Citrine

429. The Alchemy of Meditation

Butterfly wing

'During the Middle Ages, and perhaps long before, there was a secret tradition of alchemic studies. Ostensibly, the purpose of alchemy is to transform ordinary matter into something precious (such as base metals into gold). I don't believe this was actually the case, however. I believe that alchemy is the process of changing the alchemist, in part by allowing them to see the ordinary that is already present in their daily life as being something precious.

In the alchemic process, or "the Work" as it was code-named back then, the material that is to be transformed is placed in a container, known as a retort, which is then hermetically sealed (an act named for Hermes Trismigestus, the patron spirit of alchemy). The retort is then placed over a low flame for an extended period of time while the prima materia, or base matter, undergoes its many transformations.

In the same way, when we sit in meditation, we are creating our own retort. We seal the container by closing the eyes, and then feel the breath coming and going through the nose. There we "cook" for an extended period of time, allowing the transformations of arising, abiding, and subsiding events to take place. What we eventually find is that nothing very special tends to happen in this experiment. Yet, because of our ability to pay attention to these happenings from a present-moment point of view, the common matter becomes something very precious.

When we finally get up from our cushion or chair, and move back into daily life, we bring with us some of this precious material in the form of conscious mindful awareness. Stuff that used to just whizz past us, or which took place just below the level of consciousness, is now known and seen more clearly. Because of this ability to be more aware, we can make better choices when situations arise in our daily life that used to cause us trouble.'

 -- Roger Nolan > http://rogernolan.blogspot.com/

428. "There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."

Butterfly

'That summer, Amanda's big project was the establishment of a Butterfly Conservatory.  Since many moths have a very short life-span, there was a big turnover among the inhabitants of her institution.
Down by the waterfall, Amanda pitched her tent - it was made of willow sticks and the wool of black goats.  Having filled the tent with her largest and softest paisley cushions, Amanda stripped down to her beads and panties and fell into a trance.  "I shall determine how to prolong the lives of butterflies," she had previously announced.
However, an hour later when she awoke, she smiled mysteriously.  "The life-span of the butterfly is precisely the right length," she said.'  -- Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction

'There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.' - Richard Buckminster Fuller

427. Just the tip of the iceberg...

Iceberg

"The unconscious is a marvelous universe of unseen energies, forces, forms of intelligence -- even distinct personalities -- that live within us.  It is a much larger realm than most of us realize, one that has a complete life of its own running parallel to the ordinary life we live day to day.   The unconscious is the secret source of much of our thought, feeling, and behavior.  It influences us in ways that are all the more powerful because unsuspected."

"Jung compared the ego -- the conscious mind -- to a cork bobbing in the enormous ocean of the unconscious.  He also compared the conscious mind to the tip of an iceberg that rises above the surface of the water.  Ninety-five percent of an iceberg is hidden beneath the dark, icy waters.  The unconscious, like most of the iceberg, is out of sight.  But it is enormously powerful -- and as dangerous as a submerged iceberg if not respected."

"It is out of the raw material of the unconscious that our conscious minds develop, mature, and expand to include all the qualities that we carry potentially within us.  It is from this treasure trove that we are enriched with strengths and qualities we never knew we possessed."

 -- All from Inner Work by Robert A. Johnson

426. Thinking -- what a vice!

Countdown

'The greatest miracle is the discovery that all is miraculous.  And the nature of the miraculous is -- utter simplicity.  Nothing has been gained by sweat and struggle, by taking thought, by devotion, prayer, perseverance, patience, fortitude -- or by sloth, need it be added.  Imagine the planets pausing to decide the direction of their orbits!  Imagine them struggling to change their fiery courses!  Thinking -- what a vice!  Struggling -- what absurdity!  To know is so easy, so painless.  The ground for any kind of growth and cultivation is prepared by lying fallow.'
 - Henry Miller from Stand Still Like the Hummingbird via Wish Jar:  http://www.kerismith.com/blog.

425. I may be getting strong enough to run into the woods...

Love

'"Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell,"  Holly advised him.  "That was Doc's mistake.  He was always lugging home wild things.  A hawk with a hurt wing.  One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg.  But you can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get.  Until they're strong enough to run into the woods.  Or fly into a tree.  Then a taller tree.  Then the sky.  That's how you'll end up Mr. Bell.  If you let yourself love a wild thing.  You'll end up looking at the sky."'
 - Holly Golightly wisdom from Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's

424. "If I were in the Tavern tonight, I would buy freely for everyone in this world."

Golden

'Death is a favor to us,
But our scales have lost their balance.
The impermanence of the body
Should give us great clarity,
Deepening the wonder in our senses and eyes
Of the mysterious existence we share
And are surely just traveling through.
If I were in the Tavern tonight,
Hafiz would call for drinks
And as the Master poured, I would be reminded
That all I know of life and myself is that
We are just a midair flight of golden wine
Between His pitcher and His cup.
If I were in the Tavern tonight,
I would buy freely for everyone in this world
Because our marriage with the Cruel Beauty
Of time and space cannot endure very long.
Death is a favor to us,
But our minds have lost their balance.
The miraculous existence and impermanence of Form
Always makes the illumined ones
Laugh and Sing.'
 - Hafiz, "Deepening the Wonder"

423. The realization of the dynamic unity of reality. Interconnection reigns supreme.

Web

"Constantly think of the Universe as one living creature, embracing one being and one soul; how all is absorbed into the one consciousness of this living creature; how it compasses all things with a single purpose, and how all things work together to cause all that comes to pass, and their wonderful web and texture."
 - Marcus Aurelius, 170 AD

"A human being is part of the whole called by us universe...  We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest.  A kind of optical delusion of consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
 - Albert Einstein

"The Eastern mystics see the universe as an inseparable web, whose interconnections are dynamic and not static.  The cosmic web is alive; it moves and grows and changes continually.  Modern physics, too, has come to conceive of the universe as such a web of relations and, like Eastern mysticism, has recognised that this web is intrinsically dynamic."
 - Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics

All via Spaceandmotion.com.

422. There is no there there.

Dark-Sky

'However smart we may be, however rich and clever or loving or charitable or spiritual or impeccable, it doesn't help us at all.  The real power comes in to us from the beyond.  Life creeps up behind, where we are sightless, and from below, where we do not understand.'
 - D.H. Lawrence via Wit of the Staircase - http://theresalduncan.typepad.com/

421. 'It is impossible the world should be either good or bad...'

Everything-is

'The sea and a crescent strip of beach
Show between the service station and a deserted shack

A creek drains thru the beach
Forming a ditch
There is a discarded super-market cart in the ditch
That beach is the edge of a nation

There is something like shouting along the highway
A California shouting
On the long fast highway over the California mountains

Point Pedro
Its distant life

It is impossible the world should be either good or bad
If its colors are beautiful or if they are not beautiful
If parts of it taste good or if no parts of it taste good
It is as remarkable in one case as the other...'

 - George Oppen, And Their Winter and Night in Disguise via the Poetry Foundation -  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=175680

420. 'The renewal of drive and dreams...'

From

'When you change your body, you change your world.  When you change your world, you change your body.  Now, do everything in your awareness to experience your body as energy.  At any given moment each of us lives in a different world.  As adults we choose much of the world we live in, and the more conscious and aware we are the more this becomes true.  We choose how we experience this world, and because life is a circle, our experience then chooses the world we draw, created by our experience of it, and its effect on us.  The more consciously we do this, the more effectively we live in the world we want, and the more efficiently we can use this energy to change our bodies, which, in turn, has a powerful effect on the world we inhabit... 
...Use all of your senses to experience your body as atoms of energy.  See the atoms, moving and changing, feel them gathering new information and integrating it into their movement, smell the renewal of drive and dreams, taste the freshness of potential change, hear the dynamic alteration of their previously set patterns and content, and know that you have the power to create any change.  It is your life, your body, your thoughts, and your history, but it is also only energy - simple, dynamic energy.'
 - Laura Day, How to Rule the World from Your Couch