Choose Love

Love is why we are here...

Love is the rhyme, and it is the reason - behind every season...

Love is what makes a difference, and every spiritual tradition at its essence, teaches love...

A Course in Miracles divinely exhorts us, to:

"Teach only love, for that is what you are..."

We are the very embodiment of love...

A dear soul, who is an internationally known Anusara yoga teacher wrote to me yesterday, saying to me: "You are the embodiment of love..." But I, could only think to myself, that no - it is not me - but it she who is the embodiment of love, for she selflessly and humbly shines her light, all over the planet!

St. Francis de Sales taught:

"All through love, and nothing through constraint."

Paramahansa Yogananda wrote of devotion, as the manifestation of love, and reminded his devotees, to love God:

"Love Him, talk to Him every second of your life,
in activity and in silence, with deep prayer..."

I sit in meditation, under the gaze of Hanuman, who exemplifies devotion, and loyalty, and who tore open his heart to reveal the very Presence of the Divine within...

Can I live like that? Let me try - in every way, and moment, for the fruit of every practice is love. It is what Mother Teresa of Calcutta taught - that God is love - and faith and action - and practice is love...

In the dark of night, I review the events of my day, scrutinizing each thought and action, and word - trying to ascertain if I came close to my goal of exemplifying and embodying love on this day, and at least one day this week, I feel I have come as close to my goal as any day...I seek to make those days more the norm, than the exception...

I meditate, I chant, I teach - and each practice and moment offers me the opportunity to embody love...

I come home in the late evening after teaching, excited to hold in my hand, Exquisite Love, the new translation and commentary of the Narada Bhakti Sutras by William K. Mahoney, having had the privilege of receiving a preview of them a year ago, at the Anusara Yoga Teacher's Certified Gathering...

I open to page 256, after having sought to choose and embody love all day, and read this:

"We are born of God's love, we are sustained by God's love throughout our lives, and we remain in God's love at our deaths...Love stands within us as our true nature. To live in love is therefore our completion; it is our wholeness and our perfection..."

I am a Bhakti yogini at heart - the way of devotion has always been mine, and now, in the twilight of my years, I am driven by a sense of urgency, that there is much more love yet to embody, and not as much time before me, as there is behind...

I drive home, from teaching a class today, where I felt every moment was the embodiment of love and prayer - every moment a student embodied a pose was truly a holy moment - every outward manifestation of a pose merely revealed it's inner beauty. With strength and power in their legs, as we worked on leg principles, everyone present connected to their essence as love, and sent forth blessings and prayers to Japan, and the nuclear reactors, joining millions around the world, doing the same today...

We are made to embody love, and prayer...I share with the students, this beautiful quote by Barbara Brown Taylor, since they were working strongly in their legs:

"Sometimes we do not know what we know until it comes through the soles of our feet, or the embrace of a tender lover or the kindness of a stranger. Touching the truth with our minds is not enough. We are made to touch it with our bodies."

I prepare to sit in meditation as the day winds, down, listening to this prayer by Beth Nielsen Chapman, from her beautiful collection of prayers from the world, Prism. This song, is titled, so appropriately, "Choose Love..."

Years cannot age you
Fear cannot scare you
Pain cannot hurt you
Death cannot kill you
Choose love, Choose love

War cannot harm you
Hunger can't starve you
Sin cannot shame you
Guilt cannot blame you
Choose love, Choose love

When you're doubting your direction
And you feel like giving up
Choose love...

Be So Drunk With the Love of God

Deep into the night, I read these words, that Paramahansa Yogananda once spoke to Sri Daya Mata, the woman entrusted with leading the organization he established:

"Be so drunk with the love of God
that you will know nothing else but God;
and give that love to all!"

Yogananda says this, in response to a question asked by Sri Daya Mata, who cannot imagine how his work will continue without him.

Sri Daya Mata recently passed, after leading the Self-Realization Fellowship that Yogananda established and entrusted with his teachings and writings. She was the spiritual mother of Yogananda's disciples and devotees for 55 years - having assumed its direction in 1955, the year that I was born.

I reflect on how this incredible woman, was faithful to her Guru for my entire life span...

But, I am also deeply moved by these words, and try to imagine what it would be like to embody them, in every moment, experience, encounter - and even beyond that - in every thought and action as well...

I think to myself, I cannot know if I myself can do this, but I would like to die trying!

I also think of a few souls I know that are trying to live in this way, and think of what a different world this is - because there are some special and gentle spirits willing, with their very lives, to make a difference, by becoming embodied prayer...

To be so drunk with the love of God - that nothing else matters - and that we channel that love into the love of others - whether we deem them loveable or not. This is truly the goal of every spiritual path...

The sacred text of the Hindus, The Bhagavad Gita, a sacred song that the Divine sings to all of us, teaches that we can only act, but have no right to the fruit of our actions, for that belongs solely to God...

All anyone can do - all I can try to do - is to be so drunk with the love of God - as best as I can - and offer it up - as an act of love - and as the ultimate act of devotion.

Can I do that? I do not know. But I would like to die trying!

Become a Chalice for Grace

I've been reflecting and trying to practice and embody different pieces and insights gleaned from studying with Ross Rayburn, and Desiree Rumbaugh, both Anusara Yoga certified teachers, who visited Willow Street Yoga Center, here in the Washington, DC area, the last couple of weeks.

Each one of them, came bearing a special gift for me, a precious gem that I am just beginning to unwrap, knowing that these gifts will continue to yield layers upon layers of insights, for a long time to come...

In the practices that I attended with Ross, he instructed us to breathe into our pelvis, expanding there, all the way into our ribs and back as well. We worked strongly with Inner and Outer Spiral in a deep and nuanced way. Ross noted, that the psoas muscle connects all the way to T12 in our spine, and when we inner spiral, we want to open all the way into that place.

Desiree showed us how to get into the heart more, and how to do all of our poses - including inversions and arm balances from that place. And that, is not easy, when we have been used to doing these things from our core. She noted that when we open all the way to T12, we can also open into our upper backs as well, because the trapezius muscle also connects to T12.

I started "seeing" the upper back, including the trapezius, as an creating a "V" connecting at T12, with the lower body and chakras, and the pelvis as an inverted "V," with the psoas connecting to T12 as well. I also knew that there are intercostal muscles at T12, and that the diaphragm, a sheet of muscles responsible for breathing and that stretches along the bottom of the rib cage is also located there, and separates the thoracic cavity with the heart, lungs, and ribs, from the lower body. A tight psoas, can affect our breathing capacity, illustrating how all these pieces and parts are interrelated.

As I practiced, and led my more experienced students through a practice, I put all the various pieces together...

I envisioned these two "V's" intersecting at T12 - creating the framework of a chalice within us, that when open, could support us, and be filled with grace. And I also realized, as we opened one part - we opened others - opening in our pelvis - could open the heart - it could help us breathe more - and could also take our meditation practice to another level. I could sense the connection to where I needed to go in my body and how it related to where I wanted to go spiritually, and vice versa.

So many light bulbs went off for me that they are too numerous to note at the moment, but I began to see, that if I worked at embodying all the insights and keys that were given to me by Ross and Desiree, I - and others - could truly become a chalice for grace!

We would open deeply in the core of our pelvis and become expansive there. We could also become more expansive in the heart - and create a balance in our body between the lower chakras and the upper chakras. These expansions had to be embodied in a more energetic way - beyond merely engaging the outer form of the poses, and basic alignment instructions...

I knew that a greater sense of freedom could be had in both the body and the spirit, and that by becoming a chalice for grace, not only would a direct link be established with a deepening meditation practice, but that it would also be both a source of support and framework for the embodiment and reflection of greater compassion, and that would spill over into all aspect of our lives as well...

There is so much more here than meets the eye - so much more I wish I could express or write down, but I am overwhelmed with insights, and gratitude for teachers who provided pieces that were missing for me, that will not only enable me to more fully become all that I am meant to be, but will also enable me to become a better teacher...

The interesting thing is, a lot of what I received from these teachers, I have heard before. But there is always a right time and right moment for each one of us to individually internalize it. There is always so much to explore, imbibe, and embody!

Be Saturated With the Divine

On this day of the Vernal Equinox, birthed in a full moon, I arise early, to meditate in the waning darkness before the gentle light of morning...

I have dispensed my husband, on a business trip to Paris, to visit the Chapel of Miraculous Mary, where St. Catherine Laboure is buried. I send him to deliver very special intentions, into which I have wrapped special requests for a dear friend and one of my yoga teachers as well...

It occurs to me, that this gifted and wonderful teacher, will be teaching her class, at the very moment my prayers and intentions will arrive at their doorstep, and so it seems, only fitting, that I attend this class...

The theme is the last of the "niyamas" of Patanjali - "Isvara Pranidhana" - or devotion to the Lord, which we work so very deeply, engaging Inner Spiral, in such a way that we not only open all the way into our back, but in our ribs and pelvic floor as well, and in the process, we sprout wings that give us a taste of the freedom that is ours for the asking and the taking, and which deposits us on the threshold of the Divine...

My teacher assertively instructs us to "be saturated with the Divine..."

And this we seek to do, in ways that elude, and that require every ounce of our breath, and all the strength we have at our disposal...

Prayers of the heart and soul, merge with embodied prayer, and I have such a sense of the Sacred coming together in every way, so that there is nowhere - where the Beloved is not...

It is no accident I am led here this morning, and as an added bonus, I see a dear friend visiting from Italy, who has come from the heartland of St. Francis of Assisi himself...

And so, in ways unexpected, two favored saints conspire to weave a web of connections that intersect in this Sunday morning yoga practice...

I drive home, with a such a sense of support from a Realm Unseen, spilling over into one that is both visible and tangible, recalling how my Italian friend described that the Italian word for support, really means to sustain, and so, in prayer, and in practice - both sides of the same coin, we truly become saturated with the Divine...

I drive home, grateful for this morning, its unexpected gifts and small miracles, for the web of connections that both sustains and nourishes me, and for the opportunity to play, once again, in a playground that fed my body and spirit for many years...

I drive home, knowing that this day is special, and perhaps a turning point, that may be remembered for years to come...

May the Road Rise to Meet You

It's a beautiful day here, in the Washington DC, area. The sky is a brilliant blue, it is warm, and spring is definitely in the air. It is a day when the Irish, and just about everyone else, celebrates St. Patrick's Day. There is not an Irish bone in my body, but I am married to a man who is half Danish and half Irish, and we became engaged on this day, eons ago, in 1979, when I was working on my Master's in Systematic Spirituality, and he was working on combined JD-MBA degrees. I know he picked that day so he wouldn't forget it!

Today, after meditating, and leaving to take my weekly yoga class, which was nothing short of divine, (and unexpectedly populated with other friends who came to visit), I was moved to send this traditional Irish Blessing to some friends, and I offer it here, to you all as well!

"May the road the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand."

Blessings to all of you, and yours - now and always - on this day, and every day beyond it!

Making Space For Grace

I have been reflecting on the portions of the weekend workshop that certified Anusara Yoga teacher, Ross Rayburn led, here at Willow Street Yoga Center, in Maryland.

More than what Ross did, it is what he said, but primarily what he embodied, that has most stayed with me.

I had never studied with Ross before, but had met him on numerous occasions at the annual gathering of certified Anusara teachers.

Ross was genuine, present, compassionate, and most of all, he was humble - despite his great wealth of knowledge and insight. It is perhaps, his humility that has most spoken to me...

While I did not take notes, something that is unusual for me, I was able to reconstruct the parts of the sessions I attended, that most spoke to me. Here are a few things I resonated with...

"There is nothing that at its essence is wrong or bad - because everything is Divinely made...

Are you maintaining your relationship to your goodness in every thought word, and deed? This is the whole ball of wax in yoga! And if you do not become a better person through your practice, then do something else.

Can you go to the radical - to make it more mundane? This will make us less judgmental, and we do live in a judgmental culture...

If you connect with the omnipotence of God - all you can do is surrender..."

We worked a practice that was deep, and nuanced, and I realized yesterday, as I sat in meditation, that Ross had given me a great gift!

For a couple of weeks, I had been sitting in meditation and focusing on expanding my heart center and field, and I particularly focused on this as I sent blessings and prayers to the people of Japan, in the wake of the tremendous devastation experienced there.

I know how to expand my heart and soul, and "inhabit" those higher chakras. But, "living" in those lower ones, that is another matter. One of my yoga teachers, whom I have now studied the longest with, has repeatedly stressed to me, the need to embody the practice more on a physical level...

As we worked on Friday night, and Saturday afternoon, Ross repeatedly instructed us to expand in our pelvis, not only by engaging principles we knew so well, but by employing the breath, and then, creating that spaciousness within ourselves, even beyond the breath...

The work we did was rich, and subtle, and nuanced - and I realize, it was an invitation to explore all of this more deeply. But, for the first time, I got what was missing for me, and that's why I was led to attend the sessions I did...

Ross instructed us, as I mentioned, with great humility. He saw the beauty that was being embodied in the room, and acknowledged it. He taught to a room with a number of certified teachers, who sometimes asked questions about a particular instruction. But rather than get defensive, Ross thanked them for what they offered, or for reminding him of things he had omitted...

Lately, I've been reflecting on how absent humility seems to be in many teachers. Things seem, from my perspective, much more competitive in yoga these days than I remember in my 14 years of teaching. I sense a lack of humility all across the board, some times in novice teachers whom I've had to evaluate, but also in more seasoned teachers as well...

I have always admired one of my first teachers, Betsey Downing, and one of my current, Suzie Hurley, for taking introductory workshops in Anusara, rather than assisting. A teacher who is humble, exercises good studentship, and realizes there is always more to learn, and that others - are no better or worse most times. There is, in humility, an inherent ability to truly listen, and be present...

I am lucky, to be surrounded by many colleagues who recognize and embody humility. As I shared some of my insights with my dear friend, Lucy Lomax, another Anusara certified teacher, she wisely observed, that humility in teaching, goes a long way, because it is Grace. We have to make space for Grace, and when we do, we connect to the Universal, rather than the individual, which she agreed, seems to be happening on some levels...

All of that being said, humility is never easy. As a former academic, I could be quite arrogant in the past about what I felt I knew...Yet, humility is something I strive to embody, and this Lenten season, gives me a perfect opportunity to revisit this quality.

Let us all reflect more deeply on the meaning of humility in our lives, in our teaching, and explore the areas where we need to be more attentive to it...

A Time to Begin Again

It is always a time to begin...

It is always the time to begin again, and again, and again...

I thought of this yesterday, as I sat and walked in meditation, praying very intensely for loved ones and friends, on a day, that was also one of great sadness, for a tremendous earthquake struck Japan and its people, sending dangerous tidal waves half a world away, and I thought to myself, God surely is hearing the magnitude of their cries...

I thought of this again, last night, in a yoga practice led by Ross Rayburn, a wonderful Anusara Yoga certified teacher, as I, recovering from an injury, practiced in between the two women who have been my primary teachers for these last five years. I had just returned to the mat, a few days before, after a few weeks of being side-lined...

I thought of this, as a dear friend laid her healing hands on me earlier this week, bestowing a healing that was made manifest, over the course of the next few days, most explicitly in dimensions unseen, rather than in those that are...

I thought of this, as I listened to, and imbibed the spiritual message imparted by Tina Turner, on the CD, Beyond: Buddhist and Christian Prayers...

I thought of this, as I reflected on the the profoundly painful experience of several friends, whose lives have been altered radically, in ways that could not have been foreseen...

I thought of this, as I reflected on Ross' message to us, to become heavy, and yet to become expansive - embodying the First Principle of "Inner body bright," not only in our side body, but in our pelvis, in our big toes, and even in our inner ears! And I realized, a new threshold in the practice, leading to a deeper level of exploration and experience, had been revealed. In the midst of Ross's invitation to us, he instructed us to not try so hard...

I thought of this, as I reflected on a conversation yesterday morning at breakfast, with a dear intuitive soul, where I shared the recollection of my first spiritual memory, knowing before the age of five, that I had not yet begun to live my mission, knowing that it was spiritual in nature...

I thought of this, just this very morning, when I read a status post, in commemoration of World Book Day, which occurred on the 3rd of this month. It asked us to lay hands on the first book we saw, turn to page 56, and write down the 5th sentence we read, without disclosing the titled of the book. And so I read, this status posted online by a colleague,

"It's the only one you will be given..."

I reflect on what this might mean - perhaps, the only time, or the only life? It does not matter, it is a reminder that every moment is precious, and so is every gift that we receive, those we cherish, and those we do not recognize as gifts...

And so, I pick up the book closest to me, and do the same, and these are the words I read:

"This was the providential opportunity for her to begin her new mission..."

Once more, finding myself, at a crossroads, plunging deeply into a Lenten journey, re-committing to practices of living my life differently and expressed in so many ways, these words are poignant and impregnated with many layers of meaning...

I think of my last entry...If we go beyond the surface, the boundaries, the limitations - and all of our spiritual practices invite us to do this - then we begin again - and again, and again. It is part of our life's purpose and journey. The mystical is always being disclosed in the mundane...

And yes, it is a time to begin again, and immerse ourselves much more deeply in the currents of life...

I Go Beyond

There are gifts that are both providential and transformational - and arrive in our lives without expectation...

Two gifts received - one yesterday, and the other today - are both meant for my Lenten journey...

Yesterday, my spirit merged with a dear soul companion, as our meditations became intertwined while walking the labyrinth. My friend was led to bestow a healing on me, that was both physical and spiritual, and continues to dramatically unfold, gifting me with one miracle after another...

This gift take me beyond, in ways that defy articulation...

My walk and healing at the labyrinth was an experience of Oneness and merging with the Divine that now enables me to step into the next 40 days of the desert of my Lenten Journey more fully. It is a journey I dedicate to experiencing, embodying, and reflecting, everything in God, and God in everything...

Today, I receive another providential gift from a wonderful student and friend. She brings the recording Beyond: Buddhist and Christian Prayers, exquisitely blending traditional Gregorian chants with Buddhist mantras, and I lose myself in the music, experiencing Pure Awareness and the Presence of the Divine in every note - as my dear friend whom I met at the labyrinth, a gifted musician - strives to do in her practice...

Just yesterday I asked her, how can one dedicate every note to God, and be mindful of it? But today, I know how to do this! My spirit rejoices and dances in this music, and I know it will be the backdrop for my practice this Lenten Season...

And my body dances as well! My spirit coaxes my body out of its Winter lethargy, inviting me to literally dance with the Divine!

Fortified with the prayers and healing of a dear friend - I am now able to scatter more blessings, and hold more Divine Light. So deep in the night, I hold a healing space, for two souls hurting very deeply, as I come in and out of sleep, chanting mantras and prayers...

Steeped in the sacredness of more prayers expressed as sacred chants and mantras on this recording I was gifted with, I continue to expand inwardly...I have the sense that this Lenten walk will be transformational in ways seen and unseen...

I savor the spiritual message written and delivered by Tina Turner on Beyond, who is herself, a Buddhist practitioner, and it haunts me as I receive ashes on my forehead, today, on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of my Lenten Journey:

"Nothing lasts forever, no one lives forever, the flower that fades and dies, winter passes and spring comes, embrace the cycle of life, that is the greatest love.

Go BEYOND FEAR...

Beyond fear takes you into the place where love grows, where you refuse to follow the impulses of fear, anger and revenge.

BEYOND MEANS TO FEEL YOURSELF...

Start every day singing like the birds - singing takes you beyond, beyond, beyond.

We all need a repeated discipline, a genuine training to let go our old habits of mind and to find and sustain a new way of seeing.

GO BEYOND THE RIGHTS AND WRONGS...

Prayer clears the head and brings back peace in the soul.

GO BEYOND TO FEEL THE O-N-E-NESS OF THE UNITY...

Sing - singing takes you beyond, beyond, beyond, beyond...

We are all the same, all the same, looking to find our way back to the source, to the ONE, to the only ONE.

GO BEYOND REVENGE...

The greatest moment in our lives is when we allow us to teach each other.

TAKE THE JOURNEY INSIDE OF YOU...

To become quiet to hear the beyond. To become patient to receive the beyond. To become open to invite the beyond and be grateful to allow the beyond. Be in the present moment to live in the beyond.

Start every day singing like the birds - singing takes you beyond, beyond, beyond.

WHAT DOES LOVE HAVE TO DO WITH IT?

LOVE grows when you trust. When you trust, LOVE heals and renews. LOVE inspires and empowers us to do great things and makes us a better person to love. LOVE makes us feel safe and brings us closer to God.

When you go beyond, that's where you find true love."

This Lenten Season, may you go beyond your own limitations, and live more fully and deeply, and embody the Divine in everything you do, say, and are!

"Beyond right and wrong
there is a field,
I will meet you there."
~ Rumi

(For more information, visit:)
http://www.beyondsinging.com/

Jolt Me Into Joy

I still bask in the wonder and the beauty of meditating during Maha Shivarati - "The Great Night of Shiva," when Shiva pauses to rest after his Cosmic Dance...

I marvel at the gifts I have been given, the insight, the clarity, the bliss, and I think of Gunilla Norris' simple prayer, "Jolt me into joy!"

In the afternoon, I curl up with Gunilla Norris' simple yet divine spiritual and poetic musings - Being Home: Discovering the Spiritual in the Everyday - and I am not only jolted into joy, but into Pure Awareness and the gifts of deep sight, intuitions and realizations.

I think of a dear friend, who strives to offer ever moment and act to the Divine, and does so with both humility and grace, and I find it such a blessing, that this book falls into my hands, precisely at this time - it is such a simple testament meant for other souls in search of embodying the same experience...

Yesterday, after my evening meditation, I realized that there truly cannot be any separation between souls because Grace is everywhere, and separation is simply incompatible with a Presence that is all pervading...

Today, I realize, I have been given the incredible gift to be able to dive more deeply into spiritual practices by having a schedule that has opened up and loosened considerably. Now, with this book, I can also see, that I still have far to go into fully merging my spiritual and quotidian lives. Not only do I have the opportunity to practice in ways that I could not have done so before, I am being invited to open my eyes, and to delve deeply into each and every task, and glean the hidden messages and treasures silently being offered and disclosed in each and every one of my duties...

I certainly could not say it any better than Gunilla Norris, and I highly recommend this simple, but very moving book. I know I will be savoring it over, and over again, for its richness, and deep insights...

And so, I offer here, sentences, gathered from pages here and there, each one honoring the simplicity and the joy of everyday living...

"Prayer and housekeeping - they go together. They have always gone together. We simply know that our daily round is how we live. When we clean and order our homes, we are somehow also cleaning and ordering ourselves...How we hold the simplest of life's tasks speaks loudly of how we hold life itself.

How then do we 'come home' spiritually and dwell there? In my own life I have found no better way than to value and savor the sacredness of everyday living, to rely on repetition, that humdrum rhythm, which heals and steadies. Increasingly it is for me a matter of being willing 'to be in place,' to enter into deeper communion with the objects and actions of a day and to allow them to commune with me. It is a way to know and to be known...

If anything in this life matters, then everything matters. There isn't living and Living. The only difference is how completely we give ourselves to the living...

There is no alternative utopia running parallel to this life. This is it.

We are intended for ecstasy - each day we are meant to be steeped in mystery, and so remember our true lives.

My foot falls. The ground rises to meet it. A holy, ordinary moment is repeating itself.

Let me wear the joy that matches this day.

My life is a continuous series of thresholds: from one moment to the next, from one thought to the next, from one action to the next.

Please open me like this window to the joy that is always right here. Jolt me open to joy!

Time to dust again. Time to caress my house, to stroke all its surfaces. I want to think of it as a kind of lovemaking...the chance to appreciate by touch what I live with and cherish.

I want to be a lover of all surfaces today. Let this be my prayer: that my hands not be ashamed to give and receive a passionate exchange... to luster and be lustered...and so come to feel Your inward touch.

Help me to surrender to the growth that only comes with pain, with division, with helplessness, with waiting.

Let me enter this moment and polish it bright.

I'm always wanting my own weather...How many things do I shovel aside?

The real work is revealed and I am discovered by the work...This is grace.

The breath always returns back. Over and over again my life is returned like this because Yu are breathing me.

Like tulips I am blooming and dying. How mysterious is this.

Now the sheets. My friends slept in them last night. Let the folding of these sheets be an intercession. Fold my friends into Your tenderness. Keep us in Your love.

Help me to remember the crumpled as much as the smooth. In You they are all one.

Hoarding is a lack of trust. There is no supply outside of You.

Make in my person a place setting for You. Remind me of my true nature which is recalled only in You.

I want my layers to peel away like the onion's.

I want to be as empty and clean as the universe in a sweet green pepper with its white star seeds.

I want. I want. In the heat of Your Will help me to give up wanting!

I am so full of urgency, expectation, image, I make myself spiritually hungry. You are here, therefore, there is everything to receive.

Let the sweet taste of You become the blessing on my tongue.

As I sort and I mend, I think of the fabric of life...Teach me to be humble when the patching goes wrong, when I join parts that do not belong.

What is torn apart breathes in its own way with You, mends when it can, if it can. Let me accept the frayed.

I dwell in the home as if it were a heart. When I feel that pulse I know that all that comes to me will also go..."

And so it is...And everyone of these morsels, contains an infinite amount of insight to be unraveled and savored for a very long time to come. Indeed, all the time that we have left...

Blessings and Maha Shivarati

Yesterday, I quoted a wonderful article, "Blessing Heart" by Sally Kempton, the well known and loved meditation teacher.

Giving blessings is a powerful form of spiritual practice that Sally writes about - and it can lead to deep transformation and healing on many levels - for the one sending the blessings, and the one receiving them as well.

In Sally's words:

"When we offer blessings, we align ourselves with the force of grace that runs through the universe. We become channels for the higher power. And according to some of the mystical traditions, this is the hidden purpose of human life.

The Vedic sages, whose culture is the basis of the Hindu tradition, believed that one special function of human beings is to create conscious bridges between earth and cosmos. They did this through invocations and offerings, and bracketed their practices and ceremonies with mantras we chant to this day - Lokaha samastah sukhino bhavantu - May all beings be happy...

Grace is everywhere. In the Shaivite tradition, grace is considered to be an intrinsic property of consciousness itself, a fundamental activity of the divine energy that pervades every atom of the universe...Our practice merely aligns us with it...

From the perspective of the yoga-tantra, the subtle heart center is the seat of the intuitive level of thought known as pasyanti, where impulses and intentions arise directly from the deepest inner source and carry the power of that source...When we center ourselves in the heart and offer good wishes from that center, people tend to feel it..."

I love this idea of connecting with the heart. Connecting to the heart is a practice both Tantrics and Catholics can relate to, in varying ways. As a former theologian, I was always drawn to the writings of those mystics who venerated the Sacred Heart.

Sally Kempton goes on to note that giving blessings is a powerful way to work with painful situations and relationships in our lives, and can lead to both transformation and healing. But we must also be willing to bless ourselves, and our pasts - and this is where many of us actually need to start our practice.

Tonight, Hindus celebrate Maha Shivarati - or the "Great Night of Shiva." It is said that prayers, intentions and mantras offered at this time, are magnified 10,000 times!

Hindus recognize the inherent power of words in the concept of Matrika Shakti. Thus, on this special day, we must take utmost care to be impeccable with our words and thoughts, because they too will be magnified.

Maha Shivarati reminds us of the power we have to change as individuals and to shift our own consciousness, as well as global consciousness, and even situations and events. All one has to do right now, is simply observe what is happening in the Middle East.

Tonight, give intent to shift something within yourself - a situation - or a relationship in need of healing. Bless yourself, bless everything and everyone that you see today, and everyone that comes to mind.

I bless you!

Life as Practice - Redux

I continue to reflect on the notion, the observation, and the reality - that life is practice, and practice is life - as I teach and sub for a number of yoga classes this week, and as I reflect on my own life, its most pressing interior issues and concerns, and the work that I must do and am currently engaged in...

I remember how not too long ago, during meditation, a beautiful mantra arose from deep within my heart, unfolding simply, and softly whispering to my soul,

"Everything in God, and God in everything..."

I recall insights that brought such solace, from Sally Kempton, the gifted meditation teacher, who observed, that spiritual development is never linear, but spirals forward and backwards, as if in a dance, as we evolve and expand, sometimes needing to retreat and drawn in, before we can journey more deeply in our growth...

Once again, I am touched by an essay of hers - I read it in the late evening, before bed, and it beautifully encourages and suggests the dedication of blessings as a spiritual practice. When we bless others, we are able to transform, transcend, and heal the limiting aspects of our relationships and experiences. To bless another is truly a sacred practice - and to bless another, endows us with the capacity to give life!

Life is practice, and practice is life, because grace is everywhere. There is nowhere that grace is not - ever! When we practice - we proclaim our blessings and radiate our heart energy to others, ever grounded in Divine love and grace, weaving the strands of our souls together into a beautiful tapestry, because we ARE all truly one, always - in each and every moment...

This brings to mind, the words of a dear soul friend who at Christmas affirmed that we are always one in God's Heart who is the source of all Love...

This musically gifted soul reminds me again today, that her intention is to strive daily to dedicate everything to God. Each note, every word, and all steps gently taken, on this earth."

Everything is practice. Everything life offers is practice, and practice engages every aspect of life...

Sally Kempton wisely observes that "when another heart cell - not even from the same heart - is placed near it, the dying cell comes back to life. And once that bond between the two cells is established, they go on supporting one another over distance..."

Again, this serves as a gentle reminder, that life is practice, and practice is life - for at the heart of practice, that's what we do - we engender life - thus giving life to all whom we encounter, every soul in need...

And in the early evening, after meditation, or perhaps before, I can no longer remember when it happened, I quietly pen these words in silent practice...

Life as Practice

Life is practice.
And practice is life.

When we are aware,
Conscious, and awake,
Life is practice.

When we reach out,
And serve those in need,
Life is practice.

When we are present
To the moment,
And whatever it brings,
Life is practice.

When we reflect
The Divine,
In our words
And our actions,
Life is practice.

When we step
Off the mat,
And go into the world--
We do so knowing,
Life is practice
And practice is life.