Essence Ordinaire

Here we are in Canada...

[The Ottawa River at Sunset from Gatineau, Quebec]

This past week I was here in Canada visiting Saroja and some very dear friends in Gatineau, Quebec. It brought up a few things to share with you beginning with a story from Osho …

A king went into his garden and found wilted and dying trees, shrubs and flowers. The oak said it was dying because it could not be tall like the pine. Turing to the pine, he found it drooping because it was unable to bear grapes like the vine. And the vine was dying because it could not blossom like the rose. Then he found one plant, hearts-ease, blooming and as fresh as ever. Upon inquiry, he received this reply: “I took it for granted that when you planted me you wanted hearts-ease. If you had desired an oak, a vine or a rose, you would have planted them. So I thought, since I can be nothing but what I am, I shall be that to the best of my ability.”

You are here because this existence needs you as you are! Otherwise somebody else would have been here. You are fulfilling something very essential, something very fundamental, as you are. [“Take It Easy” Vol. 2, pp. 101-103 by Osho]

So, “we can be nothing but what we are” and being that “to the best of our ability” … this fits.

While here in Quebec with Saroja, I am reminded of my first talk in the Tampa Unity Church some years ago. I had just returned from Canada after being with my father’s passing, and happened to have a tube of toothpaste that I purchased there. In Canada, everything has both French and English on it, honoring both languages present. As I was considering what was to be shared in the Sunday Talk, I happened to have the toothpaste tube facing up with the French on the label. It said, “Essence Ordinaire.” When I turned it over to see what that meant, it was “Regular Flavor.” Yes! This is what was to be shared that morning.

Have we tasted our regular flavor … sensed this ordinary essence that we are? Are we looking for something unusual to happen, in a final awakening? Well, this beautiful French language says it all. Our essence is ordinariness. Sri Bhagavan reminds us … it is our natural state.

Relaxing into this Essence Ordinaire … we are fulfilling something very essential, very fundamental, simply being as we are. From here, we are contributing what is truly significant to the Whole.

Enjoying this simple, natural and ordinary Essence that we ARE...

Thank you, Saroja, this has been a beautiful week!

Saroja and friends, Hafiz and Gulabo. (The last time I was here was ten years ago when we gave and I SIT program. It was a very significant experience for me then as now.)

Just sit there right now.

Don’t do a thing.

Just rest.

For your

Separation from God

Is the hardest work in the world.

- Hafiz

The “rest” is a “stop” and all is melting into THAT.

Giving way to this melting feeling …

Falling into this Embrace

Being fully consumed by this Love,

By this Fullness,

By that which has no boundaries.

Surrender NOW into that which has captured you …

And invite whatever arises into Your Heart.

All is included in this Embrace …

- Elizabeth

Home Is Where The Heart Is

[Chataqua Park in Boulder, Co., a favorite spot to view the Flat Irons ]

It has been only three months since I came to Boulder, Colorado. But, it seems like a lifetime has passed.

Recently, my Inner Guidance directed me to continue the journey that was started last December. I am to continue on in the Great and Wonderful Mystery and not settle in anywhere for right now.

What has been my experience being here in this lovely little spot in the Universe?

When we usually visit a city for the first time, as a tourist, we proceed to see the various favorite sites and attractions of the area. With my living here the experience was not as a tourist but as a welcomed part of the community. I experienced the Heart of Boulder.

Of course, it started much like everyone else, by being captivated by its beauty and its history. And, I proceeded to see and learn as much as I could. This led me to the beginnings of Boulder through the eyes of Chief Niwot …

Chief Niwot or Left Hand(-ed) (c. 1825-1864)

was a tribal leader of the Southern Arapaho people and played an important part in the history of Colorado. Chief Niwot and his people lived along the Front Range often wintering in Boulder Valley, sit of the future Boulder, Colorado. Despite breaching the borders of Arapaho territory, early prospectors were welcomed by Niwot in Boulder Valley during the Colorado Gold Rush. Through Boulder County, many places pay tribute to Chief Niwot and the Arapaho tribe. Niwot, Co., Left Hand Canyon, Niwot Mountain, and Niwot Ridge are all named for him. Additionally, a main thoroughfare through Boulder is Arapahoe Avenue.

That was from the history books. But, to me, his true contribution to Boulder was from his vision of harmony with the white man. He held this commitment even up to the end of his life no matter what was happening around him.

This statue of Niwat stands by Boulder Creek, where he and his tribe stayed.

When I walked along Boulder Creek, where he and his tribe lived, I felt the sacredness of this land that was blessed by this beautiful being and his people.

In this sacred space, it came to me that Chief Niwot’s vision and commitment lived on and set the context for this beautiful heart-felt community of Boulder. In my own experience, arms were opened wide in welcoming me in so many ways.

Through those who assisted me in this awesome healing process…

[This is Brooke and Pamela at Sound Health]

Through those who opened their home and Heart to me …

[Elizabeth and Richard]

Through those who showed me the beauty of Boulder …

[Spencer]

[Richard]

Through those who welcomed me into their family …

[Jenna, Kelly & Emily]

And, through those that I met along the way that extended their generosity in many different ways.

It has been difficult to follow the Heart in this one and leave this beautiful community…this Heart Sanga. But, I now realize that when I left last December on this journey, it was to meet the global community of the Heart. This particular community in Boulder is just a facet of it and so I see now that I am to move on and meet up with this Heart Sanga in its entirety.

Chief Niwot gave a blessing to those living in Boulder. He said, “People seeing the beauty of this valley will want to stay, and their staying will be the undoing of the beauty.”

I understood the first part of this right away but not that last part until now, in writing this to you. What came to me; in the staying and holding onto what I have here, I will undo the beauty of what has been experienced and project my experience on something out there. It now goes with me wherever I am as a sacred aspect in me, one that confirms that Love and Harmony is our true nature and is at the Heart of this universe. And, confirms further that my home is where the Heart is. This is what lives on eternally no matter what the appearances.

A deep gratitude and a huge hug wraps around this lovely community as it goes with me and contributes something very precious to the remainder of my journey wherever it takes me from here. I love you all from the bottom of my Heart.

It’s a Great & Wonderful Mystery

[The following is a sharing from an eight year-old child with Aids]

Nobody, not Mom or dad or a grandmother or a grandfather or a big sister or big brother or teachers or doctors or soldiers or Reverends or athletes or lawyers or TV stars or any people who are working or any people who are playing not even the President, not even a King or a Queen, not even people who love each other know what a single thing is. It is a great and wonderful mystery to all of us that anything is or we are.

And whether somebody says, “I don’t know how anything came to be,” or “God made everything.” They are simply pointing to the feeling of the mystery, of how everything is, but nobody knows what it really is and how it came to be. As long as we go on feeling this mystery, we feel free and full and happy, and we act free and full and happy to others. This is the secret of being happy from the time you are small until the time you are old.

If you remember every day to feel the mystery and if you will remember to feel that you are more than what you look like and if you will remember to be the mystery itself, then you will be happy every day, and all kinds of wonderful happenings will come up for you. You will feel happy and you will always help and love others, even those who are having trouble feeling happy and even trying to make you forget the mystery.

Some day you may meet someone who has felt the mystery really strong for a long time, so that person feels the mystery all the time, and is always happy. Such a person is the best person to learn from about happiness and life and love. I hope you will remember to feel the mystery every day as long as you are awake forever. The best thing to tell anybody is to remember to feel this.
I have been doing this for a long time and it is the best and most important feeling of all. I am very happy I could tell you this. Maybe some day we will meet face to face. Maybe. Anyway, at least you and I will always know that at least one other person somewhere is remembering and feeling and loving the mystery right now.

And the children will lead us.

A wonderful reminder that whenever we think we know anything, our attention is drawn away from our Natural State and this great and wonderful Mystery.

This experience was seen just recently and I was grace-fully brought back to this Mystery. Now, everything is back to moment-to-moment discovery…vulnerable…but free.

Soon, I will be writing you from Quebec...on my way back east.

Stay tuned in for the next adventure in this Magical Mystery Show!

It’s Right Here, Right Now

Question: Things are unfolding nicely here…

John: What is knowing that? In what is it all unfolding? Come back to that. Unfolding is in time. Reality is every-present and timeless. Hone in on the core of timeless presence-awareness. Everything else comes and goes. This does not.

Question: It is relatively effortless.

John: Awareness in one hundred percent natural and effortless. When, in your experience, is it not shining? The fact of being present and aware is totally effortless. That is what you are, and it is already present. We overlooked it because we were looking for something exotic, but it has been right here all along.

[By John Wheeler in his book, “Right here, Right now”]

Just a little fine tuning and coming back to basics…coming back to what is already naturally happening, right now, and giving up any sense of “unfolding” to what is already present. Actually, when we “hone in on the core of timeless presence-awareness” there isn’t even a “giving up” of anything. It’s so simple, but we can miss this simplicity in our intense “search for enlightenment or completion in this lifetime.”

Bhagavan Ramana shared this simple truth over and over again. He kept gently bringing people back through the question, “Who?” But the mind was relentless in wanting to do something rather than just BE. Can we relate?

Nathan Gill, another non-duality teacher, says it’s not even about “being awake.” It’s simply about Being. Being awake implies that we were not already awake and we now have to be awake. That’s how subtle the tricks of the mind can become.

When we say that Sri Bhagavan’s message was one of non-duality, do we really know what that means? Is there a relaxing into this Beingness, this aware-presence that we are and allowing what is arising to complete itself, naturally? This is the end of the search…already complete, totally finished, here and now.

Just checking in…

When Heart Speaks To Heart

"When Heart speaks to Heart,

where is the need

for physical meeting

or verbal conversation!"

- Sri Bhagavan.

It has been coming to me lately, “why these communications?” I receive your comments in email that say it speaks to you in some way, so it continues.

Each time the Heart speaks to Heart, there is no thought it just comes. It is a wonderful feeling to experience the flow of our own Voice just happening. And, we are usually blown away by what IT has to say. I’m sure you’ve noticed this yourself.

This hasn’t always been the case for me, for sure. When I first met Ramana almost 33 years ago now, the Heart opened but the awakening process had just begun. What I found most difficult was making the connection of what I was genuinely feeling with the words to reflect my true experience. The space was open to share now with someone that was truly there to listen and assist, but nothing would come but tears. Patiently, he would wait. And, sometimes I would find myself sharing what he would want to hear or the correct thing to say that reflected the correct teaching. But, it was not authentic. It did not ring true for me. But, it would take the pressure off and the strain of not-knowing how to say it. It was a very vulnerable place as it could be very embarrassing to go through, especially in a group situation. And, in the beginning of AHAM, I was in the classroom just like everyone else. So, a “survival mechanism” set in early to “look good in the eyes of others” and an unconscious pattern was established to survive this very sensitive situation.

This particular pattern was brought into the Light of Awareness just recently and completely exposed and seen through. What a joyful realization it is to actually feel the True Voice come through without filters…without the pattern of bypassing through the mind…just a pure flow from the Heart. It was experienced similar to the “perennial flow of oil” that Sri Bhagavan talks about. It actually felt like warm oil flowing from the gut, through the Heart, and through the throat and out in its own capsule of words. How refreshingly real it is to be aware of this happening.

Well, the “cat’s out of the bag” the “toothpaste is out of the tube” … there is no going back now.

The gratitude for this “fierce Grace” is enormous!

Now, Heart speaks to Heart in Its own natural way … there is just a happy glow. :0)

This speaks true for me now…

I have no power of miracle

Other than the attainment

Of quiet happiness.

I have no tact except

The experience of gentleness.

-Sumiyoshi

I Am Here Always

Who knows

that in the depth

of the ravine

of the mountain

of my hidden heart

a firefly of my love

is a flame.

- Abutsu-Ni

There is something that has been culminating over this past six months that is complete now to share with you. It actually all came together as I was speaking with a very dear friend who is experiencing some health challenges.

Over the years, while being in Sri Bhagavan’s teaching, I had a misunderstanding about “releasing identification with the body-mind.” It was: if I gave attention to the body-mind the identification would increase instead of release. So, somewhere along the way I disconnected with the body all together. Over time this “disconnect” did not allow me to properly take care of it. Without this basic connection, not only was the health of the body jeopardized, but also there wasn’t a sense of what it needed to heal it. So, I was just “shooting in the dark,” so to speak. Trying all kinds of different things.

Recently while in India, I spent many hours in Sri Bhagavan’s Shrine Hall. To clarify this point about body-mind identification, a question was brought into this clear space. What came to Awareness was a story from the old devotees who had been with Sri Bhagavan while he had the reoccurring cancer on his upper arm. Everyone at that time knew that this experience was very painful, but what they witnessed was remarkable. Sri Bhagavan was seen to have gently spoken to his sore arm with love and compassion, saying, “Poor arm.” He was fully connected with his body as lovingly as he would one of his devotees, and sensed what the body was experiencing but was not drawn into it. As Awareness, he was being aware of the situation as it was arising with complete love and acceptance.

What a huge revelation this was for me. Any attempt of "trying to fix" obviously comes out of a sense of something being wrong and not from acceptance and love. And, that is creating a separate self-sense that is trying to fix. In "seeing through" all of this from Awareness, a love and compassion awakened for this body-mind.

So, as I was sharing this experience with my friend, it relieved a misunderstanding that she had also. An opening began to happen for her, as well. The connection with the body began to happen slowly but surely. Through this experience, the Heart opened to the way of Wisdom and Grace which leads us to exactly what is best for the healing of this body. And, it just “rings true” for us to follow this direction, faithfully.

Just recently I received this message from Ganesan:

Let us be courageous!

Look at, how assertively Sri Bhagavan assures us:

"Guru's Grace is always there. You imagine it is something somewhere

high in the sky, far away and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its Source -- the Heart, the Grace rushes forth -- sprouting as from a spring -- from within you."

As our call ended, there was a sense of aliveness that seemed to be coming from this Being that I AM (we are) … body-mind identification was naturally released from simply being This. Love, acceptance and gratitude was realized and present for this body-mind.

In my past communications with you there have been pieces of this shared. But, this exchange with my friend was a blessing for us both, as we discovered the entire picture together. Maybe it will be helpful for you too.

Here is my friend’s email after our call:

I have nothing but gratitude for what came through you and between us today. Any feeling of being alone is lessening now. I am and will continue to surrender to This, and trust that Grace is happening now. I am with you in Healing and Love.

True Friendship is Grace

Do not imagine

that an integral being

has the ambition of enlightening the unaware

or raising worldly people

to the divine realm.

To him, there is no self and no other,

and hence no one to be raised.

His only concern is his own sincerity.

- “Hua Hu Ching” vs. 27 from Lao Tzu

It seems that there is a ‘shift in the wind’ with regards to where the path is leading for this one.

When I began this blog, last fall, it was to follow a path of travelling around the world and meeting up with our global spiritual community. Well, in truth that is still happening, but there has been a shift in an aspect of it.

I have been in Denver and Boulder, Colorado, now for three months. In my itinerary it was to be only three weeks. Due to health reasons, I have remained. For the past month or so, I have been living in Boulder where the healing treatments have been since my arrival in Colorado.

During my stay here, I have met a number of people who have become very dear friends. And, they have extended their love and support in ways much like a loving family would do. Their generosity and kindness has created a safe haven for me, spiritually and physically.

One person has opened her new home to me and has invited me to stay on as long as I wish. Her name is Elizabeth. She has been so generous and supportive. We feel like soul-sisters. After being with this for some time to see “what is”, it feels true that this is where I am to be. This is to be my new home.

Recently, while in India at Ramanasramam and sitting with my Guru, Ramana Maharshi, answers to the questions “Where am I to go? and, “What am I to do?” were turned over to this pristine Presence of the Heart…into a vast field of not-knowing. And, from that moment onward I continued to surrender and follow this “not-knowing.” It seems that this grace-full Heart Current has led me here.

So, my dear Heart family, here I am.

My treatments will continue over the winter months, but not as frequently. And, as I am gaining my strength back, I will continue following the health officials here that have been overseeing my progress. It seems that the best time, health wise, is for me to travel back to N.C. in mid September and stay for a few weeks before heading back to Boulder. It would be great if it could work out to see you. :0)

Please give me your blessings as I enter into this new life here in Boulder. Actually, it’s clear that it’s not “my” life anymore…just following the Heart each step of the way. We can continue communicating this way for as long as we wish. We are family, always and forever … no matter where we are on this planet. If you want to send me a letter, or better yet come to visit, just email me for my new address.

I want to complete this sharing with an excerpt from “The Book of Awakening” by Mark Nepo that speaks my Heart right now…

I have been blessed to have deep friends in my time on Earth. They have been an oasis when my life has turned a desert. They have been a cool river to plunge in when my heart has been on fire. When I was ill, one said, “I will be whatever you need as long as you need it.”

Honest friends are doorways to our souls, and loving friends are the grasses that soften the world. It is no mistake that the German root of the word “friendship” means “place of high safety.” This safety opens us to God. As Cicero said, “A friend is a second self.” And as Saint Martin said, “My friends are the beings through whom God loves me.”

And, a song that a dear friend wrote …

When the Heart is in the center

And the circle goes around.

You can feel a Light start shining.

You can hear a joyous sound.

You can taste a sweet perfection.

You can touch the Oneness space.

When the Heart is in the center

our circle grows in Grace.

Our circle of Friendship and Love is growing in Grace ... creating a safe space for us all to live freely who-we-really-are anywhere on this beautiful planet. Now, our only “duty” is to serve the Heart no matter where It takes us or what It is asking of us to do. Some of you have shared with me that you have been getting messages from the Heart, as well. Yes, it is scary to follow what It is telling you to do. Maybe we don’t know how to do what the Heart is guiding us to do. Just by our willingness to follow It … It will guide us each step of the way step-by-step … much like a “treasure hunt” … we don’t get the clue as to what to do next until we take action with the first step. It gets to be fun, actually.

You are not alone, my dear sweet friend, there is a crowd of us following the rhythm of the Heart. And, It is leading us all to the Home we have never left.

Elizabeth at Boulder Creek

Take time to listen

to what is said without words,

To obey the law

too subtle to be written,

To worship the unnameable

and to embrace the unformed.

Love your life.

Trust the Tao.

Make love with

the invisible subtle origin of the universe,

and you will give yourself

everything you need.

[ Hua Hu Ching vs. 81 – Lao Tzu ]

Boulder Creek Falls at its peak – water coming from the snow covered mountain tops