Lone Bird In  A Tree

                                             Lone bird sitting high

                                       Amid swaying branches bare

                                             As winter winds blow

JoePa's Life is his
Epitaph: "A Good, Decent,
Honorable Man."

With JoePa's passing
A "Better Part of Ourselves"
Is gone from the Scene.

[Rich Note: (Photo Caption)"Goodbye, Joe!"(2012); “I can say without doubt, that if JoePa “now passes from the scene” a “Better part of All of Us” will have gone from our sight (Note to eldest son, Matt, late last night in response to a premature report of Joe's passing.]

"Refusing Every
Thought but I Am" reopens
The Door to Heaven.

We fell from Heaven
With the "thought I Am" and can
Return the same way.

The “thought I Am” leads
To the Awareness You Are
And That leads to God.

[Rich Note: These suggest some of the "whys and wherefores" of Sri Nisargadatta's simple, yet profound, Spiritual Counsel to "Stay with the I Am," to "Refuse all thoughts except one, the thought 'I Am'" or, in more detail, to "Keep in mind the feeling I Am, merge in It, till mind and feeling are one" (as just a few expressions of said Quientessential Guidance).]

[Re: "…Stay with that I Am. If you’re bothered by thoughts of being an identity, this or that; if you're bothered by problems that exist only in thought; if you're bothered by ideas of problems or something wrong, come back to the I Am. Refuse to entertain any thought but I Am. Return the mind, over and over, to the I Am…” (An extract from a transcribed audio by Charlie Hayes entitled, "I Am A’ham”).]

[Rich Note: Or, more Scripturally speaking -- with the inclusion of a little “less ego friendly” parenthetical matter -- "I Am (Is) the Way, the Truth and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father (Absolute) but by me” (the "I Am, Awareness of Being, Mind or Consciousness of God” Moses called the “I Am That I Am,” John called the “Word or Logos” and Paul referred to as “Christ in You”).]

[Rich Note: (Photo Caption) The Word (1978); Reprise of a multi-directional representation of the "Word that was in the Beginning" (the "Word that was both with God and was God") that opens Chapter 1 of OOMM; Companion haiku: "Stay with the I Am" means Pay Attention to the Awareness You Are.]

This Awareness, that
Is Aware, Right Here, Right Now,
Sees from Every Eye.

This Awareness, that
Is Aware, Right Here, Right Now,
Sees with a Single Eye.

This Awareness, that
Is Aware, Right Here, Right Now,
Knows as I Am Known.

[Re: “Have we ever been conscious of anything that was not in this Awareness, right here? Have we ever said "you" to another without really addressing some object of perception that appeared within and as this Awareness, that is Aware, right here, right now? Have we ever seen a sight, have we ever heard a sound, that did not come to us as this present consciousness?

What is the smell of a rose or the taste of a berry, or the feel of a rock, if it isn't Awareness ? It's Awareness functioning isn't it? It's Awareness Being Itself.

Aren't all of the arts and sciences, the figures and events of history, with all of their stories; aren't every sprig of grass, every grain of sand, every star in the heavens, every one, included in and as this Awareness, right here, right now, being Identity? Yes, of course, you know this is so."

(Transcription of Bill Samuel’s "Vignettes of Love 1.2" ]

[Rich Note: (Photo Caption) Right Here, Right Now (2011); The Infinite and Eternal Meet and Give Birth to Present (Here and Now) Awareness; Companion Haiku: This Awareness, that Is Aware, Right Here, Right Now, Is the Father's Child.]