“I listen to the silence I have in the past called, inertia.  What I hear is almost a voice in the hollowness.  It is almost a hunger, a keening in the emptiness.  Not the kind of hunger of the body that my little friend from India knew.  But it is very familiar to me now that I stop and listen.  I have heard it for years as I sat with people who were searching for meaning in their lives.  It is the sound of sacred hungers, the desire to germinate that is within every seed in the soul.  It is the calling of talents and potentialities that wait to bud in the dark recesses of ourselves, beneath the static and cacophony of everyday life.

The more I listen, the more I can hear these hungers echoing in the stillness.  They seem to be calling for a few basic soul needs to be filled:  to express and receive love; to be present with and for what we love; to know and be known; to be peaceful and satisfied; to create peace and satisfaction; to be acknowledged as making a difference and to acknowledge that others make a difference to us; to find meaning and purpose in life as well as having life find meaning in our existence.”

~ Dawna Markova

Excerpt from:  “I Will Not Die and Unlived Life.

Reflections

I am feeling a bit reflective today – just noticing how in life we are either in the frying pan (in the mist of drama and confusion) or in a lobster pot, slowly being stewed to sleep while all the time thinking “wow this is good” - when in reality it only leads to a certain death.  There are many forms of death, the body dying is the most obvious but also the spirit dying while the body is alive is the worst type of death.   When we bounce in and out of these constantly fluctuating states, it can be quite maddening.  Life can seem quite senseless at times.  But once the higher consciousness is stirred, once it’s been given a glimmer of its eternal and magnificent light, there’s no going back to a complete state of sleep and stupor.  Something in you remains awakened and you begin to notice that the experiences themselves become the catapult that keeps you thirsty for your own inner truth and the need to unite with the eternal spirit.

~ Nirmala

Inspired by the teachings of Manorama and Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati

"Spiritual life is not something you are just interested in, like a hobby or a study. It is much deeper than that. You are driven to it by something in yourself. In fact as long as you do not feel that urge, you should not start on a

spiritual path, because when you do not feel any real need to re-orient yourself, nothing will change."

~ Frederic Abbah

Love Dogs

One night a man was crying,

Allah! Allah!

His lips grew sweet with the praising,

until a cynic said, "So!

I have heard you

calling out, but have you ever

gotten any response?"

The man had no answer to that.

He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.

He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,

in a thick, green foliage.

"Why did you stop praising?"

"Because I've never heard anything back."

"This longing

you express  is  the return message.”

The grief you cry out from

draws you toward union.

Your pure sadness

that wants help

is the secret cup.

Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.

That whining is the connection.

There are love dogs

no one knows the name of.

Give your life

to be one of them.

~ Rumi

Thirsty

We are like men in the desert seeking water.  The mind continues to place the mirage of an oasis before us.  But the truly thirsty man, who seeks to quench his desire to merge with the divine, will keep his eye on the path and away from the temptations of the mirage because he knows this will only lead to un-fulfillment and a deeper thirst; he knows that the fountain he seeks is formless and can only be revealed through persistent attention and acknowledgement of the false.  He will continue on his journey until the road itself becomes the fountain that reveals to him, his eternal joy.

~ Nirmala

Inspired by the teachings of Manorama and Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati

The Holy Longing

Tell a wise person, or else keep silent.

Because the massman will mock it right away.

I praise what is truly alive,

what longs to be burned to death.

In the calm water of the love-nights,

where you were begotten, where you have begotten,

a strange feeling comes over you

when you see the silent candle burning.

Now you are no longer caught

in the obsession with darkness,

and a desire for higher lovemaking

sweeps you upward.

Distance does not make you falter,

now, arriving in magic, flying,

and finally, insane for the light,

you are the butterfly and you are gone.

And so long as you haven’t experienced

this: to die and so to grow,

you are only a troubled guest

on the dark earth.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe