A Virtuous Legacy

I am really inspired by the wonderful legacy that previous generations worked so hard to leave for us. In the spirit of making this world a better place, I want to continue this virtue by passing on to the future the gifts that have blessed me.

 

With the New Year coming, I am filled with amazing gratitude for things so simple yet fantastic, for example, the 3 billion beats of our heart that an average life celebrates. The message I want to gift to the next generations is a sense of wonder, awe and possibility. Once I was preparing to get a financial license to be of greater service. Then I had a revelation that it was Life Assurance, not life insurance, that I wanted to sell! I aspire to foster optimism and new ingenuity for the prospect of making the best of whatever life offers in the future. I want to show how peace and harmony always bring a sense of coming home.

 

Each letter of the word HOME helps me remember some of life's blessings that I want pass on.

 

Humility for knowing that I truly do not know. In my  quest for finding answers to life's mystery, I simply gather more and more questions.

 

Openness to the possibility of seeing something in a truly new way; beyond what I always thought, and new to the core of my heart.

 

Magic shows up everywhere when I pay attention with deep appreciation to the ordinary. And the simple intention to be of benefit or service allows magic to happen. 

 

Enthusiasm for all things.  Find the water in the desert. Find what is juicy beneath the dry and worn out.  This is where I enrich my well-being and expand to new frontier of awareness. Cherish all things and show reverence of even the difficult dark stuff. Being gentle with myself is my quest and lifelong challenge

After I leave this world to join the ancestors, may my legacy be the flight of a hawk, not a bulldozer building a parking lot. May I show thanks for the divine guidance that has come from my ancestors: to bestow kind and selfless acts. May this compassion and empathy expand and ripple outward just as a stone does when it is thrown in a still pond, spreading joy and well-being.

 

The key legacy is that I live in greater harmony, to focus on greater service. Have I been humble and generous?  Have I been open to new adventure and experience?  Have I shared my magic with all things?  And finally how has my enthusiasm created new ripples to inspire and benefit others? This quest best leads me home:  where my heart gently beats to celebrate my sacred time on this earth.

 

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.  They must be felt with the heart.  - Helen Keller

Centering

Centering is an exercise of maintaining awareness in every moment.  To gather and consolidate energy is much more beneficial than scattering it. Centering involves focus and being present in each second. When I climb up a ladder, I understand why it is important to be aware of each centered step. Simple things like riding a bicycle or driving a car are examples of why it is important to be mindful and centered. Bringing a focus to my physical reality, with a keen awareness on how my body feels in the “now” expands my potential for experience. I actually become aware of a new level of happiness and vitality in the "here". Like in the eye of a hurricane, relax and find stillness in the middle.
 

Such a simple practice of checking into my body gives me the opportunity to listen to the beat of my heart - listening at a core level. It allows me to just "be", getting me out of my head with its distracting thoughts and judgments. Beneath the mind chatter, this practice uncovers a deeper perspective on the greater self. Now I am beyond my emotional stories and the concepts that imprison me. Perhaps paradoxically, I can better observe what is happening around me and make fewer premature judgments about my present experience.

Where is The Center: the core; the heart; and the body?

What becomes centered:  Awareness and energy?

Experiment with centering by first getting yourself in a comfortable sitting posture. Next draw your attention into your body. Watch how your lungs fill up with air and then how you exhale. How does the air touch your nose or mouth? Feel how your bottom connects with the chair, your feet with the floor. Explore by taking a quick body-scan. Feel the heat or tingling of your skin. Notice how you can relax your muscles, mind, and bones when you are more sensitive to bodily sensations. Observe what happens when you pay attention to your physical senses how they arise and fall away.

As you focus on these bodily qualities, become curious about them, but not in a heady way. Be curious in the realm of textures, temperatures, and the quality of feeling (e.g. tired, restless, energetic, nervous, and pulsating). What is happening now in your body? Then wait several minutes and see if what was happening is still happening in the same way. Centering always brings you back to core body sensations. Do they change much or just shift slightly? Is there a kind of easing or opening, a sense of being firmly grounded?

The power of centering comes when you shift from your head to your body, as you give it interested, friendly attention. Reframe what is going on beyond emotions. Invite yourself to become playful and fully explore all aspects of your body.

Bring a creative quality to this exercise. Does your stomach make noises?  Have you changed your breathing? Can you open, and soften so as to release any tension in your body? Does relaxing help you find a better center? See the body as like a changing weather system.

Let go and relax: just observe your center without resistance. Release tension by softening the muscles, from your feet, ankles, calves, knees, hamstrings, stomach, back, shoulders, throat, jaw, mouth, eyes, and scalp. Feel all these parts wake up as you become present to them.  Awaken yourself to your own relaxed center. Be, breathe, and enjoy!

Attitude of Gratitude

Every day let’s celebrate with Thanksgiving.   It is always a wonderful time to count our blessings. Appreciation constantly gives us the gift to cherish we are alive.  Generosity and kindness are the virtuous acts that will arise out of this thankful mind set.  Such gratitude may open new doors of possibility and divine relationship with all things.

Thanksgiving fosters peace and grace with all things evident of this altruistic spirit. We live in a critical time where generosity greatly matters. By giving, we both awaken and liberate ourselves. When we hold on to things too long this causes a painful form of separation. By becoming more mindful of how we take things, we can better return things and thus benefit from a achieving a higher level of freedom. Such responsible action comes from being humble and observing our ultimate interconnection with our mysterious world.

It's incredible that 67 million years ago trees, flowers, birds, bees and other things came into being.  Just 6 million years ago the first American migrated here. When whites came here at Jamestown, Virginia, Arthur Barlow remarked of the Poona's: "A more kind and loving people cannot be found in the world."

My ancestry dates back to the first born off the Mayflower. And this is doubtless why I believe thanksgiving is every day. We all ought to constantly count our blessings. The Iroquois celebrate their appreciation of this earth for days at a time, showing gratitude for all aspects of nature. Today we can share these wise earth teachings if we pay our respects to what we are so fortunate to have.

Each one of us can widen our collective circle of connection and love.  Now we have an opportunity to magnify our thanks by showing our boundless possibilities of compassion. If only we make this intention and take the time to show our gratitude.

Let us foster pure hearts, and act to make wise choices. Let's celebrate our Thanksgiving with plentiful kind and generous acts. There is divine radiance when we salvage things instead of destroying them. Giving back is the ultimate way of blessing ourselves, thanking our surroundings and feeling good about our life.

Earth Heart Intention

Earth Heart celebrates the unification of our body and spirit.  We all share, come from and return to, the earth.   Also we all are connected by a common thread of these earth elements: air, fire, and water.  We are one and the same with all things in this world. Everything is made up of earth including our flesh; bones, blood, organs and skin are comprised of these shared elements.

Awakening that our heart and the earth are tied together unifies and liberates us.  Seeing the interconnection that goes beyond the surface is an amazing extension of community.  Love and understanding enters greatly in this cosmic realization.  Such inner being is the portal to oneness and all being.  This is the highest level of consciousness; seeing the unity of all things.

Just as a tree nourishes us we nourish it with the air we breathe and the oxygen trees return to us.  All natural cycles balance life sustaining properties to sustain this world. All things we smell, taste, touch, hear, and feel connect some how in some way . For example all living things rely on water as does, carbon and other common elements.

Awareness equates with well-being, just as love of the planet elevates our consciousness.  Our collective heart guides us to the truth of our mutual connections.  Awakening to our common relationship with all things, comes through devoted contemplation.  Also stillness and a profound listening amplify this meditation.  This revelation for life frees us to fully see the universal spider’s web weaving together all beings and our greater oneness. 

There is universal collective exchange of love, light and nourishment.  Awakening to our greater truth allows us to fully arrive to our everlasting home, free and clear as the night sky.  There is no accident that both earth and heart share exactly the same letters.

Earth Heart Poem

May I see my greater connection where nothing is separate

May I listen to stillness and a profound form of hereness, fully present

May I observe the sacred bonds since all things are gratefully shared

May I know how all things are filled with air, fire, water, earth intermingling

May I contemplate on how my body and the world act in unity.

May I see that even things without life have a soul connection

May I behold how we all are related and share the same things

May we find our common bonds tied to a universal home

May we explore the deeper truth of our deepest origins

May we understand how we emulate nature and it emulates us.

May we harmonize our inner being with the greater all beings

May we give thanks and forgiveness to observe not judge

May we gather together to celebrate our common unity

May we be liberated, may we be free and clear

Creating Greater Heart Space

When I remember to act more friendly and loving-kind I deeply enrich my present experience.  Also this increases my compassion and gratitude to best show up to bring greater joy to my world.  Giving a thankful attitude “may I be filled with peace, joy or love.” I  help myself, loved ones, and all things with a spirit of light.  The more I can offer the following prayers “may I be happy, free and relaxed” the greater my heart expands. Offering any expression of loving presence helps me feel less separate or afraid.

When I adopt this mind-set of friendliness based on benefiting the greater good I reinforce an inner positive feedback loop. Cultivating this warm hearted feeling of fellowship, empathy and compassion I overcome my negative mind states. This liberates me with a all-embracing friendliness of unconditional love for all things. Also I heal a dark part of me that feels isolated and disconnected.

Treating all beings with this sacred attention activates my greater and highest self.  Bringing attention to this intention I find it benefits me, others and my environment.  Such loving kindness enhances my greater welfare since we are all interconnected to all things bringing us abundant, deep and intense peace and happiness.

This shift elevating my consciousness gives me from me greater possibilities and insight. Remembering to practice this in my daily meditation allows me to develop this greater heart space where profound wisdom emerges.  This practice of greeting things as part of my greater self with universal love heals both me and others.  Creating a greater heart spaces gives me joy, peace and greater freedom. Instead of being a victim I transform my curses with an appreciative light of  awareness.  May I and we enjoy the benefits to waking up to simple joys of the here and now. 

Adapted from Buddha's Words on Kindness (Metta Sutta)*

May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;

Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!
Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all things:
Radiating kindness over the entire world,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.

The Greater Connection- We all Connected

"When we try to pick anything out by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." -  John Muir

Have you ever observed how all things are woven together and share common bonds? Nothing in this world is separate.  Everything is somehow tied together. Truly we are all interdependent or connected by many strands of chemical, biological, and psychological common denominators.   Observe how carbon, oxygen, and other essentials chemicals make up the shared building blocks of what sustains us.  Such an exploration reveals how we all are interconnected.  

Various truths come up from this inquiry.  First we are not separate selves. Second that all things are transient and finally everything is somehow tied to everything else.  We all share this mutual connection here and now.  The challenge is to see how these strands interface.  We merge as a greater collective organism, bonded by mutual interlocking elements that give us life.  Even the non-living elements are essential ingredients to support our life cycles.  Rocks, soil, and other elements make up this wonderful spider’s web we all reside in.

The very basis of all our relationships is that we are interrelated.  Everything is I am related with. Seeing the nature of all our relationships directly ties us closer together.  For example, all of life depends upon and inter-changes water.  The water cycle like the carbon cycle further extends our amazing shared time here on this terra firma.

When I see how we all are so inter –connected this insight leads me to a greater joy.  By illuminating this truth of oneness I find a new tremendous devotion.  This provides me greater courage to overcome the numerous obstacles and fears. Also I relate to how all things are sacred since there is whole not just a sum of the parts.  Accepting this truth I better understand what hinders me to allow greater freedom to go beyond my delusion.

Beholding my greater connection allows me to delight in this fantastic cosmic mystery.  With mirth and curiosity I better make the connections to all facets of my life, family, friends, and extended network of fellow beings.  Wisdom, humility and courage emerge from this discovery of my greater connections. This new light beacons my travels upon the darks seas of new possibilities? May I become the actor not reactor to show by example how we are not separate.  Heraclitus over 2600 years ago wisely stated, “All things come out of the one and the one out of all things.”

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty- John Muir

Awe’s Earth Heart Quest

There was once a little Asian girl named Awe Tzu, whose name meant Grace. 

She lived alone with her sickly mother.

Since she was very young, Awe had learned to use everything they had. 

It was no accident that the letters in Awe's name spelled AwakenWithEarth, because she loved to roll and play in the dirt and even sleep on the bare ground.

Food was scarce.

One day Awe was very hungry and could not find any food. 

She was afraid to go out to the nearby forest alone. 

Then she saw three eagles chasing each other in a heart-shaped circle in the sky, and her fear became transformed into courage. 

.

Then when Awe went into the forest, she noticed how her heart expanded and she began to feel great comfort and safety.

  

It was as if her mother was holding her up.

While walking the pine needle path she was approached by a very old man picking up herbs.

He greeted Awe, saying that his name was Lao Chi, which meant Wise Energy.

Lao Chi said to Awe, "All great things come from the Earth and from the heart."

He shared with Awe the herbs, greens, and mushrooms he had collected.

Awe shared with him her tears of joy, and her eyes sparkled.

From then on, she would go outside her village to find food in the forest, thanks to Lao Chi's help.

Awe took care of her mother by getting her food, and now she wished to show care for the earth for giving her that food and comfort. 

One day when she found some wild strawberries, she wanted to show her thanks.

 

She noticed that when the wild berry was pulled in half it looked like a heart.

Contemplating this idea, she was filled with the wonder of a devoted heart.

Sharing the experience of many wise Masters, her heart was awakened by the Earth.

So when she finished eating the wild strawberry, she thanked the plant for the beautiful idea it had given her.

She invented a game she called "CaringForMa."

Since this is what she was doing already for her mother, she wished to extend this thought to all things that touched her heart.

In this game everything is connected and has great value.

CaringForMa was about awakening the heart by loving the Earth.

Every day, when Awe returned from the woods, the villagers would see how radiant Awe had become.

The more Awe played her game, the more luminous she became. 

It was as if Awe was turning into a human light bulb.

One day the Queen of this region was passing through the village.

Awe was just returning from the woods with her bountiful gifts from Nature.

The Queen and Awe encountered each other.

The Queen was stunned by the twinkle shining out of Awe's eyes.

The Queen said, "I have never seen any person's eyes sparkle the way yours shine. Their light is greater than my diamonds and they twinkle more brightly than the stars at night."

 

How can this be? Where do you go and what have you been doing?

Awe paused and gently responded, "I go into those woods there, and when I search for food I play a game I made up called "CaringForMa."

The Queen said, "I wish to take you to my husband the King, and his Royal Council, to share the treasure of your eyes and your ways."

Awe entered the King's Council with a delightful smile and radiating beams of light that filled the giant royal courtyard.

Immediately, the entire Council was taken by her luminous energy and loving presence.

The King said, "My wife tells me you have a secret treasure to share with us!"

Awe responded, "Dear King, I know only what I have been blessed to learn in the forest thanks to Lao Chi."

 

Awe shared, "I was afraid to go out to the nearby forest alone.

"Then I saw three eagles chasing each other in a heart-shaped circle in the sky and my fear changed to courage. 

"When I entered the woods, my heart expanded and I felt great comfort and safety. It was like when my mother used to hold me.

"I found food for myself and my mother.

"I show my thanks for this gift by playing a game I made up called CaringForMa."

The King asked, "How is this game CaringForMa played?"

Awe responded, "I learned this game when I bowed before the spider's web, seeing that all things share a web of connections.

"All things are connected with one another in a magical way. 

"I give thanks when I see one form helping another form to live. I show care for the forms with my gratitude.

"So I play, sing, dance, and laugh every time I see a new thing and make a connection with that new friend I have taken into my fellowship. 

"The mushroom on the path I make my uncle. The frog I adopt as my aunt. In CaringForMa, all things are my relatives." 

From the Council, a well-dressed Advisor spoke,

Awe immediately recognized it was Lao Chi.

"Awe, I find all sorts of herbs for food and medicine from the woods, and now you have given us an amazing remedy.

"Many hearts in this land have been starved and broken.

"Your game CaringForMa is a remedy to restore the spirit and stimulate the heart.

"The diamond light shining out of your eyes has given me a tremendous insight.

"Your loving kind vision of three eagles chasing each other in a heart-shaped circle in the sky did this.

"Our Earth is our heart and our heart is the Earth."

Then the King proclaimed, "May all the people in this land celebrate and learn to play CaringForMa. Let us rejoice in the way all things are connected!

"May loving kindness cure our broken hearts and may we cherish our land by showing caring and thanks!"

Magically once again, Awe saw above in the sky three eagles chasing each other in a heart-shaped circle.