The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We practiced slowing down and being with what is. It seems like so many of my friends are dealing with difficulties these days. Difficulties that are painful and scary,  unpredictable and uncertain.  They are often beyond our control and leave us feeling vulnerable. Hearing about them has become like a mindfulness bell that stops me squarely in “I don’t know.”  Caring friends and mindfulness practice help me to “be with what is.”

Today we drew inspiration and guidance from meditation teacher Annaka Harris. She is the author of Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind.  Annaka teaches mindfulness to children and is author of children’s books. You can find a wealth of her writings and guided meditations on her web-site and the Waking Up app.  Annaka’s guided meditation, Being With What Is, really helped me during a stressful time this week.

We also heard poet Danna Fauld’s poem, This Is Enough.  The poem affirmed the teachings about “being with what is.”  It also reminds me that I can always begin again, each breath a new experience of the present moment.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Today we explored how and where we place our attention.  We explored mindfulness through body awareness and slow movement.  Teachers, writers and poets helped us to contemplate the incredible value of loving awareness and compassionate presence.

We drew inspiration from Michael Stone’s book, The World Comes to You. Michael was a prominent Buddhist teacher and yogi, psychotherapist and writer.  I discovered him through his book, Yoga for a World Out of Balance.  Michael taught mindfulness as compassionate action.  He continues to be a great teacher for me. You can find a wonderful archive of his talks, videos and books curated by his spouse, Carina Stone and his students at michaelstoneteaching.com.  In today’s reading Michael describes mindfulness.  He reminds readers that “When you can really meet conditions as they arise, you are practicing non-harm.  You’re practicing creativity.”  Yes!  Mindfulness as Creativity!

We heard Erin Rabke’s poem, Permission Granted.  These few lines are powerful encouragement to slow down, “shed the skin of urgency” and savor the life we’ve been given. I discovered this poem in one of Erin’s newsletters.  She is cofounder of Embodiment Matters.  Erin has studied and taught embodied movement practices of more 25 years.  Erin is a gifted writer.  She is also a facilitator for Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects.

We drew from the tenth chapter of Kathleen Dowling Singh’s book, The Grace in Aging: Awaken As You Grow Older. In this section, Commitment:  Liberation from Deception, Kathleen focuses on the precious gift of our attention.  She reminds us  that “we’re here to learn from each other. . . . We’re here to share with each other, to comfort and be comforted, to be present with each other.”

We also received guidance from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s beautiful essay, Returning the Gift.  Robin is a “mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.”  In today’s reading, Robin describes the reciprocal nature of attention:  what we give and receive from our natural world.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We devoted our hearts and minds to appreciating our spiritual friends and the wisdom teachings of meditation teachers, poets and writers. We imagined the many people who have cared, nurtured and guided us to be sitting in our circle.

We expanded the circle by imagining who will be singing beautiful songs of love and compassion in the future.

We heard Sufi poet Rumi’s Search the Darkness, from  Love Is a Stranger Selected Lyric Poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi, translated by Kabir Helminski.

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.

We heard Rainier Maria Rilke’s poem, My Life Is Not This Steeply Sloping Hour, from the Book of Hours translated by Robert Bly.

We heard one of Erin Geesaman Rabke’s blessings from her Embodied Beatitudes.  A more complete list from her “work-in-progress” is like a prayer of appreciation for our spirits.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We explored how meditation offers us the experience of being alone together.  We also reflected on how solitude offers us a chance to come to know ourselves more deeply.  This intimacy can also help us to recognize our interconnection with all of life.

In learning to be alone we find belonging.

We drew from the tenth chapter of Kathleen Dowling Singh’s book, The Grace in Aging: Awaken As You Grow Older. In this section, Solitude:  Liberation from Attachment, Release into Sufficiency, Kathleen encourages us “to transform loneliness to aloneness, far before the time of our death.”  She explores the nature of loneliness and “chosen aloneness.”  The solitude that we choose offers opportunities to recognize our ourselves as unique expressions of life.  In solitude we can also realize ourselves as inter-beings arising from innumerable conditions and relationships.

We heard Padraig O Tuama’s beautiful poem, How to [Belong] Be Alone.  Padraig is an Irish poet and theologian.  He presents Poetry Unbound a program produced by On Being Studios.  In his poem he explores the paradox of finding belonging in our aloneness.  He invites  us to live knowing we will die.  He invites us to listen to that part of ourselves that tells the more vital story of our life.  You can find a lovely animated version of the poem, “How to Be Alone,” on Youtube.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We explored the practice of silence.  We began, continued and ended with relaxation.  We cultivated an open receptivity while venturing deeper into silence.  The poets and teachers use words to point toward no words.  Awareness points toward our true nature and is our true nature.

We heard Kerry O’Brien’s poem Core from her collection Illuminate.  Kerry is an Irish poet who explores literature as a form of activism.  You can see and hear Kerry read her poem Dublin at her web-site.

We drew on Chan Dharma Master Hsin Tao’s teachings on silence.  You can read more about the practice of silence he teaches in his Tricycle Magazine article, Listening to Silence.  Master Tao invites students to: “Hear the silence in the mountains and rivers, the great wide earth, the sky. Eventually, the whole universe will fall into deep silence.”

We heard Still the Body by Sufi poet Kabir. The poem is from Beloved May I Enter: Kabir Dohas and Other Poems translated by Sushil Rao.  I love this poem because of the influence it has had on my favorite poet, Jane Hirshfield.  You can hear how the 15th century Sufi poet is alive in her poem:  Standing Deer.

We drew from the ninth chapter of Kathleen Dowling Singh’s book, The Grace in Aging: Awaken As You Grow Older. In this section, Silence: Liberation from Illusions, Kathleen explores the practice of inner and outer silence. She encourages students to “become silence by being silence [as one] becomes love by being love.”

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We explored the experience of embodiment sensing inside and outside our bodies.  We explored the experience of inter-being:  how we are born and sustained in mutual relationship with others.  We cultivated appreciation and love: for Earth, her human and more than human inhabitants and the ordinary miracles of being alive.

We heard one of Erin Geesaman Rabke’s blessings from her Embodied Beatitudes.  A more complete list from her “work-in-progress” is like a prayer of appreciation for our amazing bodies.

We heard Daniel Ladinsky’s translation of Hafiz’ poem Today from The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master.  You can find more of his irreverent and whimsical writings, including Buddha After Hours in a Bar, at his blog.

We drew extensively from Orrin Williams’ Humans and Nature essay, Skinfolk, Kinfolk, and the Kingship of Oneness. Orrin is a community advocate and educator.  His work focuses on making urban space more productive and more efficient, particularly in terms of feeding people and generating energy.  His essay embraces  a vision of kinship consciousness.

We drew inspiration from Toni Spencer’s beautiful poem Reciprocal Rhythm.  Toni is a Deep Adaptation Advocate, poet, mentor and teacher.  She “seeks to enable a richer engagement with the ecological, cultural and social issues of our times.”  You can learn more about Toni’s work and her seven week course, Living Deep Adaptation at her web-site.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Today’s class affirms the basic innate goodness we share.  We practiced appreciation as a way of attuning to this goodness within ourselves and each other.

We heard from Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings on the five appreciations.  We drew from his Tricycle Magazine article, The Antidote to Self-Criticism.  Rinpoche encourages us to practice appreciation for our innate goodness or what many call our true nature.  We can recognize it within ourselves and in each other.

We heard Matty Weingast’s poem Mitta – Friend. 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 inspired by the original writing of poet, Mitta.  It is about finding friendship and belonging on the spiritual path.

We heard from Jeanne Corrigal’s Tricycle Magazine series, Closer Than We Think:  Gentle Reflections on Death.  In this section of the series Jeanne shares practices to support others in the transition of death.

One practice is helping others to remember their own goodness.

We ended with Alberto Rios’ poem We Are of a Tribe.  The poem celebrates the common home we can find and share in the sky.  It affirms the freedom and joy we can find in leaping the world’s ties.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We explored caring presence as an inner quality and a unitive force we share.  Caring presence gives rise to responsiveness:  our acts of caring.  Awareness enables these life experiences which, through practice, can be the refuge we find on our life’s journey.

We heard from Jeanne Corrigal’s Tricycle Magazine series, Closer Than We Think:  Gentle Reflections on Death. Jeanne is the guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community.  In her four part video series she shares practices she has found helpful in cultivating loving presence and responsiveness. Jeanne cultivates wholesome qualities as part of her aspiration that at the time of death she “can meet whatever’s here to the best of [her] ability with an open, kind heart.”

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. You can find Matty’s wonderful article about the writings along with queries for contemplation at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies web-site.

We ended with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s poem December 31.  This poem is from Rosemerry’s A Hundred Falling Veils site which offers a poem a day.  She also co-hosts Emerging Form podcast on creative process, Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal) and Soul Writers Circle.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We explored the different states of being that arise in mindfulness practice.  Navigating with intention, enlivened by attention helps to create the condition in which ease, joy and curiosity arise.

Sharing the journey has kept my heart open along the way.

We heard from Brother David Steindl-Rast’s essay, On Gratefulness and the Body from “Encounter with God through the Senses.”  In this essay Brother David writes about the body’s language of the senses. He has adopted gratefulness as a method for cultivating mindfulness.

We heard Susan Aposhyan’s views on meditation. They are outlined in her Kosmos Journal essay, Our Animal Bodies and the Unitive State:
Open Heart/Body Awake. Susan urges us to to practice mindfulness of the body to open our hearts and love!

We heard Mary Oliver’s short poem about joy and grief.  She simply affirms how we hold them both.

We drew from the fifth chapter of Kathleen Dowling Singh’s book, The Grace in Aging: Awaken As You Grow Older. In this section, Opening the Precious Package, Kathleen reminds us that we all have awareness and the potential for awakening. She teaches that devoted practice supported by intention, sustained by attention create the conditions for the experiences of contented ease, joy and curiosity.

We heard Jane Hirshfield’s poem Standing Deer. This poem speaks to the ebb and flow of life.  How we are filled and emptied with experience and the passing of time.  What we have left – if we are lucky – is our tender presence.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We practiced concentration by focusing awareness on breathing and sensation.  We explored widening awareness to include our inter-being with all of life.  We practiced experiencing the self as an expression of life.  This broader view helped to “lay down the self” and to surrender our struggles with impermanence and change.

These steps lead us through an opening to compassion and love.

We heard poet Jan Richardson’s invitation to “let there be an opening.” Jan is a poet, writer and artist.  Her book, Sparrow:  A Book of Life and Death and Life is a moving memoir of experience of loss, grief and hope after the sudden death of her husband.  I think her spirit is reflected in this writing: “A blessing meets us in the place of our deepest loss. In that place, it gives us a glimpse of wholeness and claims that wholeness here and now.”  You can find her books and blog writings at her web-site.

We heard an excerpt from Sophie Strand’s 2022 Feldenkrais Summit Keynote Address.  Sophie writes at the “. . . intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. But it would probably be more authentic to call her a neo-troubadour animist with a propensity to spin yarns that inevitably turn into love stories. Give her a salamander and a stone and she’ll write you a love story.”  You can find many intriguing and provocative essays at her Substack site.

We drew inspiration from poet and writer Mark Doty.  His book, What Is the Grass:  Walt Whitman in My Life, can be found at the public library.  Mark’s writing is yet another invitation to open to the experience of inter-being and love.

We drew from the fourth chapter of Kathleen Dowling Singh’s book, The Grace in Aging: Awaken As You Grow Older. In this section Kathleen outlines a map to awakening.  The journey traverses Chaos, Surrender and Transformation.  We experience Chaos when facing the “predictable sufferings” in life.  Her suggestion is “to lay down the self” again and again through spiritual practice.   She describes this as a process of surrender which goes beyond acceptance or resignation.

We closed with a few short lines from Rainier Maria Rilke’s Collected Writings.

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