and who are you?
the ever-present, the noble soul, the peaceful one
Hello dear, peaceful one. And happy Sunday.
I spent some time today resting on grass beneath an old fig tree. I watched distant planes etch ribbons of cloud on our bright sky. Within the hour, the vast blue was shrouded in grey and everyone packed up for warmth.
Heading home, I saw a homeless man sleeping— his torso on the sidewalk, his legs in the crosswalk. A suitcase nearby was empty but random bicycle parts, pants, and plastic bags surrounded him like a forcefield. Cars and pedestrians moved carefully. He groaned at an offer of help. Two seagulls sorted through food containers at the periphery.
Later, two young people walked by, both inhaling pot, exhaling exhaust, like the planes and the suitcase.
Everything becomes empty of whatever it carries. Every moment is full of peace.
All of this made me wonder about the visible and the invisible. In all of this light of day, we accustom ourselves to certain painful patterns.
In light of that light, I encourage you to appreciate the dark space of the unknowable.
In the quiet unseen, our bodies communicate the sensations of compassion or respect, of kindness or heartbreak, of faith or the grieving that follows an unforeseen end.
Because we sometimes confuse the path of life for the path of light, and the path of death for the path of darkness, I offer this perspective from Adi Shankara. A seventh century mystic and sage, he realized the unity between creation and creator, of the blissful unseen calling from the seen.
Read or listen above and consider…
How could a wise man reject the experience of supreme bliss and take delight in mere outward forms? When the moon shines in its exceeding beauty, who would care to look at a painted moon?
Experience of the unreal offers us no satisfaction, nor any escape from misery. Find satisfaction, therefore, in the experience of the sweet bliss of the One. Devote yourself to the Soul and live happily forever.
O noble soul, this is how you must pass your days— see the Soul everywhere, fix your thought upon the Soul, the one without a second.
The Soul is one, absolute, indivisible. It is pure consciousness. To imagine many forms within it is like imagining palaces in the air. Therefore, know that you are the Soul, ever-blissful, one without a second, and find ultimate peace. Remain absorbed in the joy which is silence.
—Shankaracharya
This path of life confounds us sometimes. We misunderstand form; we despair of dissolving structures. The path of life includes birth and death, light and dark, and the invisible will creating both.
Isn’t the path of death simply a misnomer for those seasons when we travel with our inner eyes closed, making far too much noise?
Please let me know what you’ve seen of the unseen with your inner eyes. And thank you for opening your heart.