Go into the “Deep Cave of the Dragon”
The one down inside of you
Love the ugly, dark, scary, painful places

Sitting in silence
Sitting in stillness
Study the self

Reflect on the stories you hear
The stories you tell
Watching the mind

Be kind to the stories
Be gentle to the stories

Go inside where it is the most uncomfortable
Sit with all of it
Love all of it!

You say to me “keep opening your heart”

I say

There is nothing to do to keep my heart open
There is nothing to close

I am alive

There are no moving parts
There are no walls
There are no doors
There is no separation
There is just this living being
Connected to all that there is
In this

There were stories I told
There are stories I can tell
There are stories that could be rewritten
And then there is just dropping
the story
Completely

Mostly it seems that the best thing to do
Is to say less
About all of it
To be in the silence
As words don’t really mean anything
Especially the conversation
That says that my heart is closed
That the love that is here
Always
Is limited in some way

By the mind
That is imagination
By illusion
That is nothing

The story of the closed heart
is what it is
A story

Feeling compassion for the story
of not love
Where does it come from?

It comes from love
Wanting to be loved

It comes from love
Asking for love to be more loving

In order to feel love
from the love

That is already
Love

Is it possible for love
To be any more love
Than love already is?

Resting in contemplation
Feeling the heart

Taking a deep breath
Feeling the heart

I am aware
I am open
I am love

I have a new valentine this year

It is the One
It is right now
This breath
This life
This existence
Right here…
this…
All of this…
Oneness

Love of the One that never fails
as it is always the One
It is the love without time
without limit

Nobody and nothing can take it away as it is not separate
So there is nothing to do to give or receive
It is already always happening

Dissolving in an instant giving over to complete intimacy
Folding into this moment continuously as it is
All contexts of love are contained in the One
Self love, unconditional love, divine love are all illusive patterns
Fables of the mind, dressed up with noble intention
Human imagination does what it does
sometimes that means creating dreams of painful separation

Shifting is simple and yet a choice that’s rarely ever made
Relaxing the focus on external validation
Surrendering to this moment completely
Engaged awareness
Energy transmission
Complete connection
Being oneness with the One

There is nothing to do to complete the circuit with the One
There is nothing separate from the One
Only perfect oneness with the One

I am in love with the One
Which is the same thing as loving Me

It is the place of dreams
Where the light gives way to night
Treading softly on moist ground
All sounds are amplified
The imagination works wondrous wild
Manifesting visions of all kinds
Creating illusions of fear to nip at the heels
Animals, men and spirits all clamor to grab hold
But none grasp tighter than the mind

Dante Alighieri stepped into the woods
Not knowing what he would find

In the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell,
It were no easy task, how savage wild
That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
Which to remember only, my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.

He was met by Virgil and was guided through hell, purgatory and paradise.
They stopped along the way to witness all kinds of suffering and joy.

This is the journey we take every time we risk the unknowable
It takes us through the shadows of the mind
To the salvation of our own presence
The willingness to go through that which we fear most
Will bring us closer to the source of our own truth
The truth of who we are

Tonight I stepped in the woods
Not knowing
Allowing my feet to carry me
Letting my mind wander along the path
Until I could barely see
Relaxing into the unknowable, un-seeable
Trusting my senses, allowing my mind to run wild
Observing fear and relinquishing its grip on my heart
Breathing and walking through what is

Open Eyes
just in time to see a golden leaf
float to the ground

Open Eyes
into the darkness
behind the veil of eyelid

Open Ears
to hear the meditation bell sound
at the end of another sitting

Open Ears
to hear the teacher speak the words
that sink the deepest

Open Senses
aware that the one who is watching
may not be looking

Open Senses
to the truth that this intense feeling
is not real

Open Mind
to discover that it is so noisy in here
that there is nothing to hear

Open Mind
to the possibility of allowing no mind
to spontaneously occur

Open Heart
beating, glowing, feeling
expanding with each breath

Open Heart
allowing energy from the chest
to pour through the arms
and out into the world

Beauty is

Truth is

Love is

There is nothing to do in any of this

Except to know that the mind creates separation

This is the great hoax

How did they know how I feel about myself inside?
Was it that obvious?

The insecurities that I have acted out for so long,
There must have been a tip off somehow.
Could they have read my mind?
Was it a woman who told them?
Was it a drunken moment of despair?

This feeling of schizophrenia
The brand I wear on my sleeve

This doesn’t feel like a friendly place
I turn and there is scorn everywhere
I listen and all I hear is fury

You crossed my mind today,

So I threw a stuffed clown at you,

You fell into the big tank of water at the carnival

And all the children laughed.