Awakening sense

beyond smokescreens (pt.1)

There's that place in us most directly connected to spirit:

• where heart's yearning to awaken and be free is most intense.
• where closeness to awakening's current is most immediate.
• from where we know beyond our knowing and feel beyond our feeling.
• where clear seeing and being abound.

Being removed from this ever-present center is to:

• become entrapped, enchanted.  
• accept delusions projected through our smokescreen of impressions. 
• succumb to hypnotic reflections in mind's hall of mirrors.
• buy into a worn-out image of who we think we are.

This place gives equipoise where our very limitations become stepping stones.

These prepares us for awakening's approach, beyond which abides its Limitless State. 
(see pt.2)

return to sender

Ego-mind's like an overcrowded terminal. Bundles of thoughts and feelings are packaged and shipped out. That cargo's our baggage: plans and projects, fears and fancies.

Actually these packages are without content, just empty dreams. Regardless of how addressed they're always returned to sender. That's like constantly posing questions while already convinced of one's own answer.

What a chaotic scene: returned packages piling up, round-the-clock departure and arrival announcements, all the background noise of unwanted trains of thought.

Why spend time in such a busy place? Better avail ourselves of silent sanctuary, regeneration in the coolness of our inner garden.

There awakening's spirit thrives.
Its presence is its message in answer to all questions.

out of practice?

Spiritual practices are after all practice, preparations for transition.
Sometime they're presumed to be just extracurricular activities complimenting life.

But the more pursued the more the mix changes. Eventually life becomes the accessory supplying fuel for awakening's work, providing grist for the consciousness mill.

Initial practice is like a boat floating downriver until discovering greater depths.
Then the underlying current intensifies, becomes more noticeable.

Sooner or later both practice and current go over a waterfall's edge into free fall.
Cherished dreams, hopes and fears, are dashed on the rocks below.

This shock of awakening clears the air, opens mind's spaciousness, fills a knowing heart.

not a sideshow

Suddenly something totally out of place can appear in the midst of our dream-life: remembrance of the Real. Knowingly or not we're swept beyond ego-mind's bounds.

But this situation is soon overridden, pushed aside by whatever seems more urgent in our dream-living. We quickly distance ourselves from that intruding event through sideshows to distract us.

We're disconnected, steered away from our inner garden. Yet these very lapses can serve to rekindle new resolve: holding on with both hands to the constant flow of awakening.

Eventually this added focus becomes paramount.
It's maintained by our life itself just as a wick feeds a flame.

In short, remembrance of the Beloved becomes the main event.
This remembrance of Oneness becomes the only show in town.