Insights for November 2022
The Insight Center Newsletter for November 2022
The insights/quotes offered here are collected as I read materials that are interesting or moving to me, along with my own insights, and are also shared online at Insight Center Journal, and on Insight Center Instagram. Please feel free to share this with others.
COMPREHENSIVE ASTROLOGY COURSE
Comprehensive Astrology Course for 2023 will begin in January 2023! This is a course I developed with original materials and is taught in person in Portland and online. Course is limited to six persons.
The class size is small, and all topics are personalized with your own charts! In this one-year, twelve class Course (1 class per month), you will learn each concept in depth. All recordings of classes, written materials, and homework are included.
Please contact me for course outline, fees, or questions at theinsighthcenter@gmail.com
AWAKENING Insights
“Inner peace comes not from turning off the mind, but from deliberately confronting one’s innermost prejudices, expectations, habits, and inclinations.” ~ Mark Epstein
“What is taking a toll on your soul?” ~ The Insight Center
“True fundamental evolutionary change typically happens at the pace of a glacier.” ~
Forrest, Steven 2019: Fire. Borrego Springs: Seven Paws Press, Inc., pg. 218.
“Pick the path that lights you up
The one you know deep down is the right choice
Stop listening to doubt
Start connecting with courage
Do not let the idea of normal get in the way
It may not be the easy path
But you know great things take effort
Lean into your determination
Lean into your mission
Lean into the real you.” ~ @yung_pueblo
“Sometimes you don’t realize it because you have gradually become it.” ~ The Insight Center
“I don’t understand setting boundaries, from a Buddhist standpoint - everything is impermanent so what is the point of working to hold up boundaries!? Learning to say “yes” and “no” and “maybe” with ease and awareness seems like a better plan.” ~ The Insight Center
“There is no way out of this mess except to become enlightened and enjoy it.” ~ Robert Thurman
“Sometimes I feel no where in no time.” ~ The Insight Center
“The very fact that you have looked at the problem straight in the eye means that you are on your way up and out of it.” ~ Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, “Breathing”
“What does it mean to check in with your energy?” “I don’t feel comfortable in this situation.” “I would love to do that.” “I am going to stay home.” “She is having a bad day and her energy feels toxic.” “If I ground myself, I will feel more stable.” ~ The Insight Center
“If you are having a hard time letting go you are overly attached to something/some aspect of the situation. Know what that is and shine the light of awareness on it and lessen its grip on you.” ~ The Insight Center
“The more attached we are the harder it is to let go.” ~ The Insight Center
“Imperfect, limited, and vulnerable as I am, the sun still shines upon me, things do work out, food appears, rain falls, wonderful conversations take place, and the grass grows without any help from me.” ~ Dharmavidya David Brazier @tricyclemag
“This is your moment.
Your moment to find your voice,
to breathe through fear,
to become your best self –
which is just, simply, yourself.” ~ @walkthetalkshow
“You need to do your spiritual work.” What does this mean!? It means you will be seeking your truth through increasing your awareness. Get your astrology charts read by an evolutionary astrologer. Continue to be aware of what you learn. Start to read spiritual materials that you are drawn to. Meditate well (Vipassanā increases wisdom.) Wisdom is understanding your truth and attachments and seeing how to let go of attachments. Continue with inquiry and make the choices incrementally along the way that are in the direction of truth.” ~ The Insight Center
“What’s meant for you will sometimes feel scary, risky, and new. Easy and calm doesn’t always mean you’re going the right way. The biggest rewards usually come from having the guts and perseverance to create your own path.” ~ Yung Pueblo
MEDITATION insights
5 Meditation Tips for Beginners:
“Allow Your Meditation Goals to Drop Away
Stay Flexible Within your Structure
Find a Comfortable Posture
Allow Thoughts to Come and Go
Sit with All Experiences” ~ Tricycle Magazine – Fall 2022
“Stillness allows realignment + focus.
The quiet is your sanctuary of recalibration.
It is Productive.
It is where you return to yourself over and over.” ~ @farahmsiddiq
“The clear light mind does not come from an original primordial god or Buddha; it comes from ordinary beings diligently working with their own minds.” ~ Dalai Lama
“Meditation is a tool that helps us explore hidden aspects of our individual experience.” ~ Mark Epstein
“Sitting with modest discomfort teaches the mind to be less frightened. Experiencing the disappearance of discomfort soothes the mind, makes it confident, and allows for the insight of impermanence: Everything passes.” ~ Sylvia Boorstein, “The Wisdom of Discomfort”
“Meditation becomes both a refuge and a training: a refuge into being, and a training into doing.” ~ Martine Batchelor @tricyclemag
MEDITATION COURSE
I am teaching Vipassanā Meditation and Spiritual Practice Courses in Portland and on Zoom. Please contact me if you are interested, theinsightcenter@gmail.com or read more at Insight Center Meditation Course.
ASTROLOGY insights
“We can make course corrections if we sleep through an activation. The soul is resilient – but it is much easier to get it right the first time.” ~ Steven Forrest
“The progressed Sun/Moon phase symbolizes the unfolding of our birth potential over time.” ~ The Insight Center
“But in order to maintain vitality and engagement, we must be true to the ever-changing values indicated by the position of the progressed Sun. They don’t erase your natal Sun; nothing but death can do that.” ~ Forrest, Steven 2019: Fire. Borrego Springs: Seven Paws Press, Inc., pg. 221.
“Karma operates as a universal law from a nonlinear dimension of ultimate truth.” Mark Jones
“Astrology shows what is going on around us in the field. How that influences each individual depends on the level of consciousness of that individual. The same Mars transit will impact a person who tends to run negative energy (anger, frustration, worry, etc.) in a very different way than to a person who tends towards higher vibration energy (acceptance, willingness, love, etc.) Mars transits irritate the lower vibration type of person yet are experienced as motivational for those of a higher vibration. The message being…to get the best of these transits, work on raising your own vibration.” ~ David Pond
“Archetypally we see the moment the Sun rises on your birth (the Ascendant) as the dawn of self-consciousness, of you self-awareness. And the moment that it sets on your birthday (the Descendant) is a point of ultimate relatedness, or openness as the self-light reaches the horizon, to the light of others.” ~ Mark Jones
“Uranus is “the big theme,” and Mars is the “quick trigger.” That’s how it works.” ~ The Insight Center
HEALING Insights
“If time actually healed people, no one in the world would be hurting. Time is simply space, what matters is how you use it. If you fill your time intentionally with self-love, letting go and building the new habits your being needed, that would make a real difference.” ~ Yung Pueblo
Eight Tips for Anxiety from Sharon Salzberg
1. “Be kind to yourself
2. Reach out to someone
3. Remember you are not alone
4. Help someone else out
5. Don’t believe all your thoughts
6. Make a gratitude list
7. Remember that everyone struggles
8. Practice lovingkindness meditation”
“Since so much of healing is dependent on the sharpness of our self-awareness, we do not always realize how we are training our mind to become like a microscope that magnifies the roots of all our mental patterns and movements. This focus on expanding what we are conscious of by turning our attention inward results in an influx of new information that helps us understand ourselves at a much deeper level. “ ~ Yung Pueblo
“I will never have this version of me again. Let me slow down and be with her.” ~@soulhealingwithamila
©The Insight Center. All rights reserved. 2022.