The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. We explored how  resolve can bring aspirations to life.  This is a “heart training” or caring for  ourselves and our communities.  We are creatures born of causes and conditions.  We will all die some day.  Our actions and their consequences are what will touch the lives of  humans and the more-than-human world.  No effort is too small.

We continued to draw 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 explores the importance of bringing resolve to our aspirations.  He describes his approach to resolve as “heart-training” with practical steps we can take in our daily lives.

We heard Mushim Ikeda’s views on resolving to bring our actions to the people with whom we share daily life.  You can hear her inspiring poet’s voice in the Lions’ Roar podcast program:  Fear, Forgiveness & Self Care.  Mushim is a poet, social activist and teacher at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California.

We heard from writer Koun Franz’ essay, Buddhism’s “Five Remembrances” Are Wake-Up Calls for Us All.   Koun Franz is a Soto Zen priest. He leads practice at Thousand Harbours Zen in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  We focused on the fifth remembrance concerning our actions and their continuing consequences.

We hard Maria Popova’s poem:  Spell Against Indifference.  This spell brings our attention to the fragility and impermanence of this beautiful world.  Even appreciating the rain can help us remember “all we know of heaven.”

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We explored ways of recognizing integrity.  We considered how we develop it in relationship. We learn it and we teach it.  We support it in one another through practice.  Integrity calls us to appreciate our innate goodness and also to recognize the ways we may cause harm.  Poet Micky Scottbey Jones encourages us to “call each other to more truth and love.”

We continued to draw 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 shares ways of enacting integrity including:  Recognizing unhelpful mental habits of judgment, complaint or resentment.  Investigating what evokes this thinking and cultivating self compassion, generosity or patience.  He also recommends that we amplify our innate goodness by recognizing it and directing it outward toward others.

We heard Micky Scottbey Jones’ inspirational poem: Invitation to Brave Space.  She reminds us that:  “We all carry scars and we have all caused wounds. . . . We have the right to start somewhere and continue to grow. We have the responsibility to examine what we think we know.”

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. We explored ways to cultivate empathy by practicing presence, recalling our intention and attuning to ourselves and others.  Self attunement can help us to stay centered by having a sense of a “strong back,” a metaphor for being grounded.   We ground ourselves while remaining flexible, adaptable, and open to change.  We are willing to see the world as clearly as possible.  In having a sense of “soft front”, we resolve to stay open to life.

We continued to draw 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 “mindfulness, curiosity, courage and wise attention all support empathy, opening our eyes to the lives of others.  . . . Healing conversations . . . explode our assumptions about the limits of empathy and forgiveness and they reveal the radical potential of restorative practices to transform our justice system.”

We heard from Brene Brown’s essay, Not Looking Away Thoughts on the Israel-Hamas War.  Brene conducted interviews with members of three non-violent peace movements who are working to create the political will to end the occupation and create a way for Palestinians and Israelis to live together in dignity and equality.  Brene’s site has resources for understanding the long standing conflict in the Middle East and non-violent movements working for peace and justice.  I deeply appreciate her courage in facing this suffering, asking  hard questions and being transparent about the limits of her understanding.

She interviewed Rob Damelin and Ali Abut Awwad,  representatives of Parent’s Circle Family Forum.  PCFF is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization of more than 600 families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict. Their goal is to create sustained peace between the two nations by promoting reconciliation and nonviolence.  Taghyeer, which means change, is working to build a national nonviolent movement of Palestinian people.

She interviewed Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green, representatives of Standing Together.  Standing Together is a grassroots movement of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, social and climate justice.

In exploring the depth of our caring for ourselves and each other we drew on the teachings of Roshi Joan Halifax.  Her article, Discovery at the Edge of Empathy, and her book, Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet, explore how we can work skillfully with deep empathy by tempering our emotions with mindfulness and compassion.

Doctor, teacher and writer Rachel Naomi Remen says that the purpose of every life is to grow in wisdom and to learn how to love  better.

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 equanimity, one of our four essential qualities including loving kindness, compassion and altruistic joy.  We can draw on the wisdom of our grandmother’s heart to respond to our experience with these qualities.  Our commitment to the practice – to try, to fail and try again is what transforms the grain of reactivity into the pearl of equanimity.

We continued to draw 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.

We drew inspiration from Roshi Joan Halifax’s essay, Equanimity: Walking the Tight Rope with a Grandmother’s Heart.  Having a grandmother’s heart enables us “to love all equally.”  Roshi is committed to this practice while knowing she will fail.  She and many others continue working at this every day.

We heard poet Alison Luterman’s poem: Because Even the Word Obstacle is an Obstacle.  This is a somewhat whimsical poem that brings the practice into every day life – the crowded lane in the public swimming pool.  We can visualize the images of those who are “in the way” as they become the way, the way of all beings.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We explored how our ability to be with what is – our patience – can help us in our struggles.  It is a slow process of cultivating loving awareness around what needs healing.  Slow time in loving awareness can help the heart to open and the mind to clear.

We continued to draw 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 patience as a practice of being with the heart of our struggles.  We do this by recognizing reactivity or tension.  We then create the conditions that will allow us the space and time needed to move toward clarity and healing.

We heard Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s poem, Lumbricus patentia.  Rosemerry offers many of her poems and writings  on her web-site A hundred Falling Veils.  On a troubled day, Rosemerry wants to be like an earthworm giving itself over to the tunneling motions of creating more space.  She yearns for the constancy and slow time the heart needs to open.  Patiently being with what needs tending.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We explored ways of finding ease while caring for those in our web of being.  Our calm and caring presence can be a source of healing.  It begins by finding the still point in our thoughts words and deeds.  In stillness we can surrender our doing to the experience of being.  In the ease of being we can offer loving awareness and caring presence.

We continued to draw 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 finding ease by appreciating the moments in which “there is nothing special you need to do, fix, accomplish, get or have.” He encourages to take time to be still even in the midst of serving others.  Our calm presence can be the beginning of healing.

We heard Julia Fehrenbacher’s poem, The Most Important Thing.  Julia’s writing reflects her intention to “. . . be as present, as here as possible . . .  This being here is a constant practice, a practice that begins, and begins again, in each and every moment. And it is everything. Everything real and true is here – never there, never yesterday, never tomorrow. This is something I forget, and sometimes remember, every single day.”

We heard Matty Weingast’s poem Grandma Sumana. 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 a life of “looking after others” and warming in a blanket of every loving kindness offered along the way.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We reflected on how our basic human warmth, our loving kindness can manifest in caring action.  We are only a screen away from the world’s suffering and from those who are working hard to alleviate that suffering.  Poet Amanda Gorman:

May we not only mourn, but give:
May we not only hurt, but act;

We continued to draw 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 eloquently about how loving kindness can be a force for caring action in the world.

We heard from Nicholas Kristor’s New York Times’ Opinion Essay, ‘People Are Hoping That Israel Nukes Us So We Get Rid of This Pain.’

We heard from the New York Times’ report:  Aid from Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen Could Depart for Gaza Within Days.

We spoke about the work chef Jose Andres and his World Central Kitchen are doing in bringing meals to Gaza.   You can learn more about Jose and his team by viewing Ron Howard’s documentary, We Feed People.

Poet and author, David Whyte, speaks of love’s gravity in his book, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.

We heard Amanda Gorman’s poem, Hymns for the Hurting.  Amanda’s young voice seems to speak on behalf of people who are suffering today.  People who are caught in the trauma of living in conflict zones.  Her Hymn calls us to transform hate into love.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  In exploring renunciation we practiced with letting go and opening to.  I  appreciate Oren’s encourage to ask for help.  I am so grateful to have people I trust to help me in those moments when I’m contracting around a difficult experience.  I also ask them to help me to open my heart when I know I’ve closed it.

We continued to draw 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 explores renunciation through the lenses of personal, inter-personal and collective.  He writes:  “Renunciation allows us to embrace the relative and to open beyond it.  By releasing the tendency to contract around anything, we realize a wider perspective, very much including the diversity at the core of a just society.  Renunciation creates the possibility of holding multiple even conflicting perspectives simultaneously.”

Oren quoted Roshi Bernie Glassman, founder of Zen Peacemakers.   You can see a beautiful five minute video about Bernie and his work by following this link  You can read Zen Is All of Life: Remembering Roshi Bernie Glassman, the Lion’s Roar article about Bernie’s legacy.  You can see a funny picture of him, his dog and his cigar here too.

We heard Madronna Holden’s poem, Ask the River.  I discovered the poem recently published by Kosmos Journal.  Her site is an adventurous compilation of writings on world views and values, ecofeminism, folklore and poetry.  Have a cup of tea here and be delighted!

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  This week we explored courage.  Courage, in its many forms, is an expression of heart wisdom.  It enables us to feel the most difficult moments in life.  It sparks the willingness to stay with good trouble.  It illuminates the moment to let go.  It matures as a loving presence we can offer ourselves and others.

We continued to draw 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 believes “it takes courage to be with things as they are, to turn toward and be with the truth of each moment.  Courage begins with one moment of awareness and the possibility of taking a pause.”  A deep breath and a sigh feels good too.

We heard John O’Donohue’s Blessing for Courage. from his collection, Benedictus. John’s work  offers comfort and encouragement for the milestones and transitions of life. It reminds us that our relationships with one another are crucial to our emotional and spiritual well-being.

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The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We explored the transformative energy of curiosity.  Offering ourselves and other curiosity can be liberating.  We have the possibility of experiencing what it is like to be undefended and all that brings.  Think about that.

We continued to draw 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 believes:  “True curiosity allows us to see beyond structures, messages and roles we have been handed by society and history – roles that can feel so innate we may have never examined them.  Curiosity holds a mirror up to nature, questioning what we believe and why, how we behave and why.  . . . This curiosity is radical.”  This is a liberating invitation!

We drew from the tenth chapter of Kathleen Dowling Singh’s book, The Grace in Aging: Awaken As You Grow Older.  Kathleen observes:  “Even if most of the moments of our lives were lost in the dream of self, of form only, we’ve all spent some time in presence – the experience of formless awareness. . . . To forget the self and its pettiness, even for a moment, is liberation from tension, from the perpetual stress of maintaining the self’s boundaries.  To forget the self . . . is to actually show up, open and embracing, in the present moment’s play of form and formlessness. . . . our hunger for awareness greater than this small self, bound by birth and death, can still be ours to fulfill and to experience and to abide in.”

We heard Padraig O’Tuama’s poem, How to Be Alone.   You can hear Padraig reading his poem in Leo G. Franchi’s Poetry Film.

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