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graceful living

AYURVEDA’S WISDOM FOR WINTER

The rise in a multitude of ways to have a quick fix, a good body, and perfect health is another manifestation of our cultural sickness. Simple direct ways to live, eat and follow the flow of nature have become totally uninteresting to our hyped-up western culture. If it’s not sexy, trendy or going to make you famous, then it’s not of value to us at all. This is the danger of our current way of being in relationship to our lives and a direct affront to the sacredness and true purpose of life itself.

WORKING WITH A MENTOR

Many of us struggle to stay afloat these days. We have increasing social, financial, and work burdens that often stretch us in many different directions at once, and a meditation or spiritual practice can unfortunately easily slip into just being one more thing on the to do list.

ABOUT FRUSTRATION

In our society, there is a constant and intense quest for pleasurable and satisfying experiences, but no room for dealing with disappointment. Things do not always happen as we plan, inevitably resulting in frustration and a lot of effort to avoid it. Increasingly incapable of handling frustration, because on being unprepared for it, we seek illusory alternatives and flee from a real confrontation with the causes. 

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

The longing for wholeness commits us to a perpetual state of dualistic suffering. We search for God, a soul mate, philosophical ideals, creative ecstasy through the many human values such as power, greed, jealousy and hatred. These dualistic patterns run through out all of samsara creating an endless perpetual dissatisfaction.

WHAT COMES FIRST

There is something that comes before all other contemplation, that if it is lacking whatever time and energy is spent in studying is as good as wasted.  I’m referring here to a clarity of mind that grasps what’s being talked about, and that can understand it and make connections with our own life, at least to some extent. If we are not moved inwardly by what we hear or read, then something essential is missing.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FOLLOW YOUR PATH?

As the body crumbles, the soul awakens. This is why dying people always tell the living to follow your dreams. Don’t wait for sickness or death. Do it while there is still time. But now, here is the mystery. There is no path because everything is the path; and inside of that everything, there are two important distinctions: our master path and our secondary path. The master path is our inner path, our path of meaning. The secondary path is our outer path, where we put that meaning into action out in the world. The master path is about being and the secondary path is about doing.

DISAGREEMENT AS PRACTICE

Every disagreement – even the tiniest quibble about how to correctly squeeze a tube of toothpaste – is a display of contradictory perspectives that, by definition, cannot co-exist in the very dimension in which they collide.

BLUE TO REMIND US

In the midst of a happy life are we likely to stop and ask ourselves; what is this all about?’ But when sorrows blight our existence nothing is more natural than that we should step back and question our existence. We need not shun our mind or our emotions, because, in time, they can become our greatest motivators and our staunchest allies.

BE LIKE A LIGHTHOUSE

As practitioners of a spiritual practice, we have to be like a lighthouse. We just shine the great bright light of our true identity out into the world so that others can see their own inner light. A lighthouse doesn’t judge, label, or distinguish; it just shines out its light.

GIFTS FROM SACRED SMOKE

“How real are the deities? Well… How real is your suffering?” This deserves to be contemplated. Until we realize the emptiness of all experience, appearances, and phenomena, whether they be positive or negative, we have to play by their rules, the rules of the conventional world.

STRESS IS INEFFICIENT

It is ridiculous to do things in hopes that only once things are finished can I relax and feel good. Why not skip the middleman, and simply relax right now in the doing?

THE WIND IN YOUR HAIR

When I was growing up in New Zealand there was a motorcycle advertisement that used to be played a lot on the radio. It was before the days of compulsory helmets for motorbikes and bicycles. I can still remember the tune so clearly and the feeling which it used to evoke.

HEALING POWER IN THE RADIATION SUITE

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 41. To say this experience changed my life would be a great understatement. To say this experience was extremely difficult would show a bit more candor. To say that my spiritual practice was absolutely transformed and strengthened and that I learned the true healing power of meditation – that I can say with certainty.

THE POWER OF THE PURR

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Isn’t a ROAR designed to impress or intimidate others? I mean, look at a pride of lions? It also seems, rather wrapped up in the me, myself and I, and less of the compassionate service to others. Unless it’s fiercely defending someone. But it leads me to wonder if there is so much intent on finding that ROAR these days that we are forgetting how to purr?

GRIEF OF YOUR SPOUSE

A heart-rendering documentation of loosing the person closest to you. I held his hand all night, we talked, actually I talked, he was in a coma, I pretended he remembered and we laughed a bit, I told him how much I would miss him, how I was a strong woman and he knew I would be okay. Boy did I lie.

YOU, ME AND WE

Grace be you, Peace deceived you, Love enveloped you, Time consumed you, Hate destroyed you, Anger burnt you, Age wore you, Pain tamed you, Happiness faked you, Freedom invited you, Illusions showed you, Life lived you.