Above the tower — a lone, twice sized moon.
On the cold river passing night filled homes,
It scatters restless gold across the waves.
On mats, it shines richer than silken gauze.
Empty peaks, silence: among sparse stars,
Not yet flawed, it drifts. Pine and cinnamon
Spreading in my old garden…All light,
All ten thousand miles at once in it’s light.
Cuckoo flying against a full moon (Hiroshigge 1797-1858)
Ultimately, surrender is a choice.
Like donning a flying suits and jump over a cliff. It IS an irrational impulse, but you do it anyway. It IS a powerful and frightening experience until you make that step over the edge. Once falling and flying something else carries you – unless of course you are trying to stop the fall by holding on to whatever presents itself. So it is really this step over the cliff, when fear succumbs to faith, that is so critical.
“Make sure the body is relaxed. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths. Feel yourself breathing into the lower abdomen, as it were. Observe how it expands and contracts slightly with each in and out breath. Then become aware of the entire energy field of the body. Don’t think about it – feel it. By doing this you reclaim consciousness from the mind. If you find it helpful, use the “light” visualization I described earlier.
When you can feel the inner body clearly as a single field of energy, let go, if possible, of any visual image and focus exclusively on the feeling. If you can, also drop any mental image you may still have of the physical body. All that is left then is an all-encompassing sense of presence of “beingness”, and the inner body is felt to be without a boundary. Then take your attention even more deeply into that feeling. Become one with it. Merge with the energy field, so that there is no longer a perceived duality of the observer and the observed, of you and your body. The distinction between inner and outer also dissolves now, so there is no inner body anymore. By going deeply into the body, you have transcended the body”.
You stop to point at the moon in the sky,
but the finger’s blind unless the moon is shining.
One moon, one careless finger pointing —
are these two things or one?
The question is a pointer guiding
a novice from ignorance thick as fog.
Look deeper. The mystery calls and calls:
No moon, no finger — nothing there at all.
Happy solstice everyone ! The December moon is called “Full Long Nights Moon”
Winter sky
On 5th chakra, addiction, disease and surrender
Whether being on a spiritual journey on the brink of surrendering, healing an addiction or a disease – energetically it is all connected to the centre of will-power: the fifth chakra.
While the 4th chakra is the bridge to the higher developed spiritual realm, the fifth chakra is the place to connect heart and mind. Located in the area of the throat, it influences the thyroid, parathyroid, jaw, neck, mouth, throat, and tongue. It is related to communication and choice and it’s color is blue.
Chakras are energy centres. They are hubs, connecting the physical with the subtle body and their function is an important indicator regarding the origin of disturbance and disease. On the physical plane they are directly related to the hormonal system and the central nervous system. Losing energy in the area of a certain chakra, may be an indication regarding the underlying issue. As the fifth chakra is related to choice – and judgement – it is involved in the development of all diseases and conditions.
Tizian " The Cherry Madonna" 1516-1518 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
by Lilli
I don’t know who is singing, this is awesome !
I never heard this Ave Maria sung with such deep emotions in sombody’s voice.
It simply makes me crying.
Early Morning as seen by Turner
This is just such a lovely English Christmas carol. So much joy…
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas Day in the morning.
O my restless heart! Tell the truth!
What substance are you?
Are you fire or water?
Are you human or pure spirit?
From what direction have you come?
What food have you eaten?
What have you witnessed in annihilation?
And why are you flying toward annihilation?
Why are you uprooting me?
Why are you planning to erase me?
Why are you ambushing my intellect?
And why are you defaming yourself?
All animals and creatures
are afraid of nonexistence,
except you who are setting it off
toward nonexistence.
As soon as you realize what aren’t you, you’ll also realize your true being, and it emerges by itself.
And don’t forget to check your relation with the Now every time you remember it.
Have you ever contemplated the meaning of water ?
Water is one of the five elements, one of the building blocks of the universe. According to the myth of creation, water was born out of fire, and water is the mother of earth. Energetically water is related to the kidneys, and the emotion associated with water is fear. Water is symbolising attachment – like a flood of water, but at the same time it stands for detachment – like drops of water slide of the surface. Water is the symbol of emotions, and the unconscious, signified by the lotus flower rising above water, the symbol of desire and attachment.
Water stands for purification – as in baptism. It washes off all the attachments,desires and negative energies. Water stands for life, or rather fertility, because it can be seen as vital for all forms of life. It’s aspect is the feminine and it stands for healing.
The river is a symbol for the flow of life, as is the ocean a symbol for strength and power. The ocean is also a symbol of consciousness. In Taoist tradition, water is considered an aspect of wisdom. The concept here is that water takes on the form in which it is held and moves in the path of least resistance. Here the symbolic meaning of water speaks of a higher wisdom we may all aspire to mimic.
Once when I was living in the heart of a pomegranate, I heard a seed saying,
“Someday I shall become a tree, and the wind will sing in my branches,
and the sun will dance on my leaves,
and I shall be strong and beautiful through all the seasons.”
Then another seed spoke and said,
“When I was as young as you, I too held such views;
but now that I can weigh and measure things, I see that my hopes were vain.”
And a third seed spoke also,
“I see in us nothing that promises so great a future.”
And a fourth said,
“But what a mockery our life would be, without a greater future!”
Said a fifth,
“Why dispute what we shall be, when we know not even what we are.”
But a sixth replied,
“Whatever we are, that we shall continue to be.”
And a seventh said,
“I have such a clear idea how everything will be, but I cannot put it into words.”
Then an eighth spoke
and a ninth
and a tenth
and then many
until all were speaking,
and I could distinguish nothing for the many voices.
And so I moved that very day into the heart of a quince,
where the seeds are few and almost silent.
— Khalil Gibran —
The Living Room 