Morning Symmetry

Sitting on the blue bench by the blue table on the red deck. It's not even dawn. Kona blend coffee with Hood Country Creamer steams in my cup. I am in the back of her new house. The yard has its own natural and perfect symmetry: The casual and up-turned water buckets directly across from me; the pumpkin-colored broom angled against the redwood railing; the canary Malibu chair, across which a purple twist mop has dried into its own stillness; and the multitude of gray-brown peelings from lime-tinted Sycamore limbs high overhead.

And how could I forget the redolent corner of Rosemary, Catnip, and Greek Oregano (into which she instructed me to pour the old water from the cat's bowl)? The temperature will reach 105F today. But there is no hint of the coming torrent in morning coolness. 

On the table sits a small Buddha that she purchased for me. It is neither expensive nor unique, thank goodness--just an ordinary but beautiful half-foot figurine from a Tuesday Morning shop. I saw it in a picture somewhere and smiled. That she remembered that moment is astonishing to me. The Buddha is compact and gilded, with numinous, half-closed eyes. Seekers sit this way in hopes of reaching their own transcendence, not realizing that it is the other way around: You first see or understand that you are Transcendence. Then the eyes are naturally calm. Indeed, mine are now at their most relaxed when half-closed. 

I could sit for hours like this, on the blue bench by the brown Buddha. Stillness within stillness. Or, minutes later, movement within Presence--as a Cardinal darts and trills, and a huge cellar spider makes its way to the top of the roof to temper its web. Then the stillness again. For how long I have no idea. 

Then she is there, tall and pale inside the half-opened back door. She smiles, as her eyes focus from the depths of dreams. Her Charleston green t-shirt--covering just to the top of her thighs--is too heavy for summer. She sweats in her sleep but is deeply content. With perfect, middle-aged symmetry, she touches the bottom of the door with her sleep-waxened foot, making sure that it is ajar for the cats. But somehow, the door simply stays that way. As do you, dear reader. There isn't even a door. Just Openness. Always and only--Openness.

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News & Info

Fully Present is now available at the excellent Powell's Bookstore, in Portland, Oregon. 

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Fiona Robertson interviews Rodney on Nic Higham's NONDUALITY NETWORK!

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Click HERE to buy Rodney's Fully Present: Daily Reflections on Nonduality from Amazon.

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And click HERE to purchase Fully Present at Barnes & Noble.

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And go HERE for the press release for Fully Present.

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For Tami Brady's review of Fully Present in TCM Reviews, go HERE.

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"Fully Present is an elegant addition to the growing literature on nonduality as it is being uncovered, lived and understood in the modern West."

--Philip Goldberg, author of the best-selling American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation--How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. Philip's Web site can be found at www.philipgoldberg.com.

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"Rodney Stevens opens his daily life and thoughts to us in these immensely natural and pleasant ramblings of one who is fully engaged in life, love, nonduality, and cinnamon muffins."

--Catherine Ann Jones, award-winning screenwriter, spiritual workshop leader, and author of The Way of the Story: The Craft and Soul of Writing. Her Web site is www.wayofstory.com

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Rodney is also the author of A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State, a powerful and elegant collection of essays, discussions, interviews, and powerful pointers. It can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

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For the book's Press Release, click Here.

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Check out Rodney on YouTube talking about "The Fundamental Thing."

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Feel free to read a review of the Kindle Edition of Vastness on Amazon. 

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Nonduality Magazine has published a discussion with Rodney about his work and book. The extensive and wide-ranging interview was done by John LeKay, the magazine's editor.

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"I like your approach in A Vastness All Around. The stories, thoughts and vignettes of your life seem wonderful ways to make people stop and pay attention to where they actually are right now, rather than in some imagined past or future. They show that you don't have to be some specially qualified person, preferably with a title and a name in Sanskrit, to pursue the spiritual quest. Your message comes across particularly well in such pieces as 'Sheerness of Being.'"

--Valerie J. Roebuck, Ph.D., Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester (England)

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I am now doing phone consultations via Skype! Each conversation will take about an hour, and a $25 donation will be greatly appreciated.

I am also scheduling teaching events at this time. If you would like to arrange something in your area, you may email me at: writerguy (at) fastmail (dot) fm

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This blog is generally updated every Sunday afternoon, Eastern Standard Time.