Enjoy these poems, quotes, links to meditations and other treasures that have been shared during our Tuesday morning gatherings.
Fall 2024
When We Love, We Win – Election Day video
Among the many speakers in this video, here are some highlights:
Van Jones at minute 42
1:20 – Song by Lyla
1:33 Comments from Tara Brach
Closing song is wonderful too!!
Link to Debra-Lynn’s article
Link to Ellen Ornitz’s art
Resources for Being With Pain
“When we meet pain with mercy, there is a silent sigh of understanding and relief that can serve the whole world. There is exposed a meaning to life, a connection through ourselves to all others, that proposes a balm to the suffering in the world.”
-Stephen Levine
A Day in the Heart of Pain
By: Stephen Levine
By Tara Brach:
Blog: Working with Pain – Summary of Mindfulness Strategies
Blog: Pain Is Not Wrong
Meditation: Radical Acceptance of Pain (11:51 min)
“As we learn to relax our resistance to unpleasant sensations, we discover an open and tender space of awareness that has room for living and dying.”
Poems recently offered…
Let go of what has passed.
Let go of what may come.
Let go of what is happening now.
Don’t try to figure anything out.
Don’t try to make anything happen.
Relax, right now, and rest.
by Tilopa (translated by Ken McLeod)
Not According to Plan
by Mark Nepo
When I drop my glasses
in the airport and they’re
crushed in the walkway
between terminals, I get to
meet the three kind souls
who help me on my way.
Then I hear you crying
after everyone has left.
So I bring you water
and hear your story.
Ever since the lock on
my door broke, I have
more visitors.
Now the road I always
take is detoured, which
I curse until I see the
heron glide across the
small pond I didn’t
know was there.
Poem by Jan L Richardson
Blessing in the Chaos
To all that is chaotic in you,
let there come silence.
Let there be a calming
of the clamoring, a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim on you,
that have made their home in you,
that go with you even to the
holy places
but will not let you rest,
will not let you hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace that fashioned you.
Let what distracts you cease.
Let what divides you cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes and demeans,
and let depart all that keeps you in its cage.
Let there be an opening
into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos,
where you find the peace you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.
Excerpt from St. Francis and the Sow
by Galway Kinnell
The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow …
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
Poem by Jack Ridl:
Take Love For Granted
Assume it’s in the kitchen,
under the couch, high
in the pine tree out back,
behind the paint cans
in the garage. Don’t try
proving your love
is bigger than the Grand
Canyon, the Milky Way,
the urban sprawl of L.A.
Take it for granted. Take it
out with the garbage. Bring
it in with the takeout. Take
it for a walk with the dog.
Wake it every day, say,
“Good morning.” Then
make the coffee…
Joy Alongside Suffering:
Based on practices and discussion in our group, Debra-Lynn Hook (a syndicated columnist for the Tribune News Service) wrote this wonderful article. It’s chock full of wisdom and tenderness. It begins:
“My meditation teacher challenged our group recently to consider something many of us have lost perspective on during the last two years. ‘Consider a single moment when you or someone you know experienced joy.’”
Read the article here. Thanks so much for sharing this with us, Debra-Lynn!
Asking the Questions:
Mindfulness asks: What is happening? Compassion asks: What do I need?
Let go of the ways you thought life would unfold; the holding of plans
or dreams or expectations – Let it all go. Save your strength to swim with the tide. The choice to fight what is here before you now will only result in struggle, fear, and desperate attempts to flee from the very energy you long for. Let go.
Let it all go and flow with the grace that washes through your days whether you receive it gently or with all your quills raised to defend against invaders. Take this on faith; the mind may never find the explanations that it seeks, but you will move forward nonetheless. Let go, and the wave’s crest will carry you to unknown shores, beyond your wildest dreams or destinations. Let it all go and find the place of rest and peace, and certain transformation.By Danna Faulds
Poetry of Nikita Gill
Excerpt from The Fawn
Remember that you do not need to earn
your right to the precious minutes you have
on this planet. They are already yours …
The universe beckons you to enjoy this life
it has given you through a heart
that beats to the rhythm of
its very own cosmic song.
Affirmation for Living On
You are still here.
Despite what time tells you.
Despite the loneliness.
Despite the darkness.
Despite the pain.
Despite the gritted teeth
and drowning thoughts.
You are still here.
And that matters
more than you know.
Taking in Pleasure and Delight
It’s so easy to miss
how often the world gives you
quiet gorgeous moments
and whispers,
This is something I thought you would like.
-Brian Andreas, Story People 2018 collection
Working with Fear
Three practices from Tara Brach’s Radical Compassion -the chapter Awakening from the Grip of Fear, pp 107 – 111.
1. Deep breathing and softening the body: “coherence breathing”
2. Whispered phrases of support: “May I be safe and protected.” etc…
3. Handing It Over: entrusting your difficulties into a larger, benevolent field
More of Tara Brach’s resources for working with fear are here.
Compassion & Nurture
for Stress, Pain or Unease
“Soften Soothe Allow” Guided Meditations:
5-minute version
By Christopher Germer – ~14 minutes
or read the instructions here and enjoy it in your own time and sweet silence
Taking in Joy
View the following resources
Tuere’s video of contagious laughter
Heal The World, by children
This Joy, Resistance Revival Chorus
From Mary: The Lake Isle
From Suzanne: Olive and Mabel by Andrew Cotter
From Debra Lynn: Marcel the Shell
From Molly: The Keep Going Song
From MaryJo: Joy from the Dhammapada (posted on her Hospice Volunteer website)
Suzanne’s son: I love Rube Goldberg Machines, here’s a family’s q-tine one
Pachelbel’s chicken – playful delight from a serious musician
Toddler discovering rain, from Tempel Smith
Saying Yes to our
embodied experience
Finally on my way to yes
I bump into
all the places
where I said no
to my life
all the untended wounds
the red and purple scars
those hieroglyphs of pain
carved into my skin, my bones,
those coded messages
that send me down
the wrong street
again and again
where I find them
the old wounds
the old misdirections
and I lift them
one by one
close to my heart
and I say holy
holy.
– Pesha Joyce Gertler
From The Radiance Sutras
Lorin Roche, PhD.
There is a place in the heart where everything meets.
Go there if you want to find me.
Mind, senses, soul, eternity, all are there.
Are you there?
Enter the bowl of vastness that is the heart.
Give yourself to it with total abandon.
Quiet ecstasy is there – and a steady, regal sense of resting in a perfect spot.
Once you know the way
the nature of attention will call you
to return, again and again,
and be saturated with knowing,
“I belong here, I am at home here.”
As shared in a meditation by Tara Brach: Coming Home to HeartSpace
Phrases for mindfulness and heart-fulness
Patsy Murphy led us in a meditation supported by Thich Nhat Nahn’s phrases, which you can find in the book or collection of recordings The Blooming of the Lotus.
Compassionate Friend Guided Imagery
Here’s a recording of the meditation we shared by MSC teacher Kristy Arbon.
Receiving Compassion
Inspired by meditations led by Greg Scharf, such as this one.
Self-forgiveness
Talk and guided meditation similar to what we shared, by Tara Brach
“Break your heart no longer.
Each time you judge yourself, you break your heart.
You pull away from the love that is the well-spring of your vitality.
But now the time has come, your time,
to live and to trust the goodness that you are.
There is no evil, no wrong in you
Your true essence is pure awareness, aliveness, love.
Let no one, no idea or ideal obscure this truth.
If one comes…forgive it for its unknowing.
Just let go and breathe into the goodness that you are.”
Adapted from teachings of Bapu-ji
Poem on self-forgiveness: “Phase One” by Dilruba Ahmed
Nov 30 Episode of Poetry Unbound, commentary by Pádriag Ó’Tuama
Gratitude for the Body
Guided meditation (adapted for gratitude): Compassionate Body Scan
Chris Germer’s version ~40 minutes
Kristin Neff’s version ~ 24 minutes
Shared: John O’Donohue’s Blessing For Belonging
Recommended: Walt Whitman’s I Sing the Body Electric
Sending Love and Care out to others in Covid times
We savored the Bengsons’ Keep Going Song as an expression of Metta, Compassion, Equanimity and Interconnection.
Listening to the Heart
“Because the heart dwells in unattended dark, we often forget its sublime sensitivity to everything that is happening to us. Without our ever noticing, the heart absorbs the joy of things and also their pain and care. Within us, therefore, a burdening can accrue. For this reason, it is wise now and again to tune in to your heart and listen for what it carries. Sometimes the simplest things effect unexpected transformation. The old people here used to say that a burden shared is a burdened halved. Similarly, when you allow your heart to speak, the burdens it carries diminish, a new lightness enters your body and relief floods the heart.” – John O’Donohue
Recommended Guided Meditation by Tara Brach
