Hay-Ku of the Day (Happiness Itself)

[Rich Note; Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Letting the Inner Smile Out Photograph)

Letting the Inner Smile Out (2009); When I was younger, my stock answer to people who looked at my face and asked what's wrong was, "Nothing, that's just the way I look when I'm thinking"; more recently, I'm thinking less and enjoying it more; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Lose interest in
Thought and you are Free to Be
Happiness Itself.

[Rich Note: Alternatives to the third line of today's offering include: Eternally Now, Everlasting Joy, Everlasting Life, Everlasting Love, Everlasting Light, The Light of the World, The Light of Pure Love, The Light of the World, The Glory of God, The Joy of Being, The Truth of Being, Pure Being Itself, Fully Self-Aware, Present and Aware, The Knowledge I Am, Consciousness Itself, Essential to All, What You Always Are, Yourself as You Are, The One in Many or The Eternal One.]

[Rich Note: This offering was Inspired by the following quote from Jackie O'Keeffe's, "Born to Be Free, The Freedom You Look For is Where You Are Looking From" (http:/jackieokeeffe.com): "To continue to look outside for something that is already inside only serves to distract you from looking within. This is the fundamental flaw in the pursuit of happiness. It can never be attained from without and so to pursue it in any way is futile. All external circumstances, activities, possessions and events are designed to keep the mind entertained. But happiness is outside the realm of mind: it is outside the functionings and capacity of the mind. It is in the realm of placing your attention on your innate nature. To feel and experience real happiness, causeless happiness, requires conscious or unconscious surrendering of your interest in your thoughts." (page 14)/(Fair Use).]

[Rich Note: Little Divine Synergy going on here, as I just went to Jackie's site to confirm her URL and the following cycling, random quote was the one that appeared: "Your true nature is causeless and living causeless happiness is your natural state of being." Pretty neat, huh?]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Divine Paradigm Shift)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(One Moment Photograph)

One Moment (1982): “Flesh and Spirit, Body and Soul, One Moment Part, the Next Moment Whole; Mary and Joseph, Manger and Stall, One Moment Nothing, the Next Moment All (Last Quatrain from an OOMM poem entitled “One Moment"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

The Birth of Jesus
Took us from a “God Without"
To a “God Within."

The Birth of Christ took
Mankind from a “God Out There"
To a “God In Here."

Hay-Ku of the Day (Is God Real?)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Religious Symbols Abstracts)

Religious Symbols (Wikipedia Commons/Jossi Fresco/March 2006); 1st Row: Latin Cross, Star of David, Omkar (Aum); 2nd Row: Star and Crescent, Cross Pattée, Yin-Yang; 3rd Row: Khanda, Ayyavazhi, Triple Goddess (or Diane de Poitiers); Companion haiku: Accompanying.

God is Real as the
Aware Presence One Is but
Not as a Concept.

[Rich Note: This one is really a distillation/summation of a 3 page, hay-ku impregnated, 4 hour, polished-up, flow of consciousness response (which may postd here at some point) to a question/comment by Guy (re: “Is belief in a god necessary to spirituality”?) on a Shira C 16 Oct 09, Gather post entitled, “What is Religion?” ]

[Rich Note: “I Am, You Are and of All” are all interchangeable with “One Is” in this offering. “Conscious Being, Clear Aware Space, Pure Awareness, and Pure Consciousness" can also be substituted for Aware Presence.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Essential to Being)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Snow Sculpture Photograph)

Snow Sculpture (2002); A rather interesting "vibratory state" of Awareness both "in here" and "out there," as well as "now and then"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Consciousness is a
Vibratory State of the
Awareness You Are.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Behind Your Eyes)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Mount Fuji Photograph)

Mount Fuji (2003); Cloud hidden Mount Fuji's peak may be likened to a particle state of mind that is temporarily blind to the Quantum State of Consciousness that is both its Essential Nature and Ultimate Identity; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

How can you relate
To Existence except in
And as Consciousness.

What do you know that
Does not arise as a State
Of your Consciousness.

How can what you see
Be other than a State of
Your own Consciousness?

[Rich Note: (Related Chapter 5, Introductory Metaphor from OOMM) Behind Your Eyes: What's going on within the geographic confines of your skull, behind your eyes, right now? Is it not everything you see before your eyes, and is this not actually composed of patterns of mental energy arising within your own head? Is it not also true that the patterns which you presently identify as yourself are composed of the exact same mental material you identify as other? This being true, how is it possible to be so intimately identified with one portion of your awareness, and so self-alienated from the other? Perhaps because the preponderance of your attention is habitually focused on the former, while you are proportional less sensitive and aware of the latter.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Independence)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Liberty Bell Photograph)

Liberty Bell (2007 Wikipedia Commons Photo by Serguey); An icon whose Biblical inscription of “PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF LEV. XXV X.” seems most appropriate; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Being Present and
Aware is not dependent
On relative thought.

Mind depends on the
Thought process to exist while
Consciousness does not.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Outside the Story)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(X Marks the Spot Photograph)

X Marks the Spot (2009); A rather amazing “cross in the sky” that calls to mind both an abbreviated “Chi Rho” and an open ended version of the” Seal of Solomon” as symbols that point to “What We Really Are"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Is your Attention
On What You Really Are or
A Story of Mind?

Attention rooted
In What You Really Are is
Outside the Story.

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Gift)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(The Greatest Gift Photograph)

The Greatest Gift (2008) The Greatest Gift of All is Being Present and Aware as You Are.

Being Present and
Aware as I Am takes no
Effort on my part.

Being Present and
Aware as I Am is the
Heart of the Matter.

Being Present and
Aware as I Am is the
Father in the Flesh.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Fundamental)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Map and Territory Photograph)

Map and Territory (2008); As the map is not the territory, neither is relative thought, sense or feeling the Aware Presence of Being it only temporarily reflects; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Being Present and
Aware is fundamental
To everything else.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Prior to Thought)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Zen Garden 40 Photograph)

Zen Garden 40 (2002); You were Present and Aware, as a Primal Constant, "before, during and after" this photo of a Zen Garden in Narita evoked particular thoughts, as you are now and always have been; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

You Are Present and
Aware before the next thought
Comes into Being.

You Are Present and
Aware prior to any thought
About Being That.

Open to Grace

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Bird on a Wire Photograph)

Bird on a Wire (2009): “Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free.” (Leonard Cohen Lyrics); Companion haiku: Attention focused on the Source of the next thought is a Gateless Gate.

Attention resting
In the Source of the next thought
Is Open to Grace.

Attention kept on
The Source of the next thought is
A Vessel of Grace.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Perceptual Limits)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Self-Projection Photograph)

Self-Projection (2009); “A self-referential state of consciousness projects its own relative limits in the same way looking through binoculars projects circular limits”; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Mechanisms of
Perception project their own
Relative limits.

Self-referential
States of mind project their own
Relative limits.

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Mind's Eye 2)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Mind's Eye 2 Photograph)

Mind’s Eye 2 (2007); A reprise of an Aug 07 image of wife (up to 43 years now) Sandy’s "as beautiful as ever" left eye that fits the theme of today’s offering; Companion haiku: Only “Single-Eyed Seeing” allows One to Know the Absolute Truth.

“Single-Eye” implies
A Non-Linear State of
Conscious Awareness.

Only “Single-Eyed
Seeing” allows One to See
The Oneness of All.

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Light of the World)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

("Ye Are the Light of the World" Photograph")

"Ye are the Light of the World" (Matt 5:14); Awake Thou that sleepeth, arise from the dead and Christ (the Light of Awareness One Is) shall give Thee Light (Eph 5:14); Accompanying haiku: Not minding this to the exclusion of that is Single Eyed Seeing.

Stop minding this to
The exclusion of that and
Your Eye is Single.

Stop minding this to
The exclusion of that and
Be the Light You Are.

Stop minding this to
The exclusion of that and
Self-Enlightenment Is.

[Rich Note: "The Light of the body is in the eye (mind): If therefore thine eye (mind) be single, thy body (embodiment) shall be full of Light; but if thy eye be evil (double) thy body shall be full of darkness (Self-ignorance); That was the true Light (The Light of the Aware Presence of Being You Are and I Am), which lighteth every man (/woman) that cometh into the world (John 1:9).]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Giving Thanks)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Thanksgiving Chapel Interior Photograph)

Thanksgiving Chapel Interior (Dallas 2004 by RadicalBender from Wikipedia Commons); Amazing Sacred Imagery that Captures both the Wave and Particle Nature (depending on One's Perspective) of Being as a Projection of Light from One Central Source; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Thankful for Being
Consciously Aware I Am,
You Are and All Is.

Thankful for Being
Consciously Present as the
Aware Space I Am.

Thankful for the Clear
Aware Presence of Being
Mind takes for granted.

[Rich Note: "Giving Thanks unto the Father (/Mother), which hath made Us meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light: Who hath delivered Us from the Power of Darkness, and hath translated Us into the Kingdom of His Dear Son (Christ or the Consciousness of God I AM) :Col 1:12-13 (KJV).]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Mental Double Vision)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Double Vision Photograph)

Double Vison (2009); Relative thinking, mental self-reflection, and/or carnal conception/consciousness creates an apparent "subject-object/self-other" duality that is relatively but not absolutely real and blinds one to What Is (which is Never Not One); Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Relative thinking
Involves minding this to the
Exclusion of that.

Minding this to the
Exclusion of that creates
Double mindedness.

Double mindedness
Blinds One to the Pure Conscious
Awareness One Is.

[Rich Note: Several alternative endings for the third offering include: Clear Aware Presence of Being, Clear Aware Space of All Being, Vibrant Clear Aware Space of All and Consciousness of Being One Is.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Double Minded Man)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333gather.com.]

("In the Word but Not of It" Photograph)

"In the World but Not of It" (2009); Tanya and Sasha (the Ukraine Connection) in the world in front of Old Main on the Penn State Campus; Companion haiku: A double minded man thinks he is inside and the world is outside.

A double minded
Man Is conditioned to think
In relative terms.

A double minded
Man is convinced that he is
Subject to objects.

A double-minded
Man is one who thinks in terms
Of self and other.

[Rich Note: “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways”(James 1:8 KJV).]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Double Minded Me)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Double Vision Photograph)

Double Vision (2009); This highway sign seems a rather stark invitation to enter (or stay in) the world of conceptual “space-time” (RE: How soon will we get Harrisburg?) and, in so doing, to ignore the natural beauty of this sunset; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Seeing Life from a
Subject-Object Perspective
Is Double Minded.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Paradise Found)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Nittany Lion and Friends Photograph)

Nittany Lion and Friends (2009); Back to the old Alma mater for a Penn State football weekend ("paradise found" for 1000s of tailgaters -- they don't call it "Happy Valley" for nothing) with family after a 12 year absence.

Seeing You Are the
Clear Aware Space of Being
Is Paradise Found.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Poor In Spirit)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Grace 2 Photograph)

Grace 2 (2009); Amazing how experiencing this beautiful sunrise depends on the "essential clarity, transparency and emptiness(read selflessness)" of the eyes as organs of visual perception; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

One “Poor In Spirit”
Is Selfless in Nature and
Full of Everything.

One “Poor in Spirit”
Sees the Clear Aware Space One
Is as Being’s Ground.

[Rich Note: Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3).]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Singing Silence)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Silent Night Photograph)

Silent Night (2009);“Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright...Glories stream from heaven afar..” seems to capture the Spirit of this haiku; Companion haiku: The Singing Silence of One's Full Emptiness is the Birthright of All.

All is the "Singing
Silence of Full Emptiness"
That Everything Is.

[Rich Notes: “My silence sings and my emptiness is full, I lack nothing” is a Sri Nisargadatta favorite ( I AM THAT, pg 80) that inspired this offering.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Ultimate Weight-Loss)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Self-Enlightenment Photograph)

Self-Enlightenment (2009):The perceptual frame of reference this shot offers not only eliminates the head but most of the body;Companion haiku: Looking and Seeing One Is Clear Aware Space Is Self-Enlightenment.

The Ultimate-Weight
Loss Plan is Seeing One Is
Not a Body-Mind.

Looking and Seeing
One Is Clear Aware Space Is
Ultimate Weight-Loss.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Selfless Seeing)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Full Empty Sky Photograph)

Full Empty Sky (2009); The still, silent, empty, changeless, selfless nature of space gives the clouds, sun, moon, stars and everything else room to be; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Selfless Seeing is
A Perfect Complement to
Relative matters.

Selfless Being is
A Perfect Complement to
Infinite Fullness.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Divine Complements)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Full Emptiness Photograph)

Full Emptiness (2009 Reprise); A Glassy Earth representing Everything as a Vibratory State of the Clear, Aware Space this Empty, Bodily Cup localizes in Space-Time; Companion haiku: The Emptiness of Clear Aware Space Gives Rise to the Fullness of All.

Aware Space is an
Absolute Complement to
The Fullness of All.

Conscious Fullness is
A Perfect Complement to the
Aware Space One Is.

[Rich Note: “Truly I forget in what my wealth and true grandeur lie, how inexhaustible they are, and how my title to them is my absolute poverty (DE Harding, Open to the Source, WEALTH, page 116, edited by Richard Lang).” ]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Looking Both Ways)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Janus Photograph)

Janus (from Wikipedia Commons): As the Roman god of gates, doors or beginnings and endings, Janus is depicted with two faces and (as Van Morrison’s “Dweller on the Threshold” also suggests) is able to look both ways at once; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Two-Way Attention
Unifies Still and Vibrant
States of Awareness.

Two-Way Attention
Sees Still and Vibrant States of
Aware Space as One.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Two-Way Attention)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Two-Way Seeing Photograph)

Two-Way Seeing (2009): “(Two-Way Attention)…simultaneously to view the thing you are looking at and the No-thing (Aware Space) you are looking out of” (Douglas Harding discription, as quoted in “Open to the Source”); Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Two-Way Attention
Simultaneously Sees
Within and Without.

Two-Way Attention
Simultaneously Sees
Both Seer and Seen.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Genesis II)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(First Communion Photograph)

First Communion (Reprise - 2009); The Genesis of Consciousness (or Being) as the Divine Offspring of the Original Wedding of Still and Vibrant Aware Space; Companion haiku: The Aware Space You Are is the “Holy Grail” through which Creation Flows.

Conscious Union of
Still and Vibrant Aware Space
Gives Birth to Being.

Communion between
Still and Vibrant Aware Space
Begets Consciousness.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Love Is)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Open and Shut Photograph)

Open and Shut (2007 Reprise); The basic contrast of “boxed” (self-centered ‘I as I think I Am’) and “un-boxed” (self-less, all-embracing, “I as I Am in Spirit and Truth”) Aware Space appear well represented in this Heart Box arrangement.

Love is Seeing All
As a Vibrant State of the
Aware Space One Is.

[Rich Note: One might also say that Love is Self-Transcendent, Conscious Union with All as That which One Is, You Are and I Am; or, alternately, a Unitary State of Mind and/or Consciousness in which Subjective and Objective Conceptual States meld (conceptually speaking) in Original Oneness. As this suggests, "You Are and I Am” make nice substitutes for “One Is” in the third line.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Consciousness)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(The Deep Photograph)

The Deep (2009); "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."(Gen 1:2); Companion haiku: You are clear aware space and existence is a vibrant state of That.

You Are Clear Aware
Space and Consciousness is a
Vibrant State of That.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Vibrant Aware Space)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Face to Not Face Photograph)

Face to No Face (2009): The "Vibrant Aware Space" of this humorous "tree face" presently faces the "First Person No Face" of the “Still Aware Space” that now sits on your shoulders and out of which you presently look; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

All Is a Vibrant
State of the Clear Aware Space
Of Being One Is.

Life Is a Vibrant
State of the Clear Aware Space
Of Being You Are.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Sky of Perpetual Grace)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

Skyof Perpetual Grace Photograph)

Sky of Perpetual Grace (2009); It’s hard to notice the Clear Aware Space out of which one looks (particularly if one is conditioned to value “form over space”) when the Sky of Awareness into which one looks reflects such Divine Beauty; Photo Companion haiku: Still and Quiet this Sky of Perpetual Grace abiding in One’s Heart.

Seeing One Is Clear
Aware Space is a Simple
Matter of Looking.

To See You Are the
Aware Empty Space of All
You only need Look.

Hay-Ku of the Day (You Are That 2)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(You Can't Touch This Photograph)

You Can’t Touch This (2009); Another DE Harding, “Pointing Here” Experiment (www.headless.org) inspired image; Companion haiku: Present Evidence Reveals I Am Aware Space and not what I think.

The Clear Aware Space
You see where your shoulders stop
Is Your True Nature.

The Clear Aware Space
You see where your shoulders stop
Is the same as Mine.

[Rich Note: Other, more philosophical and/or theological, third-lines include: Is the Ground of All, Is the Holy Grail, Is the Father's Son, Is the Holy One, Is the One I Am, Is That Which I Am, Is All I can Be; Is the Son of God, Is God Manifest, Is the Holy Ghost, Is Paradise Found, Is the End of Days, Is the Eternal, Is the Absolute, Is Everlasting, Is Fundamental, Is What We All Seek, Is I as I Am, Is God in the Flesh, Is Being Ignored, Is Knowledge Itself, Is Pure Awareness.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Home Sweet Home)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Here's Looking At You, Kids! Photograph)

Here’s Looking At You, Kid! (2009); A D.E. Harding, “Pointing Here” Experiment (that can be found www.headless.org) inspired image; Companion haiku: What this finger points to is the Clear Aware Space of Being You Are.

The Aware Space You'll
Find on Your shoulders is "the
Home You never left."

The Aware Space You'll
Find on Your shoulders is the
"Ultimate Good News."

Hay-Ku of the Day (One Embracing All)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Out on a Limb Photograph)

Out on a Limb (2009); Since a number expressed enjoyment with the “kitty pictures,” here’s my favorite; Companion haiku: "If you get caught out on a limb you may as well make yourself at home."

Notice the Aware
Space on your shoulders that is
Full of Everything.

Hay-Ku of Day (Home Free)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Are You Looking at Me? Photograph)

Are You Looking at Me? (2009); This Aware, Empty Space (or Space-Like Awareness) out of which One looks is the Changeless Ground of All the Self-Reflective States (including kitty’s face) of Consciousness that arise and fall within It; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Home Free attending
To the Aware, Empty Space
Out of which One looks.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Your End)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(What's Happening Here? Photograph)

What’s Happening Here? (2009); What’s happening Here (in the “Space-Like Awareness Your Are and I Am”) is Granddaughter (and Phillie Fan-atic) Natalie at Thursday's game; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Look into your end
Of perception and see what
You are looking from.

Look and See You Are
The Aware, Empty Space in
Which It All happens.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Face to No Face)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Up a Tree Photograph)

Up a Tree (2009); Tabby here turned a corner and came “face to no face” with Yellow Lab Higgins this morning and, as you can see, ended up a tree (she got down safely); Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Is there a “face” on
Your “end of perception” or
Only Aware Space?

[Rich Note: The title of today’s offering comes from a book that presents transcriptions of workshops once done by DE Harding; who also happen to write one of my all time favorite books:“The Trial of the Man Who Said He Was God.”]

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Eye of God)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(VIP Photograph)

V.I.P (2009); Instead of a “Very Important Person” (which from an Absolute Perspective would be a real oxymoron”) I would suggest that what is being pointed to today is a “Very Important Principle or Perspective” (in fact, the Ultimate One); Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Looking into That
Which I Am looking out of
I find what I seek.

Looking into That
Which I Am looking out of
Only One remains.

[Rich Note: Another offering that calls to mind a multitude of other potential third lines, many of which follow: Restores Paradise, Offers Salvation, Offers Peace and Joy, Ends in Happiness, Unifies the Mind, Unifies Being, Enlightens Being, Reintegrates Mind, Awakens Glory, Resurrects Glory, Resurrects Being, Resurrects the Lord, Resurrects the Truth, Is Paradise Found, Is Self-Transcending, Transcends the ego, Is Transpersonal, Is Direct Seeing, Is Direct Insight, Offers True Insight, Is True Mindfulness, Is Meditation, Ends all suffering, Puts an end to fear, Answers all questions and There is only One.]

[Rich Note: A comment by Allen, on another venue, called to mind the following related Meister Eckhart quote: "The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me."]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Seeing One Self)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Look to the light Photograph)

Look to the Light (2009); Without the Light of Awareness You Are there is nothing to see and no one to see it; Companion haiku: Look to That out of which You Are Looking and see Yourself as You Are.

When I look into
That which is looking I see
Myself as I Am.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Seeing Forever)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(All Seeing Eye Photograph)

All Seeing Eye (2009); An Eye at the apex of a pyramid (such as the one on a dollar bill) would have sufficient focal length and associated breadth of vision to see the whole pyramid all at one time (or in no time) and thus be “All Seeing"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

An Absolute Point
Of View would embrace every
Partial perspective.

An Absolute Point
Of View would be Selfless and
Embrace All Being.

Hay-Ku of the Day (World Peace)

[Rich: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Peace Image)

Peace (Wikipedia Commons Database): To quote a rather famous song: “Let there be Peace in the world and let it begin with me;” however, for that to happen I would have to stop being a mental house divided by relative thought; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Peace in the world is
Impossible without Peace
In the Heart of Man.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Baying at the Moon)

[Rich Note: Accompanying image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Baying at the Moon Photograph)

Baying at the Moon (2009); A phrase I used to characterize the “existential sadness and depths of despair” (subsequently recognized as a symptom of Delayed Stress Syndrome (DSS) associated with Vietnam service) that sometimes arose while “in my cups"; Photo Caption: Accompanying.]

"Like a dog barking
At its own reflection" I
Criticize “my” world.

[Rich Note: Inspired this morning (and so appropriate to the line of thought of the last few days it stepped to the head of the que) by the following Sufi story:

“Mullah Nasrudin, standing on the bank of a river, watched as a dog came to drink. The dog saw itself in the water and immediately began to bark. It barked and barked all morning and into the afternoon, until it was foaming at the mouth. Finally, dying of thirst, the dog fell in the river-- whereupon it quenched its thirst, climbed out and walked happily away.

Nasrudin said, "Thus I realized that all my life I had been barking at my own reflection."

(From “The Light that I am - Notes from the Ground of Being,” page 49, by J.C. Arberchele).]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Determined)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Double Vision Photograph)

Double Vision (2009): Looking through these archways projects their limits on an otherwise panoramic beach scene and relatively boundless horizon; Companion haiku: The relative way I am conditioned to look limits what I see.

What I presently
See is a function of the
Way I am looking.

What I see depends
On the partial way I am
Conditioned to look.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Quantum Effect)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Famous Face Photograph)

Famous Face (2009): Seeing things (in this case a famous face) in a cloud formation, may or may not have a quantum effect on the cloud, but it does illustrate the conceptual, self-projective tendency of the mind: Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Weak:

If observation
Effects what is seen than all
I see reflects me.

Strong:

If observations
Are observer conditioned
I see what I am.


[Rich Note: "Quantum 101: The observer conditions his observations."]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Taken to Heart)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Through a Glass Darkly Photograph)

Through a Glass Darkly (2009): As dark glasses necessarily project darkness on all that is seen, so does a self-reflective state of relative consciousness (as a perceptual mechanism) project it own egocentricity (and relativity) on Existence; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Partial perspectives
Project relative limits
That we take to Heart.

Partial perspectives
Project relative limits
We assume are Real.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Being is Knowing)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Imaginary Photograph)

[Rich Note: (Photo Caption) Imaginary (2009): In relation to Being, "knower and known" are no more or less real than this imaginary dragon on the OCNJ boardwalk; Companion haiku: Being is knowing without the knower and known woven into “me.”]

Being is Knowing
Without the “Knower and Known”
Doubling vision.

Being is Knowing
Without the “Knower and Known”
Getting in the Way.

[Rich Note: “Limiting, dividing or distorting vision” also work for the first offering, while “of self-reflection, conception or ignorance” work for the second.]

[Rich Note: (Photo Caption) Imaginary (2009): In relation to Being, "knower and known" are no more or less real than this imaginary dragon on the OCNJ boardwalk; Companion haiku: Being is knowing without the knower and known woven into “me.”]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Oneness)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(The Apparent Many Photograph)

The Apparent Many (2009) While the “particular forms” energy assumes in this image are many, the energy itself can neither be created nor destroyed and is Everlastingly One in Essence; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

As the Pure Aware
Presence of Being You Are
One with Creation.

As the Pure Aware
Presence of Being You Are
One with the Father.

[Rich Note: This is another one with a number of alternative third lines I am particularly fond of, to include: The Light of Glory, Heir to Joy and Peace, Heir to the Kingdom, Divine Joy and Peace, Everlasting Joy, Everlasting Peace, The Glory of God, One with All You see, One with Existence and One with All Being, . “You Are” is, of course, equivalent to “I Am” depending on whether One assumes a relative (dual/particle) or non-relative (non-dual/quantum) perspective of Being.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Homecoming)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Turning Final Photograph)

Turning Final (2009): A nice silhouette of a DC10 making a final approach into Philadelphia International Airport that reminds me of the Homecoming (Prodigal Son’s Feast) that re-awakening to the Aware Presence You Are ultimately is; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Knowing the Aware
Presence of Being You Are
Is Enlightenment.

Knowing You Are the
Aware Presence of Being
Restores Paradise.

[Rich Note: “One Is,” "I Am" and "God Is" may all be substituted for “You Are” in both offerings.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Remembrance)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Light, Light, More Light Photograph)

Light, Light, More Light (2009): As the light of the sun was needed for awareness of these clouds, so is the Light of Awareness ("which lighteth every man that cometh into the world") necessary for the Aware-Presence of Being You Are and I Am to Exist; Companion haiku: Remember Being the Aware-Presence You Are and not what you think.

Remember Being
The Aware-Presence You Are
And Be only That.

Remember Being
The Aware-Presence You Are
Prior to conception.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Nothing Being Everything)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Water Course Way Photograph)

Water Course Way (2009): Water seeking both the “lowest ground” and “path of least resistance” is a perfect natural metaphor for the “self-surrender” (re: willingness to be nothing) that assures an effortless return to the Home you never left; Accompanying haiku: Accompanying.

Willingness to Be
Nothing at All allows God
To Be Everything.

Willingness to Be
Nothing at All lets One Be
Everything There Is.

[Rich Note: Which calls to mind a similar Sri Nisargadatta pointer: “Only God's energy is infinite -- because He wants nothing for Himself” (I AM THAT, pg 49). "Nothing Being Everything" is also a "Non-Dual" pointer Britisher Tony Parsons coined and used as a book title.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Realizing Oneness)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Beaitific Vision Photograph)

[Rich Note: (Photo Caption) Beatific Vision 2009: This last photograph of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux struck me as a near-perfect, perhaps sacred, image of “the Peace that passes all understanding” that Conscious Realization of “the Holy One in the midst of thee” promises; Companion haiku: Accompanying.]

To Experience
Being One with God suspend
Relative Judgment.

To Experience
Conscious Union with All stop
Thinking relative.

To Experience
Conscious Union with Your Source
Be Mentally Still.

Hay-Ku of the Day (River to the Sea)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(High Flyer Photograph)

High Flyer (2009) BKWright; As an eagle returns to its nest and a river to the sea, so does the human mind seek a return to Conscious Union with the Divine Mind in which it “lives, moves and has its Being"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Partial states of mind
Are driven to seek conscious
Union with their Source.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Worry Free)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Don't Worry, Be Happy Photograph)

Don’t Worry, Be Happy (2009): Any fear associated with this particular image would be a function of perceived potential for personal harm (re: falling, drowning, sharks...) due to "individual conditioning” as a conceptual self-referent (re: ego); Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Without an ego
There are “no if, ands or buts”
About anything.

Hay-Ku of the Day (You Are That)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Day at the Beach Photograph)

Day at the Beach (2009): What is seen in the “assumed outside world," as in this beach scene, reminds me I Am Present and Aware through a process of relative self-reflection; as such, it is not essential to Being, it only reminds me I Am That; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Before, During and
After every thought “You Are
That” which knows I Am.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Before, During and After)

[RichNote: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Sky of Awareness Photograph)

Sky of Awareness (2009); As the sky is present before, during and after a cloud passes, and is untouched by them, so is the Space-Like, Aware-Presence of Being I Am there before, during and after thoughts pass; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Before, during and
After the next thought I Am
Present and Aware

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Forgiveness)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Phanatical Photograph)

Phanatical (2008): Emotional over-reaction to Phillies' loses (something I have been guilty of for over 50 years) involves self-identification, links personal happiness to uncontrollable circumstance and so guarantees suffering; and to what end? Companion haiku:Forgiveness disrupts self-identification with relative thought.

Forgiveness disrupts
The flow of emotion that
Enlivens self-thought.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Forgiveness)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Forgive Them Father Photograph)

Forgive Them Father (2009): If I Know I Am One with my Brothers, then asking that They be "forgiven" (for they know not what they do) is really forgiving Oneself; Companion haiku: If We Are All One Forgiving Another Is Forgiving My Self.

Forgiveness serves to
Short-circuit emotional
Attachment to thought.

Forgiveness shorts out
The emotional charge that
Enlivens self-thought.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Fore-Given)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Divine Salutation Photograph)

Divine Salutation (2009); Ran into this “The God (Christ) in Me salutes the God (Christ) in You” on a walk and ran into a “Like-Minded” Penn Stater named Mike, who also happen to be in the same line of work as my son Matthew; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

I Am Spirit: Whole,
Innocent and Fore-given
The Nature of God.

You Are Spirit: Whole,
Innocent and Fore-given
The Nature of God.

One Is Spirit: Whole,
Innocent and Fore-given
The Nature of God.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Free In Spirit)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(New Born Innocence Photograph)

[Rich Note: (Photo Caption) New Born Innocence (2009); Having read the Holy Spirit communicates in many different ways, doing a meditation on forgiveness and innocence, and then stopping just short of this "newborn bunny" while cutting the grass, the message was loud and clear; Companion haiku: Accompanying.]

As Spirit One Is
Whole, Innocent, Forgiven
And Perfectly Free.

Hay-Ku of the Day (With Me Always)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Everyday Lion Photograph)

Everyday Lion (2008); "Behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and loose the seven seals thereof" (Rev. 5:5); Accompanying haiku: "Pre-Conceptual, Self-Shining, Aware-Presence" Conscious as I Am.]

"Pre-Conceptual,
Self-Shining, Aware-Presence"
Is Being Itself.

"Pre-Conceptual,
Self-Shining, Aware-Presence"
Is Life Immortal.

"Pre-Conceptual,
Self-Shining, Aware-Presence"
Is with me always.

[Rich Note: This is another one with a number of good, alternative third-lines, to include: Is Everlasting, Is Self-Forgotten, Is the Ground of All, Is Life's One Constant, Is Now Overlooked, Is seeking Itself, Is the Son/Sun of God, Is the One I Am and Is the Holy One.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Divine Resonance)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed with rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Guiter Hero Photograph)

To Resonate with
The Divine Song of Being
I need to Be Still.

[Rich Note: (Photo Caption) Guitar Hero (2008); “At-One-Ment” may be seen as the Ultimate “At-Tune-Ment” (or Perfectly Selfless Resonance with the Primal Vibration, Holy Spirit or Divine Song of Being One Is; Companion haiku: Accompanying.]

[Rich Note: The “mental space” of the mind may be likened to the enclosed space of a guitar box; and, likewise, be said (through an electro-chemical process) to “resonate, replicate and magnify” the environmental vibrations the senses convey to it. Its capacity to do so faithfully, however, lies in its own essential emptiness and/or selflessness, in the same way the space in a guitar box must be still and so empty of “internal vibration” if it is to accurately resonate and reproduce the notes and chords of the strings struck.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Grounded Eagle)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Battleship NJ Photograph)

Battleship NJ (2003): An icon of the "outer war" that the "inner war" (and lack of Inner Peace) that "relating to Life as other than I Am" necessarily begets: Companion haiku: Relating to Life as other than I Am is why I feel alone.

Relating to Life
As other than I Am is
A faulty premise.

Relating to Life
As other than I Am binds
The Wings of Spirit.

[Rich Note: (Intro to OOMM Appendix I) "Am I not alive to the degree I am aware of being as reflected in the environmental stimuli each passing moment presents? Am I not more self-aware, more conscious of being, more aware of my existence, when I am awake than when I am asleep and unconscious of being? Am I not also more alive when I am paying attention to the present moment, than when I am entertaining memories or projecting futures? Am I not more dead to life when I am day dreaming then when wholeheartedly focused, here and now, on what's going on around me? If so, then life isn't something I have, it's something I am. Something I am more or less conscious of being, depending on the degree of conscious awareness I am able to bring to each precious moment. Thus, as paradoxical as it may seem, the more I give myself as a center of conscious attention and awareness to others the more abundant the life I will experience in and of my-self."]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Divine Discordance)

[Rich Note: Companion haiku may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Divine Instrument Photograph)

[Divine Instrument: (Photo Caption) As a piano must be repeatedly tuned to insure the fidelity of the music it plays, so must the "String of Divine Energy I Am" be constantly re-tuned to the Divine Song of Being All Creation Sings: Companion haiku: Accompanying.]

A Living Note in
A Divine Song of Being
Discordantly sung.

A Living Note in
A Divine Song of Being
In need of Tuning.

[Rich Note: Inspired by an Beautiful Insight shared by the Rev.Dr. Len Sweet at the Ocean City, NJ Tabernacle yesterday; an insight, based on the latest instring theory (re: Dr. Brian Greene,"The Elegant Universe")that indicated we are all "strings of vibrant energy" (Living Light?) that need constant attunement toestablish and maintainresonance withthe Divine Song (of Life/God/Being) to Fulfill our True Nature and/or Ultimate Potential to Be (poetically paraphrased).]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Thinking About Thinking)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Mind Stream Photograph)

Mind Stream (C) 2008 RFHay: Do I really control the words and thoughts I believe I think or are they more truly the product of a natural ebb of consciousness similar to the water flowing in this rocky stream; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Is thinking I am
The thinker a sound basis
For believing that?

Is "thinking I am
The thinker" a sound basis
For acting like that?

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Witnessing Presence)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Witnessing Presence Photograph)

Witnessing Presence © 2002 RFHay: The observer’s relative stillness is necessary for the sensory awareness of the airplane’s relative movement; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

The Knowledge I Am
Requires Still Awareness to
Witness Its Presence.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Partial Perspectives)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Perennial Photograph)

Perennial (C) 2009 RFHay; This image offers one angle and frame of reference that eliminated a potentially limitless number of other possibilities, as well as an Absolute Perspective that would include all angles and frames of reference at once; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Can a relative
Perspective of Being know
An Absolute One?

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Relativity II)

[RichNote: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Divine Alarm Clock Photogaph)

Divine Alarm Clock (C) 2009 RFHay: Acting on relative thought and sense as if it were the Absolute Ground of One's Being leads to self-inflicted wounds and suffering that serve as Divine Alarm Clocks and/or Cosmic Wake-Up Calls; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

"It's all relative"
Suggests relativity
Is an Absolute.

Relativity
Requires an Absolute to
Be aware it is.

A relative state
Necessarily implies
An Absolute One.

[Rich Note: To paraphrase a wise man who once responded to someone who declared, "There is no Absolute": "Perhaps, but you are treating both yourself and your opinion to that effect as if you and it were.]

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Relativity)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Decoy Photograph)

Decoy © 2009 RFHay; Not a “real duck” but an “image of one” that resulted in a “perceptual false premise” that got a lot of "real ducks" killed 75 to a 100 years ago (just as identifying with one’s self-image is still fatal today); Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Relativity
As an Absolute Premise
Is illogical.

Relativity
As a Premise of Being
Is dysfunctional.

Relativity
As the Ground of One’s Being
Is Self-Ignorant.

(c) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Reflected Light)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Tulip Photograph)

Tulip (c) 2005 RFHay: The difference between “what is” and what “appears to be” lies in the eye of the beholder, as does the apparent "radiant beauty" of this flower; Companion haiku: Accomanying.

What I appear to
Be is a relative state
Of That which I Am.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Be the Light)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Behold the Light Photograph)

[Rich Note: (Photo Caption) Behold the Light (C) 2009 RFHay; "I Will There Be Light" both Declares and Decrees What Everlastingly Is; Companion haiku: Accompanying.]

"I Will There Be Light"
Is a Perfectly Divine
Double Entendre.

"I Will There Be Light"
Applies at Every Level
Of Conscious Being.

[Rich Note: The Real Beauty of this Divine Declaration and/or Decree is that it works at both a "Macro and Micro Level of Perception" and, as such, might be called a "Quad-Entendre." ]

[Rich Note: Or, Biblically Speaking, "Ye are the Light of the World. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." "Let your Light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." (Matt 5:14 & 16). And the Light of which Jesus speaks, "That was theTrue Light which Ligheth every man that cometh into the world "(Jo 1:9), I would suggest,is the Light of Awareness I Am, You Are and All Is.]

(c) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Boundless Vision)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(The Vine Photograph)

The Vine (C) 2009 RFHay; As grapes must give up their individuality (re: die to themselves) in order to release their Common Spirit, so too does carnal consciousness have to be sacrificed for the Aware Presence of Being I Am to Be Realized; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

In Mental Stillness
One's Awareness expands to
Embrace All Being.

In Silent Stillness
One's Focal length and breadth of
Vision is Boundless.

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Mental Leverage)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Self-Entangled Photograph)

Self-Entangled (C) 2008 RFHay; Companion haiku: (Reprise) "Caught up in details, a web of my own weaving, lunch for the spider."

Mental leverage
Is zero for thoughts I am
Identified with.

Self-identified
With mind I lack both mental
Space and leverage.

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Free to Be)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Sail Away Photograph)

Sail Away (C) 2009 RFHay; One way of temporarily escaping "me" (re: I as I think I am, the seer and/or ego) is changing one's "mental, emotional and physical perspective" through "personal" vacations in general and para-sailing in particular; Companion haiku: Accoompanying.

In Seeing I Am
Not me I Am Free to Be
Myself as I Am.

In Seeing I Am
Not me I Am Free to Be
Awareness Itself.

(c) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Not Me)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Self-Distortion Photograph)

Self-Distortion (C) 2008 RFHay: Though "seeing" emanates from "two eyes" both the field of vision "seen" and the "consciousness" in which it arises are "one" until conceptually distorted in a manner similar to the sun's reflection in this pool; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

In Seeing I Am
Not me but Seeing Itself
Only One Exists.

In Seeing I Am
Not me but Seeing Itself
I find what I seek.

[Rich Note: Some additional "third-line" options: There is no other, Self-seeking ceases, The Circle comes Full, The Beginning Ends, I Realize Oneness, Only God Exists, I Am Limitless, I Am Free at Last, I Am Free Indeed, I Am Full of Life, I Am Full of Light, I Am Enlightened, I Am What I Am, All is Enlightened, There is Only One and Perfection is Seen.]

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Beautiful Dreamer)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Plato's Cave Photograph)

Plato's Cave: A framed Andrew Wyeth print that reminded us of our yellow lab, Higgins, who at 13 plus is still able to make it up the stairs (with periodic "bunny hops"), but had to give up the bed and frisbee chasing a year or so ago; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Wake-up to Being
The Space-Like Awareness in
Which Life Arises.

Wake-up to Being
The Space-Like Awareness you
Can never not Be.

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Divine Offspring)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Vietnam Vet Show Photograph)

Vietnam Vet Show (82 or 83);Nearly all of these abstract drawings (most of which introduce chapters in OOMM) are "visual ideas" that point to the centrally radiant, vibratory implications of Pure Consciousness and Being as the Ground of Existence; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

The Awareness I
Am in Vibratory Form
Is What Being Is.

Still Awareness wed
To Vibratory Awareness
Give Birth to Being.

Still Awareness wed
To Moving Awareness gives
Birth to Consciousness.

[Rich Note: The first of these, which appeared (with five other variants) as a comment to the latest post on Gather, was inspired by Rene's request for a simplification in verbiage aimed at making the "amalgam" insight (and its "mind-blowing" implication that the Pure Vibratory Energy of Being is innately Cognizant, Intelligent and Self-Aware, in and of Itself) offered a bit clearer.]

(C)2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Zero and One)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Forty-Plus Photograph)

Forty-Plus (C) 2009 RFHay; As the previous post suggests, a marriage of Positive and Negative, Vibrant and Still, Plus and Minus or One and Zero may be likened to a Cosmic Wedding of the Divine Masculine and Feminine Principles (or Christ and His Bride); Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Conscious Being Is
An Amalgam of Still and
Vibrant Awareness.

Aware-Presence is
An Amalgam of Still and
Vibrant Awareness.

[Rich Note: A number of potential substitutes for the first line follow: Being Itself Is, Pure Consciousness Is, The One I AM Is, The Son of God Is, The Christ of God Is, The Word made Flesh Is, Divine Spirit Is, "I as I Am" Is, In Truth I Am Is, All That I Am Is, All That I See Is, That which I Am is, Everything Seen Is, All Creation Is, All Existence Is and Knowledge I Am Is.]

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Seeing of Being)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Elemental Photograph)

Elemental © 2008 RFHay; "Fire, Air, Earth and Water" as Elemental Vibratory Patterns of Conscious Energy that we witness and then conceptualize into "dirt, scrub brush, dead roots, pine tree, river bank, rippling water, reflected sunlight and air; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

I Am the Seeing
Of Being I Am and not
A body or mind.

I Am the Seeing
Of Being I Am and not
The person I think.

I Am the Seeing
Of Being I Am and not
A concept of That.

© RFHay 2009

Hay-Ku of the Day (One In Many)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Bend In the River Photgraph)

Bend In the River (c) 2008 RFHay; Where is this beautiful image momentarily arising, if not the "field of conscious energy" withing the geographic confined of your skull (physically speaking); and are you the Ultimate Witness of the That or just another mental object; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Seeing Itself as
I Am is the Absolute
Nature of Being.

That by which I see
I Am is the Absolute
Nature of Being.

[Rich Note: What’s going on within the geographic confines of your skull, behind your eyes, right now? Is it not everything you see before your eyes, and is this not actually composed of patterns of mental energy arising within your own head? Is it not also true that the patterns which you presently identify as yourself are composed of the exact same mental material you identify as other? (from the metaphoric introduction to Chapter 5, “Of Twain One New Man,” of Out of My Mind and Back to My Senses).]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Ultimate Reality)

[RichNote: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Faded Flyboy Photograph)

Faded Flyboy: A "very young flyboy" who hasn't existed, excepted as photographic memory (presently appearing as a pattern of conscious energy), in 40 years (taken at Williams AFB, AZ in 1969) and, as such, is no longer Real by Absolute Standards; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

The Seer and Seen
Always change whereas Seeing
Itself Never does.

[Rich Note: By Absolute Standards, only that which never changes is Real. Or, as Sri Ramana replied when Papaji's answered "I've been playing with Krishna" when asked "Where have you been?", "Where is Krishna Now? What comes and goes is not Real!"]

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Realization)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Buddha Mind Photograph)

Buddha Mind (C) 2008 RFHay; "Buddha Mind" is another Name for the Aware Presence of Being, Conscious Aliveness, Consciousness(of God) or Witnessing Presence I Am Conscious of Being; Realizing "I Am That" which knows "I Am" is the Ultimate Self-Realization; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Seeing "I Am That
By which I know I Am" is
Self-Realization.

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Enlightenment)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Dead End Photograph)

Dead End (C) 2008 RFHay; Being a "mental subject" (as one end of a conceptual stick) that has relations with "mental objects" (the other end of the same stick), instead of "Being the Seeing" of both, is a case of mistaken identity that leds to a "dead end"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Being the Seeing
In which everything happens
Is Enlightenment.

Being the Seeing
In which everything happens
Is Instant Freedom.

[Rich Note: More potential third lines: I Am Free at Last; Restores Paradise; Offers Salvation; Is the Grace of God; Is Life, Light and Love; Is self-transcending; Is beyond the mind; Is missed by the mind; Is what we all seek; Cannot be attained and Frees me from myself.]

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Transcendence)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Pearl of Great Worth Photograph)

Pearl of Great Worth (C) 2009 RFHay; Humans have a "self-transcendent potential to Be" that depends on their "waking-up" to being beyond conception and so Seeing they are not the "mental mushrooms (kept in the dark and feed fertilizer) they think: Companion haiku: Accompanying.

I Am the Seeing
That includes and transcends both
The "seer and seen."

I Am the Seeing
That includes and transcends All
Relative matters.

[Rich Note: Polar opposites, linguistic pairs, self-reflective thought, carnal conception, carnal mindedness and relativity would all work equally well as the third line of the second offering.]

(C) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Where's Waldo?)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Temporal Beauty Photograph)

Temporal Beauty © 2008 RFHay: Is “I as I think I am” any more substantial, in terms of its present physical reality, then this lovely photography memory of a rose that ceased to be (in other than a photographic form) more than a year ago?; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Can the locus of
Being I call “me” be found
When I look for it?

What is found if I
Look for the locus of thought
I think to be “me”?

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Locus or Hocus Pocus?)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Big Tree Photograph)

Big Tree 2007; A relative perspective creates a “central sense of being” that makes “me feel and act” as if “I” were the Center of the Universe,” but where is the locus of this “central sense of self” I refer to as “me"?; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Is there a locus
For the Consciousness I Am
Aware of Being?

Is there a locus
For the Aware Presence of
Being I call “me”?

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Limitation)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Into the Light Photograph)

Into the Light © 2007 RFHay; This cave’s dark and close confines versus the light and vast space of “all out doors” is a beautiful metaphor for the “cave of relative mind and thought” compared to the boundless potential to Be of Pure Awareness; companion haiku: Accompanying.

The ego limits
An otherwise Absolute
Potential to Be.

Thinking relative
Limits mankind’s Absolute
Potential to Be.

Carnal conception
Constrains Mankind’s Limitless
Potential for Life.

[Rich Note: Although somewhat redundant with respect to the last offering, these do serve to more fully indicate what the “present cap” (re: the relative, self-reflective, carnal state of egocentric mind and/or consciousness we mistakenly identify with as ourselves)] on “Our Limitless Potential to Be” ultimately is.]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Absolute Potential)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(The Sky's the Limit Photograph)

The Sky’s the Limit © 2008 RFHay; Although it “only appears” that the plane at the head of this contrail is “heading for the stars” it still makes a nice companion to today’s offering; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

We are joint-heir to
An Absolute Potential
To Be thought limits.

Mankind’s Absolute
Potential to Be is bound
By relative thought.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Effortless Being)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Apparent Flying Photograph)

Apparent Flying © 2008 RFHay; If the guy with the wings imagines he's flying based on his own “personal effort” he would be missing the fact he isn’t really flying and that standing on the shoulders of "unseen others" only gaves that appearance;Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Being what I Am
In Essence requires zero
Personal effort.

Being what I Am
In Spirit and Truth takes no
Effort on “my part.”

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Witnessing One)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Sail Away Photograph)

Sail Away © 2002 RFHay; As the wind can only be known indirectly through its effect on the flags, sails and boat, so too is the Aware Presence I Am only knowable in relation to the “apparent patterns of mental energy” that arise within It; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

The Self-Evident
Aware Presence I Am is
The Witness of All.

The Self-Evident
Witnessing Presence I Am
Is what Spirit Is.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Evident)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Mystic Rose 2 Photograph)

Mystic Rose 2 (c) 2009 RFHay; The mysterious nature of beauty, so perfectly and simply expressed in a rose, is a direct experience of the heart and only a partial reflection in the head; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Being the Seeing
I Am is the Mystery
At the Heart of All.

I Am is the Self
Evident Mystery that
Is “hid from ages.”

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Letting Love's Light Shine)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(The All Seeing Eye Photograph)

The All-Seeing Eye; The Masonic “All-Seeing Eye” on the dollar bill is a perfect symbol for "That by which I know I Am, You Are and All Is," when "Seeing” from the “Wide-Open, Selfless, Impersonal Perspective" of the Absolute; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Life is Feeling with
An Open Heart, a Still Mind
And a Single-Eye.

Light is Seeing with
An Open Heart, a Still Mind
And a Single-Eye.

Love is Being with
An Open Heart, a Still Mind
And a Single-Eye.

[Rich Note: Peace, Joy or God could also be subsituted as the first word in any of today's offerings.]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Unitive Principle)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Eagle vs Snake Photograph)

Eagle vs Snake © 2009; The Mexican coat of arms of an “eagle conquering a snake” has a number of other good symbolic interpretations (re: good over evil, the sun over the earth), but the one I most prefer is the Ultimate Triumph of Spirit (as Pure or Non-Dual Consciousness) over Flesh (as carnal, egocentric mind and/or consciousness), and the Self-transcendance and resurrection so implied (re: "I Am he who liveth and was dead; and behold, I Am alive forever more. Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death" (Rev 18-1); Companion haiku: Accompanying.

A “coin” bridges its
Sides as Consciousness bridges
Inside and outside.

A “coin” bridges its
Sides as Consciousness bridges
Subject and object.

A “coin” bridges its
Sides as Consciousness bridges
Myself and others.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Bridging Mental Space)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Bridge to Glory)

Bridge to Glory © 2005 RFHay; An image I’ve always been fond of that seems an appropriate companion to today’s offering; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

I Am is the Bridge
Over Troubled Water that
All have access to.

The One Bridge over
Troubled Mental Waters is
The Knowledge I Am.

[Rich Note: Inspired by Henry’s Gather comment on the last “Everlasting Arms" post; a comment which suggested the possibility that “clinging to ideas” might be a kind of “bridge over troubled waters.”]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Everlasting Arms)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Fallen Into Glory)

Fallen Into Glory (c) 2007 RFHay; Are we (as mind) clinging to the "dead wood" of past memory (and the self-imagined future it projects) or letting go (as this fallen tree has) into the "Shimmering Glory" of the Living Waters of Life as It Is?; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Clinging to ideas
To avoid falling into
Myself as I Am.

Clinging to ideas
To avoid falling into
Everlasting Arms.

Clinging to ideas
To avoid falling into
The Eternal Now.

[Rich Note: A number of other "third line choices" that also came to mind include: The Unknowable, The Everlasting, Never-Ending Life, The Knowledge I Am, This Present Moment, Being Here and Now, The Truth of Being, Pure Being Itself, The Hope of Glory, Absolute Being, Non-Dual Awareness, The Eternal One, The Ancient of Days, The Father of All and The Absolute One.]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Into the Mystery)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Zen Garden 9 Photograph)

Zen Garden 9 © 2002 RFHay; A stream of water into a lake (as in this image) or a river to the sea naturally seek the “path of least resistance” (as the Taoist “Watercourse Way” and Japanese "Jujitsu" both suggest) to its Ultimate Destiny; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Sooner or later
We all let go into the
Mystery of Life.

Falling in Love is
A letting go into the
Mystery of Life.

[Rich Note: Inspired by a short excerpt (re: “Let go into the Mystery. Let yourself go.”) from a Van Morrison song entitled, “The Mystery.” ]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (What I Am and Am Not)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Got It Photograph)

Got It © 2005 RFHay; Unlike Boddhi, who got what he was after, the body-mind complex, being partial and in constant motion, never will “get” the Still, Silent and Peaceful State of Pure, Unitary Consciousness that is the Ground of its Being; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Not the body-mind
Organism I think but
The Knowledge I Am.

Not the body-mind
Complex I believe but the
Consciousness I Am.

Not the body-mind
Concept I conceive but the
One that knows I Am.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Eternal Reward)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Returning Wave Photograph)

Returning Wave © 2007 RFHay; A mind focused on Being Consciously Aware returns to its Source in a manner similar to waves returning to the Sea from which they are never truly parted; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Keeping in mind the
Consciousness I Am offers
Eternal Reward.

Keeping in mind the
Aware Presence I Am is
Abiding in Christ.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (One Safe Place)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Zen Garden 8 Photograph)

Zen Garden 8 © 2002 RFHay; During 777 days I spent countless hours walking in this Garden in Narita, Japan; and never felt more safe or secure than when I had ‘lost myself” in the tangible stillness and silence of this "Safe Place"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

The “One Safe Place” is
Being as I Am prior to
Self-reflective thought.

The “One Safe Place” is
Being Presence Here and Now
Prior to any thought.

[Rich Note: These were inspired by a beautiful, though bittesweet, song entitled “One Safe Place,” sung by Marc Cohen – a song which seems to underscore the ultimate futility of seeking that which we ourselves “always already are” prior to “thinking and believing otherwise.”]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Divine Amnesia)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Empty Seat Photograph)

Empty Seat © 2007 RFHay: An “empty chair” recycled out of a "fallen tree" that reminds me of the “mental absence” to “Being Here and Now” (re: Myself as I Am) that relative thought naturally occasions; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Self-identified
With a partial state of mind
Amnesia sets in.

I forget myself
As I Am in favor of
Myself as I think.

[Rich Note: One pulled from “Out of My Mind and Back to My Senses” (OOMM) that seem to fit the present sequence and a new companion piece.]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (One Seeing)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Mountain Top Perspective)

Mountain Top Perspective © 2005 RFHay; Unidentified with the conceptual objects (including seer and seen) this image normally calls to mind, I would remain the “Seeing” that includes, unites and transcends all such "particular levels" of observation: Companion haiku: Accompanying.

What is “seen, felt and
Thought” cannot Be what “I” as
The “One Seeing” Is.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Being Confused)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Zen Garden 13 Photograph)

Zen Garden 13 © 2002 RFHay; Though it is unlikely I, as an observer, would identify with this garden pathway as “me", it would be quite natural (and human) to identity with “my body” as “me,” even though it is just as much “outside of me,” as its witness, as the pathway; Companion haiku: I Am the Aware Presence of Being I Am and not the body.

That which I Am and
That which I appear to Be
Are Being confused.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Sacrifice)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Surrogate Life Photograph)

Surrogate Life (c) 2007 RFHay; The degree this sculpture captures the innate playfulness "living dolphins" exhibit is on a par with the fidelity with which "I as an idea" manifest the Limitless Potential to Be "I as I Am in Spirit and Truth" Am heir to: Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Sacrificing the
Aware Presence I Am for
“I” as an idea.

Sacrificing this
Present Moment of Being
For a surrogate.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (A Priceless Present)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Surrogate Trees Photograph)

Surrogate Trees © 2007 RFHay; Nice as metal sculpture goes, but a poor substitute for the “real trees” that the wooden fence it is affixed to blocks from view; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Carnal conception
Trades a Priceless Present for
A "personal dream."

Egocentric thought
Trades a Priceless Present for
An idea called “me.”

Relative thinking
Trades a Priceless Present for
A dream of Being.

[Rich Note: For those more theologically inclined, the "the Kingdom of God," "the House of the Lord" or the "Mind or Consciousness of God" might be substituted for "A Priceless Present" in any of the offerings.]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Stop Thinking)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Thinking or Being? Photograph)

Thinking or Being? © 2009 RFHay; I cannot Be Consciously Aware I Am while I am thinking about It; Companion haiku: I cannot think and Be Aware I Am in the same instant of time.

Stop thinking about
Being Consciously Aware
And Simply Be That!

[Rich Note: Time to drag out that old Boeing 727 "trailing edge of technology" story about the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) that says "Don't Sink, Don't Sink, Don't Sink" when one is too low on an ILS Glide Path; but, due to the "trailing edge digital voice technology," really sounds much more like, "Don't Think, Don't Think, Don't Think"; and, as unintentional as it may be, sums up in a nutshell the advise I would offer to anyone who might ask (myself included -- lol) after 40 years of Truth seeking.]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Trick)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Magic Hat Photograph)

Magic Hat © 2009 RFHay; This is as close as I could get to an image of “pulling a rabbit out of a magic hat” on short notice, so I used three surrogates; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

The trick to Being
Happy as I Am is to
Stop trying to Be.

The trick to Being
Happy as I Am is not
Thinking about it.

The trick to Being
Happy is to stop thinking
And Be What I Am.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (A Satisfied Mind)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Empty Bench Photograph)

Empty Bench (c) 2008 RFHay; A "satisfied mind" is a mind that "minds nothing" whatsoever and, as such, is necessarily “still,silent, empty, open” and “No Mind” at all, but rather the Pure Aware Presence I Am; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

A “satisfied mind”
Is an oxymoron
Of the first order.

(c) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Love I Am)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Cloud Shadows Photograph)

Cloud Shadows © 2007 RFHay; Unusual picture in which clouds not only block direct apprehension of the sun’s presence, but project their own darkness in place of the light that would otherwise be self-evident; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

The Love I seek is
The Love I Am when I stop
Thinking otherwise.

The Peace I seek is
The Peace I Am when I stop
Thinking about “me.”

[Rich Note: Any of the other seven "Fruits of the Spirit" (Gal 5:23-23), as well as Life or Being Itself, might also be substituted for Love and Peace in either piece.]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-ku of the Day (Innate Joyfulness)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Rushing Waters Photograph)

Rushing Waters © 2008 RFHay; The rushing mental waters of self-referenced, conscious and centered words and thought “veil" the Ground of our own Being from us in much the same way the rushing waters of this little waterfall hide the riverbed below; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Self-consciousness veils
The Innate Joyfulness of
Being prior to thought.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Glassy Essence)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(1663 Shakespeare Engraving)

1663 Shakespeare Engraving (from The Holloway Pages); “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing." — Macbeth; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

The "Glassy Essence"
Shakespeare referred to is the
Consciousness I Am.

[Rich Note: “But man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what he’s most assured, his glassy essence, like an angry ape, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep” (Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.).]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Fulfillment)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhy333.gather.com.]

(Lovely Sentiment Photograph)

Lovely Sentiment © 2007 RFHay; Although this short Browning verse offers a lovely sentiment, it assumes the future holds more potential for “fulfillment” then this "Present Moment of Being" (the only Real Time there is) and, as such, is a patent lie; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Can a separate
Person become whole and still
Remain separate?

© 2009 RFHay

Hya-Ku of the Day (Real Time)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Time and Space Photograph)

Time and Space © 2009 RFHay; Time and Space are relative concepts of Being that the mind, because of its narrow, partial and self-limited perspective, needs to put what would otherwise be Infinite into a endless number of little, conceptual, mental boxes; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

The “future and past”
Are thoughts about “there and then”
I think about “Now.”

The “future and past”
Are thoughts about “there and then”
I think “here and now.”

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Missing the Moment)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(In Time Photograph)

In Time (c) 2008 RFHay; In five minutes these clouds were gone and in twelve hours so was the sun's light, not as function of the passage of time, but as a result of relative mind and thought's partial and limited perspective of Being; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Thinking of future
And past I miss this Present
Moment of Being.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Concptual Projection)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Conceptual Projection Photograph)

Conceptual Projection © 2008 RFHay; If Boddhi, the black lab in this image, is thought to be its subject everything else automatically becomes a complementing object, even though any such distinction is purely a conceptual projection; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Subject and object
Are apparent states of mind
Thought into Being.

Subject and object
Are relative states of mind
Conception projects.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Double-Mindedness)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Mirror Mirror Photograph)

Mirror Mirror © 2008 RFHay; More “apparent duality” occasioned by the reflective nature of the water illustrative of the “reflective nature of mind” which likewise projects “conceptual double-mindedness"; Companion haiku: Thinking creates an apparent division in Consciousness Itself.

Thinking creates an
Apparent division in
The Knowledge I Am.

Thinking appears to
Divide the Aware Presence
I Am and You Are.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Duality)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Duality Photograph)

Duality © 2008 RFHay; The seeming duality that self-reflective thought projects into Being is not significantly different than the “as above and so below” duality of the sky and ground's refection in this stream; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Relative thinking
Divides Consciousness into
Particular states.

Conception divides
Being into subjective
And objective states.

[Rich Note: A necessary caveat to this insight is that any such division is apparent only, as Being/Consciousness Itself is Integral and Ultimately Indivisible from an Absolute Perspective.]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Awakening)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Resurrecting Sun Photograph)

Resurrecting Sun (c) 2008 RFHay; Apparently "dying each night and resurrecting each morning" the sun offers a perfect physical metaphor for the Ultimate Immortality of Being, irrespective of appearance; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Called to resurrect
Consciousness from the grave of
Carnal conception.

Dying to self-thought
Resurrects Christ from the tomb
Of self-consciousness.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Resurrection Now)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Stone Rolled Away Photograph)

Stone Rolled Away © 2004 RFHay; This Heartbox pose looks a great deal like an old world tomb in which the stone (a lowered "I" in this case that becomes a “footstool” in the “standing cross” pose) is rolled away to reveal the “Heart"; Companion haikyu: Accompanying.

Dying to myself
As I think resurrects Christ
As the One I Am.

Dying to myself
As I think resurrects the
One I Am in Christ.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Divine Vineyard)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Beyond the Vine Photograph)

Beyond the Vine © 2009 RFHay; Beyond the “I Am the Vine” imagery of this cross is the less obvious symbolism of “individual grapes having to die” in order to fulfill their collective and unified destiny as Spirit imbued Wine; Companion haiku: Thinking crucifies the Aware Presence I Am on a carnal cross.

Carnal conception
Crucifies Consciousness on
A conceptual cross.

Egocentric thought
Crucifies Consciousness on
The matrix of mind.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku fo the Day (The Buzz of Being)

[Rich Note: Companion haiku may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Heavy Mental Load Photograph)

Heavy Mental Load (c)2008 RFHay; Egocentric thought harnesses "me,myself and I" as its "subject" to a heavy load of "past memories and future imaginations" that cost One the Fullness of Life in the Present Moment; Companion haiku: Thinking may extend Life in time but it also turns Life into work.

Thinking may extend
Life in time but it sure kills
The Buzz of Being.

Thinking may extend
Being in time but it kills
The Fullness of Life.

(c) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Projected Limits)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Self-Projected Visions Photograph)

Self-Projected Visions © 2009 RFHay; “A dual state of mind projects its relative limits in much the same way that looking through a pair of binoculars projects circlar limits”; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

With no “relative
Perspective” I Am left with
An Absolute One.

(c) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Self-Existence)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Natural Bridge Photograph)

Natural Bridge (c) 2007 BKWright; As the sky seen through this rock bridge appears narrow and constricted, so does the boundless "Sky of Awareness" seen through the partial and self-limited perspective of egocentric thought; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Relative thinking
Creates a contracted sense
Of self-existence.

© 2008 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (More Abundant Life)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Just Hanging Out Photograph)

Just Hanging Out © 2008 RFHay: Neither tree nor vine has any difficulty with “Being Present Here and Now,” as neither has any self-reflective capacity to “remember a past and project a future,” and so imagine Being anywhere but Perfectly Present; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

More Abundant Life
Is about thinking less and
Being more Aware.

More Abundant Life
Is about thinking less and
Being more Present.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Loving the Lord)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Holy Communion Photograph)

Holy Communion (c) 2009 RFHay; This "metallic relief" of the Last Supper not only reveals how "apparent outer difference" and "essential inner oneness" go together, but how the "One can be Many and One" at the same time; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Attention paid to
Being Consciously Aware
Is Divine Worship.

Attention paid to
The Aware Presence I Am
Is Loving the Lord.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Happy as I Am)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Happy Time Photograph)

Happy Time © 2008 RFHay; If the “Pre-Conceptual Nature” of Being is “Life, Light, Love, Peace and Joy” then it is only the apparent relativity that “minding this to the exclusion of that” creates that keeps us from knowing It; Companion haiku: "Happy to Be" the Conscious Aliveness I Am prior to conception.

“Happy to Be” the
Conscious Aliveness I Am
The rest is Gravy.

“Happy to Be” the
Conscious Aliveness I Am
Any more is less.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Abide In the Vine)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(The Vine Photograph)

The Vine © 2009 RFHay; “I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:for without me ye can do nothing.”(Jn 5:5); Called to Abide in Christ as the Aware Presence of Being I Am .

Abiding in Christ
As the Conscious Aliveness
I Am is the Way.

[Rich Note: "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (Jn 5:4).]

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Living Light)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Tree of Life Photograph)

Tree of Life © 2008 RFHay: Gnarled and twisted every which way (including back on itself) the branches of this tree originate from and remain rooted in the Same Ground; Companion haiku: This Vibrant Conscious Aliveness I Am lived as Jesus Christ.

This Vibrant Sense of
Conscious Aliveness I Am
Lives in Every Heart.

This Vibrant Sense of
Conscious Aliveness I Am
Is the Father’s Child.

This Vibrant Sense of
Conscious Aliveness I Am
Is the “Living Light.”

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Abiding in the I Am)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com; this is a delayed posting of the April 1st offering.]

(Living Stones Photograph)

Living Stones © 2005 RFHay; "Vibrant Conscious Aliveness" showing up in “apparent energy forms” normally "perceived and conceived" to be other than I Am; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Abiding in the
Vibrant Conscious Aliveness
I Am is the Way.

Abiding in the
Vibrant Conscious Aliveness
I Am is Freedom.

Abiding in the
Vibrant Conscious Aliveness
I Am is Pure Joy.

[Rich Note: I Am is Pure Light, I Am is Pure Love, I Am is Pure Life, I Am is Being, I Am is Living and I Am Free at Last all work equally well for the third line.]

(c) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Clear Seeing)

[Rich Note: Companion image can be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com; this is a delayed posting of the 31 March offering.]

(A Ray of Hope Photograph)

A Ray of Hope (c) 2004 RFHay; Fair weather and a sunny day made flying a "sunday walk in the park"; whereas, thunderstorms and bad weather made it like "going to work on a monday morning in a snowstorm"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Stop relating to
Yourself as a relative
Concept of Being.

Stop relating to
Life Relatively and Be
Absolutely Free.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Seeking Oneself)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

"Light, Light, More Light"! © 2009 RFHay; "Life is like the silver moon, its borrowed light is gone so soon, hide and seek its favorite game, it seems to change, yet stays the same"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

I am seeking what
I can never lose in what
I can never keep.

What God gives I can
Never lose; what the world gives
I can never keep!

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (The True You)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Built for Love Photograph)

Built for Love © 2009 RFHay; An interesting thing about “Build a Bear” stuffed animals is, however different they may appear to be on the outside (on the surface), on the inside (and so at Heart) they are All filled with the same Fundamental Substance; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

“That in You” which is
“Constant and Ever-Present”
Is your “True Nature.”

“That in You” which is
“Constant and Always Present”
Is “Life, Light and Love.”

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (You Are That)

[Rich Note: Companion haiku may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Burning Though the Clouds Photograph)

Burning Through the Clouds © 2008 RFHay; The Pure Light of Awareness is presently burning through the "collective mental clouds" of words and thoughts that habitually attract the self-focused attention that causes ignorance of the Aware Presence I Am; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Find “That in You” which
Is “Never Not Present” and
Realize “You Are That.”

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Out of Sight)

[Rich Note: Companion haiku may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Groundhog Day Photograph)

Groundhog Day (c) 2000 RFHay; Day 3, 4 or 5 in Childress Texas, during what became a 7 day, mind-numbing waiting for 2 different transmission changes; a circumstance that clearly shows on my face but disappeared every night while asleep; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

If you shut your eyes
Does anything remain that
Is other than thought?

With your eyes shut is
There anything there that does
Not depend on thought?

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (States of Mind)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Zen Garden 8 Photograph)

Zen Garden 8 © 2002 RFHay; The beautiful images captured in this "electronic replication" are just as real as a temporary state of my consciousness (and yours) occurring “Now,” as they were eight years ago in conceptual "real time"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Are the Inside and
Outside different if both
Arise in the mind?

If the world and I
Both arise in Consciousness
How do we differ?

© 2008 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Independence)

Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Postcard Photograph)

Postcard © 2005 RFHay: Though the camera effectively froze everything in this picture (including a momentary point of observation), everything was (and still is) ever-moving and changeful, except for the mental and physical space it "comes and goes" in; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

What I Am does not
Depend on self-conception
For Its Existence.

What I Am does not
Depend on self-reflective
Circumstance to Be.

© 2009 RFHay

hay-ku of the Day (Essential to All)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(No Thin At All Photograph)

No Thing At All © 2005 RFHay; The Aware Presence of Being I Am -- more often referred to as Consciousness, Being, the Mind of God, the Holy One, The Lord or Christ -- is the Conscious Equivalent of the physical space in which the sun in this image sets; Companion haiku: Without the Aware Presence of Being I Am "I" would Be No One.

Remove the Aware
Presence of Being I Am
And “I” cease to Be.

Without the Aware
Presence of Being I Am
“I” would disappear.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Where Would I Be?)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Sun Block Photograph)

Sun Block © 2005 RFHay; Although the sun as the origin of the light is itself blocked by this cloud, its light must still be present (thought relatively invisible and, perhaps, taken for granted) to see the cloud that temporarily blocks its source: Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Where would "I" Be
Without the Aware Presence
Of Being I Am?

Can "I" Be other
Than the Pure Aware Presence
Of Being I Am?

“What am I” if not
The Aware Presence I Am
Conscious of Being?

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Witness of All)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Me and Myself Photograph)

[Me and Myself © 2009 RFHay; “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known"(1 Cor 13:12); Companion haiku: “I as I think” have to go for “I as I Am” to “Be as I Am."]

The Living God Is
The Aware Presence I Am
That Witnesses All.

The Living God Is
The Aware Presence I Am
That "people" ignore.

The Living God Is
The Aware Presence I Am
"I" can never know.

[Rich Note: The "people that ignore" and the "I that can never know" the “Aware Presence of Beng I Am” are names for "mind as a process of mental self-reflection" and/or "ego as a concept of Being separate and apart."]

(c) 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Heart of Being)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(States of Mine Photograph)

States of Mine © 2007 RFHay; Everything seen in this image is a state of mind (itself a “centrally self-referenced system of relative, mental processing”) which “arises in” and is “composed of” the Pure Aware Presence of Being One Ultimately Is; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Underlying All
Is the Pure Aware Presence
Of Being I Am.

Living within All
Is the Pure Aware Presence
Of Being You Are.

Essential to All
Is the Pure Aware Presence
Of Being One Is.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (All Ways)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Eyes on the Prize Photograph)

Eyes on the Prize © 2005 RFHay; If I kept my “Eyes on the Prize” of the “Aware Presence of Being I Am” as faithfully as Boddhi is this ball I would know "I Am That" in "No Timez"; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Pure Love of Being
The Aware Presence I Am
Embraces All Ways.

© 2009 RFHay

Hay-Ku of the Day (Haiku, Senryu or Hay-Ku?)

[Rich Note: Companion image may be viewed at rfhay333.gather.com.]

(Zen Garden 8 Photograph)

Zen Garden 8 © 2002 RFHay; A favorite image from a Zen Garden located in Narita, Japan, that feels particularly appropriate to today's dialogue; Companion haiku: Accompanying.

Smart Bombs to Target
Deeply Embedded Patterns of
Self-Centered Thought.

[Rich Note: In addition to today’s “reprise haiku,” I thought I’d offer the following response to a discussion that arose in the comments section of the “Seeking Ends” offering. In this regard, I felt it worthwhile to clear the air (but probably no once and for all), at the level of a post, what haiku and senryu technically are in their classical forms; and how “hay-ku,” which is a play on words used in an attempt to differentiate the “haiku-like insights” being offered (which are predominately intellectual in nature and presented in 5-7-5 syllable format) from their more orthodox kin, normally referred to as haiku and senryu.]

“Thank you, Michelle -- You tickle both of my Hearts (the Big as well as the Little One)”!

This on-going conversation has called to mind a favorite little book of haiku; one by a Kenneth Verity (how fitting is that name) called "Awareness Beyond Mind," (ISBN 1-85230-819-2), a title which is itself an extraction from the following haiku:"

Awakening to
The Awareness beyond mind --
Only now is real.

Shinri (1931- )

Which is a poem (a senryu actually) which pretty much says it all about “What It’s All About”, while both affirming and underscoring Michelle’s last comment to the Seeking Ends offering about Being “Now.”

However, in addition to its synoptic title, what I like best about Kenneth's book (not to mention the 39 page abbreviated history of Eastern Philosophy, as it relates to the development of both haiku and senryu) are the "near-perfect characterizations" of what haiku and senryu actually are and truly aim at offering. Some of favorite characterizations from the book follow:

(1) "Haiku is Zen-inspired verse-philosophy wholly relevant to life today. It has the directness, clarity and precision essential to good communication." (flyleaf)

[Rich Note: Given this criteria, haiku, senryn and (hopefully) hay-ku are exactly the same thing.]

(2) "The haiku catches that brief moment between perception and realization, making it available to every one." (flyleaf)

[Rich Note: Same here. Although the “haiku and senryn” tend to deal with “outward, worldly or natural” perceptions; while “hay-ku” tends to deal with “inward, mental or intellectual” perceptions.]

(3) “In one sense haiku and senryu have a single subject matter – realization of the moment ‘now’; in another sense, the true subject of the verse is the reader.” (Forward, pg ix)

[Rich Note: Once again, “spot on” with respect to what haiku, senryu and hay-ku as they all have the same "Subject Matter" and "Ultimate Intent."]

(4) “As we read, we are taken to the writer’s moment of experience without needing an explanation or rationalization to share the insight of that moment.” (Forward, pg ix)

[Rich Note: This is where some true difference begin haiku and hay-ku enters with respect to the particular “insight of the moment” shared; as a “hay-ku” insight is more often than not relates to the “nature of the mind and relative thought” (instead of Physical Nature); and, as such, appear in the form of a logical explanation of same.]

(5) “The mark of a fine writer of haiku and senryu is the precision with which the experience is conveyed to the reader and the awakening that results.” (Forward, pg ix)

[Rich Note: Although the nature of the “experience” being conveyed appears to be “conceptual or mental vs. natural," the general criteria would still seem to hold for hay-ku.][Rich Note: By the way, why do we consider conceptualization “unnatural” if it is “natural for mankind” and “mankind is part and parcel” of the Nature?)

(6) “The haiku is free from the rules and restrictions which bind orthodox waka, but it does have canons of good taste –- unwritten rules to which its voltaries conform with common consent.” (pg 33)

[Rich Note: The “…free from rules and restrictions which bind orthodox (haiku)…” fits “hay-ku” perfectly; but seldom meet “the canons of good taste or unwritten rules” criteria of Japanese haiku suggested below.]

(7) “For example, a true haiku should be a simple and direct ..sometime an exclamation) of pure response to a glimpse or scene in life, with no intervention from the logical intellect. The good haiku is a picture in words, rich in suggestiveness – not explanation or argument.” (pg 34)

[Rich Note: Well, hay-ku again meets the criteria up to the point of being “a glimpse or scene in life,” for an “intellectual conception or insight” is just as much a “scene in life,” abet a mental one, as anything else. Admittedly, however, it hay-ku are “intellect Insights into the Nature of Being; thought, perhaps, not Natural Being as normally defined.]

(8) “Its severity suggests that the ego-reflecting mirror of the poet has been shattered by a Zen-like impact, leaving un-obscured that universal mirror which reflects the Natural World.”

[Rich Note: Although hay-ku offer direct insights from the Heart (the Universal Mirror – Direct Light of the Heart versus the Self-Reflective Light of the Head)and not the “mental constructs” of “Rich Hay’s” relative, egoic state of mind and consciousness, "Ego-less-ness," in this particular case, is not being claimed.

(9) “To summarize the difference, a haiku expresses a moment or insight into the world of nature; a senryu is a satirical statement on the nature of the world.” (pg 36)

[Rich Note: Hay-Ku would also seem to meet both these criteria (although skewed toward senryu) if one concedes that the “world of man’s mind and intellect” are necessarily an “integral part” of the “World of Nature.]

(10) Several examples of Mr. Verity’s senryn that “I find" particularly enlightening” and which may actually fall into the “hay-ku” category follow:

Peering out through our
Eye-windows, pretending that
We are inside ourselves.

Religion, ever
Maintaining duality
And separation.

The “not knowing” of
Knowing, is non-conceptual
“Knowledge of Being.”

[Rich Note: The quotes from Mr. Verity’s book are used under the Fair Use doctrine of the copyright laws in the hopes they might help expanded the collective understanding of a Subject that is Near and Dear to All Hearts.]