A Sunday Morning Meditation-Poem

The perfection in this world

     is not to be mistaken    

                  for              

the protection

                 of the Soul

which is

never-in-danger

     Ever Present

     Ever Perfect.

That which we see

   is determined by

      our mind-fed eyes—

Why not switch our vision

      to the Soul-fed Mind

and thereby see

the Perfection

      that is

            this world.
 

Diane(July 2012)

Paradox of possessions

Money, time, and love are the three legs of true wealth’s stool. What is money? It is a symbol for value, it is information; it is abstract. Humans are driven by symbols to go to war and fight for abstract causes. Money, being utterly abstract, is often valued more for itself than for what it actually buys—it is the ultimate “field of dreams.” Individuals and societies measure self worth by financial net worth, but this devalues the deeper qualities of awareness and soul that are the true source of all value.

It’s been said, "He who dies with the most toys, wins!" This is both true and not true. Some say, “Money does not matter,” but quietly and privately we fear poverty. Fear of homelessness, hunger, and a drop in social status drives many to an insane focus on money—at any cost. If you are poor with a positive state of mind, you may still suffer a sense of emotional degradation just from the social stigma of poverty. Such fears are well-founded in societies that fail to attain true wealth, since the members of those societies know they can and do fall into poverty. A world based on fear cannot be wealthy in any real sense.

Many of the “richest” people in the world are always “hungry.” Much shopping is for useless trinkets to replace the lack of meaning and love in life. Many a parent, for example, who has no time for talking with their children, will just buy toys. Most people identify with the stuff that they own as an extension of their personal ego.

Our possessions can own us. Attach ourselves to our possessions and we immediately lose our sense of true wealth. The very desire for not-yet-owned possessions breeds greed and lust. We suffer endless rounds of grasping for the goods that will make us “happy and full.” We get “more” but immediately need to get “more” again. There is no end in sight.

Walking by a beautiful garden filled with iris flowers, someone might think, “I don’t own it, how unfortunate!” So they miss the simple of joy of the experience. You don’t need to own things in order to enjoy them. To really “have” something we must be present to it. Taking time to appreciate the existence of an object, a friend, or a place is really having that object before us.

(This text taken from an article of mine titled "Realizing True Wealth" that first appeared in Verna Allee & Dinesh Chandra (Eds.) What is True Wealth & How Do We Create it? Indigo Press, A Division of Print and Media Associates, New Delhi, India, 2004.)

Realizing Silence

Begin with the thought of “silence”.
Hold that thought in mind for a while;
perhaps repeating the word “silence"
or a holding a picture of silence.
Allow mind to drop into actual silence -
not the symbol but the living reality of silence:
the silent mind.

Move around with silent mind.
Come back to it (silent mind),
again and again as the day flows on.

A day lived in silence is a good day.
A day of peace and love.

our pulsating earth

It is like the ebb and flow of life,
the waxing and waning of the moon,
the waves atop the ocean deep:
Not only is it like the world of mind that we've created,
the logical growth of moving, shifting, mirroring ourselves,
but our world, our earth,
magnificently pulsating, always under heavy gravity,
mostly ocean, emotion,
breathing just like us.

And that is why the masters always tell us to breathe,
to begin with the breath, to just breathe, in and out, in, out,
because it is painful, we see that it painful, it hurts when we breathe in, we hold it,
we hold it, it is so tight, we hold it, we are suffocating, it hurts, but
finally, finally, release, sweet release and we breathe out, we let the breath out,
and so we see this is it, this is how life is, we suffer, we suffer, we grow,
we are in pain because we are ever in forming, shaping, the man the statue, the man the chisler,
suffering.

It is life. We are golden children, the greater the struggle the greater the outcome,
you should feel blessed, you are the chosen one so see the light and get through that darkness my friend. So easily all seems lost, when really you have just forgotten your power. The rays are there,
it may sound hard to believe but some part of you is choosing not to see them, and it is not your fault.
The fact is that only you can change it. We lie, we lie, we deny, we create the illusion of love, when really, we don't even know what love is. We lie, worse than faking it to making it, we say that the world is love, all is love, everyone is just love, we want it to be true so badly, but it's not true. If we are all connected and we are all love, then some part of the human race, some part of us, we are like one body on this earth, billions and billions of us; if one part of that body and destroy itself, if men are to murder children, to rake them down.

Sweet Somethings

We whispered

sweet somethings

in each others'

ears,

For the “nothing”

of love

is all that lasts

through the years.

And even love

that is "lost"

has more “something”,

than a fortune

handed down

through generations

of the citizens

“of substance”.

Though unlike

the parable

of the camel

and the needle,

I know there are

many of those

“fortunate”,

who would toss

all their jewels

away just to hear,

love’s

“sweet nothings’ ”

warm breath

on their ear.

For Love

is always

God,

no matter

whose heart

has sent it.

And Love

is always

the heart’s

inhabitant,

no matter how life

has bent it.

          Diane Shavelson (October 2012)