Question for Eric & Tykal

July 7, 2002

Dear Eric & Tykal,

I have a question for the two of you, since you are poets.

In my dreams at night, I am always writing poetry to my

Beloved Darling. It is a perpetual sobhet, a conversation

in poetic language far more intense than the pale facsimiles

that appear in the writing that comes through in the waking hours.

Not only that, but I find that the expressions of Love that appear

in my dream writing are such that there is no separate other.

In other words, there is a sense of two bodies on the physical plane

(and of course this is the delicious Play), but in the other realms

(like the dream writing), it is as if there is no other, that the

writing is being done and heard by the same One.

Does this bear any resemblance to the

experience of either one of you?

LoveAlways,

b

July 7, 2002

Robert writes.....

Dear Eric & Tykal,

I have a question for the two of you, since you are poets.

In my dreams at night, I am always writing poetry to my

Beloved Darling. It is a perpetual sobhet, a conversation

in poetic language far more intense than the pale facsimiles

that appear in the writing that comes through in the waking hours.

Not only that, but I find that the expressions of Love that appear

in my dream writing are such that there is no separate other.

In other words, there is a sense of two bodies on the physical plane

(and of course this is the delicious Play), but in the other realms

(like the dream writing), it is as if there is no other, that the

writing is being done and heard by the same One.

Does this bear any resemblance to the

experience of either one of you?>>>>>>>>>>>>

Dearest Robert,

thank you for this inquiry. As it is similar to the one Mazie

has asked of Susie, I will attempt to reply to both posts as

if they were one. Although I do not presume to speak for

an other in this.

The heart is an intimacy, through which we begin to understand our

relationship with the Beloved. This love affair starts as a call and an

echo, then unfolds as a love affair,

later it becomes just love speaking to love as Love.

It is a divine conversation that takes place when we have no secrets

that we keep from God. For the poet, loves voice manifests as poetry.

For the painter as visual art, for the musician as music and so on. The

divine will find its expression in us one way or an other.

When we love an other for his or her divine nature, we are making

love to the Beloved. Yet even a less perfect form of love is also this,

but there maybe personal veils that may darken our view of the full

reality of the love we are. I do not presume in any way to be the judge

of this however.

When deeply in love, the heart opens. When deeply in love with God

(please accept the word God as whatever it means to you), She

becomes your wife (husband). There is a marriage. You begin to share

everything with Her had She with you. Eventually we realize that this

sharing is a unity sharing with itself. Hafiz has said this best in his

poem - I Want Both Of Us..........

â€œI want both of us

To start talking about this great love

As if you, I, and the sun were all married

And living in a tiny room,

Helping each other to cook,

Do the wash,

Weave and sew,

Care for our beautiful

Animals.

We all leave each morning

To labor on the earth's field.

No one does not lift a great pack.

I want both of us to start singing like two

Traveling minstrels

About this extraordinary existence

We share,

As if

You, I, and God were all married

And living in

A tiny

Room.â€

The lover needs communion with the Beloved. This

communication does not rely on words alone, for they are, in

fact, just symbols of our distrust in real soul communication, yet

as symbols they can be used to carry Her love letters. The soul

already knows this language of love, yet it has grown silent in

us, for we have doubted its authority to be our spiritual tongue.

This â€˜talkingâ€™ is the talking of lovers to each other.

We begin to live as one with the Beloved, and then the real

music of love is felt as an intimacy with God that sings us into

existence. Existence becomes green with new life. The ordinary

gets extraordinary, because we are never a loneliness, apart from

existence. We are alone with God in every aspect of Her

existence. This is the great song of our divine experience, and

the heart sings a new tune as we travel in the world as the song

of Her love.

My listening has become Your hearing.

My words have become Your words

Today, I am the still root of love

and every leaf upon the Tree of Life.

Knowing nothing but love

I open the book of the world

and write Your name.

When I love your endless forms

I remember who we are,

and come nearer still,

and little birds in a million hearts

get startled and fly.

Al-Hallaj has said:

The first step is to cease isolating yourself from God......

and Inayat Khan has also said:

One reaches the stage where it is no longer the singer who

sings the song, but the song sings the singer..........

When we love the Beloved as All that she is. This Is becomes

the All. Our earthly lovers (if I may use such a quaint

expression), become mirrors for the divine. We become part

of the great song of love, losing our sense of identity as

something apart from it.

So, answering you question, on a personal level. I can

confirm, that most of my poems are great works of art that

are written in divine dialogue with the Beloved. Her

conversation never ceases. Yet it is in the souls rest in the

union of the night where this work is most perfect. Come the

day, those great utterances of love, that sweet talking

between the Beloved and the lover have to be translated, and

it is here that the great works of art become so often, just pale

facsimiles!

I always tell Susie that all my poems are for her. It is not that

I write to Susie though, it is that I write for the Beloved.

This â€˜Iâ€™ in truth does not exist as anything but the Beloved.

Her expression of Herself as this being of me. She is the one

that does all things. Our lovers are emblems of the Beautiful One.

When we surrender to that One in them, the heart begins to sing

with the Beloved's voice.

love

eric

July 7, 2002

there is a sort of automatic writing going when the analytic mind lets

go its tyranny upon the consciousness. For me, there are two levels

when this appears to be happening. I would not say that this creative

state was exactly what we would describe as dream sleep. However,

using the language we have, lets say that there is deep level which

is womb dark and from which the creative wave emerges, and then there

a twilight state where we actually seem to be participating in the creative

process. I think it is the later that you refer to.

In this second state, we have our hands upon the pen, or in my case

the keyboard. It is here that we actually dialogue with our loved one.

Writing utterly beautiful poems that seem to flow from our hearts like

water overspilling from a fountain.

No doubt this could be said in scientific language, but science does not

even begin to penetrate this mystery.

So yes, I am aware of this process. I could recount a specific instance

when this flow seemed to occur none stop with no outlet in which to

manifest itself, however it is personal and intimate to us both, so if you

want to know more, drop me a private e-mail indicating such.

love

eric

.....Dear Brother,

Thank you so much for such a lovely and heart-felt response!

Your Beauty and surrender in Love is an inspiration for all who open

to Beloved's Fair Designs.

Still, i was interested to hear if you also experienced a specific

form of writing in your dreaming. In other words, are you aware of

this activity going on, even as you sleep?

Perhaps i am a bit dense today, and unable to discern your answer in

what you say so beautifully above, but my curiosity is just more like

shop talk, and what a shop we find ourselves in, eh?

LoveAlways,

b

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All paths go somewhere. No path goes nowhere. Paths, places, sights,

perceptions, and indeed all experiences arise from and exist in and

subside back into the Space of Awareness. Like waves rising are not

different than the ocean, all things arising from Awareness are of

the nature of Awareness. Awareness does not come and go but is always

Present. It is Home. Home is where the Heart Is. Jnanis know the Heart

to be the Finality of Eternal Being. A true devotee relishes in the

Truth of Self-Knowledge, spontaneously arising from within into It

Self. Welcome all to a.

Your use of is subject to

July 7, 2002

, ErcAshfrd@a... wrote:

>So, answering you question, on a personal level. I can

confirm, that most of my poems are great works of art that

are written in divine dialogue with the Beloved. Her

conversation never ceases. Yet it is in the souls rest in the

union of the night where this work is most perfect. Come the

day, those great utterances of love, that sweet talking

between the Beloved and the lover have to be translated, and

it is here that the great works of art become so often, just pale

facsimiles!

.....Dear Brother,

Thank you so much for such a lovely and heart-felt response!

Your Beauty and surrender in Love is an inspiration for all who open

to Beloved's Fair Designs.

Still, i was interested to hear if you also experienced a specific

form of writing in your dreaming. In other words, are you aware of

this activity going on, even as you sleep?

Perhaps i am a bit dense today, and unable to discern your answer in

what you say so beautifully above, but my curiosity is just more like

shop talk, and what a shop we find ourselves in, eh?

LoveAlways,

b

July 7, 2002

Thanks for this Wim,

you have said this most well. Soma-dynamic is as good an expression as any.

Your comments address the phenomena of inspiration more generally I think.

I think Roberts question was in a certain context of a physical relationship,

but in the end its all the same. And oh yes, when we drink from that void

it does not matter what we you do, we begin to express our being more perfectly.

love

eric

Hello, writers of the "beloved's presence."

The way Eric expresses the workings of his poetic pro-duction (I use

this word in the most beautiful sense, being amazed at the profusion

of his creative results), this dynamic seems to be the way Aurobindo

wrote as well, see his epic "Savitri" but also his philosophical

writings. (Gopi Krishna talks about evidence of "genius" when

Kundalini is awakens.) As far as Aurobindo goes, although it does not

seem that the "Beloved" is as central in his writings, he assures us

that he writes FROM THE SAME SOURCE though.

Of course poetic writing is only one of the expressions flowing from

that creative source... The source evidences differently in myself...

It is as though through me it is just the flow of crystalline clarity

that sparkles and touches everything to reveal its inner and outer

divinity. I drink from that substance, not just so to speak, I live

on it, a physical substance created in the body as it is transformed

by energy from that source. I call it amrita or soma, the elixir of

immortality which flows from the centre of the head into the

throat... Most of you may not physically feel or taste that liquidy

substance but I know that many of you have that source of extreme

sweetness as well THERE...AND in the heart.

Franklin Jones talks about that as he refers to Amrita Nadi... I

believe that Nityananda does as well and even Ramana was aware of it,

if I remember well.

The sleep or dream state, or let's say a state of deep tranquillity,

samadhi, is very conducive to this almost "hydrodynamic" reality...

"soma-dynamic".

Could that be behind Bob's question?

Bob:

> Still, i was interested to hear if you also experienced

> a specific form of writing in your dreaming. In other words,

> are you aware of this activity going on, even as you sleep?

I hope that you guys don't mind that I try to pull this away a little

from the "verbal poetic" into other artful expressions of Lalita...

Painters, sculptors stand up and be counted... Dancers, music makers

come forth! All expressing praise through and from "love".

I had quite an intensive talk about this this morning with my wife...

Years ago, when still a young monk, I sang the beloved's songs as

well, and I'm reminded of that as I'm reading Mazie's, Bob's, Mark

Valentine's, Eric's, Tykal's and Lynette's poetry. I am seeing this

also as I'm looking at the work of artists like Tiepolo or Guardi

(Rococo artists). I am feeling that very much in the best of Art

Noveau when that was in it's heyday. As I travelled through the

States the last 5/6 months I actually saw it manifested in much

architecture from before the stock market crash in 1929. Something of

great love was happening in the USA... Philanthropy was based on

something very pure... I was often moved to tears even visiting a

place like Kansas City or so... Ah parts of Boston, Savannah...

As you notice I like to include all art forms into this expression of

the living beloved on this our so beloved earth... the playground of

us - if not gods - then at least potentially divine beings...

Wim

and that produces the nectar I live on and that seems to have me live a poetic life of play of love.

here, the

ErcAshfrd (AT) aol (DOT) com [ErcAshfrd (AT) aol (DOT) com]

Sunday, July 07, 2002 12:00 PM

Re: Re: Question for Eric & Tykal

Dear Robert,