SOAR

When the loving heart simply asks, “How do we best find forgiveness in this situation?” and you take it into meditation and you ask for help, the help that comes is not spirit help versus your help; it’s simply love, one voice of love coming through whatever source it can come through. Let go of […]

Karma and Forgiveness

We crave that deep place within that cannot be touched by the ups and downs of life, but rather just IS – connected and whole.

~ Katie Rubinstein

For well over twenty years I have been working with a Karmic stream from a lucid past life. I will tell it like a fictional story so […]

Conditions

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

~ Mark Twain

Barbara Brodsky and Aaron say you learn a lot by noticing what you are still getting caught by:

Remember that you are not separate, that whatever you see is simply yourself reflecting back to you. When you […]

3 Faces of Happiness

“No matter how someone is acting, they want to be happy.” ~ Lion’s Roar

Jerry Ashmore, senior teacher at Empty Circle Zen group shared this opening quote in his dharma talk this morning. As an aside, if you are looking for a wonderful Zen sitting with teachings, this group meets on Zoom twice per week: […]

A Bird in the Hand

Up way before the first bird sings a song of the light soon coming, I wonder if it is breaking the noble silence to have my fingers on the keyboard writing to you while I am still on retreat. The lines are blurry at this retreat. It is being held on ZOOM and people are […]

The Aftermath

You see, I have this weird, but in my experience, validated faith that if I surrender myself to my own words, the ones that came without too much cogitation or premeditation, they will lead me to a place I didn’t know I’d be visiting; they will show me 1) What I didn’t know was on […]

Fleas!

Those who know me well know I am a real cat lover. I don’t have a cat right now, but I wrote a poem about trying to woo a barn cat into the house. It was inspired by “What a Figure Can Do!” (Craft Tip 14, page 118-125) from The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop, […]

Filter Bubbles

The one you seek, is the one who seeks. Therefore, It’s not “I” who reads spiritual books; it is not “I” who sits ZAZEN, paying attention to body, BREATH, and mind. IT is not “I” who let’s go of everything, but THIS, only THIS! ~ Jerry Ashmore, posted in Empty Circle Zen Group

Most of […]

Forgiveness and Loving-kindness

This morning I was catching up doing “Day One” of Pompe Strater-Vidal’s 11-Day Meditation Challenge on the 4 aspects of Immeasurable Mind, Loving Kindness, Compassion, Equanimity and Joy, that started yesterday. The message on loving-kindness practice was about how you have to begin by loving and being kind to yourself. I was directed to identify […]

Turtle Bax, Tupperware, and Tears

It was Mother’s Day as I grabbed a sufficient amount of time to sit with the deeply personal, and profoundly honest Dramatic Dialogue poem of a writer/colleague/friend. This poem was her response to a recent hurtful encounter with her husband after the tip of his favorite fishing rod was broken off when she accidentally shut […]