The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We drew on the body and the breath to bring us into the Here and Now.  We affirmed our deep caring for each other.  We explored loving awareness as a way of creating the space in which loving presence and compassion arise.

We heard Rosemerry Wahtola’s poem,  Big Lesson.  This poem is an affirmation of our natural inclination to care for each other.

We heard Julia Fehrenbacher’s poem The Cure for It All.  This poem is an invitation slow down, to be accepting and gentle with ourselves, to call on the breath to find equanimity.

We ended with Matty Weingast’s poem Mitta – Friend. This poem is from Matty’s book, The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns, a reimagining of the Therīgāthā.  This poem is about how we support one another as spiritual friends on the Path.

Guided Reflection

Welcome.  Let’s begin by centering with the breath.  I invite you to place your hands over your heart and feeling your body breathing – just as it is – just as you are – with everything you are bringing in this moment.  As you are ready, slowly take a deep nourishing breath; slowly let it go.  And then let the breath be just as it is.  Take your own breathing time.  When you’re ready take another deep, nourishing breath, slowly let it go and then let it be.  One last deep in-breath, one last slow out-breath.  And then let it be.  Let yourself be.  

Last week we explored the Earth’s beauty as a mindfulness bell. We looked deeply to find aspirations that nourish our well being and inspire compassionate action.  Like sunlight shining through a forest, our loving awareness can shine on all beings.  We can choose love.  Love can help us realize our inter-being and live with open hearts.

Yesterday friends and family gathered together to express their love for  Karl and Ellen.  It was a time to appreciate Karl’s beautiful being and the way he touched so many lives.  Not all of us could be there.  Today and in the days to come our mindfulness practice enables us to hold loving space for Ellen.  Poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s writes:

Big Lesson

Today it feels so simple:
we are here to take care of each other.
How could we ever forget?
As if soil could forget
it is here to feed the trees.
As if trees could forget
they are here to feed the soil.
How could anything
ever get in the way of generosity?
How could we ever greet each other
with any words besides,
How can I help you?
As if light could forget
it is here to help illuminate.
As if dark could forget
it is here to help us heal.

Today, it feels so simple:  We are here to take care of each other.  

Taking care is at the heart of our practice. We begin with presence – calling on the body and breath to guide us into the here and now.   As best as we are able, we call on our heart’s wisdom to be present and to feel.  How could we ever forget?  Looking deeply with loving eyes and hearts we recognize our kinship.    We accompany each other through life’s joys and sorrows. We share our hopes and dreams; our disappointments and losses.  We move in grieving time and healing time.  We are willing to be changed by what we see and hear and feel.

We’re each held here through relationships of care, tenderness and meaning.  We are part of a constellation of generosity, patience, compassion and love.  This is also a time for tenderness and self care.  As poet Julia Fehrenbacher describes in her poem The Cure for It All:

Go gently today, don’t hurry
or think about the next thing. Walk
with the quiet trees, can you believe
how brave they are—how kind? Model your life
after theirs. Blow kisses
at yourself in the mirror
especially when
you think you’ve messed up. Forgive
yourself for not meeting your unreasonable
expectations. [You are human, not
God—don’t be so arrogant.]

Praise fresh air
clean water, good dogs. Spin
something from joy. Open
a window, even if
it’s cold outside. Sit. Close
your eyes. Breathe. Allow
the river
of it all to pulse
through eyelashes
fingertips, bare toes. Breathe in
breathe out. Breathe until
you feel
your bigness, until the sun
rises in your veins. Breathe
until you stop needing
anything
to be different.

Let us go gently to our practice now.  Let us breathe with what we are feeling whatever that might be.  I invite you to bring awareness to your body.  Feel your body’s inner rhythms.  Feel breathing.  You can explore the way chest, ribs and lungs expand.  You might place a hand over your heart and a hand over your belly.  Enjoy softness and ease of the gently swelling in-breath, releasing out-breath.  Explore the cool stream of air moving into nostrils and the warm current flowing out.  When you’re ready rest your arms and hands.

I invite you to sense your bones.   Sense how you are touching Earth through your pelvis as you sit or through your whole body as you are lying down.  Know how your bones rebuild themselves as gravity’s pull draws you to Earth.  Sense how you experience this support from inside and from outside – above and below and all around.  Can you draw on this support to find ease?

I invite you to explore the soft animal of your body.   Is it possible to welcome all parts of yourself?  Can you meet them with gentleness?  Kindness?  Can you allow yourself to be free just as you are?   

I invite you to explore inner spaciousness.  What is it like to be the space in which all is perceived?   I invite you to open to space outside the boundaries of self.  Explore a space in which the changing weather of memory, emotion and thought can play and dance.  

In this slow time of awareness we can recognize every fleeting moment is precious.  Every being on the Path is precious. Loving presence arises.  Compassion arises.  Go gently.  Begin again and again by allowing.  Allow ease to arise.  Let go into this refuge of loving awareness.  Begin again by feeling breathing.  Allowing and letting go happening all on its own.  Rest.  

Take refuge here together in the practice of awareness and loving presence. 

We are here together as friends on the Path.  Here is Matty Weingast’s poem, “Mitta – Friend:”

Full of trust you left home,
and soon learned to walk the Path –
making yourself a friend to everyone and making everyone a friend.
When the whole world is your friend,
fear will find no place to call home.
And when you make the mind your friend,
you’ll know what trust
really means.
Listen.
I have followed this Path of friendship to its end.
And I can say with absolute certainty –
it will lead you home.