Aligning with Grace

Sometimes messages hit you over the head. Hard. Sometimes messages come from unexpected places - like "cyberspace" or the "cloud" - wherever that is! Yesterday, I wrote about Adyashanti's book, Emptiness Dancing . And I included this quote toward the end of the entry: "What is born in awakening - is a love of what is." I must have repeated this to myself dozens of times yesterday. Such a simple statement. And so hard to embody. It reminded me of Byron Katie's book, Loving What Is. This is truly a practice that demands everything - and one that cannot be simply "intellectualized," try as one might. Today, I came across a couple of reminders of the role that grace plays in our life: "You cannot be bitter and unforgiving and be a conduit for grace." ~ Carolyn Myss And then, in the new SoundsTrue catalogue I received last night, I read this excerpt from Adyanshanti's newest book, Falling into Grace: " Grace is something...

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...