calmingyourworld.com

Calming My World/Calming Our Environment

A student of mine for the past year sent me this description of her experience with Dynamic Mindfulness Meditation.  She writes: In April 2007 I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  While this wasn’t the worst news I had ever received, it was right up there with other pieces of highly unwelcome news that had rocked my world’s foundations.  Suffice it to say the world as I knew it, felt like, and had come to an end. 

I did all the things I needed to do to inform myself medically around the best course of action to take; went to all the appointments with specialists; did all the tests, and realized that all this information was not contributing one bit to being in a calm space from which I could make good decisions.  One day after a particularly intense meltdown, a friend, who was a long time cancer survivor, took me to a spiritual crisis center support group she had participated in for the many years of her cancer recovery process. Here, among other healing services I was introduced to Dynamic Mindfulness Mediation practice.

Are you looking for me?

Are you looking for me?
I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in stupas,
not in Indian shrine rooms,
nor in synagogues, nor cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs
winding around your own neck,
nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for me,
you will see me instantly –
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: students tell me, what is God?
He is the breath
Inside the breath
Kabir 

Our Ultimate Relationship is with - our Self.

Our perceptions of life and our relationships with others are projections of our relationship with our Self. To the extent that we are disconnected from the Self; including disowning our egos & fearful selves, our grasp of reality and our view of things can be distorted. Clarity, creativity, inner peace, joy of being and wisdom of heart, come from Respecting, Enduring, Accepting & Loving all parts of our Self. Reality is our best friend, and being real - is the source of our spiritual power, and the gift of the present.
Samuel Kirschner

Calming Our World With One Breath. . .

In today's world, whether you are trying to catch a flight - being screened by security in an airport, riding a train in a crowded subway, waiting for a bus, walking in the street, shopping for food, or in your own home watching the news - you can see it on the faces of people, you can hear it in their voices, you can feel it in your own self - STRESS.

It's a new brand of stress, of living in the terror of the technologically advanced, yet uncertain world of the post 9/11 - 21st century. It's marked by frustration & anxiety, alienation, resignation and violence; "There is not enough time; It's too hard; It's unsafe; It's humiliating; it feels powerless & helpless; why bother; whatever…". Acting out, acting in, reacting, retaliating.

In the body it feels like restlessness and anxiety. The chest is too tight to take in a full breath. The mind is racing with thoughts. We tend to respond with either 'losing it' or shutting down. Being human, we naturally try to scan our environment for safety; we seek refuge, we need a break, and a place to rest. We need food to satiate our hunger, and we need to feel real & respected. This is global. It's the common denominator of the human family. The difference is only in style, manner and ways of expression.

Paradigm Crunch

Does the dramatic increase in world-wide disasters suggest that we are living through the much-predicted planetary Paradigm Shift?

If you have been thinking that disasters, both natural and human-made, are on the increase, you are right - they are.

On one recent day, two commuter trains collided in downtown Los Angeles, killing ten people and seriously injuring 200; a truck carrying chemicals crashed and fell onto its side on a bridge in Maryland; thirty-one Marines went down in a helicopter crash in Iraq; a school bus on a highway in Florida suddenly swerved, toppled, and landed upside-down. Two days before that, the earth gave way under part of La Conchita, California and dozens of people died or were injured. For the two weeks prior to that, unremitting rains soaked the area, causing mudslides, power outages, and scores of auto accidents.

My friends,

Do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have
heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered.
They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world right now.
Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage
over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized,
visionary people.

You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have
aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders,
everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking.
Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by
bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly
because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we
have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet
on this exact plain of engagement..

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love
for your dream for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

The Awakening

A time comes in your life when you finally get it. When in the midst of all your fears and insanity you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out - ENOUGH!

Enough fighting and crying or struggling to hold on. And, like a child quieting down after a blind tantrum, your sobs begin to subside, you shudder once or twice, you blink back your tears and through a mantle of wet lashes you begin to look at the world through new eyes.

This is your awakening. You realize that it's time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon.

Who Am I?

I am everything that's ever happened to me; my body, my mind, my emotions. I am my family, my heritage, the country in which I was born, and all the places I visited and lived. I am all the people I have ever met, the ones I liked and the ones who disliked me. All my experiences, identities, feelings, thoughts. All my relationships, achievements and failures. I am my joys and my sorrows; my fears and my loves. My judgments and my disapprovals. The attractions and the rejections. The depressions, the losses and the many blissful moments. I am all the food I ate, the sleepless nights, the pains and the pleasures. I am all of these - and I am none.

In truth - I am this breath... witnessing the inevitable, eternal now, interconnected to everything that has always been and will always be - with compassion.
I am the present.
Samuel Kirschner

Chance & Choice

When we meet the right person to love,
when we're at the right place at the right time, that's chance.                     
when you meet someone you're attracted to,
that's not a choice.
That's chance.
Being caught up in a moment
(and there are a lot of couples
who get together because of this)
is not a choice.
That's also a chance.
The difference is what happens afterwards.
When will you take that infatuation, that crush,
that mind-blowing attraction to the next level?
That's when all sanity goes back, you sit down and
contemplate whether you want to make this
into a concrete relationship or just a fling.
If you decide to love a person,
even with his faults, that's not a chance.
That's choice.
When you choose to be with a person,
no matter what, that's choice.
Even if you know there are many people out there
who are more attractive, smarter, and richer than your mate,                     
and yet, you decide to love your mate
just the same, that's choice.
Infatuation, crushes, and attraction
come to us by chance.
But true love that lasts is truly a choice.
A choice that we make.
Regarding soulmates,
there's a beautiful movie quote
that I believe is so true about this:
"Fate brings you together,
but it's still up to you to make it happen."
I believe that soulmates do exist,
that there is truly someone made for you.
But it's still up to you to make the choice
if you're going to do something about it or not.
We may meet our soul mates by chance,
but loving and staying with our soulmate
is still a choice we have to make.
We came to the world
not by finding someone perfect to love,
BUT to learn how to love an imperfect person perfectly.
~Author Unknown~