Category Archives: bodhisattva

poem: invitational presence

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poem: invitational presence

like the lodestar
in the dark of night
calling us to safe harbor

the host setting
an extra place at the table
for the unexpected guest

the healer connecting
deeply with others
through their own wounds

the creative soul
offering its expression
as a gift to the universe

the True Self animating
our life together
in communities of belonging

the spirit uplifting
the life and dignity
of all oppressed beings

the dear friend who
senses our need
and reaches out in support

being the invitational presence
subtly communicating to all
one’s radical acceptance and inclusion

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
July 22, 2022

self photo “Opening the Heart Chakra’

Author’s note: Each of us can cultivate
an invitational presence which is key
to fostering healthy beings, relationships,
and communities of authentic belonging.
An excellent resource on invitational
presence and belonging is Toko-Pa Turner’s book,
‘Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home.”
This is an area I must continually work on due to
a temperament for solitude.

poem: crossing paths, intertwining, all aglow, letting go

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poem: crossing paths, intertwining, all aglow, letting go

moving at the speed of mindfulness, intent, and purpose
my love and I drift through these days in the sea of here and now
with the greatest care in every breath, every step, every touch

here amongst the majesty of Earth Home on this night,
under the spinning Milky Way, hints of Autumn to come,
the smell of salty seas and only sound the Earth’s moan

the slow rise and fall of breath,
soft whispers of comforting reassurance,
the souls of kin, friends, and ancestors all aglow

intertwined like fragile vines through the seasons of life,
since that first crossing what seems like another lifetime,
now holding more tightly than ever before

then the life ship sails on slipping its Earthly bonds,
upon the Cosmic voyage, beloveds depart,
into the Bardo luminosity of the one True nature

passing in the dark night,
crossing paths,
intertwining, all aglow, letting go

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
August 10, 2021

art image ‘Night Crossing’ by Regina Valluzzi

poem: friends gathering for spiritual practice

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After weeks of struggle, this poem comes to me to share with you all dear Beloveds
I offer this original poem today for all, who like myself, have been out of sorts and out of balance lately with worldly desires and worldly challenges which can result in attachments that distract us from a more holistic and healthy way of being. As both beings of immanence and transcendence I believe we must seek the middle path of health, wholeness, grace, and love. What better way to do this than to gather in circles as Beloveds with the intention of balancing our lives and life together.

presently gathering our selves in sadhana
aligning our very being as one
balancing satchitananda
friends, let us sit still and quiet in the circle

focusing on the breathe (discerning)
concentrating on the breathe (witnessing)
contemplating the breathe (knowing)
meditating on the breathe (being)

opening to the object breathe
as the action breathing
through the seer breather
one with all the Cosmos

balancing the spiritual energy incarnated
now dormant in our root chakra
with the Cosmic pool of Creator God universal
available at our crown chakra

emptying, dependence arising
opening the heart chakra
energy flowing root, heart, crown
non-doing, non-achieving

we pray silently
our being at One with the spiritual energy
of the Radical Love of all lying in the bosom
of the Universal God of the Cosmos

just so
let it be
so be it
satchitananda

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
June 6, 2021

photo of author and wife Cathey
at Santa Rosa Beach, Florida in the dunes

Author’s note: Satchitananda is sanskrit
for ‘truth, consciousness, bliss ’ describing the
experience of the highest reality of existence.
Sadhana is sanskrit for the intentional practice
of attaining higher consciousness. Chakra is
sanskrit for ‘wheel’ and refers to the
focal points of energy systems throughout the
body. Balancing the chakras involves proper
alignment of the energy in the seven main
body chakras so that the energy at our
root chakra located at the tip of our spine
flows unimpeded to the crown chakra at
top of our head allowing us to experience
the truth and bliss of the highest reality of
universal God consciousness.

poem: bodhicitta, bodhidharma, bodhisattva

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poem: bodhicitta, bodhidharma, bodhisattva

clarity of mind and reality
Self realizing
in solidarity with all diversity
ally of peace and justice for all beings
companion on the journey
Cosmic beings walking the Earth always

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
June 3, 2021

image unattributed
The Monk Bodhidharma

Author’s note: Bodhicitta is enlightened mind,
bodhidharma is embodiment of awakening, and
bodhisattva is a being on the path of enlightenment.
Bodhidharma is a 5th. or 6th. century Buddhist monk
who traveled to China and introduced Buddhism there.

poem: grace can only be received with an open hand and held humbly with a light touch

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poem: grace can only be received with an open hand
and held humbly with a light touch

old man chuckling lightly to himself;
the notion of ‘aging gracefully’
a boondoggle to his mind

all empty busyness and waste of time
this holding on for dear life,
with a stranglehold on ‘grace,’

to our youthful foolishness
with a denial of our falling up
now, as I begin to see more clearly

the thread of life running ahead
yet never disappearing
to an end I do not know where or when

sensing this falling upward
in a cloud of unknowing
as one’s status, health, energy,

influence, and appearance wanes
falling upward with an authentic grace
freely given towards our Truth of Self

and the Authenticity of Belonging together
and eldering in community of liberation
more spirit than body and mind

lamenting, visioning, lifting up,
radically accepting and loving,
laughing eyes on the thread running ahead

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
May 25, 2021

photo: the author at Draper Coastal Dune Lake
in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, U.S.A.


 

 

 

Reflection: The inside out and upside down ministry of Jesus, the Universal Cosmic Christ (by whatever name) and my prayer to be with those on the margins as God calls me

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Reflection: The inside out and upside down ministry of Jesus, the Universal Cosmic Christ (by whatever name) and my prayer to be with those on the margins as God calls me

( I originally wrote the reflection below several years ago as I underwent a particularly challenging realization with the institutional church of which I was a congregant eventually resulting in my departing the church for what for me is a much more meaningful spiritual life centered in celebrating the gifts of all spiritual traditions and being grounded in the evolution of True Self (discipleship) and belonging together in authentic communities (the kingdom or kin-dom). My relationship with the Divine Cosmic Will (God by whatever name) has never been stronger.)

My increasing awareness, especially now in my life, is that Jesus is always with the outsider and outcast who suffers and hurts for the world and shares the pain of others.

Jesus leaves the institutional worship place, sometimes in anger, as we see in the Temple story of the ‘den of robbers,’ to be with those who are on the outside and who just can’t cut it in those places anymore. I think of this as the spirituality of imperfection. Certainly we all are united in our imperfections.

In Jesus going out to these outsiders, he, of course, takes leave of those who are arrogant and prideful and all knowing and thusly, the insiders of the worship place’s, with their dominant cultural traditions and hierarchical hegemony. These insiders are, of course, generally those leaders in power and control, officially or otherwise.

Other good and innocent souls linger there as well perhaps holding onto the law and its rules of right and wrong not having yet experienced the truth, beauty, and goodness of our shared suffering and wounds and imperfections.

God send me into the messiness of this world with the imperfect souls such as myself so that we might commune together in the dark shadows and light spirits as your Beloved children through grace, love, mercy, justice, peace, and hope!

Amen and Amen

haiku: sign of my birth

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Being that today is my 73rd birthday, I wrote this haiku in an effort to find some thread through all the years and answer the question of what has brought me here and now.

haiku: sign of my birth

under Pisces born
at the end of long winter
Earth child, Mystic heart

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
February 21, 2021

photo by Herb Stone
‘The Warm Heart of Winter Buddha’

(reader’s note: Born a Pisces
in the age of Pisces, February
is a raw, bitter cold, icy snow,
muddy month when our minds
long for Spring. I am aware of
the signs influences on me,
Earth lover, Cosmic being,
Creative soul longing for the
Divine that unites it all in
a story I am always trying to
tell.)

poem: savasana

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poem: savasana

gonna take a little
rest today
from the resistance

living in times
of injustice, pandemic, and insurrection
is taxing

keeping up the good trouble
is demanding
body, mind, and spirit

in this age
adrift so far from God
can be dispiriting

gonna rest up
binding up wounds
find my repose

the activist
the bodhisattva
the wounded healer

shall return
re-energized
warriors of the heart
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
January 17, 2021

art image ‘Savasana Chakra
Garden’ by Kimberly Russick

(reader’s note: Savasana is the ‘corpse
pose’ in yoga which is traditionally
used as the last pose of a class and is
a state of deep relaxation also used to
relieve stress and trauma. Combined with
yoga nidra meditation we enter a state of
consciousness between waking and sleeping
in which we are deeply relaxed while
fully conscious. Namaste!)