Primal Words of Power

Every Twist in the Plot of Life

2012-02-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

Cave bear (Ursus spelaeus Rosenmüller, 1794) Skull. Stage: 370 000 - 10 000 Years Pleistocene. Locality: Yamalo-Nenetsky region, Siberia, Russia. Size of skull: 57 cm

When someone cannot live the truth they have come into contact with, they turn away from it, and then come into contact with it somewhere else, imagining they have heard something new, or met someone greater, until the pattern repeats itself again, and again.

And so it goes ... The truth of a thousand years ago is the truth of tomorrow, the love of a millennia ago is the love of today ...

Every breath is the divine embrace, every moment is revelation, every twist in the plot of life is an invitation to brilliance and courage ...

-- Richard Power

What Is Really Here

2012-02-11T18:34:00.000-08:00

Leonora Carrington - Fisher King

If you are in a hurry, you might miss this place; which would be unfortunate, because you can't get to where you want to go without passing through it.

If you have some mental image of what you are searching for, you might overlook this moment; which would be unfortunate, because what you are looking for is already here.

If you are bound up in your projection of what you imagine to be over THERE, you might not be able to feel what is really HERE, which would be unfortunate, because it is the reality of all there is and all you are.

Whether you flee intimacy with a human lover, or with THE divine lover, it is the same; there are a hundred thousand reasons to carry with you, but not a drop of water or a bite of nourishment in any of them.

-- Richard Power

No Holy Books

2012-02-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Beata Beatrix (1863)

No holy book has ever redeemed or enlightened anyone; occasionally, someone will however redeem one of the holy books, with the power of an awakened mind, with the power of an illuminated heart, with the power of a liberated body, but only by their own magnetism and for the span of that person's influence.

In and of themselves, the holy books are dead letters. They can be wielded as blunt instruments, with which to do harm, they can be used as drugs, with which to manipulate others and gain power for oneself, they can be used as camouflage, with which to hide from oneself and others who might offer real intimacy.

Love's revelation dwells within the temple of one's own being, and within the greater temple of Nature Herself, not in the dead letters of any holy book, or within any system spun from it.

Revelation can be pooled collectively, and poured out, but only in the now, and only from one's own experience, and no one can partake of it unless they pour it forth.

-- Richard Power

Night

2012-02-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

Edvard Munch - Night in St. Cloud (1890)

Grateful for the vast, deep night that stretches beyond space, and then folds back in on itself, like the jet black wings of a raven.

Exquisitely silent. Echoing the future, erasing the past. A whispered secret to the awakened one, a lullaby to the dreamer.

Oceanic night. Undulating within the shadows of the psyche, like some nameless Salome, barefoot in the ruins of a lost world. Blessed. Night.

-- Richard Power

Ancient Canyon

2012-01-28T23:57:00.000-08:00

Shaman Woman (Altay Mountains, 1908)

The journey is simply being. If you are, you are journeying. Our only choice is whether to consciously embrace the journey, or spend the preciousness of time in fantasies about the journey.

And the difference between fantasy and reality? You cannot leave reality behind, it will only stowaway in your psyche, in some haunting way. You will have to encounter it again sooner or later, and probably in pain.

The journey is being. Tenderness and clarity of mind are the great wings that spread, at dawn, in the ancient canyon that is the expanse of you.

-- Richard Power

Grateful

2012-01-28T23:56:00.000-08:00

Vishnu on Garuda (circa 1700s)

Grateful for another day to live.

Grateful for work. Grateful for water. Grateful for shelter. Grateful for food.

Grateful to take nothing for granted.

Grateful for the power of the divine infusing the human. Grateful for the intimacy of the human revealing the divine.

Grateful for having heard the Dharma, and followed its echo into the wilderness.

-- Richard Power

Pathless Path

2012-01-28T23:55:00.001-08:00

Nicholas Roerich - Hidden Treasure (1947)

There is a Pathless Path that weaves in and out of all the great mystical traditions, often surviving in spite of such traditions, rather than because of them.

It is not all that popular, of course, even among those who profess great passion for life, love and truth; perhaps because it leaves NO wiggle room for hiding within one's own fantasies about the human journey, and perhaps because it does not lend itself to the monetizing of spiritual relationships or the reinforcement of false ego through inappropriate teacher-student models.

Recently, I have been strongly reminded of how fortunate I am to have encountered this Pathless Path, and to have recognized it and made it my own.

I am so grateful to those who have kept this open secret alive and accessible, in and from every direction, for many thousands of years.

I am profoundly happy to dedicate my remaining life to the furtherance of this planetary heritage, through the revelation of its mysteries in my own experience.

-- Richard Power

Woven

2012-01-10T21:02:00.000-08:00

The second of the seven Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries, called The Unicorn is Found or The Unicorn Dips His Horn into the Stream to Rid It of Poison. (Netherlands, 1495-1505)

‎"Human." "Divine." As if they were somehow how two rather than one. Similarly, "animal," "plant," "mineral." None of them exists separately from the others.

Consider your hand. What makes it a "hand"? The pulse that flows through it? The mind in which the image of it is held? If you removed the flesh, or the muscle or the bones, would it still be a "hand"?

Life is like your hand, it is not a sum of its parts, it is whole and indivisible. Joy, sorrow, victory, defeat, each a distinct thread but all taking on meaning only as the tapestry into which they are woven.

Live this way, and you will not short change yourself.

Dripping with Countless Names, the Divine Namelessness ...

2012-01-04T18:55:00.000-08:00

Cave Wall Painting of Avalokiteśvara. Ajaṇṭā Caves, India, 6th century CE

Dripping with countless names, the divine Namelessness emerges from the mysterious sea. The presence of this Namelessness is immense, yet intimate, timeless and yet immediate.

It holds the book of life in two of its eight arms, and opens the tome to you. You may glimpse a page, or read a passage, but you will not remember a word. Our stories are written in this book of life. But none of us is in control of the narrative.

The plot twists are a surprise even to the book's true author. Its nature is paradoxical; although it is a work-in-progress, every word was written before the beginning.

Within the book, the narratives of our lives flow on like raging rivers emptying into that mysterious sea, from which the Divine Namelessness emerges, holding open the book of life, dripping with so many names.

You are at once both the stream of consciousness within your own narrative and the true author of the book itself. How this is possible is the secret of creation. It is written in invisible ink on the parchment of love.

2012

2011-12-31T23:55:00.000-08:00

Teotihuacan Feathered Serpent

‎2012. The turning of the wheel.

Praying for an astonishing shift in our collective psyche, one which will enable us to meet the astonishing shift in our circumstances; resolving to work diligently and live joyously into and through both of these shifts.

Blessings of love and vision to all of you. Beautiful beings, look at yourselves in the radiant mirror of this precious life.

Celebrate Gaia and she will sustain you. Celebrate Durga and she will protect you. Celebrate White Buffalo Woman and she will move among you.

The Gregorian calendar New Year is upon us.

I hope to meet 2012 with great peace and great clarity, and to move within it from great love and great courage.

But living from the global perspective, I remember that there are numerous beginnings wrapped within the beginning: Chinese New Year (Jan. 23), Tibetan New Year (Feb. 22), Persian New Year (March 20), Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 16), Samhain (Nov 6) and of course the Equinoxes (March 19 and December 21) and the Solstices (June 20 and September 22), and ...

The circle of life always ending, always beginning, always turning toward itself ...

Solstice: This World is Kerdiwen's Cauldron

2011-12-21T21:38:00.000-08:00

Stonehedge from the Northeast

Winter Solstice. Profound. Turning at the nadir. Seeing in the dark. But simultaneously, Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. These realities do not contradict each other, they compliment and amplify each other. Choose to live with a Planetary Consciousness. All polarities exist, but only within a greater oneness.

Similarly, the Pathless Path leads from all four directions; if you journey far enough from one direction, you emerge from the others to meet yourself. There is nowhere it is not. Although it eludes mapping, it cannot escape you, because it is you. There is only one great circle.

This world is Kerdiwen's Cauldron. Everything is poured in; all good is broken open, all bad is boiled away. Pursue the human far enough and you will discover the divine; pursue the divine far enough and you will discover the human.

-- Richard Power

Thirst

2011-11-30T01:33:00.000-08:00

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - The Damsel of the Sanct Grael or Holy Grail (1874)

You are the containment of the universe, you are it's chalice; without you, it has no form, it flows away.

The universe is your containment, it is your chalice; without it, you have no form, you flow away.

So whose lips are parched? Whose thirst is quench?

Truth embraces love. It is an inextinguishable kiss. They refuse to be separated.

Within that embrace, the story of you and the universe arises.

It has been whispered, danced, painted billions of times over billions of years.

One embrace. Each eon, a heartbeat within that one embrace.

-- Richard Power

Rope Ladders

2011-11-30T01:32:00.000-08:00

Nicholas Roerich - Kirshna, Spring in Kulu (1930)

There is no "silence," nor any "stillness."

Much of the language of our spiritual heritages is misleading.

All is moving, all is humming. There are only ever-subtler levels of vibration.

When you immerse yourself in "silence," you are simply moving into subtler dimensions of eternal, unstruck sound.

When you settle into "stillness," you are simply coming into the experience of a subtler realm of perpetual motion.

The web of life is inconceivably VAST and incomprehensibly SENSITIVE. It shudders with every joy and every sorrow; and that shuddering is information passed on to each silken node of light, which processes the information, whether consciously or not.

Mantra, breath and yoga function like rope ladders, each syllable, each breath, each asana is a step on one of these rope ladders.

These steps lead into an infinite labyrinth of sublime light.

-- Richard Power

Destination

2011-11-30T01:31:00.000-08:00

Camille Claudel - Prayer (1889)

Love has already arrived at our destination.

It has sent emissaries to lead us on.

It has sent a map that marks all the secret paths and hidden doors.

It has sent water and manna.

All that is required is to undertake the journey, one step after another.

Never turn back.

-- Richard Power

Particle and Wave

2011-10-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Vishnu and Lakshmi on Shesha Nāga (c. 1870)

The gods and goddesses do not exist as "separate entities." Nor do the avatars. Nor do you and I. The gods and goddesses are like vortices. You and I are like fractals. The avatars are fractals morphing into vortices.

There is no "above" or "below" or even "within." All are the dance of particle and wave, all are the revelation of the Matrix.

This era into which we enter now demands great courage, great love, great laughter, great patience, great strength, great cleverness, great silence, and great song.

You have access to inexhaustible resources of all that will be demanded of you, otherwise you would not be here now.

-- Richard Power

Invincible and Inexhaustible

2011-10-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Facade of Angkor Wat, a drawing by Henri Mouhot (1855)

Human ignorance is pervasive and unassailable.

It can only be overthrown from within, by the cultivation of a quiet mind and an open heart.

Each time human ignorance is thus overthrown from within the microcosm, the macrocosm shifts deeper into itself, deeper into its core, infusing the circumference with greater love, greater truth, greater beauty, and thus more microcosms are uplifted into glimpses of the innermost reality and its exaltation in every particle and all waves.

Love is invincible and inexhaustible. It can only be defeated from within, by choosing to live some lesser truth.

-- Richard Power

Beyond Words

2011-09-10T23:35:00.000-07:00

Odilon Redon, Orpheus, 1913

Grateful. Beyond words. For life. For love. For night and day.

Do not cheat yourselves. Embrace it all. Flow with it into the sea of mysteries.

And flowing with it into the sea of mysteries, you look back into the mirror of your life.

Maybe you see it as a shattered mirror, and each shard as a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Every shard is shaped differently, and each misleads you as to the image in its fullness.

Until you realize that the cracks in that mirror are only the undulating of this sea, and that you are already immersed in the mysteries.

And then the shards flow through your fingers, and your fingers are like wind chimes, and the wind and the wave and the flame are one, and the denseness of the earth opens up into its deeper reality as the boundless space of consciousness.

There you arrive, in the truth of both the center and the circumference.

Grateful. Beyond words. For life. For love.

-- Richard Power

Finding the False/True Teacher Within

2011-08-26T15:40:00.000-07:00

NGC 1097 is a galaxy 45 or 50 million light-years from Earth. The black hole at its center is 100 million times the mass of our Sun, and bursting with new star formation.

NASA/JPL-Caltec, July 2009

Every mind-world is a bubble, every bubble bursts.

Among the somnambulists, those most lost in the dreamscape are the ones who imagine themselves to be waking the others.

If you "think" you "know" this, be especially careful; because the mind-world bubble that bursts for you will be the one that thinks it knows that every bubble bursts.

There are two kinds of false teacher. There are those who just pretend, and there are those who have beguiled themselves. One is despicable, the other delusional. Both begin falling from great heights before they even know it.

I laugh inside when people quote Nietzsche. I cut my intellectual eye-teeth on Nietzsche - at the age of twelve. He taught me how to punch and kick my way out of hell. He was my first guru, my first mirror of the truth.

Twenty years later, I dreamt I was at a banquet hall in 19th Century Vienna. There was much music and waltzing. Someone grabbed me by the arm, and said, "Come, come, you must meet Herr Nietzsche, he's visiting from Basil." As I shook Nietzsche's hand, I saw his whole life flash before me. Ironically, he was the younger man. My wisdom had moved on.

And just as he had once carried me, I would now carry him; just as he once protected me, I would protect him, just as he once explained me to myself, I would explain him to the world.

In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche wrote: "... if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." That's it. The abyss. No one wants to go there. But there is nowhere else to be. And so, we build mind-worlds that burst like bubbles.

And the false teacher within is always there, ready to welcome us into a new mind-world bubble. Sooner or later, it too will burst.

There is no net. Only the next bubble. If you let go of bubble-making, well, you find yourself in a yawning abyss.

The true teacher has nothing to offer you but this abyss. There is nothing else a true teacher could have found. Of course, no one wants to hear this. So it is not as popular as bubble construction, and probably never will be. It's not a viable business model, this showing people the truth of the abyss.

And where does this leave me? Who am I to say this? I am just someone who took a road less traveled. Wherever I go, this abyss moves with me, gazing at its own face on the rock walls of the cave inside me. I laugh, and the abyss laughs with me.

The abyss is the samadhi tank of the whales, I tell myself; and at the center of the Milky Way, there is a huge black hole, just as at the center of NGC 1097 and most other massive galaxies.

-- Richard Power

Cave Bear Speaks

2011-07-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

Bear Relic, July 2011, Photo: Richard Power

I am Bear. First of the gods, and fiercest. Before Fear had a name, I was. Before Magic had a name, I was.

I am Bear. I led you to the caves, In the darkness, my bones welcomed you.

I am Bear. You danced me, you ate me, you wrapped yourself in me.

I am Bear. In the caves, you called on my medicine for protection and abundance, and these flowed freely.

I am Bear. I led you to the berries and the honey, I led you to the salmon and the seals.

I am Bear. In my shadow, you embraced the carnal heat, from my skull you drank the primal reality. I am Bear. Female and male, mother of the drum, father of the rattle. I am Bear. My roar shaped Arthur's round table. My scent permeated the recesses of his keep.

I am Bear. I carried this Earth's wisdom before it even knew itself. Neanderthal knew, Whale knew, Eagle knew, and I knew. But you forgot, and so you are blind to your shadow and deaf to your dreams. Remember.

I am Bear. The circle is broken. Find the you in which it has been healed.

Join the ceremony again. Celebrate.

I am Bear. These are the jaws of time, and the claws of space.

My totem protects you, but not from me.

-- Richard Power

Karma is Not "Cause and Effect." Likewise, Reincarnation is Not a Procession of "Lives"

2011-07-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

Uluru (circa 2003), Photo: Richard Power

Karma is not "cause and effect." Our conception of the universe is no longer limited by Newtonian physics, why should our conception of karma be stuck there? In the post-Einstein universe, karma means something more like "every event is bound to every other event in ways that are beyond comprehension." One should approach karma (whether one's own and or another's) with an attitude of profound humility.

What we can know with certainty, if we allow the truth of it in, is that all life is a oneness, and whatever pain you cause you cause to yourself whether directly or indirectly, whether the consequences are immediate or delayed. But this is not cause and effect, this is path of love, the way of the tao, the journey of oneness into the revelation of itself in the utter uniqueness of every particular.

Likewise, I no longer view reincarnation as a procession of "lives" occurring along a linear timeline. That timeline is simply a convention we need to process information that would be otherwise beyond our capacity. In reality, the three times (past, present and future) are more like views, or angles, between constantly moving points, within a continuum; and all of our incarnations are actually happening simultaneously.

-- Richard Power

A Note to Jack Kerouac

2011-07-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

Jack Kerouac's slab in the alley behind City Lights, at the intersection of Chinatown and North Beach, July 2011, Photo: Richard Power

Jack, I met all of your books on the road. Not in a boxcar rumbling into the West, but on an A-Train hurtling downtown, late in the night, at a too tender age, when child soldier risk analysis said it was safer in the NYC subway than in my own "home."

When I was cold and wet, I set fire to the pages to warm myself; when I was hungry, I poured Extra Virgin Olive Oil on them and ate them like freshly baked bread. But of course, I read them all first.

I followed your Desolation Angels, and leaped after them into the Golden Eternity, soaring and falling for years until I came to the age at which you shed this mortal coil, then it occurred to me that I should not follow your navigational charts into the dark current of the Lethe, and that I should travel the Danube, the Yangtze, the Mississippi, the Ganges, the Amazon and the other great rivers of this Earth awhile longer.

And so as much as I loved your company, I parted with it, lingering on the near shore listening to your tears and laughter drifting farther and farther into the mists of a different world. Leaving me to plot my own course, and thus enabling me to take these photos and write you this note.

Yes, the Beat is still strong here in the city of St, Francis, yes, I have lived here for years and yes I still hear your bellowing performances carried in from the sea, at nightfall, on the summer fog.

-- Richard Power

Psyche is a Vast, Fathomless Ocean

2011-07-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Andrew Wyeth - Seabed (circa 1970s)

Psyche is a vast, fathomless ocean.

There are garbage patches, and dead zones; there are shipwrecks and sunken treasures. The flotsam and jetsum of regret (e.g., broken hearts, lost dreams, etc.) bob up & down in the swell, coursing on to nowhere.

On this ocean, each of us is both sailor & wave. No wave can be separated from any other wave, and yet each sailor's mind seems to hold a different ocean.

In the ocean of psyche, there is a dreaded stretch where it is always raining; there, all grief, personal & planetary, returns from the sky in great torrents, salt water endlessly emptying into itself.

But those brave enough to sail into that mysterious place, do not drown in sorrow; they exit the other side, imbued with a profound, indescribable joy, which is at once humbling and exalting, and remains with them forever.

The Rain Within the Fire

2011-07-16T08:03:00.001-07:00

John William Waterhouse - Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus (1900)

The suffering of this world is not an illusion; except in so far as we and this world itself are illusions.

Our capacity to experience joy despite intimate knowledge of this suffering is not an escape; it is a sacred weapon, a weapon with which to wage peace.

Nor is this joy a luxury, it is a vital necessity; it is the medicine within the poison, it is the livingness within the decay, it is the rain within the fire.

-- Richard Power

Unified Field

2011-07-16T07:57:00.000-07:00

Georgia O'Keeffe -- Wave, Night (1928)

Life. Being. Sat.

Awareness. Consciousness. Chit.

Feeling. Bliss. Ananda.

This is not a pie chart or a diagram. It is a unified field.

This is the reality of you here and now, accessible at any and every moment, for free and without the mediation of any guide.

Embrace this. Savor this.

-- Richard Power

Pharoah Sanders - Love is Everywhere

2011-07-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Time is Not Linear; Nor Space Three-Dimensional ...

2011-07-10T15:33:00.000-07:00

Krishna Holding Mount Govardhan (ca. 1790)

Time is not linear; nor space three-dimensional. Strange when those who know this, act as if it were not true.

If you study history from past to future, or study space by height, width and depth only, then you are just lost in your mind. It is love that frees you from the chalk-line of linear time and the confines of geometric space.

Our being is a continuum, vast past, vast future, vast now; intimate, luminous, exquisite.

Of course, linear time is acutely real; its reality is relativity, but it is nonetheless real. Likewise, three-dimensional space, is acutely real, although relative.

The scientist starts from linear time and three-dimensional space and journeys beyond them; the shaman starts from beyond linear time and three-dimensional space and journeys toward them.

Both travelers arrive at the same destination in the end; it is called the beginning.

-- Richard Power

Every Black Hole Leads To It ...

2011-06-26T03:33:00.000-07:00

Giotto di Bondone - St. Francis Renouncing His Possessions

Those who seek to fill the emptiness with empire do not understand the emptiness of empires.

All of history is smoke; and empires are only chimeras within that smoke.

Where is the fire? At the core of psyche.

It predates the universe, and will survive the last sun. Every black hole leads to it, all beauty emerges from it.

Ever elusive, it can't be escaped. So utterly personal, it is mistaken for a profound mystery.

-- Richard Power

Avalokiteshvara Mantra

2011-06-26T00:59:00.000-07:00

Namo Ratna Trayaya, Namo Arya Jnana Sagara, Vairochana, Byuhara Jara Tathagataya, Arahate, Samyaksam Buddhaya, Namo Sarwa Tathagate Bhyay, Arhata Bhyah, Samyaksam Buddhe Bhyah, Namo Arya Avalokite shoraya Bodhisattvaya, Maha Sattvaya, Maha Karunikaya, Tadyata, Om Dara Dara, Diri Diri, Duru Duru Itte We, Itte Chale Chale, Purachale Purachale, Kusume Kusuma Wa Re, Ili Milli, Chiti Jvalam, Apanaye Shoha

No Word to Describe the True Nature of This Space

2011-06-16T03:35:00.000-07:00

Dawn view of Uluru with Kata Tjuta in background

There is an emptiness that is full; and a fullness that is empty. They occupy the same space.

All feeling ripples thru that space; all thought glistens within it.

You and I are gossamer strands of naming that coalesce, intertwine and then disintegrate.

History is a music that emerges from the silence, & then is reabsorbed.

There is no word to describe the true nature of this space, but the closest to it would be "love."

-- Richard Power

"Prayer" and "Meditation" are Broken Terms

2011-06-16T03:33:00.000-07:00

Gustav Klimt - Nuda Veritas (1899)

We are awareness and energy interwoven into livingness.

Heart, mind, soma, etc. are only gourd sand mirrors, in which to capture a glimpse, or savor a taste.

"Meditation" & "prayer" are broken terms. Too often "meditation" is approached like deep-sea drilling, too often "prayer" is approached like a satellite phone call.

"Meditation" is not immobility, "prayer" is not separateness.

The truth is just this livingness.

-- Richard Power

Hamza El Din - Gaia (Letter of Apology to the Earth)

2011-06-15T03:31:00.000-07:00

The Power of Stone

2011-06-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

Brownshill Dolmen

The power of stone.

Not just to crush or build. Much of its density and weight belongs to human ignorance.

The value of stone is not just the magic of the rare earths and precious metals it yields.

Stone listens to the play of creation, and to the human sub-plot; stone distills truth from history, and stores that essence in silence.

Stone connects the distant past and the ancient future, fusing the sacred hoop of life into an uninterrupted whole.

Stone speaks.

Who listens?

-- Richard Power

Grateful for Love

2011-06-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

Hildegard von Bingen: Werk Gottes (from the book Liber Divinorum Operum)

Grateful for love, which like the Sun, only seems to rise and set; but does indeed shine uninterruptedly -- inconceivably powerful, incomprehensibly ancient, unspeakably vast, utterly vital to all life.

Grateful for love, which like the Moon, only seems to wax and wane; but which, in truth, leads all life in an exquisitely beautiful tango.

Grateful for love, which like Space itself, simply abides, singing in timelessness.

-- Richard Power

Incomprehensibly, Inexorably ...

2011-05-22T03:33:00.000-07:00

Joan Miro - The Nightingales Song at Midnight and Morning Rain (1940)

Every new moon, the gong in the temple of life is struck; every full moon, its reverberations reach fullness and dissolve into silence.

Every sunrise, the circle of life is drawn again; every midnight, the circle is completed, and then the cycle begins anew.

Within these parameters of sound, light, time and space, our being evolves (both individually and collectively) into a greater love.

Incomprehensibly, inexorably ...

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

Beats Antique - Egyptic (Blind Treshold, 2010)

2011-05-22T02:58:00.000-07:00

Life has No Meaning

2011-05-10T01:48:00.000-07:00

Thomas Cole - Lake with Dead Trees (1825)

Life has no meaning. Anyone who suggests one is either lying to you or to themselves. Your life simply is. To be embraced, to be explored. Sacred, profane, profound, mundane. To be followed wherever it leads. One gamble after another. If you find yourself desperate for meaning, you are not lacking meaning, you are lacking life. You are not cut off from meaning; you are somehow cut off from where your life is flowing.

Or you are exhausted, and need to immerse yourself in the lessons of sky and mountain, i.e., silence & emptiness. Without emptiness, fullness cannot overflow; without silence, music has no where to arise.

You could say love is life's meaning, or beauty, or truth, but they are synonyms for life; and yes, each has its opposite. But that simply underscores the power of choice: we can choose beauty over ugliness, & love over hate; and whenever life answers us with ugliness or hate; again, we can choose our response. And no, choice isn't meaning either. Choosing is simply living; and, indeed, life's most meaningful moments are often choiceless.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Sacred Core

2011-05-10T01:23:00.000-07:00

Jules Tavernier - Halema'uma'u Crater, Kilauea Volcano (1887)

Within each of us is a sacred core.

This center encompasses the circumference. Drop into it. It is accessible in every moment and all circumstances.

Immersed within it, you expand limitlessly, in unconditional love. Immersed within it, you are forgiven and forgiving.

If you sing to the Universe from there, somewhere across the planet, a stranger will hear your voice, as if it is were the universe itself, and that person, too, will begin to sing.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Caribou - Bowls (Swim, 2010)

2011-05-10T01:11:00.000-07:00

Time is a Circle ...

2011-04-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

Medicine Wheel, a Native American sacred site and National Historic Landmark in Wyoming

Time is a circle.

We come from so far into the future, that it seems like we come from the past.

We come from so far in the past, that it seems like we come from the future.

Ignorance is journeying the circumference of the circle in search of a destination.

Wisdom is understanding the true relationship of the circumference and its center.

Time is a circle; and that circle is a wheel.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

The Silence Deepens ...

2011-04-28T23:22:00.000-07:00

Nikolay Nikanorovich Dubovskoy Silence Has Settled (1890

Odilon Redon, Christ in Silence (1895)

The silence deepens.

Not the silence of isolation; but the silence that absorbs the cacophony of civilization and transmutes it into the music of the spheres.

It travels with you, harder to shake then your shadow, harder to hide from than your conscience.

It is where everything precious that you have forgotten awaits remembrance. It is yours even in the roar of the crowd.

It does not answer questions; it dissolves them.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Regret & Grief Are Processes, Not Closed Loops.

2011-04-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Roerich, Northern Midnight (1940)

Let go of the carcass that hangs around your neck. Cut it loose

Regret & grief are processes, not closed loops.

If you have dragged it this far, then you have completed half of the process.

You did not choose denial. You were willing to look, so willing that now it haunts you.

Time to cut it loose.

Not by pushing it away; but by embracing it, liberating it into a fire of tenderness that consumes all, even you.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

Joy is Not An Effect for Which There is a Cause

2011-04-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly (or a butterfly dreaming of Zhuangzi)

Joy is not an effect for which there is a cause.

Joy is a dimension of your being.

It is like the ocean. It surges ceaselessly.

But you have to remember to visit it. You have to surrender to it.

You have to listen. You have to inhale.
You have to take your shoes off.

You have to get into it.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

The Divine Reality Permeates Human Incarnation

2011-04-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram ... The Divine Reality permeates human incarnation, the experience offers itself with every breath, it is ever present in the space between this thought and the next ... Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram ...

The Elemental Powers of Sat-Chit-Ananda are Your Essential Nature

2011-04-16T00:44:00.001-07:00

The Goddess Gayatri

Consider putting aside the term "meditation." Give it a rest.

Instead of conceiving "meditation" as something you do, allow yourself to embrace Sat-Chit-Ananda as something you are.

Clarity of mind is like the Sun, it only appears to come and go; it is us who turn away, but we cannot escape it.

Joy is like the ocean, it is ceaselessly surging and swelling. Swim and fish in that ocean.

Forgiveness is like the rain. It is vital to the roots. Welcome it when it comes, encourages others to step into it with you. If they are afraid, cup it in your hands and bring it to them.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

March Equinox 2011: Remembering, and Yet Letting Go, Letting Go and Yet Remembering

2011-03-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

Pyramid of the Magician (Western facade), Uxmal, Yucatan. Wolfgang Sauber, 12-3-08

Walk with awareness. Dance with joy ...
Today is the beginning and the foundation
Of our exciting, interesting and magical life ...
We make the right judgement, the right decision, the right move
At the right time, at the right place
For ourselves and others.
And make planet Earth an oasis for the Universe
For the highest good of all concerned, so be it. Yoko Ono, Spring Affirmation 2011

It is once again the March Equinox, Spring has come to the North, Fall has come to the South. In spite of our follies and woes, the great wheel turns inexorably onward in an endless circle; it cannot be broken by us, but we can be broken by it. Embrace it, and roll on; remembering, and yet letting go, letting go and yet remembering ...

Cultivate clarity of mind, radiate unconditional love. It is never too late. Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Mama Ayuḥ Punya Jñānā Puṣtiṃ Kuru Svāhā ...

-- Richard Power

Don Alejandro: Mayan Message to the World

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

White Tara is Not Dwelling in Some Distant Devachan, She is Meditating Within Your Own Heart At This Moment, Call to Her in This Era of Global Crisis

2011-03-15T02:43:00.000-07:00

Carmen Mensink - White Tara Protecting Against Poisons, (2009)

Within one year, we have brought ourselves the BP Gulf Ecocide & the Fukushima Multiple Meltdown. They are not signs and portents of Divine Wrath, they are signs & portents of Human Ignorance. They are not Prophecy Fulfilled, they are Pathology Fulfilled.

Cultivate clarity of mind, radiate unconditional love.

It is never too late.

White Tara is not dwelling in some distant Devachan, She is meditating within your own heart at this moment, Call to Her in this Era of Global Crisis:

Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Mama Ayuḥ Punya Jñānā Puṣtiṃ Kuru Svāhā, Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Mama Ayuḥ Punya Jñānā Puṣtiṃ Kuru Svāhā, Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Mama Ayuḥ Punya Jñānā Puṣtiṃ Kuru Svāhā ...

-- Richard Power

White Tara Long Life Mantra

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

International Women's Day = Earth Day; Earth Day = International Women's Day; International Women's Day + Earth Day = Every Day

2011-03-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart - Millennial Gaia (1998)

For millennia women have dedicated themselves almost exclusively to the task of nurturing, protecting and caring for the young and the old, striving for the conditions of peace that favour life as a whole. To this can be added the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, no war was ever started by women. But it is women and children who have always suffered most in situations of conflict. Now that we are gaining control of the primary historical role imposed on us of sustaining life in the context of the home and family, it is time to apply in the arena of the world the wisdom and experience thus gained in activities of peace over so many thousands or years. The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all.
If to these universal benefits of the growing emancipation of women can be added the "peace dividend" for human development offered by the end of the Cold War, spending less on the war toys of grown men and much more on the urgent needs of humanity as a whole, then truly the next millennia will be an age the like to which has never been seen in human history. But there still remain many obstacles to be overcome before we can achieve this goal. And not least among these obstacles are intolerance and insecurity. Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Opening Keynote Address at UN World Conference on Women (Beijing), 8-31-95

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

How to Imagine the 10th Dimension

2011-02-22T09:52:00.000-08:00

Winter Solstice 2010: Between Shadow and Night, The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself

2010-12-20T14:57:00.000-08:00

Available Now: Between Shadow and Night, The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself

The political, economic and religious structures with which we frame our shared reality have caved in on themselves. With our genius and our ignorance, we have created an impossibility; and we are fueling it every moment of every day. There is no way out of this impossibility, because what could lead us out is leading deeper into it at every twist and turn. We cannot turn, we cannot change course. We cannot stop sliding backward, and yet we cannot stop hurtling forward. Our problems have become our solutions; our solutions have become our problems. This impossibility is our crisis. It has a created a singularity. What will come from this singularity? If anything but extinction (or near extinction) comes from this crisis, it will be because something unforeseen, unprecedented, miraculous and utterly new emerges from this singularity, i.e., from within us, in the midst of our meltdown, after everything has gone on full-tilt. We are the singularity, and we are poised here in anticipation of what will emerge from the unthinkable, unimaginable collapse of our collective self. Therefore, we must learn to see in the dark. -- Richard Power, Between Shadow and Night, The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself

Between Shadow and Night, The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself

My seventh book, Between Shadow and Night, The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself is now available.

Part spiritual manual, part poetry, and part social manifesto, Between Shadow and Night is a representative reflection of my personal life’s work so far.

For centuries, humanity has savaged itself and its environment. Now our madness has caught up with us. Mega-fires, mega-droughts, mega-storms, mega-floods. Rape as a weapon of mass destruction. TV and radio as weapons of mass disinformation. Genocide, gendercide and ecocide. These are not Biblical prophecies, these are current news stories. Water scarcity, food insecurity, overpopulation, extreme poverty, collapsing infrastructure, predatory capitalism, perennial war. Humanity is in crisis. The planet is in crisis. Will we push the planet beyond its breaking point, and in the process snuff out our own future? Or will the planet respond to the existential threat that our ignorance poses, and save itself by pushing us beyond our breaking point? Both outcomes are plausible; sooner or later, perhaps even in this century.

Between Shadow and Night, The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself is now available.

Between Shadow and Night considers the human condition at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, and celebrates some simple truths that could help us redeem our civilization and revive our world. The book is organized into seven sections.

"User’s Guide to Human Incarnation: Technology of Falling Awake, Parts I, II and III" is a series of talks on the spiritual quest.

“Gaia or Global Ghost Dance?” is an exploration of themes and issues related to re-orientating social, political and economic priorities around human rights and the rights of Mother Earth.

I have also included three shorter pieces, “Beyond The Razor’s Edge: A Sequel,” “Lost Years of Jesus” and the title piece, “Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself.” These brief excursions into the creative imagination provide some further context for the principles and strategies suggested.

Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace; it will be available in additional distribution channels on-line and in bookstores soon.

ISBN-13: 978-1453744840
ISBN-10: 1453744843

-- Richard Power

Winter Solstice 2010: Valentina Lisitsa - Chopin Nocturne E Flat Major Op.9 No.2

2010-12-20T03:17:00.000-08:00

Valentina Lisitsa - Chopin Nocturne E Flat Major Op.9 No.2

Samhain

2010-10-31T02:47:00.001-07:00

Leonora Carrington - Samhain Skin (1975)

Samhain. Halloween. The time of twilight power. Opening doors between worlds. Celtic new year. End & beginning. The rainbow serpent devours its own tail. The great crows speak. The sacred dances w/ the profane. The wheel is turning, ever onward, from ages too ancient to name, into futures too distant to even imagine. Light & darkness, and death, & that which envelopes both, pervading both, imbuing each w/ the other. Can you feel it?

Richard Power's seventh book, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself, is now available. Here are links to purchase it from Amazon.com, or from CreateSpace.

You can also visit Richard Power author's page at Amazon.com.

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part III, October 2010)

2010-10-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

Linga-Yoni. Cat Tien sanctuary, Lam Dong province, Vietnam

Here is an audio recording of the third in my series of three talks on A User's Guide to Human Incarnation: The Technology of Falling Awake, delivered in October 2010. -- Richard Power

See Also

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation: The Technology of Falling Awake, delivered in September 2010, Part II.

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation: The Technology of Falling Awake, delivered in September 2010, Part I.

A stone yoni found in Cát Tiên sanctuary, Lam Dong, Vietnam.

If the wild lives in your psyche, it cannot be lost; if your psyche lives in the wild, it cannot be broken.

2010-10-01T03:04:00.001-07:00

50,000 year old Abo cave paintings in Mutawintji National Park (130 km N.W. of Broken Hill, on the road to Tibooburra)

These hands touch me. 50,000 years they have been open, 50,000 years they have been asking, 50,000 years they have been welcoming, 50,000 years they have been reaching out to feel for the throbbing life of the universe.

Ancient rock art in Tadrart Acacus in Libya (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

If the wild lives in your psyche, it cannot be lost; if your psyche lives in the wild, it cannot be broken.

Magura Cave (Bulgarian: Магурата)

There is a voice, a chorus of voices really, speaking to us from the walls of ancient caves throughout the world. The images that echo these voices bring us a profound clarity and sacredness absent from the dominant culture of this time we journey in ... Remember to return to them, and to listen to them with your eyes ...

-- Richard Power

Remember to listen ...

2010-09-23T01:11:00.000-07:00

Kaieteur Falls, Guyana, May 2004 Photo Credit: Sorenriise at en.wikipedia

Remember to listen to the primordial waterfall that flows uninterruptedly behind the wall of societal sound. At any moment, wherever you are, whatever you are doing ... Feel its cool mist on the face of your mind, taste its sparkling essence in the chalice of your heart, bathe your body in its cleansing current. This life is ephemeral, but sacred. Cherish its fleeting embrace. The journey of self-discovery is an encounter with the divine. -- Richard Power

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part II, September 2010)

2010-09-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

The three statues inside the ninth century Mendut buddhist temple, Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia, at the center is 3 metres tall statue of Dhyani Buddha Vairocana, at the left is Boddhisatva Avalokitesvara, at the right is Boddhisatva Vajrapani (Photo Credit: Gunkarta Gunawan Kartapranata, October 2008)

Here is an audio recording of the second in my series of three talks on A User's Guide to Human Incarnation: The Technology of Falling Awake, delivered in September 2010.

See Also

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation: The Technology of Falling Awake, delivered in September 2010, Part I.

Parts 3 of the series will be posted soon.

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part 1, August 2010)

2010-08-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Mandukya Upanishad explains the universal sound AUM.

Here is an audio recording of the first in my series of three talks on A User's Guide to Human Incarnation: The Technology of Falling Awake, delivered in August 2010.

Parts 2 and 3 of the series will be posted soon.

The Wheel of Dharma and the Wheel of Fortune are Synonymous.

2010-08-22T10:15:00.001-07:00

Nyo, Wheel of Dharma

The Wheel of Dharma and the Wheel of Fortune are synonymous. Embrace the mystery of how this is so. (Free will & determinism are dangerous half-truths.) This Wheel of Life turns ceaselessly, you cannot speed it up or slow it down; you can only flow it. Within us is another wheel (like Ezekiel's "wheel within a wheel"). It cannot be sped up or slowed down either. If you attempt to slow down or speed up either one, you will be ground under and dragged over and around, again and again. Wisdom is learning to flow with these wheels, even when they turn in opposite directions.

The truth is simple, the path is direct, the practice is unfailing, and although the reality is paradoxical, it is immediately accessible to any one who surrenders to it: when the mind is quiet, the heart opens; when the heart opens, the mind becomes quiet. Unconditional love and choiceless awareness are the two side of one coin; its substance is your own primordial nature. Live this.

Wheel of Fortune, Rider-Waite Tarot Deck

The great Nyingma sage Longchen Rabjam (1308–1369) said: "In awakened mind, appearances & emptiness have never existed. But do not fixate on non-duality, for the inconceivable miraculous display still occurs." In other words, live life with open eyes, probing mind, and healing heart. Know that all that happens, good and bad, is forged in Divine Paradox. Know that our role is both to be and do. Being and doing with awakened mind is simply approaching life's challenges and opportunities (both individually and collectively) with unconditional love and clarity of mind. The particulars are different for every individual and in every circumstance.

Dr. Tammi Baliszewski (Journey to Center) Interviews Richard Power on True North

2010-07-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

Tammi Baliszewski, Journey to the Center

My friend and colleague, Dr. Tammi Baliszewski recently interviewed me on my book, True North on the Pathless Path, for her wonderful Internet radio show, Journey to Center.

Here is an audio recording.

To listen to more podcasts of Tammi's radio show, click here.

For more information on her Mandala work, click here.

Ishtar, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Night

2010-07-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ishtar, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Night (Old Babylonian, probably 1792 - 1750 BC) ... She waits for us to release Her, not from the British Museum where this plaque rests, but from within our own psyches.

Can You Find True North on the Pathless Path?

2010-06-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

True North on the Pathless Path explores perennial and powerful practices drawn from the diverse mystical traditions of the world. It articulates a bold, new vision of spirituality with which to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.

Inspired by my long friendship with legendary American sage, Joe Miller, these essays were originally published as a series in a small, independent journal in the years immediately after Miller's death (1992-1996). In this volume, I have made them available for the first time to a broader audience. They are, I feel, becoming increasingly more relevant the deeper we proceed into the new millennium.

The voices of many of humanity's great saints and sages echo through the pages of this book: Sri Ramana Maharshi, Mother Krishnabai, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Yeshe Tsogyel, Meister Eckhardt, Mother Teresa, Padma Sambhava, Hildegaard of Bingen, the Baal Shem Tov and Teresa of Avila. This book chronicles a journey into the Bodhisattvic Heart, and I hope it will help you find on the pathless path that is 21st Century spirituality.

True North on the Pathless Path is available on Amazon.com!