On The Detour...

 

On the detour of seeking "perfection," 

there was a time in my life 

when I carried around inside myself 

a sense of shame that I was imperfect, 

that I made mistakes, 

that I couldn't get everything "just right." 

A very wise woman one day said to me 

"What right have YOU to be perfect?" 

And I thought about that deeply 

and how even my highest heroes had imperfections, 

and YES, those very flaws 

were what made them unique, human, personal. 

It was a Kairos moment for me. 

Giving up the HUBRIS 

of thinking I could be perfect. 

And yet there is something "perfect" 

which is willing to make its home in us, 

to grace us with miraculous happenings, 

if we can simply get these silly notions of "perfection" 

out of the way, 

that illusion that we can control everything (or ANYTHING!).

~J

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I Often Think...

 

Vincent Van Gogh

I often think of a 'perfect day'. 

A day where I am present. 

A day where I accomplish tasks. 

A day where all is well and good. 

Funny, right? 

While that thought of a ‘perfect day’ 

still ruminates inside of me, 

I'm seeing more, 

and allowing for room for the unknown. 

For what is perfect? 

Is it even possible?

I think of Van Gogh 

and his paintings are NOT perfect. 

In fact, they are beautifully imperfect. 

And perhaps that is what makes them so powerful. 

I can see and feel him working out, 

working through some struggle in his painting. 

He's in the moment 

and grappling with all the imperfections.

~M

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If I Can...

 

Caleb Friesen

"If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain".

~Emily Dickinson

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Returning to Myself

I could not remember my soul language, 

the higher reaching me, hydrogens collected, 

spaces of communion. I only know the struggle 

brought me back to you. The effort, the wish 

to remember was all it needed to respond 

with its brilliance. The universal you that is not I, 

it is all that is contained, holding space 

for us to exist in.

~ M

Inviting you to listen to the song 

of the Reed Flute, may it inspire your inner work.

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The Reed Flute Wailing

Only by listening to the plaintive cry of the reed-flute 

while reading Rumi's poem that I was truly able to understand it.

I invite you to press play on the audio below, read the verses 

slowly, and let the song of the reed speak directly to your own inner fire.

Play: LM Ayrogh Veuchtitz

Now listen to this reed-flute's deep lament,

About the heartache being apart has meant:

Since from the reed-bed they uprooted me,

My song's expressed each human's agony.

To share my deepest secret is what I seek with you:

When kept from their true origin, all yearn

For union on the day they can return.

Amongst the crowd, alone, I mourn my faith;

With good and bad I've learned to integrate.

That we were friends, each one was satisfied,

But none sought out my secrets from inside;

My deepest secret is this song I wail.

Body and ears can't penetrate the veil:

Body and soul are joined to form one whole,

But no one is allowed to see the soul.

It's fire, not just hot air, the reed-flute's cry;

If you don't have this fire, then you should die.

Love's fire is what makes every reed-flute pine,

Love's fervor lends potency to the wail of the flute.

The few who hear the truth the reed has sung

Have lost their wits so they can speak this tongue.

When you're with us, you're friend beyond compare.

While ordinary men on drops can thrive,

A fish needs oceans daily to survive.

The way the ripe must feel, the raw can't tell.

Unchain yourself, my son, escape its hold!

How long will you remain a slave of gold?

You've tried to fit the sea inside a jug;

Shells only grow pearls when they are content.

Be joyful, Love, for sweetest bliss is you.

Love wants its tail to be told to everyone.

- Rumi

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Developing an Inner Taste

Gemini AI Generated Image

“As we progress in the work, we began

to develop inner taste, an inner sense or 

faculty that makes us realize when 

we are negative or identified.

By inner taste you can recognize that 

you are lying or in a negative state 

without difficulty, although you are justifying 

yourself and protesting you are not. 

Here the whole thing turns upon whether 

you possess inner sincerity or not. 

If not, then best to give up the work. 

Inner taste can be said to be the faint beginning 

of Real Conscience, because it is something 

that recognizes the quality of one's inner state. 

Self-observation and inner taste are not the 

same but my coincide. The more you understand 

the work, the more it is arranged rightly in your 

mind and its meaning seen, the more does it 

pass into Real Conscience. It is sometimes said that 

if we had Real Conscience the war would be 

unnecessary for we would know it already. “

Maurice Nicoll, Commentaries, 

“Concept of Conscience in the Work,” 

July 16, 1941, volume 1, page 41

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Thank You...

 

Ilaria Arpino

Thank you 

for the beautiful quote of Mervyn. 

I love the simplicity, 

the instruction on how to establish the relationship with God, 

“To talk to your Soul, Love or God, 

first be quiet and still". 

I also love "the Gods will communicate in their own way, 

embrace it". 

Reminds me of a time 

where I was so low in hydrogens, 

feeling so abandoned in a church. 

I knelt down and prayed for a hug. I got up, 

turned around, a homeless man was behind. 

He asked for a dollar. 

I gave it to him, 

and he threw himself on my shoulders and hugged me. 

Not the way I imagined. 

But the shocked lifted my hydrogens, 

reminded me I was in the presence of the highest, 

and had responded. 

The moment still feeds me. 

~T

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I Am...

 

"I am the vine,   you are the branches;

he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit"

~Jesus of Nazareth  

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