Monthly Archives: April 2019

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 6 – Day 115 – 4/10/2019

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Named Awesome 10 Awaken Merit Dedication

Resting in the River Meditation

today is a day of resting in the river wherever i am… join me in deep flowing space lulled by the words of  beloved teacher, Thay…

My dear friends, suppose someone is holding a pebble and throws it in the air and the pebble begins to fall down into a river. After the pebble touches the surface of the water, it allows itself to sink slowly into the river.

It will reach the bed of the river without any effort. Once the pebble is at the bottom of the river, it continues to rest. It allows the water to pass by.

I think the pebble reaches the bed of the river by the shortest path because it allows itself to fall without making any effort. During our sitting meditation we can allow ourselves to rest like a pebble. We can allow ourselves to sink naturally without effort to the position of sitting, the position of resting.

Resting is a very important practice; we have to learn the art of resting.

The Buddha said, “My practice is the practice of non-practice.” That means a lot. Give up all struggle. Allow yourself to be, to rest.

Let us visualize the waves on the ocean, several waves appearing on the surface of the ocean. Some waves are big, there are those that are small, and each wave seems to have its own life.

…if the wave is able to bend down and touch the water within herself, it will realize that while it is a wave, it is at the same time water. Water is the foundation of the wave. While waves can be high and low, more and less beautiful, the water is free from all these notions. That is why if we are able to touch the foundation of our being, we can release our fear and our suffering.

Touching the foundation of our being means touching nirvana. Our foundation is not subjected to birth and death, being and non-being. A wave can live the life of a wave, but a wave can do much better than that. While living the life of a wave, a wave can live a life of the water. The more our solidity and our freedom grows, the deeper we touch the ground of our own being. That is the door for emancipation, for the greatest relief.

~Thich Nhat Hanh~

may we all rest in the river living the life of water…

for the benefit of all, let us dedicate the merit of this meditation to the ever expanding field of cosmic awakening…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 6 – Day 114 – 4/9/2019

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Named Awesome 9 Plgrimage of PEACE Ocean 5-13-2009

thanks be for every breath being a deepening journey into the stillpoint, the center of the wheel, where the dance begins in rhythm with divine flow…

thanks be for this moment in the stillpoint, the space of indWELLing, of deep listening to mama gaia’s waters whispering from the well who we truly are…

We Are The Eternal Radiance…

thanks be for reverie, for reverencincing the weaving of the tapestry of destiny, the infinite dots connecting all our relatives in an ever changing always the same wave of rainbow light…

thanks be for the pilgrimage into the heart chakra to dance with dolphins and sing with whales, to be moved by the siren call of the soul onto the pathless path of presence, trust, surrender, devotion where we are transmuted into healing vessels, instruments of peace open to and in sync with the flow of mystery, the sea of love energy, the river of joy…

thanks be thanks…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 6 – Day 113 – 4/8/2019

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Named Awesome 8 Heart Pilgrimage April 2015 055

always being, always becoming… always awakened, always awakening…

another awesome day in the neighborhood re-membering… seven years ago on this day i was giving a holy fool workshop and my decades old clown, rags t. o. riches transmuted into bee u. tee fool and i met with the surgeon to see about removing the cancerous throat lesions only they had spontaneously remitted following four months of dwelling in the abundance of infinite love and gratitude saying thank you to everything that arises, yes, gratitude is the pathless path of heart to grace…

and four years ago i was right in merlin’s cave on this day re-membering being a mermaid perched on the stone people and a dolphin dancing in the sea…

and now this year gaia calls me back into the cave as i embark on a virtual pilgrimage resounding the heart pilgrimage of four years before…

so lovely this tracing and re-tracing pathways into the belly of the earth, such a reverie of connecting the dots, isn’t it so true that hindsight is 20-20?

here’s a little check-in i like to re-visit at least annually – so illuminating to see the expansion and deepening with each dropping in…

12 Signs of Awakening

  1. an increased tendency to go with the flow rather than making things happen
  2. frequent bursts of smiling
  3. feelings of being deeply connected with all our relatives
  4. frequent overwhelming episodes of appreciation and profound gratitude
  5. a tendency to be and act spontaneously rather than from fears based on past experience and/or future apprehensions
  6. an ever expanding default position of enjoying each and every moment
  7. a loss of ability to worry
  8. a loss of interest in conflict and power and control dramas
  9. a loss of interest in interpreting/judging the actions of self and others
  10. an ever expanding commitment to being compassionate with self and others
  11. gaining the ability to love unconditionally and be a gift without expecting anything in return
  12. real-eye-sing there’s only one of us here and we all belong inextricably to each other

may we  wander through our island home with heart wide open letting her sync into every pore feeling her singing us, dancing us, pulsing us, breathing us, celebrating us, loving us, at-oneing us, blessing us… deep peace of gaia’s humming resonance…

om shanti shanti shantihi

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 6 – Day 112 – 4/7/2019

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Named Awesome 7 Awakening Awareness Re-TREAT 2017-10-07 002

so much to share on this awesome day of celebrating the astonishing light of being…

today is a walk of witnessing awakening as loving kindness, the miracle of  walking on the earth dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling boundless love and gratitude, of simply surrendering with each step, with each breath into the unknown, into the new beginning that’s been quietly forming with every thought, word and deed, with every intention aligned with our soul, the courageous leap of faith that opens the portal to the pathless path with heart, the path we sign up for on this island home…

come, stand in love for love with me in the center of being where we dream the new story, where singing waters hum in harmony bathing the new world lovingly, peacefully, joyfully, beautifully, where we build beloved community in the new jerusalem of stillness… behold, graceland!

now is the moment for inner awakening, for listening for the call of  soul, the whispers of our one heart encouraging our slowing down, to come home and tend the garden of our genius, the spark of light, the inner flame that is eternal and immortal, the dream that will never die…. yes, may we be instruments of  peace built on justice guided by love, hollow reeds of flowing lovingkindness…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 6 – Day 111 – 4/6/2019

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Named Awesome 6 Radiance 2017-07-08 004

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring–it was peace.”

~Milan Kundera~

Happiest of Turns Around the Sun, Ms Radiance!

yes, my precious grandpuppy, this being of excitement i get to spend most every day with, this exuberant spirit who always greets me so joyously with the most unconditional love is the embodiment of the female face of Buddha – Tara rolled into this cute furball of invincibility turns two today…

this sweet little clown is such an amazing spiritual teacher of  being in the moment, of unconditional love, of joie de vivre and fills me with lovingkindness and compassion moment by moment pulling me into the practice and paradise of puppy consciousness where every moment is new and fresh, every sound and smell a compelling curiosity…

deep bows and boundless love onederfull being…

holy synchronisiddhi! i re-member this day last year and the year before and four years ago as days of awesome radiance as well…

yes, on this day four turns around the sun ago while on sacred pilgrimage to the heart chakra of  the earth, i awaken at 4:44 on Easter Monday with everyone of my 70 trillion cells vibrating at the most alive frequency for today we head off for sunrise at stonehenge… arriving in the mists, it looks like our magic bus has pulled into an ET Terminal where we get on a Hogwarts trolley to transport us more of the way… disembarking into pea soup, we walk the last steps to the ancient temple… A proper guard informs us not to touch any of the stone people and one of our sherpas reminds us to find our stone….

as we enter through a holy portal, we are teleported into the great beyond… i walk around the stone people as a labyrinth and drink in the most glorious sunrise ever witnessed as the sun transfigures into rainbow dragonfly weaving a web of luminescent light shimmering more brightly with every breath… if this were my last moment, it would be perfect… to just drink in the sun on this holy ground with our ancestors is pure ecstasy… my cup runneth over and flows into dancing and singing in joyous celebration of all our relations…

as we leave the temple, i begin to feel like Harry Potter with a strange throbbing between my eyes, yes, stonehenge is the gift that keeps on giving as my third eye more fully activates and with this expansion and deepening, the ability to see through the veils of illusion and into the invisible realms of radiance opens more and more unfolding and unfolding into this moment, this wild and precious moment of awakening into the radiance of beingness…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 6 – Day 110 – 4/5/2019

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Named Awesome 5 moon new black

what a potent day with the new moon in aries, the first of the astrological new year, this moon of awesome awakening falling on the day of quintessence, the 5th of the month on this day celebrated quintessentially as golden rule day… may we sow seed after seed of compassion…

A GENEROUS HEART IS ALWAYS OPEN, ALWAYS READY TO RECEIVE OUR GOING AND COMING. IN THE MIDST OF SUCH LOVE WE NEED NEVER FEAR ABANDONMENT. THIS IS THE MOST PRECIOUS GIFT TRUE LOVE OFFERS – THE EXPERIENCE OF KNOWING WE ALWAYS BELONG.

– BELL HOOKS –

today is Golden Rule Day, a day for all our relatives to treat each other as we want to be treated… on this day and every day, may we live lovingkindness and compassion…

Dear one, I am here for you. Dear one, I see you, and it makes me happy. Dear one, I see that you are in pain, and that is why I am here for you. Dear one, I am in pain, please help me.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~

in this moment, this wild precious moment, may we treat others from the spaciousness of a noble heart re-membering…

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

~ 1 Corinthian 13:4-8 ~

treat each other well for we belong to each other enfolded in our one cosmic heart…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 6 – Day 109 – 4/4/2019

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Named Awesome 4 martin-luther-king-jr-service

today marks the closing of the season of peace, just as the season opened on the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, we close on the day Martin Luther King was killed and today is dedicated to peacemakers…

Fifty-two years ago today, the prophet and poet, Martin Luther King, Jr delivered a rousing call to action in a speech entitled, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, to an overflow crowd at Riverside Church in New York City. Dr King’s challenge to engage in a radical revolution of values holds as true now as it did then.

Fifty-one years ago today, a bullet robbed us of one of the great human rights leaders of all time who called for a radical re-imagining of society calling forth our better angels to go deeply into the valley of the shadow of militarism, poverty and racism and to act boldly to end these pestilences…

The night before he was murdered, he gave one of his  most prophetic speeches known as the Mountaintop Sermon which called us to action, a call  that today all over the world we are awakening to with the…

 Poor People’s Campaign – A National Call for Moral Revival

there is no turning back now for now is the moment for us to do as Brother Martin asked…

‘Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.’

here is the MLK50 Pledge… thank you for joining me in this pledge and for making every moment a moment of peace…

A CALL TO PEACE AND ACTION

“No Justice, No peace;
Know Justice, Know Peace”
is our rallying cry.

On this day, we, in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. call for peace. A peace that is more than the absence of war. We call for a just peace. A peace where all humans have the rights of security, prosperity, good and free education, accessible and plentiful food, clean water and a planet free from disastrous pollution to calamitous climate change.

We call for a just peace. A peace where people are able to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence. A peace committed to understanding, celebrating and learning from difference. A peace grounded in what Dr. King called the Beloved Community.

It takes more than words to bring about peace. It takes action. Action that decreases hostility between people and actions that promote trust so that our words have meaning. Action, must occur within a vision.

We call on ALL people to imagine a world without poverty, hunger and homelessness.Imagine a world where we reject racist ideologies and replace them with an all-inclusive spirit of love for ALL people. Imagine a world where we resolve disputes by peaceful conflict-resolution and true reconciliation. Imagine a world, where love and justice triumph.

“No Justice, No peace;
Know Justice, Know Peace”
is our rallying cry.

But, it will take more than vision to bring peace. We must face the injustices of the past and acknowledge the injustices of the present no matter how painful. This means we must find a way to talk WITH each other instead of AT each other. It will take all of us searching deep within our own souls, taking what some call the “inward journey of self-reflection.”

It will take all of us to name those things we would rather hide-those things that stop us from being our better selves. We must not only name them, but also begin the process of purging those things that stifle our growth and the growth of others. This will lead us to form and develop communities of understanding that will walk, talk and stand with us. It is in this spirit-with humility and mutuality-that we will come together with one another and build a community of peace and goodwill for all humankind.

“No Justice, No peace;
Know Justice, Know Peace”
is our rallying cry.

Contributed by:
Assistant Professor Andre E. Johnson,
Department of Communications,
University of Memphis

~

may we all stand hand in hand in love for love filled with the light of divine grace to peacefully serve the world…

may we know justice and peace and build communities of understanding real-eye-sing we belong to each other…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 6 – Day 108 – 4/3/2019

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Named Awesome 3 Heart Pilgrimage Chalice Well

welcome, welcome to day 64 of 64 days of a season of  peace and to day 108 of this sixth year of chronicling the poetic peace pilgrimage… today, i am in circle with a sangha of pilgrims and am transported  to this very day four turns around the sun ago when i and a merry band of pilgrims were on a sacred pilgrimage to the heart chakra of the planet…

the words written on that day resonate so deeply, ring so truly for today…

following the long day’s journey into the mysts of avalon and being purified in the healing waters of the heart chakra, i dream on this good friday of being put in a deep chamber and i wonder what this is about trusting the knowing will come, as our one heart is open to the flow of the river below the river and the chalice well waters sing gaia’s canto hondo…

arise to meditate and commune with eternal family before embarking on our first shared walking in beauty to the ancient abbey of glastonbury where we dance around the high altar drinking in beloved, re-membering her well…

in the evening as we gather around the chalice well, her guardian tells us about the five deep chambers at the bottom of the well… aha! smile! (start my internal love engine)… mystery unfolding as the well sings…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 6 – Day 107 – 4/2/2019

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Named Awesome 2 Traveling 001

welcome, welcome to day 63 of a season of peace and to another awesome day lived in the rhythm of stillness, essence, love, flow…

as we walk home together, may the words of   this wild irish poet inspire our pilgrimage…

For the Traveler

Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

~ John O’Donohue ~

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 6 – Day 106 – 4/1/2019

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Named Awesome 1 Poetic-PEACE-Pilgrim-1

welcome, welcome to day 62 of a season of peace and to the first day of the angelic month of awesome april, the day of celebrating the holy fool…

traditionally, the fool card in the tarot is associated with the numbers, 0 and 22… at 0, the fool symbolizes life force before manifestation; at 22, the fool has sauntered the 21 keys of the major arcana completing a full cycle of awareness and experience and now steps beyond into a new dimension of limitless potential as a free and easy wanderer, an awakened pilgrim…

so, on this first day of April, as we celebrate the ultimate pilgrim, the holy fool, let us bless this new beginning of a moon of awesomeness by contemplating what’s been quietly forming, what’s emerging…

for me, the pathless path continues to be more and more mysterious in proportion with letting go to flow… this living more and more in the now takes heart, courage, it is a defying of gravity and moving into levitating… i’m trusting in Beloved and the power of love as iterated below by the incomparable Rumi….

“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”

thousandfold thanks for sharing this adventurous journey and what’s awakening in you…