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:
"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…/