Journal

8/4/15 8/4/15

Insights for July 2015

Awakening:“The impulse to create begins – often terribly and fearfully – in a tunnel of silence," Adrienne Rich asserted in her spectacular 1997 lecture Arts of the Possible. Brain Pickings

"The future has an ancient heart." Carlo Levi.

"What do you do when you don't know what to do about something?"

"I talk to Mr. Sugar and my friends. I make lists. I attempt to analyze the situation from the perspective of my "best self" - the one that is generous, reasonable, forgiving, loving, big hearted, and grateful. I think really hard about what I'll wish I did a year from now. I map out the consequences of the various actions I could take, I ask myself what my motivations are, what my desires are, what my fears are, what I have to lose, and what I have to gain. I move toward the light even if it a hard direction in which to move. I trust myself. I keep the faith. I mess up sometimes." Tiny Beautiful Things, Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar, pg. 215-16, Cheryl Strayed.

"You cannot push the river instead you will swimYou cannot move the mountain it is there for you to climb." theichingweekly.com 7.25.15

"Make time to rest and to play so that you arrive at your destined point refreshed and rested." theichingweekly.com 7.25.15

“After a while, you come to appreciate that what you can offer another human being is to work on yourself to be a statement of what it is you have found in the way you live your life, and one of the things you have found or will find is the ability to appreciate what is, as it is, in equanimity and compassion and love that isn’t conditional; that is, you don’t love a person more because they are happier the way you think they should be.

What you cultivate in yourself is the garden in which they can grow, and you offer your consciousness and the spaciousness to hear it.” Ram Dass

Astrology:Where is the planet Saturn transiting in your chart?

"Saturn transits [in astrology charts] help us to confront our fears and reality, review our attitudes, and then find solutions for the sake of our ongoing stability and survival. The transiting house position shows where most of the work needs to be done.If we don't listen to Saturn, we lose out on this most important lesson: getting to grips with life on a pragmatic level. Over time, Saturn can help us forge ahead with greater strength and more realistic ambitions.""Working with Transits, an In-depth Psychological Approach," Richard Swatton, pg. 39-40, The Mountain Astrologer, June/July 2015.

Where has the Sun progressed in your astrology chart?"The progressed Sun represents strengthening the ego, developing tolerance, and illuminating the self in all its ambiguity.""The Soul's Diary; The Artistry of Secondary Progressions," Brian Clark, Mountain Astrologer, June/July 2015, pg. 49.

Where is the Moon progressed in your astrology chart?"The house that the Moon is progressing through is a personal indicator of the emotional terrain for the next few years. The Moon's progression through the houses suggests what areas in our life need emotional focus and concern.""The Soul's Diary; The Artistry of Secondary Progressions," Brian Clark, Mountain Astrologer, June/July 2015, pg. 50.

Meditation:

"Mindfulness creates some space in your head so you can respond, rather than react."

"Once you've achieved choiceless awareness [through meditation practice], you see clearly how fleeting everything is."

"Ask: “Is this useful?’" Joseph Goldstein

"In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities, but in the experts', there are few." ‪#‎meditation theichingweekly.com 7.25.15

“Wisdom grows out of our clear seeing in each moment. Seeing the arising and passing of our experience and how we relate to it. It arises through our gentle and careful inquiry into the workings of the body and mind and through an open inquiry into how this body and mind relate to the whole world around us. For insight to develop, this spirit of observation and deep questioning must be kept in the forefront. We can collect and quiet the mind, but then we must observe, examine, see its way and its laws.”

"Insight meditation is a path of discovery. It is straightforward and direct, with no frills or gimmicks. It is simple, though not easy. Although the forms vary, the genuine practice of insight meditation is this single quest: to establish a foundation of harmonious action, to collect and concentrate the mind and body, and to see the laws of life by our own true, careful, and direct observation. After understanding the way of practice and realizing that meditative life involves this whole process of awakening, there is only one thing left to do. We have to undertake it ourselves." Jack Kornfield http://www.jackkornfield.com/inquiry-observation/

Jack Kornfield on dealing with the difficult emotions that arise in meditation practice:

Choose one of the most frequent and difficult mind states that arise in your practice, such as irritation, fear, boredom, lust, doubt, or restlessness. For one week in your daily sitting be particularly aware each time this state arises. Watch carefully for it. Notice how it begins and what precedes it. Notice if there is a particular thought or image that triggers this state. Notice how long it lasts and when it ends. Notice what state usually follows it. Observe whether it ever arises very slightly or softly. Can you see it as just a whisper in the mind?Continue Reading: http://goo.gl/wcTiox"In stillness find your balance in your days and ride the wave to shore.” theichingweekly.com 7.25.15

Grief:

Jack Kornfield on grief:"When after heavy rain the storm clouds disperse, is it not that they’ve wept themselves clear to the end?” Ghalib

Grief is one of the heart’s natural responses to loss. When we grieve we allow ourselves to feel the truth of our pain, the measure of betrayal or tragedy in our life. By our willingness to mourn, we slowly acknowledge, integrate, and accept the truth of our losses. Sometimes the best way to let go is to grieve.It takes courage to grieve, to honor the pain we carry. We can grieve in tears or in meditative silence, in prayer or in song. In touching the pain of recent and long-held griefs, we come face to face with our genuine human vulnerability, with helplessness and hopelessness. These are the storm clouds of the heart.A Meditation on Grief: http://goo.gl/dVlfP7

Relationships:

"’No.’ is golden. No is the kind of power the good witch wields. It's the way whole, healthy, emotionally evolved people manage to have relationships with jackasses while limiting the amount of jackass in their lives." Tiny Beautiful Things, Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar, pg. 190, Cheryl Strayed.

Marriage:

"Sometimes those we forgive continue being the jackasses that they always were and we accept them while keeping them approximately three thousand miles away from our wedding reception." Tiny Beautiful Things, Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar, pg. 190, Cheryl Strayed.

Insights for June 2015

Awakening:

“Don’t wait for a guru, your life is your guru.” Krishna Das

“You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy.” Via Elephant Meditation.

“You first need to have an ego in order to be aware that it doesn’t exist.” Matthieu Richard, The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life.

“A soul takes a human birth in order to have a series of experiences through which it will awaken out of its illusion of separateness.” Ram Dass

Take everything that comes your way as a divine teaching and work with it. That way, when someone criticizes you, thank them for allowing you to examine it all over again. That doesn’t mean you have to accept the criticism, just open to it. Let it pour through you and whatever is useful will be there and whatever isn’t will flow down the river. Trust the intuitive process of dealing with the universe rather than applying the intellectual overlay process.” Ram Dass

“The secret is to act well without attachment to the fruits of your action.” Jack Kornfield, Buddhist Psychology Workshop, Seattle, April 2014.

“In fact, it is very difficult to be truly honest with ourselves, especially since we can simultaneously have both positive and negative self images on board and may not recognize the inconsistencies. This is due to the fact that we all wear blinders—a psychological defense that doesn’t allow one part of ourselves to see another part. For example, if we need to see ourselves as nice, we may ignore all of our harmful or self-centered qualities. Or, if we need to see ourselves as unworthy, we’ll ignore all positive data. This is actually quite common.” No One Special To Be, Escaping the Prison of Your Own Self-image, Ezra Bayda, Tricycle, Fall 2014, pg. 36

"Actually it doesn’t really matter whether our identities make sense; what matters is how attached to them we are in are in our need to defend ourselves.” No One Special To Be, Escaping the prison of your own self-image, Ezra Bayda, Tricycle, Fall 2014, pg. 36.

“The point is, most of our stories are self deceptions and that they are partially manufactured sessions of the truth -- truth we adapt in order to feel a particular way. But living out of stories prevents us from living more genuinely.” No One Special To Be, Escaping the prison of your own self-image, Ezra Bayda, Tricycle, Fall 2014, pg. 36.

"Can you be like the wise old karate master and remember that the best karate move is often simply to walk away?" Steven Forrest

Astrology:

“Venus (planet of desire) is in Leo (bold, loving bravado!) and will align with Jupiter (expansion) - fully aligning July 1, 2015 during the Full Moon in Capricorn! Venus can light up, be bold and brave and expand like a huge heart beating. What is your passion that you want to pursue? Passion and confidence will align.” Margaret Gervais

What is the placement of your Sun Sign? “In many astrology books, we’re reminded that the Sun can describe the type of male partner a woman has.” Making the Most of Awkward Planetary Combinations, Part 5: Out of the Darkness – The Sun in Aspect to Pluto, by Frank C. Clifford, The Mountain Astrologer, Dec. 2014/Jan. 2015, page 18.

Meditation:

“The practice of meditation involves listening close to them music of your mind. We are not concerned in the moment about how things get to be the way they are, only that they are so very much exactly what they are.” Andrew Olendzki, The Music of the Mind.

Relationships:

“In any relationship, especially marriage, be as free of compulsive thinking as possible. In other words, the more space there is in the relationship – inner space – the more love there is because love arises out of the inner spaciousness.” Eckhart Tolle.

Healing:

“You are healing in the emerging now.” Mark Jones, “Finding the True Self, Counseling and Astrology,” available at www.theplutoschool.com