How many more have to die before we realize compassion is the only true religion? Through contemplation, we see everything is connected. And we get connected ourselves – to what is really going on, way down at the bottom of everything. First, you must remove the structures you have brought around you that are giving you the illusion of safety. Those structures have also kept you separate. Let those structures fall away, one by one, so you can become connected with real life.
Your body will tell you everything you need to heal. It is giving you subtle signals all the time about what it needs – how you need to move and how you need to relax. The problem is you have gotten just as many signals from outside – what others think you should be doing and other feedback, including the experiences that have become your “trauma.” Your body contains all the information it needs to effectively process everything that happens outside you, including the trauma. There is ...Keep reading
There are many ways to enter enlightenment. All forms of spiritual awakening spring from the horribly mundane: the things we don’t often think of as spiritual. This carnal realm is the touchpoint we have and need, however, to access the outer and lighter realms. Most of our lives, we feel dense, anchored to the ground by gravity and the heaviness of our bodies. Every once in a while, though (and sometimes accidentally), we go soaring. We just need to train ourselves to pass into this ethereal ...Keep reading
So the rain comes back now
After I asked it to
You could not come back now
Even if I asked you to
So light comes from a time already gone
If I could see the future I would lay down
Eat a tangerine and make a cup of tea
Watch it all happen the same way
Watch it all happen slowly
I could have the reasons why
But it wouldn’t make anything right
Do you really want to know the thing
You spend your life trying to find
Go back to what you love the most
There’s dark inside the stars, that’s where I go
And the spirit realm that calls me in
Whisper water from the shadow bloom
I don’t have the reasons why
But it wouldn’t make anything right
Do you even want to know the thing
You spend your life trying to find
Secrets from the last time you felt alright
Loneliness is only the last flower to be picked
It’s the dark part of me now
The part that knows what can be felt
It’s what our eyes see when we dream
Beautiful things where the light comes from
Oh, what a special time
I can’t believe it happened at all
The spirit days to make hell of
Your words inside my head
Oh, today is the only day
How to feel all the earthy things
Meditation helps us access and internalize the good in the universe, letting it expand within us and become a resource we carry around all the time. The way we first learn to do this internalizing of any kind of presence is through our relationships with others. The people around us when we are growing up help us form some initial internal framework of what people and reality are like. We learn others are harsh and scary or that there is great good in the world – maybe both. We then carry around ...Keep reading
You can meditate if you believe in God or if you don’t. Either way, meditation/contemplation is a hopeful practice. We meditate because we believe there is something “out there,” or “in here” (inside us), or “way down at the bottom of everything.” You are attempting to connect with that thing. If you practice meditation on a regular basis, you will findsomething. For some of us, it helps to imagine that the universe has consciousness and personality. We ...Keep reading
We spend our lives trying to get into a state of resonance. You might say that everything we do is aimed at getting ourselves into rhythm with the universe. We eat and drink and sleep and do drugs to feel right. We endeavor to control our environment, establish routines, indulge our habits, seek stimulation and connection. That is all meant to regulate and feel in step with existence itself.
There are plenty of things that make us feel out of step – physical pain, broken relationships, interruptions ...Keep reading
The first thing to do if you are wanting to start practicing meditation/contemplation is to start by paying attention to and “tracking” everything going on inside yourself. Your inner experience is complex. It is made up of your thoughts and feelings, but there are other things, too – physical sensations, imaginings, intentions, a million little impulses. Before practicing meditation/contemplation, your inner experience can feel out of control. The goal is not to completely control your ...Keep reading
