2020 Change and Being

 2020 Change and Being

There’s a time for change,

  and a time for standing still

A time for wandering,

  and one for cultivating

A time for creating and manifesting

  and one for resting and resetting.

What kind of time is it for you today?

Let it be one of mindful inquiry

  and even of allowing the unknowing

One of accepting the grace that

  the universe has in store for you.

Take time now to write to inspire

  your vision for action.

Visual acuity is graded as 20/20

  when there is clarity near and far.

What is it inside that is clear, your inner vision?

What do you see beyond you that is clear?

What work, or action, is calling you forth in

  both fields of seeing, inner and outer?

Call it educated intuition, a stirring of the pot

   to see what rises to the surface

Then savor and serve it to the world. 

            richard hammer

                1-6-20

For 2020 - Do These Write Outs

For 2020  - Do These Write Outs 

(make it a game with yourself)

An Opening of Doors for establishing insights and thresholds

Name 20 Things to be Grateful for.

   It could contain things that went really well for you, or someone you love,

    in the last year. Gratitude helps establish clarity.

Name 20 Things to do in 2020 to raise your energy level ….

     and the level of you appreciating your being alive, of being “Here Now”.

Name 20 things you can/will do to “Pay Forward” to help others in 2020.

  Your time at a charity, a note of Thanks to someone who needs to be “seen”,

  perhaps some gift from your heart that would be unexpected by the receiver,

  a monthly monetary  contribution to an organization that is helping others, …

Name 20 things you could create or develop in the coming year.

  These could be things you will learn, such as cooking a recipe, developing a new craft  or skill, or visiting a new place that you have never been to before.

  It’s a cultivation of self exploration and the elements around you. Life is a gift to be discovered, enjoyed, and appreciated….. and shared with others.

A Practice for You

Adopt an Essence word for you for 2020 that will help guide you.

It is an alignment word. A word that brings you back on track for 2020 endeavors when you have wandered off.  It is a word that has a feeling to it that inspires and leads you on the year’s journey.  It can be two or even three words. Like a mantra, repeat it to yourself mentally upon rising as a remembering. Write it out and post it somewhere for you to see.

In 2018 my Essence words were Simplify-Clarity-Trust.  The gift is that they continue to stay with me even two years later and I take on a new set of words for a new year.

~~~

Establish a plan of daily self care that includes

The Daily Triple 20 -  each is for 20 minutes, or more.

1. Walk outside, in the sun. Perhaps in bare feet at the beach for earthing benefits.

2. Exercise - specific movement: yoga, pilates, QiGong, physical strength training, weight lifting, swim, bike, run, fitness classes with others or following online.

3. Meditate – a formal seated practice (your style), or just sit quietly (maybe in nature), could include journal writing.  

ॐ

The Lens - Ram Dass

The Lens

by Ram Dass

Lens 1 shows you a balding old man - my physical being. Lens 2 is my personality and social responsibility - father, student, meditator. Lens 3 is my mythic identity- Jung's archetypes that are bigger than life. Lens 1, 2 and 3 identify the differences between us. How I differ from you and you from me. Lens 4 allows you to look into the eyes of another. There is another awareness looking back at you. It's another awareness witnessing the scene.  But Lens 5 takes you somewhere else. You look and you see yourself looking at yourself by looking at yourself. There’s only one of us in Lens 5. if you get down into the smallest units of matter – the quarks and electrons and sub-neutrinos, all that stuff way down there behind the patterning of stuff – it’s all the same stuff.

It’s all homogeneous and moves in and out of everything. There’s only one of it. You can call it the One in the spiritual unity that lies behind the diversity. You can call it God if you want to. There’s no name for it, and many names.

In Lens 6 you disappear. I disappear. Even the lens disappears. I am nothing more and nothing less

RAM DASS

Love – Serve – Remember

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?

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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