Monthly Archives: September 2022

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 268 – 9/10/2022

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Haudenosaunee Harvest Moon Thanksgiving

We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us. We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us with water. We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases. We return thanks to the moon and stars, which have given to us their light when the sun was gone. We return thanks to the sun, that has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye. Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in Whom is embodied all goodness, and Who directs all things for the good of Her children.

this Harvest Moon in Pisces is here to amplify our greatest gratitude and light up our dreamer within to reflect, celebrate and complete… thousand fold thanks for the beautiful unfolding of exactly this today…

looking at the symbol for Pisces, with one fish swimming downstream and another swimming upstream, we can see this as an invitation to enter into the power of experiencing life beyond duality, of living in the field out beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing by incorporating both the inner and the outer realms, the light and the dark, the highs and the lows, the ups and the down, your inner king and queen / masculine and feminine, and synthesizing these creative powers of resonant polarity…this Seeress Moon is the sacred moment of eternity to activate and ground our visions and dreams…

~

“We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but on the positive affirmation of peace.

We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war. Somehow, we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race, which no one can win, to a positive contest to harness humanity’s creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all the nations of the world. In short, we must shift the arms race into a peace race.

If we have a will – and determination – to mount such a peace offensive, we will unlock hitherto tightly sealed doors of hope and transform our imminent cosmic elegy into a psalm of creative fulfillment.”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 267 – 9/9/2022

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let’s circle around the still waters for an invocation to the pisces full moon in the moonth of virgo, the one in herself energy of beauty…

in these sacred waters, we revel in the luminosity of this full moon…
here and now our third eye is expanded through the love of Venus,
and we speak truth,
reverberating beyond all timelines, spaces, and dimensions…
 
I AM SEERESS.
Whole and Holy.
Wild and Free.
A Gatekeeper of the Divinity.
 
the sacred waters of our wombspace reveal
the dreams we carry, the dreams forgotten,
the dreams long remembered…
 
as vessels of heaven on earth, we are
available for these dreams to be heard, felt, called forth,
womanifested for the good of all beings…
 
we vow to live in the field of devocean  
dreaming the world awake in the rhythm of the waves…
 
this is our sacred destiny.
 
{INTO THE WATERS, SPEAK A DREAM ALOUD THAT YOU ARE ACTIVELY TENDING}
breathe and feel into the energies present…

{INTO THE WATERS, SPEAK A DREAM ALOUD THAT YOU ARE ACTIVELY TENDING FOR OUR PLANET}
breathe and feel into the energies present…
 
listen to the way Nature responds…
 
as Spirit and Matter merge,
and the Mythic and Mundane weave, 
IT IS DONE.
IT IS DONE.
IT IS DONE.

I AM SEERESS. 
Dreaming the World Awake.
Here and Now.
Always and Forever.

And so it is (3 times)
Blessed be (3 times) 

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 266 – 9/8/2022

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May you find in me the Mother of the World.  
May my heart be a mother’s heart, my hands be a mother’s hands.  
May my response to your suffering be a mother’s response to your suffering.  
May I sit with you in the dark, like a mother sits in the dark.  
May you know through our relationship that there is something in this world that can be trusted.

in honor of the day known as Mother Mary’s birth and World Interdependence Day – love that synchronisiddhi – in this moon of amazing portals opening us to visioning a world where we all belong to each other, a world of love and compassion, let’s turn to one who speaks for us of love and compassion. this basic issue on which our survival depends… hear now HH, the Dalai Lama…

“I believe that at every level of society—familial, national and international—the key to a happier and more successful world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in a particular ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities. I believe that the cultivation of individual happiness can contribute in a profound and effective way to the overall improvement of the entire human community.

We all share an identical need for love, and on the basis of this commonality, it is possible to feel that anybody we meet, in whatever circumstances, is a brother or sister. No matter how new the face or how different the dress or behavior, there is no significant division between us and other people. It is foolish to dwell on external differences because our basic natures are the same.

The benefits of transcending such superficial differences become clear when we look at our global situation. Ultimately, humanity is one and this small planet is our only home. If we are to protect this home of ours, each of us needs to experience a vivid sense of universal altruism and compassion. It is only this feeling that can remove the self-centered motives that cause people to deceive and misuse one another. If you have a sincere and open heart, you naturally feel self-worth and confidence, and there is no need to be fearful of others.

The need for an atmosphere of openness and cooperation at the global level is becoming more urgent. In this modern age, when it comes to dealing with economic situations there are no longer familial or even national boundaries. From country to country and continent to continent, the world is inextricably interconnected. Each country depends heavily on the others. In order for a country to develop its own economy, it is forced to take seriously into account the economic conditions of other countries as well. In fact, economic improvement in other countries ultimately results in economic improvement in one’s own country.

In view of these facts about our modern world, we need a total revolution in our thinking and our habits. It is becoming clearer every day that a viable economic system must be based on a true sense of universal responsibility. In other words, what we need is a genuine commitment to the principles of universal brotherhood and sisterhood. This much is clear, isn’t it? This is not just a holy, moral or religious ideal. Rather, it is the reality of our modem human existence.

If you reflect deeply enough, it becomes obvious that we need more compassion and altruism everywhere. This critical point can be appreciated by observing the current state of affairs in the world, whether in the fields of modern economics and health care, or in political and military situations. In addition to the multitude of social and political crises, the world is also facing an ever-increasing cycle of natural calamities. Year after year, we have witnessed a radical shifting of global climatic patterns that has led to grave consequences: excessive rain in some countries that has brought serious flooding, a shortage of precipitation in other countries that has resulted in devastating droughts. Fortunately, concern for ecology and the environment is rapidly growing everywhere. We are now beginning to appreciate that the question of environmental protection is ultimately a question of our very survival on this planet. As human beings, we must also respect our fellow members of the human family: our neighbors, our friends, and so forth. Compassion, loving-kindness, altruism, and a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood are the keys not only to human development, but to planetary survival.

The success or failure of humanity in the future depends primarily upon the will and determination of the present generation. If we ourselves do not utilize our faculties of will and intelligence, there is no one else who can guarantee our future and that of the next generation. This is an indisputable fact. We cannot place the entire blame on politicians or those people who are seen as directly responsible for various situations; we too must bear some responsibility personally. It is only when the individual accepts personal responsibility that he or she begins to take some initiative. Just shouting and complaining is not good enough. A genuine change must first come from within the individual, then he or she can attempt to make significant contributions to humanity. Altruism is not merely a religious ideal; it is an indispensable requirement for humanity at large.”

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 265 – 9/7/2022

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tomorrow (Thursday, 9/8/22) is a big day for water protectors concerned about Enbridge’s Tar Sands Pipeline with the US Congress considering a “permitting reform” Dirty Deal that would fast-track destructive fossil and mining projects, sacrifice and silence Indigenous and other frontline communities, and weaken environmental protection laws with hundreds of frontliners gathering in DC to lobby their reps and rally at the capitol while the rest of us can support these efforts by attending this 30-minute Virtual Rally on Thursday, September 8, 12pm ET!

we face a much larger issue and it calls us to respond in reverence and love to our shared vocation as stewards of pachamama, of life by each one of us joining in and building a bridge of peace in harmony with all living beings… water is sacred, water is life…

migwech

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 264 – 9/6/2022

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for whenever we need a cup of courage in dancing the pathless path of heart:

every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering…

“A true vocation requires shedding anything that would impede or obscure the call. A true pilgrimage requires letting go of the very things most people try to hold onto. In seeking after what the soul desires we become pilgrims with no home but the path the soul would have us follow. As the old proverb says, “Before you begin the journey, you own the journey. Once you have begun, the journey owns you.” After all, what good is a dream that doesn’t test the mettle of the dreamer? What good is a path that doesn’t carry us to the edge and then beyond that place? A true calling involves a great exposure before it can become a genuine refuge.”
~ Michael Meade ~

while walking the camino of peace and purification today, i am tempted to come off the pilgrimage and distract myself from this calling of leaping into the great unknown and so i return to the breath, come home to the stillpoint, the present moment, the calling…

~

The Journey

“Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again

Painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.

Sometimes everything
has to be
inscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.

Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that

small, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.

Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out

someone has written
something new
in the ashes of your life. You are not leaving
you are arriving.”

~ David Whyte ~

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 263 – 9/5/2022

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in this moment of eternity of celebrating the astonishing light of our interbeing with am image for labor day, more specifically, waged labor in the USA and Canada when we/some of us have a day off from waged work… i find myself  spending some moments this day contemplating the notion of labor and reflecting upon its essence as a labor of love, as the great work of being pregnant with an unknown creation forming within, a seed we water and feed and sing to as we hold space reverentially for the new and gather with others to support the birthing process, to shelter the labor of love, the great work of and for all our relatives…

~

Song of the Builders

“On a summer morning
I sat down
on a hillside
to think about God –

a worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
a single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillside

this way and that way.
How great was its energy,
how humble its effort.
Let us hope

it will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.”

~ Mary Oliver ~

~

in closing, a few words from Martin Luther King from his final speech on the day before he was killed in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee where he had gone to support garbage workers who were on strike to protest unsafe conditions, abusive supervisors, low wages and to gain recognition for their union:

“I would like to live a long life,” he said. “Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.”

the way to get there is every day to continue the labor of love and the struggle for human dignity, workers’ rights, living wages, and social justice… to intend and act from an energy of compassion and liberation and light, to align more and more deeply with source, the self organizing intelligence of  the ever regenerating space we call home…

celebrating our labors and laborers of love, especially essential workers – let’s get to work putting real workers of essence, the master builders of our world at the front of the line and give them accolades and discounts for their inestimable service of peace… and, may we all celebrate our laboring, our birthing a onederfilled world of love…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 262 – 9/4/2022

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a great man of peace died this week and i’ve been wanting to honor him and today as we celebrate the astonishing light of our interbeing, what an appropriate moment of eternity to re-member this being of perestroika and glasnost, revolution and openness who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. i’m going to have Gorby speak for himself in some excerpts from his lengthy acceptance speech given in June of 1991 just months before stepping down as the Soviet Union’s first and only president…

“This moment is no less emotional for me than the one when I first learned about the decision of the Nobel Committee. For on similar occasions great men addressed humankind – men famous for their courage in working to bring together morality and politics. Among them were my compatriots.

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize makes one think once again about a seemingly simple and clear question: What is peace?

Preparing for my address I found in an old Russian encyclopedia a definition of “peace” as a “commune” – the traditional cell of Russian peasant life. I saw in that definition the people’s profound understanding of peace as harmony, concord, mutual help, and cooperation.

This understanding is embodied in the canons of world religions and in the works of philosophers from antiquity to our time. The names of many of them have been mentioned here before. Let me add another one to them. Peace “propagates wealth and justice, which constitute the prosperity of nations;” a peace which is “just a respite from wars … is not worthy of the name;” peace implies “general counsel”. This was written almost 200 years ago by Vasiliy Fyodorovich Malinovskiy – the dean of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum at which the great Pushkin was educated.

Since then, of course, history has added a great deal to the specific content of the concept of peace. In this nuclear age it also means a condition for the survival of the human race. But the essence, as understood both by the popular wisdom and by intellectual leaders, is the same.

Today, peace means the ascent from simple coexistence to cooperation and common creativity among countries and nations…

Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences. And, ideally, peace means the absence of violence. It is an ethical value. And here we have to recall Rajiv Gandhi, who died so tragically a few days ago…

Perestroika, which once again is returning our people to commonsense, has enabled us to open up to the world, and has restored a normal relationship between the country’s internal development and its foreign policy. But all this takes a lot of hard work. To a people which believed that its government’s policies had always been true to the cause of peace, we proposed what was in many ways a different policy, which would genuinely serve the cause of peace, while differing from the prevailing view of what it meant and particularly from the established stereotypes as to how one should protect it. We proposed new thinking in foreign policy…

I began my book about perestroika and the new thinking with the following words: “We want to be understood”. After a while I felt that it was already happening. But now I would like once again to repeat those words here, from this world rostrum. Because to understand us really – to understand so as to believe us – proved to be not at all easy, owing to the immensity of the changes under way in our country. Their magnitude and character are such as to require in-depth analysis. Applying conventional wisdom to perestroika is unproductive. It is also futile and dangerous to set conditions, to say: We’ll understand and believe you, as soon as you, the Soviet Union, come completely to resemble “us”, the West…

We want to be an integral part of modern civilization, to live in harmony with mankind’s universal values, abide by the norms of international law, follow the “rules of the game” in our economic relations with the outside world. We want to share with all other peoples the burden of responsibility for the future of our common house…

Our democracy is being born in pain. A political culture is emerging – one that presupposes debate and pluralism, but also legal order and, if democracy is to work, strong government authority based on one law for all. This process is gaining strength. Being resolute in the pursuit of perestroika, a subject of much debate these days, must be measured by the commitment to democratic change. Being resolute does not mean a return to repression, diktat or the suppression of rights and freedoms. I will never agree to having our society split once again into Reds and Whites, into those who claim to speak and act “on behalf of the people” and those who are “enemies of the people”. Being resolute today means to act within the framework of political and social pluralism and the rule of law to provide conditions for continued reform and prevent a breakdown of the state and economic collapse, prevent the elements of chaos from becoming catastrophic…

Ladies and gentlemen, international politics is another area where a great deal depends on the correct interpretation of what is now happening in the Soviet Union. This is true today, and it will remain so in the future…

The more I reflect on the current world developments, the more I become convinced that the world needs perestroika no less than the Soviet Union needs it. Fortunately, the present generation of policy-makers, for the most part, are becoming increasingly aware of this interrelationship, and also of the fact that now that perestroika has entered its critical phase the Soviet Union is entitled to expect large-scale support to assure its success…

If we fail to reach an understanding regarding a new phase of cooperation, we will have to look for other ways, for time is of the essence. But if we are to move to that new phase, those who participate in and even shape world politics also must continue to change, to review their philosophic perception of the changing realities of the world and of its imperatives. Otherwise, there is no point in drawing up a joint program of practical action…

The Cold War is over. The risk of a global nuclear war has practically disappeared. The Iron Curtain is gone. Germany has united, which is a momentous milestone in the history of Europe. There is not a single country on our continent which would not regard itself as fully sovereign and independent… The idea is not at all to consolidate a part of our civilization on, so to say, a European platform versus the rest of the world. Suspicions of that kind do exist. But, on the contrary, the idea is to develop and build upon the momentum of integration in Europe, embodied politically in the Charter of Paris for the whole of Europe. This should be done in the context of common movement towards a new and peaceful period in world history, towards new interrelationship and integrity of mankind… Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Near and Middle East, all of them, are to play a great role in this common cause whose prospects are difficult to forecast today…

Progress towards the civilization of the 21st century will certainly not be simple or easy. One cannot get rid overnight of the heavy legacy of the past or the dangers created in the post-war years. We are experiencing a turning point in international affairs and are only at the beginning of a new, and I hope mostly peaceful, lengthy period in the history of civilization…

However, to accomplish this all members of the world community should resolutely discard old stereotypes and motivations nurtured by the Cold War, and give up the habit of seeking each other’s weak spots and exploiting them in their own interests. We have to respect the peculiarities and differences which will always exist, even when human rights and freedoms are observed throughout the world. I keep repeating that with the end of confrontation differences can be made a source of healthy competition, an important factor for progress. This is an incentive to study each other, to engage in exchanges, a prerequisite for the growth of mutual trust. For knowledge and trust are the foundations of a new world order. Hence the necessity, in my view, to learn to forecast the course of events in various regions of the globe, by pooling the efforts of scientists, philosophers and humanitarian thinkers within the UN framework. Policies, even the most prudent and precise, are made by man. We need maximum insurance to guarantee that decisions taken by members of the world community should not affect the security, sovereignty and vital interests of its other members or damage the natural environment and the moral climate of the world…

I am an optimist and I believe that together we shall be able now to make the right historical choice so as not to miss the great chance at the turn of centuries and millenia and make the current extremely difficult transition to a peaceful world order. A balance of interests rather than a balance of power, a search for compromise and concord rather than a search for advantages at other people’s expense, and respect for equality rather than claims to leadership – such are the elements which can provide the groundwork for world progress and which should be readily acceptable for reasonable people informed by the experience of the twentieth century.

The future prospect of truly peaceful global politics lies in the creation through joint efforts of a single international democratic space in which States shall be guided by the priority of human rights and welfare for their own citizens and the promotion of the same rights and similar welfare elsewhere. This is an imperative of the growing integrity of the modern world and of the interdependence of its components.”

Rest in Peace, Mikhail Gorbachev, a vector of change who shaped world history…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 261 – 9/3/2022

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on this day when the wind is perfect and the world is full of beauty, i belong to the sea and be-longing for the sea and someone special is 23 moons, so we leave the heat dome and journey to the sea to dance around this haystack joyfully…

breathing in the rhythm of the waves, breathing in the restoring ions of the waves, re-membering our true nature as a lighthouse…

in this moment, this beautiful moment of eternity, breathe in deeply our earth mother’s love

bathe in her beauty, slow down into her rhythm, her elemental rhythm of divine love

listen for her whispers flowing in the breeze, listen to them echoing from the trees

in this moment, this beautiful moment, breathe in deeply again and again

returning home to our one heart, wild and free once again…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 260 – 9/2/2022

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today, i listen to spirit’s fierce love message to see the beauty in everything that emphatically calls to be expressed…

so, yes, Yes, YES! You Are So Beautiful!! take this moment, this beautiful moment to breathe in your beauty and breathe it out with an exuberant YES!

today, i celebrate, a calendar day late, nine years of living Hell YES! when something arises and i’m resonating wholeheartedly, hearing/feeling/sensing in every wild cell Hell YES!, i go for it full steam ahead… this practice grew organically from a practice begun almost eleven years ago of saying thank you to everything that arises… of course there are many things that confound my mind as to why be thankful for that which is the beauty of the practice and is like contemplating a koan… it is a tried and true path for opening the heart this saying thank you, this saying yes, Yes, YES! Hell YES!

breathing in, tune in to whatever arises and be the guesthouse… breathing out, say yes… breathing in energy, breathing out yes… breathing in peace… breathing out yes…

may we whisper yes, Yes, YES with every breath as we walk the beauty blessingway…

~

awesome, totally awesome, flowing in beauty before us, behind us, beside us, below us, above us, within us, hear our prayer…

be present in our every step as we wander into wonder

breathe us into being from the well of great silence

bless us as we journey deeper into grace

bless our homecoming into sacred space

for deep within is memory

of an ocean running free

round a field of rainbow light

cosmos of awe, garden of delight

here, breathe us into longing for the distant shore

breathing out belonging of oneness evermore

return us now to the belly, womb of singing cells

here, breathe us in and breathe us out in rhythm with ringing bells

resonance resounding throughout the galaxy

resonance resounding, blessed harmony

awesome, totally awesome, flowing in beauty before us, behind us, beside us, below us, above us, within us, hear our prayer… thousand fold thanks…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 259 – 9/1/2022

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a heartmind like the sky

emptiness as vast as space

witnesses wonder

the sanskrit word for emptiness is shunyata while the chinese character is sky… both representations plus the image of hang gliding convey some of the experience of our true nature of emptiness…  the joyful freedom and liberation when we are empty of separation, weightiness, burdens and limitation… a state empty of suffering while grounded in boundless compassion for all relatives, a state sans borders and boundaries, as vast and expansive as the deep peace of the running wave flowing through the all that is… a state of flying into the great unknown, syncing/sinking/surrendering into emptiness which can feel disorienting especially when done wholeheartedly and it is that same whole-heartedness that saves, that orients, that aligns us with source…

welcome to spirited september where we align with the master sculpting force that chisels away the stone of illusion and expectation releasing the spirit held within to take flight and dive ever deeper into the peace passing all understanding, the peace found in the center of the medicine wheel…

re-member open sky

return to her, breathe and fly

our one heart inspirited

listen with me now to Thay inviting us to heaven on earth and deepening into the spirit of boundless love we are in each moment of eternity:

“Dear Mother Earth,

There are those of us who walk the Earth searching for a promised land, not realizing that you are the wondrous place we’ve been looking for our whole lives. You already are a wonderful and beautiful Kingdom of Heaven—the most beautiful planet in the solar system; the most beautiful place in the heavens. You are the Pure Land where countless buddhas and bodhisattvas of the past manifested, realized enlightenment, and taught the Dharma. I do not need to imagine a Pure Land of the Buddha to the west or a Kingdom of God above where I will go when I die. Heaven is here on Earth. The Kingdom of God is here and now. I don’t need to die to be in the Kingdom of God. In fact, I need to be very much alive. I can touch the Kingdom of God with every step. When I touch the present moment deeply in the historical dimension, I touch the kingdom; I touch the Pure Land; I touch the ultimate; and I touch eternity. In deep contact with the Earth and wonders of life, I touch my true nature. The exquisite orchid flower, the ray of sunshine, and even my own miraculous body—if they do not belong to the Kingdom of God, what does? Contemplating the Earth deeply, whether a floating cloud or a falling leaf, I can see the no-birth, no-death nature of reality. With you, dear Mother, we are carried into eternity. We have never been born and we will never die. Once we have realized this, we can then appreciate and enjoy life fully, no longer afraid of aging or death, nor caught in complexes about ourselves, nor yearning for things to be different than they are. We already are, and we already have, what we are looking for.

The Kingdom of Heaven exists, not outside of us, but within our very own hearts. Whether we’re able to touch the Kingdom of God or not at every step, depends on our way of looking, our way of listening, our way of walking. If my mind is calm and peaceful, then the very ground I’m walking on becomes a paradise.

There are those who say that in their heaven there is no suffering. But if there is no suffering, how can there be happiness? We need compost to grow flowers, and mud to grow lotuses. We need difficulties in order to arrive at realizations about them; enlightenment is always enlightenment about something.

Dear Mother, I promise to cultivate this way of looking. I promise to enjoy the practice of dwelling peacefully with mindfulness in the here and the now, so I can touch the Pure Land, the Kingdom of God, day and night. I promise that with every step I will touch eternity. With every step I will touch heaven here on Earth.”