A beautiful, soft beginning. Tender and from the heart. Separated by miles and milieu, it seems we have had similar realisations.
Non-duality first came to me as an idea that made sense before the experience. My parents had returned from a lecture by Swami Sarvapriyananda on Advaita Vedanta. The ideas, they said, were simply put, but they couldn’t quite grasp them. As I tried to explain what I had just heard—second-hand, filtered through their memory—something fell into place. The idea was able to hold everything together. No loose ends. Simple. Elegant. Conceptually perfect.
The experience of a boundless oneness comes in waves and recedes, leaving a wetness on the sands of awareness. In the park at night with my dog, a few street dogs join us. Lying on the grass, no one in sight except a distant moon hanging in the sky--a luminous spoonful on the dark eternal plate. An understanding without words as we float in its silver light. No need for a me and them, or an 'I am.' No need for an 'is' or 'will be' or 'has been'. Just a cool breeze that escapes as a sigh from within and leaves a fullness. Tears roll down uncontrollably, but there is only a deep happiness. A contentment without reason.
Sudipto… You have such an incredible way with words. These ones arrived as exactly what I needed to hear in the moment. Thank you!
Yes… tears of happiness… “contentment without reason”… so much yes to that feeling.
The silver light of the moon that you describe, the “luminous spoonful on the dark eternal plate” … evokes that soft boundarylessness of everything. Words rarely do that feeling justice, but yours come close.
And what a gift to find that, across distance and context, these waves find their way to one another. No “I am,” no “has been,” just this: a breeze, a sigh, and fullness.
Thank you, deeply, for sharing that moment. It reminded me how the heart can recognize that to which the mind can only bow.
“We search for meaning … in an effort to connect the already connected.” A lot to go back and think about here. Thank you! For the moment, I’m just wondering about possible levels of connection, from weak tenuous connections to unbreakable bonds, and the factors underlying these.
Nicola, you have such an exquisite skill of continually pointing out my favorite lines. 💛
I’m so glad to hear that it stirred some thought. I love that idea of tenuous connections vs unbreakable bonds. I do wonder if there is a spectrum. If so, I wonder if it’s continuous or if there are endpoints and how the concept of impermanence plays into that. Thank you for the rich pondering.
This is such a lovely piece, a set up, looking forward to the promise of more to come. I admit to lingering here, listening, repeatedly, many times over. It has been, perhaps as you like to say, a pause. A pause that I could return to over and over. Sleepless nights it offered companionship.
So many words, concepts and images reflect and tumble together.
I love the concept of belonging and the way belonging transcends a sense of time. There is no time in a sense of belonging. It just is. There is a feeling of eternalness. Belonging is ongoing, not static. It has vitality.
To be, long. It is non- possessive. It expresses a longing to be. Being eternally, being forever in existence. Here it begins to merge with your idea of non- duality, expressing pure being. Merging into the pure space of being. I’m reminded of a chant we sing in circles I sit with.
“We all come from the Goddess
And to her we shall return
Like a drop of rain
Falling to the ocean”
As we fall into the ocean of bliss we return to the oneness. Therein the sense of continuity. The oneness, of the great ocean. We are there / here all along, belonging…
There is so much more to share, yet in and out of time, I return to my daily life. I shall return…
I look forward to returning and reading more of your journey Glenn. We are connected to the one place of being, of belonging. We are connecting where we are already connected.
Thank you, Mom. Your words mean more than I can express. It's a gift both as a response to the writing and as a reflection of the bond we share beneath and beyond the words.
I love what you said about belonging transcending time. Especially how it’s not static, but vital and eternal. That chant you shared feels like a perfect echo of the poem’s heart. I also remember the bedtime song you would sing that often comes to mind:
"Love, love. People we are made for love. Love each other as ourselves, for we are one."
Perhaps that was one of the earliest seeds, planted gently, shaping how I’ve come to understand both love and non-separation.
Thank you for returning to this piece, for sitting with it, and for meeting me in that place of shared presence. We are connected in so many more ways than genetics and love, and I’m so grateful for every one. Love you!
Gratitude from/ to that place, space, awareness, beyond genetics, beyond earthbound energies, beyond to the vastness of the multiverse ocean of bliss…
To experience connection, fleeting, momentary, and forever, each is so wondrous. Like a sign-post along a trail where one’s lost a sense of direction and suddenly sees and feels the Way…
I’ve become very fond of the energies exchanged in comments. Many of those who follow you have become part of my inner community.
I particularly look forward to the exchanges between you and Sudipto Ghosh.
“The experience of a boundless oneness comes in waves and recedes, leaving a wetness on the sands of awareness.”…”Just a cool breeze that escapes from within and leaves a fullness.”
Yes, tears, mine and his (then later reading, yours too), dropping into the ocean.
Forever remembering and loving singing to you and each of my babies. I believe I sang such to each offspring of yours (and Jen’s) energies also. Mostly I remember the continuity of singing to Liam. I remember I sang the mentioned love, love one, along with two other chants.
I’m fairly certain I sang the love, love one and the of a drop of rain falling to the ocean. I’m searching for the memory of the other one, which comes in feeling without words.
While those songs may be part of your knowingness, I feel you brought with you from the Divine-dark, the wisdom that bathed you there… Now it is being labored and given birth again. What next…? Who knows 🤷🏼♀️🕯️🙏🏼
There is a book, I have in manuscript form, that Papa Michael gave to me for safekeeping. I believe it’s called — The Oceanic Quest.
I’ve only read parts of it. Yet wish to read it in its entirety.
His childhood friend Bill sent it to him at a time when they were exchanging talks like these. It was sometime after your birth, and I don’t remember when.
The manuscript likely is time to belong in your safekeeping.
Gratitude too for the way you see me. I feel seen beyond my foibles, beyond my ineptitudes, and even the judgments I continually stumble upon. Thank you 🙏🏼
A beautiful, soft beginning. Tender and from the heart. Separated by miles and milieu, it seems we have had similar realisations.
Non-duality first came to me as an idea that made sense before the experience. My parents had returned from a lecture by Swami Sarvapriyananda on Advaita Vedanta. The ideas, they said, were simply put, but they couldn’t quite grasp them. As I tried to explain what I had just heard—second-hand, filtered through their memory—something fell into place. The idea was able to hold everything together. No loose ends. Simple. Elegant. Conceptually perfect.
The experience of a boundless oneness comes in waves and recedes, leaving a wetness on the sands of awareness. In the park at night with my dog, a few street dogs join us. Lying on the grass, no one in sight except a distant moon hanging in the sky--a luminous spoonful on the dark eternal plate. An understanding without words as we float in its silver light. No need for a me and them, or an 'I am.' No need for an 'is' or 'will be' or 'has been'. Just a cool breeze that escapes as a sigh from within and leaves a fullness. Tears roll down uncontrollably, but there is only a deep happiness. A contentment without reason.
Sudipto… You have such an incredible way with words. These ones arrived as exactly what I needed to hear in the moment. Thank you!
Yes… tears of happiness… “contentment without reason”… so much yes to that feeling.
The silver light of the moon that you describe, the “luminous spoonful on the dark eternal plate” … evokes that soft boundarylessness of everything. Words rarely do that feeling justice, but yours come close.
And what a gift to find that, across distance and context, these waves find their way to one another. No “I am,” no “has been,” just this: a breeze, a sigh, and fullness.
Thank you, deeply, for sharing that moment. It reminded me how the heart can recognize that to which the mind can only bow.
Beautiful introduction to the work!
Thank you, Allie 🙏 😊
“We search for meaning … in an effort to connect the already connected.” A lot to go back and think about here. Thank you! For the moment, I’m just wondering about possible levels of connection, from weak tenuous connections to unbreakable bonds, and the factors underlying these.
Nicola, you have such an exquisite skill of continually pointing out my favorite lines. 💛
I’m so glad to hear that it stirred some thought. I love that idea of tenuous connections vs unbreakable bonds. I do wonder if there is a spectrum. If so, I wonder if it’s continuous or if there are endpoints and how the concept of impermanence plays into that. Thank you for the rich pondering.
This is such a lovely piece, a set up, looking forward to the promise of more to come. I admit to lingering here, listening, repeatedly, many times over. It has been, perhaps as you like to say, a pause. A pause that I could return to over and over. Sleepless nights it offered companionship.
So many words, concepts and images reflect and tumble together.
I love the concept of belonging and the way belonging transcends a sense of time. There is no time in a sense of belonging. It just is. There is a feeling of eternalness. Belonging is ongoing, not static. It has vitality.
To be, long. It is non- possessive. It expresses a longing to be. Being eternally, being forever in existence. Here it begins to merge with your idea of non- duality, expressing pure being. Merging into the pure space of being. I’m reminded of a chant we sing in circles I sit with.
“We all come from the Goddess
And to her we shall return
Like a drop of rain
Falling to the ocean”
As we fall into the ocean of bliss we return to the oneness. Therein the sense of continuity. The oneness, of the great ocean. We are there / here all along, belonging…
There is so much more to share, yet in and out of time, I return to my daily life. I shall return…
I look forward to returning and reading more of your journey Glenn. We are connected to the one place of being, of belonging. We are connecting where we are already connected.
Blessed be. 🙏🏼
Thank you, Mom. Your words mean more than I can express. It's a gift both as a response to the writing and as a reflection of the bond we share beneath and beyond the words.
I love what you said about belonging transcending time. Especially how it’s not static, but vital and eternal. That chant you shared feels like a perfect echo of the poem’s heart. I also remember the bedtime song you would sing that often comes to mind:
"Love, love. People we are made for love. Love each other as ourselves, for we are one."
Perhaps that was one of the earliest seeds, planted gently, shaping how I’ve come to understand both love and non-separation.
Thank you for returning to this piece, for sitting with it, and for meeting me in that place of shared presence. We are connected in so many more ways than genetics and love, and I’m so grateful for every one. Love you!
Gratitude from/ to that place, space, awareness, beyond genetics, beyond earthbound energies, beyond to the vastness of the multiverse ocean of bliss…
To experience connection, fleeting, momentary, and forever, each is so wondrous. Like a sign-post along a trail where one’s lost a sense of direction and suddenly sees and feels the Way…
I’ve become very fond of the energies exchanged in comments. Many of those who follow you have become part of my inner community.
I particularly look forward to the exchanges between you and Sudipto Ghosh.
“The experience of a boundless oneness comes in waves and recedes, leaving a wetness on the sands of awareness.”…”Just a cool breeze that escapes from within and leaves a fullness.”
Yes, tears, mine and his (then later reading, yours too), dropping into the ocean.
Forever remembering and loving singing to you and each of my babies. I believe I sang such to each offspring of yours (and Jen’s) energies also. Mostly I remember the continuity of singing to Liam. I remember I sang the mentioned love, love one, along with two other chants.
I’m fairly certain I sang the love, love one and the of a drop of rain falling to the ocean. I’m searching for the memory of the other one, which comes in feeling without words.
While those songs may be part of your knowingness, I feel you brought with you from the Divine-dark, the wisdom that bathed you there… Now it is being labored and given birth again. What next…? Who knows 🤷🏼♀️🕯️🙏🏼
There is a book, I have in manuscript form, that Papa Michael gave to me for safekeeping. I believe it’s called — The Oceanic Quest.
I’ve only read parts of it. Yet wish to read it in its entirety.
His childhood friend Bill sent it to him at a time when they were exchanging talks like these. It was sometime after your birth, and I don’t remember when.
The manuscript likely is time to belong in your safekeeping.
Gratitude too for the way you see me. I feel seen beyond my foibles, beyond my ineptitudes, and even the judgments I continually stumble upon. Thank you 🙏🏼