A saint is one who exaggerates what the world neglects.
— G.K. Chesterton
Monthly Archives: September 2014
When the way is cleared…
What you will see is love coming out of the trees, love coming out of the sky, love coming out of the light. You will perceive love from everything around you. This is the state of bliss.
–Miguel Oriz
“Let no one keep you from your journey.”
One day she found a poem that really spoke to her heart…
“Let no one keep you from your journey,
no rabbi or priest, no mother
who wants you to dig for treasures
she misplaced,
no father
who won’t let one life be enough,
no lover who measures their worth
by what you might give up for them,
no voice that tells you in the night
it can’t be done.
Let nothing dissuade you
from seeing what you see
or feeling the winds that make you
want to dance alone
or go where no one
has yet to go.
You are the only explorer.
Your heart, the unreadable compass.
Your soul, the shore of a promise
too great to be ignored.”
~Mark Nepo
(Thanks to Cindy Bennett.)
A poem about coming home– Willam Butler Yeats
Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
– W.B. Yeats
Definition of “seer.”
seer… one who witnesses the world not with the eyes but with the entire body.
— Simon Buxton, The Shamanic Way of the Bee
Our True Home.
Our practice is to find our true home. When we breathe, we breathe in such a way that we can find our true home. When we make a step, we make a step in such a way that we touch our true home with our feet.
— Thich Nhat Hanh
My Nature Meditation.
I have been meditating on nature for 5 minutes each morning for about 5 years now. In this meditation, I go outside (or sometimes stay inside and look out the window when its cold). I set the timer. I go through a series of steps that bring me into fuller Self awareness.
Pause. Anchor. Soften. Breathe. Enter the Heart. Breathe through the Heart, including the heart of Mother Earth (Pachamama). Maintaining this breathing, I say to myself, “This a uniquely palpable moment.” I say to myself (not the exact words here, as they are a special teaching given to me), “I am experiencing fully who I am from the core of my being– right here, right now, in this precious world.”
I continue until the timer goes off, watching my breath go in and out, through my entire being and through Pachamama. At the same time, I focus on something I see, hear, or sense on my skin (smell may come and go). I maintain the breath awareness at the same time that I focus on and internalize (merge my experience with) something my senses are focusing on.
At the end of the 5 minutes, I must come up with a word (sometimes a phrase) that accurately describes my experience. For example, one morning I saw a feather floating down from the crabapple tree. I could feel inside myself the sensation of the feather floating down. The phrase was “gently settling.”
Because I have fully imbibed the experience, I can return to it during the day at set times or at times when I “wake up.” I can quickly and with ease return to the experience of being in meditation in the world, meditating with the eyes open.
This morning ritual has deeply influenced my daily spiritual practice. It is a substantial building block upon which my developing Self awareness is built. Because it is done with integrity, it is like a gem to carry in my pocket throughout the day, beckoning me back again and again to Self awareness. Additionally, it is the foundational practice that my artwork is based upon.
This meditation is short and simple, although not always easy. First thing in the morning is the best time to do it, before I fully engage in everyday activities. At this time, I feel moist and open like the dewy vegetation. The mind is not yet racing and is less of an obstacle.
It is with great gratitude to my spiritual lineage that I continue this fruitful practice. Through the grace of this lineage, I am open to my own inner guidance. Through the grace of this lineage I am able to make self effort toward being fully awake in this world.
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver.
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
— Wild Geese by Mary Oliver —
Synchronous moment.
This morning I was reflecting on the meaning of Santa Claus in my life. Then I looked at one of our curtains in the bedroom, and I saw this. Can you see Santa there?
Rediscovering a book.
This morning I was prompted to find this book. I read it years ago. It often turns out that when I follow these impulses the book is just what I need right now.
I intend to read it and study it again. On initial perusal, these words came from somewhere inside of me: “Sinking down into who I really am.”