Gratitude and Compassion

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, 
and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, 
chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, 
a house into a home, 
a stranger into a friend.

—Melody Beattie

💚🙏💚

healing

"Sometimes, when you heal, your body gets all better.

Infections leave. Wounds disappear.
You feel happier. Brighter. More positive.
Sometimes, healing looks very, very different.
An infection stays. An old pain resurfaces.
You don't feel 'healed' at all. You feel worse than ever!
Powerful and uncomfortable feelings emerge!
Rage. Deep sorrow. Terrors you never knew were in you!
(Ah, but they were, friend, they were...)
This is healing, too. This falling apart.
The image of 'healing' has been shattered.
The image was false.
Trust. Trust the energies that are moving through you now.
You may feel 'worse', yes, but you are getting better at living.
You are experiencing a deeper kind of healing,
one which doesn't match the mind's fantasies.
This is a reintegration. A death... and a rebirth.
Darkness emerging into light.
All the bits you ran away from,
coming to you now
for love and acceptance.
Throw away your childhood fantasies of healing.
Fall apart. Lose the future.
Die into the Now.
Break apart for love.
You are whole, even though
your dreams have been shattered.
This is true healing, then:
Recontacting the Wholeness that you are." 

~ Jeff Foster

🙏🏼

belonging. be.

THE HOUSE OF BELONGING

I awoke

this morning 

in the gold light 

turning this way

and that

thinking for 

a moment 

it was one 

day

like any other.

But 

the veil had gone 

from my 

darkened heart 

and 

I thought

it must have been the quiet 

candlelight 

that filled my room,

it must have been 

the first 

easy rhythm 

with which I breathed 

myself to sleep,

it must have been 

the prayer I said 

speaking to the otherness 

of the night.

And 

I thought 

this is the good day 

you could 

meet your love,

this is the gray day 

someone close 

to you could die.

This is the day 

you realize 

how easily the thread 

is broken 

between this world 

and the next

and I found myself 

sitting up 

in the quiet pathway 

of light,

the tawny close 

grained cedar 

burning round 

me like fire 

and all the angels 

of this housely 

heaven ascending 

through the first 

roof of light 

the sun had made.

This is the bright home 

in which I live, 

this is where 

I ask

my friends 

to come, 

this is where I want 

to love all the things 

it has taken me so long 

to learn to love.

This is the temple 

of my adult aloneness 

and I belong 

to that aloneness 

as I belong to my life.

There is no house 

like the house of belonging.

…

'The House of Belonging'

From The House of Belonging

Poems by David Whyte

© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press

to live with not knowing

HONESTY

is reached through the doorway of grief and loss. Where we cannot go in our mind, our memory, or our body is where we cannot be straight with another, with the world, or with our self. The fear of loss, in one form or another, is the motivator behind all conscious and unconscious dishonesties: all of us are afraid of loss, in all its forms, all of us, at times, are haunted or overwhelmed by the possibility of a disappearance, and all of us therefore, are one short step away from dishonesty. Every human being dwells intimately close to a door of revelation they are afraid to pass through. Honesty lies in understanding our close and necessary relationship with not wanting to hear the truth.

The ability to speak the truth is as much the ability to describe what it is like to stand in trepidation at this door, as it is to actually go through it and become that beautifully honest spiritual warrior, equal to all circumstances, we would like to become. Honesty is not the revealing of some foundational truth that gives us power over life or another or even the self, but a robust incarnation into the unknown unfolding vulnerability of existence, where we acknowledge how powerless we feel, how little we actually know, how afraid we are of not knowing and how astonished we are by the generous measure of loss that is conferred upon even the most average life.

Honesty is grounded in humility and indeed in humiliation, and in admitting exactly where we are powerless. Honesty is not found in revealing the truth, but in understanding how deeply afraid of it we are. To become honest is in effect to become fully and robustly incarnated into powerlessness. Honesty allows us to live with not knowing. We do not know the full story, we do not know where we are in the story; we do not know who is at fault or who will carry the blame in the end. Honesty is not a weapon to keep loss and heartbreak at bay, honesty is the outer diagnostic of our ability to come to ground in reality, the hardest attainable ground of all, the place where we actually dwell, the living, breathing frontier where there is no realistic choice between gain or loss.

…

HONESTY
In CONSOLATIONS:
The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.
© David Whyte & Many Rivers Press 2015

"....denying her wounds came from the same source as her power"

~Marie Curie

what is soft is strong

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding.

But water will wear away rock,

which is rigid and cannot yield.

As a rule, whatever is fluid,

soft and yielding

will over come what is rigid and hard.

This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.

- Lao-Tzu

Live life as a rehearsal
(from a Martin Landau interview I heard recently)

Trust is the most important thing.

     Trust yourself to the point where you don't rely on getting
          help from the Director...

Talent is one thing, but to trust your talent is another.

Trust your choices.

Use the rehearsals in a way where you're not watching yourself.
     "Leave the director outside"
Make choices on a scene or character from the objective point in you
Make a conscious choice.

Either trust that to your subjectivity or don't.

If you do, 

let it take you where it will~

If it does what you hope it will, it will end the scene
     As opposed to your deciding to end the scene.

Trusting yourself to the degree that you trust your subjectivity
is what rehearsals are for....

The wonderful thing about trusting yourself:
If you can swim well,
what are you worried about drowning for?
(it's a waste of time)

If you can,
     learn how to do what you do well. 
          Trust it.
               Trust your craft.

♥︎

perspective

there

mesmerized

two hours

passes like minutes

where am I

sitting

in India

or key west

during

peace week

dissolving

softening inside

creating space

gratitude

re-energized

ah,

impermanence

The mandala represents an imaginary palace that is contemplated during meditation. Each object in the palace has significance, representing an aspect of wisdom or reminding the meditator of a guiding principle. The mandala's purpose is to help transform ordinary minds into enlightened ones and to assist with healing.

According to Buddhist scripture, mandalas constructed from sand transmit positive energies to the environment and to the people who view them. They are believed to effect purification and healing. Mandala sand painting was introduced by the Buddha himself and there are many different designs of mandala, each with different lessons to teach.

The design of the mandala is marked with chalk on a wooden platform. This meticulous process takes an entire day.

Starting from the centre and concentrically working outwards, the monks use metal funnels called chak-pur to place millions of grains of dyed sand to make the elaborate patterns. The vibrations of the chak-pur being grated with a metal rod cause the sands to flow like liquid.

monks from Drepung Gomang Monastery in India at St Paul's

Key West, FL January 10, 2017

Once the mandala is complete the monks ask for the deities' healing blessings during a ceremony. As the monks chant, one monk begins the destruction of the mandala by scraping a knuckle through the sand, creating a cross of grey sand.

Another monk takes a paintbrush and slowly and carefully sweeps the sand from the perimeter to the centre of the mandala. The destruction of the mandala serves as a reminder of the impermanence of life.

The coloured sand is swept up into an urn and dispersed into flowing water - a way of extending the healing powers to the whole world. It is seen as a gift to the mother earth to re-energise the environment and universe. 

The above text is from a BBC Religions online article on the mandala.

_/|\_

...give ourselves a breather

get out of our own way

we are startust

....He told me he had journeyed all over the world

trying to find himself,

and that wasn't enough to feed his restless heart.

So he journeyed into outer space,

still seeking something he couldn't quite pinpoint. 

...no outer journey will ever fulfill you.

It took going into outer space for him to realize that

we must all

make this inner space journey

back to Oneness.

~ Lissa Rankin sharing about a conversation she had with Edgar Mitchell

Vitamin L

The Truelove

There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.

I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world.

Years ago in the Hebrides
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of the baying seals
who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water,

and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to them

and how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly
so Biblically
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to love.

So that when
we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and everything confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don’t
because finally
after all this struggle
and all the years
you don’t want to any more
you’ve simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness
however fluid and however
dangerous to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours.

David Whyte (House of Belonging)

I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of

so they can see that it's not the answer.
- Jim Carrey

 

whoa, man

colourful

Haruki Murakami's colourful expression in words..... sigh.

"Yet it was this pain, and this sense of being choked, that he needed. It was exactly what he had to acknowledge, what he had to confront. From now on, he had to make that cold core melt, bit by bit. It might take time, but it was what he had to do. But his own body heat wasn't enough to melt that frozen soil. He needed someone else's warmth."

"First things first. Build the station. A special station just for her. The kind of station where trains want to stop, even if they have no reason to do so. Imagine that kind of station, and give it actual color and shape. Write your name on the foundation with a nail, and breathe life into it. I know you have the power to do that. Don't forget - you're the one who swam across the freezing sea at night."

"It doesn't matter... it's just a physical phenomenon, no more. The spring on a wound watch gets steadily looser, the torque grows closer and closer to zero, until the gears stop altogether and the hands come to rest at a set position. Silence descends. Isn't that all it is?"

"It was a wonderful thing to be able to truly want someone like this - the feeling was so real, so overpowering. He hadn't felt this way in ages. Maybe he never had before. Not that everything about it was wonderful: his chest ached, he found it hard to breathe, and a fear, a dark oscillation, had hold of him. But now even that kind of ache had become an important part of the affection he felt. He didn't want to let that feeling slip from his grasp. Once lost, he might never happen across that warmth again. If he had to lose it, he would rather lose himself."

A one-mile stretch of Canada and US border

appearances can be deceiving

How.

How to stop time: kiss.

How to travel in time: read.

How to escape time: music.

How to feel time: write.

How to release time: breathe.

~ Matt Haig ~

    

          

            

dimmer switch of life

We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason

or doesn't have a purpose.

In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do

except perhaps making music and dancing.

When we make music we don't do it in order to

reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition.

If that were the purpose of music then obviously

the fastest players would be the best.

Also, when we are dancing

we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor

as in a journey.

When we dance, the journey itself is the point,

as when we play music the playing itself is the point.

And exactly the same thing is true in meditation.

Meditation is the discovery

that the point of life is always arrived at

in the immediate moment.

- Alan Watts

The Bottom Line ~ Mooji.....

❤︎

may we...

... stay forever young

Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end…

What is the kingdom? It lies in our realization of the ubiquity of the divine presence in our neighbors, in our enemies, in all of us.

We're in a freefall into future. We don't know where we're going. Things are changing so fast, and always when you're going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along.

And all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It's a very interesting shift of perspective and that's all it is...

joyful participation in the sorrows and everything changes.

- Joseph Campbell, from Thou Art That and Sukhavati

walkabout

helloooooo...

this pic is inspired by a talk I recently heard from Pema Chödrön

where she gave the image of intense emotion as the water raging in a river.

becoming swept along *in* the water is a form of distraction,

while observing the water (emotion) from the riverbank

actually allows us to connect and *be with* it.

many of us are conditioned to believe it's the other way 'round.

as if we're not truly feeling an emotion if its intensity doesn't envelop our whole being.

we are human, we slip into the river from time to time

and get bounced around on the river rocks.

in simply becoming aware of this

we see that we have the choice to come ashore

and in doing so, allow ourselves

to also see and possibly release whatever is drawing or holding us in the water,

be it fear of the emotion itself, guilt, unhealthy habit, beliefs, etc.,

and see the whole of the situation more fully and compassionately.

(my interpretation)

a wish for us all.

☀

in and out.

There's a rhythm under the song...

And it beats for the old and the young

And it pounds in the back of the sun

It's the sound of one drummer, one drum

There's a rhythm, it's subtle yet strong

And it moves all the wallflowers on

To the dance floor that holds everyone

To the sound of one drummer, one drum

Dance, for the time marches on

Off to a war that can never be won

To the heartbeat of drums

There's a rhythm, not cruel or kind

Though you feel that it's left you behind

Is it justice or you, that is blind

When you don't see it coming, how come?

There's a rhythm under the song

And it beats for the old and the young

And it pounds in the back of the sun

It's the sound of one drummer, one drum

~Ron Sexsmith

☀

less is more

always in life
the moments that matter are where thought ends;
they appear in nonsense,
as lightning in sunlight,
as a burst of laughter over a cup of tea.
- christmas humphreys

buddhist compliment

yesterday, I had a chance encounter at a coffee shop with Boston Bill, and we ended up talking about the difficulties that come with attachment (one particular situation for him was obviously losing a limb, but we both related to the broad range of physical and non-physical attachments) to anything not functioning well...

it was not a heavy, deep conversation, but  in essence

lightness of our shared humanity over a cup of tea,

and I'd like you to meet this delightful fellow...

after our very uplifting and grounding chat (the refreshingly real kind with no elephants, like the kind you might/could have with a buddhist monk or a nun, no need to hide, you're already *seen* anyways), I was interested in learning more of the history of this traveler shining his light and living in possibility, and this article had a quote about how unexpectedly, not to mention at a personally uncomfortable time, the moment appeared when he simply had an opportunity to help someone else... which turned out to be transformative... reminded me how easy it is to be caught up in ourselves and our own situations that we miss these

small miracles waiting to happen...

'The other cyclists continued on their way, leaving the grumpy white-haired man with his bike, his shoes, his artificial leg and his fear of appearing helpless.'

a fuller story and powerful short documentary of this fated friendship is shared here...

Life is what happens while we are making other plans.
Think less.

Feel more.

See the miracles in your own life. They are there.

Let life happen through, rather than to you... 

et cetera, et cetera...

♥

and when you must think...

sidewalks

♥

There is no way to peace.
Peace is the way.
A.J. Muste

Gentleness is a complex and powerful tool, and learning to work with this tool can be a slippery slope. To many of us, it's counter-intuitive to be gentle with ourselves, and gentleness is often wielded only as a soothing balm, when
its full potential is so much more.

Learning to use gentleness
in a skillful way is important work.

Gentleness when it comes to change is vital. This little story precisely describes the process, may it inspire some gentleness toward yourself and empower you to move through to your next chapter...

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
Portia Nelson from There's a Hole in My Sidewalk

Chapter 1

I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost ... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter 4

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter 5

I walk down another street.

"Solvitur en modo, Firmitur en rey"

Gentle in what you do,

Firm in how you do it

~    ~    ~
Disciplined Meditation is a How...
~    ~    ~

“Meditation is about seeing clearly the body that we have, the mind that we have, the domestic situation that we have, the job that we have, and the people who are in our lives. It’s about seeing how we react to all these things. It’s seeing our emotions and thoughts just as they are right now, in this very moment, in this very room, on this very seat. It’s about not trying to make them go away, not trying to become better than we are, but just seeing clearly with precision and gentleness.”

— Pema Chodron

my mama's garden
♥