Mind your business...seriously!

‎People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies, succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you, be honest anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build... anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous, be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow, do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough, give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway."

- Mother Teresa

Just jump...

Jaya, our teacher from the Open Dharma meditation retreat this past weekend at The Stone House, shared a beautiful and poignant visual that brilliantly described this experience of expanding consciousness, what it feels like. She said it's as if we are living in a fishbowl floating within the ocean.

Hit me right between the eyes and got me thinking...

We swim around in this fishbowl thinking that the limitations of the bowl - our stories, our fears, our judgments - are all there is to life. Many of us are happy living out our entire lives in the fishbowl; but some of us are driven by a persistent, mysterious impulse toward liberation for ourselves and for others and to have our work in the world come from this deeper, more empowered & open-hearted space.

I've felt this persistent impulse or ache in my soul for as long as I can remember but didn't understand or have the language for it. Now I do.

Through committment to deepening spiritual practice (reading, meditation, prayer, service, etc.), our awareness of the ocean around us expands and we realize that all we have to do is swim out of this fishbowl to experience true freedom.

And what does that freedom feel like?

For me it feels like dropping into an unlimited capacity for love, compassion, joy, forgiveness. There's a flow and ease to life that is independent of circumstances. I feel connected to everyone and everything with an insatiable desire to serve others in a deep and meaningful way.

It also at times feels scary, exhausting, vulnerable and insecure because the ocean is so vast and uncontrollable...until I remember what enlightened masters like Jesus and Buddha have always taught - that the unseen Power that governs universal life (God, Spirit, etc.) is not separate from us. It is me, it is you, and we are that. I am the ocean and the ocean is me. So what is there to fear?

Sometimes I'm spacious, centered and courageous enough to swim out into the ocean and rest in that freedom of being; sometimes I swim around in the fishbowl I know so well. I'm learning there's nothing right or wrong about hanging out in the bowl, but it is my choice now. That's the journey, the path. If I had to describe my ultimate reason for being on this planet at this time I'd say it is to be part of and contribute to this momentum toward liberation...for all.

I love roller coasters and swimming out of the fishbowl into the ocean feels kinda like I'm on the biggest, baddest coaster...scared and exhilarated at the same time. I guess I'll just throw my arms in the air and yell weeeeeeeeee!

What a wild ride man.

Be still my heart...

"Once the heart is still, we can meet our deepest beliefs by practicing openness. Consider how a flower knows when it's time to bloom. Rather than preparing itself for a particular moment, it seems that a flower stays true to a life of leaning toward the light and to a life of continually opening in the presence of light. The way to our deepest beliefs is the same. For the life of the soul opens like an unseeable flower we carry within that is always leaning toward the light, whether we want to or not. Though we have the choice whether to open ourselves to that light or not."

- Mark Nepo

Working with the monkey that is our mind

Our busy minds often disturb that feeling of Oneness just like kids might disturb a parent who is trying to meditate. There is nothing wrong with the kids (your mind)...the practice is to purify and discipline OUR minds so we are less inclined to feel disturbed and can rest in that feeling of Oneness anytime, anywhere...even when kids want to just play.

Our mind is not the enemy...it's just doing what it is designed to do. Practices like reading spiritual books, prayer, selfless service and meditation help us to continuously calm and cleanse the mind so that it can serve our awakening to our true Self. Then we give ourSelves away for the benefit of others.

"Every one of you is a Buddha. I cannot make you a Buddha. You have to awaken the Buddha within you" - Buddha

"The kingdom of heaven is within" - Jesus

Idk

"It is not until we have fully come to understand the impossibility of knowing anything for sure, that we can let go, stop working so hard at knowing, and allow the truth to come into our lives as a gift. At some point, the sage stops seeking knowledge and gains wisdom.” -- a wise sage

Pieces

We are God's love broken into many living, breathing pieces to be given away, over and over again...

Breaking through illusion

Taking a break, contemplating the nature of life...

There's really NO separation, NO duality...there is only my true Self as manifestation of the One Spirit or God - as is everything and everyone else. That is the one TRUTH, the mystery that never changes no matter what language you use to try and describe it...although I love the way Jesus and Buddha break it down :-)

But I've learned to appreciate my humanity, my ego self. And I'm learning to appreciate the humanity in others. The ideas and concepts in the books I read are really just ways to play with my humanness with more freedom, more joy, more love... and give that away. When they no longer are needed and I can rest in the truth, I set them aside...again and again.

At least until I get completely annoyed by the guy snoring next to me at Barnes & Noble...really?? I guess this is called "compassion practice"...

Peace.

Somaila...

At yesterday's Meetup I met a beautiful Ethiopian woman who was recently a relief worker in Somalia. She described the beauty, compassion, love, resilience she witnessed in the midst of such unimaginable suffering. SHE was surprised and encouraged that many of us deeply care about what is happening there and WE were reminded that, like she said, even a flower can grow through concrete.

It's not my business to understand why things like this happen, that's God's or Source business; my business is to do my best to bring MY light wherever I go and when the world's suffering becomes overwhelming to contemplate I remember... "just when a caterpillar thought the world was ending it turned into a butterfly"...

Peace.