The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We explored empathy by cultivating a sense of tenderness.  We evoked tenderness through imagination, memory and poetry.  Tenderness is intimately connected to the experience of attunement:  sensing another’s emotions.  We are such sensitive, relational creatures. These qualities are often buried by the busyness, noise and stress of modern culture.

We were moved by Teddy Macker’s poem, The Otters and the Seaweed.  Otters are such beautiful playful beings. Teddy’s poem offers powerful imagery showing their vulnerability to the harshness of life.

We drew on the work of Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk.  Her 2018 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, The Tender Narrator, describes tenderness as an essential quality to our human relations as well as her writing.  In her speech and her magical book, Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead, she writes about our capacity to see all living beings as worthy of our tender concern.

We also reflected on meditation teacher Ajahn Sucitto’s essay, The Good Friend.  A good friend is someone who is willing to stay with us.  This willing acceptance leads us to compassion.  We sense our shared fate – we see ourselves in one another – and our hearts open. Continue reading →

The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We practiced investigating our experience of being – body, heart and mind.  We allowed whatever surfaced in awareness just to be – without having to change it in any way. We can experience ourselves as nature and encounter all our creatureliness without judgment.  Like all living things, we are conditioned by experience.  We form beliefs and views which shape the way we grow and learn.  Mindfulness/Heartfulness practice allows us to recognize how beliefs and views operate for better or worse.

We drew inspiration from Jane Hirshfield’s beautiful poem, Metempsychosis.  This term refers to the supposed transmigration at death of the soul of a human being or animal into a new body of the same or a different species.  Jane’s poem explores the realization of our inter-being.

We also heard teachings about how views operate in our lives from Insight Meditation teacher, Andrea Fella.  In her recent interview with Dan Harris, Uprooting Your Delusions,
she describes how mindfulness practice gives us a chance to reveal the many unknown beliefs that inform who we think we are and how we behave in the world.

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Today we explored stepping out of time.  We practiced remaining present with the ever changing moments of life.  Placing attention on breathing or sensation helps and mindfulness really involves another ingredient:  love.  Transforming bare attention to loving awareness changes one’s experience of life and of self.   As I discover every time I sit to meditate, this transformation happens with intention, kindness and support.  These are qualities we bring to ourselves and offer to each other.

We drew inspiration from Joy Harjo’s Eagle Poem. This poem is a prayer.  It calls on us to bring our wholes selves to the world with the utmost kindness and care.  Joy is serving her second term as the 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate.  You can find resources on Native news and culture as well as poetry and educational resources on her web-site.  Her signature project, Living Nations, Living Words, samples the work of 47 Native Nations poets through an interactive ArcGIS Story Map and a newly developed Library of Congress audio collection.

Poet Mary Oliver’s memorable words affirm the powerful ways our Body enables us to experience the world. Her poetry explores how we relate to nature, self, the limits of knowing and the vastness of being.

Robin Wall Kimmerer ‘is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.’ We drew inspiration from her book, Braiding Sweetgrass. Robin calls us to a wider ecological consciousness in which we can honor the reciprocal relationship we hold with the living world.

We also heard meditation teacher and writer Jack Kornfield’s encouragement to keep our hearts open.  He believes we are capable of feeling and abiding with difficult emotions  by holding them in our loving awareness.

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We’re each held here through relationships of care, tenderness and meaning.   Imagine all of the acts of generosity, patience, and compassion that have made your life possible and continue to offer you meaning.  Today we took some time to remember the people who have made a difference in our lives.  We then considered spiritual friendship – those trusted friends with whom we can entrust our truths.

We heard poet Maya Angelou’s poem, Alone.  Her few words evoke the aloneness that pervades our lives.

We practiced a guided meditation inspired by Oren Jay Sofer. We imagined our mentors, teachers, family members and friends sitting in a circle of care.

In his On Being interview, Be a Blessing, Rabbi Ariel Burger, shares his thoughts about how our friends help us to keep our hearts and minds open.  They help us find the questions worthy of our hearts’ devotion.

We ended with poet John O’Donohue’s beautiful Friendship Blessing.

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