Tag Archives: mind

May 17, 2022 · 11:19 pm

don’t go to battle with reality

don’t go to battle with reality

note to self

oh, sweetheart—just don’t!
don’t go to battle with
what is, a war
you cannot win
whatever has ensued
is already here
resistance won’t make
it go away

you can choose your
response—be kind?
helpful? generous, even?

when you’re overwhelmed
watch your buddy
the red squirrel sprint
along the fence
outside your office
no cares,
a speedy-rodent agenda
you’re not privileged to know

smile
breathe
remember
start again

2022 ©Amrita Skye Blaine
disclaimer: I’m writing a poem a day. These are drafts—they may never turn into anything more or they might flower.

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Filed under Awakening, Daily reminders, feelings, Kashmiri Shaivism, memoir, Musings, Non-duality, nonduality, Poetry, simple pleasures, spirituality, Surrender, Truth

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October 27, 2015 · 6:57 pm

mind game reminder

funny-crazy-mind-bunnies-clipartToday, surrounded by loving, awake friends, I was reminded of other ways to address the nattering nighttime mind.

The thoughts are precipitated by feelings. Sink into those. Welcome them, even if they are uncomfortable. Most likely, they are familiar friends who have been with me most of my life.

The feelings, when I place my attention on them, reveal themselves as simple bodily sensations. Notice these.

Allow pure awareness to seep into them, expanding and dissolving the remnants. Or invite them to soften and gradually disperse.

Rest in beingness.

Repeat again, again, again. Again.

© Amrita Skye Blaine, 2015
image credit

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July 15, 2014 · 8:34 am

summer evening notes to self

The final light of the day has lit up two trees in the far distance–one a palm, the other a flowering I-don’t-know-what. My heart unites with beauty.

Just as quickly, the splendid light fades.

The eternal everchanging.

To hang onto even one breath, one moment, one slantwise burst of evening light, is to suffer.

Best not to resist–love while it’s here. With the same love, release it freely. The same two trees, now illuminated with a soft gray post-sunset light.

Enthralling.

The mind wants to say “differently enthralling” or “just as enthralling.” What the mind does: slicing, comparing, judging, dicing, evaluating, choosing, rejecting–is required for negotiating some aspects of life. Notice it is always late–it takes ownership and comments after the moment.

When the mind is not required, set it down and rest here.

Rest knowingly.

Behind the palm, against the quiet gray, emerges the lightest dusting of pink. Here, and then gone.

Dusk settles.

© Amrita Skye Blaine, 2014

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June 30, 2014 · 2:34 pm

why oh why oh why?

windblown-leafWe can get hooked on needing to know why. It’s a part of the mind’s final stand, and thought just doesn’t want to let it go.

“But why,” we ask, “does awareness allow itself to be veiled?”

The mind wants to know, and can get lost in creating scenarios, such as “awareness wanted an other to experience love.”

It’s a nice story. If this satisfies something for you, that’s fine, too. It soothed something in me for decades.

“Why” questions have no answers, and engaging with these questions re-activates our already overactive minds. Allow the very thought of “why” to be the reminder to relax. Be happy feeling the “why”–no need to reject it. Allow the wind to sail it away.

© Amrita Skye Blaine, 2014
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June 29, 2014 · 1:54 pm

empty-minded and open-hearted

doorwayEmpty-minded and open-hearted–what a lovely way to live.

After harvesting, fields are planted with crops intended for nourishing the ground. The vegetation is turned under and replenishes the soil. The field lies fallow and rests until replanting.

When the mental task at hand is done, we can allow the mind to lie fallow while we rest in the metaphorical heart–in our native state of being.

Leave the mind alone until it is needed for a fresh batch of practical matters. Its allure is very, very strong. I remind myself: leave it alone.

© Amrita Skye Blaine, 2014
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June 28, 2014 · 1:55 pm

abidance

NoMindI used to live in the mind–there I worried, imagined, invented, played, and explored.

I went to the mind because that is what I was taught as a child: my parents revered the mind’s capacity and honored little else, including the heart, where I natively lived. Dutifully–in order to earn parental acceptance–I closed off my feeling capacity and took up residence in thought. As a survival tactic, it worked, although I didn’t grasp the price. Mind is so very, very small, and  always lags behind the present–the placeless place of reality.

I entered my sixth decade before seeing that I spent 99% of my time in the mind world. It took time to understand the addictive allure and, in loosening its shackles, to uncover delicious, ever-present abidance in that which is. Here and now. No mind required.

© Amrita Skye Blaine, 2014
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