Grateful and Alive

The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/River Tree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Thank you for coming to practice today.  We explored ways of experiencing gratitude in our hearts – receiving it like a gift.  It’s an emotion that feels good like holding a sleeping baby or stroking the silky back of your cat or your dog’s ears.  Ordinary things that nourish us quietly without a lot of effort.  It’s the solace that’s present beneath the noise of disheartening news.  I guess you could say it’s an inner and outer resource.

I learned our guided meditation from Oren Jay Sofer.  Oren brings so much heart and empathy to the way he teaches.  You can find his guided meditations at his web-site.

Naomi Shihab Nye’s beautiful poem, Small Basket of Happiness, is a delicate reminder of what is available to us when we can slow down, open and receive life’s blessings.

Sharon Olds’ poem, Ode to the Dirt, is a love letter to the earth beneath our feet.  The living blanket that holds carbon and microorganisms on which/who our very survival depends. We humans arose from her and will ultimately return to her.  You can learn more about the science of this perennial truth at Kiss the Ground Soil Science page.

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Beginning Again in Meeting

The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  Thank you for coming to practice today. For many of us today is another day of living with stress, uncertainty and vulnerability.  Another day of wanting this – whatever this is for each of us – to be over.  AND we can deeply appreciate the fresh air and the rain!  Like fresh sweet air, mindful presence brings us to life, to each other, to the world around us.  

We drew inspiration from Narell Carter-Quinlan who is an artist, poet and a healer living in Australia.  Her poem, Weaving New Songlines, offers hopeful encouragement to use this “great pause” to reimagine our lives.  You can enjoy more of her work at Embodied Terrain.

We explored the qualities of presence outlined by meditation teacher and author, Oren Jay Sofer, in his book Say What You Mean.  Oren also encourages us to be honest about the truth of our experience and to learn how to live with life’s elemental uncertainty.  We can realize a new dream together in practicing mutuality – seeing each other as beings who share the same fundamental needs – and in being willing to share our vulnerability.

Finally we ended with a blessing, “For One Who is Exhausted,”  from poet philosopher John O’Donohue.  This blessing affirms the need for self-care and joy in our lives..

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Going Places Larger Than Ourselves

The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. Thanks to every one of you who bring your presence and feel the truth of what’s happening in ourselves, our community and our society.  So many of us are heavy hearted – literally breathing in smoke – and also witnessing the destruction of the many kinds of fire burning in our communities.  Today we explored how to cultivate equanimity and compassion. – Meditation teacher Gil Fronsdal describes equanimity as being centered in the middle of change, to see with patience and understanding.  Equanimity is the protector of compassion and love.

We drew on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, often referred to as Thay or teacher,  and his student Cheri Maples.  Thay is sometimes called the “father of mindfulness.”   Martin Luther King nominated the Vietnamese Zen Master for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.  You can read more about his life’s work as a peace activist in the 2019 Time article, The Monk Who Taught the World Mindfulness Awaits the End of This Life.

Cheri served in the criminal justice system for over 25 years.  After meeting Thay, she became a meditation teacher and together they introduced mindfulness to the police officers of Madison, Wisconsin.   After listening to her 2015 talk on social engagement I got some practical insight into how to cultivate equanimity in my daily life.  Days after hearing her caring voice, I learned of her 2017 passing from complications of injuries sustained in a traumatic cycling accident.  I didn’t know Cheri personally and I feel her loss deeply.  We need caring, practical, loving voices like hers now more than ever.

We were also inspired by the transformational poems of Naomi Shihab Nye.  Naomi was born to a Palestinian father and American mother.  She grew up in Missouri, Jerusalem and Texas.  Her poems, Cross That Line and Two Countries invite our creative imagination and empathy to reach past differences and to go to places larger than ourselves.

Cross That Line was inspired by singer, actor, athlete, scholar and political activist, Paul Robeson.   On May 18, 1952 he performed an outdoor concert for more than 25,000 people (estimates range as high as 45,000) gathered on both sides of the United States/Canadian border at Peace Arch Park in Blaine.  He sang from a platform on the back of a truck.  His passport had been confiscated by the State Department after he refused to sign an affidavit stating he was a communist.  He sang in English, songs of peace in Russian and Chinese, songs of liberty in a tongue of the African villages. Despite the racially and politically charged struggle in which Robeson was engaged at the time of this concert, the event was unmarred by violence.

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Breathing and Caring

The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation  class met this morning.  I am so thankful for having this time and space together.  We share a sensory experience of our animal senses.  Intimately relating to our breath and our bodies can help us find our instinctive place within the living earth.  We begin to appreciate the relationships that make our living and loving possible.

We drew on the life’s work of poet Mary Oliver – a deeply empathic guide to our natural world.  She wrote her poems while hiking fields and shorelines notebook in hand.   Her words invited readers to experience nature with our imagination and our senses.  She called on us to “find our place in the family of things.”  In her intimate On Being interview, Listening to the World, she talked about how nature and poetry saved her life.

David Abram, a cultural ecologist and philosopher, affirms this call of the wild.  He reminds us of our intimate relationship to the more-than-human world which he refers to as “the commonwealth of breath.”  Like Mary, David enlivens the magic and mystery of our sensual experience of our breath, our bodies and our world.

Both of these artists and thinkers inspire deep appreciation and love of life.  They help us understand our interdependence which is so central to mindfulness as a spiritual practice.

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