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Mar 2018 · 587
Stephen Hawking
CharlesC Mar 2018
His legacy is large
as he leaves his
life-sustaining technology
behind..
He leaves behind also
this quote:
"The greatest enemy of
knowledge is not ignorance,
it is the illusion of knowledge."

Knowledge
often masquerades
as wholeness
claiming more than
its limited span..
Knowledge as thought
appears in our Self
is made of our Self
but cannot know
our infinite Self...

Our Thanks, Stephen Hawking...
Mar 2018 · 267
7 Pointers
CharlesC Mar 2018
In this Lenten time
the Christian tradition
provides 7 signs in
the Gospel of John..
These point to the
Perennial truth of Identity
of each of us
regardless of religion or not..
The Perennial truth is
simply the recognition of
oneself not separated
as world culture insists..
That's it..!
Nothing more..!
Mar 2018 · 149
Presence
CharlesC Mar 2018
There is only Presence
a rich oneness
which is our identity
standing and witnessing
and creating of itself
life's many separations..
Paths of separation
of resisting and seeking
seem to veil our identity
allowing only brief tastes
of the Presence we crave
and words fail to disclose..
But the thrills on life's paths
present a window
which when cleansed
illumines our way home...
Mar 2018 · 160
Overlooking our Identity
CharlesC Mar 2018
This is the activity
in which each of us
engage..
Overlooking our Identity
as expanse and expanding
confining it to a
constraining cluster of
perceptions and thoughts..
Until!:
we notice the caging
and the confinement
sounding freedom's call...
Mar 2018 · 149
I am doing
CharlesC Mar 2018
Consciousness shapes and acts
and becomes I..the doer..
I complete my doing
and my doing recedes
and returns..I rest
as Consciousness...
Mar 2018 · 261
Consciousness-only is..
CharlesC Mar 2018
Of vital importance
in this our time's moment..
To realize
with living transparency
the only-ness
of Consciousness..
Separation dissolves
in the realizing
and is superseded now
with uncaused joy...
Feb 2018 · 155
Endlessness
CharlesC Feb 2018
He said:
brevity is the soul of wit..
and said T. S. Eliot:
We can say of Shakespeare, that
never has a man turned so little
knowledge to such great account..
and said Rumi:
knowledge of the world is ignorance..

The endlessness of knowledge
is blessing and curse..
Google is one name..
It is easy to forget
to not allow attention
to experience that
in which all knowledge
appears..

To recognize knowledge
flowing in and out of that
in which it appears..
Knowledge in isolation
we place first
in idolatrous fashion
as we search for
the water in the wave...
Feb 2018 · 381
Billy Graham
CharlesC Feb 2018
has passed
with our many
wishes for peace..
A preacher for
his times..
Times with steep
reliance and rejection
of belief:
reaching an eternal
goal at the end
of our time
in earthly sojourn ..

The times have changed
as many are standing awed
over a new recognition
of real identity
directly experienced
glimmering eternally
behind the shading clouds..
Feb 2018 · 223
New Recognition
CharlesC Feb 2018
Science's foothold in matter
over many centuries told
is slipping
as transparency arrives..
The particles sought
are illusive
they seem here and then not..
But there is still excitement
on their discovery
even if short-lived..
Something more exciting
may be awaiting
recognition..yes..recognition..
Recognition of that which
is permanent
in which the short-lived
produce their excitement...
Feb 2018 · 422
Dust
CharlesC Feb 2018
dust is the ocean
the common ground
the luminous field
which is never born
and never dies..
we are the particles
the whirlpools
the rivulets
the waves
which for now
declare ourselves
as somehow different
forgetting
what we are..
until we are
reminded...
Feb 2018 · 182
Clusters
CharlesC Feb 2018
on a raw damp winter day
a haircut
a cozy coffee place
with a special:
warm biscuits and gravy..
this cluster of morning
memories presented itself
on an afternoon walk
in a still chill day..
the remembered cluster
a coloring of present
awareness
embellished now by feet
pacing on a wet roadway..
remembering
perceiving
sensing
melting to knowing
and the Self
reveals...
Feb 2018 · 181
Starting
CharlesC Feb 2018
There is
an experience of
inner luminosity in
each of us..where
we need to start..
All out there colors
but does not change
our starting place..
Starting out there
starts with splintering
endures as suffering
and endless searching
for that hidden
way to Start...
Feb 2018 · 240
All shall be well
CharlesC Feb 2018
is repeated followed by
all manner of things..
Julian give assurance
from her experience
knowing now that
all manner of things
rising as thought
and perception
are fleeting and that
in which they arise
is already well..
our simple task
is to recognize
that...
“All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”
― Julian of Norwich
Feb 2018 · 321
Solidity
CharlesC Feb 2018
Separation insists
on our fleshly solidity
and fragmentary lives..
Perceptions daily strengthen
the confining argument..
We wish for transparency..for melting..
And search for relief
in idolatrous ways..
Until--
Transparency is experienced
as the real self
melting away the too solid flesh
which had convinced
in our discomfort
all those years...
Spoken by  Hamlet, Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2:
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Feb 2018 · 157
thought and perception
CharlesC Feb 2018
conception and perception
these are the objects
to which we awaken
this morning..
this is creation
happening anew
each of us
with a big bang
awakening..
perception separates
and cognition names..
cognition of time
hangs together the
10000 pieces..relating
and making whole pieces..
the whole pieces point
to that which is the same
for each of us
and out of which
unending big bangs
color our day...
Jan 2018 · 160
Responsibility
CharlesC Jan 2018
A question of burden:
imagining a future
where responsibility falls..
Light or heavy
is the measuring stick
which swings at
us all..
There is variation:
light to one
heavy to another..
These are perceptions
which result from
imagining departure
from our
peace just now..
However..might we
observe these departures
from our peaceful place
allowing their departure
within our peace...?
Jan 2018 · 159
Certainty
CharlesC Jan 2018
In
our cultural cloudiness
we believe that there
is no certainty..
When beliefs are raised
there are retorts of doubt..
Some reluctantly and
grudgingly admit that
their beliefs are carriers
of doubt..
So where do we go
to find a certainty
unencumbered..?
Perhaps all we need is
an experience of blue sky
standing in clarity behind
those clouds of belief...
Jan 2018 · 295
Universal I-Am
CharlesC Jan 2018
For both East and West
I-Am is the universal experience..
I-Am is the white screen
around these words..and
that out of which the words
are made..
I-Am is the space imagined
around each thought and
perception on this Saturday
morning..
I-Am is the perennial space
around all science..all religion..
Yet I-Am is overlooked and
hides entangled in our
objective attention..
So..we need extract and then
return I-Am to these words
and to those multiplicities
of our rapt attention
on this Saturday morning...
Jan 2018 · 183
Am I Surrounded..?
CharlesC Jan 2018
Not enclosed
or restricted..
But do I allow
remember
the white space
surrounding my circumstance..
With the space remembered
there is the possibility
of the circumstance
fading and revealing
its whiteness...
Jan 2018 · 313
A lesson in grammar..
CharlesC Jan 2018
In the final analysis
is it a lesson in grammar..?
Most all of us have
lived and believed
in the objects out there..
And we have been
much less interested
in the subject in here..

However..once in a while
signs of a shift seem brewing..
The question arises:
Subject and object..they
seem entangled..one seems
one of a coin's sides..
Experience shouts..but
subject/object strikes back..
until it doesn't...!
Jan 2018 · 366
truth/thought/word
CharlesC Jan 2018
each of these
stand in their layer..
below conceals upper..
upper is subject
lower is object..
object alone
is an illusion..
the object's role
is to point
to the subject..

word conceals thought
thought reveals word
thought conceals truth
truth reveals thought..

there is only truth..

polarity/in/play..!
Dec 2017 · 271
Gifts of War
CharlesC Dec 2017
As we consider
or disparage this
wrenching title..
We are told stories
some long hidden
of camaraderie
transcending fear
real freedom..
Might we today
look beneath all
of life's struggles
and dislocations
and find there
this same Gift..
Visiting the Gift
we might find what  
has been forgotten:
we are that Gift...
Dec 2017 · 285
A Journey
CharlesC Dec 2017
As we face inward
we seem to leave behind
the tangles and misfortunes
of what was outward..
A real identity shines
bringing unexplained
fear to some and
happiness and peace
to others..
Those in fear
may retreat so to
perceive once more
the expected.. their
outward faith in
rocky stability..
For the others
blissful remaining
is immediate wish
but eventual turning
reveals a merging
inward and outward..
Yet the appearances
are as remembered..
As this journey
is enjoined by
each of us...
Dec 2017 · 866
A matter of waiting
CharlesC Dec 2017
The Advent message
repeated over centuries:
Waiting in time for
fulfillment and peace..
What will happen
with the recognition
that time is a construct
a convenient line
appearing in Mind..?
To recognize that
illusory time disguises
and demands attention
as the framework for
history and lives..?
The lifetime discovery:
to recognize that
here and now resides
fulfillment and peace:
There is no wait...!
Dec 2017 · 280
Burdens
CharlesC Dec 2017
East and West cultures
embellish spiritual truth
with color and decoration
and with shadows of
creation's duality..
These confounding covers
produce sleep and
resistance to calls for
new recognition..
Religious texts hide
their single truth
in their stories and
discontinuities..
We need to find teachers
ancient and new
with a balm of simplicity
to uncover..untangle
and burn all those
burdens which hide
our own Truth...
Nov 2017 · 222
WHAT REMAINS?
CharlesC Nov 2017
We keep a focus
on what appears as the world:
the morning newspaper
checking email and
Facebook and checkbook..
Perhaps we meditate
and notice the thoughts
interfering it seems
with meditating goals..
All of these outward
attractions and destinies
seem to claim somewhat
of what we are..
The question may assert:
What remains..?
The assertion arriving
with fits of discomfort..
We might respond:
Nothing remains:
a frightening reply
to some..calming to others..
This introduction
to what we are
is the real message
of this season...
Nov 2017 · 242
Zig-Zag
CharlesC Nov 2017
Downtown or on the roadway
zig-zag searching
always for something..
Stopping at a coffeeshop
reaching a place
seemingly removed..
An interruption in
a zig-zag map
with map forgotten..
The coffeeshop was not
a zig stop..or a zag
just momentary..a respite..
Might zig-zag dissolve
right here and now
in this cup of coffee...?
Nov 2017 · 230
Thanksgiving, 2017
CharlesC Nov 2017
Why state the year
when the true Thanksgiving
is timeless..
We give Thanks perhaps..for
the turkey and dressing
or the new home
or a future brightening..
These passing Thanksgivings
outpour from the true Thanksgiving
which will remain true and near
when Black Friday dawns...
Nov 2017 · 216
Happy Thanksgiving...!
CharlesC Nov 2017
"I"
What do we mean when we repeat
this most common of words..?
Most of us would say
a multiplicity of things
many names of occupations
locations and the resume
most recently written..

This objectified I
accumulates memories
pleased with the good
fearing the bad
and so it goes over our years..
There are expressions of
Thank You
for material abundance
and for a good name..

This I is personal and close
but if we admit..not quite
the I we long to be..
And on occasion
a question asserts:
How might I be truly
Happy..?
Recognizing that I
good teachers will say
would mean that this
would be truly a
Happy Thanksgiving...!
A most Happy Thanksgiving to all of my HP friends, and to those who are not yet friends..!!
Nov 2017 · 556
Lament
CharlesC Nov 2017
Life lived in content
without noticing that which
contains the content..
So..it has always been..
Yet..many teachings lament
that our un-noticing
brings our suffering..
And..makes mysterious
our own name..
We seem anchored
in content with its
enjoyment and pain..
What can we notice
in the white border
of this page...?
Nov 2017 · 157
SECRET
CharlesC Nov 2017
Not noticed
yet most nearly near
hiding in plain sight
is what all are seeking..
Seeking by plan and by process
awaiting the day and the time
for that which is sought
to appear..
That has many names
reducing to only one..
Many findings on many paths
flare in the moment
announcing the search's end..
But those findings
very soon confess:
not here..now not..
It is close
much closer...
Nov 2017 · 139
MAYA
CharlesC Nov 2017
What is it..?
Definitions refer to illusion
in what our senses report..
Einstein astounds us
of persistent illusion
in the world we see..
But..we ask..how
can that be..?
There are things out there
not to be denied..!
We must now turn
to that perennial truth
which leads us to
the subjective realm..
We need examine
the assumption of  I
in: I see the train
smoking and chugging
and soon departing
around the bend..
Does I also move
around that bend..?
An obvious question
which is never asked..!
That train..it is assumed
smokes and chugs
unstrung from I..
But looking again
the truth arrives:
I know only
a train appearing
passing through I..
A new I is born
arriving with joy...
Nov 2017 · 254
Big History
CharlesC Nov 2017
This exciting program
envisioned in the country down under
and with Bill Gates' enthusiastic resources
steps out boldly in the right direction..
We all remember our history lessons:
facts on a timeline taxing young memories..
The newness here is the integrative imagination
no event stands alone..but must be viewed from
a very wide integrative lens..
What are the drawbacks..?
Matter remains crowned as fundamental truth
despite the words of integration and wholeness..
Big History represents a flip underway
toward the recognition..not far away
that wholeness..consciousness..awareness
these expressions of the Big Formula: I am..
must come first..
With the Formula's iterating colorations arriving
with thinking and perceiving..as each of us are
engaged in this moment...
for background see:  polarityinplay.blogspot.com
Nov 2017 · 309
Focus and Defocus
CharlesC Nov 2017
In a camera
focusing creates boundaries
and delineation..
Similarly Consciousness which
contains all things in potential
freely veils its infinite potential
to engage a focusing on
landscapes and persons..
The pearl of truth
is that we can experience
a defocusing to reveal
our own Self identity..
And then focus again
on landscapes and persons
in a revolutionary way..
While appearing the same
these objects now
express the reality
of their defocused home...
Oct 2017 · 188
Halloween
CharlesC Oct 2017
'Tis the time of the year
when death comes to visit
in a friendly way..
In this season we are offered
the experience of death
hidden in laughter of children
dressed in their frightening best
vocalizing: Trick or Treat..!

Perhaps it is a form of an NDE
Near Death Experience
in a community sense..
A tricking of death
exposed in light and laughter..
Experiencing death before we die..
Giving our temporary attention..

But then reflecting:
What else is temporary
and what is permanent..?
Thoughts and perceptions
of course
just come and go..
These mind things rise
and very soon die..
And what remains..?
Life itself remains..and
when we lastly depart..with
our thoughts and perceptions..
Life again simply remains...?
Oct 2017 · 151
Inside and Outside
CharlesC Oct 2017
Viewing outside we see some-things
and viewing inside we see
other more subtle some-things..
But..we ask
who is the viewer of these some-things
and..alas..we might say..we find no-thing..
And perhaps unexpectedly
we also find Joy...!
Oct 2017 · 221
Existence
CharlesC Oct 2017
Can we experience
existence
without reference
to the body..?
Is this frightening..?
Or is it real freedom..?
Our bodies simply
are thought's boundaries
which corral
the multitudinous flow
of inner thoughts and
sensations and
of outer perceptions..
All of these mind things
are temporary shape-ings
of our true nature:
an infinite and
unshaped Existence...
Oct 2017 · 201
Self-Identity
CharlesC Oct 2017
The large question mark
points to a wish
a longing to find
our real Identity..
Not the identity we found
in childhood years
which lingers for most..
In years as children
we discover a self
separated and ready
for a life
with promise and color..

When this life sours
when we intuit
another identity
seemingly out of reach
our path of discovery
need be continued..
Teachers and guides
are there for us
to pursue and search
for the Identity
we somehow know
is made of a
peace and happiness
not satisfied by worn
childhood knowing..

A teacher's message
if heard correctly
will point to our
new Identity and
will also caution
against a pedestal
for the teacher
with beliefs to anchor..
Almost home..
Waiting for that
morning resonance...
Oct 2017 · 348
The Fire
CharlesC Oct 2017
Eventually
all of it must burn..
The isolated thoughts
which claim identity..
An appearance
posing as permanent..
Simply knowing
a thought as appearance
an appearance
coloring the Knowing
is the spark
igniting
The Fire...
Oct 2017 · 229
Equality..Here and Now
CharlesC Oct 2017
The word
implies that there are two
and these two are equal..
Such an assertion
results in a counter
that seems obvious:
two are never equal..
From this common
experience
we learn to question:
Is this simply perception..?
Experience of
Here..Now
alters perception
with joy we find:
Real Equality is
never not One...!

(Our Declaration of Independence
includes the word: Equality
which Lincoln restated at
Gettysburg..
The Civil War was fought
over the notion
that the first perception
was the only one..
The Declaration was
written assuming
the second perseption...!)
Oct 2017 · 292
Resurrecting Longfellow
CharlesC Oct 2017
Relegated as a minor poet
Longfellow's Psalm
returns as memory
from a long-ago classroom..
Is it time to look again..?
Two verses may suffice..

In our real experience
dreams and waking
share one reality:
each are manifestations
of the finite mind
which rises within our Self
(and in astonishment
for the material-minded)
are made of our Self..

Indeed..this experience
awakens us from slumber
and at last we discover
things are not what they seem..
Our Self
not the confined self
(which our culture assigns)
is our true identity..
The Self..well..of course
is not made of dust
is not destined
for the grave...!


Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
   Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
   And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
   And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
   Was not spoken of the soul.*

For the complete poem, A Psalm of Live,
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, use
this link:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44644/a-psalm-of-life
CharlesC Sep 2017
We each have a song:
the song coming from searching
or immediate discovery..
The song we now know is truth
and the wish to share
seems paramount..
Our thoughts claim
a discovery which
the world needs now
for advent of peace..
The song seems simple
a treasure to transmit..
Yet we learn
we only need be as a

Bird in a tree singing this song...
Sep 2017 · 219
Let me not..
CharlesC Sep 2017
Let me not..

Marriage of true minds is Truth of Love
Love is One: seamless..independent and free..
Alteration and impediments are undefined..
Ever-fixed Love looks on changing tempests
And cannot be shaken..'tho each tempest is made of Love..
Time is thought..appearing in Love..made of Love
But Love is unaffected as time plays the fool
Through rosy lips and cheeks..or hours and weeks
Even appearing on the edge of doom..
All seeming errors are made of Love..
The Bard spoke Truth...


A response to:
SONNET 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
~~William Shakespeare
Sep 2017 · 137
Equinox
CharlesC Sep 2017
This seeming boundary
introducing autumn time is
marked by decline and death..
Bringing awaited beauty our
thoughts and perceptions
of autumn
are the filtered messages of
eternity and infinity
into time and space..
A coloring of our experience
during this seeming transition
each year in autumn time...
Sep 2017 · 197
Only Cracks
CharlesC Sep 2017
These days of
political and climate storms
seem to immerse us
in separation's persuasions..
Earth quaking and burning
awash in winds and waves..
Seeming to demand our
unending attention..
The Self seems distant
with confusion's coverings
which we need to untangle..
Untangle the storms from
the joy appearing in cracks..
Then to recognize that
there are only cracks...*

(Thanks, Leonard..)
CharlesC Sep 2017
Before we can know anything, really..
we must know what the following expresses..
This is our true Identity..which is
always Here..Now..
It is the realization for which the
world longs..and which is readily
available in the Understanding of these
simple lyrics...

Kirtana...I Am

Before the body, before the story,
before the name
Beyond the mind's attempt to find
or explain
Before the breath, beyond the sense
of pleasure or of pain
And after death, and after death, I am

Within the heart, the whole and part
of everything I see
Behind the eyes, beyond disguise, reflecting me
At the silent core, and yet before phenomena began
And after it, and after it, I am

Many differences separate us
on the surface, yes.
But I cannot find a boundary in consciousness
And when you ask me,
where does awareness begin
and does it end
I have to say, I have to say
I've always been

Within the body, without the body,
not subject to
Changing moods or states of health
or points of view
Without needs before the deeds
and the monuments of man
And after them, and after them, I am

Many differences separate us
on the surface, yes.
But I cannot find a boundary
in consciousness
And when you ask me,
where does awareness begin
and does it end
I have to say, I have to say
I've always been

At the silent core,
and yet before phenomena began
And after it, and after it, I am
Sep 2017 · 167
Wirebird
CharlesC Sep 2017
A silhouette  
against the sky
high perching bird
black on a black
Wire..
Consider the wire
as connecting with
many many
stretching wiremiles..
Let us say that
there is no length
and say incorrectly
it's infinitely (long)..
The Wire is whole
knowing only itself..
How does the Wire
create the bird..?
It coils itself
within itself:
and a self arises
(myself on a walk!)
watching a bird
on a wire...
Sep 2017 · 158
Hurricane Sunday
CharlesC Sep 2017
The rest of us
were not interrupted..
But an entire state
was interrupted..
Living there once
we were cautioned:
residence here is living
with the hurricane
not if..but when..
When arrived early
Sunday morning..

A wish for those there:
May the peace of the eye
be found in your hearts
and may the eye expand
calming your winds
and your waves
for a lasting peace
coming ashore on this
Hurricane Sunday...
Sep 2017 · 251
A thought at daybreak...
CharlesC Sep 2017
These come
as sunrise or memory
or hurricane
from where we know not
seemingly from out there
in this or that locality..
We back away..
We do know that
a thought
merely passes through
and very soon departs..
In passing it colors
what we recognize as
I am here and now...
CharlesC Sep 2017
Knowing for the first time
means becoming aware
that there really is
no first or next time..
It means realizing
time has asserted itself
as a fencing
with barbed-wire barbs
claiming their sequence
marking our surrender
of freedom..
As time barbs dissolve
in our space of being
we know with joy
for the first and all time...
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. T. S. Eliot
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