After Visiting The Meher Baba Spiritual Center

by Dean Solon

today i am back home, no longer in the space of the everything and the nothing.
today i am here, here where all of this experience that we call life, and living, and reality, is.
.
today i am home, am here, am there, am in the two worlds that are one world, am a suburban shaman of the time, the age, we call the 21st century.
today i am holding on, today i am letting go, today i am releasing, today i am receiving, today is timely and is timeless.

today i am living in the peace and the love and the mercy, today i am living in a world of activity and phenomena, in a world that is harsh and stricken and merciless.

i live in this world.  i live in these worlds.  i am shattered, i am whole;  am restless, and resting in Your arms.  i find You any where that i am, with the wisdom of no escape and the great good fortune of no escaping from You.  a life unbelievable, a life beyond belief, a life clear, so very clear, so simply and astonishingly clear.

another day on earth when and where confusion reigns,
yet you need not be confused, and i am not confused.
life may be clear, so simply and astonishingly clear.
clear to the most distant horizon.
clear to, and through, the center of your big heart.

Living In Interesting Times

by Dean Solon

tibetan buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa:
"the basic point of mindfulness is to be completely, totally in touch with what happens in your body and the environment around you.  you are not reduced to an inanimate clod of earth while you are meditating.  you may feel your pulse or your heartbeat.  you feel your breathing.  you hear sounds and see sights.  you feel vividly that you are alive."

Confucius is said to have said 2500 years ago:
"may you live in interesting times."
this is an insight to be seen and felt:
these are interesting times that i am living in.
these are interesting times you are living in.

how fine it would be, how present we would be, if we experienced the fullness---and emptiness--- of Living In and With These Interesting Times.
these are fascinating times, fascinating days, hours minutes seconds...moments!
...crazy times, wild times, terrible times, thrilling times...                                  
           how interesting to be experiencing
           this interesting life
           in these interesting times
           directly, presently, clearly.

how about here and now stating a vow of intention of this?...
           to be experiencing
           this interesting life
           in these interesting times
          directly,
          presently,
          clearly.

sit with this...
life becomes vivid.
life becomes clear.
no strain, no strife, no restrictions.
just seeing what there is, all there is, to see.
just feeling what there is, all there is, to feel.
sitting with this...
              

Receding...and a Reseeding

by Dean Solon


sitting...

with the quiet,
in the deep.
with allowing the world to come to me,
with being in this world with You.

a peace prevails,
a peace abides and resides.
allowing the world to come to me,
allowing a surrendering to Your will and whim...
cravings recede.  cravings for anything and anyone,
cravings for outcome, cravings for life and how to live it,
cravings for human beings to be other than who they are.

so, this is who i am, now.
so, this is a sweet spot,
a great good fortune life.
so, all of this is the same as it ever was
...everything changing in each and every moment.
so, everything is play in the House of the Lord.

resting, in the center of the cyclone,
the whirlwind tour strangely and surprisingly quieting,
i am nearly silenced
and all in
and already gone

Those Who Have Ears by Dean Solon

each day a journey.
each day a walking of the path.
each day a new beginning.
each day an ending with a laying down to rest.
the alpha and the omega.
each day a blasting forth, a blowing through,
of the eternal.
each day an opening to possibility,
an experiencing of the unforeseen.

here, now, at or near the entrance of this new day dawning,
raise your eyes to the big sky above,
so you may be witness to the openness, the spaciousness,
the vastness and expansiveness
of a sky calling you to attention,
suggesting...asking...urging you
to be choosing in each moment of this day's journey:
     will be sleepwalking?
     will i be awake?

the sky is falling?
the sky is calling.
(those who have ears may hear.)

Disposable by Dean Solon

sitting...with the seeing...with the feeling...
                 all the thoughts, all these thoughts...are nonsensical,
                 all the beliefs, all these beliefs...are nonsensical,
                 all the drama, all this drama...is nonsensical.

sitting...with the bliss that all the thoughts, all the beliefs, all the drama...
                  are perfectly all right
                  and are disposable.

i may rest in this,
i may ripple in this,
i may remember this,
in all the moments of a life.

A Delicate Truth by Dean Solon

"what the gods and all reasonable human beings fought in vain wasn't stupidity at all.  it was sheer, wanton, bloody indifference to anybody's interests but their own."  (john le carre, in his most recent novel "A Delicate Truth")

so much trouble in the world.  syria, ukraine, israel and palestinians, iraq, africa.  i hear larry kane saying on the radio this is certainly not the summer of love.

our world a science fiction world, where a human being on the ground fires a surface-to-air missile that hits its target, a jet 33,000 feet above the earth, and destroys the plane and ends the lives of nearly 300 sentient beings.  what are to make of ourselves?  is this the way we want it to be?
a question that reverberates inside me:  "is this the way you, i, want it to be?"

the.Buddha, Jesus, the hebrew prophets, Meher Baba, Krishna, Muhammed, the embodiers of Mother energy wisdom, are saying:  "We care."

and we care.  and so we are to care, about all living beings with whom we are sharing an experience of residing and abiding on the earth-plane.  our hearts are to be open, wide-open, to and with the cries of sorrow and suffering, here, now.  there is no need for explanation, for discussion.  is simply true---if we are not caring, if we are not bleeding tears too, we are not awake, we are not fully alive.

wisdom and compassion are the heart and whole of our being present, of our being witnesses and participants.

wisdomcompassiom the core and crux of all of it, of all of this.

Happy Hour (An Interview With A Human) by Dean Solon

how many times have you been reduced to ashes?

there have been times i have been reduced to ashes.

how many times have you risen from the ashes?

there have been times i have risen from the ashes.

why do you say "awakening is never more than a moment away"?
why do you say "enlightenment is never more than a moment away"?

because i am not sworn to silence.

what do you make of the present human predicament?

we live in an accelerated---and accelerating---age.

what is one to do?

there is no hurry.

who am i?

a pebble on the stony path.

who am i?

a shining light on the way.

who are we?

each of us a human being.
each of us playing dumb.

why am i sometimes so tired?

because it requires at least as much effort to be asleep
as it does to be awake.

why disappointment?

life isn't all it's cracked up to be.

why hope?

life is much more than it's cracked up to be.

why anxiety?

no floor no ground.

the antidote to anxiety?

no floor no ground.

huh?

the "illness" and the "cure" the same.

and God?

God surpasses all expectations.
            so, no expectations.


anything else?

to all a merry christmas
and a most happy new year.

Sleepwalking, Sleepwaking by Dean Solon

lou reed:  "i could sleep for a thousand years.""

in the late afternoon, shortly before sunset, i fall asleep on the sitting room sofa, about as deeply asleep as i can be.  perhaps a near-death experience, a deep and utter silence of something resembling nothing.
i may have slept for a thousand years.
who am i, now?

sitting...am i a sleepwalker?
                 yes, sometimes i am a sleepwalker.
asleep, how lightly we sleep.
awake, how deeply we sleep.

sitting...with foresight
                AND memory
                (with premonition and remembrance).
you recognized me,
and now you have forgotten who i am.
asleep, how lightly you sleep.
awake, how deeply you sleep.

of course, each of us a master
as much as a student.
sleepwalking, sleepwaking.
it is time to be here, now.

sitting...
am resting on the shoreline,
feet curling on the sand,
a space between thoughts deconstructing,
the stories i have wrestled with decomposing,
inclinations to drama dissipating
under the big sky,
the rarified air i am breathing
the air always i am breathing.
all the commotion and all the confusion
a divine comedy
tearing our hearts out...
this life
one ceaseless wake up call,
an air raid siren shattering the ears,
a breath and a breath
and another breath
shattering the heart.
you are the ten thousand shattered fragments,
you are the prophet walking in this world.

the world does not conform to our wishes.
we are the clay.

matt haig:  "if you came to earth looking for logical sense, you were missing the point."

A Golden Hammer by Dean Solon

the Master said:
   "i bless the connection,
     i disdain the attachment."

forgetting His words for a moment,
i dozed for many years,
i slept for many lifetimes.

then a golden hammer
tapped me
squarely
on the forehead.

in a moment
that opens
as eternity
i hear the Master say
   "i bless the connection,
     i disdain the attachment."

Find It Now by Dean Solon

a birthday.  #63.

am noticing, am FEELING, a loss, a grieving, a sensing of changing, and of being older in this life.  an almost-seeing---isn't this what much of seeing is?---of  long linking chains of lives, lifetimes unwinding undulating unfolding in and with and through, over under sideways down.
there is this life "on top" of all the lives....filled and filling with a wisdom of experience, a strange and sacred concoction of anything and everything under the brilliant blazing sun that sits in the center of the Big Sky,  i am depth, am breadth, am full and am empty with loss, with love, with grief, with grace and gravity and gratitude.

under the bright sun
there is no lacking.
how can there be lacking when so much experience has been lived?  when so much life has been experienced?
with so much time and space filled with lived and living moments, how can there be a hole in the fabric?

if there is a hole, if there is something unfulfilled, find it now.
and may it be filled, now,
may it be fulfilled, now...

What We Sat With Yesterday Morning At The Resiliency Center, Before The Bombing by Dean Solon

sitting comfortably and with ease.
closing your eyes, gently and lightly, allowing the body to be at rest and the breathing to be natural.
your body at rest and your breathing natural.
so we are here, now.  so you are here, now.

awaking to a day, to another day, to this day, on planet earth.
to another day, on planet earth, with an experiencing of familiarity, with an experiencing of mystery.
with an experiencing of not-knowing what is coming, next;
of not-knowing what is about to be.

a sitting, this morning, this moment, of openness.
of opening.  pure and easy.

sitting...
residing in the center of the mayhem of this world---residing in the center of you---
is peace.
residing in the center of the madness---residing in the center of you---
is sanity.
residing in the heart of darkness---residing in the heart of you---
is light.
residing in the center of the commotion and the roar of the crowd---residing in the center of you---
is silence.
residing in the heart of the disconnecting from all that is---residing in the heart of you---
is connection, is compassion, with all that is.

a light in the chest.
a light in the heart.
a light in the head,
your mind, your third eye.

in any moment...light
in this moment...light
in this moment...light

Danibad, Ganeshpur (Thank you, Ganeshpur)

By Elizabeth Campbell

              On February 1st, I embarked on a 4 day journey that took me from Philadelphia to New York, New York to Doha, Qatar, Doha to Kathmandu, Nepal, Kathmandu to Dunghadee, and Dunghadee to Ganeshpur.  This journey included several vans and airplanes, as well as some walking once our final bus became stuck in the mud. This walk was accompanied by 3 drum players, 1 horn, multiple dancers, and an entire village.  I traveled with Beyond Asana, a yoga teacher training, as their counseling support on this service trip.  We fundraised thousands of dollars for Build On, an organization that promotes local and global education.  This fundraising resulted in 4 days of travel to break ground for the school being built in Ganeshpur, a rural village in Northwest Nepal.  It also transformed my perspective of the world and taught me true presence in communication.

             
              Nepal is dichotomous.  There are outstanding mountains and sacred sites, paired with extreme pollution and Third World living conditions.  The power rotates on and off every 6 hours.  Stray dogs run wild.  Toilets are a hole in the ground that flushes (if you are lucky).  The most disparate experience I had in Kathmandu was at Pashupatinath Temple, a temple to the Hindu God Shiva.  It is on the Bagmati River, which is considered the holiest of rivers.  Cremations occur on the banks of this river while hundreds watch.  It is an honor to have your loved one’s funeral there.  The river is clogged with pollution and stray monkeys and dogs feed on this despite funeral proceedings occurring all around.  Holy men painted white and orange meditate perched on sides of temples next to the homeless curled up, sleeping.  The beauty and the poverty intersect one another sharply.

                The dichotomy that I experienced in the village of Ganeshpur reinforced every counseling skill that I have acquired over the years.  We were able to verbally communicate very little with the inhabitants of Ganeshpur.  We had a small book of Tharu, the caste living in the village, expressions and our own creativity to work with.  Despite all of these limitations, I felt intense love from the people of Ganeshpur.  I have never been welcomed and acknowledged in such a manner before.  We were processed into the village and were then welcomed with singing, dancing, and speeches.  Two days later we had a farewell ceremony with even more speeches, dancing, and singing.  The next morning, we were processed out of the village in the same manner that we entered.  The entire village surrounded our bus to send us off.  We received tika, a ground red spice used to honor someone by anointing their forehead, and marigold necklaces 4 times in 4 days.  Our host families had so little to give, but showered us with bracelets and woven baskets.  Content was sparse in our conversations, but the relationship was there.  Our nonverbal communication was sufficient to express the connection, love, and grace that this school melded between us. 

                My travel to Nepal left me with the knowledge that the poorest of US Citizens live extravagantly compared to Third World countries.  Middle class individuals like you and I have more material possessions and luxuries than the villagers of Ganeshpur will ever imagine.   Conversely, the Nepali people are wealthy far beyond what Westerners conceive.  I am honored to have learned how to communicate unconditional love with nothing but a smile, the warmth of my eyes, and intention of my actions. 


                Elizabeth is a Licensed Professional Counselor at The Resiliency Center.  In her practice, she takes a strength-based and empowerment approach to serve children, families, and couples.  She specializes in trauma-informed and specific treatments, family therapy, play therapy, and creative counseling for adolescents.  Elizabeth combines her passions for yoga, service, and counseling through workshops that fuse yoga and emotional healing, the work with Build On described in this article, and with Yoga In Action.  YIA is a group created by Off the Mat and Into the World, a charity that promotes the yogic principle of seva, or service, by moving through the energy systems of the body to enable individuals to better help others by freeing themselves.  For more information, please contact Elizabeth via phone at 610-757-8163 or email at elizabethannecampbell@yahoo.com.

A Thanks-Giving Meditation by Dean Solon

are you experiencing joy in this life? if you are answering "yes, i am experiencing joy in this life," then certainly there is reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving....and if you are answering "no, i am not experiencing joy in this life," then there is reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving, because joy is never more than a moment away.

are you experiencing love in this life? if you are answering "yes, i am experiencing love in this life," then surely there is reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving....and if you are answering "no, i am not experiencing love in this life," then there is reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving, because love is never more than a moment away.

are you experiencing peace in this life? if you are answering "yes, i am experiencing peace in this life," then there is reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving....and if you are answering "no, i am not experiencing peace in this life," then there is reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving, because peace is never more than a moment away.

are you experiencing compassion in this life? if you are answering "yes, i am experiencing compassion in this life," then there is great good fortune reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving....and if you are answering "no, i am not experiencing compassion in this life," then there is reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving, because compassion is never more than a moment away.

are you experiencing equanimity in this life? if you are answering "yes, i am experiencing equanimity in this life," then there is reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving....and if you are answering "no, i am not experiencing equanimity in this life," then there is reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving, because equanimity is never more than a moment away.

are you experiencing bliss in this life? if you are answering "yes, i am experiencing bliss in this life," then there is good reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving....and if you are answering "no, i am not experiencing bliss in this life," then there is good reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving, because bliss is never more than a moment away.

are you experiencing enlightenment in THIS lifetime? if you are answering "yes, i am experiencing enlightenment in this lifetime," then there is every good reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving.
and if you are answering "no, i am not experiencing enlightenment in this lifetime," then there is every good reason to be feeling gratitude and thanks-giving...because enlightenment is never more than a moment away.