coming back quite late to the flat I am living in, finding such a beautiful surprise.
-
Concerning the ´outer ´SKY… -
it is so alive these days – moving – moving – moving –
all shades from light grey to up to even anthracite,
leaving almost any moment a gap for the June (strong) sun ; so the grey colour starts to sparkle, looking precious
and you get an insight deep as deep can be,
sometimes a deep blue too…

Just for a moment or even less that that…

It’s the wind in this magic orchestra playing and playing so kindly, yet so strong too…

no rain falling – just changing ´faces´any instant…

So we are all reminded, that we are visitors allowed to be here and not to be crushed by these forces of nature (yet);
a precious gift too, not to be taken for granted, as anybody knows, who wants to stretch awareness just a little bit and gets to know about our fellow-travellers elsewhere.

Some kids just now were to be heard in the courtyard here, their voices as wild as the wind and then – all of a sudden, SILENCE again (they´ve got the wind-virus…) -
same with the birds these days.

“SKYPE”?

Amadis, Skype I don´t manage technically; I am glad that I just manage to write and to read and to do some little research.
And it’s a pity that I am not even able to send (post) one or the other of the many photos I take from unexpected natural surprises, happenings which are an art in itself,
art which I meet in Nature and which is meeting me.

Quite often I have wanted to share this.

The wind is a very good spiritual teacher though,
saying that the moment I write this down, it’s already gone.

But as I said it, the wind these days here is very kind
so I am going to give my lines to you ‘a GO’,

including my best wishes for your WELL-BEING, Amadis -

Madhu

Heart resonating,
Amadis

They grow in bushes which can become quite large.
The (single, cream-white) blossoms are tiny, but the whole blossom crisp with many, many of them in a kind of geometrical order, can fill the whole palm of your hand.

The flavour discreet, sweet and something more in it: you can already feel the fruit (elderberries) that is to come later, with lots of little dark red-aubergine gallons full of juice.
The hollunder is a healing bush – not just beautiful.

The blossoms can be eaten, like when you spread them with a mix of egg and wheat flour and then hold them in hot oil for some seconds.
The juice in autumn time is very good for your lungs and the whole respiratory system.

I love these bushes.
They are dancing the rhythm of the year´s seasons their way with lists of gifts for us (for free)
and there´s old women’s wisdom chat also about these bushes,
but I am not that well-informed about it.

So give it a try in England too,
taste it.

Madhu

PS:

Forgot the juice you can make by just picking a few of the blossoms,
putting them into good water and leave that for a day or two.

That is very delicious too (maybe add a bit of lemon to it, but not much).

While reading it, one of the old songs – was it Jonny Cash, about his ‘personal Jesus? – came into play, memory-wise.

You also wrote:
“It could be I am a simpler soul than many on the spiritual path, however this whole ‘thing’ of transcending my genetic and organismic needs and traits seems pointless.”

I would say, you are neither more simple nor more complex than many others on the spiritual path, you are just as unique an expression as anybody else on the whole bumpy roads of human affairs and its pilgrimages from ‘here to there’ and from ‘there to here’ and from ‘here to here’.

In exchange matters though, it’s much easier for me to relate to your expression than to many others, and I feel grateful for that.
The virtual character of communication and chat-exchange sometimes taking the character of a GAME, leaves me (a woman) often desolate.

Then and there, when I am able to, I get my walking-sticks and go out for a long walk,
walk my inner talk and talk my inner walk – like yesterday and the day before, and…
yesterday – as the season allows it – I passed the flavours of the roses and the jasmine and the holler blossoms , and the flavours passed through me.

Deprived of ´natural grown´ communication to a big extent, I need these walks.

Sometimes indeed SILENCE speaks,
even in virtual conditions,

and speaks with the flavour of humanity.

Then it’s reminding me on passing the blossoms while walking,
and for a short while one can gather the courage to take the virtual string of posting a response as so much ´real`as the full-blossomed rose or jasmine or holler – and what not.

So,
grateful again for that.

Love,

Madhu

(MOD: WE’RE NOT SURE WHAT holler IS, MADHU!)

It could be I am a simpler soul than many on the spiritual path, however this whole ‘thing’ of transcending my genetic and organismic needs and traits seems pointless. Why? Am I not good enough in the eyes of existence being mortal, flawed, imperfect? Really?

What is love if we can’t embrace and love our flawed human nature? I love my animal nature, my frail, vunerable inner child, my yearning soul. I love them and celebrate them. They are great, for they humanise me, coaxing my heart and belly open. See where I am coming from?

No need to transcend, to love all we are and accept ourselves, warts ‘n all, is enough. Hence the masters I dig are LaoTze, Chuang Tze, Mo Tze and co, who make no big deal in becoming enlightened, rather: ‘first become a true human being, the rest takes care of itself’ or ‘ we are here to be authentic, which is the same as to be our human heart, that is the Way of (hu)man’. Isn’t that great?

However, the one that really ‘does it’ for me is Jesus; because he is SO human. He is not ‘beyond’ suffering, or doubt, fear, passion, anger; he doesn’t need to be. He has found something that can embrace his human nature fully and yet…he shines down the ages with such love, such care, such concern, such empathy. Yeah, and maybe it is because I am half-Greek, emotional and passionate, that it is this open-hearted humanness that speaks to me most.

Most importantly, what I consider to have been my peak spiritual experiences all came through and with love. Love was the vehicle, the messenger, the presence that carried with it all the rest: peace, insight, clarity, courage, compassion, joy, wonder, beauty, ecstasy and much, much more.

bridge-builder
enriching caravanserai – trails
with this.

Madhu

So really, in this sort of enterprise, ‘first things first’ means, at least for most of us, giving up these, or at least, looking at/working on them, before having much realistic chance of ‘going beyond’ them?

In a way, realising who/what we are, and let’s call it our Self, automatically clarifies what we are not, call it our egoic identity. If we are constantly focussing on losing something, the very focussing on it keeps it going. Ok, so that insight is not new to anyone; yet we still persist on putting our attention on ‘dropping the Ego’, something that Zen-ophiles would tell us does not exist, rather than stepping into something that is real and already present within. In that sense, the Jungian notion of The Self or the Daoist Authentic Self, are no different to Osho’s description of Buddha nature.

The dialectic of whether you are enlightened or not becomes irrelevant when there isn’t a notion of an absolute duality of egohood and enlightenment. Instead, it is a slow incremental evolution from one state of human sentience to another one. Like caterpillar to buttefly, tadpole to frog and so on.

To me, this perspective is not opposed to classical Buddhistic philosophy, rather a more user-friendly understanding of spiritual evolution. In other words we come to ‘know’/realise our Self in stages throughout our life. (By the way, for those who don’t like the term Self/Core Self/Authentic Self, simply substitute the words with Being/Spirit/Buddha-nature or whatever).

For someone who is no longer pre-occupied with enlightenment, ‘cultivating my self’ and ‘sinking into my heart-core’ and so ‘become a real human’ (thanks to the classical Chinese mystics for all these), is what engages me. And for me at least, that will do.

But I guess until we’re ‘conscious’, ‘awake’, the ‘normal’ kind is what we’re stuck with. And therein lies the most fertile ground for self-enquiry, self-observation, gradual transformation of base matter into gold (as it were) – hopefully – as for the vast majority, ‘awakening’ seems to be a lifelong process.