...A Fragment of Life's Heart...

.... ..... ..... ..... It either unnerves you or settles your nerves - silence that is. The space between the words and the sounds.  Swami Kripalu asked if what we wished to say was an improvement on silence.  Lately the answer has been NO.  So I've been electronically silent.  The unfortunate or maybe just interesting thing is that even in verbal silence, there is often little mental & emotional silence or stillness.  And in today's hurried society, it's rare to find and wonderful to feel.  But silence doesn't mean being alone. How often have you had a silent meal with a friend/loved one or just sat with someone while they cried or laughed or just breathed. How often have you given yourself those things while being alone with you? No distractions, just you and you. In preparation for my birthday, I spent most of the week preceding in alone or with amply quiet & alone time.  I felt such a joy and excitement build in me during that week and...

Certainty Root my being in certainty
So I witness you without fear.
Even as the waves of blood crash over me
And the worlds char in fire.

 - Jalal-ud-Din Rumi So what certainty is Rumi asking to be rooted in, so that "I witness you without fear"? Certainty: a mental state of being without doubt; perfect knowledge that is free from error.  So it's not a certainty "about" anything, just a state of 'being' that is free from doubt.  What a concept to consider!  To live free from doubt & in perfect knowing & belief that all is perfect and right and in harmony with one's Path, one's Dharma.  Complete trust in the process equaling total freedom to be present and joyful, knowing worry was futile & just more fear (false evidence appearing real). To witness you, me, the world, WITHOUT fear, feels like a goal everyone could have.  To be in such a state of harmony and grounded faith that nothing could shake your presence from this moment....

We make millions of choices every day, often time without much awareness, thought or discernment about those decisions.  Some choices are now habits and don't feel like much of a choice.  Some choices take great deliberation and even after made leave us wondering if we "chose wisely" or not. What is choices were not about good or bad, right or wrong, but simply paths to new experiences and lessons that we needed to learn.  Labeling everything keeps us from truly learning the deeper meaning because it allows us to once again, mindlessly throw something into a box of assumption & singular in identity.  I'm beginning to discover that nothing is singular in identity even when we try to make it so, nothing is as simple and singular as we'd like it to be.  Once again, our search for stability, for ground when in fact, there is nothing constant except change. Example 1: A women who has been "in recovery" for many years CHOOSES to let go of that identit...

Becoming the Lover How can you ever hope to know the Beloved
Without becoming in every cell the Lover?
And when you are the Lover at last, you don't care.
Whatever you know, or don't – only Love is real.

 -    Jalal-ud-Din Rumi
 (Translated by Andrew Harvey from A Year of Rumi ) The seed of God is in us. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut tress, and God seeds into God. -    Meister Eckhart