Tuesday, April 29, 2008

United Nation's Sabbath Prayer

We join with the earth and with each other

To bring new life to the land
To restore the waters
To refresh the air

We join with the earth and with each other

To renew the forests
To care for the plants
To protect the creatures

We join with the earth and with each other

To celebrate the seas
To rejoice in the sunlight
To sing the songs of the stars

We join with the earth and with each other

To recreate the human community
To promote justice and peace
To remember our children

We join with the earth and with each other

We join together as many and diverse expressions
of one loving memory: for the healing of the earth
and the renewal of all life."

Friday, April 25, 2008

Training Our Heart to Quiet Our Mind

The earth today is filled with increased stress and constant pressure. Our fast-paced world has heightened mental illness since there is less normal balance. Simply we can suffer from greater, illness, injury and tension. However, we can find the eye or I of the hurricane in response to the little everyday problems, noise and increased demands. Our stress is self inflicted and caused by our emotional reactions to events. The key is to change our relationship to these events with a new attitude of “its no big deal or no worries.”

Quieting my mind and listening to my heart is how I have been reframing my stress. Awakening to my heartbeat I can learn how to manage it and reverse the damage stress and worry can cause. I believe the Buddha found found Nirvana this way. Can you picture a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people? If I can step into the consciousness of the heart the more time I can to run the deep with inner peace.

Wise teachers from the beginning of time taught about this power of emotional regulation. Simply focusing on positive feelings such as appreciation, care, or compassion, I can create dramatic changes in my heart rhythms. This process allows me to alter a series of neural, hormonal, and biochemical events. This lessens my stress and anger and leads to my greater well-being. There is a chain of biological changes including lessening blood pressure and stress hormone levels. I can increase my immune system activity, and anti-aging hormones by simply focusing on my heart energy. If I engage with my heart more I align my emotion, body, and mind into balance. Quieting my mind and listening to my heart brings focused clarity, optimal health, and high performance.


For further information check out http://www.heartmath.com/

Happiness Sharing Fun Raising Plan


If you desire the self, get out of the self.
Leave the shallow stream behind and flow into the river deep and wide.
Do not be the ox pulling the wheel of the plow,
Turn with the stars that wheel about you
- Rumi

How can I best create an inspirational path to give my best to the world? Only thing I do know from my life experience, that I so deeply care. Now the wall dividing my material and spiritual world is coming down to become a bridge to transform the ordinary into the sacred. Tapping the web of all things, I wish to discover many connected relationships and harness the emotional power of expressing my artistic potential.

I pray that I can give the best of my creative potential so to help benefit all beings on this earth with greater reverence and gratitude. I hope to further nurture community, family, and weave a dynamic synergy of people with a similar consciousness. By finding some special way to promote an “attitude of gratitude” so invite more people to enjoy the benefits of conserving and preserving. This is about experimenting with various mediums to best make a social statement that a more mindful management of our natural resources is a celebration for our future beings.

My intention is to develop new forms artistic expression since it will liberate me to higher spiritual life. From this meditative practice will merge the parts into one whole while losing the sense of the separate self. Explore a variety of skills building and explore possible mentors or people who have transformed this passion into action. Albert Einstein said, “ Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

What touches my heart with such grace is my gratitude for my world. This takes constant remembering that there many beautiful ways to belong or kneel down and kiss the earth. Awakening from my moments of fear I become blessed when I open myself to my love for all things in this universe. I guess my real delight is challenging myself to explore all the possible ways I can savor my time here and now. Developing reverence for the moment I shift into a magical sense of being held by the earth. This shift from trying to control my outside world now allows me to hear what my soul longs.

Engaging myself to find grace with my world has become my deepest passions. My evolving practice or what I like soften and call play has two basic elements- intention and attention. My intention is to attempt to as many times as I can each day to recite this loving kindness phrase, "May I be of benefit to all being.”

I am a child exploring what are the hidden gifts of life. This requires developing courage to open my heart further with the knowledge that may heart may also become broken. I wish to constantly build my trust in my universe.

My hope is that my art will better uncover my heart that my mind knows little about. Such an inspired act brings my sense of integrity to serve and humility that I am giving voice from something much greater than just myself.

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. - Albert Schweitzer

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Heartfullness

Be the change you wish to see in the world- Gandhi

When I quiet my mind and listen to my heart I tap into greater peace and harmony. Getting out of my head into a more passionate areas provides me a sense of possibilities. Also, I become more grateful increasing my sense of grace and wonder. By seeing both the mystery and sacredness of all things I see past any despair so to find insight of the divine.

If I remember to focus on my heart I can overcome my past unhealthy patterns. My losses, humiliations and other defects just fall away. Becoming more heartfilled I can alter many of my unhelpful habits through practicing positive such feedback rituals as:

*greater awareness * meditative pauses * increased nature time * becoming still


It take tremendous personal effort to overcome my self judgment, shame, guilt. Awakening myself from my self destructive thinking by not identifying myself with these ill thoughts is transformative. Such derisive thinking harms me and my ego becomes further deluded.
My compassion lessens when I think too much. Many times such critical self analysis only sees what is wrong instead of what is right.

When if I cultivate my virtue I shift to finding greater truth. This is when I take inventory of my generous acts and how this brings happiness to others and myself. Such reflection provides me to further make a greater difference. Also this has a ripple effect in spreading compassion to more things. Just the simple act of sending my love out to all things is an amazing exercise and changes my energy field.

When I increase my loving kindness I transform my world. By paying attention to what is of benefit remembering this intention connects instead of separating me.

Cultivating compassion or heartfullness goes back thousands of years practiced by many wise spiritual teachers. For example the Buddha, taught various skillful ways to practice loving kindness. Skillful actions are about both virtue and discernment. The Buddha taught not just the ‘don’ts’ but the “do’s” of such positive standards as sympathy, reliability and genuine helpfulness.

Budhhist skillfullness is not just about avoiding bad consequences but about actively cultivating the good. The practice of brahma-vihara of good will requires close attention to the intentions of ones actions. The development of skillful mental states and purification of intention act to foster good kamma. Such cultivation brings about less remorse and anxiety. Also more virtue results in great joy as the results of increased generosity and acts of kindness. This in turn creates a healthier and more stable mind.

There are many ways we can be more mindfull by becoming more heartfull. This path is essential for us today if we wish to increase peace and joy in our life. Well being is tied to this art of compassion. Heartfullness is a vital treasure that nourishes our soul.