Oneness Reveals Itself

Once you look Oneness in the eye, you can never ever again be the same person you thought you were before!

Recently I encountered a tiny new-hatched green anole lizard. It perched on the lower edge of the kitchen window frame: baby on the outside in its native heat and me on the inside in my blessedly cool air-conditioning. We saw each other, eye-to-eye…

This exquisite lizard—commonly called a chameleon by many for its color-changing talent—was no longer than my little pinkie, including the tail. Probably 2/3rds was tail, so scope out how incredibly itsy bitsy this creature was. At present he was green because he climbed up from the green nandinas that grow below the window.

As new-hatched baby and I examined one another, I sought not to intimidate with my size; I moved slow and did not loom too close. The miniscule head turned, and a microcosmic gem of an eye swiveled in its socket, wary and yet evidently not afraid.

The baby ambled along, to show off perfect tiny feet.

Our encounter provided me with a glimpse of that indescribable Oneness lately quite trendy in “ahead-of-the-cutting-edge” spiritual circles. Only it’s nothing new, this “non-duality” the Hindus have called Advaita for millennia. It’s something like what physics now calls “entanglement.”

Only Oneness isn’t so easy to “get” because it cannot be gotten. It’s unavoidable. It’s the fact that nothing is actually separate from anything else. Separation causes suffering, only separation isn’t real. So get over it!

I’ve noticed a curious thing—the major Oneness “teachers” don’t offer any spiritual practice. They say you don’t need it. Other excellent teachers provide a practice to point you towards Oneness.

What does Oneness really mean? It is not something you can understand, describe, achieve, enter or leave—it’s simply what IS.

Who knows? It’s a great mystery. Only I also noticed something else about the tiny lizard… it offered no practice. It doesn’t need a practice!

It simply IS.

Book/Film Review: THE EAGLE

When I first saw the trailer for the film THE EAGLE, I happened to be reading a wonderful sci-fi novel by Stephen Baxter (perhaps the finest sci-fi writer alive IMNSHO) called COALESCENT. Curiously enough, both the upcoming film and the Baxter book dealt with events in Roman Britain, a fascinating subject to me, as a historian. The film and its literary source are inspired by a historical mystery--the complete disappearance of a Legion of thousands of Roman soldiers in 2nd century Britain, at a time when the native tribal Picts (source of the term "Pixies") lived in much of the north.
      Though intrigued by the beautiful cinematography the upcoming film promised--plus its two handsome and engaging young stars, Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell--it seemed it might be too bloody for my taste. While I visited my mother in Colorado last February for her 90th birthday, I happened to visit a bookstore and purchased the film tie-in version of the Rosemary Sutcliff novel that inspired the film. Though originally titled THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH, this classic published in 1954, a year after my birth, was retitled for this edition simply: THE EAGLE.

      I am so grateful to discover Rosemary Sutcliff, whom I had vaguely heard of. An amazing writer who spent much of her life in a wheelchair, her vivid and atmospheric stories are rich with historical detail and plausible characters. Her recreation of the English countryside in late Roman times is stunningly vivid and alive. Now that I've finally seen the DVD of the film (which I gratefully own!) I know that the book is a bit subtler, less frantic, and more detailed.
      However the film is magnificent in its own right. Tome it is pointless to compare books with films that inspire them. They're seriously different media. In this case, both book and film are superb, and though there are a few moments to wince and avert your eyes, the film is not all that bloody. In a few moments it breaks you heart--yet life is that way, right?
     One aspect both versions share is that they are what folks now call a "bromance." The two major male characters really come to love one another, though they are "guy's guys". It's a bit more than being buddies, though not necessarily lovers. Still, if you read between the lines, it's every bit as romantic and touching as Frodo and his Sam! I don't know how conscious Sutcliff really was of this, though it seems to be recurring in her work, these plausible and sweet bromances.
     Now I'm also reading the rest of her "Roman Britain Trilogy," which continues in THE SILVER BRANCH and THE LANTERN BEARERS. These are fascinating, deliciously told stories with historical substance… plus there's something curiously relevant today about the passing of a major empire that has believed it controlled (or should control) the known world for a time.
      (Let's hope this corporate hegemony that has taken over all the major governments on the planet is also on its way out, as it's unsustainable and toxic to Life on Earth.)
      While we await developments, we need to keep feeding our heads, our hearts and souls. Sutcliff and the film I also adore are great recipes for all of the above forms of feeding.
      Flying on this EAGLE's wings I discovered Rosemary Sutcliff, which is a treasure in itself!

Winter Honeysuckle (A Poem)

Winter Honeysuckle

(A Poem)

by

Bruce P. Grether

“Did you see the Winter Honeysuckle?”

“No. Oh. Wow! Beautiful . . . is it?

Plus, it smells so. Amazing.”

Speaks to me like an unexpected chuckle,

Like the fact I’m actually a Wizard;

One of those 2 blue ones lost in the East.

“And that’s the finest finest thing

In all 3 worlds, to be:

Have you heard?”

“The least of these will be . . .

. . . the greatest of the East.”

“Ah. It’s all about this World Axis

That connects things below and above

With that single greatest thing

This gift . . . this beating heart

. . . in every breast.

This living light from every green leaf

At the heart of everything . . .

. . . that we call Love.”

“Like the Sun itself, it has

This inestimable power . . .

. . . . opening from & to Source.

Where abide, beyond Time

Beyond Space itself . . .

. . . Singularity’s flower.

The # 9 unfurls from your brow

To spread its protective hood

Like unfolding petals

Broadcasting fragrance of Now –

Where, indeed, it’s all good

From Noble Gases to Heavy Metals.

Beyond judgment

Of all things seen & unseen

Winds of Change that you can SEE:

Creating, maintaining, transforming

Fluttering pages of this scientific magazine

Revealing this authentic me . . .

. . . the Naked Singularity.

Back into embodiment from

Those churning spiral galaxies

To the garden deck where flowers sing

+ the planetary heartbeat drums . . .

. . . there lives

The shy brown cotton rat

+ the mockingbid shuffles

The Major Arcana of his wings.”

Back to where you’re asking me,

“Have you seen the Winter Honeysuckle?

So . . . remind me! What are the names

Of those 2 Blue Wizzes? Are we them?

Him and me?

Or does it really matter . . . ?”

Alatar & Pallando:

the Blue Wizards went East with Saruman,

who then was not bad at all, & those Blue Wizards

Never returned,

Though Saruman most definitely did,

Or did they

All 3???

Do I pause often enough

To suck into my aroused nostrils

Fragrance of galactic clusters stardust

Of this Winter Honeysuckle!

Blooming even more of a spectacle

With this Full Moon, last night;

Plus, if I’m not mistaken . . . the Sun

In Aquarius, thus these blossoms

Pour forth fragrant starlight –

The luminous fluid dreams of galactic beings!”

“HUSH! Listen closely. Your own heart . . .

IS One with inaudible

Whirring of quarks

The Center of Silence.”

Breathe IN the stillness . . .

That stops Time & opens Space

Around all that could disturb

Your deep peace.

Release. Thus evolve.

Hummingbirds & bees

Feasting upon

Divine nectar of this Carolina jasmine,

Supposedly so toxic

As the vine contains strychnine,

Yet like all else that abides

Within Creation’s lambent glow

This poisonous beauty must have its place

Within adamantine brilliance

Cupped between loving hands

Ferocious brilliance

This Point-Zero.

2.11.09

Listen To The Voice Of The World…

The great aboriginal American teacher Black Elk said Life moves in Circles. Well, of course… and as we listen to what I call "The Voice of the World," this actuality gets repeated repeatedly. Among the most deceptively simple-seeming yet deeply profound and highly insightful wisdoms of all is "The Center of the Circle is everywhere, and the circumference of the Circle is nowhere found."

    
      Even quantum physics and current cosmology agree: the Center is everywhere. It's one of those sort of counter-intuitive, yet kind-of-obvious realities (reality is always plural) that in such an expanding, inflationary Universe as we find ourselves, though everything is moving away from everything else--there is no single Center from which it is all racing away so fast. No.
      Curiously enough (curiouser and curiouser!) the Center is literally everywhere. You are there and so is everything else!
      Kind of like the Great Spirit, or as I prefer the term, the Great Mystery. It's everywhere, in everything. No exceptions. In fact, those amazing Egyptian Blue Lotus flowers that I often rave about in recent years, also display these realities…
      These sacred blossoms demonstrate the challengingly-simply fact of non-duality or Oneness. Nothing is actually separate from anything else; in fact, the idiotic ways that we believe in separation are the root cause of all suffering. You cannot actually say what Oneness is in words. It simply IS.
      Only you can see these Blue Lotuses demonstrating it, though they appear to be two separate flowers, they originate from that single mysterious unseen Source, deep in the liquid void the Egyptians called NU--like everything in existence.

      Don't take my word for all of this philosophical rambling. You see, like the immortal Jim Morrison, I'm at Sagittarius, a Zen Archer--so I can hardly help being a lover of wisdom. But why not just look at the pictures here and listen to your own heart on such important matters as the Circles of Life and Oneness???

Magick Morning (A poem)

Blue dawn hills misted,
Moist--I've emerged from
The Blessed House of Love
Into the Garden of Paradise…

Chee-POOO! Chee-POOO!
Twit/twit/twit!
Tzee-eee-eEEOOOoo!!!
Chee-POOO! Che-POOOOO!!
Twit/twit!… Twit/twit/twit!

Here in this quiescent turn
      of the yearly wheeling,
Birdsong frets through trees
Bearded with Spanish moss
Of ghostly conquistadores,
      more enchanted than lost.

The gravel path crunches quietly 'neath my clogs
Eloquent of heavy misting,
Not quite rainfall
Despite dripping from eaves
Of the new metal rainwater-collection roof.

There's a future:
It's here… you may touch it
In the pace of this open heart.

Chee-POOO! Chee-POOO!

The Gault Site Tour, Part 2

Following our view into the pit of the actual current dig--where those dedicated diggers patiently probed into the ancient past--with the rest of the tour group we shared lunch under some huge shady trees on that meadow. What a fantastic experience, with tingles of time-travel to boot, and even that lunch with the kind of nice folks interested enough to make it there! A splendid time… in a most special place.
      I'm so grateful that Tomas wanted to go. I knew he's do it without me if I didn't. Only what is life about? If you're blessed with such a perfectly suited partner, you'd best be grateful and do things with that person… even things you otherwise might not! Don't miss an opportunity for yet another shared adventure, is what I've learned.
      You see, I'm a wimp about the heat and indeed it's been especially brutal this year, though we're both fascinated with natural history and science. Let me not complain about the temp--instead let me express my gratitude for that day and for Tomas to share it with.

      Another matter--not unrelated--is our relationship to creatures here in the beautiful Garden where we live. Among the bounty this year have been plentiful baby lizards. There are the green anoles, commonly called "chameleons" hereabout; spiny lizards, the striped kind(?). Sometimes an amazing alligator lizard! Even the Mediterranean geckos that are quite shy and mostly just appear on the kitchen window screen in the early AM when the inside light attracts the moths they hunt…
      Part of all this is how much I love the road runner (one of those creatures I mentioned in my Power Animal blog not long ago). Yet, it's been rather savage: that beautiful, intelligent, predatory bird struts through our yard and snatches up our baby lizards. I won't even mention what he does with them before he eats them.
      Oh sure, it's Nature, you say? Well, I will not post the photos Tomas took. They're a bit too brutal. Of course, that IS Nature, and this kind of hunt has been going on for at least several hundred million years. Only I may not want to watch, OK?
      Yup, it's all part of that Oneness I often rave about. Still, I feel what I feel.
      Just as "I AM what I AM becoming."

The Mind's Eye of the Heart -- A Poem

Maybe those canny Egyptians were right…
Perhaps the brain is useless:
What if the heart really is the seat of intelligence
Where our Central Soul abides?

All seasons of life as Cosmic Fools --
Dying and reborn again from mud,
Deeply rooted reside
Where the life-force of the lotus lurks
All through winter months:
Inconstant as the Moon
That's really the only constant --
Changing the rules.

The dragonfly nymph
Leaves the empty husk of its emergence
On a stalk beside
The whispering pools.