8

[Guest guest]

Oft-feared tarantula's just

looking for a little love.

 

~Contra Costa Times, 10/29/02

 

 

You are always in love

and you can only love yourself,

the Changeless One in which even space is.

There is no beginning, no middle, and no end to it.

Only love is worth loving and this is your own Self.

 

~ Papaji

 

 

 

The tarantula hides underground most of its life,

darting from dens to snatch passing insects.

Falling a few feet can kill it.

It can't see well enough to avoid predators or cars.

The male tarantula braves a brutal dating ritual that

brings him out in the open on Mount Diablo and other

inland foothills at this time of fall.

Male spiders live in burrows for six to 10 years

before emerging into daylight September and October to

search for female tarantulas that may very well

eat the males after mating.

 

~ CONTRA COSTA TIMES, 10/29/02

 

 

 

 

The purpose of being born is fulfilled

in the state between "I am"

and "That."

 

- Lalla

 

 

 

 

"You know I am a fool. I know nothing.

Then who is it that says all these things?

I say to the Divine Mother:

'O Mother, I am the machine and Thou art the Operator.

I am the house and Thou art the indweller.

I am the chariot and Thou art the Charioteer.

I do as Thou makest me do. I speak as Thou makest me speak;

I move as Thou makest me move. It is not I !

It is all Thou ! It is all Thou !'

Hers is the glory; we are only Her instruments."

 

~ Ramakrishna

 

 

 

On the trail, a group finds one male staking out a tarantula door the

size of a nickel. Someone pokes a stick inside to mimic the vibration

of an insect. This is how male tarantulas lure females to come out,

dangling themselves like bait. No female spider appears from this

burrow on this day, but if she did, the male would face a life-and-

death challenge of convincing the female that he is a suitor, not

dinner. To keep from being eaten, the male spider must move quickly,

using hooks on his front legs to hold the female's jaws at bay during

mating.

 

"These love-struck wanderers are the tarantulas we see on the

mountain in fall".

 

~C.C. Times

 

 

 

 

It has been said that

all we really want is to be

free of wanting, but perhaps

it might also be said that

all we really want is to

love and be loved.

 

This yearning for deep intimacy is

at the heart of all, in this and any

possible world as well.

 

Love seeks for itself through us,

as us, in the same way we seem to

seek each other, reaching out

at night, asleep, with dreamy arms

to gather one another into this

that embraces itself

as Love.

 

Nothing is truly immune to Love.

 

Mystery begets Love for the sake of

Love, expressed as the myriad

forms of you and I and everything,

appearing and disappearing as the

Mystery of Love.

 

It is the simple innocent truth of our being,

prior to any knowing gossip we might hear

from those unfamiliar with

the truth of our being.

 

Everybody knows.

 

I love you.

 

The illusion of separation requires

somebody to buy in on it.

We've thrown our bread to the birds,

now we can watch the moonrise.

 

Love always exceeds any resistance

marshalled by our impoverished

reluctance to just love.

 

Perhaps some might be able to imagine

there is anything other than love,

but that's the imagination.

 

What remains when the imagination is

Outshone by Love?

 

The Smiling Ones keep silent --

Their Smile has said enough.

 

~ Ixnay

 

 

 

That which receives is the same as that which is received, for it

receives nothing other than itself. This is difficult. Whoever

understands it has been preached to enough.

 

~Meister Eckhart

 

 

 

 

 

It's not really a migration, but rather a last ramble.

The males die by winter, like salmon after spawning, if the female

tarantulas, birds, other predators and automobile tires don't kill

them first. Notices on park bulletins urges motorists to watch out,

but it's not unusual to see squished carcasses.

 

~C.C. Times

 

 

 

We will be seen on this stage of life again and

again, until we become such good actors that we can

play our parts perfectly, according to the Divine Will.

Then the Stage Manager will say: "You need 'go no

more out.' (Rev. 3:12). You have done My Will. You

have played your part, and acted well. You did not

lose courage. Now you have come back to Me, to be a

pillar of immortality in the temple of My Eternal

Existence."

 

--Paramahansa Yogananda, Spiritual Diary

 

 

In addition, Tarantulas may be vulnerable to collectors who remove

them from the park in violation of a ban on removing park plants and

wildlife.

Park rangers get reports of this, but haven't caught any collectors.

Anibale wanted to acquire a tarantula legally as a pet, but his

fiancee objected.

"They're not for everybody," he says.

One Martinez man said he became a tarantula expert to overcome severe

arachnophobia, a fear of spiders.

"I was terrified of spiders as a child," said Mike.

"I have tried to overcome my fears.

We are taught fear.

It was passed down."

It wasn't easy, though.

He said he started warming up to tarantulas about a decade ago.

It took him six years to feel comfortable enough to handle one.

Note: Handle the spiders carefully and respects their warning signs:

They rear up before striking out with their fangs.

"Each one has a different personality. They're very enjoyable to

watch. They're very wary. It's a big, scary world out there when they

come out of the burrow."

 

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

10/29/02

 

 

 

 

 

Ramakrishna, with hairs standing on end, says to the Sage:

"What a thrilling attitude I am Shiva! I am Shiva!"

 

The God-man (Ramakrishna) and the old holy man sit in

silence. Ramakrishna says that Mahakali insists he reveal

another spiritual attitude to the sage. The holy man looks

attentively and prepares to receive guidance from the

Mother of the Universe.

 

Ramakrishna transforms as if his very muscles have

become flowing water. He speaks eloquently while

remaining in ecstasy. Ramakrishna says:

 

"Brahman is a shoreless ocean. Shakti is the omnipresent

interdependent action of its waves. The spaceless,

timeless expanse of nondual awareness is a mysterious

instrument with infinite possibilities. Mother is its

spontaneous music. As long as Her inscrutable

Will keeps consciousness manifest through the human form, one is

tempted to think that there are two realities the formless

God and these confusing mirror images called the universe.

But no, my friend. There is no such twoness whatsoever.

There is no superknowledge separate from or opposed to

ordinary ignorance. There is no day as a reality apart

from night. There is only wholeness or completeness ...

beyond night or day, beyond ignorance or knowledge, yet

containing both, manifesting both. How to describe this

infinite plentitude? Not with words from any

scripture or philosophy: What is simply is!

 

As Ramakrishna delivers this enigmatic yet powerful phrase -

What is simply is! - he opens both hands in a gently explosive

gesture. His graceful tapered fingers are like the petals of an

exotic flower. A radiant silence arises the moment Ramakrishna

performs this spontaneous mudra, this statement of Truth through

a gesture of the body alone. What was adumbrated by the words of

the God man is now being transmitted full force to our

inward being. No scripture will ever be adequate to the

ineffable teaching that flows through the avatara. The holy man

is noticeably affected.

 

After an indefinable interlude extending into twilight, these

two timeless companions arise without haste and link arms.

Together they stroll back to the carriage, whispering secrets

and laughing like childhood companions. Respectfully, the sage

helps Ramakrishna climb into the carriage. Our Master's

(Ramakrishna) eyes swimming with Divine Bliss "Not Two. Only

Mother!" These are his last words to the advanced practitioner,

who has now been transformed by the Wisdom Goddess into a

completed sage . The naked limbs of the ascetic shine with a

new light. There is a new tenderness in his expression....

 

~ Ramakrishna,

"The Great Swan"

 

 

 

LoveAlways,

 

b