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CharlesC Dec 2015
The search for answers
to tragedies deemed
newly normal  routine..
Violence in our days
in our neighborhoods
with questions arising:
terrorism?
guns?
mental health?
Questions deal with
exceptions to what
real reality is
assumed to be
in sheltered lives..
A return is sought
to simpler days
happier headlines..
Perhaps
we need look differently
examine our looking
how we perceive
the reality we
are so sure is real..
In our looking
separation is obvious
apparent to all
no need to question
this solid reality..
Alas,our answer hides
ancient wisdom
pointing to a
persistent mirage...!
CharlesC May 2013
for all of us
non-mathematicians
this for our grasp..
there are structures
which are discovered
not invented..
those notations
1 + 1 = 2
these are inventions..
behind these garments
math reality lies
which includes all
especially you..!
the math guy says
Reality = Relationship
all around
up and down...
the math guy:
Max Tegmark
CharlesC Oct 2018
is a name sometimes
said to fall to a person
suffering from illusion..
an unfortunate
misapprehension..!
a person whose name
is Maya
knows the illusory nature
of multiple appearances which
are produced by our powers of
conception and perception..
knows the veiling of her Self
by those asserting appearances..
knows these appearances
do not have a
life of their own..

Maya Knows...!
CharlesC Nov 2017
What is it..?
Definitions refer to illusion
in what our senses report..
Einstein astounds us
of persistent illusion
in the world we see..
But..we ask..how
can that be..?
There are things out there
not to be denied..!
We must now turn
to that perennial truth
which leads us to
the subjective realm..
We need examine
the assumption of  I
in: I see the train
smoking and chugging
and soon departing
around the bend..
Does I also move
around that bend..?
An obvious question
which is never asked..!
That train..it is assumed
smokes and chugs
unstrung from I..
But looking again
the truth arrives:
I know only
a train appearing
passing through I..
A new I is born
arriving with joy...
CharlesC May 2013
not may
it really happened..
May day snow
Spring was dressed
in fine Winter garb..
icicles clinging
now it's day two
snow's hasty exit
icicles are drops
birds now resume
nesting arguments..
many schedules
interrupted...!
CharlesC Jul 2013
first the breath
birth to death
pulsation
rising and falling
pattern of
all our days..

inhale is rising
in spine's channel
darkness brightens to
fountain of light..
exhale forms
apple's red skin
egg's white shell
exhale is creation
colors luminous
nature's fine detail..

now constricting
enter once more
spine's entry door..
in the darkness
rough patches reside..
though from there
appears slowly a
pin of light..
inhale is rising
joy expands
a fountain bursts..

first the breath
birth to death
pulsation
rising and falling
pattern of
all our days...
CharlesC May 2020
In which
We perceive the divisions
Reinforcing our lifelong
Beliefs in separation as
The reality of our lives..
Flowers on gravestones
Solemn speeches in
Patriotic fervor..marking
Wars by participants who
Assumed without question
These same beliefs..

How do the beliefs fare
In this time of infection..?
In which we see a
Disregard of separation
By boundaries or race..
Is there a crack
Beginning to open..?
Exposing a newfound
Eternal Memorial
Of Peace and
Light...
CharlesC May 2015
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...
CharlesC Jul 2019
in nostalgia we wish

for a return to those

imagined wonderful days..

but might we say

our morning memory

of those days is

more wonderful still..?

considering those days

residing in our youth

we were living without

the context of our

remembering experience:

recognized coloring of

Now..
CharlesC Mar 2013
cycles of life
vibrations in flow..
eating with vigor
ego's voracious growth..
the environment's gift
our nurturing home..
skins are shed
in healthy growth
new skins spread to
catch new light..
internal transformations
fearsome and ugly
but we must restrain
a caterpillar demise..
those processes within
plant beauty outside..
blood to our wings
then we fly
cosmos and each
and all...
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...
CharlesC Sep 2015
We witness the scenes of overflow
fleeing from the throes of war..
Images of suffering
edges our comfort..
All are migrants
this our hidden condition..
We seek out there
as the distant beacons..
Longings are embedded in
present places..

Might we see as common
the seeking of migrants there
and our continual seeking..
We and they look for happiness
in that new place
a human seeking
for the grace
flooding
each and all...
CharlesC May 2013
That blade of grass
imagine
as microcosm of
the universe whole..
that last step
a motion containing
world's busy motions..
when rising at dawn
a pillow placement
enclosing all of
the coming day..
holograms
of mindfulness
joy stimulation...
CharlesC Feb 2020
A good question is
Asked from the edge
Of a precipice..
The mind asks and
Expects the answer
From the realm
Of earlier expectation..
Yet..this question
Finds only stillness
Frightening stillness
For the mind..and a
Wish to retreat..
Until..that Jump...
CharlesC Dec 2011
Mining we do
for survival and art..
repeating processes
both ancient and modern..
beginnings are quiet
seeded by necessity..
badgers dig holes
earthen tunnels and paths
powerful digging discoveries
sustaining of life..
coal miners diggings
dark labor below
planting cities above..
data mining
a technology
new in our time
computer's patterns emerging
never before seen..
startling creation
of many new
wholes...
CharlesC Sep 2013
Astoundingly
In our time
Observation
Is really creation..
That which seems
Found out there
Reflects as mirror
The creation
Of one observing..
This whole matrix
Imagine enwrapping
And filling
Each and all..
Our work
This evening
To awaken
To the mirror's
Fearful message...
a logwood reflection...
CharlesC Jan 2014
The dark coatings
of our lives
serve as does
black paint
found on glass..
A mirror formed
seen on rising
facing our day..
As our mirror
convenes both
dark and light
Our greater Eye
convenes the same..
Now we see
our dark coatings
form the Mirror
for our Eye
to see…
CharlesC Oct 2012
Some believe..
others seem to know..
there is..very close
another dimension
we are enclosed
within..
if so
does a mirror
this new identity
show..?

A simple mirror
glass with black back..
but other combinations
may be preferred..
light and darkness
our sky and our earth
these such oppositions..
and one more:
Does our mirror
both project and reflect..?

That we are
such a mirror
there's a special effect..
without our dark side
transparent we are..
shattering our glass
a black hole
of a sudden appears
absorbing not reflecting
our hidden light..

Might we now realize
each of us owns
our special share
of the dark..?
that our glass
is un-shattered
is liquid and still..?
connecting all in
the light it projects
and we with joy
from our darkness
reflect...
Thanks to Mae for her words I borrowed!  photos at blog...
CharlesC Oct 2020
Mirrors

Can tell us who we are

And who we are not..

Our conventional minds

See mirrored-objects:

That's me..!

(Yesterday..today..tomorrow..)

However..

To the Self..the mirror itself

And the appearances are

Fleeting images of

Seeming separation..yet

Simultaneously:

Nothing/everything...
CharlesC Oct 2020
Can tell us who we are

And who we are not..

Our conventional minds

See mirrored-objects:

That's me..!

(Yesterday..today..tomorrow..)

However..

To the Self..the mirror itself

And the appearances are

Fleeting images of

Seeming separation..yet

Simultaneously:

Nothing/everything...
CharlesC Sep 2013
Those unexpected
Occurrences..
Lost keys and forgets
Seem as threats
To our wholeness..
We sense flaws
In our makeup
Those trips
And falls..
Yet we must try
For new bearings..
These events
These breaks
Are the substance
And the fuel for
New awareness
Of growth
Of new Wholes...
a logwood reflection..
CharlesC Dec 2018
considering those
seasonal messages:
words are presented
formed to tell
a long-ago-story of
divine dissatisfaction
with creation's shadows..
a unique birth ensues
purposing correction and
eventual salvation..
belief in this tale
grounded a religion
which has left many
temporarily filled..yet
searching for more..
others step back
and know anew
the possibility of
experiencing their own
joyful presence
through a reminder
by a story..now
filled with grace...
CharlesC Jul 2014
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...
CharlesC Jun 2016
These are anathema in our splitting culture
A sign simply of failure and the ego's wound..
Following comes a stressful resolution
to avoid in the future these pained indignities..
Yet it seems there are winds of change
arriving daily and flagging mistakes as gifts..
A mistake may point to the path underfoot
as not your path..and more of value:
your real destination is not on this path
or any path..you have Arrived...
CharlesC Jan 2020
The experience
I Am
Points to purity..
Yet also points to
That which seems to
Cloud and stain
The purity I Am..

This is our
Point of departure
To Recognize that
I Am..in
Silent Understanding
Is never clouded
Or stained...
CharlesC Jul 2013
a descent
1000 feet down
to pristine silence
a Silence
on surface unknown..
guide speaks there of
miners and animals
struggles to eke
in candlelight
daily bread from
earth's stubborn veins..
encasements:
gold in rocks
ounces in tons
suffering and toil
in that Silence...
toured this mine
in ******* Creek
Colorado
last week...
CharlesC Jul 2020
There is an apparent urge
To erase the markings of history
Which appear to stain
Visions of what should be..
History is a story appearing
In our reading in this moment..
Often justifying doings as right
Which can then be retold on
This Fourth of July..
But..alas.. clinging assumptions
Of division remain..

Statues are stories written
In sidedness and division..
What if the urge to erase
As we are observing in
Widespread places..is really
(Whether recognized or not)
A turn Inward..collectively
To bypass the assumptions and  
Recognize our inner Vastness
In which all history
Is written..and read...?
CharlesC Jul 2014
rain falling this morning..
walking away in the rain
a hemingway ending..
the rain encloses walking
seeming quiet resignation..
love found but now lost
the mind stretches
finding elementary comfort
in sheets of dark wetness
the rain..
yet is the rain hiding
the closeness of Love..
and is the mind sensing
but not understanding
this closeness in rain...
(ending referred-
Farewell to Arms)
CharlesC Jun 2013
In morning sun
yellow-green leaves
black branches
such contrasts flow..
yellow sun warmth
seems to pull..
pulls the sensations
fullness and growth
and makes nature
luxuriant once more..
hidden chirpers note
the dawning of
summer...
CharlesC Oct 2013
A faithful reminder
we have
each and every
morning..
A new chance to
recall the real order
of things..
From this source
breaking the horizon
we now see emerging
from darkness
the new shaping
of our day..
With our reminder
using the scales
universe to atom
we know then
of a sacred pattern
repeating..
CharlesC Jun 2018
we are all searching for
happiness..for contentment..
illusive it seems
and we may resign
our search to futility
among what appears
on our way..
then we hear the story
of the moth's
attraction yet fear
of the flame..
desiring desperately
to know the flame..she must
merge with that flame..
in our searching
we hope to find
our consolation among
appearances darting
in and away..
we fear the vast
nothingness which houses
all of the coming and going..
do we..as the moth-- need
to merge to find the
happiness..which is our
joy and flame...?
CharlesC Aug 2013
is honor beyond
and light concealed
through all creation..
her chicks need
our attention
without distraction
of ego for honor..
Send her away
we are advised..
discover her light
in the nesting chicks
in the beauty
of flower
mountain and plain...
see Deuteronomy 22
CharlesC Feb 2013
Our many voyages
of desert and sea
the harshness observed..
smooth cushioned water
becomes raging storm..
a splitting violence
this external turbulence
kindles jolts of anger
then fear and supplication..
finally the Question..

tumult and danger
seem forceful prompts
suggesting surrender to
veils of indifference..
yet some find now
new possibility arising
to trace one's journey:
jagged roaring storm
stimulates and brightens
fading light within..

in these extremes
depths awaken heights
new sisterhood appears..
in one's journey log
a backward look
records hidden leaps
of courage and faith..
real awareness
of one's precarious
life String...
see Stephen Crane
"The Open Boat"
CharlesC Apr 2013
Prairie wide angle
skydome over vast flatness
top down...

Mountain peaks reach
interrupt skydome with ******
bottom up...

Mountains and Prairies
teach crucial lessons
interlaced perspectives...
CharlesC Sep 2018
If we imagine a scale:
on one end we are unfocused
and the other focused..
(subjective and objective
if you like..)

The needle seems pegged
on focus for many centuries
and may be stuck..

Focus has brought us much
but has..alas.. compressed our
peace and happiness..

We may now be entertaining
the possibility of moving
the needle toward unfocused..

Perhaps sliding the needle
all the way.. removing
all focus and form..

Moving the needle may
show us we can slide it
bringing new freedom..

Finally.. then to know
the needle is made
for sliding...!
CharlesC Mar 2013
life can overwhelm
our brains soon stall
overloaded with that
confusion out there..
changes and edges
these matter most..
in natural selection
differences do rule..
patterns repeating
must be discarded
same old sameness..
survival succeeds
his elegant view..

thus a long chapter
bringing this day..
has time now arrived
to finally meet those
patterns of old..?
patterns most humble
enfolding of change..
fiercely holistic and
formed as images
in many dimensions..
their sharp message:
sorry.. without us
nothing would be...
this is based on
Richard Dawkins,
"Redundancy Reduction
and Pattern Recognition"
easily found on Google..
I hope my reading
is reasonably accurate..
if not, apologies to Mr. D..!
CharlesC Jun 2013
This bird
of duality
distinct black
and white..
but then:
a high perch
seeing all..
in swooping flight
separates join and
one body soars..
Mr. Magpie retorts
I'm two in one...

Then this from
a friend:
you are forgetting
the thievery..
How about thievery
Mr. Magpie..?
collecting and
hoarding of
shiny objects..?
Mr. M. once more:
black is thievery
shiny is white..
I'm two in one..!
thanks, linda... :)
CharlesC Jul 2014
Sitting in a spacious hotel lobby
which enclosed a carpet with repeating designs
Large TVs with changing projections on screens
These assertions of apparent separations in life
Two boys playing pool and a narrator on TV
speaking with all certainty proclaiming his side
A swinging lamp in pendular motion announced
the obvious rulership of linear time
However, remembering now that all these are
the making and iterations and extensions which
brighten in the light of our Awareness
But not yet home these brightened extensions
remind us that Awareness is only aware of itself
Next time might we start in Awareness and
watch the extensions arrive  ?
CharlesC Jan 2016
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...!
background at polarityinplay.blogspot.com
CharlesC Jun 2012
watch the starlings
synchronizing
their collective dance..
each bird deciding for the all
each on the edge of
chaos and fall..
local decisions on moving
coupling a mysterious
non-local intuition..
all spurring our wonder
our disbelief

are we forced to consider
our analogous place
each one of us poised
on a delicate line..
each needing to master
a courage to reach
transform near fear
take that one step our own
trust knowing all steps..
holographic truth at last
each differing step
stimulating
new wholeness and light

watch the starlings
once more..
locate where you now stand
my edge in my time
absorb the starling's miracle
murmuring our own
murmuration
CharlesC Sep 2013
One of nine
Greek goddesses
is the definition..
She rises in finery
adorned in her
Greek duality..
But that other
Muse the verb
is a turning
a meditation of
movement..
This is the
singular Goddess
the presence
which gives life
to our attractive
Greek friend...
Musing with Mae..
CharlesC Dec 2016
It was festive with conversation..
Then the announcement of music upstairs
and some went up..others stayed
and listened passively..
The filtered music seemed not distant
but penetrated all of the words and laughter..
Seeming then as musical wholeness
falling and creating this
festive occasion...
CharlesC Apr 2013
One way expresses
music listening
not food for thought..
Another expressed by
a master pianist
88 notes and pedals
differences of sound
are infinite..
practice is love
finding those
illusive differences
coaxing secrets from
the secretive piano..
might a listener
also grasp
a measure
of difference in
her reverie...?
This seems similar to "Oneness."
The pianist is Joaquin Achucarro
CharlesC Jun 2019
My name is Legion
for we are many..
Many of my names are yours
and yours mine..
We live with clouded visions
named by outworn beliefs
and mistaken identities..
We desperately need
to  pierce the clouds
to discover the glowing
of  peace and grace lying
hidden behind our names..
Those pigs might assist...!
CharlesC Mar 2013
Imagine, if you will, a swirling energy
Dancing around a core
Forever compelled to enter one end
Of a doughnut-like hole
Converging, traveling up and
Flinging out again in a creative burst
Spreading in all directions
But pulled by an irresistible force
To follow semi-circular paths
Back to the base
There to be reunited, renewed and then
Flow up and out again
And around and back
And up and out
And around and back
Again and again
And --

Can this Torus imaged energy be universal
Both encompassing the cosmos
And small carbon units like myself
Did my atoms arise from the core and
Manifest in a splendid journey
Through colorful space and finite time
And will my spirit go back
To coalesce in the core
And spring up again
And again and again
And --

Are black holes in space
Magnetized entrances into a doughnut hole
where compressed energy races up the core and
Spews out in a sprawling light show of universes
Until it is all called back to the base
To be fused again, transformed,
Recreated and sent up and out
And around and back
Again and again
And --
by a friend, Thelma
CharlesC Jan 2021
The virus has placed a focus

On our assumptions of  "normal"

Normal..these were the habits

Taken for granted as they

Settled into our lives as

Benchmarks and addictions..

We so fondly remember the

Unceasing participation..tight

Schedules..with expected

Plentiful accumulation..then

Enter the virus..pushing back on

Artificial guide rails..and

Inviting our attention to..Yes

A frightening Freedom..

A Freedom forever available

With accompanying Joy..

But alas.. went unnoticed

Until the virus erased our

Habitual and imagined

Prison bars...
Some of you may be familiar with a documentary produced by Netflix, entitled
"My Octopus Teacher."  The film has deeply touched many people in this pandemic time. A good friend has seen it several times. In the film, a man established a loving daily relationship with an octopus over the course of a year, which is the lifespan of this creature.Highly recommended!  So...I have found it useful to similarly consider the Virus as a teacher...
CharlesC May 2013
an old question
yet vital now:
my name
is it really me..?
a unique name
constricts my light
it's my edge
my circumference
rounding a center..
our names today
a good fit..?
does careful scan
find them severed
center from edge..?
remembering then
the center Light
a new name
rejoins once more..
we are ready
to soar...
CharlesC Oct 2012
Might we avoid
naming
For a brief moment..
Perceiving without naming..
then
when the name comes
as it always does
Might it be found
in our perceptive light..?
A new whole-ness
to begin our day..?
CharlesC Feb 2019
it is an activity of the mind
as the mind searches for
an adequate word
as a name for some-thing..
no word is
adequate to capture
the infinite nature of
any-thing when the
Nature of nature
is well Understood..
so the mind searches
and if healthy
recognizes its limitations..
surrendering..the name
comes in a quiet rush
in no time and place...
CharlesC Oct 2020
There is awakening:

The joy of finding..at last

Our true Self..the expansive

Newness which has

Poked and prodded so long..

But apparently remaining

Are naps of forgetting

Which induce the sleep we

Once endured..until

A new remembering

Whisks heavy eyelids...
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