2012

... The New Year ...

We are leaving behind the past and bringing foreward the good things we have learned and the good feelings we have experienced. Many good ceremonies have brought me to this place, this cusp of the New Year.

Birthing into the New Year.... birthing into the New Life.

EMPOWERING

OVERPOWERING

PAINFUL

ESCTATIC

OVERWHELMING

The only way to survive the change is surrender.

May the amniotic fluids of The Mother ... the salt water of The Mother ... birth us into this new year and new life.

I had hoped to have a quiet night at home to pray and relax. However, I was just called (this minute ... this very minute) in to work tonight. So this will be my new year. A small part of me is angry ... the small part of me wanted very much to have this quiet time. It seems this is to be a night of karma yoga.

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So ... this is my birth experience ... this is what i need to 'let go into' now.

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May this night, be a night of service.

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I am remembering, when i used to teach childbirth classes an important teaching point was the surrendering to the moment and recognizing that EVEN THIS is the perfect unfolding.

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Lila Waste'

LIVING IN A CIRCLE vs GOING IN CIRCLES

Choosing to walk the spiritual life is a path wherein we are not able to let ourselves OFF THE HOOK ever again. We can no longer be victims of others or our own urges. This word victim must be erased from our vocabulary. Nothing is 'done' to us. Life IS. On the surface it may not appear to be gentle. Indeed on the surface it is not gentle. However, these not gentle occurances are not to hurt us so much as to crack open the seeds of THANK YOU buried deep inside of each of us. This 'thank you' includes inherent in it's nature a deep visceral desire to give back to life.

Like the seed breaking through the soil to reach for the sky and become ........ a flower, a tree or a blade of grass ....... this seeking of the full life leads us to push aside what is in the way of this growth and inexorably we move to the light.

As we mature, the rules change and we become accountable for everything we SAY.... everything we THINK.... and everthing we DO. There comes a time when the unconscious pushing of personal agenda ceases to be a priority. There comes a time when continued pushing of personal agenda leads us into the dark and not the light we deeply crave. The flower when she has reached maturity gives her beauty and sweet scent to all, with-holding from none! The tree when he is mature offers shade and and drops his leaves as mulch for future growth! The grass when mature offers a soft bed to lay upon! No one and no thing is denied the gifts we are given to share if we have allowed ourselves to grow in a good way.

At some point, we two-leggeds get to choose if we will continue to move towards the light, which in maturity includes sharing the gifts we have been given ... or continue to seek only for the small self, which though appropriate at first ultimately turns us in on ourselves and moves us into deeper and deeper dark.

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Will we live in a Circle wherein as we take we also give freely? Or will we spin out of control seeking to draw into ourselves like the tornado or hurricane, destroying that which we draw in, so we can not fully use the gifts which life brings?

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Frog Soup

We all know the story of how to make frog soup. You put the frog in a pot of cool water. Turn the heat on low. It warms so slowly the little frog is not worried at all. By the time frog starts becoming very hot the frog has been lulled and made drowsy by slowly increasing warmth. He does not have the strength to fight and jump out of the pot. He would have easily jumped out when the water was cool ... but he thought it was a great little pond. HE IGNORED THE WARNING SIGNS... perhaps he even made excuses for the changes so he could enjoy the warm water just a little longer.

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We are those frogs. We are ignoring the warning signs even as they become blaringly obvious. Earthquakes are growing stronger. Hurricanes are growing ever more deadly. Tornados are coming thru in greater frequency. Tsunami is becoming an everyday word related to frequency of occurance. We have gravely injured the Mother and her body is convulsing.

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For your consideration here, a few of the two-legged produced disasters contributing to the injury of Mother Earth:

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Oxygen levels have been slowly dropping over the centuries as we turn The Mother Earth into a parking lot destroying the living plants who are her lungs. The O2 is dropping slowly and we do not notice. The water of our pond grows warm.

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Earth's blood, the waters of the Earth grow more polluted daily. A few years ago you would have laughed if someone had suggested you would be buying water by the bottle to have it pure. The pollution is rising and some are just starting to notice. The water of our pond grows warmer.

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We used to produce only living plants to feed ourselves and our little brothers and sisters who share the earth with us. These plants would produce new plants when their seeds were nutured by the mother in the fecund earth. Now many of the plants we grow have been genetically modified so they are no longer capable of producing life. This is because these modified seeds are a parody of life. It looks like food. It may taste like food. But it lacks the life force given to us by The Mother to reproduce itself. We are slowly getting used to these pretend foods. The water is becoming quite hot and many still do not notice.

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The Mother though gravely injured will survive and ultimately over millenia heal. It remains to be seen if the two-leggeds who think they are human beings will be alive to see that day. It may be too late for us to survive. However, you may want to consider pulling yourself out of the lethargy induced by the ease and comfort this lifestyle has produced. You may want to consider making a stand for change ... consider getting out of the soup. It will not be easy, the changes needed are huge. It may be too little and too late ... but maybe not. Add prayer to the mix and all things can change.

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CONNECTION

Is it possible, that perhaps one of the causes of fear stems from loosing touch with our CONNECTION to all of life? We innately know we are 'supposed' to be connected . We innately know were are all related. We may not know these things consciously however on some level we feel that need for connection. Then, when we can not touch that place, we are more apt to feel fear and concurrent anxiety related to knowing something is missing even if we can not put a finger on exactly what it is that is missing...

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Seeing the Self as seperate from the Whole

creates isolation.

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Isolation creates fear and anxiety.

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When prayers are focused on needs other than those of self ... when at least we see the needs of others as just as important as the needs of the self (the topic of ... need vs want ... is something to also look at sometime in the future) fear tends to diminish. Taking the focus (perhaps obsession) off of self is a good thing. The Buddhist have a form of prayer called Lojong Tonglen or taking and recieving which lends itself to expanding the prayer beyond the needs of self. http://www.lojongmindtraining.com/

Certainly there are times when it is appropriate to pray for self, however, it is not uncommon for our prayers for self to not take into consideration the effect our prayers will have on others. The indiginous peoples of Turtle Island remind us to take seven generations into consideration when we pray. Our prayers for others and for self must take into consideration the effect we have on all Creation.

Recently my family said prayers that a relative might recieve a liver transplant so that he could live. One of the things the family had to look at before sending these prayers out was the consideration that in order for our family member to recieve a liver transplant someone would be loosing their life so that a liver would be available. The wording of the prayer needed to be very specific so that no harm was brought to anyone. The prayer had to not end the life of someone so that our relative could have a liver. The prayer was made for a liver to come from one who was leaving this earth life for his / her own reasons and then the liver would then be available and matching. A liver did come to our relative and his recovery was many weeks faster than is common. The doctors were astounded at how his body accepted the liver and recovered from the surgery.

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Who sees all beings in his own Self

and his own Self in all beings

loses all fear

... from the Isha Upanishad

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KAI and RAJA

What do you think goes on in the mind of a human baby? What do you think goes on in the mind of a member of the cat nation? I would expect Raja (the cat) to want nothing to do with (the little human boy of 10 months of age) Kai. I would expect the little boy Kai to pull Raja's fur. However that is just not the case. The cat actually seeks Kai out. The cat will call to Kai to get his attention. Kai did not need major teaching to understand the importance of being gentle with this old gramma cat (Yes, Raja though a typically male name is a female cat. You need to ask Starr about the naming process here).

Kai's mom, Starr was one who has always been comfortable with life. I remember taking her to an ashram when she was about 5 or 6 years old. In a quiet side garden there was a coy pond. She became quiet looking at the coy. she put her little hand in the water making an upturned cup with her hand and fingers under the water. numerous little fish swam into her hand and just sat quietly. The fish were not nibbling at her fingers. They were just sitting quietly. Others in our party tried the same 'trick' but none of us obtained the same response from the fish. So.

When Starr was about two years old and just learning to express herself well i thought i would ask her about her memories of being born. i was a la leche league leader surrounded by conversations on birth and nursing and so had an interest in her perception of birth. Also she had been exposed to pregnancy and birth so i was cautious of blindly believing her story (if she had one) of what it was like to be born. What she told me stunned me ... in a good way.

We were sitting on the couch in our living room. Just Starr and i - no one else around to distract us.

i asked starr, "Do you remember what it was like being born?"

Starr nodded and said, "Yes."

"What was it like?" i asked.

She held her head in her hands and said, "Hurt."

"It hurt being born?" i asked.

Starr nodded yes.

i asked, "So, what did you want to do?"

She responded, "i wanted to go back."

i assumed where she wanted to 'go back' was to the womb, but i asked her, "Where did you want to go?"

Starr became very still and she looked at me with the eyes of an ancient being. Then without a word while maintaining focused eye contact with me she very carefully placed her index finger at the point of the third eye.

Maybe there were more questions to be asked. But the ancient eyes looking at me with powerful focused intention stilled my tongue. My little daughter had said it all. I interpreted her actions to tell me she wanted to return to at-one-ment with Creator and Creation.

So perhaps Starr's children will have a similiar understanding of Creation and Creator. Maybe.

i do think, little 10 month old Kai hanging out with the gramma cat is a good start.

WATER

W A T E R

Interview with Masaru Emoto. His work is worth continuing to consider. Dr. Emoto work first came to light some years ago. Listen and reconsider the impact of our thoughts and prayers on the world around us as shown thru the impact on water.

Link to interview on YouTube.com

Interview from Healthy Planet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoRDPgMvro4&feature=related

RIGHT vs WRONG

black - white

hot - cold

day - night

happy - sad

joyous - angry

up - down

yes - no

male - female.

left - right

GOOD vs BAD

i am right. i am wrong. i am black. i am white. i am hot. i am cold. i am day. i am night. i am happy. i am sad. i am joyous. i am angry. i am up. i am down. i am yes. i am no. i am male. i am female. i am left. i am right. i am good. i am bad.

i am not right. i am not wrong. i am not black. i am not white. i am not hot. i am not cold. i am not day. i am not night. i am not happy. i am not sad. i am not joyous. i am not angry. i am not up. i am not down. i am not yes. i am not no. i am not male. i am not female. i am not left. i am not right. i am not good. i am not bad.

http://www.lojongmindtraining.com/