This morning's list
of what-to-dos
these pulls outward
resisted by a wish
for settled quiet..
after giving in
to pulling of weeds
the aftermath was
a calming recognition
that the settled quiet
ventured and returned..
the life challenge
to gain recognition
of settled quiet
in the midst of
the storms...

first surveying
then throat feathers
ruffle a song..
small so loud
distant response
or solo stage..?
beak to sharpen
red says finch
now departure..
perhaps...

The name chosen
for a tribe
annihilated..
This ship too
confronted the
Whiteness
and found its own
Vortex of death..
Ishmael observed all
and learned of
the White Source
the Leviathan
that consciousness
which as One
bore enveloping good
with evil edge..
From his horizon
of rescue
of Love
he Observed
and did know
of creation's sorrow
and blessed flow..

Call us Ishmael...

the extreme forms
we know as abuse:
alcohol..drugs..***..food..
there are also thoughts
reflecting deep-seated bias..
perhaps a political persuasion
which has lingered for
years of a lifetime..
can we speak of
an addiction to happiness
or are all of the shades
really a search for happiness..
the ego searches and insists
that the search among objects
will locate the illusive
happiness..
the search might occur
in more subtle terrain:
religion and forms of
spiritual practice..
yet these must also
bear their shades
of addiction..

Dreaming and waking
are not
sleeping and waking,
dreaming is
waking
recognizing
reality
gaining freedom,
Presently...

dust is the ocean
the common ground
the luminous field
which is never born
and never dies..
we are the particles
the whirlpools
the rivulets
the waves
which for now
declare ourselves
as somehow different
forgetting
what we are..
until we are
reminded...

The excitement surged
when vast distances
were seen to dissolve..
A promise of what
was assumed as new
knowledge
filled finite minds..
Let's not diminish
this accomplishment
and expectation but
only ask:
What might be
discovered but some
variations of linearity
leaving our real longings
back on the
launch pad...

The pavement and the bicycles

Skateboards and feet falling..seeming to very briefly

Deform the pavement gathering a sensing of the

Excitement of children looking for thrills of more

Risky routes..and of adults sensing the rolling of their

Soles on the sinking pavement..scenes of completion and

Perfection in the gratitude of no-thing deforming...

On this day's
devotion to those
dying on foreign fields
we pause to remember
war's separations
estrangements from Self..
So the remembering
most useful today
is our common connection
with those who have passed
and those passing
in ignore-ance
of each our one Self...

On this Eve
she is there
etching those many
dark lines outlining
what appears as
so many separations..
Those many names
inns without rooms
the frivolous and fancy
of passing generations..
Yet there is
the generous background
the light that shines
before the etchings
darken the light..
Except for glimpses
outside the inns...

From our
awareness
let us choose
the vantage of
our looking..
Most looking in
work moments
finds the many
definite lines
and cautions
demanding our
alertness..

But in moments
of respite
might we elevate
our vantage
finding those lines
at an edge
of a purer
space..
This revolving
advances our
Self into more
healthy realms…

Sometimes called a
hidden diamond or pearl..
Meaning a recognition
seemingly hidden..of
the identity of each of us
which bears the
fruit of real happiness..

The recognition happens
in any time or place
but the odds are improved
with a gardener's nurturing
or a teacher's mention of
the joy of the return
..whatever it takes..

Facing now toward
the morning sun...

We seem to all be waiting
we are not so happy
with this time and place
and so wanderlust rises
and we set out to discover
a place of happiness..
This is how our days are spent
becoming that which we
now are not..
Sometimes becoming is
simply waiting
we wait for a coming
improving what is now..
Becoming begets pain
with temporary reliefs
along these paths..
We are waiting
for a whisper:
Simply Be...

Reflecting the bustling traffic and

A backdrop of sky and tree allowing

It all..as nothing appearing as lights and

Honking..and stops avoiding and not avoiding

Catastrophic interruptions of movements

With sky and tree unaffected..and all

Reflected indifferently in the window pane...

There you are..
Seeming true
Yet we ask
Where are we
Stepping most softly
Into innerspace..
There locations
Shift and slide
And don't pinpoint..
So a revision:
Whenever you are
You are everywhere…

The reality
of who we are resides
in this word..
It may seem as loneliness
an ungrounding of roots
frightening perhaps..
Or an unchaining from the
hold of a place
a dislodging into a
space-like fullness
a non-local experience
of real freedom...

When the knowing
is duality..conversation roams
over fields of facts with connections
as arising..these connects may point
to embracing non-duality..which some say
should have been the beginning knowing ..
Mis-connects spread..separation rules..
red emotions rise with the exchanging heat
and in some domains..blood streaks the floor..!
Non-duality apparently must be tasted
and tasted again..to savor its humble flavor
cleansing those doors of perception
simply knowing not-knowing...!

The encounter
Each time now
Is a touch
Brief and knowing
And whole..
A preview of
The future
No words
One consciousness
To another
Will be enough...

Where are you?
the Earliest question
repeats
we find other
questions
and other answers
and then answers
without questions
these are the
noise
of our lives
the Earliest question
always returning and
at last may
find our attention
introducing
Silence in noise
and then
Silence.

This is a journey of freedom

Floating free..some like to say..of

Conventional separation..and more:

Separation-seen-through leaves an empty

Immensity allowing everything to

Express without boundaries..appearances

Arriving spontaneously without any fences

Of time and space..yet even separate things

Appear in time-and-space garb..but do not

Grab the headlines..and make way for

New red and blue ribbons decorating and

Un-decorating a landscape of freedom..

Sound like freedom..? Or another story

Containing too many words.. satisfying

An expectant quest...?

There is a directness
in our experience of awareness
after the mind surrenders..
Simply a knowing which
shuts out all of the eithers and ors
a language of silence..
A language which requires
no subject and object
yet it includes all of these..
A unified field it is
which spends our days
awaiting our humble
flash of recognition...

The appearances of no-thing

Appearances are all that arises

All of those seeming-things and our

Seeming-self among them

Seeming to be here and gone

That seems about it...

Teachers of the spirit
advise scant minimum
of words to
approach more closely
the real truth..
Word and sentence
divide contemplation
subject and object dualisms
splits and names
mind and ego
a bucket of worms..
But we must
speak and teach
make concession to ego
to cleanse visions
climb from the pit..
Silence remains
encloses all separation
and waits to be found
with assist from those
words...

paths must be lines on maps
no matter how subtle their appearance..
there is a leap
in realizing all paths reach nowhere..
futility then is the path end
and our key to the heart...
~CC



(You must always keep in mind that a path is only a path. Each path is only one of a million paths. If you feel that you must now follow it, you need not stay with it under any circumstances. Any path is only a path.
There is no affront to yourself or others in dropping a path if that is what your heart tells you to do.
But your decision to keep on a path or to leave it must be free of fear and ambition.
I caution you: look at every path closely and deliberately.
Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself and yourself alone this one question. Does this path have a heart?
All paths are the same. They lead nowhere. They are paths going through the brush or into the brush or under the brush of the Universe.
The only question is: Does this path have a heart? If it does, then it is a good path. If it doesn’t, then it is of no use.
Carlos Castaneda)

barely hold frazzled wire
no obstacle now
with intention lacking
this former boundary
condition..
But now these elderly posts
seem quaint with beauty
beauty acknowledging
separation as
temporary thought...

Retaining dual visions
culture's philosophy
overlooks simplicity
and the power of each of us
to know that we know..
Know that we know
before the cultural blanket
tells us that knowing
requires what is known..
So we ask ourselves
if we know only ourselves
Here and Now..?
Is the I Am of scripture
our most rooted
living experience..?
Is this the secret
best kept by the
centuries..?

the simplicity
of drawing attention
to that which lies
between the lines
and words of story
is forgiveness..
nothing more..
the mind is inept
however frantic its
search..as story reigns..
while forgiveness glows
in the gaps...

Quantum Awareness
lurks behind words of
General Relativity
and arises in Question:
What is aware
of this warping of fabric..?
Is Awareness warping itself
with our experience here
as gravity and objects
and time and space..?
Extreme warping
our minds name as
black holes
in which gravity
with its objects
time and space
these cognitions of mind
dissolve into the
flames of Now...
Our recognition at last
of our real Self:
Happiness and Peace
named here as
Quantum Awareness...

is our not-knowing
many have said..
the random unpredictable
of every-thing out there..
Yet in the chaos
similarities gently assert
and these suggest
an order and unity
somewhere and sometime
or perhaps better
no-where and no-time
from which spring the
plethora and strangeness
all those differences
of 10,000 things..
Our discovery arrives
in new understanding
of deepened union:
similarity and difference
attraction and strangeness
order and Chaos...

A fair teacher
is a Tree..
All at once
appears my branching
splitting
bifurcating
seeming to claim
differentiating
with shadow
with pain..
Our separate selves
these branches mimic..
Yet our teacher
insists in haste
branches are coloring
my inner vibrating
look anew!
see me whole
and be my Joy...

It is quiet
now..
but her voice
her singing
her robed
presence
in lakeside
memory remains..
In our quiet
we remember
her courage
seeking with us..
our grasping
and glimpses
in our
morning sun..
for her now
in ecstasy
that mountain
shadow
as Light
shines anew...

Writing those words
of poetry
we are advised
to surround them
with silence..
We acknowledge then
that no word
performs alone
but with silence
surrounding
our words reach
for more…

Our remembering today
Of that day and days..
Slaying and blood
Drenched absorbed media..
Loss was personal
Tears were deep
Shared with many..
Shadow appearance on
A national soul..
Yet the shadow
Briefly edged unity
For many enduring
On that day…

In this political season
with harsh volleys filling our screens..
Independence allows the screen's perspective..
As the movie characters castigate and exaggerate
the independent screen..our real Identity
experiences itself..and those rapidly
exiting colorations...

We don't seem to be able to let go
of our grasp on objectivity and
our persistent assumption of the
objective as independent reality..
Even so..the mind has imposed itself
with quantum puzzles which seem
to proclaim the subjective nature
of reality..
Placing Consciousness first and primary
requires a leap by the logical mind..
This leap awaits a consultation of
our experience to discover that
our assumed linear history..very soon
must be transformed...!

has passed
with our many
wishes for peace..
A preacher for
his times..
Times with steep
reliance and rejection
of belief:
reaching an eternal
goal at the end
of our time
in earthly sojourn ..

The times have changed
as many are standing awed
over a new recognition
of real identity
directly experienced
glimmering eternally
behind the shading clouds..

2000 years of theology and science
double down on assumed separation..
The assumption lies in hiding
prescribing limits and locations..
Worshipful observing and measuring
lodges us in an imprisoning body..
A crisis arises when it is found
we cannot locate this body or prison..
Of a sudden a veil is removed and
separation melts as ice in warm water..
Yet now we can celebrate separation
with a body finally set free..
The cave is empty and we are not
the person we assumed we were
destined to be...

knowing our luminous self
renders all else as commentary..
story is then recognized as story
and the facts in the morning paper
whatever their favor or disfavor
become simply a part of the story..

this recognition of our luminosity
is a gateway to freedom..
a gateway for which we have
searched..perhaps until this morning..
a gateway in plain sight..hidden only
by our immersion in story...

In the science of our time
there is a reported flagging of expectation
for new cosmology discovery..
With science's point of view
not altered since the Greeks
a continuing immersion in
objectivity and assertions verified..
Despite powerful instruments  seeing
the birth of inflation in the big bang
a suggestion of multiple worlds
this explosion of diversity
also suggests futility in discovery
of newfound truth..
So..
we may  be waiting for science
to redirect its gaze with new purpose
of finding that which is observing
the vastness which centuries have seen..
Turning around to discover
a background awareness experienced
at last as real Seeing...!

Life seems as
To be aware..
Of the dangers
Of the joys..
Yet we ask
Is there more..
Dreams there are
Happenings strange..
And sometimes we
Ask this question
Quickly dismissed:
Is waking day
Really a dream..
After all this
One question remains
Is Awareness
Before all this
Waiting our waking…

The location the place where one stands
this morning..sitting or standing..sun or
clouds of a new day..interplay of inner
and outer..all in the location of our
Awareness of which we now have
become aware..the Place has become
created and will be created again only
to reflect an Awareness which has
no place...

Power is leftward
about being correct
about the facts..
often we're told
your opinions yes
but not your own facts..
this leftward power
holding sway with
an occasional reminder:
facts now are
in great abundance
they are ephemeral
and often illusion..
flaws abound in
fact supported life
living off-of-center..
the clamor is calmed
with Questions arising
absorbing all facts
and remaining as
Questions...

Our foregrounds in life
seem so dominant..
Death and hardness
with fleeting joys
fill our senses
sadden our days..
Questions arise on
our identities amid
those foregrounds of
ill news and separation..

Our searches for answers
seem as unfruitful
weary minds need rest..
As we search in shadows
a glimpse of background
a touch of light..
Forgotten once
but now remembered
this moment of grace..

We are filled and become
at last acquainted with
an infinite expanse
this our true Self..
Then to turn again
to the foreground
so foreboding before..
Now shining in peace
beauty and happiness
bringing our tears of
Gratitude...

each of these
stand in their layer..
below conceals upper..
upper is subject
lower is object..
object alone
is an illusion..
the object's role
is to point
to the subject..

word conceals thought
thought reveals word
thought conceals truth
truth reveals thought..

there is only truth..

polarity/in/play..!

When unease arrives in normal places
why not erase seeming past things
realizing these have somehow
become other separate..exhausting..
and now with cleansing relaxing
with homebound light
allow entry of new things
or even welcoming anew the old things
to experience the new shining
of things once more...