heartsteps

May every creature abound in well-being and peace.
May every living being, weak or strong, the long and the small
The short and the medium-sized, the mean and the great
May every living being, seen or unseen, those dwelling far off,
Those near by, those already born, those waiting to be born
May all attain inward peace.

Let no one deceive another
Let no one despise another in any situation
Let no one, from antipathy or hatred, wish evil to anyone at all.
Just as a mother, with her own life,
protects her only son from hurt
So within yourself foster a limitless concern
for every living creature.
Display a heart of boundless love for all the world
In all its height and depth and broad extent
Love unrestrained, without hate or enmity.
Then as you stand or walk, sit or lie
until overcome by drowsiness
Devote your mind entirely to this,
it is known as living here life divine.

The Buddha

Just sit there right now
Don’t do a thing
Just rest.

For your separation from God,
From love,

Is the hardest work
In this
World.

Let me bring you trays of food
And something
That you like to
Drink.

You can use my soft words
As a cushion
For your
Head.

Hafiz

Spiritual unity is always followed by actual or personal unity; that is, what we enter into conscious possession of in the spiritual life we will, ere long, gain actual possession of in the physical life. Believe that you have already received in the spirit what you desire to receive in the person, and you will receive it in the person in a very short time. This is a law that positively cannot fail. Claim your own in the real world and you will receive in the real world.

This law gives rise to the practice of affirmations, but affirmations as usually employed do not comply with all the elements of the law. To simply affirm that we are what we wish to be or that we have what we wish to possess, is not sufficient. Our spiritual possessions do not express themselves unless there is a strong, positive, personal desire for expression. We must pray for that which we wish to realize, but our prayer should not be mere asking. The prayer that asks in the feeling of uncertainty as to whether the thing prayed for is for us or not, is not a prayer of faith; and it is only the prayer of faith that is answered.

Christian Larson, 1911

"Waterfall" by Kahlil Gibran

Then a woman said, “Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.”

And he answered: “Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again into your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you will say, ‘Joy is greater than sorrow,’ and others will say, ‘Nay, sorrow is the greater.’

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.”

Kahlil Gibran

Don’t take anything personally because by taking things personally you set yourself up to suffer for nothing. Humans are addicted to suffering at different levels and to different degrees, and we support each other in maintaining these addictions. Humans agree to help each other suffer. If you have the need to be abused, you will find it easy to be abused by others. Likewise, if you are with people who need to suffer, something in you makes you abuse them. It is if they have a note on their back that says, “Please kick me.” They are asking for justification for their suffering. Their addiction to suffering is nothing but an agreement that is reinforced every day.

Wherever you go, you will find people lying to you, and as your awareness grows, you will notice that you also lie to yourself. Do not expect people to tell you the truth because they also lie to themselves. You have to trust yourself and choose to believe or not believe what someone says to you.

When we really see other people as they are without taking it personally, we can never be hurt by what they say or do. Even if others lie to you, it is okay. They are lying to you because they are afraid. They are afraid that you will discover that they are not perfect. It is painful to take that social mask off. If others say one thing, but do another, you are lying to yourself if you don’t listen to their actions. But if you are truthful with yourself, you will save yourself a lot of emotional pain. Telling yourself the truth about it may hurt, but you don’t need to be attached to the pain. Healing is on the way, and it’s just a matter of time before things will be better for you.

Don Miguel Ruiz

You hunger to be touched, but deny your hunger. Allow me to love you. Permit me to teach you loving ways to treat yourself. Every hair on your head is precious to me, every inch of your skin. You are not a beast of burden. I do not intend you to work yourself to exhaustion, calling it virtue. Rest in me, my little one. Allow me to brush out your hair, to knead the sore muscles of your back. I am tender to you. Eat, sleep and refresh yourself.

When you regard your body, do so with tenderness. You are beautiful to me. You are unique and priceless. Learn to praise the beauties of your form. I have made you sturdy. I have given you health and strength. Your body is graceful to me. I am able to love an endless myriad of shapes and sizes. Do not turn a cruel eye to your body. It is the beloved vehicle for your spirit. It carries you faithfully.

Let me teach you to love yourself. Let me bathe and clothe you. You are a divine child. I find beauty in you always. It is my pleasure that you have comfort. It is my pleasure that you use your senses. I created your body for your enjoyment. Your sense of touch is sacred. Do not be cold and loveless, calling that grace. Warmth and compassion are my gifts to you. Relax and enjoy the gift of your body.

Julia Cameron

"Black Iris" by Georgia O'Keeffe

May we give birth to a new Dream of the People.
A dream that can sustain us in the new millennium.
A dream that remembers that there is no separation between spirit and matter.
A dream that infuses the life of the people with the power of the erotic.
A dream that reminds us of what is holy.

I call on a dream that remembers
the power of life giving moisture
that recognizes the smell of the sea
where it caresses the shore
in the scent of our sweat
in the salt of our tears
in the slippery wetness that pours
from between the soft thighs
of a woman well loved.

I call on a dream that reminds us
to focus on our fingertips,
on the shape and weight of our hand
on blood and bone and a thousand nerve endings
as we raise an apple
to our mouths
and let the tip of our tongues
slide on the round, smooth firmness
of the cool surface
and feel the spray of juice
as our teeth pierce the skin
and enter the softness
inside.

A dream that helps us taste
the weeks of rain and sun
the ripening on the tree
the labour of the farmer
touch of the fruit-picker
journey of the men and women
who bring fruits
from grove to table.
I call on a Dream of the People that remembers
there is no separation
that knows
each act lived fully awake
cannot help but be
both prayer and lovemaking.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

We light a narrow candle
for every turn around our little sun. make a wish
and try to blow them out with a single breath.
between the near stars and the ones we take on faith
there is no middle distance, no halfway measure
of the years they say light takes to get here.
souls are said to journey from other lives to get to
this one through what we call living here then
on to the next thing we don’t have names for.
there appears to be no reason to hurry.
no need to fear we’re going too fast.
we travel in constant nearness, it is always now.
we are here, then we are here.
the farther we go the more we are home…

Jerry Martien

I awoke to the confusion of a new day.

The scraps of dreams, memories of yesterday, and new cravings creeping into awareness,

The sun spilling its light over all but the shadows and a cacaphony of sound

From outside and in.

What to make order of? What to let go?

And who makes the choice?

I think I will go down to the river and just watch it flow.

It’s been a long time since I have done something really important.

David Sluyter

Mzwakhe Mbuli

Now is the time
To climb up the mountain
And reason against habit.
Now is the time.

Now is the time
To renew the barren soil of nature
Ruined by the winds of tyranny
Now is the time.

Now is the time
To commence the litany of hope
Now is the time.

Now is the time
To give me roses, not to keep them
For my grave to come.
Give them to me while my heart beats,
Give them today
While my heart yearns for jubilee.
Now is the time…

Mzwakhe Mbuli

The Jain flag. The swastica has existed as a symbol in India from 3000 BC and its use by Hitler in later years is not relevant to the Jains.

Friendship toward all beings,
Delight in the qualities of virtuous ones,
Utmost compassion for afflicted beings,
Equanimity toward those who are not well-disposed toward me.

May my soul have such dispositions as these forever.

Peacefulness toward all beings;
self-control and pure aspirations;
abandonment of every thought
that is tainted by desire or aversion;
that, truly, is dwelling in my Self.

I ask for forgiveness of all living creatures,
May all of them forgive me
May I have a friendly relationship with all beings
and unfriendly with none.

Padmanabh S. Jaini

There is a dog I sometimes take for a walk
and turn loose in a field,

when I can’t give her that freedom,
I feel in debt.

I hope God thinks like that and
is keeping track of all
the bliss He
owes
me.

Rabia

Why are you waiting to begin your life?
Do you think the world must care and come soliciting?
Listen to the knocking at the door of your own heart
It is only faint because you have not answered
You have fooled yourself with preparations
Time left laughing while you considered possibilities
Wake up you have slept long enough
Wake up tomorrow may be too late
When you finally dare open the door
your life will begin arriving
Cautiously at first unbelieving that the gate
So long locked against the tide
has finally been opened
Then with swells of neglected dreams
Then with waves of joyful revelation
the sea will follow
You will be swept by the full and magnificent tides
of your own longing
That no one else can give you
That no one else can claim

Judith Gass

Every truth without exception – no matter
who makes it – is from God.

If a bird got accused of singing too early
in the morning,

if a lute began to magically play on its own
in the square
and the enchanting sounds it made drove a pair of young lovers
into a wild, public display of passion,

if this lute and bird then got called before the inquisition
and their lives were literally at stake,

could not God walk up and say before the court,

“All acts of beauty are mine, all happen on behalf of love”?

And while God was there, testifying for our heart’s desires,
hopefully the judge would be astute enough
to brave a question,
that could go,

“Dear God, you say all acts of beauty are yours,
surely we can believe that. But what of all actions
we see in this world,

for is there any force in existence greater than the power
of your omnipresent hand?”

And God might have responded, “I like that question,”
adding, “May I ask you one as well?”

And then God would say,

“Have you ever been in a conversation when children
entered the room, and then you ceased speaking because your
wisdom knew you that they were not old enough
to benefit – to understand?

As exquisite is your world, most everyone in it
is spiritually young.

Spirituality is love, and love never wars with the minute, the day,
one’s self and others. Love would rather die
than maim a limb,
a wing.

Dear, anything that divides man from man,
earth from sky, light and dark, one religion from another…
O, I best keep silent, I see a child
just entered the
room”

Thomas Aquinas

Dear God,
Please bless and protect this sacred jewel,
Our vulnerable planet so besieged.
May the rivers and the oceans and the sky and the land
All be repaired somehow, dear Lord.
May the barbarism end, which threatens to destroy our priceless treasure.
For surely the earth has been our home,
The home of our parents unto all generations.
For the sake of our children, Lord,
Save this earth.
Place in all minds a greater awe before her mysteries.
Shield her and heal her wounds,
Restore her to her former glory.
Save her, Lord, from us.
Amen.

Marianne Williamson

The world will tell you that success is achieving what you set out to do. It will tell you that success is winning, that finding recognition and/or prosperity are essential ingredients in any success. All or some of the above are usually by-products of success. The conventional notion of success is concerned with the outcome of what you do. Some say that success is the result of a combination of hard work and luck, or determination and talent, or being in the right place at the right time. While any of these may be determinants of success, they are not its essence. What the world doesn’t tell you – because it doesn’t know – is that you cannot become successful. You can only be successful. Don’t let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment. And what is that? There is a sense of quality in what you do, even the most simple actioon. Quality implies care and attention, which come with awareness. Quality requires your Presence.

Eckhart Tolle

And with that breath arrives a new body. Notice in the desires that arise as that new incarnation approaches the dimming of the light that precedes the forgetfulness. Attempt to stay alert through the process of re-entry.

Each breath the first.

Each breath completely new.

Taking birth once again.

Born back into a body to examine what was born. And what never dies.

Taking birth for the benefit of all sentient beings.

The light body inhabiting a heavy body. Re-animating life and the possibility of an awareness so clear it obviates any potential for the kind of still birth that lasts a lifetime.

Each breath the first.

Born to serve and explore. To deepen the mercy of whatever world we find ourselves in.

Each breath so precious, allowing the light body to remain a moment more with its earthen vessel.

Taking birth into this world to discover the healing we have so long sought. And to sing the song we have been learning since we sat beneath the bo tree or hung from the cross or looked into the eyes of our dying child. No one said it would be easy, only fruitful.

Each breath the first, the last, the only breath available, to carry us beyond our forgetfulness into the scintillating centre of the living truth.

May all beings live with death over their left shoulder and kindness in the centre of their heart.

May all beings be free from suffering. May all beings know the great fortune of their great nature.

May all beings be at peace.

Stephen Levine

Gently, gently let yourself float free of the body. Constantly expanding outward through decreasing levels of density into increasing depths of grace. Enter the vastness of being. Rest there in your birthright, your deathright. Accept your inheritance.

Let yourself dissolve into the vastness. Edges melting, boundaries disappearing. Dissolving, dissolving into space. Uniting with the absolute joy of your absolute nature. Space dissolving into space. Light merging with light.

Let go of your knowing, let go of your unknowing, and simply be the presence expanding into the luminosity of its own great heart. Let that which is light follow its well-lit path.

Don’t ask the mind for advice, just follow your light. It knows the way by heart.

Let go of your name. Let go of your face. Let go of your reputation and float free in the vastness.

With gratitude and a single sigh leave your body behind with that life you dreamed once.

Notice, as you expand into that sense of safety, that there arises a comfort so deep and natural you wonder where it has been your whole life.

Let go of your understanding and float free in your intuition.

Enter the space in which your thoughts are floating. Let go into the light. Light dissolving into light. Space dissolving in sopace. Consciousness floating free in pure awareness.

Have mercy on yourself. Let yourself go, radiating out into space. Merging with the Great Heart that has no substance but is as real as you are.

No inside, no outside, just edgeless being in endless space. Space expanding into space. Light dissolving into light.

Rest in being. Float free in your original spaciousness.

And from the vanishing point on the most distant horizon, watch as something slowly approaches. It is the first breath of life.

Stephen Levine

Observe how each breath drawn in through the nostrils of the heavy body is experienced as sensation by the light body within. Notice how each breath connects the heavy body with the light body. Notice how each breath maintains that connection, allowing life to stay one more moment in the body.

Feel the contact between the light body and the dense body that each breath provides. Feel how each breath sustains the light body balanced perfectly within.

Take each breath as though it were the last. Experience each inhalation as though it is not going to be followed by another. Don’t try to conserve your breath to stay in the body. Let it come and let it go.

Each breath the last: Let that last exhalation go. And just go on with it. The last breath of life leaving the body behind. The connection severed between the light body and the heavy body. The end of this life. The final breath.

Don’t try to hold onto it. Let go of your last breath, let the light body float free.

Let yourself die. Let go now. hold to nothing. Trust the process.

Let yourself die into space. Leave your body behind, follow the light.

The last breath vanished into space. Leave your body where it lies and go on. That was never you. There you are shining before you. Enter that light. It is your own great nature. Do not be frightened by your immensity. Release all that holds you back from your ultimate fulfilment. Dissolve your heart into the great heart. Let who you have always been become who you are.

Stephen Levine

"My name is Inigo Montoya...prepare to die."

Look about your home for a safe place to die.

Go from room to room surveying the space and sensing if you were to come home to die where that might be best accomplished. Go to that place and just for the work/play of it, sit there for this meditation. Later, as the meditation sinks from the mind into the heart and becomes more your own, you will be able to die anywhere.

“Just the simple fact of dying and the fact of the clear light.” – Aldous Huxley

Sit quietly and feel the heaviness, the substantial quality of the body. Feel gravity pull this dense body toward the ground. Notice the weight of your living corpse. It often wants to lie down. It cannot support its own weight for very long. It is drawn toward the centre of the earth.

Notice within this heavy body a flickering field of sensation. A vibratory fluxing full of your relationship to the external world. Feelings of hot and cold, of roughness or smoothness, even of up or down, which have long supported the misconception that we are of the body rather than just in the body. We imagine we own this body but it is ours only on consignment. Notice that the sensations in the heavy body are received by something lighter within. Watch how awareness illuminates each incoming sensation and reports on its existence.

Within the heavy body is a body of awareness, a light body that produces consciousness of the external vessel and the world about it. It is that which experiences life in or out of the body.

Sense the lighter body within. Experience its presence as presence itself. Notice that the sense of being present drifts in a timeless awareness that can never be defined but can always be experienced. Only that which can be named dies, the truth in which it floats has no beginning and no end.

Stephen Levine

"Der Spaziergang" by Marc Chagall

Life is being wasted. The human family is not having half the fun that is its due, not making the beautiful things it would make, and each one is not as good news to the other as he might be, just because we are educated off our natural track. We need another form of education.

The great revolution in the world which is to equalize opportunity, bring peace and freedom, must be a spiritual revolution. A new will must come. This will is a very personal thing in each one.

Our education has led us away from the realization that the mystery of nature is in each man. When we are wiser we will not assume to mould ourselves, but will make our ignorance stand aside – hands off – and we will watch our own development. We will learn from ourselves. This habit of conducting nature is a bad one.

Robert Henri