That dark dweller in Braj
Is my only refuge.
O my companion, worldly comfort is an illusion,
As soon you get it, it goes.
I have chosen the indestructible for my refuge,
Him whom the snake of death will not devour.
My beloved dwells in my heart all day,
I have actually seen that abode of joy.
Meera’s lord is Hari, the indestructible.
My lord, I have taken refuge with you, your maidservant – Mirabai
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(Listening to Anne Briggs…)
Talking Ecstatic States…
As I draw near to the beginning of the month, I come into a period of the year that holds a couple of transition points for me on different levels. One, I am about to celebrate my 45th anniversary for my first psychedelic excursion. Some people are un-comfortable in talking about such things, but I am not one of them. After the birth of my son Rowan, and my time with Mary, this is perhaps the one defining moment when one can say: “Once I was this way, and after that experience, I was never the same.” To the point, LSD saved my life. It introduced me to a universe that I was not the center of, and perhaps didn’t actually exist in what we have been led to believe about ourselves…
I am also changing decades on the weekend. Dancing into elder-hood if you follow. I never knew you could arrive so quickly. Usually, I don’t give much notice to these moments, but this one makes me take pause. Okay, done with that, carry on!
The other ecstatic state that I would speak to is the moment of pure poetry. Today’s entry has two examples, one, in 5D, and the other in the divine poetry of Mirabai, (Meera; Mira; Meera Bai). Two examples hundred’s of years apart, and yet connected in my head and heart.
Have a good one,
Gwyllm
__________________________
On The Menu:
On Rowan Turning 21…
The Links
Kim Pimmel- Compressed 02
Fifth Dimension
Into The Ecstatic: Mirabai’s Poetry
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On Rowan Turning 21…
“There was a star danced, and under that was I born.” – William Shakespeare
Rowan, our son made it to 21 (yay!). He took off for New York shortly after to film a documentary, came back and jumped into classes again. He is moving into his last year at school. It has gone so rapidly. I am pleased with what I am seeing him go through with his education and life. It gives me hope for the future and the young generation.
I have to say that I get excited watching Rowan and his friends, such energy! The joy they find in discovering their abilities paints a great picture. I wish them all the best in their endeavors and emerging lives.
So, I found some quotes that I like quite a bit and some of them might actually be relevant!
Live as long as you may. The first twenty years are the longest half of your life. – Robert Southey
Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. – Franz Kafka
Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself. – Tom Wilson
All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much. – George Harrison
There must be a day or two in a man’s life when he is the precise age for something important. – Franklin P. Adams
Real birthdays are not annual affairs. Real birthdays are the days when we have a new birth. – Ralph Parlette
My heart is like a singing bird… Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me. – Christine Rossetti
One of the advantages of being young is that you don’t let common sense get in the way of doing things everyone else knows are impossible. – Author Unknown
Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time. – Jean Paul Richter
It takes a long time to grow young. – Pablo Picasso
Happy 21st year Rowan, make it shine.
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The Links:
Time Cells…
Dyatlov Pass Incident
Stanley Kubrick and the Ipad
The Cuddly Kitten Factor…
Space Oddity, A Children’s Book (PDF)
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A nice bit of science, beauty and something that verges on art. I hope you enjoy!
Kim Pimmel- Compressed 02
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Fifth Dimension
I am not nostalgic by nature. I don’t play music from my youth much, and find the present music scene vital, and full of diversity. I can spend all day if I want discovering great bands, and I would not be able to listen to all the great releases even in just a few genres. Really, the music scene is exploding and expanding rapidly.
With that noted, there are a couple of albums that hold up for me. One of them is The Byrds “5D” (Fifth Dimension). Perhaps I imprinted on it on my early lysergic wanderings, or perhaps it really is that good… I actually listen to this album more than any other rock album from that era. Strange. I won’t listen to it for a year or so, and then I will go over it again. My taste of which songs are my favourites evolve as well. So that would tell me that the art component of the album is still working away in my consciousness. I had liked the Byrd’s previously, loving their harmonies, and the sound… Strangely enough this album came out about the same time I got into John Coltrane, who happens to be an inspiration for some of the pieces on 5D. I stumbled onto “A Love Supreme” one night about 3:00 in the morning on the local rock station… the DJ snuck it in, and it hit me like an express train. (I ended looking up the phone number of the radio station and begging to know about it, really)
So, I venture that there is an emotional component that comes across with 5D that still talks to me. The opening track is the one that talks to me the most. It is funnily enough, “5D (Fifth Dimension)” Really there are two parts that move me, the lyrics and the playing of Van Dykes Parks on the organ. Wonderful stuff. The lyrics were for me a break through in consciousness. It was on hearing them that perhaps for the first time that I heard the psychedelic state articulated. I was deeply moved then, and the other day hearing it again was pulled once more into its spell. Really a wonderful piece.
After all that, here it is, lyrics and all. I feel it stands now as it stood then.
Blessings,
G
THE BYRDS
“5D (Fifth Dimension)”
(McGuinn)
Oh how is it that I could come out to here and be still floating
And never hit bottom and keep falling through
Just relaxed and paying attention
All my two dimensional boundaries were gone I had lost to them badly
I saw the world crumble and thought I was dead
But I found my senses still working
And as I continued to drop thru the hole
I found all the surrounding
Who showed me the joy that innocently is
Just be quiet and feel it around you
And I opened my heart to the whole universe and I found it was loving
And I saw the great blunder my teacher’s had made
Scientific delirium madness
I will keep falling as long as I live
All without ending
And I will remember the place that is now
That has ended before the beginning
Oh how is it that I could come out to here and be still floating
And never hit bottom and keep falling through
Just relaxed and paying attention….
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Into The Ecstatic: Mirabai’s Poetry
Mira the Lotus
My Lord, the love that binds us cannot be broken.
It is hard as the diamond that shatters
the hammer that strikes it.
As polish goes into the gold, my heart
has gone into you.
As a lotus lives in its water, I am rooted in you.
Like the bird that gazes all night at the passing moon,
I have blinded myself in giving my eyes to your beauty.
She who offers herself completely asks only this:
That her Lord love Mira as fully as he is loved.
—
It’s True I Went to the Market
My friend, I went to the market and bought the Dark One.
You claim by night, I claim by day.
Actually, I was beating a drum all the time I was burying him.
You say I gave too much, I say too little.
Actually, I put him on a scale before I bought him.
What I paid was my social body, my town body,
my family body, and all my inherited jewels.
Mirabai says: The Dark One is my husband now.
Be with me when I lie down; you promised me
this in an earlier life.
—
Ankle Bells
Mira dances, how can her ankle bells not dance?
“Mir is insane,” strangers say that. “The family’s ruined.”
Poison came to the door one day; she drank it and laughed.
I am at Hari’s feet; I give him body and soul.
A glimpse of him is water: How thirsty I am for that!
Mira’s Lord is the one who lifts mountains,
he removes evil from human life.
Mira’s Lord attacks the beings of greed;
for safety I go to him.
—
Mira the Bee
O my friends
What can you tell me of Love,
Whose pathways are filled with strangeness?
When you offer the Great One your love,
At the first step you body is crushed.
Next be ready to offer your head as his seat.
Be ready to orbit his lamp like a moth
giving in to the light,
To live in the deer as she runs toward
the hunter’s call,
In the partridge that swallows hot coals
for love of the moon,
In the fish that, kept from the sea, happily dies.
Like a bee trapped for life in the closing
of the sweet flower.
Mira has offered herself to her Lord.
She says, the single Lotus will swallow you whole.
—
Awake to the Name
To be born in a human body is rare,
Don’t throw away the reward of your past good deeds.
Life passes in an instant— the leaf doesn’t go
back to the branch.
The ocean of rebirth sweeps up all beings hard,
Pulls them into its cold-running, fierce, implacable currents.
Giridhara, your name is the raft, the one safe-passage over.
Take me quickly.
All the awake ones travel with Mira, singing the name.
She says with them: Get up, stop sleeping—
the days of a life are short.
—
In All My Lives
In all my lives you have been with me;
whether day or night I remember.
When you fall out of my sight, I am restless
day and night, burning.
I climb hilltops; I watch for signs of your return;
my eyes are swollen with tears.
The ocean of life— that’s not genuine the ties
of family, the obligations to the world—
they’re not genuine.
It is your beauty that makes me drunk.
Mira’s Lord is the Great Dark Snake. That love
comes up from the ground of the heart.
—
A Dream of Marriage
In my dreams the Great One married me.
Four thousand people came to the wedding.
My bridegroom was the Lord Brajanath,
and in the dream all the doorways
were made royal, and he held my hand.
In my dream he married me, and fortune came to me.
Mirabai has found the Great Snake Giridhar; she must
have done something good in an earlier life.
—
Why Mira Can’t Come Back to Her Old House
The colors of the Dark One have penetrated Mira’s
body; all the other colors washed out.
Making love with the Dark One and eating little,
those are my pearls and my carnelians.
Meditation beads and the forehead streak,
these are my scarves and my rings.
That’s enough feminine wiles for me.
My teacher taught me this.
Approve me or disapprove me: I praise
the Mountain Energy night and day.
I take the path that ecstatic human beings
have taken for centuries.
I don’t steal money, I don’t hit anyone.
What will you charge me with?
I have felt the swaying of the elephant’s shoulders;
and now you want me to climb
on a jackass? Try to be serious.
—
Polish into Gold
I give my heart without fear to the Beloved:
As the polish goes into the gold, I have gone into him.
Through many lives, I heard only the outer music.
Now the teacher has whispered into my ears,
And familiar ties have gone the way of weak thread.
Mira has met the Energy That Lifts Mountains—
That good luck now is her home.
—
The Necklace
O friend, I sit alone while the world sleeps.
In the palace that held love’s pleasure
the abandoned one sits.
She who once threaded a necklace of pearls
is now stringing tears.
He has left me. The night passes while I count stars.
When will the Hour arrive?
This sorrow must end. Mira says:
Lifter of Mountains, return.
—
Mira Has Finished with Waiting
O friends on this path,
My eyes are no longer my eyes.
A sweetness has entered through them,
Has pierced through to my heart.
How long did I stand in the house of this body
And stare at the road?
My Beloved is a steeped herb, he has cured me for life.
Mira belongs to Giridhara, the One Who Lifts All,
And everyone says she is mad.
—
— Mirabai (1498-1550),