Surrounded by Certainty
In photography contrast is important, light illuminating the focused sector,with perhaps the rest in varying degrees of shadow.
This understanding of light and dark, clarity and confusion, illustrates that not only do both occupy our space, but that we have choice which to give our attention to.
I can sit down to the inner practice that has been revealed, to those who have received this Knowledge, and in the beginning the likelihood of being distracted by thoughts is fairly standard.
However there comes a point where peace occupies the field and I am no longer thinking, for I have entered the state of feeling.
When this occurs you can rest, for you see that the barrage of your thoughts has nothing to do with reality, for eventually your ideas and concerns dissolve back into the ethers, and you are left simply breathing in beauty.
Read MoreKnowing You
“This is how a living master opens the inner eye,
so when words are heard
they can be seen through a lens.â€Â
(Coleman Barks, The Soul of Rumi)
Is this conversation going on always, this remembrance,
whether I know it or not?
Sometimes I think of you and the phone rings.
Someone reminds me I can do some tangible thing for you.
You are form and not form.
Those who have seen you know this is possible.
Listening to you, the heart opens.
Eyes can’t stay dry but weep as if overflowing.
A full moon, a field of coloured water, cleansing, sparkled blessings.
Holi. Play.
No right words, but this quest for words,
to express the longing, fulfillment.
After the lens has been cleaned,
the eye has been opened,
why do I search in darkness for a switch?
Diamond Dust
The fact of the diamond
seperates the jeweller
from the junk-man
for the return of pennies
the other collects diamonds
for the return of life itself
at a price unmentionable
Know that piece of cut glass
you find in your heart
is not the broken
bottle of life
It is the engagment ring
of the eternal lover
How to Listen to the Master
First of all,
give up everything you know
about listening –
it has nothing to do with your ears.
That kind of listening
will only take you so far.
If you really want to hear,
you will need to leave your ears at the door
and while you’re at it, your head.
Then, take a seat,
breathe deep,
let go
and become
a flower
opening to the sun.
Excerpted from The Heart of the Matter
Read MoreEverything
Suspended in the void
Timeless and empty
Yet not empty
Like a hole in the dream I call myself
All my knowing gone
Except one;
To be here is everything
Linda Sands
2002
One Voice
I live in Woodstock, NY. After the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, my wife, Evelyne, organized a daylong gathering in our town – “ONE VOICE” – of all religious groups and spiritual paths. Everyone was in attendance: the Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Rastas, Sufis, Atheists, Agnostics, the devotees of Gurumayi, and everyone else who felt the need to join together and acknowledge our common humanity.
What follows is the invocation I was asked to write and perform at this gathering. I hope you enjoy it. (Read it aloud for maximum value).
Today I speak with One Voice, here in this town known around the world for peace – a place now metaphor for the highest aspirations of the human race – Woodstock.
What I have to say existed long before speech, long before teachers and those who thought they needed to be taught. I speak of the time before time, before “us” and “them” before otherness, separation, and the need to make amends. Pure presence there was back then, isness. First light. What the wise ones among us call by many names according to their faith, but it has no name, this “impulse to be,” this pulsation of life – what poets feel before they pick up their pens, why dancers, quivering in their own skin, look around the room for space in which to move.