Dark and Light

"What I know is this.  When one hungers for light it is only because one's knowledge of the dark is so deep."  Terry Tempest Williams

“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable and beautiful and afraid of nothing as though I had wings.”
― Mary Oliver

In Love With All

I wonder what would happen if
I treated everyone like I was in love
with them, whether I like them or not
and whether they respond or not and no matter
what they say or do to me and even if I see
things in them which are ugly, twisted, petty,
cruel, vain, deceitful, indifferent, just accept
all that and turn my attention to some small
weak tender hidden part and keep my eyes on
that until it shines like a beam of light
like a bonfire I can warm my hands by...

~Derek Tasker

Light

The lamps are different,
But the light is the same.
So many garish lamps in the dying brain's lamp-shop,
Forget about them.
Concentrate on essence, concentrate on Light
In lucid bliss, calmly smoking off its own holy fire,
The Light streams towards you from all things,
All people, all possible permutation of good, evil, thought, passion.
The lamps are different,
But the Light is the same.
One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind,
Endlessly emanating all things
One turning and burning diamond.
One, one, one.
Ground yourself, strip yourself down,
To blind loving silence.
Stay there, until you see
You are gazing at the Light
With its own ageless eyes.

- Rumi

We have not come here to take prisoners,

But to surrender even more deeply

To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world

To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear

From anything

that may not strengthen

Your precious budding wings

Run like hell my dear,

From anything likely

To put a sharp knife

Into the sacred, tender vision

Of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend

Those aspects of obedience

That stand outside of our house

And shout to our reason

"O please, O please,

Come out and play."

For we have not come here to take prisoners

Or to confine our wondrous spirits

But to experience ever and ever more deeply

Our divine courage, freedom and Light! 

Hafiz

Enemies

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that" -- Martin Luther King, Jr

Lamps Unto Yourselvers

“Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves.  Hold fast to Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the truth as a refuge.  Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves.  And those, who shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the truth as their refuge, they shall reach the topmost height.”   Buddha

Mother Wisdom Speaks

Mother Wisdom Speaks

Some of you I will hollow out.
I will make you a cave.
I will make you so deep the stars will shine in your darkness.
You will be a bowl.
You will be the cup in the rock collecting rain.

I will hollow you with knives.
I will not do this to make you clean.
I will not do this to make you pure.
You are clean already.
You are pure already.

I will do this because the world needs the hollowness of you.
I will do this for the space that you will be.
I will do this because you must be large.
A passage.
People will find their way through you. A bowl.
People will eat from you and their hunger will not weaken them unto death.
A cup to catch the sacred rain.

My daughter, do not cry. Do not be afraid.
Nothing you need will be lost.
I am shaping you.
I am making you ready.

Light will flow in your hollowing.
You will be filled with light.
Your bone will shine.

The round, open center of you will be radiant.
I will call you Brilliant One.
I will call you Daughter who is wide.
I will call you Transformed.
By Christine Lore Webber ©

Healing

"Healing is not forcing the sun to shine, but letting go of that which blocks the light."  Stephen Levine

Darkness and Light

"Don't worry about being good.  Instead discover how both good and bad live within you.   Deeply accept the shadow even as you seek the light.  Believe in change.  Take full responsibility for  who you are and what you want.  And from such forthright wisdom your goodness with prevail and your kindness will blossom and your heart will heal."   Elizabeth Lesser

Shadow Work

"Deep psychological work brings us into the shadowy world of the unconscious, where quick fixes and straight paths do not exist, but we have to go into the hidden places in the psyche before coming into the light by making the darkness conscious."  Elizabeth Lesser

Namaste

“See the Light in others and it is easier to feel good about yourself. See the Light in yourself and it is easier to feel compassion for others.” — Paul Ferrini

Buddha's Wisdom

"Do not accept what you hear by report.  Do not accept tradition.  Do not accept a statement because it is found in our books, nor because it is in accord with your beliefs, nor because it is the saying of your teacher.  Be lamps unto yourselves."  Buddha (on his deathbed) 

Dark Night of the Soul

"Things are not better, but you are in a different state.  Perhaps you are now where the Dark Night has been trying to take you for so long.   Now you are almost ready for a new life, and that is the purpose of bardo.  Slowly, a different kind of light begins to glow from inside you."  Thomas Moore

Beauty

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the
heart.
~Kahlil Gibran

Attitude

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind
you.
~Maori Proverb

Consciousness

"Initially, matter does not want to become conscious, nor does spirit want to be embodied.  Only gradually do body and psyche push toward consciousness, and only when they are sufficiently grounded in love, can conscious matter be penetrated be the light of the spirit.  The Divine Child, the new consciousness, is born of that union."  Marion Woodman

Gift Me

 GIFT ME

Gift me with your presence
Show up fully, but only when you really want to
Not out of obligation or fear of disappointing.

Gift me with your stories
Of joy and pain, for through them you grow
To love life and learn wisdom
And in hearing them from you, I deepen too.
Tell it all, every detail...
What was said, felt and discovered
And how it changed you

Gift me with honesty
Tell me when I hurt or disappoint you
When I make you proud or just that you love me.
Tell me the truth, as you see it,
In me, the world and life
As the unfolding Mystery


Gift me with forgiveness
An honest attempt to give
Not only me, but all you meet
The benefit of the doubt
That even in my faults and frailties
You see the inherent worth and Light of God
Most of all...

Gift me with a chosen silence
When it would be easier to judge
Or you feel you can't resist the urge
To share with another the latest amusing, confusing
Insane thing you saw me do...or refrain from
For time has a way, of bringing all things full circle

Gift me with a compassionate, listening ear
When I seek a witness to my life and experience
And open your heart even wider,
That it may take it ALL in
And love me even more when I most confuse you

Gift me with a place at your table
A phone call just because
An invitation to adventure
And the assurance that
Not a day goes by without a smile lifting your lips
In fondness for memories we have yet to create

Gift me with patience
As time slows my steps
And mind's edges dull
Allow me the dignity and freedom of which I am capable,
But if the time comes that I am not safe or sane enough,
Care for me, as I tried to do for you
when you still fit in my arms
And needed a shoulder to sleep on.

Valerie Wilkins Alder  

Trees

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows, and the honey locust
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often

Around me the trees stir their leaves
and call out, "stay awhile"
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple", they say
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, and go easy, to be filled
with the light; and to shine."

Care of the Soul

"Care of the Soul is not solving the puzzle of life; quite the opposite.  It is an appreciation of the paradoxical mysteries that blend light and darkness into the grandeur of what human life and culture can be.   What we want to do here is to re-imagine those things we already understand."  Thomas Moore