Uradiance

"Most happenings exist where a word has never intruded." (Ranier Marie Rilke) Didn't we all just dream this? isn't it how we came here? I awoke, drawn beyond midnight by the Self-Luminous. Walked naked into mist that clothed me with the pelt of every deer. The ground was covered with new nipples quivering virescent out of loam. Down from stars floated mouths winged with lips making thirsty sounds. I saw through everything into the milk that yearns up cedar roots toward sky. Saw You, gleaming with inward cream, inebriated. We awoke into each other's dream, again and again, more real with each relinquishing of breath. That astonishment Was this: nowhere was there a Word, a Name for anything!

If you convince me to believe what you believe, it won't do either of us any good. Your opinions interest me even less than my own. Your concerns don't concern me: I already have enough to carry. But if you can share some hint of your Wonder, some moment of your Joy, some whisper of your Love, my heart will e xpand, my awareness awaken, my whole world change in an instant.

Why do we try to silence the mind? The kingdom of divine silence is already here. Silence has nothing to do with the mind's ceaseless thinking. To be silent is not the mind's nature, any more than it is the nature of a songbird not to sing. Silence is happening quite independently of thoughts. Silence is happening all around and between thoughts. Boundless blue sky contains a gray cloud: so silent awareness contains the mind, with all its chattering. One experiences profound inward silence this very instant when awareness rests in its own luminous clarity, prior to thought. In other words, when one does nothing at all. Awareness can watch thoughts arise and vanish without being them. There is no greater discovery than this: "I am not my thoughts! I am awareness! I am free!" Free to let thoughts play as they please. Free to let time past and time future come and go without worry, for time is nothing but thought. As waves of water don't dis...

Painting by Liz LaMotte It takes powerfully individualized persons to become "we." Otherwise, "we" just degenerates into group-think, which is not consciousness at all. Before any of us become "we," each is called, chosen, gloriously anointed, to be no one else. Only the Alone becomes All-One. There is no cosmos without solitude. The night sky appears so whole and beautiful because light-years of alone-ness encompass every star.

Said the Orthodox Rabbi, "God created Earth 6 thousand years ago." The Geologist replied, "6 billion, without God." Said the Buddhist, "There was no beginning." The Hindu replied, "This earth is but one in an endless cycle." Said the Fundamentalist, "Earth is doomed: look to heaven." The Environmentalist replied, "We have already destroyed the earth." Then Earth spoke. She said, "See this apple blossom, this morning glory, this jasmine flower? It only lasts a day. Why don't you all just shut up and smell it?

On a clear morning, each dewdrop may feel, 'I contain the Sun!' But is it true? An hour from now, both borrowed light and dew, mirror and reflection, were never real.

A whole man is not gentle and timid. A whole man is not bold and aggressive. A whole man is bold and gentle. Plato said, 'Have compassion: every man you meet is fighting a great battle inside.' It' the battle to balance bold and gentle.

"O God, quit me of 'God'!" (Meister Eckhart) Cast these idols into the fire: * the God who takes sides in war, any war; * the God who chooses one tribe over another, the God who chooses one nation over another, the God who chooses one religion over another; * the God who destroyed the World Trade Center and the God who invaded Iraq; * the God who orders Arab youths to martyr themselves and the God of Apache helicopters who turns war into a video game; * the God who tells Mohammad's army to murder the unbelievers and the God who tells Joshua's army to conquer the tribes of Canaan, slaughtering "everything that breathes"; * the God who fires North Korean missiles at Israel and the God who slaughters the children of Gaza with American-made white-phosphorus bombs; * the God who murders the innocent and calls it holy war and the God who murders the innocent and calls it collateral damage; * God of the Vatican, God of Jerusalem, Go...

Rembrandt's face of Christ Our humanity is sacred. Our senses are divine gifts. Our body is the garden of breathing. Our flesh is the radiance of God. Only this, only this he was dying to reveal.

Naked attention to Naked being in Naked silence: The only requirement To walk this path Is that you touch the ground With the soul Of your foot.

Why do you seek the blessing of a guru? The moment of birth was your initiation into the highest spiritual path when you received three sacred jewels, talismans to guide you home: this breath for a prayer, this body for a temple, the present moment for a teacher. Angels and Devas wait countless ages to receive what you have been given. Don't waste the precious honor of a human birth!

One made itself Thou and got lost loving so that longing could breathe and holiness could touch holiness. Tell no one we were ever not two.