Inspirations & Meditations: 365 Daily Verses and Reflections - Nature and Spiritual Inspirations

By Gordon Burnham

Inspirations & Meditations is a book of 365 daily verses and reflections. It is a Spiritual Self-Help book that draws inspiration from nature and the ancient spiritual teachings of India, offering something for each day to lift, to comfort and heal. On each page you will find a verse of poetic inspiration and a meditation or reflection that brings it to fullness like a bud brought to blossoming.
The spiritual thoughts and ideas expressed in this book are non-sectarian, inclusive and drawn primarily from the teachings of Vedanta, which is based on the Vedas and Upanishads, the ancient spiritual texts of India. The principles of Vedanta are universal and preclude religion. Emerson, Thoreau, and more recently a plethora of modern spiritual teachers, have assimilated these universal truths into their work for the great benefit of humankind.
The purpose of this book is to provide a reflection of that truth so you may catch a glimpse of your own radiant being mirrored in its pages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gordon Burnham
• Release date: Oct 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311942906

Gordon Burnham

Gordon Burnham is the author of four books—two books of spiritual and nature poetry—"The Mystical Dance" and "Whispers of Light", a book on meditation—"Meditation Tips 'n Techniques" and a book of daily verses and reflections—"Inspirations and Meditations." He is also a singer-songwriter on eight CDs of universal spiritual songs, Sanskrit kirtans and chants, new age instrumentals and acoustic guitar instrumentals. His music and books are available for purchase and can be sampled on Amazon, iTunes and www.gburnham.com.Born in Traverse City, Michigan, Gordon later moved with his family to Grand Rapids where he grew up in a rural setting of rivers, lakes, hills and woods. His natural love of nature, art and music was infused with a sense of the spiritual and was to be his guide through the years to come.He attended Western Michigan University, majoring in psychology and minoring in music, and after college moved to Boston to pursue a career in music and continue his spiritual exploration.Gordon taught Music Therapy at Northeastern University, Boston, and developed a course on "Healing and Spiritual Awakening Through Music". The study of yoga, meditation and the pursuit of his spiritual path were woven into the fabric of his life and guided its direction.Gordon' has been a student of meditation and Vedanta philosophy since meeting his teacher and guru, Srimata Gayatri Devi in 1974. He plays a central role in weekly music performances and is the director of major musical events at Ananda Ashrama, La Crescenta, CA. and Vedanta Centre, Cohasset, MA. He is also a regular speaker at Ananda Ashrama.Gordon Burnham is a fellow-traveler on this path of life which has lead him to his current home with his wife Rita in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. In an atmosphere surrounded by nature, on the edge of the wilderness, his life is focused on the spiritual quest—and enjoying the journey!

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Acknowledgments

My deepest gratitude to my good friend Cliff Johnson for his inspiration and editorial assistance. I am also grateful for his insightful suggestions, support and unceasing encouragement.

Many thanks to John McCormick for the painstaking job of proofreading the manuscript from cover to cover and for valued feedback on the content.

To my wife, Rita, my heartfelt gratitude for the inspiration and support for this project and for her help with every aspect of the book.

Preface

As always, I felt more alive with every step as I would walk down our long driveway and across Grand River Drive, through the schoolyard to the path that lead into the hills near my boyhood home in Michigan. The peace I knew as I reached the crest of the first hill and began walking down into the valley and surrounding woods was a comfort that returns effortlessly as I recall the experience. It was there, alone in nature, that I sensed a presence both healing and nourishing. I could feel this presence in my body, mind and somewhere deep within. As a young boy nature was my refuge and my great joy.

The playground of my childhood was a realm of rivers and lakes, islands, sandy shores, woods, hills, valleys, streams and ponds. My sports were sledding and swimming, ice skating on a frozen swamp through barren winter trees in January moonlight. Summers were spent hiking and camping, eating and sleeping outdoors from spring to fall.

And so began the journey, the inquiry, the quest to find the Source of this peace. To draw close to and commune with nature and its Source is a spiritual aspiration in its own right, one which captured my heart as a youth and has grown stronger with time.

We all aspire to something in our lives and along the way we experience challenges, obstacles and setbacks. There are crucial times for each of us when inspiring words of support or a gentle but strong reminder of a forgotten truth can give wings to our spirit. These small epiphanies can lift us over the next hurdle in our path.

These daily verses and meditations offer inspiration for your life's journey—words to refresh and motivate—reminders of our connection to the beauty and truth that is all around and within us, and wholly ours to awaken to.

Introduction

Inspirations & Meditations is a book of 365 daily verses and reflections. It is a Spiritual Self-Help book that draws inspiration from nature and the ancient spiritual teachings of India, offering something for each day to lift, to comfort and heal.

On each page you will find a verse of poetic inspiration and a meditation or reflection that brings it to fullness like a bud brought to blossoming. 

The spiritual thoughts and ideas expressed in this book are non-sectarian, inclusive and drawn primarily from the teachings of Vedanta, which is based on the Vedas and Upanishads, the ancient spiritual texts of India. The principles of Vedanta are universal and preclude religion. Emerson, Thoreau, and more recently a plethora of modern spiritual teachers, have assimilated these universal truths into their work for the great benefit of humankind. 

The purpose of this book is to provide a reflection of that truth so you may catch a glimpse of your own radiant being mirrored in its pages.You may find perspectives and expressions that are new to you in this book, but there is nothing actually new here for you to learn. There is nothing new any one of us needs to learn in order to find what we are looking for. We need only to remember what we have forgotten, and to revive the truths we have already learned but leave idle, like dusty trophies on the shelf of intellectual accomplishment.

However, we all do need reminders. Here are daily reminders to refresh your aspirations and to help you to rediscover the epiphanies left behind, buried in the backroads of your memory.So many precious gifts sent into our lives end up unclaimed, simply because we were not present to receive them! Our true home and life’s greatest treasures are found in the present moment. These pages are daily reminders of how we can spend more time there.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Contents

Introduction

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

About The Author

January

In the presence of this Beauty

I dare not speak

January 1st

Every dawn a new beginning

Day One of the great quest

We are born once again

into everything—just as it is

It is easy to drag our regrets and emotional fallout from yesterday's events into the fresh opportunity of a new day. But if we can accept that everything is as it is, and stop wrestling with reality, it is just as easy to begin anew. We may not be able to change how things are when we wake up, but we can change how we approach them. Accepting what is in this moment doesn't mean we can't work to create change. It just means not wasting energy resisting something that already is. Once an egg is cracked, it is easier to make something out of it than put it back together—just ask the king’s horses and men.

Every night the tide washes away yesterday’s footprints. Every morning the shore is a fresh path to walk. Each soul is on a great quest and every step is a fresh start.

January 2nd

Morning sunlight spreads

and the mountains are ignited

Luminous and covered

with a crystalline white blanket

of feathery filigree

Sometimes dawn begins slowly and softly, gradually gathering momentum until it seems the fire of the heavens is flooding the earth with light. Snow covered peaks look like they are all aflame, and a billion snowflakes reflect the sun with almost blinding intensity.

Henry David Thoreau said, All memorable events, I should say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphere. The Vedas say, All intelligences awake with the morning.

The first light of the new day has a mystical and sacred quality that requires no religion to recognize.

January 3rd

From a palette of sky blue,

golden sunlight and snowflakes

The Artist paints a crystalline morn

All of the beauty that great artists try to open our eyes to is waiting for us in the world around us. The inspiration that guides the artist's hands is a response to the beauty of creation. That inspiration is an inner experience of something that beauty has emerged from.

We all have the capacity to feel this inner connection with the Source of all beauty, and great masterpieces move us into that realm of experience.

What marvelous consciousness is behind the unfolding masterpiece that is the universe? This is the great mystery—who is the one Great Artist?

January 4th

Life is walking by my window

along the winding path below

Walking past the deep

purple, pink and green hues

The living artwork

that is growing on the bluff

at the edge of the ocean cliff

People are walking through the entrancing beauty of the garden on the bluff below my window, with the immensity of the ocean shimmering in the background like a majestic and elegant backdrop for a grand play. As they walk, every gait tells a story, some in youth some in pain, some exuberant, some despondent, each one with a story, a story as deep as the ocean I gaze upon.

It is so easy to see the beauty and sacredness of Life in nature’s Divine scenery, and so difficult sometimes to see it in our fellow beings walking by.

January 5th

The ever-changing ocean is the

earthly painting of Divine beauty

Changing and flowing

dancing in color and light

Roaring in whispers of sounds

that speak softly to the soul

There are many stunningly beautiful faces of Nature: mountains, valleys, canyons, the white frozen poles of our planet and so much more. But the ocean seems most like a living being, always moving, breathing in waves, nourishing and sustaining all the life it contains and surrounds. No wonder it moves the heart and the mind to the shores of the Divine.

January 6th

My soul pours forth a prayer

in a language that has not found words

Even I know not

what this prayer is saying

Something the river says

on its way to the sea

Sometimes we don’t know what to pray. The deepest inner feelings and longing find no words adequate to carry them. Still, if the river of our soul could speak it might say, I know I am returning to You, the ocean of my being. Thank you for this flowing.

So the flowing itself, toward our destiny, is a dynamic prayer of longing for the ocean of our inner being. It is a striving and a knowing that our Wholeness awaits us there.

January 7th

As I move from the comforting and

healing realm of Meditation

the atmosphere moves with me

Like a lingering perfume, soft and delicate

It follows me into the embrace of Nature

When we have drawn close to stillness in our meditation or our communion with Nature, there is an aura of peace that moves with us. We can feel it filling and surrounding us, emanating from that place of stillness.

Others can sense it lingering around us like a fragrance of quiet joy.

January 8th

Beggar or king,

what difference in this life?

If in the flash of a firefly

all is dust again

Contemplating the reality of how brief our stay is here in this mortal dimension need not be a morbid or unsettling experience at all. In fact it can be quite the opposite—liberating and a source of newfound peace and joy.

Our sense of what will bring fulfillment and well-being is so often bound to things that can never fulfill us and will soon be gone. If we can look at this truth and truly see it, we will know what is really important. We will be able to live a life that is one of fulfillment and joy.

January 9th

Fishing for Truth in these

shallow waters of my understanding

Can I hope to cast my little net

over the whole of the ocean

and catch all the fish it contains

If we could step outside of our mind it would be amusing to watch as we try to comprehend our world, the universe, God, with the limited instrument of our intellect. It’s like trying to pour the ocean into a teacup. Yet with our little teacup of knowledge and understanding we think we have the whole picture.

We think we understand the inner workings of those around us, how the world functions and how it should. We have our own concept of where we came from and what our destiny will be, who God is or is not and what is true. We are also quite sure we are correct in our awareness of all of this. It is only when we become aware that there is a Consciousness, a knowing that is beyond the mind, that we begin to see a Truth that is infinitely larger than the mind can comprehend.

January 10th

If there is anything

worthy of lifetime pursuit

it exists not in the realm of time

where everything is temporary

But in the realm of timeless stillness

where time itself is contained

There is much to be enjoyed here in this realm of duality and time, many pleasurable experiences and worthwhile endeavors. But there is something greater that is ours to know and to keep forever if we would but awaken to it. It does not exist in the realm of time but in the silent realm of stillness, the present moment eternally unfolding. It is within this eternal Now that our temporary experiences and pleasures have their brief existence.

We can still enjoy earthly delights as they come, but as we approach the still and shining ocean of bliss that is our true being and consciousness, the importance of pursuing anything else pales by comparison.

January 11th

I watched as waves of moonlight

rolled in to the shore

shining gleaming dancing on the ocean

Mystical colors

painted on the water by the moon

From a palette of light

borrowed from the sun

So often we admire the beautiful moonlight and its ethereal reflection on the rolling ocean, dancing, entrancing and delighting us. We forget that it is actually the light of the sun, reflected first by the moon, and then by the sea.

It is the same with all of creation. The radiance of all the inspiring beauty we see is but a reflection of that one great Light.

January 12th

Sometimes I feel ripples of Joy

Like gentle waves of bliss

splashing over my toes

As I play on the shore

of the infinite sea

I long to feel endless and unfathomed bliss. But I am still just a child playing at the edge of the sea of Consciousness.

As children we enjoy the cool splashing of gentle waves over our toes and feet, but we are certainly not ready to take a plunge beneath the waves. As we grow and mature we become stronger and wiser. We learn to swim and how to read the moods of the sea. When we are ready we may follow the urge to run and dive into the ocean, losing our self in the bliss of weightless motion, one with the sea.

Spiritually, when we are ready, we may plunge into the sea of stillness and lose our self in the bliss of consciousness without thought.

January 13th

In the stillness of this moment

There is only immersion in the sweetness

Of midnight mountain air

At times we are moved by a simple experience in nature. At these times, it is possible to linger in the depths of the atmosphere of stillness in which we suddenly find ourselves immersed. It will evaporate quickly, as we immediately begin to think about the experience, instead of continuing to experience it. But we can catch hold of the reigns on the wild horses of our mind and remain still a little longer.

In a split-second we can pause, take a breath and inhale the moment. Doing this we step over the threshold of our mind-world into the joy of now. If we smell a flower its fragrance fills our whole being. If we listen to the ocean we merge with the rhythmic sound in the slow dance of the universe.

January 14th

As I breath in the intoxicating mixture

of freshly made oxygen

and the flowering scents of Nature

An aura of Peace fills my mind

Like an ocean breeze fills a silent cave

Sometimes it seems impossible for us to clear our minds to experience stillness and peace.

Music and nature can help us move effortlessly from total occupation with our thoughts and difficulties into a flowing moment of joy and peace. Just breathing in fresh life-giving oxygen and the fragrance of flowers or an ocean breeze can take us, for a moment, to a refuge of peace.

We instinctively love and respond to the beauty of nature but the effect is expanded when we are conscious of being lifted, and what It is that we are being lifted into.

January 15th

Palm trees in the snow are bewildered

Dreaming of the warm caress

of a tropical breeze

They long