Spiritual respect

I have always treasured the Native American understanding that absolutely everything has a spirit:

My father explained this to me. "All things in this world," he said, "have souls or spirits. The sky has spirit, the clouds have spirits; the sun and moon have spirits; so have animals, trees, grass, water, stars, everything."

-- Edward Goodbird

We would not be so destructive of our fragile earth if we believed this.

Life and mystery

Whenever we penetrate to the heart of things, we always find a mystery. Life and all that goes with it is unfathomable…Knowing of life is recognition of the mysterious.

-- Albert Schweitzer

From a theological point of view, the word "mystery" doesn't just mean bewildering or incomprehensible. It means overwhelmingly sacred.

UPDATE: I was reading the Wikipedia article on Schweitzer that I linked you to above and found this:

Respect for life, resulting from contemplation on one's own conscious will to live, leads the individual to live in the service of other people and of every living creature. Schweitzer was much respected for putting his theory into practice in his own life. He was, for instance, a well-known cat lover, who, although left-handed, would write with his right hand rather than disturb the cat who would sleep on his left arm.

How wonderful! Anyone who has lived with cats completely understands this!

Making changes

We stay motivated regarding our meditative practice because it means we're not stuck. Here's a quote that encapsulates that confidence:

The great metaphors from all spiritual traditions - grace, liberation, being born again, awakening from illusion - testify that it is possible to transcend the conditioning of my past and do a new thing.

- Sam Keen, Hymns to an Unknown God

Never give up!

Friday cat blogging!

Henry

Photo by Ellie Finlay

Being fully engaged

Often great athletes really understand the basic meditative principle:

Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing.

-- Phil Jackson

Stay young through meditation

As you know, I'm always encouraging you to find more and more motivations for persevering in your meditation practice. Here're are the first two paragraphs from a little article entitled "Zen meditation can help prevent age-related cognitive decline":

Washington, June 8 (ANI): Meditation might keep you young, especially Zen meditation, for a new study has found that regular practice of it, it can reduce stress in long run, as well as the cognitive decline associated with normal aging.

Zen meditation, a Buddhist practice, is centered on attentional and postural self-regulation and scientists believe that its regular practice may affect the normal age-related decline of cerebral gray matter volume and attentional performance observed in healthy individuals.

Mindfulness meditation (the kind we do here at the Center) is also centered on attentional and postural self-regulation so it certainly qualifies.

About meditation

I like this definition of meditation I just found:

Meditation is the intentional and sustained focusing of attention.

Here's a video that might interest you:

Wednesday life form blogging

Piper

Photo by Walt Calahan

Don't waste your life!

Everyday, think as you wake up: Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive. I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself to expand my heart out to others for the benefit of all beings.

-- The Dalai Lama

Encouraging words

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.

-- Marion Wright Edelman

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Bill Miller

Awareness exercise

Here's an excerpt from the book Listening with Empathy by John Selby. (You can find a longer excerpt here.)

"I FEEL THE AIR FLOWING IN AND OUT OF MY NOSE."

Awareness itself is a remarkable quality of the mind - it's our very core of being. When we aren't aware, we simply aren't here. When our awareness is low, we're hardly here. But, our awareness has the amazing quality of being able to expand . . . and expand more . . . and expand still more.

You know that feeling of being vibrantly alive and alert, when you seem to be aware of your whole body at once and tuned into the whole world around you. In this expanded state of awareness, you're in peak condition to participate in the world. You're in the zone, you're spontaneous and friendly and powerful. The more aware you are, the more able you are to share empathy with those around you - and in this expanded state of awareness, naturally your customers will enjoy you and want to return to be with you again.

Notice how your awareness naturally and quite effortlessly expands when you become aware of your breathing. The first focus phrase expands your awareness to include your nose and your head. The second focus phrase that I'm going to teach will expand your awareness to include also the breathing movements in your chest, hands, and down lower in your belly. Suddenly you experience a sense of three-dimensional volume inside your body - and with this experience you pop into the present moment and tune also into the world around you.

Say to yourself, "I feel the air flowing in and out of my nose," and experience that expansion of your awareness for a breath or two. Then say to yourself, "I also feel the movements in my chest and belly as I breathe," and sure enough, your awareness will expand effortlessly so that you're aware of your head, chest, and belly all at once.

This is "consciousness expansion" in a nutshell, and it's your most valuable boost for shifting instantly into the perfect mode for relating with customers. What you're doing at deep levels with this simple two-sentence refocusing process is breaking free from the grip of habitual worries and manipulative thoughts and tuning into where the action's really happening. When you shift from thought to experience, from inner ruminations to perceptual sensory awareness, you make the greatest leap of consciousness possible. You bring yourself back into engagement with the world around you.

Staying in the "now" is so important for so many reasons. Obviously, truly tuning in to the person you're listening to is one of those reasons.

The value of a smile

I found this on Cynthia's desk bulletin board:

Sometimes your joy
is the source of your smile,
but sometimes your smile
is the source of your joy.

-- Thich Nhat Hahn

That's quite wonderful, isn't it?

Comment on our connectedness

This quote isn't really about meditation but it is about how utterly connected we are one to another. We would all do well to consider that our lives belong to the community:

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no 'brief candle" to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

-- George Bernard Shaw

Friday cat blogging!

Henry

The lotus crown

Here's a visualization meditation that sounds very effective:

Sit comfortably with your spine erect and breath deeply and slowly for a few moments. Imagine a wonderful lotus flower of a thousand petals all bathed in golden light opening atop your head.

As the petals open visualize a shaft of the purest light filter into you from the heavens. Allow it to fill your being and beyond, light shinning out from every pore.

Enjoy any sensations that come for a few minutes before you gently close the lotus petals softly above you. Take your time to come back to the present moment before going about your day.

If you feel a little light headed after this exercise you may like to follow it with the golden routes meditation given above and you should also have a drink of water.

You can click through and read the whole article to learn about the "golden routes" meditation if you like.

Enjoy the benefits!

I just found a very nice little article entitled "Meditation Benefits". Here's an excerpt:

Meditation benefits people with or without acute medical illness or stress. People who meditate regularly have been shown to feel less anxiety and depression. They also report that they experience more enjoyment and appreciation of life and that their relationships with others are improved. Meditation produces a state of deep relaxation and a sense of balance or equanimity.

Do click through and read the whole article. It sums everything up very nicely.

Blue moon

Today is the blue moon - that is the second full moon within a calendar month. It's rare, of course. Here's a chant sent to me by Clyde Glandon:

The moon is walking, the moon is dancing
The moon is walking, the moon is dancing
Come and see, Come and see
The moon is walking around
Come and see, Come and see

--Ladysmith Black Mombassa

Priorities

This is dedicated to all you perfectionists out there who can't just let go and let be. Paul Rogers sent me this wonderful poem the other day. It was on Garrison Keillor's Writers' Almanac on NPR:

Advice to Myself

Leave the dishes.
Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic-decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in though the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.

It's by Louise Erdrich, from Original Fire: Selected and New Poems. © Harper Collins Publishers, 2003

Deep breathing

Here's a relaxation and centering exercise that is very refreshing:

Meditation can take many forms, including the art of deep breathing. It's a great way to relieve stress.

The American Academy of Family Physicians offers these steps to deep breathing, which helps your body get plenty of oxygen:

* Lie on your back on a flat surface.

* Rest one hand on your stomach above your belly button, and the other hand on your chest.

* Breathe in slowly and deeply, making your stomach rise a bit. Hold for a second.

* Slowly exhale, so that your stomach goes back down.

* Repeat several times.

You can also try this with a book on your stomach. Make the book go up and down and you know you're breathing correctly.

Memorial Day reflection

Let us ponder these scriptures this Memorial Day and dedicate ourselves to their fulfillment:

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

-- Isaiah 2:4

Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword.

-- Matthew 26:52

Using prompts throughout the day

I've had much success over the years in using environmental prompts to bring me to mindfulness. Back when I was training myself to say the Jesus Prayer (a form of mantra meditation) I reminded myself to say it whenever I looked at a clock or my watch. Another prompt was fastening my seatbelt. Still another was sudden noises - such as a school bell or a siren. Prompts are recommended in the little book a told you about a few days ago - Self-Meditation by Barbara Ann Kipfer. Here are two examples:

Each time you open a door, take a few mindful breaths.
~~~
When the phone rings, pause for a moment to let it ring. Listen to it. Relax before you pick it up.

Those are very good suggestions. I recommend that you look for other possible prompts throughout your day that will help you center and focus.

Wonder

When I was a child, I was given an illustrated copy of Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us. I was in for an amazing adventure. And I have admired and respected Carson ever since. Here's something she said that I just found today:

If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.

-- Rachel Carson

I agree. And I credit Carson herself with stimulating that sense of wonder in me that has lasted throughout my life.

Friday cat blogging!

Henry

Do you want to change your life?

Try this:

You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life.

-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

It's from a book called Simple Abundance.

UPDATE: I recommend this article called A Conversation with Sarah Ban Breathnach.

A beautiful attitude toward death

Frank Ford send me an email today with a whole list of quotations and this was one of them:

When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.

-- Chief Aupumut, Mohican (1725)

I think that is truly beautiful.

The worst slavery

There's a Nazarene Church on the corner of the street where I now live and I have to pass it every day going to and from the Center. They have a marquee out front on which they post announcements as well as various sayings and slogans. I see I'm going to get a spiritual work out with some of them! The last few days this has been posted:

The worst slavery: always wanting your own way.

How very true. Remember: preference is not necessarily a problem. Attachment to preference is the problem.

Equanimity and awareness

Today I bought a new little book called Self-Meditation and it's subtitled 3,299 mantras, tips, quotes, and koans for peace and serenity. It's by Barbara Ann Kipfer.

Here are a couple of samples:

Equanimity meditation: May I accept things as they are. May I be open and balanced. May I find equanimity and peace.
~~~
A good meditation can be as simple as doing something you love with mindful awareness.

It's a beneficial prayer and a beneficial practice. I encourage you to try both.

Cynthia Burgess's work

Someone has left several messages wanting more information about Cynthia's gorgeous work. If you send me your email (you can find my email address on my profile), I will put you in touch with Cynthia. She does sell her work so that's available for those who are interested.

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo art by Cynthia Burgess

The blossom within

On the day when the lotus bloomed, alas, my mind was straying, and I knew it not. My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded.

Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and I started up from my dream and felt a sweet trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind.

That vague sweetness made my heart ache with longing and it seemed to me that it was the eager breath of the summer seeking for its completion.

I knew not then that it was so near, that it was mine, and that this perfect sweetness had blossomed in the depth of my own heart.

-- Rabindranath Tagore

The Same as Gold

I heard this on NPR driving home from church today:

The Same as Gold

Now that I
Understand

That grief

Emotionally speaking

Is the same

As gold

I do not despair

That we are

All of us

Born to grieve.

-- Alice Walker

Manifesting the truth

Thomas Merton

We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us. But we make ourselves true inside by manifesting the truth as we see it.

-- Thomas Merton

Meditation tips

Yesterday, I found a little review of a book called The Joy of Living by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. The writer gives us this advice for our meditation:

The other big factor that seems to intimidate people about meditation is they believe that they must learn to stop all thoughts to have a completely clear mind. This is a myth! I enjoyed Rinpoche’s explanation that we can no more stop the brain from thinking than we can stop the heart from beating. By nature, the brain thinks. Let me say this again… meditation is NOT about stopping your thoughts! Know that you will have thoughts while you meditate. Rather than getting upset or thinking that you have failed, simply bring your awareness back to the present moment. The key to meditating is being aware of your thoughts and gently bringing your awareness back to the present moment. Rather than getting carried away by the random flow of thoughts, you want to become the observer of those thoughts while you stay present in the moment. Eventually, with practice you can learn to rest your mind in the gaps between thoughts.

Bottom line tips: start meditating for a minute or two each day... even the busiest among us can manage to find that time. Remember that having thoughts while you meditate is normal! Simply bring your mind gently back to the present moment.

This is good stuff. Couldn't have said it better myself!

Friday cat blogging!

Leroy

Photo by Ellie Finlay

A life imperative

Today I found a blog in which the author responds to the question, "What is the greatest imperative of your life?" I'm going to give you several excerpts from this person's little essay:

So for me, the great imperative in my life is continually returning to a state of being rather than doing. Which is an act and a process I'm broadly calling meditation.
...
My approach is strictly pragmatic: if it works, it's good. You don't have to believe in anything; if you meditate, your mind becomes stronger, more still and clear, as surely as push-ups and sit-ups strengthen the body. And just like physical exercise, in order for it to work, you have to do it.
...
But the most important meditation, perhaps even the point of all of the other forms of meditation I mention: learning to love, both oneself and others; learning to listen, to both oneself and others; learning to see and hear and taste and smell and fully feel this vivid dream of life, this horror show and shadow play of the world, this vast terrifying beauty, which is passing through our meditating mind at this very moment.

"In order for it to work, you have to do it." How true. And, yes, this "dream of life" is both unspeakably horrible and indescribably beautiful. And it is love that enables us to endure the reality of both.

The "motive of life"

I found this today and I really like it:

To be able to spread an aura of goodness and peace should be the motive of life.

-- Paramahansa Yogananda

You know, a person can do this - spread and aura of goodness and peace - in any walk of life. I often have people come to talk to me who are struggling to decided what they should "do" - that is, what kind of job they should take or what kind of volunteer work they should engage. They are often surprised when I insist that it really doesn't matter. What matters in any endeavor is not what we do but the way we do it. We can work to alleviate suffering and promote happiness wherever we are and in whatever we're doing.

Wednesday life form blogging

Rama - Amur Leopard

For today's life form blogging I'm bringing you another resident of Noah's Lost Ark that I blogged about yesterday. Here's Rama's story:

Amur Leopards are extremely rare and highly endangered. Taken from a failing breeding facility. Rama, throughout his life has suffered some very serious injuries at the hands of mankind. Trauma most likely inflicted by severe beatings has destroyed his right eye and caused broken bones in his tail and face resulting in blindness to his right eye. He was also malnourished and endures the pain of a botched declawing. Now he has a large enclosure and can climb trees and play like a leopard should.

FACT: There are less than 50 Amur Leopards left in the wild!

There is no doubt in my mind that Noah's Lost Ark is alleviating suffering and promoting happiness!

Luminous is this mind

Luminous is this mind,
Brightly shining, but it is
Colored by the attachments
That visit it.
This unlearned people do not
Really understand,
And so do not cultivate the
Mind.
Luminous is this mind,
Brightly shining,
And it is free of the
Attachments that visit it.
This the noble follower
Of the way really understands;
So for them there is
Cultivation of the mind.

- Anguttara Nikaya

A compassion opportunity

TONKA - Bengal Tiger

Those of you who also visit Child of Illusion may have already read about a wonderful organization called Noah's Lost Ark which gives a permanent haven to unwanted and abused exotic animals. On that blog, I told you the story of Hawk, the African lion. Now I want to tell you about Tonka, a Bengal Tiger:

Tonka arrived with Hawk and Pumpkin. All were kept in tiny, filthy cages. Tonka was severely malnourished and the big cats' bodies were caked with their own feces. They had urine burns all over them from lying in their own waste. Lethargic and weak from not eating, Tonka couldn't even hold his head up the first time we saw him. Our vet says he only weighed 200 pounds upon arrival. Closer to 350 or more is normal!

But Tonka is now thriving as you can tell by the picture above.

Stories about abused animals are almost more than I can bear. I urgently encourage you to explore the Noah's Lost Ark website for there you will find many more such stories. Because of the organization's dedicated work, these animals enjoy a happy ending after all.

I have already sent in a donation by snail mail but you can also contribute on line. Here's the link:

http://www.noahslostark.org/donations.htm

And here's their contact information:

Noah's Lost Ark, Inc.

Telephone: 330-584-7835

Postal address: 8424 Bedell Rd., Berlin Center, Oh 44401

Electronic mail: noahslostark@aol.com

Please, please send them a donation - even if only a little bit. Small donations really add up. I know! That's how St. John's Center survives.

Christian meditation

Maybe you've heard of Father Laurence Freeman. He's one of the big names in the Christian meditation movement. This morning I found an article about a retreat he conducted called "Christian meditation retreat leaves some young people wanting more". Here's part of what it says:

Father Freeman, a Benedictine monk of the Olivetan Congregation, told participants: "Happiness is what we are created for. God created us to know and serve him and to be happy." But this happiness "cannot be taught or produced," he said. It "just happens."

He introduced Christian meditation as one way to attain true happiness. This kind of contemplative prayer, or prayer of the heart, calls one to silence, stillness and simplicity through the repeated mental recitation of a sacred word or mantra, he explained.

The monk, who has popularized Christian meditation around the world, recommended reciting Maranatha, which means "come Lord" in Aramaic. Scholars believe this language was Jesus' mother tongue.

"Meditation is all about letting go and 'letting God,'" he said. This can lead one to a deeper experience of God and true self-knowledge, which he described as "the foundation of happiness." Father Freeman led the group in three meditation exercises -- one done while walking and the other two while sitting. He recommended that practitioners meditate 20-30 minutes twice a day.

Meditation is not dependent on any particular belief system. On the contrary; it is compatible with all belief systems.

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo art by Cynthia Burgess

Silence

silence
is the moment between everyone
is the best friend you have in the world
that moment in time
will help you to survive

--Lara Fabian

Compassion

Artist: Tashi Mannox

Artist's website

This is the mantra of compassion in Tibetan: Om mani padme hum...

It is translated, "Oh hail, the jewel in the lotus."

Remember that the lotus is the symbol of enlightenment and of spiritual practice. The lotus is a beautiful, pure blossom that floats on top of the water. But it has a stalk that goes down to roots that are in the mud and slime. This is to symbolize the totality of the human being. We are not to divide ourselves or reject the part we don't like, that we think is unworthy. Rather, we are to see that the troublesome parts of ourselves - the mud and the slime, if you like - are actually the soil of our spiritual practice. Nothing is wasted.

And the most important part of the lotus - the jewel, as it were - is compassion. Compassion for ourselves, compassion for others.

Transforming e-mail

This morning I picked up the May issue of Shambhala Sun and found a short article by Sylvia Boorstein entitled "You've Got Mail". Here's how it gets started:

Every e-mail I receive from my friend and colleague Donald Rothberg starts with a blessing. "May this message find you in health and happiness" is a typical beginning, or "May this day, your first at home after this last long period of teaching, be one of ease and rest." Sometimes it is a generic blessing; often it is a particular wish. Then he continues with the business of the e-mail: "About that meeting tomorrow..."

I first noticed Donald's style convention about a year ago, not long after he'd told me about his other e-mail practice. "As I sit at my computer answering my mail," he said, "I pause before I open each one. I take a breath, and make the intention, 'May I open this e-mail and respond for the benefit of myself and for all beings.' Then I read the message and respond." I haven't taken up that practice yet, but I think of it often, especially at those times when I realize I've done too much e-mailing too fast.

What a wonderful practice! Suppose we just brought mindfulness to our use of e-mail. And a wish. Just to say silently or out loud, "May you be happy" when we both open and send mail would truly transform our time at the computer.

Friday cat blogging!

Leroy

Photo by Ellie Finlay

Love and the role of attention

Here's an observation I just found:

Love is more than just a feeling: it's a process requiring continual attention. Loving well takes laughter, loyalty, and wanting more to be able to say, "I understand" than to hear, "You're right."

--Molleen Matsumura

Anything that requires "continual attention" will be supported by meditative practice.

Non-doing

Now here's a thought:

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

--Lin Yutang

Wednesday life form blogging

Paul Rogers sent me this marvelous picture with the following:

Ellie,
We saw this rabbit "working" in a shop in Eurika Springs. When you made a purchase the woman would put the receipt in the rabbit's mouth and it would turn around and hand it to you. What's not to love about a town where there are cats in the shops and rabbits working the register?
Paul

Meditation and attention

Meditation really does help people concentrate and pay attention. Take a look:

PHILADELPHIA -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say that practicing even small doses of daily meditation may improve focus and performance.

Meditation, according to Penn neuroscientist Amishi Jha and Michael Baime, director of Penn's Stress Management Program, is an active and effortful process that literally changes the way the brain works. Their study is the first to examine how meditation may modify the three subcomponents of attention, including the ability to prioritize and manage tasks and goals, the ability to voluntarily focus on specific information and the ability to stay alert to the environment.

In the Penn study, subjects were split into two categories. Those new to meditation, or "mindfulness training," took part in an eight-week course that included up to 30 minutes of daily meditation. The second group was more experienced with meditation and attended an intensive full-time, one-month retreat.

Researchers found that even for those new to the practice, meditation enhanced performance and the ability to focus attention. Performance-based measures of cognitive function demonstrated improvements in a matter of weeks.

You know, it really bewilders me why people give up on meditation after they learn about it. The pay-off is so great!

The importance of little things

One of the most important things my meditation teachers taught me is that it's all material. Everything in life - no matter how seemingly trivial - is an occasion for practice. So I really liked this quotation when I found it this morning:

Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things.

--Frank A. Clark

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Begin with your own mind

First there must be order and harmony within your own mind. Then this order will spread to your family, then to the community, and finally to your entire kingdom. Only then can you have peace and harmony.

~Confucius

Fault finding

I just came across a wonderful article entitled Speaking of the Faults of Others by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron. Here's part of what it says:

"I vow not to talk about the faults of others." In the Zen tradition, this is one of the bodhisattva vows.
...
What are the results of speaking of others' faults? First, we become known as a busybody. Others won't want to confide in us because they're afraid we'll tell others, adding our own judgments to make them look bad. I am cautious of people who chronically complain about others. I figure that if they speak that way about one person, they will probably speak that way about me, given the right conditions. In other words, I don't trust people who continuously criticize others.

Second, we have to deal with the person whose mistakes we publicized when they find out what we said, which, by the time they hear it, has been amplified in intensity. That person may tell others our faults in order to retaliate, not an exceptionally mature action, but one in keeping with our own actions.

Third, some people get stirred up when they hear about others' faults. For example, if one person at an office or factory talks behind the back of another, everyone in the work place may get angry and gang up on the person who has been criticized. This can set off backbiting throughout the workplace and cause factions to form. Is this conducive for a harmonious work environment? Hardly.

Fourth, are we happy when our mind picks faults in others? Hardly. When we focus on negativities or mistakes, our own mind isn't very happy. Thoughts such as, "Sue has a hot temper. Joe bungled the job. Liz is incompetent. Sam is unreliable," aren't conducive for our own mental happiness.

Fifth, by speaking badly of others, we create the cause for others to speak badly of us. This may occur in this life if the person we have criticized puts us down, or it may happen in future lives when we find ourselves unjustly blamed or scapegoated. When we are the recipients of others' harsh speech, we need to recall that this is a result of our own actions: we created the cause; now the result comes. We put negativity in the universe and in our own mindstream; now it is coming back to us. There's no sense being angry and blaming anyone else if we were the ones who created the principal cause of our problem.

Fault finding is very, very common and very poisonous. Let's all try to discipline ourselves not to do it.

Friday cat blogging!

Molly

Photo by Gabe Horn

True success

I found this on the Spiritual Literacy Blog:

Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit priest who died in 1987 but left behind a rich and deep spiritual legacy in his many writings. In this essay published on a website devoted to his work, he talks about the happiness that is available to us if we only let go of our many illusions. The secret of awakening is that we can experience joy right now. De Mello redefines success. Rather than being about popularity and achievements, success means having no dependence on what others think or say about us. This peace comes from within, doing what we were meant to do without calculation of approval or disapproval, flattery or criticism. So drop your reliance upon these things and step into the light and freedom of true happiness which is "our natural state."

I really like the point that success means having no dependence on what others think or say about us. That is SO, SO important.

Humility

It will do us all well to remember this:

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

-- Mohandas Gandhi

True happiness

Last night in ongoing class we were talking during the discussion time about the difference between gratification and happiness. Then today I found the following:

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

-- Helen Keller

Very true.

Both ordinary and profound

I found a little blog entry today called "Meditation and Intimacy". Here's the part I really liked:

It is so easy to sit down in meditation and to secretly hope that something extraordinary will happen, that through the practice of meditation, somehow our ordinary experience will become something much more exciting, something ‘mystical’ perhaps. And this leads to overlooking the very simple, very ordinary experiences that are going on: the rise and fall of the chest as we are breathing, the fluttering of thought and desire, the itch in our left armpit, the cool breeze coming through the window, the sound of traffic in the distance.

However, when we start to take account of these ordinary experiences, then they take on a new light. Take the breath, for example: whilst, at first glance, the breath seems a simple, mechanical process (in-out, in-out, in-out), the more we attune ourselves to the endlessly subtle processes involved in breathing, the more complex and profound they appear to be. It is an ordinary kind of profundity, not the kind of pseudo-profundity that comes from adding some Great Truth or other onto experience, but it is a kind of profundity nonetheless.

We experience a deep appreciation of the ordinary when we're practiced meditators. It's quite wonderful.

About anger

Lyman Abbott: "Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry."

The Wildmind website has published a really wonderful article about anger. Here's an excerpt:

So how can we teach children — and ourselves — to experience anger in a healthy way? Here are seven steps to a healthier relationship with anger.

First, we can learn to accept that anger is a normal, healthy, and potentially creative form of energy. Too often we’ve been taught, as Abbott suggests, that anger is something to be avoided and believe that we’ve failed when anger has stirred. When we try to confine our anger it’s inclined to burst out uncontrollably, or to gnaw us away from the inside, as resentment. When we accept our anger we can relate to it in a more healthy way.

Second, breathe! Create a sense of space between you and your emotions by breathing deeply into the belly. Connecting with the body helps stop our emotions spiraling out of control, keeps them in perspective, and helps us to calm down so that we don’t do or say anything rash. If you’re angry when you receive an email, don’t reply at once but wait until you’ve had time to quiet your mind and reflect more calmly.

Third, we can appreciate that our anger is our anger. Other people don’t make us angry. Our anger is not their fault. Our anger, rather, is our response to our interpretation of our experience. We need to own our anger and to see that it’s something we’ve given rise to, ourselves.

Do click through and read the rest of the article for the remaining steps.

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Sitting still

This is the last day of April which is National Poetry Month so I want to bring you one more poem. This is about the value of learning to sit still and to face what we fear:

1979

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.
Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it. As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.

— Wendell Berry in A Timbered Choir

Knowing yourself

It's so important to know yourself. Here is a poem about knowing and valuing oneself that I first came across years ago and it impressed me very much. Then I just stumbled upon it again today:

Love after Love

The time will come when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

— Derek Walcott

The Good News

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Here's a poem by one of the great meditation masters of our day:

The Good News

They don't publish
the good news.
The good news is published
by us.
We have a special edition every moment,
and we need you to read it.
The good news is that you are alive,
and the linden tree is still there,
standing firm in the harsh Winter.
The good news is that you have wonderful eyes
to touch the blue sky.
The good news is that your child is there before you,
and your arms are available:
hugging is possible.
They only print what is wrong.
Look at each of our special editions.
We always offer the things that are not wrong.
We want you to benefit from them
and help protect them.
The dandelion is there by the sidewalk,
smiling its wondrous smile,
singing the song of eternity.
Listen! You have ears that can hear it.
Bow your head.
Listen to it.
Leave behind the world of sorrow
and preoccupation
and get free.
The latest good news
is that you can do it.

— Thich Nhat Hanh

Friday cat blogging

Jorge

Photo by Juan or Misty Diaz

Teaching meditation to children

I found an article today in an Australian newspaper entitled "Meditation brings spirit of calm to school life". Here's part of what it says:

CHILDREN as young as five should be taught the ancient spiritual practice of meditation alongside religious doctrine, the leader of its modern Christian revival says.

Meditation is one way to tap into children's innate sense of the divine and could lay the spiritual foundations for an enduring religious life that outlasts parent-organised Sunday worship, says Father Laurence Freeman.

For the past 20 years the World Movement for Christian Meditation, of which Father Freeman is founder, has been bringing the contemplative experience out of the monasteries into the wider community. Father Freeman calls his ecumenical movement a monastery without walls, and its growth has been particularly strong among Christians in Australia, where there are now more than 335 meditation groups, said to be the largest number per capita in the world.

Now this visiting British Benedictine monk wants to introduce it to children, who, he says, are particularly receptive to meditative practices....

Ernie Christie, the deputy director of Townsville's Catholic Education Office, said meditation was taught as prayer three times a week from kindergarten to year 12. Sessions are accompanied by gentle music and a candle.

"It's a skilled discipline, and the earlier we get them the more they see it is a natural part of their being. Anecdotally, the feedback has been nothing but positive. The kids are calmer, more open to doing school work, and in secondary school they are asking to do meditation sessions prior to exam time.

"The teachers are saying kids are not as aggressive after meditation. There has not been one negative comment from any of our parents across all our 31 schools, and that's remarkable."

I have a lot of respect for Laurence Freeman's work. And I'm glad to know he is now working with young children.

Listening

In ongoing class we have been talking about the importance of listening. Here's something that caught my attention today:

To listen is to continually give up all expectation and to give our attention, completely and freshly, to what is before us, not really knowing what we will hear or what that will mean. In the practice of our days, to listen is to lean in, softly, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.

-- Mark Nepo

Wednesday life form blogging

Chico

Widening our circle of compassion

Carolyn Loomis sent me the following today:

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

--Albert Einstein

The present moment

From The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts:

[O]ur experience is altogether momentary. From one point of view, each moment is so elusive and so brief that we cannot even think about it before it has gone. From another point of view, this moment is always here, since we know no other moment than the present moment. It is always dying, always becoming past more rapidly than imagination can conceive. Yet at the same time it is always being born, always new, emerging just as rapidly from that complete unknown we call the future. Thinking about it almost makes you breathless.

Shakespeare on compassion

Today is Shakespeare's birthday. It is also the anniversary of the day on which he died. Compassion, as you know, is the foundational principle of meditative practice. This is actually what Shakespeare meant by the word, "mercy". Take a look at this passage from Measure for Measure:

No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.

Earth Day

It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility.

-- Rachel Carson

Day late cat blogging!

Lucy and Sally

Photo by Doug Brown

The value of close attention

It's so easy to go through the day on automatic pilot without paying real attention to what we experience and encounter. Here's a reminder not to do that:

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

--Henry Miller

Awareness

The following passage is from a book that has influenced me hugely over the years:

If we imagine that our mind is like the blue sky, and that across it pass thoughts as clouds, we can get a feel for that part of it which is other than our thoughts. The sky is always present; it contains the clouds and yet is not contained by them. So with our awareness. It is present and encompasses all our thoughts, feelings, and sensations; yet it is not the same as them. To recognize and acknowledge this awareness, with its spacious, peaceful quality, is to find a very useful resource within. We see that we need not identify with each thought just because it happens to occur. We can remain quiet and choose which thought we wish to attend to. And we can remain aware behind all these thoughts, in a state that offers an entirely new level of openness and insight.

From: How Can I Help; Stories and Reflections on Service by Ram Dass and Paul Gorman

Priorities

Here's an observation by Jim Dreaver from an interview he gave for Allspirit:

People get distracted by the world. Making money, or just surviving, or succeeding in some career or project, or finding the right relationship, becomes all important, and enlightenment, awakening, takes second place. You can never find it that way. It has to be the central focus. Then, as Nisargadatta says, it is easy, or relatively so. After all, we always, usually, come upon that which we most want.

The good news is you can still have worldly success, the right relationship or whatever (I am totally a proponent of both), but you have to get your priorities in the right order. Then everything happens. It is just like Jesus taught, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and everything else shall be given to you." The "kingdom" is a metaphor for liberation, true inner freedom. One of my goals as a teacher and writer is to make the message so compelling and inspiring that people say "Yes, I want this. I want to be free. I want inner freedom to be the central focus of my life."

Put your liberation first and everything follows. That's the way it works --- truly!

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo art by Cynthia Burgess

Interconnectedness

Here's something we really need to remember:

Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we're so deeply interconnected with one another. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is the supreme creative act.

~Ram Dass

This is why regular meditation is so very important. It trains us to consistently and continually work on our own consciousness.

The free concert

I got this beautiful email from my old friend, Walter Calahan, this morning. I share it with you:

Beautiful morning.

Rain is steady but not too cold. The stream is full but hasn't flooded its banks yet.

The deep gray of the sky makes the spring greens really pop.

For me what makes this a beautiful morning are the birds.

Since it's not super cold, and the rain isn't pouring, all the birds in the area out and about singing their songs.

I went out on the porch to get wood for the fireplace insert, and paused to listen. All the different songs blending and overlapping each other was like being in a concert. This is one of the best things of living here on the ranch 'cause I'm far from the human noise that so easily drowns out nature. All it takes is one car driving by to mask 90% of the singing. When in a more urban area, with the steady roar of human activity, 100% of what nature offers us is wiped out. No wonder people are angry all the time. They are missing the free concert to touch their soul.

I so agree, Walt. No wonder people are angry all the time.

Be creative. Find ways to escape the noise pollution. And be present to the natural beauty of the world.

About attachment

Here is part of a poem by Vasant Lad:

Where there is attachment, there is no awareness.
Give complete attention to your attachment.
Apply your whole body, mind, and emotions to it.
A space will open
and that attachment will drop by itself
like a mature leaf drops to the ground.

Friday cat blogging!

Sally

Photo by Doug Brown

Peace

I've known for a long time that the Sanscrit word, "shanti" means peace. Today I found a more thorough explanation:

Let there be Peace.
Peace, beautiful Peace.
Peace within,
Peace without.
Peace in this world.
Peace for all beings.

Let us give this kind of peace to ourselves and to each other.

Shanti.

Thursday life form blogging

Smokey:

World Class Sleeping Champion

Photo by Bill Miller

Reality

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

-- Philip K. Dick

Circles

For many years I have treasured a little card published by All Saints Convent that is inscribed with these words:

They drew a circle that shut me out;
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took them in.

And today I found something else about circles:

Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning, and under every deep a lower deep opens.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us abandon the false dualism of "in and out" thinking. When all is said and done, everything belongs. Yes, everything.

Tuesday meditation picture blogging

Photo art by Cynthia Burgess

Learn to be responsive to change

Well, I didn't know he said this:

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

-- Charles Darwin

It will do us all good to ponder this.

Now

Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future. In other words, if we're going to be more cheerful in the future, it's because of our aspiration and exertion to be cheerful in the present. What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.

-- Pema Chödrön

Resurrection

The phoenix

The value of silence

This morning I came across a little article called "Transforming the world through silence". Here's an excerpt:

We live in an unhealthy society of noise. No matter where we turn in our daily lives, noise can be found in abundance. As a health-care worker, I fear that we often become immune to the noise around us, but it is taking its toll on our lives.

We now know from experts that the noise of our daily lives is harmful to our health and it is recognized as an environmental pollutant.

Silence, on the other hand, has many benefits, yet it seems rare and infrequent in our busy lives. Silence takes time, discipline and commitment.

We generally need to physically move to another place or space to be quiet and still for even a brief period of time.

Thomas Merton, the late Trappist monk and author, once said, "Silence is not a luxury, it is a necessity." It is unfortunate that we don't take daily advantage of solitude and silence.

Silence is much more than a noise-free environment. Silence is the foundation of balance and tranquility. It heals the heart, builds and sustains relationships and has the possibility of healing our broken and turbulent world.

Do what you can to give yourself the marvelous gift of silence. It will, indeed, transform you.

Today

Sacred Activism Conference

Hello, folks. I want to remind you of the Sacred Activism Conference held in Tulsa next month. It's really a wonderful opportunity for us all. Lauren Artress, Robert Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Myss, Andrew Harvey and Michael Lerner among others will be speaking. I will be giving a meditation workshop, too! Please check out the following website and plan on attending!

Sacred Activism and the Power of Inclusion

A Heartland Summit

A blessing for today

May you be at peace.
May your heart remain open.
May you awaken to the light of your own true nature.
May you be healed.
May you be a source of healing for all beings.

---Thich Nhat Hanh

Thursday life form blogging

Photo by Hank Weaver

Meditation and the homeless

Do you think meditation is only for the affluent? Not so according to Rev. Rev. Jana Drakka. Take a look at part of an article called "Woman Offers Meditation To The Homeless":

San Francisco, USA -- If you are homeless in the Bay Area, there are a number of places you can turn to for shelter, clothing and food. But none is as unusual as a one-woman effort now underway in San Francisco. She's offering peace of mind.

The practice of meditation has been around for thousands of years. But what's happening in this room is unique. This is believed to be the first meditation project in the nation designed for those who are homeless or living on the edge.

Rev. Jana Drakka, Buddhist monk: "Our aim is to be at peace with whatever comes up."

You might think meditation is something only yuppies do, but one purpose of meditation is to reduce stress, and as anyone living on the streets will tell you, it's certainly stressful being homeless.
...
Steve Eastman believes meditation is helping him move forward despite being surrounded by poverty, violence, alcohol and drugs.

Steve Eastman, meditation client: "The more calm, the more centered, the more rational you are, the more likely it is that you can get some services or find some help."

Meditation is truly for everyone in every life circumstance.

Genuine love for another

Do you love someone only to find yourself trying to change that person? Take a look at this observation:

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

~Thomas Merton

It is very hard to be the one who is twisted to conform to another's image. And there is nothing more wonderful than to be loved for oneself.

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo art by Cynthia Burgess

About affirmation

It's really important to affirm others:

Do not keep the alabaster box of your friendship sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words while their ears can hear them, and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happier. The kind of things you mean to say when they are gone, say before they go.

~George W. Childs

What would happen if we decided to fill people's lives with sweetness? There would be so much more happiness in the world, wouldn't there?

Come to the end of words

Here's a passage from Staying Put by Scott Russell Sanders that I found very moving:

Nothing less than the undivided universe can be our true home. Yet how can one speak or even think about the whole of things? Language is of only modest help. Every sentence is a wispy net, capturing a few flecks of meaning. The sun shines without vocabulary. The salmon has no name for the urge that drives it upstream. The newborn groping for the nipple knows hunger long before it knows a single word. Even with an entire dictionary in one's head, one eventually comes to the end of words. Then what? Then drink deep like the baby, swim like the salmon, burn like any brief star.

Here we see an exaltation of silence. And that is a good thing.