The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We explored how we can bring mindfulness to how we speak and listen. We can begin by bringing awareness to the state our hearts and minds and our purpose in entering communication.  We can go deeper by contemplating the potential impact our words might have on our companion listener.  Equanimity can help us stay open to differences and caring about others’ concerns.  Finally,  compassion allows us to accept the mistakes we are likely to make in risking difficult conversations.

We heard Anne Hillman’s poem, Look With Uncertainty, 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.

We heard from  Ursula Le Guin’s essay, Listening is Telling, fromm her collection The Wave in the Mind. This essay invites us to consider the power and the magic conjured by our words.  Speaking and listening can form an alchemical wholeness that brings the potential for transformation.

We heard Kamala Masters’ teachings about bringing mindfulness to communication in her interview, Get Happier Without Losing Your Edge. Kamala offers practical ways of getting clear about our intentions in speaking.  She shares her personal experience of using mindfulness phrases to maintain inner balance and openness.

We ended with Jeanne Lohmann’s poem, Invocation from her collection  Shaking the Tree. Her lyrical phrases invoke a sense of reverence and sensitivity about what we let fly in our use of language.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We explored expanding our idea of self to include all of nature.  We drew on loving imagination to feel and sense the experience of life as a tree and as a salmon.  These living beings naturally sustain life.  They evoke the wisdom of the ancient Tao. Their generosity “recall us to our common fate in the kinship of all creation.”

We heard from Rupi Kaur’s collection The Sun and Her Flowers.  Rupi writes and reads her poetry, performs Kirtan and classical Indian music.  Her work touches on themes of love, loss, trauma, healing, femininity, and migration.  You can listen to her moving TEDtalk, I’m Taking My Body Back.  She will be performing live at Seattle’s Paramount Theater on May 25th.

We heard Washington State Poet Laureate, Rena Priest’s poem, Cycloid, Focus, and Circleis.  Rena, a Lummi Native, writes and speaks about her reverence for the salmon.  She shares her aspirations to bring poetry to celebrate the gifts of our natural world in this AFAR article, The Pacific Northwest Through the Eyes of a Poet.

You can complement Rena’s offerings with this beautiful short documentary, Maiden of Deception Pass.  In this film, Samish Nation tribal members tell the story of the salmon maiden.  They collaborated with local community members, including carver Tracy Powell, to honor her with a story pole. The pole is carved from a 24 foot tall, five foot wide cedar log transported from Mt. Baker. The film is moving example of how strong hearted people worked to preserve the Samish culture.

We worked with environmental activist, Joanna Macy’s, life affirming principle of “the greening of the self.”  She encourages a shift from identifying as a separate self to a sense of inter-being.  She says “What we most need to do is to hear within ourselves the sounds of the Earth crying…”  You can find a filmed interview at  Kosmos Journal’s beautiful program, Climate Crisis as Spiritual Path.  Joanna is now 93 years old. Since her 30’s she has worked tirelessly on behalf of Earth sovereignty.

We heard an aphorism from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We explored embodiment and vulnerability.  These qualities can nourish the ground from which our compassion, empathy and courage can arise.  Like plants, we also embody a natural innocence and an impetus to grow.

We heard Tara Brach’s definition of “radical compassion.”  In her book, Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN, Tara writes that it means including vulnerability of all life in our hearts. Tara offers helpful mindfulness practices that help students to bring inner resources of compassion, kindness and insight to the difficult feelings of fear, loss, and self-judgment. You can find a free study guide at the book’s link above.

We heard Innocence, from Linda Hogan’s 2014 poetry collection Dark, Sweet.  The poem describes the natural state of innocence we all share.  Linda’s simple phrases about gardening recognize our vulnerability. They describe how we grow into being and fullness.

We drew from Krista Tippett’s interview with poet David White:  The Conversational Nature of Reality in which he spoke to our essential vulnerability.  He describes it as an “ever present and abiding undercurrent of our natural state.”   When we can acknowledge the truth of our humanity – we also find our compassion, empathy and courage.

We ended with Mary Oliver’s poem, Messenger from her 2007 collection, Thirst. Mary’s words of wonder, gratitude and joy remind me of qualities that are sometimes overshadowed by our challenging times.  They give me the wanting to stay alive and engaged in the world.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  In meditation, we focused on the experience of stillness in the body.  We experienced movement of body, heart and mind in the still space of kind attention.

Observing how life moves through us we can know impermanence, uncertainty and also our inter-relatedness. In time and the kinship of loving awareness, we may come to know what is needed. This is how we begin to work with what we are given.

We drew inspiration from Jane Hirshfield’s poem, Rebus. The poem is from her 2002 collection, Given Sugar, Given Salt.  It touches on how we respond to life and how we become our choices. It invites us to feel life’s sorrows.  Our only certainty is all is subject to change.   It invites us to enter life’s questions and at the same time enter each moment unadorned.

We also drew on Larry Kramer’s book, Insight Dialogue.  The book offers a relational and social understanding of traditional Buddhist teachings. Insight Dialogue involves  developing mindfulness and tranquility together. Students reflect on present moment experience with guidance from a topic such as change, kindness, death, or doubt. You can learn more about this relational practice at Larry’s web-site.

We ended with a from Alla Bozarth’s book, Lifelines: Threads of Grace through Seasons of Change. Alla is a poet, Episcopal priest and “soul caregiver.”

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We explored the experience of befriending:  ourselves and others.  Mindful presence makes befriending possible.  Truly listening is loving.  We have the possibility of learning what is needed in the moment.  We have the opportunity to respond with kindness, patience and understanding:  what the world needs now and has always needed.

We drew inspiration from poet and teacher David Whyte.  We heard a few paragraphs from his essay on Courage from the book, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.  I think David speaks to the courage we express in our willingness to care, to stay engaged with life and to respond to what is needed when we can.

We heard Jane O’Shea’s poem I’ve Come to Listen. The poem is from her collection Follow Yourself Home.  Not surprisingly Jane spends some of her time “teaching people how to have effective conversation.”  I enjoy the poem because the simple lines read like a healing mantra.

We ended with Parker Palmer’s poem Everything Falls Away.  Parker posted this poem on Facebook page in 2020.  One of his latest books is On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old. He writes compassionately from his experience of being “on the brink of everything” as he navigates elderhood.  I think he speaks about befriending when he writes: “The only way to become whole is to put our arms lovingly around -everything- we know ourselves to be: self-serving and generous, spiteful and compassionate, cowardly and courageous, treacherous and trustworthy.
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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  On this beautiful Spring day we reflected on the preciousness of our time.

We considered what it is to wait and what it is to be.  There are intentional pauses that bear all sorts of feeling and thought.

There are unadorned moments of being in which our minds can rest.  All reflect the gift of consciousness that we share.

We heard Toko-Pa Turner’s poem:  Waiting.  The poem is from her book, Belonging, Remembering Ourselves Home.  Toko-pa writes, makes art and music and works with dreams.  The poem describes “good forms of waiting.”

We heard Mary Oliver’s poem, Heavy.  The poem is from her 2007 collection, Thirst.  The poem describes the heaviness of grief – the burden we can not or will not put down.  A friend suggests we can carry this weight and live on to experience the world’s beauty annd to love. Continue reading →

The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We engaged our imagination in a compassion meditation.  We imagined the land, culture and people of Ukraine.  We imagined the decision makers who hold the fate of so many in their hands.  We imagined the Russian people who are so closely related to their Ukrainian sisters and brothers. We reflected on the suffering and turmoil of the war.  We imagined sending  the physical, emotional and spiritual support needed to bring safety, healing, peace and renewal.  May they and all beings be relieved of suffering.

We practiced a compassion meditation adapted from Nomali Perera’s To Contact and Hearten Ukraine: Guided Tonglen Meditation.  Nomali works in coaching facilitation and teaches meditation.

Our guided reflection was inspired by meditation teacher and writer, Oren Jay Sofer.  He offers many ways to contemplate and cultivate compassion.  His teaching outlines the dimensions of compassion to include equanimity and wisdom.

We heard from To Begin With, the Sweet Grass by  Mary Oliver. This poem is from the collection,  Evidence: Poems.  Mary paints pictures in words that land in our heart, flesh and bones. They move us beyond the edges of our skin, to “become a child of the clouds,” to love ourselves and to love the world.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We explored the practice of equanimity as a way of accepting the human condition.  It involves feeling the feelings we’d rather turn away from.  We began by exploring the qualities of awareness and our ability to narrow and widen our view.  We practiced meeting challenging mind states with intimacy and also from the perspective of caring witness.

Today’s practice was informed by Ajahn Sucitto’s book, Parami, Ways to Cross Life’s Floods. The book outlines ten life affirming practices of:  Generosity, Morality, Renunciation, Discernment, Energy, Patience, Truthfulness, Resolve, Kindness, Equanimity.

We heard from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Living Buddha, Living Christ.  This book explores the shared spiritual values of Buddhism and Christianity.  Thich Nhat Hanh encouraged readers to appreciate their spiritual traditions while sharing inspiration to live with compassion.  He posed penetrating questions about the true meaning of peace.

We drew from Ruth King’s book, Mindful of Race. Ruth is a meditation teacher and racial justice activist.  Her Mindful of Race Training Program weaves mindfulness practice with an exploration of our racial conditioning, its impact, and our potential.  Her teaching helps make the direct experience of equanimity accessible at times when we need it most.

We heard William Yellow Robe’s poem, Breathe Deeper. William was an actor, author, director, educator, playwright, and poet.  He authored over 45 plays centering the Native American experience.  He was a citizen of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, until his death on July 19, 2021.  Breathe Deeper is a beautiful poem that invites readers to allow the breath to guide us into equanimity. Continue reading →

The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  We explored being as a field of awareness.  The life affirming qualities we can cultivate from the field are rooted in caring.  We can realize caring in the practice of accompaniment – sharing our fate.  Dr. Paul Farmer made this practice a foundational strategy for bringing health services to people and places in most need.   We worked with “seed” questions like “What does it mean to accompany or be accompanied on life’s journey?”

Today’s practice was informed by Ajahn Sucitto’s book, Parami, Ways to Cross Life’s Floods. The book outlines ten life affirming practices of:  Generosity, Morality, Renunciation, Discernment, Energy, Patience, Truthfulness, Resolve, Kindness, Equanimity.  This wonderful book is offered freely for download at the link above.

We reflected on what it means to be Treading the Path with Care as informed by Winton Higgins  Tricycle magazine article.  Winton traces the thread of care woven through the Buddha’s historic teachings.  He asserts that there can be no mindfulness without caring.

We heard from An Anarchist Quaker’s Prayer to Soothe Anxiety by Ayu Sutriasa.   Ayu is Digital Editor of Seattle’s YES! Magazine.  Ayu invites us to become aware of what we are carrying and set it down for a while.  She reminds us we are worthy just because we are.

We drew on Dr. Paul Farmer’s 2011 Harvard Kennedy School commencement address.  Dr. Farmer spoke about accompaniment.  He spoke of accompaniment as “sharing someone’s fate for a while.”   He cofounded Partner’s in Health which delivers health services to the poorest people on earth.   You can learn more about Dr. Paul and Partners in Health by viewing the documentary, Bending the Arc.  You can learn more about Dr. Paul’s early years in Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains.  You can learn a lot more about the battle against structural inequalities that present obstacles to health care as a human right by reading Dr. Paul’s last book: Fevers, Feuds and Diamonds.

We ended with poet Muriel Rukeyser’s Elegy in Joy. Her work is inspired by her concern for human rights issues.  Her work spoke to gender, class and racial inequalities.  This poem speaks to “the love that gives us ourselves.”  We are encouraged to nourish beginnings – beginnings contained in a seed, a seed that is blessed.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Today we explored our heart wisdom: the inner light of the heart which shines with compassion.  We can attune to this inner wisdom through meditation and mindful movement.  We shine “heart light” though deep listening,  gazing with presence, and communicating with empathy.  We explored our body’s communication and relaxation pathways enlivened by the vagus nerve.  We focused on the relationship between our hearts and faces. These are the areas where we take in the world and reveal ourselves to the world. 

We explored movement and sound practices that were inspired by Stephen Porges‘ Polyvagal Theory.   The class was also informed by Deb Dana’s work in the therapeutic application of the theory – centering on self-care, compassion and connection.   I am very grateful for her book:  The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy.

Se drew inspiration from poet John O’Donohue’s prose:  There is a Quiet Light.  The poem is from the book To Bless the Space Between Us.

We drew from therapist and writer John Prendergast’s article, The 5 Keys to Trusting Your Heart and Acting From a Place of Inner Wisdom.

We ended with poet and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s poem:  For Warmth.

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