Journey to the Oceans Edge

beachthoughts2
We made our way over the sand
Our hearts skipping stones on the surface of time
We watched them sink,
beyond our site,
below a glistening waterline.

Each one we threw, held a promise within
cast as far as our strength could take
Toward the horizon, side by side
We kept our fingers intertwined,
In case those thin threads of hope would break.

One day we’ll follow our hearts back to the coast,
to gather those moments we loved the most
we’ll drop our lines into the deep
and reclaim the treasure that we seek
before time turns us into ghosts.

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Ramblings of a Majnun

“The apparent is the bridge to the real” (Al-Majazu qantarat al-Haqiqa)
– Idries Shah.

To the human, see, everything is in the process of unbecoming.

She described my darkness…and it spoke.

I am not simply another colored rose in the same vase,
I did not cross over, or below, but sit beside your fear
If it’s a kingdom you seek, then come as Solomon…
let go of the vision of these pretty horses…
If it’s the most evolved visage of the divine you seek,
polish your own heart with the cloth of humility and compassion…
seek the one in tattered wool…
not the shiny new.

In your wee hours of darkness, I, the lowly seeker,
will be there to hold a candle for you…
gathering every flame in the lantern of my heart….

And in my darkness, all may turn away from me, leaving thin platitudes I know all too well.
And cast me among the extinguished coals in love’s shadows –
but my fire will rise.

Love the unseen within one human, and you will see more of yourself in their light than you ever knew.

“You dared to see the clarity of my eyes, when I dared to look into the clarity of yours,” so… who reflects who?

She said, “You, my beloved, have become a black rose.”
He said, “I mourn the loss of your light in my life and THAT is the darkness only you see.”

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We are all in Infinite Do Loops

in 1986, I was 23.  On November 9, 2015, this arrived by mail; sent by a dear old friend.  Now, mind you, I knew nothing of Sufism then and only recently began to meditate on Ibn Al’Arabi.

So I am quite certain that consciousness transcends time and distance – and books, and mystics.  We think we are vessels in the currents.  My beloved friends, in our truest essence, we ARE the current.

1986

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Animal Hearts

lookupWhen I leave,
this world is left with strangers.
I woke early this morning on a wooded mountain
and ambled out to an extinct fire pit –
maundering thoughts.
I watched birds and squirrels and listened
to songs and such and it occurred to me;
animals do not think in words.
And what of us humans, were we not to think
in words?
The heart just mutes these things out –
the mind just wishes to decrypt the mystery…
always a conflict…
an old and all-to-acquainted pair are they,
the heart and the mind.
They will go to their graves together.
And my mind cannot help but reason,
that when we use our hearts –
or when our hearts use us –
that we are most like animals.

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Aranyhid

All of humanity is a scintillating ocean; a never ending twinkling of sunlight, without which there is neither darkness, nor light. Each ray sent is a soul dispatched, each ripple is a life awaiting, each quick sparkling on the corrugated surface is a ray striking for the sole purpose of returning to whence it comes. The entire ocean is the perturbation of incarnation so that thereflections sun might know itself; the ocean surface is a glistening facetted diamond reflecting the source of a star.

We are ripples, nothing more, arrived reflections on the polished surface of humanity. Every birth is glistening aura, every death a reunion of light with light.

You cannot seek what you already are, in any place or at any particular time; there is no place – you are. There is no time – you are. There is no path to take – you are.

 

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Ramblings of a Majnun Part 2

Our present state is often a manifestation of waiting for something or someone in the future. And sadly we measure our waiting in hours, days and years… not deeds. We braid our thoughts into beautiful strands of words, tie them into bows around packages of hope and place them at the feet of God. Faith is not a gift we give, but one we receive.

Seek to know the many attributes of the giver, if you ever want to receive.

The body is inside the soul, the soul within the spirit, the spirit within the heart. What matters to you therefore will matter to everything. You cannot go to the mountain, the mountain is within you you. Hearts have hardened as the minds sharpened. I understand now … my children are my calling – what has been given up so that I might have them can never be returned. I gave up love for love. And that’s all it is… it requires no medium through which to travel… one thing that is never diminished… love. So much so, that one wonders if there was ever any “body” there at all; love casts a shadow made of light.

There is a form of learning that makes us “aware” but the true lesson for that kind of learning is beyond awareness.

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Cash without compassion, is the bitter slake of charity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYlHRkwlSUU&feature=youtu.be
Let me prepare you in case you are expecting a Hollywood production, with background music and celebration, cries of gratitude, broad smiles and praise. It’s not there friends. You can put on your own background sound. When you grow up in a world filled with violence and poverty, simply waking up for another day may be all the gratitude you can display. The endangered and impoverished life becomes a sideshow for the privileged masses – our standards lower, our expectations lower. This is the starkness of living in multiple worlds on one planet.

Musab was 12 years old when he was orphaned last summer during the ravaging of Gaza. He lost his mother in 2011 – killed by Israeli missiles and then lost his father in June 2014 – killed in his home during the pervasive bombardment. He still lives in Gaza and last year we started helping in the most basic way. I hope he and my children outlive me in the harsh years that follow.

How does one donate dignity, compassion, love… God, how do I put the perfume back in the bottle. My dollars are as wasted as my English words, and while the former puts food on the table, ultimately, it is not what is needed in Gaza or Syria. At best, it is monetary landline to let them know the world is listening and watching and in some cases, we hope, praying.

Cash without compassion, is the bitter slake of charity. The well-being of humanity begins with a divine compassion. Help me to tie the bow of charity for Musab with your empathetic awareness and well wishes. I know for a fact that the money gets there – but we need to be sure something more arrives. Please give me something to tell him, so he knows his home is more than a smoking 25 x 5 mile strip of isolated land worth no more than a tax deferment on some spare american currency.

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The Rind of Love

fruit2For every fruit, bitter and sweet, is the rind. So it goes for every human. And we twist and peel at their external visage and feast upon their essence until dried and withered. Then in our wanting despondency, we cast aside the aged and acrid pulp.

With those whom you share sweetness in this life, there is a seed just for you in their heart. Plant that seed within your own and their nourishment will flow endlessly within you. You cannot consume love from the outside, it consumes you from the inside.

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Essay on the Oneness of Being

A mystic seeks to sense what he knows is beyond the capabilities of his own instrumentation. He knows the search is an abandonment of all he knows…and perhaps all he knew that he sought to refine. It is surrender, submission not to anything, but of oneself. All we know, is reflected back as illusion from polished illusions… and this is not to say we should ignore illusions, and least of all, it is not to say we should not keep the surface of knowledge clean and smooth. The states of reflection lead to deepening states of self-cognizance and self-cognizance is the result of an abandonment of all tools and faculties used to cognize outside oneself. Unity.

If you are seeking God outside of yourself, the path will never begin, for you will have decomposed all that requires no proof. For no matter how much “proof” you amass, you cannot expect to recognize the totality of some thing if you cannot understand totality Itself as an essence. The most all-encompassing answers come from the most well articulated question, manifested in an individuals “highest state.” Indeed, the perfect question contains its own answer… you cannot measure that which is beyond measure.

All is oneness of being (creator), and as creation (the created), there is oneness of perception. The One reflects Itself as One, within a Single multiplicity. And the universe shares the single essence “…of existing… “ Even non-existence exists in God’s consciousness, so vast and incomprehensible is this. So, as a human being – know yourself as nothing else than the essence of “existing.” Let go of attachment – stop just short of being a man, a father, a soul, an anything – just be. To say ONLY “I am” is the most confounding statement – despite its simplicity. I can only grasp this by encasing “being” with “being-ness.” There is no effort in simply being… like a tree; as if a tree exists via “being-ness” no more or less than we do…

There cannot be anything other than what is… Nothing to do, nothing to say, nothing to be. Just “being-ness.” Why do we remove ourselves from the Wholeness of Being – and create so much “stuff” to occupy, distract, or appease our consciousness. If we simply exist with an awakened consciousness, the fog of multiplicity lifts.

Seek “awareness” of nothing… attach awareness to nothing – “la illah” for there is only One Being… whose Being-ness (without attributing being-ness to God….). Don’t seek the Being of God… seek only “being unto yourself.” He will manifest within your own cognizance, and you as “immersed in being-ness” will come to know Him as Being. “He who knows himself, knows God.”

He is the Real, you are the reflection. Consider yourself before a mirror. Your reflection is only as aware of you, as you are of it. Then what is the mirror? What is that surface that stands between you, yet so accurately creates an illusion of “you.” The surface of the mirror is ego… and its dissolution is the ultimate merger of a reflection and that, which is being reflected… one and the same.

All of humanity is a scintillating ocean; a never ending twinkling of sunlight; without which there is neither darkness, nor light. Each ray sent as a soul arriving, each ripple is a life awaiting, each quick sparkling on the corrugated surface is a ray striking for the sole purpose of returning to its source. The entire ocean is the perturbation of incarnation so that the sun might know itself; the ocean surface is a glistening facetted diamond reflecting the source, the sun. We are ripples, nothing more, reflections on the polished surface of humanity.

Every birth is glistening reflection, every death a reunion of light with its source.

You cannot seek what you already are, in any place or at any particular time – there is no place – you are. There is no time – you are. There is no path to take – you are.

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The “hidden potential” and the “emptiness” of all things

Here is the irony with visiting our own wilderness – as soon as we get there, it’s no longer wild.  How does one remain still with such compelling curiosity?  How does the ney flute remain silent, when its purpose as the once wild cane is to be cut away to kiss the neyzen’s lips and deliver its breath before the empty ears of the waiting.

Nothing cognizes a full heart like an empty heart – and yet it takes a fulfilled being to see itself as “empty.” Same for how the truly cognizant communicate – only the most perfect word can slip undetected past perfect silence… such memorable moments are mysteriously unnamable – designed to remain so.

Likewise, there is a beauty in not-having-anything that those-with-everything might miss. For everyone, life is a long blink… and all we seek to shed light upon is there in the dark. Sometimes that which we hope to see is persistent in remaining hidden; it is a revealing wisdom that we will make no effort toward our perfections, if the end is given to us first.

There is a peaceful calm in the burning desire to know oneself – I’d not know what to do, if I were not hidden.

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