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‘There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle’ Deepak Chopra   

Those who have been visiting my site probably know that I like going to the cinema. When I write a post, a movie like any other experience, may be the springboard or the inspiration for me to sit and write, and I usually situate myself in the narrative. Anything can create an urge in me to write and actually many ideas start their emergence in dreams or meditation. For instance, when I meditate on the sofa I like to feel the soft carpet-rug under my feet. Along with my woolly socks it comforts and grounds me, especially on a cold day. There have been many moments when I have been tempted to get up and write about that, the mat, the rug, or maybe the sofa, all the things they mean to me and all the stories, images and metaphors they conjure up. Anyway, I recently went to the cinema to watch The Green Book directed by Peter Farrelly. It is based on a true story, which for me does not have to be read as a biography, more an opportunity for the creator to tell a story inspired by events and people. Personally, I found the film heartwarming, with some funny moments and interestingly layered. Like a myth or fairytale it contained multiple themes and could be read at multiple levels.     Read more…

 

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Inhale suffering, exhale compassion and light  (edited, translation available)

This is the 503rd post in this section of the site, since January 2014. As I consider this I feel that a certain phase is coming to a close, as if, like in the hero and heroine’s journey, after wrestling with the waves of the tempestuous ocean I am stepping on dry land again. I have returned to Ithaca with new eyes. I try to breathe the impact  and then breathe out light, some version of a tonglen meditation. I first learnt about tonglen meditation after listening to a podcast by Pema Chodron a while after my mother’s death. It is not always an easy practice, our body and mind can resist the embracing of the experience, but it can be potent and humbling. As we breathe in, endure, stay with what is, and breathe out, expansion, forgiveness, compassion can arrive.

The tonglen meditation script below is by Danielle La Porte. 

For healing sorrows. For giving when you don’t know what to give. For now. Please read. And breathe.

“Tonglen” is Tibetan for sending and taking.

HOW-TO TONGLEN: Breathe in suffering — yours, others, the world’s.
Breathe out compassion — for yourself, for others, for the world.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. It may shatter you. But wouldn’t that be grand? To be shattered? To be so immensely open that you’d feel the truth: that you’re really as selfless as Mother Theresa, as loyal as an ecstatic dog at the feet of the world, as powerfully creative as a cosmic super hero?

STEP 1: Breathe in suffering. The worst thing that ever happened to you. That sunk feeling. That thing you wish you could take back. Recapitulate it in breaths. The blackness, the sickness, the fibrous seething rage, the sticky-scratchy, inconsolable weight of it. Take in the unbearable-ness. You may want to escape. Press on. Go beyond the embrace. Inhale the pain in to your every cell. You won’t die. You’re going to expand. Keep breathing in the misery. You’re on the verge of a miracle.

STEP 2: Now breathe out joy. Soothing golden warmth. Luminous flying birds of clarity. Electric rays of smiling karate chops. Feel your lungs as powerful creative engines of healing and righteousness. Pulsate rapture. Let happiness emerge from the fractures. Let scar tissue become bridges that lead to a festival of relief and dancing. See joy. Feel joy. Hear joy. Sing joy. Breathe love into every cell of the situation.

Now do it for other people’s suffering. Please. For that homeless man on the street, in winter. Cold and demoralized. Inhale his agony. Exhale comfort and transformation. The jobless folks with families to feed. Cancer patients fighting to live. People gone mad. Soldiers who kill and the families they destroy. Take in the wreckage. Turn it into light and give back compassion and tenderness.

When your heart is heavy, when you want to feel alive…
Acknowledge the dark. And take the light into your own hands’.

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 The body-mind conection, flying low and exploring resistance…….                                                                      

Interesting podcast on tapping and the BODY-MIND connection and on how when the health system focuses on damage control and diagnoses it fails to support the health and well being of people, as well as, prevention by Dr Christiane Northrup

https://www.thetappingsolution.com/2019tws/vs5/af/ChristianeNorthrup.php

Christiane Northrup M.D.:

“Your thoughts and beliefs are the single most important indicator of your state of health. That is amazingly good”

“Your beliefs and thoughts are wired into your biology. They become your cells, tissues, and organs. There’s no supplement, no diet, no medicine, and no exercise regimen that can compare with the power of your thoughts and beliefs. That’s the very first place you need to look when anything goes wrong with your body.”

…..and a podcast full of gems where Seth Godin (Insight at the Edge / Sounds True) argues that the systems of our culture are pushing us to fly too low, and that resistance is not something to be avoided, but something to seek out….

 

 

 

 

 

‘I’m betting most people have some knowledge of the story of Icarus. It’s been told to us like a fairytale. Daedalus was banned by the gods to an island with his son. Daedalus said to his son, “I’ve figured a way out of here.” He made him a set of wings, and the instructions were, “Do what I say. Don’t fly too high, or the wax on your wings will melt from the sun and you will surely perish.” [Icarus] did not obey his father and he died. The message there is pretty clear: No hubris. Don’t get too big for your britches. And most of all, listen to authority. But the fascinating thing about this myth is, in 1850 and 1750 and 1650 and for a thousand years before that, that’s not what it said. What it said was, “Don’t fly too high, but also do not fly too low—because if you fly too low, the water and the mist will weigh down your wings and you will drown.” My argument in the book is that the systems of our culture are pushing us to fly too low, and we are guilty of flying too low…’

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