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...
              

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."

After Midnight by Dean Solon

(well after midnight)  a present-moment, and perhaps ongoing, and certainly recurring, take on why does the world exist...

     all there is
     is God

     and He/She/It/Whatever
     had/has/will have
     a DivineWhim

     and here we are
     briefly
     ever so briefly
     full of life

What Weight Remains by Dean Solon

rumi:  "last year, i gazed at the fire.
              this year i'm burnt kebob."

this morning am awaking with this:
You have finished me off.
You have completed the work on me.
You have completed the work in me.
reconstruction---inclusive of construction and deconstruction---is done.
a project over [under sideways up and down] with,
and within.
here i am, Your clay toy, Your play boy,
blown open, highly sensitized.
am on the living, breathing floor.
am on the killing floor,
not knowing what hit me.
knowing full well what hit me.
You never absent, an activity of presence,
a full force gale,
concluding a work in progress.

i never saw You coming.
i am seeing You, am hearing You,
am feeling You, here.
i not knowing what hit me,
knowing full well what hit me.

blown open,
whereabouts unknown.

this morning, am awake with this:
am washed ashore,
an ocean crossing
leaving a body
crawling on the sands,
no footholds,
no feet!  no ground, no floor,
only these shifting sands
bearing what weight remains.

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

Passing Clouds In The Big Sky by Dean Solon

what is separating us from present-moment awareness?
what is separating us from being AWAKE?

residuals of attaching, inclinations to distracting,
accumulations of sanskaras (karmic material),
motes in the eyes, passing clouds in the Big Sky,
lightly placed impediments and lightly held illusions
separating you from enlightenment in this lifetime,
in THIS moment.

stuff unreleased,
to be released...
at your convenience, of your choosing.

wisdom and compassion
living in and through you,
never more than a wake-up-Call away.

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.

What If? by Dean Solon

what if each of us is a project in the making---one of billions, and billions, of projects in the making---of God...and-or of a big bang unfolding of energy and mass and light and possibility and potentiality manifesting, and crawling ashore and breathing and becoming and being
all of this?

what if the moment of nothing exploding into someThing was a shard of Mastery and Mystery touching everything and every one, including you and including me:
one astonishing wake-up Call
to be more than nothing...
to be someThing?

The Whole Shebang - by Dean Solon

during the night i am understanding a friend's retreating from the world.  this world where each is a jewel, each a gem glittering in a sea of gems...is a world of sorrow and suffering, an experiencing that is nearly too much to be living with.


with this understanding i awaken from sleep a couple of hours later, feeling-experiencing near-despair...in a reality where no one lives for more than a short time, where so many are without needed food, water, shelter, freedom, justice, safety, peace.

to be alert to, to be sensitive to, a world where so many are crying for help, a world so many are living with despair, is nearly too much to bear.  thus there arises an inclination to be retreating, and an attempting not to be hearing the cries and feeling the despair.

thus there arises a wishing to be separate from a world of sorrow and suffering, which comes with an attendant consequence of being separate from a world of gems glittering in a sea of gems.



to be truly awake, to be truly alive, is to be living with all of it, with all of this---

the sorrow and the suffering,

the peace and the love and the mercy.

Each of Us a Jewel by Dean Solon

...with gratitude to Avalokitesvara, Buddha of compassion...

Rumi...ecstatic poet...lover of God and presence of love...mirror.

Rumi:

"you are the unconditioned spirit

trapped in conditions,

the sun in eclipse."

you...you...the sun in eclipse.

each of us a jewel. each of us a sacred jewel.

each of us shining in this world of world of activity and phenomena.

each of us with a gleaming, a glittering, a glowing.

each of us a gem in a sea of gems.

each of us a source of light, a beacon of hope and possibility.

each of us mysterious and surprising.

because each of us and all of us jewels, there is no reason or need to be big-headed---"hey, look at me!";---instead, there is reason to be big-hearted---if each of us a sacred jewel, then each of us may be co-creating sacred space, wherever you walk, wherever you are, and so you may be offering and sharing the light and the warmth...and the present moment sanctifying of time and space.

the inner landscape, the mind's eye,..looking out upon a view, a big view, of sky, of ocean, of mountains and valleys, of towns and cities, of people, so many of us people, all of it---all of this and all of us---streaming and stretching to distant horizons...a big view, a very big view, of sky, of space, light-miles and light-years of space, of solar system, of universe, and cosmos.

you with big eyes to see, with big ears to hear, and to listen, with big hands to touch and to hold and to let go, with big feet to stand and to walk, with big lungs to breathe, with a big heart to feel...to feel...so much to feel. with a big mind to think and to understand and to live with a possibility, a potentiality, of clarity and wisdom.

each of us a jewel.

each of us a gem glittering in a sea of gems.