The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/River Tree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  I am so grateful for the many circles of practice that are working to keep their hearts and minds open.  We’ve migrated our circles to this cyber space which – thankfully – allows us to stay connected and continue sharing our lives.  In moments of feeling overwhelmed by the many perils we are facing these connections keep me going.  Thank you.

We began our practice with a beautiful poem, School Prayer, given to us by by naturalist and writer Diane Ackerman. Diane crafted this poem – this prayer – in the hopes that children are able to “develop a spiritual nature, and become concerned with higher values.” This poem has the quality of an incantation. The Latin word incantare, means “enchant.” In School Prayer, there is magic in the words. It’s an invitation to honor and pledge to protect life.

We drew inspiration about this season of change from author and dream worker Toko-pa Turner.  Toko-pa’s work explores our relationship to our dream time, our ancestors and all our more than human relations.

Several years ago meditation teacher and writer, Tara Brach, gave a beautiful talk in which she used the metaphor of the Darkness of the Womb to describe how new life might be growing in the dark. I was deeply moved by Tara’s insights.  I drew on her talk to craft a series of reflections on how we are relating to each other in the tumultuous days leading up to the election.  Tara offers a four step process of working with difficult emotions and divisive thoughts that naturally arise in conflict. You can find Tara’s full discourse and guided meditation at her web-site.

Relaxed Reflection

School Prayer. Diane Ackerman

In the name of the daybreak
and the eyelids of morning
and the wayfaring moon
and the night when it departs,
I swear I will not dishonor
my soul with hatred,
but offer myself humbly
as a guardian of nature,
as a healer of misery,
as a messenger of wonder
as an architect of peace.
In the name of the sun and its mirrors
and the day that embraces it
and the cloud veils drawn over it
and the uttermost night
and the male and the female
and the plants bursting with seed
and the crowning seasons
of the firefly and the apple,
I will honor all life
—wherever and in whatever form
it may dwell—on Earth my home,
and in the mansions of the stars.

Let’s pause together and take in this prayer . . . just noticing what speaks to your heart . . . the beauty of the dawning light . . . the luminous quality of the moon . . . the sense of humility and generosity that might awaken in undertaking a pledge to guard nature . . . to heal what you can . . . to make peace . . . What of nature’s gifts do you cherish?  On land . . . on water . . . in the sky?  Let what you hold most dear rest in your heart . . . May whatever you are feeling serve to awaken your heart . . . 

When we open our hearts – especially to what we hold most dear – we realize the inherently fleeting nature of the things we love, of life itself.  We feel our vulnerability.  Here in the northern hemisphere we’re crossing the threshold of autumn into winter.  The ancient Celts called this time – Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced “sow-win”) what we now call Halloween.  It was a time of honoring the dead and the change of season – letting go of things that inhibit growth – like the dried leaves falling to the earth to nourish the soil.  Honoring change. 

Author and dreamworker, Toko-pa Turner, writes:

There is a profound connection between honouring your ancestors and following the call to change.  If you think of your life as the fruit of a long surviving tree, you are an expression of a dream once seeded by your ancestors. The privilege and responsibility now falls to your life to keep that expression alive, even if it means releasing inherited fears, so that one day you can sow your own heritage seeds forward. 

We are invited to follow the call to change.  We are changed every moment of being alive.  Cells are being born and dying.  Experiences become memories.  Change is a condition of being alive – we are born, we grow, we age and we die.  This is the inescapable joy and sorrow of living.  How we choose to respond to change determines how we suffer and in large part who we become.  Awareness gives us choice.  

We know these conditions – we’ve lived them.  And yet we often find ourselves caught in a repeating cycle – repeating thoughts that give rise to behaviors that spring from limiting beliefs that create separation.   Our sense of separation is at the root of so much pain and suffering.  Separation – a state of being pulled apart.  Separation arises when we judge or reject a part of ourselves or other people.   We are witnessing this playing out in ourselves, in relationships, in communities in our nation.  Each of us can play a part in bringing change: connection and understanding to our selves and our world.  Connection – relationship with another by kinship, friendship, or common interest.  Wholeness.

In her talk, Darkness of the Womb: Four Key Steps in Transforming Suffering, Tara Brach said:

It’s the potential for times of darkness to be a kind of wake-up that really is a rebirthing. We can see it in our own lives, the times we hit the worst, most difficult pain . . .  also, in some way, opened us to another level of what we really cherished. It opened us to a new level of resilience or really sensing the mystery. So there is power and potential in a time of darkness. We can see it through evolution, that great stress requires adaptation and so on. We see it, that it can evolve us.

How can we use awareness, the practice of mindfulness, of heartfulness – to open to a “new level of resilience.”  How can we tap into the “power and potential in [our] time of darkness?   Can we cultivate the courage and the energy to be with the painful circumstances in our personal lives and our broader lives?  Our willingness to stay engaged – to be with the mystery – holds the potential for transformation.  Our willingness to be changed – as Tara says – can open us to another level of what we deeply cherish.    

We start by noticing when we are experiencing aversion – when we want to turn away from that which is dark, painful – the very circumstances that seem to arise daily in the days leading up to our election.  We notice how we are relating to the subject of our aversion – physical sensations – feelings – thoughts.  All of which arise from deep conditioning.   Tara encourages us:  

[Not to] believe the thoughts that create separation. They lock us into a dividedness and a separateness and, in a deep way, they fuel more violence. . . .  This applies to thoughts about ourselves, about others that we know, and even others that we don’t know.  The expression that I love is: real but not true. What that means is, that thoughts are really happening. They are real representations in our mind. And we have real feelings, but they aren’t the truth any more than an idea of an apple tree is the living, breathing tree.

Tara suggests that we train ourselves to not believe thoughts that create hatred and separation.  We feel our feelings.  Our feelings are intelligent – they are pointing to what deeply matters to us.  We need our emotions – they move us. Then we turn towards love as best we can.  We turn towards love by bringing ourselves compassion and by remembering those who love us. We feel caring and then act from open minds and hearts.   We engage in some way that helps to bring healing.

Perhaps in the days to come we can work with hearts and minds as Tara suggests.  When we find ourselves in the state of aversion – reacting to something or someone we strongly dislike, we can pause.  Finding the signature of aversion – the sensations of it in our bodies – a flash of heat, rush of adrenaline, rapid heart beat, tension in the neck and shoulders or a queasiness in the gut or even brain fog.  Although vivid it can often happen too fast to recognize what’s going on.  Sometimes I think it is grace that enables us to stop and pause.   So quickly our brains create meaning from this flash of physiological lightning.  These are the thoughts that often create separation and suffering.  We can question these thoughts – they may be real – but are they true?

We can then create space in which to feel our emotions which have a life – a beginning, middle and end – that we can tend to and learn from. So often our conflicts, our aversion are rooted in deeper needs, deeper concerns that we have for ourselves and on behalf of others – the need for safety, respect, equality, acceptance . . . Needs we all share . . . We can find that loving place inside so that we can meet these feelings with tenderness.

Then we turn towards love however you can . . . If you find it hard to offer yourself love you might imagine a loving being in your life that you can trust – Imagine they are here with you.  Imagine them offering their loving care to that place that feels so vulnerable or is perhaps rigid and tense with fear or anger.  Their love might by expressing acceptance, understanding and compassion.  Can you take that in?  

Now can you sense the larger community of caring people you belong to – the people that are here today – the many people in the world training in keeping their hearts and minds open?  Sensing the genrosity, the caring and the willingness to act.  These are qualities we all share.  Can sense your heart’s wisdom?  

Letting whatever is true for you be there without the burden of judgment.  

Tara suggests we could meet this experience with someting like the Bodhisattva life-honoring prayer:

May these circumstances, may these feelings that I am having, may this experience serve to awaken my heart — serve to awaken compassion and wisdom.  May this situation . . . may whatever arises . . . serve the awakening of this heart. And then, widening your view, sensing this heart-space that is including our whole world — so you can sense our country and all countries on the globe, the earth, all beings. Sense the challenges, the beauty, the mystery and the messiness, the hurt and the pain. Sensing it all in your heart, feel your prayer for all beings: May whatever darkness there is – the regressive tendencies, the mean-spiritedness, the hurt, the suffering – may it serve awakening. May this be the darkness of the womb. May there be a rebirthing into a world that is filled with compassion.