Advent 2009 (Poem)

Today, we begin the Season of Advent. We are also starting to head into a season that is sacred to many religious and spiritual traditions. And so, as I reflected on the coming season of Advent for Christians, I found myself writing these words last night...

Advent 2009

I enter quietly
And softly
Into this Sacred Season
Of Silent Waiting,
Into this Holy Season
Of Soul Preparation,
Into this Blessed Season
Of Deep Longing

I Wait
And I Prepare
Because:

"O-Beloved One!
I am dying of yearning
to rise!"

I am Dying
of Yearning
To Become
Word Made Flesh
In My Own Words,
And Deeds, and
In All That I Am

(Quote - by Macrina Wiederkehr, A Tree Full of Angels, 1988, 1995)

May this coming season of silence and waiting draw you more deeply inward, to the true treasures stored in the cave of your heart!

Living in a World of Theophanies

I spent the last couple of days re-reading portions of A Tree Full of Angels: Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary, by Macrina Wiederkehr, a monastic. Years ago, before I had heard of this book, I came across this quote from its introduction, which I used as a reading at the end of my classes at the time:

"You live in a world of theophanies.
Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary.
There are burning bushes all around you.
Every tree is full of angels.
Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb.
Life wants to lead you from crumbs to angels,
but this can happen only if you are willing
to unwrap the ordinary by staying with it
long enough to harvest its treasure."

There are so many sections of this book that spoke so deeply to me. I wish to share some other quotations here:

"There is a yearning deep in the human heart - so deep is it an ache within. An ache for God...! The ache in our heart needs to be fed. Crumbs are entirely sufficient. Crumbs are those small things that the world would toss aside, seeing little value in them. However, to the one who lives under the eye of God, they are far from valueless...For the person who has learned to see with the inner eye, there are no leftovers...

Will I harvest the angels hidden in those crumbs? The incredible gift of the ordinary! Life comes streaming from the table of daily life. Will I be there to catch the rays or will I remain blind to the holy because I'm too busy to see? Am I too busy with my own agenda to let God's agenda bless me?

There is nothing - no thing, no person, no experience, no thought, no joy or pain - that cannot be harvested and used for nourishment on our journey to God...

Everything in your life is a stepping-stone to holiness if you recognize that you do have within you the grace to be present to each moment. Your presence is an energy that you can choose to give or not give. Every experience, every thought, every word, every person in your life is a part of a larger picture of your growth....

Let everything energize you. Let everything bless you...

Your emptiness accepted creates a space for God in your life. When you embrace that emptiness, God can begin to fill you...Sin is trying to fill up your own life rather than allowing God to fill you. Sin is being willing to stay where you are rather than go through the pain and joy of being in process...

Sorrow makes it impossible for us to be absent, and so, blesses us with real presence...

A word of kindness is a Word made Flesh!

How do I pray? I listen. I talk, I weep. I am silent. I embrace the beloved. I gaze with reverence. I wonder and adore. I share my needs. I have tea with God. I give gifts. I receive gifts. I give thanks and I say I am sorry. I get angry. I show God all my life, including my very divided heart. I relax. I'm at home. Sometimes I read a poem or tell God a story. Sometimes I dance. God loves stories and poems and dances...

O-Beloved-One, I am dying of yearning to rise..."

I think I will end this here - I think I leave you with enough food for thought - enough crumbs to nourish your soul and satiate your hunger. For those who will be celebrating tomorrow the First Sunday of Advent - a "Season of Waiting" - and of "Soul Preparation" - take a moment to notice the theophanies in your life. Weave them into something beautiful for God. And perhaps, you too - may see a tree full of angels!

Advent Blessings!

How to Expand Love

A few years ago, the Dalai Lama wrote a book titled, How to Expand Love, that is filled with wonderful meditations to deepen this practice in one's life. His Holiness noted, that everything is always in a state of change. Nothing remains stable - not even our feelings towards our loved ones or friends.

I re-read portions of this book late last evening, and while all the meditations and practices are of great value, I will highlight one that caught my eye. I highly recommend however, reading the book in its entirety to benefit from the systematic plan that is laid out in its pages for expanding our capacity for love...

• Consider that during the span of this lifetime, there is no certainty that specific individuals will always be friends, enemies, or neutral. Consider examples of this from your own life - a neutral person who became a friend; a neutral person who became an enemy; a friend who became neutral, or an enemy; an enemy who became a friend.

• Visualize that a friend who has helped a lot in this lifetime brought harm to you in a previous lifetime and was neutral at other times.

• Imagine that an enemy who has harmed you in this lifetime was neutral in some other life and brought repeated benefits in another.

• See that in the longer perspective of many lifetimes, friend, enemy, and neutral observer have all equally helped and harmed you or your friends, so it cannot be concluded that they are solely one way or other.

• Realize that in terms of the long course of beginning-less rebirth, none of us could decide that someone who helped or harmed us in this life has been doing so for all lifetimes.

• Decide that it is not right to single out one for intimacy and yet another for alienation.

While I realize that not everyone reading this blog subscribes to a belief in reincarnation, I do feel you can still benefit from this practice. You can imagine the lifetimes as being different stages or epochs in your life. Or, you can visualize these situations as hypothetical ones, or resort to an the understanding that at the very least, the concept of rebirth resides in the "collective unconscious" so eloquently described by Carl Jung. Whatever path taken, we must all realize that everything changes - including those relationships that may seem changeless. For everything, there is a season.

During the coming season - sacred to so many traditions - let us all re-commit to expanding love and making this world a better place!

Thanksgiving Day Blessings on Land and Water

Blessings come in so many ways. In ways that are expected - and in ways that are not...

I arise on this, Thanksgiving Day - and it is blanketed in fog. I go down to the river - there is a yearning inside of me to see it - to connect with this river that has played such a pivotal role in my life. It has been raining for days and I can't remember when I last brought Grace, my kayak, down to these riverbanks, to commune with these healing waters...

The river is breathtakingly beautiful. The skies are totally gray - as is the river itself. The sky and the waters merge - in their oneness - they are only separated by a haze of bare trees - acting as an ethereal silhouette, softly etched in the fog. I think of the description of creation from the Book of Genesis - and it seems that now, for the first time, I am seeing the dome in the sky separated from the waters below. The scene before me is so haunting, I lose myself in it. The waters are totally still - as still as my soul...

I give thanks on the riverbanks - for all that is - and for all that is not. I give thanks for the opportunities, the blessings, the sorrow - for all that has made me - without any indication of what the day might hold for me...

As always, my Twitter and Facebook family, and friends, do not disappoint - so many beautiful postings touch my heart...

"God has two dwellings:
one in heaven, and the other
in a meek and thankful heart."
~ Isaak Walton

"Oh Lord who lends me life,
lend me a heart replete with thankfulness."
~ Shakespeare

"Wear gratitude like a cloak
and it will feed every corner
of your life."
~ Rumi

"Gratitude makes sense of our past,
brings peace for today,
and creates a vision for tomorrow."
~ Melody Beattie

"The depth and willingness
with which we serve
is a direct reflection of our gratitude."
~ Gordon T. Watts

"Saying 'thank you' creates love."
~ Daphne Rose Kingma

"I awoke this morning
with devout thanksgiving for my friends,
the old and the new."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"No duty is more urgent
than that of returning thanks."
~ St. Ambrose

I am grateful for what is - and what is not. I am grateful for what brings me joy - and what brings me sorrow - for this too - has made me the embodied soul that I am - and it brings me even closer to God's Heart.

I end, with wise words from Paramahansa Yogananda for today:

"We put forth our hands to receive God's gifts of life and sun and food and all the other things He bestows on us; but even as we receive them, we are unmindful of the Giver. If you have lovingly given presents to someone and then find out that he never thinks of you, how hurt would you feel! God feels that way too."

Thanksgiving blessings to all!

A Thanksgiving Prayer and Blessing

Yesterday evening, I went to sub for a friend of mine - a beautiful yogini who has been traveling with John Friend in South America. Her class consisted of a wonderful group of funny and welcoming students. We had a great time. Two were celebrating birthdays. One of the two was a bit older than the second person, so we joked about one being a "bordeaux" and the other a "port" as opposed to a "beaujolais." I often use this imagery to explain that some of us need to take time to experience and taste our poses. Like aged fine wines, we need to "breathe our poses..."

But, that was not my theme. I continued using my theme of cultivating an attitude of gratitude...

At the end of class, I played this song by Eliza Gilkyson, called "Prayer 2000". Years ago, my own teacher used this in her own class during Thanksgiving week, and I have used it with my own students ever since. It is a beautiful reminder of all the things we have to grateful for, and it became an anthem of sorts for me.

Prayer 2000

Thank you for the sun
Thank you for the full moon
Thank you for my true love's face
And our lives and love consumed

Thank you for the stars
A home along the river
Thank you for the ancient groves
And the fishes brown and silver

Ponies running wild
Grass enough for grazing
Water flowing clean and pure
All the beauty that saves me

Thank you for the dawn
Oceans rise and falling
Children born to carry on
In the end that's always coming

Thank you for the songs
Thanks for all my good luck
All the things that don't go wrong
And the hopes that don't give up

Thank you for my tears
Loved ones who forgave me
Thank you for my darkest years
All the sorrow that made me

Thank you for my tears
Loved ones who forgave me
Thank you for my darkest years
All the sorrow that made me
And the beauty that saved me

This song is haunting for me. In many ways, it symbolizes the last two years of my life, and what I have learned to be grateful for...

I ended class by sharing this quote by Meister Eckhart:

"If the only prayer
you say is thank you,
it would be enough."

At the end of class, a beautiful student approached me and shared how a great aunt of hers, 94, had passed on last week. She was in a hospice. After having been helped to get to the bathroom, she turned to the person assisting her, and said very simply, "thank you." It was the last thing she said. She died with those words on her lips.

This student thought I would appreciate hearing this story. And it was an incredible gift to me. I also thought of how blessed it would be to die with these two words on your lips - "thank you!" So many traditions teach that how one dies determines more than anything else, what happens in the afterlife. I could only imagine the beauty of this woman's living that was in implicit in her dying.

Today, take a moment to say "thank you" - in more ways than one. There is so much to be grateful for!

More on Gratitude

I posted these these quotes this morning on the subject of gratitude:

"Gratitude is like a muscle.
The more we do with it
the stronger it gets."
~ Jon Gordon

"THANK YOU.
They are two words
that have the power to transform."
~ Jon Gordon

"If the only prayer you ever say is thank you,
it will be enough."
~ Meister Eckhart

And these entries come from Paramahansa Yogananda's Spiritual Diary for the last few days:

"Thanksgiving and praise open in your consciousness the way for spiritual growth and supply to come to you. Spirit pushes Itself out into visible manifestation as soon as a channel is opened through which it can flow. You should be thankful for everything at all times. Realize that all power to think, and speak, and act comes from God, and that He is with you now, guiding and inspiring you."

"When the summer of good fortune warms my tree of life, it easily burgeons with fragrant blossoms of thankfulness. During winter months of misfortune, O Lord, may my denuded branches changelessly waft towards Thee a secret scent of gratitude."

"Every day should be a day of thanksgiving for the gift of life: sunshine, water, and the luscious fruits and greens that are indirect gifts of the Great Giver..."

And finally, from myself:

"Be grateful.
Dwell less and less
on what you want,
and more and more
on what you have."

Thanksgiving Releases Joy

Everywhere, and in every place, there are so many bright souls and hearts focusing right now on the beauty and sacredness of this season of Thanksgiving and its relationship to joy.

I paraphrase and share excerpts from this e-card that I received from Mary Robinson Reynolds today, because it contains such inspirational and appropriate reminders of what is really important for all of us to consider and reflect on as we celebrate Thanksgiving...

"We give thanks for the love we've shared,
the love we hope to share,
and the return of loved ones to our homes.

This is our blessing,
this is our bounty,
this is our thanksgiving.

We pray from Psalm 122 that there may be:
'Peace with our walls,
and prosperity within our palaces.'
Let us be fully present in this moment,
that we may be truly giving and for-giving.
May there be peace within our families.

The secret of the power of joy is this--
giving is that which releases joy
and this feeling, this realization of joy,
is all that matters.

Invincible forces are ever working
in and through this time of harvest.
Praise and give thanks--
this is the greatest blessing
for the joy that it contains within,
and the power to do good.

May good things be yours in abundance
not only at Thanksgiving
but in all moments
throughout the year as well."

Know, that when we give thanks, when we are grateful - joy flows like a river - from our hearts to others. As Paramahansa Yogananda once wrote:

"From joy I came.
For joy I live.
And in Sacred Joy
I shall melt again."

Or, as Marianne Williamson noted:

"Joy is what happens to us
when we allow ourselves to recognize
how good things really are."

Give thanks! And now, go spread some joy to your friends, co-workers, and families!

Every Good Deed (Poem)

I am off to a very full day of teaching yoga philosophy - the first of two days - consisting of a detailed and comparative look at Classical Yoga, Vedanta, and Tantra, to be covered on this day. Then, an overview of the kleshas, koshas, and tattvas - both in Samkya and Tantra tomorrow.

I awaken this morning rested, and full, from a wonderful Friday. I had lunch with a very dear friend, and we were waited on by the most attentive young man, who took the time to make our espresso and cappuccino in the same manner as they are prepared in Rome. It took me back to that magnificent city. Truly, the best cappuccinos and espressos I have ever savored, were the ones I had in Italy...

Then, I met some more dear friends who have traveled the spiritual path with me for many years, for drinks and appetizers. It was truly a delight to see how all of these friends I spent my day with have grown - one not only as a yoga teacher, but as an incredible human being - and the others - not only as spiritual human beings and wonderful parents - but as the innovators and founders of a non-profit company that sells crystals to healers all over the world. I have been privileged to watch both sets of friends emerge from their cocoons, and give wings to their dreams. All three of them are changing the planet - one person at a time...

My heart is filled with gratitude - for these friends - and so many others that have touched my life and soul so deeply...

I wrote this poem a few days ago, and it seems appropriate to share here, because it goes well with this theme of gratitude that I have been reflecting on, and which I plan on using in my yoga classes in the coming week...

Every Good Deed

Every Good Deed
Every Kind Word,
Every Act of Love--
Reverberates Eternally

No Act of Kindness
No Embrace Given,
No Love Offered--
Is ever Lost

Somewhere,
Out there--
I hope all my Good Deeds,
Well-wishes,
And Good Thoughts,
Outweigh the Moments
I Failed to Love
And be Compassionate

In my Heart of Hearts,
I Believe this is so

Be Mindful
Of your Thoughts
Your Words,
Your Actions--
For all the Good you Do,
is Eternal

Every Act of Love
And Compassion
is never Forgotten
And Dances Forever
In God's Heart