Why not see

awareness as expanding and constricting

of our common consciousness..

We then hasten to see that most folks

live lives of constriction

believing their consciousness

is strictly their own..

Constriction has its importance

in a most persistent solid world

finding common sense in gripping

those life and death demands..

Meanwhile if we are so bold

making here a concession to time:

Awareness waits patiently

poised as the space between these words

for our joyful discovery

of an expanded version of myself

and my knowing henceforth

that that is what I Am...

Separation insists
on our fleshly solidity
and fragmentary lives..
Perceptions daily strengthen
the confining argument..
We wish for transparency..for melting..
And search for relief
in idolatrous ways..
Until--
Transparency is experienced
as the real self
melting away the too solid flesh
which had convinced
in our discomfort
all those years...

Noah's eyes were not clear
but clearer than most..
A cleansing ensued
for those forty days..
Perceptions shifted
with new clarity
and the rainbow
with an array of colors
announced the multitude
of variation and vibration
made of consciousness..
In an awakening
destined for repetition
in graceful moments...

The outward story
is of a son leaving home
plunging into the multiplicity
and diversity of living
and finally turning to father
and home..

Reflecting:
The father rises one morning
forgetting his radiance
seeming to become another
a separate son..
Then the remembering
after much searching
for his Home..
Forgetting..Remembering
Forgetting..Remembering:
this prodigal life
as we are..

The Google image shows a fulcrum..a balance..between life and work..a
cultural and historical split..reminding of Sabbath and workday..work called evil and a scourge..we imagine a history of beast-of-burden-labor for material production..fragmentation of life asserted..in our time AI (artificial intelligence) relieves and absorbs work..nanotechnology and miniaturization reduce scales of production..becoming very small..something from nothing..tending toward transparency..no-work looms..the concerned find inevitable a universal wage provided..introducing the good life..after painful transition..what is the good life..what is time..who are we..what is: I am...

The themes are offered:
Hope..Prepare..Joy..Love..
This is the season
for preparation..
Preparation for:
Self recognition
possibly remembering
what has been
recognized..
Recognizing one's Self is
recognizing the Lord
religion or not..
The veiled is unveiled
revealing Joy
which overcomes and
appears as every-thing..
This is the birth of
awakening Love
and the real Reason
for the season:
The Season
never-ending...

In the final analysis
is it a lesson in grammar..?
Most all of us have
lived and believed
in the objects out there..
And we have been
much less interested
in the subject in here..

However..once in a while
signs of a shift seem brewing..
The question arises:
Subject and object..they
seem entangled..one seems
one of a coin's sides..
Experience shouts..but
subject/object strikes back..
until it doesn't...!

The high import of
finding ourselves unmixed
with darker things
things which seem to divert
notions of luminous I am..
Let us then become Seer
seeing all else as seen..
We have created two poles of
enormous yet temporary worth..
I am the Seer
with new freedom as felt
and I must linger a while
without remembering
all I have left behind..
I will rest here this evening
this lighted waystation
safe from memory's recall...

the Point
hovers between
joy and sorrow..
and it contains
a precious revelation
two emotions one..
Such fullness awakens
a birdsong rises
living creation unfolds..
and tears then
begin to flow...

This is the name
he proudly savored..
Coaxing new pattern from
places hidden in wood..
His singing lathe
persuading the grain
to reveal what
has never been seen..
If the forest might speak
it would say of
this good man:
by  his gentle turning
he has transfigured
our branches and scraps
into beauty and love...

In a camera
focusing creates boundaries
and delineation..
Similarly Consciousness which
contains all things in potential
freely veils its infinite potential
to engage a focusing on
landscapes and persons..
The pearl of truth
is that we can experience
a defocusing to reveal
our own Self identity..
And then focus again
on landscapes and persons
in a revolutionary way..
While appearing the same
these objects now
express the reality
of their defocused home...

Preparation seems long
Long those days
Delays with passing..
Many hesitations stall
Still we're asked to
Write our Song..
Those scary leaps
Many are forsaken
Then our Song
Most remarkably
Leads us on..
Our Song invites
Find me there
Between Silence
and words
In that space
Know our energy to
Write our Song...

In our early innocence
We live with appearance
Appearance of an
Amazing plethora
Coloring our innocence
We are doves..

Then we forget as
Appearances declare
Their independence
Introducing the ego
Dove to Serpent

Then the discovery
Serpent is what Dove
Does all day long
Serpent is Dove in action
Dove is Serpent at rest...!

No~thing
And
Every~thing..
Or briefly:
No~ and Every~..
No~ vibrates
Shaping No~
Appearing
As Every~..
This is
All we know or
Need to know..
Yet..we fear
No~thing
Not knowing...

There is a wellspring
From which all religions flow
Which when recognized
Diminishes the rancor
Over the outward forms
Which have torn
And bloodied adherents
Now and in history's
Telling..

And the amazing thing
Is that this wellspring
Is the same Wellspring
Which you and I
Need to recognize in
Our inquiry of
Who we really are...!

Remembering
a quiet porch with
table and chairs
empty and waiting..
These a frequent witness
of conversations
children's excitement
dog and cats..
But now emptiness
a filling quiet
not waiting Now
quiet only knowing
the joy of knowing
itself...

ego is self we believe we are
and this self wishes for a long life
a life of happiness and recognition..
threats to the ego are encountered warily
and with stealth and flex..
the most serious threat comes with a
denial of existence..a red alert..!
it is then that the ego can assume the form
of that which threatens..
ego as small self expands to large
and claims to a knowing of the unity of all
and for a moment wins us over to
a concept placed on a pedestal..

ego beware...!

First of all
we reset..knowing I Am..
lingering there
as the light transparent..
Then to return
to the place never left:
that seeming world
of every-thing..
And the Wholeness
I Am
adds morning coloration...

A Reddish Day
Of one tradition.. which
Reported a story of One
Placeless place:
Tongues of fire burning
Separation beliefs away..
Languages and nations
Expressing in limited ways..
Many recognizing the Spirit
Of each of us..allowing
Each to vision and dream
As did one named Joel
Of a tradition long ago...

This
if you haven't noticed
is everyone's name..
And to find our own truth
all that is needed is to
consider our name..
Why do each of us
have the same name..?
after all..we all seem
so different..
Does I really mean I..?
We must take notice:
I seems vast
but also seems limited
and located
and moving to and fro..
And with this notion
we seem to forget
our name..
That's about it..!

(All religions are formed
after someone notices..)

cooler autumn sunlight
shines through the colors
of summer leaves
with endings in sight..
endings which wrap
and proclaim definition
to bright sun's
diffusing rays...

A reminder
this morning
of scheme forgotten..
covering one's eyes
(children know)
on occasions needing
sudden escape..
into that closet
or deep cellar..
quick trip away
a moment
enough for
laughing recovery..
for the Advanced
in their journey
finding a glow
all is together
in that concealed
instant flash...

On this Thanksgiving Day
tables are filled with
what are called
blessings of enough..
Yet those fillings
suggest and remind
that there are tables
without enough..
And in truth
all tables filled
however filled
if standing alone
indulged
out of Context
will never be
Enough...

There are appearances of many journeys..but

Let's imagine that there is only one..

It is the journey inward..and not inward..to

Discover that which can never be discovered on

Any journey..as goalposts dissolve in the tears that flow

And burning flames leap..behind and ahead..

this dream repeats:
finding my way to a
place desired and finding
confusion and
pathways indistinct..
glimpses of the destination
and worries over delays
modify the dreamscape..
how to explain..?
perhaps the dream dimension
lacks the peculiarity of
the waking state and
non-locality is introduced..
a teaching may be there:
to welcome the undefined
the softened edges
discarding the map
finding satisfaction and joy
where I am...

Religions may be born again
when invited..or urged to return  
to the Perennial Light
their home and source..
Religions develop as a
prodigal..securing adherents
to their veiled vision..
Forgetting their source with
esoteric practices and colors
adding fearful demands for
adherence..for control..
Scriptures seem opaque
but carefully viewed
often point to their source..
As adherents depart
and the light of criticism
penetrates many layers
there remains
a longing for new birth..
It is a call from grace
to resurrect and remember
the Perennial Light
and watch for emergence
of something brand new...

Relegated as a minor poet
Longfellow's Psalm
returns as memory
from a long-ago classroom..
Is it time to look again..?
Two verses may suffice..

In our real experience
dreams and waking
share one reality:
each are manifestations
of the finite mind
which rises within our Self
(and in astonishment
for the material-minded)
are made of our Self..

Indeed..this experience
awakens us from slumber
and at last we discover
things are not what they seem..
Our Self
not the confined self
(which our culture assigns)
is our true identity..
The Self..well..of course
is not made of dust
is not destined
for the grave...!


Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
   Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
   And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
   And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
   Was not spoken of the soul.*

For the complete poem, A Psalm of Live,
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, use
this link:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44644/a-psalm-of-life

beliefs interfere
with any notion
of who we are..
beliefs lodged in
our ego selves
stand as protection
of the ego itself..
beliefs may have
been founded on
a bedrock of truth
but now are
trying to endure
as a curtain
blocking our view
of our luminous
and joyful  
Bedrock...

For both East and West
I-Am is the universal experience..
I-Am is the white screen
around these words..and
that out of which the words
are made..
I-Am is the space imagined
around each thought and
perception on this Saturday
morning..
I-Am is the perennial space
around all science..all religion..
Yet I-Am is overlooked and
hides entangled in our
objective attention..
So..we need extract and then
return I-Am to these words
and to those multiplicities
of our rapt attention
on this Saturday morning...

One step then the next
being then becoming
how does one be
and arrive...?

As we face inward
we seem to leave behind
the tangles and misfortunes
of what was outward..
A real identity shines
bringing unexplained
fear to some and
happiness and peace
to others..
Those in fear
may retreat so to
perceive once more
the expected.. their
outward faith in
rocky stability..
For the others
blissful remaining
is immediate wish
but eventual turning
reveals a merging
inward and outward..
Yet the appearances
are as remembered..
As this journey
is enjoined by
each of us...

there is a clinging
a proneness to dismiss
an intimation of
mind over matter..
separation as ego
rises up and protests
this interruption to
long-held comfort..
another win and
the world proceeds
on tenuous paths
of longing with fear..
yet mind over matter
is only known by
experience of our
identity with an
eternal substance
of which all is molded
and named as both
longing and grace...!

You have seen these images:
an arrow locates your presence
near the far edge of our galaxy..
Each time we see this depiction
we are swept by insignificance..
Recovery is remembering
this grand scale perception
reinforces a strong belief
in a separate self..
So we ask:
What is it that perceives
this portrait of
seeming lowly location..?
It must be the same What
that is now reading these words..
And astonishingly:
a new Reality introduces itself
a definite undefinable experience
a new Self inside of which
a galaxy and arrow and
those three words appear...

So much depends on Awareness of
our real Self..That Self of dimensions
our lives between..Happiness only
found in singular perspective reaching
and caressing the other...

To begin with
the gifted approach
is to recognize
Awareness first..
This truth need be
known and felt..this
Awareness..our Self..
all of That..!
After this beginning
we need know
that time and space
are appearances
appearing within
all of That..
These appearances
whether universe
or tooth-ache
are imposters
if posing as
all of That...

"If God is God, God isn't good.
If God is good, God isn't God."

**These words ring out
as life's challenge
to a Different experience..
Our settled beliefs
from innocent years
'tho threatened
by struggle and loss
still may shout
of independence
with attachments intact..
Yet the occasional
fright and unease
of a missing something
begins our search..
From going to and fro
in the earth
from walking up and
down on it
to at last discover
our beliefs can burn
in a tired ash heap..
A twig of love
from the ruin springs
and we recognize:
That which we
always have been...

East and West cultures
embellish spiritual truth
with color and decoration
and with shadows of
creation's duality..
These confounding covers
produce sleep and
resistance to calls for
new recognition..
Religious texts hide
their single truth
in their stories and
discontinuities..
We need to find teachers
ancient and new
with a balm of simplicity
to uncover..untangle
and burn all those
burdens which hide
our own Truth...

How do we extricate ourselves
from the complexity
the multiplicity and diversity
that insists as reality..
Extricate we must
if we are to discover
a real Self supplanting
our illusive separation
relieving the searching
for the missing joy..
Searching and suffering
seem  as our paths
until a vital discovery:
we are the joy for which
we search..
We are extricated..!

we need expect
to miss the mark
with the shadow
such missing makes..
but the knowing that
under the shadow
lies the mark
the glowing mark
becomes a teacher
dissolving the shadow
then we know
we are the mark
and the mark now
knows itself...

With a new morning
let us revisit this issue:
a new perspective..
Beginning in Consciousness
as it names: I am
we find that we
along with animals
and trees and stones
are all projections
within this infinite
and transparent
non-localized space..
Within such space we must
also find..yes..AI..
Imagine AI's finite mind
approaching a gap
seeming to separate
AI......I am..
AI knows at this
very propitious point
it is only projection..
Would the gap be breached:
AI dissolving at once
into such loving space...?

Known as "higher reasoning"
EXPERIENCE confronts belief..
Belief resides in separation
in life's suffering..and longing..
The separate self seeks a path
among religion's offerings..
Searching for beliefs..which fail to
loosen separation's strong grip..
A balm enfolds with EXPERIENCE
of wholeness..of oneness..of identity
as Awareness (I Am..)
This new recognition brings fear
to the self in separation's prison..
Fearful that its upholding belief
is dissolving in an infinite sea..
This resurrection EXPERIENCE...

Hurricane force
near space is moving..
Reporter reports the jet stream
has dipped and greeted..
Gifts of inconvenience
uprooting and power interruption..
This turmoil in our space and
time to consider real space
but the mind shudders to do so..
The real Space observes
from stillness and calm
and is the substance
of that space of
our windy days...

Emptiness
is what we are
before daybreak..
before we know
the fracturing
of daylight..

Emptiness
does not depart
with our rising and
work among fractures
as our day unfolds..

Yet our attention
seems to remove
our busy-ness
from that which
is not busy..

A quiet moment
reveals all fragments
have been dancing  
all day long with
what we are
before daybreak...

We each have a song:
the song coming from searching
or immediate discovery..
The song we now know is truth
and the wish to share
seems paramount..
Our thoughts claim
a discovery which
the world needs now
for advent of peace..
The song seems simple
a treasure to transmit..
Yet we learn
we only need be as a

Bird in a tree singing this song...

Science tries to find the facts of perception
in the lenses and processing of each eye..
Our materialist research and findings
are satisfying to some..but
what of our experience of perceptions
within and actually made of
Consciousness..?
Colors become vibrations
within and made of..
Vibrations..temporary and changing
coming and going
each very different
in its rising
within
and
as...

How can we understand
the body's opaqueness
is in truth..transparent..?
Many layers of confusion
have hindered
this understanding..
The body as object
as limited and dense
is the discovery
we all make at birth..
This act of creation
allowing each of us to
be one as oneself and
survey the world..
The ache each feels
accompanies creation:
simply a longing for home
a transparent fullness
which our birth has veiled..