Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning are your greatest strengths now, because they enable you to change your mind and help others to change theirs.
ACIM chapter 4: I: 4:1

The noon sun is shining brightly through my window.  It is warm and bright despite the winter temperatures.  How comfortable it is right here, right now.  I have everything I need.  I am everything I need to be.  Wow!  Imagine if that notion was so implanted in our minds it became knowledge (remembered knowledge)?  Is that what we are all seeking?  That awareness that we do not need to strain, to seek, to cling, to find something out there?  That all we need is within us? Is that not what peace is?  Seeking peace is an oxymoron, I suppose.  Because  peace is already here.

I will be back in the New Year with a renewed intention to teach to learn; and to learn to teach. 

All is well!

Added Perk

Writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers.
Isaac Asimov (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/isaac_asimov_382193?src=t_writing)

Another article published.  Yeah!  Check it out!

http://www.aquarianonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Enlighten-Up-with-The-Aquarian-Winter-2017-issue.pdf

I was so excited and grateful for the opportunity to be published by this press and even more so when I seen a life long  Canadian idol of mine, David Suzuki, published there at the same time.  :)

I was just thinking today about how good it feels just to write and to learn all the wonderful things I am learning and subsequently sharing with my words.  Publication is an added perk! (and a part of the cycle). It's all so good!

All is well!

Greatest Gift

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/gift)

What was the greatest gift you gave this season and what was the greatest gift you received?  That sounds like a pretty shallow question to ask doesn't it?  Almost equivalent to the one we would so excitedly ask our friends  when we were younger: "What did you get for Christmas?" lol 

I do not intend to indulge the ego here.  I mean it as a thought provoking probe for reflection only.  Christmas is not about the material gifts though our egos and our society so wants us to believe it is. It is so much more than that.

So what did you give that made a difference?

Maybe you gave material items to someone who needed a physical, financial or emotional boost.    Maybe by so doing you provided some comfort, some ease...some diminishing of suffering.  That's wonderful. Maybe you made someone smile and feel joy?   Isn't our whole experience here about feeling good and allowing others to feel good?  So maybe you gave something of a physical nature that made a difference in someone else's life.  Good for you. I hope you feel good about that.

Or maybe you gave something of the subtle nature: kindness, patience, compassion or love.  Now that is what Christmas is about, is it not? When offered where it is needed most we create a better world, do we not?   When we extend these things to the places and things and people we are resisting...we create transformation.  Forgiveness is the greatest gift Christmas offers us...of others, of life of ourselves.  When we forgive and accept, we settle into the peace of the moment...and that settling in is, ironically, what changes everything. I hope you experienced the sheer joy and peace that comes with giving these things this season.

Maybe you gave your time and your energy?  How wonderful is that because as the above quote from Emerson states, the greatest gift is a part of who you are?

Whatever you gave...I hope it filled you with the joy of giving.

The greatest gift I gave was a part of me, I suppose.  As a creator, I took time to create.  I made things with my photos and I gave that.  It didn't take that much money which was a good thing...it just took time, energy, my good thoughts, my desire to offer something with meaning and my self.  I knew it was the right gifting because it felt right. 

I gave myself to my children...my time, my company, my presence and my love.  What I got in return by giving was the only gift I needed.

What was the greatest gift you received?

Maybe you are catching on to the point of my rant here?  The greatest gift we receive is what we give.  It truly, truly is.  It is not measured by how many gadgets that end up beneath our tree...it is  about how we feel!  When someone receives this "portion of thyself" and they light up.  That's the gift...that smile, that joy, that peace that our giving offers another...is the gift. It fills us with something so very precious.  It doesn't get any better than that!

Giving is receiving!

All is well in my world.

Good News of Great Joy

And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."  Luke 2: 8-20 (ESV)

What was this child Savior to bring to the world?  He was  to bring lessons of forgiveness, peace and love. ...so that we...the whole world..."all the people" ... could learn to follow in His footsteps and find true joy.

Merry Christmas. Have a blessed and peace-filled holiday.

Being Rich at Christmas

The richest person is the one with a cool mind , free of tension and anxiety.
Sri Swami Satchidananda

Sigh!!! I am realizing just how not rich I am lol.  I awoke at 3 ish and was unable to settle back to sleep...thinking about how unrich I am in the worldly sense...and how stressful that is making this holiday season.  So at this moment I know I am not free of tension and anxiety, therefore I am not rich.  Are you?

How do we get rich?

I am not complaining so much about my financial situation.  I have "enough" to put bread into the stomach and that is all any of us need.  I am able to feed everyone thanks to D.'s contribution into the household.  I have a roof over my head.  I have a vehicle to drive.  I have more than that.  I have more than many.  I don't have a lot for gifts though and as long as I am caught up in this commercialized version of Christmas and listening to ego who says, "Oh!  you have to get more than that for that person.  They will be so disappointed if you don't" which sadly I am, I won't be free of tension and anxiety.  I won't have a cool mind.

How do we get this cool mind? 

Letting go is always the means of getting a cool mind.  We can  let go of tension and anxiety by understanding and letting go of the "thinking" and "believing" that brings it on. This version of
Christmas...is something "ego" created with its notion of "specialness". Do we not all have this running advertisement in our heads: "Show the special people in your  life just how much you care with the purchase of this or that..." ? Is it not time we questioned that?

First of all: How does a "thing" represent something as powerful and permanent as love?  It doesn't.  We love....because that is what we are.  And we are not things

Second of all...Whose "special"?  This whole notion of the "special relationship" comes up again.  Kindness to all is the thing isn't it?  What did good old Santa call out as he and his disgruntled reindeer flew off of the rooftop, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!" He didn't pick out a select few names like the lady in Romper Room did, excluding the vast majority. He included all.  lol

More importantly, in the real meaning of Christmas, what is intended by  remembering the birth of Christ: "Peace and joy to the world!"  Not just peace and joy to the people in our families and a few select friends who we want to impress with our thoughtfulness. That is ego!

Not a Grinch.  Really?

I am rationalizing my lack in the gifting department...I actually used to be quite extravagant...I am still caught up in ego's little games even if I do not have the circumstances to allow me to carry it very far...there is no doubt about that.   But I do see and realize what I am doing and I have to question why.

 I want to be rich in the truest sense of the word and that will involve getting rid of ego's hold on me no matter how socially conditioned and expected it is. ...even at Christmas! It will involve replacing tension and anxiety with peace. Imagine floating through the holiday on a cloud of sublime peace and contentment...rather than struggling, fighting one's way through it?

Why wouldn't we want to be rich this Christmas in the truest sense of the word? Even if it means taking all the whistles and gadgets from "Whoville" and learning the true lesson of what Christmas is all about.

That is my sleepless rant for the day.

All is well.

Bread or flowers

The stomach is crying for a piece of bread; the hair is crying for a bunch of flowers.
-South Indian Proverb

It is Christmas time and many of us here in North America are busy scampering around buying this or that to please our loved ones and ourselves.  We are stressed to the max possibly wondering why we are doing this to ourselves.  Every Christmas I am consumed with that "stressed out"  feeling and if I break it down I see I am feeling a certain pressure to adhere to socially imposed expectations that I choose willingly to adhere to every year; I feel guilt about being so materialistic...buying gifts for people who already have so much while people in the world are starving; I feel worry over the possibility of  offending someone with the wrong gift or the lack of a gift  and about the further debt  all this purchasing puts me in.  I really feel stressed because I know this is not what my soul needs...this is not what Christmas is all about.  This is ego's version of Christmas I am trapped in( willingly) and I don't much like it.

This year is different.  Christmas is only five days away and I have nothing done and I really do not care lol.  I see my past behaviour, ego's demanding expectation for what it is. I don't want to get caught up in its circus anymore.  Besides I have been placed in a wonderful situation circumstance wise where I have no choice but to step away from materialism.  I do not have the means to buy anything much for anyone.  I will take a small loan from D. to buy my children something small and I will make sure that I give to those in need but that's it.  I will use what I have: photographs worth framing, a few chosen words and maybe some dolls made of toilet tissue rolls and pipe cleaners (lol) as tokens of my well wishes and love. That's what gifts are meant to be,  aren't they?  Tokens of our love not garlands for the hair?

The priority is to feed the belly's of those in need.  What would happen, I wonder, if society finally got it right.  And if all we spend on each other, who already have so much, went to feed those who have so little?  If we gave gifts of ourselves to each other rather than things shot out of an assembly line? If we focused more on simply being over the holiday than all this doing in the form of shopping, purchasing? 

Please know...I am not being self righteous.  I am still caught up in all this Christmas stuff.  I have no right to judge anyone!!! I am just saying guilt and worry and pressure are emotions that should never go with this season...any season really. I am  sure I am not the only one who feels uneasy  with ego's version of Christmas. 

Wouldn't it be nice to embrace Spirit's version of Christmas instead...love and peace and joy...nothing else? Just saying ...Wouldn't it be nice if we gave gifts where they were truly needed: the material stuff where there is so little, bread to the empty stomachs and the being there stuff to a society that sometimes forgets the importance of connecting to others, and Self?

I have to work on that in my mind and my life.  This year...I have been given a wonderful, blessed opportunity to do so.

All is well.

Viveka

As the mind, so the person; bondage or liberation are in your mind only.
-Sanskrit saying translated by Satchidananda (Yoga Sutras; 2011)


Viveka is a Sanskrit word that refers to the process of trying  to see and understand the permanent aspect in everything and then to ignore all that is impermanent. Hmmm!

Say what crazy lady?

Connecting the Dots

I was able to connect some more dots today in my reading of  the Sutras, ACIM and the words of my Buddhist mentor Thich Nhat Hanh.  If I had to use one word to sum up that connection it would be Viveka. 

Once we are able to discriminate enough to tell the difference between what is real and what is unreal; what is temporary and what is eternal; what is ego and what is Spirit we will be free of the bondage of all worldly things... will we not?  We will no longer be trapped by illusions. 

Two Gifts; Two Pictures

Chapter 17, Section IV. of A Course in Miracles describes this discrimination beautifully in their description of the "special relationship."  The ego uses the special relationship as it does all its puny gifts to allude us into choosing it over Spirit.  It presents its gift as a picture  in a beautiful frame that draws in our attention and keeps us there. Frames are nothing but a way to present a gift. It is the frame that is beautiful in ego's gift to us, that keeps us there...not the picture.  The picture is dark and fuzzy offering nothing but empty promises but the frame is beautifully jewelled  in its promises to save us from all the awful things this world has to offer. Ego's gift is nothingness offered in a frame of worldly promises.  Take the picture out of the frame...and what do you have as a gift from ego?  Nothing.  Ego's gifts (all things external) are temporary and impermanent. 

Spirit, God, Life, Truth....however you want to look at it...offers a gift too in the form of a picture.  The frame it comes in is plain and ordinary....not worth considering too much ...worthy of  being ignored for anything but its ability to present the picture to us.  We call the frame... "time".   It is the picture within it that is worthy of our attention. If we take time to look at the picture we will be mesmerized by its beauty.  It is full of light and promises that are already fulfilled.  It is eternity we see. It is Truth. Spirit's gift is always permanent and real. If we take that gift from the frame...it will shine even more!

Discriminating Between Real and Unreal, Impermanent and Eternal

If according to the Sutras, we were to liberate the Purusa or True Self from its bondage with nature ( all external things like circumstances, bodily sensations, emotions, thoughts, the  mind and the body which form picture frames around who we are)...we would be free. We reach freedom through the mind's ability to tell the difference between what is real and what is unreal; what is permanent and what is impermanent. Only the True Self...Spirit...Truth...is permanent.  Does that make sense to you?
We need to remember two things:

1. Every experience in the world is mental. To change our experiences, we change our minds.What we put our minds on we "experience". In order not to experience something we need to remove our mental attachment from it.  One simple way of doing that is by objectifying the experience.  If you are feeling pain, for example.  Instead of saying..."I am unwell.  I hurt."  Ask yourself this question.  "Who is hurting? " It is not the True Self that is hurting.  It is not the picture within the frame.  The True Self just witnesses and observes your body having pain.  Ask then: "Who knows the body is having pain?" When you analyze the pain as something objective...it will diminish its hold on you or go away because you lose your attachment to it.
2. Truth never changes, though the form (or frame) it is presented  in may change. Satchidinanda offers this analogy.  A tree dies to become a log, a log is cut up to become planks; planks are carved into a chair; the chair may be later cut up to become firewood and the firewood may be burnt into ash.  Several frames were put around the real picture throughout the physical  changes.  The tree's essence, however,  never changes or goes away regardless of what happens to the physical form. If we really knew that, wouldn't we be free of suffering...knowing that we cannot destroy the picture, no matter what we do to the frame?  We really do not lose anything. 

Seeking the picture that is real and eternal within the frame; seeking the truth over the illusion offered by ever-changing physicality is the process that will free us. Finding the True Self is the answer, is it not?

Thich Nhat Hanh in peace is every breath (2011; page 37) shares these beautiful words in a Gatha recited to bring us back to the Island of our true self.

I am water reflecting what is real, what is true;

And I feel there is pure space inside of me.

I am free.

 

How freeing is that?

 

All is well in my world

 

 

References

 

Foundations for inner Peace. (2007). A Course in Miracles. Combined Volume. Third Edition. Mill Valley: Foundations for Inner Peace.

Sri Swami Satchidananda (2012) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yogaville: Integral Yoga Publications

Thich Nhat Hanh ( 2011) peace is every breath. New York: HarperOne

Opening the Gates

Health is a state of complete harmony of the mind, body and spirit. When one is free of physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open.
-B.K.S. Iyengar

And how do we get free of mental distractions and physical disabilities?

We free ourselves when we realize that we are not our bodies or our minds, as taught in the Yoga Sutras.

Learning from chest pain

I broke up the wonderful little routine I had going on to come here this morning.  Was cutting down to  only 2-3 times a week...but waking up with chest pain curtailed my yoga and instead of meditating/reading I found myself with my tea...here.

I needed something from this place.  Company? It is funny...I don't like to talk to people about my physical symptoms...don't want to talk about illness at all really...but when I feel it, observe it, identify with it...I don't want to be alone either.  So I come here...just to sit for a while until the symptoms go away or I get myself up over the mental hump of anxiety and /or frustration they bring about.  Today it is more frustration because I have to go into work and I cannot go until this baby calms down.  :) sigh.....lol

It is all good. I can use this old mind of my mind to think my way up and through it.  It is so cool actually to get to this one point in a lifetime, in a growth process...where we truly see that we are not our body...just an observer of it.  I think we know we are growing when we can look at this situation and instead of saying..."I am sick; I am not well."...we  say, "My body is acting up...there is chest pain at this moment." Just playing with the pronouns and the descriptors changes the whole thought process in the mind, doesn't it?

"I" am not sick..my body is simply not performing at its best.  There is just a miscommunication between mind and body.   It is not me....not the True Self... that is malfunctioning because I am not my body or my mind. I am simply observing it.

How freeing that is to be able to say that, think that and believe that! That is true healing, is it not?

Shhh!  The gates have opened and the baby is finally falling to sleep.  I want to get going before it wakes up again.  :)

All is well in my world.

Passing Show and Walking on Snow. :)

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
Thornton Wilder

Hmm! This is not the entry that goes with this date.  I have this one already published in hard copy.  There was a poem here. What is going on? 

Feel so blessed by the things that are happening around me.  There is some light entering what seemed like a dark place.  That light is a treasure.  I am seeing that light in everything, even in rejections that would have once stung like the dickens. I see the story as just that "a story"...take it or leave it.  I am not that attached to it. I no longer see my stories as extensions of me, as children I need to promote and protect. I no longer see other opinion as the absolute measure of who I am as a writer and as a person.I see the truth in it and I learn and accept because of it without allowing it to determine who I believe I am.  I am not going to stop writing because of it and may even get better because of it. It is all so good!

Spring is here.  The snow is finally melting.  The temperatures are mild and the sunlight, when it is out, is absolutely amazing.  Bird song everywhere!!! My children are well; my siblings are well; D, is well and my life is absolutely the biggest treasure of all.

Oh...and I have a new washer.  After six months of flooding to the basement...I have a lovely new washer in my laundry room, thanks to D. and his bonus at work.  That is just one of the many little treasures in my life right now.  :)

All is well.

Be Open to Belief in Life After Death

I know absolutely nothing,

so I am open to believe

absolutely everything.

-me

 

 

 





Do you believe in life after death?

 

You may answer yes to that.  If I asked you if you knew there was life after death, could you answer in the same way? There is a difference between knowing and believing.

 

I don't know there is life after death but I certainly believe it.  I believe there is more than this reality I am living in now...that there is much more about us than the body and mind I am using now.  I believe in God...maybe not in the same way I was brought up to believe but I believe there is God. (I now remove the "a", the He or She in my mind if I do not in my verbal description).  I believe we are all here for a reason...not randomly formed piles of dust, victims to random external chaos with an undefined expiration date. I believe.

 

A Desire to Believe may not lead to Truth

 

Yet, I have a very scientific, questioning mind.  Belief doesn't sustain me because I fear it is my wanting to believe rather than true evidence and validation...even the inner kind...that is guiding me. Wanting to believe in something can create fantasy, illusion and delusion in our minds. It can steer us away from Truth.  Isn't that how we got into this mess with ego in the first place.?  :) I do not know about you, but I want Truth.  

 

I want to know. And I would like to know without learning the hard way lol.  I want to know that what I am feeling inside is real...that this life long search to the Ultimate reality is the path we all should be on.  I believe it is.  I even "feel" it is but do I know that without doubt?  No. 

 

Practice and Experience  Beyond Belief

 

So what do I do?  I investigate.  I research.  I read. I listen.  I experiment,  I practice and then I go inside to see how it all "feels."  I have to experience it! Knowledge...true knowledge ...can only come from experience.  "Without experience we cannot understand or learn anything."(Satchinanda, 2011). 

 

What is belief then but a " gut feeling" that something is the way it is. If it feels right to the gut, to intuition or to what is called "instinct" in the animal kingdom is that knowledge? Yogi's would go onto say that all instinct and intuition is,  is  a remembering of something we learned  from another life time. (Satchidinanda, 2011, page 87) What we seem to instinctually and intuitively know now  is simply the learning  we remember from another birth. Say if there is something you just "feel" you "know" to be true but you have no evidence for it...is that knowledge? Could it be that you investigated, researched, read, listened, experimented and practiced this something in another life time until it "felt" like Truth?

 

Look at those musical prodigy's that for some physical reason are  unable to add six plus four but when they are put in front of a piano they play complicated classical pieces with such eloquent ease.  They cannot master simple math but they master the keys  without thought.  How? It is instinctual to them...they are guided by intuition...they are guided by repeated practice in another life.  Of course to believe that you have to believe in reincarnation.  If you do believe in it....do you know it to be true?

 

Do you know that?

 

No...but I am at least open to believe it is possible.  When we realize we do not know anything we become more open to believe.  When we are open to believe...we begin to investigate, research and practice.  We believe. We seek the Truth to determine if that belief is sustainable and when we find it is, we have knowledge.  We know.  Isn't that  cool?

 

Have an open mind.

 

In order to know we must first admit we don't know and from there we open ourselves to all the possibilities out there...testing and experiencing, learning, growing, expanding.  (Possibly not just in this life time but all the lifetimes to come.)

 

An example

 

To test my belief in life after death I began to explore mediumship.  I wanted to learn all I could about it.  I do not know if it is real or unreal.  Is it actually a connection with Spirit or is it purely mentalism and showmanship? I believe it could very well be our link with the Truth on the other side...but I don't know that.  If I closed my mind completely to it...I would never find out, would I?  If I open up to it...it could be the link that takes me where I wish to go...to true understanding. So I read, I listened, and I experienced it.

 

Despite my reluctance to have D. pay for things for me (other than half of our costs of living)...I did allow him to take me to see a Medium's presentation which just happened to fall on the day between the anniversary of my father's and sister's death.  I thought well...if there is such thing as serendipity...that would have to be it, right?

 

We sat in the back...not because I was overly skeptical ... we might have come off that way...but I just wanted to witness, to see it, to feel the "truth" in it so I could go to believing and from believing to knowing that I am on the right path of understanding.  (Otherwise I fear that I am just crazier than a bag of hammers).  I wasn't challenging the medium and mediumship, I was simply challenging a belief. I was looking for validation, not so much from my loved ones, but from the Universe Itself....that we go on.

 

I cannot say I found Truth and knowledge there...but I can't say it wasn't there either.  What I did find was a room full of people needing so desperately to believe in something bigger than themselves.  I found people, like me, wanting to believe...and that both fascinated me and scared me.  It fascinated me because I thought...wow!  The world is waking up.  I am not alone.  And it scared me...because I thought of the psychology behind it.  Desperate desires to believe can lead to fantasy and illusion to numb from suffering with .  If this isn't real...than we are going to end up with a lot more psychotic people in the world with me amongst them.

 

Many of the people around me became believers after our experience.  I felt so glad for them.  So many found peace...could feel it in the room...as they got the closure they needed...and I felt glad for them.  I soaked up that peace. I even found myself wanting to believe that my father was coming through by one of her descriptions when I or the medium herself were doubtful ( could tell by her reaction to my wildly wagging arm to get her attention) . I got drawn in by the wanting to believe that filled the room.  I realized what I was doing almost instantaneously.

 

I walked away with more questions than answers but that's okay. The experience made me examine and question my own path away from what I knew.  It is helping me to grow.

 

I will examine this issue of mediumship in more detail at a later date, okay? It is so fascinating.

 

What I really intended to say was that...we need to keep our minds open to the possibility of anything because we know nothing for sure, do we?  If a belief brings peace, like it did to so many in that room, it can't be all bad can it? And what if?  What if mediums truly are the guiding link between us and life after death?  Would it not be something worthy of exploring? 

 

Yet you could heal and be healed if you did question it.  And even though you know not Heaven, might it be more desirable than death? You have been as selective in your questioning as in your perception. An open mind is more honest than this. (ACIM:Chapter 13: IV:3:5-8)

 

Know that you know so little and have an open mind to foster belief, experience and knowing.

 

 

All is well in my world!

 

 

References:

 

Foundations for Inner Peace (2007) A Course in Miracles: Combine Volume; Third Edition. Mill Valley: Foundations for Inner Peace

 

Sri Swami Satchidinanda ( 2011) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yogaville: Integral Yoga Publications

The Boulder

 

The Boulder

Why do you give me this boulder to carry, Father,
when my load is already so heavy
and the road ahead of me so rough and long,

leading me to  a somewhere I cannot see?

Oh that is not how it really is, my child.

We have walked along together
for a long, long time
you and I.
All your life,
I was holding your hand.
I was showing you
the beauty and abundance of this world
I created for you,in you,

I was forever
pointing to the canopy above us,
full of luscious life and music...
while you were busy counting pebbles
on the path we traveled on.

I was surrounding you with the
precious stillness of the moment,
wrapping you in its warmth while
you were busy moving,
looking back,
looking ahead,
questioning where each twist and turn
would take you.

I was laying a smooth and endless
road before you
but all you saw were obstacles.

When you saw the massive boulder
at your feet
you picked it up
in hope that carrying it

would scourge you of all your sins

and make up for your  weaknesses.

I asked you to put it down
but you weren't listening to me ...
you were too busy crying over
the callouses on your palms
and the aches and pains you were feeling.
I told you were not the body that was in discomfort,
and that what you carried was nothing but dust
but you did not believe me...
You chose to experience every speckle

of insignificant dirt
as a 100 lbs of human misery.

I was patient.
I put my arms around you as we walked,
encouraging you and loving you,
but you did not feel me.
You were too busy feeling
the blisters on your tired feet,
and collecting grievances.
I even carried you a while
but you did not notice.
You thought it was a dream
brought on by your body's fatigue.

I was always with you...
child...
patiently teaching,
directing,
showing the way
but you ignored me
as you raced to get ahead of your brother,
to be in the lead in some race you

created in your mind.

You cursed the rock you carried
for slowing you down...
allowing its weight to break your breath
and make your heart beat erratically
as you ran with it.
You had no idea
that I was with you
the whole time
asking you to lighten your load
and to slow down

so you could hear My Wisdom.

You stumbled many times.
You called out to me in your pain
and I answered
but somehow you didn't hear me.
You cursed me for being so far away
when I was with you always.
You didn't hear me.

Hear me now.

I want so much more
than this for you
my child.
It was not I who gave you that boulder.
It was you who insisted on carrying something
that did not exist.
Let it go...
just put it down...
and watch it crumble into the nothing it is.
Do not identify yourself
with the pain or pleasure
your body feels.
It is not who you are.
Do not build a wall
of grief and complaint  
around you either...
it will never hide
who you really are
from anyone but yourself.

Instead, feel the peace of letting go.
Walk in joy and ease
with me a while
and you will see
that what I have given you   
is a smooth journey,
full of limitless possibilities.
Put the boulder down, my love...
just let it go.

Stop racing
stop carrying
stop weighing yourself down
and walk slowly and lightly
with your Father
for a while.

 

Dale-Lyn 2012

 

Wow!  I wrote that five years ago.  I was learning back then too, I guess.  The circumstances of my life were pretty heavy at the time and I felt I was given a load that was much too heavy to carry.  Hmmm!

 

All is well.

Thine Liberates 

Mine and Thine

Mine binds; Thine liberates.
Sri Swami Satchidinanda

Is that not true?  When we live in a world where we want everything  to be "mine" are we not bound by the disease of attachment?  Do we end up focusing all our precious life energy on attaining, maintaining, claiming, holding, clinging, protecting , defending and attacking for the sake of the "Mine" label?  Mine is ego's word and it wants us to use it in reverence to it.

What if we were to say no to ego and yes to God?  What if we were to allow Life, in all It's glorious wisdom, to decide for us? What would happen if we put aside our need to control and just say, "Thine Will be done"?  How freeing would that be?  

What if we were to make  everything we do on this planet,  a gift to all beings instead of  just to this one little being who is still stuck in the "me,me" stage of infancy? Would we not be happier and lighter?

I want to put down the Mine and pick up the Thine?  What about you?

All is well in my world.

Giving and Sacrifice

Everything in this life gives. Sacrifice is the law of life.
Sri Swami Satchidananda (translation of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (2011); page 26)

Over the week I spent away from you, I began rereading the Yoga Sutras and really tried to grasp what the words and concepts expressed meant.  Satchidananda does a wonderful job explaining.  I came across the above quote as if for the first time (this is my third time through the sutras) and it hit me like a ton of bricks. 

We are Here to Give

We are all...every single one of us on this earth, be we sentient or non sentient...here to give, to sacrifice our being for the survival, growth and expansion of all. How cool is that?

Plants live to give us oxygen, beauty, food and materials necessary for our survival.  Animals live to give us materials, companionship, food and comfort.  Candles burn away to nothing to give us light and warmth. Everything in life gives.  Why would the purpose of humanity be any different?

Humanity's Sacrifice.

Why do Christians worship the cross?  Because it symbolizes the ultimate of all human sacrifices.  Jesus gave His very life for the sake of humanity.  Are we not meant to follow that supreme example , at least, to a much smaller degree? Are we not here to live for the sake of others?

So why then do we live such selfish lives, attached to our personal desires so much so we are at times willing to destroy life in order to keep them? Why are we so attached to our tiny lives as "little me"...when we are here for something so much greater?  Why do we fight to gain, own, possess, achieve, flaunt, and have all the petty things of the world when our existence calls for so much more?  How can we expect to find true happiness doing that when it goes against our very nature?  We are here to give and sacrifice...only then, according to Patanjali will we find peace.

"By renouncing worldly things, you possess the most important sacred property: your peace." ( ( Satchidinanda(2011); page 24)

Small Offerings

I want to devote my life to Life in general.  That is not easy, lol.  I am still very much attached to the things of this physical world.  I fear because of that attachment and find myself far from peace, where I so want to be. But I am willing and I keep trying.

  I give myself away in my work, with my family, friends etc.  I give myself away with my creative pursuits. I offer this blog and my sloppy videos as meager tokens with the hope and intention that they will have some benefit, somewhere to someone. I give the little I have in resources away to those who need it more, as my father taught me to do. Yet...I have a long way to go.

What about you?  What parts of you do you give away without reluctance?  Why don't we make a list of what we are presently giving away...and what we could give away to bring peace to ourselves and to the world?  Even contemplating that should do some good, should it not?

We need to look after ourselves, to care for our bodies and minds, to love ourselves in a healthy way in order to give in a healthy way.  That is so true.  But do we need to have everything? Let's be at least willing to let go of those things on our list; to become detached.  Can we do that?

All is well in my world.

Suggested Reading

Sri Swami Satchidinanda ( 2011). The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.Buckingham;Integral Yoga Publications.

I'm Back

For every positive change you make in your life, something else also changes for the better-it creates a chain reaction.
Leon Brown (http://homean.me/14903/life-changing-inspirational-quotes/life-changing-inspirational-quotes-1-motivational-about-changes/)

Well it is good to be back.  I missed my blogging over the week but being away certainly put some things straight in my head.  I am too obsessed with the writing at the detriment of my health.  :) I need to focus on my body a bit more than I have been doing. So I will write in moderation here, from now on...maybe 2-3 times a week.

What did I do without the daily writing? 

I read, read, and read.  I began rereading the yoga sutras and am almost finished reading a new book, One Spirit Medicine which is hitting home. I revised and edited my short story and my recently rejected novel synopsis/query  and sent them out. I worked two days.  I made myself get up, popped on some energizing music and walked/danced  around for ten minutes, three times a day.  I went on a few walks with D. and the dogs. Out to  a lovely meal with D.  once.   I did yoga and meditated as usual.  I also began doing Progressive Muscle Relaxation again on a daily basis (creating a video for you in the process).  So I certainly did enough but it isn't about doing...is it?

I felt better...well to the point I did too much physically...was once again reminded of my body's perceived limits which is good.  I need to respect that.  For the most part I felt good. It was a much needed break from doing. I be'd...lol. :)

So I will come back and write about some of the wonderful things I am learning and relearning. Starting tomorrow. 

All is well!