The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. In today’s class we explored the felt sense of being.  Slowing time we can touch the Sacred and realize ourselves as inseparable from the universe.   In realizing our selves as mystery, we open the door to awe and wonder.

We drew inspiration from  the end of  Frank Ostaseski’s wonderful book the Five Invitations.

The 5th invitation to cultivate “don’t know mind” explores the mystery being and the Sacred.

We heard Anne Hillman’s poem, We Look with Uncertainty. The poem, from her collection Awakening the Energies of Love: Discovering Fire for the Second Time.  The poem is a “dare” to be human in our vulnerability and openness.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. We explored what it is like to be a grieving body.  Bringing loving awareness can help us attune to grief’s suffering. Consistent loving attention can help us to integrate our body’s response to loss.  We slowly develop new experience while navigating the myriad changes of life after loss.

We drew from Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor’s latest book:  The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing.  The book explores the toll that loss takes on our bodies.  Caring for our bodies can help us to resources ourselves.  Feeling both the protest and despair of loss can make grief a learning process.  We can find meaning through  loving awareness and kindness.  You an hear Tricycle Magazine’s helpful discussion with Mary-Frances at:  The Slow Upward Spiral Through Grief.

We heard Rosemerry Whatola Trommer’s poem, Safety Net.  The poem affirms the collective safety net we weave through acts of kindness and support.  While it feels like the world is falling apart, practicing loving awareness can help us to cultivate the inner resources that help us engage the world with kindness.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We contemplated our inner strengths:  clarity of mind, openness of heart, being peace.  We can respond to the troubles of our time by not giving up.  We persevere with acts of loving kindness.  We remember we are not alone.

Ellen, one of our group members, shared a practice she has adopted to get through the night.  In Ellen’s “blessing bathing” practice she recalls the blessings she receives that day.   And to get through a rainy day:  tromping through forest puddles in her rubber boots!  Beautiful ways to savor the goodness in life!

We drew inspiration from Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde. In her book, How We Learn to Be Brave, Reverend Budde reminds us that “When we choose love as our response to what we wish we could change but can’t, when we choose love as our response to the world as it is, not as what we wish it were; the we choose love over denial, or anger, or cynicism and withdrawal we share in God’s redeeming of our world.”

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We reflected on the heart breaking times we are living through. In our advocacy for social justice we can appeal to the light in others. When our own light falters may we seek out the lights of friends, gardeners, potters, politicians, marchers and faith leaders.  May we remember the many caring hands that continue to shape the world in healing and loving ways.

We drew inspiration from the many hands that brought the Portland Japanese Garden into being.  You can check the cherry blossom status with their 2025 Cherry Blossom Tracker.  Learn more about it through Celebrate the Garden’s History.

We heard Czech poet Miroslav Holub’s poem Wings.  American poet Jane Hirshfield cited the poem in her recent essay Two “Minor Planets”: A Post for Stand Up for Science Day.

We heard Bishop William Barber’s reflections on the 60th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama.  You can hear about last week’s gathering in which hundreds of faith leaders gathered to protest the proposed Medicaid cuts affecting millions of people.  You can hear more about the findings of a new report Wednesday called “The High Moral Stake: Our Budget, Our Future,”In Friday’s interview with Democracy Now.

James Baldwin’s book, Nothing Personal, inspired us with the invitation to know the “inner light within oneself.”   Cultural curator, essayist and poet Maria Popova followed his words with her own encouragement to magnify each other’s light in times of darkness.

We heard Thich Nhat Hanh’s answer to the question:  How to Fight Justice Without Being Consumed by Anger?

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. Letting in even a little of the world means listening and speaking with sorrow.  We come to learn that  It is only kindness that makes sense.  Our spiritual practice calls us to find the hidden light in all events and all people, and to offer our hearts to the healing of the world.  We can begin by cultivating peace within ourselves.  We can find acts of kindness from this place of inner peace.

We heard “the story of the birthday of the world” as shared by Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen.  The story was told to Rachel by her “flaming mystic” rabbi grandfather.  The story is about our calling to “heal the world one heart at a time. And this task is called ‘tikkun olam,’ in Hebrew — ‘restoring the world.    ‘”  The story can be found in Krista Tippett’s book, Becoming Wise.  You can hear Rachel share it in her 2005 On-Being interview, How We Live With Loss.

We heard part of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem, Kindness.  Naomi is an Arab-American poet, editor, songwriter and novelist. in 2019 the Poetry Foundation designated her the Young People’s Poet Laureate for the 2019–21 term.  Naomi thinks of herself as a wandering poet traveling to hold poetry workshops for children and adults.  You can hear her inspiring February 6, 2025 Seattle Arts and Lectures talk by going to their web-site.

We drew inspiration from Brother Pháp Hữu’s Tricycle Magazine article, The Path to Transforming Generational Suffering.  Brother Pháp Hữu was a student of meditation master Thich Nhat Hanh.  He encourages students to cultivate inner peace as the basis for compassionate action.

We ended with poet David Budbill’s poem, What Issa Heard.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. We reflected on the vast web of inter-being of which we are a part. In today’s class we reflected on our power to feel, witness and to choose kindness.

We considered the different ways we can support ourselves in claiming our power.

We drew on eco-philosopher Joanna Macy’s framework for responding to the environmental crisis.  The framework and the excerpt from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies are drawn from the Tricycle Magazine article Rilke’s Book of Hours as Portent and Guide. The article describes  four successive stages of social activism: “opening to gratitude, owning our pain for the world, seeing with new eyes, and going forth—that are predicated on the idea that in order to heal ourselves and our ecosystems first we must be willing to feel both suffering and joy.”

Our guided meditation was inspired by the meditation offered by Kaira Jewel Lingo’s Meditation on Loving Our Skin published in Tricycle Magazine.

Suggestions for the specific ways we can support ourselves in feeling,  witnessing and choosing kindness were inspired by Zenshin Florence Caplow’s Zenshin’s Ten Practices for Frightening Times.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We contemplated the ways we are called to love and courage.  We reflected on how our practice of mindfulness develops the ability to listen deeply and to stay with difficult truths.  We cultivate compassion and wisdom so that our actions can benefit all.

We heard part of the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde’s post-inauguration homily.  She called on the President to show mercy to the many, many people who are vulnerable to great harm because of their social position.  She also prayed that we all show “the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people, the good of all people in this nation and the world.”

We heard the poet and writer Maria Popova’s encouragement to Love Anyway.

We heard eco-activist and writer Joanna Macy’s encouragement to stay engaged with even the most difficult truths in life. Her words are drawn from the beautiful book, A Wild Love for the World. This is a collection of writings from leading spiritual teachers, deep ecologists and activists that explore the Joanna’s teachings.

We heard Jane Hirshfield’s poem, On the Fifth Day.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We reflected on our inter-being and inter-breathing with the great web of life.  We imagined ourselves as trees generating life sustaining energy for the world around us.  We contemplated who and what we love and will protect.

We heard from Joanna Macy’s recent Lion’s Roar interview on The Great Awakening the Planet Needs. Joanna Macy has spent over sixty years organizing environmental and social action groups.  Joanna is a national treasure. You can hear more about her remarkable life and work by listening to A Wild Love for the World on On Being with Krista Tippett.  Her work describes the process by which we can develop interbeing.  In essence when we realize our interbeing caring for our world is simply and profoundly a way of caring for ourselves

We heard writer Deena Metzger’s poem, Inflammation. Deena is “a writer, a teacher, a healer and Earth advocate. [She] lives at the end of the road at the border of Topanga State Park with a variety of neighbors including mountain lions, bobcats, raccoons, coyotes, squirrels, rabbits, moles, gophers, rattlers, and a variety of birds who come to the bird feeder every day or to drink at the Buddha fountain.”

We heard eco-philosopher, David Abram’s, thoughts about inter-breathing as interbeing.

We closed with Yahia Lababidi’s poem, Breath.  Underneath the busyness of our lives, nature pulses  – ready to be felt, heard and seen.  Life waits quietly for our attention and care.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. The heartbreaking events of the past week’s catastrophic fires have shown that our survival depends on how we help one another.  We also reflected on the inner resources of balance and equanimity.   Cultivating inner balance can help to see and think clearly.  It can help us to sustain our support and service efforts.

We heard Terry Tempest Williams‘ powerful essay after the 2020 Utah fire season.  Over 330,000 acres burned in Terry’s homeland.  The essay is called A Burning Testament.  I think it speaks to our current western wildfire season.

We heard  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 equanimity as a centering stabilizing resource in our lives.  It enables us to stay right on the edge of reactivity.  We stay long enough to gain perspective and consider an appropriate response.

Our guided mediation was inspired by mediation teacher Kelly Boys‘ teachings on non-sleep deep rest (NSDR).  You can find more of Kelly’s practices on the Alembic YouTube channel Kelly Boys Playlist.

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