Following Nature's Everlasting Rhythyms

When will I learn?

 

 

 

 

 

 

When will I learn

that I cannot force the flower to bloom before it is time,

that if I reach down to pull the petals on this blossom open

they will not come easily or willingly,

they will cling to life source in the middle?

If I pull even harder,

determined to see

a beautiful rose in bloom

before its time,

I will succeed at nothing.

I will tear the tender petals away

 

from that which  they cling

and, rigid with immaturity,

they will sit in my hand until

they brown and wither into nothing.

The once lovely and perfect

potential of a  rose will then

bow her innocent  head

to me in submission,

curl up and die.

 

 

When will I learn

that if I stand back and allow the rose to be,

not bothered by the clock's tapping fingers

or the hurried pace around me,

she will unfold  at the most precise and perfect moment,

a moment planned by a Divine Master of  absolute timing?

When she blossoms,

independent of  my controlling fingers

she will be ready,

her lovely petals  will stretch

like the graceful arms of a ballerina

as I watch nature's breath -taking performance in awe .

 

When will I learn

that I cannot rush the caterpillar's transformation?

If  I poke at the chrysalis

with the  tip of a stick

I will indeed pierce the soft silky flesh

of  it's protective womb.

I will see the beautiful colour of wing

within the hole I have created.

I can then tear away the remaining cocoon

to grab the transforming creature

that was once trapped  inside.

But the wings,

I long to be inspired by,

I will soon discover

will not open.

In their incomplete transformation,

they will be sticky and wet.

The butterfly will not fly.

It will never flutter away

in beautiful speckled patterns of colour.

It will instead  lay down in my hand and die.

 

When will I learn

that if I allow nature to be

in charge of the whens and hows

the way she is meant to do,

the butterfly will emerge

from his tight cage when it is ready?

At that perfect moment, it's wings will open

and it will fly away towards its purpose,

the magical transformation complete.

 

When will I learn that I do no good

when I try to help the baby chick

escape from the shell it is poking at?

If, when I  see the vibrations beneath

and the cracks appearing,

I take pity on the creature inside and break through

 to free it from the shell that traps it

I will do more harm than good.

What I will find instead of a

grateful healthy bird,

is a tiny bundle of gooey feathers

that struggles to breathe.

It will surely die  in my hand

as it gasps for air it cannot take in.

 

When will I learn

that if I sit back and watch instead,

excited by how much stronger each peck is getting,

amazed how much work the little bird is doing

to  get itself out of its entrapment

I will eventually be laughing at the antics

of a fuzzy little chirping fowl

that is strong enough to breathe on its own?

 

When will I learn

to be patient and to trust

that life has its own perfect timing,

its own agenda,

and its own perfect order.

The perfection of my life will unfold exactly

when it is meant to,

in the way that it is meant to.

I do not need to rush time,

to force change,

to help others who do not need my help.

I just have to be

as God molds me into something

magical and perfect.
 

When will I learn to be?

 

Dale-Lyn December 2014

Hastening Eternal Rules

What it needed was to ripen and unfold patiently in sunlight. Now it was too late.  My breath had forced the butterfly to emerge ahead of time, crumpled and premature. It came out underdeveloped, shook desperately, and soon died in my palm.  The butterfly's corpse, I believe, is the greatest weight I carry on my conscience. What I understood deeply on that day was this: to hasten eternal rules is a mortal sin. One's duty is to confidently follow nature's everlasting rhythm.
Zorba the Greek

I was reminded of that beautiful passage when listening to Robert  Moss speak of his book, The Boy who Died and Came Back. (see link below).  In his book he wrote  of this beautiful passage from Nikos Kazantzakis' Zorba the Greek. What great insight and wisdom exists in this passage and I can, in my narcissism fervor, relate it to my own awakening. Maybe you can too?

I am in the process of evolving...and I know I have actually used this same analogy before in the form of poetic verse (must find that)...but I am still mushy and under-underdeveloped inside a chrysalis.  I am impatient in this state .  I don't really know how to settle into it and relax.  I am still clinging to  all I left behind or what I lost in that other stage of my development, wondering if I can go back there and  at the same time I am  anxious to fly off into this new understanding  I am so sure I will experience when I evolve further.

This present stage seems to be taking so long lol.  But this passage from Zorba the Greek  reminds me that if we push this and strive real hard to bust through the walls of this cocoon that is here for a reason, we will find ourselves like Zorba's butterfly...unable to fly and unable to survive consciously in this new state.

We are all going to get there, to emerge into this new wonderful reality brought on by a deeper understanding when we are ready...but only when we are ready.  We need to learn to lay back and relax where we are and accept the process that is being directed by Something much Wiser and Greater than we could ever think to be. Let that be the breath that awakens us and others...not our own hurried little one's

It is all good.

Nikos Kazantzakis (2014 Edition as translated by Peter Bien)   Zorba the Greek. Simon & Schuster

Robert Moss ( November 2014)   Present! Robert Moss: Dreams and the NDE. KMVT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWoK8u1bsXY

Lessons 162-170

There is a silence into which the world can not intrude.  There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost.
ACIM-W-164:4:1-2

Lesson 162

I am as God created me. This lesson professes that if we were to repeat these words until we believed them we would be saved; we would be free of fear and we would see who we truly are.

Lesson 163

There is no death.  The son of God is free. In this lesson our varied fear of death is discussed as an object and creation of fear  but also as something that cannot be real.  If we are as the previous lesson suggests, as God created us and if we are creations of  God and God cannot die, how can we? Of course...our perception of death comes with the ending of the physical form.  We do not die when our bodies do.  Again we are going beneath the tip of physicality to an  understanding of the depth of who we really are. (Below the water's surface in the Ice berg analogy)

Lesson 164

Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.  This lesson offers a reminder of the importance of seeing the world in the present moment, not with our eyes but the eyes of Christ (clear vision). It speaks to putting away judgements so we can see and  accept the world and Self for what it really is.  It also speaks to accepting and appreciating the blessings in the here and now, enveloped in the Oneness of all that is.

Lesson 165

Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.  Though we might doubt God's Love and Will for us to have and be all that we can be, the Thought that created us has never left us.  We are encouraged in this lesson to "ask with desire" for Heaven's Grace and Heaven is at our finger tips beneath the illusions of physicality that obscure It. We count on God and not upon ourselves to give us certainty. (8:1)

Lesson 166

I am entrusted with the gifts of God. As long as we see ego's world as the only world we will not recognize or accept the gifts God is constantly offering us. The gifts, however, are always there. We just do not recognize them, so caught up are we in ego's version of things. We have chosen to play the role of the tragic little self rather than embrace the Self we really are.  God wants us to receive these gifts and then by receiving others receive. He wants us to heal from our sick illusions and thereby release the world of  pain through our teaching.

Lesson 167

There is one life, and that I share with God. This lesson explains what death really is beyond our belief that it is restricted to the demise of the body. Death is the thought that you are separate from your creator. (4:1) and death cannot come from Life. 5:1 It is said that what seems to be the opposite of life is merely sleeping.  Life, like truth, just is and it is not how we imagine it...this string of events we label it as. There is only one Life, and as parts of God, we share that with him. There is no separate little lives and separate little deaths.

Lesson 168

Your grace is given me.  I claim it now. The grace that is offered us, is this ability to awaken to the truth of who we really are.  We are specks of God's light and therefore we are Love. Where there is Love there can be no fear. We just have to accept the gift and have faith in the Giver of this gift more so than our acceptance of it. We offer that gift to each other through forgiveness.

Lesson 169

By grace I live.  By grace I am released. I love this explanation of Grace offered in this lesson, Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear.  By grace alone the hate and fear are gone....2:1-2 This realization of our Oneness  goes beyond any learning we can do with the conceptual mind. With forgiveness we take special steps in this direction towards the miracle of release from the prison our minds have created.

Lesson 170

There is no cruelty in God and none in me. This lesson speaks to the insanity of defense and attack because of fear. What we really fear is not an enemy outside of us but the Love of God inside of us. It is ego that is afraid of God's love not the Self but as long as we are operating under ego perception we deny what the Self wants.  Ego has convinced us of our need to focus on the dangers of the world.  We then project our fear outside of us.  We need to recognize how we use fear as a god of cruelty to worship when we follow ego's dictates.  We must recognize this deception and put down the fear of fear as well as the fear of God.

Love this: Father we are like You.  No cruelty abides in us, for there is none in You. Your peace is ours.  And we bless the world with what we have received from You alone. 13:1-4

All is well!

Lost in the Streams

 The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.
George Eliot

I am thinking of many things as I sit here not sure about what it is I am to write about.  Maybe I will just address some of the things I have on my mind.  My mind is a good example of just how busy thinking can get. You know how the mind is...if you follow one thought stream it will branch off into another and that one will branch off into another and another and another until you are good and lost in the stream following antics of the habitual mind.

I was thinking of the following things:

1. how welcoming this spot seemed this morning
2. my meditation yesterday and teh compulsion received to write poetry
3. the poem I wrote yesterday
4. a comment made by someone about the possibility of someone taking my poems from this blog
5. the thought of the possibility loss and betrayal in regards to this
6. the chest pain I am presently having off and on from pushing myself to do a yoga sequence yesterday that overtaxed my ticker leading to what I know to be a cluster of coronary vasospasms
7. past experiences with physicians that were shaming and hurtful
8. how I have learned to handle that, becoming untrusting of a system and the egos of those in it
9. my hot flashes
10. how I become aware of myself running off after these thoughts, trying to create story around them
11. my breath
12. just observation of the chest pain and the hot flash
13. accepting this moment and all that is in it
14. My mantra: It is what it is and it is because that is....it is all okay!
15. and how welcoming this spot is; how good it is to be here in it now!

Wow!  That is what went through my mind in a matter of seconds.  The mind can be a hyperactive monkey, can't it?

Thought stream One

My first thought was about how welcoming this spot seemed this morning when I sat down to write.  I did de-clutter it a bit over the last few days.  The light coming in this time of the day is lovely.  I can see the sun coming through the branches of the lovely Juniper outside my window and hear the breeze blowing in such a comforting way.  It is good to see how the earth is finally being relieved of the burden of snow that covered it so thickly. So yeah...this place was always comforting but seemed especially so today.  And I started to wonder if it was divinely orchestrated that I should find more comfort and welcome in this spot because it is where I am supposed to be.

Thought Stream Two

That brought me to the second thought stream.  I recalled how yesterday during my meditation, I asked what is was that was wanted of me, how I could serve with the little I have and the answer came to me as it usually does, "Write!".  Then I heard this time "Poetry!" I can't say it was an actual  voice I heard...I am not having auditory hallucinations...but it was an inner voice of some kind. I also seen the word as if typed out on a piece of paper in my mind's eye and I felt it.  It was weird but it was very powerful. 

At first, I resisted, telling myself that was just a quirky thought I was putting in my own head.  Why would I want to write poetry? It is too exposing, putting one out there to risk ridicule and shame and I am so shame based as it is...why would I do that to myself?  Besides how would I live as a poet, especially a not very good one.  Who makes money as a poet?

This resistance went on but the feeling beneath was too powerful so I surrendered to it and I heard more clearly what was asked of me.  I am not to call myself a poet...I am not to call myself anything.  I am simply to write what is coming through me.  Whatever words that come through are not mine.  I cannot take responsibility for them or credit...they simply come through me.  Yes, I can put my name to those poems (using  my pen here or my real name) and if any literary credits or compensations are due I can take those. But it isn't about me really.

I had this strong feeling, then, that I was to take what I am seeing, experiencing and learning and instead of always putting it into prose like I usually do, I am to allow it more often to come through into verse.  I am not to worry about the outcome, just the process. Weird! And I just said, "Okay!"

That is what I recalled this morning as I sat at this place that suddenly seemed more welcoming.

Thought Stream Three

Then I remembered  about how I came here after that meditation yesterday and I wrote a poem.  This poem was based on  much learning I have gathered over the years and was triggered by the video offered by Anita Moorjani , who by the way,  was saying how we should listen to our higher Self in determining the direction of our lives thus prompting me to ask that question about "How shall I serve" in my meditation.  

Her description about the world and Self we see being like the tip of  an iceberg really stuck with me as well. Now I have heard the ice berg description in terms of understanding the mind, as I have written here before.  10 % of the mind is our conscious mind and all we tend to see and understand.  Beneath that is the subconscious and unconscious mind which actually guides our behaving, feeling and living more than the conscious mind ever could but we do not understand it. I liked the way she took that "tip of the iceberg" analogy and applied it to how we understand Self and Life. That stuck

Thought Stream Four

So I was thinking about how a reader of my blog commented that they actually got choked up on reading my poetry and warned me to be careful. This person felt that others could take my words from this blog and use them as their own.  Though I assured him that that wouldn't happen, that I was copy right protected etc...he still felt I should remove all my poetry to protect it.

Thought Stream Five

I began to ponder over that possibility and felt myself a little worried and betrayed. I thought about the numerous times the  plagscan url showed up on my stats. Would someone take mediocre poetry and call it their own?  Why?  Could they do that and get away with it?  I reminded myself I was copy right protected but that led me to feel guilty about not trusting and fearing the loss of some thing like ego credit.  I want to be more evolved than that.  Then I remembered the meditation and how I was more or less told to not worry about outcome...it was being taken care of.

Thought Stream Six

Then the chest pain interrupted the above thought stream taking me in another direction.  I felt the pain and still, despite all my practice,  when I initially feel it, my first reaction is to resist it. "No!  I don't want this!  It should not be this way!"   Then to avoid that feeling of "doom and gloom" that usually comes with it...I get deeper into the thought process to begin to analyze it ...to determine what the cause of it is.  I recalled how  I tried and tried yesterday to capture a dancing warrior sequence on video for my yoga page.  Dancing warrior is too much of a cardiac strain...and I pushed past the symptoms then trying to convince myself that I was somehow evolved past this physical limitation that has been a part of my life for decades.

Thought Stream Seven

Then that led me to question why I keep pushing past that point.  Besides the fact that I still have some unhealthy "doing" tendencies I am still stuck in some knots created by  my past experience seeking validation for this pain and the other symptoms.  I have known for years  without a doubt it is cardiac...familial...but whenever I get the pain I am instantly reminded of my past  health seeking experiences. I recall with shame, anger, frustration how those in the allopathic system that I sought help from over the years have yet to truly validate my experience and I  remembered all the consequences I endured in  terms of loss of livelihood, documented inaccurate and very hurtful assumptions about me and years of feeling shamed and unheard. I felt a familiar and unpleasant feeling being activated. That knot is always pulled automatically at the first twinge of chest pain and it has led me to behave in certain ways over the years.

Thought Stream Eight

This stream took me into how I have chosen to behave over the years.  I thought about my lack of faith and trust in this system.  Of course, that brought guilt.  I do not like to think this way but the truth is I do. I do not trust that I will be looked after in my physical need.  This is evidenced by my latest health issue that I have totally given up seeking help for.

I do not like to feel helpless as I do with this thought stream so I then try to make myself feel better by realizing how this experience of so called suffering is actually a gem that now glistens and shines.  It has taken me to a deeper understanding of well being that goes beyond the body focus and dependence on man made systems in the physical world.  All I have experienced has actually helped me to evolve!

Thought Stream Nine

As I am thinking this I get a very intense hot flash.  And though I usually do not react to my hot flashes and am quite content to just watch them ...I did resist this one because I was still tied up in the reactive thoughts and  emotions of the  health seeking knot.  I thought , maybe this is not a hot flash....because I am sweating profusely with this while I am having chest pain , maybe it is actually a cardiac symptom.  Maybe most of them are now. How will I ever know?  No one will take me seriously.

Thought Stream Ten

Then I simply observed how I was caught up in these thoughts and how I was feeling all caught up in these emotional knots. I became aware once again of my  need to create story, to avoid feeling shame, pain, fear... how I run off from one thought stream to another.

Thought Stream Eleven

I brought myself back to breath.  I just consciously breathed in and out and I followed that breath in my belly.  I told myself I needed to cast this anchor out so I could bring myself back.  

Thought Stream Twelve, Thirteen and Fourteen

I then consciously decided to be aware of what was going on around me in this moment.  Since the chest pain and the hot flash were still so heavy in my awareness, I just focused on them.  I became very mindful of how hot I was without resisting that feeling.  I became aware of the beads of perspiration forming along my wrists.  I just sat with that and watched.  I watched the chest pain...observed how it came and went in little spasms on the left side of my chest moving to the center and between my shoulder blades.  I just watched it. As I did so I visualized that knot.  I allowed it and then I did something strange...I embraced it.

I put my hand on my chest and just said, " It is what it is and it is because that is...and it is all okay!"

Thought Stream Fifteen

After a few seconds I found myself back in this spot, in front of my computer, ready to write.  I looked about me and thought , "Man...this place is comforting today!"

 I took myself full circle from here to there and back to here, from now to then and back to now, from presence to  being lost in thought and back to awareness.   When I found myself out of the streams and back in the here and now, I began to write. 

As I tune into my chest now there is a bit of heaviness but no pain.  The sweating has stopped too.  How cool is that?

All is well in my world

Anita Moorjani (March or April 2020) ...sorry , for the life of me, I can't seem to find this you tube link so I can cite it here.   :(  I will keep looking! 

Tip of the Iceberg

Tip of  the Iceberg

Look beyond the large chunk of ice you see
 floating on the surface
of your mind's idea of life.
As  you stare at it from your bobbing perch
with binoculars fastened so tightly 
over  the eyes on your face 
...still the only tool of vision
you are familiar with...
be in awe of what your senses reveal.  
Watch in amazement as diamonds
of sparkling light are reflected off its crevices;
breathe in its fresh crisp presence 
carried on the salty breeze to you;
notice as its tiny icy fingers
reach out over the watery distance
to caress your skin making
your entire being tingle with chill.

Appreciate  its beauty and its grandness,
its spectacular magnificence,
but
do not assume this
surface phenomenon is the whole.
Question the possibility that there is more
beneath the murky waves
below what you can see,
touch or know with this  mind
that creates a shimmering, moving filter
between you
and the deeper beingness
of every thing.

If you could see below
into the depth of this infinite ocean
maybe...just maybe...
you would realize that what the eye sees 
is only 10 percent
of all that is.
Below this tiny peak is the mountain,
much greater, much grander than
that which the conditioned mind
allows us to perceive.

Wonder over that possibility
as you hold your breath in awe
upon  observing this amazing tip.
Then close your eyes,
breathe in deeply  
and observe the entire iceberg
that is you.

Dale-Lyn April 2020

Man I am definitely on a poetry kick and I don't know why. I do not consider myself a poet like I consider Wordsworth, Dickinson, Coleridge to be poets ( yeah...I like the romantics). I do not, by any means, compare myself to Tagore or Rumi or Gibran in the way they were able to translate their spiritual quests into poetic verse. I am not a Milton and have not received divine word by word guidance during my sleep to write epic poetry like Paradise Lost. I am not confident or comfortable as a poet...far from it.  I feel the poems I write leave me more vulnerable and exposed than anything else I do. My shamer ego always comes in at some point to critique and chastise my poems, more than it does anything else I write. That is why for decades I have shown my poetry to very, very few people and I never submitted for publication until very recently  Yet here I am popping up poem after poem  on this blog site. Why?

It is beyond me...as kooky as that may make me sound.  It is beyond me.  I am not writing these as much as they are coming through me and if they come through me here, I publish the post...no matter what Shamer has to say. I know without doubt that I am being taught something with every poem I write.  This higher Self, this muse, this One consciousness, Divine intervention...whatever you want to call It...answers my questions through poetry. It is an amazing and beautiful process that I do not understand too clearly and maybe I do not have to.  I just have to stay open...heart and mind wise.

I meditated today, and I asked like I always ask...what can I do to serve best at this time, any time.  What usually come sup automatically when I do that is "write!"  I never know for sure if that is just my ego throwing in a few ideas or spirit but it is such an answer that I know it comes from a higher place too.  Well the last few times I asked that question. "Write"... came up followed by "poetry".  And I was like..."Ahhh...not poetry!!! " Of course...I only resisted for a slight moment and then I happily accepted the offer.

So here I am...writing poetry.  :)

I was listening to Anita Moorjani this morning and she was talking about this ice berg analogy and I knew that a poem was going to come out of it.  Hmmm! I cannot seem to find the video I listened to at this point to cite it...I will get it and post it when I can.

All is well!

Learning from Mother Teresa

May God break my heart open so completely that the whole world falls in.
Mother Teresa

 

 

One of the highest emotional states we can achieve, according to Buddhist and Christian teachings, is compassion.  As we get beyond the frantic need to defend and attack for the protection of this "little me" we identify as, we begin to experience compassion.  When we actually feel  the suffering of others...feel their pain, their worry, their unease or dis-ease...without pity but with perfected empathy, we are experiencing  compassion. 

 

When we are able to break away from our "me-me" focus during this pandemic or at any time of community or global crisis  to see how others are hurting, needing, suffering...it may really suck!  We may have a tendency to want to avoid that experience   too as we avoid our own feelings that add to our burden of suffering.  We might want to close our eyes to it, to turn our backs to it, pretend it isn't going on.  But it is. 

 

Truth is the world suffers...all humans suffer, beings suffer, the planet suffers.  It  might be easier to squeeze our eyes shut or put our hands over our ears than it is to "accept" that suffering and to reach out in thought or deed to attempt, in some small way, to relieve it.

 

Yet that is what we are here to do , isn't it?  Are we not here to experience fully the magnificence of Life which includes the joy as well as dukkha?  Are we not here to evolve beyond this idea we have a separate little selves and to grow into the realization of the One Self? Are we not here to open so completely we have compassion for the whole world?

 

 

Mother Teresa knew that and she spent her life offering and teaching compassion.  She was not lost in little self but guided by God to open her heart fully and completely to all experiences. I am sure it wasn't easy for her to look upon the dying and the lonely day in and day out.  But I don't think I have ever seen a picture of her when she wasn't smiling or at least very peaceful looking.  She knew what we were here to do, knowing that we cannot "stop" Life from being Life, that there will always be suffering, challenges, change but she set out to diminish suffering somehow, to relieve it a tiny bit at least. She staid open!

 

We could learn from Mother Teresa.  Though it is uncomfortable, doesn't mean that we should close up to suffering.

 

All is well!

 

 



More Learning from Buddhism

The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can't be organized or regulated. It isn't true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth.

Ram Dass

Wisdom in all Religions

I am going to get back to the lessons in A Course very soon.  Right  now I am being drawn to dharma talks....for some reason.   I am not a Buddhist, any more than I am a Hindu, a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian ( though Christianity will always be both a beautiful life enhancing conditioning in me, as well as something  I can no longer follow exclusively  without questioning )   but I absolutely love the teachings outlined by the Buddha ( as I do the teaching outlined by Christ). 

I guess, what I am trying to say, is I am not identifying with any one religion.  I am identifying with all.  Not for a second do I believe I am "Putting False Gods before me"  as I have been accused of doing.  In my understanding there is only One God...just so many different interpretations, terminologies and explanations. These teachings  are neither the same or different!!!

A Gentle and Practical Approach

Anyway, to me the Buddhists offer the best understanding into the nature of suffering and healing that I have heard...even beyond the psychological and scientific explanations that I have studied over the years. It is beautiful and amazing, not only in spiritual terms, but in practical!  The dharma seems to offer a beautiful marriage between the spiritual and physical.

So yeah I am drawn to those dharma talks...drawn to the all inclusive, non judgemental, practical, gentle and kindly approach Buddhism offers. I am a practitioner of these teachings yes...just as I am still a practitioner of many of the teachings I received growing up as a catholic, as I am a practitioner of the Hinduism that underlines the basis of Yoga.  I absolutely adore the Suffi poets and find great wisdom in their words.  I am amazed by the wisdom and reverence for the natural world seen in the traditions  of  the indigenous people around me.  I love science. I love philosophy.   I love literature.  I love what I gain from my own look inward.

I am just open

 I am just so open to explore wisdom in any form it comes in. If an explanation, a teaching, a description touches something inside me, I open farther.  I am just a seeker, and a practitioner.  I do not call myself a bodhisattva or a Sadhaka nor do I call myself a catholic.  I am just a seeker and a practitioner of that which resonates in my core.

Anyway, heard this little acronym today that helps us to be mindful, especially of our suffering. It was offered during a dharma talk from Deer Park.  Rabbits and Elephants Love Icecream. 

The R. stands for recognize. Notice what you are feeling, what is happening around you. what you are thinking.  What you are doing.

A stands for accept...which is a big one.  just allow whatever it is to simply be.  That doesn't mean it has to stay that way...but in this moment it is what is is.  Don't resist it.  don't deny it.  Don't push it away.  Just allow.

E stands for embrace.  So  we go beyond simply accepting teh circumstance, the feeling, the thoughts, the behaviour in us or someone else.  We embrace it.  We own it.  We pick it up and hold it gently.  This is the total opposite of resisting, and pushing away, isn't it?

L stands for look deeply...once we embrace it and soothe it...in a sense calm it down, we can begin to look closely at it.  Examine it to determine where it came from, what it means and what can be done about it...if anything. 

Then I stands for Insight...what have we learned from this, gained from this that we can take with us?

So simple, so lovely and so very wise.

All is well in my world.

Plum village   Earth Holder Retreat Orientation With Sr. Man Nghiem & Br. Nguyen Luc @ Deer Park https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8EaxBorhEU

Early Morning Secrets

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep.
Rumi

I awoke again at 5 in the am to the glorious music of bird song.  I have missed it without truly realizing what I was missing; without being aware exactly of what was "not there" in my day to day experience over the winter months.  Then when the robins return with their lovely choirs...it is like "Wow!  How could I ever have failed to notice the emptiness of this not being in my experience?" 

We get so conditioned, so selectively deaf to the music of Life occurring all around us when we slip into habit mind again and again. We just get lost in doing and excessive thinking and do not notice the millions of expressions of Life occurring, changing, leaving all around us. How could we fail to appreciate in July what is so amazing in April?  How could we not notice it when it leaves us? I mean like come on....robin song?  How does it get more beautiful than that?

The sound of a world waking up in spring is just a taste of what we hear throughout the summer and Autumn months. Yet it never sounds so glorious as it does in spring.  Absence does make the heart grow fonder, I suppose.  Hmm!

Anyway...I woke up this morning, let the dogs out and stood in the doorway.  I found myself asking,  "Okay Rumi what secrets does this breeze of yours want to share with the likes of me?" I couldn't hear the answer over the beautiful bird song! I was almost disappointed until I realized the gift I was being given.

All is well!

Gems

 Gems
 
If you look close enough you can see them
twinkling like tiny specks in amongst
the darkness of your mind's cave.
Watch as their tiny blackened fingers reach out to catch
each ray of unexpecting  sunlight that passes by.
Just observe how they grab that light,
pull it in to their center, absorb it, embrace it.
See how they then  grow and expand
with each small sip of nature's nourishment they swallow,
puffing up their chests, opening their hearts
freeing their illuminated beings from the rock
where they were once buried, hidden from view.
 
Pay attention to how they begin to shine,
sparkling and glistening with this tiny taste of Source energy,
transforming from nuggets of noxious coal
that spent  lifetimes  escaping  the miner's axe  
into brilliant diamonds and sapphires.  
Observe how that which was once denied,
 perceived as ugly and painful, not worthy of attention
 now reflects all that is beautiful ,
filling up the cavities of your being  with radiant light.
And all it took was your willingness
to stick your head into this cave,
and to see, really see
 the tiny specks of brilliance
that  suffering has made.

Dale-Lyn April 15, 2020

Okay...that just came out and I let it.  Was listening to a dharma talk as linked below and Br Phap Lai was quoting   his teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh Gems shine brightly in the midst of suffering.  and I knew once I heard that, I was going to cough up a poem lol.  It is what it is.

All is well.

Plum Village (June 2019) Being Present for Ourselves/ Neuroscience Retreat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKIdXfkqOzc

The Welcoming Arms of Nature Beyond the Burning House

Waking up this morning, I smile:

Twenty-four brand-new hours are before me.

I vow to live each moment fully

and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh

 



I woke up this morning to beautiful spring light shining in through my window and I could hear the sound of robins singing.  My heart just grew 100 times bigger in that small little moment.  I felt so blessed and so connected. I was so glad to be alive.

Nature Can Fill Our Reserves

These types of offerings from nature are always around us.  We are constantly reminded of how precious life is.  We are given these precious little nourishments of natural beauty to give us strength to see us through when things are not so pleasant. We need to seek these moments of "awe" to fill up our store house with. 

If we want peace, joy, well being we need to fall in love with nature again.  This is what Br. Phap Ho teaches in his dharma talk from Deer Park.  When we fall in love with Mother Earth again we fall in love with self again, with humanity again and with all beings again. Love is at the core of our relating to all.

To do this, he explains, we need to be able to love all aspects...not just those parts , those persons, those things that are easy to love.  We must also love the parts of us that we do not want anyone to see.  We must also love the parts of nature that scare us because we do not understand them ( like rattlesnakes or Covid 19 maybe).  We need to love others even if they seem to be hell bent on hurting us,  others or the world.  We must see beyond that which scares us, that which angers or frustrates us...to the Love that is at their core as well.

Anger: A Burning House

But we do get angry don't we?  When someone says or does something unkind, or when we see someone putting their ego ahead of the well being of others or the planet...we get pissed off...don't we? We begin to resist and struggle against what they are doing.  We "fight" them.  The more we fight the angrier we get and the more determined we become to make them pay. At what cost? Does our anger change the other person or the situation or does it just hurt us...taking us away from this peaceful love at the core of us leading us from one ego pursuit to the next  in the name of righteousness?

I love this analogy shared in this talk.  We can compare having anger in our bodies and minds to being in a burning house.  Does it do you any good, as the flames begin to appear,  to look outside the house for the person or something responsible for it, to drop the fire extinguisher to  run after the culprit so you can make him pay for what you perceive  he or she or it has done? No...you will just come back to a pile of ashes. 

What we need to do is put the flames out when they are small enough for us to extinguish them.  Then when the flame is out and we have recovered somewhat from the ordeal...gained a stable footing, some space , we can attempt to determine what caused the fire.  We can , from a place of peace and calm, confront the causative factor  and help to transform it.  We need to remember that at the core, no matter how buried that core may be, is Love...not destruction. We need to see beyond anger to that truth.

Tap into that Love rather than fuel anger and allow it to burn us alive.

Tapping Into Nature; Tapping Into Love

We tap into that love when we are surrounded by nature.  When we hear it, when we smell it, when we touch it....These moments of slowing down and appreciating her in all her glorious beauty and bounty can be the stuff that fills our extinguishers. That motivates us to face, accept and deal with our anger, our own imperfections and the imperfections of others.  That helps us to commit to supporting her better, supporting ourselves and all of humanity better, all beings better.

First...we must be willing to slow down enough to notice nature, to "stop and smell the flowers" as the old cliché goes, to touch her, to hear her, to feel her in the breeze against our skin.  And to know, as the Buddhist mantra goes,  we are the earth walking on the earth.

Now that is a lot to think about!

All is well.

Plum Village ( February 2020) Falling In Love with Mother Earth/ Dharma Talk with Br. Phap Ho at Deer Park Monastery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p17MRdGNdQw

Thich Nhat Hanh (2011) peace is every breath. New York; Harper One

Not the Same or Different

All things in the world come from being. And being comes from non-being.
Lao Tzu https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/lao-tzu-quotes

There were two very important messages that stuck with me this morning after listening to another dharma talk from Plum Village ( Okay...I am getting a wee bit addicted to these dharma talks  which kind of goes against all the teachings :)) These two lessons offered by Br. Phap Dung   to a group of neuroscientists on retreat were:

Not the same or different

Don't be too sure!!

Hmm!  Let's examine these little Buddhist gems of wisdom so we can apply them to our lives.

Not the Same or Different

The topic of this particular talk was intended to be on duality versus non duality in understanding birth and death.  It was an examination of this idea many of us cling to of birth and death, of being and nonbeing, of coming and going, and of same or different.  It doesn't matter what contrasting opposites we bring up  so we can examine them we will  realize...they are neither the same or different.  In fact, we cannot have one without the other.

Take a piece of paper and attempt to rip the left side off because all you want is right.  What happens? You have a more narrow piece of paper, but do you still have a left side to that paper? You cannot have one without the other...they make up the wholeness of what is.

Celebrating Birth; Avoiding Death

We can take this understanding of duality into our understanding of birth and death .  We anticipate, celebrate  rejoice when a baby is about to be born but we avoid, push away and refuse to deal with (until we absolutely have to) this idea of death? We are so afraid of that ending. It seems to be such a contrast to birth...one is "good", one is "bad".

We see our lives having a beginning and end.  We see ourselves as having a being and a non being.  When we are born we believe we are coming  into being and when we die  and  cease to be....we are going somewhere or nowhere. When we are born and alive we are here.  When we die we are nowhere. When we are alive we are something because we and others can see, hear, touch us...but when we die  we are  nothing. Or so our belief goes.  These are the things we tell ourselves.

Are they the truth?

Don't be Too Sure

And this is where the other teachings come into play. Are you sure that is the case?  Do you know any something in this universe that becomes a nothing?  Think bout that, as Br Phap Dung encourages these scientists to do.

You might say "Ice is a something that becomes a nothing in the spring."  Think about that. 

Yes ice melts in the spring, just like our bodies die when the time comes under certain conditions.  Ice melts when the conditions are right for it to melt...a rise in temperature... but does ice cease to be?  No... it takes the form of water. And what about the water? It eventually evaporates taking the form of  humidity, mist.  Then it becomes a cloud and then it becomes rain again and then when the right conditions present themselves again ( cold temperature) that water will once again appear as ice.


 Ice didn't disappear...it just changed! Your perceptions did not pick up "ice" after it became water but the ice was still there. Ice is still ice. We just give it different names, labels, meaning and limitations with every form it takes....We name it ice, water, humidity, mist, cloud, rain etc etc.  seeing each as separate and "different" from each other. The essence of all those things is, however, does not change ...just the form changes...the energy of that thing moves from one form to another.

Where does ice start and where does it end? Is it coming or going?

So don't be so sure your being will be no being when you die.  Death is just a label we have given the final transformation of the form the being is in.  The being is still there when the body ceases to breathe...just in a different form. Call it what you will...death, passing, croaking or Fred...it is just a concept.  We, however, have not ceased to be.

We will probably never understand where being begins and where it ends and we do not have to. Maybe we can find a little peace in knowing that it is neither coming or going.  It just is!

In Looking At Suffering and Peace

So we can take this understanding, then, back to our notion of suffering.  If we watch our habits we will see that we are constantly trying to avoid the painful and the unpleasant.  We see pain  as so different than peace, pleasure, joy.  We try to rip that piece of the paper away so all we have is the pleasant but all we end up doing is making our life more and more narrow.  We cannot have peace without suffering...they go together.

And no they are not the same, but they are not different either.  They just are.

Hmmm!  That was a lot of learning for one day.

All is well!

Plum Village ( June 2019) The Nature of No Birth and No Death/ Dharma Talk by Br. Phap Dung
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVLvJFrmH_8

Coming to Peace With Pain

One of the essential requirements for true spiritual growth and deep personal transformation is coming to peace with pain.
Michael Singer, the untethered soul, page 99

Happy Easter Everyone! 

It doesn't matter if we identify as Christian or not ...Easter offers a wonderful reminder to all of us  of the importance of healing and waking up to a greater truth. Beyond suffering there is the Kingdom of God. " Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand."(Matthew 3: 2)

The Kingdom Within

Now I look at that a little differently than I did in my catechism years. "Repent",  I now see as meaning "Wakeup...notice what you have done, see the errors of your action, your thinking, your speech.  Choose differently."

The Kingdom of Heaven, I believe, is not something we have allotted to some unseen but designated location "out there" or in the future.  It isn't necessarily "up there" either. It isn't far away.  It is "at hand". Meaning It is right here, right now.   We just have to wake up to it.   

We can't see it because of our way of perceiving and thinking in this world that keeps us from experience our connection with  God in our present moment. When we don't experience this, we remain in pain.

Stuck in Pain

We don't like pain!  We tend to avoid it, stuff it, push it away at all costs.  We are desperate.  So we grasp, cling, strive, seek to control the world around us so it doesn't cause more pain.  We try to "fix" this present moment...to make it something other than it is.  We use it to fall back into past pleasant moments.  We get lost in our memories and we do what we can to recapture them.  Or we use the present moment  as a stepping stone to skip ahead into the future where we convince ourselves...some form of Heaven will be. We seldom settle in this moment and open our eyes to the Heaven that is within us.

Why Do We Not Open Our Eyes To Truth?

We are afraid to touch our pain!

Suffering does exist.  Many of us, according to  Brother Phap Luu in Establishing a Buddha Field
and Michael Singer  in the untethered soul have a dagger  or a thorn in our heart, in the form of a past trauma or painful memory we stuff away, cling to and protect so we do not have to "feel it". We end up causing more pain on top of pain with our resistance to what is.

Instead of just facing the pain and allowing it to flow through us, we push it down and lock it away inside of us.  We  close down the parts of us that hold on to this pain. This holding on and locking in forms the knots in our bodies and minds I wrote about the other day.   We may react to or avoid anything in life that may touch this pain, aggravate or remind us of it. 

Yet there are soooo many things that can trigger it.  We really cannot escape pain or its triggers. 

Eventually we realize this and give up trying to run away from it. We will decide we want to do as Christ advised in Matthew, what the Buddha advised in his teachings. We give up trying to find the answers to ending suffering "out there" and instead turn inside.  We decide to "repent" and wake up to the Kingdom of God in this moment.  We decide to envelope ourselves in the Buddha field. (Buddha by the way is just a name for awakening). We seek the Field of Awakening.


Will Not Find a Place Where There is No Pain

In this field, we will not find the end of all pain.  We will simply find the end of the need to push pain away, or  to deny its presence.  Eventually we will see that there is no need to judge , prefer or push away...that all things God offers us can bring peace. With this "Right view", this repenting...we put away our need for "right" from "wrong", "pleasant from unpleasant, worthy from unworthy discriminations and see that all Life offers us, all the moment offers us is worthy of our attention.

  Instead of running from pain, we learn to pay attention to it, to embrace it. From there we see how it is able to provide precious nourishment for our joy and happiness.  We see how our heart opens and the dagger melts so we can offer compassion to other beings. The world around us become a different place.

When you are comfortable with pain passing through you, you will be free...You will then be able to walk through this world more vibrant and alive than ever before.  you will feel everything at a deeper level.  you will begin to have truly beautiful experiences rise up within you. Eventually you will understand that there is an ocean of love behind all this fear and pain...Over time, you will form an intensely personal relationship with this beautiful inner force...Now peace and love will run your life.
(Singer, pg 106-107) 

This state of Love and compassion and joy is Heaven on earth...it is the Buddha Field.

How do we get there?  By turning inside, by accepting all that is, and by embracing our pain with tender hearted compassion for it is the mud that will allow our awakening to grow.

All is well.

 Plum Village (February 2020) Establishing the Buddha Field/ Dharma Talk by Br. Phap Luu.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20CaTQ1fMA

Michael Singer ( 2007) Chapter 11: pain, the price for freedom. the untethered soul. New Harbinger/Noetic Books

Bible Gateway https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+3%3A2%2CMatthew+4%3A17%2CMark+1%3A15&version=ESV

I don't think I can write today in this.  :) It is all good. 

Please have a wonderful Easter weekend.  Remember that Easter is a time of hope and new beginnings!  Stay well and peaceful.

Blast from the past

Forget about being impressive, and commit to being real.
Danielle LaPorte

Working on my web page so I am able to post some yoga videos for my students and anyone that wants them...in hope someone benefits from them.  I had to change the title I have been using though because I realized that it is one frequently used by many studios.  And I thought I was so smart picking that one out lol? So I now call it Mindful Serenity: A Gentle Yoga Practice for Peace of Mind. In the process of registering it as such.

Anyway...I am asking that my ego stay out of the picture as I take on this project.  I notice it judging my videos very harshly because they are not as "perfect" as they should be. I also don't want to feed it with anything I may receive for what I am doing in the form of views or likes or comments.  Do not want that! It takes the ease and the peace away from the experience when ego gets involved.

 I see the same with my poetry as I get it ready for a contest...I am editing , rearranging, judging, cringing when  heck...I know it really isn't mind to judge in the first place...it just came through me.  "Keep it as it is and send it out", is the bit of advice I give myself when I am calm and still.

It is great to "notice" when ego is creeping into the picture. I still grasp at being judged in a favorable way through this poetry and I fear and duck away from the possibility of being judged unfavorably.  Classic human tendency, eh? I want to be Independent of the need for the good opinion of others!(Abraham Maslow).

So I will practice making ego squirm a bit by putting up a far from perfect video I did years ago.  And I will appreciate the fact, that despite its imperfections, I was real  in it...and that is all that matters.

All is well in my world!

https://youtu.be/Dr8ZOQlmMsM


https://youtu.be/pVBUdSAWfDU