Today's Blessing

What is the blessing that you are inviting to be received today?  

In my short journaling prompt this morning I began it with "A better day begins."
... because yesterday was an out of sorts day, a not truly me day, a hard to recognize the authentic me foggy day. 

Then later this morning this prompting. "The word that is floating on consciousness is UNPLUG. Could this be the Word of the Day for me today, this week?   What if we could make a deck of 3x5 cards with a separate word on each that you could randomly draw to see how wisdom (Jhana - or as noted in Buddhism, dhyāna) is inviting you to open to the path for the day.  

Words such as Discipline, Community, Inspire, Create, Balance, ... 

And then coming into today's email from my Penzu online journal was a noting of what I had written three years ago on this date titled Flourish.

"The opportunity to flourish in your life is now.  This moment.
Why put off or delay it?   What is wanting to arise and be present now?

Life is meant to be lived with Purpose, Love, and Joy....
with connection, with authenticity, with creative curiosity.

It starts with acknowledging peace within. To find a stillness there, to  find an alignment there that allows a moving into your soul's calling.

It then requires connection. Intimate, mindful contact. Requires being vulnerable, but from a place of trust.  An allowing yourself to know another and to be known my them.

Then to move. Let the movement be with Grace, Ease, and Elegance.
This is the G.E.E. factor.  Learn to cultivate the GEE factor in your life." 

What is your word of the day for today?

~~~~~ 

Ziva Meditation

https://zivameditation.com/

In the event you are not already familiar with the practice of Ziva Meditatio by Emily Fletcher

check on her Three M style – Mindfulness, Meditation (includes 2x breath), and Manifesting.

Her recent book is Stress Less, Accomplish More 

The Four P's and Right Action

We are here to play, breathe, contribute, savor and sample, create and evolve the uniqueness that is you.   And give the permission of that gift to others!  This requires of us to develop those skills that nurture and nourish our being. Cultivation of presence. Seeing with eyes of love. Developing your own unique agenda of action without being attached to results (Let the ego rest.  See Don Miguel Ruiz “Four Agreements”).  

Once you rest into your Four P’s of
Presence (just this now, mindfully embraced),
Power (your life stream, Prana, Qi, energy ),
Purpose (your Soul’s directives),
Passion (your energy and drive for good and creating)
the Fifth P of Possibilities opens to you.  Right Attention and Intention breeds Right Action. The A.I.A. formula. The by-ways and path opens for what it is for you to do this day, week, year. The cohorts begin to recognize themselves in the other.

by Pompe Strater-Vidal
Zen Sensei and founder of Relax Breathe Flow

It’s the first week of autumn here. Days are getting shorter and nights longer. Leaves are changing color, and starting to fall. It’s the season of letting go.

In meditation, we let go of our focus on our thoughts and emotions, coming back gently to our breath. But sometimes it’s hard to let go. Very. Challenging. Persistent patterns circle in an endless loop, keeping us stuck in our head, our feelings or both.

When this happens, it’s helpful to understand why you’re stuck. What you’re attached too.

Here are nine common negative emotional patterns:

1. Anger. Attached to being right, and resentful about what’s wrong.
2. False pride. Refusing to ask for attention, help and support when needed.
3. Vanity. Attachment to your image, instead of being authentic and real.
4. Envy. When the grass is always greener, underneath there’s a sense of lack.
5. Hoarding. Collecting stuff like a squirrel, afraid of never having enough.
6. Fear. Identifying with fears, instead of reality testing them.
7. Gluttony. Seeking pleasure compulsively to avoid experiencing pain.
8. Lust. Overindulging. A lot.
9. Indolence. It’s more comfortable to stay stuck. Change is risky.

Unless you’re a saint, some of these patterns will sound familiar. This is not a new way to criticize your self:) This is about awareness. Being aware of how you’re stuck is important. It’s the first step out of the loop. Here’s the next.

A list of the positive qualities that get us unstuck, moving forward into the light:

1. Serenity happens when you let go of anger and being right.
2. Humility opens the door to receiving support with love.
3. Honesty is the real you, the good, the bad and the ugly.
4. Equanimity comes from being grateful for what you have.
5. Nonattachment is about letting go.
6. Courage is moving forward through fear.
7. Sobriety is accepting your pain.
8. Innocence is simple enjoyment, the wonder of a child.
9. Right action comes from being centered in the qualities above.

Once you identify which negative loop you’re stuck in, you can consciously work on developing the quality that antidotes it.

Let me know your thoughts on this process, stepping out of negative patterns to move forward with awareness and love.

The Mystery School

The Mystery School

Life and the purpose of being has been defined in ancient yoga writings as

sat-chit-ananda, translated as Truth-Consciousness-Bliss.

In my decades long studentship of this understanding I have found a community that embodies this quest and have been a member of The Mystery School for a New Paradigm Members Circle for well over a year.  I appreciate the clarity of Jeff Carreira’s writings, teachings, and leadership.  You can learn more at this link  -

Awakened Consciousness - https://jeffcarreira.com/

Here are parts of two Mystery School Members Circle weekly postings by Jeff  in September.

Each week Jeff has a five minute teaching video and twenty minute guided meditation working with the suggested thought or theme for that week.  Take a moment now and open your heart and mind.  Release old patterns of relating and see what will arise. What is speaking and can you hear it?

What Consciousness Do You Want to Live In?

Contemplations

“If you don’t change direction, you’ll end up where you’re headed.” ~ Chinese proverb.

-  Where do you want to be in ten years?

-  What are your deepest values and deepest desires?

-  What is your highest attainable state of consciousness? Is that where you would like to be living from?

-  Where would you live? What would you be doing? Who would you be spending your time with?

-  How would you need to rearrange your life circumstances to hold your vision?

---------

A Life Connected to the Source of Consciousness - September 15, 2019

In this week’s video Jeff states that spiritual life is not about having spiritual experiences, or being on retreat. It is about surrendering to the mysterious wisdom and love that is the core essence of the universe and ourselves. In this way we usher in a new paradigm for humanity.

~~~  

The Members Circle provides ongoing guidance and support for Artists of Possibility who want to share their deepest wisdom and live a vibrant and profoundly inspired spiritual life.

If that resonates with come join in the movement.

~~~~

“We are not going to create a new paradigm the way other things are created.

The best thing we can do is engage with each other around the things that capture our imagination and move our heart.”

We must become porous vessels for inspired perspectives and inspired ideas and let all the exchange and the interaction and growth generate a kind of creative friction that will allow something to emerge between us that none of us could imagine.

~ JEFF CARREIRA

The Flow of Stillness

          The Flow of Stillness

Some say the goal is transformation.

But from what and to what when you already are perfect?

Consider for a moment.

Are you living life or is life living through you?

If life is living through you what is your path?

How do you find your path and mindfully say yes to the journey?

We are all a work in process and awareness. Change is the only given. 

Forget progress.  Forget judging and analyzing. Come into clear sensing.

Touch into both the convergent and divergent, the context and contents.

Each has its purpose.  Each has a referencing for us to touch into.

Our evolving is designed on being the artist of our own growth and blossoming. .

Seeing, listening, touching into, acting and then finding stillness to do it all again.

We craft self appreciation and discernment.

We listen to our inner calling and lean into the blossoming.

Love is the energy that propels us to do beneficial good in the world,

  to find and create beauty, to observe with wonder the mystery.

Gratitude is the base, the strong platform, to grow this action.

Adopt this morning mantra practice: Repeat the lines out loud three times –

  May I be safe. / May I be well. / May I know piece.

Now give this blessing to others around you, near and far.  

  May you be safe. / May you be well. / May you know piece.

Come now and sit with me for awhile in the flow of stillness.

            richard hammer  /   9-3-19 

The Art of Being You

Your Soul Is Calling

How might you cultivate the art of being you today?

Each day is an offering to your soul.
How will you nourish and nurture your soul?  It is in your care.

~~~~ 

How will you share your humanity today? (The day after El Paso/Dayton shootings - 8-4-19)
Who will you embrace with love?  This is the true legacy you will leave behind.

~~~~ 

You are here to be the presence of love, joy, and peace. !!!

~~~~ 

A recent Chopra mantra in the 21 Day series on Relationships:  Siddho Hum - "I am wholeness." 
Let your bright light radiance shine. 

-------- 

The art of being you requires - Courage - Curiosity - Consciousness.Let these three pull you forward to inspire others to find harmony within and without.

What are the stones you will turn over in your path walk this day?

And what will you discover? 

~~~~ 

How might you inspire another this day? ...... 

This is the embrace of love.

~~~~ 

I have a friend who suggests remembering the acronym of LBGT.

Let your manifesto be LBGT  - Love - Beauty - Goodness - Truth. This is the way forward.

The Stories

What are the stories you have been telling yourself that you have built a life upon? 

Have they changed over the years, over the journey?

How does the active mind want to qualify, quantify, and justify them?

What are they now?

What have you learned? What can you pass forward that is worthwhile? 

Who is listening?  Who do you want to listen?  What does it mean to listen? 

In the later years, the wisdom years, we (I) come to know a new view of ourselves (my self).
One that is accepting, not only of this moment but all of the past, all the ups and downs that have been created that led to a whole life. This sense of wholesomeness can not be understood from a view point of 40 years ago at age 35.  There are paths, some that lead to mountain tops and others through valleys. All are worthwhile.  The journey is the destination.

What is the vision at this point?  How inclusive is it? Can you view the next mt top from here?
Come now and walk a mile with me.

Change and Flow

All things cycle

the breath in and out, sun and moon,

the tides and seasons, last night’s meal,

old thoughts and new friends.

Each morning a flock of white egrets

fly overhead moving from the east to the west,

and then returning to the east in late evening hours.

Within this rhythmic cycle there is demonstrated

oneness and dynamic balance, unity and grace,

a resonant order and harmony in the change.

The opportunity is to be the flow and the change,

in both the creation and dissolution.

The quest is with eyes wide open.

The call is with heart wide open.

The joy is in the embrace of the now.

The Infinite is calling and the need

is to trust in the beauty in your life

and let it lead the way.

richard hammer

4-7-19

Thoughts on the Path

Thoughts on the Path

Teachings, learnings, understandings, guidance from others and Source.

Mentors whether for a moment or a life time.

~~~

Allow these quotes and inquiries to plant seeds for greater awakenings

and appreciation of the beauty inside you and all around you

on this first day of Spring 2019

 ~~~~ 

You can be totally surrendered right now. Listen for the advice that is being given you. Open to the guidance that is already within. It may be vague right now but it will become clearer with the continued surrendering.  When you feel guidance, respond to it and see what happens.

 – Jeff  Carreira

~~~~~

Meditation requires no faith or memorized prayers. It doesn’t depend on a notion of God, or a feeling of channeling, or a quest for awakening. It is a state of being present. Really present. Aware of your thoughts, your breath,

your ability to move from thinking to non-thinking.

It is separate from religion, as the sea is separate from the shore.

According to the spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti,

“True spiritual practice springs from, not toward, enlightenment.

Our practice does not lead to unity consciousness—it is unity consciousness.”

from Creativity Unzipped by Jan Phillips.

~~~~   

“You come from love. You exist through love and under love you shall return. That love has no judgment.  That love doesn’t require anything of you.  It only requires your presence. … Hear this not from your ears but from your soul.”  - Master Anand Mehrotra – Sattva Yoga

~~~~

 “May we all learn that pain is not the end of the journey, and neither is delight. We can hold them both-indeed hold it all-at the same time, remembering that everything in these quixotic, unpredictable, unsettled and unsettling, exhilarating and heart-stirring times is a doorway to awakening in a sacred world."

 - Pema Chodron, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change

~~~~~

Letting Sorrow Open Us

There are moments when a world-weariness, a deep grief for what we human beings do to each other and the earth, threatens to swallow me whole. Sometimes distraction is the only way to keep breathing. But sooner or later I have to come back to the aching heart that both holds me and lives within me.

So, I've started this little practice when I am particularly discouraged: I decide that I will let the tragic event guide me to make ten small acts of kindness. I let someone into rush hour traffic in Toronto!  I pay for someone else's coffee or meal; I help a neighbour carry his groceries from his car to his home; I tell someone how wonderful they look today; I remember to look at the cashier, the librarian, the wait staff and really thank them for their work.

I do not expect this to change the world, and it doesn't replace collective political action where that is needed. But it keeps me going when something in me is tempted to give up on human beings. And, as I dedicate each action to the memory of those killed and the struggle of those wounded and terrorized yesteday in New Zealand, it helps me be with the enormity of the sadness.

What if every bit of heart-breaking news inspired us to be deliberately generous and kind with each other?   ~   Oriah Mt Dreamer – The Green Bough – 16 Mar 2019

http://oriahsinvitation.blogspot.com/2019/03/letting-sorrow-open-us.html

Richard’s Ramblings

What if the journey was not a long one but a short one? The distance from head to heart!

What if we could re-language what it is that we see? Seeing from the heart versus eyes?

What if we were to take the next step, the next step toward peace and healing the planet?

What if we were the one to reach the hand out first with loving kindness and kind eyes?

The journey, whether up the mountain or into the valley, is an invitation. What kind of an invitation is it for you?  Are you seeking to touch into perfection or abiding Presence?

We all need a structure to relate to, from within and from without. This is grounded stability for flow.  The process called our life allows us to define and reference these structures.  The challenge is for us to listen to life as it unfolds.  “The quality of your relationships with others begins with the relationship you have with yourself.” (Deborah Eden Tull –  Relational Mindfulness: A Handbook for Deepening Our Connection with Ourselves, Each Other, and The Planet)

Anand Mehrotra says, “You get to create your own reality within your own consciousness.  …

“Every moment is the possibility of the Infinite and you get to play the Divine Game.”

Hari Om Tat Sat

Your Yes

Your Yes 

The fruit of a tree begins with a blossom. Your next fruitful act begins with a thought.

Thoughts lead the way and open gates, or deepen the existing valley being walked in.

Yogis understand this creating and deepening of channels with the term, samskara.

Three years ago in my online Penzu journal I wrote about what I was inviting in to my thought and life structure with these short lines addressed to myself and to others:

What is the narrative that you are playing today?

We each have one, some dominant, others subordinate or alternative. 

What are you living and giving permission to?

Another way of seeing this self inquiry is asking yourself about what you are acknowledging and thus strengthening with your “yes”.  What are you giving a yes to?

~~~~  

A Deeper Dive

To deepen times of integrating self inquiry as a practice schedule in “down time”. It might be a half day a week, or a full weekend per month.

“Occasional periods of silence allow us to surround ourselves with stillness which makes it easier for us to then develop greater harmony within. Just thinking about the amount of stimulation that we have in just one day will help us realize that we have so many things that divert our attention from ourselves. Being able to take a break from these things, though, enables us to slow down and relax, which in turn makes time expand for us, adding a new dimension to the way we live and experience our lives. By staying at home and carving a peaceful space for yourself today you will discover that peace always lies within you.”–  Daily Om

~~~~

Find A Quote Each Day that Will Open Your Heart, Mind, and Path

"Love enough to let wisdom lead the way."

 - Lama Surya Das

You Are Enough

BY MADISYN TAYLOR

Just being here, being ourselves, is enough.

Most of us have the feeling that we are here to accomplish something big in our lives, and if we haven't done something that fits the bill we may feel as if we are waiting. We may feel incomplete, or empty, as if our lives don't yet make sense to us, because they don't line up with our idea of major accomplishment. In some cases, this may be because we really are meant to do something that we haven't yet done. But in most cases, we can let ourselves off the hook with the realization that just being here, being ourselves, is enough.

As we live our lives in this world, we share our energy and our spirit with the people around us in numerous ways. Our influence touches their lives and, through them, touches the lives of many more people. When we strive to live our lives to the fullest and to become our true selves, we are doing something big on an inner level, and that is more than enough to make sense of our being here on this planet at this time. There is no need to hold ourselves to an old idea in the back of our minds that we need to make headlines or single-handedly save the world in order to validate our existence.

We can each look within our hearts to discover what is true for us, what gives our lives meaning, and what excites us. We can release ourselves from any pressure to perform that comes from outside of our inner sense of purpose. Staying in tune with our own values and living our lives in tune with our own vision is all we need in order to fulfill our time here. Our lives are a process of becoming so that we cannot help but cocreate; being who we are, responding to each moment as it comes, we can trust that this is enough

A Daily Om post

~~~~~~~~ 

This from Jacci Gruniger in Santa Fe, NM: 

This year I am working with these mantras:

I AM enough

There IS enough

I HAVE enough

See more at  www.yogawithjacci.com 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Falling in love with yourself is as beautiful as any experience of love is. It's learning to laugh at your awkward tendencies and smile at all your quirky habits. It's learning to be grateful for the many sides you have - confident, crazy, shy, sexy, nerdy, angry, weird, and all the rest of them. It is realizing that you're one of a kind and that you deserve to give the world the best person you can be. Falling in love with yourself is being happy in your life and knowing that in this one moment in time, you're beautiful simply because you are you."     - Kovie Biakolo

~~~

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”  - Maya Angelou

~~~

“Every time we ask a good question, we’re generating a fresh possibility and a new way of seeing our life.”  — Jen Louden

- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -

“Slow Yoga: Musings from the Beginning of the Bell Curve”

See the writing by Kaoverii - Sublte Yoga

Good Yoga = Fast and Strenuous Yoga

(How do you answer that?)

 But cultural speed comes at a price – it creates a myriad of stress and meaninglessness induced illness and dysfunction. as J. Krishnamurti said:

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

Not that fast strenuous exercise doesn’t have its benefits, of course it does. But when speed and productivity become the primary goal of yoga and reinforce toxic cultural values, then it becomes problematic. The antidote to our caffeinated culture gets devoured by that culture.  

https://subtleyoga.com/slow-yoga-musings-from-the-beginning-of-the-bell-curve/

_____

Here are a set of new themes for some of your yoga practices:

"MOTION IS LOTION"

“Movement is medicine.”

“Gentle is the new advanced.”

~~~~~~

My meditation teacher from Kripalu was, and is, Jonathan Foust.  You can visit his website at

 https://www.jonathanfoust.com/.  He lives with his wife, Tara Brach (also a meditation teacher, see https://www.tarabrach.com/) in the Washington, DC area. Jonathan likes to get out in his kayak and take photos of the wildlife. He has put together a great five minute review of the area wildlife of last year and is posted on youtube.  The back ground music is him playing his meditative flute.   See - Riverbend Park Images, 2018 by Jonathan Foust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zktnsKekDDI

His annual self review questions at the beginning of a new year is asking himself –

What Worked?

What Didn’t Work?

What’s Calling Me Now?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perhaps your inner guru is inviting in the Essence and Energy of

Patience / Courage / Insight

Let us all slow down in 2019 and see what is really here!