Journal

12/1/19 12/1/19

Pluto and Saturn 2019-2020

Pluto/Saturn 2019-2020 Are you feeling tense/nervous/anxious? Are you feeling big shifts, but you don’t understand the shifts? Are you feeling confused and uncertain during these tense and uncertain times? It is a tense time of change. Look at the world, Hong Kong, gun violence, Chili, Haiti, U.K., U.S.A., Syria, climate change, and #metoo are some examples of intense global upheaval and change.

Here it the story from an astrological point of view: The planets Pluto and Saturn are currently very close to each other in the sky (4˚ apart at the end of November, 2019). These two planets create very powerful and difficult changes and they are currently operating together. Read this post and let me know if I can help you understand how this is impacting you.

Pluto is the planet of power, control and transformation, and is currently in the sky in the sign of Capricorn.

Capricorn represents responsibility, ambition, structure and rigidity. While Pluto travels through Capricorn, Pluto is powerful breaking down Capricorn structures and rebuilding them – completely. Pluto power is very strong and works to dig deep, destroy and rebuild – in order for empowerment and transformation to take place.

The Pluto changes are taking place in our own astrology chart, and therefore our lives. Based on where the current Pluto/Capricorn placement is in your chart, you will be experiencing this complete upheaval and restructuring. It is important to not resist these powerful transformations – if you do not work pay attention and work with Pluto, it will find a way to wake you up.

Saturn represents discipline, seriousness, hard work and fear of loss. Saturn in also currently in Capricorn, making us take these issues seriously. Saturn brings rewards for hard work and together with Pluto we must do our inner work to get the rewards. We are being asked to be mature and endure changes that are challenging. Don’t blame others. Pay attention to your goals and do not destroy others. Nobody said it would be easy! Pluto and Saturn are taskmasters. The rewards can be great at this time - don’ t miss this opportunity to grow.

This has been building for the all of 2019, and this building phase is tough – the power of the connection of the two planets is intensifying. It will continue to intensify until January 12, 2020, when Pluto and Saturn will be exactly aligned. After January 12, 2020, Saturn will move ahead of Pluto, but the impact continues – did you do the work or not (it is not over until it is over)? The transformation continues until your work is done. We have to do our work in this area of our life to navigate the transformation well.

And just to expand this intense transformative energy, Jupiter (the planet of expansion energy) joins Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn starting January 2020. Jupiter will enhance these energies for all of 2020 – and make us do our work - are we learning and growing in order be empowered.

There are two sides of Pluto – power and transformation. In what area of your life will you gain well-earned power will powerfully transform/make and accept big changes?

Look at your chart (natal chart plus transits – on www.astro.com*) to see where these planets in Capricorn land in your own chart. A transit chart shows current planetary placements in green on the outer wheel of the chart. This will show you where this intense transformative change is occurring for you. You want to look at which house (1-12) Pluto and Saturn are in your chart (see below for the definition of the houses.)
If these two planets are on top of any planets in your birth chart, the deep transformative changes will also involve these planets.
If you are age 28-30, or 58-60, you are also experiencing your Saturn return – where Saturn has returned in your chart to where it was when you were born – intensifying all of the deep changes.

Here is the definition of the houses:

HOUSES: Where does the energy manifest?

Myself.
My values, resources, and money.
My mind, thinking and communicating. My siblings. My interaction with everyday people.
My home, mother, family roots. My personal identity and security.
My creativity, love, children, and joy. Also my need to shine.
My work, health, and being of service.
My primary relationship.
Other peoples’ values, their resources and their money. Transformation.
Ideals, higher education, global, communities, and travel.
Career, public persona and being an authority.
Long-term goals and who are my long-term friends.
Spirit. Evolution of consciousness. Mysteries. What is hidden. Letting go.

For example, if Pluto moves through your 4th house you are likely to move, and feel disrupted by moving. I moved from Seattle to Hong Kong to Portland to Singapore to San Francisco and to Portland, with my husband and two children, selling and buying houses, when Pluto went through my 4th house. These were all good moves for us but also involved dramatic changes for my family and me – and it was really challenging at times. But we all learned a lot and grew a lot with these changes.

Tools to help navigate the current changes:

Take care of yourself. Good food, enough exercise and rest. Be careful with alcohol or other less healthy substances for coping.
If you are a meditator, meditate.
Do grounding exercises. Look up Tom Jacobs’s grounding meditation via my website https://theinsightcenter.net/resources/ - or contact me for healing sessions.
Choose a healthy path for your energy, such as running, riding horses, welding, cooking, painting, baths, massage, breathe, reading, writing, lifting weights, working, walking, hiking, singing, dancing, time with friends and family (if that is a positive experience for you).
Pay attention.
Read my prior blog posts for insights https://theinsightcenter.net/blog/
Read other inspiring books: poetry, history, philosophy, science fiction – whatever interests you
I am lighting a lot of candles.
Accept change. Accept that areas of your life will be changing. Let it go.
Be brave.
Be optimistic, encouraged and grateful – for the things that are about to come.

* If you want me to look this up for you, contact me at: theinsightcenter@gmail.com. I can do a short recorded reading of the Saturn/Pluto in Capricorn placement in your chart for a fee of $50.©Margaret Gervais, The Insight Center 2019. All rights reserved.

2/5/19 2/5/19

Insights for February 2019

Awakening:“Stillness in the midst of motion and commotion is free of will, direction, and time. It is a complete letting be of what is from moment to moment.” Toni Packer, “Unmasking the Self”

"A beautiful object has no intrinsic quality that is good for the mind, nor an ugly object any intrinsic power to harm it. Beautiful and ugly are just projections of the mind. The ability to cause happiness or suffering is not a property of the outer object itself. For example, the sight of a particular individual can cause happiness to one person and suffering to another. It is the mind that attributes such qualities to the perceived object." Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, The Heart of Compassion, Shambhala 2007

“If we study our own hearts, we’ll find that everything is written there. Everything.” Ayya Medhanandi Bhikkhuni, “The Dharma of Snow”, tricycle.com

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Maya Angelou

“The problem with denying any aspect of the self is that it persists as a shadow. Clearly it is not possible to eliminate desire by pretending it is not there.” Mark Epstein, Instagram.

“No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless trails and bridges and demigods who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of pawning and forgoing yourself. There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!” Nietzsche

“You must unlearn the habit of being someone else or nothing at all, of imitating the voices of others and mistaking the faces of others for your own.” Herman Hesse

“By breathing the sensations of loneliness into the heart, and by allowing ourselves to feel them fully, the experience of loneliness can gradually transform into something very different. Over time, although we may still be alone, we are no longer lonely. In this solitude there is equanimity, and a clearer sense of our place in the world.” Ezra Bayda, “At Home with Yourself” from Tricycle.

“Hope is not exactly located in space and time. Every breath can bring us to our true home.” Thich Nhat Hahn, Instagram.

“Time is a box formed by thoughts of the past and future. Dwelling in the moment is dwelling in the soul, which is eternal presence. When we’re outside of time, there’s no subject or object, it’ all just here. The thinking mind deals only with subject and object. But from within here now, you watch time go by. You are not being in time. You be, and time goes by, as if you were standing in a bridge and watching it all go by.” Ram Dass, Instagram.

Grief:

HOW IT SEEMS TO ME by Ursula K. Le Guin In the vast abyss before time, self is not, and soul commingles with mist, and rock, and light. In time, soul brings the misty self to be.Then slow time hardens self to stone while ever lightening the soul, till soul can loose its hold of self and both are free and can return to vastness and dissolve in light, the long light after time.“You may no see it now, but this very difficulty will strengthen you. Your heart will grow wiser, your spirit stronger. You already know this. You can even begin to see the ways that this is true.” Jack Kornfield, Instagram

Relationships:

“…love invariably does change us, deconditioning our painful pathologies and elevating us toward our highest human potential. It allows us, as Barack Obama so eloquently wrote in his reflections on what his mother taught him about love, “to break across our solitude, and then, if we’re lucky, [be] finally transformed into something firmer.” brainpickings.org

“Why is love rich beyond all other possible human experiences and a sweet burden to those seized in its grasp? Because we become what we love and yet remain ourselves.” Martin Heidegger, via brainpickings.org

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another but make not a bond of love:Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together, yet not too near together:For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow." Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, via brainpickings.org

“When we partner with others out of a scarcity mentality nothing lasting can come out of it. Not in love or business. Build with others only when doing so feels mutually abundant, satiating in its challenge, and on purpose for all involved.” Chani Nicholas, Instagram

9/10/18 9/10/18

Insights for July/August 2018

“Don’t be surprised how quickly the Universe moves once you’ve decided.” Consciousnessnow, Instagram.

“If you think that the whole world is your enemy, imagine that you are a basket weaver, and you have a huge pile of reeds. To make baskets you have to weave them in the right way. Similarly, faced with the challenges you encounter, you have to weave an inner basket big enough to hold all the ups and downs of life without them overwhelming you. In short, you need to take care of your mind wisely. Oral advice transcribed by the author.JIGME KHYENTSE RINPOCHE (b. 1964)

"There is a line around the block to get incarnated on earth." Ascended Master Djehuty, via Tom Jacobs, www.tdjacobs.com."

Our soul's job is to figure out how to go from fear to love." Tom Jacobs, www.tdjacobs.com.

“It might feel like your goal is stretching away from you even as you move toward it, but don't be fooled. That's just your growing awareness of the steps it takes to get from point A to point B -- but you can still take each step as it comes, in its own time. That's all we can ever do; and it gets everyone where they need to go, from a baby learning to crawl to Albert Einstein figuring out relativity.” Planet Waves Astrology by Eric Francis. Planetwaves.net."

Author Maxine Hong Kingston has lead a war veteran's writing group for twenty years, and says the group's motto is: "Tell the truth, and so make peace." Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present.

"The idea of former and future life is essential to the real practice of Buddhism. You have to be scared of where you are going in the next life to have the energy to overcome your deeper instincts. I call it the circuit breaker. Everything is interconnected. If you're endlessly interconnected, then every little thing counts. If you only get pissed of for one minute and fifty-eight seconds instead of two minutes, those two seconds are big. That's scary, but it brings you awake." Robert Thurman, 'Buddha's Champion,' Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, Lion's Roar, September, 2018.

“There is nothing in nature that blooms all year long. So don’t expect yourself to do so either.” Tiaorg, Instagram.

“Pay attention to what makes you feel most at home, grounded, and centered, whether it’s a location, person, activity, or thing. Find ways to bring more of those things, places, and people into your life on a regular basis. Go to places that feel like home, Connect with those that bring you back to yourself, and curate items that root you in your truth.” Stephanie Zamora, spiritualmovement, Instagram.

Meditation:

“When you face the inner energies that most frighten, overwhelm, and bind you, it is important to not identify with them but to stay present with an observing mind that is not taking sides." Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present.

“Meditation knows what to do. This ancient practice knows what to do. Let go and let it do its work.”

“Meditation enables “letting go”, which is a major step to self-awareness and wellness.” Margaret Gervais

“We practice ‘right concentration’ not to experience blissful states but to help us entertain uncertainty.”

“Ancient texts compare the process of concentration to the taming of a wild animal. It is a difficult endeavor, full of ups and downs, but one that yields reliable results if practiced diligently and with patience.”

“As concentration increases, the mind and body relax. Thoughts diminish, emotional pressures weaken, and a kind of calm takes over. The mind gradually comes under some degree of control and settles down.”

"The unconscious is the repository of mystery." Mark Epstein, ‘Meditation’s Secret Ingredient,” Tricycle, Spring, 2018.

"I have discovered that the more I practice [meditation], the more layers of my endlessly perfected, elaborate self-construction fall away. Peeling away the layers of identity is sometimes very painful. Sometimes it has felt like I was going to die. Of course, I didn't die, but something did."

"Ultimately, the invitation [of Insight Meditation] is to let whatever is rising be present without meddling with it. Just by turning loving attention to how life is appearing in this moment, insight can arise and we can find a way forward through our difficulties." Melissa Myozen Blacker, Roshi, 'Meeting Ourselves as we Are." Lion's Roar, September 2018.

"It is no coincidence that the words 'medication' and 'meditation' are only one letter different. They both come from the same Latin root word, medeor, meaning "to heal or to make whole."

"Empirical evidence shows that when we meditate, it triggers a self-repair mechanism in our own bodies. We stop producing cortisol and adrenalin, and instead enhance the production of immune-boosting endorphins and serotonin, arming our body against invasive bacteria, viruses and other imbalances. These changes also promote positive mental states. Indeed, many anti-depressants prescribed these days are Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRI's), which we naturally produce when we meditate." David Michie, "How to Evoke the Medicine Buddha, Lion's Roar, September 2018.

“Meditation is an arduous practice of controlling the mind towards a transformation of character. “ Dr. K.K. Tan, www.kktanhp.com

“Let your steps follow your breath, not the other way around.”

“Everyone is breathing, but not everyone is aware that they’re breathing.” Thich Nhat Hanh

Anxiety:

Many people are contacting me recently about dealing with anxiety. I have a lot of good tools to share, but this also showed up in my email today: Jack Kornfield writing about "Making Friends With Fear." Link: https://jackkornfield.com/making-friends-with-fear/You can search my blog posts on my web site, www.theinsightcenter.net for “anxiety” and see some other insights and tools, and I will soon be writing a specific blog about tools for working with anxiety.

Grief: “We all sit on the edge of a mystery. We have only known this life, so dying scares us-and we are all dying. But what if dying were perfectly safe? What if you could approach dying with curiosity and love? What if dying were the ultimate spiritual practice?” Ram Dass

Seven books recommended by LION'S ROAR, September, 2018, for how to help dying people - and how to die yourself:

The Five Initiations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully, by Frank Ostaseki,
Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End-of-Life Care, edited by Koshin Paley Ellison and Matt Weingast,
Making Friends With Death: A Buddhist Guide to Encountering Mortality, by Judith L. Lief,
No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom For Life,by Thich Nhat Hahn,
Living in the Light of Death; On the Art of Being Truly Alive, by Larry Rosenberg,
Leaning into Sharp Points; Practical Guidance and Nurturing Support for Caregivers,by Stan Goldberg,
Being With Death and Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death, by Joan Halifax.

“If I am going to die, the best way to prepare is to quiet my mind and open my heart. If I’m going to live, the best way to prepare is to quiet the mind and open my heart.” Ram Dass.

“Knowing how to use our suffering is essential to realizing true happiness.” Thich Nhat Hanh.

“So far you’ve survived 100% of your worst days. You’re doing great.” Spiritualmovement, Instagram.

“You cannot live without dying.” Consciousnessnow, Instagram

Healing:

"Pain helps us inhabit our divine nature."

"Ask yourself, how does my pain serve my soul's journey to move from fear to love?"

"Acknowledge pain and look at the higher perspective of how can this possibly serve my journey? And bring love to those painful experiences."

"You are learning that you are stronger than pain and pain empowers you." Tom Jacobs, www.tdjacobs.com

“A body is a field of moving energy and a system of information, as life continues it’s fluctuations, we tend to gather attachments, burdens and sorrows. We hold them so tightly that they become embedded in the body, causing changes and disruptions in the flow of our system while also limiting the access to the best possible versions of ourselves - this sometimes manifests itself as illness or disease as well as lack of belief in our own power and a lack of understanding of the universe.”

“When someone enters a purification process such as meditation, the practice of yoga asanas, or clean healthy eating, among many other things, the body begins releasing these knots of attachment, freeing up the blockages in our system of information, allowing our field of energy to return to balance and move more freely and powerfully. This causes changes in our body, not just physical changes such as the healing of disease or ailments, but immaterial and internal ones as well, such as believing in oneself more, the growth of love, and the aspiration to grow into more wisdom.” Yung Pueblo.

Relationships/Friendships:

“Real love comes with a powerful recognition that we are fully alive and whole despite our wounds or our fears or our loneliness. It is a state where we allow ourselves to be seen clearly by ourselves and by others, and in turn, we offer clear seeing to the world around us. It is a love that heals.” Sharon Salzberg, “Real Love.”

“It’s okay to outgrown those who prevent you from growing.” @positivelypresent, spiritualmovement, Instagram.

7/10/18 7/10/18

Insights for June 2018

Awakening:“Transforming our way of being in the world involves taking ethics seriously so that all our conduct is shaped by our newly transformed outlook and commitment to compassion.” Thupten Jinpa, Lion’s Roar July 2018.

“But awakening is nothing like the unicorns and rainbows of our imagination, although it can sometimes be glorious. It can also be subtle and even quite mundane." Melissa Myozen Blacker, Roshi, June 2018.

“In the moment of realization, everything simply appears as what it is.” Melissa Myozen Blacker, Roshi, Lion’s Roar, June 2018.

“Push yourself to live your truth every day, and grow stronger.” Eric Francis Copplolino.

“To forgive and be free, you must honor your measure of grief, betrayal, the whole difficult story, and hold it with all the compassion you can. Remember that you are bigger than anything that happens to you. Then you can turn your heart toward forgiveness." Jack Kornfield, “No Time Like the Present.”

Meditation:

“Meditation turns you completely upside down, says Norman Fisher. That’s called enlightenment.” Lion’s Roar, July 2018.

“When you meditate you elevate a problem from despair to a place of equanimity. “ Margaret Gervais

“Meditation. Is the ultimate honesty, because we face whatever arises without looking away.” Koun Franz

“...the point of meditation is to wake up. To wake up from the dream of ignorance-the dream that we are separate, independent beings. To wake up to the knowledge that we are dependent beings connected with all other beings, and therefore, by extension, to the knowledge that we are responsible for and to all beings. Compassion arises naturally from this recognition, for it experiences the suffering of others as our own and this wishes, from the heart that the suffering will end.” Jan Willis, Lion’s Roar, July 2018.

Healing: "To be free of your past, you must recognize what happened and feel it’s hold on you.It is here, consciously or unconsciously, held in your body, feelings and mind. It is critical to honor the loss before you can take the next step of letting go. Then you can practice forgiveness and with it use meditation, therapy, trauma work, art and intimate support to help touch and heal the betrayal and trauma." Jack Kornfield, “No Time Like the Present.

Anxiety:“Anxiety is so tricky…the key is to find ways to work with anxiety. And this means – and I know it is difficult – practicing relaxation.

There are a variety of ways you can do this, from standard practices of relaxation (taking a walk, going to a movie, getting away from it all) to something more radical – allowing yourself to relax with the anxiety by allowing yourself to feel it. I know that doesn’t sound like fun. It isn’t. But when you try to bargain or beat your way out of such situations, they only become more deeply entrenched. It’s a trap.Instead, you could sit down and invite the anxiety into the room. That means the feeling of the anxiety, not the story behind it. This difference is critical. The feeling is usually located in your body. Maybe your shoulders feel hunched, your tummy hurts, or your forehead tightens. Whatever it is for you, allow your attention to rest on it.When your story tries to hijack the situation (I am so messed up, if only I hadn’t said this, done that. I’ll never be successful/happy/proud/funny/smart), it is very important to let that go. Return to the felt sense of the worry. Feel the texture. Get to know it. In this way, you establish some agency within the situation rather that falling victim to it. Spend a minute or two (or longer if you like) extending the hand of friendship to your inner worrier rather than always trying to fight them off. Good luck! You can do it!” Susan Piver, “Worried About Worrying” Lion’s Roar, July 2018.

Resources:For additional resources, guided meditation, and reading lists, please go to http://theinsightcenter.net/resources/.

6/12/18 6/12/18

Insights for May 2018

Awakening:“Look at the real nature of the harm that is done to you. It is as elusive as a drawing on water. Let your resentment subside by itself. When the stormy waves of thoughts have vanished, the mind becomes like the cloudless sky that has nothing to win or lose.” Shechen Gyaltsap, theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong gi man ngag zab don sbrang rtsi'i bum bzang, pp. 441-444.

“Until you choose, you are living your non choice.Until you choose your way, you are living the way of your non choice.When you are not choosing, you are living in non choice. “ Margaret Gervais

“One of the most exquisite of Japanese terms, ‘mono no aware’, expresses an aesthetic sensibility, that’s challenging to translate. It speaks to a gentle sadness - to being deeply moved by a transient, finite nature of things. It doesn’t deny loss or bypass grief but it reminds us that the beauty of things and our appreciation of those dear to us is heightened by our awareness of their ephemeral nature.” Frank Ostaseski, “A Friend Until the End,” Lion’s Roar, July, 2018.

“Most people will view you solely through their own paradigm.That’s pretty much all that most people can do; so that’s ok.With this awareness, we can decide how to view ourselves - through their lens or through our own lens?” Margaret Gervais 5.15.18 pdx

“The ego is not an innocent bystander. While it claims to have out own best interests at heart, in its relentless pursuit of attention and power it undermines the very goals it sets out to achieve. The ego needs our help if we want a more satisfying existence, we have to teach it to loosen its grip.” Mark Epstein, “Advise Not Given,” page 2.

“When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of distress and anxiety;

If I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without any pain.

From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me.There is a great secret in this for anyone who can grasp it.” Rumi

“Do not let a cloudy mind trick you into doing things you are done with.” Yung pueblo

Healing:

“Breathe in and bring earth energy up through your root chakra and the bottom of your feet and into your whole body.

Breathe out and bring cosmic energy down through your crown chakra and into your whole body.Keep repeating.” Margaret Gervais, 5.2.18 pdx

Meditation:

You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.” Timber Hawkeye

“Repeated thoughts and stories are almost always fueled by an unacknowledged emotion or feeling underneath. These unsensed feelings are part of what brings the thought back time and again. Future planning is usually fueled by anxiety. Remembering of the past is often fueled by regret, or guilt, or grief. Many fantasies arise as a response to pain or emptiness. The task in meditation is to drop below the level of the repeated recorded message, to sense and feel the emotional energy that brings it up. When we can do this, and truly allow and come to terms with the feeling, the thought will no longer need to arise, and the pattern will naturally fade away.” Jack Kornfield, “The Path With Heart.”

Grief:

“Actually, rebirth takes place every moment, every instant. Every instant is death; every instant is birth. It’s a changing process: there’s nothing you can grasp onto; everything is changing. But there is some continuity, of course - the change is the continuity.” ~ Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Lion’s Roar, May 2018.

“A Friend Until the End,” Frank Ostaseski is a beautiful article about offering care to someone who is dying. Check it out https://www.lionsroar.com/a-friend-until-the-end/amp/

3/21/18 3/21/18

Insights for February 2018

Awakening:

“Enlightenment is our true nature and our home, but the complexities of human life cause us to forget.There’s a sense of a path of awakening we’re walking from first breath to last, and probably before and after that too. It has stages and aspects, sudden leaps forward and devastating stumbles. While what we awaken to is the same for all of us, how we awaken and express that awakening in our lives is endlessly idiosyncratic and gives the world its texture and delight.

For Westerners especially, it's important to keep remembering that awakening is something different from the projects of self-improvement and self-actualization we're used to. It's not about being a better self but about discovering our true self, which is another thing entirely....the process of awakening is less a matter of actualization and more a matter of 'truing" - of becoming aware of the way things already are. Rather than developing an enhanced and therefore more solidified self, we dissolve into something that existed before we did. We become aware of our continuity with enlightenment, which is none other than the universe itself.We still have bodies that break down in all sorts of amazing ways. We still face injustice and conflict. Awakening isn't a waiver from the shared circumstances of human life. But it does radically transform how we experience them. We are no longer beleaguered exiles but instead are now people at home even in the most difficult times, searching for ways to respond that encourage the bursting forth of the enlightenment that is present always and everywhere." Joan Sutherland, Roshi, Lion's Roar, March 2018.

“Things are empty of the mistaken reality we project in them.”Pema Chödrön, Lion’s Roar, March 2018, pg. 66.

“This is the great invitation - to live with a trusting heart. This is our freedom. The greatest Zen masters say, "Enlightenment is fulfilled by the trusting heart." Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present,"Zen Master Philip Kapleau assured his students that when their boundaries began to dissolve during retreats, "You can't fall out of the universe." Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present,"Thich Nhat Hanh tells a story of awakening from a dream in which he was having a conversation with his beloved mother a year after she has passed away. He’d been close with her, and after her death he grieved the loss terribly. But on a moonlit night in his mountain hermitage in Vietnam, he awoke from a dream of his mother, fully feeling the reality of her presence. "I understood, he said, "that my mother never died." He could hear her voice inside himself. He went outside, and she became the moonlight tenderly caressing his skin. As he walked barefoot among the tea plants, he was able to feel her with him. The idea that she was gone simply wasn't true. He realized his feet were "our" feet, he said, and "together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp evening soil." Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present

"Nothing in Life is a Straight Shot." Sharon Salzberg, Getting real with Sharon Salzberg, Mindrolling Podcast

"Become the loving witness of this human life.

Don't try to change the mountain, just sit on it." Jack Kornfield, The Essence of Buddhist Psychology, Heart Wisdom

“Your worst fears rarely come true, though sometimes it's difficult to get your mind off them. Imagine anxiety is a form of energy that can be converted into positive and creative expression. It helps to master this exchange process, given how much paranoia the world is dishing out these days.” Eric Francis, Planet Waves Astrology

"We don't know what the self is and we don't know what the self is not." Robert Thurman, shared by Mark Epstein, The Task is Being You, Tricycle Talks Podcast.

"Meet challenges with equanimity... Become your own refuge." Mark Epstein, The Task is Being You, Tricycle Talks Podcast.

"You are timeless. Whenever you forget this and identify with your mind's stories about who you are, look again." Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present.

“Nothing is hidden. We can find it in books. We can find it in the sutras. We can find it by asking. And, most important, we can find it simply by looking into ourselves.” John Loori, Asking to Exhaustion, Tricycle.com.

Healing:

"Learn to trust your body. Begin by mindfully and lovingly feeling what is going on in your body. Sense the state of your body today, its signals and needs. Listen carefully to what your body has to say to you. What healing does it want? What care? What wisdom does it have to offer you? Your body has been waiting for your attention. Trust it. Even if you have been out of touch for a long time, you can regain confidence step-by-step by trusting your bodily experience." Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present

“No matter how hard you try, you can’t please your inner critic. There is an alternative to the critic. It’s found in the movement from judgment to discernment. Discernment makes space, helps is to have perspective, and allows more of our humanity to show up.” Frank Ostaseski, The Five Initiations, pgs. 135,143.

Meditation:

“Insight meditation turns the mind away from delusion, our confused notions about ourselves, others, and our world. It turns the mind toward the reality of things as they truly are. Insight meditation helps us understand, in a series of progressive steps, the truths of egolessness, emptiness and great joy.” Gaylon Ferguson, Lion’s Roar, March 2018.

“Since you come to the cushion with the mind you have, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions will be present in your meditation. It is your relationship to them, and your awareness of their place in your meditation, that will shift as you deepen your practice.” Jules Shuzen Harris, lion’s Roar, March 2018.

[In Vipassana Meditation] “You can let go of the idea of engaging in battle with your thoughts. You don’t need to force anything. If you refrain from trying to stop your thinking process, you allow it to stop by itself. When a thought comes into your mind, whatever it might be, let it come into your mind. It is just a thought. Then release it. You don’t have to follow or pursue it. Your mind will begin to calm down.” Jules Shuzen Harris, Lion’s Roar, March 2018.

Grief:

“Every thought, every emotion, every action, every moment of time, has multiple causes and reverberations-tendrils of culture, history, hurt, and joy that stretch out mysteriously and endlessly. As with us, so with everything: all things influence one another. This is how the world appears, shimmers and shifts, moment by moment.” Norman Fisher, Lion’s Roar, March 2018, pg. 66.

2/5/18 2/5/18

Insights for January 2018

Awakening:"By releasing something, we will draw new energy into our core." Dana Gerhardt, http://mooncircles.com

" Clouds are just temporary; eventually the wind will come along and blow them away." Khenchen Thrangu, On What is Most Important, tricycle, Fall 2015.

"Taking joy in the day, even in the simpler fact of the effort we have made, is important. It gives us something positive to carry into the next day, and helps us harness motivation in the service of our intentions. Joy plays a crucial role in our motivation, especially in sustaining motivation over a prolonged period of time." Thupten Junpa Langri, PhD, Today Will Be a Day of Love and Joy, pg. 57, Lion's roar, January 2017

“Enlightenment is a state of consciousness in which the ego disappears.” Dana Gerhardt, “Gods”, The Mountain Astrologer, Dec. 2016/Jan. 2017, pg. 19.

"This is the great invitation - to live with a trusting heart. This is our freedom. The greatest Zen masters say, "Enlightenment is fulfilled by the trusting heart.""Learn to trust your body. Begin by mindfully and lovingly feeling what is going on in your body. Sense the state of your body today, its signals and needs. Listen carefully to what your body has to say to you. What healing does it want? What care? What wisdom does it have to offer you? Your body has been waiting for your attention. Trust it. Even if you have been out of touch for a long time, you can regain confidence step-by-step by trusting your bodily experience.” Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present.

"The person you thought you were five years ago, one year ago, even yesterday, is not quite the same person you are today, potentially in some profound ways. To the extent that this is shaking up your consciousness and that of the people around you, you simply must develop confidence in yourself." Eric Francis, www.planetwaves.net

“Love yourself enough to say no to what isn’t right for you. Case closed. Final sale. No returns.” Chani Nicholas

"Renewal is happening.

Take quiet time to listen to your heart, to meditate and to rest amidst the great turnings.

Feel the renewal of spring that can be born in you.Align yourself with goodness.Let yourself blossom like a lotus or whatever unique flower you are,shining in the world, offering tiny seeds of love amidst it all." Blessings to you in 2018, Jack Kornfield

Meditation:

"With the senses no longer struggling to reach pleasing forms and no longer regarding unpleasing forms as repulsive, the mind is able to see more clearly what is actually arising and falling away." Andrew Olendzki, "The Ties that Unbind."

Astrology:

“The year begins as Saturn in Capricorn barrels through the most object-dense portion of one of our galactic arms. He passes by a stream of binary, x-ray eclipsing pulsars, including the pulsar that spins the fastest. Take a moment to tune to the constancy and consistency of the pulsations. Look inside. Dive deep, then deeper, consider all sides of any issue at hand, then find the flow and groove onward. In the flow, with the pulsating messages heard, work can occur faster and more effortlessly than previously imaginable.” Philip Sedgwick, http://www.philipsedgwick.com/.

“Bottom line: as with all eclipse periods, the more you can focus on where you want to take your life, and do the things you love and want to cultivate, the better you’ll orient yourself for the next few months. The idea is to set new patterns for yourself — in my experience, even new patterns of attitude or mindset count, especially if you reinforce it with tangible action.” Eric Francis, www.planetwaves.net.

Aging:

"When I feel wise and gracious, I see that aging is just natural. It's what bodies do in the last chapters of incarnation. And then I go through periods of denial, ignoring or struggling against the stream of life. I don’t want to discount the value of healthy living to stay alive and fit, but the decline is real and inevitable."You can choose to resist or be gracious [about aging], If you age without trust, you will contract and suffer, already turning toward death. Your heart will not be free to love and enjoy each day, to dance with life..." Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present

11/8/17 11/8/17

Insights from October 2017

Awakening:

"When we recognize the spaciousness that is our universe, around us and within us, the door of freedom opens. Worries and conflict fall into perspective, emotions are held with ease and we act amid troubles of the world with peace and dignity."

"Whether it's physical or emotional pain, anything you give space to can be transformed

"Love and spacious awareness are your true nature. They comingle. The sage Nisargadatta frames it this way: "Wisdom says I am nothing. Love says I am everything." Consciousness knows each experience; love connects it all. For a time you can get caught up in fear and separation. We all do. And then loving awareness remembers. Oh, this too, is a place to love."

"It is this simple: your whole life is a curriculum of love."

"During hard times, trust demands a shift from the small self, the body of fear, to a connection with that which is vast, sacred, holy. It is a trust in the greatness of the human spirit."

"We can't step into the same river twice." Old Buddhist wisdom on impermanence. Each moment is born and dies. Moment to moment.

"Yes, things are uncertain, but wisdom brings us to love, perspective, and the ability to trust. Wisdom invites us to live, with a trusting heart."

"The best forms of healing, therapy, and meditation are all about learning to trust."

"Feel yourself being held by a living universe." Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present

"In your life, something must die so that something new can be born. One trick is to take it on faith that something is being born even though you can’t yet see it. Recognize that whatever is dying needs to get out of the way. You can take comfort in that perspective now – or you can take comfort in it later." Steven Forrest, forrestastrology.com.

" 'We should not think of our past as definitely settled, for we are not a stone or a tree,' wrote poet Czeslaw Milosz. 'My past changes every minute according to the meaning given it now, in this moment.'

So, yes, you have the power to re-vision and reinterpret your past. Keep the following question in mind as you go about your work: "How can I recreate my history so as to make my willpower stronger, my love of life more intense, and my future more interesting?" Rob Brezsny, *PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA*, Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter, November 8, 2017

Healing:

“The secret to healing lies in exploring our wounds in order to discover what is really there.” Frank Ostaseski, “The Five Initiations”.

Grief:

"I am not the only person with aging parents. It is part of the human journey. ... With a spacious heart, we can remember the bigger picture. Even when illness strikes, a parent is dying, or any other form of loss is upon us, we can recognize that it's part of life's seasons." Jack Kornfield, "No Time Like the Present," pg.10.

“In my end is the beginning” T.S. Eliot"Human incarnation is mysterious because it ends. Death will come to you and wipe the slate, no matter who you are, no matter how small or great your accomplishments." Jack Kornfield, No Time Like the Present

Resources:I have a list of recommended books on my web site at http://theinsightcenter.net/resources/. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

7/31/17 7/31/17

Insights from June and July 2017

Awakening:

"Do the work to become the source of self love that you need."

"You can't harm the soul; it's outside of time."

"How do we become the source of love ourselves? Your soul allows rejected-ness and pain - guaranteed - to help you find self love." Tom Jacobs, podcast,

"The consciousness behind your human life is your soul, and your soul comes to Earth again and again in order to learn what i's like to be human. Families are agreed upon by souls before incarnation so that all members get the chance to learn how to be human. It's an incubator for your soul's growth while human, as it knows you need to be trained how to be a person. It knows you'll be helpless and clueless and birth and you'll need help to survive as well as models of how to be human.” Tom Jacobs, tdjacobs.com.

"Growth is uncomfortable because you've never been here before - you've never been this version of you. So give yourself a little grace and breathe through it." @spiritsoul, Instagram

"Your body ages, your awareness/your soul, does not."

"We are part of an enormous life force; and its ageless and timeless."

Our capacity to awaken is endless."

"Who you are was born into your body; it is not your body." Jack Kornfield

"The stories we tell of our past are written on water." Jack Kornfield, "no Time Like the Present", pg. 102

"It is because we're afflicted by the thorn of craving and attachment that we act unskillfully." Andrew Olendzki

"What would happen if you looked straight at your fear and said, 'Hello, what are you here to teach me?'"

"Life throws you curve balls, be brave."

"I am not then, I am now."

"You can reconstruct the present in the past and you can reconstruct the future in the present." Margaret Gervais

"Not one of us is here by mistake. Not one of us is out of place. Not one of us is unwanted by life. This world is deeply incomplete without each of us in it. Incomplete without each of our individual imprints on it. Our specific touch." Chani Nicholas, http://chaninicholas.com/

"We are not the small self our worries believe us to be. We are life renewing itself again and again. Trust knows that nothing real can be lost. ...Be the One Who Knows (the original nature of mind, the silent witness, spacious consciousness, according to Ajahn Chah) the witness to it all. This is how trust grows." Jack Kornfield, "No Time Like The Present", pg. 11 and 41.

"Wise trust is not naive." pg. 44.

"Hardship and loss are the graduate school of trust. They teach us survival and freedom that is unshakable. There is a force born in us from a thousand generations of ancestors, survivors who have offered us life. Now it's our turn." pg. 44.

"The heart can trust in the timeless spirit behind the magnificent dance." Jack Kornfield, "No Time Like the Present", pg. 46.

Astrology:

The August 21, Solar Eclipse

As everyone probably knows, a total Solar Eclipse occurs on August 21, 2017 (11:30:41 PST) . On this day, the Moon will pass between the Sun and the Earth, in a direct lineup, blocking the light of the sun from reaching the Earth, thus the Sun is eclipsed. It will be completely visible from a pathway crossing the United States, and if you are in the center of the pathway (path of totality) you will be in the center of the Moon's shadow hitting the earth. The sky will become very dark, just like nighttime. If you are outside of the pathway, you will see a partial solar eclipse, where the moon covers part of the sun.

You don't have to see the total solar eclipseto be impacted by the phenomenon (energetic shift) of the eclipse. Many are feeling the intensity of the energy already, as these kinds of shifts start before the actual alignment and build toward the day and time of the event. Others will feel more of a shift during that week, or during that day of the eclipse. As the energy is now moving toward the eclipse, we can benefit from being aware and prepared. Also be aware that the energetic impact of the eclipse will last months after the actual event.

What's the energetic shift? The Sun is our life force personal (ego) energy, it is how we shine, and the Sun will be blocked (eclipsed) by the Moon, which is our emotional security energy. In other words, our ego will be blocked by our emotions. The light of the sun, which sustains us will be blocked. It's a deep and intense time for realizing what works for you and what doesn't. What has been hiding? What do you want to continue to shine in your life and what will you allow to fade away? These are deep issues to be aware of, contemplate, let go and reset. Sit in meditation. Take time out to be quiet and reflect. Write. Draw. Paint. Read. Be in nature. Yell out loud. Dance. Do what feels good to you and allow yourself to transform.

What does emotional (moon) energy and life source (Sun) alignment look like for you? What doesn't fit into this alignment? What will be eclipse for you? And what will be aligned?

This is a powerful time to recalibrate. The solar eclipse is happening in the sign of Leo, which is a very bold, brave, highly charged regal force of energy. Be aware. Be open. Be contemplative. Seize your power. Seize the power of solar and emotional shift and alignment and create from this place. Create what will evolve for you out of this manifestation for change. Have a vision of your six months and twelve months following Aug 21and hold that in a sacred space for yourself.

Grief

"The Five Invitations"

Don't wait
Welcome everything. Push away nothing.
Bring your whole self to the experience.
Find a place of rest in the middle of things.
Cultivate "Don't know" mind." Frank Ostaseski, "Starting With the Fruit", Heart Wisdom Podcast. May 18, 2017.

"Don't just stand there with your hair turning grey, soon enough the seas will sink your little island.So while there is still the illusion of time, set out for some other shore.No sense packing a bag, you won't be able to lift it into your boat.Give away all of your collections, take only new seeds and an old stick.Send out some prayers on the wind before you sail. Don't be afraid, someone knows you are coming.An extra fish has been salted."Sono. Frank Ostaseski, "Starting With the Fruit", Heart Wisdom Podcast., May 18, 2017.'

"Mother's dying almost stunned my spirit....She slipped from our fingers like a flake gathered by the wind, and is now part of the drift called 'the infinite..'" Emily Dickinson, from brainpickings.org

"Whether it's physical or emotional pain, anything you give space to can be transformed." Jack Kornfield, "No Time Like the Present," pg. 17

5/15/17 5/15/17

Insights from March and April 2017

Awakening:"You get to be at home with change. You get to be at home with uncertainty. You get to be at home with not knowing how it all comes out. And you make a plan knowing full well that it may be totally irrelevant a moment later, and you're at peace with that." Ram Dass"The more you let go the higher you rise." Yasmin Mogahed, #inayahquotes

"What we choose, creates. Have courage to say yes and courage to say no."

"Our level of embodiment matters a lot."

"The need to say yes always comes with the need to say no."

"Edit what you vibrate."

"The courage to say 'no thanks.' to the little stuff builds courage to say 'Yes.' to the bigger things."

"Exercise a muscle in your subconscious."

"Can I expand through this relationship?"

"Every choice is in alignment of not. Alignment builds, dis-alignment leaks."

"Look where you are leaking energy and plug it."

Tom Jacobs, Astrologer, http://www.tdjacobs.com/ Tom Jacobs has an excellent grounding meditation available on his website that you can listen to for free.

Astrology:"The more I watch astrology work the more I firmly believe that Saturn absolutely rules good strong results. He rewards hard work. He rewards discipline, dedication and drive. All these attributes neatly apply and become exceedingly useful when working “plan your life,” “grab that goal” mise en place activities." Philip Sedgwick, http://www.philipsedgwick.com/

Grief:

A Meditation on Grief“When after heavy rain the storm clouds disperse, is it not that they’ve wept themselves clear to the end?”~Ghalib

"Grief is one of the heart’s natural responses to loss. When we grieve we allow ourselves to feel the truth of our pain, the measure of betrayal or tragedy in our life. By our willingness to mourn, we slowly acknowledge, integrate, and accept the truth of our losses. Sometimes the best way to let go is to grieve.It takes courage to grieve, to honor the pain we carry. We can grieve in tears or in meditative silence, in prayer or in song. In touching the pain of recent and long-held griefs, we come face to face with our genuine human vulnerability, with helplessness and hopelessness. These are the storm clouds of the heart.Most traditional societies offer ritual and communal support to help people move through grief and loss. We need to respect our tears. Without a wise way to grieve, we can only soldier on, armored and unfeeling, but our hearts cannot learn and grow from the sorrows of the past.To meditate on grief, let yourself sit, alone or with a comforting friend. Take the time to create an atmosphere of support. When you are ready, begin by sensing your breath. Feel your breathing in the area of your chest. This can help you become present to what is within you. Take one hand and hold is gently on your heart as if you were holding a vulnerable human being. You are.As you continue to breathe, bring to mind the loss or pain you are grieving. Let the story, the images, the feelings comes naturally. Hold them gently. Take your time. Let the feelings come layer by layer, a little at a time.Keep breathing softly, compassionately. Let whatever feelings are there, pain and tears, anger and love, fear and sorrow, come as they will. Touch them gently. Let them unravel out of your body and mind. Make space for any images that arise. Allow the whole story. Breathe and hold it all with tenderness and compassion. Kindness for it all, for you and for others.The grief we carry is part of the grief of the world. Hold it gently. Let it be honored. You do not have to keep it in anymore. You can let it go into the heart of compassion; you can weep.Releasing the grief we carry is a long, tear-filled process. Yet it follows the natural intelligence of the body and heart. Trust it, trust the unfolding. Along with meditation, some of your grief will want to be written, to be cried out, to be sung, to be danced. Let the timeless wisdom within you carry you through grief to an open heart." Jack Kornfield, The meditation is taken from the book, The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace.

"Being alive means engaging in a continual process of transformation. Nothing in the natural world stays the same. Everything shows signs of being in relationship with its environment. Trees cannot deny the effects of a forest fire. Rocks do not try to hide the smoothness that results from the relentless pounding of waves upon them. Icebergs do not feign being untouched by the rising temperatures of our planet.Yet we humans try to defend ourselves against the inevitable changes. Aging. Loss. Grief. We spend so much of our resources chasing some external solution to our internal discomfort. We have such difficulty sitting with the feelings that, if felt all the way through, could renew us. Release us. Transform us.Our transformation depends on our ability to sit with and accept the feelings that arrive with the truth. Not our version of how we wish life would be and not the version of reality that we need to be true in order to justify how we are living. Just the honest truth. How it lands with us in this moment. What it means for our life. Right here, right now.”

"Nothing about our lives or about this world will ever change without our willingness to be relentlessly honest. Especially about our past. Especially about our present. Especially when accepting the truth means that it’s time to let something go." Chani Nicholas, http://chaninicholas.com/

3/10/17 3/10/17

Insights for February 2017

Awakening:"the only way you can keep you heart open is by living simultaneously on more than one plane of consciousness. When I was in India, there was a time in Bangladesh when things were just falling apart, and I wanted to take my VW and use it as an ambulance. My guru didn’t tell me to or not to, but he saw how agitated I was, and he said, “Ram Dass, don’t you see it’s all perfect?” and I said, “Perfect?!” – I was outraged because people were dying and suffering. My self-righteousness was outraged. How could it be perfect if people were being violated, and there is injustice? Yet he would cry over the suffering, and he would do things to alleviate suffering, so I began to try to embrace the paradox of the planes of consciousness, in which there are inconsistencies. It involves the evolution of the individual soul through all kinds of learning experiences that involve suffering and death, but if you are looking at it through the eyes of your separateness, through your individual rational mind, it becomes a trap where you cannot see that it is all simultaneously perfect and it stinks." Ram Dass

"I won't walk the path of the false hero." Margaret Gervais 2.7.17

“You are the universe expressing itself as a human for a little while.” Eckhart Tolle

"I have sovereignty over my reactions." Ann Ortelee

"Reality has cracked apart. Enter the crack and fly." Kathy Biehl.

"It is as it isI am as I am and now is my time." Kathy Biehl

"If you are dancing in front of someone and your feet are bleeding and they aren't ever noticing you, it's time to leave the room." Kathy Biehl.

"With maturity, one learns to be at peace instead of just keeping it around you." Dana Gerhardt

"Turn away from the polarized political confusion.

Quiet your mind, listen to your heart, follow the Dharma.

Embody compassion for all.

Stand up for your highest values.

Speak out for tolerance.

Turn toward that which is important.

Now is the time to reflect, to care, to act wisely and to protect one another and all that matters.

May you do so and bring your blessings to this earth." Jack Kornfield

"Accepting the weather is a beautiful practice of tolerance and impermanence." Margaret Gervais 2.23.17

2/5/17 2/5/17

Insights for November/December 2016 and January 2017

Awakening:"There's an unbroken wisdom tradition inside you. That's one way to understand your intuition." Dana Gerhart, 'Why Naked?’ The Mountain Astrologer, Oct/Nov 2016, p. 10.

"How do we know if we are attached to something? Because it creates tension in your mind. Sending love to all beings. May we all learn that when we let go we can be more present and loving."

"Letting go doesn't mean forgetting,it just means we stop carrying theenergy of the past into the present."Yung Pueblo beautifully describes letting go and healing.

"Healing begins with acceptance and culminates with letting go.

They taught us that we can't change the past, but in a very intimate, profound, and beautiful way we can. When a great misery occurs it remains with us for as long as we hold on to it, attachments become attachments because of the energy we use to keep what happened or the image of what we want to happen locked away within our mind and body - this is the cause of tension in our being. When we hold on to these attachments they travel with us as a burden, from the past, to our present, and into our future. They can even travel forward in our lineage long after we are gone.

The miracle of healing ourselves is so powerful, because in the movement of accepting and letting go, we relinquish the energy of burden not only in our present, but in our past and future as well. Imagine the timeline of your life, now imagine the burdens that you carry as an extra line layered on top of your normal timeline. As we let go of our miseries, this extra layer becomes thinner and thinner. Yes, it may not change what happened, but the extra energy we carried because of these occurrences will no longer weigh down the timeline of our life. What happened happened, but now these moments are no longer attachments of pain and sorrow, now they are lessons we learn from, lessons that bring us into a present of greater freedom, happiness, and wisdom.

Letting go is not an easy process, it requires a practice that produces results and a commitment to continue delving inward so we can release deeper and deeper attachments. We all heal differently, but know that there is something out there for you. Be bold, courageous, find a practice that suits you and meets you where you are. Healing will come to those who seek it. Sending love to all beings. May we all reap the benefits of letting go. May we all be happy and peaceful."

"the goal the universe has for you is freedom." yung pueblo (follow him on Facebook and Instagram.)

"Truth is one of the vehicles for deepening spiritual awareness through another human being, and if there is a license for that in the relationship, in any relationship – with guru, with friend, with lover, with whatever it is – it is an absolutely optimum way of coming into a liquid spiritual relationship with another person. But it’s very, very delicate because people feel very vulnerable. They have parts of their mind that are cut off, that the idea that’s been socialized is, “If I show this part of me, I would not be acceptable.” And the ability to risk that, finally you learn how to have your truth available." Ram Dass

"To learn to trust - start with 'I don't know.'" Adam Gainsburg, January 2017, astrologyhub.com.

"Empower your own truth (your internal truth is connected to your heart and your soul) and that'll weaken their truth."

"Make space for essential self and you'll feel your creative source; your unique mission for the shift."

I love this, from Monique Leurink: "What is your truth? What do you hold inside? How much percentage do you live this truth? Please increase this percentage."

"I rule my life using my creative force."

"Don't stay focused on what doesn't work. Focus on what works and it will expand."

"The more you take power in the more power you will have." Monique Leurink, January, 2017, astrologyhub.com

"I'm done limiting how I show up in the world. I’m done hiding. I’m going to take the blessing of being sensitive and let go of the curse. I’m not interested in avoiding negativity. I want to help heal it. The weight of the world is not on my shoulders, but bringing a peaceful world out of my heart is. There are two ways I handle the negativity of others. One believes that even though I feel it, I don't have to allow it close to me. Being sensitive doesn’t mean I don't have a choice as to what I take into my heart. I absolutely have a choice. Once empowered by this, I no longer feel vulnerable. I don't have to avoid the news or negative people. I can stand in my light and trust myself. The other way..." Search elephantjournal.com for "Protecting my Sensitive Self: How to Cope with Anxiety about the world." to read the rest of the article. elephantjournal on Instagram.

"What raises consciousness? Sustained intention." Margaret Gervais 11.15.16 Portland

"When you get a cellular calling, respond." Isabeau Corbridge, 12.25.16, Portland.

"If you tell a mountain that it should be an eagle, surely that mountain will spend its days wishing it could fly, instead of being proud of its incredible strength." Topher Kearby, spiritualrevolutionary, Instagram.

"feel everything, because you're healing. and because you are allowed to experience all of your emotions at once or in waves. feelings give you permission to start the process of making your way back home. why get lost in hiding from yourself?" spiritsoul, Instagram.

Astrology for 2017:

"Be radiant like your sun [sign] and combine it with your truth:

Aries - boldness

Taurus- down to earth

Gemini - wit

Cancer - tenderness

Leo - strength

Virgo - attentiveness

Libra - justice

Scorpio - depth

Sagittarius - fiery depth

Capricorn - class

Aquarius - freedom

Pisces - mysticism" Monique Leurink, January 2017, Astrology Hub.

Meditation:

"Much of the time our mind is thick, with thoughts and emotions and cognitive content, but when focused on the breath or on some other object it narrows, gets sharper and more precise, and is increasingly capable of becoming aware of just that thin sliver of experience presenting itself in the present moment." Andrew Olendzki, "Giving Pain the Slip."

"When do we know if we are attached to something? Because it creates tension in your mind. Sending love to all beings. May we all learn that when we let go we can be more present and loving." yung pueblo.

Current Affairs:

A Trump Presidency Need Not Be the End TimesPosted on November 9, 2016 by Bhikkhu Bodhi |Ven. Bhikkhu BodhiIt was with feelings of shock and dismay that early this morning I woke up to learn that Donald Trump had been elected president of the United States. Although, as a monk, I do not endorse political candidates or align myself with political parties, I feel that as a human being inhabiting this fragile planet, I have an obligation to stand up for policies that promote economic and social justice, respect for the innate dignity of all human beings, and preservation of the earth’s delicate biosphere. By the same token, I must oppose policies detrimental to these ideals. I see politics, not merely as a naked contest for power and domination, but as a stage where great ethical contests are being waged, contests that determine the destiny—for good or for ill—of everyone in this country and on this planet.Trump’s presidential campaign challenged each of the ethical ideals I cherish, and if he acts upon his campaign pledges, his policies may entail misery for people in the United States and all across the world. His campaign repeatedly demeaned people because of their ethnicity, religion, and national origins. He threatened to deny women their reproductive rights and access to critical healthcare. He said he would cut taxes on the rich, curtail essential social services for working families, and deport millions of undocumented immigrants. He proposed to deal with crime by imposing “law and order,” a code expression affirming the harsh American system of mass incarceration, particularly of black males. Most alarmingly, he said he would promote an energy boom in fossil fuels—just at a time when we desperately need to be launching a renewable energy revolution. If he actually acts on his words, carbon emissions will soar, climate change will spin out of control, and water and air will become terribly polluted. Huge swaths of the planet will be rendered barren, decimating ever more species and bringing disaster and death to hundreds of millions of people.In the face of Trump’s victory, we are likely to feel dejected and demoralized, but this is exactly what we must resist. Yes, we should feel saddened. Yes, we should feel worried—very worried. We should feel moral outrage at what his victory portends. But we should not feel despondent and resign ourselves to a passive acquiescence in our fate. We have to preserve hope. We have to arouse courage to withstand the tides of hatred, bigotry, and resentment that may be unleashed by a Trump administration. We need to resist the growing tide of fascism, in whatever guise it may appear, and to root out the lies and disinformation that nourish it. No matter how ominous the coming years may be, we must remain determined to preserve our democracy from being undermined from within and transformed into an autocratic plutocracy—government by the rich and privileged.In my view, the struggle that lies ahead requires that those devoted to a progressive vision of American society transcend the particular interests of the groups with which they are personally aligned and form alliances to create a broad-based progressive movement rooted in a recognition of our shared values. Whether one’s calling be with Black Lives Matter, with the living wage campaign, with women’s reproductive rights, with gender rights, with environmental and climate issues, with contemplative spirituality, or any other, we must come together under a common banner, recognizing that it is only by standing together in a unified front that we can prevail against the regressive forces that will be trying to destroy our noblest ideals and greatest democratic achievements.While Trump’s victory probably stemmed largely from the support he gathered from white working class people whose jobs had been exported overseas through free trade agreements, it is far from certain that the policies he adopts will actually benefit these people. If he fails to meet their expectations, it is possible that white working class people, whether in the Rust Belt or the South, will come to see that their interests, too, align with those of other members of the “underclass.” This could result in the emergence of a stronger united front, one that brings together minorities and white working people in a common demand for a new moral economy, a social and economic order that works for everyone and enables everyone to flourish.For the present, however, we have to be prepared to face dark times. To prevail against the darkness, we must hold fast to our cherished ideals of truth, love, compassion, and justice. We must also maintain the faith that, while ignorance and hatred may at times be dominant, through concerted action patiently pursued we can finally usher in an era of justice, love, and human unity.The above essay represents the personal opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the view of Buddhist Global Relief as an organization. This entry was posted in News item, Politics & food justice, Social justice and tagged Bhikkhu Bodhi, Engaged Buddhism, Global warming, Poverty in America, Social justice.

"Now is the Time to Stand Up", Jack Kornfield, https://jackkornfield.com/now-is-the-time-to-stand-up/"Collective wellbeing arises when we govern by wisdom and loving-kindness instead of fear. “Human beings should refrain from causing harm to one another and not allow their actions to be based on hatred and greed,” said the Buddha, in words that speak directly to modern times. 'They should refrain from killing, from stealing. They should refrain from occupations that bring suffering, from weapons trade, from any actions that bring the enslavement of others.' Through these words, he was not proclaiming a religious code. He was providing a social psychology for the happiness of individuals and the collective." Jack Kornfield, "The Wise Heart.""For each of us, you’ve got to be very quiet to hear your unique dharma, your unique way of expression.Somebody comes along and their major thing in life is to regain the rights of indigenous peoples.Someone else comes along and their major thing is to awaken people to environmental degradation.Someone else comes along and their major thing is to clean up the incredible oppression of women.It isn’t a question of which thing is worse, or which is more worthwhile. Each person has to hear what is their part in the whole process of how their compassion expresses itself.I am doing this gig. This is my part. It’s no better than your part, it’s just my part. I’m not under some illusion that I have a different part and I honor everybody else’s part, I just have to constantly keep listening to hear what my part is anew." Ram Dass 1.8.17

"At the worst extreme, good intentions can be mixed with profound delusion. Stalin and Mao Tse-tung each claimed good intentions, trying to purge the exploitation of the past, and to enhance the power of the masses. Under their deluded intentions, millions were starved or murdered. To be wise, we have to examine our intention to ensure that it is free from delusion. The ends do not justify the means. If our actions will bring harm to others, even in the service of some “good,” most likely they are deluded. If our actions do not come from a kind heart, from loving courage and compassion, they are deluded. If they are based on “us” and “them,” they stem from delusion. Only to the extent that we act from the wisdom of no separation, understanding how we are woven together, will our intention bring benefit." Jack Kornfield, http://ow.ly/HrRd306rlgF" `

11/2/16 11/2/16

Insights for October 2016

Awakening:

"If you spend 30 seconds in the luminous experience of why you were born to live, it will change your life forever."

"When you are serious about deepening, circumstances will arrive to challenge you."

"When the light starts to shine within you, more is exposed."

"How afraid are you of your own internal depth?

""Find your 'thread of continuity' from what you are deeply meant to do to how you are living."

"Don't rush a solution - stay with the problem and digest the issue and solutions will manifest."

"Reality is the constant self expression of who you are."

"When you are serious about deepening, circumstances will arrive that will challenge you." Mark Jones, 'The Destiny Line" workshop, 10.8.16, Portland.

"You don't have to overthink being in alignment with your destiny." Margaret Gervais

"It's a little more like the image of a caterpillar - enclosing itself in a cocoon in order to go through the metamorphosis to emerge as a butterfly. The caterpillar doesn't say: "Well now. I'm going to climb into this cocoon and come out a butterfly." It's just an inevitable process. It's inevitable. It's just happening. It's GOT to happen that way.We're talking about a metamorphosis; we're talking about going from a caterpillar to butterfly. We're talking about how to become a butterfly. I mean, the caterpillar isn't walking around saying, "Man I'll soon be a butterfly, because as long as he's busy being a caterpillar he can't be a butterfly. It's only when caterpillarness is done that one starts to be a butterfly and that again is part of this paradox - you cannot rip away caterpillarness." Ram Dass

"To be free means to open your heart and your being to the fullness of who you are, because only when you are resting in the place of unity can you truly honor and appreciate others and the incredible diversity of the universe." Ram Dass

"You can reconstruct your future in your present." Margaret Gervais 10.31.16

"The challenge of total transformation - individual - personal and collective - social - is confronting us, if our eyes are open, our minds clear, and our ego allows us to reach beyond its fears and its insecure boundaries. When we are able to accept such a challenge, everything changes." From Humanistic to Transpersonal Astrology, Dan Rudhyar, 1975.

"From the same inexhaustible source all seeds grow and develop, all cells realize their function - There is a structural law, a cosmic principle by which perceptible forms are sustained and which governs the process of transformation in all things. This can be realized only because the center principle manifests itself through man in the same ways as it does through a flower or a star; in it we may discover our cosmic commonality - our cosmic community ... At the core each man is the center of his own compass and experiences...""We are defined not only by our place on the physical level, but by our position in consciousness, and these are an interdependent whole..." Mandala, Jose and Miriam Arguelles, 1972, p.12-13.

"the secret is believing in yourself so deeply that no matter the obstacle, you will be able to create a bridge from your deepest aspiration to a future that you always knew was your destiny" yung pueblo

"I kept running away from my darkness until I understood that in it I would find my freedom" yung pueblo

"if you ignore it, you cannot heal it" yung pueblo

"the people with the power to move and act through unconditional love will be the healers and heroes of our planet." yung pueblo

"it is not over until you are free" yung pueblo

Fear:

"Future fear is only based on actual past fear re-enacting." Mark Jones, 'The Destiny Line" workshop, 10.8.16, Portland.

Grief:

"Before I could release the weight of my sadness and pain, I first had to honor its existence." Yung Pueblo

"By pushing away the painful aspect of an experience, Freud observed, his friends were isolating themselves from their own capacity to love. ...love and grieving, like separation and connection, are co-constitutive. Opening oneself to one emotion deepens the experience of the other. The heart can open in sadness as much as it does in joy." Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart, Mark Epstein, M.D., p. 64.

Relationships:

"I think in relationships, you create an environment with your own work on yourself, which you offer to another human being to use to grow in the way they need to grow. You keep working – you become the soil – moist and soft and receptive so the person can grow the way they need to grow, because how do you know how they should grow?" Ram Dass

"...love — at its truest and most potent, love invariably does change us, deconditioning our painful pathologies and elevating us toward our highest human potential."

"In the most nourishing kind of love, the communion of togetherness coexists with an integrity of individuality, the two aspects always in dynamic and fluid dialogue."Brain Pickings, http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=13eb080d8a315477042e0d5b1&id=b5039e55b6&e=82cf85030d

Healing:

"Healing yourself is the development of your personal feeling of freedom and happiness." Yung Pueblo

"Nothing softens the wounds of your ancestors like the sweetness of your existence." undocumedia on instagram

"It doesn't matter that you can't remember past lives, you are still existentially responsible for it."

"Bring the truth of your history to the present."

"Don't give up what's most precious to your deeper self to function as a conditioned self." Mark Jones, 'The Destiny Line" workshop, 10.8.16, Portland.

"if you ignore it, you cannot heal it" yung pueblo

"before we can heal and let go, what ails us deeply must first come to the surface" yung pueblo

Astrology:

Where is Uranus in your birth chart, email me back and I will tell/remind you!

"Uranus represents energetic soul memory."

"Uranus is the critical astrological significance of trauma."Mark Jones, 'The Destiny Line" workshop, 10.8.16, Portland.

"Pluto starts to make soul memories into a narrative." Mark Jones, 'The Destiny Line" workshop, 10.8.16, Portland.

"Every birth-chart is the mandala of an individual life. It is the blue-print of the process of individuation for this particular individual. To follow it understandingly is to follow 'the conscious way," the way of collective wholeness, that is, the way of the active fulfillment of the wholeness of being that is Self (as Jung understands this term.) The Astrology of Personality, Dane Rudhyar, 1936, p.113.

For those of you curious about the BBC story that tends to resurface now and then that says there are actually 13 signs of the zodiac and your sign is off, this is the best description I have seen in a long time that explains how astrology uses the signs of the zodiac - not the actual exact degrees of the stars forming the constellations in the sky.

"What we use is really the earth's Aura, It is a sphere or ovoid, the poles of which coincide with the poles of the Ecliptic and its middle or equatorial plane is the Ecliptic. ... This sphere is divided into twelve parts like the sections of an orange, and it is these sections which constitute the "signs" of the zodiac. We are, however, chiefly concerned with its equatorial plane, for it is this which we measure in signs or degrees, and which determines the zodiacal position of a planet. ... The "aura" does not turn round each day with the rotation of the earth on its axis, but the Earth spins round within it, like the wheel on a gyroscope." Casting the Horoscope, Alan Leo, p. 229-230.

10/5/16 10/5/16

Healing

"True maturation on the spiritual path requires that we discover the depth of our wounds. As Achaan Chah put it, 'If you haven’t cried a number of times, your meditation hasn’t really begun.'" Jack Kornfield

In dealing with trauma, and working to heal trauma, we need to discover its roots. This is really important work about inheritance of family trauma. https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/an-excerpt-from-it-di…/

"To be free of your past, you must recognize what happened and feel its hold on you.It is here, consciously or unconsciously, held in your body, feelings and mind. It is critical to honor the loss before you can take the next step of letting go. Then you can practice forgiveness and with it use meditation, therapy, trauma work, art and intimate support to help touch and heal the betrayal and trauma." Jack Kornfield, “No Time Like the Present.

“Breathe in and bring earth energy up through your root chakra and the bottom of your feet and into your whole body.

Breathe out and bring cosmic energy down through your crown chakra and into your whole body.

Keep repeating.” Margaret Gervais, 5.2.18 pdx

"Pain helps us inhabit our divine nature."

"Ask yourself, how does my pain serve my soul's journey to move from fear to love?"

"Acknowledge pain and look at the higher perspective of how can this possibly serve my journey? And bring love to those painful experiences."

"You are learning that you are stronger than pain and pain empowers you." Tom Jacobs, www.tdjacobs.com

8/15/16 8/15/16

Insights for July 2016

Awakening:"From the soul’s point of view, you come to appreciate that each one of us is living out his or her own karma. We interact together, and those interactions are the grist for each other’s mill of awakening. From a personality point of view, you develop judgment, but from the soul’s point of view, you develop appreciation. This shift from judging to appreciating — to appreciating yourself and what your karmic predicament is, and who other beings are with their own karma — brings everything into a simple loving awareness. To be free means to open your heart and your being to the fullness of who you are, because only when you are resting in the place of unity can you truly honor and appreciate others and the incredible diversity of the universe." Ram Dass

"Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do." Clarissa Pinkola Estes, American poet, post-trauma specialist and Jungian psychoanalyst, author of Women Who Run With the Wolves. Thank you to Carol Ferris for sharing this with me.

“As she swam in the ocean of wisdom, the distance that she once saw between her and the stars in the sky began to vanish, all that once separate no longer felt far away. Gently, the “I” that caused so much trouble began to evaporate. As she embraced the oneness of life, it dawned on her that the entirety of the universe rested completely in her heart.” Yung Pueblo, Swimming Freely

“There is a larger frame to the painting than the one that bounds our life’s events.” Ram Dass

Grief:

“The young psyche is absorbed in itself and its point of view, until something happens to destroy that innocence – we fall in love and the person leaves us, or someone in our family dies, or there is a crushing disappointment, like not getting into the college we had our heart set on because we didn’t’ make the grade. Whatever it is, something breaks the heart, and when the heart is broken, the wound begins in the psyche, the wound that will act like the grain of sand in the oyster. Dealing with that wound over years, with awareness and hard work, will produce the pearl of inner essence that cannot be taken away, because it’s indestructible. But to build an inner indestructible essence, we must first be destroyed in our more naïve form. “ James Hillman

Trauma:

“The focus of the trauma healing work [for highly sensitive beings], then, is two-fold: warmth and empathy for the original experience and empathy for the child who received a negative, rather than a caring response.” Sarah Peyton

Astrology:

"’Eris is the Greek goddess of discord and strife,’ Astronomer Mike Brown, a member of the discovery team, said via NASA. "She stirs up jealousy and envy to cause fighting and anger among men." Eris is currently conjunct (right next to) Uranus - the planet that is electrifying and impulsive and causes quick dramatic change. They are both square (causing conflict) with Pluto - the planet of power and transformation, all for the next four years. Make sense? Powerful changes+immediate impulsive changes+discord and strife. What to do? Do what you can. Don't ignore the trauma happening around the world, and possibly around you, be aware and see what it is in you that needs to and can change. Then go with the flow of deep strong powerful transformation and be part of the power of good.” Margaret Gervais

7/7/16 7/7/16

Insights for June 2016

Honeysuckle. SP16. Portland. Margaret Gervais

Awakening:“Acting with compassion is not doing good because we think we ought to. It is being drawn to action by heart-felt passion. It is giving ourselves into what we are doing, being present in the moment – no matter how difficult, sad or even boring it feels, no matter how much it demands. It is acting from our deepest understanding of what life is, listening intently for the skillful means in each situation, and not compromising the truth. It is selfless way, in a spirit of mutual respect.” Ram Dass

“Pleasure cannot fill the heart

Hate cannot keep the body safe

Anger cannot set you free

Only love can fill the voids

Only love can create peace

Only love can liberate” yung pueblo

"Some monks spend their lives in caves in the Himalayas ceaselessly radiating compassion for the world. Others run orphanages for children whose parents have died of AIDS. Which is the right way? The spiritual path does not present us with a prescribed, pat formula for everyone to follow. It is not a matter of imitation. We cannot be Mother Teresa or Gandhi or the Buddha. We have to be ourselves. We must discover and connect with our unique expression of the truth. We must learn to listen to and trust ourselves." Jack Kornfield, This excerpt is taken from the book, “Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are“. See his blog posting at https://jackkornfield.com/spiritual-life-takes-courage/

“They asked her,‘What does loving yourself mean?’She answered,“It means to uncover and release whatever keeps you from true happiness. To love, honor and accept every single part of you, especially observe yourself with the utmost honesty and without judgment. Loving yourself means striving to reach new heights of self-understanding so as to cultivate the wisdom that inner peace requires.” yung pueblo, self love

“The mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” Najwa Zebian

"Artists of any stripe who really do their work are engaged all the time." Eric Francis. Astrologer, Planet Waves.

" I did not hear until I was forty that everyone gets to have their own emotional acre, and do with it as they choose, as they are guided, to spend the days of this one short precious life with which we have been gifted." Anne Lamott

Astrology:

This will be impacting us through the summer of 2016."Grand Square in Mutable Signs. Remember life in the High School years, when the bell would ring several times a day and you would have 5 to 10 minutes to gather your things, get to your locker, and then onto the next class with a completely new set of people and circumstances? This went on several times a day, 5 days a week. You had to develop a knack for removing resistances to change and just get on with the next activity and group of people, or it would get overwhelming. Such is the start of our summer season with a grand square in mutable signs and the feeling of getting pulled in many directions at the same time. The same technique as in High School of removing resistances between activities is still the best advice. Otherwise you enter into hurry, hurry, rush, rush, mode, trying to get to everything. Better to stay focused on the topic at hand and when the symbolic bell rings, remove resistance and shift into the next activity.You have to drop into another level of your being to stay centered in such crazy making times, accepting the as-is-ness of life, including the never-ending ups and downs. Drop into your heart and orchestrate all of the changes going on in your life from there. Thinking you will be able to get to your peaceful heart once all of the challenges of everyday life get settled just won’t happen; better to get into your centered heart first to deal with the never ending material of life." David Pond, David Pond’s Astrological Newsletter, Summer Solstice 2016: From Contentious Times to Cooperation, Davidpond.com

6/3/16 6/3/16

Insights for April and May 2016

Awakening:

"Are you running around taking care of everyone around you and worrying about other people at the expense of your own well being? When the Buddha was asked, “How can you be taking a nap when so many people need your help?” he gently answered, “I won’t be able to help anyone if I don’t get my nap.”

It is very important (and far from selfish) to take good care of yourself as well as others. People keep telling me how busy they are, sleep-deprived and terribly malnourished because they direct all of their energy toward others. Don’t get me wrong, it’s our calling to be there for one another, but when you make a list of all the people you care about, make sure you include yourself on that list as well!

Cook for yourself the way you would prepare a meal for someone you care about, and insist that you get at least seven hours of sleep every night because you know it’s important. Don’t put yourself on the back burner or at the bottom of your priority list. The world needs you to be healthy!” With much love from your brother on the road, Timber Hawkeye

"Are you running from something? Are you running to something? What are you running from and to? Make a list, revisit and edit the list and gain insights as you go. When you identify these and start to let them go you will be more free and at peace." Margaret Gervais

~ “Don't WORRY. Things may seem to be all over the place, or pieces may seem to be not falling the way you think they should be, or things may seem to be going awry, but your message here is TO TRUST. The universe knows what is happening. AND WHY. So don't second-guess everything. Just wait and you'll see why this is happening. Do not be in fear. All of this is going ok. It's the way it's supposed to be. And you will come out better than you were before it happening. It's a choice. See this as a failure or something going awry, or see it as a blessing. It's here to teach you, heal you, HELP you, or to take your suffering or tension away. Just go with it and rejoice in the learning. This definitely is happening for a reason. Get out of the way and be more trusting.” ~ Higher Connection - Raising Our Vibration, Yesterday (April 4) at 8:11am.

“Your anger and your inspiration are all inside you. They are just being who they are. Your reaction is your reaction. It is showing you your attachments and aversions.” Ram Dass

“She had faced many challenges in her life, obstacles she had overcome, walls she had broken through, and to her benefit she had grown much from these experiences. But as she began to examine herself deeply, she noticed that the struggles she had faced were never really outside of her, bit deep within herself, it was her own fear that she was overcoming and her own lack of faith in herself that stood as her challenge. Even when the difficulties of life seemed almost insurmountable, she had learned to gather her forces, shake off her doubt, face the fear that attempted to overtake her mind, and place herself in the power of her strong determination.” Yung Pueblo, “Strong Determination.”

“If it doesn’t open, it’s not your door.” Spiritsoul, Instagram.

Meditation:

“Trying to find a Buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space. Space has a name but no form. It’s not something you can pick up or put down. And your certainly can’t grab it.” Jushi Cary Warner, “The Snaggletoothed Barbarian

“Learning to transform obstacles into objects of meditation provides a much needed bridge between the stillness of the concentrated mind and the movement of real life.” Mark Epstein, “Stopping the Wind.”

As always, great insights form Jack Kornfield: Reclaiming our lost sense of self: https://jackkornfield.com/reclaiming-lost-sense-self/

Simple and straightforward instructions for the practice of Vipassana Meditation. http://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-practice-vipassana-insigh…/…#

“A sense of defamiliarization is a recurring feature of spiritual life, and it can come to us in many ways 1 in art, travel, in practice. However it comes, it offers an opportunity for openness and intimacy, both, if one can allow oneself to fall into them.” Henry Shukman, “Far from Home.”

“If you put yourself out there, there will always be someone who would prefer that you put yourself back.” Waylon H. Lewis, via Elephantjournal on Instagram.

Grief:

"Each of us passes in and out of this state [grace] many times in our life. This is a universal human experience. As we fall out of grace it looks and feels to us as if we are failing. Indeed we call it "failure"; a part of us dies. But this is the process by which we make space for the birth of something new, something more true to ourselves." "Falling out of Grace, Meditation on Loss, Healing and Wisdom" Sobonfu E. Somé. Thank you to Suzanne Bigelow for exposing me to this work.

"Letting go and moving through life from one change to another brings the maturing of our spiritual being. In the end we discover that to love and let go can be the same thing. Both ways do not seek to possess. Both allow us to touch each moment of this changing life and allow us to be there fully for whatever arises next." Jack Kornfield https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15483153c1bce07e

Relationships:

This is a good article with insights on how to make relationships work: http://www.elephantjournal.com/…/a-new-love-changing-our-o…/ What do you think?

Parenting:

Being aware of these five attributes is important for parenting, to help raise emotionally intelligent children! Five attributes of emotional intelligence:

Self awareness
Self regulation
Motivation
Empathy
Social Skills. http://www.elephantjournal.com/…/5-attributes-of-emotional…/

(And of course it helps to be an emotionally intelligent person yourself; as children learn by observing their role models.)

Healing:

4/9/16 4/9/16

Insights for March 2016

Awakening:

“When it is time to put the various spiritual teachings aside, you will know it. Quite suddenly what once inspired you will repel you and you will be drawn more and more into silence. When this time comes you may be confused and wonder what happened to your enthusiasm, but rest assured that nothing has gone wrong, it is simply time to give your attention to silence. You may in fact go back and forth several times between being immersed in a teaching and then drawn to silence. Each phase has its own value and time. I would suggest to always have some time being spent in silence as part of your spiritual life. Otherwise you may start to use spiritual teaching to avoid silence. But for now follow your inspiration and attend to the inner stillness as well.” ~ Adyashanti, Experiencing No-Self Study Course ~ 2013

"We try to do everything, but then we’re not really focusing on anything. We’re not going to make any of our little fantasies come true if we pursue all of them at the same time. Decide: What is the one thing you want to pursue right now? Can you focus on that for at least a month? If not, maybe it’s not that important to you." —Leo Babauta in Tricycle's new meditation e-book

"If you are stuck, maybe you need a teacher. If you need a teacher, ask for a teacher, and be aware of a new teacher as he or she shows up. Maybe you need a new book. If you need a new book, as for a new book, and be aware of the new book as it shows up. Maybe you need a spiritual comrade. If you need a spiritual comrade, ask for a spiritual comrade, and be aware of the new comrade when they show up. Know. Ask. Receive." Margaret Gervais 2.9.16 PDX

“To change our world, the collective fear of humanity must decrease and our love must increase. To do this we must each have the courage to journey inward, and release the tension and pain in our mind that fuels our delusions and harm causing emotions.” Yung Pueblo, 21st century

“If you go out in the woods and look at trees, some trees are gnarled and some are straight. Some are flowering and some are barren, you just look with appreciation at the differences. You neither judge nor react. You don’t necessarily hate that tree and love that tree. But the minute you get around people, it’s all different. So I would suggest you treat people like trees.” Ram Dass“You are not broken, you are breaking through.” Alex Myles

Meditation:

The “it is what it is” meditation: "Sometimes it will be really hard to meditate because you will be dealing with a really hard emotion or situation in your life. These are some of the best times to meditate because a meditation session during a difficult time builds stronger “meditation muscles”. In meditating through a challenging time, it’s harder to sit, and harder to be in practice, but if you stick with it for your session, day after day, you will build more meditation muscles (mindfulness), clear and process what is challenging and with insight receive messages on your next steps to transformation.At these challenging times I practice “it is what it is meditation.” As the emotion or mental chatter about the situation shows up, I allow it to rise and I greet it with “it is what it is”. Normally I don’t advocate for mental responses, just breath. But when it’s really challenging it’s harder to accept, see and let go of what arises. Fear and anxiety are good examples. When fear or anxiety arises, our instinct is to push it back and not want it to arise. So if fear or anxiety arise and we greet it with, “it is what it is,” “it is what it is,” “it is what it is,” it helps us to allow it to arise, not push it down or label it as “bad”, process it, let it go, and allow insights to arise, all helping us transform.After all, everything arises for a reason. Our job as a meditator, is to allow it to arise, look at it, see if, don’t label is as good or bad, to let it go, sit in mindfulness and see what other insights arise." Margaret Gervais, 2.4.16, pdx

"Grief:More really great insights from Jack Kornfield: https://www.jackkornfield.com/healing-heart/

3/3/16 3/3/16

Insights for February 2016

Awakening:“Waiting is a necessary ingredient to the recipe of success. While you wait know that the waiting will end and the needed nourishment will come. Impatience shows weakness and a lack of belief. Fate is at hand. Have now the inner strength to roll with fate and bide your time. This action allows all elements to align in perfect order.Waiting with grace and dignity is not something that has been part of our learning process. One of the most difficult aspects of the human condition is waiting. When we conceive a project or enter a relationship we get a glimpse of our desired outcome. Much time is spent making plans and doing the footwork to bring about success. Then, for no obvious reason, the movement toward our goal is stopped or put on hold. This brings frustration and angst. It is precisely at that moment that you will benefit from understanding and thus make a relationship with the concept of waiting. In business be confident of success and be open to change. If you are in a worrisome relationship, be patient it will improve by growing or changing. If you are not in a relationship know that it will come in its own time as you, in your crouching post of ouch cat like waiting, follow your heart to letting go so change will seem like a holiday.The elements to embrace while waiting Dignity Integrity Compassion and Kindness Xu advises us to eat, drink, and be merry during the time of waiting. Waiting is not time wasted. Make it a ceremonial time, a time to look inward. Quiet the inner analytical voice of doubt and laugh at negative thoughts and change inner voices of doubt and fear to words of love and correctness. This makes way for the change, the nourishment, to arrive.” www.theichingweekly.com

“Half of the practice of spiritual inquiry is to take you to silence instantly. When you inquire, ‘Who am I?’ if you are honest, you’ll notice that it takes you right back to silence instantly. The brain doesn’t have the answer, so all of a sudden there is silence. The question is meant to take you to that state of silence that is not manufactured, where thinking or searching for the right emotional experience fails.” ~ Adyashanti"

When fascination with the me dissolves, when it simply no longer holds center stage in your awareness, then all that remains in the absence of the me is revealed." ~ Adyashanti

"The benefit now comes by achieving stillness and setting all distractions aside and focus on opening to the distillation of your truth." Bobby Klein,www.theichingweekly.com

"The true sense of equanimity is not that the emotions go way, but that when we meet any emotion, we find that we have the capability to be with it - without being afraid of running away, or without letting it force us to do foolish things." Guy Armstrong, "21st Century Buddhists in Conversation", page 76.

"The karmic results of thought arising and of punching somebody in the nose are different. The resulting stress and the resulting disturbance [karma] are much greater if you act it out [act out your thoughts of anger]. It's very important for us to notice there's no way we can act without experiencing a result [karma]. When we become very clear about that, it helps temper our actions." Zenkei Blanche Hartman, "21st Century Buddhists in Conversation", page 76.

"First rule: listen to your inner voice. Second rule: be honest with yourself. The predicament is that you listen to your inner voice, and it leads you to a path, and then you outgrow it. And you don’t want to admit that you’ve outgrown it, because you’ve made a big investment in it. But you must be willing to let go, to stand as naked as a newborn child, again and again and again." Ram Daas

"When you question, 'Why the hell is this happening to me?’ sit with it as long as it takes, as if the process is compost. Turn it over and over and add some water. Sit with it and eventually the chaos transforms to rich soil and sprouts of new growth start to form - and there is your answer." Margaret Gervais

Meditation:

“In meditation, you are not trying to make anything happen. You are creating a ground of availability for meditation to occur. Check right now if there is any old programming or idea that reinforces that meditation is a kind of doing or striving. Let them go.” Adyashanti

“The art of meditation is when you do get lost in thoughts or feelings and you bring yourself back to your breath. You come back without judgment or commentary. You simply return. The more simple the better.” Adyashanti

Happiness: altruism, inner strength, inner freedom and resilience. All accrued through meditation practice. "I think happiness is basically just a cluster of the fundamental human qualities. Altruism is one of the key ones, and also inner strength, inner freedom, resilience. This kind of happiness is a way of being, and the more you experience it, the more it deepens. You can cultivate it."

We have the potential to cultivate focused attention, emotional balance, altruism and compassion. The great discovery of neuroplasticity is that through exposure to novel experiences and training, you can change. That's what practicing meditation does." Matthieu Ricard, " Put Your Compassion Into Action," Lions Roar, March 2016, pg. 60.

"Sitting in quiet and stillness and just being in a state of openness gives you a clear opportunity to watch what happens internally when you stop judging your experiences, when you stop judging your mind for being busy, or you stop judging yourself for having a particular feeling. You don't try to get rid of the feeling. You don't try to get rid of the mind. You just let go of your judgment. You let go of trying to control the moment. For a while, you surrender into what is." Adyashanti

Healing:"

Imagine for a moment, the cells in your body are able to react and respond to your emotional choices; they do so by communicating with each other; love invites communication and awareness, fear/anger repels dialogue creating confusion and distortion, often causing damage and or separation on a cellular level. I invite you to focus upon what brings you joy in your life, let your whole body drink in that peace. Do so for 10 minutes every evening before bed for seven days. Your cellular body will thank you by producing the outcome of wellbeing and empowerment from within. The sky's the limit when you invite love back in.not to mention your own body's ability to repair itself!" Cynthia Slon https://cynthiaslonblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/love-invitesfear-repels/

Relationships:“Your days pass like rainbows, like a flash of lightning, like a star at dawn. Your life is short. How can you quarrel?” ~Buddha

2/5/16 2/5/16

Insights for January 2016

Awakening:

“Perfectionism is our most compulsive way of keeping ourselves small, a kind of psychoemotional contortionism that gives the illusion of reaching for greatness while constricting us into increasingly suffocating smallness.” Ursula K. Le Guin, “Dogs, Cats, and Dancers: Thoughts about Beauty,” in "The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination"

"True maturation on the spiritual path requires that we discover the depth of our wounds." Jack Kornfield

"What is your perception of truth? We all see truth and know truth through our own lens, heart and soul." Margaret Gervais

"Psychology takes the approach of fixing an emotional problem in order to make the person functional again. That may be the goal of a society or a culture, but that is not necessarily the goal of a wisdom tradition. Anybody who has been in any tradition of depth has noticed that people who have what look like psychological emotions might be taking a positive stop toward disassembling their old way of being, so that a new, greater possibility can come through. If you're always fussing at and fixing your mind, you don't get that journey.There's also a kind of voluptuousness about what's given b the psyche, which at some level is what's given us by the universe. We can take the ride and see what discovery is happening. Not a thrill ride, but more of a quest. The problem is not the emotion; the problem is being at war with the emotion or acting out the emotion." John Tarrant, "21st Century Buddhists in Conversation", page 41.

“The second lesson of karma is that just as you’re the primary architect of your own happiness and suffering, other people are the primary architect of theirs. If you really want them to be happy, you don’t just treat them nicely. You also want to them learn how to create the causes for happiness.” Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “Head & Heart Together”

“If you treat your mind like a trash can, don’t be surprised when you reach for a thought and all you get is garbage.” Zero Dean

Meditation:

"When concentration is strong enough, we slip below the waves of ordinary senses to a deep, silent realm. Here consciousness is filled with stillness, rapture, happiness and a steady awareness. Entering states of absorption, we feel like a scuba diver going from the wind-blown surface of the ocean to the silent depths below. Absorption states are discrete worlds of inner experience, each more silent and refined that the one before it. They are characterized by unwavering steadiness, purity, radiance and happiness." Jack Kornfield"As we progress along the path of meditation, the key point becomes developing a stillness in which we find freedom from the disturbing elements of emotions." Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, "21st Century Buddhists in Conversation", page 5.

Healing:

On HEALING, and Seeds from our Ancestors: "If we're aware of the habit energies in us, we can transform not only ourselves but also our ancestors who planted the seeds.Whatever kind of action we take, if we look deeply into it, we'll be able to recognize the seed of that action. That seed may come from our ancestors. Whatever action we take, our ancestors are taking it at the same time with us. So father, grandfather, and great-grandfather are doing it with you; mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother are doing it with you. Our ancestors are there in every cell of our body. There are seeds that are planted during your lifetime, but there are also seeds that were planted before you manifested as this body.Sometimes we act without intention, but that is also action. ‘Habit energy’ is pushing us; it pushes us to do things without our being aware. Sometimes we do something without knowing we are doing it. Even when we don't want to do something, we still do it. Sometimes we say, 'I didn't want to do it, but it's stronger than me, it pushed me.' So that is a seed, a habit energy, that may have come from many generations in the past.We have inherited a lot. With mindfulness, we can become aware of the habit energy that has been passed down to us. We might see that our parents or grandparents were also very weak in ways similar to us. We can be aware without judgment that our negative habits come from those ancestral roots. We can smile at our shortcomings, at our habit energy. With awareness, we have a choice; we can act another way. We can end the cycle of suffering right now." Thich Nhat Hanh, "Reconciliation", Parallax Press

"...it’s possible for information to be inherited biologically through our DNA. More specifically, their research shows that behavior can be affected by events in previous generations which have been passed on through a form of genetic memory." http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/11/12/researchers-discover-that-memories-can-be-passed-down-through-changes-in-our-dna/What can we do with a sudden strong upsurge of emotion? "One of the first things to do is notice the "add-ons." There's the rising of the emotion, which is its own state, but on top of that we add a future. Or we add a reaction, like shame or exaggeration. Or perhaps we add comparison, by holding ourselves up to an ideal we're not attaining. So probably the first thing to do is to release some of those add-ons, so we can come back to the original experience. Then we can maybe let ourselves be with the basic emotion in as mindful a way as possible. That will open up a little space, and in that space, we can see option." Sharon Salzberg, "21st Century Buddhists in Conversation", page 48.