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Wonderful, Janet. Very moving .Made me recall a stirring call by a poet saint of the Indian subcontinent ( Bulleshah)..." Go ahead, destroy temples and mosques, if you wish. But never destroy a heart filled with love and passion (for the truth), for in IT dwells THAT ....Being truly human is to reflect the spark of divinity in each being

Wow, let's wish HR departments too unserstand CV the way you perceive it, Anil. The wonderful thing is Capability keeps evolving, the "receptacles" themselves keep modifying

Very true, Geri. It is a feature of "humanization" to be sensitive enough to spot hypocrisy in us and others. And then act to stay in enquiry leading to personal discovery In a never ending spiral of transformation....once started.

Just meditation by itself , in my experience, has mainly physiological benefits. It ought to go hand in hand with pondering on great insights about reality ( for me, Ramana Maharshi long ago to Francis Lucille and a few others now ) coupled with steady practical Work within and with fellow explorers.

So true. Briefly, simply said.Thanks, Susan.

Lovely. Good for you

Its a felt experience of each of us that nature in its wondrous beauteous forms always evokes an inward settling down , rapture and gratitude. We , in these times, all the more owe it to her to care and restore her

As I have moved into senior citizen hood , and thanks also to still prevailing traditions , I often sense a softness in the response of service providers and any public person i come across and request help from. Speaking of myself , a feeling of gratefulness and sufficiency in me helps to manifest softness towards others apart from the usual trigger of the vulnerability and innocence in the other person

Further research indicates to me now that after this experience, Douglas Harding went on to explain that the "headless" perspective is something simply available in every moment. See his book " on having no head".

Blessed, you are. I have heard it said that it's not caused by us. Rather, it's Grace. These lines from the piece " A peculiar quiet, an odd kind of alert limpness or numbness, came over me. " seem to confirm that. But yes the cleaning up, the deep persistent (thoughtless enquiry) presumably create a receptiveness to that Grace. It has been a distinct experience for me once , though ,not as full. And fleeting moments now and then which act as a validation and motivation

This extract really blooms when one reads the complete article by Alisha Gorder. Movingly poignant. Ah, the feeling component of the human being !! What a wonderful part when consciously complemented with physical experience and thoughtful reflection.

If one feels just a state of satisfaction, peace and no lack, i will agree that it exists both when a no-desire state is there and when a simple desire has just been fulfilled. However, my experience has been that the actual state, after deeper desires are fulfilled, has been such that there arises a higher emotional charge compared to the state of my being in a no-desire state. It is another matter that this charged emotional 'enjoying' state is usually one in which I am lost in identification and, further, it gives rise to perpetuation of the tendency to hanker for the same gratification, as Stephen has observed so well in this blog extract.

Yes, negativity, egotistical, shameful, or never-good-enough attitudes are constricting. Gentle acceptance is relaxing and neutralising . Reverence to the (un-apparent) sublime in us is expanding. Frequent rememberance of this is an antidote to the unhelpful habits of the mind. Striving for perfection or doing better at whatever i aim for is, in itself, a necessary driving force. For example, for creating this very post, i have had to be patient, delve into my experiences and reflect. However, as Brian Plachta, explains, one ought not to tilt into imbalance. Usually keeping to deadlines of time and accepting the realities of situations is a balancing factor against getting too carried away with perfectionism. Loving / accepting myself unconditionally, in one recent situation for me, after having committed a mistake, arose in me naturally when i had an organic feel of something in my being which was unaffected, pure. The wallowing in guilt was broken.

Grasping for meaning .... What's lowndry , essle-tindering ? Ok, maybe ,let me take a hint from "The deep-now seeks to liberate my meaning-seeking mind."

One contextually relevant practice many of us engage in, in these times, is having these nourishing interactions over the World Wide Web. The experience of daily physical life anyway continues to be there as the laboratory. And i see a shift away from organized religions with narrow viewpoints to a more personal, at the same time, universal basis in striving. One personal example of "acting in solidarity with all life" was to get my neighbours in my housing community to let the beehive in my apartment balcony to thrive as long as it lasted. Some grumbled but, overall, there was acceptance. I reckon "completing the Work" is not fathomable. One lives from moment to moment, day to day and the spiral of awakening moves on magically.

Getting burnt and not be scarred ?! Is it in the nature of things for Being to manifest thru endurance and acceptance of pain ? As though this suffering becomes like an oil to burn the wick brighter ?

Thanks for choosing this piece for the week. For me, it has come at a time when i am in the midst of having started off on a regular meditation practice and also getting fresh influences from some "Eagles". My musings are that some rare folks naturally gravitate towards/discover and abide in "eagleness" and the vast majority are firmly ensconced in happy/unhappy "chickenhood". I reckon, i am one of a significant cohort of humanity who see glimpses of a different reality but remain majorly "earthbound". I am seeing promise in weakening the grip of past conditioning by coming back repeatedly to a state of "awareness of being" rather than, or even while, giving importance to the content of awareness, that is, usual life - guided by the talks and books of "eagles" who inspire me and to whom i can relate to. Devotion/Bhakti/love can be and is an added helpful force. In its steady gentle form, it is the ballast for moment-to-moment daily discipline.

This experience seems to be closest to what JK s words convey. The "other", the "all the things" are perceived thru my awareness. Staying intimately aware of that while experiencing and doing might shift me to sense the truth

I too have seen , David , that participating in the group just for its own sake and not with an aim of building the community (in terms of numbers) is appropriate. Somehow the addition of members and the value generation happens naturally.

Wonderful. Inspiring. Are you anchoring inwardly in some way while experiencing the myriad sensory impressions. What about expressing ? Silence mostly ?