heartsteps

Health is easy to keep,
Difficult to restore;
Emotions move easily
When first they arise,
Become pain when suppressed;
To respond and release
Means less toil later.

An armored heart is easily injured
And pursuing fantasy invites despair;
A great life is composed of many details,
So walk firmly — each step counts.

A grand canyon began as a tiny cleft
A great master was born a small babe;
Be happy in your place,
Growth is inevitable.
Your start and finish are the same:
The journey to enlightenment begins
Where you are right now.

One who controls
Will be out of control
And the competitive spirit
Is ever wanting.
The sage does not control
And maintains perfect balance;
She does not grab for power
So overflows with it.

The only treasure the master seeks
Is a peaceful heart;
Her only goal
To be full where she is.
Her only doctrine
To allow.

By returning to her origins,
She brings us all forward.

Haven Trevino

A sense of lightening, and expanding, a floating free.
For some it takes a single seamless sigh,
for others it is a more gradual ascension.
Either way works. Both astound the heart with unexpected
joy, both get us where we are going.
But an enormous irony separates the dying from the living -
a mirror effect in space.
Things are not what they appear.
Each stage of the body shutting down liberates something within.
Each outer manifestation of death is accompanied
by an increasingly expansive aliveness within.
In dying, as in meditation, the deeper we go the less
definable we become, and the more real we feel.
Immobility is the first outer sign of death,
but as the element of solidity dissolves
there is a sense of being unbound
as pain disappears into a new freedom of movement.
It’s like taking off a shoe that was too tight.
Then the circulatory system closes down, as the fluid
element withdraws into the departing life force,
opening within a sense of increasing fluidity.
A feeling of being more like an ocean than a boulder.
The body cools as the fire element converges in the heart
and exits through the top of the head.
We sense a rising upward,
like heat radiating from the sunstruck highway.
Lastly, the body becomes rigid and looks more like marble.
than flesh as the air element disappears into space,
as the lightness expands into something yet lighter.
Passing beyond dying into death
a sense of boundless expansion,
of unlimited possibility,
continues the inner process.

Dropping our body is like watching an ice cube melt.
We lose our defining shape,
as we return to our fluid center,
and to evaporate into thin air.
Expanding to fill the room invisible and ever-present.
Like the ice cube we go through enormous external changes
but our essence remains unaffected.
What was once the ice cube is still absolutely H2O.
And we are still the immense unnameable.
Dying into death is like that.
Death is another matter altogether.
Life is the grossest form of the death is another matter altogether.
Anyhow, as Ondrea says,
Life is the grossest form of being.

Stephen Levine

Let’s be clear that few people are committed to God’s work. Of those who say they are, only a handful are actively demonstrating that commitment. Don’t expect the world to support your journey to authenticity. It will not!

The world supports only what it understands. And right now all it understands is duty and sacrifice. That will change in time. But don’t expect it too soon. Don’t go into your lifework with the hope of worldly support and approval.

Those who understand my teachings and try to live them are often treated with disdain by the world. Don’t be surprised if this happens to you. It is not a sign of divine disapproval that other men and women feel envious of or threatened by you.

If this happens, bear it patiently and send love and acceptance to others. When they see that you have their highest good at heart, they will soften to you. If you are committed to the journey, your patience will be rewarded. But, if you are seeking approval or recognition, you will not find it.

Pay no mind to the religion of abundance. That is no more true nor helpful than the religion of sacrifice. God does not necessarily reward spiritual work with material success. All rewards are spiritual. Happiness, joy, compassion, peace, sensitivity: these are the rewards for a life lived in integrity.

If material success does not come, it is not important. If it seems important, and resentment develops, then more ego simply needs to be stripped away. One must learn, once and for all, to stop measuring spiritual riches with a worldly yardstick.

If material success comes, it is often a test to see if one can transcend self-interest and greed. One who is unwilling to share his material wealth with others is not spiritual.

Material wealth, like all other gifts, is given that it may be shared with others. If you are holding onto God’s gift to you, you will not reap the reward of true prosperity, which is happiness and peace.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your lifework must bring in a large paycheck. If you believe this, and your work does not meet with worldly success, you will think you have chosen the wrong work. You will feel inadequate and unworthy. You will beat yourself up and abandon your gift.

On the other hand, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you must be poor to serve God. A rich person can serve God as well as one of humble means if he is willing to share his riches. It matters not how much you hold in your hands, but whether your hands are extended outward to your brother or sister. Look from the inside out, look into your heart, at your intention, and you will see things as God sees them.

All men and women are entrusted with a gift. It does not matter how one person’s gift compares to that of another. What matters is that each person comes to embrace the gift and offer it to others.

Paul Ferrini

Understand that here in this moment, there is nothing wrong with you or your life. Everything is as it should be. Right now, in this moment, you are completely loved.

Are you in pain or conflict? Okay. But that does not mean that you are not completely loved. The idea that being in pain cuts you off from love is an idea that you have imposed on the situation. In truth, nothing cuts you off from love, save your own beliefs. And that is why you are in pain in the first place. You are in pain because you think and feel that you have been cut off from love.

You invert the truth of the situation. You made a cause an effect and effect a cause. That is your fear in action.

Understand this so that you can see beyond it. Let your awareness deepen. See your whole ego drama for what it is.

Paul Ferrini

What you call thinking is the voice of knowledge making up stories, telling you what you know, and trying to make sense out of everything you don’t know. The problem is that the voice makes you do many things that go against yourself.

The voice in your head is like a wild horse taking you wherever it wants to go. Once you tame the horse, you can ride the horse, and knowledge becomes a tool for communication that takes you where you want to go.

The voice of knowledge rules your life, and it is a tyrant. If you refuse to obey that voice, it becomes quieter and quieter, and speaks to you less and less until it no longer controls you. When the voice loses power over you, lies no longer rule your life, and you become authentic again.

Don Miguel Ruiz

Listen, and feel the beauty of your separation,
the unsayable absence.

There is a moon inside every human being.
Learn to be companions with it.

Give more of your life to this listening.

As brightness is to time,
so you are to the one who talks
to the deep ear in your chest.

I should sell my tongue and buy a thousand ears
when that one steps near and begins to speak.

Rumi

I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;
I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I have asked for,
but everything that I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered;
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

anonymous Confederate soldier

As we climbed up the mountain and came to where I thought the horizon would be, it had disappeared – another horizon was waiting further on. I was disappointed, but also excited in an unfamiliar way. Each new level had revealed a new world. Against this perspective, death can be understood as the final horizon. Beyond there, the deepest well of your identity awaits you. In that well, you will behold the beauty and light of your eternal face.

John O’Donohue

Until one is committed,
there is hesitancy,
the chance to draw back,
always ineffectiveness.
Concerning acts of initiative and creation,
there is one elementary truth,
the ignorance of which,
kills countless ideas and splendid plans.
The moment one definitely commits oneself,
then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one,
that would never otherwise have occurred.
The whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one’s favor,
all manner of unforeseen incidents,
and meetings and material assistance,
which no one could have dreamt,
would come one’s way.
Whatever you can do,
or dream you can,
Begin it!
Boldness has genius, power,
and magic in it.
Begin it now!

Goethe