The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. On our first meeting of the new year we return to our circle of care.  Together we make our way through these troubled times with inspiration and practice.  We ground ourselves with earth stillness.  We feel and move with presence.  We let go of our waiting and greet each moment with awareness.  Again and again we return to our body wisdom to know what is true.  

We drew on our imagination and heart wisdom to reflect on what matters most to us.  We considered what we wish to bring forth in caring for what we hold most dear.  We explored what we might be ready to let go of in service of what we love.

We drew inspiration from Barry Lopez  who died on Christmas day.  Barry was a remarkable human being.  He wrote about his travels to wild places to learn what the land and its inhabitants have to teach us.  Nearly all his writings affirm how precious life on earth is and our responsibility to care for it. Barry Lopez was and still is a gift to the world. His recent book Horizon gives so much insight into his very humble awareness of how inextricably involved we are with what happens to nature and at-risk cultures. He spoke in defense of the life whose voice speaks in languages other than words. He was so very generous in spirit. From an NPR interview:

It’s so difficult to be a human being. There are so many reasons to give up. To retreat into cynicism or despair. I hate to see that and I want to do something that makes people feel safe and loved and capable.

We heard Jane Hirshfield’s poem On Optimism affirm the resilience we share with nature.

We considered the work of naturalist Robin Wall Kimmerer.  In her article, The Serviceberry:  An Economy of Abundance, she describes the profound power of the gift economy as evidenced in nature and traditional cultures.  She describes the natural impulses of gratitude and reciprocity and the wisdom of living in a ways in which we can  flourish together.

In her essay, Skywoman Falling, she describes the deep time of forests arising, dominating and then falling back to earth to renew and sustain new growth.  We can learn a lot from forest ways of inter-dependence, mutual support and a sacrifice to sustain new life.

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  On the eve of winter solstice we explored the theme of darkness and light. We’re living through dark times that challenge us to keep our inner lights shining.  We explored ways of feeling nature’s rhythm in our bodies with the yoga practices of Prana Vidya, imagination, and Pranayama, yogic breathing.  We also used mythic teaching and poetry to inspire us to use our innate caring and creativity to bring healing and repair into the world.

We begin with U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s poem, Remember.  You can listen to Joy read Remember.   As poet laureate Joy has created some wonderful tools and resources to make poetry education more accessible.  You can check out the interactive Map of First Peoples Poetry she co-careated for the Library of Congress.

We drew on mythologist and teacher Michael Meade’s essay Light in the Darkness.  Michael’s teachings spring from ancestral sources of wisdom.  His way of storytelling makes them speak to our contemporary hearts.  His essay urges us to awaken our soul’s light in order to help bring healing and repair into the world.

Contemporary Sufi teacher, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee invites us to listen more deeply to the world around us in his essay, A Ghost’s Life.  His writing moved me to tears over the ghost-like place we’ve found ourselves in today.  He counsels the solace of nature and a deep sense of caring about the world.  He urges us to leave our screens and enter direct experience of wild places.

We ended with part Sufi poet Rumi’s poem A Great Wagon.  You can listen to Houman Pourmehdi’s reading of the whole poem.

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We practiced with the Earth and as the Earth today.  We explored the themes of deep time, earth stories and our bodies as earth bodies.

We began with Gregory Orr’s beautiful poem, This Is What Was Bequeathed Us.

Take a moment to watch Taian Lu’s beautiful animated film version of the poem.

We practiced Earth Breathing meditation inspired by Reggie Ray’s Tricycle Magazine article Touching Enlightenment: Digging Deep.

We drew inspiration from Geologist Marcia Bjornerud’s interview with Center for Humans and Nature journalist Anja Katina, Marcia describes us as temporal creatures. Marcia is the author of, Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World.  You can check out her book from the library or listen to her Seattle Town Hall talk for more inspiration.

We also heard from The Inner Landscape of Beauty, On Being’s last interview with poet philosopher John O’Donohue.  He died in January of 2008.  This is a wonderful discussion of the human spirit and how we come to know our essence by slowing down enough to allow our souls to be revealed.

We ended with Valerie Hope Cherrin’s poem Earth Dream Body.  Valerie guides mindful movement to help client’s find “ease in your body . . . joy in your heart . . . peace in your mind and  beauty in your soul.”

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.   We practiced ways of deepening body awareness.  We used imagination, sensory experience and deep relaxation to allow life to move through us.

We contemplated Brooke McNamara’s poem Vessel.  Brooke is a poet, dance-theater artist, teacher, and Zen dharma holder.  Her beautiful poem creates a meeting place in our living vessel – our body – in which we can be together in a space of forgiveness.

We practiced an adaptation of the “Flowering Hand” meditation to attune to the life force energy flowing through all of nature.  This practice was introduced to me by one of my teachers, Nate Summers. Nate is a Chinese medicine practitioner. He teaches many forms of movement including Qigong, ancestral movement and survival skills. He is author of Primal: Why We Long to Be Free and Wild among other books exploring our relationship with nature.

We practiced a Budding & Blossoming Hand Meditation adapted from Margaret Rinaldi’s Flower Hand guided meditation.  As a somatic educator Meg offers Body Centered Inquiry to enable practitioners to cultivate awareness of their inner resources.

We heard part of Tibetan Buddhist teacher and writer, Reggie Ray’s Tricycle Magazine Essay, Touching Enlightenment.  Reggie has written a book of the same name.  Reggie teaches somatically based meditation and encourages us to allow our bodies to be our most intimate teachers.

We ended with poet philosopher John O’Donohue’s Blessings for the Senses.

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We explored the experience of letting life move through us.  We celebrated the moments of recognizing our wandering minds.  We rested in moments of stillness the pauses between thoughts and movements.  We experimented with being present to what surfaces in the space of stillness:  our grief, our gratitude, our joys and our sorrows.

We drew inspiration from poet David Whyte’s poem, Winter Apple from his book, Pilgrim.  His evocative imagery reminds us of nature’s wisdom helps us in the inevitable cycles of life:    ripening, dying and renewal.

We drew from psychotherapist, author and soul activist Francis Weller’s Sun Magazine interview, The Geography of Sorrow.  He poignantly observes the relationship between grief and gratitude and the vital importance of keeping our hearts open. I found reading this interview to be very meaningful.

Finally we received John O’Donohue’s Friendship Blessing.  John O’Donohue was an Irish poet, author, priest and philosopher.  He compassionately encourages us to befriend ourselves and suggests that this might change us.

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/River Tree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Poet Joy Harjo writes “Humans are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the earth and the sun; we exist together in a sacred field of meaning.”  I feel vulnerable.  I rely on the many kindnesses given nearly every day.  Our practice together is a gift giving that keeps my hope alive and spirits lifted.  Today I am reminded that we give each other our faces in strange “digital space” that is strangely intimate.  There is a meeting of hearts and minds in “a sacred field of meaning” that we co-create together.

We began practice with Joy’s beautiful poem:  Praise the Rain.  We used the poems lines to tune into the praises we carry for the beings and the things that we love.  In the days leading to the holiday in which we give thanks we can tune into the inner songs that arise when we recognize the simplest blessings that make life possible.  Like breathing.

Like the “unfailing generosity of trees” that poet Danna Faulds poem for a golden day.  We considered the questions she asks about how willing we are to let the world in.

We considered the inter-dependent relationships that hold the world together. Thich Nhat Hanh, often referred to as Thay or teacher describes this as inter-being:  “Everything relies on everything else in order to manifest.”  Even our body is a community. It is home to trillions of non-human cells that outnumber our own human cells. Like the generous trees, they make our lives possible.

Cultural ecologist and geo-philosopher, David Abram, describes our inter-being as the visceral experience of inter-breathing.  We live because we nourish each other.

Dr. Stephan Harding, co-founder of Schumacher College, teacher and writer, explains Gaia or Earth Consciousness, in Joanna Macy’s compilation A Wild Love for the World.  We are part of the great web of life.  What happens to Earth happens to us.

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 Gaia Consciousness.  In essence when we realize our inter-being caring for our world is simply and profoundly a way of caring for ourselves.

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The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/River Tree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Sundays often feel like a holiday for me – the time in my early life when going to grandma’s house was about her hugs and playing with my cousins.  Our play was imaginal and improvisational.  Hiding and seeking, shouting and running took us to new places.  Our weekly class is a bit like those visits – I anticipate seeing your faces, hearing about your lives and the meaning you make of the world and our practice.  We learn from each other and we draw comfort from each other.

Today we worked with Eagle Poem by Joy Harjo.  The poem is about prayer and it’s an invitation to open.  Each line is almost a koan – a question you live with that doesn’t have a “right” answer.  When we live with life’s questions we meet each experience with curiosity and care.

We also drew on Rainer Maria Rilke‘s poem, Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower. Rilke lived during the late 19th and early 20th century. He lived during the tumultuous times leading up to WWI and the devastation during and after the war. The poem is like a hymn to being consciously alive.  It’s also a challenge to embrace our lives fully.  Ultimately he asks us to transform our suffering into strength.

In reflecting on how to go about this feat we looked to the wisdom teachings of Buddhism.  First considering the teachings on love interpreted by Haemin Sunim, a Zen Buddhist teacher, writer and founder of the School of Broken Hearts in Seoul, South Korea.  I learned of Haemin Sunim by listening to his interview with Dan Harris on the Ten Percent Happier podcast. He suggests that paying attention is a form of love.

Finally we practiced with one of the Brahmaviharas:  cultivating compassion as interpreted by Roshi Joan Halifax.  Roshi Joan is an American Zen Buddhist teacher, anthropologist, ecologist, civil rights activist, hospice caregiver and Abbess of Upaya Zen Center. Brahmavihara is a Pali word meaning “sublime abode.”  In practice this refers to four Buddhist virtues of lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.  Cultivating these qualities is a way of opening and transforming our hearts to grow our capacity to care.  You can find the full practice in Roshi’s article, The Four Boundless Abodes.

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