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.