September 24, 2014

REDEMPTION

A talented friend of mine (WISE100Doors!) performed this song last night and I was struck again by the majestic lyrics of this classic Bob Marley tune,

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;

None but ourselves can free our minds.”

We are, so often, slaves to our minds. We don’t question our thoughts…and this belief in the things we think can poison our lives. Which thoughts cause you harm? (Thoughts can also be in the form of memories, beliefs, and opinions.) Who would you be without those thoughts? Byron Katie, and her magnificent work, reminds us that even when we’re sure, we’re just guessing. Separate yourself from these poisonous thoughts and stop believing everything you think.

There is a Yiddish proverb I love which states, “To a worm in horseradish, the whole world is horseradish.”  When we attach ourselves to painful thoughts, they become our whole world. We cannot see beyond them…we become trapped. We enslave ourselves.

Redemption simply means being saved.We often look to others to save us. We may want the ones we love to make us feel loved..or we want recognition from an employer to make us feel capable or respected…or appreciation from friends to make us valued. But salvation is really an inside job. As wonderful as all of these things can be, they will never be enough if we are out of touch with our own divinity. That is the key to freeing ourselves. After that point, everything else becomes an overflowing of love.

Worth extra consideration: “How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look?” There are those who benefit when others don’t feel free. Prophets help to remind of us of our birthright. Just as stars in the sky are free, so too are we ;)

September 15, 2014

REFLECTIONS

When the voice is gentle,

so is the echo.

When the figure stands upright,

the shadow is straight.

– Guishan

I said to a friend recently that my kind actions were simply a reflection of their kind actions. I did not believe they were deserving of special thanks, but the kind return of love perhaps helped the wheel of positivity to keep turning :) We are all just holding up mirrors for each other. That’s why it is much easier to be nice to someone who is nice to you…and much more difficult to be kind to someone who is unkind to you.

Children are the great imitators. And this is why I believe we must be especially careful with how we speak to them, what we say to them, and most importantly what we show them through our actions. The pain that can be created in these young hearts goes on to impact their lives in ways that even they may never understand. Fear, depression, and anger are evidence of the hurt buried deep.

I am always reminded of the words of Thay, “When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment, he needs help.”

This is often difficult, because when someone makes us suffer, we wonder, “What did I do wrong?” When we dwell in the ego…the “I”…we try to fix things. Love and compassion are never wrong, but ultimately, I believe that we are all in different stages of awakening. I simply don’t believe it is healthy to allow yourself to be abused for the sake of another’s awakening. Jesus paid the ultimate price, but still people know not what they do because they have missed the point.

Ghandi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” And it is true, it is only through changing ourselves that we change the world. Each ripple affects to other. If we all talked a little softer, stood a little taller, and loved a little stronger, imagine the example that our children would have to imitate. ;)

Photo source: Reflection by Hormiga

Writer note: This one is dedicated to my sky…who may not see this for many years, if ever. With immeasurable love, light, and endless hope that she may come to know the greatness of the love that exists in her which makes everything else irrelevant. Nothing in the past really matters…what counts is what you decide to do with each new moment we are gifted. One day we will all wake up.

September 15, 2014

CAUGHT UP IN FORMS

Height, weight, race, gender, hair color, eye color, hair length, clothes, address….these are all classified or observed on a simple American driver’s license. Our society is accustomed to these categorizations…and we typically take quick inventory of people that we meet to determine their classifications. And sometimes to determine if they “belong” or not. But do any of these classifications even matter? 

If someone changes any of these factors, does it really change who they are?? I say no :)

There is a Zen koan that asks, “What is your original face? Before your mother and father were born?” Like all koans, the purpose is to meditate deeply until the answer comes to you. I won’t take that experience away from you by adding my commentary ;)

The point for me is that all of these classifications are distractions. They keep us from true understanding. The same is true for broader classifications…Animal, vegetable, mineral…they prevent us from seeing that we come from the same Source. We are just stardust….why can’t we just see each other’s shine? :)

I had a wonderful time recently with beautiful children that I help tutor, and they gave me a new line, “Selena…I don’t sweat, I glisten!” Then I was like, “I don’t just exist, I shimmer!” I got crickets, but it was funny to me haha

We get caught up so much in illusions that we fail to recognize the thread that unites us all. Like the walls and dead ends of a maze, these distractions exist to make the puzzle more interesting. As others help us to realize what’s real, our path becomes illuminated. And we begin to drop our silly classifications. When all is light, we are no longer caught up in forms. ;)

 

Photo source: Anatomy of a leaf by A Sot

Inspiration for photo selection: Awesome capture. Looks like an aerial view of a city to me ;)

September 15, 2014

GOLDEN RACE

Many years ago, a man came up to me at a meditation center and asked me my race. I answered, but then he immediately countered and said, “No no…you are part of the Golden race! It is the new race that is a beautiful blend of all races. It is our wonderful future.”

At the time, I recall being humbled in the midst of his grand words, giving him a big smile, and leaving him with the book of poetry I was reading. I’ve thought of his words from time…and indeed, when applications request race, I routinely select, “Other” (I hate to be categorized anyway). When there is a line to write next to the “Other” option, I have on occasion written, “Gold.” Haha. I’m such a rebel.

I was reminded of those words again recently while viewing a wonderful book of portraits by one of my favorite photographers, Steve McCurry (click here for link to the book). I kept thinking that if you look at a portrait long enough, you can start seeing familiar features…of yourself or someone you know. And then I considered the wonderful spectrum of beautiful skin tones in the world. I think if you blended them all together, we’d get to gold ;)

Or what if we mixed every color of flower? I think we’d end up at gold again. The sun is the source of our light, so does it not make sense that the true reflection would be the same? Altogether gold? It is our glorious present, we just don’t realize it.

So I think of his words not from some exalted state…but from a magical place. A space where we all understand our true beauty and connectedness. Where we know that together we are gold. ;)

 

Photo source: Nefertiti <3 <3 by Nasser Omar

September 15, 2014

SEEK WHAT THEY SOUGHT

BUDDHA was not a BUDDHIST.

JESUS was not a CHRISTIAN.

MUHAMMAD was not a MUSLIM.

THEY were TEACHERS who taught

LOVE.

LOVE was their RELIGION.

One of my favorite quotes is by BASHO who said, “Do not follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.” But there is comfort in numbers. It seems easier…maybe even better…to go with the crowd. But I believe spiritual liberation happens at the individual level. Whether through meditating under a Bodhi tree or having a conversation with God, I believe these teachers had a glimpse at truth. One can only speculate about what they must have experienced, but I think they must have seen our interconnectedness and the Source of all things. In understanding that we are One, love is the only choice. :)

Photo source: Untitled by Constance Brantley

Inspiration behind photo selection: When I saw this awesome photo, I had the thought, “We are all just ripples in the stream of infinity. Each ripple affects the others…but all are part of the larger body. Interconnected and one.” ;)

September 12, 2014

LOVE SURROUNDS US

“If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it’s a waste of time looking for him further.”

– Mohandas K. Ghandi

Photo source: Perfect timing

August 27, 2014

TAO

“Tao is like the ocean

All rivers run to the ocean without filling it up.

All water comes from it without ever emptying it.”

-Zhun Mang

How can one describe the indescribable? Tao is known as The Way…The Great Whole to which all separate things belong. It can be seen as all that exists, but also the nothingness from which everything comes. I think of it as the Oneness that unites all things. Meditating on the essential reality leads you to that which cannot be described.

Photo source: The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai

August 23, 2014

NONE OF THE ABOVE

Recently, I had a conversation with a loved one about religion. We talked a bit about Christianity, Taoism, and Zen…I expressed respect for one’s right to chose their own beliefs. I think I said something like love is my religion (haha). As a Christian, she expressed a desire to want me (and other loved ones) to be ‘saved.’ Since I was raised in the Catholic church, I could easily understand and appreciate that she was saying these things from a place of love. I was not offended. Then, she said something that was a bit unexpected… “It seems like you’re not making a choice. You’ve talked about these different religions…why don’t you pick one?” 

Interesting question. Life is about choices, right?

I smiled and shared my belief that I felt no need to choose. I expressed my belief in the Oneness of things…that everything around us comes from the same Source. I explained that, to me, religion is a creation of mankind just like language. More often than not, it serves to divide rather than unite. It becomes an “us” versus “they” discussion about “Our God” and “Their God.”  I referenced the Biblical story of Babel in Genesis 11:

11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b] and settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

—

As expressed in this story, I believe the same can be said of religion. If we all believed in the same God, and shared pure love, perhaps nothing would be impossible for us. Maybe one day we will reach that level of consciousness.

Until then, I think I’ll continue my right to choose none of the above, simply because I cannot fathom placing limits where I feel there should be none ;)

 

Photo source: The hidden gem in the Rockies – Lake O’Hara by Shuchun Du

August 21, 2014

IN LOVE OR IN FEAR

“Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it’s dark.” – Zen proverb

This weekend, I wrote a very complicated (haha!) and in depth post about love and fear. It didn’t save properly, so when I refreshed the page, I was left with the image and quote above. Everything else was deleted. Since I ended the post with the thought that we must believe that everything is happening for our highest good, it would be ridiculous for me to be upset about it haha

After some reflection, I realize that I could never rewrite what I wrote. That is gone. But I did want to share a couple of key points that have stayed with me. Others will likely evolve into future posts. :)

If I believe the sky is blue and you believe it’s gray, does it matter?

Fear is a disease that causes hate, worry, anger, sadness, sickness and guilt. These symptoms can lead you back to a false fear based belief. Fortunately only love is real. Only love can overcome fear.

“If you look at any religious description of hell, it is the same as human society, the way we dream. Hell is a place of suffering, a place of fear, a place of war and violence, a place of judgment and no justice, a place of punishment that never ends.”  Don Miguel Ruiz, The Mastery of Love

However, every near death experience I’ve read is about love, peace, joy, and harmony. These are attributes given to Heaven. 

If we remove ourselves from our own shadow, we would realize that we come from light…we ARE light…the light is love and it has the power to banish all darkness. We can live Heaven on Earth. It is only possible through understanding our Source and living in love.

And remember…everything is happening for your highest good ;)

Photo source: Sky by Dario Andreoni

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