welcome to a day honoring so much richness and tragedy with much to say in this sacred moment of eternity beginning with noting today is the 161st birthday of unsung hero and pioneering anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells who challenged the media to tell Black truths and who innovated practices that define the field of investigative journalism to this day… by putting her life on the line to count, investigate and report lynchings in America when white-owned media refused to tell these stories, she destroyed the racist narrative that lynching victims were criminals and brought to light the truth: that lynchings were often used as retaliation against Black people who had dared to start businesses, own property and build wealth… also, on this day, seventy eight years ago, the world was forever changed when the U.S. detonated the world’s first nuclear device in the Trinity nuclear test… conducted in the desert of southern New Mexico, opening another chapter in our morally corrupt, racist, and lethal legacy with New Mexico residents not being warned before the Trinity blast, informed of health hazards afterward, nor evacuated before, during, or after the test… exposure rates in public areas from the world’s first nuclear explosion were measured at levels 10,000 times higher than currently allowed… another legacy is that the downwinders of Trinity were largely impoverished agricultural families, mostly Hispanic and Native and even though it was considered one of the dirtiest U.S. nuclear tests, for more than seventy years radiation exposure from inhalation and ingestion of water and food contaminated by the Trinity test fallout was never assessed… now we now know that infant death rates increased by over 20% percent in areas downwind beginning in the very same month of the test since in 2010 the CDC finally admitted that risks to newborns were especially heightened as “residents reported that fallout ‘snowed down’ for days after the blast, most had dairy cows and most collected rainwater off their roofs for drinking.” on a brighter note, today is our day for celebrating the astonishing light of our interbeing as vessels of great mystery shining forth luminously, bastions of living awakened, joyously, freely and harmoniously and this day begins with being reminded of our nature as verbs, flowing, in process with what comes…

i’ll share now a brief meditation from Parker Palmer on life on the Möbius strip which illustrates the truth of life as movement:

~

“The curious object pictured is a Möbius strip. If you take your index finger and trace what seems to be the outside surface, you suddenly find yourself on what seems to be the inside surface. Continue along what seems to be the inside surface, and you suddenly find yourself on what seems to be the outside surface.

I need to keep saying ‘what seems to be’ because the Möbius strip has only one side! What look like its inner and outer surfaces flow into each other seamlessly, co-creating the whole. The first time I saw a Möbius strip, I thought, ‘amazing! That’s exactly how life works!’

Whatever is inside of us continually flows outward, helping to form or deform the world — depending on what we send out. Whatever is outside us continually flows inward, helping to form or deform us — depending on how we take it in. Bit by bit, we and our world are endlessly re-made in this eternal inner-outer exchange.

Much depends on what we choose to put into the world from within ourselves — and much depends on how we handle what the world sends back to us. As Thomas Merton said:

‘We don’t have to adjust to the world. We can adjust the world’.

Here’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since I understood that we live our lives on the Möbius strip:

How can I make more life-giving choices about what to put into the world and how to deal with what the world sends back — choices that might bring new life to me, to others, and to the world we share?”

~

yes to there’s only one of us here, all that is confluing, flowing together, dancing into the stillpoint, dancing out from the stillpoint seamlessly always connected, always interbeing, always flowing in the seasky of love energy empowering luminosity and shining the light so brightly that all our relations see the way home, home to our one heart… and, yes, to the beautiful question that we are all being asked to live in this moment of great turning…

welcome to a day honoring so much richness… it is Wheel-Turning Day, Chokhor Duchen, commemorating the anniversary of Shakyamuni Buddha’s first teaching seven weeks after his enlightenment once Indra and Brahma offered him a dharma wheel and a conch shell… accepting, Shakyamuni Buddha turned the Wheel of Dharma for the first time at Sarnath in his teaching on the four noble truths… also, it’s Pema’s 85th year of continuation and Bastille Day and Universal Harmony Day, all four days perfect for celebrating our interbeing as vessels of great mystery shining forth luminously, bastions of living awakened, joyously, freely and harmoniously…

i’ll share now a brief meditation from Parker Palmer on life on the Möbius strip…

~

“The curious object pictured is a Möbius strip. If you take your index finger and trace what seems to be the outside surface, you suddenly find yourself on what seems to be the inside surface. Continue along what seems to be the inside surface, and you suddenly find yourself on what seems to be the outside surface.

I need to keep saying ‘what seems to be’ because the Möbius strip has only one side! What look like its inner and outer surfaces flow into each other seamlessly, co-creating the whole. The first time I saw a Möbius strip, I thought, ‘amazing! That’s exactly how life works!’

Whatever is inside of us continually flows outward, helping to form or deform the world — depending on what we send out. Whatever is outside us continually flows inward, helping to form or deform us — depending on how we take it in. Bit by bit, we and our world are endlessly re-made in this eternal inner-outer exchange.

Much depends on what we choose to put into the world from within ourselves — and much depends on how we handle what the world sends back to us. As Thomas Merton said:

‘We don’t have to adjust to the world. We can adjust the world.’

Here’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since I understood that we live our lives on the Möbius strip:

How can I make more life-giving choices about what to put into the world and how to deal with what the world sends back — choices that might bring new life to me, to others, and to the world we share?”

~

yes to there’s only one of us here, all that is confluing, flowing together, dancing into the stillpoint, dancing out from the stillpoint seamlessly always connected, always interbeing, always flowing in the seasky of love energy empowering luminosity and shining the light so brightly that all our relations see the way home, home to our one heart… and, yes, to the beautiful question that we are all being asked to live in this moment of great turning…

with a smile mirroring our heart of joy, let’s close this part of the sacred space of ceremony with the blessing of the Essene Daily Communion for Thursday:

THE DEEPENING: Hold a bowl of water as you commune with the Angel this day. When finished drink the water in deep reverence and feel it, like a rushing current of a river, fill your body and soul.

MORNING COMMUNION: Angel of WATER I invoke thee; whether lake or stream or water of the well, enter my body and become my blood. Give unto me the gift that sustains all life. Your blessings hath cleansed my spirit and quenched the thirst of my soul and as each morning comes, I shall embrace thee.

MEDITATION: As the wave of natures glory reaches its crest and then flows on, I have gained perspective. The waters that rage in the rivers and the rains that fall from the sky are the same as the blood that flows in the veins of my body. The Earth and I are one.

NOON CONTEMPLATION: Peace with the MIND.
Evil thoughts cannot abide in a mind filled with the Light of the Law. He who hath found Peace with the Mind, hath learned to soar beyond the realm of the Angels; For I tell you truly, the lightning that cleaves the mighty oak, or the quaking that opens great cracks in the earth are as the play of children compared with the powers of thought.

EVENING COMMUNION: Angel of WISDOM I invoke thee; for only through the wisdom of the holy law doth the Angels guide the children of light. Descend upon my thinking body and enlighten my thoughts, my mind, my intentions and my deeds. To follow the holy law is the root of your blessings, and as each evening comes, I shall embrace thee.

THE BLESSING: When at first a fledgling bird tries to fly, his wings cannot support him, and he falls again and again to the earth. But he tries again and one day he soars aloft, leaving the earth and his nest far behind. And so is it with the thoughts and intentions of the Sons of Men. The longer one walks with the angels and keeps their Law, the stronger ones thoughts shall become in Holy Wisdom. The day will come when the thoughts of men will overcome even the kingdom of death and then shall he soar to everlasting life in the kingdoms of the Heavenly Father. 

There is no greater power in heaven and earth than in the thoughts of the Son of Man. ~The Isaiah Effect

Each of us has deep within the knowledge of all things, and when we are ready to remember, the knowledge is there to be known. ~The Essene Book of Days

Only when we surrender to our inner nature can we begin to hear the wisdom that comes from deep within. ~The Essene Book of Days

welcome to Bastille Day and Universal Harmony Day, perfect for celebrating our interbeing as vessels of great mystery shining forth luminously, bastions of living freely…

i’ll share now a brief meditation from Parker Palmer on life on the Möbius strip…

~

“The curious object pictured is a Möbius strip. If you take your index finger and trace what seems to be the outside surface, you suddenly find yourself on what seems to be the inside surface. Continue along what seems to be the inside surface, and you suddenly find yourself on what seems to be the outside surface.

I need to keep saying “what seems to be” because the Möbius strip has only one side! What look like its inner and outer surfaces flow into each other seamlessly, co-creating the whole. The first time I saw a Möbius strip, I thought, “Amazing! That’s exactly how life works!”

Whatever is inside of us continually flows outward, helping to form or deform the world — depending on what we send out. Whatever is outside us continually flows inward, helping to form or deform us — depending on how we take it in. Bit by bit, we and our world are endlessly re-made in this eternal inner-outer exchange.

Much depends on what we choose to put into the world from within ourselves — and much depends on how we handle what the world sends back to us. As Thomas Merton said:

“We don’t have to adjust to the world. We can adjust the world.”

Here’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since I understood that we live our lives on the Möbius strip:

How can I make more life-giving choices about what to put into the world and how to deal with what the world sends back — choices that might bring new life to me, to others, and to the world we share?”

~

yes to there’s only one of us here, all that is confluing, flowing together, dancing into the stillpoint, dancing out from the stillpoint seamlessly always connected, always interbeing, always flowing in the seasky of love energy empowering luminosity and shining the light so brightly that all our relations see the way home, home to our one heart… and, yes, to the beautiful question that we are all being asked to live in this moment of great turning…