Grateful for Thanksgiving

Every day I try to celebrate with Thanksgiving.   It is always a wonderful time to count my blessings. Appreciation constantly gives me the gift to cherish I am alive.  Generosity and kindness are the virtuous acts that I get from my appreciation.  Such gratitude may open new doors of possibility for me.  Also I tap a higher relationship with all things.

The idea of Thanksgiving gives me a sense of peace and grace. I live in a critical time where generosity greatly matters. By giving, I both awaken and liberate myself with the ulitimate gift of altruisim. When I hold on to things too long this causes me a painful disconnection. By becoming more mindful of how I take things, I can better return things and thus benefit from what I call, "Happy Returns." This outcome arises from being humble and observing my ultimate interconnection with my beloved world.

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

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

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

Let's celebrate our Thanksgiving with plentiful kind and generous acts. Giving appreciation is the greatest blessing we can give ourselves, thanking our surroundings and feeling good about our life.

Re-joy

The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heart, but must be felt with the heart- Helen Keller

I am inspired how all things somehow inter-relate.  To constantly remember my oneness fills me with profound joy.  I term this rejoy where I touch a miraculous heart and meaning experience.  These mystical inter-relationships recharge me with greater luminosity.

Since all things are transient and so is my greater self.  We all are tied to collective connection of materials created by the earth, air, water, energy and other sources.  These elements both allow me to enjoy the sacredness of all things and to live.

I find liberation in our finite oneness. Here I find an unlimited treasure of joy and grace. When I look up to star filled night sky this experience unites me beyond what words may describe.

Beyond my personal issues I lessen my sense of separation. For example when I get distracted about selfish silly wants I disconnect from hub or source of oneness. Less joy then results. Remembering to just simply reconnect, I awaken to the collective unification by observing nature.  This expanded consciousness acts like a new birth.  Such possibilities fosters greater happiness.

When I let go of my self-consuming concepts I touch a place without causes or conditions.  This pure consciousness illuminates me with greater loving- friendliness and grace.  I benefit from this selfless rejoy experience.

Expanding my heart takes courage since such new exploration at first can be frightening.   However, a compassionate trust alters my mental conditioning and habits that once trap me with much fear, and despair.  The very word enlightenment is all about merging into the one.  This dissolves my miserable issues like a cloud in the sky freeing me of limitations.

All things in this cosmos intersect in one divine point.  All things exist dependent upon other entities. I am no different. Numerous conditions and causes results in nothing being independent since the environment shapes organisms by interchanging webs of food, nutrients and other forms interconnection.  Networks of ecosystems exchange birth, death, decay as energy material is constantly being recycled. 

Once I allow my contracted self to let go I elevate my well-being.  All things become unified by this mystical togetherness.  This oneness is beyond, words, thoughts, beliefs, concepts.  A state of oneness is beyond an idea.  Here unity, peace, and the mystery of wholeness exist. Separateness ceases and any sense of concepts are lost.  The sum of the parts unites me together in a luminous whole.  Profoundly aware I find this unified mind-set best happens for me in a pristine natural setting.

Such awakened oneness is not about one belief versus another belief.  This divine spirit is about a deep trust of the greater self.  Exploring my divine nature, I deeply listen and become one through my transformative direct experience I call rejoy.

Inspired by “With One Voice”   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUmvoDcigxQ

May I give my thanks to all life's gifts, and further count my blessings.

May I pay my respect to how all things are interconnected.

May I give thanks to the air and my lungs that I breathe.

My I give thanks to the sun and my heart that provides energy.

May I give thanks to my body and water that provides life.

May I give thanks to my spirit and the land that sustains me. 

Thanks to all my ancestors and future beings. 

Thanks to all the things on the earth that make life happen.
Thanks to our amazing web that unites all together

Exploring Grace

A higher power can be an interior dimension of psyche, transcendent it's beyond what ego can muster or master. The transcendent is the more that cannot be grasped by intelligence, only by experience. It can be felt truly, but not fully understood intellectually.  It is like the love of favor, like the awe felt in nature.p. xv *

Recently my father gracefully passed away. Grace touches us when we allow our higher self to surrender from our ego-centric ways. It alters us taking us out of the ordinary and allowing us to behold the extra-ordinary.  It unites the opposites or moderates the extremes by its very example. Grace evolves us by its wise and seamless quality that bands together- separate parts become unified as one.

Grace is about being not about becoming: beholding rather than holding; responding not reacting; and being light not dense.  Rather than human doings, we are human beings.  It brings out the profound possibility within each of our souls.  A sense of liberation comes upon us as we accept the mystery with equanimity.  

Beyond description, grace is a phenomenon that happens beyond the ordinary.  A blessing outside our individual selves.  This amazing form of virtue fosters awe, wonder and flow. However, grace is like art in that it defies simple language and words. Such things as poetry and direct experience best conveys this graceful spirit of possibility. 

This mystical quality brings a spaciousness as if you looking at the milky way or Northern lights. Cultivated through good will, appreciation, mindfulness and other illuminating things, grace is resilient, sincere and heart felt.  Complimented by coincidence, grace stimulates a freshness.  It entertains something new in each moment resulting in a form of divine higher presence. 

This phenomena inspires others and benefits us by its nature. This divine power that magically flows. It awakens, and transforms. Grace happens in special conditions.  When there is compassion, calmness, kindness, generosity, respect, and other virtuous states grace tends to be close by.

Grace allows us to tap the larger spiritual possibilities.  It transmutes us from the ordinary ego self to a higher place of unconditional and unlimited opportunities filled with positive transformation. 

Imperfection and inadequacy no longer are curses yet are transformed into a sense of loving kindness.  It frees our inner chains that we have imprison ourselves with.  Short-comings become reversed into strengths.  Grace is synthesis of the positive with negative. It is like the rainbow that happens after a intense storm.  It combines the sum of the parts into an integrated whole.   Grace provides a peak experience to celebrate there is heaven right now on earth.

It is conceivable that by intense effort a person may catch a fleeting glimpse of his own wholeness accompanied by the feeling of grace, which characterizes this experience. - Carl Jung

* The Power of Grace- David Richo, Shamabhala Press,  2014

       

Earth is Our Best Friend

Move H from Heart, place at the end

It spells earth, your best friend

Listen to the birth high above

Dolphins singing of deep love

Rock, air, fire and rain connect

We are all related one divine effect

Illuminated play with rays cycling

All souls unite, a great recycling

Optimize kindness first letters, OK

Meanness and fear bring us dismay

If your mood begins to decline

Recharge yourself and fully align

Stand with your back to a tree

Its pure energy will set you free 

Embody this grace and be still 

Engage yourself with this skill

Quiet your thinking, hear your breath

Allow your spirit go beyond death

There is no beginning or an end

All things unite in a timeless band

Darkness your foe and light a buddy

Kiss the soil even if it’s muddy

Laugh and love we are one

A cosmic dance and have fun

Circle around the healing medicine wheel

Feel the star-shine and its cosmic appeal

Add up the beneficial ways that respect

Subtract your suffering, do not expect

It’s a inside game of showing gratitude

Expanding yourself with a higher attitude

Increase acceptance, lessen any resistance

Expand your awe of graceful existence 

Move H from Heart, place at the end

It spells earth, your best friend

Listen to the birth high above

Dolphins singing of deep love

Well Yes!

Taking certain risks is the how I will lessen my suffering.  Sometimes I allow things that substract not add to my well being.  My greatest challenge is how I come to terms with many of my unhealthy habits.  For example I may eat too fast hoping to calm myself. There are numerous other behaviors that do not help me. I understand that I am only human. There is no excuse for my lack of discipline that unkindly hinders me.  Also on a mental level I may know this is happening while I may be still emotionally fearful to change.

How can I take the risk to free myself from certain patterns that stunt my growth?  To fully appreciate my greater potential I must risk if I wish to advance.  I call this "Well Yes."  This well being or "Well Yes" stimulates me to become more conscious of deeds resulting in grace, and awe. "Well Yes," happens when I behold the wonder of this great mystery by showing a profound kindness in all my relationships.  "Well Yes," provides me with greater wisdom when I take the risk to try more skillful alternatives to find peace, love and joy! 

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep is to risk being called sentimental.

To reach out to another is to risk involvement.

To expose feeling is to risk showing your true self.

To place your ideas and dreams before 

the crowd is to risk being called naive.

To love is to risk not being loved in return. 

To live is to risk dying. 

To hope is to risk despair.

To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken.

Because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing.

The people who risk nothing do nothing,

have nothing, are nothing, and become nothing.

They may avoid suffering and sorrow. 

But they simply cannot learn to feel,

and change, and grow, and love, and live. 

Chained by their servitude, they are slaves; 

They have forfeited their freedom.

Only the people who risk are truly free.

Anon

Hokusai says

Hokusai says look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.
He says keep looking, stay curious.
He says there is no end to seeing

He says look forward to getting old.
He says keep changing,
you just get more who you really are.
He says get stuck, accept it, repeat
yourself as long as it is interesting.

He says keep doing what you love.

He says keep praying.

He says every one of us is a child,
every one of us is ancient
every one of us has a body.
He says every one of us is frightened.
He says every one of us has to find
a way to live with fear.

He says everything is alive --
shells, buildings, people, fish,
mountains, trees, wood is alive.
Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says live with the world inside you.

He says it doesn't matter ifyou draw,
or write books. It doesn't matter
ifyou saw wood, or catch fish.
It doesn't matter if you sit at home
and stare at the ants on your veranda
or the shadows of the trees
and grasses in your garden.
It matters that you care.

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is life living through you.
Joy is life living through you.
Satisfaction and strength
is life living through you.

He says don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid.

Love, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

- Roger Keyes

Creating Future Meaning

In Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning he observed how to make the best of a truly bad situation. His experience of being in a Nazis concentration camp provides profound insights pertinent to our challenge now to find the light at the end of the tunnel.  Victor saw many of his fellow prisoners who only saw opportunities in the past tense instead of the present or future.   He wrote about turning his life into a inner triumph by making a victory of challenging experiences.

A key point in this book is looking forward, making inner goals to create faith in the future.  Without such a belief mental and physical decay quickly results. Opportunity only comes when one looks at the way he bears his burden.  Examining such larger issues like death and suffering  unveils a greater task of being with or getting through these unpleasant situations. By accepting not denying our suffering one acts responsibly so to fully live instead of filled with despair.  With such an attitude of encouragement and hope we then can make the best of lives. 

Frankl developed Logotherapy were one realizes their responsibilities.  It is up to the person to awaken to his obligation to himself and his community.  Depression happens because we lack content in our life.  Critical is what specific meaning one gives his life in the here and now.  For example what is your best next move in a chess game gets you engaged to fully be.  It is not what meaning life offers but rather what meaning you give to it.

"The more one  forgets himself- by giving of himself to a cause or to serve or another person to love- the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself"  pg. 115

According to logotherapy,  we can discover the meaning of life in three different ways: 1) In creating  a work or by doing a deed 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone, and; 3) by the attitude we take about unavoidable suffering.  pg.115

For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into human achievement. pg. 116

It is one of the basic tenets in logotherapy the man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or avoid pain but rather see meaning in his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition he , to be sure, that his suffering has meaning.  pg. 117 

That which does not kill me, makes me stronger- Nietzsche