Journal

5/5/15 5/5/15

Marriage

Pink rose perfectly resting. Margaret Gervais

Five Awarenesses from Thich Nhat Hanh, as wedding vows:

"We are aware that all generations of our ancestorsand all future generations are present within us.

We are aware of the expectations that our ancestors, and our children, and their children have of us.

We are aware that our joy, peace, freedom and harmony are the joy, peace, freedom and harmony of our ancestors, our children and their children.

We are aware that understanding is the very foundation of love.

We are aware that blaming and arguing can never help us and only create a wider gap between us; that only understanding, trust and love can help us change and grow." Thich Nhat Hanh

"On the Path With Thay," Allan Badiner, Tricycle Spring 2015.

5/5/15 5/5/15

Depression

Insights on depression; http://www.lionsroar.com/offer-your-depression/

5/5/15 5/5/15

Insights for April 2015

Awakening:

"Growing evidence suggests that interstellar space was also where atoms united to make some molecules pertinent for life. A study published last fall in Science, for example, used computer simulations to establish the provenance of Earth’s water. Its surprising verdict: Up to half the water on our planet is older than the solar system itself. Ancient water molecules assembled in the chilly confines of a gigantic gas cloud. That cloud spawned our sun and the planets that orbit it — and somehow those ancient water molecules survived the perils of the planetary birth process to end up in our oceans and, presumably, our bodies." http://www.nytimes.com/…/opin…/sunday/our-cosmic-selves.html

“Right now, there is always and only freedom and peace. The question is: Is that what you really want?” Adyashanti

"Though energy is a controlling faculty of insight, more effort does not equal more insight. It's easy to try too hard and to rigorously apply skillful techniques, but insight is better supported by a gentle perseverance in continually showing up for the present moment." Steve Armstrong, "Got Attitude?" Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

“All that is necessary to awaken to yourself as the radiant emptiness of spirit is to stop seeking something more or better or different, and to turn your attention inward to the awake silence that you are.” Adyashanti

"I’ve lived at a Zen Buddhist monastery for nearly a decade, and here’s what I’ve learned to have faith in: outside of me, there is a perfect home for everything inside of me. And inside of me, there is a perfect home for everything outside of me. Just let it go, and let it in. In and out, like the breath. After all, outside has nowhere to go but in, and inside has nowhere to go but out. My job, our job, is to broker the exchange between the two, to manifest the interpenetration of inside and outside, of self and other. That’s all. I dissolve in activity, in relationship with my surroundings, so that the inner world can flow out, and the outer world can arrive within. I have to both put in effort and know when to let go. There’s a natural balance, a dance, between embracing and releasing: turning your surroundings into yourself, like the tree that absorbs carbon dioxide, and turning yourself into your surroundings, like the same tree releasing oxygen. This is what Buddhists call the Middle Way." Shozan Jack Haubner, "Consider the Seed", Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

"We are never more than a breath away from the home we share with the entire universe." Shozan Jack Haubner, "Consider the Seed", Tricycle: The Buddhist ReviewThis is an incredible piece of work. A short film sharing the wisdom of Marion Woodman. I felt this was consciousness changing to watch. http://www.cultureunplugged.com/…/7972/Dancing-in-the-Flames

“Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.” Eckhart Tolle This is a great article on cultivating compassion - starting with self love practice: http://www.tricycle.com/practice/cultivating-compassion

“Fundamentally, there is no problem in life, because everything that happens in actually part of the human journey and human awakening, and all of it is leading us deeper and deeper into reality. Reginald A. Ray, Ph.D., from Darkness Before Dawn: Redefining the Journey Through Depression, edited by Tami Simon. Reprinted with permission of Sounds True.

Meditation:“True Meditation has no direction or goal. It is pure wordless surrender, pure silent prayer. All methods aiming at achieving a certain state of mind are limited, impermanent, and conditioned. Fascination with states leads only to bondage and dependency. True mediation is abidance as primordial awareness.” Adyashanti

Relationships:

"Compassion simply stated is leaving other people alone. You don’t lay trips. You exist as a statement of your own level of evolution."

"Some of the beings around you every day are very ancient beings, and some are very new. But is it better or worse? It’s just different. Is it better to be twenty years old than fifty? It’s just different. So why do you judge someone because he’s not as conscious as you are? Do you judge a pre-pubescent because he or she is not sexually aware? You understand. You have compassion. Compassion simply stated is leaving other people alone. You don’t lay trips. You exist as a statement of your own level of evolution. You are available to any human being, to provide what they need, to the extent that they ask. But you begin to see that it is a fallacy to think that you can impose a trip on another person." Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember

Astrology:

I love this image of the life cycle of plants. I talk to my clients about it all the time in relationship to the progressed moon cycle in their astrology charts. The progressed moon phase that you are in greatly impacts your life - and relating it to the life cycle of plants helps people understanding where they are in this very natural cycle of life! Thanks to Jason's Indoor Guide to Organic and Hydrophonics Gardening for this image. http://www.jasons-indoor-guide-to-organic-and-hydroponics-g…An image of the phases of the moon. Which phase were you born into and which phase are you in now?http://www.drstandley.com/images/astrology/waxing.gif

Grief:

"This body is not me; I am not caught in this body, I am life without boundaries, I have never been born and I have never died. Over there, the wide ocean and the sky with many galaxies all manifest from the basis of consciousness. Since beginning less time I have always been free. Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out. Birth and death are only a game of hide and seek." Thich Nhat Hanh "On the Path With Thay," Allan Badiner, Tricycle Spring 2015.

"The Grief Path" is a beautiful story and this video shows her work to chart and paint her grief. I would love to do this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XilHRThzC8Great advise. Think about death everyday to be happy. http://www.bbc.com/…/20150408-bhutans-dark-secret-to-happin…

Depression: Insights on depression: http://www.lionsroar.com/offer-your-depression/

Parenting: Parenting with Presence. http://newworldlibrary.com/…/tabid/64/SKU/83260/Default.aspx#

Marriage:Five Awarenesses from Thich Nhat Hanh, as wedding vows:"We are aware that all generations of our ancestors and all future generations are present within us.We are aware of the expectations that our ancestors, and our children, and their children have of us.We are aware that our joy, peace, freedom and harmony are the joy, peace, freedom and harmony of our ancestors, our children and their children.We are aware that understanding is the very foundation of love.We are aware that blaming and arguing can never help us and only create a wider gap between us; that only understanding, trust and love can help us change and grow." Thich Nhat Hanh"On the Path With Thay," Allan Badiner, Tricycle Spring 2015.

4/6/15 4/6/15

Codependency

This can be such a tough issue. I am saving this one for the co-dependency files: http://tinybuddha.com/…/how-to-help-someone-who-wont-help-…/

4/6/15 4/6/15

Parenting

Onion flower and ladybug Margaret Gervais

"You have to realize that your children are not containers you put things into. They are flowers that are emerging, and if you till the soil and keep it soft and fertilized, it’s amazing what comes up; because inherent in all of us is deep wisdom, which gets lost in the shuffle of socialization.So the question is, are you just an instrument of socialization as a parent, or are you somebody that respects the inner beauty of that person, that lets the child’s intuitive understanding of things lead, rather than leading out of ought or should or must or so on. A person learns a skill much faster when they want to learn a skill than when somebody else wants them to learn a skill. It’s pretty clear. So to that extent, you and your child are collaborative beings..." Ram Dass, Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember

Parenting with Presence. http://newworldlibrary.com/…/tabid/64/SKU/83260/Default.aspx#

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.)

4/6/15 4/6/15

Insights for March 2015

Awakening:

“Acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world.” Eckhart Tolle

"Your ego is a set of thoughts that define your universe. It’s like a familiar room built of thoughts; you see the universe through its windows. You are secure in it, but to the extent that you are afraid to venture outside, it has become a prison. Your ego has you conned. You believe you need its specific thoughts to survive. The ego controls you through your fear of loss of identity. To give up these thoughts, it seems, would annihilate you, and so you cling to them.There is an alternative. You needn’t destroy the ego to escape its tyranny. You can keep this familiar room to use as you wish, and you can be free to come and go. First you need to know that you are infinitely more than the ego room by which you define yourself. Once you know this, you have the power to change the ego from prison to home base." Ram Dass, Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember

“We only need to take the first step beyond all that we have known for reality to begin to unfold itself before us. We need to take that first step not once, but continually evermore.”Adyashanti

“No matter what identity we cling to, it takes great courage to step out of the old masks we wear and the old scripts that we live by, and open ourselves to the mysterious inner core of our being.

” Adyashanti Way of Liberating Insight Course, Adyashanti:

“As you awaken more to the truth of your being, you have a greater capacity to be present for more and more challenging experiences, and those experiences find a completion through you instead of getting stuck in you.With enlightened experience, when you experience something fully and deeply, it can run clean through you so that the next day or the next week, it’s gone.As your capacity to embody wider experience grows, your dark shadow experiences often come into the light of your awareness because they’re seeking to be embodied and therefore free. You cannot free anything that you're not willing to embody. To embody it means to be completely present for it.The resolution of unworthiness is not going from feeling unworthy to feeling worthy, but going from being hateful towards yourself to being kind, even kind toward your hateful self-dialogue -- those old violent, condemning voices in your mind that have become inherent.From your resource of Awareness, from the standpoint of peace, you can begin to acknowledge the turmoil that is there and be willing to experience it. How does our emotional life look from a dimension of consciousness that’s not caught in our emotional turmoil, but neither is it trying to avoid it?When you begin to tap into a compassion and kindness you would have for anybody having difficulty and begin to operate from that place, then you’re calling upon resources within yourself that you could never access before.How am I creating my own suffering right now? What am I thinking?” When you see some of the violent thoughts that are creating your destructive emotional experiences, you see that anyone would feel terrible who has those kinds of thoughts.How does kindness really see the old stories? How does kindness feel about your own feeling of unworthiness? Does it deny it, or does it understand it and move toward it?If you can't find this kindness and peace, think of anything that evokes a sense of kindness or appreciation in you. Once you’re in the atmosphere of it, look at how it relates to the darker aspect of your being, your sense of unworthiness.”

The Impact of Awakening, Adyashanti:“Those who are free don't want anything. They don't want anything from their mind, they don't want anything from their emotions, and they don't want anything from anyone, and they don't want anything from life. They don't want anything. If you don't want, all that's left is an incredible sense of being free.In one sense, the enlightened life is one of total insecurity; you live and act from the Unknown. We’re used to acting from the distorted sense of security that our mind provides, but freedom doesn’t operate that way. It’s a paradox. Precisely because you don’t know, and you know you don’t know, the door is wide open to know in each moment. That’s when you know - in each moment. By resting in not knowing, knowing becomes available.Having a profound awakening can be like taking the lid off of a jar. All the karma that has been repressed, all the karma at the bottom of our misery that we aren’t conscious of, comes flying out because there is finally space in which it can emerge. When it hits you in the face, you wonder where your freedom went and what went wrong. But understand that this is a consequence of the freedom; it is not a mistake. Everything wants to come up into and be transformed by the freedom. If you let it come up into this aware space, which is love, it will reharmonize. This space that you are is unconditional love. Unconditional means just that: everything is welcome’ nothing is cast away or set apart from it.”Adyashanti, Portland Satsang, March 20, 2015

“Don’t walk in my mind with your dirty feet.” Zen Master“Honor the question more than you honor the answers. Answers are not actually the answer to existential questions. No answer fully addresses the yearning within us. Every question arises out of answers.Spiritual realizations are the gaps in life coming to life.If it’s happening, it’s real. It’s the current reality.The way we see things today is just the way we see things today.Truth is a fluid thing. It’s part of life, which is fluid and dynamic.”“When you are ready, you'll completely face the fear of your own nonexistence. Only then does it become powerless. Until then it will seem so terrifying. What's disappearing into nonexistence is who you've imagined yourself to be. You can't do an end run around fear. You have to face it directly.” Adyashanti, Exploring the Teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj“Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world.” Thich Nhat Hanh"The only way you can know the absolute is through a state of unknowing. You know it by unknowing it." Adyashanti

Meditation:"After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little." Shunryu Suzuki

"Though you can start meditation any time, it’s harder if your life is chaotic, if you’re feeling paranoid, if you’re overwhelmed with responsibilities, or if you’re sick. But even starting under these conditions, meditation will help you to clear things up a bit. Slowly you reorganize your life to support your spiritual journey. At each stage there will be something you can do to create a supportive space. It may mean changing your diet, who you’re with, how you spend your time, what’s on your walls, what books you read, what you fill your consciousness with, how you care for your body, or where and how you sit to meditate. All these factors contribute to the depth and freedom that you can know through meditation.You are under no pressure to rush these changes. You need not fear that because of meditation you are going to lose control and get swept away by a new way of life. As you gradually develop a quiet and clear awareness, your living habits will naturally come into harmony with your total environment, with your past involvements, present interests, and future concerns. There need be no sudden ending of relationships in order to prove your holiness. Such frantic changes only show your own lack of faith. When you are one in truth, in the flow, the changes in your life will come naturally." Ram Dass, https://www.ramdass.org/let-change/

“Freedom is possible. One in-breath alone is enough to set you free - from your regrets about the past, your worries about the future, and your projects in the present. In that state of freedom, you will make better decisions. Next time you have to make a decision, be sure to breathe in and out first.” Thich Nhat Hanh

Grief:

"Sometimes all this healing asks is that we become present. for ourselves. A meditation practitioner once came to one of our two month retreats at Spirit Rock after his four year 3 old son had died in a car accident. This man, the father, had been driving. Immediately following the accident, he had kept himself busy, seeking help and talking to shamans and lamas, and being consoled by friends and others. And yet, in some way, this was also a way to keep his grief at bay. Finally, when he knew he was ready, he came to a meditation retreat. Somehow he knew that it was time for him to experience his pain directly, to find the cure for the pain in the pain itself. He started with lots of prayers and mantras and visualizations. Finally, one morning he just sat still. Waves of grief and quilt and loss poured out. And his great and simple task was to bring a kind and healing attention to the grief and suffering that he carried and could no longer run from." Jack Kornfield, http://www.jackkornfield.com/the-temple-of-healing/

“To bow to the fact of our life's sorrows and betrayals is to accept them; and from this deep gesture we discover that all life is workable. As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine.” Jack Kornfield

"Over the years, in working with people who are grieving, I’ve encouraged them first of all to surrender to the experience of their pain. To counteract our natural tendency to turn away from pain, we open to it as fully as possible and allow our hearts to break. We must take enough time to remember our losses – be they friends or loved ones passed away, the death of long-held hopes or dreams, the loss of homes, careers, or countries, or health we may never get back again. Rather than close ourselves to grief, it helps to realize that we only grieve for what we love.In allowing ourselves to grieve, we learn that the process is not cut and dried. It’s more like a spiral that brings us to a place of release, abates for a time, then continues on a deeper level. Often, when grieving, we think that it’s over, only to find ourselves swept away by another wave of intense feeling. For this reason, it’s important to be patient with the process, and not be in a hurry to put our grief behind us." Ram Dass, Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember https://www.ramdass.org/learning-to-grieve/

From Brain Pickings, 7 wonderful children's books on grief and loss. I would love to have these in my library. Who can't relate to a beautifully told children's story about such a tough subject? http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/23/best-childrens-books-death-grief-mourning/

“The people we most love do become a physical part of us, ingrained in our synapses, in the pathways where memories are created.” How We Grieve: Meghan O’Rourke on the Messiness of Mourning and Learning to Live with Loss

Parenting:"You have to realize that your children are not containers you put things into. They are flowers that are emerging, and if you till the soil and keep it soft and fertilized, it’s amazing what comes up; because inherent in all of us is deep wisdom, which gets lost in the shuffle of socialization.So the question is, are you just an instrument of socialization as a parent, or are you somebody that respects the inner beauty of that person, that lets the child’s intuitive understanding of things lead, rather than leading out of ought or should or must or so on. A person learns a skill much faster when they want to learn a skill than when somebody else wants them to learn a skill. It’s pretty clear. So to that extent, you and your child are collaborative beings..." Ram Dass, Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember

Codependency:This can be such a tough issue. I am saving this one for the co-dependency files: http://tinybuddha.com/…/how-to-help-someone-who-wont-help-…/

3/4/15 3/4/15

Insights for February 2015

Pine Needles, Bainbridge Island, Margaret Gervais 2015

Buddhism A-Z: Your Basic Buddhist Library10 dharma books everyone should have, selected by the editors of the Shambhala Sun

After the Ecstasy, The Laundry, by Jack Kornfield
A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation, by Rid Meade Sperry and the editors of the Shambhala Sun
Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh
4. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialisms, by Chögyam Trungpa
5. Happiness is an Inside Job, by Sylvia Boorstein
6. Mindfulness in Plain English, by Bhante Gunaratana
7. Real Happiness, by Sharon Salzberg
8. What Makes You Not a Buddhist, by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse9. When Things Fall Apart, by Pema Chödrön
10. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki

Shambhala Sun, March 2015, page 67

For my suggested reading list please see http://theinsightcenter.net/resources/

Astrology: Pisces: “…deep, powerful, and ever-changing come to mind." "The Enigma of PIsces," by Genevieve Vierling, Mountain Astrologer, Feb./Mar. 2015

"I always encourage my Pisces clients to spend time either alone or out in nature. By doing so, they will gain a more authentic sense of their own separate identity apart from other people's energies. The practice of quiet contemplation can help Pisceans to know themselves better by stilling the mind and listening for the small inner voice. Once they connect with their core, they can then turn outward again and help many people." "The Enigma of Pisces," by Genevieve Vierling, Mountain Astrologer, Feb./Mar. 2015

On Meditation practice, by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche:

“The sitting practice of meditation is the starting point for developing mindfulness. It establishes a reference point for awareness of yourself as well as a general awareness of your environment and your experience as a whole.

From the general pattern of basic awareness in your practice, you step out and expand yourself into everyday life, using the mindfulness you develop in meditation as the starting point for mindfulness throughout life. Meditation is the source or the basic inspiration, and from there, slowly, mindfulness and awareness begin to merge in your life as a whole.

In our lives, the chain reaction of our mental processes and the network of our habitual reactions often create a whirlpool of confusion. We are not just subject to or living in this whirlpool at this moment; we are also manufacturing confusion for the future. We keep generating a chain reaction of confusion because we think it provides us with a security for the next minute, the next month, the next year. We want to make sure that there is something to hang on to.

It’s quite amazing that we manage to manufacture our own future confusion using our present experiences of hanging on to neurosis. With our present action and attitudes we create the seeds that blossom in the future. The present situation is inescapable. You are somewhat settled or habituated to it so you don't want to do something different in the future. You don’t want to have to change gears.

Generally people enjoy living in the world of confusion because it is much more entertaining. Even suffering itself is entertaining in a strange way. Therefore, we create further neurotic security over and over again on that ground. Although we may complain and we suffer, we also feel quite satisfied with our lives. We’ve chosen our own self-experience.

The practice of recollecting awareness throughout the day is the main way that we can prevent ourselves from sowing these further seeds of habitual cause and effect. In the present moment we can disrupt these chain reactions. The memory or recollection of awareness creates a gap, because awareness cuts through the continuity of our struggle to survive. The practice of recollecting our awareness shortens the life of that fixation. That seems to be one of the basic but powerful points of meditation practice.

With meditation we don’t reject the present situation. Beyond that, application of awareness is the way to sabotage confusion’s hold on the future. Awareness is a simple matter. It just happens. You don’t have to analyze it, justify it, or try to understand it. I n the midst of enormous chaos, recollection is a simple action. There may be problems, but you can simplify the situation rather that focusing on the problems. Natural gaps in our experience are there all the time.

Our post-meditation experiences will be clouded with all kinds of ups and downs. Sometimes there is a sense of enormous excitement. You feel that you are actually making some progress, whatever that is! Sometimes you feel that you are regressing and that everything is going wrong. And then there are neutral periods where nothing happens and things are somewhat flat. Those signs of progress or regression are just temporary meditative experiences, which occur both in the practice of meditation and in our daily awareness practice.

Sometimes people worry that their practice is actually regressing, but that never happens. Sometimes, if you push yourself too hard, your ambition will begin to slow down the speed of your journey.

You can’t fail at meditation.

Meditation practice is a haunting experience. Once you begin, you can’t give up. The more you try to give up the more spontaneous openness comes to you. It’s a very powerful thing.

You don’t have to have complete comprehension of what awareness is all about in order to experience a glimpse of awareness.”

Put Your Meditation into Action, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Shambhala Sun March 2015, pages 68-71

“The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is to release the images and emotions, the grudges and fears, the clingings and disappointments of the past that bind our spirit.” Jack Kornfield

Insights from someone with a terminal cancer diagnosis:

"I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure."

Oliver Sacks, a professor of neurology at the New York University School of Medicine, is the author of many books, including “Awakenings” and “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/opinion/oliver-sacks-on-learning-he-has-terminal-cancer.html?_r=0

More information on how meditation changes the brain:http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/Awakening:

"You see yourself get stuck, and then you see yourself come up for air, and you begin to notice where you are clinging…" On the process of awakening, Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember https://www.ramdass.org/process-awakening/

From Adyashanti: Q. “How do you suggest we approach obsessive thoughts that consume us like fire twenty-four hours a day, like your initial obsession with the thought that you need to attain enlightenment? Does freedom from those thoughts come only when we reach a point of such complete desperation and failure that the mind caves in and one drops through into truth?”

Adya “So let’s start at the beginning. Obsessive thinking arises from fear, anxiety, and struggle. These are the drivers of excessive thinking. So in an addition to the meditation practice, you may want to begin to contemplate what you are afraid of, what you are running away from. What you don’t want to deal with within yourself or your life. By contemplate I mean to identify exactly what fears are driving you. What assumptions are they based on? What are you running from?

Also, rampant thinking is your mind looking for peace. As if, if you could just think enough and understand enough, your mind could be at peace. But the mind never thinks its way to a lasting peace. In fact, in the mind’s rush to find peace and security it overlooks the peace that is already present within the presence of awareness.So contemplate what your mind is trying to run away from, and what it is looking for. And begin to show your mind that peace is available in the present. Literally bring your mind’s attention to the greater peace of awareness. And give your mind something to do in the form of following your breath. Just follow the breath whenever you can during the day, because it will calm your nervous system and give your mind something to do other than to obsessively think. Of course thoughts may come, but anchor them in the breath. Be very, very patient and kind to yourself. Very patient and very kind.” With Great Love, Adyashanti, The Way of Liberating Insight Course"

Each step may seem to take forever, but no matter how uninspired you feel, continue to follow your practice schedule precisely and consistently. This is how we can use our greatest enemy, habit, against itself." Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, "Tortoise Steps"

Pluto, the planet of deep transformation and Uranus, the planet of restlessness and electrically charged impulsive changes will be exactly square each other March 17, 2015. You may feel the pressure as they are very close now and the pressure is building. Be aware, be calm, choose wisely, navigate carefully and be open to changes required. And after March 17, breathe deep and let it go.

"Redemptive Love does not shy away from suffering, whether one’s own suffering or others’. Redemptive Love embraces suffering in utter acceptance and Love. The challenge to us all is to continually open and stretch ourselves to become large enough to embrace the full measure of life in all its inexhaustible proportion. Life always asks us to become bigger than whatever we encounter, and to stretch our loving embrace to include more than we thought we could. For we are in truth more immense than we imagine, and when we surrender the confines of our mind to the magnitude of our heart, we grow day by day in transformative compassion that has the resilience to withstand the turns of fate that life presents us with." ~Adyashanti Redemptive Love Course

Stephen Hawking: One of Buddhism’s Three Poisons Threatens us all: http://www.lionsroar.com/stephen-hawking-one-buddhisms-three-poisons-threatens-us/

2/2/15 2/2/15

Insights for January 2015

Free EBook download from Adyashanti http://www.adyashanti.org/wayofliberation/

“To stay present in everyday life, it helps to be deeply rooted within yourself; otherwise, the mind, which has incredible momentum, will drag you along like a wild river.” Eckhart Tolle

“First see through it. Then, move through it.” Mantra for 2015. Margaret Gervais

"This new transit of Saturn in Sagittarius has resonance with the Solstice, as Saturn will not leave Sagittarius {Saturn moved into Sagittarius from Scorpio, Dec. 23, 2014} for good until the Capricorn Solstice of 2017. Saturn holds together the structure of our consciousness within our skeletal system on a personal level, and on a collective level coordinates the innumerable ingredients that form our consensus reality, or the predominant agreements that define what we mean by "reality." Saturn has a palpable impact on our lives by transit, and we can immediately feel the impact following its ingress into a new sign through personal experiences and collective events." Gray Crawford Astrology http://graycrawford.net/author/grayastrology/

"Like seeds in a garden, words of wisdom blossom as you cultivate them." Sakyong Mipham, Learning by Heart, Shambhala Sun, January 2015.

"...feelings are often slower to adapt to unexpected change than the intellect." Liz GreenePractice continuously and unhurriedly.

“We need to look at our spiritual development in terms of the big picture, over a long period of time (even lifetimes), rather than get stuck in what does and does not happen in the short term. Whether we practice vipassana, lamrim, or tantra, our practice is only effective when done continuously and unhurriedly rather than pushing ourselves to extremes in short bursts. The highs and lows we experience along the way are temporary fluctuations, like the peaks and troughs of waves pushed by the wind. When we become obsessed with short-term results, our mind becomes tight and agitated.” Patrick Lambelet, Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition Mandala, October-December 2014

Grief (see my collection of insights on grief at http://theinsightcenter.net/grief-insights/

“Our death is the gift we make for the life we have enjoyed. The fact that it is a required gift doesn’t mean that we can’t give it with graciousness and an open heart for all beings who will benefit from it. It is a gift to our children and grandchildren and to rocks and trees that need the passing of life in order to live and grow themselves. Without the change resulting in our death, there would be no new beings coming into the world – no joy of holding a newborn, seeing the smile of a child or the leaves of a young tree facing the sun. We would have never grown up, helped others, learned new things, known the joy of spring. Death is our gift to the universe, the dues we pay for the joy of our lives.

This does not mean it’s not hard to let go of this life. Dag Hammarskjold wrote in Markings, that when he was in his twenties, death was one of the crowd. But now, in his later years, death sits beside him at the dinner table. Sometimes death is a good companion and tells us wise things. Sometimes we look at death and are grief-stricken and angry. It’s normal to grieve for our lives and be angry at their being taken – saying we shouldn’t is only putting a layer of suffering on our pain. None of us wants to go.We know, in the last analysis, that there’s nothing for us to do but let go of life and trust the universe to do something good, something useful, something we would have liked with it.Death is not and end. It is a change. The elements that made us up are still there, just as yearn is still there in a finished hat. It is itself, but it’s something else, also. Even though we’re in a sense still here, “self” as we know it is gone. That “self” won’t be appreciating the sunrise tomorrow. But, still, we are here in the places where our elements alight – a tree, a bird, a rock. Remember that things had to die so we could be born – stars, rocks, dinosaurs, plants. As we give up this life, we can thank them for sharing it with us so we could be here for a while.” Zuiko Redding, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly, Winter 2014.

Relationships! I keep finding really insightful information about death and grief and I wondered why I am not finding great insights about relationships, and then I see this post by Ram Dass. It’s a really good post at https://www.ramdass.org/when-i-look-at-relationships/. I'll share my favorite parts the next few days and will start a blog post at The Insight Center blog http://theinsightcenter.net/relationships/ about relationships, where I will gather insights about relationships.

"The image I always have when I am performing a wedding is the image of a triangle in which there are two partners and then there is this third force, this third being that emerges out of the interaction of these two. The third one is the one that is the shared awareness that lies behind the two of them. And the two people in the yoga of relationship come together in order to find that shared awareness that exists behind them in order to then dance as two. So that the twoness brings them into one and the oneness dances as two, and that’s a kind of a vibrating relationship between the one and the two. So that people are both separate, and yet they are not separate. And they are experiencing that the relationship is feeding both their uniqueness as individuals and their unit of consciousness.

Now, that is extremely delicate because it is so easy to get entrenched in your own “I need this,” “I want this,” “You are not fulfilling this for me” and seeing the other as object. But the delight, which all of you have experienced, is of being with somebody where you are sharing an awareness of the predicament you are both in. And you are sharing an awareness of the predicament even when you are having an argument with each other – there is an awareness that you are both almost delighting in the horrible beauty of it. We’re hating it and enjoying it both – because there are these levels we are playing at all the time. We come into relationship often very much identified with our needs. I need this, I need security, I need refuge, I need friendship, I need this. And all of relationships are symbiotic in that sense. We come together because we fulfill each others’ needs at some level or other.

…if somebody upsets me, that’s my problem. This is a hard one. Because we don’t usually think these ways in this culture. What I see other people as, I see them as trees in the forest. You go to the woods and you see gnarled trees and live oaks and pines and hemlocks and elms and things like that. And you are not inclined to say, “I don’t like you because you are a pine and not an elm.” You appreciate trees the way they are. But the minute you get near humans, you notice how quick it changes. It’s a way in which you don’t allow humans to just manifest the way they are. You take it personally. You keep taking other people personally. All they are are mechanical run-offs of old Karma. Really, it’s what they are. I mean they look real and they think they are real, but really what they are is mechanical run-off. So they say, Grrrh! And you karmically go Grrrh! And then one of you says, “We’ve got to work this out.” And the other says, “Yes, we must.” And then you start to work it out. It’s all mechanical. It’s all condition stuff.

So somebody comes along and gets to me. They get me angry or uptight or they awaken some desire in me, wow am I delighted. They got me. And that’s my work on myself. If I am angry with you because your behavior doesn’t fill my model of how you should be, that’s my problem for having models. No expectations, no upset. If you are a liar and a cheat, that’s your Karma. If I’m cheated, that’s my work on myself.

My attempting to change you, that’s a whole other ballgame. What I am saying is if I will only be happy if you are different than you are, you are asking for it. You are really asking for it. Think of how many relationships you say, “I really don’t like that person’s this or that. If they would only be this. If I could manipulate them to be this, I can be happy.” Isn’t that weird? Why can’t I be happy with them the way they are? You are a liar, a cheat and a scoundrel and I love you. I won’t play any games with you, but I love you. It’s interesting to move to the level where you can appreciate, love, and allow in the same way you would in the woods. Instead of constantly bringing in that judging component which is really rooted out of your own feelings of lack of power. Judging comes out of your own fear. Now I fall trap to it all the time. But every time I do, I catch myself.” Ram Dass, When I Look at Relationships, https://www.ramdass.org/when-i-look-at-relationships/

“We need a warrior’s heart that lets us face our lives directly, our pains and limitations, our joys and possibilities.” Jack KornfieldFive Reasons Why Everyone Should Meditate http://www.mindful.org/mindful-magazine/meditation-excuses-and-reasons

1/23/15 1/23/15

Relationships

Relationships! I keep finding really insightful information about death and grief and I wondered why I am not finding great insights about relationships, and then I see this post by Ram Dass. Its a really good post athttps://www.ramdass.org/when-i-look-at-relationships/. I'll share my favorite parts the next fews days and will start a blog post at The Insight Center blog,http://theinsightcenter.net/blog/ about relationships, where I will gather insights about relationships!

“The image I always have when I am performing a wedding is the image of a triangle in which there are two partners and then there is this third force, this third being that emerges out of the interaction of these two. The third one is the one that is the shared awareness that lies behind the two of them. And the two people in the yoga of relationship come together in order to find that shared awareness that exists behind them in order to then dance as two. So that the twoness brings them into one and the oneness dances as two, and that’s a kind of a vibrating relationship between the one and the two. So that people are both separate, and yet they are not separate. And they are experiencing that the relationship is feeding both their uniqueness as individuals and their unit of consciousness.” Ram Dass, When I Look at Relationships ,https://www.ramdass.org/when-i-look-at-relationships/

“Now, that is extremely delicate because it is so easy to get entrenched in your own “I need this,”

“I want this - you are not fulfilling this for me” and seeing the other as object. But the delight, which all of you have experienced, is of being with somebody where you are sharing an awareness of the predicament you are both in. And you are sharing an awareness of the predicament even when you are having an argument with each other – there is an awareness that you are both almost delighting in the horrible beauty of it. We’re hating it and enjoying it both – because there are these levels we are playing at all the time. We come into relationship often very much identified with our needs. I need this, I need security, I need refuge, I need friendship, I need this. And all of relationships are symbiotic in that sense. We come together because we fulfill each others’ needs at some level or other.” Ram Dass, When I Look at Relationships,https://www.ramdass.org/when-i-look-at-relationships/

"So somebody comes along and gets to me. They get me angry or uptight or they awaken some desire in me, wow am I delighted. They got me. And that’s my work on myself. If I am angry with you because your behavior doesn’t fill my model of how you should be, that’s my problem for having models. No expectations, no upset. If you are a liar and a cheat, that’s your Karma. If I’m cheated, that’s my work on myself.My attempting to change you, that’s a whole other ballgame. What I am saying is if I will only be happy if you are different than you are, you are asking for it. You are really asking for it. Think of how many relationships you say, “I really don’t like that person’s this or that.[ If they would only be this. If I could manipulate them to be this, I can be happy.” Isn’t that weird? Why can’t I be happy with them the way they are? You are a liar, a cheat and a scoundrel and I love you. I won’t play any games with you, but I love you. It’s interesting to move to the level where you can appreciate, love, and allow in the same way you would in the woods. Instead of constantly bringing in that judging component which is really rooted out of your own feelings of lack of power. Judging comes out of your own fear. Now I fall trap to it all the time. But every time I do, I catch myself.” Ram Dass, When I Look at Relationships, https://www.ramdass.org/when-i-look-at-relationships/

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Compassion simply stated is leaving other people alone. You don’t lay trips. You exist as a statement of your own level of evolution."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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?

"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

"Complement this particular portion of the wholly enchanting

The Prophet

with Virginia Woolf on

what makes love last

, philosopher Alain Badiou on

how we fall and stay in love

, Anna Dostoyevsky on

the secret to a happy marriage

, Mary Oliver on

how differences bring couples closer together

, and Joseph Campbell on

the single most important factor in sustaining romantic relationships

, then revisit Gibran on

the seeming self vs. the authentic self

and

the absurdity of our self-righteousness

." brainpickings.org, January 2019.“…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

“4 things make your relationship easier:

space to be your own person

less control, more trust

calm communication

selfless listening.” Yung pueblo

12/31/14 12/31/14

Insights for December 2014

Philip Sedgwick is an Astrologer I follow, http://www.philipsedgwick.com/. He writes a great blog and you can sign up to receive his newsletter. His December 26, 2014, post included a really valuable exercise (highlighted below) for Jan. 1, 2015. It is not a typical New Year’s Resolution exercise, it is based on current planetary positions of Jupiter and Mars and thus a really great time for this exercise to review your beliefs in relation to the past year and actions that you will take. I am sharing it because I think it’s wise and informed. I feel compelled to do this exercise and I thought you might also feel compelled. Enjoy!

“Come New Year’s Day, Mars in Aquarius and Jupiter in Leo, retrograde, line up on opposite sides of the zodiac to see if earthlings might be able to interpret and engage the tug of war they enact.

The actual opposition occurs at 20:23 U.T. on January 1, so for some in the world it will already be the second day of the year and the calendric new leaf should have already been turned.

Mars and Jupiter in opposition are quite powerful, and if one is prepared, no doubt many good things can be extracted. The essence of the aspect is that by directing clear, focused energy and activity into life’s efforts, the greatest goals and most magnificent objectives appear closer on the road ahead.

Jupiter is retrograde, so it may not be that goals are immediately fulfilled. Likely, that’s a good thing. With Jupiter reversing tracks, the time is ripe for review, revision and any other red prefix word that may not actually be a word, but would do well to be. Works like redeclaration, recommitment, reinvention come to mine. The implication of “re-“ in the Jupiter retrograde context is:

Review all plans from the past goal cycle, in this case likely a year, neatly a half Mars cycle. Note levels of completion accomplished, current interest in fulfilling the previously stated objective, and apply some mental absorption ointment in the spirit of “If I had known then what I know now,” ensuring that all future efforts will be smarter and energetically more efficient - something planets in Capricorn can applaud.

More fundamentally, Jupiter in retrograde enquires regarding the platform philosophy in play that one uses to drive the rationalization system behind every effort in life:

What do you believe?How is what you intend to do working to fit into the big picture in a big way? After all, Jupiter is big (and proud) and Mars is in Aquarius.Are there missing pieces in the thought sequence?Given what you know now, do you still believe everything you believed when the last wave of life objectives launched?What enhanced knowledge can you now apply from wisdom gained?What do you do if your instinctive nature of what you feel to be correct disagrees with an ingrained philosophy or creed?

Mars in Aquarius seeks to offer a few details on his hot action, pre-flight check list:

Are you still into what you are doing? You know, does passion still fill your belly’s furnace with fire about this activity or objective?Remember, every deed impacts the entirety of Earth. Every living organism is affected by every action by every person.Do you really have everything good to go, or should you look around for any last minute tools you might want to pack up?This thing you’re doing, it’s good for everyone, right?Be present every step of the way, which means, no projecting uncertainty, doubt or fear of outcome(s) into the energy expended.

This is a big splash pattern. With the clarification of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, significant progress can be instated in the early days of 2015.” Philip Sedgwick, A Mars-Jupiter Kickoff ~ 26 Dec 2014, Skyscraping, http://www.philipsedgwick.com/StarBlogs/StarBlogsB.htm

"The transformation that comes through meditation is not a straight-line progression. It’s a spiral, a cycle. My own life is very much a series of spirals in which at times I am pulled toward some particular form of sadhana or lifestyle and make a commitment to it for maybe six months or a year. After this time I assess its effects. At times I work with external methods such as service. At other times the pull is inward, and I retreat from society to spend more time alone. The timing for these phases in the spiral must be in tune with your inner voice and your outer life.Don’t get too rigidly attached to any one method – turn to others when their time comes, when you are ripe for them." Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember Harvard Unveils MRI Study Proving Meditation Literally Rebuilds The Brain’s Gray Matter In 8 Weeks http://www.feelguide.com/2014/11/19/harvard-unveils-mri-study-proving-meditation-literally-rebuilds-the-brains-gray-matter-in-8-weeks/“Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.” Eckhart Tolle“When you renounce something you are tied to it. The only way to get out of this is to see through it. Understand its true value and you won’t need to renounce it; it will just drop from your hands.” Awareness, Anthony De Mello, pg. 16.And, “deep inquiry leads to understanding.” Sandra Brooks."Our minds are habituated to relate to suffering by resisting it through blame, bitterness, anger, resentment. That resistance is what the Buddha called 'the second arrow,' which follows the first arrow, the direct experience of pain. So much additional suffering comes from believing that 'things shouldn’t be this way'—when in fact they are that way." Ronna Kabatznick, "Sea of Sorrow" Tricycle: The Buddhist Review"As you breathe, in cherish yourself, as you breathe out, cherish all Beings." HIs Holiness the Dalai Lama Thank you for posting this The Norbulingka Institute."Saturn just exited the dark underpass of Scorpio and entered fiery, truth-seeking Sagittarius today, December 23. Living authentically can be more liberating than one realizes and this will be your two and a half year window to step into stride with the most honest and natural version of yourself. It will extend your view of the horizon and shine more light on your evolutionary path ahead. It will show you what is realistically possible, which will be far more than you allowed yourself to envision in the past. Ultimately it will push you to be TRUE to you!You will need to slow down long enough in order see the sign posts along the way, and for some, you will be called to 'fall on your knees', surrendering in preparation to receive the truth of your next move. What a gift that will prove to be." Kristin Fontana http://kristinfontana.com/starcast/2014/12/24/

12/4/14 12/4/14

Insights for November 2014

“In fact, it is very difficult to be truly honest with ourselves, especially since we can simultaneously have both positive and negative self images on board and may not recognize the inconsistencies. This is due to the fact that we all wear blinders—a psychological defense that doesn’t allow one part of ourselves to see another part. For example, if we need to see ourselves as nice, we may ignore all of our harmful or self-centered qualities. Or, if we need to see ourselves as unworthy, we’ll ignore all positive data. This is actually quite common.” No One Special To Be, Escaping the Prison of Your Own Self-image, Ezra Bayda, Tricycle, Fall 2014, pg. 36.

"Actually it doesn’t really matter whether our identities make sense; what matters is how attached to them we are in are in our need to defend ourselves.” ibid, pg. 36.

“On the long path of practice we move from living from our self-images and our many stories to living more from our deepest values, our most authentic self. When I reflect on the teachers I have most admired, the values to stand out the most are honesty in looking at one’s life; not settling for complacency; living with presence, inner quiet, and inner strength; and living with appreciation and kindness–– all of which contribute to true contentment. What gets in the way of this movement toward our authentic, more than anything, is our insistence on identifying with the small self––preserving our narrow world of being special, of needing to look and feel a particular way.” ibid, pages 37 and 94.

Meditate at the office. Yes, I love this article and plan. Book a quiet room, treat it like an important meeting, and go there to meditate. Keep it simple and just do it. Ihttp://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20141107-is-this-the-cure-for-work-stress“If you cannot forgive and forget, pick one.” ~Robert Brault.

I just started to read this book, Unlimiting Mind: The Radically Experiential Psychology of Buddhism, by Andrew Olendzki. Andrew Olendzki writes about psychology and Buddhism with brilliant clear insight. http://www.amazon.com/Unlimiting-Mind-Radically-Experiential-Psychology/dp/0861716205/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416060331&sr=8-1&keywords=unlimiting+MindHere are a few quotes from the first chapter:

“Buddhist thought considers consciousness to arise and pass away moment after moment, each episode of cognition grasping first one object, then another in a flowing stream of experience.” Unlimiting Mind, The Radical Experiential Psychology of Buddhism, Andrew Olenski, pg. 5.

“Buddhist thought and practice is pointing in the other direction, toward befriending change rather than regarding it as an adversary. … With every change something is lost, but something is also gained. When something slips from our grasp, it makes room for something else to come within reach.” ibid, pg. 5.

“Instead of mourning what is lost, when alteration occurs, we can open to the opportunities each new moment brings. Meditation is a form of training for this: each moment’s experience must be relinquished in order to be mindful of the next.” ibid, p. 5.

And here is some wisdom Andrew Olendzki shared in a recent article in Tricycle:

“My suggestion is simply this: As we walk the path, let us not look up so much at the destination, high above in the mist, but carefully place one foot in front of the other.” A Tough But Not Impossible Act To Follow, Andrew Olendizki, PhD, Tricycle, Winter, 2014, pg. 87.

“A path keeps us centered, guiding us from veering right or left into dangerous territory. It may also deliver us to the summit, but only if each step is well taken.” ibid, pg. 87.

“Every mindful moment in which generosity displaces greed, compassion takes the place of hatred, and insight dislodges delusion, is a moment in which we are awake. “ ibid, pg. 87.

“If we can manage one moment of wisdom, why not another?” ibid, page 87.

Mark Epstein is an excellent scholar, teacher and writer and I'm eager to read his latest book about trauma. I am hopeful this book sheds light on various methods of dealing with trauma. I believe when we experience trauma, (and haven't we all experienced it at some level?); residue remains in our psyche, body and cells (ptsd on so many levels), and needs to be cleared for us to be well and move forward in our lives. http://www.amazon.com/Trauma-Everyday-Life-Mark-Epstein/dp/0143125745/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1416164898&sr=8-3&keywords=mark+epstein

"Inquiry sets the motion of the chi. Ask the questions." Sandra Brooks

“The birth chart is a symbol or mandala of our potential, and the transits and progressions reflect the unfolding of that potential over time [in reference to what Dane Rudhyar believed].” The Legacy of Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985), by Candy Hillenbrand, The Mountain Astrologer, Dec. 2014/Jan. 2015, page 44.

“…[Dane] Rudhyar maintains that what happens to us needs to happen to us. Every crisis is a challenge, and every transit or progression presents ‘an opportunity for transformation, expansion or purification.’ Dane Rudhyar, The Practice of Astrology, Penguin Books, Inc. 1971, p. 26. As quoted in The Legacy of Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985), by Candy Hillenbrand, The Mountain Astrologer, Dec. 2014/Jan. 2015, and page 44.

“The value of astrology is to help clients to accept themselves and to understand what is happening, or has already happened, in their lives.” Dane Rudhyar, The Practice of Astrology, Penguin Books, Inc. 1971, pp. 98-102. As quoted in The Legacy of Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985), by Candy Hillenbrand, The Mountain Astrologer, Dec. 2014/Jan. 2015, page 44.

“Rudhyar defines free will as ‘the will not to conform to the past, or the measure of a man’s capacity to be and act as an individual.’” Dane Rudhyar, The Lunation Cycle, Shambhala, 1971, pp. 124-125; Aurora Press, 1986. As quoted in The Legacy of Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985), by Candy Hillenbrand, The Mountain Astrologer, Dec. 2014/Jan. 2015, page 44.

“Fate is ‘the measure of his dependence upon collective and generic standards as determining structures.’ “ Dane Rudhyar, The Practice of Astrology, Penguin Books, Inc. 1971, p. 16. As quoted in The Legacy of Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985), by Candy Hillenbrand, The Mountain Astrologer, Dec. 2014/Jan. 2015, page 44.

"Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama." Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember.“The shock of grief needs both honor and time.” Sea of Sorrow, by Rhonda Kabatznick, Tricycle, Winter 2014, pp. 72-73.

11/2/14 11/2/14

Insights for October 2014

Insights for October, 2014"Awareness is the greatest agent for change." Eckhart Tolle

This is exactly in alignment with what I believe: "I’ve found that each meditation technique I’ve ever pursued has helped me by touching another space in my being. Somehow I’ve danced through them without getting caught in a value system that would say that a single meditative technique is the only way. You cannot, however, keep collecting methods all the way to enlightenment. Sooner or later you will be drawn to one path or another which is for you the eye of the needle, the doorway to the inner temple. The journey passes from eclectic sampling to a single path. Finally, you recognize the unity of your own way and that of other seekers who followed other paths. At the peak, all the paths come together." Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember

Inquiry by Adyashanti (also posted at http://theinsightcenter.net/blog/):In the book, The Way of Liberation, A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, by Adyashanti, he suggests three core practices. 1. Meditation, 2. Inquiry, and 3. Contemplation. I have a good understanding of meditation and a meditation practice. I was intrigued by “Inquiry” and I found what he wrote to be fascinating.I have also been receiving teachings from Sandra Brooks, for clairvoyant energy healing and she recently emphasized the important of inquiry. When energetic images and stories show up in our energy field, it is an essential part of healing to inquire about the messages of the energy.Whatever stage or process we are experiencing for our journey of life, inquiry is a very important tool.I have quoted the chapter on Inquiry in its entirety, from Adyashanti, below:“InquiryThe sacred dimension is not something that you can know through words and ideas any more and you can learn what an apple pie tastes like by eating the recipe. The modern age has forgotten that facts and information, for all their usefulness, are not the same as truth or wisdom, and certainly not the same as direct experience. We have lost touch with the intuitive wisdom born of silence and stillness. To hold a question inwardly in silent and patient waiting is an art rarely mastered these days. Inquiry is a bridge between the ego and the soul, and beyond to the infinite. (I’m using the term soul here to mean the essence, presence, or beingness that you are.)Inquiry is not any sense anti-intellectual or anti-rational; it is trans-rational. That is, it has the power to take you beyond both the conceptual mind as well as conditioned egocentric thinking. Although rooted in stillness, inquiry is the dynamic counterpoint to True Meditation [*]. Meditation is soft, allowing surrender, while inquiry demands bold and fearless questioning.Inquiry as a way of addressing the deepest existential issues confronting every human being: who are what am I? What is life? What happens after death? What is God? What is the absolute Truth of existence? Or simply, do I know with absolute certainty that this current thoughts, belief, opinion, interpretation, or judgment is true?The common element to inquiry is Truth. What is truth?The Truth question does not arise from, or pertain to, the various agendas of the ego. It is of the utmost importance that inquiry not become subject to the ego’s various drives and motivations. The underlying drives of the ego are to feel better and survive. Inquiry only belongs entirely to the realm of the soul, that dimension of being born of stillness and light that seeks Truth for its own sake.The first focus of inquiry centers on being. Being is the key that unlocks the kingdom. Who or what am I? Apart from body, mind, belief, occupation, gender, role, memory, or history, what am I? Exactly what is “I”?Remove all that the I is not. Strip the I of all the masks it wears. What is left? Something? Nothing? What’s aware that?In your direct experience, is some-thing aware, or is no-thing aware? Is someone aware or is no one aware?Trace the thread of inquiry silently impatiently back through all of your identifications, all your beliefs about yourself, all of your hidden judgments and assumptions about who and what you are. Take your time. Look deeply into each of these questions. Let the questions remove all that you’re not. Let them undo all that you ever imagined yourself to be, all that you thought you should be, all that anyone ever told you to be. Trace the thread of inquiry back through all of your imagined identities. Follow the thread back through all that is imagined, clung to, or run from. Then be still. Rest in the contemplative silence and let the unknown workings of grace run their course.The realization of Truth and Reality can never be created by the mind; it always comes as a gift of grace. Inquiry clears away misperceptions and illusions, making one available to the movements of grace.The question of being opens the doorway to Reality and Truth, but it’s by no means the only question for inquiry. Question everything! Leave no stone unturned, no assumption unexamined, no form of denial left intact.Investigate each question slowly and deliberately. Place is question to the stillness of your being. Do not grasp for quick answers. Don't jump to conclusions. Instead, let each question reveal your hidden beliefs and opinions. Let it reveal whatever you are holding on to and believing that is at odds with what is. Look for all the ways that attaching to your mind cause you and others to suffer. Bring each question the mind poses into the ground of stillness. Meditate on it, ponder it; take your time. Don’t answer it with your mind. Be still with only the question. Be very, very still.Filled with the love of Truth, don't be surprised if inquiry began to consume all of your hidden assumptions, all of your beliefs, all of your opinions, all of your judgments, all that you have learned secondhand from others. And don't be surprised if most of your spiritual ideas are consumed as well, for it is our spiritual ideas that most effectively protect us from a truly spiritual experience.Your greatest aid is your sincerity and desire for Truth above all else. You may be shocked over and over again by the depth of illusion that you find and uncover within yourself, but never fixate on it or judge yourself. Accept, forgive, and move on, for your true being is infinite and absolute. It exists as much now as it ever did or ever will. Stand still in the sacred conflagration of inquiry and let it open you to the seat of all wisdom born of spirit. Only Truth will survive; all else will perish.It is a sad thing that so few give the full measure of their lives to Truth. Most only go so far, and then settle for less than the total surrender of all separation. In the end we all get what we value most, and if we don’t like what we have gotten, we had better take an honest look at what we are valuing.Never for a moment is Truth lacking. Never is there more or less Truth present, or more or less availability. Truth is in abundant supply at all times, and all situations. It is simply awaiting recognition. And it has all of time on its side.Question your thoughts. Question your stories. Question your assumptions. Question your opinions. Question your conclusions. Question them all into utter emptiness, stillness, and joy. The keys to freedom are in your hands. Use them.”The Way of Liberation, A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. Adyashanti, page 19.

11/2/14 11/2/14

Inquiry, by Adyashanti

In the book, The Way of Liberation, A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, by Adyashanti, he suggests three core practices.

1. Meditation, 2. Inquiry, and 3. Contemplation. I have a good understanding of meditation and a meditation practice. I was intrigued by “Inquiry” and I found what he wrote to be fascinating.

I have also been receiving teachings from Sandra Brooks, for clairvoyant energy healing and she recently emphasized the important of inquiry. When energetic images and stories show up in our energy field, it is an essential part of healing to inquire about the messages of the energy.Whatever stage or process we are experiencing for our journey of life, inquiry is a very important tool.

I have quoted the chapter on Inquiry in its entirety, from Adyashanti, below:

Inquiry. The sacred dimension is not something that you can know through words and ideas any more and you can learn what an apple pie tastes like by eating the recipe. The modern age has forgotten that facts and information, for all their usefulness, are not the same as truth or wisdom, and certainly not the same as direct experience. We have lost touch with the intuitive wisdom born of silence and stillness. To hold a question inwardly in silent and patient waiting is an art rarely mastered these days. Inquiry is a bridge between the ego and the soul, and beyond to the infinite. (I’m using the term soul here to mean the essence, presence, or beingness that you are.)

Inquiry is not any sense anti-intellectual or anti-rational; it is trans-rational. That is, it has the power to take you beyond both the conceptual mind as well as conditioned egocentric thinking. Although rooted in stillness, inquiry is the dynamic counterpoint to True Meditation [*]. Meditation is soft, allowing surrender, while inquiry demands bold and fearless questioning.Inquiry as a way of addressing the deepest existential issues confronting every human being: who are what am I? What is life? What happens after death? What is God? What is the absolute Truth of existence? Or simply, do I know with absolute certainty that this current thoughts, belief, opinion, interpretation, or judgment is true?

The common element to inquiry is Truth. What is truth?

The Truth question does not arise from, or pertain to, the various agendas of the ego. It is of the utmost importance that inquiry not become subject to the ego’s various drives and motivations. The underlying drives of the ego are to feel better and survive. Inquiry only belongs entirely to the realm of the soul, that dimension of being born of stillness and light that seeks Truth for its own sake.The first focus of inquiry centers on being. Being is the key that unlocks the kingdom. Who or what am I? Apart from body, mind, belief, occupation, gender, role, memory, or history, what am I? Exactly what is “I”?Remove all that the I is not. Strip the I of all the masks it wears. What is left? Something? Nothing? What’s aware that?In your direct experience, is some-thing aware, or is no-thing aware? Is someone aware or is no one aware?Trace the thread of inquiry silently impatiently back through all of your identifications, all your beliefs about yourself, all of your hidden judgments and assumptions about who and what you are. Take your time. Look deeply into each of these questions. Let the questions remove all that you’re not. Let them undo all that you ever imagined yourself to be, all that you thought you should be, all that anyone ever told you to be. Trace the thread of inquiry back through all of your imagined identities. Follow the thread back through all that is imagined, clung to, or run from. Then be still. Rest in the contemplative silence and let the unknown workings of grace run their course.The realization of Truth and Reality can never be created by the mind; it always comes as a gift of grace. Inquiry clears away misperceptions and illusions, making one available to the movements of grace.

The question of being opens the doorway to Reality and Truth, but it’s by no means the only question for inquiry. Question everything! Leave no stone unturned, no assumption unexamined, no form of denial left intact.Investigate each question slowly and deliberately. Place is question to the stillness of your being. Do not grasp for quick answers. Don't jump to conclusions. Instead, let each question reveal your hidden beliefs and opinions. Let it reveal whatever you are holding on to and believing that is at odds with what is. Look for all the ways that attaching to your mind cause you and others to suffer. Bring each question the mind poses into the ground of stillness. Meditate on it, ponder it; take your time. Don’t answer it with your mind. Be still with only the question. Be very, very still.Filled with the love of Truth, don't be surprised if inquiry began to consume all of your hidden assumptions, all of your beliefs, all of your opinions, all of your judgments, all that you have learned secondhand from others. And don't be surprised if most of your spiritual ideas are consumed as well, for it is our spiritual ideas that most effectively protect us from a truly spiritual experience.Your greatest aid is your sincerity and desire for Truth above all else. You may be shocked over and over again by the depth of illusion that you find and uncover within yourself, but never fixate on it or judge yourself. Accept, forgive, and move on, for your true being is infinite and absolute. It exists as much now as it ever did or ever will. Stand still in the sacred conflagration of inquiry and let it open you to the seat of all wisdom born of spirit. Only Truth will survive; all else will perish.It is a sad thing that so few give the full measure of their lives to Truth. Most only go so far, and then settle for less than the total surrender of all separation. In the end we all get what we value most, and if we don’t like what we have gotten, we had better take an honest look at what we are valuing.Never for a moment is Truth lacking. Never is there more or less Truth present, or more or less availability. Truth is in abundant supply at all times, and all situations. It is simply awaiting recognition. And it has all of time on its side.Question your thoughts. Question your stories. Question your assumptions. Question your opinions. Question your conclusions. Question them all into utter emptiness, stillness, and joy. The keys to freedom are in your hands. Use them.”The Way of Liberation, A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. Adyashanti, page 19.

10/9/14 10/9/14

Adyashanti, The Way of Liberation

I recently read The Way of Liberation, A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, by Adyashanti, It is an incredible little book and I highly recommend it.This book came to me at a perfect time and his information has been incredibly helpful to me. I have captured below his first steps, the Five Foundations, along with some of his, and my notes. I keep this list printed in my journal so I can see it every morning and every night.You can read about his work at his website, http://www.adyashanti.org.The Five Foundations [of awakening}

Clarify your aspiration

Life unfolds along the lines of what you value most.
Become more unified, clear and certain of your direction.

Unconditional Follow-through

Gather energy and attention together into a unified force and directing it toward your aspiration.
What are you willing to do or let go of doing?
Be present, sincere and committed
Aspiration of the heart.
Aspiration and unconditional follow-through and love is the strongest force in the Universe.
Unified and one-pointed enough for aspiration to survive.

Never abdicate your authority

Take full responsibility for your life and never abdicate over to someone else.
A spiritual teaching is a finger pointed toward Reality, it is not Reality itself.
Apply teaching – don’t just believe.

Practice absolute sincerity

Honesty, genuineness and integrity.
Let go of being; judgment toward yourself.
True sincerity reveals powerful clarity and discernment in order to perceive yourself honestly without being captive to your conditioned mind’s judgment and defensiveness.
The capacity and willingness to be honest with yourself is your greatest guard against self-deception and deceit and aligns you with your genuine aspiration.

Be a good steward of your life.

Do not use spirituality to avoid any aspect of yourself or your life – this will inhibit the dawning of spiritual enlightenment to a great extent – and its depth and stability.
Completely face yourself – your life without withdrawing into denied, judgment or magical thinking.
Embrace every aspect of your life, inner and outer, pleasant and unpleasant.
Give each moment the attention, sincerity and commitment it deserves. A failure to do so is more costly that you can imagine.
Pay attention to what life is trying to reveal to you. Say yes to its fierce, ruthless and loving grace.

The Way of Liberation, A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. Adyashanti, pages 1-7.

10/2/14 10/2/14

Insights for September 2014

Grow. Image by Margaret Gervais, Portland, Oregon

"Letting go does not mean losing knowledge we have gained from the past. The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is simply to release any images and emotions, grudges and fears, clingings and disappointments that bind our spirit. Like emptying a cup, letting go leaves us free to receive, refreshed, sensitive, and awake." Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart.From Jack Kornfield, one of my favorite meditation teachers at a weekend intensive, The Psychology of Loving Awareness, Seattle, April, 2014:

“True equanimity is the true heart that can remain peaceful in this world, with its joys and sorrows. Let it all rise. Take your seat in the midst.

The silence of the cosmos is in you.

Your happiness and suffering depends on your journey and actions, not my best wishes for you.

Balance love, with the wisdom of equanimity.

You should probably be doing less

You have to give up all hope of a better past."

From Robert Hand, An Interview with Robert Hand, The Mountain Astrologer, Oct./Nov. 2014:

“So, it’s a matter of raising your understanding and your spiritual awareness – raising your consciousness to see how you can use the transcendental creativity.” page 42.

“Higher consciousness will never be achieved by a group of people of any size. It has to be achieved by individuals first and then by the collective. There has to be a critical mass of enlightened people before that will happen.” page 43.

“Nonresistance, non judgment, and nonattachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.” Eckhart Tolle

"The trap of high experiences, however they occur, is that you become attached to their memory and so you try to recreate them. These memories compel you to try to reproduce the high. Ultimately they trap you, because they interfere with your experience of the present moment. In meditation you must be in the moment, letting go of comparisons and memories. If the high was too powerful in comparison to the rest of your life, it overrides the present and keeps you focused on the past. The paradox, of course, is that were you to let go of the past, you would find in the present moment the same quality that you once had. But because you're trying to repeat the past, you lose the moment." Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember.

From David Pond's Autumn Equinox Newsletter, about the upcoming Grand Trine in Fire, with Uranus in Aries, Jupiter in Leo and Mars in Sagittarius (www.davidpond.com):

"Move into the rooms that already have light."

This is not so much getting the darkness out of rooms in your consciousness as it is moving into the rooms that already have light, and if there are rooms that have no light, put in a light, rather than attempt to get rid of the darkness. Instead of resolving fears, insecurities, feelings of inadequacy, overwhelm them with the positive feelings of what you appreciate about your life and are thankful for and look forward to.

What you pay attention to grows: This is the one aspect that you have more control of than in any other area of your life; after all, you are the only custodian and final authority of what you pay attention to. This is not something that could happen, it is happening now and how our individual lives are all unique, even though we all have access to the same collective energy. So what have you been growing with your attention in the garden of your consciousness? There can be favorable opportunities available, but if you stay stuck to the news channel, you’ll miss it.”

"It is much better to look at karma as a psychology of habit, rather than your cosmic bank account." Ethan Nichtern, www.ethannichtern.com.

"When Buddhists talk about the preciousness of a human birth, it’s the awareness associated with human birth that’s the opportunity. We become aware to bring ourselves to higher consciousness." Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember

9/3/14 9/3/14

Insights for August 2014

These wise words from Mark Jones, one of my favorite astrologers, (also a teacher, psychosynthesis therapist and poet http://www.plutoschool.com/), from Power of the Circle on Phases, audio recording NORWAC 2012:

“The greatest guide is the light of your personal consciousness.”

“If in doubt, personal truth and integrity will take you through most evolutionary gateways.”

“Principle, dedication, courage, integrity, devotion to truth; you won’t go too far wrong in life with these things.”

“If in doubt, devote yourself to truth.”

I am now reading my second book by Adyashanti, The Way of Liberation:

“…it is essential to understand that a spiritual teacher’s role is to be a good and wise spiritual guide as well as an embodiment of the Truth that he or she points toward.” page 5

“A spiritual teaching is a finger pointing toward Reality; it is not Reality itself.” page 5

“Belief leads to various forms of fundamentalism and shuts down curiosity and inquiry that as essential to open the way for awakening and what lies beyond awakening. A good spiritual teaching is something that you work with and apply. In doing so, it works on you (often in a hidden way) and helps reveal to you the Truth (and falseness) that lies within you.” page 5

“It's like two arrows, the Buddha said. The first arrow is the initial event itself, the painful experience. It has happened; we cannot avoid it. The second arrow is the one we shoot into ourselves. This arrow is optional. We can add to the initial pain a contracted, angry, rigid, frightened state of mind. Or we can learn to experience the same painful event with less identification and aversion, with a relaxed and compassionate heart. Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart"Meditation is participatory observation. What you are looking at responds to the process of looking. What you are looking at is you, and what you see depends on how you look." Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

“Identity: We are the essence of karmic momentum. It is an unfolding process; thoughts without thinker, sensory without body, experience without self.” Noah Levine, Breitenbush, July 2005

“Awareness, acceptance, forgiveness. That is all you need to know.” Dr. K. K. Tan, Meditation Teacher, Buddhist Library Singapore

"What is the purpose of tranquility? Why should we have wisdom? They are only for the purpose of freeing ourselves from suffering, nothing more." Ajahn Chah, 'Meditation' http://www.vipassana.com/

8/4/14 8/4/14

Insights for July 2014

"Solid people advance. Those with grounding and preparation behind them get to move ahead on life’s game board." Philip Sedgwick, galactic@philipsedgwick.com

A really great posting from Ram Dass today about grieving:"It is important, as we get older, to learn how to grieve. Although this may sound self-evident, experience has taught me that it is not. In a culture that emphasizes stoicism and forward movement, in which time is deemed “of the essence,” and there is little toleration for slowness, inwardness, and melancholy, grieving – a healthy, necessary aspect of life – is too often overlooked. As we get older, of course, and losses mount, the need for conscious grieving becomes more pronounced. Only by learning how to grieve can we hope to leave the past behind and come into the present moment.The older we get, the more we lose; this is the law of impermanence. We lose loved ones, cherished dreams, physical strength, work, and relationships. Often, it seems like loss upon loss. All these losses bring up enormous grief that we must be prepared to embrace completely, if we are to live with open hearts."

"My dear friend Stephen Levine has recommended that we build temples specifically for the purpose of grieving, ritual sites where we can feel safe to pour out the sadness and loss that we feel. In the Jewish tradition of sitting shiva, and in the traditional Irish wake, we find such outlets for extended grieving, but these rituals are becoming rare in our culture and are not frequently practiced."

"While the crisis stage of grief does pass in its own time - and each person’s grief has its own timetable - deep feelings don’t disappear completely. But ultimately you come to the truth of the adage that “love is stronger than death.” I once met with a girl whose boyfriend was killed in Central America. She was grieving and it was paralyzing her life. I characterized it for her this way. “Let’s say you’re in ‘wise-woman training.’” If she’s in wise-woman training, everything in her life must be grist for the mill. Her relationship with this man would become part of the wisdom in her. But first she had to see that her relationship with him is between Souls. They no longer have two incarnated bodies to share, so she had to find the Soul connection. Two Souls can access each other without an incarnation.When my Guru died in 1973, I assumed that because of the important part he played in my life, and the love I felt for him, I would be inundated with grief. Surprisingly, I was not. In time, I came to realize why. He and I were so well established in Soul love that, in the years since he left his body, his palpable presence in my life has continued unabated." http://www.ramdass.org/learning-grieve/

"There is dissatisfaction in the astrological house that is opposite your natal Pluto placement, because it is the area for your soul's growth in this life." Margaret Gervais, 5.27.14 Kona, Hawaii “Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.”

Eckhart Tolle http://www.eckharttolle.com/present-moment-reminders/?f=1 More from the book I recently finished by Adyashanti, The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment:“That which is awake always moves toward that which is not awake. That which is awake has no fear of that which is not awake. It doesn’t have any fear, because it doesn’t perceive anything as separate or other than self.” page 46.“The truth of our being is not content until it has freed itself of its own misunderstanding, its own fixations, its own illusions.” page 47.“…awakened consciousness moves in particular ways. It does not deny anything. It does not hide; it is not avoiding any part of life. That which we are, that which is fully awake, is also ultimately fully engaged and fearless. It moves the way it moves, out of unconditional love and truthfulness. It is only the fear in the mind-the fear that constructs the illusion of ego-that causes one to recoil …” page 78.

Getting straight on your path: http://www.ramdass.org/getting-straight-on-your-path/ “

The large planet of Jupiter (represents expansion) has moved into Leo (FIRE): acceleration, less process more results, creative, confidence, manifest, materialize, connect and DREAM BIG. From the crab (Cancer) to the lion (Leo), can you feel it?” Margaret Gervais

7/3/14 7/3/14

Insights for June 2014

“It is to untangle that we begin meditation practice. To disentangle ourselves, to be free, requires that we train our attention.” Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom, The Path of Insight Meditation, page 6. From Jack Kornfield, one of my favorite meditation teachers at a weekend intensive, The Psychology of Loving Awareness, Seattle, April, 2014:

"The circle of compassion is only complete when you include yourself.
If one person remains calm and centered it can calm and center all others around them.
Let the breath do the breathing.
Your heart has the capacity to open up to life. We have to practice, tend the heart, and nurture the heart for resilience and self-protection.
Fear, etc., can continue to arise but you will change your relationship to it. Name it and let it wash over you, until you know it and you have a deeper stillness.
Relinquish to the toughest thing that arises: restlessness, loneliness, etc. Say to yourself, "I'll die of restlessness. I'll be the first person to die of restlessness." In this way you will develop a wiser relationship to it."

Luminous insights into bardo (“...the term "bardo" refers to the state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth. Wikipedia. In this article there is discussion of the bardo as a state “in between” and “...bardo experience is a doorway to awakening, which is always present. In Trungpa Rinpoche's words, "bardo is a very practical way of looking at our life."): http://www.tricycle.com/special-section/luminous-gap-bardo I recently finished a book I loved by Adyashanti, The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment, and the following are some quotes from the book:

“It’s apparent that each being has a different sort of karmic inheritance; each person has a different karmic load that he or she carries. And it does no good to complain about your karmic load, whether you perceive it to be greater or lesser than somebody else’s. It is what it is. Page 39.
Each moment is the moment that needs to be happening. Page 60.
Life itself shows us what we need to see through in order to be free. Each moment is the moment that needs to be happening. Page 60.
…and so one of the most important steps is to come into agreement with your life so that you/re not turning away from yourself in any way. And the amazing thing is that when we are no longer turning away from ourselves, we find a great amount of energy, a great capacity for clarity and wisdom, and we start to see everything we need to see. Page 114.
One if the greatest poems of the Zen tradition ends with this description of the awakened state: ‘To be without anxiety about imperfection.’” Page 130.

Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist Path to Recovering from Addictionis a new book by Noah Levine on the Buddhist approach to sobriety. I just ordered it and will share more from this book as I read it. http://www.tricycle.com/reviews/dharma-drunks Steven Forrest is one of my favorite astrologers, and he has a great website with his Newsletters, classes and audio recordings, http://www.forrestastrology.com. His July Newsletter is great. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"Can you be like the wise old karate master and remember that often times the best karate move is often to simply walk away?
...are you brave enough to say, roll the dice? Somewhere in your chart (and in your life!) Uranus is asking you to trust your fiercest, wildest rebel impulses.
Saturn and Uranus are 150 degrees apart for the entire month of July. What does this mean for you? Specifically, Saturn-in-Scorpio cautions us that unconscious factors—old wounds, fears, and humiliations—need to be faced squarely and incisively before we get on our high horse and start arranging firing squads, SWAT teams, and Predator drones. And Uranus-in-Aries tells us that once we have done that Scorpionic housecleaning, it is time for bold, decisive action. Time to roll those dice."

(If you want to know more about the Saturn and Uranus transits in your chart, please contact me, theinsightcenter@gmail.com)

6/5/14 6/5/14

Insights for May 2014

Hyacinth in the rain, Kona. Margaret Gervais 2014

Meditation reminder: “Don’t create suffering over the breath being too long or too short, but simply observe it without trying to control or suppress it in any way. In other words, don’t attach. As you continue, the mind will gradually lay things down and come to rest, the breath becoming lighter and lighter until it becomes so faint that it seems like it’s not there at all. All that will remain will be a one-pointed knowing. The mind has reached a state of calm.” Ajahn Chah, A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation, page 28.“

Meditation is a cognitive control exercise that enhances the ability to self-regulate your internal distractions,” Dr. Adam Gazzaley, neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, in the New York Times Article, “Exercising the Mind to Treat Attention Deficits”, by Daniel Goldman, May, 12, 2014. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/exercising-the-mind-to-treat-attention-deficits/?_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=HL_ETM_20140513&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=2&.Grief.

Tough topic, but insights can be helpful for the journey. See my posting on grief, and revisit as I add more material: http://theinsightcenter.net/444/.

"The breath, if we let it, can anchor us to our awareness." A Beginner's Guide to Meditation, Edited by Rod Meade Sperry, pg. 1.

"So you must try to not think too much. If you do think, then do so with awareness. First, you must make your mind calm. Where there is knowing, there is no need to think. Awareness will arise in its place, and this will in turn become wisdom. The ordinary kind of thinking is not wisdom, but simply the aimless and unaware wandering of the mind, which inevitably results in agitation." Ajahn Chah, A Beginner's Guide to Meditation, Edited by Rod Meade Sperry, pg. 27.

“Compassion has to be supported by mindfulness to build tolerance.”

“Attachment: How do you know when it is unhealthy? There is suffering (when it gets sticky). Healthy attachment is OK.”

“We have roles. Do them well and let them go – they are not you. It is temporary. Who you are is spirit born into a body.” Jack Kornfield, Seattle, April 2014.

You are your own best proof! "In the end, when it comes to spiritual practice, you are your own best proof. Individual practitioners can understand from their own personal experience that practice is helping them to be more understanding, to be more open, to be more at home with others, or to have a greater sense of ease." Thupten Jingpa Langri, “Under One Umbrella” Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

I am always interested in fear, because it can be very problematic for some people. What do you think of this take on fear? "Fear is the basic anxiety that creates separation and fixation. Fear keeps us bound to the past, to our cozy, habitual way of doing things." Daniel Naistadt, “The Money Mind” from Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

5/4/14 5/4/14

Insights for April 2014

Waves crash on the beach by Margaret Gervais

More insights about on grief have crossed my desk this month and have been helpful. These are excerpts from The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves, by Stephen Grosz.

"Closure is delusive – it is the false hope that we can deaden our living grief.I’ve long thought that Kübler-Ross was wrong. The “psychological stages” of dying and grieving are wholly different. For the person who dies there is an end, but this is not so for the person who grieves. The person who mourns goes on living and for as long as he lives there is always the possibility of feeling grief.

Each of use mourns differently, but in general the initial shock and fear triggered by death does diminish with time. Through the work of mourning, we gradually feel better, though some heartache remains. Holidays and anniversaries are notoriously difficult. Grief can ebb and then, without warning, resurge. The loss of a child, a loss through suicide – these losses, and many others, can and do cause enduring sorrow.

“Grief Lit” – a burgeoning sub-genre of “Recovery Lit” offering many titles, and the message is: your grief is something that can be fixed. You can recover. You can have closure.

My experience is that closure is an extraordinary compelling fantasy of mourning. It is the fiction that we can love, lose, suffer and do something to permanently end our sorrow. We want to believe we can reach closure because grief can surprise and disorder us – even years after out loss.” The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves, Stephen Grosz

"Idleness allows time for the mind to wander to places never before imagined and to return transformed.Doing nothing is essential for thinking to occur. Many of the most important thoughts are unintentional—they can be neither solicited nor cajoled but have a rhythm of their own, creeping up, arriving, and leaving when we least expect them. It is important to cultivate the lassitude of mind that clears a place for the arrival of what cannot be anticipated. Idleness allows time for the mind to wander to places never before imagined and to return transformed." Mark C. Taylor, "Idleness Waiting Grace" via Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

I know I have been sharing more about loss these days, but I believe that information arises when it needs to arise. Read this beautiful article by Henry Shukman, about finding the hidden remedies in our troubled selves

"Perhaps we all carry an immemorial wound, an infinite loss, a self-exile we perpetrate on ourselves. It turns us into isolated entities stalking the earth in search of what we think we need—the temporary stays against ennui, despair, loss, and terror. But sooner or later, the wound can carry us toward its own remedy, if we only let it. It seems too much to hope that right in the heart of our troubled selves there might actually be the healing we seek. But if suffering and awakening form a single weather-system, as many a wise person has come to know, then when storms come, perhaps we can accept them with less dread and aversion, and more trust, and even hope." Henry Shukman, http://www.tricycle.com/feature/beautiful-storm

Insights on 4.23.2014, the day of the Cardinal Grand Cross: "I feel the vast emptiness and know I am alone.

Let your fears die a lonely death.Fear cannot exist in the emptiness or the void.

I am in the vortex of the moment.

Equanimity erases barriers and borders, leading the way to oneness.

Be solace in the nothingness.

Ascension is alignment and unity.The power from within emanates out.

We are all alone and also all one." Margaret Gervais, April 23, 2014

"Although all phenomena are going through the various appearances of birth, abiding, changing, and dying, the true person doesn’t become a victim of sadness, happiness, love, or hate. She lives in awareness as an ordinary person, whether standing, walking, lying down, or sitting." Thich Nhat Hanh, “Simply Stop” Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

This is what occurs with meditation practice:"We’ve lived our lives with negative images of ourselves, from childhood on, and we’ve built upon those images, and built upon them, and they became very heavy weights. These thoughts about us are a part of our ego, and they’re manifested through our roles of child or husband, wife, breadwinner, all of those roles. They’re built upon the thoughts of, “I’m not truthful” or “I’m not likable”, “I’m not good” – all of those negative images. Once you identify with your soul you start to taste the love in your true self, in your spiritual heart and it’s different than all of the loves you’ve ever had. It’s just different; it’s unconditional love." Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember

"Sit under your own tree of enlightenment." Jack Kornfield

"Be present for your humanity." Jack Kornfield

"The breath becomes a mirror. You show up and so things show up." (meditation practice) Jack Kornfield