Joy!

May this wonderful evening be blessed for you all.

And do keep meditating!

Class is ON!

Center participants: Okay. It's raining outside. Rain. As in WET. (Not sleeting.) SO, we will have class. (But use your judgment. If you think it's unsafe, stay home!)

December 21 class?

Hello, everyone.

Please refer back to this spot regarding Saturday morning class cancellation for December 21, 2013. We are under ice storm warnings. 

No Class Tonight

Hello, everyone!

Foundations class for tonight, December 5, 2013 is cancelled tonight due to the weather. Everybody stay safe!!

(And keep meditating, of course!)

Indeed

So, so true

And this is a wonderful way to look at everything.

Garage Sale Postponed

Well, dear Tulsa area people, I'm disappointed to report that, for the first time in the history of the Center, we have decided to postpone the garage sale originally scheduled for tomorrow, May 4. There is going to be 40% chance of rain all day tomorrow AND the temperature is going to be mainly in the 40s and low 50s. We've decided it will hurt customer response for it to be so damp and chilly --- even if we luck out and it doesn't actually rain.

So now we are planning the sale for Saturday, May 11.

We apologize for any inconvenience!

Saturday class back on

Saturday morning class members: We WILL have class tomorrow morning (May 4) after all since we are postponing the garage sale.

Excellent question, actually

It goes both ways....

Simple; also profound

Overcoming despair

Today I want to let you know about a brief but very sensible article that will help when we feel a bit overwhelmed by the way the world is:

4 Ways to Overcome Despair

Here's  the first way:

1. Act. As Joan Baez once said, “Action is the antidote to despair.” If you despair about a problem or crisis in the world, do something. Choose actions that will lead to positive, sustainable, lasting solutions; that use your best skills; and that you enjoy doing. You’ll find friends and support in the process; see the positive effects of your efforts, and feel buoyed by the capacity of action to create change

~~~

Simple. Profound.

So very true

Much unhappiness would be avoided and much suffering alleviated by comprehending this great truth.

No class today!

Hello, dear Center folks.

Due to the snow, Wednesday ongoing class is cancelled.

Stay safe!!

~~~

To everyone!

Yes, let's.

Choice

It's a pretty good list, isn't it?

This actually works!

For all my American readers, "practise" really is the way it's spelled in Britain and Ireland.  :-)

 

Thoughts for the New Year

Hello, dear people.

I posted the following in January of 2005. I think it's time for a repeat. I am deeply convinced of these truths:

“Sometimes… a wave of light breaks into our darkness and it is as if a voice were saying, ‘You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you… Do not seek anything…; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.’” 

 As far as I’m concerned nothing else the great theologian Paul Tillich wrote comes close to the power, the startling, staggering, perfect truth of this famous “acceptance” statement. I sometimes think that if I were the rector of a parish I would be tempted to repeat this quote to the same people every Sunday for a year --- I think it is that important.

This experience of being accepted is not dependent on any belief system. But the question is sure to be asked: who or what does the accepting? I'd like to suggest that if you are a Buddhist you might experience being accepted by your own enlightened nature or by the Three Jewels. If you are agnostic or atheist you might experience being accepted by your own deepest, truest self - that self that is more real than your wounded self or your ego. If you are a traditional theist that acceptance may be experienced as coming from the Divinity of your understanding. Perhaps for everyone there can be the sense of being accepted by the Universe. In that regard there is a corresponding freedom when we have accepted that things are as they are. The story is told about Margaret Fuller who once exclaimed, "I accept the Universe!" It was Carlyle who then responded, "By God, she'd better."

All that being said I think it better to leave the "who" or "what" question alone. After all, Tillich did say "Do not seek anything... do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted." What would happen if you sat in meditation using this last sentence as your meditation support? In other words, just sit and let it be real and true that you are accepted? If we were to adopt this practice as a New Year's aspiration rather than taking on heroic resolutions I'm sure the freedom we would experience would be rich and profound.
~~~