Author: pmcrose

Happy New Year…2017!

I feel an uneasiness in the air as we enter 2017.  Many I know express a dis-ease with what is presently happening and lies ahead for our country and the world.

I have been asking myself:  how will I handle this dis-ease?  What will my response to it be?  How do I want to respond to it?  What will I bring to the game?

Maybe this is always the most important question:  what will we bring to this game of life, to this new year?

Will it be anger, sadness, love,…joy?

What will I do?  Bring violence or peace?…

What will you do?…

What will we do?…

In this new year 2017, may we become more centered in our strength–grounded, rooted.  And from that steady base or foundation, may we rise up to express with love, kindness, compassion, and respect our hearts and minds.

I sit in meditation and pray that the light in the heart may guide me and all of us and shower us with blessings.

May our year be filled with love, respect, compassion, and good health.  May we become anchored in joy.

As my meditation/yoga teacher sang out today.

Lots of love,

Lots of joy,

Lots of peace!

The laughter that arises in meditation is like a relaxation tonic.  My whole being eases some whenever this arises.  It lessens stress, pain, worries, fears, sadness, and even anger.  It lightens and somehow loosens the grip of the ego’s serious intent that can, gone unchecked, bear down tremendously on our being and do untold harm.

I am so grateful as it helps me relax into the space of deeper mediation.  And most of all that I quit taking myself–my feelings and predicaments no matter what they be–so seriously.

There are times I pray for this laughter, the relief and ease it brings with its shake of my belly.  So when it does come, I am so grateful!

In meditation today this arose for me and I want to share it:

Respect and love the life force, even in your “enemies.”

Respect them:  the life force has created, is creating, and is living them just as it is you and me.  Love them as another creation of this wondrous pulsation of life.

Have compassion for all.  Everyone has an equal right to be.

Let love be your sword and shield to fight hateful and disrespectful ideas and actions.  It is a force/power like none other!

With all my might, I will try more and more to cleave to this, in this very complicated time for our country and the world–where there is so much prejudice, hate, anger, fear, and worry.

May we all try to find ways to bring more light in our families and communities.  This, at least, is my mission.

As you meditate or do yoga, a fire arises in the belly that burns away and transforms negativities and impurities. It is an internal fire of purification.

First acknowledge and accept difficulties and struggles with their uncomfortable emotions/feelings and then offer them to the fire of yoga.

Those things you let go of and are willing to offer to the fire somehow metamorphose into something uplifting that transforms your state in ways your ego could never do and the mind itself not conceive.

This is how seemingly insurmountable obstacles can miraculously transform us.

We all sift through the hodgepodge of everyday thoughts as we sink or drop deeper into meditation.  “What will we have for dinner?…let’s invite friends over…my shoulders feel more relaxed….” and on and on it goes….

I move slightly to adjust into a more relaxed posture… I feel my sit bones grounded in my cushion….

Deeper and deeper the alluring pull of the life force takes my mind.  My breath slows and becomes shallower, my mind’s chatter lessening….

My heart smiles as it feels a taste of the bliss that sometimes accompanies meditation.

I can be still.  This is the safest of places, a refuge.  It invites me in.

I love this life force as I love life itself.  I then realize it is life itself.

To come to see, feel, and know the life force is one of the greatest gifts.  To feel its vital value and know its presence is a miraculous opportunity to live.

As you meditate or do yoga, a fire arises in the belly that burns away and transforms negativities and impurities.  It is an internal fire of purification.

First acknowledge and accept difficulties and struggles with their uncomfortable emotions/feelings and then offer them to the fire of yoga.

Those things you let go of and are willing to offer to the fire somehow metamorphose into something uplifting that transforms your state in ways your ego could never do and the mind itself not conceive.

This is how seemingly insurmountable obstacles can miraculously transform us.

 

Nothing needs to be the way we want it to be or think it should be.

Nothing needs to be a certain way.

When our “needs” quit trying to make the world fit or conform to them, habitual compulsions ease up.

We are freer to accept.

Real power and peace lie in this acceptance.

May your meditations be filled with the stillness and peace of Silent Night and the robust outpouring of Joy to the World.  And may you feel the ecstatic  bliss and love that unites us in peace as one people of many different colors, customs, languages, religions, and foods.

One people–from the messy-haired beggar, to glittery-gowned socialite; to the six month old trying to crawl, to the grandpa taking his last gasps with family around him; to the deer hunter in the woods, to the anti-gun lobbyist in Washington, DC; to the CEO of an oil refinery, to the Sierra Club president…

one people?…one people…

It is truly time to embrace the joys of life and love one another as one people–different in so so many ways–and yet essentially the same beings on a path from birth through life to death–thinking, feeling, eating, sleeping, struggling, suffering, laughing… with visions for their future….

What would it take for us to give up some of our fear, insecurity, hatred, anger, and blame?    What would it take?

If we were only curious a bit more and a little less fearful….

If were only a little more open and accepting and not so insecurely “right” and threatened by the other or the strange….

If only were were a little calmer, a little less angry, and little more loving….

If only…there might be a real chance for peace and love on earth.

And real joy to the world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are different ways to give….

Many of us unfortunately give with a guilty pang that what we are giving is and can never be quite enough.  This conflicted form of giving creates a sad, depressed, and angry spirit.  Much like hoarding, it results in a similar poverty of spirit, not a full and happy heart.

Or we give as though it was a business transaction…we give with the expectations of what we will get in return.  And if our giving goes somehow unnoticed in the way we want or expect, we are resentful and self-righteously indignant or slighted.

However, there is another way to give.

In meditation, we may feel and/or get glimpses of this expansive state of bliss and love–an open and giving spirit.

This engenders a prudently generous heart and spirit that balances taking care of oneself with giving generously. It is free of expectations of what we should receive in return. Unlike guilt-driven giving, this lifts the heart and the world and is free of conflict.

This holiday season may we give freely, mindful of what we have and need, with full hearts in love, joy, compassion, and happiness.