Each morning we seem to arise to a pre-scripted litany of complaint. But there is a moment before the deluge, before the bones creak and the muscles scream, before the flood of responsibility strikes like lead clouds pressing down upon us. There is a moment before we drown our fearful footsteps into a cold shower and hot […]
L u c i d p h e n o m e n o n
our life. experiencing the sacred moment. each teardrop. every raindrop. the clouds falling across the sky, stars exploded in the night. the whoosh of traffic. the glimmering towers of the city. the thumping music below, calling sirens from the rock and sirens in the street. waking up in chaos, and touching the earth of our precious […]
Welcome to Life, Already in Progress
I had my morning tea on the back porch today. I sat, not yet awake, looking at nothing, really. My first conscious thoughts were about feeling tired, which is how I assume waking up feels. Then the weather, which is how I assume my day will feel. As I slowly came to, I noticed the length of […]
The Mechanics of Mindfulness
Mindfulness is becoming a popular idea. This is mostly a good thing. Mindfulness, as a label, is akin to yoga a decade ago. It has become a buzzword, of sorts, appropriated by many traditions, methods and modalities. I am looking at Mindfulness from the point of view of the Shambhala Tradition, where Mindfulness is a precursor to […]
The Gentle Precision of Mindful Awareness
In contemplative traditions, Mindfulness refers to paying specific attention to a moment, event or object within the context of meditative awareness. “Meditative awareness” differs with each application, but in the Shambhala Tradition, we see mindfulness as enabling “nowness”, or awareness of the environment around the singular moment. Meditation Master Chogyam Trungpa, referred to “Mindfulness / Awareness as […]
Passages
Holding On To Letting Go After a long night, my dying cat left that morning. What made the proceedings more than a personal tragedy, as well as an acute teaching, was the strength with which this little guy held on to life, and then very naturally held on firmly to letting go of that life. In contrast, I doubted, cried, wrote, […]
Touching Now
AWAKENING NATURAL MIND In the Shambhala tradition, moments of perception are considered sacred, as they contact us to life as it is. The more we train the mind to rest in its immediate moment to moment experience, the clearer life becomes. The more contact we have to this unfiltered contact to reality, the more stabile the […]
Last Night with Monkey Man
Huxley is under the bed, dying. After weeks of thinking one more thing will turn things around, this rugged, angry, difficult and – in the right place and time – extraordinarily loving being is calling it quits. We don’t know what this is, or why its happening. Diagnoses, like signposts, provided temporary direction. Culled from […]
YES, and . . .
WAKING UP TO POSSIBILITY. Meditation Master Chogyam Trungpa would frequently begin talks by saying “Good Morning,” regardless of the time of day, or night. It was not about time. It was about the idea of a fresh start, or clean slate. It was about saying YES to our morning in any state of mind. In the Buddhist Lineage […]
Crying To the Sky
A Grace Stronger Than Hate Nine people lay in final silent prayer on the floor of the church that had been a place of solace, safety and strength to their families for over a century. The victims, those who died, and those left to suffer for them, prayed as the gunman – just a boy, really – reloaded as many […]