The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. We explored our relational being through the experience of rescuing and nurturing a wild baby screech owl.  We humans can receive the gifts of learning and wonder from our more than human relations.  We can teach our children loving awareness.  We can help them bond with Nature.  Over time we can foster appreciation, bonding and deep caring for the more than human world. 

We drew inspiration from ecologist and writer Carl Safina’s experience of rescuing an injured baby owl.  In his book, What Owls Know and What Humans Believe, Carl describes how he spent five hours a day caring for Alfie, the baby screech owl in his care.

In Carl’s TEDx Talk – Boston, What Can Owls Teach Us About Humanity?,  he shared a short video showing the way Alfie said “I love you.”

In To Wonder and Awe, Carl’s interview with Last Born in the Wilderness journalist Patrick Farnsworth he shares his feelings of awe and wonder.  Alfie became his teacher from whom he learned that owls are relational beings.

We heard from eco-philosopher David Abram’s book, Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World,  David’s writings remind us that our very development depends on our relations with human and more than human life.  He urges us to reflect on the impact we have on the world and to care for all that we can.  David is Creative Director of the Alliance for Wild Ethics.  His work “engages the ecological depths of the imagination, exploring the ways in which sensory perception, poetics, and wonder inform the relation between the human body and the breathing earth.”

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 Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We practiced with the intention of disarming our hearts.

When we open our hearts the truth of our belonging and love are known.

Our compassion can help us to bridge the divide of difference and separation.

We drew on meditation teacher and writer Tara Brach’s teachings on disarming the heart.  We heard excerpts from the talk she gave at Upaya’s Gathering Dharma: Bridging the Divide.   In this beautiful program Tara, Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax teach about making peace within ourselves and the world.

We heard from novelist, playwright, essayist, poet and civil rights activist James Baldwin. You can find out more about his work from the American Masters program Take This Hammer. I quoted from an essay from his book, Nothing Personal. This beautiful prose was set to heart felt music by Morley and Friends as, Nothing is Fixed, part of the 2020 Universe in Verse program. I hope you have time to give it a listen.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We reflected on our relationship to time.  The “in-between” or bardo states can describe a period in life and after death – even a breath.  We explored how we live and practice  in these precious moments of joy and loss.

We drew inspiration from a quote from Quaker activist Avis Crowe.  Avis was engaged in “a ministry of presence” bearing witness to the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.  The quote comes from her book, The Ministry of Presence:  Without Agenda in South Africa.  The quote is like a prayer:  “. . . Help me to live time, not just to simply use it; to breathe it in, and return it in acts of love and presence.”

We heard from Sylvia Boorstein’s Tricycle Magazine interview, Don’t Miss Your Life.  Sylvia, a cofounder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, has made meditation accessible through her down to earth teachings and many books.  In this interview she reflects on the way we experience death in a gradual way through the inevitable losses we live through on life’s journey.  She shares the practice she finds helpful in keeping her “. . . mind in a well meaning place.”

Finally we heard poet Pat Schneider’s poem, Instructions for the Journey, from her collection, Olive Street Transfer.  Pat was a beloved and passionate teacher of writing.  Discover more about her in A Profile of Pat Schneider.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We reflected on our kinship with all beings.  We drew on a Zen koan or teaching story to acknowledge all our relations.  We contemplated how we are supported and, in turn, support others.  Witnessing practice and deep caring for the natural world moves us to compassion action.

We heard a teaching story from the Hidden Lamp:  Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women.  This book was co-edited by writers and Zen teachers Zenshin Florence Caplow and Reigetsu Susan Moon.  The teaching story, The Old Woman’s Relatives, points to our inter-relatedness with the human and more than human world.  Zenshin Caplow’s commentary reminds us that we are not alone.  We live within a circle of caring.

We heard from eco-philosopher David Abram’s book, Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World,  David’s writings remind us that our very development depends on our relations with human and more than human life.  He urges us to reflect on the impact we have on the world and to care for all that we can.

We ended with Daniel Landinsky’s translation of Sufi poet, Hafiz’ poem, Today.

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