The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We explored the experience of letting life move through us.  We celebrated the moments of recognizing our wandering minds.  We rested in moments of stillness the pauses between thoughts and movements.  We experimented with being present to what surfaces in the space of stillness:  our grief, our gratitude, our joys and our sorrows.

We drew inspiration from poet David Whyte’s poem, Winter Apple from his book, Pilgrim.  His evocative imagery reminds us of nature’s wisdom helps us in the inevitable cycles of life:    ripening, dying and renewal.

We drew from psychotherapist, author and soul activist Francis Weller’s Sun Magazine interview, The Geography of Sorrow.  He poignantly observes the relationship between grief and gratitude and the vital importance of keeping our hearts open. I found reading this interview to be very meaningful.

Finally we received John O’Donohue’s Friendship Blessing.  John O’Donohue was an Irish poet, author, priest and philosopher.  He compassionately encourages us to befriend ourselves and suggests that this might change us.

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/River Tree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Poet Joy Harjo writes “Humans are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the earth and the sun; we exist together in a sacred field of meaning.”  I feel vulnerable.  I rely on the many kindnesses given nearly every day.  Our practice together is a gift giving that keeps my hope alive and spirits lifted.  Today I am reminded that we give each other our faces in strange “digital space” that is strangely intimate.  There is a meeting of hearts and minds in “a sacred field of meaning” that we co-create together.

We began practice with Joy’s beautiful poem:  Praise the Rain.  We used the poems lines to tune into the praises we carry for the beings and the things that we love.  In the days leading to the holiday in which we give thanks we can tune into the inner songs that arise when we recognize the simplest blessings that make life possible.  Like breathing.

Like the “unfailing generosity of trees” that poet Danna Faulds poem for a golden day.  We considered the questions she asks about how willing we are to let the world in.

We considered the inter-dependent relationships that hold the world together. Thich Nhat Hanh, often referred to as Thay or teacher describes this as inter-being:  “Everything relies on everything else in order to manifest.”  Even our body is a community. It is home to trillions of non-human cells that outnumber our own human cells. Like the generous trees, they make our lives possible.

Cultural ecologist and geo-philosopher, David Abram, describes our inter-being as the visceral experience of inter-breathing.  We live because we nourish each other.

Dr. Stephan Harding, co-founder of Schumacher College, teacher and writer, explains Gaia or Earth Consciousness, in Joanna Macy’s compilation A Wild Love for the World.  We are part of the great web of life.  What happens to Earth happens to us.

Joanna Macy has spent over sixty years organizing environmental and social action groups.  Joanna is a national treasure. You can hear more about her remarkable life and work by listening to A Wild Love for the World on On Being with Krista Tippett.  Her work describes the process by which we can develop Gaia Consciousness.  In essence when we realize our inter-being caring for our world is simply and profoundly a way of caring for ourselves.

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/River Tree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Sundays often feel like a holiday for me – the time in my early life when going to grandma’s house was about her hugs and playing with my cousins.  Our play was imaginal and improvisational.  Hiding and seeking, shouting and running took us to new places.  Our weekly class is a bit like those visits – I anticipate seeing your faces, hearing about your lives and the meaning you make of the world and our practice.  We learn from each other and we draw comfort from each other.

Today we worked with Eagle Poem by Joy Harjo.  The poem is about prayer and it’s an invitation to open.  Each line is almost a koan – a question you live with that doesn’t have a “right” answer.  When we live with life’s questions we meet each experience with curiosity and care.

We also drew on Rainer Maria Rilke‘s poem, Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower. Rilke lived during the late 19th and early 20th century. He lived during the tumultuous times leading up to WWI and the devastation during and after the war. The poem is like a hymn to being consciously alive.  It’s also a challenge to embrace our lives fully.  Ultimately he asks us to transform our suffering into strength.

In reflecting on how to go about this feat we looked to the wisdom teachings of Buddhism.  First considering the teachings on love interpreted by Haemin Sunim, a Zen Buddhist teacher, writer and founder of the School of Broken Hearts in Seoul, South Korea.  I learned of Haemin Sunim by listening to his interview with Dan Harris on the Ten Percent Happier podcast. He suggests that paying attention is a form of love.

Finally we practiced with one of the Brahmaviharas:  cultivating compassion as interpreted by Roshi Joan Halifax.  Roshi Joan is an American Zen Buddhist teacher, anthropologist, ecologist, civil rights activist, hospice caregiver and Abbess of Upaya Zen Center. Brahmavihara is a Pali word meaning “sublime abode.”  In practice this refers to four Buddhist virtues of lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.  Cultivating these qualities is a way of opening and transforming our hearts to grow our capacity to care.  You can find the full practice in Roshi’s article, The Four Boundless Abodes.

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