Insights for June 2016
Honeysuckle. SP16. Portland. Margaret Gervais
Awakening:“Acting with compassion is not doing good because we think we ought to. It is being drawn to action by heart-felt passion. It is giving ourselves into what we are doing, being present in the moment – no matter how difficult, sad or even boring it feels, no matter how much it demands. It is acting from our deepest understanding of what life is, listening intently for the skillful means in each situation, and not compromising the truth. It is selfless way, in a spirit of mutual respect.” Ram Dass
“Pleasure cannot fill the heart
Hate cannot keep the body safe
Anger cannot set you free
Only love can fill the voids
Only love can create peace
Only love can liberate” yung pueblo
"Some monks spend their lives in caves in the Himalayas ceaselessly radiating compassion for the world. Others run orphanages for children whose parents have died of AIDS. Which is the right way? The spiritual path does not present us with a prescribed, pat formula for everyone to follow. It is not a matter of imitation. We cannot be Mother Teresa or Gandhi or the Buddha. We have to be ourselves. We must discover and connect with our unique expression of the truth. We must learn to listen to and trust ourselves." Jack Kornfield, This excerpt is taken from the book, “Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are“. See his blog posting at https://jackkornfield.com/spiritual-life-takes-courage/
“They asked her,‘What does loving yourself mean?’She answered,“It means to uncover and release whatever keeps you from true happiness. To love, honor and accept every single part of you, especially observe yourself with the utmost honesty and without judgment. Loving yourself means striving to reach new heights of self-understanding so as to cultivate the wisdom that inner peace requires.” yung pueblo, self love
“The mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” Najwa Zebian
"Artists of any stripe who really do their work are engaged all the time." Eric Francis. Astrologer, Planet Waves.
" I did not hear until I was forty that everyone gets to have their own emotional acre, and do with it as they choose, as they are guided, to spend the days of this one short precious life with which we have been gifted." Anne Lamott
Astrology:
This will be impacting us through the summer of 2016."Grand Square in Mutable Signs. Remember life in the High School years, when the bell would ring several times a day and you would have 5 to 10 minutes to gather your things, get to your locker, and then onto the next class with a completely new set of people and circumstances? This went on several times a day, 5 days a week. You had to develop a knack for removing resistances to change and just get on with the next activity and group of people, or it would get overwhelming. Such is the start of our summer season with a grand square in mutable signs and the feeling of getting pulled in many directions at the same time. The same technique as in High School of removing resistances between activities is still the best advice. Otherwise you enter into hurry, hurry, rush, rush, mode, trying to get to everything. Better to stay focused on the topic at hand and when the symbolic bell rings, remove resistance and shift into the next activity.You have to drop into another level of your being to stay centered in such crazy making times, accepting the as-is-ness of life, including the never-ending ups and downs. Drop into your heart and orchestrate all of the changes going on in your life from there. Thinking you will be able to get to your peaceful heart once all of the challenges of everyday life get settled just won’t happen; better to get into your centered heart first to deal with the never ending material of life." David Pond, David Pond’s Astrological Newsletter, Summer Solstice 2016: From Contentious Times to Cooperation, Davidpond.com