Uradiance

    Never try to open a flower. You might ruin it. But you knew that. Let sun and rain have their way with every petal. Be patient  and watch. The flower I speak of is your soul. But you knew that. And the power by which you knew at once  that this poem  is about you,  is the green force that breathes open all living creatures. Photo: Peter Shefler

     Terrible things happen Beautiful things happen People are weeping People are laughing The world is a play Of light and shadow Everyone is a victim Everyone is to blame No one is a victim No one is to blame An old man dies in your arms An infant is born in your hands The peony I planted last year in my garden that I thought had not survived now swells with ancient beauty in a yearning bud Shivo'ham Shivo'ham I am the Infinite the imperishable Splendor of Awareness I Witness the blossoming the fragrance and the fall of the smallest wildest  flower I hold you no less dear

     A profoundly simple instruction is re peated verbatim in the Shiva Sutras, the Vijnana Bhairava, and the Orthodox Christian Philokalia:  “rest the mind in the heart ."  The alchemy practiced by cats, Taoist masters, and breast-sated infants. There's no difference between purring, chanting "Om," or gurgling “Mama”   in the democracy of the heart. Y et it's really not a practice at all, but the surrender of practice, where doing yields to Being.     Rest the mind in the heart. If you want to stay safe, you might regard this as a method of relaxation or stress management. But if you are an adventurer, you'll let it be the portal to a New Creation. The Heart is not just a beating organ for aerating your blood, but a doorway.  At an ancient temple , you  could only pass over  the threshold after removing your shoes. Shoes represented the beliefs and assumptions covering pure consciousness. You had to remove the dust on your feet...