TEA AND ZEN - THREADS

SERVICE AS SACRED UNION

When we open our hearts in service to another sentient being, we are not merely performing a worldly action, but participating in a divine act of spiritual connection. Through service, we are lifted beyond our perceived duality, recognizing the One that has always been present, beyond our imagined separateness. The moment we offer ourselves in service, we surrender to a higher calling…..one that invites us to transcend the illusion of separation and merge with the boundless love at the core of all life. In this sacred giving, we align with the sacred flow, a current as ancient as time itself.Service is a doorway to the beloved, an invitation to remember our true nature. As we open ourselves to another, the boundaries that once defined us….our identities, our separateness, our fears….begin to dissolve. In these moments, we are no longer "I" and "them," but united in the one sacred heart that beats within us all. The act of service becomes a prayer, an offering of love, where the lines between self and other blur and fade into the oneness of the divine.Through service, we are reminded of our interconnectedness, of the sacred presence that flows through every being. The more we serve with an open heart, the more we perceive that love is not a limited resource, but an infinite wellspring flowing abundantly from the Source, nourishing all who are open to receive. In giving from the heart, we receive not just gratitude or recognition, but the profound experience of touching the beloved within ourselves and others.In this sacred connection, this divine interplay, we discover that service is not about what we give, but what we awaken within ourselves. Every act of love, every moment of care, is an opportunity to attune to the sacred rhythm of the universe and connect with the higher Self that resides within us. As we open our hearts to another, we simultaneously open the gateway to the fullness of our own soul, realizing that we are both the giver and the receiver of the LOVE that binds all of creation.Service is the path that leads us back to the ONE, back to the realization that we are all expressions of one Source. As we give, we are reminded that in the great spiritual truth, there is no separation between "us" and "them." We are all emanations of the same eternal love, and every act of service is a reflection of the love that is ever-present, ever-giving, and ever-flowing within and through us all. Through service, we remember that in loving another, we are loving ourselves, and in loving ourselves, we are loving the ONE LOVE that resides in every being. Nigel Lott teaandzen.org Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
In the quiet between heartbeats a whisper calls you home, you are not broken you are becoming. These threads of silence and sound are letters from the threshold, offerings from the edge of stillness. Nigel  TEA AND ZEN - MAIN LIBRARY                                                                                                                                                                  DONATE

MEHER BABA

Love is the fountainof life-giving water.No one and no thing can live without love.This expression varies according to the capacity of the receiver and the giver,and in its highest form,love is divinity.To love is to live.You cannot really live without love.The omnipotent laws of nature have this power in its divine potency pervading the universe.The right to strike at the chord of love only belongs to the brave and sturdy at heart.Essentially, love is self-communicative.Those who do not have it catch it from those who have it,for one cannot absorb love without making a response.The secret of true love is that it is unconquerable and irresistible.True love gathers power and spreads itself until it transforms everyone else.Humanity will attain a new mode of life through the unhampered interplay of purelove as it spreads from heart to heart. Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
In the quiet between heartbeats a whisper calls you home, you are not broken you are becoming. These threads of silence and sound are letters from the threshold, offerings from the edge of stillness. Nigel  TEA AND ZEN - MAIN LIBRARY                                                                                                                                                                  DONATE

ANYTHING NOT ROOTED IN THE SOIL OF LOVE FLOWERS NOT.

A sacred truth imparted to me many years ago by my then principal teacher, my guru…Yogiraj Sat Gurunath Siddanath… among the many priceless gifts he bestowed upon me, this one remains etched in my heart:"Anything not rooted in the soil of love, flowers not."This simple yet profound message speaks to the very essence of life. Any thought, word, or action not anchored in love from its very inception cannot truly bloom. It cannot endure. It is destined to fail because it is not aligned with the most fundamental truth….the will of the universe, which is love.Any intention, whether thought, word, or deed, that arises without love at its core, and without its companions….kindness and compassion….pulls us away from the truth. It steers us away from the heart of creation. And like all that is false, it will ultimately fade into nothingness.For in the grand design of the universe, only love endures. It is the driving force of existence, and everything that is not rooted in love will ultimately perish, for it is not part of the eternal flow of creation. The universe is built to create love, and nothing else.HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
In the quiet between heartbeats a whisper calls you home, you are not broken you are becoming. These threads of silence and sound are letters from the threshold, offerings from the edge of stillness. Nigel  TEA AND ZEN - MAIN LIBRARY                                                                                                                                                                  DONATE

Chasing Shadows

The pursuit of wealth, though often celebrated, is but a fleeting illusion, a mirage that tempts the soul but never truly quenches its thirst. No matter how much we acquire, no matter how many riches we accumulate, there is always a gnawing emptiness that lingers within us, whispering that something is missing. And why? Because we do not truly know what "enough" is. In our blind chase for more, we fail to recognize that what we seek can never be found in material things.At the heart of this insatiable desire lies a deeper longing, a yearning that mirrors the cravings of an addict. The alcoholic, the drug addict, and the one who chases wealth all seek the same thing….an attempt to fill a void, to heal a sense of separation from the divine. We look outside of ourselves for what can only be found within, attempting to bridge the gap between us and the divine, to restore our lost union with the infinite.The truth is, the divine resides within us, in the silent depths of our being. Love, the eternal and boundless force that connects all, already flows through us. But in our relentless search for fulfillment through wealth, we are led astray, further from the truth. Like an addiction, the pursuit of material wealth pulls us farther away from the very essence of what we seek… union with the divine, the awareness that we are already whole.Money, in its essence, is neither good nor evil. It is a tool, a means of exchange, but it is not the path to divinity. It will not bring us closer to the God we seek, nor to the love that we long for. For the secret lies within: we are what we are searching for. The love, the peace, the union we seek is not out there, but here, inside us. We only need to look inward to realize that we have always been ONE with it….all.Nigel Lott teaandzen.org Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
In the quiet between heartbeats a whisper calls you home, you are not broken you are becoming. These threads of silence and sound are letters from the threshold, offerings from the edge of stillness. Nigel  TEA AND ZEN - MAIN LIBRARY                                                                                                                                                                  DONATE

poems of HOPE

may you remain faith-full in hope with all LOVE Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
In the quiet between heartbeats a whisper calls you home, you are not broken you are becoming. These threads of silence and sound are letters from the threshold, offerings from the edge of stillness. Nigel  TEA AND ZEN - MAIN LIBRARY                                                                                                                                                                  DONATE

ENERGY IN MOTION

There is an aspect of suffering that stems from the deep-rooted tendency to rationalize our pain. When we experience hurt or trauma, we seek to make sense of it in the mind—creating stories that help us fit the pieces together. The ego, in its wisdom, attempts to explain and categorize our wounds, believing that if it can understand the cause, the pain will dissolve. But this is an illusion. The truth is that the pain, the resonance of the experience, lingers far beyond the reach of reason. It is not the mind that heals the heart, but the body that holds the energy.The resonance of trauma…..the energetic imprint it leaves behind…..becomes embedded in the very fabric of our being. It enters the energy body first, then reverberates through our cells, and eventually seeps into the nervous system, leaving a subtle yet indelible mark. Over time, this unresolved energy accumulates, manifesting in some cases as physical illness or spiritual dissonance. In truth, the body is the keeper of memory, and all unresolved pain is stored within it until we find a way to release it…essentially to cry out our pain.From about the age of two, as we begin to develop cognition, we begin trying to make sense of our experiences. The emerging of our cognition and ego structures begin to think we can rationalize the pain away, unconsciously convincing ourselves that the energy of the experience will pass out from us this way. But this is a false comfort. Like a baby’s cry, which is not just a sound but a powerful vibration, the energy of trauma holds a certain resonance. A baby’s cry is not only a release of emotion; it is a cry-out to the universe, to clear the shadow from the energy body and restore the soul to its original state of love—its true frequency. We are born of this vibration: 528 Hz……the frequency of unconditional love.As we journey through life, these experiences—painful and unprocessed—collect in our energy field, creating distortions. Anger, fear, and grief form layers that veil our true nature. But it is always grief at the core. Grief is the deepest wound, the one that keeps us tethered to the past. It’s the wound from which all other emotional distortions spring. Fear and anger are but the surface manifestations of this buried grief. We walk through life carrying the weight of these unresolved energies, unaware of the toll they take on our body and soul.The ego believes it can overcome trauma by rationalizing it, by thinking its way out of the pain. But energy cannot be processed in this way. We cannot rationalize our trauma out of existence. We can only release it, by feeling it fully, by crying it out, by letting the energy return to the flow. Like a baby, we must cry out, not just when the need arises, but whenever we are called to release the shadow that clouds our heart. The key to healing is not in the mind’s attempts to make sense of it all, but in the soul’s call to let go, to return to love.Yet, many of us find it difficult to cry. We hold the grief, the anger, the fear, believing we must carry it. But the body does not lie, and eventually, the energy demands to be released. This is where the mystic practice of allowing the energy to surface comes in. Through deep inner work and spiritual practices, we can create space for the energy to move, to be expressed, to be released. And when we allow this process, we return to our original state—love, the true vibration of our being.We cannot rationalize our trauma out of existence. We can only release it, by feeling it fully, by crying it out, by letting the energy return to the flow. Like a baby, we must cry out, not just when the need arises, but whenever we are called to release the shadow that clouds our heart. The key to healing is not in the mind’s attempts to make sense of it all, but in the soul’s call to let go, to return to love. Nigel Lott teaandzen.org Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
In the quiet between heartbeats a whisper calls you home, you are not broken you are becoming. These threads of silence and sound are letters from the threshold, offerings from the edge of stillness. Nigel  TEA AND ZEN - MAIN LIBRARY                                                                                                                                                                  DONATE

MANY HEARTS - ONE LOVE

"In serving the heart of another, we serve the heart within us and, the one love that connects us all...simply nothing therefore is left undone."Nigel Lott teaandzen.org Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
In the quiet between heartbeats a whisper calls you home, you are not broken you are becoming. These threads of silence and sound are letters from the threshold, offerings from the edge of stillness. Nigel  TEA AND ZEN - MAIN LIBRARY                                                                                                                                                                  DONATE

The Peace Of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water.And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”— Wendell Berry Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
In the quiet between heartbeats a whisper calls you home, you are not broken you are becoming. These threads of silence and sound are letters from the threshold, offerings from the edge of stillness. Nigel  TEA AND ZEN - MAIN LIBRARY                                                                                                                                                                  DONATE

CONTEMPLATION

"Do you seek the source of your creation here on earth?It is here, always has been. It never left.You only believed it did.This belief—that all LOVE has been lost, in becoming human—is the root cause of all human suffering.Look no further than your own sacred heart, for there in the quiet chambers of your being, you will find what you call heaven.And there, too, you will find your God.You will find LOVE, ever-present, ever-unfolding.May you awaken to this truth now." Nigel Lott teaandzen.org Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
In the quiet between heartbeats a whisper calls you home, you are not broken you are becoming. These threads of silence and sound are letters from the threshold, offerings from the edge of stillness. Nigel  TEA AND ZEN - MAIN LIBRARY                                                                                                                                                                  DONATE

An evening poem and blessing.

All I know is loveA billion times God has turned manInto HimselfYou stand in line for theHighest giftFor His generosity cannot end.But best to bring an instrument alongWhile waiting in the cold desertAnd make some dulcet soundsTo accompany the palms’ swaying armsThat are casting silhouettesAgainst the sky’s curtainFrom our fire.Remind the Friend of your desireAnd great patience.A billion times God has turned manBack into Herself.We all stand in lineFor the highestGift.“Back Into Herself” Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
In the quiet between heartbeats a whisper calls you home, you are not broken you are becoming. These threads of silence and sound are letters from the threshold, offerings from the edge of stillness. Nigel  TEA AND ZEN - MAIN LIBRARY                                                                                                                                                                  DONATE