Writings

                                                 Writings and poems by Rhonda Whetstine

1) For me, Soul is a place of flowing knowing.   Grounded in core being, sensing from the space of sensing, Soul gives a panoramic view of life feeling.   Soul has a picture so big I have no comprehension of it, nor do I have a need for it all to be known.  As Soul my part is enough, its such a magical adventure in and of 'itself'.
The meditations with Soul Consciousness over the past couple weeks have been likened to receiving 'transmitions,' the knowing that flows from Soul Consciousness isn't wanted, needed, and usually isn't anywhere in my 'normal' state of consciousness.  
 At times, its as if I can barely hear it, not b/c it isn't loud enough or clear etc., but b/c stuff bubbles up in the way, person/mind/ego pattern stuff, (b/c I definitely heard it), but that too becomes part of it all, and I usually go thru some kind of song and dance with it all and then the bubble-up is gone, emerging in a deeper knowing of what it was I couldn't hear so well before.  (Its all so esoteric :>} hard to describe but doing what I can to find words :>}  
Other times showing up in Life as Soul in sensing from the space of sensing, is mind blowing...just the perfect thing happens, no matter how big or small, its like I become the glove the hand perfectly fits in.  The experiential feeling is so exquisite my person can hardly comprehend it is happening as it rests in gratitude and profound ahhh.  Usually with a comment after the fact like..."Whoa, What the Frack was that?!.....cool...."
To be so in harmonization with the moment, (and this doesn't happen alot mind you, but its happening with more frequency), brings me into such completeness, restful joy, peace, loving gratitude, wow, its a pretty incredible feeling experience, at least to me when I am out of Soul consciousness, when I'm just there, its just the what is; it is me, and I am it. There is in the mix of the experience some way the acknowledgment happens that the experiencer and the experience are one and the same, not with words, with maybe Joy?..Love?...Souls relationship with Universal Intelligence?...?. 
I know I have said this before but it still applys; More and more it becomes less and less about it being about 'my' life, and more about it being about being a vehicle for Soul/God to express Love through Life, 
 I say that, don't really know what that means, but that's okay too, It all keeps unfolding, me with it, My 'job' is to be sensing from the space of sensing; applying that to life in every way(internally and externally) honoring that commitment; returning when I get distracted, following thru with the things that flow into consciousness that support this; being engaged in this way in my life experiences; being a curious participant in Self discovery. 
Wishing you all engaging curiosity into the Question; How does Soul Consciousness express as you in life?
love Rhonda

2)Flowing along, transfixed in a moment as I look out across the land, such mixtures of color and texture, trees with their own life forces, their own unique feel each one, within a field of togetherness, never separate always one.  Captivated by the blue of the sky and the wisp of a cloud or the bold strong towering puffs of layers upon layers crisp white stretching across the vastness of a blue sea above.  
Some moments I am just gone, I am in it and I am it, and its wonderful.  Flowing on, I drive, I shop, I walk, I stop to pet a cat, I feed mom, I do laundry, I read, ....the dance is smooth, flowing,  am I thinking, sometimes, am I alert present, more often than not, in the midst of doing, I am doing nothing.  My actions happen, but are within the 'frame work' of Being, so the action takes on a kind of ease.  Somebody isn't as invested in the action when Being the Space it arises in.   It still needs to be done, and is, without the me needing to comment on what it is I am doing and how it is going for me--you know that feeling of pressure, " just get it done, just do it, the laundry has to be done, hurry up, yeah yeah it stinks like pee, just do it, now take that load that is done upstairs you will need those cloth pads for mom's bed, blah blah blah...anybody else got a task master?!  It is peaceful without the comments, and it is what it is and it flows.

Twice now, I have been somewhere where someone needed help, and I stepped up to offer them assistance.  A spontaneous kind of thing, neither one was asking for help but was lost, or trying to get information to get where they needed to be, both from another country-Africa and Japan.  So I just said let me take you there in my car, and I did.  Both times I felt pulled to do so, I felt in the right place at the right time you know?  And acted on the felt sense in the moment.  Both times the people were wonderful, and extrodinary, in an ordinary kind of way.  I felt so present with them and had a deep sense of helping myself.   Another time I was leaving the library and a young kid came up to me and asked me if I had 50 cents so he could ride the bus, I was preoccupied, quickly said no, and went on to my car, then it hit me, I had exactly 50cents in my pocket, exactly, no more, no less, due to something I had bought earlier, I used all my cash and was left with exactly 50cents!  I thought Oh my God, that was God asking me for my last 50 cents and I said no?!  I wasn't even present shhhshhh, I drove around looking for the boy but of course he was no where to be found....lesson learned. Wake up Rhonda, God is always talking to you, listen.

It reminded me of a story from my Ashram days that I once was told about a poor man who had only 5 grains of rice and this carriage pulls up to him and there is this well dressed royalty looking fellow and he asks the poor man if he has anything to eat, and the poor man thinks why should I give this guy my last 5 grains of rice he is wealthy he doesn't need it, I need it.  And so the poor man says no, sorry.  And the rich man drives off.  Then I forget how it goes exactly, but to make a long story short, the poor man ends up discovering that the rich man was God in disguise and had he given up his   
last 5 grains of rice to him he would have never been want for food again.  

The story always makes me think about this is all God experiencing God and you never know when that moment of change and possibility will be, but you need to be awake to each moment so when it comes you are there to meet it, face to face and then anything and everything can happen...
So I continue to 'get' where I am and what is 'really' going on, and I am forgetting it less and less, and responding to just Being my Life more and more.
I can feel the harmonics of it when I am really here, and the discord when I am not.  And all of it is a wonder. 
And remember, if you see Buddha on the road....don't kill him, walk with him, get to know him, and marvel at it all.....
all love, all one.   Rhonda

3)The World has changed for me,
As I drive along the road, I see the person walking,
I feel their life, will they be here tomorrow?
I savor each life, the squirrel that darts out in front of my car,
breaking, I feel great love for its life.  Geese flying
across a cold grey sky, will you return,
 will there be a Spring to return to?  I wonder.

That building that I have driven by so many times and not noticed,
will it be gone too?   I feel into the appreciation of its creation and
its impermanence.   As I wait in the parking lot for the library to open,
the bush in front of me, purple and red hues, taking in the life colors
of its own expression, who knows if I will see you again.  
My world shimmers, for a moment transparent.

There is an Urgency, a near, and dearness to things now.
The allusiveness of the illusion, here today, gone tomorrow.
Deeply the intimacy of valuing all life comes rushing to the moment of experience,
 some organic knowing;  it is leaving its present form
birthing into another-- Life Be-ing.

Feeling the transition upon us now,
it has begun.
The first wave of awakening has washed over,
there are more to come.
Suffering is inevitably in the mix
it tells me; you will need to transform your fear now, and
your desire to be safe.

Growing in my heart is the light radiating to all
What else is there except be here
for the Earth and all her inhabitants.
Trust Love, Trust the Light within, Trust in who you are.
Join hands with the pool of Being
Stay grounded and empowered in the One

It isn't about me so much now,
its about everything, everyone, All.
Calling out like a light house shining out upon the ocean,
to all the ships at sea, 
step up to be the awakened ONE
don't go to sleep again, no time to dream
the illusion is breaking apart, fragmenting 

Giving birth is not without suffering
we hoped we could jump over that part, but
have you ever been able to jump over your own pain?
Didn't you end up having it move through you first, then transform
into Love?  Here we go my friends, the journey is upon us
How will you meet it?   Will your head be in the sand?   Will
you deny the sobering feeling of what has arrived?   Will you
keep your eyes open?  Fully present sensing what Is? 
Will you run in fear?   Open your arms and embrace the moment?
Will you stand in the core of your being
radiating Love and Light?  

Are you with me?

Are you out there, in the unknowing too?
There are many of us, holding hands, gathering the awakening,
Have you been shaken through and through?
Did you just wake up?
You are not alone
But you will need to be totally committed now
don't go back to sleep
don't' let your friends go back to sleep

The illusion won't hold together much longer
Feeling into the goldeness, the purity of  Light
It is all around and within
Know your way Home
and Live there now,
Even when the very foundation of Life shakes
Be home, embracing all,
Don't forget who you are
Radiate Love and Light
Be that which you know you are.
all love, all one,  Rhonda

4) The All, the One, in the form of my own true self:

Moments where I am in dialog with you, you who are everywhere I am, as if we were in a game of hide and seek, or peek-a-boo.   At times surprised, uplifted, be-dazzled, humbled, in awhhh, greatfulled, whimsical, bewitched, enthralled, enamored, delighted, calmed, energized, motivated, stilled, full, radiant, overflowing, my own power source, wise, being taught, teaching, playing, discovering, exploring, compassioned, separate, intertwined, united, lover, beloved, love, all, one, true self.

       Some moments, I stand in nature, taken, swirled into being, no one is here.  Some moments standing back when I am my mental body pulling my physical body about, dragging my emotional body around, and then light shines, cessation.  Converging with energies unknown pooling quietly, powerful fiery, readying to come forth into pathways where openings already exist, where new ones are being formed.

Flowing out, streaming over and into crevices and pathways of humanity, as lava moves across the land.   The kaos we now see and feel is but the ashy fog that comes before the cooled lava births a new life form.   I can feel the coming forth of life, the first fern sprouting delicately through the cooled molten ash as I write this, can you?   As if it were already here awakening in the moment.

       " Wearing old age, I roam in the streets of man unafraid.  This old age is my cap, wearing of which makes me invisible.   It is my disguise."
(Rama Tirtha)

       Aware I have never Loved life so much as I do Now.   Nor been so aware of life so loving me.  It is sweetness, nectar, my ears hear celestial song, my eyes perceive the light, my smell takes in the air of life, my touch caresses earths embodiment, my mouth drinks in the waters.    

       "Flowers speak to you; and you find sermons in stones, books in the running brooks.   The stars speak to you; divinity looks at you through a face".   (Rama Tirtha)

       I use to not like people much, preferred animals, now when I look into some ones eyes, I see myself, I have become clearer and clearer.   I am curious about us all, liking people and animals, and rock, and air, and water, I am you and you are me, now that I have come to know how to BE with myself, I can BE with you now too in the same way.   How wonderful is that?!

       " That is the real Self, and your real Self is the real Self of your friend, is the real Self of each and all.   Your real Self is not only present with you in the wakeful state, it is equally present in the deep sleep state; it is equally present under all changes and circumstances.   Realize that real Self stands above all tribulation and trouble.   Nobody can harm you; no one can injure you".  (Practical Vedanta)

       Do you hear this, really hear this?  It is profound, it is where the stories of those who have experienced this come from, the fearlessness in the moment with one who would do harm.  If I am this, if we experience this, we become the Gandhi's, St. Francis of Assisi's, Mother Teresa's, Mary Magdalena's.   And then what wonders of God will come through us?!

"Let not these seeming evils or lucks stand between thee and God.   There are no insults and faults immense enough to satisfy me in the act of forgiving them.   Even governments whose so-called laws do not conform to the Divine law work their own destruction.   Let the good or bad talk or conduct of people be washed out of consciousness even as misty dreams are consigned to oblivion.   All forms and personalities are mere bubbles in the ocean of the law, even Buddha and Jesus were forsaken by all their friends and followers.  Out of the seven years of the forest life, Buddha passed the last two years entirely alone, and then came the effulgent light, after which disciples began to flock to him and were welcomed.    Be not influenced by the thoughts and opinions of well-meaning respectable advisers.   If their thoughts had been at one with the law, (a living force), they might have created ship loads of Buddhas by this time.   The final test of Truth is, "Can we make it work? Can we trust our life to it?", You can safely trust your life and all to the fact underlying all phenomena, all are One.   The law of gravity might even deceive your trust in it, but the law of spiritual unity never deceives.   Just feel this unity, and you find all creation behaving as your own body.   What aches the head, bends the back or chokes the chest?   It is walking on the head instead of on the feet.   Let your feet be on the earth and your head in the air filled with heavenly joy; invert not the divine ordinance; put not the earth on your head, and call it sane living; take not the appearances more seriously than the Divine real Self.   May you wake up to your oneness with Life, Light, and Love and immediately the central bliss will commence springing forth from you in the shape of happy heroic work, both wisdom and virtue.   This is inspired life, this is your birth right". (Practical Vedanta)

I keep sensing the call to a greater mission, purpose, it shows up in everything, if I become forgetful it wakes me, If I become complacent, it inspires me, if I become overwhelmed, it brings things into perspective, into the now.   It tells me to Listen to the forces at work that we are apart of, listen to the Light, bear the state of affairs as they are, let them wash through and transform into love, you are light and dark bearers.   When you  free yourselves up enough from your own chains, you become vessels for the light and dark of the world because you are One.   BE fearless.    BE powerful.   BE Love.
In every situation in your life, stop to find the common ground, don't speak unless it is with Love, find the work you can do that keeps the law of Oneness growing, water it regularly in every moment of your life.   You can do this, you have been opening to this for many years now, bring it into your lives, into the manifest world, live it, breath it, speak it, hear it, see it, it is everywhere, in everything.  Make a commitment to not forget who you are, who I am, who 'they are, who your enemies are, your relatives, your friends, your neighbors, your communities, your country, other countries and peoples, who the animals and plants are, see it and remind yourself constantly that you and I are God.   And let your actions reflect this in everything you do, in every moment of stillness, remember, remember, and remind everyone who has lost their way.   What else can you do that is filled with more power, love, and grace than to live your life as One?    This is your common ground, Love comes through and moves the One, moves you and me, for the greatest and highest good.   

"Turn the faithlessness of one earthly object into a stepping stone for a leap into the Infinite".
all one, all love, Rhonda

5) Upon Awaking
Life re-news its beckoning
sweet touch,
Every time my eyes open
From the world of dreams.
That first moment
Pure, Fresh, wonderment
Iridescent green of early spring
glimmers out a window
Drinking in its' cool radiance,
Enlivening every cell, atom, tachyon,
Everything.
Walls fluctuate with life,
Not as solid as one might think
Awake again
Within a physical body
Delighted at the prospect
Grateful for its tenderness.
We have a loving appreciation
for one another.
Eyes gaze over blankets, curtains, rugs,
Textural, luscious fabrics within my eyes
They collide with inner feeling.
Smooth frosted glass, silver pewter
Dulling the lights reflections,
Never have I experienced the fixture on the ceiling
quite like this.
Dark bird shadows swoop across a window
outside - seducing my focus
Left with the whir of their energy
They are gone
Yet...I am nowhere,
But whirring.
Mind stealthily creeps in
"What time is it?"
so silently, so slippery, so slyly, so innocently,
--looking at the clock
I am aware I have been tricked out of the moment...
Or have I?
Deep Breath
Sinking deeply
Closer
Closer
Mind Floating within the space of my long arms
Stillness is here
Resting quietly
Together we enter the magical moment
Awake
Alive
Another Adventure.

Teetering upon a Precipice
If one looks closely
Threads like worlds with space between
Are Creating bridges between
Inner and Outer realities

The ritual of death
Seen on a screen of dots
Reflects the passing just last night
of someone I know.
Her sister calls to say
You came to me in a waking dream around midnight
to tell me of her crossing
Though I only know I felt far away and
Expansive when I awoke
While I slept and resisted waking to mornings light
Half in sleep, Half in between, Half awake
She felt my loving comfort.
Plugging in her Ipod
Music played ethereal notes
Months before I gave her,
When she was here in Iowa
We both forgot
Until she absent mindedly
picked it to play-Now-
Out of dozens of other possibilities
She felt gratefulness, it soothed
her raw emotions and disquieted mind.
What circumstances congeal
What energies find fluidity
coming together in just so -ways
Bringing what is needed irreverent of time and space.
This reality is momentum and movement
vibration, adjusting and re-adjusting
changing all the time
As relationships dissolve
and create.
I feel tipped upon the edge
Of a vast cavern of awareness
looking down
ready to fall
Knowing full well
When it happens
All experience will transform my knowing reality.

all love, all one, Rhonda

6) Hello alert present ones,
      My day after the retreat flowed, driving on winding roads threw pine forests, stopping to enjoy deer creek and butterflies.   I acquainted myself with the locals at a fun coffee house in Chester and found an amazing shop full of fun fabulous earth friendly creations.  Late morning I arrived at a wonderful lake and found a secluded all to myself space about 10 feet from the shore line under a pine tree.   I stayed there the rest of the day, meditating, reading, being.  The view is breath taking with white topped mountains and skys wide and far reaching, water stretching out as far as the eye can see.  lovely.  Such grace to have the whole day to integrate the retreat being in the joy of nature.  Grateful for the adventure.
I wrote a poem while I sat at the lakeside:

Soft the parched golden needles
my body finds rest on
Iridescent delicate, green
mosses clutch to a scaly rough skinned pine

Looking up, up, up
through spiraling arms
to long emerald needles

Silvery strings lit by sunlight
occasionally cross from limb to limb
A visitor... dropping down
large black spider
descending on a silvery string of glimmering light
toward the earthy floor

Then, exquisitely taking flight
sideways on air currents
what must seem like miles
such trust in not knowing
where one will be taken, or land

Long gusts... drawing me into sound
roaring, whirring, branches swaying
enthralled the skins delightful response to its touch
wind creature passing through

Left with lapping shores
reseeding back into dancing sunlit waters
shadowy deep deep blue mountains
meet wispy white clouded sapphire sky
swallowtails dip briefly for a cool refreshing drink
fluttering, flitting about the dry grey drift wood

How sweet the air with it's pine scented aroma
seems odd I cannot inbreath forever
surrender into serenity
cascading through exhalations
Outward disappears
into closed eyes and open heart
pristine rainbow white crystal
vibrating, spinning, radiating light
Love
Ablaze, I kiss the Earth and all her inhabitants
with a slow enticing meeting into one lovers kiss
I am at peace here
content to bask in natures dream
as  Lover and Beloved

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