaping the prison of ourselves.

Autumn Reflection (poem by Dorothy)

2011-10-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

AUTUMN REFLECTION

SHE CALLS IT “THAT

DARK SUBTERRANEAN CASTLE,”

THAT PLACE WHERE EVERYTHING GOES

IN FALL,

A SEASON WELL NAMED,

WHETHER OF THE WEATHER

OR OF LIFE:

THE DESCENT,

THE FALLING OFF,

THE DECLINE,

THE APPROACHING THE END,

WHICH EVEN NOW

IS NOT FULLY DEFINED,

SEEN STILL ONLY

OBSCURELY,

LIKE A MIRAGE

OR A SHADOW QUIVERING

IN THE DESERT DISTANCE.

YES, TRUE ENOUGH,

THAT GOING BACK,

TO ORIGINAL

MOLECULES AND ATOMS,

THAT DECONSTRUCTION

OF ALL THE PARTS

AND CONNECTIONS

THAT ONCE MADE

A SELF,

THAT CURIOUS ALLIANCE

ONCE USEFUL

NOW DISSOLVED

FOR ALL APPROACHING

TIME.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REST

OF IT?

DOES IT ALSO

DISBAND AND DECAY,

VANISH WITH THE MATERIA

INTO CLODS

AND DUST,

MAYBE RETURNING

AS A RAINDROP OR TWO

AT SOME UNSPECIFIED DATE?

WHAT ABOUT THOSE MOMENTS,

HELD TOGETHER

BY MEMORIES

AS VIVID

AS THE COLORS

OF A MOUNTAIN SUNRISE,

THOSE TIMES WHEN

“IT” FLOWED CLEAR

AND RADIANT

THROUGH CHANNELS

SAID NOT TO EXIST,

WHEN RAPTURE ITSELF

WAS THE KEY,

WAS EVERYTHNG,

WAS WHO YOU WERE?

DOROTHY WALTERS

OCTOBER 3, 2011

(QUOTE IS FROM MARY OLIVER)

"FALL SONG" BY MARY OLIVER

2011-10-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

Fall Song

Another year gone, leaving everywhere

its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply

in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island

of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering

in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds

and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure

painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing

to stay - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever

in these momentary pastures.

~ Mary Oliver ~

The 13 Indigenous Grandmothers

2011-10-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Dorothy,

Hi - It's Alison Weeks here of The Shift Network. We're excited and deeply honored to be hosting the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers for a 3-Day Virtual Gathering and Prayer Circle - which starts tomorrow!

Please visit our course page for more details and to register!

Each time we've featured these incredibly wise planetary elders, the response from you has been huge. We see this as a great reflection of the transformative times we're in and the message of hope and healing they're here to bring.

To ensure that the remarkable energy the Grandmothers generate spreads as widely as possible, we want every person who feels called to this virtual gathering to be able to attend. In service to this, we've compiled answers to the most commonly asked questions below:

Q: I'm intrigued by The Wisdom of the Grandmothers 3-Day Virtual Gathering, but I'm not really sure what it's all about or if it's for me.

This gathering is a unique and rare opportunity to sit in circle with members of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. These are elders who have come together from all four corners of the earth to share their message and wisdom for these times of great change.

Until this year, the only way to be with the Grandmothers was by traveling to their council meetings, which take place in rotating countries once or twice a year. The Grandmothers are now being called to share their work more widely through the virtual format we offer, and will be teaching on forgiveness, healing, ancient practices, manifesting our visions and many other topics.

If you have a deep desire to transform our world, are looking to commune with others in a global circle for healing, peace and inspiration, or recognize the tremendous value that ancient indigenous wisdom and practices can bring to our planet, this gathering is for you.

Q: I'm not available for one or more of the sessions with the Grandmothers. Will I still get the same benefit if I listen to the recordings and read the transcripts?

The Grandmothers will be in dialogue and prayer throughout the calls--sharing wisdom that easily translates in recordings and transcripts. Hundreds of people have taken part in their previous sessions through this virtual format and have reported experiencing profound healing, learning and joy. The teachings of this powerful group are divinely guided and powerful that we really hope you won't let your previous commitments stand in the way of receiving the same benefits from the recordings and transcripts. (In fact, surprisingly to us, in our surveys, we've found that a large percentage of you prefer the convenience of time and place that the transcripts and recordings afford!)

Q: How exactly will the 3-Day Virtual Gathering and Prayer Circle with the Grandmothers going to work?

Each day at 5:00pm Pacific Time, the featured Grandmothers will convene for 90 minutes with the group of participants. All you'll need is a phone line or Internet access if you want to join via webcast. The Grandmothers will share their teachings, stories and prayers on the evening's topic as well as offer practices to help you ground the wisdom into your daily life.

Towards the end of each session, we'll have time for Q&A, so that you can engage with the Grandmothers directly. In addition, you'll have the opportunity (if calling in by phone) to connect with other course participants in a small break-out discussion group, giving you the opportunity for further reflect and deepen your experience with the material.

Q: I prefer live gatherings and I'm not sure what the experience will be like virtually. What level of intimacy and connection can I expect to experience?

The Grandmothers hold a very intentional energy for these calls, and through their prayers and meditations, create a truly intimate, sacred circle. Within this container, you'll also have the opportunity to connect with other participants from around the world in a small discussion group, as well as engage with the Grandmothers live during the Q&A portion of the call. It will not feel as if you are attending a regular telecourse through your phone, but rather stepping into a sacred global circle of like-minded sisters, brothers and wise elders. Though traveling to special events is a wonderful experience, this virtual format is a way to contribute to building deep community that also saves money, travel-time, and has a much lighter ecological footprint.

Q: What can I expect to experience as a result of signing up for this Virtual Gathering?

There are many benefits available by connecting with the Grandmothers and the community that is being generated around them. A few of these include: support for accessing greater guidance in your dreams and visions; the ability to expand your capacity for forgiveness and compassion; a deep connection with a global family of people committed to a more humane and sustainable way of living; renewed hope for our future and a greater understanding of the unique role you're here to play. Because the Grandmothers teach as conscious conduits of the divine, there's truly no telling what great wisdom and insights may emerge during this gathering.

Q: How will this gathering benefit the 13 Grandmothers and the work they're doing in the world?

The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers is the fulfillment of many prophecies that now have them aligning their ancient wisdom together for the unity of our world. In this work, they travel each year to the home of one of their members, where sacred rituals, council sessions, prayers and meetings take place, all in service to this greater healing mission. A generous portion of the proceeds from this virtual course will directly support these gatherings, so that their energy of Love may ripple far and wide.

Please visit our course page for more details and to register! This gathering is a core expression of why the Shift Network exists. If you feel called, please join us! And if any questions remain, we are happy to answer them at course-support@theshiftnetwork.com.

Warmly,

Alison Weeks

Duane Elgin

2011-09-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

Duane Elgin is one of the most relevant thinkers on consciousness evolution among us today. The following describes a coming presentation by Duane that promises to be very thought provoking.

Please join us for:

Duane Elgin:

"Collective Crisis Meets Collective Wisdom"

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

at 10:00am Pacific; 1:00pm Eastern; UTC/GMT-7

Dear Friends,

Duane Elgin is one of the pioneers of evolutionary consciousness and integral philosophy. He has brought many crucial ideas into our collective conversation. Terry and Duane will explore freely, beginning with some of the key themes that Duane has so brilliantly clarified. For example:

1. A LIVING, NOT DEAD UNIVERSE: We live in a living, regenerative universe. This insight transforms our understanding of where we are, who we are, and where we are going.

2. SUSTAINABLE WAYS OF LIVING: Consumerism makes sense in a dead universe. But voluntary, happy, simplicity makes more sense in a living universe-and that is the view of reality emerging now.

3. MASS MEDIA AND MASS MIND: At this pivotal time in human evolution, it is vitally important that messages in the mass media serve our psychological and spiritual health and not distort our collective intelligence, imagination and evolution.

4. GREAT TRANSITION STORIES: We are in the early stages of a 'great transition.' There are a number of stories that offer insight into this process.

5. TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION: We require processes that will acknowledge and work to overcome the thousands of years of separation that has been experienced by different people at different times, including: women/men, poor/rich, black/white, old/young, Muslim/Christian, humans/other life-forms, etc. We would benefit enormously from a global, truth and reconciliation process at every scale.

Also, have you seen the 4-minute video I recorded last week, marking the 1 year anniversary of Beyond Awakening? I invite you to take a look and join in the conversation here.

Co-Evolutionarily,

Terry Patten

How to Participate:

Duane Elgin:

"Collective Crisis Meets Collective Wisdom"

Sunday, October 2nd at 10:00am Pacific*; 11:00am Mountain; 12:00pm Central; 1:00pm Eastern

*Find your local time

Listen live by phone or online, or download the recording anytime.

Access Instructions

To listen live by phone, dial: 216-258-0785

Then, enter Access Code: 272072#

To listen live online go to:

http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=22976823

To download the audio after the teleseminar is complete go to the Beyond Awakening Audio Page

Join the Dialogue: About one hour into the dialogue, we'll open up the lines and you'll have the opportunity to interact with us directly over the phone or via Instant Message. Here's what to do:

1. To interact live by voice, dial into the conference line and wait until we ask for questions

2. Send us your question via Instant Message in the teleseminar window in the webcast interface on your computer.

Connect with us! You can always join the dialogue, before and after all the Beyond Awakening dialogues by posting your questions and comments on our Beyond Awakening blog.

You can also engage with Beyond Awakening's many fans, on our Facebook page.

About Our Guests:

DUANE ELGIN is an internationally recognized speaker, author and trans-partisan media activist. His books include: The Living Universe, Promise Ahead,Voluntary Simplicity, and Awakening Earth. With Joseph Campbell and other scholars, he co-authored the book Changing Images of Man.

Duane has worked as a senior staff member of a Presidential Commission on the American Future, and as a senior social scientist with the think-tank SRI International where he coauthored numerous studies of the long-range future.

He is also a passionate media activist and, over the past thirty years, Duane has co-founded three non-profit and non-partisan organizations working for media accountability and citizen empowerment.

Duane received an MBA from the Wharton Business School, and an MA in economic-history from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, he received the international "Goi Peace Award" in recognition of his contribution to a global "vision, consciousness, and lifestyle" that fosters a "more sustainable and spiritual culture."

His website is at www.DuaneElgin.com

To listen to all the Beyond Awakening dialogues, please visit our audio archive page, where you can browse, preview and download our complete collection of dialogues.

About Our Host:

Feminine Power: The Essential Course for the Awakening Woman 7-Week Online Course begins May 11th!

In our 7-Week Course, we'll teach you everything you need to know to begin living the life you were born to live.

Over the last six years, we've worked with thousands of conscious women to pioneer a new teaching called Feminine Power. Our teaching is designed to guide you to manifest your deepest desires in all areas of your life and support you in generating a life that is reflective of your most authentic self.

So, what is Feminine Power?

Unlike masculine power, which is the power to create things that can be controlled, feminine power is the power to manifest that which is beyond our control, including those things that our heart most yearns for - such as love, intimacy, relatedness, creative expression, authentic community and meaningful contribution - and ultimately, the transformation of our world.

We've discovered the keys to awaken this magnetic, co-creative feminine power and we want to share them with you. Visit our course page to learn more.

Feminine Power: The Essential Course for the Awakening Woman 7-Week Online Course begins May 11th!

In our 7-Week Course, we'll teach you everything you need to know to begin living the life you were born to live.

So, what is Feminine Power?

our world.

Close the gap. Step into the accelerated evolutionary process of the Evolutionary Life Transformation Program. Taught by Integral Enlightenment founder Craig Hamilton, this 9-Month intensive program is designed to quickly and cleanly untangle you from the ego's web of limitations so you can experience for yourself the glorious freedom, joy and extraordinary significance of a liberated, evolutionary life.

Registration is still open! To register now, go to:

http://integralenlightenment.com/transformation

Join world-renowned pioneer of human potential Jean Houston and discover for yourself the underlying codes of how to live a truly remarkable life. Immerse yourself in a unique and intuitive 7-part system, connect with like-minded people around the world, and engage directly with Jean to activate your full capacities and live your highest calling.

Course begins October 4th. For more information and to register, go to:

http://www.purposeanddestiny.net/signup

Did a friend forward this email to you? Sign up for free access to future events at:

http://beyondawakeningseries.com

Evolving Wisdom

369-B Third Street, Suite 302

San Rafael, CA 94901

Cyndi Dale on the Need for Energetic Boundaries

2011-09-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

Energetic Boundaries

by Cyndi Dale

Energetic Boundaries

Though imperceptible to the naked eye, our energetic boundaries mean the difference between experiencing an enjoyable, prosperous, and loving life or suffering through a sad, limited, and unhappy existence. They separate what we need from what we don’t, selectively letting into our lives only those energies, people, guidance, thoughts, situations, opportunities, and healing that bring our spiritual essence further into our real lives. They also go a step further and purposefully seek out and draw in everything we need to achieve our hopes and dreams.

Our energetic boundaries border our spiritual selves and promote our true nature, which is one of the reasons I often call them “spiritual borders.” We long to express this inner identity, and establishing the correct energetic boundaries will help us do just that. When created and managed correctly, they make sure that our real selves—not the ideas, thoughts, and beliefs that aren’t us—are in charge of our lives. And they share information with the world, telling everyone exactly who we are, what we want, and how they can treat us.

Maybe you didn’t even know you needed to craft invisible parameters to keep yourself safe and intact. As you read this book, you’ll discover that not only must you have these boundaries, but also that having them improves your life dramatically. You’ll come to rely on your new “force field” to the point that you won’t leave home—or come home—without turning it on.

Those of us lacking these boundaries or operating with damaged boundaries often fall prey to marauders: people who, wittingly or not, take advantage of us; situations that fell us over and over; and depressing behavior patterns that leave us feeling much less happy, loved, supported, fulfilled, respected, and provided for than we deserve. Quite simply, without boundaries, we can’t share who we are with the world. We won’t receive the bounty the world has to provide, either.

The symptoms of energetic-boundary issues range from the irritating to the traumatic. They can include:

• Feeling overwhelmed by everyone else’s feelings, moods, needs, problems, negativity, and even illnesses

• Habitual people pleasing, usually to your own detriment

• Sudden, awful attacks of negativity

• Exhaustion, anger, and frustration from carrying, and caring about, everyone else while receiving nothing in return

• Recurring monetary, relationship, and work woes

• Depressing heaviness and physical illnesses, results of absorbing external energies

• Fear and distraction caused by intrusive psychic or supernatural events or energies

• Generalized anxiety, the product of always needing to watch for unseen dangers

• Constant compulsions, which are often signs of tending others’ energies and needs instead of our own

• The embarrassment of behaving in ways that don’t reflect your real self and that allow you to put up with the ridiculous from others

• The nagging feeling that the universe or the Divine is present for anyone but you

At least two-thirds of the individuals I’ve seen in my intuitive-counseling practice have lacked energetic boundaries or had damaged boundaries. But by erecting and/or healing these borders, they have grown leaps and bounds.

(picture found on SoundsTrue website)

Poem by Javad Nurbakhsh

2011-09-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

Come!

By Javad Nurbakhsh

(1926 - 2008)

I have collapsed at the start of your lane -- come!

I've lost the valley of 'I and You' -- come!

A lifetime I have consigned my head to the sanctum of

Your forecourt. O you the companion of those who are liberated from self, come!

I've let go all I had on the path of Union with You.

O the true existence behind each manifestation, come!

I've thrown existence to the winds in the way of love for You.

Come, devil-may-care lover, so hard to get to know!

I have lost knowledge of self in longing for You.

O cognizant One who has caused so much trouble, come!

I have taken leave of myself in desiring Your face.

The moment has come for You to reveal Your Face; so, come!

Nurbakhsh has become lost, in order to find You.

Enough of infidelity! Come in fidelity!

This beautiful poem of longing was written by a poet who lived in the last century and who died only a few years ago. Born in Iran, Nurbakhsh fled to England when the extremists came into power in Iran. He died there in 2008. His poem contains a traditional theme though he is a contemporary poet.

(Picture found on internet)

Poem by Mark Doty

2011-09-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

Visitation

When I heard he had entered the harbor,

and circled the wharf for days,

I expected the worst: shallow water,

confusion, some accident to bring

the young humpback to grief.

Don't they depend on a compass

lodged in the salt-flooded folds

of the brain, some delicate

musical mechanism to navigate

their true course? How many ways,

in our century's late iron hours,

might we have led him to disaster?

That, in those days, was how

I'd come to see the world:

dark upon dark, any sense

of spirit an embattled flame

sparked against wind-driven rain

till pain snuffed it out. I thought,

This is what experience gives us ,

and I moved carefully through my life

while I waited. . . Enough,

it wasn't that way at all. The whale

—exuberant, proud maybe, playful,

like the early music of Beethoven—

cruised the footings for smelts

clustered near the pylons

in mercury flocks. He

(do I have the gender right?)

would negotiate the rusty hulls

of the Portuguese fishing boats

— Holy Infant, Little Marie —

with what could only be read

as pleasure, coming close

then diving, trailing on the surface

big spreading circles

until he'd breach, thrilling us

with the release of pressured breath,

and the bulk of his sleek young head

— a wet black leather sofa

already barnacled with ghostly lice —

and his elegant and unlikely mouth,

and the marvelous afterthought of the flukes,

and the way his broad flippers

resembled a pair of clownish gloves

or puppet hands, looming greenish white

beneath the bay's clouded sheen.

When he had consumed his pleasure

of the shimmering swarm, his pleasure, perhaps,

in his own admired performance,

he swam out the harbor mouth,

into the Atlantic. And though grief

has seemed to me itself a dim,

salt suspension in which I've moved,

blind thing, day by day,

through the wreckage, barely aware

of what I stumbled toward, even I

couldn't help but look

at the way this immense figure

graces the dark medium,

and shines so: heaviness

which is no burden to itself.

What did you think, that joy

was some slight thing?

~ Mark Doty ~

Mark Doty is one one of the most brilliant poets of our time. Once he experienced a deep mystical experience during an acupuncture treatment, but he opted for the life of the artist--which embraces both the light and shadow, and includes the ordinary as well as transcendent experience (though some mystics do both as well). Mainly, I think that Doty did not want to explore the celestial realms or acknowledge the divine as a legitimate reality. But what he has done in his poetry to reveal the luminous truth of encountered experience through his language is stunning. The frolicking whale is an impressive interpretation of the capacity of nature itself to remind us that darkness is not the whole story, and that the creatures of earth and ocean can play in ecstasy even when things seem bleak to us.

(photo from Google)

September Song

2011-09-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

If you recall, the famous piece called "September Song" says, "The days grow short, as you reach September...These precious days I'll spend with you." The song is, of course, a love song, spoken by someone who knows he/she will be parted from his/her beloved before too long. But as I walked along Boulder Creek today, those words kept playing in my head, for, as we know, the last lingering days of summer hanging on the cusp of fall are precious and rare indeed. Each one must be savored fully, for soon the snows will begin, and then it will be many months before we can make the lovely creek walk again.

Does this have anything to do with Kundalini? I would say, everything, for nature is certainly one of the most soothing and healing environments we possess. Most of us do not exactly live "in nature" but rather "close by" nature, and hence such experiences are sometimes far too few.

In any event, it was a near perfect day, with memories suggested by the photos above. From bottom to top they are:

A flower that caught my eye as I walked through the neighborhood toward the creek.

Wildflowers along the creek path

One of the "early turners" in front of the public library

Some feathered friends on the creek path, hurrying to get their noontime snack from a well wisher who comes by each day to distribute duck happiness.

Almost Time (poem by Dorothy)

2011-09-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

Almost Time

No matter how hard you try,

your shadow

is always with you.

Like a suitcase attached

to your wrist,

that you drag along

wherever you go,

receptable filled with all the griefs,

sorrows, regrets, fears,

angers, anguish of

your life.

Sometimes it even

speaks to you, saying,

“Listen, remember

I’m still here--”

even if you thought

you got it all straigtened out,

paid up your debts,

reconciled with your folks,

started a new career.

Even if you moved to

a strange city,

made new friends,

began everything over.

Sometimes the shadow

lightens a bit,

as if a shadow had a shadow

and so forth,

each a bit less dark

than the one before.

But it is still the same

old shadow,

ready to take over

when you least expect it,

some little slight,

some curt word

cutting you impossibly,

taking you back

a hundred years of your life

in this existence or another.

Even when you are dying

the shadow will be there,

standing

at the bottom of the bed,

saying, “Are you ready?

It’s almost time.”

Dorothy Walters

September 23, 2011

All of us have a shadow. The shadow is not essentially our faults that we try to hide from others, but rather a place where we hold our own fears and anxieties, often not even admitting them to ourselves. How can we deal with the shadow? One way is to look it squarely in the face, to speak or--as in this case--write about it. I find the latter approach very helpful. When I wrote the above, I was not, in fact, especially depressed, but rather inspired by another poem I had just read dealing with the shadow. Often it is easier to confront the shadow from a "safe distance," when we have a bit of objectivity on the issue.

Light and shadow go together. We cannot wear a smiley face all the time, but must deal honestly with our "dark places," and find ways to ameliorate them as much as possible.

(photograph by N. M. Rai)

"What the Wizard Said' (poem by Dorothy)

2011-09-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

What the Wizard Said

A wizard will tell you,

"Follow me and I will give

you miraculous gifts.

You will perform miracles,

travel through

walls with ease,

fly over long distances

in the blink of an eye,

turn base metal into gold,

change water into wine.

Every wish

will be fulfilled

in an instant."

The guru says,

"Forget all these distractions

on the path.

I can open the gates of

paradise,

show you gardens

of precious rubies and gold,

conduct you into secret realms

where only the saved abide.

Just listen to me,

follow what I say."

Your heart says,

"What I can offer is

only silence.

What you will receive there

is boundless love,

constant oneness with all

that is.

What you will learn

is what you already know,

how love flows through

and binds everything together,

is sum and substance,

core and manifestation."

Dorothy Walters

August 27, 2011

Poem by Mary Ruefle

2011-09-21T17:54:00.001-07:00

Magnificat

by Mary Ruefle

O Lord, I did walk upon the earth

and my footprints did keep pace with the rain

and I did note, I did note where orange birds

flew up from the puddles thou hast made

and where the toads leapt from your trenches,

but nowhere was there that I could go

for I could not rise from the firmament

upon which I was placed, and nowhere could I

so I kept until I could no more straight

then bent said I am down to make room for the more

and you half hearing did send me down

into the soul of another by mistakes

and I would like to thank you for it

from where I lie, risen in the eye of the other.

poem by Rumi

2011-09-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

Become Part Of The Truth - Jellaludin Rumi

When school or mosque, tower or minaret get torn down,

Then Dervishes may begin their community.

For only when faithfulness turns to betrayal

And betrayal into trust

Can any human being become part of the truth.

- Jellaludin Rumi

On chi

2011-09-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

www.soundstrue.com/weeklywisdom

If you can access the above site (you can also google it as soundstrue weekly wisdom), you can listen to an impressive excerpt from a new interview they have issued on the energies of chi. Interestingly enough, the speaker attributes to chi energy virtually all that is also attributed to kundalini--the power that begets and sustains the universe and all that it contains.

Apparently there is actually little difference between what is called chi and what is called kundalini--at least, I have not been able to discover the distinction. Either way, they are beneficent force running through all sentient (and some would say insentient life as well). They are what keeps us "alive and running."

from Anam Cara

2011-09-16T15:18:00.001-07:00

The following is from the newsletter of Anam Cara Foundation, founded and directed by Lawrence Edwards, Ph. D.

Dear Friend

We are in a period of time when great challenges face all of us no matter what region of the globe we live in. Structures of all kinds are being pressured to respond in new and creative ways, or fail and crumble.

This pressure may be felt impacting the structures of our personal relationships, even the structures of our mind - our belief structures, thought structures, ego structures.

The pressures are also obvious on our political, economic, environmental, and spiritual structures.

Meeting these demands requires that we reach deep into our wisdom source through our various means of accessing that - prayer, contemplation, meditation, study, exercise, community - and energetically, selflessly work to support the most conscious, expansive and inclusive ways forward. Our leaders need your wisdom and insights.

There are no margins for standing on the side-lines. We all need to pull together. If I'm not pulling, then I'm dead weight for someone else to drag along.

Together we will transform our world. This is a time for collective transformation and that is very challenging. Living meditation, fully integrated meditation, allows us to free ourselves and others from the suffering imposed by the afflicted mind-states of others as well as our own.

Emaho!

Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching

Stephen Mitchell translator

The great Way is easy,

yet people prefer the side paths.

Be aware when things are out of balance.

Stay centered in the Tao.

When rich speculators prosper

while farmers lose their land;

when government officials spend money

on weapons instead of cures;

when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible

while the poor have nowhere to turn -

all this is robbery and chaos.

It is not in keeping with the Tao.

Whoever is planted in the Tao

will not be rooted up.

Whoever embraces the Tao

will not slip away.

Her name will be held in honor

from generation to generation.

Let the Tao be present in your life

and you will become genuine.

Let it be present in your family

and your family will flourish.

Let it be present in your country

and your country will be an example

to all the countries of the world.

Let it be present in the Universe

and the Universe will sing.

How do I know this is true?

By looking inside myself.

Harper Perennial Classics, 2006

Poem by Darshan Singh

2011-09-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

At dusk, at dawn I gaze upon your beauty

By Darshan Singh

(1921 - 1989)

English version by Barry Lerner and Harbans Singh Bedi

At dusk, at dawn I gaze upon your beauty --

A dazzling spectacle of rising moon and sun.

So far, the wayfarers have not discovered your footprints:

They stand staring at the stepstone of your door

Your glance of abundant grace did not satisfy;

We with the seeing eye know a glance from a glance.

Saqi, they've just arrived and taken their seats;

How is it that they've already gained intimacy?

Some you inspire with the madness of prostration:

They cannot tell their heads from your door.

Saqi, whoever comes by even a tinge of awakening

We see sitting in your assembly, oblivious to this world.

Men who are maddened by the thought of the goal

See not fellow travelers -- they are intent on the road.

Master, in what strange state your Darshan lives:

We always see his eyes moist with tears.

(picture from internet source)

Sky Beauty

2011-09-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14792580

The above site contains beautiful images of what is in outer space. It tells us, once more, that we are all related, for we all observe the same sky.

(The above picture is from the Hubble site, not the one mentioned above.)

poem by Mary Oliver

2011-09-13T11:10:00.001-07:00

The Kingfisher

The kingfisher rises out of the black wave

like a blue flower, in his beak

he carries a silver leaf. I think this is

the prettiest world -- so long as you don't mind

a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life

that doesn't have its splash of happiness?

There are more fish than there are leaves

on a thousand trees, and anyway the kingfisher

wasn't born to think about it, or anything else.

When the wave snaps shut over his blue head, the water

remains water--hunger is the only story

he has ever heard in his life that he could believe.

I don't say he's right. Neither

do I say he's wrong. Religiously he swallows the silver leaf

with its broken red river, and with a rough and easy cry

I couldn't rouse out of my thoughtful body

if my life depended on it, he swings back

over the bright sea to do the same thing, to do it

(as I long to do something, anything) perfectly.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(House of Light)

(image found on google)

Yoga Vasistha

2011-09-12T14:51:00.001-07:00

The Yoga Vasistha is one of the oldest and most venerated texts of ancient India, dating from somewhere around the 12th to the 14 centuries. It is closely related to Vedanta philosophy. I have never studied it, but somehow have long been fascinated by the name itself. When I looked it up on Wikipedia, here is what I found:

Yoga Vasistha is divided into six parts: dis-passion, qualifications of the seeker, creation, existence, dissolution and liberation. It sums up the spiritual process in the seven Bhoomikas:

Śubhecchā (longing for the Truth): The yogi (or sādhaka) rightly distinguishes between permanent and impermanent; cultivates dislike for worldly pleasures; acquires mastery over his physical and mental organism; and feels a deep yearning to be free from Saṃsāra.

Vicāraṇa (right inquiry): The yogi has pondered over what he or she has read and heard, and has realized it in his or her life.

Tanumānasa (attenuation – or thinning out – of mental activities): The mind abandons the many, and remains fixed on the One.

Sattvāpatti (attainment of sattva, "reality"): The Yogi, at this stage, is called Brahmavid ("knower of Brahman"). In the previous four stages, the yogi is subject to sañcita, Prābrabdha and Āgamī forms of karma. He or she has been practicing Samprajñāta Samādhi (contemplation), in which the consciousness of duality still exists.

Asaṃsakti (unaffected by anything): The yogi (now called Brahmavidvara) performs his or her necessary duties, without a sense of involvement.

Parārthabhāvanī (sees Brahman everywhere): External things do not appear to exist to the yogi (now called Brahmavidvarīyas), and tasks are performed only at the prompting of others. Sañcita and Āgamī karma are now destroyed; only a small amount of Prārabdha karma remains.

Turīya (perpetual samādhi): The yogi is known as Brahmavidvariṣṭha and does not perform activities, either by his will or the promptings of others. The body drops off approximately three days after entering this stage.

Note: Although not many of us will reach the later stages of this journey, we can all pursue the initial steps: we can long for truth, and seek to know it in our own psyches. The stage of "thinning out of mental activities" reminds me of the pronouncement of Baghwan Shree Rashneesh (the rascal guru of years past): "The mind must drop before enlightenment can occur." Many of us are so caught up in the world of thinking that we fail to enter the stage of "wordless knowing." I think this adherence to a strictly mental path is an obstacle to many academics and intellectuals who are, in effect, "domed against heaven" and thus miss the most important aspect of the journey. (However, I am not at all anti-intellectual--I just feel the mental should be balanced with the intuitive or feeling state, which is a different way of "knowing.")

(image found on Wikipedia)