Tricia Armstrong
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I think that one of the karmas that I routinely do not employ skillfully is to pacify.
I run somewhat anxious and find myself enriching in order to pacify myself, which honestly can create some time intensive “repair situations”. It’s almost as though what wakes me up is what I’m observing during magnetizing. It seems to me that it’s mostly during a magnetizing phase that I catch on that I didn’t see very clearly before I engaged (enriched). Gentleness with myself with regard to this pattern is something I’m working on.
Also, I’m currently reading Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals and he included this quotation from the philosopher, Hannah Arendt: “constantly bound by craving and fear to a future full of uncertainties, we strip each present moment of its calm, its intrinsic import, which we are unable to enjoy and so the future destroys the present.” I am struck that this weaves the 4th karma into the pattern I’m observing in myself and it lands a bit chillingly.
It’s also intriguing to me. If I can practice, realize (I’m not sure of the word that really fits) the wisdom of the heart sutra, in other words ahhhhh, more often perhaps this could start shifting the cycle of enriching to pacify before seeing clearly? I dunno and not knowing truly does feel like a good place to return to after engaging this homework! 🙏🏼
Dear Betsy,
Loving the connection of dancing daffodils and a favorite childhood memory 🙂 I found myself emotional reading your reflection, remembering the energy of what it was like to be young and within joyful and uncomplicated moments. Your recollection that daffodils are rarely “all by themselves” also evoked the spirit of sangha in me. So sweet <3
Dear Sue Ellen,
I felt like I was on the hike with you. Reading “The sky is cobalt blue with those tiny puffballs of cirrocumulus clouds drifting east.” brought a smile to my face 🙂 To me your writing flowed, river-like, like the water element you were connecting with in that scene. So serene 🙏🏼
On a recent trip to Japan my husband took a photo of the “Super Mario Marunouchi Bright Holiday” I-don’t-know-quite-what-you’d-call-it. A scene? When I first saw the photo I remember feeling both repulsed and intrigued by it.
It is quite a sight: with smiling mushroom headed folk standing on bright, colorful, white-spotted mushrooms at different levels in the foreground and in the background there are a couple of bare trees with one leafy tree in the middle and what seems like a leafy plant at the base of the middle tree. I can’t see to the very top, but I imagine that the buildings in the background are skyscrapers. There’s a semi-circular “cover” to the left, a golden, metallic, ridged “column” in the middle and stripes of window and stone blocks on the top right, “resting” on a fairly traditional looking brick structure of sorts, on the right. There are also different sized shiny, colored balls on the floor of the “mushroom” display, none of them much larger than the feet of the energized Mario Bros. folk.
It’s something to sense into this “full-catastrophe”. I am repulsed by the commericial nature of what is foregrounded and yet fixated on the colors and crispness of the figures, “mushrooms” and balls. They dwarf the “natural world” background and yet don’t fully clash with it in my perception.
Buddha family exploration:
-Choked to find any space within it so not strong with Buddha family energy
-The crispness, sharpness and precision of the foreground codes as vajra family to me
-The living trees in the background definitely bring an “earthy quality” to the scene, but the skyscrapers and buildings back there with them, neutralize this somewhat. A dash of ratna family energy?
-Not catching any heat off this scene so not connecting with padma family energy.
-The outstretched, exuberant legs of the “Mario creature” atop the highest blue spotted mushroom infuses some karma energy into the picture to me, as does the two open-mouthed smiling ones to the bottom left. They seem so earnest, so ready – “let’s do this!!” they seem to be saying.Bottom line, with the eyes and heartmind that are taking in this image, today…it’s a karma~vajra experience for me 😀
Dear Sue,
A wrenching gut response to what is going on at the federal level resonates. It is hard for me to stay present to it all 😢
Acknowledging your hopefulness that “actions have consequences”. This lands in me as a reminder that there are some seeds being planted right now and some seeds that have been planted in the past that could result in reshaping the current situation to be more loving if we continue to water them 🙏🏼
Dear James,
I appreciate you sharing about what you and your wife are living while navigating her illness. It sounds like a lot!
So loving that you’re sitting with the relationship between suffering and preciousness, in touch with the joy and smile on your wife’s face, as well as with the threads of grief and depression alive within 🙏🏼
Last night I was present to and unable to fully receive a loved one’s anxious state in relation to someone else’s safety. My response, though not consciously intended as such, was to basically “school them” on the Four Reminders. To show myself more compassion I’ll reframe what I just wrote to – Last night dear me was at capacity to absorb anymore anxiety and instead of practicing Right Speech, I was caught up in confusion, trying to convince my dear one out of their anxious state with information . I can sense now that I would have preferred to give them a big ole’ hug and ushered myself off to bed 😊
So, yeah, this dear one just turned 80 years old last month and death is real and comes without warning so if they had transitioned overnight that would have been a very sad way to end things with them. A hug always feels better and I accept that it’s not always going to work out that way and I yet I long for that ❤️
May I hold on to that our lives are precious and the aspiration/intention to deliver more hugs in all their forms and fewer “downloads” in all their forms 🪷
My teacher today is a hard boiled egg.
Dear Egg: What is most important for me to know today?
E: That you and I will never meet again just as we are today -me still here in my shell after a boiling bath and you fortunate enough to have eggs in your refrigerator while the store you shop at has run out. Remember that you are hungry right now and not starving.
Protect your patience dear one and carefully peel me so that no part goes to waste. Compost my shell and enjoy every bite of the white and yellow parts as form sacrifices form and we integrate into one.
Me: 🙏🏼
Dear Sue Ellen,
I appreciated reading your response and am happy to join you in the Kindergarten sandbox 😀
Thank you for sharing a little about the African concept of “ubuntu”. I’m taking away that it’s only through our interconnectedness, with each other and all of life, that we truly ARE anything at all 🙏🏼
👋🏼
When I bring to mind hinayana energy what surfaces is being consistent with practice, diligent about the form/posture and the commitment to return to the object of meditation. It’s core, a steeping in the greater heart-mind.
When I bring to mind Mahayana energy what surfaces is the four divine abodes (or tea bags 😉 of lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. If I am consistent and diligent, my experience reveals that I can return to a sense of embodiment and from this place of embodiment my actions off the cushion are more likely to carry the flavor of those abodes.
When I bring to mind Vajrayana energy what surfaces is essence and touching the beauty of the mysterious process that is me. It’s that energy which reminds me that I am awake.
🙏🏼
