Category: Spiritualibus

What asks
Will I live
Or will I die
A difference
Will it make
If any at all
I live now
And love it
Fully withal
Bodies do die
That is a given
In tangible worlds
Of space and time
Beyond however
Soul continues
In other planes
Of existence
In light, sound
And mostly love
With the divine
Leading one on
Into and out of
Any bodies lives
In total harmony
No matter what
One may fight
For or against
Until detached
Then moving on
One way or another
With or without
A given body
From a cycle
To the next
Best peaceful
As all can be.

“Breath of life chant” — the answer within

What asks — about outwitting the stars

“A child is born on that day and at that hour when the celestial rays are in mathematical harmony with his individual karma. His horoscope is a challenging portrait, revealing his unalterable past and its probable future results. But the natal chart can be rightly interpreted only by men with intuitive wisdom; these are few.
“The message boldly blazoned across the heavens at the moment of birth is not meant to emphasize fate — the result of past good and evil — but to announce man’s will to escape from his universal thralldom. What he has done, he can undo. None other than himself was the instigator of the causes of whatever effects are now prevalent in his life. He can overcome any limitation, because he created it by his own actions in the first place, and because he possesses spiritual resources that are not subject to planetary pressure.
“Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance. The wise man defeats his planets — which is to say, his past — by transferring his allegiance from the creation to the Creator. The more he realizes his unity with Spirit, the less he can be dominated by matter. The soul is ever free; it is deathless because birthless. It cannot be regimented by stars.
“Man is a soul, and has a body. When he properly places his sense of identity, he leaves behind all compulsive patterns. So long as he remains confused in his ordinary state of spiritual amnesia, he will know the subtle fetters of environmental law.
“God is Harmony; the devotee who attunes himself will never perform any action amiss. His activities will be correctly and naturally timed to accord with astrological law. After deep prayer and meditation he is in touch with his divine consciousness; there is no greater power than that inward protection.”

— Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), paperback pp. 161-162

ᓄᓇᕕ — Nunavik — a light blue world frozen in time and space

Know what you know
Look, see what you see
And dare to leave it at that
Free to feel what you feel
Be aware of your being
Conscious of what is
What and who we are
You — and I — and all
Individually one by one
Collectively intertwined
Woven together so close
Like threads in a tapestry
With its front and back
That can differ greatly
Turn the right side up
But know the flip-side
Will reveal connections
Beyond the pretty faces
Wisdom unravels karma
Honesty can work it out
Few words are needed
When action is clear
Ego on lasting leave
To relish the moment
Of present fulfillment
Looking into the eyes
The divine in everyone
And everything that is
Coming our way of life
Sound, light — and love.

“Know what you know” — very and nothing special

Exploring consciousness is observation, not opinion

I realize how confusing descriptions of consciousness can be. You do not have to immediately understand what is being pointed to… Just acknowledge the mystery of consciousness, drop any fixed views you may have about it, and keep practicing.

Different traditions and even different lineages within a tradition describe the experiences of pure awareness and luminous consciousness in their own way and give varying instructions as to how to practice with the experiences. The result is that it can be confusing to you as you try to interpret particular meditative states and figure out what to do next. My advice is to stay focused on your experience, do not try to interpret it, and, above all, beware of feeling as though you are special for having the experience. At the same time, do not deny that you “know what you know.”

Please remember that knowledge brings with it responsibility. One honors knowledge; one does not use it for glorification or exploitation.

“Awakening through the Nine Bodies: Exploring Levels of Consciousness in Meditation” by Phillip Moffitt, p. 34 & 211

No words, but action — a cool setting sun

Labels enable talk
About what works
And what does not
To find one’s way
In life’s context
Of many realities
Unfolding ever more
Always another step
To find what works
Learning not to claim
One to be the only way
Free of dogmatic chains
Which do tie one down
To a one and only path
In a vast infinity of all
And spiritual freedom
To recognize one’s own
The clear choice of one
Unique and individual
In the relative harmony
Of life, of love, and spirit
The light and the sound
The divine in everyone
As God realizes itself
Every moment anew
Not because but in spite
Of one’s labels and chains
Allowing one to harmonize
By just letting go detached
With eternal compassion
And the love of soul.

“Gently rotating fifth wheel” — a plea for peace

Labels enable talk about many things

Many ancient traditions are going through difficulties in an increasingly secular modern culture that is in great need of spiritual healing to overcome various forms of neurosis, partly developed by the way we live. In part this has to do with the fact that those traditions are still using archaic language and methodologies that don’t resonate with people anymore or are hard to relate to. The forms need to be updated from time to time as they meet a new era.

The mind-blowing popularity of hatha yoga is not an indication of those ancient traditions being alive or well understood by the masses. Yoga is becoming more and more like a fitness exercise imported from India, spreading all over the world after much of its profundity has been stripped off to fit consumerism. This is neither a good nor a bad thing. It’s just what is happening. No doubt that such a trend has many beneficial aspects. There is also a longing among many of us for something deep and profound…

To have more complete healing or spiritual awakening, it’s important to work with subtle dimensions of our own being and to purify psycho-physical karmic habitual patterns that hold us back in invisible chains of pain and suffering… Countless individuals have had life changing epiphanies that might be hard for others to understand. Many of them have profound experiences through Tantric and yogic practices — such as “unblocking the knot of the channels” — in which the body becomes healthier, the mind becomes more wholesome, and a sense of openness develops through which new streams of joy, love, and creativity flow.

— From the foreword by Anam Thubten Rinpoche to “Awakening through the Nine Bodies: Exploring Levels of Consciousness in Meditation” by Phillip Moffitt, pp. IX-X

Once upon a time there was snow