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166 · Dec 2020
The Oasis..
CharlesC Dec 2020
Between Oases
Are the dry patches of
Misdirecting and wanting
To find a trail to the comfort
Of the next Oasis..
The secret
Yet to be discovered by many
The weary traveler:
Pause on your trail and
Be introduced to the You
Who has never departed
The Oasis...!
166 · Sep 2017
Wirebird
CharlesC Sep 2017
A silhouette  
against the sky
high perching bird
black on a black
Wire..
Consider the wire
as connecting with
many many
stretching wiremiles..
Let us say that
there is no length
and say incorrectly
it's infinitely (long)..
The Wire is whole
knowing only itself..
How does the Wire
create the bird..?
It coils itself
within itself:
and a self arises
(myself on a walk!)
watching a bird
on a wire...
166 · Jul 2017
The Fourth
CharlesC Jul 2017
Another Fourth among the years..
There are expressions this year
of doubt and anguish over
what seems to many as betrayal
of identity..
Other celebrating eyes are tilted
upward to perceive expected
explosions of artificial light..
A cultural divide..new searching
is underway and it is hoped that
exhausted minds will finally ask:  
Who are "we the people..?"
166 · Jun 2019
Ashes
CharlesC Jun 2019
thoughts outworn
beliefs outworn
paradigms outworn
these are kindling
for a fire at the
core of our being..
the fire is ever lit
and ready for
burning to ashes
all that lingers
too long
cluttering our
knowing of
who we are...
166 · Aug 2019
Starbucks cup of Joy
CharlesC Aug 2019
The cup label said
Let us add a bit of  Joy
To your day..

This is a message
From our culture
Informing us of the
Experience of Joy
To wit..Joy is available
Here and now within
This very cup..

Presumably then as this
Cup is consumed
Joy ends and we are
Sent on our way
Until another cup offers
A bit more..

Perhaps the Sacrament
Suggests we need look
For a cup in which Joy
Is much less fleeting...
166 · Apr 2019
Clarity
CharlesC Apr 2019
If we are not clear
then we must search..
Clarity beacons from
beneath the search
to end the search..
But beliefs and culture
interfere.. claiming
progress lies ahead..
So we double down
again not recognizing
the search conceals
the clarity we seek...
166 · Jul 2018
Metamorphosis
CharlesC Jul 2018
A term
usually derived from nature:
morphing..form to new form..
we might however
find quite revealing
a plucking of words to
arrive at a morphing metaphor..

realizing
there is only consciousness
a morphing of consciousness
takes place in what we find
as color and shape..

you and I
and the cat
are various morphings..
new colors and forms:
temporary morphings
amazing styles fill our wonder
and dissolve one day soon:
might we say a morphing
in reverse
to reveal that which
all really is...
165 · Aug 2019
Ego
CharlesC Aug 2019
Ego
A three letter name
With meaning multiples
Hero to devil..
Advancing:
A dream of creation
Introducing illusion
When the dream
Dances alone...
165 · Oct 2019
Appearance
CharlesC Oct 2019
Appearance
Is a saving word
Saving our anxiety
Of who we are..
The simplicity of
Appearance is
A temporary shaping
Of our real Self
Nothing more..!
Then we inquire
What is being shaped
And the reply stuns...!
165 · Jan 2019
On the outside looking In
CharlesC Jan 2019
that is where we seem to be
most of us..most of the time..
but in some moments
feel a pull
and approach the inside..
but a fear overtakes
and we wing away..

we retreat to our
place in the matrix
upheld by beliefs
and the appearances
so convincing in our
life on the outside..

if questioning does
not insist..we make
the outside as comfortable
as possible..and live
our lives..soothing as
we are able the outside
desperation..

on a more hopeful note:
we might take a
longer look at an
inside invitation..and
recognize home...
163 · Jul 2018
the mind lens
CharlesC Jul 2018
this is the fundamental new path
which science and philosophy must tread
in our days marked with confusion and strain:
our minds view what might be known
through a lens which limits the known..
until this lens fact is known we will remain
in a fundamental morass:  not knowing
ourselves..and by extension..not knowing
countless appearances dancing and
tantalizing our search for truth...
163 · Mar 2018
Knowing-Space
CharlesC Mar 2018
A direct experience
Of a space-like reality
In which thoughts-perceptions
Appear and disappear..
The Knowing-Space
Colors and un-colors
In endless variety
With seeming borders
And locations pretending
An utter independence..
Thought is using these words
In a convincing way
Until we recognize
Once again
The Knowing-Space...
163 · Oct 2019
In the gaps
CharlesC Oct 2019
The silence between
Each word we say
Each note we play..
Sleep between dreams..
Attention to gaps
Or rather..falling into
The gaps..is recognizing
Our Home..the placeless
Place..from which we
Have never departed...
163 · Jun 2017
Planet "B"
CharlesC Jun 2017
Stephen H has allowed that
which looms in thought
and projects as fear
to a search for relief from
a seeming dark dilemma..
The future is imagined
with calculating vigor
and doleful projection..
A materialist map
sounds with clarity
to the fearful and seeking:
a bold escape from Planet A..
A seeking of happiness
a search among objects
which has occupied our thought
for centuries on end..
But Grace speaks softly
with astonishing news:
There is no Planet B
and..stand ready for this:
there is also no Planet "A"...!
"Back in May, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking made yet another doomsday prediction. He said that humanity has 100 years left on Earth, which knocked 900 years off the prediction he made in November 2016, which had given humanity 1,000 years left. With his new estimate, Hawking suggested the only way to prolong humanity's existence is for us to find a new home, on another planet (alternative source). Speaking at the Starmus Festival in Trondheim, Norway on Tuesday, Hawking reiterated his point: "If humanity is to continue for another million years, our future lies in boldly going where no one else has gone before," he explained, according to the BBC. Specifically, Hawking said that we should aim for another Moon landing by 2020, and work to build a lunar base in the next 30 years -- projects that could help prepare us to send human beings to Mars by 2025. "We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds. It is time to explore other solar systems. Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth," Hawking added.

( See: https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/06/22/1718259/stephen-hawking-says-he-is-convinced-that-humans-need-to-leave-earth )
162 · Aug 2019
On Stage
CharlesC Aug 2019
Division seems the certainty of our days
Seldom questioned from birth to death
Upon waking we go forth on our stage
The stage we have always assumed
With its hidden dangers and our fears
Fears based on the ending of our show
But sometimes an intermission is reached
A gesture interrupts our performance
A divisive trance is suddenly shaken
We Recognize what always has been...
161 · Mar 2019
Clouds of Pairings
CharlesC Mar 2019
non duality
the sages say
is highest expression
of Reality..
it is negation
of separation
of multiplicity..
well..?

our intuition of
unity..recognizes
that words limit
cloud
and separate..
all words..!
words recall words
of opposition:
heaven/earth
wave/particle..
you know more..

non duality
the sages say
is highest expression
of Reality..
it is a negation
of separation
of multiplicity..

still..Truth eludes..

finding Silence...!
161 · Feb 2019
Indifference
CharlesC Feb 2019
Indifference

the word has the connotation
of not caring..but there is more..
when "I" is known
there is a knowing that recognizes
the departure of limits
and a recognition that appearances
are fleeting and simply made
of that which is not limited..
appearances..then..are a matter of
indifference in our recognized
"I"...
161 · Mar 2019
What's Happening
CharlesC Mar 2019
Yes..
This we often pose
as a question..
Our minds
inquiring minds
want to make sense
of the many
perceptions we are
handling right now..

But the problem is
what's happening is
soon not happening
and the question repeats..

The question repeats
until exhaustion
suggests no end to
happening's
dying and renewing..

A better question
might then arrive..
Is there stability
at any time and place..
A stability in which
and before
so much happening
appears..

The answer shouts
or remains hidden:
Yes...
161 · Apr 2019
Rebellion
CharlesC Apr 2019
is set off
when a separate self
hears a threatening note..
this a note of gratitude
for new Understanding..
the note exceeds
the small self's reach
and sings
of insignificance
of illusion..
midst the dissolving a
new life unfolds...
160 · Oct 2016
Spirit and Matter
CharlesC Oct 2016
I am Aware that I am Aware
this common experience
negates the claims
of matter's independence..
Matter gained renown
from the ancient Greeks
though over  centuries..
alas..never was found..
Attending our experience
demonstrates once more
that Awareness stands
aware of itself..
So called matter
is the cultural wool
pulled over our eyes..
Veiling the Awareness
which in desperation
we seek..!
160 · Dec 2018
Allowing
CharlesC Dec 2018
whether we like it or not
thoughts and feelings
arise in each of us..
some are welcomed..others not..
welcomed or not welcomed
our attention..temporarily
fixes our identity..
we seem to become those arisings
of thought and feeling..

until..we notice their brief
appearance on a stage
on which all past thoughts
and feelings..have made their
debut and departure..
but what of that stage..?
the discovery dawns:
we have always been
that empty and full stage
of most simple Allowing...
160 · Jul 2019
It is..
CharlesC Jul 2019
It is the same
and vast
for everyone..
It is prior to the
sights and sounds of
this morning..
It is within the *******
events of the day..
It is the Self
stirring in suffering
waiting in shadows
to be born...
159 · Jan 2018
Responsibility
CharlesC Jan 2018
A question of burden:
imagining a future
where responsibility falls..
Light or heavy
is the measuring stick
which swings at
us all..
There is variation:
light to one
heavy to another..
These are perceptions
which result from
imagining departure
from our
peace just now..
However..might we
observe these departures
from our peaceful place
allowing their departure
within our peace...?
159 · Sep 2018
Cracks
CharlesC Sep 2018
do we know
that words and language
create cracks..and
we might be held hostage
to words and language
without knowing their
propensity to crack..

it is the crack of an eggshell
an eggshell of whiteness
allowing life to emerge..
whiteness appears to divide
shaping the world and us
with distinctions galore..

we work with distinctions
as each finds her own..
yet..within each journey
we are invited to
observe once more
a white eggshell
and to notice how words
seem to crack
what cannot be cracked..

then to notice.. cracks
appear and disappear
demonstrating for all
the strength and weakness
indeed the beauty
of our words...
And..don't forget Leonard Cohen:

Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in
159 · Jul 2018
let's go directly
CharlesC Jul 2018
let's go directly to the place
we already are..
to the Awareness which
is our identity..however hidden
it seems..in this moment..
from our empty Awareness
our world we create
in this moment..or not..
you and I are Awareness:
we need know this
to the chagrin
of that smaller person
who enjoyed hiding
this new discovery which
you and I need to make
before we die...!
159 · Aug 2017
Vibrations
CharlesC Aug 2017
Expressions of mind
thoughts..images
and the body
sensations..
All are vibrations
of Awareness..
What's the reward..?
The reward is
the discovery again
perhaps the first time
of these expressions
as only made of
What is vibrating..
That which we are...
CharlesC Oct 2016
Just why is this true..?
Consider:
Any possible world would
be made of our Awareness..
A world
makes a seeming ripple
in the sea of Awareness..
It is as a wave
making appearance
made of water
in the sea of Ocean..
Does it matter which
ripple or world we experience..?
It is best in the moment
of its appearance
but soon is replaced by
a sister ripple...
158 · Aug 2018
Blockage
CharlesC Aug 2018
a writer writes
with rapt attention to words
attending special nuance
erasing and rewriting..
this is attention to content
it is thought control
and self identification
as a cluster of thoughts..
then come sensations
of contraction and limit
slowing the writing
stemming the flow..
so..seemingly we must
recast attention to the
space between words
allowing the words to
dissolve or burn
and await new thoughts
from an empty place...
See: www.polarityinplay.com
157 · Nov 2017
SECRET
CharlesC Nov 2017
Not noticed
yet most nearly near
hiding in plain sight
is what all are seeking..
Seeking by plan and by process
awaiting the day and the time
for that which is sought
to appear..
That has many names
reducing to only one..
Many findings on many paths
flare in the moment
announcing the search's end..
But those findings
very soon confess:
not here..now not..
It is close
much closer...
157 · Feb 2018
thought and perception
CharlesC Feb 2018
conception and perception
these are the objects
to which we awaken
this morning..
this is creation
happening anew
each of us
with a big bang
awakening..
perception separates
and cognition names..
cognition of time
hangs together the
10000 pieces..relating
and making whole pieces..
the whole pieces point
to that which is the same
for each of us
and out of which
unending big bangs
color our day...
157 · Mar 2017
Transcendence
CharlesC Mar 2017
is both sought and unsought
the unsought is the reality
the prevalence of grace
through all of our seeking..
But the seeking in our experience
is an expectation that our seeking
with diligent pursuit and care
will yield a result and reward
of the very happiness sought..
Indeed snippets of transcendence
are found as  reward for diligence
but the snippet soon dissolves
returning we suppose to
its measureless Source...
Seeking soon continues
searching once more with
reinforced expectation that the
snippet might be found once more..
How many searches we wonder
before an all-at-once discovery
that each of us is fully captured
immersed and made of
the unsought transcendence
we have been seeking...
156 · May 2017
Grace
CharlesC May 2017
Is not time
Is not space
Is not an object
Is not a subject
Is not religion..
Yet all of these are
made only of it...
It is Self realization
It is what
must be known
before any-thing
can be known..
And..it is not an it..
Amazing...!
155 · Sep 2017
Hurricane Sunday
CharlesC Sep 2017
The rest of us
were not interrupted..
But an entire state
was interrupted..
Living there once
we were cautioned:
residence here is living
with the hurricane
not if..but when..
When arrived early
Sunday morning..

A wish for those there:
May the peace of the eye
be found in your hearts
and may the eye expand
calming your winds
and your waves
for a lasting peace
coming ashore on this
Hurricane Sunday...
155 · Nov 2019
Dwelling in Illusion
CharlesC Nov 2019
We all do it
Until we recognize
Illusion..

Our conditioning
Imprisons us until
We recognize that
Conditioning is illusion
Hiding the Self
Which we really Are..

Conditioning's costumes
Are beliefs which deceive
Rooted in the separation
We seemingly experience..
Hiding the Freedom
Available Now...
155 · Mar 2018
deleted words
CharlesC Mar 2018
you might note
the following blank lines
in which several words
are now deleted..
perhaps..


or words
in this space
were never written
perhaps..
nevertheless
the space
expresses the only
surety we can know..
it indefinitely flows
and enlarges into
wide margins we notice..
the space has retained
the secret of words
which did or did
not play..
and the words
if they played
day or night  
played as space
eternally white...
155 · May 2018
overlooking
CharlesC May 2018
seems to be what we do:
overlooking the reality of the field
luminous..peaceful.. and available
the substance of all our days..
famous teachers
some acknowledged
as gods and gurus
are just like you and I
but with a realization
(followed by notoriety)
of the overlooking and a
simple waking to what is
being overlooked..always
available to you and I...
155 · Sep 2018
the story
CharlesC Sep 2018
is a life experience
in and of that which we are..
we in seeming smallness
are mind infinite and eternal
which molds each new story..
conceiving and perceiving
our storytelling tools
frame time and space
within that which we are..
and so..a caution: experience
in dreaming and waking
and telling
may seem to conceal
that which we are
with this story..then another..

we know there are many...!
154 · Nov 2020
A grammar lesson..
CharlesC Nov 2020
Start with a polarity

Those many dualities

We have believed are

Separation's truth..

Recognize then the

Play of Subject / object..

As the object wishes to

Stand alone..the Subject

Expresses the Truth of

Oneness:  dissolving

Separation so that

At last we recognize

Beauty and Truth:

Subject being object...
154 · Mar 2018
Overlooking our Identity
CharlesC Mar 2018
This is the activity
in which each of us
engage..
Overlooking our Identity
as expanse and expanding
confining it to a
constraining cluster of
perceptions and thoughts..
Until!:
we notice the caging
and the confinement
sounding freedom's call...
152 · Aug 2019
Loft and Shade
CharlesC Aug 2019
When we observe
The human experience
As a roller coaster
Times in the loft
Times in the shade..

A question shouts
How to remain
In the loft..?
Until a whisper
Time creates a
Masquerade which
You have attended..

The shade has always
Disguised the loft...
152 · Jan 2018
Certainty
CharlesC Jan 2018
In
our cultural cloudiness
we believe that there
is no certainty..
When beliefs are raised
there are retorts of doubt..
Some reluctantly and
grudgingly admit that
their beliefs are carriers
of doubt..
So where do we go
to find a certainty
unencumbered..?
Perhaps all we need is
an experience of blue sky
standing in clarity behind
those clouds of belief...
151 · Dec 2020
Waiting..
CharlesC Dec 2020
We wait and watch

For a mark in time

Which will relieve the

Numbness of waiting..

Many marks appear

And re-appear..without

Rewarding a promise..

Unexpected..a footstep

Out of time..removes the

Waiting...
151 · Oct 2019
Untitled
CharlesC Oct 2019
We remember now
Our lives as Grace..
And we Know
Heaven and earth as
Expressions of Grace..
With this Experience
The Kingdom has come..
Hereafter we expect
Our daily nourishment
As recognition that all
Debts are dissolved in
The Grace which we are..
Thus..we express now
Our gratitude and joy
For the power and glory
In our lives lived as
Grace...
151 · Oct 2018
Prison bars
CharlesC Oct 2018
are the appearances of
what is at last recognized as unreal:
the imprisoning belief in limitation
of the body and mind by appearance..
discovering appearance as appearance
enflames the old and worn belief
and makes clear: the prison has
no bars...
150 · Dec 2020
Fairy Tales..
CharlesC Dec 2020
Fairy tales ride

On the feathers of time..

The feathers fall

Revealing the wisp of time..

Leaving the sky

Not-ending and open

For new tales arising

And feathers falling...
149 · Dec 2020
Christmas Tidings..!
CharlesC Dec 2020
Christmas Tidings..!

Beneath a story many celebrate

Of a birth beneath a star..

There lies a latch..when

Opened..will set us free..

On this celebrated night

The Truth..apparently hidden

And remaining hidden now

Was unlatched for those then

And now..

~One-being-all-there-is~

This simple news about what

Has always been..That's it..!

Christmas Tidings..!
149 · Mar 2018
Presence
CharlesC Mar 2018
There is only Presence
a rich oneness
which is our identity
standing and witnessing
and creating of itself
life's many separations..
Paths of separation
of resisting and seeking
seem to veil our identity
allowing only brief tastes
of the Presence we crave
and words fail to disclose..
But the thrills on life's paths
present a window
which when cleansed
illumines our way home...
149 · Aug 2019
Acceptance
CharlesC Aug 2019
It is an old truth
That there is
From a universal
Slant on things
An acceptance of all
Whether good or not..

Many have difficulty
With such acceptance
Wishing for interference
When acceptance seems
Not to their liking..

We need only
Recognize Ourselves
To discover that we
Are made of Acceptance
Yet appearances of the
Not so good
Require our attention
Always proceeding from
Our  Recognition...
149 · Jun 2018
The Journey
CharlesC Jun 2018
what is The Journey..?
it is a perennial experience
in which we are observers
of that which moves
from time to time and
from place to place..
it is the discovery of
a new identity as
timeless and placeless..
new lenses present
  times and places
as temporary colorings
as appearances
in The Journey of
freedom and creation..
former journeys of
sights and sounds are
dissolved in a
dawning recognition:
The Journey is always
Here and Now...
149 · Feb 2018
Endlessness
CharlesC Feb 2018
He said:
brevity is the soul of wit..
and said T. S. Eliot:
We can say of Shakespeare, that
never has a man turned so little
knowledge to such great account..
and said Rumi:
knowledge of the world is ignorance..

The endlessness of knowledge
is blessing and curse..
Google is one name..
It is easy to forget
to not allow attention
to experience that
in which all knowledge
appears..

To recognize knowledge
flowing in and out of that
in which it appears..
Knowledge in isolation
we place first
in idolatrous fashion
as we search for
the water in the wave...
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