Excerpts from “The Call”
All credit goes to: Oriah Mountain Dreamer
p.13 I misunderstood. I assumed not-doing meant doing nothing- staring at a wall or sleeping- and there was precious little time for this in my life. Of course, even when we sit and stare at a wall or lie in bed sleeping we are usually doing something. We are thinking, feeling and sensing if only in our dreams. But not-doing does not depend on whether or not my body is moving or my mind is active. Not-doing is about letting any movement flow from an awareness of the deep and ever-present stillness that is what I am at the most essential level of being. It is here, in the awareness of my essential nature, that I find the meaning I seek in my life, not as an idea or an ideal but as an implicit knowing folded into my very being.
p.46 Learning to simply be with what is and so finding the still center, if only for a moment, shifts things, lets us be with our feelings instead of being unconsciously led around by them. With the perspective offered by deep stillness, I can see the big picture. I may still experience discomfort and sometimes pain, but when I do it does not feel life-threateningly unbearable.
p.75 (translated Rumi poem) The mystery does not get clearer by repeating the question, Nor is it bought with going to amazing places. Until you have kept your eyes and your wanting still for fifty years, you don’t begin to cross over from confusion.
p.95 Quote from Zen master Suzuki Roshi: We don’t need to learn to let go. We just need to recognize what is already gone.
p.128-129 While achieving goals can bring temporary satisfaction, it can never replace the need to know the meaning found in experiencing what we are
p.139 Let yourself be one of the God-mad, faithful only to the Beauty you are.
Faithful Fractals: Poetic Prayers 