The Other Side Of Our Existence

and certainly a self is found - a distinction within a greater framework of quiet presence. This now is both sides of our existence, an endless, open capacity, that gives a finite personality a moment for it's expression. We are gifted this particular lifetime, and with all gifts there is grace in its acceptance. Yet still and always there is that quiet presence, the other side of our existence, allowing us to be.

~

To one who knows nothing, It is all clearly revealed. 

                                                                                                   - Meister Eckhart 

Peace,

Eric 

Until The Grace Of Your Arrival

Seeing no reflection  - even a mirror offers only a partial story, showing itself as an object, holding an image absent of my own reality. My own truth tells me, through careful observation, that I am not found in mirror, or photo, or in another's eyes. Looking for my own image, my face that seems to tell other's who I am - I am confronted with an empty understanding that holds everything in the world but my head. Your own face tells me more of who I am than a mirror ever possibly could, in your eyes I see my own self becoming into form, a beauty not found in my own absence until the grace of your arrival. Emptiness reflects nothing back, it's sole purpose is to hold, embrace, and give of itself endlessly. No mirror could ever tell this story. 

~

His form has passed away, he has become a mirror, naught is there but the

image of another's face.  - Rumi

Peace,

Eric

Our Problem Isn't That We Have Problems

Our problem isn't that we have problems, but that we seek to contain them within an imaginary framework of existence. Life offers itself in contradictory form, we cling most to what will never stay and let pass the truth of who we really are. Or so it seems. The reality is that life happens to no one, it's expressed in every conceivable way through the open, allowing, nature of our presence. We are witness to it's happening, yet fully engaged as well. In a subtle shift of sight, we can arrange ourselves to recognize our endless capacity that allows all this to be. We can see form emerge from formlessness and somehow know ourselves as both. We can be room for problems, for life, and the full range of their expressions. Here's how to see - look at the objects of the world, find their place as a singular point of being, now look back to the origin of the view. Truly search for a face belonging to a viewer. Even a mirror reveals only what is seen forward. The source of sight - is sightless. So it is for all things, sounds emerge from silence, thoughts from the eternal stillness of true mind. Our problem is that we believe problems exist here, within the reality of our existence. They don't. This makes them no less real in the moment of their presence. Yet now, seeing who we really are - we abide as space that allows their passage. 

Peace,

Eric

What We Are Is Seen In Two Directions

We trace our outline as the world - and further still to touch the stars. We are boundless, directionless, still, and yet know ourselves too as form and motion. We are mystery itself, a story told as paradox but equally true in word and silence. It's whats we are, every detail in finite beauty, as well as the spaciousness that allows for its distinction. We are the absence of self, and the emptiness provided for self to be. What we are is seen in two directions - an outward glance shows us as the world, and with the same gazed turned towards its source, our absence is revealed. 

~

I look and listen without using eyes and ears. 

                                                                      - Lieh-Tzu 

Peace,

Eric

Truth In Absence

Having seen my truth in absence - there is now found this one great welcoming, all things belonging to the perfection of the moment, and the grace of their acceptance. 

~

Real vision is eyeless. 

                                                     - Anandamayima

Peace,

Eric

Forest-walker

forest-walker - and drawn to the things of woods and fields and

even more, the spacious understanding that whispers

through the trees. 

~

As rivers lose name and shape in the sea, wise men lose name and shape in

God, Glittering beyond all distance. 

                                                               - Mundaka Upanishad 

Peace,

Eric 

No Break Of Existence In Between

the world contained within our gaze - yet more so, we are the capacity that allows the view to be. It's a seamless unfolding, from empty source to surroundings of life and no break of existence in between. In this light - the world is seen as our extension. 

~

He that beholds his own Face - his light is greater than the light of creatures. Though

he die, his sight is ever lasting, because his sight is the sight of Creator. 

                                                                              - Rumi

Peace,

Eric