What do you do when you don’t like something?
Most people complain, resist, become emotional and go into opposition with the experience. We do this because we internally and externally label all phenomena, meaning thoughts, emotions, sensations or external events, into two categories: experiences that we like and experiences we don’t like. We then mentally grasp, attempt to hold on to and search for those experiences we like and avoid, reject and deny those we dislike. This fundamental, often unexamined, mental habit creates suffering and fools us into believing that we can actually manipulate phenomena. This exhausting approach obscures our true nature and the true nature of reality and phenomena.
We need to accept all phenomena first, then realize both conceptually and practically that all experience, no matter what mental category we've put it into, is impermanent. Then we need to come to the direct realization and integration that we are not the thoughts, emotions, body, identities, experiences, this "I", etc that we project onto reality. We ultimately are awareness; fluid, expansive and boundless. Awareness births, breathes and is all phenomena without any mental separations.
When we move beyond the fixation of dualistic thinking and functioning, we realize and experience all phenomena as variations of the one source, love, or as defined in Tibetan Buddhism “bliss/emptiness" or "awareness/emptiness”. This seems far-fetched to someone who has never experienced it. It is a hard concept to understand if you habitually take all experience at face value and live from a solid sense of self that depends upon permanence and labels. It takes exposure to these teachings, time, dedication, contemplation and meditation to truly understand and actualize this truth.
Manipulating phenomena is futile and an unskillful use of our energy. Try to stop or change a thought or an experience and you’ll see what I mean. We habitually function from the basis of ignorance and confusion about the true nature of all phenomena because of how we’ve been taught relate to life. What if we could be in harmony with all of life and its endless variety of experiences and from that place wisely respond and act rather than clinging to what we like and denying what we don’t? How differently we would relate to our lives!
I encourage you to practice. Life gives us endless opportunities, since many of our experiences are not exactly how we would like them to be. Be the wide open sky, accept and experience your vastness and unlimited potential and you will be in the flow with life. From this place, you will be able to intelligently use your mind and physical capacities no matter what phenomena you experience
Love,
Lisa
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Pain
How do you relate to mental, emotional and/or physical pain? Most of us have been taught to run from it, fix it and/or try to get rid of it. We instinctively want to remove pain from our experience as soon as possible. Understandably so; however, when we relate to ourselves or others through this “primal brain” approach we are narrowly focused, short-sighted and blindly living our life. By not being in a dialogue with our pain we excise ourselves from the full breadth of interaction and communication with our deeper selves.
Pain is a form of communication. It is a link to something within us that needs to change. Like domino's the source of our pain may be far removed from the actual site of pain and is usually more in depth then the physical symptoms. A part of us is demanding our attention. Usually it is the subtler parts of our self, like our habits of thinking that the body is expressing through the symptoms of pain. For example, in the case of an injury life may be communicating you need to slow down, change your lifestyle, behaviours and/or simply reveal to you your relationship to pain. This is the case for diseases and/or emotional pains.
Pain is a language like French or Italian. It is a world in itself. Pain acts as a signal, a clue to discover what we believe, how we habitually behave and what we are investing our precious life energy into maintaining that is not in harmony with who we are. This disharmony shows up in our physical experience. To make the necessary changes to come back into harmony, we need to train ourselves to be present with pain to be able to hear its wisdom.
As a culture we have generally forgotten how to honor and decipher the language of pain. We tend to give our power to an outside authority that helps us numb, dull, or diminish our pain. That approach is analogous to taking the battery out of a fire alarm going off inside a burning home. Pain is the alarm system that tells us that something is wrong. Within our pain lies answers, solutions and cues; truths that help us change our trajectory in order to lead our life more successfully.
We have lost touch with the art of listening, understanding and respecting the communication of pain. We have forgotten how to be our own physician and act wisely. When we experience pain we tend to numb ourselves through a variety of approaches based in fear and ignorance. We need to be willing to listen to ourselves and our pain so we can learn and grow from it. We need to reacquaint ourselves with its language, be patient and know that pain is a doorway that invites us into self-discovery, healing and greater self-understanding.
The first step to opening that door is to not run from the pain. Be present, sit with it and befriend it. Listen to it and what it has to say. At first it is screaming for attention and you will have very little discernment as to what it is communicating. As you stay with it you will begin to decipher the wisdom within its voice. As you learn to be present with the discomfort and listen, you will discover what internal pattern(s) the voice is embedded in and what you need to change. You will find the root cause of the voice of pain.
This is a crucial step. Most look for external reasons for their pain. It is instinctual and habitual to blame and want to point the finger at a person or occurrence, thinking that is the cause or if something external changes then the pain will disappear. This is a temporary truth. An enduring truth is that it is ones interpretation of oneself and life situations that create pain. This truth seems much more obscure, because as a culture we have not been taught to take responsibility for our reality, emotional reactions and views. It requires growth and contemplation to experience what I am saying.
I encourage you when the fire alarm inside is going off, listen, pay attention, be present and let your inner knowing and life communicate to you what you need to change, to let go of. Be open. Be a student. Be wise. Heed the call of pain at once so it doesn't require a more drastic form of communication to get your attention; like a serious disease, a car accident or a divorce.
Honor your pain. It comes to you as a friend. Listen and heed its words and your life will change.
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
Pain is a form of communication. It is a link to something within us that needs to change. Like domino's the source of our pain may be far removed from the actual site of pain and is usually more in depth then the physical symptoms. A part of us is demanding our attention. Usually it is the subtler parts of our self, like our habits of thinking that the body is expressing through the symptoms of pain. For example, in the case of an injury life may be communicating you need to slow down, change your lifestyle, behaviours and/or simply reveal to you your relationship to pain. This is the case for diseases and/or emotional pains.
Pain is a language like French or Italian. It is a world in itself. Pain acts as a signal, a clue to discover what we believe, how we habitually behave and what we are investing our precious life energy into maintaining that is not in harmony with who we are. This disharmony shows up in our physical experience. To make the necessary changes to come back into harmony, we need to train ourselves to be present with pain to be able to hear its wisdom.
As a culture we have generally forgotten how to honor and decipher the language of pain. We tend to give our power to an outside authority that helps us numb, dull, or diminish our pain. That approach is analogous to taking the battery out of a fire alarm going off inside a burning home. Pain is the alarm system that tells us that something is wrong. Within our pain lies answers, solutions and cues; truths that help us change our trajectory in order to lead our life more successfully.
We have lost touch with the art of listening, understanding and respecting the communication of pain. We have forgotten how to be our own physician and act wisely. When we experience pain we tend to numb ourselves through a variety of approaches based in fear and ignorance. We need to be willing to listen to ourselves and our pain so we can learn and grow from it. We need to reacquaint ourselves with its language, be patient and know that pain is a doorway that invites us into self-discovery, healing and greater self-understanding.
The first step to opening that door is to not run from the pain. Be present, sit with it and befriend it. Listen to it and what it has to say. At first it is screaming for attention and you will have very little discernment as to what it is communicating. As you stay with it you will begin to decipher the wisdom within its voice. As you learn to be present with the discomfort and listen, you will discover what internal pattern(s) the voice is embedded in and what you need to change. You will find the root cause of the voice of pain.
This is a crucial step. Most look for external reasons for their pain. It is instinctual and habitual to blame and want to point the finger at a person or occurrence, thinking that is the cause or if something external changes then the pain will disappear. This is a temporary truth. An enduring truth is that it is ones interpretation of oneself and life situations that create pain. This truth seems much more obscure, because as a culture we have not been taught to take responsibility for our reality, emotional reactions and views. It requires growth and contemplation to experience what I am saying.
I encourage you when the fire alarm inside is going off, listen, pay attention, be present and let your inner knowing and life communicate to you what you need to change, to let go of. Be open. Be a student. Be wise. Heed the call of pain at once so it doesn't require a more drastic form of communication to get your attention; like a serious disease, a car accident or a divorce.
Honor your pain. It comes to you as a friend. Listen and heed its words and your life will change.
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Release Preferences and Trust the Flow of Life
I'll begin by sharing the inspiration for this subject. I heard the title as I was leaving the Marin Court House where I was called for juror duty. As we all know this is usually not people's preferred place to be. I was aware of my preference and agenda to not serve and simultaneously accepted the opportunity life was giving me and engaged happily and with curiosity. From this attitude and agility, I was able to be present and appreciate each moment.
They showed us a video on the process of being a juror, which unexpectedly inspired enthusiasm for me around what justice means personally, in my relationships, in healing and how I experience it. Then it came time for the selection process. I knew what my agenda was, and at the same time I heard the prompting from life to simply be open and trust the flow. In surrendering, I further heard and understood to align my energy to the highest and the best for all concerned. I knew that if the greatest benefit was for me to serve on the juror, then that would happen and if my energy was needed for my clients, then I would be there. No matter what, I was in life's hands. As I let go of my personal will, I felt life's guidance and trusted it. My anxiety vanished. Manipulation and force dissolved. I was not trying to make life happen my way, for as we all know, trying to control our lives is exhausting and even debilitating at times.
Through synchronicity and the intelligence of life, I did not serve. In not pushing my agenda, but rather trusting and following life, I experienced ease, effortlessness, true integrity and fulfillment. I left feeling immense joy and connection with life. This connection and relationship with life allowed me to flow with each moment, learn, synthesize and create my experience from an empowered place.
How often in each day do we have these opportunities to create and live from enjoying and partnering with life? Each moment, each situation and experience offers us this. More often we are attached to our preferences and stuck in our heads, for this is how we were taught to view and relate to life through dualistic thinking such as likes, dislikes, good, bad and labels, etc. We come to a place where we believe that life should conform to our desires. If it doesn't, we are miserable, unhappy and/or fighting what is happening. This futile approach creates struggle, suffering, resistance, exhaustion and at times helplessness, because, as we all know, life sometimes goes as we would like and sometimes it doesn't. We end up feeling like a victim. Life feels like an emotional rollercoaster ride of highs and lows.
For many, this is their experience of life. They often feel defeated and come to the conclusion that life is not for them. This is not true. This is only a belief, a habit.
As we empty ourselves from strong attachment to preferences, from life needing to look a certain way, we free ourselves and we lighten our emotional load. We become trusting of life and enjoy it's flow. For ultimately we are life when we are not in the habit of experiencing ourselves as a separate "I". This does not mean we have no preferences or direction, rather we hold our preferences lightly and instead have clear intentions and collaborate with the intelligence of the universe as it moves through us as us.
Preferences act as a barrier to reality, a veil. Depending upon how identified and attached we are to our preferences will determine how much of life's communication and flow we will occlude and how much we will suffer.
True happiness exists in the moment, in being awareness and presence itself. It does not lie as we've been taught in situations, circumstances or people for that is all transient. Yes, we are mean't to enjoy and delight in life's offering, but not to be attached, defined or relate only through preferences. Life is constantly changing and if we identify solely as the water that passes over the rocks true, enduring happiness will elude us for actually we are the river of life that experiences and expresses all.
Honestly, it is humbling to see how pervasive this habit is in our lives, how strongly and stubbornly we cling in certain situations and to release it, but it is possible with patience, presence and persistence. As we become mindful and train the mind to recognize who we truly are which is awareness that is unbias and inherently awake and happy we realize we can be present and happy in any situation. The unconscious habit of making ourselves into an "I" which is full of preferences that drag us from extremes to extremes, opinions to opinions loses its grip.
Life is intelligent, it may not always give us what we want, but gives us what we need. Open yourself to learn, grow and to ease. Learn to live the unexpected!
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
They showed us a video on the process of being a juror, which unexpectedly inspired enthusiasm for me around what justice means personally, in my relationships, in healing and how I experience it. Then it came time for the selection process. I knew what my agenda was, and at the same time I heard the prompting from life to simply be open and trust the flow. In surrendering, I further heard and understood to align my energy to the highest and the best for all concerned. I knew that if the greatest benefit was for me to serve on the juror, then that would happen and if my energy was needed for my clients, then I would be there. No matter what, I was in life's hands. As I let go of my personal will, I felt life's guidance and trusted it. My anxiety vanished. Manipulation and force dissolved. I was not trying to make life happen my way, for as we all know, trying to control our lives is exhausting and even debilitating at times.
Through synchronicity and the intelligence of life, I did not serve. In not pushing my agenda, but rather trusting and following life, I experienced ease, effortlessness, true integrity and fulfillment. I left feeling immense joy and connection with life. This connection and relationship with life allowed me to flow with each moment, learn, synthesize and create my experience from an empowered place.
How often in each day do we have these opportunities to create and live from enjoying and partnering with life? Each moment, each situation and experience offers us this. More often we are attached to our preferences and stuck in our heads, for this is how we were taught to view and relate to life through dualistic thinking such as likes, dislikes, good, bad and labels, etc. We come to a place where we believe that life should conform to our desires. If it doesn't, we are miserable, unhappy and/or fighting what is happening. This futile approach creates struggle, suffering, resistance, exhaustion and at times helplessness, because, as we all know, life sometimes goes as we would like and sometimes it doesn't. We end up feeling like a victim. Life feels like an emotional rollercoaster ride of highs and lows.
For many, this is their experience of life. They often feel defeated and come to the conclusion that life is not for them. This is not true. This is only a belief, a habit.
As we empty ourselves from strong attachment to preferences, from life needing to look a certain way, we free ourselves and we lighten our emotional load. We become trusting of life and enjoy it's flow. For ultimately we are life when we are not in the habit of experiencing ourselves as a separate "I". This does not mean we have no preferences or direction, rather we hold our preferences lightly and instead have clear intentions and collaborate with the intelligence of the universe as it moves through us as us.
Preferences act as a barrier to reality, a veil. Depending upon how identified and attached we are to our preferences will determine how much of life's communication and flow we will occlude and how much we will suffer.
True happiness exists in the moment, in being awareness and presence itself. It does not lie as we've been taught in situations, circumstances or people for that is all transient. Yes, we are mean't to enjoy and delight in life's offering, but not to be attached, defined or relate only through preferences. Life is constantly changing and if we identify solely as the water that passes over the rocks true, enduring happiness will elude us for actually we are the river of life that experiences and expresses all.
Honestly, it is humbling to see how pervasive this habit is in our lives, how strongly and stubbornly we cling in certain situations and to release it, but it is possible with patience, presence and persistence. As we become mindful and train the mind to recognize who we truly are which is awareness that is unbias and inherently awake and happy we realize we can be present and happy in any situation. The unconscious habit of making ourselves into an "I" which is full of preferences that drag us from extremes to extremes, opinions to opinions loses its grip.
Life is intelligent, it may not always give us what we want, but gives us what we need. Open yourself to learn, grow and to ease. Learn to live the unexpected!
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Good News and an Update
Professional holistic healthcare at an affordable price!
Lisa is now a part of the Walk-In Low Cost Clinic at The Common Well. She will begin September 23rd, Thursdays from 2-5pm. Lisa will be offering Network Chiropractic, Intuitive Healing, Energy Healing and Spiritual Counseling. Sessions are $20 for a 20 minute session and are in a group room. The group room honors that healing is a community experience, as one heals it activates another.
The Common Well is a resource for holistic health services and education that support a deeper trust in our body’s wisdom to heal and authentic expression of our true selves. Services and education offered at the Well address physical, mental and spiritual health from a holistic viewpoint.
The community clinic model is designed to enable those in need of health care access to it. Access to affordable, regenerative treatments and quality professional are an essential component to our wellness, vitality and quality of life.
I look forward to seeing and serving you.
The Common well is located in the North Bay, just 10 minutes west of San Rafael, in downtown Fairfax California.
The Common Well
85 Bolinas Road
Suites 6 and 8
Fairfax, California
Rocket Dog Fundraiser was CANCELLED
The Animal Communication Sessions at a fundraiser for Rocket Dog Rescue originally scheduled for
Sunday, August 22, from 5pm to 10pm
Were postponed due to a fire. There will be a new date and time sometime in September.
Lisa is now a part of the Walk-In Low Cost Clinic at The Common Well. She will begin September 23rd, Thursdays from 2-5pm. Lisa will be offering Network Chiropractic, Intuitive Healing, Energy Healing and Spiritual Counseling. Sessions are $20 for a 20 minute session and are in a group room. The group room honors that healing is a community experience, as one heals it activates another.
The Common Well is a resource for holistic health services and education that support a deeper trust in our body’s wisdom to heal and authentic expression of our true selves. Services and education offered at the Well address physical, mental and spiritual health from a holistic viewpoint.
The community clinic model is designed to enable those in need of health care access to it. Access to affordable, regenerative treatments and quality professional are an essential component to our wellness, vitality and quality of life.
I look forward to seeing and serving you.
The Common well is located in the North Bay, just 10 minutes west of San Rafael, in downtown Fairfax California.
The Common Well
85 Bolinas Road
Suites 6 and 8
Fairfax, California
Rocket Dog Fundraiser was CANCELLED
The Animal Communication Sessions at a fundraiser for Rocket Dog Rescue originally scheduled for
Sunday, August 22, from 5pm to 10pm
Were postponed due to a fire. There will be a new date and time sometime in September.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Faith
Would you like your own magic carpet or genie in a bottle? I believe we all would like what this represents which is the ability to help ourselves be happy and to feel the beauty and experience the ease and aliveness of this life. Faith is that magic carpet. When we open and surrender to faith in our hearts, minds and bodies, we enter into a world of unlimited possibilities where history fades, suffering dissolves and concepts of past, present and future are merely illusions.
Faith is a feeling and an act. It is the ability to believe and be open to the unknown. Faith is an energy current and a feeling we can experience and ride on. It is neither personal nor historical. Faith opens our system to the moment and expands our minds, emotions and bodies to broader vistas and all inclusive perspectives, so you can relate and move successfully through your life and our world. Faith is literally like a magic genie that benefits us and that appears once we open, acknowledge and choose it.
Faith moves us beyond our personal beliefs, fears and investments to align and unite with a higher power, a universal energy and awareness. Our system becomes locked from mental, emotional and physical habits; a closed, predictable loop of energetic patterns. This creates unhappiness and disease. Faith offers us the opportunity on a relative, personal level to look at oneself, another, the world and situations from a holistic, all encompassing viewpoint as well as on an ultimate level to experience our inherent wholeness, connectivity, oneness and unity consciousness.
We tend to view life and make decisions from personal reference points like self-interest, self-preservation and/or self-depreciation. This is the cause of our suffering. We can free ourselves from this limiting, constrictive habit through the magic carpet ride of faith. Faith uplifts us and connects us with our own magic genie, our own inner guru. It enlightens us and inspires us to experience and live our highest ideals, aspirations and fullest human potential moving us beyond the entrapping barriers and veils of egoic thinking. Living faith, happiness, well-being and fulfillment flower and blossom.
Welcome to a world of unlimited possibilities where delusions, suffering, concepts of I, me, you and mine disappear. Duality and polarity vanish and the concept of enemy is seen for what it is, a mere reflection of the mind's attitude, an illusion, a habit to polarize experience rather than live our interconnectedness. With faith, the belief prison bars fade into an open, vibrant, aliveness where you breathe in coordination with the pulse and essence of life.
Attune yourself to faith. Awaken your destiny.
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
Faith is a feeling and an act. It is the ability to believe and be open to the unknown. Faith is an energy current and a feeling we can experience and ride on. It is neither personal nor historical. Faith opens our system to the moment and expands our minds, emotions and bodies to broader vistas and all inclusive perspectives, so you can relate and move successfully through your life and our world. Faith is literally like a magic genie that benefits us and that appears once we open, acknowledge and choose it.
Faith moves us beyond our personal beliefs, fears and investments to align and unite with a higher power, a universal energy and awareness. Our system becomes locked from mental, emotional and physical habits; a closed, predictable loop of energetic patterns. This creates unhappiness and disease. Faith offers us the opportunity on a relative, personal level to look at oneself, another, the world and situations from a holistic, all encompassing viewpoint as well as on an ultimate level to experience our inherent wholeness, connectivity, oneness and unity consciousness.
We tend to view life and make decisions from personal reference points like self-interest, self-preservation and/or self-depreciation. This is the cause of our suffering. We can free ourselves from this limiting, constrictive habit through the magic carpet ride of faith. Faith uplifts us and connects us with our own magic genie, our own inner guru. It enlightens us and inspires us to experience and live our highest ideals, aspirations and fullest human potential moving us beyond the entrapping barriers and veils of egoic thinking. Living faith, happiness, well-being and fulfillment flower and blossom.
Welcome to a world of unlimited possibilities where delusions, suffering, concepts of I, me, you and mine disappear. Duality and polarity vanish and the concept of enemy is seen for what it is, a mere reflection of the mind's attitude, an illusion, a habit to polarize experience rather than live our interconnectedness. With faith, the belief prison bars fade into an open, vibrant, aliveness where you breathe in coordination with the pulse and essence of life.
Attune yourself to faith. Awaken your destiny.
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Contemplation: A Time for Reflection and Its Purpose
We are often run by our thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations which are usually based in an egoic identity. Our attachment to these patterns gives rise to the person we believe our self to be and how we speak and act with ourselves and others. Have you ever entertained the possibility that these patterns and responses are only a conditioned version of who you are? They are cultural agreements about what self is and how to respond to life. What resides beyond these boarders of habits and attachments?
Contemplation allows one time to be with oneself and to reflect. To ponder upon our life, its meaning and direction, who we believe our self to be, our actions, speech and reactions, the nature of reality or simply a new idea or spiritual concept. Contemplation is a time to sit with grievances and injustices and allow for clarity, forgiveness and resolution so we can move forward. We bare witness to the places in us where we are stuck, identified with certain perspectives, ideas and beliefs, or have a stance or position with life or another person. It is also a time to sit and be with pain, physical and/or emotional, and allow transformation, rather than feeling victimized to the repetitive pattern and its voice that speaks of being unfulfilled, isolated, sorrowful and sad.
For 8 years I have been present with intense and sometimes unbearable hip and body pain. It has been a process and learning to accept and be present with this physical and emotional pain. As I have honored it, I have availed myself to discovery, growth and enlightenment. The pain has illuminated me, motivated me, been an agent of immense healing, helped me become more conscious, kind, loving and sensitive to others and fueled my spiritual path and awakening. Pain has been my teacher. Contemplation combined with determination, patience and perseverance will transform any external or internal relationships into love, peace and acceptance.
Contemplation is like the seasons. As we sit with what is inside us, it naturally starts to change. Our relationship with our self, or whatever we are focused upon, transforms as surely as summer turns to fall. Contemplation needs time and space for this alchemy to happen like a tree needs soil to be fed, grow and stable. Without practice, contemplation’s power and value will elude us. We will continue to live our life like the movie "Ground Hog Day" falling into the same ruts mentally and emotionally over and over again never allowing change, transformation, rest and renewal.
Time to oneself is essential. Contemplation balances one mentally, emotionally and energetically and gives one time to process life experiences and for the body to heal. It also allows one to discover, listen and attune to ones inner voice, intuition or spirit, and develop clarity, discernment and wisdom. Some discover this jewel and others miss it altogether, using the excuse that "I don't have the time". Some are simply unaware of it.
As we give ourselves time to sit and be quiet, we meet the "self" we experience day in and day out in our heads. We hear the constant dialogue, habitual voices and feel the emotions and bodily sensations. We are given the opportunity to see our self clearly; what motivates us and what our emotions, thoughts and actions are rooted in. As we are present with this play of consciousness we have learned to identify with and call our self, we discover something uncanny: we are not our thoughts, past, memories nor emotions, reactions or status.
Contemplation gives one the time and space to sit with one’s mind and internal landscapes. You learn to not be dragged around by your thoughts, emotions and sensations. Instead of being a slave to them, you bear witness to them while simultaneously realizing you have a choice of how to behave. You can begin to see other possibilities beyond the egoic patterns. You develop objectivity, presence and equanimity which allow you to experience your vaster, undefined, energetic nature beyond concepts, an “I”, past, present or future.
Alchemy happens through the power of presence or awareness. Awareness effortlessly and naturally releases our hold and attachment to our habitual sense of self, our past, our opinions and reactions. Contemplation gives rise to understanding, insight, healing, reconciliation and wholeness.
As one is patient and present, one discovers a vaster, energetic, more universal sense of self from which speech and action arise from presence which knows what is needed in the moment based on the situation and circumstances. Presence is inherently loving, understanding, inclusive, kind, compassionate, fierce and firm if needed and balanced. It is not based on an "I" identity, a predictable pattern, conditioning nor the past. Presence is spontaneous, intelligent and wise. It is a whole new world from which to live and act from.
Welcome to a world where unity lives and breathes. I will meet you there.
Love,
Lisa
Contemplation allows one time to be with oneself and to reflect. To ponder upon our life, its meaning and direction, who we believe our self to be, our actions, speech and reactions, the nature of reality or simply a new idea or spiritual concept. Contemplation is a time to sit with grievances and injustices and allow for clarity, forgiveness and resolution so we can move forward. We bare witness to the places in us where we are stuck, identified with certain perspectives, ideas and beliefs, or have a stance or position with life or another person. It is also a time to sit and be with pain, physical and/or emotional, and allow transformation, rather than feeling victimized to the repetitive pattern and its voice that speaks of being unfulfilled, isolated, sorrowful and sad.
For 8 years I have been present with intense and sometimes unbearable hip and body pain. It has been a process and learning to accept and be present with this physical and emotional pain. As I have honored it, I have availed myself to discovery, growth and enlightenment. The pain has illuminated me, motivated me, been an agent of immense healing, helped me become more conscious, kind, loving and sensitive to others and fueled my spiritual path and awakening. Pain has been my teacher. Contemplation combined with determination, patience and perseverance will transform any external or internal relationships into love, peace and acceptance.
Contemplation is like the seasons. As we sit with what is inside us, it naturally starts to change. Our relationship with our self, or whatever we are focused upon, transforms as surely as summer turns to fall. Contemplation needs time and space for this alchemy to happen like a tree needs soil to be fed, grow and stable. Without practice, contemplation’s power and value will elude us. We will continue to live our life like the movie "Ground Hog Day" falling into the same ruts mentally and emotionally over and over again never allowing change, transformation, rest and renewal.
Time to oneself is essential. Contemplation balances one mentally, emotionally and energetically and gives one time to process life experiences and for the body to heal. It also allows one to discover, listen and attune to ones inner voice, intuition or spirit, and develop clarity, discernment and wisdom. Some discover this jewel and others miss it altogether, using the excuse that "I don't have the time". Some are simply unaware of it.
As we give ourselves time to sit and be quiet, we meet the "self" we experience day in and day out in our heads. We hear the constant dialogue, habitual voices and feel the emotions and bodily sensations. We are given the opportunity to see our self clearly; what motivates us and what our emotions, thoughts and actions are rooted in. As we are present with this play of consciousness we have learned to identify with and call our self, we discover something uncanny: we are not our thoughts, past, memories nor emotions, reactions or status.
Contemplation gives one the time and space to sit with one’s mind and internal landscapes. You learn to not be dragged around by your thoughts, emotions and sensations. Instead of being a slave to them, you bear witness to them while simultaneously realizing you have a choice of how to behave. You can begin to see other possibilities beyond the egoic patterns. You develop objectivity, presence and equanimity which allow you to experience your vaster, undefined, energetic nature beyond concepts, an “I”, past, present or future.
Alchemy happens through the power of presence or awareness. Awareness effortlessly and naturally releases our hold and attachment to our habitual sense of self, our past, our opinions and reactions. Contemplation gives rise to understanding, insight, healing, reconciliation and wholeness.
As one is patient and present, one discovers a vaster, energetic, more universal sense of self from which speech and action arise from presence which knows what is needed in the moment based on the situation and circumstances. Presence is inherently loving, understanding, inclusive, kind, compassionate, fierce and firm if needed and balanced. It is not based on an "I" identity, a predictable pattern, conditioning nor the past. Presence is spontaneous, intelligent and wise. It is a whole new world from which to live and act from.
Welcome to a world where unity lives and breathes. I will meet you there.
Love,
Lisa
Friday, June 4, 2010
Fear
What is your relationship with Fear? How do you experience it?
Most people identify with it, take it personally, and have a story or an event attached to it that gives it meaning. They don’t realize that this makes it seem real, solidifies it, and turns it into “something”, rather than experiencing it as it truly is, impersonal and a passing emotion.
Fear, like any other emotion, sensation or thought, is energy. All too often when we have a painful or scary experience we allow fear to become a part of our personality. This shapes how we see, interpret and relate to the world. Fear and its responses becomes a habit.
On a relative level, if you are holding onto fear due to past experiences or an event, your body will become hard, less flexible, agile and resilient. This tension overtime will leave you feeling drained and no longer in sync with life. You will feel disconnected, less flow energetically, vital, balanced or grounded. The vital prana, energy that circulates and sustains the physical, mental, emotional and subtle bodies, locks into a posture called "fight or flight”.
In my journey with fear, this resulted in me being less present in my body and my life. On subtle and often unconscious levels, my body became paralyzed, numb and less responsive. I felt disconnected from the lucidity, power and intelligence of my spirit. I felt dead, lifeless and empty inside. A sense of vagueness pervaded my experience of myself which was difficult to notice or pinpoint as time went on.
For many, their experience of reality before the affects of fear is long forgotten. Prolonged fear leaves individuals feeling isolated and in their own world, separate from the people and circumstances around them. The mind becomes agitated, overactive, distracted, unclear, foggy and incoherent. The mind, body and spirit become disassociated, stuck in adaptive behavior patterns and split from present day reality; no longer functioning in coordination and collaboration with the flow of life.
Survival becomes the baseline of one's existence resulting in behavior patterns like rushing, efforting, guardedness, aggression, skittishness, hyper-vigilance and many more leading one's actions. Wisdom and intuition are elusive. It's no wonder people feel unhappy, powerless and not aligned with their purpose. Our remembrance of the delight and joy of living connected to self and in concert with our spirit and the river of life is fleeting or gone.
When fear is left unresolved the body becomes addicted to certain foods and experiences that maintain its state of uptightness and disorientation. Fear becomes our unconscious set point, and we create a life of self-fulfilling prophecies that justify our fearful identity. This identity is a constellation of memories, experiences, mental and emotional as well as biochemical loops and psycho-physiological habituations that need to be released and healed. Once these energy configurations are freed they can reorganize. It's much like pushing a reset button. For many, this healing process is gradual and step by step, requiring patience and perseverance for full resolution of mind body and spirit to be experienced.
On an ultimate level, when looked at directly with awareness, fear can be seen for what it is, an emotion, a reaction, energy. This perspective liberates you from identifying with fear and being stuck in its mental, emotional and physiological responses allowing life and your relationship with it to flow. Without this view point, fear’s expressions become repetitive, habitual and who you are. When you no longer identify with fear, then this emotion is simply experienced as a passing cloud.
The nature of energy is change. When we are constantly making everything we experience solid through identifying with it and placing an "I" onto it, we forget that the nature of reality is energetic. Life becomes a mirage. We think we see a snake when it is simply a rope. We attach solidity onto that which is impermanent. When our relationship to fear is one of flow, then fear is demystified and becomes simply one of the many emotions in the play of life.
I invite you all to reexamine your relationship with fear, open yourself and see it beyond the habit of identifying with it and making it personal. Come to enjoy and experience it as it truly is. When one is not interpreting life constantly through the dualistic mind, of "I", likes, dislikes, rejecting, resisting, grasping, labeling, then one is free to experience the beauty of the constantly changing nature of reality.
Life is energy. May you come to know and experience life as it truly is and respond to life circumstances from that place? I welcome you into a world beyond the limitations of perceptions, ideas, opinions, labels, judgments, and objects including you and me, where the underlying nature of all phenomena is energy. When you remove all barriers and perceived separations you find that life is energy expressing itself in all its variety of forms, shapes, sizes and manifestations.
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
Most people identify with it, take it personally, and have a story or an event attached to it that gives it meaning. They don’t realize that this makes it seem real, solidifies it, and turns it into “something”, rather than experiencing it as it truly is, impersonal and a passing emotion.
Fear, like any other emotion, sensation or thought, is energy. All too often when we have a painful or scary experience we allow fear to become a part of our personality. This shapes how we see, interpret and relate to the world. Fear and its responses becomes a habit.
On a relative level, if you are holding onto fear due to past experiences or an event, your body will become hard, less flexible, agile and resilient. This tension overtime will leave you feeling drained and no longer in sync with life. You will feel disconnected, less flow energetically, vital, balanced or grounded. The vital prana, energy that circulates and sustains the physical, mental, emotional and subtle bodies, locks into a posture called "fight or flight”.
In my journey with fear, this resulted in me being less present in my body and my life. On subtle and often unconscious levels, my body became paralyzed, numb and less responsive. I felt disconnected from the lucidity, power and intelligence of my spirit. I felt dead, lifeless and empty inside. A sense of vagueness pervaded my experience of myself which was difficult to notice or pinpoint as time went on.
For many, their experience of reality before the affects of fear is long forgotten. Prolonged fear leaves individuals feeling isolated and in their own world, separate from the people and circumstances around them. The mind becomes agitated, overactive, distracted, unclear, foggy and incoherent. The mind, body and spirit become disassociated, stuck in adaptive behavior patterns and split from present day reality; no longer functioning in coordination and collaboration with the flow of life.
Survival becomes the baseline of one's existence resulting in behavior patterns like rushing, efforting, guardedness, aggression, skittishness, hyper-vigilance and many more leading one's actions. Wisdom and intuition are elusive. It's no wonder people feel unhappy, powerless and not aligned with their purpose. Our remembrance of the delight and joy of living connected to self and in concert with our spirit and the river of life is fleeting or gone.
When fear is left unresolved the body becomes addicted to certain foods and experiences that maintain its state of uptightness and disorientation. Fear becomes our unconscious set point, and we create a life of self-fulfilling prophecies that justify our fearful identity. This identity is a constellation of memories, experiences, mental and emotional as well as biochemical loops and psycho-physiological habituations that need to be released and healed. Once these energy configurations are freed they can reorganize. It's much like pushing a reset button. For many, this healing process is gradual and step by step, requiring patience and perseverance for full resolution of mind body and spirit to be experienced.
On an ultimate level, when looked at directly with awareness, fear can be seen for what it is, an emotion, a reaction, energy. This perspective liberates you from identifying with fear and being stuck in its mental, emotional and physiological responses allowing life and your relationship with it to flow. Without this view point, fear’s expressions become repetitive, habitual and who you are. When you no longer identify with fear, then this emotion is simply experienced as a passing cloud.
The nature of energy is change. When we are constantly making everything we experience solid through identifying with it and placing an "I" onto it, we forget that the nature of reality is energetic. Life becomes a mirage. We think we see a snake when it is simply a rope. We attach solidity onto that which is impermanent. When our relationship to fear is one of flow, then fear is demystified and becomes simply one of the many emotions in the play of life.
I invite you all to reexamine your relationship with fear, open yourself and see it beyond the habit of identifying with it and making it personal. Come to enjoy and experience it as it truly is. When one is not interpreting life constantly through the dualistic mind, of "I", likes, dislikes, rejecting, resisting, grasping, labeling, then one is free to experience the beauty of the constantly changing nature of reality.
Life is energy. May you come to know and experience life as it truly is and respond to life circumstances from that place? I welcome you into a world beyond the limitations of perceptions, ideas, opinions, labels, judgments, and objects including you and me, where the underlying nature of all phenomena is energy. When you remove all barriers and perceived separations you find that life is energy expressing itself in all its variety of forms, shapes, sizes and manifestations.
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Impermanance
Coming into direct experience with reality, one realizes that life is impermanent in all its manifestations, whether it’s one’s internal experiences or in regards to situations, circumstances or objects. Impermanence reveals that life's manifestations are a play of energies and patterns that arise from the one true, constant ground of energy called love by some or emptiness/bliss by others. Life is truly like a flowing river.
As the saying goes, one never steps in the same river twice. This is the truth of impermanence. We actually live in an energetic reality that is constantly shifting and changing if we release the habit of creating a self, an” I”. As the mind opens we remember this truth and emanate and embody it in our living; rather than falling into the habit of identifying with all the internal content which then perceives life as solid, fixed and predictable. This creates suffering. The wisest approach to life is to realize and awaken to this truth, moving internally and externally with its constant flow.
Our thoughts, feelings, sensations, emotions, identities and experiences are an endless expression of patterns and the one unchanging energy of life “love” or “emptiness/bliss” or “luminosity”. Our minds have been trained to fixate on what we experience or see, believing it to be all that is real and all that exists rather than as it truly is; a passing pattern or thought. This approach has us believing and experiencing life as unchanging and rigid. You often hear people say “this is who I am” or “this is the way it is” failing to recognize they are only expressing a fixation of their mind; a reflection of their training and an attachment to a perception.
The quality of flowing with what we are experiencing is vital to our sense of well-being. Imagine doing this with conflicts or emotions or what you perceive as problems. How would that affect your quality of life? We all too often have or have seen people with a fixed sense of self or identity struggle, fight, try to change, or make things happen. This results in people feeling emotionally frustrated and/or disappointed unaware that these emotions are simply feedback of our approach, our perception that is not effective. We have come as a culture to accept these emotions as a constant part of human experience which preclude a vast range of emotional possibilities like ecstasy, bliss, joy, gratitude, appreciation to name a few. People are attached to their beliefs and perceptions unwittingly creating their own misery allowing no solutions or answers to be revealed that would create ease, peace, well-being, harmony and unity with life.
Often people feel afraid when they hear or experience the impermanence of reality. It’s disconcerting to the ego, and to the mind that thinks it knows, and thinks life is predictable. This is natural and only an experience upon your path, a veil to go through. As you stay present with the fear, the joy, the freedom and love of being one with life is revealed. You are connected with the essential flow of life, rather than being in your head and imposing on life how it should be.
Impermanence is the true nature of all phenomena in reality, whether it is what is happening inside of us in the form of thoughts, sensations or emotions; or externally in situations, circumstances or objects. All things come and go in their own time. In each second and moment the impermanence of life expresses itself as well as through the cycles of life: the seasons, phases of the moon and stages of our own life. Within those cycles, each moment, when seen with awareness, is alive and new.
Life is like a dance. Wisdom realizes and is awake to this fundamental truth of life’s impermanence contributing to our sense of happiness and well-being.
Welcome to the true nature of reality. May you flow, dance and experience the endless flow of all phenomena in each moment overcoming the habit to make life solid.
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
As the saying goes, one never steps in the same river twice. This is the truth of impermanence. We actually live in an energetic reality that is constantly shifting and changing if we release the habit of creating a self, an” I”. As the mind opens we remember this truth and emanate and embody it in our living; rather than falling into the habit of identifying with all the internal content which then perceives life as solid, fixed and predictable. This creates suffering. The wisest approach to life is to realize and awaken to this truth, moving internally and externally with its constant flow.
Our thoughts, feelings, sensations, emotions, identities and experiences are an endless expression of patterns and the one unchanging energy of life “love” or “emptiness/bliss” or “luminosity”. Our minds have been trained to fixate on what we experience or see, believing it to be all that is real and all that exists rather than as it truly is; a passing pattern or thought. This approach has us believing and experiencing life as unchanging and rigid. You often hear people say “this is who I am” or “this is the way it is” failing to recognize they are only expressing a fixation of their mind; a reflection of their training and an attachment to a perception.
The quality of flowing with what we are experiencing is vital to our sense of well-being. Imagine doing this with conflicts or emotions or what you perceive as problems. How would that affect your quality of life? We all too often have or have seen people with a fixed sense of self or identity struggle, fight, try to change, or make things happen. This results in people feeling emotionally frustrated and/or disappointed unaware that these emotions are simply feedback of our approach, our perception that is not effective. We have come as a culture to accept these emotions as a constant part of human experience which preclude a vast range of emotional possibilities like ecstasy, bliss, joy, gratitude, appreciation to name a few. People are attached to their beliefs and perceptions unwittingly creating their own misery allowing no solutions or answers to be revealed that would create ease, peace, well-being, harmony and unity with life.
Often people feel afraid when they hear or experience the impermanence of reality. It’s disconcerting to the ego, and to the mind that thinks it knows, and thinks life is predictable. This is natural and only an experience upon your path, a veil to go through. As you stay present with the fear, the joy, the freedom and love of being one with life is revealed. You are connected with the essential flow of life, rather than being in your head and imposing on life how it should be.
Impermanence is the true nature of all phenomena in reality, whether it is what is happening inside of us in the form of thoughts, sensations or emotions; or externally in situations, circumstances or objects. All things come and go in their own time. In each second and moment the impermanence of life expresses itself as well as through the cycles of life: the seasons, phases of the moon and stages of our own life. Within those cycles, each moment, when seen with awareness, is alive and new.
Life is like a dance. Wisdom realizes and is awake to this fundamental truth of life’s impermanence contributing to our sense of happiness and well-being.
Welcome to the true nature of reality. May you flow, dance and experience the endless flow of all phenomena in each moment overcoming the habit to make life solid.
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Mental Projections
The mind has unlimited power and potential. It is vast, open, spacious and luminous light in its natural state. Most only know the mind through its abilities, such as thinking, and identify with the mind's functions as themselves.
Have you ever examined the mind's capacities objectively? Some of these are thinking, creating and manifesting, imagination, visualization, logical processing and projecting. The mind is analagous to a movie projector, showing us what lives inside our heads in the form of beliefs, thoughts, viewpoints and emotions. The mind projects onto the screen of life that which it is fed.
The ability to project acts as a mirror allowing us to experience our beliefs, thoughts, viewpoints and emotions on the canvas of life. We are able to see what we are creating with our vital energy through the mind's power and ability. We are also able to see what lays hidden within us. We constantly use this precious power to project thoughts, feelings and beliefs unconsciously. However, you may use it consciously to co-create with life your truest aspirations and dreams. It requires awareness, clarity, understanding, dedication and time for reflection to master this ability and use it to its full potential.
What is inside your head? Is it a horror show one minute, a soap opera drama the next, a romantic fantasy, a self-critical sitcom, a comparing and contrasting nightmare, a litany of the past, an endless, restless chatter or complete nonsense? Or are you actualizing the true state of the mind peace, brillance, spaciousness, stillness and ecstatic, luminous emptiness? What movie do you allow on the screen of your awareness, attach and absorb your energy into, and create from? Yes, you do have power here and recognizing it is the first step.
The ability to project is inherently neither good nor bad, it responds to how we use it. Mental Projection is a creative capacity of the mind. For many, this gift and ability is unrecognized and used unwittingly. What often happens is we project onto a person or a situation what we believe reality to be. We fail to assess the person or situation clearly and come to an accurate judgement. We then create self-fulfilling prophecies, based on our historical understanding of reality, expecting and requesting life to adhere to our perspectives, and as life is generous, it does so. So what mental projections aka movies are you allowing and playing?
This power often goes unexplored. I joyfully invite you to look objectively at what you are projecting to see what belief it is originating from and to see if it is true. When you find yourself unconsciously projecting, celebrate that as an opportunity to examine your beliefs and get to know the "you" you believe yourself to be. Ask those you love if what you are projecting onto them, or onto the situation you are in, is actually true. Be willing to see things differently, from another's point of view. Often, what we think is happening and what is really happening are two different realities. Explore, ask questions and be willing to be wrong.
So to reiterate; often what we mentally project and believe about people, situations and circumstances are untrue and unconscious. When we contemplate and examine our projections, we are afforded the opportunity to perceive reality clearly and refine our ability to project. We are able to choose consciously what we would like to project rather than accepting and creating unwittingly from the reality we've given our power to.
Have fun.
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
Have you ever examined the mind's capacities objectively? Some of these are thinking, creating and manifesting, imagination, visualization, logical processing and projecting. The mind is analagous to a movie projector, showing us what lives inside our heads in the form of beliefs, thoughts, viewpoints and emotions. The mind projects onto the screen of life that which it is fed.
The ability to project acts as a mirror allowing us to experience our beliefs, thoughts, viewpoints and emotions on the canvas of life. We are able to see what we are creating with our vital energy through the mind's power and ability. We are also able to see what lays hidden within us. We constantly use this precious power to project thoughts, feelings and beliefs unconsciously. However, you may use it consciously to co-create with life your truest aspirations and dreams. It requires awareness, clarity, understanding, dedication and time for reflection to master this ability and use it to its full potential.
What is inside your head? Is it a horror show one minute, a soap opera drama the next, a romantic fantasy, a self-critical sitcom, a comparing and contrasting nightmare, a litany of the past, an endless, restless chatter or complete nonsense? Or are you actualizing the true state of the mind peace, brillance, spaciousness, stillness and ecstatic, luminous emptiness? What movie do you allow on the screen of your awareness, attach and absorb your energy into, and create from? Yes, you do have power here and recognizing it is the first step.
The ability to project is inherently neither good nor bad, it responds to how we use it. Mental Projection is a creative capacity of the mind. For many, this gift and ability is unrecognized and used unwittingly. What often happens is we project onto a person or a situation what we believe reality to be. We fail to assess the person or situation clearly and come to an accurate judgement. We then create self-fulfilling prophecies, based on our historical understanding of reality, expecting and requesting life to adhere to our perspectives, and as life is generous, it does so. So what mental projections aka movies are you allowing and playing?
This power often goes unexplored. I joyfully invite you to look objectively at what you are projecting to see what belief it is originating from and to see if it is true. When you find yourself unconsciously projecting, celebrate that as an opportunity to examine your beliefs and get to know the "you" you believe yourself to be. Ask those you love if what you are projecting onto them, or onto the situation you are in, is actually true. Be willing to see things differently, from another's point of view. Often, what we think is happening and what is really happening are two different realities. Explore, ask questions and be willing to be wrong.
So to reiterate; often what we mentally project and believe about people, situations and circumstances are untrue and unconscious. When we contemplate and examine our projections, we are afforded the opportunity to perceive reality clearly and refine our ability to project. We are able to choose consciously what we would like to project rather than accepting and creating unwittingly from the reality we've given our power to.
Have fun.
Love,
Lisa
Join My Montly Email Newsletter!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Dancing with Life through Meditation
I feel the need to begin by sharing the auspiciousness of where I am writing this. I usually send out my monthly email newsletters the beginning of the month; however, that timeframe was not flowing this month. Now that I am here, writing this in a most auspicious place, I laugh at the intelligence of life which is always present whether we are conscious of it or not. Contrary to our training, life simply asks us to be its partner, to trust and surrender to its flow, to listen and then follow through with action.
So I am participating in a Buddhist retreat at a beautiful temple in Point Richmond called the Dakini Temple where Anam Thubten, a Tibetan Rimpoche teaches. What an honor, privilege and synchronistic that I am writing during the lunch break on meditation, immersed in the energy, potency and environment of a Tibetan Master who teaches on exactly what I was intuitively guided the month previous to write about in this month’s letter. At times I was mistrusting, hearing the voices of habit in the mind, wondering when I am going to have the time to allow the message for the newsletter to flow through me, while simultaneously listening to my intuition that guided me to bring my computer today.
What a testament to intuitive living! This way of listening will lead you and bring you to places and people that will reveal their significance in the moment. Life is actually a dynamic, alive process and unfoldment. We’ve learned and been taught that the linear or rational way of living is the successful way to live and the only way. It’s predictable and lead by planning and strategizing. Intuitive living is founded on trust and surrender; listening and allowing life to unfold and lead, giving you the cues that you then can follow through with action.
In co-creating and collaborating with life the rational mind participates in the experience and is helpful, but not the sole and only leader dominating our experience. Have you ever notice how frustrating the rational or intellectual-only approach is? The rhythm of life doesn’t always align with our ideas or plans. Therefore we become like a fish out of water, flopping around wondering why we are depressed, unhappy, frustrated and struggling with life. We have forgotten to trust and surrender to life knowing our visions, aspirations and deepest heart wishes will flourish if that is our destiny in harmony with life rather than through pushing and making life meet our timing.
The fault is simply with our approach to life. We need to learn how to dance with life rather than stumble over our feet, putting our expectations, demands and timing onto life. We have simply forgotten how to listen, flow and be in harmony with the currents of life. This doesn’t mean you don’t have purpose, intention, desire or direction; rather, all that exists in concert with the flow of life and has its timing, seasons, cycles and rhythms. In remembering
this you re-learn how to partner with life effectively. Meditation helps you learn to dance with grace, power and acceptance rather than feeling tumbled, inundated and overwhelmed by life.
Yes, meditation is challenging and requires discipline and determination to commit to it and follow through with. However, I wholeheartedly encourage you. The benefits and jewels you will discover make the effort well worthwhile. In my experience, meditation is a “pearl beyond price”. It allows us to see and experience the nature of our mind, its habitual ways of thinking and the affect it has on us, others and our environment. This is key, for most suffering we experience in life is self-created and unnecessary. This may sound like a lofty thought and to those whose mind is unexamined it is. Many do not even realize this simple truth. Meditation is like a lamp that shines light in a dark room. Suddenly you can see the mind illuminated. You see clearly how you operate and the affect that has. You realize that all the thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations you attach and give meaning to create your suffering.
As you examine your mind through meditation you discover that these negative effects are simply habits. You begin to see life objectively and see what is actually happening inside yourself. You are not what or who you thought you were. What starts to reveal itself is the space between the thoughts. You realize that you exist beyond thinking, emotions and perceptions. You begin to experience the witness, the one who observes the thoughts you call “you” and “your own”. You come to know that thoughts are not ultimately who you are.
With consistent practice in meditation you realize you are actually not a “self” created by the mind and the experiences of your life. You are a much vaster, indefinable, energetic being; the source from which all thoughts, emotions and bodily sensation exist, arise and dissolve into.
However, if you are attached to your thoughts and believe them to be yourself, then you don’t experience the true nature of reality, or realize that thoughts and all phenomena are impermanent. They are energy and the nature of energy is that it’s constantly changing, existing and passing away like clouds in the sky.
As one meditates, these realizations begin to dawn on you. They give you the certainty and confidence to know who you ultimately are and to master both the ingrained habits of thought and the habit of thinking that the body, thoughts, emotions, situations and circumstances are the self.
Beyond the changing nature of experiences you come into a direct realization of the changeless nature of who you are: awareness/emptiness, luminosity/emptiness, the bliss that is all of creation.
If you would like to begin to meditate, I encourage you to simply observe the breath and or the thoughts and sensations of the body or the emotions. Begin with 10 minutes a day first thing in the morning and before bedtime then notice how as you experience the benefits of the practice it takes on a momentum of it own. Sit upright with feet flat upon the floor with the back straight and away from the chair or cross legged on a cushion on the floor. For further details on how to mediate and practices open to a teacher who is qualified or a book that speaks to you. Follow the flow of life; let it lead you through your intention to the situation and circumstances that will support you in this endeavor.
May you be happy.
Love,
Lisa
To Go to my Web Site, Click HERE
So I am participating in a Buddhist retreat at a beautiful temple in Point Richmond called the Dakini Temple where Anam Thubten, a Tibetan Rimpoche teaches. What an honor, privilege and synchronistic that I am writing during the lunch break on meditation, immersed in the energy, potency and environment of a Tibetan Master who teaches on exactly what I was intuitively guided the month previous to write about in this month’s letter. At times I was mistrusting, hearing the voices of habit in the mind, wondering when I am going to have the time to allow the message for the newsletter to flow through me, while simultaneously listening to my intuition that guided me to bring my computer today.
What a testament to intuitive living! This way of listening will lead you and bring you to places and people that will reveal their significance in the moment. Life is actually a dynamic, alive process and unfoldment. We’ve learned and been taught that the linear or rational way of living is the successful way to live and the only way. It’s predictable and lead by planning and strategizing. Intuitive living is founded on trust and surrender; listening and allowing life to unfold and lead, giving you the cues that you then can follow through with action.
In co-creating and collaborating with life the rational mind participates in the experience and is helpful, but not the sole and only leader dominating our experience. Have you ever notice how frustrating the rational or intellectual-only approach is? The rhythm of life doesn’t always align with our ideas or plans. Therefore we become like a fish out of water, flopping around wondering why we are depressed, unhappy, frustrated and struggling with life. We have forgotten to trust and surrender to life knowing our visions, aspirations and deepest heart wishes will flourish if that is our destiny in harmony with life rather than through pushing and making life meet our timing.
The fault is simply with our approach to life. We need to learn how to dance with life rather than stumble over our feet, putting our expectations, demands and timing onto life. We have simply forgotten how to listen, flow and be in harmony with the currents of life. This doesn’t mean you don’t have purpose, intention, desire or direction; rather, all that exists in concert with the flow of life and has its timing, seasons, cycles and rhythms. In remembering
this you re-learn how to partner with life effectively. Meditation helps you learn to dance with grace, power and acceptance rather than feeling tumbled, inundated and overwhelmed by life.
Yes, meditation is challenging and requires discipline and determination to commit to it and follow through with. However, I wholeheartedly encourage you. The benefits and jewels you will discover make the effort well worthwhile. In my experience, meditation is a “pearl beyond price”. It allows us to see and experience the nature of our mind, its habitual ways of thinking and the affect it has on us, others and our environment. This is key, for most suffering we experience in life is self-created and unnecessary. This may sound like a lofty thought and to those whose mind is unexamined it is. Many do not even realize this simple truth. Meditation is like a lamp that shines light in a dark room. Suddenly you can see the mind illuminated. You see clearly how you operate and the affect that has. You realize that all the thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations you attach and give meaning to create your suffering.
As you examine your mind through meditation you discover that these negative effects are simply habits. You begin to see life objectively and see what is actually happening inside yourself. You are not what or who you thought you were. What starts to reveal itself is the space between the thoughts. You realize that you exist beyond thinking, emotions and perceptions. You begin to experience the witness, the one who observes the thoughts you call “you” and “your own”. You come to know that thoughts are not ultimately who you are.
With consistent practice in meditation you realize you are actually not a “self” created by the mind and the experiences of your life. You are a much vaster, indefinable, energetic being; the source from which all thoughts, emotions and bodily sensation exist, arise and dissolve into.
However, if you are attached to your thoughts and believe them to be yourself, then you don’t experience the true nature of reality, or realize that thoughts and all phenomena are impermanent. They are energy and the nature of energy is that it’s constantly changing, existing and passing away like clouds in the sky.
As one meditates, these realizations begin to dawn on you. They give you the certainty and confidence to know who you ultimately are and to master both the ingrained habits of thought and the habit of thinking that the body, thoughts, emotions, situations and circumstances are the self.
Beyond the changing nature of experiences you come into a direct realization of the changeless nature of who you are: awareness/emptiness, luminosity/emptiness, the bliss that is all of creation.
If you would like to begin to meditate, I encourage you to simply observe the breath and or the thoughts and sensations of the body or the emotions. Begin with 10 minutes a day first thing in the morning and before bedtime then notice how as you experience the benefits of the practice it takes on a momentum of it own. Sit upright with feet flat upon the floor with the back straight and away from the chair or cross legged on a cushion on the floor. For further details on how to mediate and practices open to a teacher who is qualified or a book that speaks to you. Follow the flow of life; let it lead you through your intention to the situation and circumstances that will support you in this endeavor.
May you be happy.
Love,
Lisa
To Go to my Web Site, Click HERE
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