During a recent retreat at Harmony Lake Ranch in the high desert of Eastern Oregon, I saw a spectacular sight one night as I stood under the dome of the vast night sky.  At this altitude and location, you could see nearly 360 degrees of horizon, part of which included a lake.  It was a stunningly clear night.  The Milky Way was painted across the central portion of the sky that night, curving like an enormous sparkling rainbow inside the darkened “dome.” 

What was seeing from these eyes was literally seeing the shining of billions of stars, planets, constellations, and vast empty space in a single glance.  Turning one direction, I saw the reflections of the starry night mirrored in the still dark lake.   Stars seemed to be dancing above and below simultaneously, giving a sense of disorientation about what was ground and what was not.  At one point something inside said, “Turn around,” and at that exact moment, I saw the brightest meteor I have ever seen racing across the sky in a momentary burst of light and motion.  It was a horizontal flash, appearing briefly then disappearing back into the cosmos.  In that moment, I saw a human life--no matter its years of duration-- as short as that flash, and what came to me was: “Don’t waste it on false beliefs!”

You are the Infinite, showing up as millions of galaxies and also as a body, with millions of cells, gazing at the sky.  Why hold onto ideas of separation, limitation, smallness, insufficiency?  Why judge your expression of the One as less than any other? Why grasp the penny of your so-called separate identity so tightly in your hand when you could exchange it for the All by letting go?  Why hold onto the arrogance of being a separate “me” around whom all of life should revolve when you are the wholeness of Life itself?

Your vision includes universes within universes!  What you are seeking is seeking you; what you are seeing is seeing itself through you.  Seeking, seeker, sought—a single movement. Seeing, seer, seen—a single movement.  Don’t waste this precious life in form seeing only dividing thoughts and judgments, believing you or life should be other than you are.   See what you are, what you have always been.  Shine brightly in this vast Emptiness.  Open your heart.  Come alive!  Don’t let the light you have been given fade into darkness without appreciating its gift and without offering it back to life.  Don’t waste your life on false beliefs when you could be free to See, to Love and to shine!  Like each star in the vast night sky, these forms are reflecting light from the Source.  Our job is simply to shine, and in the words of Suzuki Roshi,

. . . It is enough if you shine one corner of the world -- one corner of the room.  That is enough.”
(from Winter Shessin, December, 1969)

© Dorothy Hunt, 2010

        stillness!
        duck wings flap overhead

        flies zoom on invisible track

        stillness!
        tiny helicopters touch down on water
        their blue and brown stripes
        glistening in the sun
      silence!
       a fish jumps       
        splash!        
        concentric circles float outward.
      silence!
        listening to cat tails 
        oar sliding into water
        thoughts drifting away.
     peace!
        water still, reflections clear
        purple shirt(s), straw hat(s)
        Is there one, or are there two?
     peace!
        not needing 
        another moment.
        This one is the moon.

                      - Dorothy Hunt - Harmony Lake Ranch:  8 - 16 - 08