The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We explored expanding our idea of self to include all of nature.  We drew on loving imagination to feel and sense the experience of life as a tree and as a salmon.  These living beings naturally sustain life.  They evoke the wisdom of the ancient Tao. Their generosity “recall us to our common fate in the kinship of all creation.”

We heard from Rupi Kaur’s collection The Sun and Her Flowers.  Rupi writes and reads her poetry, performs Kirtan and classical Indian music.  Her work touches on themes of love, loss, trauma, healing, femininity, and migration.  You can listen to her moving TEDtalk, I’m Taking My Body Back.  She will be performing live at Seattle’s Paramount Theater on May 25th.

We heard Washington State Poet Laureate, Rena Priest’s poem, Cycloid, Focus, and Circleis.  Rena, a Lummi Native, writes and speaks about her reverence for the salmon.  She shares her aspirations to bring poetry to celebrate the gifts of our natural world in this AFAR article, The Pacific Northwest Through the Eyes of a Poet.

You can complement Rena’s offerings with this beautiful short documentary, Maiden of Deception Pass.  In this film, Samish Nation tribal members tell the story of the salmon maiden.  They collaborated with local community members, including carver Tracy Powell, to honor her with a story pole. The pole is carved from a 24 foot tall, five foot wide cedar log transported from Mt. Baker. The film is moving example of how strong hearted people worked to preserve the Samish culture.

We worked with environmental activist, Joanna Macy’s, life affirming principle of “the greening of the self.”  She encourages a shift from identifying as a separate self to a sense of inter-being.  She says “What we most need to do is to hear within ourselves the sounds of the Earth crying…”  You can find a filmed interview at  Kosmos Journal’s beautiful program, Climate Crisis as Spiritual Path.  Joanna is now 93 years old. Since her 30’s she has worked tirelessly on behalf of Earth sovereignty.

We heard an aphorism from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We explored embodiment and vulnerability.  These qualities can nourish the ground from which our compassion, empathy and courage can arise.  Like plants, we also embody a natural innocence and an impetus to grow.

We heard Tara Brach’s definition of “radical compassion.”  In her book, Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN, Tara writes that it means including vulnerability of all life in our hearts. Tara offers helpful mindfulness practices that help students to bring inner resources of compassion, kindness and insight to the difficult feelings of fear, loss, and self-judgment. You can find a free study guide at the book’s link above.

We heard Innocence, from Linda Hogan’s 2014 poetry collection Dark, Sweet.  The poem describes the natural state of innocence we all share.  Linda’s simple phrases about gardening recognize our vulnerability. They describe how we grow into being and fullness.

We drew from Krista Tippett’s interview with poet David White:  The Conversational Nature of Reality in which he spoke to our essential vulnerability.  He describes it as an “ever present and abiding undercurrent of our natural state.”   When we can acknowledge the truth of our humanity – we also find our compassion, empathy and courage.

We ended with Mary Oliver’s poem, Messenger from her 2007 collection, Thirst. Mary’s words of wonder, gratitude and joy remind me of qualities that are sometimes overshadowed by our challenging times.  They give me the wanting to stay alive and engaged in the world.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  In meditation, we focused on the experience of stillness in the body.  We experienced movement of body, heart and mind in the still space of kind attention.

Observing how life moves through us we can know impermanence, uncertainty and also our inter-relatedness. In time and the kinship of loving awareness, we may come to know what is needed. This is how we begin to work with what we are given.

We drew inspiration from Jane Hirshfield’s poem, Rebus. The poem is from her 2002 collection, Given Sugar, Given Salt.  It touches on how we respond to life and how we become our choices. It invites us to feel life’s sorrows.  Our only certainty is all is subject to change.   It invites us to enter life’s questions and at the same time enter each moment unadorned.

We also drew on Larry Kramer’s book, Insight Dialogue.  The book offers a relational and social understanding of traditional Buddhist teachings. Insight Dialogue involves  developing mindfulness and tranquility together. Students reflect on present moment experience with guidance from a topic such as change, kindness, death, or doubt. You can learn more about this relational practice at Larry’s web-site.

We ended with a from Alla Bozarth’s book, Lifelines: Threads of Grace through Seasons of Change. Alla is a poet, Episcopal priest and “soul caregiver.”

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