Open Awareness

Throughout my practice of loving-kindness, I have always seen each meditation as somehow separate from the others. Something that I do for myself, for others, but not connected to anything.

The truth is, when sitting with loving-kindness, with those well wishes for yourself and for all others, you are sitting in that vast open awareness that is the breath, that is the presence of this beautiful life that connects us all.

When you feel that still spot between the in and out-breath, you experience the silent, still space when in meditation, that is loving-kindness.

Metta is the thread that holds us
that reminds us of how interconnected we are to it all.

May your days be filled with joy

May you be well

May you be at ease

May you remember that you are always held by loving-kindness

xx

TEN YEARS LATER
- David Whyte

When the mind is clear
and the surface now still,
now swaying water

slaps against
the rolling kayak

I find myself near darkness
paddling again to Yellow Island.

Every spring wildflowers
cover the grey rocks.

Every year the sea breeze
ruffles the cold and lovely pearls
hidden in the center of the flowers

as if remembering them
by touch alone.

A calm and lonely, trembling beauty
that frightened me in my youth.

Now their loneliness
seems familiar, one small thing
I’ve learned these years,

how to be alone
and at the edge of aloneness
how to be found by the world.

Innocence is what we allow
to be gifted back to us
once we’ve given ourselves away.

There is one world only,
the one to which we gave ourselves
utterly, and which one day

we are blessed to return. xx

TEN YEARS LATER
- David Whyte

When the mind is clear
and the surface now still,
now swaying water

slaps against
the rolling kayak

I find myself near darkness
paddling again to Yellow Island.

Every spring wildflowers
cover the grey rocks.

Every year the sea breeze
ruffles the cold and lovely pearls
hidden in the center of the flowers

as if remembering them
by touch alone.

A calm and lonely, trembling beauty
that frightened me in my youth.

Now their loneliness
seems familiar, on e small thing
I’ve learned these years,

how to be alone
and at the edge of aloneness
how to be found by the world.

Innocence is what we allow
to be gifted back to us
once we’ve given ourselves away.

There is one world only,
the one to which we gave ourselves
utterly, and which one day

we are blessed to return.

Loving-Kindness

What if there is no need to change
by Oriah Mountain Dreame

What if there is no need to change?
No need to transform yourself
Into someone who is more compassionate, more present, more loving, or wise?
How would this affect all the places in your life where you are endlessly trying to be better, or different?
What if the task is simply to unfold
To become who you already are in your essential nature –
Gentle, compassionate,
and capable of living fully and passionately present?
What if the question is not,
Why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be?
But ‘why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am?’
How would this change what you think you have to learn?
What if becoming who and what we truly happen not through striving and trying
But by recognizing and receiving the people and places and practices
That are for us the warmth of encouragement we need to unfold?
How would this shape the choices you make about how to spend today?
What if you know that the impulse to move in a way that creates beauty in the world
Will arise from deep within
And guide you every time you simply pay attention
And wait.
How would this shape your stillness, your movement,
Your willingness to follow this impulse
To just let go
And dance?

Presence

All is here
within us.

Whatever you are seeking - grasping - wanting
is the illusion of the mind telling us
Where we should be
What we should have
What we must be
To be happy, fulfilled, whole

The truth is the wholeness is right here
with each breath
in open awareness of the present moment

For many months I’ve been struggling
Seeking to find
right words
the right role
the right path

The path is HERE
The path is now
In this moment,
In each breath
in the open space
that holds us in meditation.

Here now.
Living this precious life.

This is the way home.

THE JOURNEY
David Whyte

Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again

painting thier
black silhouettes
on an open sky.

Sometimes everything
has to be
inscribed across the havens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.

Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that

first, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.

Non-Striving

Our mind is in a continuous state of judgment. Pleasant, unpleasant, seeking to find the most comfortable for us, avoiding those challenging and uncomfortable things, or creating distractions to avoid those experiences.

By recognizing the striving mind, the one that grasps on to, feels an aversion to change and tries to move away from what is, we cultivate one of the attitudinal foundations of mindfulness.

Noticing the “I’ve got to, I’ll be ok when, I’ll be happy when” thoughts, you are creating awareness around the mind’s habit to want what “should be”

As we practice, we sit with what is, connecting to the body, breath, the present moment and see that it is all we have, all that is certain and find joy in this breath. Awakening to this life and opening to the difficulties and joys of it all.

“Being satisfied with what we already have is a magical golden key to being alive in a full, unrestricted, and inspired way. Meditation is a process of lightening up, of trusting the basic goodness of what we have and who we are, and of realizing that any wisdom that exists, exists in what we already have. …it doesn’t do any good to get rid of our so-called negative aspects, because in that process we get rid of our basic wonderfulness. We can lead our life so as to become more awake to who we are and what we are doing, rather than trying to improve or change or get rid of what we are doing.

The ground of loving-kindness is the sense of satisfaction with who we are and what we have.”

- Pema Chodron, The Wisdom Of No Escape

This connection of what brings a deeper state of awareness to the self, to the habits we have formed through life to avoid, to create wants, needs that will somehow make it better. When the truth is every moment, joyful or difficult, is perfect just the way it is. When one can sit with the emotion, the fear, the challenges and feel into what they are, this is where freedom and ease reside.

Poem: Allow, By Dana Fauld

Impermanence

The why behind an embodied practice:

Every day, changes, struggles, joys arise and fall away.

Sitting with each emotion as it comes up, being with the sensations in the body, feeling into the fear, anger, struggle, joy is a skill that is cultivated through breath and body awareness.

When we can “be with” each feeling as it arises, look at it with a curious, beginner’s mind. We cultivate a skill to help us manage stress and challenging emotions and appreciate pleasant feelings in each moment.

Approaching the difficult, the pleasant, we come home to the body, knowing that this moment and the sensations that arise are fleeting, that it is like this now, and will be different in the next moment and the next.

As we learn to sit with the body, noticing those physical sensations, tightness in the chest, constriction in the throat, airy-ness in the forehead, pain in the shoulder, warmth in the heart, the light feeling in the jaw…each of these sensations experienced tie directly to a pleasant or unpleasant thought.

These thoughts & emotions can take over, spiral you out into reaction, hold onto fear, anxiety, trying to find a way to let it go, avoid it, or grasp at the joyful moment, never wanting it to end.

When we sit with these moments, we create a strong awareness of the mind's habits, recognizing the thoughts as not real but just thoughts, and can breathe in, be still, and with whatever it is that is present.

By sitting with the pleasant and unpleasant, looking at each with kindness, recognizing judgment, attachment - embracing it all with a kind heart, and seeing that it is all a part of this precious life.

Our perception will change - next week, next breath, next year. We can be grateful for this moment as it is and find the stillness and wisdom here.

Mindfulness practice gives you the time to drop in, to recognize thoughts as just that, notice the sensations in the body when those thoughts arrive, allowing you the space to be with and know that this struggle, this joy is temporary.

Impermanence is a truth of life; with meditation, you witness the ever-changing landscape of the mind, of moments and see them without judgment, bringing ease and light to this present precious moment, the only thing we have.

Sitting beneath the waves of emotion, watching them above you as you float just beneath, where stillness is always found.