I bring every experience of my life into my spiritual practice. I listen for the gift of wisdom, peace and wholeness and experience the powerful transformation of seeing the Good in all. And so it is!
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Turning Straw Into Gold, Sunday Service
I bring every experience of my life into my spiritual practice. I listen for the gift of wisdom, peace and wholeness and experience the powerful transformation of seeing the Good in all. And so it is!
Friday, November 6, 2015
Training the Puppy
The only puppy I have ever had was a beautiful Saint Bernard puppy whose name was Elsie. It was the worst possible time for me to learn how to train a puppy, especially one who would grow so big. I was a newly-wed and also in my first career as a middle school teacher, having finished college in August, I landed a great job and got married that autumn. I had so much to learn and an equal amount to do. I had very little time to be at home.
Meanwhile Elsie was adorable. She had a sweet temperament but we were ill-equipped to have the responsibility of a dog. Needless to say, there was very little training going on for Elsie. She was training us and not the other way around.
Within a couple of months, my husband and I could both see that neither of us were able to give her the kind of home that she needed. We were living in a two-bedroom duplex, fairly cramped quarters for what would become a very large dog. She would sit beside the coffee table and with one friendly wag of her tail everything would be swept onto the floor. She rarely had a walk never mind a run! We eventually found a farmer who said he would take her and look after her, that he had lots of room for her to run and play with his other dogs. All the guilt I had been feeling for not giving her the kind of home she needed evaporated when I thought of her running with the other dogs. That was the fantasy and it helped me cope with my feelings of inadequacy.
We use the metaphor of "training the puppy" to help us learn how to bring awareness to our minds in meditation. We know that a puppy that is loved and trained will grow up to be a wonderful companion. We also know that a dog who has been beaten, mistreated or neglected ends up being an anti-social, mean, unpredictable dog.
It is the same for your mind. If in meditation, you set impossible standards for yourself, scolding yourself for not attaining enlightenment in the first week of meditation you are simply delaying the benefits of meditation. If you can bring gentleness, kindness and love to your thoughts, your body and your feelings, you will see benefits in your life. And nothing is going to happen if you do not make a decision to "train the puppy."
The whole point of meditation is to awaken to the truth of life. It is to see that all life is interconnected. We begin to see that the only love we can give to others, is the love that we first give to ourselves.
Many people find it difficult to accept and love themselves just the way they are. Our inner voices are often harsh and critical; we have an inner terrorist. What we really are longing for is acceptance and love.
Start today. Give yourself a modest goal, perhaps five minutes. Notice your thoughts, without judging them. Be kind to your thoughts. Be kind to yourself. It is a very good way to start.
Meanwhile Elsie was adorable. She had a sweet temperament but we were ill-equipped to have the responsibility of a dog. Needless to say, there was very little training going on for Elsie. She was training us and not the other way around.
Within a couple of months, my husband and I could both see that neither of us were able to give her the kind of home that she needed. We were living in a two-bedroom duplex, fairly cramped quarters for what would become a very large dog. She would sit beside the coffee table and with one friendly wag of her tail everything would be swept onto the floor. She rarely had a walk never mind a run! We eventually found a farmer who said he would take her and look after her, that he had lots of room for her to run and play with his other dogs. All the guilt I had been feeling for not giving her the kind of home she needed evaporated when I thought of her running with the other dogs. That was the fantasy and it helped me cope with my feelings of inadequacy.
We use the metaphor of "training the puppy" to help us learn how to bring awareness to our minds in meditation. We know that a puppy that is loved and trained will grow up to be a wonderful companion. We also know that a dog who has been beaten, mistreated or neglected ends up being an anti-social, mean, unpredictable dog.
It is the same for your mind. If in meditation, you set impossible standards for yourself, scolding yourself for not attaining enlightenment in the first week of meditation you are simply delaying the benefits of meditation. If you can bring gentleness, kindness and love to your thoughts, your body and your feelings, you will see benefits in your life. And nothing is going to happen if you do not make a decision to "train the puppy."
The whole point of meditation is to awaken to the truth of life. It is to see that all life is interconnected. We begin to see that the only love we can give to others, is the love that we first give to ourselves.
Many people find it difficult to accept and love themselves just the way they are. Our inner voices are often harsh and critical; we have an inner terrorist. What we really are longing for is acceptance and love.
Start today. Give yourself a modest goal, perhaps five minutes. Notice your thoughts, without judging them. Be kind to your thoughts. Be kind to yourself. It is a very good way to start.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Holiday Madness Calling All Parents
As I sit here writing this article at 9:00 P.M. my mind is
constantly overwhelmed with thoughts about the upcoming holidays. It begins to
think about pumpkins and scarecrows. Without warning, my mind switches to candy and
now I am thinking about what kind of treats my son will bring home for
Halloween….. “Oh no!”, my mind yells out in horror, “will my son pick out a
costume this year that he totally loves only
to hate it moments before he actually walks out the door and leaves for trick-or-treat…..”
…..There goes that mind again taking control when suddenly my
thoughts go right into Thanksgiving, family and making dinner for 20 people…”Let’s
see, what food should I prepare this year for my clan? Everyone loved the rib
roast with the garlic and sage spices. It was a wonderful alternative to my
traditional succulent Turkey
faire. Wait, I have to make sure that I make enough mashed potatoes for
everyone this year since the glazed yams were a flop. And what was that dish
that my niece made? I really have to get that recipe again before…”
…it can’t be Christmas already. I am not ready!. “Wait a
minute, what did you say?”… “whose house will the Christmas feast be at this
year…It better not be at my house, I just did Thanksgiving”…..”Ok, Ok, Ok we
will have New Years at our house again but next year…
Finally I yell “STOPPPPP!!!!!! What is going on here?” It’s only 9:01PM and I have lost all touch
with reality. I have become so obsessed with what I have to do that I am no longer in the present moment. I am no
longer in the” NOW”. I have allowed my mind, my ego or “Pain Body” as Echart
Tolle likes to call it to rule my consciousness. My mind is running me. This
will never do.
I must quickly regain control of my senses and my mind. I
truly know that the purpose of my mind is to be the servant of my Intentions and not the master of my intentions. Deep
down inside I know that what I think
about I bring about, where I place my intentions on is the very thing that
manifests in my life. Every time that I have allowed my mind to take
control over my present reality and steal my
present moment I am telling my mind that
it is O.K. for it to be in charge.
Well it is not OK to be trapped in my minds eye constantly reliving
events over and over again. It’s not OK to be separated from my Higher Power
because my negative thoughts have nothing better to do than create chaos with
my emotions.
Thankfully I begin to relax by imagining a giant oversized old
fashioned scale like the ones used in courtrooms. It represents my life. On the
left there is one pile of sand that represents all of my thoughts of Love,
Beauty, God, Relationship, Prosperity, Grace, Goodness, Creativity, Perfect
Health and Happiness. On the right is a pile of sand represents my fears,
anxiety, lack, impatience, stress, anger, ego, control, imperfections, doubts
and so on. It has become very clear to me that to regain dominion over my mind
over the holidays I must change my thinking now. I must replace my old thinking
with thoughts and ideas that have a loving power that I can believe in. The
power of my “thinking and believing” is what manifests my reality.
It is totally up to me which side I place that grain of sand
on. If I have thoughts that I believe in that create a warm and loving world
filled with goodness and light then I have empowered myself and the world
around me to be a better place.
Every time that I allow a negative, unconscious or painful
thought to enter my mind I am allowing another tiny pebble of sand to be placed
in the wrong side of the scale. Every thought and experience of doubt, fear,
regret, unkind word, resentment, anger and greed continues to add more pebbles
of sand to the wrong side. Before I know it, my scale has moved so much that my
unloving thoughts completely put me out of balance.
That is what seems to happen to so many people during the
Holidays. We have forgotten how to be the good gatekeepers of our thoughts and
beliefs. I have noticed that if we do not stand awake and fully present at the
gates of our thinking we are lulled into a false belief of how the world should be and forget that we truly are
the creators of our realities.
During this time of the year the pressure is far greater to
be happy and meet everyone’s demands and expectations. We still only have the
same 24 hours in a day. We can never change that. What we can change is the
power we give our thoughts and how we react to world around us. We get to
choose how we want to live our lives and we get to choose how much joy and
happiness we will allow into our
world.
There are many
powerful tools and practices that I have found extremely useful in helping me
break my old patterns of thinking that no longer serve me.
The power of Meditation helps me quiet down my mind so that I
can hear the quiet still voice of Spirit. Learning to practice stillness makes me
more receptive to listening to Divine Inspiration.
Echart Tolle says learn to be the observer of your thoughts.
From Western religion I have learned the power of Gratitude,
Forgiveness and Non-Judgment. And from the Eastern traditions I have learned
how to balance my energy with my body.
So, as the Holidays approach I now remind myself of what I must
do. For me to have a Holiday experience that I really, really want I need to be
more present and live in the “NOW” as often as I can. I get to choice which
thoughts I give power to. I really only want to entertain thoughts of LOVE,
GRATITUDE, FUN and SPIRIT so that my life will be blessed to overflowing ……. I
can live with that.
OK Let’s bring on the Holidays. I am ready and in the Now.
Namaste
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Necessary Healing, Sunday Service
I trust the power of spiritual practice is always healing each dimension of my being: body, mind and heart. I lovingly bring careful and kind attention to all the painful places in my life allowing my compassionate attention to suffuse every part of it. And so it is!
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