Chino and Ahalya

I sleep in a room with sixty bears. They’re quiet. I’ve only gotten to know one. He sits about eight inches tall and is mauve in color. His pose seems yogic except when I accidently knock him off his pillow which props against more pillows on my bed. While he’s a prop, a stuffed fluff of a decoration he makes me smile. I even apologize when I find I inadvertently tossed him on the floor.

Perhaps he is reminder that given an opening everyone and everything can contribute to us.

Outside there are three amusing dogs, a tough and gentle old barn cat, exotic looking chickens, incredibly beautiful black and white horses, a scruffy white pony and a miniature donkey named Chino. Chino is a bit like my bear friend, he’s a decoration for this small ranch; the center piece of love. He’s a perfect example of just Being.

That’s his contribution to the world. He’s very good at receiving love. He just takes it in and pours it out. He accepts that he is wanted, valued and cherished. It’s a given with him that he is worthy. Chino seems to know something that most folks don’t. We are meant to receive and give love, in that order. We can’t give what we don’t have.

Chino is a miniature donkey. He’s not an Arabian or even a work horse. While the chickens lay eggs, the dogs guard, the horses carry riders, the barn cat keeps the barn clear, Chino doesn’t do any of those things.  He is simply himself, receiving and giving love.

My mauve bear friend and Chino have given me a gift, each in their own way, unique and valuable, like all of us.

May We All Walk in Beauty.

At 4:30 am a few days ago, I was sitting on the back deck watching the full moon.  High above the Sierras it flooded the Carson Valley with light. I thought of the beauty of Nature and of the Planet. I pondered the depth and vastness of Consciousness.  I considered what I know, what I don’t know, and what I don’t know I don’t know.

It occurred to me that we often do not go deep enough in contemplating our place in the world, who we are, or what new choices are possible for us. We tend to superficially grab hold of something we are working on and stop there.

I thought about what my Guru and Lineage have taught me over all these years. I thought of all the Teachers who have shared their wisdom with me; who have given me practices to advance my evolution. Any one of those practices I learned and teach are enough to create a jack up in evolution to Higher Consciousness. The catch is we must do them. Not just once in learning the technique, hit and miss when we feel desperate to make change. If we choose a practice or a contemplation and master it we can go deeper in our self-awareness.

Ours is an information age.  So we gather information, stockpile it for future reference, compare what we have gathered and make decisions about great Truths only experienced at the surface level.

At times we make discoveries about ourselves; and we come to know ourselves better. Knowing ourselves better is the catalyst for our journey of Awakening. Knowing ourselves better allows us to see what is working and not working in our lives. Deepening our self-knowledge causes shifts in our awareness and propels us to the freedom we seek a greater expression of ourselves.

We come to know things about ourselves we had not known before. In this greater wisdom we make wiser choices. As we awaken we come to know ourselves more and realize there is much we don’t know we don’t know. Yet there is peace in understanding ourselves better and we can rejoice in the newfound knowledge, knowing there is more yet to come. Knowing there is more to us, a greatness unfolding; a depth and vastness meant to be known to us. There will always be things we don’t know we don’t know and there is much we can know –  about ourselves. It takes time and paying attention; it’s a journey.

May We All Walk in Beauty

I am now an Elder, no doubt about it. I have to say it’s wonderful

I have struggled with understanding the teaching Let Go and Let God my whole life. I have had glimpses of its significance from time to time. Where I am in this moment is all about what it means to actually live it consciously all the time.

I was conditioned to “pull myself up by the bootstraps” and carry on. There’s a lot of pushing and struggle in that. I have also not been comfortable with doing nothing under the guise of letting God take care of things. There seems a partnership that needs to be developed.

So to me Letting Go and Letting God does not mean to sit on my butt and do nothing. Letting go takes self-effort. In that moment of a disempowering thought or feeling something has to change. Letting go is the first step. That act creates the possibility for something never considered to show up in our lives. Letting God means I have to get myself out of the way; to be open to a new way of seeing and being.

The balance of doing without pushing and letting go without giving up our responsibility is essential. When we have let go we have the space to embrace Letting God; new ways of thinking, feeling, being ~ new possibilities. Letting Go and Letting God is a journey to freedom.

I dance with that balancing. I am aware of how much conscious choice is required each moment and that my responsibility is to show up and embrace Let Go and Let God as a way of being. There are times when it feels daunting. At those times I remember and I let go of that; creating space for freedom.

The good news is that at times we all experience the freedom of Letting Go and Letting God; like forgetting our problems when we look at a beautiful sunset or in a moment of feeling completely loved and accepted. We Let Go and Let God when we are deep in meditation, when we chant, when we do japa (mantra repetition). Sometimes when we sing or dance, or just sit in stillness.

Living life Letting Go and Letting God is about doing and allowing; releasing and receiving.  It’s a conscious, empowering practice in the journey to Freedom.

May We All Walk in Beauty.

Quote: We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. ~ Joseph Campbell

January 1 2016

We are drawn to new beginnings ~ fresh starts that erase past inequities and give hope of a victorious future. A clean sheet of paper, a fresh road map; the promise of grace.

The cusp of the New Year. For a moment we let go of the pain and suffering of our own lives and that of our fellow man. Faded are the horrors of the violence that shades our world. For a brief moment we forget to whine about what’s not working for us. We have hope that things can and will be different.

We can do this every morning on waking. We can do it every moment. And we forget. New Year’s reminds us to continue doing what worked and to change what didn’t. It’s a journey ~ we are a process in progress.

New Year’s reminds us to make new choices ~ to continue to aspire to be the person we wish to be. As a spiritual being having a human experience we learn to practice our Be/Becoming. We are not the same as we were and we are not who we will become. In this moment we “Be”, acknowledging how far we have journeyed and grateful for all the lessons that made us who we are today.

Evolution is an upward spiral movement. Familiar challenges are revisited. In our evolution of attitude ~ Attitudinal Healing ~ a greater perspective and wiser response can be present. We are higher on the evolutionary spiral. We always do the best we can in the moment and our best gets better.

In the past we made new year’s affirmations of things we wanted to be different about us; something we wished to accomplish or attain. In a new vision of things being better we have hope we will make choices that serve ~ remembering to love ourselves ~ even if we don’t. Beginnings, endings, beginnings…

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. “T.S Elliot

A sunset expresses new beginnings as does a sunrise. In this moment an ending is occurring and a new beginning unfolds. May our Be/Becoming be ever present as we embrace an ending and a new beginning. Right now, as we acknowledge the New Year, every day and every moment, as we embrace our lives with an open and hopeful heart.

May We All Walk in Beauty.

QUOTE: “Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.”
― Shunryu Suzuki