Come In Silence
Come in silence to this place.
Remove your shoes and tiptoe
towards the sacred spot.
Sit yourself down
in the quiet of your heart.
Shush the misbehaving children
who giggle and scramble about,
knocking into walls
that contain all there is.
Settle them down beside you
so they listen
and get lost in the lullaby of breath.
Close your eyes.
Slip past the chattering voices
of repeated thoughts
to the empty space within.
Relax there
in the perfect stillness.
Do not speak...
just listen
in the silence,
to the perfect chorus of peace
that is being played
just for you.
Wait.
Just wait
and you will hear
the Voice
you were living to hear.
Dale-Lyn 2011
Going to plop this one down into my chap book as well being that this one is about waking up. Poetry is easy for me ( not saying it is good or bad...just is) but when it came to choosing thirty pages of poetry I have been stressed to the core. I have hundreds of poems that I have written and to choose only so many is challenging. First of all I do not feel that I can take responsibility for them or credit so how can I choose which ones to slap together in a book with my name on it? That's crazy, is it not?
I don't care if they get published by a publisher...not focusing on outcome...but I do feel, because they came through me they are not meant to be stuck on some "My Documents" page...they are meant to be read by someone other than me maybe. (though I do believe I learn from them) . So I feel compelled to do up chap books...I literally could do up at least five full chapbooks with different themes. Two, at least, would be about waking up.
Ego was seldom in my writing of poetry and I want to keep it out...I do. I don't want to judge them. Can't help if they get judged by others as long as my thinking about poetry doesn't change with any judgment I may receive.
So I am thinking poetry and that may reflect in these blogs.
All is well!
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Knots!
Knots! Knots! Knots!
Circling, twining, spiraling,
the strong unfrayable strands
coil around each other,
forming a ball of knotted flesh
at the center of our being.
Like a string of poplar trees
emerging in unruly fashion
from the same root system,
miniature versions
of tangled memory,
terror, desperation and regret
sprout up between
the fibers of unassuming muscles.
Wrapping their misbehaving limbs
like deranged tentacles
around the sinewy chords
of shoulders, back and neck,
they seem to laugh eerily
with each movement
that brings the painful reminder
of what was and
of what may never be.
They spread out
into the throat,
distorting voices,
making it challenging
to cry out "stop'
as they settle in jaws
clenched tight with resistance.
Like the hinges on Pandora's box,
these tired rusty joints
hold the lid closed
in fear the noisy demons
held within
will be released
and never contained again.
Knots! Knots! Knots!
The past leaves
its lingering impressions
in these fragile vessels
of body and mind
in the form of
multiplying knots.
Knots that constrain and restrict,
knots that add confusion to
what is already confused,
knots that nag and pull at us
like persistent toddlers
who demand our attention,
knots that we skip over,
knots that we stuff away,
and knots that we push down
as we reach upward and outward
away from their menacing presence
to something, anything
that will bring numbing relief.
Oh, but no matter how
intoxicated we get
on the world's many
elixirs and distractions,
we cannot seem
to run far enough away
from these knots.
Nor can we ignore the way
they painfully damn up the vessels
Life is meant to flow so
fluidly and gracefully through.
We can not deny how they
make us choke and cough up
the beauty and joy
that is offered us
before it ever reaches
its intended destination-
Knots! Knots! Knots!
"Knots," the sages whisper
when we cry out in agony,
"can be untied."
"Just listen for the bell within you,"
they instruct with
their kindly examples.
" And stop...just stop when you
hear its sweet reminder;
stop the busy thinking,
moving and the doing.
Take a breath in,
draw that precious
healing prana
through you,
to the center of who you are.
Let it illuminate
each twisted tentacle
that clings to your idea
of "me" and "them".
View each knot clearly
in the light of clear vision,
Observe how the
distorted lengths of story
and the limbs of
judgment and assumption
have braided their way
through your body and mind,
forming gnarled
and garbled obstacles
between you and this moment.
Regardless of how
your hand trembles,
resist your urge
to push away,
resist the need for
knowing and labelling,
and instead
reach out to touch each knot,
just touch it gently.
Hold it in your hands,
feel its sinewy texture
with your entire being
as you allow it to be
exactly what it is.
Just allow it, accept it.
Notice how it softens
in you as you
look upon it.
Feel the fibers release
enough for you
to decipher the truth
each filament within
the tangled mess holds.
Listen for its sweet voice
to become clear,
remember its forgotten innocence,
and embrace every
coiled thread of Dukkha
you discover there,
with a heart wide open.
Then breathe out...
allow the breath
to fall and relax.
Observe as it flows
like cool, refreshing water
over and through each knot
that continues to
untwine and loosen
beneath its fluid presence.
Feel your mind soften
into emptiness,
your body ease into release
and allow
the fingers of judgment
to slip off your being
releasing you
from the twisted hold
your impressions
have had on you.
Feel the letting go
of each knot
and the opening
of your heart
as you untangle,
unwind
and wake up
to a healed mind. "
We may shake
our resistant heads
at this sagely advice
and turn our back
on this ancient wisdom.
We may continue
to give into
the knotted restriction,
contraction
and retraction
of our existence
in the comfort zone.
Or maybe,
just maybe
we will choose to
practice as instructed,
Maybe we will stop,
maybe we will breathe,
maybe we will
notice and embrace
that which we have
tried to push away
for much too long.
Knots! Knots! Knots!
These knots hold
healing secrets
within them
but the choice
is ours to make.
We get to choose
whether or not
we remain ensnared in
in the twisted
net of suffering
or if we are released
by each and every knot
we bravely behold.
Dale-Lyn April, 2020
I spent a couple of hours ( which is long for me when it comes to poetry) putting this down. I cannot take credit or responsibility for it really. I was listening to another dharma talk today and because I have been doing up a chap book, I have been processing information in a poetic way. Thus...my learning coming out in a poem. Neither "good" or "bad" ...right? Just is!
All is well.
Plum Village ( April 2018) Impulses and Impressions, The Subtleties of Mindfulness Practice. With Br Phap Dung https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=385bDw1tcP0
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
No Need To Run Away
You just need to learn how to suffer and you will suffer less.
Br Bhap Dung
Hmmm! Do you believe the above teaching that was originally passed down by Thich Nhat Hanh to the monastics in Plum Village? Do you believe that in order to diminish our sense of suffering, our physical and emotional pain or discomfort, our reactions to what we judge as "unpleasant" life circumstance ...all we need to do is embrace it and "just do it".
How well do you do suffering?
In another absolutely enlightening dharma talk from Plum Village(see link below) the issue of our tendency to push the unpleasant away was addressed. As habitual beings with habitual minds, Br. Bhap Dung tells us we have two tendencies: To run toward ( which the Buddhists term "grasping") and to run away( "aversion").
What do we run toward?
We tend to run toward, seek, strive for, attempt to attain and maintain the things of this world that we assume will bring joy, peace and happiness to us. It is safe to say that most of us want to be happy, well, peaceful and joyful, right? So we tend to "grasp" things, people, experiences and life circumstances we believe will bring that to us. Maybe it is a certain career goal you assume will bring you to that state? A certain amount of money in your bank account? A certain partner? A perfect sunny sky? A certain amount of recognition? A certain life style or circumstance? Or a certain level of fitness and health?
Are we not constantly seeking to gain and maintain these things in our lives because we determine the "pleasant' as the only acceptable experience? Do we not assume that anything less will be cause for unhappiness?
What do we run from?
What don't you want in your life? What do you tend to avoid at all costs? Pain and suffering are things we are conditioned to run from. We are taught in many ways to not deal with the uncomfortable emotions of fear, anxiety, sadness, grief, anger, frustration or boredom, aren't we? We are taught to "judge" and "discriminate what is good from what is bad; what is pleasant from what is unpleasant; what is acceptable from what is unacceptable. Then we are taught to run, through avoidance, denial, suppression, repression, numbing actions, and seeking for the "pleasant", away from that which we judge as painful.
Suffering is bad thing?
Do you believe that suffering is bad thing that we need to avoid at all costs? I used to believe this and felt because I had a certain amount of past trauma induced suffering in my life I had to constantly run from one activity to the next, one grasping to the next, one seeking of the pleasant to next? It was my intended goal to avoid suffering. I am sure I am not alone in that goal.
It wasn't until I got so exhausted I couldn't run anymore that I realized running was fruitless. I turned around and there was the original suffering waiting for me to deal with it and on top of that was all the other suffering I accumulated on the way partially due to my running.
Life is not here to please us, she is here to challenge us. Suffering is a part of the experience...a very, very important part. According to Buddhist doctrine it is a noble truth. We need to become aware of it and learn to understand it in order to transcend it.
Removing the "good" and "bad".
In order to find true well being we need to find a middle way between this idea of good and bad, right or wrong. These judgments keep us grasping and avoiding rather than learning and growing. We don't need to run towards anything nor do we need to run away. We can simply be with whatever is presented to us in the moment.
We can learn so much through our suffering. First we must be aware of it, then we must be able to focus on it without that tendency to run away and hide from it and finally we gain insight into where the suffering came from, what it is saying and what it has to offer us.
We can sit with the "unpleasant".
I started doing this little practice whenever I get Charlie Horses . I used to get a lot of them and man they were painful. I thought it was bad experience and I developed a learned resistance to them. My first reaction whenever I got a Charlie Horse was to scream, jump up and down on my foot...do whatever I could to resist feeling this pain. They would last for minutes when I did this.
I decided one day to let the Charlie Horse be...to just experience it, concentrate on it and relax into it. I truly "noticed it" focusing on it as it crept in and reached a peek of intensity and watched as it then slowly left me. It came and it went and it was like an "aha moment". I realized this suffering doesn't last forever. I gained insight that I might need more fluid or potassium or calcium in my diet...but mostly I learned I can sit with the uncomfortable.
So whenever I get a Charlie horse now ( and I seem to be getting a lot less) I just allow them. I don't judge them as a bad experience and I don't run from them. I almost enjoy using them as part of my practice.
We can do this with anything we deem to be "unpleasant," be it a feeling or an experience. We can use this practice now as we deal with the so called "unpleasant" nature of the consequences of this pandemic.
First remove the good or bad label and just allow whatever it is to be. Don't avoid it, resist or struggle against it. Just experience it and be aware of it. What insights can you gain from it?
Suffering is an important part of the human experience. We do not need to run from it. When we learn how to suffer, we suffer less.
All is well in my world.
Plum Village ( July 2019) Taking Care of suffering, Challenges and Difficulties/ Dharma Talk by Br. Phap Dung https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P-NrCNUSJU
Br Bhap Dung
Hmmm! Do you believe the above teaching that was originally passed down by Thich Nhat Hanh to the monastics in Plum Village? Do you believe that in order to diminish our sense of suffering, our physical and emotional pain or discomfort, our reactions to what we judge as "unpleasant" life circumstance ...all we need to do is embrace it and "just do it".
How well do you do suffering?
In another absolutely enlightening dharma talk from Plum Village(see link below) the issue of our tendency to push the unpleasant away was addressed. As habitual beings with habitual minds, Br. Bhap Dung tells us we have two tendencies: To run toward ( which the Buddhists term "grasping") and to run away( "aversion").
What do we run toward?
We tend to run toward, seek, strive for, attempt to attain and maintain the things of this world that we assume will bring joy, peace and happiness to us. It is safe to say that most of us want to be happy, well, peaceful and joyful, right? So we tend to "grasp" things, people, experiences and life circumstances we believe will bring that to us. Maybe it is a certain career goal you assume will bring you to that state? A certain amount of money in your bank account? A certain partner? A perfect sunny sky? A certain amount of recognition? A certain life style or circumstance? Or a certain level of fitness and health?
Are we not constantly seeking to gain and maintain these things in our lives because we determine the "pleasant' as the only acceptable experience? Do we not assume that anything less will be cause for unhappiness?
What do we run from?
What don't you want in your life? What do you tend to avoid at all costs? Pain and suffering are things we are conditioned to run from. We are taught in many ways to not deal with the uncomfortable emotions of fear, anxiety, sadness, grief, anger, frustration or boredom, aren't we? We are taught to "judge" and "discriminate what is good from what is bad; what is pleasant from what is unpleasant; what is acceptable from what is unacceptable. Then we are taught to run, through avoidance, denial, suppression, repression, numbing actions, and seeking for the "pleasant", away from that which we judge as painful.
Suffering is bad thing?
Do you believe that suffering is bad thing that we need to avoid at all costs? I used to believe this and felt because I had a certain amount of past trauma induced suffering in my life I had to constantly run from one activity to the next, one grasping to the next, one seeking of the pleasant to next? It was my intended goal to avoid suffering. I am sure I am not alone in that goal.
It wasn't until I got so exhausted I couldn't run anymore that I realized running was fruitless. I turned around and there was the original suffering waiting for me to deal with it and on top of that was all the other suffering I accumulated on the way partially due to my running.
Life is not here to please us, she is here to challenge us. Suffering is a part of the experience...a very, very important part. According to Buddhist doctrine it is a noble truth. We need to become aware of it and learn to understand it in order to transcend it.
Removing the "good" and "bad".
In order to find true well being we need to find a middle way between this idea of good and bad, right or wrong. These judgments keep us grasping and avoiding rather than learning and growing. We don't need to run towards anything nor do we need to run away. We can simply be with whatever is presented to us in the moment.
We can learn so much through our suffering. First we must be aware of it, then we must be able to focus on it without that tendency to run away and hide from it and finally we gain insight into where the suffering came from, what it is saying and what it has to offer us.
We can sit with the "unpleasant".
I started doing this little practice whenever I get Charlie Horses . I used to get a lot of them and man they were painful. I thought it was bad experience and I developed a learned resistance to them. My first reaction whenever I got a Charlie Horse was to scream, jump up and down on my foot...do whatever I could to resist feeling this pain. They would last for minutes when I did this.
I decided one day to let the Charlie Horse be...to just experience it, concentrate on it and relax into it. I truly "noticed it" focusing on it as it crept in and reached a peek of intensity and watched as it then slowly left me. It came and it went and it was like an "aha moment". I realized this suffering doesn't last forever. I gained insight that I might need more fluid or potassium or calcium in my diet...but mostly I learned I can sit with the uncomfortable.
So whenever I get a Charlie horse now ( and I seem to be getting a lot less) I just allow them. I don't judge them as a bad experience and I don't run from them. I almost enjoy using them as part of my practice.
We can do this with anything we deem to be "unpleasant," be it a feeling or an experience. We can use this practice now as we deal with the so called "unpleasant" nature of the consequences of this pandemic.
First remove the good or bad label and just allow whatever it is to be. Don't avoid it, resist or struggle against it. Just experience it and be aware of it. What insights can you gain from it?
Suffering is an important part of the human experience. We do not need to run from it. When we learn how to suffer, we suffer less.
All is well in my world.
Plum Village ( July 2019) Taking Care of suffering, Challenges and Difficulties/ Dharma Talk by Br. Phap Dung https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P-NrCNUSJU
Monday, April 6, 2020
Wash Your Hands As You Evolve
I am in danger nowhere in the world.
ACIM-W-244
I am skipping way ahead to lesson 244 because I was reminded of those words by Alan Cohen today in a lovely little video he did called, A Course in Miracles: The Coronavirus, The Economy, and Healing. They also apply to what I wrote about yesterday...this inherent fear response we have.
But!
Now I want you to believe these words...I want you to feel that you are not in danger. I want you to strive for the peace that fearlessness and defenselessness provide...but unlike Alan Cohen...I am telling you straight out to "Wash Your Hands and Keep Your Distance! Please!"
Nothing To Fear! Miracles Can Happen!
I do not want any of us living in fear over this pandemic. That will help nothing! So I love the message he shared, I do. And I agree: When we have evolved in faith enough to know we cannot be harmed, when we operate fully from that clear capacity of presence and Spirit...seeing who we really are beyond these forms, viral outbreaks will not only not touch us in our true essence, they will not touch us physically. Faith and a true belief that we cannot be harmed in all realms of our beingness will prevent us from being so.
As we evolve as a human species in our consciousness, we can achieve this "miracle" of mind over matter. I believe that. I believe there are some individuals on the planet who have actually achieved this already and therefore it is a possibility for all of us. If we learn to control the mind, we can do anything.
But?
My question is...Are we there yet? How many of us are actually there yet in our conscious evolution? How many have evolved through what A Course calls the "Holy Instant" and have become this knowing? How many of us are operating from this super-human Faith that leaves all traces of fear behind in the dust?
I would have to guess that, at this point in our evolutionary process, there is only a handful. Though many, many of us are in the process of becoming more awake and aware; though many of us are learning to transcend fear for love ...we still have fear and ego in our bloodstream. We are evolving, yes, but maybe a bit more slowly than others who have transcended in a miraculous moment A Course refers to.
I guess, what I am saying...we are getting there but we as a species may not have reached that level of collective transcendence yet. We are still somewhat dependent on the "magic" the physical world supplies and provides in order to give us that sense of safety. Thus we are not ready to breech public health protocol and walk defenseless into a "perceived" heavily contaminated area. We need to think of all the others who have yet to evolve into this Faith.
So please, wash your hands and keep your social distance as you work on your own spiritual evolution.
Waking Up Is a Process
Waking up for most of us is a process rather than a Holy Instant . I am not saying the Holy Instant isn't possible...I believe it is...but for most of us...because of our ingrained resistance to truth...waking up will be a process. As long as I still cling to the notion that the physical world around me is real... this virus , I believe, is also real and has the potential to damage the "physical". I know it cannot damage Who I really am...but I still see it as somewhat of a threat to this form...which like all physical form is perishable. That is where most of us are in our conscious evolution.
I believe we are headed in the direction of controlling the physical with a higher consciousness but we are on still on the path, not at the end of it. It is, I believe, a process for most of us.
As long as we have a foot in each world we have not evolved to full faith...and if we have not evolved to full faith...our bodies can be inhabited by the physical. If the virus enters my body( and I honestly do not spend anytime in fear or panic that it will) I can pass it on to others in this world.
So please...wash your hands and keep your distance, not just for your "sense of safety" but for the physical safety of the millions who have yet to evolve into the greater awareness that they are beyond illness.
All is well in my world.
Alan Cohen (March 17, 2020) A Course in Miracles: Corona Virus, The Economy, And Healing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6GCTY9_ONs
ACIM-W-244
I am skipping way ahead to lesson 244 because I was reminded of those words by Alan Cohen today in a lovely little video he did called, A Course in Miracles: The Coronavirus, The Economy, and Healing. They also apply to what I wrote about yesterday...this inherent fear response we have.
But!
Now I want you to believe these words...I want you to feel that you are not in danger. I want you to strive for the peace that fearlessness and defenselessness provide...but unlike Alan Cohen...I am telling you straight out to "Wash Your Hands and Keep Your Distance! Please!"
Nothing To Fear! Miracles Can Happen!
I do not want any of us living in fear over this pandemic. That will help nothing! So I love the message he shared, I do. And I agree: When we have evolved in faith enough to know we cannot be harmed, when we operate fully from that clear capacity of presence and Spirit...seeing who we really are beyond these forms, viral outbreaks will not only not touch us in our true essence, they will not touch us physically. Faith and a true belief that we cannot be harmed in all realms of our beingness will prevent us from being so.
As we evolve as a human species in our consciousness, we can achieve this "miracle" of mind over matter. I believe that. I believe there are some individuals on the planet who have actually achieved this already and therefore it is a possibility for all of us. If we learn to control the mind, we can do anything.
But?
My question is...Are we there yet? How many of us are actually there yet in our conscious evolution? How many have evolved through what A Course calls the "Holy Instant" and have become this knowing? How many of us are operating from this super-human Faith that leaves all traces of fear behind in the dust?
I would have to guess that, at this point in our evolutionary process, there is only a handful. Though many, many of us are in the process of becoming more awake and aware; though many of us are learning to transcend fear for love ...we still have fear and ego in our bloodstream. We are evolving, yes, but maybe a bit more slowly than others who have transcended in a miraculous moment A Course refers to.
I guess, what I am saying...we are getting there but we as a species may not have reached that level of collective transcendence yet. We are still somewhat dependent on the "magic" the physical world supplies and provides in order to give us that sense of safety. Thus we are not ready to breech public health protocol and walk defenseless into a "perceived" heavily contaminated area. We need to think of all the others who have yet to evolve into this Faith.
So please, wash your hands and keep your social distance as you work on your own spiritual evolution.
Waking Up Is a Process
Waking up for most of us is a process rather than a Holy Instant . I am not saying the Holy Instant isn't possible...I believe it is...but for most of us...because of our ingrained resistance to truth...waking up will be a process. As long as I still cling to the notion that the physical world around me is real... this virus , I believe, is also real and has the potential to damage the "physical". I know it cannot damage Who I really am...but I still see it as somewhat of a threat to this form...which like all physical form is perishable. That is where most of us are in our conscious evolution.
I believe we are headed in the direction of controlling the physical with a higher consciousness but we are on still on the path, not at the end of it. It is, I believe, a process for most of us.
As long as we have a foot in each world we have not evolved to full faith...and if we have not evolved to full faith...our bodies can be inhabited by the physical. If the virus enters my body( and I honestly do not spend anytime in fear or panic that it will) I can pass it on to others in this world.
So please...wash your hands and keep your distance, not just for your "sense of safety" but for the physical safety of the millions who have yet to evolve into the greater awareness that they are beyond illness.
All is well in my world.
Alan Cohen (March 17, 2020) A Course in Miracles: Corona Virus, The Economy, And Healing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6GCTY9_ONs
Sunday, April 5, 2020
The Crying Baby
The Way Out Is In...
Thich Nhat Hanh
Important Learning: dealing with The Unpleasant
Once again I was taken back to this very important learning...the importance of noticing our feelings without judgment and then embracing them. Most of us have a hard time noticing them, let alone embracing them or even allowing them. We are okay with the pleasant feelings. We will happily go through our day seeking, and "grasping' at those or the things we think will bring them...but when it comes to the not so pleasant feelings. Yuck!
We will do what we can to ignore them, deny them, close up to them, stuff them, run from them, "cover them up" , or numb from them... right? Just sitting with our feelings is not something many of us find particularly easy because we do not want to face those unpleasant feelings we have a tendency to resist.
Go In Rather Than Out
Yet many Buddhist teachers will tell us that in order to get through this idea of suffering , we must sit with it. To deal with grief we must sit with it. To deal with sadness, we must sit with it. To deal with anger we must sit with it.
Hmmm! Not only do we need to notice our feeling of suffering...we need to embrace it. We need to allow it, open up to it, become one with it.
The Crying Baby
Thay Phap Lu'u in his beautiful dharma talk, On Suffering and Happiness , teaches that we should see the suffering inducing emotion as a crying baby doing what it can to get our attention. Would you ignore your crying baby? Would you run away from it? Would you put it in a box in the bottom of your closet just so you wouldn't hear it? Would you feel the need to drown a forty prior to going to it?
Likely not.
If you are a loving, compassionate parent as we are all equipped to be you would stop what you were doing at the initial sounds of crying, make your hurried way to the baby, pick it up and hold it to your chest. You would give the baby your full attention. You would notice, respond, and embrace the baby before you spent time trying to figure out why the baby was crying. You would be present for it and compassionately and lovingly respond to the baby's needs. Would you not? You would see that that baby is a part of you and you a part of it. You would see that the baby needs something.
Suffering, Trying To Get Your Attention
Your suffering is trying to get your attention! Yet in our quest not to experience suffering in this life time...we have a tendency to ignore the crying baby of our own unpleasant feelings and experiences.
We begin by judging what emotional experiences are "good" and which ones are "bad"; which ones are worthy of opening up to and which ones we should close up to. We say "No!" to the ones we judge as unpleasant and unworthy and then we attempt to cover them up with more pleasant feelings. We look outside ourselves for "things", "circumstances, "experiences and emotions that feel better. ..in hope that they will make the unpleasant go away. They don't! Our emotions will not go away until we deal with them.
The Way Out Is In
The solution to ending our suffering is not "out there"...it is "in here". We need to go inward and stop long enough to notice how we are feeling. We need to allow the feeling, embrace the feeling by putting our full attention on it. We need to put away our judgement of it.
Whatever that feeling is...it is worthy of your full attention, your loving understanding because it is a part of you! It is no less worthy of your attention than happiness is...maybe it is even more worthy because it can teach you and open you up. It is telling you there is something you need to look at...look at it! There is no "good" or "bad" here...there is just what this moment is offering you and all of it is perfect just as it is.
Accept all of it Then the baby will stop crying and once content, it will fall back to sleep in your arms. You will find the peace of mind you long for in acceptance of what is!
All is well!
Plum Village ( January 2020) On suffering and Happiness/ Dharma Talk by Thay Bhap Lu'u. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9kckqDP2KA
Thich Nhat Hanh
Important Learning: dealing with The Unpleasant
Once again I was taken back to this very important learning...the importance of noticing our feelings without judgment and then embracing them. Most of us have a hard time noticing them, let alone embracing them or even allowing them. We are okay with the pleasant feelings. We will happily go through our day seeking, and "grasping' at those or the things we think will bring them...but when it comes to the not so pleasant feelings. Yuck!
We will do what we can to ignore them, deny them, close up to them, stuff them, run from them, "cover them up" , or numb from them... right? Just sitting with our feelings is not something many of us find particularly easy because we do not want to face those unpleasant feelings we have a tendency to resist.
Go In Rather Than Out
Yet many Buddhist teachers will tell us that in order to get through this idea of suffering , we must sit with it. To deal with grief we must sit with it. To deal with sadness, we must sit with it. To deal with anger we must sit with it.
Hmmm! Not only do we need to notice our feeling of suffering...we need to embrace it. We need to allow it, open up to it, become one with it.
The Crying Baby
Thay Phap Lu'u in his beautiful dharma talk, On Suffering and Happiness , teaches that we should see the suffering inducing emotion as a crying baby doing what it can to get our attention. Would you ignore your crying baby? Would you run away from it? Would you put it in a box in the bottom of your closet just so you wouldn't hear it? Would you feel the need to drown a forty prior to going to it?
Likely not.
If you are a loving, compassionate parent as we are all equipped to be you would stop what you were doing at the initial sounds of crying, make your hurried way to the baby, pick it up and hold it to your chest. You would give the baby your full attention. You would notice, respond, and embrace the baby before you spent time trying to figure out why the baby was crying. You would be present for it and compassionately and lovingly respond to the baby's needs. Would you not? You would see that that baby is a part of you and you a part of it. You would see that the baby needs something.
Suffering, Trying To Get Your Attention
Your suffering is trying to get your attention! Yet in our quest not to experience suffering in this life time...we have a tendency to ignore the crying baby of our own unpleasant feelings and experiences.
We begin by judging what emotional experiences are "good" and which ones are "bad"; which ones are worthy of opening up to and which ones we should close up to. We say "No!" to the ones we judge as unpleasant and unworthy and then we attempt to cover them up with more pleasant feelings. We look outside ourselves for "things", "circumstances, "experiences and emotions that feel better. ..in hope that they will make the unpleasant go away. They don't! Our emotions will not go away until we deal with them.
The Way Out Is In
The solution to ending our suffering is not "out there"...it is "in here". We need to go inward and stop long enough to notice how we are feeling. We need to allow the feeling, embrace the feeling by putting our full attention on it. We need to put away our judgement of it.
Whatever that feeling is...it is worthy of your full attention, your loving understanding because it is a part of you! It is no less worthy of your attention than happiness is...maybe it is even more worthy because it can teach you and open you up. It is telling you there is something you need to look at...look at it! There is no "good" or "bad" here...there is just what this moment is offering you and all of it is perfect just as it is.
Accept all of it Then the baby will stop crying and once content, it will fall back to sleep in your arms. You will find the peace of mind you long for in acceptance of what is!
All is well!
Plum Village ( January 2020) On suffering and Happiness/ Dharma Talk by Thay Bhap Lu'u. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9kckqDP2KA
Learning Alot from Seeing Partially Right
The mind that taught itself to think specifically can no longer grasp abstraction in the sense that it is all-encompassing. We need to see a little, that we may learn a lot.
ACIM-W-161:4:7-8
Hmmm! I am just so amazed by serendipity. I like to observe how when I am contemplating some learning...all kinds of lessons supporting that learning will end up on my lap from all kinds of amazing teachers. So I was writing yesterday about the need to change the way we look out at others and to ask others to look differently upon us. I spoke about how we tend to see "enemy" in another's bodily form and are unable to get beyond that to see who they truly are....divine creations.
Wired to see Danger and React
Well today I listened to another beautiful dharma talk from Plum village (see link below). Thay Phap Lu'u was speaking mostly about the non-duality of object/subject but he did speak to how we humans are "wired physically" to see danger in another. How we are equipped with this "low-resolution" perceptual survival mechanism...a left over from the early evolutionary process... to perceive danger, and then to almost instinctually defend and attack with fear and anger.
He explained how we tend to react from this place and therefore tend to "blame" others and life circumstance very quickly for creating our suffering. After this initial response we seem to need to discover a deeper rational for it...we seek "one cause" for our anger, fear, suffering. We attack first and then look for a reason why we attacked. "You made me angry because of...."
No One Cause For Suffering
When really the immediate interpretation we made of a cause for our suffering is not all there is. There is no one cause for our suffering. When I react to an "insult" directed at me from another human being, I may feel "hurt" and then reactively blame that person , "How dare you say that about me? That is so cruel!" The one cause for my suffering in that moment, I may see, is what they said about me.
In truth, however, if I took the time to think clearly about it...I would see that their words were only triggers for a deeper suffering already in me. I may see that my suffering was actually a result of an idea I had of them, an expectation about how they should always act and always be; or an idea about myself that I was protecting , or maybe it was triggering past trauma or shame. Maybe their words were echoed words my parents used on me as a child. Maybe I had developed a habitual pattern of thinking and reacting to such words. Or maybe I was hangry because I missed lunch or cranky from not sleeping well the night before. Likely it was all of these things!
"You are partially right?"
What we need to remember is that the reasons for our suffering in this moment, after feeling the sting of an insult, are many. Though when we see only " a little" we cannot see that the insult and the insulter are only a "partial cause" of that.
Imagine if, after we counteracted to the insult in an angry blaming way, the person turned to us and said, "You are partially right?"
Huh??
That would take us by surprise, wouldn't it? At first we might react some more to that truth but eventually we might calm down to consider it. Then we could step back from our reactivity, our low resolution perceptual wiring...to look deeper into that suffering. ...to see that there were many causes for it. We then may be able to look deeper into that person and see beyond the bodily form that has the potential to harm us...to the divine creation beneath.
Both the suffering and the person whose behaviour is believed to aggravate that suffering are divine creations worth embracing and examining more closely.
Let's attempt to get beyond the little we see so we can learn a lot.
All is well
Foundation for Inner Peace ( 2007) A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume. Workbook, Lesson 161. Mill Valley: Foundation For Inner Peace
Plum Village (January 2020) On Suffering and Happiness/Dharma Talk by Thay Phap Lu'u https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9kckqDP2KA
ACIM-W-161:4:7-8
Hmmm! I am just so amazed by serendipity. I like to observe how when I am contemplating some learning...all kinds of lessons supporting that learning will end up on my lap from all kinds of amazing teachers. So I was writing yesterday about the need to change the way we look out at others and to ask others to look differently upon us. I spoke about how we tend to see "enemy" in another's bodily form and are unable to get beyond that to see who they truly are....divine creations.
Wired to see Danger and React
Well today I listened to another beautiful dharma talk from Plum village (see link below). Thay Phap Lu'u was speaking mostly about the non-duality of object/subject but he did speak to how we humans are "wired physically" to see danger in another. How we are equipped with this "low-resolution" perceptual survival mechanism...a left over from the early evolutionary process... to perceive danger, and then to almost instinctually defend and attack with fear and anger.
He explained how we tend to react from this place and therefore tend to "blame" others and life circumstance very quickly for creating our suffering. After this initial response we seem to need to discover a deeper rational for it...we seek "one cause" for our anger, fear, suffering. We attack first and then look for a reason why we attacked. "You made me angry because of...."
No One Cause For Suffering
When really the immediate interpretation we made of a cause for our suffering is not all there is. There is no one cause for our suffering. When I react to an "insult" directed at me from another human being, I may feel "hurt" and then reactively blame that person , "How dare you say that about me? That is so cruel!" The one cause for my suffering in that moment, I may see, is what they said about me.
In truth, however, if I took the time to think clearly about it...I would see that their words were only triggers for a deeper suffering already in me. I may see that my suffering was actually a result of an idea I had of them, an expectation about how they should always act and always be; or an idea about myself that I was protecting , or maybe it was triggering past trauma or shame. Maybe their words were echoed words my parents used on me as a child. Maybe I had developed a habitual pattern of thinking and reacting to such words. Or maybe I was hangry because I missed lunch or cranky from not sleeping well the night before. Likely it was all of these things!
"You are partially right?"
What we need to remember is that the reasons for our suffering in this moment, after feeling the sting of an insult, are many. Though when we see only " a little" we cannot see that the insult and the insulter are only a "partial cause" of that.
Imagine if, after we counteracted to the insult in an angry blaming way, the person turned to us and said, "You are partially right?"
Huh??
That would take us by surprise, wouldn't it? At first we might react some more to that truth but eventually we might calm down to consider it. Then we could step back from our reactivity, our low resolution perceptual wiring...to look deeper into that suffering. ...to see that there were many causes for it. We then may be able to look deeper into that person and see beyond the bodily form that has the potential to harm us...to the divine creation beneath.
Both the suffering and the person whose behaviour is believed to aggravate that suffering are divine creations worth embracing and examining more closely.
Let's attempt to get beyond the little we see so we can learn a lot.
All is well
Foundation for Inner Peace ( 2007) A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume. Workbook, Lesson 161. Mill Valley: Foundation For Inner Peace
Plum Village (January 2020) On Suffering and Happiness/Dharma Talk by Thay Phap Lu'u https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9kckqDP2KA
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Lesson 161: Understanding the One Mind
And the King will answer them, " Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me."
Matthew 25:40 ESV
I am rereading Lesson 161 from ACIM and am reminded of the above words from Matthew. What we do to each other, we do to the King, Christ, God. We do to all. So we should be mindful how we treat one brother because this seemingly single act will be felt by all, just as the compassion shown to one will be felt by all. Even the Divine will feel it because we are all expressions, creations of that divinity. When we attack one another we attack God. When we love one another, we love God.
Say what???
The major learning in this lesson centers around the idea that Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is one. ACIM-W-161:4:1-2 A course recognizes how difficult that concept will be for many of us to truly grasp beyond a superficial conceptual understanding. Most of us will not experience the meaning of those words...but we will, maybe...understand what Matthew is saying.
As divine creations, God is in all of us, ...therefore...when I attack my neighbor I attack all. When I yell obscenities at the driver in front of me for going to slow, I yell at all. When I am angry with someone for breaching the social isolation protocol , I am angry at all. When I reach out a hand of support to one, I reach out to all. When I forgive one brother, one sister...I forgive all.
It is the body that attacks, not the one collective mind. It is, the body that symbolizes fear and when we look out at another's bodily form we see a reason for fear.
The body symbolizes fear because it is the part of us that can cause physical harm when it attacks. Yet, the body cannot attack on its own. It is the mind, clouded by ego, that directs the body to attack. It is this veil of cloud that prevents us from seeing the connection of the One Mind in us. We see, instead, separate little bodies with separate little minds. When we look out at the world with this perception we see that the separate little bodies of others have the potential to cause harm to our separate little body. This is fear! Fear leads us to attack before we are attacked.
When we focus on relating body to body...we fear and that leads to a constant cycle of defense and attack. It doesn't have to be this way.
We can ask our brothers ( and sisters) to give us something other than their fear and their attack. We ask that they give us their blessing . We ask that they look beyond the body form and all that body is doing to see what God sees when He looks at us. We ask that they see us as themselves rather than their enemies. We do the same. We choose to seek the divinity in all rather than the danger.
Well that is how I interpret this lesson but what do I know ?
All is well.
ACIM
ESV Bible
Note: I am not sure where this font and double spacing is coming from...it is not my doing???
Matthew 25:40 ESV
I am rereading Lesson 161 from ACIM and am reminded of the above words from Matthew. What we do to each other, we do to the King, Christ, God. We do to all. So we should be mindful how we treat one brother because this seemingly single act will be felt by all, just as the compassion shown to one will be felt by all. Even the Divine will feel it because we are all expressions, creations of that divinity. When we attack one another we attack God. When we love one another, we love God.
Say what???
The major learning in this lesson centers around the idea that Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is one. ACIM-W-161:4:1-2 A course recognizes how difficult that concept will be for many of us to truly grasp beyond a superficial conceptual understanding. Most of us will not experience the meaning of those words...but we will, maybe...understand what Matthew is saying.
As divine creations, God is in all of us, ...therefore...when I attack my neighbor I attack all. When I yell obscenities at the driver in front of me for going to slow, I yell at all. When I am angry with someone for breaching the social isolation protocol , I am angry at all. When I reach out a hand of support to one, I reach out to all. When I forgive one brother, one sister...I forgive all.
It is the body that attacks, not the one collective mind. It is, the body that symbolizes fear and when we look out at another's bodily form we see a reason for fear.
The body symbolizes fear because it is the part of us that can cause physical harm when it attacks. Yet, the body cannot attack on its own. It is the mind, clouded by ego, that directs the body to attack. It is this veil of cloud that prevents us from seeing the connection of the One Mind in us. We see, instead, separate little bodies with separate little minds. When we look out at the world with this perception we see that the separate little bodies of others have the potential to cause harm to our separate little body. This is fear! Fear leads us to attack before we are attacked.
When we focus on relating body to body...we fear and that leads to a constant cycle of defense and attack. It doesn't have to be this way.
We can ask our brothers ( and sisters) to give us something other than their fear and their attack. We ask that they give us their blessing . We ask that they look beyond the body form and all that body is doing to see what God sees when He looks at us. We ask that they see us as themselves rather than their enemies. We do the same. We choose to seek the divinity in all rather than the danger.
Well that is how I interpret this lesson but what do I know ?
All is well.
ACIM
ESV Bible
Note: I am not sure where this font and double spacing is coming from...it is not my doing???
Friday, April 3, 2020
Service?
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
Mahammed Ali
This is my little dilemma: I want to help! I want to give! I want to offer something to the world in this time of crisis but what do I offer, what can I offer?
Nursing
I am not nursing anymore and maybe this is a time where nursing is needed more than ever. I was never the greatest technical nurse , by any means, nor can I say I was born to be a nurse. I wasn't . Though I was smart and had pretty good assessment skills, I had a lot of unease in my nursing and constantly feared that I would do something wrong or hurt someone. So it was never a comfortable role for me.
But I truly cared and for that reason I had a good bedside manner. I think my patients "felt" that and that made a difference in their lives regardless of what stage of their so called "illness" they were at. I had a special affinity with the dying and had great reverence for the experience of being able to be there for people when they passed on. I was able to use nursing experiences to help my own loved ones pass on a little more peacefully. I am so grateful for that.
Nursing, I believe, offers a selfless way to serve humanity, to contribute to the bigger picture....to give. Though I will always have the greatest respect and admiration for nurses, I can't call myself a nurse anymore...I had to give up my license and my role when Life came knocking at my door with a whole cartload of other things she wanted me to learn through the textbooks of challenges she offered me. :)
A Different Service Direction May Be Required
On retrospect, I think she was saying, "Hmmm! I have had other plans for you from the beginning...my dear. This is what I really want you to do to help humanity.: *&^% $#%^.@!$*". I, for the life of me, can't make out what she says at the very end of her spiel. Her voice warps out like Charlie Brown's teacher's voice. Sigh! But , whatever she is saying, I know she is right. I will appreciate the years I spent nursing for what they taught me and what they gave others, but I was never a nurse. :)
So ...what do I do now to help?
Do you wonder what you can do to help the world, especially during this crisis? How do we know what that is?
Maybe there are some questions we need to ask ourselves and some steps we need to take before we jump into a helping role:
All is well
Mahammed Ali
This is my little dilemma: I want to help! I want to give! I want to offer something to the world in this time of crisis but what do I offer, what can I offer?
Nursing
I am not nursing anymore and maybe this is a time where nursing is needed more than ever. I was never the greatest technical nurse , by any means, nor can I say I was born to be a nurse. I wasn't . Though I was smart and had pretty good assessment skills, I had a lot of unease in my nursing and constantly feared that I would do something wrong or hurt someone. So it was never a comfortable role for me.
But I truly cared and for that reason I had a good bedside manner. I think my patients "felt" that and that made a difference in their lives regardless of what stage of their so called "illness" they were at. I had a special affinity with the dying and had great reverence for the experience of being able to be there for people when they passed on. I was able to use nursing experiences to help my own loved ones pass on a little more peacefully. I am so grateful for that.
Nursing, I believe, offers a selfless way to serve humanity, to contribute to the bigger picture....to give. Though I will always have the greatest respect and admiration for nurses, I can't call myself a nurse anymore...I had to give up my license and my role when Life came knocking at my door with a whole cartload of other things she wanted me to learn through the textbooks of challenges she offered me. :)
A Different Service Direction May Be Required
On retrospect, I think she was saying, "Hmmm! I have had other plans for you from the beginning...my dear. This is what I really want you to do to help humanity.: *&^% $#%^.@!$*". I, for the life of me, can't make out what she says at the very end of her spiel. Her voice warps out like Charlie Brown's teacher's voice. Sigh! But , whatever she is saying, I know she is right. I will appreciate the years I spent nursing for what they taught me and what they gave others, but I was never a nurse. :)
So ...what do I do now to help?
Do you wonder what you can do to help the world, especially during this crisis? How do we know what that is?
Maybe there are some questions we need to ask ourselves and some steps we need to take before we jump into a helping role:
- Where is my motivation for helping coming from? Ego" Or spirit? If you want to help in order to be recognized, to serve the "little me" by creating a stronger identity, or for your own personal gain...it is ego motivating you and any help you offer from this point of view will be limited, draining and possibly ineffective. If, on the other hand, you have truly reflected, prayed, searched inside yourself and discovered an "inspired calling" than that is Spirit guiding you. Listen!
- How healthy am I? Are you physically, mentally , emotionally, financially and spiritually able to help in a certain way. If you have a weakened immune system or condition that puts you at great risk if you contact the virus...you can't be providing a service in a high risk zone. Take care of your body by staying away! If you are approaching this virus with a "doom and gloom" attitude, don't go on the net and do YouTube videos. If you do not have money ...well you can't give that away. (My situation...sigh!) Have you connected with the peaceful Self within you?...If you have not done that yet ...the greatest thing you can do to serve humanity is to go there first. You cannot heal until you are healed! You cannot pour from an empty cup. You need to put your oxygen mask on first!
- What special skills do I have? Maybe we would benefit by writing a list of our skillsets to determine what we have to offer. For example , with me:
- I write...okay maybe I can use this blog and other venues to write inspiring or educational material that will assist others.
- I speak...maybe I could do some inspirational videos ( always have to check in with the second question first),
- I teach yoga- this is a great time to offer and encourage the practice of yoga and meditation. I can do more videos and publically display the ones I did for my students.
- I photograph...maybe people need to be reminded how beautiful the world is. I can get out by myself and shoot and publicize my pics.
- I make a pretty good sour dough bread. This is a perfect time to make a bread that only requires a few items: flour, water, salt and time. I can make bread for others, or pass on my starter, or teach people to make it on line???
- I still have all that knowledge I gained from nursing....I can use that to teach maybe...to share valuable information. Or maybe I can help out in a community phone service that answers questions etc
- I have children, siblings, friends...I can just reach out to, check in with, encourage and help in some way as the person they know me to be
- What do I want to do? We so often fail to realize that what we want to do is often what the universe wants of us. What fills you with passion and excitement? What feels right to you? What comes easy? Just because no suffering is required for you to give, to help or serve doesn't mean that what you have to give is any less valuable. In fact, it is probably even more valuable! Find some joy in what you are offering and the world will receive it with joy!
All is well
Thursday, April 2, 2020
You Are Life
You do not have a life, you are life.
Eckhart Tolle
Hmmm! Now those are words to ponder.
I have been attempting to complete a pranayama video for my yoga students since they cannot be with me in class. I have had no problem doing short little segments with asanas and vinyasa sequences but when I sat down to do a breath and body awareness...I went through about a dozen takes over the last two days. I have spent hours attempting to get a video I can feel good about.
I know I have to keep a teaching video under 20 minutes if I want my students to browse through it let alone practice it. And when it comes to the most challenging aspect of yoga for many...stillness...it has to be even more short, sweet, captivating and to the point.
Each video done so far comes off too long or I feel like I missed something important or my voice fades out because I tend to lower it when I am encouraging people to relax. Ugh!!! I am also challenged with the editing on the software program I use...so it is much easier to go down to the studio and do another take or two, or three or four lol than it is to edit what I have.
It is a Challenge!
Yet to me...pranayama is the most important part of yoga...this ability to connect with body and breath is what hatha yoga is all about. At this time of stress, worry and isolation from others, I feel it is even more important. I look at this enforced isolation as a perfect time to master a connection with Self through body and breath. So I want this video to be effective. It is the one gift of teaching I hope to offer at this time.
Why?
I believe breath...prana...is Life. We do not breathe ( though we believe we do and I even use that reference in my teaching), we are breathed.
We look at this set of circumstances we are facing right now and we might find ourselves saying: "This shouldn't be happening. My life should not be like this!" The problem I believe has more to do with the attachment of "my" in front of life, than it does with COVID-19.
When we see life as something we own, that belongs to a little "me" we deny the magnitude of it...it becomes another external thing the ego gets us to worry over, fret over, do whatever we can to protect.
If we were to see Life as something that is breathed through us ten-30 times a minute...and therefore see that It is us no matter what is happening around us...wow! How freeing and healing that would be. I want to give that!
So I will keep trying even if I have to endure my internal director's commands to "Cut!!!" "Take 765!"
It is all good.
Eckhart Tolle
Hmmm! Now those are words to ponder.
I have been attempting to complete a pranayama video for my yoga students since they cannot be with me in class. I have had no problem doing short little segments with asanas and vinyasa sequences but when I sat down to do a breath and body awareness...I went through about a dozen takes over the last two days. I have spent hours attempting to get a video I can feel good about.
I know I have to keep a teaching video under 20 minutes if I want my students to browse through it let alone practice it. And when it comes to the most challenging aspect of yoga for many...stillness...it has to be even more short, sweet, captivating and to the point.
Each video done so far comes off too long or I feel like I missed something important or my voice fades out because I tend to lower it when I am encouraging people to relax. Ugh!!! I am also challenged with the editing on the software program I use...so it is much easier to go down to the studio and do another take or two, or three or four lol than it is to edit what I have.
It is a Challenge!
Yet to me...pranayama is the most important part of yoga...this ability to connect with body and breath is what hatha yoga is all about. At this time of stress, worry and isolation from others, I feel it is even more important. I look at this enforced isolation as a perfect time to master a connection with Self through body and breath. So I want this video to be effective. It is the one gift of teaching I hope to offer at this time.
Why?
I believe breath...prana...is Life. We do not breathe ( though we believe we do and I even use that reference in my teaching), we are breathed.
We look at this set of circumstances we are facing right now and we might find ourselves saying: "This shouldn't be happening. My life should not be like this!" The problem I believe has more to do with the attachment of "my" in front of life, than it does with COVID-19.
When we see life as something we own, that belongs to a little "me" we deny the magnitude of it...it becomes another external thing the ego gets us to worry over, fret over, do whatever we can to protect.
If we were to see Life as something that is breathed through us ten-30 times a minute...and therefore see that It is us no matter what is happening around us...wow! How freeing and healing that would be. I want to give that!
So I will keep trying even if I have to endure my internal director's commands to "Cut!!!" "Take 765!"
It is all good.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Anchor
Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Buddhist use of ana-pana or the yogic use of prana-apana refer to the rising and falling of breath. When we breathe in the shoulders lift , the chest expands and then the belly rises in perfect form. This is "prana".
When we breathe out the belly descends, the chest deflates and the shoulders fall easily and naturally back away from the ears. This is "apana".
Have you noticed that?
Noticing that is what I am going to encourage you to do when you feel stressed -out or overwhelmed. Watch your breath...just watch it.
Keep bringing yourself back to that amazing breath...to the Life force moving in you and through you.
Get out of your mind-stuff, back into your body and consciously breathe more often!
All is well.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Buddhist use of ana-pana or the yogic use of prana-apana refer to the rising and falling of breath. When we breathe in the shoulders lift , the chest expands and then the belly rises in perfect form. This is "prana".
When we breathe out the belly descends, the chest deflates and the shoulders fall easily and naturally back away from the ears. This is "apana".
Have you noticed that?
Noticing that is what I am going to encourage you to do when you feel stressed -out or overwhelmed. Watch your breath...just watch it.
Keep bringing yourself back to that amazing breath...to the Life force moving in you and through you.
Get out of your mind-stuff, back into your body and consciously breathe more often!
All is well.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Back to Breath/ Back to Body
...you have a mind and a body that are currently inhaling and exhaling in a gravitational field. Therefore, you can benefit immensely from a process that enables you to think more clearly, breathe more effortlessly, and move more efficiently. This is in fact our starting point and our definition of yoga practice: the integration of mind, breath and body.
Leslie Kaminoff
Are You in your body?
Are you aware at this very moment, what your body is doing, feeling, sensing? Of course, when I ask that question, you are likely to stop and start searching the body to see how it feels, right? But prior to that question...you might have forgotten the body you are in. Heck, you might have forgotten you had a body at all.
We often get so lost in our busy minds and our constant doing that we lose touch with our bodies. We become like those heads in bell jars viewed in some old horror movies. We are all mind.
When we are not in our bodies we are not in the present moments of our lives...heck we are not truly living. Your body is what gives you what we call human life. Without breath, heartbeat, neuronal firing, activation of the trillions of cells in it, and the circulation of all its components... where would you be? I believe your consciousness would be( Yep! I am one of those.) but you would not be a human being without the human component of you.
The body is what allows us to experience this world. It definitely doesn't define us but it is an important tool in our being human. When we disconnect from it and live in our heads, we are not experiencing life in this moment.
We need to get back to breath and then back to body.
Yoga: A Way to Get Us Back To What is Important
I practice and teach yoga and mind-body integration is what hatha yoga is all about
I begin each yoga practice ( after a quick warm up...don't stretch cold muscles !!! lol) with pada bandha...a grounding technique. I make the students aware of the triangle created by three points on the bottom of their feet ( Leslie Kamonoff) and to visualize that they are being rooted into the earth with those points. I also get them to imagine a long sturdy chord on the top of their head that pulls them up toward the sky. From this position they are encouraged to breathe. As they breathe I want them to be mindful of the belly expanding on each in - breath, a quick pause, and then the belly contracting on each out - breath.
We then do a quick body scan from the souls of their feet all the way up to the top of the head so they can feel and become aware of each muscle they will be stretching in the upcoming asanas. I need them to remain in their bodies while we are moving so no injury occurs and so they get all the relaxing, calming and centering effects of yoga. I will not begin a practice without doing this.
At any time
I would encourage people to begin a yoga practice during tis time of isolation. There are so many great teachers on line.
Even if you don't want to do yoga full out, we can all do this little grounding exercise throughout our day just so that we have moments of body-mind integration at least.
We are going to slip away
We are bound to forget and slip out of our bodies and into our minds throughout the day. But if we can keep bringing ourselves back we will be partaking in a very noble and healing practice of mindfulness and awareness.
Keep coming Back
Just keep coming back...to breath. When you feel stressed or super busy take a moment and breathe...feel that breath going in and out.
When you are sitting for hours at the computer make it a point to stop every now and again, schedule intervals if you have to...to breathe, ground with your feet, stretch up tall with the crown of your head and just quickly go through your body to see how it feels. Just notice any tension, numbness, tingling, pain...don't worry about naming it or judging it or coming up with a story about why you feel what you feel...just notice it.
Keep coming back.
So you are going to slip away from body and breath awareness...that is a given. But the moment you realize you slipped away...you are already back.
So breathe and scan...and breathe and scan again and again throughout the day. I guess there is even an app for that? But you don't need an app or a meditation bell going off every fifteen minutes as it does in monasteries to remind the monks and nuns to become mindful ...just do your best to keep bringing yourself back...again and again and again.
Keep coming back to breath and body and you will be doing a great thing for you and the entire world!
All is well
Leslie Kaminoff & Amy Matthews (2012) Yoga Anatomy Second Edition. Champaign: Human Kinetics.
Leslie Kaminoff
Are You in your body?
Are you aware at this very moment, what your body is doing, feeling, sensing? Of course, when I ask that question, you are likely to stop and start searching the body to see how it feels, right? But prior to that question...you might have forgotten the body you are in. Heck, you might have forgotten you had a body at all.
We often get so lost in our busy minds and our constant doing that we lose touch with our bodies. We become like those heads in bell jars viewed in some old horror movies. We are all mind.
When we are not in our bodies we are not in the present moments of our lives...heck we are not truly living. Your body is what gives you what we call human life. Without breath, heartbeat, neuronal firing, activation of the trillions of cells in it, and the circulation of all its components... where would you be? I believe your consciousness would be( Yep! I am one of those.) but you would not be a human being without the human component of you.
The body is what allows us to experience this world. It definitely doesn't define us but it is an important tool in our being human. When we disconnect from it and live in our heads, we are not experiencing life in this moment.
We need to get back to breath and then back to body.
Yoga: A Way to Get Us Back To What is Important
I practice and teach yoga and mind-body integration is what hatha yoga is all about
I begin each yoga practice ( after a quick warm up...don't stretch cold muscles !!! lol) with pada bandha...a grounding technique. I make the students aware of the triangle created by three points on the bottom of their feet ( Leslie Kamonoff) and to visualize that they are being rooted into the earth with those points. I also get them to imagine a long sturdy chord on the top of their head that pulls them up toward the sky. From this position they are encouraged to breathe. As they breathe I want them to be mindful of the belly expanding on each in - breath, a quick pause, and then the belly contracting on each out - breath.
We then do a quick body scan from the souls of their feet all the way up to the top of the head so they can feel and become aware of each muscle they will be stretching in the upcoming asanas. I need them to remain in their bodies while we are moving so no injury occurs and so they get all the relaxing, calming and centering effects of yoga. I will not begin a practice without doing this.
At any time
I would encourage people to begin a yoga practice during tis time of isolation. There are so many great teachers on line.
Even if you don't want to do yoga full out, we can all do this little grounding exercise throughout our day just so that we have moments of body-mind integration at least.
We are going to slip away
We are bound to forget and slip out of our bodies and into our minds throughout the day. But if we can keep bringing ourselves back we will be partaking in a very noble and healing practice of mindfulness and awareness.
Keep coming Back
Just keep coming back...to breath. When you feel stressed or super busy take a moment and breathe...feel that breath going in and out.
When you are sitting for hours at the computer make it a point to stop every now and again, schedule intervals if you have to...to breathe, ground with your feet, stretch up tall with the crown of your head and just quickly go through your body to see how it feels. Just notice any tension, numbness, tingling, pain...don't worry about naming it or judging it or coming up with a story about why you feel what you feel...just notice it.
Keep coming back.
So you are going to slip away from body and breath awareness...that is a given. But the moment you realize you slipped away...you are already back.
So breathe and scan...and breathe and scan again and again throughout the day. I guess there is even an app for that? But you don't need an app or a meditation bell going off every fifteen minutes as it does in monasteries to remind the monks and nuns to become mindful ...just do your best to keep bringing yourself back...again and again and again.
Keep coming back to breath and body and you will be doing a great thing for you and the entire world!
All is well
Leslie Kaminoff & Amy Matthews (2012) Yoga Anatomy Second Edition. Champaign: Human Kinetics.
Monday, March 30, 2020
Listening to Mother Earth
You need to hear this if you never happened upon it before. Breath taking!
It is as if Mother Earth is indeed singing to us.
Genadi Tkachenko is the amazing performer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9VjiTDbVDk
I cried! Opened me right up in a very beautiful and healing way.
This is the kind of thing we can do in our isolation to help us reflect on what we have failed to hear before. Find inspiration to help us open up!
All is well
A Time Out; A Noble Moment
Dear Mother Earth ...
Even though we your children have made many mistakes, you always forgive us. Every time we return to you, you are ready to open your arms and embrace us.
Thich Nhat Hanh
This is a very challenging moment in our history, for sure, but it is also a "noble moment." I heard that description used in a beautiful dharma talk today (linked below). ...and it stuck in my head and in my heart. This is a noble moment in our history.
What is a noble moment?
A noble moment is a "teachable" moment, a moment we can learn from, grow from and awaken from. In the Buddhist teachings a noble moment consists of both enlightenment and suffering.
Say what?? How can suffering be noble?
Suffering can lead us to the edge of our comfort zones, where we have been hiding with our eyes closed. It can force us to open our eyes , see where we were, see where we were heading and put us back in the very here and now....so we can change our trajectory.
We as a human species have been stuck in a comfort zone furnished by collective and personal egos. So caught up in our struggle to avoid suffering through striving, gaining, attaining, clinging and doing we were unconscious to the reality of what type of imprint on this world we were leaving.
We have been trampling unconsciously and busily over this planet and not looking down to see the foot prints we were leaving behind. We had this absurd idea that it was "all ours" and we could do with it what we wanted in order to keep these greedy egos fed and happy within this comfort zone. Mother Earth (I will borrow this beautiful description of our planet) has been crying out to us for years with her gentle warnings and her maternal pleas but we were not listening.
We didn't listen well enough to her when it was the earth's crusts we were digging up for fossil fuels and minerals; when it was the forests we were clear cutting or the coral reefs we were poisoning. We didn't get it enough when the climates began to change; our landfills filled up with pollution she couldn't digest or when species of precious animals and plants, her other children, began dying off .
We were not listening!
She is a kind mother. She teaches with love. We forced her to become the "disciplining" parent for the good of all. She is not punishing us because we were "bad"...she is simply "teaching" us by gently showing us what we were doing. I believe, she just wants us to learn. When we didn't learn in other ways, she had to get stern and make us feel a bit of pain. She put the human race in a "time out" .
Are we ready to listen now?
We need to use this time in "time-out" to listen to her. To reflect on what we have done, to see clearly and understand the consequences of our actions. This social distancing is a quiet time to reflect and learn. Sure it can cause some temporary suffering and some of that suffering can be great...touching on our worse fears as human beings: "illness" and "death". But it can be a healing time, as well...a time to grow up a bit.
We are not bad children. We are simply unconscious. We do not need to feel "guilty" and hang our heads in shame over what we have done. That will not get us anywhere but down...and this is not a time to feed the negative ego. We simply need to be aware and see.
Each of the physical beings on this earth are fragile, impermanent and inter dependent. We need to take care of our own little selves, our species as a whole ( humanity!) and the entire planet better.
We humans are grouped together collectively in this crisis because it seems...we are the ones being targeted rather than the ones doing the targeting. It is our lesson to learn and we must suffer it with grace and humility not only for our own healing but for the healing of the entire planet.
Make the most of your time Out
In stillness, in quiet we can open up to that awareness. We can hold this idea of impermanence and inter-being in our minds and hearts. ( dharma talk) We can reflect, sure, on the error of our ways but more importantly we need to set an intention to do better. Mother Earth doesn't need our apology, she needs our awakening.
The Use of time Out in My Own Life
Whenever I used to put my kids in time-out when they were younger for hurting each other in some way, they had to do three things before being let out. They had to show me (and the one they hurt) that they reflected on what they did. I also asked them to take the anger they had towards their sibling and rework it...to turn it back into Love. To do that they had to come up with three things they liked, loved or admired about the sibling that was hurt by their words or actions. They also had to come up with a plan to make it better in the future.
For example, if one of the twins was hurtful to the other in a fit of rage, the offender was ushered to the time out bench or their room. Before being released from time out, this "prisoner" had to come up with a reflection on what happened and on how the other twin would have felt by those comments. "I felt mad when she took the feet off my Bratz doll and glued them to the wall so I said those mean things to her. It probably made her sad to hear them."
I would then get them to step away from their negative angry place and write or speak three positive attributes like , "I guess she is funny and she makes me laugh. She has a nice smile." And I would have been happy with "Just her feet are smelly. The rest of her smells okay," for the third positive.
Finally, they had to come up with a plan, "The next time I feel myself getting angry with her, I will step back and away, take a big breath or punch a pillow before I talk to her again ."
Of course the effects of such learning may have only lasted all of two minutes but you get the point, right?
Not A Punishment
The time out wasn't just a random automatic punishment. It was meant to serve a purpose...to calm the misbehaving child down, to give them space to reflect, to help them find compassion and empathy within themselves, to connect their own feelings, to sit with those feelings, to find the blessing in the other, and to find a more positive way to relate with others and the world around them.
I am not saying it always went well because it didn't!! The offender would often initially resist and demand that they be allowed out or off the bench. They would frequently say, "It isn't fair!" or "I'm not doing that, this is as stupid as she is!" And if I let my guard down, for even a second, they would walk or even run away giggling (in the early, early time -outs) from their forced isolation. The longer they resisted, however, the longer their time out.
We are in a time out like that now.
Let's not resist! We don't want to make this time out longer than it has to be. Follow the protocol and accept the situation.
We can reflect on what got us here, and how we feel. We can learn to sit with our feelings instead of running from them . We can use this time to build our compassion and empathy muscles by praying for, reaching out, holding in our awareness all humans effected by this virus. We can also show a little more respect for and connection with Mother Earth. We can find the blessings in this situation, in this world and in this Life. Hey, not all of it is smelly!
And we can decide what we are going to do when we get out. How are we going to respond to each other, and this wonderful beautiful world we live in then? Are we going right back to the old behavioural patterns that got us in time out in the first place?
Hmm! I hope not.
I hope after this is over we have many more reformed, compassionate, empathetic, aware, mindful and conscious people in the world. That would be so nice, wouldn't it?
All is well.
Plum Village dharma talk (March 30,2020) This is a Noble Moment.
(I cannot seem to re-upload this site to get the url . I will keep trying....it is really worth listening too.)
Even though we your children have made many mistakes, you always forgive us. Every time we return to you, you are ready to open your arms and embrace us.
Thich Nhat Hanh
This is a very challenging moment in our history, for sure, but it is also a "noble moment." I heard that description used in a beautiful dharma talk today (linked below). ...and it stuck in my head and in my heart. This is a noble moment in our history.
What is a noble moment?
A noble moment is a "teachable" moment, a moment we can learn from, grow from and awaken from. In the Buddhist teachings a noble moment consists of both enlightenment and suffering.
Say what?? How can suffering be noble?
Suffering can lead us to the edge of our comfort zones, where we have been hiding with our eyes closed. It can force us to open our eyes , see where we were, see where we were heading and put us back in the very here and now....so we can change our trajectory.
We as a human species have been stuck in a comfort zone furnished by collective and personal egos. So caught up in our struggle to avoid suffering through striving, gaining, attaining, clinging and doing we were unconscious to the reality of what type of imprint on this world we were leaving.
We have been trampling unconsciously and busily over this planet and not looking down to see the foot prints we were leaving behind. We had this absurd idea that it was "all ours" and we could do with it what we wanted in order to keep these greedy egos fed and happy within this comfort zone. Mother Earth (I will borrow this beautiful description of our planet) has been crying out to us for years with her gentle warnings and her maternal pleas but we were not listening.
We didn't listen well enough to her when it was the earth's crusts we were digging up for fossil fuels and minerals; when it was the forests we were clear cutting or the coral reefs we were poisoning. We didn't get it enough when the climates began to change; our landfills filled up with pollution she couldn't digest or when species of precious animals and plants, her other children, began dying off .
We were not listening!
She is a kind mother. She teaches with love. We forced her to become the "disciplining" parent for the good of all. She is not punishing us because we were "bad"...she is simply "teaching" us by gently showing us what we were doing. I believe, she just wants us to learn. When we didn't learn in other ways, she had to get stern and make us feel a bit of pain. She put the human race in a "time out" .
Are we ready to listen now?
We need to use this time in "time-out" to listen to her. To reflect on what we have done, to see clearly and understand the consequences of our actions. This social distancing is a quiet time to reflect and learn. Sure it can cause some temporary suffering and some of that suffering can be great...touching on our worse fears as human beings: "illness" and "death". But it can be a healing time, as well...a time to grow up a bit.
We are not bad children. We are simply unconscious. We do not need to feel "guilty" and hang our heads in shame over what we have done. That will not get us anywhere but down...and this is not a time to feed the negative ego. We simply need to be aware and see.
Each of the physical beings on this earth are fragile, impermanent and inter dependent. We need to take care of our own little selves, our species as a whole ( humanity!) and the entire planet better.
We humans are grouped together collectively in this crisis because it seems...we are the ones being targeted rather than the ones doing the targeting. It is our lesson to learn and we must suffer it with grace and humility not only for our own healing but for the healing of the entire planet.
Make the most of your time Out
In stillness, in quiet we can open up to that awareness. We can hold this idea of impermanence and inter-being in our minds and hearts. ( dharma talk) We can reflect, sure, on the error of our ways but more importantly we need to set an intention to do better. Mother Earth doesn't need our apology, she needs our awakening.
The Use of time Out in My Own Life
Whenever I used to put my kids in time-out when they were younger for hurting each other in some way, they had to do three things before being let out. They had to show me (and the one they hurt) that they reflected on what they did. I also asked them to take the anger they had towards their sibling and rework it...to turn it back into Love. To do that they had to come up with three things they liked, loved or admired about the sibling that was hurt by their words or actions. They also had to come up with a plan to make it better in the future.
For example, if one of the twins was hurtful to the other in a fit of rage, the offender was ushered to the time out bench or their room. Before being released from time out, this "prisoner" had to come up with a reflection on what happened and on how the other twin would have felt by those comments. "I felt mad when she took the feet off my Bratz doll and glued them to the wall so I said those mean things to her. It probably made her sad to hear them."
I would then get them to step away from their negative angry place and write or speak three positive attributes like , "I guess she is funny and she makes me laugh. She has a nice smile." And I would have been happy with "Just her feet are smelly. The rest of her smells okay," for the third positive.
Finally, they had to come up with a plan, "The next time I feel myself getting angry with her, I will step back and away, take a big breath or punch a pillow before I talk to her again ."
Of course the effects of such learning may have only lasted all of two minutes but you get the point, right?
Not A Punishment
The time out wasn't just a random automatic punishment. It was meant to serve a purpose...to calm the misbehaving child down, to give them space to reflect, to help them find compassion and empathy within themselves, to connect their own feelings, to sit with those feelings, to find the blessing in the other, and to find a more positive way to relate with others and the world around them.
I am not saying it always went well because it didn't!! The offender would often initially resist and demand that they be allowed out or off the bench. They would frequently say, "It isn't fair!" or "I'm not doing that, this is as stupid as she is!" And if I let my guard down, for even a second, they would walk or even run away giggling (in the early, early time -outs) from their forced isolation. The longer they resisted, however, the longer their time out.
We are in a time out like that now.
Let's not resist! We don't want to make this time out longer than it has to be. Follow the protocol and accept the situation.
We can reflect on what got us here, and how we feel. We can learn to sit with our feelings instead of running from them . We can use this time to build our compassion and empathy muscles by praying for, reaching out, holding in our awareness all humans effected by this virus. We can also show a little more respect for and connection with Mother Earth. We can find the blessings in this situation, in this world and in this Life. Hey, not all of it is smelly!
And we can decide what we are going to do when we get out. How are we going to respond to each other, and this wonderful beautiful world we live in then? Are we going right back to the old behavioural patterns that got us in time out in the first place?
Hmm! I hope not.
I hope after this is over we have many more reformed, compassionate, empathetic, aware, mindful and conscious people in the world. That would be so nice, wouldn't it?
All is well.
Plum Village dharma talk (March 30,2020) This is a Noble Moment.
(I cannot seem to re-upload this site to get the url . I will keep trying....it is really worth listening too.)
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Learning From Savasana
Savasana is said to be the easiest asana to perform but the hardest to master. Whatever gymnastic demands the other asanas may make of your balance, strength or flexibility, the challenge of maintaining awareness without effort or exertion is perhaps the most revealing exploration of mind-body integration we can engage in.
Leslie Kaminoff Yoga Anatomy. Second Edition
I begin most of my savasana guided relaxation for students at the end of every yoga sequence with this little mantra: Right now, there is nowhere you have to go and nothing you have to do but breathe.
I know those words have helped me in my own practice over the decades to settle into the mat and let go of any mental resistance I might have to the moment. When I say them to myself, I can actually sink into the here and now peacefully.
I would like to offer you those words now as you find yourself in an forced "slowing down" that your mind might not be too accepting of; as you find yourself on the proverbial mat of your social isolation after years of busy doing and distracting.
For this time, there is nowhere you have to go and nothing you have to do...but breathe.
Of course, I want you to continue with your self and other protective protocol...but relax and just breathe in to this...Right now. This will not last forever but it is happening right now. And no amount of resistance, denial, or avoiding is going to make COVID-19 disappear into thin air.
Think of this as somewhat of a unusual reward for a challenging sequence.You have put yourself in all kinds of "awkward positions" over the course of your life...straining and stretching muscles you didn't even know you had. Now time has been provided for you to lay back and slow everything down.
Take this time and make the most of it. Put down your compulsive need to go somewhere else, to get to another moment or another place and your need to do something. Just breathe.
Allow life to support your weary body and mind, just like a yoga mat does. Feel it holding you, protecting you. Then relax into it. Let go, release and breathe!
Right now, there is nowhere you have to go and nothing you have to do...but breathe.
It is not a perfect situation we humans are in right now. It certainly is messy in many ways...but it is. It is as it is. You might as well settle into it. Your body and mind will thank you for it.
Breathe!
All is well in my world.
Leslie Kaminoff Yoga Anatomy. Second Edition
I begin most of my savasana guided relaxation for students at the end of every yoga sequence with this little mantra: Right now, there is nowhere you have to go and nothing you have to do but breathe.
I know those words have helped me in my own practice over the decades to settle into the mat and let go of any mental resistance I might have to the moment. When I say them to myself, I can actually sink into the here and now peacefully.
I would like to offer you those words now as you find yourself in an forced "slowing down" that your mind might not be too accepting of; as you find yourself on the proverbial mat of your social isolation after years of busy doing and distracting.
For this time, there is nowhere you have to go and nothing you have to do...but breathe.
Of course, I want you to continue with your self and other protective protocol...but relax and just breathe in to this...Right now. This will not last forever but it is happening right now. And no amount of resistance, denial, or avoiding is going to make COVID-19 disappear into thin air.
Think of this as somewhat of a unusual reward for a challenging sequence.You have put yourself in all kinds of "awkward positions" over the course of your life...straining and stretching muscles you didn't even know you had. Now time has been provided for you to lay back and slow everything down.
Take this time and make the most of it. Put down your compulsive need to go somewhere else, to get to another moment or another place and your need to do something. Just breathe.
Allow life to support your weary body and mind, just like a yoga mat does. Feel it holding you, protecting you. Then relax into it. Let go, release and breathe!
Right now, there is nowhere you have to go and nothing you have to do...but breathe.
It is not a perfect situation we humans are in right now. It certainly is messy in many ways...but it is. It is as it is. You might as well settle into it. Your body and mind will thank you for it.
Breathe!
All is well in my world.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Remaining Walls
Remaining Walls
The Walls
are still here,
leaning stoic and strong
against an imposing landscape.
Though they have been hit
many times
and have fallen to rubble
in many places,
they maintain
a definite silhouette
in this world
I am so convinced
is real.
Though the tower
has crumbled
to the ground
and the draw bridge
remains open
and descended
over the dry
and cracking moat...
these mighty walls of stone,
now mossy
and discolored with age,
still stand stubbornly
around me.
I sit behind them,
in amongst
the weapons
I have stacked in rows
of guilt and anger
to defend
my little self with....
just in case someone
or something
gets through.
I have collected
their weapons too,
and they lay
in messy piles
around me.
Charred and broken
remains of arrows,
sticks and stones
that have made it over
these walls
are my collected grievances,
a reminder
of why I am here.
I shiver
as I look upon them.
It is cold
within these walls
despite the
impressive strength
and the formidable illusion
of protection
they provide.
Sun can only filter in
through the broken pieces
and the cracks
that life's storms
have created.
Though I reach
a hand out
longingly
to grasp and capture
each tiny ray
that makes its way to me,
this "me"
I think I am
is turning pale and weak
without Its Brilliance,
a brilliance
I have not known
for too long.
The laughter
and singing voices
of my many enemies
out there
echoes in a muffled,
far away music
I can only mutely hear.
I place a lonely ear
against the cold stone
so I can feel
the sweet vibration
of every giggle,
every whisper,
as if it were coming
from my own kin.
I long to connect
to someone,
something
other than
this pathetic shell
I am in.
But I have
given up trying
to make my harsh
and raspy voice
extend beyond these
massive walls of stone.
I no longer cry out
to be heard.
I know that
every noise
I make
will just be
boom -a -ranged
back to be,
like an empty note
that makes no sound.
So I just listen
and I wait
for the sounds
of some phantom rescuer,
on a clomping steed
to reach me...
a sound I know,
I will never hear.
My eyes are blurry
from the darkness.
My limbs are weary
from underuse.
And my heart remains
a shrivelled
underplayed instrument
when I know
it is meant to beat
like a mighty drum.
Yet, what can I do
but wait?
Wait for some force,
to come and save me.
This saviour
I now know,
will not be found
out there.
The world beyond
these walls
has already failed
too many times,
to protect me
or to at least
destroy
what I have created.
No, I suddenly realize
in this "alone"
and separate state
that I am in,
is that what I need
to save me
is something
already here,
hidden within
my fortress of stone.
Inspired
by a tiny ray of light,
I get on my knees
and I close my eyes.
I look inward away
from the mossy walls
and into a different type
of emptiness.
With clearer vision,
I seek
beyond the captivity
I have become
too familiar with
to the perfect rescue,
the only true salvation
and the Source of Light
I long for.
I then wrap
a weary hand
around the
long and flimsy pole
that is presented me.
With weak
and trembling limb
I extend it up and over
the tallest wall,
so the flapping
white flag
on its tip
can make my surrender
known to all,
so it can make it
known to me.
The echoed voices
in the fading shadows
around me
will sing in
triumphant gratitude
for this sweet surrender
that will allow
all remaining walls
to crumble to the ground.
Dale-Lyn ( March 28, 2020)
I know! I know! It just came out here, so I put it here. I tell myself to suck it up and learn from it lol. There is some type of message in here somewhere.
All is well.
The Walls
are still here,
leaning stoic and strong
against an imposing landscape.
Though they have been hit
many times
and have fallen to rubble
in many places,
they maintain
a definite silhouette
in this world
I am so convinced
is real.
Though the tower
has crumbled
to the ground
and the draw bridge
remains open
and descended
over the dry
and cracking moat...
these mighty walls of stone,
now mossy
and discolored with age,
still stand stubbornly
around me.
I sit behind them,
in amongst
the weapons
I have stacked in rows
of guilt and anger
to defend
my little self with....
just in case someone
or something
gets through.
I have collected
their weapons too,
and they lay
in messy piles
around me.
Charred and broken
remains of arrows,
sticks and stones
that have made it over
these walls
are my collected grievances,
a reminder
of why I am here.
I shiver
as I look upon them.
It is cold
within these walls
despite the
impressive strength
and the formidable illusion
of protection
they provide.
Sun can only filter in
through the broken pieces
and the cracks
that life's storms
have created.
Though I reach
a hand out
longingly
to grasp and capture
each tiny ray
that makes its way to me,
this "me"
I think I am
is turning pale and weak
without Its Brilliance,
a brilliance
I have not known
for too long.
The laughter
and singing voices
of my many enemies
out there
echoes in a muffled,
far away music
I can only mutely hear.
I place a lonely ear
against the cold stone
so I can feel
the sweet vibration
of every giggle,
every whisper,
as if it were coming
from my own kin.
I long to connect
to someone,
something
other than
this pathetic shell
I am in.
But I have
given up trying
to make my harsh
and raspy voice
extend beyond these
massive walls of stone.
I no longer cry out
to be heard.
I know that
every noise
I make
will just be
boom -a -ranged
back to be,
like an empty note
that makes no sound.
So I just listen
and I wait
for the sounds
of some phantom rescuer,
on a clomping steed
to reach me...
a sound I know,
I will never hear.
My eyes are blurry
from the darkness.
My limbs are weary
from underuse.
And my heart remains
a shrivelled
underplayed instrument
when I know
it is meant to beat
like a mighty drum.
Yet, what can I do
but wait?
Wait for some force,
to come and save me.
This saviour
I now know,
will not be found
out there.
The world beyond
these walls
has already failed
too many times,
to protect me
or to at least
destroy
what I have created.
No, I suddenly realize
in this "alone"
and separate state
that I am in,
is that what I need
to save me
is something
already here,
hidden within
my fortress of stone.
Inspired
by a tiny ray of light,
I get on my knees
and I close my eyes.
I look inward away
from the mossy walls
and into a different type
of emptiness.
With clearer vision,
I seek
beyond the captivity
I have become
too familiar with
to the perfect rescue,
the only true salvation
and the Source of Light
I long for.
I then wrap
a weary hand
around the
long and flimsy pole
that is presented me.
With weak
and trembling limb
I extend it up and over
the tallest wall,
so the flapping
white flag
on its tip
can make my surrender
known to all,
so it can make it
known to me.
The echoed voices
in the fading shadows
around me
will sing in
triumphant gratitude
for this sweet surrender
that will allow
all remaining walls
to crumble to the ground.
Dale-Lyn ( March 28, 2020)
I know! I know! It just came out here, so I put it here. I tell myself to suck it up and learn from it lol. There is some type of message in here somewhere.
All is well.
Friday, March 27, 2020
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Thank You Readers!
Thank You!!
I neglected to thank all you wonderful readers for reading this blog!!! It is for you and all of us that I do this and it is to you that I am forever grateful!!
With much appreciation and hope for your well being!
I neglected to thank all you wonderful readers for reading this blog!!! It is for you and all of us that I do this and it is to you that I am forever grateful!!
With much appreciation and hope for your well being!
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