tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84006907716870805052024-02-20T16:51:07.392-08:00Secret Garden of the SpiritIn Heart Meditation the Life of the Spirit is open to all. The Wisdom traditions teach us the true temple is the deep center of the Heart. Our true spirit, lies within, animated by the Life of the Divine. This is the Secret Garden, inviolable and whole. At the center of the Garden lies the Radiant Light of the Divine Presence. In cultivating Holy Breath and Longing we center in the Heart and there the seeking soul may enter and find healing, rest, and home.Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400690771687080505.post-86095504694916969632012-05-16T10:00:00.000-07:002018-11-28T13:22:06.776-08:00Introduction- Universal Heart Meditation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Introduction-Universal Heart Meditation</b>- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Graphic above attributed to Thomas Keating O.C.S.O. )</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Soul’s Journey <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Every soul has a journey in this life. Too often we measure our life by the conventional standards of external success or failure in work, money, possessions, or relationships. But our real journey is the journey of the soul to rediscover in the depths of our own Heart or spiritual center, the secret garden of the spirit, and to learn to rest, abide, and live our human life from the Divine Eternal Life that emanates from the secret garden of the spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Two Dimensions of Human Spiritual Personhood<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> We are loved into existence with two enduring aspects to our personhood. One aspect is that of the soul, or spiritual consciousness, whose task is to undertake the journey of life and bring into the created world the Light within, and live It fully, with awakened awareness and with the purpose of consecrated love in this created world of human and other beings. The other aspect of our being is the secret garden of spirit, the deep spiritual Heart, the essential being of our true self that remains inviolable and unchanging. The garden of spirit is known in its fullness only to the Divine Friend and Beloved whose Life and Presence abides in the center of the garden. Potentially the Divine Indwelling is uncovered by the awakened and unified soul of every human being who longs to come home to rest and find healing therein. Our soul finds healing therein from the wound of separateness and isolation into conscious union with the Divine Beloved. It is the destiny of every soul to discover the secret garden of the true spirit and to bring its fruits into the world. Sadly the soul’s destiny is too often ignored and unfulfilled because of spiritual ignorance or unconsciousness in a lifetime of diversion, distraction, and misdirection. The result of that unfulfilled destiny is the human condition and all the ills that flow from it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Abiding in the Secret Garden<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> My journey of soul came into awakening as an adult at age 21. In the midst of a spiritual and psychological crisis, afflicted by despairing obsessive thoughts with growing suicidal content, in anguish and desperation I cried out for help. The help came immediately. It came in the form of a memory. The memory was soft and gentle and settled over me like a soothing cloud. I was four years old and I was hiding in the tall grass behind the chicken house at my grandmother’s home. In a seated position with crossed legs, my eyes were closed and my attention was focused entirely inward to a secret place deep within. I had come to this place many times before. It was home to me. In this place was safety and the peace and fullness that comes from being fully known and loved by a Presence that surrounded me in its loving intent. And I simply rested in the Presence, and It in me. Nothing else was needed. In a short time I would open my eyes and go about my play and exploration. Not thinking anything more about it, except that I knew this place and this experience was secret and I should not speak of it to any adult, as they would not understand. I did not give this place any religious interpretation as I knew very little about religion at that time in my life other than the nightly prayers my mother would say.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> In my recovery of this memory at age 21 I remembered again the inner gateway to this secret place. And, as if no time had passed at all, I went there again and rested again in the Presence Who indwelled in me. And the depression lifted and the obsessive and toxic thoughts lifted and I was healed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Finding a Spiritual Practice<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Not long after this healing occurred I met a young man who spoke about meditation as a spiritual practice, specifically Soto Zen meditation. His description resonated with my experience and I resolved to find a meditation teacher, knowing I needed to have a disciplined daily practice to stay rooted in the grace of this interior place of sanctuary and communion I had rediscovered now in my adult life, as already my mind was inclined to revert to its old patterns. And thus began the journey of my soul as an adult. My training in meditation took me to a gifted woman who was a teacher of Zen meditation, and later to teachers of meditation in the Christian mystical tradition. The Zen tradition helped me cultivate an emphasis on awareness or pure presence in my practice, and the Christian teachers helped me cultivate the quality of the intentionality of self-giving love in my practice. And I learned that both are vital to bring the soul’s abiding in the secret garden in the deep heart rooted in both presence and love and thereby express the fullness of our true spirit and the Eternal Beloved who lives within.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Universal Perennial Wisdom<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> In my life I have lived the interspiritual dialogue of East and West, and while the words and the map of spiritual reality are different, the reality of Spirit, a reality beyond words and concepts, is the same. That reality did not change for me when I practiced in the Buddhist paradigm, nor when I practiced in the Christian paradigm. The secret garden of the true spirit, and the Presence who Indwells within my own center and the center of all things is the same. All words and descriptions are, as the saying affirms, “the finger pointing at the moon.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> One of the pioneers of the interspiritual East-West dialogue is a monk named Bede Griffiths who died in 1993 at age 86. Bede Griffiths was a western Benedictine Catholic monk who, in his own words, went to India to “find the other half of my soul.” Bede Griffiths remained a Catholic monk but integrated many of the great mystical teachings of the East in his formulation and founding of Christian/Hindu ashrams rooted in meditation practice. Bede Griffiths made the statement on one occasion that his perception was that comparing the great faith traditions of the world was like looking at a hand. Each faith was a finger in a whole hand, in which in its dogma, theology and laws were distinct from others. Where they joined at the palm, the great Wisdom traditions were rooted in the essential Divine Oneness that is beyond concepts, traditions, dogmas, descriptions and laws, but is Eternal Life itself. He noted that those practitioners who partake of experiential knowledge of the mystic/contemplative dimension at the palm, even though they come from different traditions, can communicate in harmony and understanding with one another. Those adherents who are rooted only in law, theology, or dogma usually have great conflict and a lack of understanding in their communication. And as we know in our world today, this has been the occasion of much hatred and ill will across the religious divide, across time and geography.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Emerging Global Spiritual Consciousness<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> An emerging global consciousness is gathering in our world, thanks to growing global communications. Younger people are discarding the old conflicts and loyalties and asking why the former divisions between peoples should continue. They are also asking why religious institutions should make exclusive truth claims to be the mediator between the human soul and the Eternal Source. No human created institution has a claim of ownership of the Eternal, nor a stature of serving as exclusive conduit of the Divine to the human soul. Bricks and mortar are not the temple of God by whatever name we may give the Divine Ultimate. Rather the temple and true tabernacle of the Divine Presence is to be found at the center of the Heart, the secret garden of the spirit, within each one of us. Only the Divine Beloved can lay claim to that sacred place, and only the human soul, drawn and unified by love can draw near to find nourishment and healing in the secret garden.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times";"> This knowledge is not new. It has been known throughout the ages by mystics who partake of the <i>Sophia Perennis</i></span><span style="font-family: "times";">, or the Perennial Wisdom, passed down by practitioners from all the Wisdom traditions. What is new is that humankind is growing to a new receptivity to this secret knowledge, and a growing desire and trust to actualize it in a way that is beyond the control of ideologies and institutions. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, if one percent of human beings were to meditate, the world would be transformed. The time has arrived, and younger generations are ready to bring forth and fulfill the birthright of every human being who is willing. This short book is directed to this step that humankind is being invited to take. Whether you are religious or not, <u>all are called to discover, enter, abide therein, and live their precious human life centered in the Secret Garden of the Spirit.</u></span></span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400690771687080505.post-70695274512914532012-05-10T00:03:00.003-07:002015-01-26T12:03:56.985-08:00Centering in the Heart<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Centering in the Heart</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The great wisdom traditions teach us a too often
hidden intuition we already possess, that our authentic identity abides in true
spirit, or true nature. Our true spirit is not an isolated being or entity but
is an intimate cell or emanation of the Universal being or Spirit from which
all life and consciousness arises. When the mystics speak of the “heart” they
are referring to our spiritual center, the sanctuary space of our true spirit
and the Light and Presence of the Universal Spirit that animates and holds it
into being. All spirituality has to do with experiencing communion with the
Divine Spirit Life in the heart or spiritual center. Hence spiritual praxis
(practice) is the process of conscious connection with Spirit in the heart, or
Centering in the heart.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"> I will always remember watching a video of an
interspiritual conference in the 1990s at which the Dalai Lama was interviewed.
The comment that remained with me to this day was made with his hand caressing
his heart area of the chest and smiling as he spoke, “essence of spirituality
and true religion is ‘heart’.” Notably he did not say ‘the right beliefs or laws.’ Rightfully then, when we speak
of the life of the spirit arising from the heart or spiritual center, then we
must also speak of how we center our consciousness in the heart. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> It is good to have a conceptual map of the
spiritual life, but it is not enough if you do not then take the journey.
Richard Rohr, the Franciscan monk and interspiritual contemplative guide and
teacher wrote: “We must move from a belief-based religion to a practice-based
religion, or little will change.” (Richard Rohr, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The Naked Now)</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> And when we move from belief and dogma and into the
dimension of practice and experience, we are moving from religion into
spirituality. Religion without authentic spiritual practice is why we have a
failure of religious systems today. And remember that the word </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">practice</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> does not mean ‘repetition.’ It refers to the Greek
word </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">praxis</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">, which means, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">actualization</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">to make real</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">. To </span></span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">make real</span></span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> our life of the spirit it is vital and necessary
to have conscious connection, conscious communion, and conscious oneness with
our true spirit and the Universal Life that animates it and the entire cosmos
and beings who dwell here with us. The doorway into this conscious connection
is our own heart, or spiritual center.
The pathways of connection into the deep heart are many. Most mystics
teach spiritual meditation as the most direct and most powerful pathway of
connection.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;">Meditation as Pathway to Centering in the Heart<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">" Meditation… is returning to
your own center and finding that it is the gateway to the Center of all."</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">
John Main OSB- </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The Heart of Creation<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"> I have specified the term ‘spiritual meditation’
here as a direct but not the only pathway to connection with the heart. Again
the ‘heart’ here is the center of our being, the secret garden of the true
spirit. I am not using the term to refer to more conventional usages of ‘heart’
to refer to the emotional center or to our anatomical organ. There are forms of meditation that are
taught simply as health practice or mental concentration practice to enhance
the powers of the brain. Here we are referring to the practice described by
John Main as the liberation of the spiritual faculty of awareness from
entrapment in the thinking mind and its content, and anchoring our awareness
and our will (intention) in the spiritual center or heart, the font of
self-offering love (agape) or loving kindness (metta) and the sanctuary of the
Light and Fire of Divine Presence or Ultimate Being in our inner being. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> A valid equivalent term </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Interbeing</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">, is used by the Vietnamese Zen monk, Thich Nhat
Hanh, to understand that all beings participate and share in the Life of
Ultimate Being. Hence the more intimate we are with Ultimate Being within, the
more empathic and compassionate we are with all beings, because we experience
our oneness with all beings through the deep heart within. Therefore true
spiritual meditation does not take us into a self-absorption, but into a
belonging that transcends a personal self and encompasses our own true spirit
in communion with all spirits. At a personal level therefore meditation takes
us into the Greater Concern for all beings and subjectively we experience both
growing joy and pain in that belonging. This is </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Interbeing</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> for Buddhists, and for theistic people this is the
place where love and union with God takes us into a love and union with our
neighbor or all beings, the </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Great Commandment</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">. All true morality stems from this Unitive Love. It
matters not which concept you prefer, it is the same Reality, the same Great
Love that holds us all into being and shares Its Life with us. This Great Love.
alive and burning brightly in the heart, is what the Tibetan Buddhists are
invoking in the spiritual mantra “</span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Om Mani Padme Hum</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">,” ‘Hail to the
Jewel in the Lotus of the Heart.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;">Meditation Method<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: xx-large;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"> The method of centering in the heart through
spiritual meditation simply calls us to take refuge in the Inner Flame of Love
at the center of our Secret Garden of the Spirit. In this intimate encounter, similar to when we seek intimacy
</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">in our human relationships, we give our full
presence, letting no thing intrude, whether our own thoughts, external noise or
distraction. In this interior
sanctuary we give ourselves to the interior rest and aliveness of the deep
heart. To cultivate our abiding in
this sacred silent space, which the ancients of the desert tradition called
“hesychia”, there are external and internal disciplines we must cultivate. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The
Guidelines of Heart Meditation</span></span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">1. </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Setting</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">:
Set aside a sacred space, a quiet place in your home that is consecrated
to your desire for centering in the cave of the heart.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">2. </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Time</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">:
Choose a time most conducive to silent interior heart meditation, when
you are alert and not likely to be interrupted. For most that is early morning and early evening.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">3. </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Body
Posture</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">: Sit upright, where minimal effort is
required to maintain a straight back and be alert. For some a chair is best, for others, a meditation bench or
cushion. Let the hands be
reverently folded in your lap or resting on your thighs facing upward or
downward.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">4. </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Breath</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">: Breathing should be relaxed, not forced. Allow the breath to be deep and
abdominal, relaxing the tensions in the shoulders, chest and abdomen. Let the out-breath be released slowly,
synchronized with the invocation of a sacred breath or mantric invocation, if
you are using one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">5. </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Preparation</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">: Choose or create a short phrase of consecration to
prepare for your entry into silence and to awaken your longing. Examples might be, ’In the depths
of my heart I take refuge’, or ‘O Beloved Spirit Life, I take refuge in you.’ <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">6. </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Length of Meditation Session</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">:
Twenty-five to thirty minutes of Heart Meditation session is best, with
a brief walking meditation in between for more than one session. Two sessions a day, one session in both
the morning and evening, or two sessions in the morning, are often recommended. (For most people it is best to begin
with one.) Allow for a gentle transition from the meditation session, perhaps
ending with a spoken vow of practice, devotional prayers or chant, or a short
spiritual reading you may find inspirational. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The Method</span></span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Meditation
mantra</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">: Choose a word, which touches you and
best expresses your desire to be one with the Spirit Life within you. Or you may choose a word that evokes
for you deep peace and interior grounding in the heart. Repeat the word or
words silently and continuously, synchronized with your breath. Let the word
and breath sink deeply into the heart in the chest and solar plexus. With more
than one syllable or word, align the recitation of the word or phrase with the
in-breath and out-breath in an easy rhythm of breath and word. Let this mantric word or phrase be the
anchor of returning your awareness to interior abiding in the Heart. Some practitioners may find repeating
any word is unnecessary or even a distraction. For these individuals, the in-breath and out-breath alone is
the purest and simplest form of meditation practice, and breath alone is fully
sufficient and complete.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Observing the
Mind/Abiding in the Heart</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">:
Observe the mind traffic content, release and return your attention/presence to
abiding in the heart (This may be experienced energetically in our body
awareness deep in the lower chest and solar plexus area). Continually observe and release from
involvement with mental thoughts in the head by returning to your breath and
sacred word. The continual process
of “release and return” coincides with the natural rhythm of the breath. We increasingly and continuously abide
in the deep heart and sanctuary of the Spirit Life within. In growing depth our awareness settles
and anchors in the warmth and spaciousness of our spiritual center, the cave of
the heart and secret garden of the spirit within.</span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Summary of
Guidelines and Method</span></span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"> Gradually, over time,
we cultivate a capacity, not to stop thought and emotion, but to release from
them. Increasingly, we abide in
the ‘cave of the heart’, which is beneath and beyond all mind activity. We experience that we have thoughts,
but we are not our thoughts. We
can rest in this heart space, in our silent meditation practice, or in the
midst of daily activities. Our
true home, our monk's cell, is the kingdom of the Spirit Life within, and our
practice is one of ceaseless return and abiding in the inner sanctuary of the
Heart Flame of Love.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"> Thomas Kelly, the twentieth century Quaker
mystic, spoke eloquently of the "perpetual return of the soul to the Inner
Sanctuary." He writes, "
Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy
place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continually return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing
upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny,
calling us home unto Itself…"<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="font-family: Times; font-size: xx-large;">
<i style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">"Who abides in love, abides in God." -Epistle of St.
John</span></span></span></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Times; font-size: xx-large;">
<i style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>"The Heart is the only Reality. The mind is only a transient </i></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>phase. To remain as one's Self is to enter the Heart."</i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; display: inline; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: start;">
<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><i>- Sri Ramana Maharshi</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times; font-size: xx-large;">
<i style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Times; font-size: xx-large;">
<i style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></i></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Times; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><u>
</u></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><b><u>
</u></b></span></span></div>
</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: auto;">
</div>
</div>
Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400690771687080505.post-46050037141506968292012-04-04T22:18:00.000-07:002016-04-22T15:09:09.886-07:00Yoga of the Heart<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 19px;"><b><u>The Practice of Heartfulness-</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><u>Yoga of the Heart<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>"I looked for God in
all the temples and mosques of the world and I found God in my own Heart.
" <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mevlana Rumi- 13th cent. Sufi mystic of Turkey.<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>The River that flows in you flows in me. -Kabir<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Yoga- Union and Connection<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I
am going to use the word <i>yoga</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> now
because it is a word that is well known in Western culture despite its Sanskrit
roots in Hindu culture. It is commonly associated in the West with the practice and
discipline of postural (asana) </span><i>yoga</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
as a physical discipline. However, the term </span><i>yoga</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> means union or joining. The English word yoke as a
noun or a verb is a derivative of </span><i>yoga</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> and refers to this same process of joining together or union. In the
Hindu tradition, yoga refers to the multiple pathways by which we actualize and
make conscious the union of human with Divine consciousness within the soul. In
the Hindu tradition there are many disciplines of yoga that make virtually all
human activity a potential form of yoga or union with the Divine, and all
authentic yoga is a form or dimension of the Yoga of the Heart or spiritual
center. In yoga as spiritual practice, human friendship, conjugal love
(tantra), compassionate service and care-giving (karma), devotional love (bhakti), and meditational heart presence
(raja), everything in our life, becomes a practice of yoga or union
with the Divine Beloved, when we center in the heart. All human life,
everything we do, can become a pathway to the heart or a dimension of Yoga of
the Heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Spirituality is connection, communion, joining our human awareness with
Divine Awareness, joining our human soul with Divine Soul, and realizing we
were never separate. Spirituality is yoga, heart yoga in all things, and
bringing all of our human life into alignment and connection with Divine Life.
The human soul hungers most deeply, not for religion, but for the conscious
experience of Divine union and connection. For us this is coming Home, and
there finding who we are, our true identity and belonging, in our union with
the Divine and all beings. For some, religion can assist in conducting a
conscious spiritual life. For too many, religion is an obstruction to, or
diversion from, authentic spiritual life. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Heart Presence<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<i>As I Walk with Beauty<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>As I walk, as I walk<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>The universe is walking with me<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>In beauty it walks before me<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>In beauty it walks behind me<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>In beauty it walks below me<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>In beauty it walks above me<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Beauty is on every side<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>As I walk, I walk with Beauty. -</i><span style="font-style: normal;">Navajo Prayer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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To walk in beauty is to walk in Heart Presence. Heart
Presence is not just being mentally awake. Heart Presence is consciously
dwelling in pure Being or Presence, one way of understanding what Being is. The
process of soul healing is the healing of our human presence into Universal
Presence. We participate in that process through the practice of Heart Yoga, In
Centering in the Heart in formal meditation we encounter and experience Heart
Presence in stillness and quiet sitting. In Heart Yoga we bring that same
quality of being, the same practice of Centering in the Heart into all of life,
into all relationships, into all activity and service. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In
centering in the heart or heart presence in daily life our reference point and
home is the heart. We recognize this interior space and sanctuary as the space
where we experience interior peace, and our capacity to love deeply and fully,
love as self-offering. We experience this space close to the location of the
anatomical heart in the center of the chest and sternum. We can breathe from
and into this space and our breath can help guide our conscious awareness to
that space and anchor our abiding there. If we have a chosen mantra or sacred
word aligned with our breath, it can also help us anchor our conscious
awareness there. Sufism calls this <i>muqtaba</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
of putting the mind into the heart. Likewise Eastern Christian mystics call
this </span><i>hesychasm</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> or the interior
quiet of putting the mind (conscious awareness) into the heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>The Ear of the Heart and Moral Discernment</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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“Immersing our self into the heart we allow the energy of
love to slow down the mind and its many thoughts, until we arrive at a state of
empty receptivity, in which we patiently wait within the heart…. In this
interior place we come to hear the words of our Beloved, experience divine
presence, or merge deeper into the silence that belongs to love. … Listening
within the heart is attuning ourself to our Beloved. We develop the ear of the
Heart, the inner listening of the soul.” (Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, <i>Prayer of
the Heart in Christian and Sufi Mysticism</i><span style="font-style: normal;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Hence in Heart Presence we walk in Beauty Itself, we walk in Love
Itself, and with the ear of the heart open, we listen to what is in harmony
with the Beloved and what is not. In this way we align our path, our actions
with Love’s way, and experience deeply the sorrow that comes from not doing so.
This interior listening is the source of all ethical, moral choice and
behavior. This is what it means to walk in Beauty in Heart Presence. Sorrow itself can be what the mystics
call the “gift of tears.” To feel
personally and deeply when harm comes to beings, arises from unitive love,
being one with Oneness Itself, the One Life that animates us all. From this
comes forth all just and compassionate discernment and action, all moral
commitment. Morality is no longer a rule or an ideal, but a felt Presence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Heart Presence and Soul Healing<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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From
this Oneness comes the healing of our existential alienation and aloneness. We
experience that we are never alone, always in communion with the One who loved
us into existence and sustains our life and spirit. We are always Home and
never a stranger or estranged. In this state the craving for substitutes and
diversions that arise from spiritual alienation falls away, and the heart is
our true Home, the Beloved our true dwelling place and security. Our journey is
one of always coming home again and again throughout our life, no matter how
far we may wander or be distracted or diverted. The Practice of Heart Yoga
brings us Home. We come to experience that our heart’s desire finds completion
within and that ultimately we are more the sought than seeker, the one whom
Love seeks and finds. “In the silent niche of the heart the lover experiences
the truth that there is only one prayer that underlies all creation-the prayer
in which the Beloved is present, not as a personal God or Creator, but as
something both inexpressible and intimate In this innermost recognition of the
heart the lover recognizes the Beloved as something inseparable from oneself. …
only the Beloved exists.” (Vaughn-Lee, Prayer of the Heart…..)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Healing the Eye of the Heart <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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In
our healing of soul we heal and open the ear of the heart. And we also heal the
eye and vision of the heart to behold the Original Light. In our intimacy with the Beloved we
come to behold the Beloved in all things, in all life. In the words of the 9<sup>th</sup>
century Celtic mystic, John Scotus Eriugena, we “recover the true beholding of
the Light with our inner eyes” of the heart. (Newell, <i>Listening to the Heartbeat of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> ) When we are intimate with the Beloved we learn to
behold the Light of the Beloved within the entire universe in things animate
and inanimate, in all beings who share the One Life with us. In this way we are
able to consciously walk in Beauty, the Beauty of the Beloved, whose heartbeat
we hear and whose Light we behold through the inner eye and Voice we hear with
the ear of the heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The ancient Celt mystics said it this way:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>God before me,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> God behind
me, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>God beneath me,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> God above
me, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>God all around me. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>God within me</i><span style="font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>From Fear and Obsession to Freedom and Interior Safety<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In heart presence we continue to lay down our obsession with
past conditions and grievances, and our future expectations to simply come back
to the eternal NOW, being present in the heart, anchoring with our breathing
and our sacred word. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Releasing
from the Ego-Mind and Its Motivations<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our mental
motivations of the egoic mind of separateness are often fear based and designed
to control external conditions.
They are driven by the compulsions of the ego to enhance and protect our
misdirected drives for control, affection, and security. Through the practice of ceaseless heart
presence we continually open to see our hidden motivations of the mind,
truthfully, as they are, however twisted and misdirected. Through heart presence we release the
motivations and creations of the thinking mind and return to the intention of
the Heart to simply abide in our deepest loving intention. Through the continual return to
centering in heart presence, we return to loving kindness as our deepest motivation,
and experience the internal security of our true dwelling place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Faithfulness,
Breath, and Sacred Word- Our Homing Pigeon<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We may often
find our attention wandering.
Therefore we gently return in all activity, continually, to communion
with the True Being, the Beloved who welcomes the wandering soul back home.
This ceaseless desire to return home, no matter what, no matter how badly
we've "blown it,” how far we
have been misdirected, how far we've wandered, is the basic practice, and
life-long movement. The return to ceaseless heart presence is facilitated when
we find a few places in the day of external quiet when we can re-establish our
interior anchor in abiding through breath and sacred word.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In this way we
find that we are always at home in Life, in true Being, in the secret garden of
the spirit, in our own heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">One of my Zen
teachers along the way, Willigis Jager, says it this way,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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"Life, which we may call God, the Absolute, the
Ultimate, <o:p></o:p></div>
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Reality, True Being, … permeates and expresses <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Self in everything. This True Being is the heart of our
existence. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
God is the Being out of which we live; God is the being <o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 12pt;">that
lives in us and through us. We are God's form </span>Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400690771687080505.post-87955344710949315692012-04-01T08:47:00.000-07:002016-04-22T15:12:02.390-07:00The Yoga of Soul-Friending<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><u>Heartfulness in Close Relationships</u></span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><u>The Yoga of Soul Friending (Anam Cara)</u></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Many people I know experience their greatest feelings of communion and connection, of being understood and loved, in long term relationships of friendship. Indeed for many the life of the spirit may be most deeply felt with true heart friends.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In our walk through the awakened spiritual life we live the practice of Heart Presence in interior silence and in the middle of life and relationships. Our shared experience of Heart Presence occurs in friendship with other beings, whether they be human or other living beings. With our human friendships there are some where we feel a strong heart resonation that brings us a profound experience of intimacy and loving support, as though our inner radiance of Heart Presence is mingled with another. Such a relationship in the Celtic tradition is called a soul-friend, or anam cara (dear soul). </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Anam Cara Relationship</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Brigid of Kildare, the druid priestess and later Christian mystic of 7th century Ireland asserted that the most vital element on the spiritual journey is one's "Anam Cara." Anam Cara actually translates as "dear soul." It means a relationship of intimacy and trust, of spiritual communion that is profound and life-sustaining. For the human being on the journey some of us may be fortunate to find for a time a human "anam cara" who companions us and we companion them, for a time on the Way, whose love, support, acceptance, and total regard for our well-being is without measure. Such a friendship is precious and those who enjoy it cherish and nurture this shared bond for all the ways it nurtures the soul and expands the heart. In this relationship we find safety and sanctuary, a safe and sacred refuge in the soul and psyche of another who receives us in love, as we are in our humanity and as we are in tenderness and exquisite sensitivity of the spirit.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The anam cara friendship draws its life from the Light that is greater that lives in and through both friends. The anam cara relationship arises from the Divine Anam Cara relationship, mutually shared with another being. Sometimes that being is an animal friend. For many humans that being might be a dog, cat, or a horse, those animal friends with whom we share our life. In later life I had a ten year relationship with a female black labrador in a mutual love and constant companionship that was nurturing and exquisite, and whose passing brought profound grief, but also gratitude for the shared journey together. In this way the love and safety of the Divine Anam Cara flows through another being to us, and through us to them in a way that validates and enlivens our spirit beyond measure. We open to </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i>be</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> such safety and refuge to another, as well as to receive it. Such intimacy between beings brings joy and purpose to living. This friendship in where we experience love and intimacy brings us to joy and completion.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">David Steindl-Rast, the Benedictine monk and contemplative writer, in his book <i>Gratefulness- the Heart of Prayer</i>, states that everything written or said about spirituality is about <i>belonging</i>. The central wound of the human condition is the loss of our experience of intimate belonging here in the incarnate universe. It may be understood that the healing of this wound is the recovery of a lived awareness of our ancient and innate belonging in the circle of Divine Life itself. This experience and awareness is one of an intimacy with the Divine that is our birthright. We are loved into existence by our Source from all eternity. We can awaken to this ancient and ever present Love and that our very life and essence partake of the Greater Life that is Love Itself through the yoga (union) of Heart Presence that joins us consciously and intentionally with our Divine Beloved and shared with our soul friends who walk with us. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Sufi mystic, Rumi, simply called the Divine, "Friend." Jesus called his followers, male and female, “Friends” . True friendship in Heart Presence with our human and Divine Beloved is the vital way we heal the wound of separateness and find connection and communion with the Source of Life. In soul friendships we feel the safety to bring forth the fullness of Heart Presence with another, and to receive in mutuality their bestowal of the gift of unguarded and safe Heart Presence.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Divine Beloved- Our Heart’s Anam Cara</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The essence of spirituality is connection, the life of communion with all life, all beings. Hence we are never alone in our life's journey. A vital aspect of this is the trust that the Heart of the Universe is both intimately personal and oceanic in our experience of It. In its personal face we can be in a conscious and intentional relationship of friendship with the personal face of the Divine and the Divine Friend in our human or animal soul friend. The ultimate spiritual teacher and soul friend is within us and always accessible for our grounding and guidance. Mystics from all traditions throughout time have found ways to name and personify the Divine, often using human relationships as metaphor. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">For many this relationship is experienced with such intensity and longing that it can only be summed up as a Divine Friend and Lover, who is our heart's desire and life's fulfillment. The Divine Anam Cara therefore is often called "Beloved" by practitioners of diverse traditions. In the transient life's journey where our human beloveds are transitory companions with human limits, the assurance and ongoing presence of the Divine Beloved is a ceaseless comfort and security. Whatever term we use in addressing our Divine Anam Cara, whatever human metaphor we use to define our relationship with the Divine, it must come from within us, in a way that represents and defines absolute safety and healing, a refuge that is beyond question for us, a refuge that is mirrored in the safety we experience with our human and creature anam caras, as we walk the difficult path of life, a refuge that is at long last ‘Home’. And just as in a human friendship, this Divine "dear soul" becomes the trusted friend and confidant of our life. When we seek for direction, when we seek for healing, when we seek for the love that never fails, our Dear Soul, the Friend, is there, by whatever name or metaphor we may choose. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We are One with Our Anam Cara.</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The growth of the path of Heart Presence takes us inevitably to the insight that there is no distance between ourselves, and our Dear Soul who walks with us. They are the same footprints. Our Divine Anam Cara is living, moving, loving, healing fully present in us, both in our resistance and ignorance, and in our awakening to the life of unitive love and purpose. The true Seeker of the Heart and the One being Sought are the same. We come Home and find we have never truly left. All the while the Friend has traveled in us, living the totality of the human journey in us, whether we have known it or not. When we live our life with this awareness it is rich, and full, deep and joyful, and never easy or without challenge. “Love is the source, center, and destiny of experience.” John O’Donohue, <i>Anam Cara</i></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A Friendship Blessing</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">May you be blessed with good friends.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">there is great love, warmth feeling, and forgiveness.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">May this change you.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">May it transfigure that which is negative, distant, or cold in you.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">May you treasure your friends.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">May you be good to them and may you be there for them;</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">may they bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth,</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">and light that you need for your journey.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">May you never be isolated.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">May you always be in the gentle nest of your belonging with your </span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Anam Cara.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>(</i>John O’Donohue<i>, Anam Cara)</i></span></span></div>
Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400690771687080505.post-55137218118507620232012-03-08T09:50:00.000-08:002014-05-30T14:44:00.373-07:00Yoga of Sacred Ritual<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Yoga of Sacred Ritual</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Sacred Rituals- Enactment of Heart Presence in Human Life</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Sacred Ritual- </b>Human beings throughout time and across the planet have held sacred rituals. Sacred rituals are distinct from other rituals in that they are not magic, nor motivated by the desire for power or manipulation, but to integrate meaning and purpose and to open our soul to conscious connection with the Ultimate, the essential Unity that holds the universe into being. Sacred rituals give expression to this inner consciousness of the soul, and in community celebrate and encourage even greater opening. Sacred rituals are often done at the following times or occasions: of important passages, of great human need or crisis, during the rhythms of the year, to celebrate blessing and thanksgiving, to seek healing of soul and body, and to give witness to important commitments of and between persons. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Sacred ritual in the post-modern era sadly has largely been diminished or lost as an essential human practice in many societies. The extreme individualism and narcissism of our time and our culture inclines persons to see little use or validity in sacred rituals. This is so primarily because we lack faith in conscious connection with the Divine in daily life and are inclined to see ritual as the dead and cold property of religious institutions. Sacred rituals also are ways we re-state or re-enact our commitment to accountability to the Reality that is at the Center of life, as our culture seems to avoid commitment to that central relationship or any other that flows from it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Whether we realize it or not, our lives are held together by rituals, patterns of behavior that become familiar patterns. Too often they can become unconscious and bereft of conscious meaning. They are the warp and weft of the weave of our lives. In them, knowingly or not, we reaffirm the purposes of our lives and the values that are the foundation of our activity and relationships. The spiritual journey is a path of healing from the wound of separateness, the wound of our lack of conscious connection to the Ultimate and all the alienation and unhappiness that flows from it. Those who wish to awaken spiritually began to discern the patterns and rituals of our living in a conscious way. Thereby we can bring a creative intuitive response to our sacred rituals to express and empower this soul healing rather than rely on institutionalized forms alone.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Essential Elements of Sacred Rituals- </b>Some of us have had experience with sacred rituals and the liturgies within them through our involvement with one or more of the spiritual traditions of the world. To the extent that the symbols, words, and forms may have had meaning for us they can be integrated into our own lives. Common elements of sacred rituals involve some but are not limited to the following: </span></span></div>
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<li style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font: 12.0px Symbol; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">An altar or center of a circle is usually the focus of attention for participants. The center may have a sacred fire or candle. The center or altar is the symbolic meeting point between human and Divine, between material and spiritual order of reality. </span></span></li>
<li style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font: 12.0px Symbol; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Present on the altar or at the center, are placed appropriate symbols of the Divine and human presence in the ritual as well as symbols of healing, purification, commitment, and blessing, depending on the ritual's purpose. </span></span></li>
<li style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font: 12.0px Symbol; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Participants place themselves facing the center or altar in reverential posture, often bowing or making other reverential gestures as they enter the space. </span></span></li>
<li style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font: 12.0px Symbol; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Rites of purification entering the ritual space are frequently begun with the intent to leave behind "ordinary" consciousness and enter a deeper level of focus of awareness. Use of incense or smudging is one way of ritually expressing this.</span></span></li>
<li style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font: 12.0px Symbol; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The participant detaches from superficial concerns that circulate in the mind, to bring consciousness from an identification with the habitual surface mind content and into the awareness of true being or true spirit, in Heart Presence. </span></span></li>
<li style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font: 12.0px Symbol; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Chanting an invocation is often then intoned alone or in a group by the ritual leader with a bell, or gong or other sound instrument, to further facilitate that shift in consciousness. </span></span></li>
<li style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font: 12.0px Symbol; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What follows then is the liturgical content of the ritual, involving readings, prayers, and invocations, songs, or music, which can be brief, lasting minutes, or lengthy, lasting days or weeks intermittently, depending on the nature of the ritual. </span></span></li>
<li style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font: 12.0px Symbol; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">At the conclusion of the liturgical order, there is then a transition towards a conclusion of the ritual during which the purposes of the ritual are summarized and the commitments of the participants reinforced and validated. A concluding chant, song, spoken voice, or movements then bring the ritual to conclusion.</span></span></li>
<li style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font: 12.0px Symbol; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Participants then leave in a specified way, individually or as a group, making those reverential gestures of bowing or holding of hands or other body expression that are determined appropriate.</span></span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Liturgical Content of Sacred Rituals- </b>From its Greek origin, liturgy, means "the work of the people." The expressions of the sacred then are not imposed from without but arise creatively from within us, even if we may use expressions that arise from diverse spiritual traditions. The process of creating these expressions of the sacred tasks in our lives -healing, commitment, forgiveness, encountering important passages, meeting risk and danger, uniting our lives with others, saying goodbye to others, and giving thanksgiving and blessing and others- is one that involves profound depth and attunement to the deep spirit in the Heart. It also calls forth artistic skill and freedom to give the full richness of expression. This creative process is most satisfying and fulfilling. The process itself is a deep meditation on the important moments of our lives. If the rituals are daily ones that are repeated daily, they can call forth refinement as we attune ourselves ever more to the Divine's movement in us. Sacred rituals are not the property of organized religion, but the inner creation of the spiritual nature of each person.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Home Altars</b> are common in other cultures and geographic regions. Altars are the symbolic meeting place or integration of the mundane or "ordinary" into the sacred. It is appropriate that altars have a space of their own, whether a room, or a part of a room, or corner. Placement of sacred objects and symbols on the altar helps us to refer our consciousness to the sacred within the Heart, or spiritual center of the human person. Pictures, icons, statues, of spiritual personages or loved ones, may best fulfill this purpose. With the rotation of seasons, aspects of the natural world, and its changing face, may also grace our altar, sticks, stones, feathers, shells, and other gifts of creatures, and animate or inanimate nature. Their importance is their sacred ritual meaning to us. We discern that ritual meaning from within, in an intuitive mode. Altars should be well kept and revered as the center of sacred ritual in daily life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Daily Sacred Rituals</b> have the purpose of re-shaping our consciousness, by bringing us home to the central purposes and central commitments in our lives. Persons of present American culture seem afraid of repetition, afraid their minds will become bored or not entertained in repetition. In fact throughout time spiritual traditions have used repetition to engage or occupy the mind so that soul awareness can sink more deeply than the habitual identification with the mind traffic and into the spaciousness of the Heart. Hence poetic scriptures, chants, readings, offerings, and gestures, as an adjunct to silent meditation are the liturgical content of daily practice of sacred ritual. Brief sacred rituals around meals remind us of the life of plants and possibly animals that have been given so we can live, and to cherish with thanksgiving the life we have been given, within the circle of life. Sacred rituals before bedtime allow us to sink into our interior refuge of spirit in the Divine so that we may experience interior safety and security before letting go into sleep. Altars and symbols of the Divine at locations around our home can remind us of the central Relationship in our lives, and keeping reverent space in a separate room or corner of a room for our meditation space facilitates and nurtures the consciousness of sacred space.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Rites of Healing</b> usually involve a coming together of friends, family, and community to focus healing love energy on the person or situation in need of healing. An example of this might be the Navajo "Chants" which often go for days. The person in need of healing is placed in the center of the healing circle. Whether in silence, or in singing or chanting, or dancing, or sacred art, an offering of healing energy, love, and intentionality is made. (the Navajo people in a manner similar to the Tibetan Buddhists offer a sand painting, a healing mandala for the ill person and those present to assist in an integration of the higher spiritual energies for the purpose of healing.) Shamanic practitioners go through extensive training in guiding persons and groups through liturgies of healing. The liturgy itself has the goal of opening the illness to the invocation of spiritual energies from the Divine to assist the person in fulfilling their higher purpose of completing their spiritual journey on this plane of existence.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Rites of Commitment </b>are vital in human life. They tie our commitments to the eternal and to the larger communities of humans and other beings. For that reason having them witnessed by the universe around us, and by our human communities in life, as we pronounce our vows, our promises, our desire to give of ourselves to higher purposes in life in a way that transcends time and space, is also vital. Commitments can be to relationships, such as friendship, espousal, teacher-student, to deepened spiritual practice, or other. Such commitments are sacred and call for accountability and support for those in our lives. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Rites of Forgiveness </b>are a way we honor the freedom to release from past hurts and injuries and enter the freedom to full life in the present. They are a gift to ourselves to release from all need to try to deny or reverse what has happened, or to exact any form of retribution. We free ourselves from the cycles of injury and revenge, they are ways that victims are empowered from remaining victims, and to learn and grow stronger in life. The ritual "leaving behind" of the residue of past tramua, injury, or injustice can be liberating of our higher energies in this life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Rites of Passage or Goodbye </b>help us to bow to the impermanence in life. We thereby honor every experience, every stage of life, every relationship and attachment that has come and gone, and every phase of growth. We can give thanks for the gift received, to release from the residue of attachment whether it be of desire or aversion, and to move into the freedom of the present moment having given reverence and gratitude for the gifts of relationship given. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Summary: The Earth Witness Mudra </b>is the posture of the Buddha touching the earth with one hand and reaching upward to the sky with the palm extended. This is an iconic spiritual expression of<b> Incarnate Expression of the Transcendent Ultimate </b>here in the realm of human daily life. Sacred Rituals are one important way of bringing to conscious expression what is, in truth the fundamental spiritual task of the human journey, to individuate and express the Divine within the human and the "ordinary." To awaken and live this truth </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">is</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> the spiritual journey. Sacred ritual is a vital and creative artistic expression of the spiritual journey. The Buddha/Christ within each of us with one hand touches the earth and receives the gift each moment of incarnate life. With the other hand, palm extended and open, we make an offering of our unique melding and mixing, the temporal human earth and the transcendent Ultimate life-breath extending upwards, releasing and offering all into the All, the Essential Unity from which all things arise and all things return.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><u>**To Read Final Chapter Click on Older Posts**</u></b></span></span></div>
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Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8400690771687080505.post-5994833976435573082012-03-01T23:23:00.000-08:002016-04-22T15:15:15.533-07:00Yoga of Befriending All Beings<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Practice of Heartfulness</span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> in theYoga of Befriending All Beings-</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Compassionate Life in the Communion Paradigm</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"The Tao gives birth to all beings,</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">nourishes them, maintains them,</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">cares for them, comforts them, protects them,</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">takes them back to itself,</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">creating without possessing,</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">acting without expecting,</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">guiding without interfering.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">that is why the love of the Tao</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">is in the very nature of things." -Lao-Tzu (6th c. - B.C.E.)</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Charter for Compassion</span></i></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“</i></span><span style="color: #232323; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>The principle of compassion </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.<br />
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</i></span><span style="color: #232323; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>It is also necessary</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.<br />
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</i></span><span style="color: #444444; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>We therefore call upon all men and women</i></span><span style="color: #ffa603; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.<br />
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</i></span><span style="color: #232323; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>We urgently need </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.” </i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>( http://charterforcompassion.org/the-charter/#charter-for-compassion )</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Unitive Life</b>-The Great mystics and sages of human history have proclaimed, as Lao-Tzu, that there is single Life, an Ultimate ground of Being in which all existence, all beings find their belonging, their birth, their arising, and their completion. These same Wisdom teachers and practitioners have also taught that human consciousness can be so awakened as to perceive and live within this One Life, in a conscious and intentional way. This is where the spiritual path takes us, a merging, a joining, a “yoga” of total identification with the One Self that is the Unified Field of Life. The same <b><i>heart resonance </i></b>we experience in our spiritual practice of befriending our soul friends deepens and extends into an experience and a practice (actualization) of heart resonance with the Heart of the Universe as the singular force of love and purpose in our lives.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Quantum Cosmology</b> gives us the same view stated in terms of theoretical physics, describing all existence as a unified field which arises from a Quantum Emptiness to take on form and become all things and all possibilities. This view also states that the essence of this unified field is Consciousness itself, where every aspect of existence, every being every particle participates in this field of Consciousness, each affecting and affected by the whole. We are not alone. We are intimately connected with all of life and existence. What we do to another we do to our Self. The Golden Rule of ethics is rooted in the very pattern and substance of existence. Hence the compassionate life is not just an ideal to be lived up to, but a Truth rooted in existence itself. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Global Ethic- The Golden Rule and a Charter for Compassion</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Author and spiritual teacher, Karen Armstrong has articulated this truth of Compassion and our intimate connection with the entire universe in her project and book on a Charter for Compassion based on the Golden Rule of mutuality of respect and loving kindness as a basis for a Global Ethic that all peoples can uphold and revere. In this journey in life we then encounter beings and fields of compassionate resonance. As we grow in our capacity to listen to the Heartbeat of the Universe that resonance expands exponentially, and we befriend all beings, all things, all that is, in this infinite Circle of compassionate resonance. That is how and why the personal journey of being a spiritual being on a human journey leads us within and then beyond our individual self into the Greater Self that includes all life, all existence, and all Consciousness. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b>Compassionate loving kindness is the fruit of the spiritual life. </b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> We attune ourselves to a deep listening to the Heartbeat of the Divine Anam Cara. We befriend and are befriended by the Universe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Deep Listening-the Path of Awakening, the Path of Relational Healing</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">To be on the path of awakening, to be on the path of spirit, is to listen deeply. We listen deeply, not superficially, as we learn to turn our attention from the voices of the culture and the voices of the separate self ego-mind that have penetrated and too often polluted our consciousness. And we listen to the heartbeat of the Universe in our own heart. This deep listening happens as we cultivate an interior silence in our formal meditation practice. We lay our cheek on the breast of the Divine Beloved and there we find our home. There we hear the heartbeat of the One Life in our own life. This is the Higher Power that we can trust beyond any human power. This is home. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Listening to the Song of Our Companions</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The deep listening doesn't stop there. It extends into the every moment. We turn our deep listening to Higher Power, to the Divine Beloved in our human beloveds, listening for that same heartbeat in them, in the every-moment of every day. The daily practice of interior quiet and deep listening we have cultivated now is brought into the relational life and interaction with our love companions, our families, our children, our friends, our community and our world. And even more so, the challenge of deep listening is to listen in the interior silence and spaciousness of the Heart, beneath the busy and reactive mind, beneath the wounded psyche and emotional residue that circulates in our consciousness. A Deeper Voice calls to us, saying, <i>"Be still, my love, and listen to the song I sing to you, in your lover, in your children, in your friend. For I am the Life that lives in all, and in Me you can rest your soul."</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Inner Quiet Communion of Listening</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">To listen this deeply means from the time of early morning when we sit in quiet, we bring our attention and our will, our heart presence and our offering of self, home to the Heart, the inner sanctuary of the Beloved. We return again and again, anchoring in our breathing, in our meditation word-sound to the interior quiet of the Heart, like a homing pigeon. This becomes our singular orientation in the every moment, the every day. This is the medicine of healing for the soul that has been too much with the toxins of the world, this is how we move from living in the Domination Paradigm to living in the Communion Paradigm. In the Communion Paradigm our connection to our deepest Self, our connection to each other, to our human and non-human beloveds is the singular reality. We can live this reality. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">How do we do this? We do it, as mystic Julian of Norwich says, by ‘seeking rest where there is rest.’ We will find no rest in our ego-mind. We will find only the division, within and without that comes from seeking refuge and rest in our ideas and ideals, in our agenda for the others in our life, and for the world. That is the world of the Domination Paradigm, the world of competition and conflict. We spend so much time and energy seeking control where there is none, rather than seeking the Home where we are truly home, where we can rest our soul. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Communion Encounter</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In the every-moment life happens. We encounter each other. Too often we encounter each other in the reactive ego-mind and its wounds from the past, and its agenda for the future. And the repetition of the past, the conflict of competing agendas, the wounding of misunderstanding and conflict happens. Or we can encounter each other in the present, resting where there is rest, on the breast of the Beloved, sinking into our inner being as we listen, attend, and commune with the heart to the deeper presence of our human beloveds. Sometimes harsh words, insistent agendas, the surfacing of unconscious fears and desires will pull us off. When the disturbance arises, recognize it. Bow deeply again in recognition of who you truly are, who the person in front of you is, and make an offering of your deepest Self. Return to the inner quiet and spaciousness of just being there, just being present, listening deeply, and dropping the agenda, the insistence, the emotional reactivity of the ego-mind. A pause to breathe deeply, to anchor in your meditation word and breath, will help you return to deep listening, rest where there is Rest. We can ask for that permission and return when we are ready to listen deeply and abide in the Heart when we encounter our beloved.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Ceaseless Bowing and Ceaseless Offering</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This interior movement may be summed up in two simple sacred gestures, bowing with the namaste gesture of hands folded, and offering with the hands open and extended. We bow in the recognition of coming home to deep listening to the Beloved before us in our human beloved, in pure presence. In our open hands extended, we offer the best of ourselves to the one we encounter. We release from our identification as "me" in the thoughts, emotions, and agendas for control that are coursing through our consciousness, and in our open hands we receive the self-offering of the one before us. <b><i>In this way relational life is simple, not easy, but simple. It is deep listening; it is deep reverence; it is deep love and communion. And our soul finds its rest and healing.</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Secret Garden of the Spirit - Doorway into the Universal Circle of our Belonging.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We live in a time where the small and falsely constructed circles of tribe, religion, ethnicity, and nation are breaking down. We also live in a time of rebirth of the ancient teaching of the perennial wisdom that our soul’s journey is a healing of the soul into our true spirit within, and therein into the Universal Spirit that lives and breathes and loves through us. This healing was foretold in this vision by the Lakota Sioux Shaman, Black Elk, at the age of nine, even before the terrible suffering and devastation wrought in the invasion of European peoples to his land. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> “Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for <b><i>I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like One Being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one Circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy."</i></b> (<i> Black Elk Speaks </i>)</span></span></div>
Bill R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00609288296101881100noreply@blogger.com0