Uradiance

Gongey tumi washam, Gongey tumi weheh. Gongey tumi washam, Gongey tumi weheh. Joy and peace to you, Emptiness and play. Grief and sorrow too, Fearless is our way. Gongey tumi washam, Gongey tumi weheh.

Ignore ignorance. What you focus on expands, takes on weight and form, become your whole world. You learn the lesson there, then create a new one. You can have all the worlds you want. So many things to be ignorant about, but only one thing to know. Why not focus on the golden fountain of love in your heart? Isn't that where you always wanted to live?

Hi, I'm Fred. It is 2012 here. This a message in a virtual bottle, a message from another timeline. Physicists have recently taught us virtual messaging between alternate universes, so I thought I'd try it. Perhaps there is another Fred in your timeline. You might remember him from the 60's. In case your timeline unfolded differently than the one I chose, I'd like to share what life is like here. There are no more nation states. We gave them up after Jimmy Carter was re-elected in 1980. In an astonishingly rapid transition, we moved from the outmoded concept of "nationhood" to global federation. We are one human family, though we each identify with our bio-region, enjoying tribal gatherings to celebrate our local produce, music, and dance. We abolished war. And flags. There is only one flag, a batik green planet in an ocean of blue: but since each one is hand-dyed, every flag is unique. Religion has disappeared, though most of us partici...

  Meditate on your own eyes, close them and rest in their light, not the light of the world, but the innate luminosity of seeing, prior to what is seen. When your eyes overflow with light, open them and see fearlessly what is there, without photo-shopping the naked radiance of the world. Impose no concepts, labels, preferences. See it all as rippling flame, a seamless continuum of Presence ever burning itself up. Pour your eyes into this uncreated fire, until seeing consumes the seer and the seen. Light within you, light outside you, exactly the same light: "God from God, Light from Light, very God from very God."* Let the whole creation be consumed by the eye of your heart in the bliss of fearless seeing. *words from the Nicene Creed

"Let negative feelings solidify." ~Sri Sri Most people try to ignore or suppress their negative feelings. Then they are haunted by ghosts day and night, and these negative feelings become the demons they project into the world of action. Instead of trying to ignore or suppress negative feelings, welcome them into the space of awareness. They are legitimate parts of your being, your energy, your body. Anger, jealousy, grief, fear of failure, loss: Whatever feeling arises, let it crystalize into a concrete mass of energy, felt as sensation in some part of the body. Embrace the negative feeling without resistance. Bathe this bundled energy in the clear waters of awareness, simply observing it. In its own time, gracefully, the negativity will unwind and release back into the useful energy of aliveness. For it was never a "demon," never a "bad" part of you. It was just bound-up aliveness, waiting to dissolve into joy. Only when we let negative feeling...

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." ~Luke 23:34 With these words from the cross, at the moment of his death, Jesus informs us that the fundamental human problem is not sin, but ignorance. Ignorance of what? Math, science, language, computer technology? Or ignorance of something far more fundamental: our own Self? To know the Self is not factual knowledge. In the Self, there is no data to process. No verbal or mathematical aptitude are required to know the Self. Nor is this knowledge the conclusion to any process of linear logical analysis. So in a sense, knowing the Self means Un-Knowing all else, until one settles into the source of knowing: boundless subjectivity. Self is the luminosity of consciousness as its own object. Rest in the empathy of the Self for itself, and know the natural compassion of all selves for each other. This is our innate morality. Resting in Self-luminous compassion is meditation. If we want to teach ...

I love what's round, nature's curves and asymptotes. She contains no points, only vanishings; no straight lines or right angles: they only exist in the mind. The mind is the realm of names. When we name things, they solidify into hierarchies. But when we return to the nameless circle, hierarchies melt into streams. Un-naming things makes them God again. The real revolution is silence. God is fluid, the healing stream of melted names. Not one of us is a thing. Therefor, not one of us is superior or inferior to another. Not one of us, no, not one, is finite. Each creature bends toward the  infinite, entangled in every other. If you want to overthrow the hierarchy of unmelted things, return to the circle. Be nameless. Swim in the fluid of divine silence. This is why the elites of every religious hierarchy fear meditation, and every true revolution is preceded by a generation of mystics. In the forest of the golden mushroom, I dare you to find a single straight line! P...

So what point shall we argue about today? Viewpoints churn and swirl in a pointless centerless sea. That sea is consciousness itself, which has no point of view. Each perspective feels "right" and important only as long as we contract into it, giving it weight and mass. Until now, every religion has been based on a Credo, a statement of what "I believe." When will we relax into that religion which has no beliefs at all? That religion whose central practice is abandoning every point of view?

Last hike of summer, fifteen miles to mirror lake. Knees older, same heart. Azure mountain moth, disguised among blue asters, unmasked by a breeze. Lupine fade and hum; in the last alpine flowers, honey bees feasting. Evening nurse log, lullaby of newborn firs, deepening silence. Painting by Christine Ghattas

This world is the Realm of Giving. Here we learn to see all as a gift, and give it all back. Psychologically, this means non-clinging , embracing the freedom of impermanence. Spiritually, this means yagya , seeing the universe as sacrifice, and offering everything we experience into the fire. Economically, it means redistribution , energy ceaselessly flowing, without accumulating in any one point. Money is consciousness yearning to be spent. But holding and hoarding wealth is the source of great misery. One who sees everything as a gift cannot be unhappy.

Ganesha Chaturthi, the birthday of Ganesh! This elegant Ganesh was painted by my friend, Scott Hague . Happy birthday, Ganesh! I'm sorry so many spiritual intellectuals have to explain away your wacky appearance and exquisite nonsense as " symbolism." I sort of like You just as You are, a huge elephant head, bizarre nose, fat bellied body on a naughty boy, riding precarious and tipsy on a mouse: that describes just about all of us! I think the big tummy is important because it symbolizes a big tummy. You are my buddy, Ganesh. Let's make some mischief today! Let's steal some hearts. Let's tease some girls while they're taking their baths. Let's gnaw through our ropes and free ourselves from every concept of how things should be. And when the great Father Should comes to cut off our heads, lets trumpet the wisdom of laughter and charge him like bull elephants! Dear buddy, You are the remover of obstacles. But the greatest obstacle ...

Cellular Structure of an Orchid,  Photo by ceridwensummer I let go of my story about time, and discovered the eternal space of presence. It was important to say, "There is no past or future." Letting go of time, I let go of the body, and it was important to say, "I am not this body; I am pure consciousness." But then I discovered the boundless space of eternity tingling in every atom of my flesh. I cried, "This is my Body! My Body is also God!" And then I was blessed again to remember my story, my father's and mother's story, and the stories of their fathers and mothers. I was blessed again with the dance of tomorrow, and a plan for beauty. So I reinvented time. Time bubbles out of the present moment, embracing all my ancestors and the unborn generations of the earth. No need to negate the past and future in order to be fully present. No need to negate the body to be boundless Spirit. No need to negate the many to be one. Time ...

Thank you,  Spaghetti-O's. We don't eat you anymore, but you were our first vegetarian delight. Thank you, Bird's Eye frozen peas. We don't eat you anymore. But you were a hell of a lot better than canned spinach. At first we hid you under our mashed potatoes, but then we liked you, and you nourished us. I would say, thank you Wonder Bread, if it was politically correct and gluten free. You played your role. There was a time we needed all the carbos our little bodies could wolf down. You were the wife of peanut butter. You tasted wonderful with balogna and ketchup, and after all, ketchup is still regarded as a vegetable in public schools. And finally, before their names are forever lost, like Sumerian gods, I would just like to thank Adam's Black Jack gum and Bazooka, Moon Pie Single Deckers and Tasty Cakes, Necco Candy Buttons and Mary Janes, Nestle's Snow Caps, Good and Plenties, Fizzies, Flavor Straws, and especially Tootsie Pops, in whose cherr...

The world is waaaay too complicated. I don't have time for all the economics, science and philosophy required to figure it out. So I just go about my business keeping three simple questions in mind:   Is the earth not a gift to me?   Am I not a gift to the earth? Is it not delicious to honor the giver? Photo credit

I place obstacles on my path when I attempt to practice what cannot be practiced. Then the path itself is the obstacle. Faith cannot be practiced. Surrender cannot be practiced. Love cannot be practiced. Non-duality cannot be practiced. Faith, surrender, love and unity are obstacles on my path as soon as I make them "practices." The wise have left maps of consciousness, recording the landscape of spiritual evolution. They never intended these descriptions of consciousness to be "techniques." No one becomes a Buddha by imitating Buddha. No one becomes a Jesus by imitating Jesus. I cannot become myself by mimicking somebody else. The poppy does not mimic the rose. No matter how hard it opens its petals, the violet does not become a lotus. All I can do is welcome the sun and rain with gratitude, rooted in my seed. As soon as I let go of "technique," subject and object merge in delight. Oneness happens, not in the suppression of twoness, but in the dan...

"A nything and everything is possible with the grace of Sri Ganesha. Here one may ask, who is Sri Ganesha? He is none other than Adi Para Shakti, Divine Mother in the form of the original supreme cosmic energy. In the Ganapati Atharvashirsha Upanishad, Sri Ganesha is praised by the Vedic rishi as "Shakti Trayatmaka," the very soul or essence of the three forms of divine shakti.   "In the Vedic worldview, male deities are worshipped as forms of prajnanam, or consciousness, and female deities are worshipped as forms of shakti, or divine energy and power. Truly speaking, this shakti has no form, but we give it forms so that we may approach Divinity.   "The shakti of Rudra is Mother Rudrani. The shakti, or power, of Narayana is Mother Narayani. And the shakti of Brahma is Brahmi. These three powers of Rudrani, Narayani and Brahmi are all contained within the power of Sri Ganesha. In fact, the powers of all the forms of Divine Mother are within S...

Thank you, Gurudev. Our little group of four practiced sudarshan kriya tonight. I brought apple pie. I hope you liked it. Even when you have a massive crowd of 100,000 around you, as in Buenos Aires last Saturday, you are no different than you were when there were six of us sitting on the floor of my living room, in a little row house in Philly, back in 1988, and I asked you, "Who are you, really?" and you said, "I am nobody." You truly meant it. That is when I knew what a Guru is. You are the empty space of joy, and the incarnation of playfulness. You are not the center of a personality cult, but the center of an energy field. And all of us who dissolve into that field, through the grace of meditation, have the honor of participating in the vortex of love, the window of divinity, through which rays of God transform the earth. Jai Guru Dev.

All it takes for a glorious day is bright September sunshine and a little dog's heart, free from yesterday and tomorrow. Thank you, Creator. This is still a perfect world, freshly created every morning, and we'll create another one tomorrow.... Each morning we wake into a new creation, our eyes filled with pure thought-free awareness. When these eyes are perfectly awake, we see what we love and create what we see. In that waking wonder we have one precious moment to step into paradise. But just a moment later, the mind of yesterday returns, our eyes cloud over with shadows, and we fear tomorrow. Then we shatter this new earth and step into the old one. Friend, wherever you are at this moment, however weary and gray your life may appear, know that a fresh glistening green earth lies shattered like a Christmas bulb at your bedside, where it fell this morning as you opened your eyes, and chose to live here, rather than there. Tomorrow, when you wake, remember this....

Political left and right struggle, but their struggle simply increases stress and division. The left wants to redistribute our nation's wealth, the right wants to keep wealth on Wall Street, or in tax-free offshore bank accounts. Both solutions have been tried, both have failed. Neither redistribution of wealth, nor "trickle down" economics, bring harmony or productivity. We need to solve the problem at a deeper level: in awareness itself. We need to REDISTRIBUTE THE WEALTH OF CONSCIOUSNESS, because money is never enough. Store up your treasure within, as divine radiance, then let your light overflow into action. Practice Meditation and Sudarshan Kriya, then share your inner abundance with the world. Citizens both rich and poor need more than a pocketful of dust. They need awakened hearts, minds cleared of negativity, spines strengthened by the power of Shakti, the Holy Spirit, sparkling energy of creation. This is wealth to be shared! We have n...

It takes an ego to be humble. 'I' feel the need to apologize, 'I' feel offended. Pride and humility thrive on the same thought of 'I.' But when there is simply awareness, empty, open and present, then who can get puffed up, and who can get deflated? Who is there to feel humiliated? The I-less flame has already burnt through this moment of humiliation, this moment of pride. Burn through the conflict, for it has already happened. Why cling to the wick? You are not the flame you were a moment ago. A vast priestly hierarchy of control empowers itself through our subtle feelings of offense and apology, guilt and forgiveness. But it all collapses in a single instant of open naked truth telling. Naked in the clarity of each others gaze, we have no need to feel offended any more, and there is no need for an apology. Only the ego holds onto a mistake. Awareness lets it go. "Forgive them, Father-Self, for they know not what they do." Ignorance ...

What I Am cannot be known by the mind, conceptualized as a thought, or concluded from any sequence of syllogism or philosophical reasoning. What I Am vibrates organically through every cell of the body, arises in a stream of golden sound from the silence at the center of each particle, and shines from the darkness of the vacuum. I Am tasted but not known, felt but not thought. I Am a buzzing in the molecules. Therefor, when I hear or read words that ignite this nourishing voluptuous inner light, and I feel it percolate out of my marrow, it is certainly not because of any meaning conveyed by thought. Words and thoughts of the Master, like his glance or touch, are just vehicles for an unspeakable molten current that irradiates the flesh. Mind has nothing to do with it. Mind only gets in the way. In the beginning was the Word.... And the Word became flesh, not thought. If this irradiation happens when we read or hear the words of Jesus, Muhammad, Rumi, or Vedavyasa, it is not b...

To bow down and touch his feet? Or bow within and touch the joyful light of your own heart? To offer flowers before his image? Or offer service to his creatures? What is the greatest service to the Master if not to awaken that joyful light in others? Serve the Master not at his glorious abode in the Himalayas or the Holy Land, but in the place you are this moment, on a city street or a forest trail, sharing with one living creature some spark of the love which that Grace has ignited in you. Jai Guru Dev

There are two kinds of signals, two kinds of messages we tweet to the universe. One is: "I am stuck in this point of view and you should get stuck here too." The other is: "Something has filled me with pointless wonder; I invite you to dive into love's shouldless space with me." The sign of one is contraction in the heart; the sign of the other is expansion. Our culture and our educational system teach us to argue a point of view and defend it to the death. We enter every conversation as a hard and tiny point, to do battle with another hard tiny point. This mode of communication only narrows and hardens each point, and is really not communication at all. What if we entered a conversation saying, "Please, I am stuck in a point of view, and I would like you to help me dissolve it, so that I can expand." Imagine a culture where conversations are based, not on arguing our points, but on the assumption that we are stuck in small places and need o...

Can a busy mind be creative?  A busy mind is always reacting to the world. A busy mind is formed by that which in-forms it. A busy mind is the plaything of the world's sensations and memories. Therefor a busy mind creates nothing new: it is a reaction to creation. Only the silent mind, formless and free from information, can create. Silence is the mother of creation and the womb of art.

No I'm not. I'm everywhere. Why such a limited view of your Self? Are you a mere point? Why not be the space between the planets too, the space between the stars, the space around the galaxy? Why not encompass clusters of galaxies, and be the emptiness in every atom? Eternity is pointless. The present moment is pointless. They mingle in pointless joy. But between this moment and eternity, stretches a long long line of neurotic little minds, each trying to make a point.

Clinging to oneness is a subtle form of violence against the Self. For if all phenomena are waves of the mirage in the empty sky of awareness, then nothing that happens could possibly remove you from the unity of the Self, and therefor no discipline or effort is required to hold on to it. That very discipline, that very effort, breaks the continuum, the creaminess, of Brahman. For the world's phenomena are like streaks of cream in cream. Our very discipline, our very effort to avoid duality, confirms the duality and does violence to the One. Our effort churns the cream into lumps. One ever celebrates as Two, and Two ever dissolves into One, and there is absolutely nothing to do about it. Yet this is what the ego most dreads and hates to discover, because the restless mind wants constantly to work at some accomplishment. Grace is discovering there is nothing to do. Nothing is more humiliating for our mind than Grace.

May the golden moths of September settle on their mossy stones in muted sunbeams. There is another world, different from ours: The world where we let things be just what they are.

The effort of spiritual practice creates the space for Grace to happen effortlessly. It is a dance between gift and discipline. Offer your breath and you will be filled. Take the next breath. It is not taken: it is given. O mysterious lover, giver, friend. Those who say, "Make an effort in your spiritual practice," are correct. Those who say, "Spiritual practice is effortless," are correct. Don't have this argument. Flowers don't argue with sunbeams. Photo: Hibiscus on my patio

  What's the point of all that spiritual practice if you're not cool, sport a gentle smile, and carry a butterfly on your shoulder?  What's the point of all that spiritual practice if you don't play tenor sax in your underwear surrounded by adoring friends? What's the point of all that spiritual practice if your love can't be fierce and fun?   What's the point of all that spiritual practice if you don't ceaselessly return to this breath and know it as your first breath, return to this moment and know that you have just been born?

What's the use of all this spiritual practice if we can't let the wild rumpus start? Most intense full moon, gleaming not only above, but within every cell of my body. 3 AM, sleep impossible. Love becomes fierce to thicken the plot. At my window, cedar branches washed in milky blue streams. Countless particles and anti-particles burst from the vacuum, yet the void remains still and empty. Streaks of cream, threads of what pours into itself. Who struck this awful gong of silence? It is like the eve of a great battle, and I, wandering among the tents of my soldiers to hear their sweet slumber. I am ready. Anyone who says it's all love, is correct. Anyone who says it's all a cosmic struggle, between armies of darkness and light, is correct. The fool who pretends there is a difference clings to a broken rope in a sea of anger, and calls his clinging "peace." The darkness and the light are alike to Thee. Selah. Love becomes fierce to thicken the plot. ...