The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  Thank you for coming to practice today. For many of us today is another day of living with stress, uncertainty and vulnerability.  Another day of wanting this – whatever this is for each of us – to be over.  AND we can deeply appreciate the fresh air and the rain!  Like fresh sweet air, mindful presence brings us to life, to each other, to the world around us.  

We drew inspiration from Narell Carter-Quinlan who is an artist, poet and a healer living in Australia.  Her poem, Weaving New Songlines, offers hopeful encouragement to use this “great pause” to reimagine our lives.  You can enjoy more of her work at Embodied Terrain.

We explored the qualities of presence outlined by meditation teacher and author, Oren Jay Sofer, in his book Say What You Mean.  Oren also encourages us to be honest about the truth of our experience and to learn how to live with life’s elemental uncertainty.  We can realize a new dream together in practicing mutuality – seeing each other as beings who share the same fundamental needs – and in being willing to share our vulnerability.

Finally we ended with a blessing, “For One Who is Exhausted,”  from poet philosopher John O’Donohue.  This blessing affirms the need for self-care and joy in our lives..

Relaxed Reflection

We begin again every one of our days.  I made a new friend in the virtual space of Instagram, Narell Carter-Quinlan is an artist, poet and a healer leaving in Australia.  Here are some of her thoughts on where we are today:

Weaving New Songlines

We are – quite literally – all creating our New. Now.
We are in a time of great opportunity.
This, is the pause; the gestation.
The time of honesty,
humility,
of attenuated Presence
and consciousness.
This is the time of going to ground
becoming still and vibrantly aware
of
All Things.
This is the time of
deepest listening;
Dadirri.
This is
A time of
Choice.
This,
is the time of
weaving the new Dream.
Of Creation;
Together.
With ourselves,
with each Other,
with the Being who is Earth.
Drawing the Threads down from the Stars,
from the spaces between the points of Light.
Dreaming the new physicality into
Form.

‘Dadirri’ is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘inner deep listening and quiet still awareness and waiting’.  We are in a time of grieving . . . loss . . . and surrender.  It is a time of honesty, humility . . . presence and consciousness.  We also have opportunity in this great pause.  This is the time of weaving the new Dream – Of Creation: Together –  With ourselves, with each Other, with the Being who is Earth.  I think we create the conditions for the new Dream with our presence.  We create – we bring our dreams to life – in relationship.

We are letting many old dreams go – just like the out-breath – we have to let them go in order to live.  Many of us go about about life in a trance of wanting, avoiding or drifting.  We relate to the world through all the conditioning we’ve had and the many experiences that form this identity of “me.”  In mindful presence we are waking up from the trance.  This is the magic and mystery of meditation.  Meditation gives us choice – over and over again we choose to be present. 

Meditation teacher and writer Oren Jay Sofer describes the qualities of presence as honesty, mutuality, uncertainty and vulnerability.  These are more then ideas in our minds – we bring them to life through our embodied awareness.  Our bodies reveal the truth of our experience – here right now we can check in and tune into sensation – moving awareness through arms, legs, feet and hands – the whispery flow of incoming air in our nose . . . and the almost intangible waves of emotion we might be having hearing these words or thinking our own thoughts . . . 

Presence is about being real . . . being honest with the truth of our experience instead of resisting or suppressing what’s going on.  This seems especially hard now when we are feeling the pain of separation from our loved ones and friends, the places we care about. . . . This willingness to be with what is builds the resilience we need to care for ourselves and each other and our earth.  

The more aware we become about ourselves – the more we become aware of the world around us.  Philosopher Martin Buber wrote that all real living is meeting.  Mutuality is when we encounter another individual truly as a person, not as an object for use, we become fully human.  Writer Maria Popova contemplates human nature and the interdependence of our existence.  She writes:

Relationship is what makes a forest a forest and an ocean an ocean. To meet the world on its own terms and respect the reality of another as an expression of that world as fundamental and inalienable as your own reality is an art immensely rewarding yet immensely difficult — especially in an era when we have ceased to meet one another as whole persons and instead collide as fragments.

When we meet each other with presence we create sacred space.  It’s a space in which we can experience a sense of belonging and deep connection.  It’s sacred because we honor it with our complete attention.  Right now we can reflect on the last time we met someone in this space . . . what we were doing . . . who we were with . . . How did it feel to really see someone . . . to really listen to them?  How did it feel to be seen and heard?  How did you experience this sense of mutuality? 

Did you feel a tremor of uncertainty in bringing so much of yourself to another?  Could you sense the unknown in this person  .  . . even the unknown in yourself?

We all live with this elemental uncertainty – we don’t know the moments that will follow this one.  Life can change in an instant.  Being present with uncertainty means we’re in touch with the truth of being alive. 

We reach across the unknown in relating to one another.  We open our hearts and minds.  We may even be willing to be changed by what we see and hear.  We feel our inherent vulnerability . . . the reality of our condition.  To be fully present with the people we love is another gift of meditation.  We see them and allow ourselves to be seen.  Right now we can reflect on how we relate to our vulnerability.  Do we guard against it?  Can we recognize the vulnerability of others?  Being vulnerable, we come together, we join our imaginations in empathy and caring . . . in weaving new dreams.  This is mindful, heartful presence.  

And if this seems too much to ask of ourselves in these troubled times we can rest in presence.  We rest and remember to remember.  Each moment is a new beginning.  Each moment contains a world of possiblity when we’re willing to let go and begin again.  Here is a blessing from poet and philosopher John O’Donohue:

For One Who is Exhausted, A Blessing.

You have been forced to enter empty time.
The desire that drove you has relinquished.
There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken for the race of days.
At first your thinking will darken
And sadness take over like listless weather.
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.
You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.
Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.
Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.