Musings, Ahimsa & The Bagua

It’s MLK Day.

A day of peace?

more war?

inequality?

balance?

When hopes, and dreams, and cures, & kingdoms fail, what then?

For some odd reason of neural wiring, I always seem to link MLK to Gandhi.

Maybe it is because they both have darker skin then me?

How to know anything, for sure, anymore?

We live in a world that debates the definition of the word “is”.  And, perhaps, it is a worthwhile discussion to have?

Discussions and conversations give us opportunities to practice ahimsa, and amen to that.

I met Gandhi’s grandson about 10 years ago.  He gave a talk on ahimsa and told a story that really helped me to understand the concept,  rather than the definition.

Non-Violence in all things is a way of life, that begins again with every breath you take.  Start now.  Start again.

My teachers taught me how to look at myself,  first.  Practice.

Ugh.

The Bagua is an ancient map that helps us to understand the world around us.  It’s part of the Feng Shui tool box. Light a candle in your spiritual corner today, chant an om or a tone, and meditate on peace.

I’m leading yoga tonite……6pm.  Feng Shui Trainings coming this Spring.

Namaste.

first sit…..2012::::full moon

A beggar had been sitting by the side of the road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by.
“Spare some change?” mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his baseball cap.“I have nothing to give you,” said the stranger. Then he added, “What’s that you are sitting on?”
“Nothing,” replied the beggar, “Just an old box.I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.”
“Ever look inside?” asked the stranger.

“What’s the point? There’s nothing in there.”

“Have a look inside,” insisted the stranger.

The beggar managed to pry open the lid.  

With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw the box was filled with gold.Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, Novato CA, 1999; p. 9

Let’s come together this Sunday, January 8 and resume our practices of loving-kindness.  We begin in silence, so please remove your shoes and place them on the rack before you enter.  Come in, find an empty space and sit down.  We sit silently from 3pm until approximately 3:30, at which time we will begin discourse & discussion. 

Metta (loving-kindness) practice will start around 4:15pm. 

We’ll close with the following chant:

ॐ

असतो मा सद्गमय ।
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।।
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ।
ॐ शान्ति शान्ति शान्ति ।। – बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद् 1.3.28.

om

asato mā sat gamaya
tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
mṛtyor mā amṛtaṁ gamaya
om śhānti śhānti śhāntihi – bṛhadāraṇyaka upaniṣada 1.3.28

Translation:

Lead Us From the Unreal To the Real,
Lead Us From Darkness To Light,
Lead Us From Death To Immortality,
Let There Be Peace Peace Peace. – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.

chanting

asatoma sadgamaya

Sonnet

I am in need of music that would flow, over my fretful, feeling finger-tips, over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips, with melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.

Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low, of some song sung to rest the tired dead, A song to fall like water on my head.  And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!

There is a magic made by melody: A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool heart, that sinks through fading colors deep to the subaqueous stillness of the sea, and floats forever in a moon-green pool, held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.

–elizabeth bishop

Neptune approaches Pisces.  Ommmmmmmmmm.

The original calendar.

I love the holidays and celebrations that occur around lunar & solar cycles.  Regardless of whatever language, or instrument, or food that’s being served, there’s still that *something else* that sets the air tingling around you.

Do you hear it?

Yoga Nidra tomorrow night at The Sanctuary…… a quiet time’ll be had by all.

Om shanti.

metta for an eclipse

May I live in peace no matter what I’m given.
May you live in peace no matter what you’re given.
May all beings live in peace no matter what they’re given.
Om shanti, shanti, shantihi.

June 1, 2011

It’s a loved one’s birthday, today.  Let’s take a moment and remember.  It’s hard to be separate from those we love.

It’s also a Solar Eclipse.  Destiny calls all of us when the time is right ripe.

May all beings be peaceful, no matter what they’re given. Om shanti Om.

Virgin Mind

On June 1 there’s another Solar Eclipse.  It’s occurring in the twelfth degree of Gemini.  According to Dane Rudyhar, writing in: An Astrological Mandala, this degree’s keynote phrase is “Liberation from the ghosts of the past.”   In the commentary he challenges us to create, “virgin minds, for virgin fields”.  This seems like a  clear call to continue our mindfulness and meditation practices.  How else will you be able to recognize a virgin moment, in a virgin mind?

Solar Eclipses mark  major, important, new beginnings, which inherently implies a major ending as well…certainly in the balsamic time preceding the eclipse.   Regardless, it generally affects a majority of us, all the time, especially those who live connected to the moon.

Would you like to have a “virgin mind, in a virgin field”, right now?  What if everyone you met after Tuesday, becomes an opportunity for a new beginning untainted by the past, both recent and otherwise? What an opportunity for those who practice loving-kindness………..

Tuesday:   Yoga for The Eclipse:     Bring something from your home altar.  Do your practice.  Journal.  Share your experience. Chant Om.  A few times.  Enjoy yourself.  Find your sangha.

Pluto, Plato, and dark nights……

So, I’m still living on the Pluto line, but my days are numbered now:  Twenty-nine, twenty-four hour periods for CA , give or take daylight savings time and the fact that due north is no longer due north, more on that later.  I’m  continuing to have multiple outer planet transits to my most significant personal planets and  Saturn keeps crawling around in my fourth house stirring up all kinds of ghosts and hopefully, angels.  It’s about as hard as it gets,astrologically, yet I’m grateful that my trials and tribulations are mine. It’s the path my soul needs to walk in a human body.  It’s not personal. It’s Pluto. It’s time for transformation, again.  Scholars, seekers, and scientists have described the pain and suffering of the process across the ages. Yogi’s, healers, and therapists try to minimize the negative effects of the pain and suffering.  One way out is death…..  and re-birth if you proscribe to Pluto as ruler of Scorpio.

Transformation is often accompanied by some kind of aha, awakening, or sudden unexpected life change. Our old ways don’t work anymore. To continue in the same mode is ridiculous.  However, for some, leaving behind and letting go is difficult, arduous, and overwhelming.  It helps to have support or to join with others that are of like mind or the common community.

 

Plato’s allegory of The Cave is a nice metaphor for Pluto. When the cave dwellers realized that their reality included more than shadows on a wall, that there were people outside the cave living in a different world entirely, a ‘transformational’ process began.   The old reality is no longer suitable.  The new reality is nothing we have ever encountered before.  Most likely, old behaviors will not produce the same results either.

 

to be continued.  Today is the start of the balsamic moon phase.  Be at peace.

Feb. 3, The Year of the Rabbit

In honor of this day, I threw the coins to receive a message from my oracle, the I Ching.  I have been consulting the “Sage” for many, many years and received amazing guidance and support from the various interpretations of the 64 hexagrams.

My question today was simply, what do I need to know for this upcoming year of the rabbit.

I received hexagram 61 with 9 in the second place. Hmmm.  To thy own self be true….., and from there I can meet you where you are.  Hexagram 42, Increase, resolves and brings the energy to the next step….from flood to fortune, sort of.

Ahhh.  May we be peaceful through the process.