The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We explored the role of wonder in our lives. In wonder we are open and deeply connected to the present.  We step out of the busyness of our lives and become intimate with the natural world.  We can appreciate how we are an expression of nature and be moved to change.

We continued to draw from Oren Jay Sofer’s  book: Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love. In Oren invites us to appreciate and cultivate wonder in our lives.  Wonder is often a doorway to realizing our inter-being with all of life.

We heard from poet turned marine biologist Rachel Carson’s book:  The Sense of Wonder.  Rachel urges us to help children keep their innate curiosity and wonder alive. “If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder,” writes Carson, “he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.”

We heard from marine biologist Andreas Weber.  In his book, The Biology of Wonder: Aliveness, Feeling and the Metamorphosis of Science, explores a new understanding of life as “poetic ecology.” He explains why deep wonder, romantic connection cost foster the feeling of being at home in nature

We heard Denise Levertov’s poem Sojourns in the Parallel World.  This poem describes how our preoccupations draw us away from realizing our inter-relationship with the natural world. Letting ourselves “drift” into nature’s rhythms can offer us wondrous experience.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We explored the restorative experience of rest.  Appreciating the body as a precious partner can restore the wonder of being alive to our hearts and minds.  It can help us to sustain balance and enable us to be present with ourselves and others.

We continued to draw from Oren Jay Sofer’s  book: Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love.  Oren writes about the restorative benefits of rest.  He encourages us to examine our relationship with being and doing.  He reminds us that there is no action without rest.

We heard from Soto Zen Priest and Unitarian Minister, Reverend Zenshin Florence Caplow’s Tricycle Magazine article, Dancing in the Dark Fields: the Teachings of Illness.  In this moving essay Zenshin Caplow describes living with chronic illness, dancing with uncertainty and welcoming joy.

We heard from the  Thich Nhat Hanh Lion’s Roar article, Resting in the River.  In this article, Thay, describes how recognizing the habit energy of struggle can help us to release it.  He encourages us to open our lives by bringing our awareness to the wonder of the present moment.

We heard John O’Donohue’s Blessing for One Who Is Exhausted from his collected Blessings.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. On this Mother’s Day we can take joy in reflecting on all the ways we been nurtured and have nurtured others.  We explored how mindfulness can enrich our lives with joy.

We continued to draw from Oren Jay Sofer’s  book: Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love.  Oren encourages us to bring mindfulness to the joys in our lives.

We heard from Jeanne Corrigal’s dharma talk:  Joy:  An Inner Wellspring. Jeanne is the guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community. Jeanne’s teaching is gently humorous and down to earth.  This talk draws on the many kinds of joy that can enrich our lives.  Jeanne also explains how the intentional cultivation of joy can be the gateway that leads to deeper states of calm and concentration.

We hard four haiku’s from Rosemerry Wahtola Trimmer.  Rosemerry freely gifts her poetry at her Hundred Falling Veils web-site.  Three simple lines express the joys that mindfulness makes accessible in every day live.

We drew from the tenth chapter of Kathleen Dowling Singh’s book, The Grace in Aging: Awaken As You Grow Older. Kathleen reminds us that devoted practice and sustained attention create the conditions for the experiences of contented ease and joy.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. We explored how  resolve can bring aspirations to life.  This is a “heart training” or caring for  ourselves and our communities.  We are creatures born of causes and conditions.  We will all die some day.  Our actions and their consequences are what will touch the lives of  humans and the more-than-human world.  No effort is too small.

We continued to draw from Oren Jay Sofer’s  book: Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love.  Oren explores the importance of bringing resolve to our aspirations.  He describes his approach to resolve as “heart-training” with practical steps we can take in our daily lives.

We heard Mushim Ikeda’s views on resolving to bring our actions to the people with whom we share daily life.  You can hear her inspiring poet’s voice in the Lions’ Roar podcast program:  Fear, Forgiveness & Self Care.  Mushim is a poet, social activist and teacher at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California.

We heard from writer Koun Franz’ essay, Buddhism’s “Five Remembrances” Are Wake-Up Calls for Us All.   Koun Franz is a Soto Zen priest. He leads practice at Thousand Harbours Zen in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  We focused on the fifth remembrance concerning our actions and their continuing consequences.

We hard Maria Popova’s poem:  Spell Against Indifference.  This spell brings our attention to the fragility and impermanence of this beautiful world.  Even appreciating the rain can help us remember “all we know of heaven.”

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