One thing I have learned on the path is the art of always returning. Returning to what? Returning to the grace of presence, to the equanimity of openness and to the profound relief of the deepest acceptance.
The path is fraught with traps and distractions, places where we inevitably forget the grace of presence and become lost in the waves. But then, and we have seen this in those we work with time and time again, there is a tendency to be self punishing about our ‘failure.’
Friend, all we have is our remembering and returning, else we will be endlessly trapped on the wheel of suffering. The self will always seek to perfect itself, even if that means attacking itself. This is no way to go on.
Return only, again and again, to this soft grace we may call presence, yet is also the deepest acceptance of the way things are. Be diligent of course, but also soft and forgiving of all perceived errors. Love is the only way home.
At some point A flower opened In the center of my chest And beauty poured out Now I see that flower everywhere In everyone I meet. ------------------------ Stop running Away from suffering Or towards relief Just be still And watch the waves Rise and fall within you Rest in your oceanic nature By and by You will fall into harmony. --------------------------- As a person You appear to be moving Through the world As consciousness The world itself Is moving through you The nature of spiritual freedom now Is to embrace both truths. -------------------------- Wisdom comes Not from knowledge alone But from the embodiment Of that knowledge Into one’s heart and soul. --------------------------- On the surface it is all free will And the power of deciding our fate But fall inside Deep into the mystery Into the vast inner cathedral That touches the heavens themselves And the more you will see The hand of the beloved in all things And the play of divine will. --------------------------- Life itself Seems to take us away from God And plunges us into the secular world The great challenge Is to find our way back to a God We never left Even in the midst of this dense landscape Of illusion. ---------------------------- Sooner or later On the path of spiritual transformation You come face to face with God And realize it is nothing other Than your self This is the end of you As a separate being. --------------------------- Stop looking for answers And wait for a deeper understanding Everything you need is inside you Covered over by layers of belief And the denseness of conditioning Seek only to remove those layers And there is your wisdom and grace. ------------------------- I was blessed That life brought me to my knees And humbled all my ideas Of how I thought things should be It forced me to decide Whether to let go into a deep surrender Or hold on to old stories and grievances In desperation I chose to surrender And a door to grace opened. --------------------------- To look into the night sky And see only love’s eyes Winking back at you Is a blessing of the divine. --------------------------- Search for your center And you will discover the divine universe. --------------------------
Thanks Kavi, always good to be reminded of the softness of acceptance.