The Christmas Feast!

Breathe, dance and celebrate this day!

A Simple Prayer

May I forget the faults of others as readily as I forget my own!

Every day is a new day!

Whatever the trials and victories of the day before, embrace the morning as a new creation.

You are a timeless mountain.
The waves lap against your shins.
A grandfather gazes lovingly at his grandchildren.
Somewhere, the sun is rising.

Witnesses to the Unknowable

It is necessary to actually try to pierce the veil of the unknowable before it can take on the spacious quality with which it can illumine and inform all activities of the mind.

Wisdom Mind

Each one of us is a universe of thoughts, feelings, expectations and intentions.  We barely know this about ourselves, let alone each other.  We are most at home when we sense a fundamental equality with all beings.  Draw near to the great I AM!  Breathing and dancing, we will open the gates to love and be set free.

The Second Circle is Earth

A Canticle to the Second Circle:  The Second Circle is Earth

Touched as chosen, dancing breath upon the Earth.
All Earth in Unique Time.
To Earth's circle we are delivered,
Earth born we are.
Earth's circle nourishes our strengths.
Earth circle reveals weakness,
Weakness that Spirit dedicates to strength.
Earth carries us to knowledge of others.
Earth we have been.
What we will be, Earth can taste.
Rejoicing Earth in what we are.
Sentient Earth.
Blessed Earth.
Earth hears when heard by us.
Earth has touched what we now feel.
In ancient witness,
Earth shares.
Earth releases.
Earth embraces.
Earth prepares.
Earth receives.
Earth restores.
Earth upholds.
Blessing upon blessing.
Sacred home to all humankind.
All humankind,
Lie down upon dust.
By water be covered over.
By fiery depths be consumed.
By elemental winds be scattered.
By breath,
By dance,
Know Earth.

- from Sweet Unpleasant Realities -

Be Multilingual in the Languages of the Spirit

The future belongs to those who communicate in a language of the heart.

There Is Only One

"Knowing one way thoroughly, you accomplish them all."
- Traditional Buddhist saying -

The Palimpsest

Anyone who traverses the same ground repeatedly will become intimately familiar with its features.

If one has a practice that leans towards freedom, and one explores it thoroughly, then that which one has discovered will become a type of "ground" that can become the foundation of all actions.

In the present moment, the ground need only be explored once to have been explored thoroughly.  Time to move on.

Mindful repetition (such as chanting) can be very helpful though when stuck in a groove of ego or self.

The goal is to be free of any concept of self that impairs the free expression of truth and compassion.

Keyword: free

Side Effects

We are harrowed and hallowed by the sufferings of our loved ones.
We are never quite the same after standing at the side of someone who is sick.
We touch our weaknesses, and find our strengths...

True Strength

Recognizing your own weakness is a form of strength.

Simplicity in Motion

It could be stated that enlightenment is nothing more, or less, than the relentless application of compassion to the changing nature of existence.

Excerpt from "The Antidote to Time, Lessons from the Dream."

Altruism and Action

When we see a person in any type of pain, we should react in as visceral and enlightened a fashion as if we had just witnessed them being struck in the face with a brick.  If our minds are not so dulled as to be sleeping, our response will be immediate.  We will seek to reach out to them with a solidity that can only derive from the innate compassionate fire of love.  In short, we will essentially feel that we had been struck.

One Breath

The entirety of the journey

is represented by this unfolding:

from the position of the infant

to that of the outstretched arms.

Faith is not "merely" belief

Faith is not "merely" belief that something can be accomplished; faith is the entire movement of one's being from the known to the unknown (and indeed, even to the unknowable).

Priorities

Sometimes,
the least important thing,
is the most important thing.

What Endures?

The ones who show you the truth will be remembered beyond this world. But beyond all worlds, the truth they have shared with you will stand where memory has no meaning.

Deep Roots

Two ancient trees towered on the banks of the river.
The gentle breeze caused them to sway
like massive boats rolling with the waves.

At last, one slowly spoke,
"I remember when the saints brought the children of the Earth here and taught all who would listen and hear the lessons of life."

The other tree said nothing for a very long time.

At last, the second tree replied,
"If the saints are gone, we must re-tell their lessons to the wind everyday so that the Earth will never forget."

The two trees smiled, and so it was done.

Missing Information

Don't hide.
You can't.

Like a missing piece of code,
Let the pattern descend upon you.

Then all will be clear.

Awake!

Awake! Awakened!
With good intentions
Deepening

I am all

Touching that which
cannot be touched,
I let go.

Faith is Breath and Dance

To penetrate the veils of freedom that faith reveals, we are called to breathe and to dance; we are called to fire and ice. We submit our egos, even our absolute and unique selves, to mystical union, and receive the most unexpected gift that Spirit could return from that union: our absolute and unique identities.

It used to matter greatly to me to be ready to defend the architecture of my bridges - my changing beliefs and their systems. Like an untried prophet, I have stood unwavering in my hesitation - afraid to speak the words of breath and dance, of Life and Spirit; afraid to speak the words because I feared they might be true.

I do not know if I have free will...

I only know I have so much left to do.

Let me try.

Let me try to burn away in that profound and passionate flame. But if not that, let me try to be entirely shattered to a frozen crystalline obscurity, so that my many parts might lay hidden like grains of sand on a shining desert beach. Gems of icy fire, I will wash into the sea; flames upon the waves; the day arrives and departs in reminders of the jewels of a future too distant to be imagined,though memory can still hear the surf breaking.

Let me try.

But even before my efforts fail, Spirit will breathe and I will dance, Spirit will dance and I will breathe. Breathing and dancing fire and ice...

- Excerpt from Sweet Unpleasant Realities.

Two Ways, One Song

Two birds
flew
to a tree.

One remembered the way,
and sang.

One thought only of the tree,
and sang.

Impermanence: The Subtle Friend

"Not a single object, thought, feeling, concept, or state of being exist in an enduring fashion. Everything rises from the unmanifested state, becomes manifested, and dissolves into the unmanifested again. The attempt to hold that which is impermanent for longer than its allotted course of time is known as 'grasping.' One can grasp at objects, thoughts, and so on."
- Excerpt from "The Antidote to Time" -

Faith Results in Action

When you act out of a sense of faith,

you temporarily suspend the belief

that you are unable to move beyond yourself.

Images on this Website

The cover photography and interior images for 'The Antidote to Time,' and most of the images on 'Breathing and Dancing' are the work of Katherine E. Huysman.

A Version of the Dedication to 'The Antidote to Time'

There is no more precious gift
that a mother can give a child
than that of compassion
for all living things.

Books by Peter David Wilder

Sweet Unpleasant Realities

The Antidote to Time: Lessons from the Dream