As we navigate life we gather maybe a handful of masters – life affirmers – whom we return to whenever we need to be reminded that we have a soul – that we are, first & foremost, creatures of spirit. These could be teachers, writers, artists, performers, friends & family even – people whom you can always count on for inspiration – the proverbial wake-up call.

Yin & Yang unite when the mind stops
This insight comes in flashes as you face fear
These flashes become a steady stream of light
You are truly blessed to know you have no choice
All is energy and everything is in its rightful place
I am with you out of time.

—John Kells

I have adapted this to use as a (silent) chant:

'Yin & 'Yang u'nite
'when the 'mind 'stops

'This 'insight 'flashes
'as you 'face 'fear

'These 'flashes be'come
a 'steady 'stream of 'light

'You are 'truly 'blest
to 'know you 'have no 'choice

'All is 'ener'gy
'in its 'rightful 'place

'I am 'with 'you
'out 'of 'time.

(Apostrophes precede a stressed syllable.)

Each line has three beats (triple time) or can be ended with an added silent beat to give common time. The first line of each verse is the in-breath and the second line the out-breath.

eschew a life
impoverished
by certitude

Montaigne puts not self-satisfied understanding but a consciousness astonished at itself at the core of human existence.

—Maurice Merleau-Ponty

We are hunters.
Hunting for spirit with spirit.

Work in such a way that action & passion are barely discernible.

always return with spirit

always return to spirit

on the edge
of your seat

THE JEWEL

There is this cave
In the air behind my body
That nobody is going to touch:
A cloister, a silence
Closing around a blossom of fire.
When I stand upright in the wind,
My bones turn to dark emeralds.


—James Wright

Eventually, after half a lifetime struggling away, you realise it's all vanity & folly, and you're going to fail (miserably, joyfully – it's your choice) but you continue anyway because it's the only way to live – heroically, selflessly, impeccably – catching occasional glimpses beyond the mundane world.

always alive
to the
possibility

The secret of life?
Never stop delving.

When mind stops thinking it becomes an energy we call awareness.

Following the introjection of external emotions (atmospheres), the world appears neutralised and tragically devoid of all that pathically “moves” human beings; on the other hand, the soul, thus closed-off, turns into a black box from which the five senses escape always only “on parole”, testifying the outside world in a weak way.

—Tonino Griffero

Force is directed by the will
Energy is sparked by spirit

Meditation is the most effective & reliable tool to regain equilibrium & composure.

She was slowly straying from that zone where things have a set shape and edges, where everything has a solid, immutable name. She was sinking deeper into the liquid, quiet, unfathomable region, where mists hung as vague and cool as those of the dawn.

—Clarice Lispector, Near to the Wild Heart

Mankind's greatest technological achievement was not the plough or the wheel or the clock or the computer but the Ego. To pull the mind into the head and separate it from Mind-at-large (creating subject & object) was a bold move akin to Lucifer's withdrawal from God (was this Adam's Fall from Grace?) and I'm sure when we first learned to do it it was a temporary useful stunt. The trouble is the world it enabled us to create is so intoxicating that we no longer know how to slip out of Ego and back into Mind-at-large.

Mind is not in the body
The body is in the mind

Working mindfully – slowly, deliberately, intentionally – frees mind, body, spirit for real spontaneity & speed. One of the many paradoxes of Taiji. (Musicians understand.)

When man discovered the mirror, he began to lose his soul.

—Émile Durkheim

Last week I gave an elderly gentleman a massage. His legs were very stiff so at one point I asked him to relax the left hip joint so that I could manipulate the leg. How do I do that? he asked. Just put your mind there, I suggested. He then asked, Is part of the brain down there? I chuckled and tried to explain that mind is not brain and neither is it thinking; it is simply awareness. Just try to be aware of the joint and the tension it contains. And surprisingly it worked.

the world we live in
is a revelation

walking

seeing

I do not search

I search for nothing

finding

—herman de vries

If a man from a previous civilization—an ancient Greek, let us say, or a Roman—suddenly appeared among present-day humanity, his first impressions would probably lead him to regard it as a race of magicians and demigods. But were he a Plato or a Marcus Aurelius and refused to be dazzled by the material wonders created by advanced technology, and were he to examine the human condition more carefully, his first impressions would give place to great dismay.

He would soon notice that, though man has acquired an impressive degree of power over nature, his knowledge of and control over his inner being is very limited. He would perceive that this modern “magician,” capable of descending to the bottom of the ocean and projecting himself to the moon, is largely ignorant of what is going on in the depths of his unconscious and is unable to reach up to the luminous superconscious levels, and to become aware of his true Self. This supposed demigod, controlling great electrical forces with a movement of the finger and flooding the air with sound and pictures for the entertainment of millions, would be seen to be incapable of dealing with his own emotions, impulses, and desires.

—Roberto Assagioli

Rationalisations:
lies we tell
to make ourselves
feel better