Our Earth is Our Heart

Paying Attention to 3R's

2011-09-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

Radical higher care happens when you apply the 3’R’s - Relax, Reframe and Rejoice!

Relax- Let go of expectations, outcome and any need to control

Reframe- Get small so to see what is big. Change your perspective with humility, kindness and patience to see the all sides of whatever comes up. The less it is about the “me” and the more about the “we”, the better. Humbly awaken with a higher or more unified perspective.

Rejoice- celebrate what you can learn. Every moment is a teachable experience to listen, learn and show our gratitude from this experience.

Now there are 5 great ways to feel more alive and well:

1) Be present. Immediately exercise your greatest gift, to simply find joy all that is by just being. Use what you have here and now with creativity and ingenuity. Focus on “newness.”overcoming any greed of “moreness”or arrogance of "otherness".

2) Let go! Begin fresh with nothingness. Everything you need is here. Listen deeply or exercise your “hereness. Less grasping and clinging results in more freeing and being. Unconditional surrender lessens painful circumstances.

3) Balance! Good, and bad go back and forth. All things balance through opposite forces, wealth and poverty to use all the unwanted thing so to awaken out of fears and loves. Accepting what comes us is our life’s challenge

4) Be With. Greet and embrace both disaster and triumph as identical twins. The more can show up to behold our most negative emotions the greater happiness we may discover. Less resistance equates to monumental stress reduction.

5) Heartfelt. Quieting your mind and open yur heart. What has heart and feel the earth. Focus on awakening to treat all things as sacred. People, places and things all interconnect since earth and heart have all exact same letters.

I challenge you to see the benefits of the 3 R's- Relax, Reframe and Rejoice. Being present, letting go, balancing, being with and showing heart compliment the 3'Rs, with greater well being and prosperity!

A New Freedom - LOVE

2011-09-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

When I remember this moment I celebrate a new freedom. A divine heavenly contact with what is happening right now is my greatest form of love. In any given moment I can expand my heart with the intention of loving kindness and so will benefit by paying attention to what matters most. Or I can remain asleep to the suffering and torment I create by feeding my negative emotions. Can I awaken with exercising greater self compassion?

Having the courage to empty myself of the past and future just to celebrate this presence liberates me from my conditioning. This remembrance also gives me new possibility to full accept our situation without resistance or desire. I have the opportunity to rewire my primal negative response to see a more positive outlook of what is right instead of what is wrong.

Such a state of being shifts my separateness into a oneness to see the interconnection of all things. This process allows greater light is to shine within me. Also this unlocks me from the emotional story that imprisons me so much of my life. I fully awakened when I allow my body sensations to ground me to the “here and now.” Also this allows me to experience my highest truth. As saying goes, “the past is history, the future is a mystery, that is why they call the present a gift.”

So love means to engage with a new momentum all those virtues that benefit you to empty myself by Listening, Observing, Valuing and Enjoying whatever presents itself. Whatever cards are dealt to me, work with not against your hand.

Listening is about hearing at a deep level by pausing and becoming still. I can best awaken by unifying not defying my experience. Listening requires a profound letting go of becoming to just be. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, just see what is true from a new, fresh perspective of what arises and falls in now. Experience the dawn of what arises out of darkness. What will this new sunrise look like since no two are the identical. This leads me to observing.

Observing is the radical act of not judging but seeing from different eyes. What is this experience about? Regardless if it is positive, negative or neutral such inquiry is about being a witness to the mystery. As I observe I find all dreams are real. Hidden in this story I can become more whole by seeing when how I fragment when I judge. Once I get out of this ego feeding behavior I can evolve to a higher awareness of what really is happening, free of rationalizations and other defense mechanisms. Observing is an offensive mechanism to unite me in a higher state of consciousness.

This leads me to what I value or cherish as a sacred or divine. What we deeply value will transform our wants to psychic needs; such transcendence distinguishes us from our primal ape brain to one that sees the unity of all things. Values cultivate virtues which heighten the awareness. This ascension for what we deeply value allowing us to relinquish the drama of wants and desires we have to a self actualization of what really most matters. Observing shifts me to value that I may let go of manifesting results to the act of enjoying whatever presents itself.

Enjoying is simply engaging joy. What brings me the greatest light, love and possibility? Material things may bring me joy for a short time but what deeply sustains me? True enjoyment touch the very core of my being with a sense of peace, harmony. Enjoyment happens when I merge as one or awaken to see my greater connection. Looking into a star filled sky or watching the waves greet the beach are a few of the billions of ways we may enjoy. Beyond the pleasure we become joy by willing to be in that moment with all that is.

LOVE is the ultimate arrival. It is not the journey, however, a process of letting go to what constricts me and allowing my full expanded self. This is freedom to LOVE (Listen, Observe, Value, and Enjoy) may way to be liberated.
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Despacho

2011-08-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

As Hurricane Irene approaches Virginia, I make my blessings to all things. Water, wind and changing weather is symbolic of the living energy that both sustains and changes us. When I show reverence for all things, amazing things happen. Aligning myself with wise earth teachings I touch profoundly what has heart and meaning.

I have recently learned of a wonderful ritual that honors all things called Despacho. This is ancient Peruvian ceremony pays sacred tribute to sending and receiving Earth prayers. This ritual creates a union of our mind, body and spirit as we show our gratitude to our interconnection with all things.

In a Despacho ceremony participants offer their gratitude to Pachamama (Mother Earth) and the Apus (Mountain Spirits). Attendees place prayers of gratitude in their offering. These prayers are then "dispatched" to the Guides and Spirits when the offering is burned or buried by the shaman or ritual leader. This ritual calls bridges the " Seen " with the " Unseen " in order to open to expand awareness and possibility.

This ritual establishes a link between the physical universe, our personal power, our source of our love and wisdom. During this despacho it allows us to transcend our literal and symbolic domains. As we express our appreciation in very beautiful offering bundle. A sequence of items are placed on a flat surface, each representing the dedication of some aspect of life, back to the wholeness. The process itself is an opportunity to reflect for all who participate. As the ceremony progresses, all involved form “kintus”, little groups of three leaves, and, with their own breath, place their prayers and offerings into these, and then add them to the ceremonial bundle.

The despacho gives respect and creates communion with our beloved world. Pachamama, or Mother nature for the closely connected to the group. Inti Tayta, the Sun or the powers of Light,and the guides or guardians of the spirit world who help and provide for the community, the family, the individual person.

Also, these ceremonies may be offered to communicate a specific need: a healing; assistance or other challenging circumstances. Very often a despacho is made for right relationship – among individuals, communities, families, or between man and Nature. The Quechua term is “Ayni”, so this is an “ayni despacho.”

In closing I wish to observe those unrecognized beings that sustain us. It has been recently estimated that roughly 8.7 million living species are life support systems that produces the planet’s air, water, and food. We know next to nothing about 99 percent of those unique species except that many of them are going extinct. May we bow to these beings that bring us life and pray for their survival.

Taking the Greatest Care

2011-08-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

Our deepest fear is that we not inadequate. Our deepest fear is we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. - Marrianne Williamson.

My greatest life challenge is to how to see things as they are so to best take care of myself. There are so many ways I take care of others while I may neglect my very self. Also if I become too excessive and selfish then I become isolated and alone. My freedom is based on more heartfelt to self caring and so I can best be service. The question arises is how to a best balance these two differing scales of being kind to others while also being kind to me?

Understanding how I can best show up versus checking out is what my freedom requires. To fully expand my heart is in question.

My life consists of many patterns and habits. One pattern is I give to much away since I have a worthiness issues. Also I can easily spiral downward when I do not create good boundaries. My inner critic becomes amplified and my shortcomings become I have the opportunity to change my perspective or foster a new attitude. ..

What an invaluable exercise when I get beyond the story of the self. However it is not easy to ignore it, become preoccupied or too busy to cultivate another. My life becomes better aligned when I get out of the deprecating self to a more caring one.

How can I can overcome what I think my sense of the unacceptable allowing me to become more free? To venture in those difficult places can liberate me from the ghosts that haunt me from my past blunders. If I practice forgiveness we gain stimulate increased happiness.

When I remember of my habit of not self caring that I can lessen my suffering. Also this challenges me to embrace the mystery and accept what is happening. What this calls for me is a profound listening to what is true. When I reconnect with my authentic being I find the courage to get out of my habitual roles and the comfort of the familiar. When I shift my “I” identity to welcome the “we” from the ego self I change my own experience.

Remembering to have courage and trust is critical for me in this loving-friendly adventure to see how I can face myself doubt. What patterns can I change and which ones do I accept? Where is the wisdom for this change? Finding support to accept what is and change what I can has bountiful rewards.

By cultivating a greater compassion I can show up and accept thus empowering me to overcome my self-destructive patterns. When I awakened to free myself from my taking care of everyone instead of myself I cultivate the most inclusive and holistic love.

As I increase my self compassion I also increase my courage to act with greater kindness, love and wisdom. Self care takes care so that we can act with the greater reverence in all our life experiences.

So why is caring for the divine self so challenging? It takes self care to fully behold this precious world!

Champ’s Tribute- Grace, Optimism and Devotion

2011-08-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”-Rumi

Have you ever won a perfect set? Well Pauline Betz Addie, aka Champ, gave me the confidence to make this once happen. We shared a perfect love set or 24 straight points. Also we shared a the other type of love off the court. Pauline’s game in life was all about excellence. Through focus, practice and preparation she freely excelled herself. Graceful, Optimistic and Devoted were the divine or GOD virtues she bestowed.

Pauline had boundless physical and mental grace. Her ensuing kindness, gentleness and humility complimented her physical poise. Whenever I wish to visualize championship form I would just emulate Pauline’s grace. When things get bad I recall how Pauline would transmute the situation into looking how I can benefit from such difficulty. Finally her devotion to excellence inspired me greater to purposefulness to find explore my divine potential.

Pauline was my beloved friend, teacher, employer, and partner. She gave me the courage to be the beauty I loved by her very presence. We shared a devoted friendship for forty years. She demonstrated to me not for the importance of outcome but the value of a developing the grace of process- cultivating keen concentration.

My greatest fear always has been not using my full potential. Pauline was my Zen Master teaching me the art of living. She showed little distinction between her work and play. Her labor was her leisure. Uniting her mind with her body, her education was her recreation. Pauline’s love and her spirit you could hardly tell which from which. She tapped into excellence in whatever she pursued. All her life you could never tell whether she was working or playing

Pauline was the ultimate optimistic. She always said to me “you never know what bad is” and always made the best out what was given to her. Maybe that is why she so enjoyed playing duplicated bridge transforming bad cards into winning hands. Always she would see good or the silver lining. Her gift was she would transform sow’s ear into a silk purse with whatever presented her. We would go on many a Florida golf trip and laugh and after I would make some horrendous shot and she would always share some positive comment.

Pauline was devoted to so many things. She cared deeply about others and her world. She was always helping those less fortunate either giving them work or loaning them money. When she was given a hotel room she would share it with many other players and even give up the bed and sleep on the floor. She would worked with me at soap kitchens or help me in so many ways. Pauline would recall how she waited tables two days after and worked spooning corn on customer’s plates after winning her first U.S. Forest Hills Title. She was a wholehearted tennis instructor. She loved teaching so much when she came on vacation to visit me in Florida she ended up help teaching my lessons for me.

Her life was filled with both prosperity and setbacks. Pauline enjoyed some of tennis greatest feats while in the last years of her life some of the greatest perils. She exemplified boundless possibility and astounding freedom.Through practice and preparation to what has heart and meaning death comes not as defeat but a triumph to a glorious life. Yes she embodied the If quote as you walk through the doors on Center Court of Wimbledon, “If I can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same.” Her entire life was based on this theme of taking whatever adversity or honors came her way with evenness and balance. I once joke with her in her 70’s when she was dating Washington most prominent businessman does this mean she was going to stop mopping the courts up with towels when it rained. Of course she did not.

She only cared about being free to excel in new experiences whether it was a late night balancing of the tennis facility books or when she could change the spark plugs on her VW bug. Whether it was, bridge, ping pong, golf, piano, flute, tax preparation, accounting or whatever she endeavored here was a chance for her to compete with herself. She learned it was not so much about overcoming her opponent yet how she could reach her fullest potential.

When I was developing her timeline for the Pauline Betz Addie Center I asked her what was your best match. With her usual grace she responded her 1945 Forest Hills Final loss to Sarah Palfrey Cook. “ I played my best match ever. Sarah was such a terrific and so under rated player who never fully recognized for her incredible talent”. How many champions would give a lost as their best match ever?

Years ago Pauline shared with me that when she was at her highest point of tennis achievement it was a dark and lonely time.

Pauline lead a life just like Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Her speed made her a champion and she was outcast by the flock. She loved to teach beginners and blaze a different trail.

“And the more Jonathan practiced his kindness lessons, and the more he worked the nature of love, the more he wanted to go back the Earth. For in spite of his lonely past, Jonathan Seagull was born as an instructor and he his own way of demonstrating love was to give something of truth that he had seen to a gull who asked only a chance to see truth for himself” .

…”If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then we have finally overcome space and time, we have destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don’t you think we might see each other once or twice?”

Pauline exemplified grace, optimism and devotion. Like Jonathan Livingston Seagull her friends and students CAN FLY! Once in 1943 Tri-State Championship finals Pauline won a perfect love match, no point lost. Yes a perfect love match is freedom. Now whatever stands between our very liberation may be overcome. I believe what Pauline sought both in life and death is what frees us.

Pauline’s death serves to liberate me to what life is all about . What brings you grace, optimism and devotion? Do these virtues free you with a greater sense of possibility? With grace, optimism and devotion I am awakened by Pauline’s death and will always cherish how she exemplified the same liberation during her tribulations and triumphs.

Compassionate Insight

2011-06-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

“Only from the heart Can you touch the sky”- Rumi

Rumi is one the best poets who describes love in so many inspiring ways. For example, “let the beauty you love be who you are.” When I look at what deeply touches me it is comes from a heartfelt experience. Also many times I find the reverence beholding each moment as a gift and embracing the wonder of what may possibly arise. This loving friendly mood becomes unifying where I shift out of my ego self into a more emerging sense of oneness. Whether it is taking in of billions of stars late at night or the fellowship of a few close friends speaking about our common shared difficult emotions.

Love is frequently associated with an attachment in diverse emotional, attitudinal, and other feeling states that may cause attraction and other pleasurable senses. Such senses can result in sexual desires, romantic, familial or oneness feelings. Defining these emotional states is challenging and such deeper passion creates a sense of togetherness.

However more profound love transforms my sense of individual self into a more collective consciousness. Compassion may be received or cultivate these feelings of belonging and/or being apart. The type of love I refer to is one that does not separate or creates longing but a state of being held and beholding. Not a form of compassion that is tied or has any possessive qualities yet a state of mind free of expectations or outcome.

Love is an unconditional surrender to the mystery. My insight is comes from the freedom of willingly accepting to be with whatever shows up with compassionate acts of letting go and fully being.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” -Rumi

Deal With a Full Deck

2011-04-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

Isn’t this the greatest country? Where else in the world could you get dressed up as a fool and bomb (non violently) on the U.S. Capitol steps with bad jokes? 25 years ago, on April Fool’s Day, I visited my Congresswoman, Connie Morella, dressed up in a court jester costume. As Ray Cycle, I stood on the Capitol steps and proclaimed, "You’re not dealing with a full deck when you throw out the joker out! Recycle Our Nation’s Capital." American you are still so fuelish, Why not lessen our gas guzzling ways and proclaim energy efficiency?

For over 30 years, I have coped with working for the environment in a bureaucratic environment through random and deliberate small acts of humor. When I get too serious, I prefer to laugh rather than cry. I see the difference between a comedy and a tragedy as subtle, but significant-- we can learn from comedy rather than perpetuating a tragic fate. This is why I take refuge in our refuse.

Three decades ago while working at the D.C. Energy Office, I came up with the character of Ray Cycle. My plan was to entertain and promote the value of saving, conservation, thrift—simple good housekeeping. What could be more conservative? Some kids had pictures of baseball players as icons when they were growing up; I had a picture of a crying Indian lamenting the rape of the land. Now, I share the trademarked character of Ray Cycle with the State of Connecticut. Their Ray is a Super Hero; my Ray is just your American joker.

You see, Ray Cycle is always going around being "insightful and mindful". If waste becomes "out of sight and of mind" then the insanity of our blindness impacts future generations. After all, one used oil change improperly disposed of impacts the water supply of fifty people over a period of one year. If you dump it you may have to drink it since what goes around comes around.

Today I will observe that I am a comic not tragic person. Arise rather than fall in love. Let’s transform our waste making by saving our cards for future hands. We have a choice between tragic hard work or comic heart work. Let the humor you love be who you are. Please deal with a full deck. There are thousands of ways to bless ourselves and this earth. Our journey begins with a single awakening laugh.

Cultivating Virtues from My Vices *

2011-03-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

At any present moment I can reframe my vices into virtues. If my mind can be filled with up to three quarters of negative thoughts, then I can transform my curses into blessings. Remembering to use many of the amazing “re” prefix such as “re-defining” is the key—a transformative one—to enter my world of virtue. Better than the three Rs in learning are three Re’s to best go forth with Relax, Reframe, and Rejoice.

I must remember “relax” so that I can exercise my full potential to be here and now. Relaxing with an intentional pause, or simply slowing down, lights my way. Once I lessen my stress, I can expand that other one quarter of my thoughts in positive white light by reframing my vices. Being mindful and remembering, I can rejoice a loving and kind intention that celebrates my whole being. It is only when I pay close attention to my own intention of virtue in relaxing, reframing and rejoicing, will I experience greater freedom from my vices.

Translating Another Five “Re”Words Into Deeds
Complimenting the three Re’s (Relax, Reframe, Rejoice) are another 5 Re’s that help in overcoming my vices and best actualizing my virtues.
Reword in order to speak with virtue. Re-teach the present teachable moment. Re-set clear boundaries. Re-honor through virtuous application. Re-solve by companioning with unity.

• Re-word and empower your virtue by reframing the language of discouragement into encouragement. Acknowledge, guide, correct and be grateful. Speak virtuously.
• Re-teach what is right instead of what is wrong in the present teachable moment.
• Re-set clear boundaries in order to differentiate the subject from the object, the observer from the judges. Reset boundaries.
• Re-honor by integrating virtue in all things through ART: Assertiveness, Respect and Trust. Re-honor by virtuous application.
• Re-solve by offering companionship with compassion and detachment. Understanding and caring can, at any moment, increase your own well being through detachment from negative emotions and cultivation of positive virtue. Re-solve by companioning with unity.

Re-wording can transform language that discourages into language that encourages. In the moment I can empower myself to truly respond, or I can deplete myself and react. Using virtue, I acknowledge, guide, identify needs, correct and thank--thus awakening the best qualities in myself. By changing my language I can perceive a shipwreck as a dream cruise. By diminishing my reactive language, I can increase my own joy. The key to doing that is to virtuously speak. By simply changing places from the judge to the observer, I can truly discern; by willing my inner critic to be my inner creator, and I benefit by becoming stronger, more powerful and more capable. By attributing positive power to my inner language, I transform the world around me. Re-word so to virtuously speak.

Re-teach that every moment offers me the opportunity to grow and learn. There is no greater way to access my full potential than to experience the virtue of peaceful mindfulness in the now. First, acknowledge the gift of being in the moment; second, correct any distraction through focus on the thoughts, words and actions in the present; and third, be grateful for the space to be in the now. Re-teach the present teachable moments.

I create a safe place and Re-set clear boundaries through asserting purity and order. This enables me to keep unwholesome words, thoughts and feeling outside the boundaries. My inner picture is of a safe haven wherein I find love and respect. This gives me a peaceful sense of well-being. Re-setting defined boundaries.

Each new breath invites me to mindfully Re-honor myself with the spirit of virtue in assertion, respect and trust. I strive to assert what is right and true for me in this moment. I recognize my reverence for all beings and all things. I trust in the possibility of what is to come, and I bring my full potential to that which will be. In doing so, I can counter doubt with determination and confidence. Re-honor the spirit of the virtues

Re-solve by offering companionship as I deepen my meditation to alter my vices. I see how all things are interrelated when I reach this point of compassionate detachment. As I deepen my concentration, I develop a profound sense of caring presence. Such understanding heightens my serenity. I empower my senses to become fully aware of what is happening.
When, I invite profound listening and silence in order to be fully receptive and show up to whatever arises, I go to the heart of what is happening. When I have fully emptied myself, this empty container can accept and receive without any judgment.

Further exploration as to all possible open-ended questions helps me best empathize and integrate my situation. What are my feelings, my sensations, my perceptions and other states to focus on?

I reflect on the virtuous answers in response to my feelings. This allows me to find closure and integrate my feelings and thoughts. Finally I acknowledge my virtues with a mirroring statement of affirmation. Re-solve offering companioning with unity.

Being relaxed revitalizes my well being by detaching me from negative emotions and so to cultivate greater virtue. Acknowledging, I reframe and correct my vices in any given moment resulting in an attitude of gratitude. Reflecting upon my virtues is a joyful activity that stimulates me to rejoice. For example when I seek joy rather than desire, I rejoice.
A deep focus on the here and now in the consciousness of virtues shifts me from being identified with my negative thoughts and vices. One scientist estimated that three quarters of our thoughts are unwholesome. For example, reflecting on enthusiasm, unity and the bountiful other virtues, I become free of my negative thoughts. Restlessness gives way to deep peacefulness.

In more difficult times, I may recite virtuous statements of aspirations to overcome adversity. Just saying “May I be filled with peace, love and unity,” or “May I celebrate harmony, possibility and purposefulness” gives me renewed confidence.

There are endless possibilities for me to apply the virtues whether walking, standing, speaking, or lying down. I commit myself to diligence and use of these gifts of character.
Relaxing, reframing and rejoicing allows me to open new doors to growth and learning. There is no greater way to access your full potential then to experience the present virtue of these 3 Re’s. First, acknowledge that any gift of relaxing enables you to best remain present in this moment. Next, I can correct any distraction or sense of being locked out by reframing my inner judge to observe this opportune moment. Finally, I am so grateful for pausing, and remembering my purposefulness. I rejoice to my “now-ness.

The five other strategic Re’s will chart a course of triumph over disaster:
• Re-word so to virtuously speak
• Re-teach the present teachable moment
• Re-set clear boundaries
• Re-honor by integrating virtues; and
• Re-solve by companioning with unity.

ACT with the Re’s. First, I can Acknowledge that relaxing makes more present in this moment. Next, I can Correct any distraction by mindfully reframing these conscious thoughts, words, and actions as they appear. Finally, I can be Thankful for pausing, and rejoice in my “now-ness” and celebrate the loving kindness of this act.

*These words, phrases and ideas were adapted from the Virtues Project™

Liberating My WOW

2011-03-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

If you bring forth what is within in, what is within you will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you- Jesus

My spirit can entertain a new WOW. Willingness, Openness and Wonder are now the WOW, I venture forth to uncover. Over the years I have developed certain patterns that hampered me from entering into new experiences and fully exercising my fullest potential. Some of my unskillful habits have dulled my talents, and created a mental staleness. How can I best overcome this sense of being stuck and cultivate my natural gifts? Only tapping, devotion, determination, creativity and most importantly a new will I may fully become my authentic self.

I’ve noticed that without venturing beyond my static mind set and taking a chance in exercising my sense of aliveness, my very being can become limited. Cultivating risk, and exploring new juicy possibilities of I can unlock me from certain pernicious routines. Rituals help me find a new discipline to celebrate what is most sacred. If I can change my inertia through renunciation and sacrifice, I can see deeper what is true.

There are bountiful ways I can overcome my faults. Receiving assistance from all possible allies will help me in the right direction to find my soulful purpose. Only when I transform myself can I change the outer world.

I feel inspired when I shift from my sorrow to joy. What splendor arises when I transform my vices into virtues? Not a sunset yet a sunrise when I emulate a noble, ideal being. Also I then lessen distraction, doubt and other petty hindrances. Emotionally I can free myself from being so concerned about what others think, so to fully concentrate on what is the heart of the matter to me. Finally, when I fully focus on my physical obligations then I will have the basis to the greatest possible choice and acceptance of whatever arises. Now I wish to wake out of my nightmare of self aversion to a more fully responsible awareness.

When I play the role of an artist I can break past any limitation, old story, or delusions. I can experience a more profound life by re-introducing myself to greater harmony and self alignment. May I observe within and around me of the abundant light, love and laughter. Knowing that in uniting my mind with my virtue, I tap into a plethora of energy within my soul.

In the present is my opportunity time to find my deepest inner power. Negative states allow me a process to see how all things come and go. Everything breaks up and as earthly things die new seeds are born. Accepting this fact unchains me a new compassion to see the “yes” and be with it all. From denigration I see new possibilities. Also such insight of physical destruction of life’s fragility best rounds my perspective. When I take a more fluid and comedic view of my situation, I can best observe my mortality with a balanced distance.

Now I call upon the universe a new dance step, celebrating play. Such recreation brings meaning since it says “yes” to life. Play allows me to live in the joy amidst my world of sorrow. Creativity allows me to align my life by cleaning the inner house. Such housekeeping is about using simply what I have here and now for the better instead of worse. This purification is about letting go of my old baggage and allowing in that which wishes to be addressed. Through the sea saw of pain and pleasure, I play with the middle as to balance my fullest sense of this wow. Only my choices resulting in action will determine my gain or lost is this mysterious time of precious experience. Willingness, openness and wonder are now the Wow I venture forth to uncover.

Cultivating My Virtues *

2011-02-10T04:35:00.000-08:00

What are my present-moment virtues? Will I simply be locked in a dark, tiny room within my negative mind? My “here-ness” is the key—a transformative one—to enter my world of virtue.

I must remember my “now-ness” as it is in doing that that I can exercise my full potential to be here and now. Relaxing with an intentional pause, or simply slowing down, lights the way. In the act of being mindful or of remembering, I can celebrate a loving and kind intention that enhances my own well being. Eventually to embody and to excel, I can cherish the unity of all things.

It is only when I pay close attention to my own intention of virtue, will I be free. I pray to be authentic, to be trusting, gentle, determined, patient, kind, courageous and bountiful. In that I trust that I will reap the treasure of grace.

Translating Five “R”Words Into Deeds

Reword in order to speak with virtue. Recognize the present teachable moment. Reset clear boundaries. Re-honor through virtuous application. Re-solve by companioning with unity.

• Reword and empower your virtue by reframing the language of discouragement into the language of inspiration. Acknowledge, guide, correct and be grateful. Speak virtuously.
• Recognize the blessing by illuminating what is right instead of what is wrong in the present teachable moment.
• Reset clear boundaries in order to differ the subject from the object, the observer from the judges, the intention from the attention. Reset boundaries.
• Re-honor by integrating virtue in all things through assertiveness, respect and trust. Re-honor by virtuous application.
• Re-solve by offering companionship with compassion and detachment. Understanding and caring can, at any moment, increase your own well being through detachment from negative emotions and cultivation of positive virtue. Resolve by companioning with unity.

Rewording can transform language that discourages to language that encourages. In the moment I can empower myself to truly respond or I can deplete myself and react. Using virtue, I acknowledge, guide, identify needs, correct and thank--thus awakening the best qualities in myself. By changing my language I can consider a shipwreck as a dream cruise. By diminishing my reactive language, I can increase my own joy. The key to doing that is to virtuously speak. By simply changing places from the judge to the observer, I can truly discern; by willing my inner critic to be my inner creator, I benefit by becoming stronger, more powerful and more capable. By attributing positive power to my inner language, I transform the world around me. Reword so to virtuously speak.

Recognize that every moment offers me the opportunity to grow and learn. There is no greater way to access my full potential than to experience the virtue of peaceful mindfulness in the now. First, acknowledge the gift of being in the moment; second, correct any distraction through focus on the thoughts, words and actions in the present; and third, be grateful for the space to be in the now. Recognize the present teachable moments.

I create a safe place and Reset clear boundaries through asserting purity and order. This enables me to keep unwholesome words, thoughts and feeling outside the boundaries. My inner picture is of a safe haven wherein I find love and respect. This gives me a peaceful sense of well-being. Re-setting defined boundaries.

Each new breath invites me to mindfully Re-honor myself with the spirit of virtue in assertion, respect and trust. I strive to assert what is right and true for me in this moment. I recognize my reverence for all beings and all things. I trust in the possibility of what is to come, and I bring my full potential to that which will be. In doing so, I can counter doubt with determination and confidence. Re-honor the spirit of the virtues

Resolve I companion as I deepen my meditation. I see how all things are interrelated when I reach this point of compassionate detachment. As I deepen my concentration, I develop a profound sense of caring presence. Such understanding heightens my serenity. I empower my senses to become fully aware of what is happening.

Next, I invite profound listening and silence in order to be fully receptive and show up to whatever arises. I go to the heart of what is happening. When I have fully emptied myself, this empty container can accept and receive without any judgment.

Further exploration as to all possible open-ended questions helps me best empathize and integrate my situation. What are my feelings, my sensations, my perceptions and other states to focus on?

I reflect on the virtuous answers in response to my feelings. This allows me to find closure and integrate my feelings and thoughts. Finally I acknowledge my virtues with a mirroring statement of affirmation. Re-solve offering companioning with unity.

Meditating upon my virtues is a joyful activity that stimulates my present purposefulness. Being mindful and attentive stimulates countless peaceful techniques and revitalizes loving kindness in any moment. When I remember in any given moment, I can revitalize my well being by detaching from negative emotions and cultivating virtue.

For example when I seek joy rather than desire, I embody joy. As I meditate, I energize my senses by reframing how I hear, speak and act with virtue. Acknowledging and remembering in order to reframe, I correct my mindlessness in any given moment resulting in an attitude of gratitude.

A deep focus on the here and now in the consciousness of virtues shifts me from being identified with my negative thoughts and anxieties. Some scientist estimated that three quarters of our thoughts are unwholesome. For example reflecting on enthusiasm, unity and the bountiful other virtues, I become free of my negative thoughts. Restlessness gives way to deep peacefulness.

In more difficult times, I may recite virtuous statements of aspirations to overcome adversity. Just saying “May I be filled with peace, love and unity,” or “May I celebrate harmony, possibility and purposefulness” gives me renewed confidence.

There are endless possibilities for me to apply the virtues whether walking, standing, speaking, or lying down. I commit myself to diligence and use of these gifts of character. I can open the door to new growth and learning. There is no greater way to access your full potential then to experience the present virtue of peaceful mindfulness. First, acknowledge any gift of character while remaining present in this moment. Next, I can correct any distraction or sense of being locked out by fully arriving with this opportunity. Finally, I am so grateful for pausing, and remembering my purposefulness thanks to my “now-ness.

• Reword so to virtuously speak
• Recognize the present teachable moment
• Reset clear boundaries
• Re-honor by integrating virtues; and
• Re-solve by companioning with unity.

ACT with Tact for me is an insightful meditation experience. First, I can Acknowledge any of my gifts of character while remaining present in this moment. Next, I can Correct any distraction by mindfully reflecting on these conscious thoughts, words, and actions as they appear. Finally, I can be Thankful for pausing, and remembering my purposefulness with my “now-ness and celebrating the loving kindness of this act.

*These words, phrases and ideas were adapted from the Virtues Project™

Everything has been thought of before, the question is how to constantly remember your virtue now - Rob Arner

Cultivate Virtue in yourself, and Virtues will be real.
Cultivate Virtue in the family, and Virtue will flourish.
Cultivate Virtue in the village, and Virtues will spread.
Cultivate Virtue in the nation, and Virtues will be abundant.
Cultivate Virtue in the world, and Virtues will triumph - Lao Tzu

Here-nesss with my Heart

2011-01-10T15:39:00.000-08:00

When I listen to my heart it creates “Here-ness”. This is a radical way to exercise self love. There are many diverse ways for me to explore this compassionate place. When I quiet my mind, and listen to my heartbeat I cultivate this priceless experience. This is a sacred gift I give to myself.

As I explore the nature of my love my mental phenomenon becomes better understood. This sense of genuine inquiry becomes clear when I judge less. Also being more gentle and friendly increases this special way of “being.”

Recognizing, or noticing the sensations in my heart allows me to test my courage. Can I open myself to experience without any judgment, resistance or grasping? The essence of is to realize how my compassion can open greater awareness.

Today my world is busy, reactive and always on the move. However, there are many helpful relaxation and loving kindness skills to allow me to arrive here and now. Such skills can quiet my mind, get me to remember this moment and allow me to cultivate greater stillness. Allowing myself to “be” instead of “becoming” I can let go of all my “doings” and simply rest in whatever is happening in the present. When I discover what is happening now I awaken. When there is no controlling I can let life be just as it is. This helps me best take care of myself. Also I experience both clarity and insights and discover greater truths when I pay attention to my heart. Such presence results in a calm and collected mind, aware with an open heart.

Experiencing this state of loving kindness allows me to best show up to what is present. Yes, this presence is a present. Also I can explore greater freedom by seeing whatever arises and not being so attached to what comes up. Being more openhearted, and sincere allows me find greater wholeness and liberation. When I become more gentle, loving and friendly to what arises - be it pleasant sensations or fear, peacefulness or confusion, then I can fully celebrate the moment as a gift to myself. This heartfilled meditation cultivates self compassion, friendliness and kindness- providing me with the tools to best address my inner and outer world.

Possibility and Choice

2010-12-11T05:07:00.000-08:00

There are two magical words- possibility and choice. I challenge you to explore them to what comes up. If we open ourselves to possibility we then have a choice to venture into new unexplored frontiers.

If you listen to the ocean or the wind through the trees you will hear the deep collective heartbeat of this universe. Up and down, raising and falling, back and forth, this in and out wave or particle activity interconnects the entire universe to the rhythm of the vibration of both life and death. All things are one in this universal beat of love and communion.

It is time for the Foolish Shaman to reveal the extraordinary non ordinary way. Not so much to bring forth the present tragic truths but to invoke the spirit of possibility. The comic can change themselves while the tragic become changed by their situations. Within this serious chaotic hurricane is a funny and calm eye. When we awaken to the facts that tragedy are about separation. And this dividing line of losing control of outside things forces us to take refuge with fooling around with our inner stuff is the great awakening of survival. Yes what face a ludicrous wildly dying planet where the wild card jester is seriously holding the deck together. Both priceless and penniless a new freedom of love, laughter and mirth comes in the form of grace.

In a society that discards jokers we are realizing that such toxic psychic acts are symbolic we as human beings are not dealing with a full deck. This wild person represents a part of our collective mind that brings clarity and insight. What do we value, what is important at the very essence of our earthy soul. Yes, our heart is what matters and everything else is a joke. We have been mad about material things and now we face the edge of the non ordinary, the wild where spirit and matter coexist. This wilderness world we have ignored now we understand sustains us. Rippling oceans, fantastic rivers, and so on water bodies are our bodies. We are not separate but apart. The insanity is when we think we are different, divided, and detached for what gives us our very life is our oneness.

Appreciation Now

2010-12-03T20:43:00.000-08:00

This harmonious connection with life awakens in me the understanding that everything in my world is only alive in the present moment. As I empty myself of ego preoccupations with the past, and concerns over the future, I am truly awake to the moment, and in such times, I find in myself a feeling of greater compassion for my fellows. The act of compassionate gratitude is a form of stewardship that allows me to be more sensitive and respectful of people and nature. I become mindful and deal with all things in a sacred way. Cultivating this kind of relationship with life fosters a sense of devotion and divinity.

Appreciation creates for me a more wholesome mindset that reconnects me to the things I value most. Living this way creates a greater sense of possibility and freedom. My feeling of gratitude expands when I reflect on how all things must be respected. And I feel more humble as I observe the mysterious spirit of this world.

Exercising my gratitude is a wake-up call for me to remember what matters most. We live in a critical time, and how we can best deal with it comes into question. Awakening to how we can see each moment with a clear mind, as a new event, is an action I would define as "the attitude of gratitude." This approach not only liberates us from suffering, we become more mindful of the possibility of being truly open to all possibilities.

What do I appreciate right now? Can I hear the birds singing outside? Can I simply enjoy hearing my own heartbeat? How grateful am I to all those things life on this planet has given me? Do I cherish the food, shelter and other gifts? Let's say I have just moments to live, would I count my blessings? What would I wish to do to give my thanks? The very nature of my entire life and my liberation comes down to embracing these questions.

It seems much of my life has been enslaved by my unconscious acts. When I am only partially aware of my actions, I am truly as if asleep, and thus in some way imprisoned. My mind does one thing while my emotions feel conflicted because my decisions come from fear rather than from love. Where can I find the courage to change and allow my soul to become liberated? How can I learn to keep in mind that all things will pass, and to let go of my material world? To remember such a simple thing like coming home to the appreciation of life here and now, is the art I wish to cultivate. Today's world makes it so easy to fall into darkness. Why is that I am unconsciously afraid of allowing the greater light in? Am I paying attention to my senses? Or I am held captive by a self-destructive story of shame and loathing? Can I remember to listen not just to my own body but that greater one that connects all things? Reverence for this earth opens the door to my happiness and freedom.

To be free, I must change my various behaviors and attitudes that imprison me with negative and unwholesome consequences. Sticken thinken and paralysis analysis are the various ways I have recycled my past to curse my future. Only in the present moment I can pause and take a new course down a road toward light instead of journey off a cliff.

I have the freedom to fully appreciate my life when I practice loving friendliness. This comes about only if I am mindful and exercise right intention to transform an abiding gratitude into action. How I train my mind to greet all beings and events with loving-kindness provides me with the opportunity of changing a curse into a blessing. First by identifying the various ways I create ill will, anger and judgment, and doing something positive about making a change in my attitude—only then do I have the chance to liberate myself. This is a form of action I call radical acceptance, and it can only happen when I constantly observe what is of benefit to all. By awakening to wholesome mind states, I can best go forth. And more, I will require patience to mindfully change some old habits and patterns. Finally, I have to show more tender loving care and forgiveness to myself as I engage in this transformational process.

So I return again to appreciation, and I count my blessings and take note of what I have in my life to be grateful for. When I awaken and show reverence through these actions, I prosper. Gratitude for me is about cultivating four skillful things:

• Showing up in the present moment.
• Paying attention to what has heart and meaning!
• Giving a positive voice to what I see!
• Remaining open to all possibilities while being unattached to outcome!

Appreciation is both a loving and a kind method of being with profound affects and effects. Developing my appreciation purifies me and offers me a sense of greater peace, and freedom. It's amazing how gratitude spreads when you're just grateful.

My idea of myself, my life, its meaning and all that other stuff comes down to how I identify things. Critical is how I observe but not fully identify with all my thoughts. How I see myself can be either a blessing or a curse. Most of life I have struggle with a good self identity. However, when I find how grateful I am for what I been so fortunate to have I shift to a higher self.

Increasing my appreciation or thanks for giving is a powerful evolutionary force. This generous act has numerous happy returns: increased wellness, joy, and all around better well being. Now this healthy and wholesome attitude of gratitude improves me in so many invaluable ways.

This skill to better exercise my optimism increases my connections to all things. When I count my blessing I prosper. I feel better and I most fully live by this practice to reciprocate. Gratitude is a gift that keeps on giving back to me.

There are bountiful ways to I can show my appreciation. Creating a daily journal about specific good blessings that happened. Adopt a gratitude buddy to share your list of good things or write thank you note to someone who has assisted you. Celebrate your day by a daily pause to stop and focus on what’s right and how lucky you are. If you can’t sleep or in a bad frame of mind review what you appreciate about yourself and life. Use language that encourages instead is disparages to reinforce the positive. Surround yourself with inspiring and beautiful objects, music, pictures, and writings. The more you create a setting filled with reinforcing grateful reminders these loving kind acts multiply.

The Gift that Keeps On Giving: Thanks for Giving

2010-11-24T19:49:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving for me is all about gratitude. Increasing my appreciation or thanks for giving is a powerful evolutionary force. This generous act has numerous happy returns: increased wellness, joy, and all around better well being. Now this healthy and wholesome attitude of gratitude improves me in so many invaluable ways.

This skill to better exercise my optimism increases my connections to all things. When I count my blessing I prosper. I feel better and I most fully live by this practice to reciprocate. Gratitude is a gift that keeps on giving back to me.

There are bountiful ways to I can show my appreciation. Creating a daily journal about specific good blessings that happened. Adopt a gratitude buddy to share your list of good things or write thank you note to someone who has assisted you. Celebrate your day by a daily pause to stop and focus on what’s right and how lucky you are. If you can’t sleep or in a bad frame of mind review what you appreciate about yourself and life. Use language that encourages instead is disparages to reinforce the positive. Surround yourself with inspiring and beautiful objects, music, pictures, and writings. The more you create a setting filled with reinforcing grateful reminders these loving kind acts multiply.

When I count my blessings I plant future seeds of increased wellness. Instead of dwelling on my problems and negative mind-states I shift to the bright side. Being upbeat allows me to become occupied with blessings instead of preoccupied with my curses. Paying attention to my shifting my temperament to “what I have” instead of “what I lack” transforms me. Appreciation creates an optimistic mindset. Replacing my derogatory attitude to focus on being grateful is like walking out of a cave.

When I become focused on thanks I can see the positive in very difficult and dark experiences. Gratitude is a beneficial way I can cultivate my thanks and so enjoy this gift that keeps on giving.

Thanks to Vitae

2010-11-17T05:20:00.000-08:00

Recently a dear friend of mine Margot wrote a wonderful tribute about her departed husband Vitae. He did so much more than just designed my web pages your reading from. Vitae embodied the kind, and compassionate spirit I write about in this blog. He inspired me in so many blessed ways to cultivate light, love and joy.

I was fortunate to see him in some of his closing days. They were filled with a fantastic celebration of song, dance, laughter and profound love.

Vitae blessed us with his diverse talents. He was a friend, teacher, writer, lover, husband, father, philosopher, chef, sailor, web master, video-maker, to list a few. Vitae devoted himself in his authentic way to bringing joy and awakening. Now in the beyond, Vitae’s spirit will continue to transform from his legacy of love and light.

Below is what he wrote about himself and below that what Margot wrote.

http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=

http://www.positiveimpactmagazine.com/tribute-to-vitae-bergman/

Strengthening Our Heart to Better Our World

2010-11-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

In every moment we can take refuge in our body, which so connected and similar with our beloved earth. The simple beat of our heart can ground us to arrive here and now. Our world is filled with increased stress and constant pressure. This fast pace of life has heightened mental strain, since there is less natural balance. Simply put, we suffer from greater, illness, injury and tension unless we exercise great compassion. Just pausing for a moment can lessen anxiety. I find the eye, or “I“ of the hurricane in response to the little everyday problems, noise and increased demands.

Stress can be self inflicted and caused by our emotional reactions to events. The key is to reframe our relationship to the course of events with a new attitude based on gratitude. Things then can be transformed “its no big deal” or “no worries”. Remembering to cultivate inquiry in what is true in each second is of enormous benefit to me.

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. Can I picture a world filled with joy, love and peace? Yes. Beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people are all around me. If I can step into the consciousness of the heart, I can run with the deep inner harmony.

Wise teachers from the beginning of time teach us about the power of this emotional regulation. Simply by 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 greater well-being. There is a chain of biological changes including lowering 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 can learn how to engage in my heart more, I bring my emotion, body, and mind into balance. Quieting my mind and listening to my heart brings focused clarity, optimal health, and high performance. Taking the word grace and making it happen, I find happiness not far behind.

HEART@SICE©

2010-09-19T05:21:00.000-07:00

We have the opportunity to exercise our heart in a very sacred way. Let's celebrate our greater love for this beloved earth with bountiful forms of exercise and play. As we explore new ways to have fun we also can expand our possibility of joy and mirth. When we more deeply listen to our our heart we can cultivate a greater ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE. Some examples of the possibility of this soulful exercise are:

• Paying attention to our heartbeat getting us our of our head allowing us to celebrate what we Love!

• Placing your hand over your heart and say WHAT IS RIGHT

• Awakening: SOUND FROM A YAWN TO A SOOTHING AND RELAXED AHHHHH !

• Specific PHYSICAL EXERCISES BY PAYING ATTENTION TO OUR BODY SENSATIONS CHANGING OUR BRAIN CHEMISTRY.

• Rewiring our brain activity. Since our mind is attracts negative emotions like velcrow we transform this to teflon. Taking this velcrow and applying it to our positive experiences awareness.

CULTIVATING GREATER SELF LOVE WITH LOVING KINDNESS HEART@SICE RITUALS

We can exercise with simple rituals that cultivate greater self compassion. For example we can reward our self for what we do that's positive. Also we can forgive our self when we make mistakes. This is not always easy. Only when we remember to Heart@sice we can pay attention to exercise loving kindness. When we set an attention to cultivate peace, contentment, and basic well-being we also invoke deeper states of concentration and insight. As we encourage what's right we create greater positive events to become positive experiences. Any way we show our gratitude or count our blessings then expand further possible positive experience. Thus increase our chances of seeing good things in all things, increasing acts of kindness and respect for facets of our life.

HEART@CIZE happens when exercise our GRATITUDE, LOVE, ACCEPTANCE AND DEVOTION (GLAD) –

GRATITUDE- reflecting on the good things in your life today or in the past.

LOVE- of self world and all thins, Feeling loved, cared about, liked, included, attended to, empathized with – BE included, belonging. CREATE goodwill toward SELF AND others. Quieting our mind and listening deeply deep to our heart.

ACCEPT- our worth and value. When the Buddha touched the ground when challenged by the forces of darkness to say "I am here, now one with this sacred earth" - We can become free to exercise our life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness since when we accept all things then we become liberated.

DEVOTE- dedicate oneself to exercising the heart for the benefit of all beings and things we skillfully find our higher self.

Heart@sice- just imagine a huge celebration or party in your heart replacing old feelings of shame or inadequacy with feelings of being glad. The more we exercise our minds and bodies the greater potential for joy happens. What's right? Let's celebrate what we have and use it fully or face the negative consequences. Heart@cise or exercise your love by being glad, grateful, loving, accepting and devote our self to greater well being.

Beloved George's Example

2010-08-06T21:51:00.001-07:00

Today my brother departed. I profoundly grieve the loss of George. This kind spirit was always there to help and support me. Now, I cry out to his spirit to give me strength to mend my broken heart.

George's departure is a wake-up call how I will better live. Often I run and hide in having the courage to face the beyond. Accepting George's example requires me to confront many profound questions. This ultimate challenge creates a tremendous urgency to observe what is important and matters. One simple answer comes, “to be or not to be,” as Shakespeare once referred as this is the question of expanding my heart.

May my beloved brother's passing provides me courage to serve with greater compassion. May I embrace my loneliness, and despair so I may find the light within this darkness. From this experience today I vow to remember to see both sides of positive and negative as being one and the same. George thank you for your example. George you have closed one door and opened another where I can pass on your love to others.

Four Things
Prudence K. Gearey

These things are beautiful beyond belief;
The pleasant weakness that comes after pain,
The radiant greenness that comes after rain,
The deepened faith that follows after grief,
And the awakening to love again.

Relax Now!

2010-07-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

There is no greater form of self love then for me to explore my full relaxation potential. Relaxing in the now allows me to cultivate new ways to celebrate arriving in the present. There are countless relaxation rituals and techniques to help me fully find this moment to moment grace including deep breathing, mindful movement, visualization, muscle relaxation, and meditation. Such experimentation and practice of such techniques reduces my stress, improve my health, and increase feelings of joy and serenity. In addition to developing essential calming skills, relaxing now enhance my energy, sharpens my focus and expands my overall wellness.

One highly effective stress-relief practice for me to focus on releasing tension wherever it arises in my body. Another is when work to soften any angst in my feet and gradually work my way up the body to release muscle tension everywhere. Other relaxation techniques include cultivation of mindfulness with a deep focus in the present moment, simple visualization exercises, and use of the breath to lessen both mental and physical tensions and to maximize my fullest relaxation potential.

Cultivating new ways to lessen stress has the potential to improve every facet of my life allowing me to expand my quality of experience. Also relaxation allows me shift out of me being so identified with my thoughts and anxieties. This is not simple overcoming tremendous forms of fear and resistance. This relaxation happens when I can find a space where I can lessen my stress. Next I set an intention or any ritual that invites me to focus in relaxing now in the present.

Shifting my intention to find greater calm and stillness I arrive in tranquil area of consciousness. There are many techniques to achieve this attention that may shift from observing things from near to far away. This form of letting go or releasing comes from both active or passive skills. Also such creating a more relaxed mind-set also comes from either prayer or meditation allowing us to take refuge outside our ego-centered self.

There are additional ways to best relax my mind. Fostering appreciation and loving kindness as I follows my breath or listens to the nature of sounds. Just as when water is allowed to be still it becomes clear just as our heart/mind connection.

Relaxation and visualizing methods are key championship skills not just in sports but in all life endeavors. There are two outcomes of this relaxed concentration. An awareness of what is happening as it is happening. And, what is my relationship to this happening?

As I explore stress reduction direct experience where we can shift and expand my attention to moment to moment awareness. Whether to body sensations, noise, or other anchors to bring me to the here and now as we improve the nature of our specific attention to whatever object of meditation appears.

There are bountiful possibilities to relax now- whether walking, standing, speaking, and lying down. Even recreational endeavors and a diversity of practices offer me a rich and blessed experience when I deeply focus in the moment because I pause to become relaxed. Awakening my relaxation skills result in greater clarity, insights and a sense of tranquility. Relaxing now helps me to remember that I can lessen my suffering with explore better ways to reduce stress and fully enjoy my life.

Remembering Grace

2010-06-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

First say to yourself what you would be: then do what you have to do. ~Epictetus

The truth is everything is here and now. The challenge is remembering how to overcome my fears and access grace or divine love in this moment. It comes down to self discipline to exercise a transformation heart/mind choice. This profound spiritual act comes down to applying not hiding from my greater self. So much of my life has been distracted by doubt, depression, despair and other self destructive mindsets. Much of my shadow side I can overcome by challenging me to cultivate an attitude based on exposing what is true. Either I can opt for more heavenly opportunities or reside in the hell of doing the same thing expecting different results. Being a creature of many unwholesome habits it is easy for me to become lost in the current societal drama. Getting out of my head and focusing on my heart/spirit connection is my salvation or what I call grace.

All my conscious life I have struggled to find my way in this world. Lost or asleep to life to being fully in contact with the pulsation of daily life; it’s very trials and tribulations I flee from. I believe I am not alone. Western civilization is at a crossroads where today’s outer conflicts can be traced to inner demons.

One of most amazing insights is how can I love all of life so intensely while not fully embracing parts of my own self? Cultivating self love that is reverent for the interconnection of all things is a life-long challenge. Paying attention to a deeper spirit requires tenderly listening to my own heart beat. Nature constantly reminds me to find grace. It show itself when I care for all things in this world. The delicate balance for me is how and what I identify myself with. My greatest challenge has to see how I can expand my love and forgive myself at times when I fall short. When I observe how I love all creation then I realize I just another drop in this pool of universal compassion.

My suffering is lessened when I realize that the “I” is rather a “we.” In these difficult times I believe all of us wish to find harmony amidst the turmoil. Inside each of us we have the gift of unearthing greater awareness liberating our collective unconsciousness from our deluded wants and providing light of our sacred needs. There is not greater treasure we can provide in our life time then for us to reduce our anxious wealth to relaxing with the cultivation of well being.

Is not life’s quest for each person on this planet to find peace within themselves thus leading the way? If we wish to lessen terror, improve our environment and help others ultimately we must whatever plagues our human condition we must go within. Real change can only happen when each of us change ourselves. Leading by example is the tenor of the times.

A rich life comes down to skillful interpersonal skills. How we treat all things, most importantly our very self is an extended act of divine love. The more evolved and successful one becomes is based on how we interface with people, things and places. Since these are extensions of our large self or the world when we show respect and sensitivity for them we ultimately show self love since truly it is all interconnected. The challenge is develop a positive feedback loop to celebrate our passion to be kind, gentle and sensitive. Greater awareness that all things are not separate I become gentler with myself. In this mysterious path of gracefully going forth the key is to remember not to fear or forget what matters most.

A Loving Guest House

2010-06-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

Rumi once wrote “there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” Now I wish to celebrate all the ways to show my compassion. This for me is a natural remedy for my “dis-being-at-ease” or mental disease. When I visualize a vibrant white light this helps me embody the practice or “being at ease.”

I believe we are at a fantastic time where a spirit of magic is knocking at our individual and collective doors. Can we allow it in?

This spirit is wonderfully described in Rumi’s poem “Guest House.”

This being human is a guest house.
Every day a new arrival.

A joy, depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame , the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
Because each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.

Have you ever sensed that you have guide from beyond helping you? Not as a form of mental torture yet a door to freedom. The hardest thing in my life is to face my darkest shadow. So I welcome my guide. The question is can I quiet my mind and listen to my heart for this too is my guide. For me my torture can only be calmed by allowing spirit to come in and touch my soul. This spirit comes from the mystery; the wind or just simple beautiful bird at your window. Can we be awake and listen to its silence to let it in?

How can I serve what is true and deep to honor my soul? Only if I am gentle with myself and not so self absorbed can this miracle occur. I guess a revolution of kindness is at our door step waiting to enter if we can just trust our guides. Yes, people are generous in crisis, such as hurricanes, death and many other forms of natural and human forms of disasters.

The earth today is filled with increased stress and constant pressure. Helping to promote mindfulness is an antidote. Quieting my mind and listening to my heart is how I have been transforming my anxiety into enthusiasm. If I can show up with the good and bad while treating them as equals. Showing up allows me to transform my stress and worry. I believe the all wise and enlightened being have found peace this way. 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 I learned about the power of this emotional regulation or mending our broken hearts. Just focusing on positive feelings such as appreciation, care, or compassion, I can create dramatic changes in my heart rhythms. 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 stimulate greater chi, by simply focusing on my heart energy.

When I engage in my heart more I come into balance. Quieting my mind and listening to my heart brings focused clarity, optimal health, and high performance. Also allowing me to accept my shadows provides me with the courage to be present to even the greatest things that haunt me. Whether things are a blessing or a curse, I challenge what Rumi suggests,

Be grateful for whatever comes.
Because each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.

Cultivating a Grateful Heart

2010-06-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

When I focus on opening my grateful heart I awaken to tremendous new possibilities. Love and appreciation are two attitudes transforming my world. Focusing my mind with a greater heart connection happens when I count my blessings regarding the wonderful of it all.

There is no greater gift then being grateful and compassionate since this the ultimate act of celebrating life. When I exercise my “loving appreciation” this provides me with a gift that keeps on giving.

Today there are many unconscious self destructive acts both coming from individual and collective sources. Grateful love is evident by kind, aware and wise intentions. Simply reflecting about all the things that I am compassionate about I change my mind-set. Love, does not separate, it connects. In love is how I can lessen my suffering or disconnection and increase my well being.

Gratitude allows me to overcome so many fear-based emotions. I challenge you to reflect on your own appreciation? What about the many wonders and gifts you have experienced? By constantly remembering and cultivating a grateful spirit I foster an intention of the sacred and such attention to this illuminates my world even more. This is the door of light I welcome you to open!

Like many, I search for greater meaning. All I have to do is deeply listen to my own grateful heart. My gratitude is so interconnected to how I care for all things in this world. When I celebrate my appreciation and love for all creation then I allow myself to swim in the collective pool of universal compassion.

More conscious ways can lessen my suffering and provide me with greater happiness. When I cultivate a grateful heart I transmute my anxiety into vibrant new enthusiasm to greet and meet live with appreciation and compassion.

Living Love Poem

2010-05-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

May I live my life with the intention of being a living love poem

Allow me greater light, love, and laughter and lessen my darkness, despair, and sorrow

Remind me to pause, relax and deeply listen to the heartbeat of the earth

Please Grandfather of the East empty my mind and blow new air of possibility

May my body fire become peaceful and centered so to coolly discover universal compassion

Allow me to experience life’s sorrow and then purify me to find its joy

Remember that I celebrate my gifts so I can exercise boundless affection to all

Please Southern Spirits energize me and share all that I have been blessed with

May I awaken to see that life’s water balances the negative with the positive

Allow me clarity so to observe not judge my emotions and find truth now

Remind me to break many old habits and bring forth new ways and insights

Please wise Grandmother of the West allow me to accept and discover new freedom

May I transform my dreams into action that embodies a grateful and clear message

Allow me to unwind stress and tension into creative forms of play and art

Remember to not be frightened or lonely since there are many beings assisting me

Please Northern Spirits purify and change my being so I can follow my soul

May all beings above support me and provide me with courage when I doubt

Allow the heavens above to help cool me when I feel hellish fires underneath

Remind me to cultivate sacred vision when I trust to explore what mystery emerges

Please if I feel separate return me back into the harmony interconnecting all things

May my sacred heart and earth celebrate that they are one and the same

Allow me refuge by connecting with the ground when my head insanely spins out

Remember to see how everything is related together into one shared universal spider web

Please give me courage to overcome my fear and be a living love poem!

Paying Attention to My Heart’s Intention

2010-04-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

I transform when I set an intention to pay attention expanding my heart’s capacity. Exercising greater compassion is a present I give myself when I remember to pay attention. By quieting my mind and allowing my heart to open I then celebrate the greater mystery with wonder. Otherwise anxiety and despair may arise in my critical and cynical mind. The mental and material can rob us of the spiritual unless we cultivate the intention of listening to our heart. Today’s pressured filled life can quickly divert me from my natural world where my mind spins off ignoring my greater body. Only when I return back in my body sensations I may arrive, here in this very moment.

Allowing my heart to explore the space between nothing and everything I find an ocean deep of compassion. This space of emptiness can allow us to accept life and death as all things arise and fall. Such a perspective brings me to trust my and our deepest nature. Simply nothing is separated and everything is interconnected.

The practice of stillness, listening and just being opens the door to arrive in the mystery of now instead of moving from the past straight into the future. All things or the source is both shapeless and silent. Chang Tzu described as, “It is not a thing itself.”

This transformation transcends me to a higher self. Lao Tzu described this, “To embrace all is to be selfless.” So when I remember my being and shift out of becoming I see that the universe act in endless circles defining time and space by this circular motion where there is no beginning or end. Serenity comes from observing this harmonic process when we surrender into such simplicity. Everything falls into place in the present. The future and the past are just clouds in the mind. Flowing with this attention of what is happening in this moment a doorway of freedom is opened from the magic of acceptance.

May we I find greater insight to creatively find how to quiet myself. Also how can I inspire the emergence of heaven and earth by forming a natural trust that all things align. If we can relax now then we may invite new possibilities and perspectives to transform or experience in this very moment.

From some sacred native indigenous teachings I pray to the seven directions to behold me with

1. Self love
2. spiritual protection
3. gratitude
4. divine guidance

May I celebrate that I;

- Listen deeper
- Forgive more
- Find what is true
- Embrace my shadow
- Exercise my greater self
- Venture being vulnerable
- Risk heartbreak
- Profoundly care
- Freely experience experience

Deal with a Full Deck

2010-04-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

Every April Fools Day I love to celebrate folly. 24 years ago, on April Fool’s Day, I visited my Congresswoman, Connie Morella, dressed up in a court jester costume. As Ray Cycle, a recycling action here I created, I stood on the Capitol steps at high noon and proclaimed, "You’re not dealing with a full deck when you throw out the joker out! Recycle Our Nation’s Capital."

I see the difference between a comedy and a tragedy as subtle, but significant-- we can learn from comedy rather than perpetuating a tragic fate. This is why I take refuge in our wasteful ways.

A sense of humor is essential. A process of purification is needed from our depressed, angry, anxious state of existence allowing laughter to clean. Also humor is about that nothing is what it appears. What is funny is that we are caught by our own projections, misinterpretations and desires. Such illusion, delusions and other tricks can either awaken or deceive us. When we see that we live in a house of mirrors and that both laughing and crying are the same release then we can laugh with joy in what is revealed.

Yes we are foolish beings. By appreciation this trickery then we begin to truly see. Oh the divine is so tough to find since laughter truly is primordial secret source of truth. In searching for some sense out of nonsense there is possibility to change our character is the fool!

The wild card is the highest card in the deck and is thrown out many times in the game. However, this discard is priceless, since laughter, love and merriment is it’s symbol is wildly free of the deck’s hierarchy. The fool is a shamanic force representing the non ordinary or the world of the psyche. Wisely mad this jester walks on the razor edge between sublime and the ridiculous. Fumbling on the high wire of reality and fantasy, The changer, the trickster, the transformer, this motley being is both sad, merry and may quite mad playing out a ludic role. Yes this ludicrous individual sheds light on both on bondage and our path to freedom.

From folly a kind of wisdom can be born from the fool and his/hers mischief. Out of our trials and tribulations some cleverness can arise from the perverse form of a clown. From laughter insight comes from this spontaneity with some form of sublime message. Shakespeare said that jesters do often prove prophets. He also said, “I had rather a fool make me merry than experience to make me sad.”

Observing a clown you are exposed to a full weather system of emotions. Much comes from simple human events without a sense of rawness embarrassing, tragic or uneasy moments. Even out of sorrow humor acts to balance grief.

You see, Ray Cycle's message is being "insightful and mindful". Today we can celebrate the fact that more people recycle then vote. However, we still need to manage the billions of tons of valuable resources that we waste every year. We deserve to conserve. Let’s have fun but not become foolish. To disregard and discard is folly. Demonstrating reverence for our land results in many happy returns. Let’s honor the process and not bury our problems. In recovery there is discovery—by giving back you feel more connected. I use poor humor to awaken such as "toot your frugal bugle with the gift of thrift, Recycle Our Nations’ Capital."

Recognizing that in face of laughing and crying are the same release. We can become free from the tragic only when we awake from the comic. It’s time we learn and laugh from a comedy, not a tragedy, of our errors. Just like Earth Day, everyday is April Fools Day if we can awaken to our human nature.

In Love

2010-03-08T18:14:00.000-08:00

I put it to you that we are at an interesting crossroads in our history. Human conflict was first more with battling nature, and then we began to tame the elements and started fighting with each other. Today we face a global form of self destruction so evident by current events. Our individual self is interconnected and interdependent on our larger ecological self--the planet Earth. If we take care of the smaller self, we also must preserve the larger self.

However, this is just my experience; so I ask you to reflect if this is true for you as well. What have you seen in your own lifetime as to how humans relate to themselves, others and the earth? While individually we are kind, aware and wise, there appears to be a form of collective dysfunction when it comes to foreseeing and forestalling future man-made disasters that have their origins in an evidently ego-centered outlook.

When reflecting about all the things that I love, how can I divorce myself from feeling the same love for myself? The simple four letter word “love“does not separate, it connects. In love suffering and anomie is lessened, and well-being is enhanced. It transforms insight into idea into action in the grace of deep compassion.

My first insight when I was four was that I was so lucky to have food while other children were starving and dying. So quite early both gratitude and guilt became emotions I had to encompass at the same time, this “buzzing”—which we all experience—is our life force and is both nervously destructive and curiously creative.

I write out of my appreciation for the many wonders and gifts I have experienced. By constantly remembering and cultivating a grateful spirit, I foster an intention of the sacred and attention to this illuminates my world even more. This is the door of light I welcome you to open!

Like many, I have struggled to find meaning in a civilization that is so focused at times on the material. It appears at times that we are a culture denying a deeper spirit. All I have to do is deeply listen to my own heart beat. This great mystery we live is so interconnected, if only we dare to explore how we all care for all things in this world. Life’s greatest challenge is to see how I can expand this love that is myself to all things. When I am aware of how I love all creation, then I add just another drop in the pool of universal compassion.

I believe we all are trying to find the eye of this hurricane we call life—that still place in the midst of a storm. To find harmony requires inquiry into what is grace. Grace is a radical gift: by realizing greater awareness of my own concerns, I can liberate a collective unconsciousness and bring greater happiness to others. My suffering is lessened when I realize this is “our” suffering—the world beating with one heart. We can provide no greater gift in our own lifetime than contributing to reduction of anxiety, whether on an individual basis or a global basis.
Our greatest challenge today is for each person on this planet to find peace within themselves. If we wish to lessen terror, improve our environment, help others, resolve whatever plagues our human condition, we must go within and examine what is true.

What we do for future generations is a treasure we pass on to them and also give to our own soul. The challenge is to develop a positive feedback loop to celebrate our natural passion to be kind, gentle and sensitive. We will not evolve our spirit if we do not venture forth and risk vulnerability.

The simple act of lessening my own anxiety influences and creates momentum to calm others. When I pay attention to my love, I find the energy to cultivate wise action. As I become gentler with myself, I add to making this a more beloved place. In love changes our world when we free ourselves to explore the compassionate space of our higher self.

Mindful Speaking Using Insight Dialogue (ID)

2010-02-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

Like many people, every time I speak before a group I get extremely nervous. Public speaking can be one of the most stressful activities imaginable. However, when I address an audience I practice a form of meditation. It is about cultivating tranquillity: developing a greater sense of presence when I talk transforms my speech. What better way to improve my speaking skills than to explore how to better relax and concentrate on how to best engage my audience? Careful listening to good speakers also provides me with invaluable insights as to how to improve all facets of my communication skills.

Focusing on being more wakeful as I talk is a process called Insight Dialogue . It teaches me to explore how to better show-up when I talk and to become more mindful as I do so. Mindful speech comes from becoming more conscious of the entire process when we talk with other people.

We can all develop more wholesome techniques that can improve our entire communications experience. For example, I gain better clarity when I pause and relax in the process of talking. Developing such calmness is balanced by a profound sense of attentiveness to what is being said or heard.

Insight Dialogue consists of exploring six basic steps: Pausing, Relaxing, Opening, Trusting Emergence, Listening Deeply, and Speaking Our Truth. I first pause and awaken before I speak. It is critical to take one’s time before we vocalize. I then allow myself to relax. This is essential in order to focus fully on the task at hand. Opening allows one to settle and find clarity as to what is presently happening.

When one trusts emergence, one is freer to perceive new possibilities. In order to increase one’s awareness, one must listen deeply to what is going on. And finally, this process allows me to speak my truth as one makes a profound heart/mind connection. In my opinion, eloquence comes from the embodiment of both compassion and insight when communicating.

Becoming more mindful as to how we use words, the manner in which we say them, experiencing the full process of Insight Dialogue enables us to excel at public speaking. It makes possible greater connection with others as improved speaking skills create more intimate encounters. By focusing our attention to specific areas of consciousness, such as our body or our feelings, we gain more clarity as to how we are relating to and connecting with the audience.

Being more in the present anchors me and is enhanced by paying regular attention to my body and feelings to increase my mindfulness in each moment. Another anchor is to be aware of my breathing whatever the present communication experience is.

When I relax I fully connect with my audience. Beginning with a pause, and relaxing sets my mind at ease and enables me to see things as they actually are in the “now”. Tension acts to distort and block my presentation. As I practice my speech with a sense of grace I become more alert. The calmer I become, the better I speak.

Insight Dialogue also involves inquiry into the nature of better communication. Choice of language is another form of meditation to practice the force of intellect and the associative power of words. Insight Dialogue works directly with language and is about transformation in speaking with a sense of the sacred.

Anytime I speak before a group I make it into an opportunity to meditate. I work on pausing, relaxing and opening to the possibility of deeply connecting to my audience. As I better listen to both my body and my feelings, I am better able to embody in words my own truth and attain a greater sense of wholeness.

Star Waltz

2010-01-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

Our attraction is a planetary dance caused by an orbit of our hearts

Apart of this starlit waltz light reflects and refracts amidst the dark heavens

We share both karma and gravity as galactic lovers rotating and revolving

This sharing of celestial space awakens an inner spark as our souls emerge

An inner mixture of stardust sculpted into blood, bone, tissue and wave lengths

Our spirits venture in space filled with joy, sadness, tears and laughter

Our interconnected energy field emits mirth, woe and everything in between

This magnetic phenomenon opens new dimensions of possibilities and realms

Matter, sensations, emotions, thoughts and consciousness all interweaving

Exploring the frontiers of this pulsation a sense of still compassion arises

A place where awareness cultivating peace, harmony into a tranquil oneness

An organic meeting that illuminates with a divine arrival of grace

Beyond our carbon small self interconnects a bright higher spirit

This bountiful universal source balances the cycles of our birth and death

Just as the night sky is filled with endless stars and black holes

Two planets lovingly spin around together attracted by each

Twirling and obeying quantum laws merging the known with the unknown

Such a quilt of energy, atoms, light and the mystery of psychic like minds

So tiny yet enormous these celestial organisms form greater milky ways

Shimmer and sparking light beholding the dark of this infinite time-place

Separate and the same affecting our cosmic journey with a twinkle of a star

Re: Prefix of New Possibility

2009-12-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

For years I have worked under the name Recover Enterprise or Re. Re is a wonderful prefix transforming new life from defunct ways. I believe the secret of life is bringing a different perspective or transmuting our expressions for the better. Renew, refresh, reclaim, restore, return, recover, revitalize, rejuvenate, revive, reuse, recreate, rediscover and on and on. Such words inspire us to reexamine our process and what we wish to accomplish in our lives. Re for me means to possibility of starting anew.

For example how we address climate change has distracted us from the real issue. How we can prosper and profit from preventing pollution. Also we can see the value in minimizing our waste and the opportunities of living in a more sustainable way.

Today we live on a threshold of choice. Is as business-usual or do we have the courage to become unusual taking part in the healing of our world. Just because of our sheer numbers we face both major environmental destruction coupled massive social and economic injustices. These inequalities force us to re-examine our interconnectedness so to motivate us to exploring sustainable production and consumption for our future generations and ourselves.

Before we go forth to live more sustainable it would be wise to explore our attitudes, behavior or inner aspects of our life. I call this our software since how we are programmed has a lot to do with how we apply technology or the hardware. The prefix, re, is a sacred key to unlock things to their fullest potential or to invigorate life. Yes, in recovery we discover new opportunities when we apply the prefix re to our words.

Green Spirit in Bethesda

2009-12-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda (meaning House of Mercy), having five porches.

In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, wating for the moving of the water.

For an angel went down: at a certain season into a pool; whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsover disease he had.

St John V

For over thirty years I have cultivated a green spirit and been blessed by the "happy returns" from my endeavaors. I have recycled many tons of newspapers, bottles, cans and many other types of secondary materials. I found that our watersheds were filled with used motor oil and championed programs to lessen these drainings. There have been numerous other "green" experiences where I have shown my reverence for this place on this earth. From this experience I have so benefited. So below are some guiding principles I devote myself to;

Cultivating a Bethesda Spirit I declare my interdependence. I work, play and celebrate being green and wish to further serve my community.

- To be able to respond or be responsible, let’s act as ambassadors where our words are translated into transforming deeds. MODEL
- To work cooperatively, joining people of all walks with, enthusiasm, compassion and empathy. ENGAGE
- To advance, let’s see our differences as strength and foster personal and group growth. PROPSPER
- To respect ourselves, and our neighbors by fostering relationships that are friendly, trusting and empowering. RESPECT
- To sustain, let’s celebrate with positive feedback, and to show my appreciation. SUSTAIN.

1) I PLAY a PART IN GREENING a GREATER WHOLE - When I add to “triple bottom line” I act to build community.
2) MY GAME PLAN - To ingeniously transform waste into well being, positively encourage and have fun as broad reaching as possible.
3) WHAT I KNOW? - Information is tool, both giving it and receiving it. Mindful speech and listening result in better feedback and communication. Also knowledge of my actions helps me better learn the importance of personal CHOICE and behavior change.
4) INCREASE WELL BEING - When I get more involved then I work as others to stimulate participation and a sense of cooperation Just being kind to people I come in contact with is one example.

May I foster positive green actions that conserve resources, preserve the environment, and better people’s lives. May I explore the vast green creative and artistic ways I can transform our my home and community so benefit from the "happy returns" of my actions.

The Green Awakening: Touching Earth with Our Hearts

2009-12-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

Years ago a Buddhist monk, called me "kusala". This comes from the Pali word meaning wholesome and skillful. Also "Kusala karma" or "kamma" is characterized by this moral, foundation or speech bound to result in happiness.

Four days ago I arrived at the Bhavana Society in West Virginia to reuse and e-cycle their electronic waste. Now this same monk, Bhikkhu Buddharakkhi recruited me to help him draft his speech for a presentation at a conference called, “Addressing Climate Change by Awakening to Oneness."

On Monday December 7th, World Spiritual Leaders Gather for the COP15 – The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Global Peace Initiative of Women in New York are meeting: “for deeper understanding of interconnection is to know that all that is comes from a single source. To harm one part is to harm the whole. By knowing this we will naturally create a more conscious and caring way of living on the earth.”

So below is what resulted from this collective "kusala" or skillful effort;

The Green Awakening: Touching Earth with Our Hearts- Following the Noble Eight-fold Path

The Buddha name means the awakened one; his awakening happened during his own climate crisis when he touched the earth to bear witness! Today’s climate crisis requires a “Green Awakening” so that we are ONE with all things.

The Buddha offered practical guidelines on how to respond to our present crisis in his teachings of the Noble Eightfold Path. Let’s us build a new green mind-set or house. This blueprint provides clear instruction as to how to awaken and best respond. Climate change can be addressed using this profound wisdom with simple environment-friendly Eightfold techniques.

We are all interconnected as one when we minimize waste and maximize well being.

Eightfold Path basics are below in three groups;

• FOUNDATION - 1) Virtue/Ethics Group: Skillful Speech, Action and Livelihood:

• WALLS - 2) Concentration Group: Skillful Energy, Mindfulness and Concentration

• ROOF - 3) Wisdom Group- Skillful Understanding and Thought

This mental home will protect us from the harsh weather elements caused by climate change.

FOUNDATION: Cultivating Virtue– Skillful Speech, Action and Livelihood are the ethical basis and support for developing this home.

Our foundation becomes solid with right speech, actions and livelihood translating into virtuous practices and wholesome deeds. Ethical conduct happens when we treat all things and ourselves with compassion. We cultivate virtue when we care and respect for all things are one.

Skillful Speech: We must speak the truth with heart and meaning so as to unite. Carefully listen so as to clarify the facts from fiction. Speak what is of benefit.

Skillful Action: Show reverence for all things, we must protect and preserve all forms of living beings. We must end instead end whenever we can.

Skillful Livelihood: Living in an eco-friendly way. Living simply so others can simply live- thus insuring future generations. Causing no harm with your life or creating future problems.

WALLS: CONCENTRATION GROUP- Skillful Energy, Mindfulness and Concentration: All these factors work together. - Walls hold or cherish this place and create sacred space.

Skillful Energy: Prevent, Preserve, Protect and Prosper. Prevent climate change, preserve our resources, protect ourselves and prosper from these deeds. At our Buddhist Centre, we employ numerous conservation and best management practices to show our reverence for our earth and ourselves from composting to solar heating.

Skillful Mindfulness: Remembering and observing what is happening now. It is non-judgmental, present moment awareness. So mindfulness is the new mental blueprint to securely build our sacred mental house.

Skillful Concentration: Unifying your intention so you pay attention in the moment. Focus clearly to a wholesome mind-set increasing your mental power. This mental power will cultivate wisdom and understanding to penetrate into the problem of climate change. Getting the walls squared requires concentration.

3) ROOF: WISDOM Group - Skillful Understanding and Thought: Interconnecting it all together. SEPARATION = SUFFERING

Now that we have the foundation (virtues) and walls (concentration) what are we missing? We all need protection from Climate Change or a cap for our head. The roof encloses our home. Wisdom via skillful Understanding and Thought caps this structure. It interconnects the walls and foundation together.

Skillful Understanding: The Buddha laid down the teaching on “Dependent Co-arising” - nothing is independent in the world- “everything is interconnected”. For instance if your mindless your roof will leak and damage your walls and foundation.

Skillful Thought: Friendliness, generosity, and compassion. These are roofing materials safeguarding the home.

Call for Action
To address climate change, we must skillfully think before we act. Virtuous thoughts will secure our Foundation through skillful speech, actions and livelihood. Our Walls of Concentration create skillful energy, mindfulness and focus. Our Roof brings it together through skillful understanding and thought.

Remember you awaken when you minimize waste and maximize well-being.

• Show reverence with generous ways, right action and speech securing a firm foundation cultivating virtue;

• Concentrate on harmonizing by holding or creating space creating the walls of loving kindness. Love for earth and ourselves as one with an attitude of gratitude.

• Finally, Compassion balances our Wisdom by understanding our interconnection and also generous nature.

We can respond to climate change with the tools to overcome GREED, HATRED AND DELUSION WITH NEED, LOVE AND VISION.

Take the word EARTH and take the H from the end of it and put it to the front. It spells HEART. Now let us touch our hearts together to express ONE response to our GREEN AWAKENING. TOUCH OUR EARTH WITH YOUR HEART on the Noble Eightfold Path.

Courage,Respect, Wisdom, Love & Acceptance: Culitivating My Higher Self

2009-11-23T10:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I attended a transformational workshop. A group of friends brought together in a sacred circle had to relate to the following words: courage, respect, wisdom with love, and acceptance. I welcome you to experiment what each of these words meas for you and then see how they interconnect. Also this exercise teaches me about the dual nature of my thoughts, notions and actions and their cause and effects and affects.

Courage to listen to and follow my heart is my life challenge. Quieting my doubting and harsh judging mind requires a bold intention not to fall back in my old unskillful patterns. When I remember that my crazy thoughts do not define me but are just crazy thoughts. If I awake up to see that I am not my fearful thoughts I cleanse my soul from these deamons that so grip me. As I cultivate courage I become more mindful of all my fear-based thoughts, emotions and actions. Also I begin to explore more skillful ways I can be open hearted.

Respect for me was to see the reverence in all things and make good boundaries so that do not reject my higher self. Also respect is about empathy and observing where people and beings are so not to cause them alarm or harm. Ultimately this comes to self-respect since whatever action we have upon others it will eventually come back to oneself. Examining the nature of reality and how I delude my self is a lesson in respect. Honoring what is I find deeper respect to go forth.

The love of wisdom is called philosophy. However passionate ideas without corresponding compassionate deeds truly embodies wise love. Wisdom for me is about concentrating on a profound intention and love then is paying attention to this insight with a boundless heart. Wisdom for me is about what simply benefits and is best to do in any given circumstance. Sometimes doing nothing is very wise.

When I remember to focus on emptying my mind to only what has meaning and heart is another path to loving wisely or wisely loving.

Finally acceptance is one of life's most important quest. The path of acceptance is a gateway to my freedom. What I can and not control and profound insight over my control issues leads me to a more accepting way.

The Buddha, said that all things are unconditional or impermanent and his last word were , "Conditioned things are perishable; with vigilance strive to succeed."

Acceptance becomes more vivid for me when I see that everything rises and and falls, it all passes. This does not mean I do not try to change things or accept them as they are. It is about me exploring whether my decisions show courage, respect, love, and wisdom with my circumstances. I accept the mystery of life when I observe the universal law of the universe, however, I must listen to what spirit tells me. The grey area is that acceptance is exploring the razor's edge of what I can and unable to do. Letting go and not trying to take control but see what self-control I have.

My direct experience gives me my best wisdom of what works and what does not. If we do not venture out then I will not know what comes next given my decision. Acceptance for me is that I know myself and my circumstance then I must have no expectations about my outcome if I take a new approach to what I am exploring. I accept there are the known and unknown depending upon my curiosity to find out. I may not like what happens but the sooner I accept what is and what I chose to do the happier my life becomes.

We live a constant state of change. Whether I have courage or fear, respect or disrespect, wisdom or ignorance, love or hate and acceptance or rejection all these mind states come and go. As I find greater harmony and peace, I behold a higher self. When I exercise courage, respect, wisdom, love and acceptance I nurture this finer sense of being.

Mary Oliver and Our Journey

2009-11-07T19:39:00.000-08:00

Mary Oliver's poem, "The Journey," urges us to make a profound choice. Explore the at soul level what has meaning and spirit.

Listen to what we know deep down in our heart. Her voices that shout their bad advice represent our doubting minds. When we stay the course to do what we have to do then we can be transformed. Only when we do the only thing we can do we find ultimate salvation.

Let's celebrate the very thing we can save!

The Journey
Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
What you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice−
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff finger
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.

It was already late
Enough, and a wild night,
And the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and their was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
and kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into a world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do−
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Answering the Why?

2009-09-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

All my life I have been questioning why I am here. Attempting to find the meaning of things has been a long and arduous journey. Certainly suffering is so prevalent in today’s culture including a mindset that we are separate from all things. No doubt that love is the antidote to the many pains and difficulties I face. Also compassion is the answer to so many problems and obstacles I face.

When I find myself sad, depressed or out of sorts it is because I have loss my focus on how sacred the small things are. A glass of water, a walk outside, the simple taste of food and numerous other mundane things I can take for granted. Gratitude is usually at the core of me finding happiness.

When I awaken during my daily life I realize that choice is crucial to my inner freedom. Do I remember that the here and now is a gift we call the present? Unconscious acts can put me into a prison of thought and past stories. Yes an active life offers me possibility to create and further enjoy, incorporating this option is crucial to my happiness.

The possibility of transforming work into play frees me to venture forth. Motivated by inspiration opposed coming from a fear based form of desperation. My attitude is a choice to determine things are not a curse rather a blessings. So when I accepting that all external circumstances I have no control over I free myself. Internal ones are what I must focus on to achieve greater liberation.

Meaning comes from this awareness of the chance of achieving an inner greatness or joy. Awakening to the opportunity of our destiny can be celebrates by acts of kindness and beholding beauty everywhere. Such profound attentiveness or I call “listening” can take me out of my boredom or pointless mindset that creates a toxic spirit. Conscious of the now and future possibilities combine both our primal and divine connection.
Key to my liberation is the constant challenge to transform my attitude. From what is wrong to what is right, from being a victim to one who is blessed. Not that I ignore despair or worry rather understand that to focus on these unwholesome mind states does me tremendous disservice. Shifting from what I can get from life to what I can give life is a case in point. Seeing the promise of every difficult situation having a silver lining instead of rain cloud is a skillful technique. Life is filled with suffering, however, how I can minimize my contribution to it is a fundamental goal to concentrate on.

By observing life is filled with cycles of joy, tears, pain, life and death then this big picture allows me to see the unique balance of things. Expecting more from life is self destructive when we are not of service. Suicide is self centered since people become blinded to what is expected of them in the future. The mystery of what happens in the next moment is a treasure. We are constantly working out or exercise our options. As Nietzche said, “that which does not kill me makes me stronger.” Pain is growth, resistance to life is suffering.

Acts that bring forth bare survival provide immediate reminders of the meaning of life. Sacrifice plant seeds for the future for we have let go with material things in order to attain spiritual ones. Did we live for nothing or gave something in the process? Is not life all about a celebration of Thanksgiving? Is not well being about generous acts? Simple kindness is a powerful and meaningful link. Being human means to give and so get. The human soul is not just a taker or user. When we wrong others we do so to our inner self and so when we right others.

Viktor Frankl years advocated “logotherapy “where we focus on the meaning of human existence as well as our search for meaning. This primary motivational force is not invented rather detected or to morally behave according to one’s conscience. The experience of living in a Jewish concentration camp forced Frankl to survive in the worst conditions by finding meaning. Not some abstract concept yet rather a specific vocation or concrete mission in life to fulfill a concrete task. Also, Joseph Campbell calls this “following our bliss.” Each one of us has the chance to enjoy a unique and specific opportunity for becoming fully responsible to his/her divine spirit. This is not a societal judgment rather an inner revelation. Freedom is our responding to one’s ability to be. Each of our life’s tasks presents us the chance to liberate our soul. Otherwise we become imprisoned by a mindless and soulless existence.

Frankl said human existence cannot be found through self–actualization rather self-transcendence. Self actualization becomes a side effect of self–transcendence. Meaning is discovering three ways: suffering; doing a deed; and by experiencing a value (i.e. acts of love). Seeking meaning is not about seeking pleasure and avoiding pleasure yet about seeing how suffering provides clues about what life is all about. Just like when you can embrace death you can find how to live so by looking how we suffer we can find how to be happy. Just the simple act of mindful being we can result in a meaningful existence. Once an individual may transcend themselves they find a responsibleness and determine their very being. Yes, there is meaning if we work toward paying attention to what is happening now.

Developing More Wholesome Skills

2009-08-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

Everyday I wish to challenged myself with becoming more skillfull so to stimulate what is more wholesome. Certainly I wish not to consciously invite the opposite extreme of fostering negative stuff into my life like harmful things, people and situations to poison me.

Creating wholesome acts cultivates happiness and prosperity for me. By deeply seeing through my ignorance and delusion I can engage in living in a wiser and more mindful life. The Buddha years ago developed four foundations to mindfullness. Becoming more aware of how I cling or avert to people, places, or things allows me to explore ways I can see what is true. Such truth can liberate me from bad habits or redirect me from going into areas that increase my suffering.

To see the truth, I must learn how to calmly concentrate. The Buddha once said one who concentrates sees correctly. By providing myself a more loving friendly setting I can relax my mind to become more insightful. Such inquiry allows me to observe how both my mind and body can better work together. Also such investigation uncovers past habits or conditions that are unhelpful. Exploring my mind I see both how it works and its interconnection to my world. Also this profound vision provides me a portal to both the sources of my happiness and causes of my suffering. Kindness is another skillful technique that increases my well being allowing me to foster greater love towards myself and all beings.

Becoming mindful of my body I can arrive in my body through just simple breathing or explore the rapidly changing sensations and vibrations of my body. Yes, all things come and go! Mindful of my feelings whether if I they are positive, negative or neutral regarding to taste, touch, feel, sound, smell or whatever mind objects provides me the opportunity to explore one part of my self so to inspire it to a higher level of selflessness. When I become mindful of perceptions it allows me to see other perspectives, possibilities, potentials and new choices. Mindfull of volitional formations provides me with understanding how I act or react in all my relationships. Finally increased mindfulness increases my consciousness to see how to light up my shadows containing with ignorance, greed and delusion.

Finally, things can be unsatisfactory, however, more wholesome skills can lessen my suffering. Also I can chose to cultivate a greater sense of well being. The key for me is to remember to pay attention to this wholesome intention. Heaven or hell can happen within a blink of an eye whether I am asleep or awake. My daily challenge is: what I am doing, saying or thinking is of benefit in any given moment? Being aware and employing these skills rewards me since I become more wholesome and free.

My Beloved Home

2009-07-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

My heart beats sparkling glacial water
Down from the mountain peaks I marvel
Into a lush valley of sweet fruits and forests
Ah wind, oh breath, gently swaying my trees

Touch my soul, let my feet earth

Once a star I who shine now as just dust
Spun out of a silver web from a past universe
Heaven’s diamond light plants me into the ground
For each is born by the moist rays of the sun

Connect my soul, let your feet earth

Our fingers grasp into the dark rocky land
Our prayers plant new seeds of hope and love
As the clouds cry out with soaking rain
A rainbow flowers upon the horizon

Celebrate my soul, let your feet earth
Upon my beloved home

Seeds for the Future

2009-06-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago Thomas Berry passed away. This visionary left us with a legacy of earth wisdom. Berry wrote in “The New Story" from his book The Dream of the Earth, “The basic mood of the future might well be one of confidence in the continuing revelation that takes place in and through the Earth.”

This year Paul Hawken provided profound insights in his commencement address to the University of Portland Class of 2009. He inspired the graduates by saying:

YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done…
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

Hawken urges that the youth of today strive to connect instead of control, and that they participate in a type of Mercy Corps working behind the scenes to heal this wounded planet. So we are invited to be apart of a global movement to defend the rights of those who do not even necessarily know that we are championing them and their world. As we plant the seeds for the future we can transform our economy by healing the future instead of stealing it. Mr. Hawkins goes on to point out that we can either create new assets for the future, or we can use those assets of the future that restore instead of exploit. Working for the earth is a way to be rich, not a way to get rich.

The final lines in Hawken’s speech of May 3rd, 2009 says it all.
Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.
Let’s pray that the youth of today feel so inspired!

Earth Heart Healing

2009-04-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

Rumi once wrote “there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” This for me is a natural remedy for my “dis-being-at-ease” or mental disease. I sometimes visualize a vibrant white light with mystical power mending my broken heart. My deepest suffering comes from my trauma associated with my family of origin and what we are doing to this planet. Accepting this suffering is my first step toward liberation. The power of healing spirit surrounds us if only we can skillfully perform a sort of heart surgery. Since all our “issues are in the tissues” what about the ongoing involuntary circulatory pump that symbolizes not just our compassion but also the source of courage.

I believe we are at critical time where the spirit of earth is knocking at our individual and collective doors. Can we allow it in?

This spirit is wonderfully described in Rumi’s poem “Guest House.”

This being human is a guest house.
Every day a new arrival.

A joy, depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame , the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
Because each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.

Have you ever sensed that you have guide from beyond helping you? Not as a form of mental torture yet a door to freedom. The hardest thing in my life is to face my darkest shadow. So I welcome my guide. The question is can I quiet my mind and listen to my heart for this too is my guide. For me my torture can only be calmed by allowing spirit to come in and touch my soul. This spirit comes from the mystery; the wind or just simple beautiful bird at your window. Can we be awake and listen to its silence to let it in?

Sometimes I get very anxious when I look back on all the lost opportunities I have had due to this shadow of fear. From loss, grief, sadness, and the hardest place the unborn part of my heart. Flipping to the opposite side of this emotion, I wish to liberate myself by opening my heart to a new place. Beyond, forgiveness, shame to place of possibility where I can serve what is true deep in my soul.

Only if I am gentle with myself and not so self absorbed can this miracle occur. I guess a revolution of kindness is at our door step waiting to enter if we can just trust our guides. Yes, people are generous in crisis, such as hurricanes, death and many other forms of natural and human forms of disasters. However, our very earth and body are screaming out to be seen, heard, healed and prayed for.

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. If I can show up with the good and bad while treating them as equals. Showing up to what Awakening to my heartbeat I can learn how to manage it and reverse the damage stress and worry can cause. I believe the all wise and enlightened being have found peace this way. 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 I learned about the power of this emotional regulation or mending our broken hearts. Just 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 can how to engage in my heart more I bring my emotion, body, and mind into balance. Quieting my mind and listening to my heart brings focused clarity, optimal health, and high performance. Also allowing me to accept my shadows provides me with the courage to be present to even the greatest things that haunt me. Whether things are a blessing or a curse, I challenge what Rumi suggests,

Be grateful for whatever comes.
Because each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.

Overcoming the Inner Critic

2009-02-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

There is no greater foe than my inner judging voice which may be self destructive. Such self hatred comes from a sense of shame and guilt that has deep roots. As a child I have developed this form of critical voice since it also had benefits. However this primal force can become brutal, vicious and saps my energy creating a form of self anger. This can result in depression and a veil of wrongness.

My spirit becomes in jeopardy when this inner critic creates a fog around truth. It can disguise my reality and an act of self recrimination can devalue my very soul. We also live in a critical culture where we reinforce “what is not” instead of “what is.”

This whole process results from the simple act of judging instead of observing. When I get too personal then I get down on myself stimulating a negative spiral. Understanding the ramifications of this bad habit can make the difference between night and day.

Self talk develops in early childhood by what messages we are given and evolves as we grow. It takes many forms from rationalization, analysis, justification, questioning, scold, gossip, doubting and many other mental forms. I know that as a child I sent myself numerous unhelpful inner signals.

So identifying how we judge ourselves becomes the first step for us to lessen unwholesome facets of this negative mental talk. Simply becoming aware when we judge ourselves is essential to not becoming entrapped by this state. Also understanding how such an inner attack sucks my energy and depresses me alerts me its harmful result. Investigating such self talk can prevent such emotional impact. Finally when I observe not judge myself I find myself more in an acceptance than rejecting mind set.

Our judgments have roots in what we believe as true. Such beliefs can imprison one that since such truths creates doubts and confusion. So challenging the very truth of such judgment is critical to get to the facts of such assumed truth. Finally, my attitude and relationship regarding of such judgment determines how deeply I may become emotionally distraught by such judgment.

From my earliest days I have adopted negative self talk such, “come on stupid,” “you’re an idiot” degrading my self esteem. Awareness of such self deprecating talk is the beginning to gaining a more wholesome ego. As a child I created self berating ways that have taken a toll. Instead of standing up for myself I would berate myself. Such judging measures would subtract not add to my confidence. Suppressing my energy and self esteem increases my descent into the negative.

Now I have the opportunity to better reflect what is true regarding self talk. If I am alert to my old patterns there are many chances for me to counteract this tendency to verbally beat myself up. My happiness and well being is at stake if I do not confront this pernicious habit. I can look at things two ways. One depletes and the other offers possibility. Even though the choice should be obvious putting this into practice is another matter. In closing reframing how I relate to my inner voice is vital to my future. Being kinder and more gentle with myself requires me to focus on what is right instead of what is wrong.

Celebrating Your Higher Self

2009-01-16T06:27:00.000-08:00

There is no better feeling when I tap my higher self. When I do not separate myself from my world things divine begin to happen. There are my many sacred ways enter this place. When I am in nature, sharing the company of others, singing, dancing, meditation, prayer, pausing or other magical encounters.

This sense of oneness arises when I fully show up. Also, when I am not being preoccupied, rushed, and anxious or in some place where I am not totally there. I become more vital with this natural flow of experience. This non separate self is about arriving where into the present.

The question for me is how to train myself to show us to life and to constantly remember not to be caught in up in "the many stories" or self talk that my ego slips into. One trick for me is to fell less in my head focus on my body sensations.

My favorite activity is go to the woods and allow of my senses to smell, hear, feel, see and taste what is happening outside at that very moment. How liberated this makes me feel when I can simply show up!

However, my mind is a very tricky and complicated thing. My thinking is like a radio on scan going to hundreds of different channels of reception. My secretion of thoughts is like my constant production of cells and enzymes. While thinking is necessary, part of which we are, it use to drive me crazy that way its goes non stop and repeats most of the same old thousands of thoughts every day. When I do not get so identified by my mind and tap into awareness I free myself from unnecessary inner dialogue

I have found that when I look closely at many of my thoughts is there is some form of dissatisfaction. Also I recognize that wanting drives much my minds as does fears. The incessant flow of thoughts can create the concepts about how life is, instead of directly allowing our senses to experience reality.

Much of my thinking can become self-absorbed with what is wrong we me, what’s lacking and other uncertain ideas that divide me from what is truly going on. This process can disconnect me instead of engage me with my world because my judgments create a separate reality. The simple act of observing allows me to see what is happening. While over judging prevents me from showing up to seeing the divine.

When I transform my mind I can lessen my creation of suffering. Also, I can discover what is true and enjoy a richer life.

When I can see, learn and accept my thought patterns then I can awaken. Next I can not be so identified by my thoughts and become free of them. I make my own mental prisons and I can unlock their very doors. How can I best show up to see the truth of my thoughts? When I observe the nature of my mind and see its pattern then I know what to expect. I easily become identified with my thinking and I need to remember that this is not who I am. Also, thoughts will pass with time so I must just watch and wait. Finally, my thoughts are like my breathing, I cannot fully control them so I must not take my thinking so personal.

I must focus on the hundreds ways of relaxing. For example riding a horse forces me to be relax and mindful. If I think about negative or fear things the horse picks up on this and may panic with me on it. Just like if I am rock climbing I am placed in a situation of being in the moment of face the consequences of falling. The latter is not the option I want to focus on.

In closing my higher self is about me becoming more whole and or holy. My higher self is a whole which unites the sum of my parts. Let’s celebrate showing up and pay full attention to what truly matters our higher self!

Resolve and Intention for 2009

2008-12-20T08:31:00.000-08:00

Every year I celebrate the New Year with the intention of testing how far I can extend my heart. Exercising greater compassion is a present I give my self for the next year. By quieting my mind and allowing my heart to extend I celebrate greater mystery and wonder. Anxiety and despair can easily overtake me with negative critical and cynical mind-sets. This time of tremendous stress can alienate me unless I reconnect more actively with my natural world. Mental and material attitudes can rob me of greater spiritual experiences.

Lao Tzu named this experience of unable to describe things as the Tao, “I do not know what to call it.” All things or the source is both shapeless and silent. Chang Tzu described as, “It is not a thing itself.”

Allowing my heart to explore the space between nothing and everything I find an ocean deep of compassion. This space of emptiness can allow me to accept life and death as all things arise and fall. Simply nothing is separated and everything is interconnected.

This transformation transcends me to a higher self. Lao Tzu described this, “to embrace all is to be selfless.” So when I remember my being and shift out of becoming I better see my universe. This shows me life is filled with endless circles defining time and space where there is no beginning or end. Serenity comes to me when I from observe this harmonic process. When I surrender this natural chaotic order everything falls into place in the present. The future and past are just clouds in the mind. Flowing with this immediate attention to what is happening at this moment a doorway of freedom opens. Now liberated I am transformed by this magic of acceptance.

So I pray to the four directions to behold me with:

1. Self love
2. spiritual protection
3. gratitude
4. divine guidance

May I celebrate that I;

- Listen deeper
- Forgive more
- Find what is true
- Embrace my shadow
- Stimulate self kindness
- Venture being vulnerable
- Risk personal heartbreak
- Profound caring for others
- Freely experience experience

May we find greater loving friendly insights Allowing the emergence of heaven and earth forces to interconnect I can expand my love affair with this universe. May all things be free and benefit from selfless compassion. May you find greater self kindness, harmony, peace and happiness for 2009!

Devotion to the Truth

2008-09-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

I must face my future challenges with a passion for the truth. However, this process tests my personal comfort level. My own search to find out what is going on has made me feel vulnerable and raw. Awakening to what is happening now in this country requires much courage. Denial is a subtle form of violence in America. Ignorance, greed and other habitual forces are undermining our collective need to preserve our future. Our societal love of the “status quo” and aversion to change is a hidden form of emotional terrorism. Our greatest threat today is our honest relationship with ourselves and our world.

It is time for me to address my crisis so to be honest with myself. This also pertains to acknowledging our collective heart. Somehow if I allow fear, doubt and other negative thoughts take over then I lose my way. I have attempted to push my limits including extensive exploration of my consciousness

To be fully present with today’s turmoil, I intend to act from a sense of inspiration instead of desperation. Fostering many wise teachings I must transform my life style even further to show greater respect for all places, people and things. Moreover, I now must redefine both my relationship with myself. Also when I remember to serve our fragile planet I help myself since we are not separate. May I show devotion to this awakening and seek what is true. I wish to be free and live in better way!

“WE MUST BE THE CHANGE WE SEE IN THE WORLD” - Gandhi

Embracing Our Light

2008-08-26T18:18:00.000-07:00

Our deepest fear is that we not inadequate. Our deepest fear is we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. - Marrianne Williamson.

We are experiencing a mysterious spiritual celebration. We are blessed by an opportunity to shine to our fullest potential. This wonderful party is about savoring, enjoying and connecting to life by coming out of the darkness of denial with a new fearlessness for what is true. Otherwise humanity’s selfish greed may delude us into a collective suicide ignoring very life itself.

Our web of interrelationships is awareness of our sacred soul or all things; microorganisms, animals, plants, rocks, soil, air, water and all other non-living and living forms. What touches the core of being is a when we feel the grace of being one with our sacred soul. There are so many beautiful ways to develop reverence for our magical time here on earth with each breath of remembrance. May the light shine on all.

How can we find this harmonious alignment with our universe? This comes from the awareness that the universe is kind not brutal. It is an act of dying and becoming reborn by letting go our separated self to see that we’re all a part of a greater self. Just reflecting about the light coming from all the stars above transforms our lonely isolated self into one cosmic connection. As we reflect by the light of the heavens, we are earth stars dancing in this celestial mist where all things come and go. May we be guided in the spirit of love, joy, and peace so to find a deep inner quiet of our oneness.

A Buddhist " Shambhala Prophecy" predicts that we must become warriors engaged by compassion. Also insight emerges that both tempers our passion and provides clarity by recognizing that all things are interdependent. We only can celebrate our world by lessening the "mind-made" dangers threatening our Earth. Realizing each of us is this Gaia we find that cherishing our world and selves is one and the same. Let’s inspired to give all our soul to something much greater than just ourselves. Let's no fear lighting our own light!

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

Returning to Our Earth

2008-08-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

We all come from the earth and some day we will all return to it. Yet, how often many of us forget and neglect the most important thing: how we live. We are at a critical time in the history of our earth. Can we foresee and change our lifestyle? May we emulate and respect nature and not destroy ourselves. Indigenous people have always believed that they belong to the land not that the land belongs to them. Our neglect of the earth is now making this planet unlivable for many beings. What action must we take to ensure the survival of all of earth's creatures? Our ancestors left us a legacy of 60,000 years of wisdom and instructions on how to care for the earth. Shamans remind us that interdependence is essential for survival. Now we can celebrate by art, music, dance, singing and other rituals to how best to show our gratitude for our world.

Teach your children. What we have taught our children- that the earth is our mother.
Whatever befalls the earth. Befalls the sons and daughters of the earth
If men spit upon the ground, They spit upon themselves.
This we know. The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth. This we know.
All things are connected Like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth, Befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.
We did not weave the web of life, We are merely a stand in it. Whatever we do to the stand in it.
Whatever we do to the web, We do to ourselves. - Chief Seattle

We need to honor our ancestors’ great teachings and, by doing so, plant seeds of hope for future generations. Exploring the archetypes of the Grateful Warrior, the Compassionate Healer, the Balanced Visionary, and the Wise Teacher leads to a four-fold path*. Each archetype offers wisdom to help us make choices that can benefit our world.

* The Grateful Warrior’s way is to know the right use of power -- to show up!
* The Compassionate Healer’s way is to extend love -- to pay attention to what has heart and meaning!
* The Balanced Visionary expresses creativity -- to give voice to what we see!
* The Wise Teacher’s way is to practice wisdom -- to become open to all possibilities and unattached to outcome!

Let’s preserve our Earth and respect it now! We have the opportunity to shift our consciousness and life with nature. As we becoming more mindful we see all things as sacred. Such reverence increases our connection to land and we celebrate greater well being. We all return back to earth so may we celebrate our relationship with all things with precious reverence. Get native now!

I have come to terms with the future. From this day onward I will walk easy on the Earth. Plant trees. Kill no living things. Live in Harmony with all creatures. I will restore the earth where I am. Use no more of its resources than I need. And listen, listen to what it is telling me. - MJ Slim Hooey

Free to Respond

2008-05-15T11:03:00.001-07:00

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death is but Crossing the World, as Friends do the Seas; they live in one another still.” - William Penn

Every moment we are alive on this planet we have a choice to react or respond. For me, to react comes out of desperation contrasted by responding coming from a place of inspiration. We can create heaven or hell depending upon our choices. We can be self absorbed or engage with our community. Can we realize from understanding our ego the importance to behold something greater then the individual self? It is time we respond and plant new seeds of awakening within each of us.

The American spirit has been both kind and selfish. It is time we culitivate greater kindness so to inspire greater well being. We must not arrogantly act interested only in ourselves. We are in a critical human evolutionary period of consciousness. We are not children and must mature so to be fully responsible. Our actions must show reflect greater awareness towards how we affect our interconnection with all things. Can we unmask our unconscious fears, to truly be the greatest of our potential?

Self delusion, greed, hatred, envy, anger and host of other ills terrorize this possibility. Let’s clear away the debris of these selfish emotions and allow new light to shine. We are on the threshold of tremendous fury caused by want, despair and anger. We have to find the calm in this storm by showing compassion and insight. Being able to realize how to make this transition is why we must seek to better respond not react.

How can we balance both thought and feeling that allows us to act free? Yes, we can touch grace if we can see both sides of the coin. We can have the opportunity to see both life’s blessings and its curse then we can find a great harmony in intricate web of life. To be responsible is our path to liberate us from the ghosts that haunt us from our past blunders. If we practice forgiveness we gain stimulate increased happiness.

Tough love is about developing healthy boundaries with all our relationships. Understanding how to do what will benefit is what our freedom requires. So to best respect all our religions we have to be tolerant to worship side by side. May we vow to pray together and not prey on each other. We must work for greater justice so to promote widespread peace and harmony.

Our natural world cooperates and works together, and so must we to survive. Our collective human heart must find many guiding lights. Especially since much darkness shrouds us. Many have become blinded by their self-interest holding our progress forward. Again, we must seek a higher level of relating to endure these times.

By cultivating new friendships we achieve what we need - community. The health of human race depends on how we treat everything around us - people, places and things. Developing tough love to preserve and protect all things is required if humans wish to prosper. Without some reverence for such simple relationships we may not continue to be. Empowering ourselves and others to see our present danger can help us overcome our many self-destruction patterns.

Awakening and being personally responsible is the first step to liberating our world. When we react we separate and disconnect ourselves from life. Making a simple choice to respond instead of reacting we realize our inter-connection to the divine.

Free yourself from reacting to those shadows that imprison you. Act and benefit by becoming more responsible. Consciously responding to our daily challenges we both liberate and increase the quality of our lives.

Cherishing My Spirit

2008-05-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

Whenever I pay attention deeply to my soul I feel a profound sense of beauty. Nothing is more priceless when I pay attention to my heart at its deepest beat. Beyond the sound of this pulsating I hear faint things. When I change my focus and hear my intuition speaking then I welcome my spirit.

What an invaluable thing our soul is. Also how easily we ignore it, become preoccupied or too busy to cultivate another level of our existence. My life becomes better aligned when I listen to my spirit.

This process introduces me not to just my spirit but to the great spirits within and without this world. This last statement can challenge the comfort zone of you the reader to say what? Many people lack to courage to be vulnerable so to tune themselves to the non-ordinary and venture in this unknown.

Is not your life a mystery? If you think let’s be rational then you are missing the whole point. The spiritual world is just that the world of spirits. Such instructions, signs, messages, teaching or whatever form spirit communicates is goes back to very beginning.

From our rich past we have developed an understanding ancestral traditions from earth-based societies. Venturing and experiencing some of these rituals can help us reconnect to earth in an intimate and healing way.

Another rich spiritual exercise is when I become more aware of my words. Before the white man natives on this land spoke in a manner that their words had greater meaning. Besides their greater sense of the interconnectiveness of things, indigenous people’ word had a greater sense of value. A friend of mine calls this credibility when the word was honored as something sacred. For me this skill creates a powerful and transformative shift in my world. For me this act is a soul awakening.

No word exists in the hundreds of Native American languages that come close to our definition of art. There is no separation between art and life. Art. Beauty and spirituality are firmly intertwined in life since there are no words to separate them.

What this calls for me is a profound listening to what the soul sincerely needs, the sacred connection of what is true. Just as indigenous people understood we must taking off the societal mask and unveil what false identity we have created. Once we discover our authentic being we find the courage to get out of our habitual roles and the comfort of the familiar. Beyond what our cultural and family conditions are a new freedom may be found.

When we shift this identity we welcome the “we” from the ego self from seeking acceptance and approval to a greater understanding of what we were pretending or hiding from at some unconscious level. Great determination is required to make such a transition since in my own experience I become very vulnerable. Like-minded supportive friends are required for such a transformative journey to this higher self so to enable this spiritual exploration.

Remembering to have courage and trust is critical for me in this loving-friendly adventure. Yes, taking this risk has bountiful rewards. Cherishing my soul is one my precious gifts to fill my life with light.

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

Awakening to Our Full Potential

2008-05-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

Today we live in times of economic worry, environmental destruction and many natural disasters. However, as Gary Zukav writes in “Soul to Soul,” on page 179 under the heading, WHY STRIVE FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH IF THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END?

No one’s destiny has been written. You are born with potential, not a limited destiny. Whether or not you reach the fullest potential that is available to you is a matter of choices that you make.

I challenge you to the question of your potential choices. I ask myself the same question. How can I best achieve my full potential? This journey begins for me by quieting my mind and listening to my heart.

For me giving my best to the world is a gift that is return in what I call “Happy Returns.” I have been involved with all aspects of recycling so naturally I refer to the three R’s for guidance.

1) Reduce my suffering by giving my best to the world so to reap its rewards.
2) Reuse my many positive qualities I possess such as joy, love and enthusiasm.
3) Recycle things as sacred instead of abuse these same things by being mindless.

Happy Returns is about creating an attitude of gratitude. Also it aids me to explore more creative ways to cherish people, energy and resources. To reach my full potential I must cultivate my virtue, time and or my talents. I intend get more than just the return on my investment but the return of my life investment.

As a life long tennis player and teacher I focus on giving “happy returns” both on and off the courts. There are many similarities to playing tennis and serving our beloved earth. One is keeping things in play. Another is to learn how to better serve. The ultimate game in my life now is living to my full potential or giving my best in all aspects of my life.

I invite you to give back to life and celebrate your many Happy Returns! Nurture your full potential. Reduce your suffering; reuse your love and joy; and recycle so to best use not abuse things as sacred. Let's develop our full potential by serving and benefiting life now.

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

United Nation's Sabbath Prayer

2008-04-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

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."

Training Our Heart to Quiet Our Mind

2008-04-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-25T05:08:00.000-07:00

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

Heartfullness

2008-04-19T04:57:00.000-07:00

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.

Focusing with Our Body

2008-01-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

In order for us to survive in the world we have to concentrate. This skill of being aware in every moment is essential. Simple things like riding a bicycle or driving a car are examples as to why it is important we are mindful at the moment. As we expand our awareness we will discover a new level of happiness. If we do not pay attention to what we are doing we may harm or destroy ourselves or others. Bringing a focus to our physical experience with keen awareness on how our body feels in the moment is how any great performer excels. If you ever climb up a ladder you understand why it is important to be aware of each step.

Developing a sense of feeling what is going on in the body is not the same thing as just feeling one’s emotions. Cultivating this body feeling one can observe, not judge, experience. This is the key step for us to discover ourselves from a deeper perspective. Examination of this body/feeling takes us beyond our emotional stories and the concepts that can imprison our minds.

Concentrating is about listening to oneself at a core level. By becoming more open to feeling our body we gain a greater understanding of what is happening within us and we are freed from our mind chatter. Such a simple practice of checking into our body can provide us the opportunity to quiet our mind and just hear every beat of our heart.

Concentration requires us to train our mind to pay close attention to what is present in one’s experience at any given second. Such practice can liberate us from, not only negative thoughts, but the mind noise that prevents us from truly seeing what this moment is about.

Experiment on concentrating by first getting yourself in a comfortable sitting posture. Next place your attention to come into the 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 your 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 to this bodily quality become curious about it, yet limit thought to a specific texture, temperature, and the quality of this body feeling (e.g. tired, restless, energetic, nervous, pulsating). What is happening now in your body? Now wait several minutes and see if what is happening is still happening in the same way. Does it change much or just shift slightly? Is there a kind of easing or opening, a sense of being truly recognized—like being lost?

The power of concentrating comes when you shift from your head to your body. With caring and interested attention do you notice what is now going on with your body? Get out of your head and reframe things with what is going on inside your physical self beyond emotions. Invite yourself to become playful and fully explore all aspects of your body. You can bring a creative quality to this exercise. Do you see the mystery of not knowing? Can you observe your body like a changing weather system? Do you hear your stomach making noises; have you changed your breathing. or do you feel some discomfort with you legs? As you feel these changes see what other things come along with this. If you are tempted to judge, then you are falling back into thinking.

Now can you find that being kind and gentle with yourself is key to this process? Do you feel a tightness around any of your muscles? What happens if you let this dissolve? Can you become friendlier in what comes up? Can you let go and relax, just letting it be there as fully as it can. You may ask why am I so tight? Reflect if your thinking about something is causing this anxiety. Learning more about our inner voice and the nature of our mind is the path to our freedom.

Are you resisting something and not letting go? What feels better-- holding your stomach and chest up or allowing your belly to feel soft? Can you feel tension in other parts of yourself such as your feet, ankles, calves, hamstrings, shoulders, etc? Can you listen inside and find what is calling? Explore inside and see what you are noticing. This exercise trains us to really be present; not in regard to our feelings, judgments, and memories—but to bring our attention back to our body.

Taking time to notice things in a bodily way allows us to create a new space of awareness. This brings us both a fresh and new understanding and a shift in how we perceive life, allowing us greater grace to engage our lives, our relationships, our surroundings, and work. Examining what arises in our consciousness in the now offers us an opportunity to embark on the rich journey of how our mind works. This exploration liberates us to see beyond our thoughts and emotions to consciously notice what is occurring. It takes skillful practice to examine the big picture regarding our sensations and perceptions. This lessens our ignorance and delusions of the world around us.

This practice of concentrating the mind is about not separating what is important. Life is about interconnection, interactions and interrelationships. The whole is greater then the parts. We are together, not separate from our environment.

Concentrating is about a process for growth and transformation. We can go forth with specific focus and directed attention. When we best concentrate then we perform more skillful action and that benefits our world and ourselves.

For more information go to www.focusing.org

Thanks and Giving

2007-11-20T17:21:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to declare our respect for all things. Can we reach deep inside and see what truly matters, that we are just visitors here? This is also a time to ask for forgiveness if we have harmed others since this indirectly causes us inner harm. We open new doors when we give thanks by cultivating divine relationship with all things.

Thanksgiving is about reverence for all things with an altruistic spirit. We live in a critical time where individual 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. In the last 50 years our human population has double and our economy has expanded seven fold. Our consumption has double in the last two decades. What happens regarding future prosperity depends our developing bold hearts and collectively act together.

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 everyday. 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 all be Native Americans if we pay our respects to what we are so fortunate to have.

Many, including George Carlin, believe that you do not have to save the world since it will take care of itself. However, each one of us has to nurture our soul. 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.

I have come to terms with the future.
From this day onward I will walk easy on the Earth. Plant trees.
Kill no living things. Live in Harmony with all creatures. I will restore
the earth where I am. Use no more of its resources than I need. And listen, listen to what it is telling me. – MJ Slim Hooey

Finding Balance

2007-11-14T20:06:00.001-08:00

My life aligns when I truly see the world as it is, allowing myself to see that everything in the world is one giant pendulum. Also this outlook provides me with an invaluable perspective: I never know what is good or bad.

When I see the positive with the negative and the negative with the positive, then I profoundly find out what things are about. Everything in our life is both a blessing and a curse. If we observe all things as being on a cosmic seesaw then we are provided some insights into how all things and events balance out. However, to be able to observe in this manner requires becoming wakeful and present. By cultivating equanimity, I can free my heart. This creates freedom and opens new doors of seeing.

It is tough to look at what is unattractive, brutal and uncomfortable. Yet if we do not show up to what life is truly about then a form of cowardice spiritually kills me.

We live in a conditioned fear-based culture. We are sold products by promoting consumerism for the separate-self. And we become further deluded by emotions of fear, judgment, anger and other forms of self-protective defense mechanisms, which in turn cause us to buy more things. Finally, our heart-numbing mind becomes even more disconnected driven by incessant wants and aversions. This toothpaste will brighten your smile and this cream will cure your baldness.

Yes, it is easy to become lost in thoughts. Such thinking is driven by desires that cause both anxiety and restlessness. I find myself always in route, traveling somewhere yet never arriving. Whether working, walking, eating I am constantly physically shifting to find pleasure and comfort. I find staying busy lessens my angst. In essence I am driven at some unconscious level to satisfy my craving.

If I am to evolve mentally, I need to become more vulnerable. I need to open myself to new ways of thinking and experiencing. Having a totally desire-driven mind-set makes me feel blind and hollow. Sure, a certain form of defensive thinking is natural and helps me survive. However, I want to find healthier and wiser boundaries in the manner my mind works. I want to expand myself and be more open to new possibilities, and cultivate spiritual intimacy.

Realizing what is happening both in my inner as well as my outer world, and not plagued by a desire-driven mind-set, results in moments of non-reactive presence. By exploring and staying aware of my reactivity and obsessing, I can free myself from what enslaves me. Yes, I can enjoy feelings of safety, of physical and emotional nourishment; however, when doing so leads to attachment and clinging, I become lost.

When I am awake, I can see my attachment and remain in balance. But when I am disconnected from awareness, and I desire a certain experience, I become lost in my wanting to control the situation. Only when, through mindful presence I see my “wants” and “fears” as they truly are, and am not so identified with them, do I find inner freedom.

One thing is certain; nothing is permanent. Regardless of our circumstance, desirable or undesirable, whether we get sick, die, or whatever the case may be, basically all things sooner or latter end. When I try to control things, I am subject to disappointment, and have feelings of being wounded. It is only when I remember to be aware, can I then tap into my inner freedom, and rest in a sense of having found divine love.

Now I can untie this knot around my neck. When I observe my energy around attachment this allows me to venture into less grasping and clinging. Such exploration opens my heart, and gives me a sense deathless possibility. I no longer fear. Attachment becomes minimal. I then can understand that attachment can result in things owning me instead of me owning things.

Becoming free happens when I find a balance. Equanimity arises when I lessen judgment and resistance. When I get out of my idea of who I am, I enter a gateway that reveals the possibility of spaciousness love.

So when I feel hurt or threatened and begin to shut down, if I do not take it so personally, the dark clouds begin to disappear. If I can allow myself to fully feel my emotions, feel the anger and hurt, the fear and vulnerability—and be able to watch it pass (for nothing lasts), then I can find peace. It is like I am in a river of feelings. I can try to swim against it and battle it, or I can go where it flows and not fight it.

It comes down to how I see things. Do I see them on the surface for a very short term and be swayed by them? Or do I examine my patterns and the long- term consequences of my actions? My ticket to inner peace is about seeing things as unconditional. My life becomes so enslaved by being conditioned. If I have the strength, will and discipline, I can watch my craving, fear, and aversion change, since these are conditional states and will pass. I am not becoming indifferent when I watch, or disengaged about my life. Rather, I am cutting to the bottom-line. When I get real with myself and recognize that my emotions will pass, that essentially they are not me, then I balance my scales.

The real leap to finding genuine freedom is to accept life as it is. As Kipling mindfully wrote in IF, “…to meet triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters as just the same.” To see what is right and wrong with all things, then I notice what is here and now.

Our greatest challenge is our self. For we know little about how our self operates, and how ignorant it is of the world. Equanimity provides insight to remove us from our mental prisons. Such joy will result from this awareness allowing us true freedom from our inner shadows. The more we can rest in equanimity and accept things as they are, the greater we can become liberated. Is not our greatest challenge to lessen our suffering? Happiness comes from awakening and employing skillful actions of virtue and discernment.

Balance is about seeing everything from a positive and negative charge. Life is about electricity and finding energy that best renews itself. If one thing balances the next then the way to we find the middle ground is to offset the extremes. Learning about how to find balance is all about how to skillfully best live. When I do not sweat the small stuff and see the bigger more balanced picture, I know the giant pendulum swings in both directions. Whether I feel joy or sadness, I have the power to treat these two imposters as just the same, instead of going insane trying to resist imbalance. Just imagine the possibilities of finding harmonious relations when we can stand in the middle of this mysterious cosmic seesaw.

Kindness, What a Gift!

2007-11-14T20:00:00.001-08:00

I have found one of the greatest gifts I can give myself is to be kind. This includes being gentle with myself. Each day we face many challenges. Mine is that in so many ways I am a walking contradiction. Yet despite my confusion, I attempt to listen to my heart. My greatest concern is to be gentle both with others as well as with myself, since I believe we are all one and the same. I ask myself, can I remember to follow the example of Mother Teresa and Gandhi so to perform similar kind acts? Just the simple act of caring or showing kindness has a tremendous ripple effect. We can further enjoy life by more compassionate relationships with people, plants, animals, bugs, and rocks since we all rely on each other for our survival.

As guests on earth we may chose either respect or disregard for our delicate world. Kindness is about making the intention toward a peaceful journey forth. Can we as a people have the courage to find how we can best go forth with compassion in our daily encounters? The more I am able to open my eyes, the more I can see that we are all lovers wishing to expand our smile upon the world.

For too many years, the human race has been like a child playing with explosives. The kind of wisdom, or rather non-wisdom, we are applying to life is questionable. We worry over whether we can afford a nice place for our retirement while we destroy many forms of life and deplete resources. To where will we retire? We need to remember, humans are a part of the other 30 million diverse species on this planet. Can we face the fact that all things are connected and we humans are interdependent with, not independent of all things?

Can we acknowledge that ultimately we are renters on this land Earth, since eventually we end up being buried in it? Devastation of land, cultures, indigenous people, species, and ecosystems are immoral, and undemocratic. We must invest in non-violent sustainable ways to encourage democratic ideals that support the building, not destroying of communities. Innumerable opportunities will come when we shift our culture based on consumption that depletes to one of conservation that replenishes. We must renew and raise our commitment for a democracy that provides opportunity for all, and not just for the few. Free trade must insure fair trade with a new emergence of human and ecological rights. A new respect for people, places and things must unfold so that commonly accepted standards of environmental integrity are developed. Non-violence must be given equal time in our media coverage. We are losing our spirit when we allow so much negative press to penetrate our souls. Our present style of media coverage may very well reinforce further acts of terrorism. We must set a better stage.

We are now experiencing the terrific extremes of peril and prosperity. While globalization has lifted more out poverty, the scales have been tipped in the direction of unparalleled wealth for the few. The world economy pumped out nearly $41 trillion of goods and services in 1999, 45 percent of the income went to the 12 percent of the world’s people who live in western industrial countries. Half the people of this world live on less than two dollars a day, and one sixth live on less than one dollar a day.

In the last twenty years we have doubled what we consume. This unbalanced consumption has created many forms of disparity. Our affluent minority has a monumental responsibility for the purity of our fragile planet. We must alter our focus from seeing only the monetary worth of commodities to exploring value in terms of quality of life. E.F. Schumacher once noted that high standards of living do not necessarily means high standards of life.

Critical domestic issues facing us—education, energy and the environment, health care—are competing for the same resources we are now diverting to insure our national security. The question is how will America secure its future quality of life? Will we rekindle the values of ingenuity and thrift our founders exemplified?

How we relate to our world is important. Exercising kindness in the process of relating to our environment can stimulate positive outcome. Selfishness and self-interest can no longer be the way we do our lives.

Our prosperity on this tiny planet will only continue when we go forward with kind acts, not mean ones. This is a critical time for us; we must learn to develop an attitude of friendliness and gentleness. Through meditation and prayer we can foster a clearer vision of how we as a people can walk on this dangerous razor edge we have created from having closed our hearts. If we can shift from a society of indifference to one that cares then we as people may develop a new sense of hope to replace our daily ominous despair. We will continue to be tormented until we each can radiate a prayer for compassionate kindness, until we each ask in our hearts how we can benefit all things on this fragile Earth. Such a prayer may be the first step to making this world a better place. We must now act with grace and behold what we have been blessed with. Being kind to others, to the world and to ourselves, is all one and the same.

It really boils down to this: that all of life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Martin Luther King

Healing with Nature

2007-11-07T21:29:00.000-08:00

We live in a time in which we must find greater ways to mend our souls. Healing occurs for me when I become more intimate with nature. Feeling the soft earth beneath my feet renews my soul. When I venture outside and discover the wonder of the universe, I feel more whole. Such visits into the wild both refreshes and rejuvenates my spirit. A journey into a forest under a canopy of trees or to a local watershed provides me with a growing sense of well being.

Insights come to me from many non-ordinary experiences when I am in nature. I transcend ordinary perceptual boundaries. Being in nature connects me to the spirit of being. Otherwise, I am lost in a culture of affluence and effluence. In nature, I find comfort from sensing how my ancestors lived long ago. Just the simple act of digging into the ground and doing yard work while surrounded by the woods around my home does much to lessen my anxiety.

Another way I find refuge in the mystery of the wild is to listen to the subtle sounds of the woods. Whether it is the wind going through the trees, or the birds chirping—these and many other reminders awaken me to magical moments of being here on the earth. Nature is my ultimate teacher. I am a part of nature; it is truly who I am. I am not separate, but rather a part of this world in which all things are tied together by air, water, soil and flesh.

My pilgrimage is to seek silence and stillness. I know it is hard work to quiet my mind. However, aligning myself to the invisible world does much to allow me some quiet sanity. Civilization can burden my soul, but I can remedy this by forgiving, and purifying.

My mind grows quiet in tranquil woods. I am comforted by its mystery. Yes, I am constantly challenged seeing the earth's destruction and despair. Yet, when I embrace the maladies of the world as being just a part of my own impermanent life, I gain a sense of inner renewal. And how I face the prospect of death allows me a sense of greater life because of how nature teaches me. Balance comes to me when I go beyond my thinking mind, and venture into the universe of my heart. For whatever happens in the future, I can make the best out of the present by appreciating all that this life shares with me now.

Meaning in my life comes from nature. If I wish to have a meaningful life I must observe everything that is connected with nature. Time spent outside is like an electric plug that recharges my spiritual battery. Consciousness arises all around me and within me, allowing me to experience the web of life, and to see how all that I relate to is so closely interconnected. As I breathe in and out, I know that this Universal Life Force, which ties all things together just as a spider weaves its web, interconnects all things.

This expanded awareness awakens in me the question of how I can skillfully respect the sacredness of nature and its "wilderness." Sacred observing provides me with grace, and a feeling of harmony. Simply put, the woods provide me with a portal to boundless healing.

At any moment I am susceptible to inattentiveness—and then at such time, something great is lost from my world. But if I listen deeply, I can hear my soul calling. It invites me to visit a forest, or walk along a sandy shore—find a place of calm in the wild. When I remember that I am not a separate being, that indeed I am part of the interconnectedness of life, then my feverishness subsides.

John Muir once said, "By going outward, I am going in." All beings have a sacred link to our green world. Going outside begins the most sacred ritual. As I become more intimate with my earth, I return to my beloved home.

Cultivating Gratitude

2007-11-07T21:26:00.000-08:00

Appreciation allows me to walk a path of tremendous love and respect. Counting my blessings becomes a gift that keeps on sustaining me. Nothing can be more rejuvenating for me than expressing gratefulness for all the ways this life has been kind to me. Just maintaining a state of gratefulness re-energizes me, and moves me to shift my attitude so that I look for the silver lining in every cloud. Instead of looking at things as a curse, I can see them as the blessing they truly are.

The power of gratitude leads me to a greater sense of purpose, and a richer life. Invoking appreciation gives me a profound sense of joy, and links me with all things, filling me with a sense of harmony and well being.

This harmonious connection with life awakens in me the understanding that everything in my world is only alive in the present moment. As I empty myself of ego preoccupations with the past, and concerns over the future, I am truly awake to the moment, and in such times, I find in myself a feeling of greater compassion for my fellows. The act of compassionate gratitude is a form of stewardship that allows me to be more sensitive and respectful of people and nature. I become mindful and deal with all things in a sacred way. Cultivating this kind of relationship with life fosters a sense of devotion and divinity.

Appreciation creates for me a more wholesome mindset that reconnects me to the things I value most. Living this way creates a greater sense of possibility and freedom. My feeling of gratitude expands when I reflect on how all things must be respected. And I feel more humble as I observe the mysterious spirit of this world.

Exercising my gratitude is a wake-up call for me to remember what matters most. We live in a critical time, and how we can best deal with it comes into question. Awakening to how we can see each moment with a clear mind, as a new event, is an action I would define as "the attitude of gratitude." This approach not only liberates us from suffering, we become more mindful of the possibility of being truly open to all possibilities.

What do I appreciate right now? Can I hear the birds singing outside? Can I simply enjoy hearing my own heartbeat? How grateful am I to all those things life on this planet has given me? Do I cherish the food, shelter and other gifts? Let's say I have just moments to live, would I count my blessings? What would I wish to do to give my thanks? The very nature of my entire life and my liberation comes down to embracing these questions.

It seems much of my life has been enslaved by my unconscious acts. When I am only partially aware of my actions, I am truly as if asleep, and thus in some way imprisoned. My mind does one thing while my emotions feel conflicted because my decisions come from fear rather than from love. Where can I find the courage to change and allow my soul to become liberated? How can I learn to keep in mind that all things will pass, and to let go of my material world? To remember such a simple thing like coming home to the appreciation of life here and now, is the art I wish to cultivate. Today's world makes it so easy to fall into darkness. Why is that I am unconsciously afraid of allowing the greater light in? Am I paying attention to my senses? Or I am held captive by a self-destructive story of shame and loathing? Can I remember to listen not just to my own body but that greater one that connects all things? Reverence for this earth opens the door to my happiness and freedom.

To be free, I must change my various behaviors and attitudes that imprison me with negative and unwholesome consequences. Sticken thinken and paralysis analysis are the various ways I have recycled my past to curse my future. Only in the present moment I can pause and take a new course down a road toward light instead of journey off a cliff.

Next by relaxing and enjoying this changing process of becoming, seeing it as a labor of love, I can open myself to boundless potentials. Trusting in this PRO (Pause, Relax and Open) process, there is the emerging belief I will give birth to many magical possibilities, and not fall back to the same old I-am-the-victim, or the poor-me mindset. Just becoming enlightened enough to stop "should-ing" myself can be a wonderful first step.

I have the freedom to fully appreciate my life when I practice loving friendliness. This comes about only if I am mindful and exercise right intention to transform an abiding gratitude into action. How I train my mind to greet all beings and events with loving kindness, provides me with the opportunity of changing a curse into a blessing. First by identifying the various ways I create ill will, anger and judgment, and doing something positive about making a change in my attitude—only then do I have the chance to liberate myself. This is a form of action I call radical acceptance, and it can only happen when I constantly observe what is of benefit to all. By awakening to wholesome mind states, I can best go forth. And more, I will require patience to mindfully change some old habits and patterns. Finally, I have to show more tender loving care and forgiveness to my self as I engage in this transformational process.

So I return again to appreciation, and I count my blessings and take note of what I have in my life to be grateful for. When I awaken and show reverence through these actions, I prosper. Gratitude for me is about cultivating four skillful things:

· Showing up in the present moment.
· Paying attention to what has heart and meaning!
· Giving a positive voice to what I see!
· Remaining open to all possibilities while being unattached to outcome!

Appreciation is both a loving and a kind method of being with profound affects and effects. Developing my appreciation purifies me and offers me a sense of greater peace, and freedom. It's amazing how gratitude spreads when you're just grateful.

Peace Now!

2007-11-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

The most important thing I struggle in my life is to become peaceful with myself. War in our world begins at home. For me, I must welcome a form unconditional surrender and lessen how I create my own suffering. When I embrace my shadows and cultivate inner kindness this becomes more possible. I find out that I must accept not resist what is true. Showing up and dealing with my issues works much better for me then avoiding them. However, knowing when it is a good time to address my inner demons is something that takes skill. Being kind with myself is a work in constant progress. Just because I feel uncomfortable does not mean I must run from things. Sometimes my cowardice comes back to haunt me. Nurturing a deeper soulful relation with myself I will not be able to become whole and happy. I can find more pleasure with my life when I find how to perform a careful examination of what truly causes me discomfort and how to best address it. This critical development is all about healing, praying, spending time in nature and finding friends to support me.

Such an inner transformation has profound implications for the outer physical work we must constantly be reminded to do. Violence and war in our outer work is so prevalent. Even though we may be in a serene setting such things as the way we drive our cars, talk to one another or even run around conveys bellicose acts.

After much searching and exploring the source of my despair I have realized one thing. All I can do is cultivate my own peace and lead by example. Without some understanding of myself my problems and the world problems will not go away. I write this struggling with my own life and future. My self education is not just about becoming better at what I do but to address my most fundamental challenge, what I fear about most in myself. I cannot find peace if I do not go into me and see or become more intimate with my soul. What is truly is intimacy? In to me I see that I must trust myself and become closer to what is true. Such familiarity takes many forms of spiritual practice.

When more I can embrace both my and the world’s stress and anxiety the more harmonious I live. Without my individual awakening to that separation results in suffering and that our own fears will haunt us until we address them then the possibility of peace begins.

To find my peace outside I must remember to constantly practice inner peace. Developing this mental calm comes through accumulating both understanding and knowledge to keep myself strong in the face of dissatisfaction, stress or anxiety. Being "at peace" not only maintains me in better health and the opposite of being stressed or anxious.

There are many forms of violent that we must learn from. One of the greatest terrors is how we disconnect ourselves from our world. We, humans are part of not separate from the other 30 million diverse species on this planet. Can we acknowledge that ultimately the land owns us we do not own it? The more we all can search our souls to live in harmony the greater we counter the hysteria of terror. We now are at the crossroads to either respect or disregard for our delicate world. Just the simple act of caring or showing kindness has a tremendous ripple effect.

Each of us must cultivate more compassionate relationships because we all share the same future. Can we as a people have the courage to find deeper truths and explore what is calling for attention?

We must invest in non-violence and more sustainable ways so to support the cultivation not the devastation of land, cultures, indigenous people, species, and ecosystems. Can we shift our culture that depletes to one that replenishes? Finally, non-violence must be also promoted in our media since the press must be careful not reinforce further violence.

Our prosperity on this tiny planet will only continue when we develop a renewed respect in what we have here and now. Certainly we must show tough love and protect ourselves from those wishing to harm us. Non-violent action will happen when together we pray, meditate and work towards future life. If we can shift from a society that supports violence to one that fosters peace then we as people may develop a new sense of hope over the despair and alienation many of us feel.

We will continue to be tormented until we come together with kinder acts that benefit all things on this fragile Earth. We are no longer separate individuals but apart of a greater whole. We must now act with grace to behold what we have been blessed with. Our freedom will only flourish when we evolve from our own personal interests to a global effort to insure our survival. We are this earth both one and the same. Suffering is no fun. I must remember to ways to listen, have faith, relax, show grace and celebrate my boundless heart. By accepting what is and changing what I can I liberate myself to a peaceful place.

Uniting Heart and Mind

2007-11-07T20:25:00.000-08:00

Let us celebrate a new stage in our journey Oneness. We are at the point of merging our creative and rational aspects. Our very spiritual survival is at stake. As we become more intimate with our surroundings and ourselves we can experience a richer level of wisdom. Integrating the intuitive with the logical self is a life-long challenge.

There are many times when how I feel and what I think are in conflict within me. Sometimes I get far too deeply into my head, and forget to have my feet touching the ground. Bridging the right brain with the left brain is a balancing act.

Recently a friend posed a challenging question to me: "How do you market clean water to the public in some tangible way?" This inquiry raised many insights for me. How do you take something that appears to be no more than an idea and reframe it into a physical act? People may not be inclined to save water until they run out of it. Waiting to the last second to do something, is being reactive. To be proactive we must constantly reexamine our relationship to our world. The mysterious puzzle we call life, is about seeing all the intricate connections and the ways we all can re-connect.

It is remarkable to observe the emotional issues of what water means to different people. How do we reconcile our feelings about clean water with our rational side? For example, the situation of four consistent years of fish-kills here on the Shenandoah River where I live, upsets me at deep level.

At such times, simply for the sake of self-protection, I am apt to divorce my emotions from affecting my rational mind. But when I bury my feelings, it hurts later. Our minds are tricky. Think about how we rationalize and intellectualize out of a very complicated defense system. We have spent years protecting and fortifying our egos.

Making our dreams become reality is difficult when our heart is in one place and our mind is in another. In Eastern cultures, heart and mind are one. The very root definition of courage comes from this union. A true awakening into the nature of our mind is the only way for us to become liberated from our manipulating ego-response mechanism. This is a huge challenge, which sooner or later, before we die, we must confront. The thought of death, with its matching emotions, can do much to get us to the bottom-line of what is truly important. Facing the issue of death is such a humbling and purifying experience. Attempting a deeper examination in regard to our mortality, helps to transform personal attitudes.

We are a society filled with information; but this does not necessarily translate into much of a vision. Yes, we have also sorts of knowledge; but this does not mean we are wiser, just better educated. For me, nothing substitutes life experience. At the present I believe the people of this country are awakening to how they feel, and are attempting to integrate their feelings with their minds.

Venturing into our psyche requires an extraordinary effort. It takes courage to explore below the surface of things and go deeper into areas were the average person might not feel comfortable. A shift in this journey comes when we can awaken from our fears and allow a sense of compassion to come forward that will lead us to greater self-actualization. Once we feel whole instead of feeling separate, we know then that our brain and our heart have aligned.

Today, it seems our society is moving faster and faster. Increased population and more technological development; has caused overwhelming pressures. Many things from economic pressures to simple daily challenges are overwhelming people. Also, we have become a heady society, spending most of our time in our minds and less time feeling what is going on in our bodies. This shift is a source of much of our suffering and self-destructive tendencies. When we lose sight of out true self, not only do we become blind but we delude our very soul. Such delusion can cause serious mental breakdown and disease.

Where or when does the surf meet the turf when it comes to balancing our intuition with our rational mind? We have become a society addicted to facts and science in one sense, but in another how we feel truly rules us. If we begin to foster great insight we will find a treasure chest of new ways to view our world and how we can relate to it. Such exploration—better observing what is going on—can lead us to a harmonious understanding of how everything is interconnected, not disconnected.

We are at the threshold of new possibilities when we can find new approaches to merging our hearts with our minds. This holistic process brings us unity allowing us more balance and greater peace of mind/body. Keeping our creative and rational selves separated from each other causes much suffering. See for yourself whether this is true. Check within and sense if things are disconnected and have no relationship with each other. This is the ultimate inquiry.

Why unite our hearts with our minds? All of us want to belong and we long for ways to become more intimate. Does not everyone want to feel alive? Merging together our creative and our rational sides makes us whole, not fragmented or compartmented. Everything in life is interdependent and connected in some way, shape or form. Simply, this venture comes down to loving oneself and knowing that all things are one and the same. Finding the One in all things instead of the sum of the parts takes practice. We live in a culture that promotes individuality, independence, and many concepts that divide instead of join.

It takes boundless heart to make this journey of integration. And it requires one to be vulnerable, allowing one to tamper with one's defense shield. However, if we can find the inspiration and intention of our passion, we can shed light on the darkness that haunts us. As Shakespeare said, "Cowards die many times." I say, "It is time to remove ourselves from fear of death. It is time to fully live life!" Some would say two brains are better then one. This notion brings to mind a phrase from E.E. Cummings, which I choose to paraphrase – "benighted states of hysteria."

May you become more intimate discovering your integrated self and celebrate the joy of this journey. Courage becomes evident only when we quiet our mind and listen to our heart. Let us connect the "h" from the end of the word earth with the "h" in front of the word heart—"eartheart"—since they are one and the same!