The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation  class met this morning.  I am so thankful for having this time and space together.  We share a sensory experience of our animal senses.  Intimately relating to our breath and our bodies can help us find our instinctive place within the living earth.  We begin to appreciate the relationships that make our living and loving possible.

We drew on the life’s work of poet Mary Oliver – a deeply empathic guide to our natural world.  She wrote her poems while hiking fields and shorelines notebook in hand.   Her words invited readers to experience nature with our imagination and our senses.  She called on us to “find our place in the family of things.”  In her intimate On Being interview, Listening to the World, she talked about how nature and poetry saved her life.

David Abram, a cultural ecologist and philosopher, affirms this call of the wild.  He reminds us of our intimate relationship to the more-than-human world which he refers to as “the commonwealth of breath.”  Like Mary, David enlivens the magic and mystery of our sensual experience of our breath, our bodies and our world.

Both of these artists and thinkers inspire deep appreciation and love of life.  They help us understand our interdependence which is so central to mindfulness as a spiritual practice.

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The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We create our circle in  a “virtual” space.  In physics the term “virtual” refers to particles or interactions with extremely short lifetimes and indefinitely great energies.   This makes me think of our own short lifetimes and interactions and the energy that we bring to creating the reality we all share.  This “virtuality” is both a metaphor and one of the many paradoxes that we are living today.  We are at once separate and together.  We spend much of our time in digital territories and yet we are physical beings.  We are body-heart-minds.  We are animals.  We are elemental beings.  Our survival depends on nature – and nature’s survival depends on us.

Today we practiced a body centered mediation around the classical elements of earth, fire, water and air.  It is an ancient meditation that has been found in traditions across cultures around the world.  It is a way of affirming and realizing ourselves as nature. You can find more about this meditation by going to Tricycle Magazine’s four part series, Mindfulness of the Four Elements: Reconnecting with the World,  with meditation instructor and author Sebene Selassie.

Our reflection was inspired by Michael McCarthy’s interview, Nature, Joy, and Human Becoming, and his book, The The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy.  Michael is a naturalist and writer whose work calls us to bring our love and joy to the defense of nature.  He and poet Denise Levertov remind us that we are, ourselves, nature.

In exploring the depth of our caring for ourselves, each other and the natural world 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.

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The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We explored the ways we can bring our “mind-heartfulness” to our meditation.  This means paying attention with love.  It means bringing our whole-hearted attention to the ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows of life.  We started with the practice of being mindful of emotions.  We explored the different ways of being with our emotions – staying with them and at the same time letting there be with a curious spaciousness.

Our guidance came from meditation instructor, author and social activist, Larry Yang. Larry teaches mindfulness and loving kindness retreats and has a special interest in creating access to the Dharma for diverse, multicultural communities.  I can highly recommend his book, Awakening Together: The Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community.

We also drew inspiration from poet David Whyte‘s poem, Imagine My Surprise and poet Mark Nepo‘s poem Walking North.

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The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  Our class focused on the ways we see ourselves and the world.  We drew inspiration from the artist Georgia O’Keeffe who questioned whether anyone really sees a flower.  Deep seeing takes time like having a friend.  In his talk, Tone and Learning to Be a Good Friend, meditation instructor Oren Jay Sofer also encourages us to befriend ourselves while meditating.  The inner atmosphere of acceptance, curiosity and kindness  influences the ways we engage the world.

In her book, On Looking: A Walker’s Guide to the Art of Observation, scientist Alexandra Horowitz explores the ways we see the world.  What we choose to attend to shapes our very being.  After her many walks she observes the most important learning was about the interplay between attention and intention.   We ended with two lovely poems drawn from the resources offered by The Network of Grateful Living.

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The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. Today’s practice was about our connections – the way we relate to ourselves and one another.   We explored ways of “presencing” that is, staying with what surfaces in our bodies, hearts and minds.  This prepares us to be fully present in our relating – even with feelings of disconnection and loneliness. Spiritual teachings tell us that we are all interconnected, interdependent.  Yet in today’s social separation and society’s fragmentation I – like many of my friends – often feel alone.

We drew on Irish poet and philosopher’s inspiration from his book: Eternal Echoes:  Celtic Reflections of Our Yearning to Belong.  He beautifully describes how our need to belong is at the center of our hearts.  Our practice gives us the opportunity to become aware of and recognize the sensations, emotions and thoughts as signals.  They often signal our unmet needs – needs that are universally human.  Truly they can help us understand and connect with one another.  Belonging is in the loving care we give and receive from each other.

Meditation teacher and author Sebene Selassie describes belonging as a paradox. True belonging includes our longing for connection and the challenge we have in accepting ourselves and each other – it doesn’t always feel good.

Finally we enjoyed Jean Valentine’s whimsical poem about relating:  Sanctuary.  Jean served as the State Poet of New York from 2008 to 2010. She has authored over a dozen books of poetry and taught at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University.

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The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We explored ways of bringing our practice to our every day lives.  We do this by bringing four fundamental meditation skills to what every we are doing:  concentration, clarity, caring and equanimity.  We drew on the work of mediation teacher and author, Jeff Warren.  You can find his article, Finding the Right Practice, on his web-site along with many resources aimed to empower you to find the practice that works for you.  You can also listen to a fascinating discussion, Crisis Advice from Meditation MacGyver, between Jeff and Ten Percent Happier podcast host, Dan Harris.  It’s about “democratizing” meditation practice and teaching and the various activities we value in life can be done as a meditation.

We ended practice with poet Mary Oliver’s beautiful poem, Invitation which you will find below.

Many of us want to keep our friend Mike in our hearts this week.  Mike is living with a serious illness.  Some of us plan to do Metta Meditation as we hold Mike in our hearts.    You can explore Sharon Salzberg’s Guided Loving Kindness Meditation.  You can also make up the phrases that resonate with your heart.  Here are the ones I practiced with this week:

May you be safe,
May you be well,
May you love and be loved,
May you be free from suffering,
May you know peace.

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The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We shared the practice of cultivating compassion.  All of us have been deeply touched by the pain and suffering we witness every day.  Sometimes it’s really hard not to look away or shut down.  The mindfulness practice of cultivating compassion or loving kindness is a way of responding by staying present with what is difficult and also tapping into the love and kindness that truly is our super power.

We started with a short loving kindness practice inspired by Diana Winston. Diana is  Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center.  You can practice at home by going to her podcast, Getting Out of Your Head.

We drew on meditation instructor, Oren Jay Sofer including his recent talk,  Introduction to Loving Kindness.  His very worthwhile talk offers context, instructions and helpful suggestions including a guided meditation.

Next time you need a little breathing break you might check out meditation and author, Sharon Salzberg’s delightful short animation, Where Does Compassion Really Come From?

Explore giving your heart’s attention to Corinna Luyken’s children’s book, My Heart.  You’ll find it toward the end of Maria Popova’s post on Favorite Children’s Books of 2019,

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