Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 201 – 7/5/2023

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today i thought i’d continue the July 4th celebration of interdependence and liberation and in a way i shall… today, i call on Thay to supply the words:

Your Ultimate Reality: No Death, No Fear

“Dear Mother Earth,

You were born from the dust of distant supernovas and ancient stars. Your manifestation is but a continuation and when you cease to exist in this current form you too will continue in another. Your true nature is the ultimate dimension of reality—the nature of no-coming and no-going, no-birth and no-death. This is also our true nature. If we’re able to touch this we can experience the peace and freedom of non-fear.

And yet, because of our limited view, we still wonder what will happen to us when our physical form disintegrates. When we die, we merely return to you. You have given birth to us in the past, and we know that you will continue to give birth to us time and time again in the future. We know we can never die. Each time we manifest, we’re fresh and new; each time we return to the Earth, you receive and embrace us with great compassion. We promise to train ourselves to look deeply, to see and touch this truth—that our lifespan is your lifespan, and your lifespan is limitless.

We know that the ultimate and the historical—the noumenal and the phenomenal—are two dimensions of the same reality. Touching the historical dimension—a leaf, a flower, a pebble, a beam of light, a mountain, a river, a bird, or our own body—we can touch the ultimate. When we deeply touch the one, we touch the all. This is interbeing.

Dear Mother, we vow to see you as our body, and to see the sun as our heart. We will train ourselves to recognize you and the sun in every cell of our body. We will find you both, Mother Earth and Father Sun, in each tender leaf, in each flash of lightning, in each drop of water. Diligently, we will practice to see the ultimate and realize our own true nature. We will practice to see that we have never been born and we will never die.

We know that in the ultimate dimension there is no birth and no death, no being and no nonbeing, no suffering and no happiness, and no good and no evil. We will train ourselves to look deeply into the world of signs and appearances with the insight of interbeing, in order to see that if there were no death, there could be no birth; without suffering, there could be no happiness; without the mud, the lotus can’t grow. We know that happiness and suffering, birth and death, lean on each other. These pairs of opposites are only concepts. When we transcend these dualistic views of reality, we’re freed from all anxiety and fear.

Touching the ultimate we’re happy and at ease—we’re in our element, free from all notions and concepts. We’re as free as a bird soaring in the sky, as free as a deer leaping through the woods. Living deeply in mindfulness, we touch our true nature of interdependence and interbeing. We know we are one with you and with the whole cosmos. The ultimate reality transcends all notions and concepts. It can’t be described as personal or impersonal, material or spiritual, nor as the object or subject of mind. Ultimate reality is always shining and shining on itself. We don’t need to look for the ultimate outside of ourselves. We touch the ultimate in the very here and now.”

rest in peace, Richard…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 200 – 7/4/2023

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in the USA, today is our birthday (247th), the day our Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776; today, let us affirm our fundamental Interdependence with fellow siddhizens of our commonunion and our shared country, the world, the cosmos… the first Declaration of Interdependence was written by Will Durant in 1944, since then, there have been many versions offered by different people and organizations… this affirmation, written by Melanie Bacon, is perfect for every day, may it breathe our every breath and perfume joyvolution july and beyond:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That all life is interconnected, and endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights and responsibilities,

That among these are presence, compassion, and the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these rights and responsibilities,

We open our minds and hearts to the needs of others, and our own true needs,

We hear the sound of the living universe in our ears, and add our voices to the song,

We live every moment with awareness of the purity and power of existence.

And for the support of this Declaration, we pledge to each other our love and our breath,

For the freedom of the one is the freedom of the all, and the pain of the one is the pain of the all;

The breath of the one is the breath of the all, and the breath of the all is the breath of God.”

  in this moment of eternity as we once again tune into the astonishing light of our interbeing, i re-member back to undergraduate days in the late sixties and early seventies when life was a running consciousness conversation with interdependence as one of our favorite musings… we were feeling the energy of oneness and interconnection, of ubuntu, a term appearing in South African sources back in the mid-nineteenth century…

how i love the beautifully illustrative story of an anthropologist proposing a game to some children in an African tribe where he puts a basket of fruit near a tree telling them whoever gets there first wins the sweet fruits… so, he gives the signal to run and they all take each others hands and run together and then sit in a circle enjoying the treats… when questioned as to why they chose to run as a group, out of the mouths of babes poured wisdom… ubuntu, how can one of us be happy if all the rest are sad?

may we all live ubuntu… I AM because WE ARE… and, may we affirm our dedication to cosmic stewardship of a world of peace built on justice for all guided by unconditional love for all our relations real-eye-sing there’s only one of us here and we interdepend on each other to interbe…

and, now, let’s close this sacred space of ceremony with a blessing into the sacred fire within, the inner light of great spirit residing in all our relatives: may this day be blessed with gifts, lessons, understanding and friends… may our energy be a gift to all we meet… let us be centered, healing and open facing the day with courage, kindness, insight and compassion… may we honor this day, this moment of eternity and this breath…

shanti shanti shantihi…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 199 – 7/3/2023

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wandering along the ocean, dancing with the breeze

looking toward the skies, waltzing with the trees

sister moon is dancing too, floating through the clouds of blue

waxing full and all aglow, she whispers to the earth below

come home to the heart and listen, all answers are within

awaken to the clarion call to stand together one for all

~

this capricorn full moon under the cancer sun coming at such a pivotal moment is profoundly impacting both inner and outer tides with intense ebbs and the flows… an image associated with the sun in cancer is that of an old man facing the darkness of the north east, the navigator guiding us into wisdom and integration and greeting the new… the image for the moon in cap is a dense jungle covering civilisation portending eaerthmother is able to recover from the desecration…

so, what a joy to go out into the night to commune with sister moon feeling her divine feminine energy washing through us, purifying inner inflammation reflected in an outer world on fire… her light like a soothing balm, like a gentle lullaby, a sweet reminder of all is well in this moment, this intense, uncertain, unknowing moment…

we are the guardians of a new vision called to awaken ourselves and inspire others to be the dream of experiencing all as an unbroken circle holding hands around the cosmos breathing in the rhythm of the waves to the tune of metta or lovingkindness:

may we be filled with lovingkindness

may we be well

may we be peaceful and at ease

 may we be joyful

~

may this super full moon’s light of liberation, luminosity and eclipsing shadow penetrate us to the core decolonizing and deconstucting all that chains and enslaves and blessing all that arises…

I AM the Divine Mother/ She lives in me/ And, everything she needs/ Comes easily to me…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 198 – 7/2/2023

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woo hoo! let’s get this second day of joyvolution, a revolution of joy revved up quintessentially… perhaps you are still intoxicated, as am i, from Rumi’s drinking song and maybe you have a SMILE still on your face to start my internal love engine…

now, feel into the pure delight of our brother elephant, get as comfortable as he is, slow down, settle in, take a deep breath smiling, with our next deep breath feel thank you thank you thank you flooding every cell and as we drop down even deeper, breathe in from the earthmother below who loves us so and feel the joy of our true sacred nature flooding every cell in our one body…

as we conspire, breathe together, smiling and intoning thank you with every breath, notice the joy of our true nature deepening and expanding as we feel the shower of golden light bathing us, pouring through us,,,, while delighting in this waterfall of joy, we salute this joy always bubbling in the core of the ocean of being… breathing in toward the one, breathing out toward the one… coming home deeper and deeper into our one cosmic heart of liberation where we are free to be peace guided by love and rooted on joy…

thank you for luxuriating with me in this moment of eternity in the frequency of joy, committing this act of rebellion, of revolution where we pause in the gap and choose to be the transformation, the deepest and most expansive expression of our wild and wonderful open heart animating the frequency of liberation, free to be the ones we have been waiting for, the ones with the courage to venture into the unknown trusting in the destinednation of the fast moving river… and, thank you for taking this moment to re-member some profound words from Viktor Frankl, a being whose life was an unbroken contemplation on liberation… join me in bathing in this frequency, may our bathing flood the cosmos with wave after wave of liberating energy:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.

…never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed… what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best… to transform personal tragedy into triumph…”

and, now, let’s close this sacred space of ceremony with a blessing into the sacred fire within, the inner light of great spirit residing in all our relatives: may this day be blessed with gifts, lessons, understanding and friends… may our energy be a gift to all we meet… let us be centered, healing and open facing the day with courage, kindness, insight and compassion… may we honor this day being rooted in joy, the bubbling spring in the core of our interbeing…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 197 – 7/1/2023

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welcome, well come joyvolution july, a month vibrating at the frequency of new beginnings, of creative momentum and, yes, i’ve coined a word for this moonth of the WILD pilgrim facing the music, dan-sing with the music and love your joining me in celebrating every day as a joy revolution… for being joy in these turbulent times is the most rebellious wild act and an ancient one for joy is our tue nature, who we quintessentially are… enough with the masters of the dominance worldview selling us an unsustainable bill of goods… come back home to the heart, sit on the lap of the great mother as she reminds us of our true nature… let’s get right into joy with a Rumi drinking song that brings a smile to every cell:

“Drink the wine down, tip the glass.  Drink with the Beloved.
Take this breath like it’s your last.   Drink with the Beloved.
We’re a caravan, you see, moving towards our destiny.  You must find the eyes to see.
Drink with the Beloved.

La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah
La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah

Go to the East or to the West.  Drink with the Beloved.
You can’t escape this birth and death.  Drink with the Beloved.
Drink the cup of loving down.  This is truly drink and drown.  What is lost, it shall be found.
Drink with the Beloved.

La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah
La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah

So listen to the inner call.  Drink with the Beloved.
The tavern masters rise and fall.  Drink with the Beloved.
Watch the drunkards reel and spin.   Feel the Presence from within, toasting with the dearest Friend.  Drink with the Beloved.

La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah
La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah”

i begin today with this soul song, Rumi’s poem, singing me, lighting me up, buzzing me as if a whole hive of bees is with me throughout this new beginning, new breath, new moment, new moonth, new day, new journey, newly standing on the brink of a new world pausing with all the pregnant possibilities alive quickening and fluttering our one heart knowing we are poised to take flight, to wing our way on unknown migratory routes trusting our one heart to fledge the way…

thank you beloved, divine presence and beloveds, divine presences for sharing the dance of synchronisiddhi deepening our pilgrimage into great mystery under the cosmic wild and wise pilgrim turtle moon when the living is easy, rest easy and the rest comes easy… cheers!!!!!

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 196 – 6/30/2023

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how can it possibly be the last day of june? what a whirlwind this moon has been moving at the speed of light uprooting everything in the path expanding and strengthening the muscles of holding the tension while transporting us deeper and deeper into the heart of the leminscate, the stillpoint of creation where the generative energy of creativity creates creation in the blessed space between us…

today is one of my favorite days as it is the day of blessing the space between us, so, in this moment of eternity on the magical mystery tour of life as i go about polishing mirrors, i so delight in your being so courageous in meeting each moment whatever arises and being with the pain and the joy, the suffering and the ease and continuing with one more breath, one more step, one more moment of polishing… i live in the knowing that we can make it through any adversity if there is one other heart beating in the field syncing with ours… thankfully, this wild and wooly moonth demonstrated the veracity of this knowing… thank you…

the time is now, as we bless this space between us, for all souls to play our music and rejoice in the astonishing light of our being looking into the cosmic mirror and bringing to heartmind all buddhas, bodhisattvas, teachers, ancestors, beings devoted to creating a just world and roll all the virtues and merits into a huge gaia ball re-joy-sing in the astonishing light… now, bring to heartmind all your virtues and merit and dedicate this offering to all who suffer, fear and grieve seeing the suffering, fear and grief eased… thank you for sharing your astonishing light so generously as it lifts our sails geometrically…

as we close this circle of joining june, let’s take in these words of the Buddha”

“Live in joy and freedom, even amongst those who are sick or troubled. Live in joy and a peaceful heart, even among those in conflict. Quiet the mind and heart and find the sweet joy of living in the dharma.”

in this sacred moment of pregnant pause, imagine us sitting on a high dune with a panoramic view of the all that is poised on the edge, the verge of a new world – can you hear her breathing in a world of  unconditional love guiding us into justice for all building a rock solid peace beyond our most expansive and deepest imaginings?

hear the peace that passeth all understanding palpably calling us into deep silence…. listen, listen to the cosmic hum… listen, listen to our heartbeat’s drum… listen, listen for the sound of the bell syncing our breathing to the mantra, all is well… deep peace of the running wave to you, deep peace, deep peace, deep peace…

“The best, like water,
Benefit all and do not compete.
They dwell in lowly spots that everyone else scorns.
Putting others before themselves,
They find themselves in the foremost place
And come very near to the Tao.
In their dwelling, they love the earth;
In their heart, they love what is deep;
In personal relationships, they love kindness;
In their words, they love truth.
In the world, they love peace.
In personal affairs, they love what is right.
In action, they love choosing the right time.
It is because they do not compete with others
That they are beyond the reproach of the world.”

~ Lao Tzu~

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 195 – 6/29/2023

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at 21, i was given heirloom seeds of devocean… at 42, i planted the seeds saying a mantra over them daily about being a midwife of heart consciousness… at 63, i began devotedly tending, caring for, watering, chanting over these seeds in co-llaboration with Beloved… wonder what will be going on at 84?

thank you Beloved for breaking our hearts open ever wider empowering us to see through the eyes of love, to deepen in the ways of compassion, to stretch our capacity for patience and trust, to flow in the peace that passeth all understanding in this moment, this beautiful moment…

thanks  for pausing in this beautiful moment on our endless voyage deeper and deeper along the pathless path into the great unknown to honor our sacred pilgrimage of coming home to the heart in a moment so momentous as the whole planet goes through the great unraveling and turning, the cosmic dark night and rebirth when we are all called to listen for our soulsong and commit to being here as fully and openheartedly as we can…

in honor of this moment, i want to close with the 21st century bodhisattva vow, the eco-sattva vow with thanks to the ecosattva, Joanna Macy:

“i vow to:

commit daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings

live on earth more lightly and less violently in the food products and energy i use

draw strength and guidance from the earth, ancestors, future generations and my brothers and sisters of all species

support others in our work in the world and ask for help when needed

to pursue a daily practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart and supports me in observing these vows“

thousand fold thanks for joining in this daily practice of clean-sing, polishing the mirror of our one heart, yes, we are all involved for we all live in the same field, we are family, communitas, sangha of the one heart of boundless love all breathed into life by the same spirit… deep, deep bows as we meet each moment more and more openheartedly…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 194 – 6/28/2023

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today, on the magical mystery tour of life as i go about polishing mirrors metaphorically, transforming dense unconscious energy into the refined energy of love, i delight being in this house of mirrors in the unitive field, beautiful mirrors as i look into every soul and see such radiance… thank you for being such a profound reflection of our sacred true nature… your lovingkindness, compassion, generosity, grace, luminescence, humor, sensitivity, presence, devocean, joy, peace, patience, passion, curiosity and on and on enrich and inspire me in this moment and every moment… thank you for being so courageous in meeting each moment whatever arises and being with the pain and the joy, the suffering and the ease and continuing with one more breath, one more step, one more moment of polishing, of clean-sing… thousand fold thanks and deep bows…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 193 – 6/27/2023

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“I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not ever complete the last one,
but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, that primordial tower.
I have been circling for thousands of years,
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

~

i circle around, i circle around, the boundaries of the earth…

i have loved Berry’s and Rilke’s poems and this chant for so many moons, the feeling of expansiveness and liberation… for so many moments of eternity while deepening into stillness, i’ve also been deepening my practice of the three tenets of  the Order of Zen Peacemakers – not knowing, bearing witness, and taking action and this poem sings these tenets inspiring moving into them on a day when impermanence is rocking my everyday world re-heartening me to take  action by meeting each moment of eternity as a friend in ever-widening circles of wonder… join me – the still waters are clean-sing…

~

“To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.”

~ Joy Harjo ~

~

may every moment of our (w)hol(l)y meandering unfold in harmony as circle gathering space for nomads of the heart sauntering along the pathless path awakening to and singing the illumination we interbe…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 192 – 6/26/2023

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today is UN Day in Support of Victims of Torture around the world, Guantánamo has become a symbol of injustice, abuse, and disregard for the rule of law… originally intended to be an “island outside the law” where terrorism suspects could be detained without process and interrogated without restraint, the prison and military commissions at Guantánamo Bay are catastrophic travesties…

  since the prison camp opened in 2002, almost 800 men have passed through its cells… in addition to unlawful detention, many were subjected to torture and other brutal treatment… today, 30 men remain, nearly all held without charge or trial; dozens of these detainees have already been cleared for release by the U.S. military and national security agencies but they continued to be stuck in a quagmire in which no arm of government is willing to end the violation of their rights — and Guantánamo’s blight on our nation’s reputation and security…

it is long past time for this shameful episode in US history to be brought to a close… while they await our humanity, let us re-member ours with Thay’s poem, Please Call Me by My True Names…

“Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow— even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive.

I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river. And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond. And I am the grass-snake that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. And I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate.

And I am also the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands. And I am the man who has to pay his “debt of blood” to my people dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth. My pain is like a river of tears, so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up and the door of my heart could be left open, the door of compassion.”

may the door of every heart open with compassion…