Aligning with Grace

It is a difficult time to witness what is happening on our planet... The sorrow, the suffering, the violence the pain... This morning I woke up with this short, lovingkindness practice on my lips: "May our hearts overflow with compassion." The only solution possible to all that is happening is greater Love. Greater compassion. I believe it is the foundation for everything else: greater insight, understanding, and practical solutions. This is all I am going to leave you with today. Let us all practice it and embody it, to shift the energy on this planet. "May our hearts overflow with compassion." For more practices to support you on your journey, visit:  www.meditationsimple.com

Pause. Breathe. Practice self care. That seems simple enough - right? Almost too simple. But I can't think of a better way to start my day. Or, a better way to get it back on track if the train of my life has derailed. In fact, just last night I was talking to a small group about something similar. I told them how I start my day. How I take two hours for a morning practice. I know. That sounds daunting. But I didn't start there. I started with ten minutes. Then twenty, and after I retired I added more time as I found myself more comfortable with it all. This time includes breathing, affirmations, mantras, asking guidance from a litany of saints and beloveds on the other side, tapping, spiritual reading, offering blessings, and doing Lovingkindness, and not in that order. Some days I spend more time with fewer things. I let my inner guidance select the morning rituals. But other days, I linger in silence, with eyes closed, and a hot cup of coffee in my hands. Yes, coffee. I used...

  Today is a glorious spring day where I live. I marveled, on my morning walk, how blessed I am to be able to step out of my home and access a myriad connection of pathways through meandering green spaces and parks. And yet, I am also very aware of the many tribulations we are facing in the world. Still, to commit to seeing beauty and goodness in the midst of all that is not well, is for me - a choice, a need, and an imperative. I also know that many of us live in difficult and challenging circumstances, fording a constant stream of anxiety and fear. How could we not? Just look around... And yet, there is more to see as well... We can focus on the fear and the steady diet of negativity the media feeds us - or we can choose other staples for our diet. We must also feed our souls... But, how to do that? I can only share with you some of the things I am currently doing. For example, I am limiting the content of news I am consuming. Recently, a dear friend of mine and I spoke of becomi...

One of my favorite morning practices is  Lovingkindness , which is very powerful and is sourced from ancient Buddhist teaching and practices. There are many things I like about this practice. ​First of all, it is  SIMPLE . Secondly, it is  TRANSFORMATIVE . The more you do it, the more you will notice things shift around you - only because the shifts are occurring within you first. If we  CHANGE , the world also  CHANGES .  Yes, it is as simple as that. But the thing is, we have to constantly work at changing ourselves. It is the essence of human nature, and of Buddhist teachings as well. Buddhists teach about the impermanence of all things. Nothing lasts forever. Many of us have heard the old adage, " The only constant in life is change ." But in order to change, we must be willing to open our hearts first, and then subsequently our minds. But I believe all change begins in the heart. We could become disillusioned by all the violence in the world - the cons...

There are many variations to this practice that I am about to share with you.  Anyone who has studied Reiki will have learned a version of it and you can find them online. There is no right way or wrong way to say them, just as there is no right way or wrong way to walk a spiritual path. While many understand Reik i to be a healing technique with origins in Japanese and Buddhist practices and traditions, brought to the West and adapted to Western sensibilities, it is really at heart a spiritual practice aimed at the transformation of the self and the elimination of all sense of separation between the Self and others.  It is from a Divine state of union that all healing transpires. This is the second practice I do when I go down to the river to meditate and it follows Lovingkindness , which I described in the preceding blog entry. There was a time, over a decade ago, that I recited these religiously over the the course of a year or so, until I embodied them. What I...

Dear Readers, Join me tomorrow on Meditation Pure and Simple Facebook Live - " Take a Sacred Pause!" at 8 PM EST.  It will be recorded and it runs about 10 minutes weekly. Tomorrow we will hold a healing circle to send loving and healing energy wherever it is most needed! Please click on the Facebook link below to "LIKE" the page, and join the list to get my FREE "Energy Saving Practices" as a gift to you! I've included a recent session On how to practice Lovingkindness for you to enjoy! Join my  Facebook  community page and  list , Meditation Pure and Simple, and receive my  Three Energy Saving Practices  as my gift to you!

I walk briskly on this crisp fall morning, with leaves falling all about and with many thoughts in my head and heart as well, and I am surprised to be pointed in a different direction today. I arrive at a beautiful pond, and sit at the bench all by myself, with only mallard ducks and geese in the water to accompany me... It is easy, at a tumultuous time like this to get caught up in all the drama. And I receive a message for that as I sit quietly in the stillness and silence, punctuated only by an occasional flapping of wings... "Shine your Light! And let go of the drama!" I feel saddened by how empty everything feels - and how small my world is becoming, and another message is given for that as well... "You are never alone! You are supported in ways Seen and Unseen, close to you as your very own heart! Place your hands over your heart. Feel the warmth that arises. The comfort. The LOVE! Your angels and guides and loved ones, passed on, ...

We live in perilous times, or so it seems. But if truth be told, we are always in the midst of conflicts somewhere on our planet. It just seems that everything appears more persistent and in our face constantly. Like many, I am overwhelmed by the suffering of those in the path of destruction everywhere - certainly those in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey who will spend months if not years trying to recovery from the devastation - but elsewhere as well. The constant struggles in the Middle East and Africa don't always get our attention - such as the cholera epidemic in Yemen, and the endless civil war in Syria, but they are no less deserving of our compassion and assistance. The truth is, many are suffering everywhere - and we often forget they are our brothers and sisters. They need our positivity, our well wishes - but most especially our lending hands and the sharing of our resources. We must be Good Samaritans. There is a beautiful meditation practice often referred to...

A gentle snow falls, on this day of triple plays - of the Vernal Equinox, a New Moon, and a Solar Eclipse. A powerful confluence of energies conspires to shift things within us and catapult us into transformation! I am excited to see the breathtaking beauty of what will perhaps be the last snowflakes until winter dawns once again... I head down to the river and am blessed to have it all to myself. The graying sky for a moment reminds of The Mists of Avalon - and I half expect the mists to be parted, revealing a hidden magical kingdom! Out in the gentle snow fall, with an occasional cardinal hopping from one snow laden branch to the other, and geese flocking in formation, I speak my prayers, my affirmations, and my Lovingkindness recitations - offered up like a Litany of saints... I speak my prayers and intentions out loud in hopes that they will move mountains and shift energy, for indeed it is right and just - and necessary - as proclaimed in the Catholic liturgy. I ref...

I arise at dawn on a cold winter morning that many believed heralded the end of the world, but I consider to be the beginning of a new era of transformation and awakening... On this day, the Earth offered her inhale into her exhale and there was stillness for a moment - a kumbhaka - a pause between breaths - a moment that is both auspicious and impregnated with the Presence of the Divine... I offer prayers, meditations, and Loving-kindness for those on my prayer and healing list - and for all beings everywhere... I am drawn to chant and tone - and to intone sacred seed mantras as I play my crystal bowls at noon, giving intent to clear vibrationally in all ways necessary - and wishing this for others as well, with candles lit and facing all four directions... My grateful heart is full for all the blessings received, and for sacred messages received from the Other Side earlier this week... Visitations from loving beings and angels wrapped and surrounded me in a sacred and holy ma...

"I would love to live Like a river flows, Carried by the surprise Of its own unfolding." ~ John O'Donohue The river was beautiful this morning - calm and peaceful - and it seemed to be the perfect time for doing Lovingkindess meditation and the chanting of the Reiki Precepts - which I did very slowly and reverently - with the cadence of my meditations in perfect sync with the paddling of two kayakers coming back from their sojourn. I also offered other prayers and meditations that I normally only do in my sitting practice. For some reason, my experiences were especially moving this morning. I felt enveloped by the Presence of the Divine in so many ways, and it was both comforting and reassuring... At some point, I brushed off a spider climbing on my arm. I am not particularly a fan of multi-legged creatures of the insect variety, but I felt compelled to look up its significance when I came back home. And it seems the message of a spider totem is not alike the messages I...

The first six months of this year have been nothing more and nothing less than a sea of change for me and a legion of other souls... This morning, the river was calm, if not slightly swollen from the recent rains. I did my practices, and watched a kayaker launch into the river, and another man play with his yellow lab. The dog romped about and splashed in and out of the river, occasionally swimming in to retrieve twigs at various times. It was one of those breathtaking beautiful mornings where I enjoyed a cup of Lavazza, an Italian espresso, that had been shipped to me from Greece earlier this week. Isn't it amazing that we live in a world where we find what we want online - and someone will send it to you from another corner of the world? I had been in search of Lavazza coffee pods for my Seneo machine, which seems to have become obsolete. It delivers a cup of espresso with a taste and crema only experienced in Europe. But I digress! As I did my Reiki and Lovingkindness meditation...

I had a free morning today, for the first time in a while. So I slept in, and after a hard rain went down to the river before delving into my designated activities... The morning began with some fog, but by the time I arrived at the river, the sun had started to shine and the fog had partially lifted. It almost seemed like it was hovering - somehow hanging on over the river - in suspended animation. Earlier this week, I went down for a quick peak of the river on a day that the fog was much more dense, and at that time the sky was virtually indistinguishable from the river. I love those moments when you cannot tell where one begins and the other ends. It reminds me of Infinity. Of the Divine. of Unity... Observing the fog this morning reminded me of a teaching in yoga philosophy called the "malas." The malas are impurities that occlude our ability to see. Some of my yoga teachers have in the past used the analogy of dust on the mirror to explain them. We want to clear the dust...

This is a day that is often celebrated by lovers, but it truly offers all of us an opportunity to give and receive love and embody compassion. I have been reflecting on the Buddhist meditation practices of lovingkindness and tonglen and their relationship to compassion, as I prepare to share these techniques in a meditation short course, and as I also integrate the theme of compassion in my own yoga classes this week. I am in essence, killing two birds with one stone! In the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, the word "karuna" is translated as compassion. Compassion is one of the Brahmaviharas - or four sublime attitudes, along with lovingkindness, joy, and equanimity. These attitudes are described in Buddhist teachings, and also in sutra 1.33 of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Whether we are Buddhist or Hindu, Jewish, Christian or Muslim - I do believe we all recognize the importance of cultivating all of these attitudes and especially embracing, expressing, and embody...

Life has a way of coming full circle and cycling through so many things... On Friday, almost three years to the date - I visited the river with the friend who first brought me there. Both of us had not returned there together for one reason or another, and I wanted to mark our return visit as the remaining "bookend" experience to a phase of my life and its conclusion. Yes, three years ago, I both visited this river and and began this blog - never imagining the role that both would come to play in my life! Three years ago, when my outer and inner worlds collided and unraveled, I came to visit the river daily, urgently and fervently engaging in Lovingkindness practices and other meditations as a form of healing and releasing animosity toward individuals and situations I felt had deeply wounded me. For nearly a year and half, in the throws of deep depression, I visited this river, and began kayaking, as a therapeutic way of taming my own inner turmoil and emotions as I paddled u...

On this overcast day, cool and crisp, and reminiscent of the coming fall season, I am drawn to the river once again, with my coffee cup in hand, as I started almost every day, for the course of a year and and a half - three years ago in December... The river calls, and I return again... I came to this river to meditate almost daily, at a time during so many transitions and unanswered questions. I return once more, at a similar time once again, wondering what the future holds, and what will for me, in time unfold... It is hard to see, and harder still to know - what will come and what will be...But one more time, the river calls, and it still flows... I return again, not sure what to answer - or even ask... But this is a different river. They say you never step into the same river twice...My heart longs to get into the water to paddle, but I have deadlines to meet, and preparation for teaching and subbing for others this week...So I pause for just a moment, to offer these words... I wal...