Things a Shaman Sees

Everything that is
is alive

on a steep river bank
there's a voice that speaks
I've seen the master of that voice
he bowed to me
I spoke with him
he answers all my questions

everything that is
is alive
little gray bird
little blue breast
sings in a hollow bough
she calls her spirits dances
sings her shaman songs
woodpecker on a tree
that's his drum
he's got a drumming nose
and the tree shakes
cries out like a drum
when the axe bites its side

at these things answer
my call

everything that is
is alive

the lantern walks around
the walls of this house have tongues
even this bowl has its own true home
the hides asleep in their bags
were up talking all night
antlers on the graves
rise and circle the mounds
while the dead themselves get up
and go visit the living ones.

~David Cloutier

Man Is Not An Island

Raise your hands, close your eyes and feel like a tree, become a tree... It is sunny and windy and the tree is delighted. Whatsoever the tree feels to do, allow: if the tree sways in the wind it is ok...

It is better to become a tree sometimes, to become an animal sometimes, to become a bird and sometimes even to become a rock in the sun, because we have passed all these stages and something of those stages still remains inside us, it is part of our being.

Man is not an island, he is not separate from existence. Man is involved in existence, in all its dimensions. The rock contains the man; he is its future. Man contains the rock; it is man's past. We are joined together. If you can start feeling like a rock you will have a totally different reality, a different vision, the way the rocks looks at trees and the sun and the star. One can get into that kind of attunement. Let this be your meditation; sometimes become a tree and forget humanity. You will feel fresh, young and rejuvenated. You will have the silence of the tree, the joy of the tree, the earthiness of the tree. Sometimes become a bird. Close your eyes and go as far away in the sky as possible. Whisper with the clouds...

All this is possible because we have been these things; it is our past, it is our inheritance. Deeper in you than man is the animal. Man is very superficial, just the last coating. Deeper than that is the animal, deeper than that is the tree, even deeper than that is the rock. The rock is our foundation, our very roots are there and we are spread all over existence on many levels, in many dimensions. Man is not so small as he looks. He is infinite, he contains all. So let this be your meditation...

-Osho via the prosperity project

Morning Meditation - Living Within the Earth

Found an Apache standing at the edge of a pool of water, dense forest behind him. And I thought about how he lived within the earth rather than against or apart from it.

He squatted down and ran his fingers through the water, and they became the water. I could see that he was well grounded, that his feet were strongly rooted. He was as connected and in tune with his environment as were the rocks he was standing on, the trees behind him, and the wild life that lived in them.

"All my relations" to him means all the life abounding around him, nothing between - raw and real.

"All my relations" to me is a nebulous idea, a virtual reality, a concept and a thought. Intellectual in nature - not truly experienced at a gut level.

I thought about how DISconnected I am - my feet don't touch the ground, they touch the floor, which doesn't touch the ground.

The temperature is modified with air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter. My food comes in boxes and cans, so distant from the earth it grew in that it is almost unrecognizable, and no aspect of soil remains.

How then can I be "one" with the Earth Mother when I hold my comfort higher than our relationship?

I wouldn't last two weeks in his world, I don't think - not really. The mind is willing, the heart is there, but the body is weak with dis-use and indolence, separated by a culture and an era that speaks to our laziness and our fear.

He could live in my world - I think - and even be "corrupted" by it. Water always takes the path of least resistance, as does the wind, even earth itself, when put into motion, takes the easiest route.

So this pulls me around full circle - Is it our nature to do what is easy... what is most comfortable? Is that true?

Is it true that when I dip my hand in bath water that my hand becomes the water? Are my feet as firmly rooted in carpet and concrete as they could be in soil? Can I find an attunement and a oneness even if I am surrounded by walls, plugged into a virtual world, and eating unrecognizable food? Or do I need to step down and out - do I need to go against the flow and eliminate the "middle man."

I don't know.

I asked him what he thought, and he said, "I am sorry for you."

~what's this?

Arms of The Beloved

Let me stand in the Soul of the World
Let me feel all the radiant colors of Life
Let me merge with the Spirit of the Beloved
Let me hold your gaze and journey skyward

Let me immerse in Ever-after with you – Here, Now
Hold your arms out, catch the soft snow
Kisses from the sky, winter flowers from Heaven
Dance with me, let your spirit flow

I look into your eyes and find your Soul
A realm of everlasting romance, a universe of secrets
What can I say, how can I describe such beauty?
With so much life, wonder, and majesty?

What words, what language can possibly describe you?
Hold your hand over your heart, listen to the hidden music
Gentle, healing, soothing, like sweet ocean waves and violins
Do you see me whirling and dancing within?

My dear Beloved, let us bloom in this astounding place
Expand with the galaxy, unveil new Truths
Sit by me on the hilltop, here is my art
Belonging to you, flowing straight from my heart

Hold my words close, embrace them with your Love
Let them dance in your heart, let them become a mirror
And show you your blessed Lover, who walks endlessly with you
Let this Luminous Love shine like the Divine Light from above

I would pray you a good night, my mystic beauty
I would wish you the sweetest of dreams, my brilliant flower from the east
I would recite a prayer for angels to comfort you tonight
I would wish you all these things only if separation were reality

Our Love is the portal to Union
Come Here, in our Field, let us embrace the eternal moment together
Let us meet in sweet dreams, let's live those wonders
Let's rejoice in the presence of Angels
In the eternity of awakened Life

Forever, you and me,
And Allah almighty
Never alone

I Love You Habibty


~JehanZeb~

The Nature of Things

The Sioux idea of living creatures is that trees, buffalo and men are temporary energy swirls, turbulance patterns... that's an early intuitive recognition of energy as a quality of matter. But that's an old insight, you know, extremely old - probably a Paleolithic shaman's insight. You find that perception registered so many ways in archaic and primitive lore. I would say that it is probably the most basic insight into the nature of things, and that our more common, recent Occidental view of the universe as consisting of fixed things is out of the main stream, a deviation from basic human perception.

~Gary Snyder