Winter Retreat, January 16, 2016

During our Winter Retreat on Saturday, January 16 at the public Board of Directors meeting, Karen Kovacs shared an explanation of the inter-relationship between Amethyst Foundation, Inc, Amethyst Retreat Center, and Lotus Light Community and traced our roots and our purpose to the founding vision, "Supporting the evolution of human consciousness". 

 

Amethyst Foundation is the non-profit organization that provides the governance for our Foundation according to ourVision, Mission, and Values. Amethyst Retreat Center is the portal to experience living in a new way. It is the experience of the sacred in the everyday. It is touching True Self in the most profound way. Lotus Light Community is the Spirit of Love within and among us that brings us together for learning, living, and healing through respect, appreciation, and the loving awareness found within and beyond all religions, cultures, traditions, and ways of being that are rooted in love. 

Although each aspect is known by a different name there is no separation and all work together for the benefit of the evolution of human consciousness to one of Divine Love – an expression beyond spirituality, religion or culture. 

 

Don Kovacs continued the discussion by sharing our community Vision, Mission and Values statement. This was written down and shared as a distillation of a process of visioning that took place for over a year and a half through community meetings, a day-long retreat, weekend workshop, and informal conversations. Written early in 2013, it still resonates with what is happening and being lived right now. What follows is the Vision, Mission and Values statement with additional comments by Don on each point. 

 

Lotus Light

Vision, Mission, and Values

Our vision statement is both what we believe and what we try to practice. 

3-part vision; 3-part mission; 7 shared values 

 

OUR VISION 

We are committed to living in healing loving spiritual community:

o Where all spiritual paths based on love are honored

o And we share the light we've found with each other. We do this most truly in how we live.

o A love-based spiritual path will manifest that  love, and will manifest joy, and peace, and patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness

o Where love and honesty are practiced in all things

o Both love and honesty are required. A loving honesty and an honest love. An honesty that seeks our mutual good.

o Love without honesty is at best a mutual admiration society; or it becomes a place where resentments smolder until things fall apart

o Honesty without love easily becomes destructive

o To practice love and honesty constructively requires wisdom, courage, and compassion

o Where healing happens and blossoms into appreciative awareness and giving back in loving service

o In spiritual community deep healing is happening right now and we receive it with great joy and gratitude.

o There is a flow of giving and receiving, a flow of faith and healing (which I still don't understand), and a flow of forgiving and being forgiven

o When we get in the flow together we become "evolutionaries"

 

OUR MISSION – is a threesome too

 

We are a center for healing, learning, and living:

o In a sustainable way for all living beings

o We often hike at the Kings Gap Environmental Education Center. We see Amethyst becoming an Environmental Meditation Center where young and old can experience the healing and spiritual power of nature.

o Living it, not just talking about it

o By practicing a healthy, simple, and local lifestyle that benefits the larger global community

o We celebrate with delicious, healthy food, and share the joy and bounty of growing food organically.

o This requires a sustained commitment from a lot of people

o By discovering and sharing our gifts of healing, teaching, and living

o We promote the healing of body-mind-spirit especially through living heartfully in tune with Spirit, the inexhaustible well of wisdom, compassion, and courage. 

o We live-in-to our truth and our talents and our gifts day by day, pot luck by potluck, retreat by retreat, sangha by sangha

 

OUR VALUES

We cultivate a tradition and culture of:

o Trust and transparency

o We keep good financial records which are reported completely to the Board. 

o We have nothing to hide and this keeps us safe

o Simplicity in living by expressing gratitude and experiencing joy rather than wanting more 

o We practice a gift economy where everyone gives what they have to share to support and enhance the community, and we do it with a spirit of gratitude for the joy we find in sharing our gifts. 

o True Self-empowerment because the future lies within, and our lives and our gifts matter

o We celebrate the healers and the musicians and the chefs and servers and the dharma teachers and the field and forest workers and everyone who shares the gift of themselves. 

o We choose to be the change we wish to see in the world

o Showing love and compassion by sharing our skills, our resources, our time, ourselves 

o We show up, we pitch in, we participate. 

o Our gift is a free and seemingly costly love

o Solving human problems creatively 

o We imagine what is possible and ask why not? 

o We have everything we need to solve every human problem

o Living mindfully and choosing consciously to benefit ourselves and others

o We strive to live in a mind of love, gratitude, and deep awareness. 

o Moment by moment we choose to live consciously

o Seeking and finding the Truth beyond religion and spirituality

o Love is a verb and a noun

o We seek to live the truth of love with wisdom, and with courage, and with compassion. We need all three.

 

Back in the 1960s and 70s we thought we could demonstrate against injustice and change the world.  But now it's time to demonstrate for a new way of living, by living it. Let us be the demonstration of how things could be. Back then we thought we could change the world. Well maybe we still can. 

 

Amethyst:

Being the Change

We Want to See

Together

Welcome to our sangha blog!

Our sangha now partners with Amethyst retreat center for weekly meditations, monthly potlucks and other fun events.  Our non-profit has a shared community space on 144 acres of woods and meadow right in Duncannon, Pa!  Please be welcome and consider checking out the Lotus Light Sangha and Amethyst Facebook pages for updates and more information!  Our Amethyst Retreat Center website also has pictures and a schedule of events.  Kids, friends, family and pets welcome!

Living Beautifully!

 Living Beautifully!

In the Flow of Grace, Gift & Gratitude
 
Lotus Light ~ Natura Sanat
Wellness Retreat
Spring 2014
An Amethyst Foundation Event
Friday, May 9 - Sunday, May 11, 2014
 
We gathered on a cool, cloudy Friday evening at Nara, the Amethyst Spiritual Retreat House for our second annual Lotus Light/INatura Sanat Spring Wellness Retreat.  Most of the 22 total participants for the weekend were there as we worked together to serve a Vegetarian Buffet Supper.  Marykaye was in charge of meals for the entire weekend coordinating recipes, shopping lists, cooks and servers. Good food and good company as usual!  After supper and cleanup we gathered together for Conversations for Awakening Mind - Abundance through a Gift Economy and the Flow of Giving and Receiving.  The dharma talk and discussion were led by Karen.  It is fair to say that the entire weekend was a living experience of this abundance and flow, and by the end of the event cash contributions and in-kind donations of goods totaled close to $2000. More important were the rich variety of gifts of service, friendship, and talent coming from the heart.  Our evening ended peacefully around a bonfire with Sterling sharing his talent on the Digeridoo, Native American Flute, and Drums.
 

On Saturday, we began the day outside with Michael Klinger leading us in Tai Chi Chih. The planned dharma talk was skipped as people lingered over breakfast outside on the porch overlooking the east meadow.  The conversations seemed more important to the weekend than sticking with the program.  After breakfast, our kitchen crew went to work on the special lunch presentation with Marykaye and Liz, Why Gluten Free?  Besides much practical information there was a meal proving that that Gluten Free can also be delicious.   

Our afternoon began with all of us relaxing in the main room for a meditative reading of poetry from the book, Loves Poem from God, Twelve Voices from East and West read by Don.  The reading of these mystical poems was enhanced by an afternoon thunderstorm that lifted the experience into a mindful and refreshed presence.  This was followed by an open period for a choice of individual healing therapies including a Future Self guided mediation, as well as time for conversation, rest and relaxation.  At 5 we gathered together again for a Really Happy Hour.  After warming up with group dancing to Pharrel Williams' Happy song, Mary Liz led us in Belly Dancing, a beginners lesson for most of us!  Some were quite amused to see a doctor and a lawyer belly dancing together, and we all enjoyed such joyful freedom in self-expression. 

After preparing and enjoying another wonderful meal the rain kept us inside for a time of music and singing together.  There's a lot of musical talent among us.  As we did the previous night, about 11 people slept over at Nara. 
 

Sunday dawned a beautiful sunny day.  People joined breakfast on the porch in stages over much of the morning as we again chose lingering in friendly conversation over sticking with the program.  This is what "flow" is all about!  For the rest of the morning Lara Vracarich led us in The Healing Power of Movement, Sound, & Nature.  Once again we experienced a freedom of movement which reawakened our spirits and recharged our energy.  We ended the retreat with a wonderful, creative lunch of leftovers.  Many lingered long into the afternoon, and we parted, all grateful for a wonderful experience of healing, loving, spiritual community, the flow of giving and receiving, and the beauty of living in a gift economy.

Good Friday Sangha with Don Kovacs

 

On Good Friday we remember the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

The Cross that calls to memory that event has been used and abused as a symbol by many different persons and groups.  Crusaders and conquerors, martyrs and missionaries.  We've all known a loving Christian neighbor and Mark Twain's "a religious man in the worst sense of the word."  I like to see that Cross as a sacred transmitter of Divine Love.

 

Those painted, wooden crosses you see along the highways, to me represent crosses-as-radio-antennae, antennae for both receiving and transmitting Divine Love in constant Flow, not unlike the Flow of energy from the Sun through all of Life.  For just as all physical life depends on the Flow of energy in the Sun's light, all spiritual life and all love must flow from a Divine Source of Life and Love.

 

This is the Flow of energy that was demonstrated and taught by Jesus, as he showed us Universal Truth, and wonderful blossoms of being and caring.  How did he demonstrate that Flow of energy?  He healed, he forgave, and he gave without limit.  I think this is why Neem Caroli Baba always wept at the name of Jesus.

 

I want to talk about that Flow of energy Jesus lived as the True Way of Life.  Love always flows.  Forgiveness flows.  Healing flows.  Our gifts flow when we stop owning them, and they us.  Gratitude and Praise Flow into Joy and fullness of Life.  Love always Flows.

 

Forgiveness always Flows.  Jesus says, Forgive us our human failings and limitations, as we forgive others theirs.  Let forgiveness Flow in our lives.  We start by forgiving ourselves and others, and we experience a new wholeness.  Whether others forgive us is partly our task, and partly theirs.  We can leave the rest to Grace.

 

Healing Flows.  Repeatedly when Jesus healed someone he said, "Your faith has healed you."  But in some towns, it is written, "he couldn't heal many there due to their lack of faith."  Faith opens the channels for healing to Flow.  People are taught how to give Reiki; maybe we need to learn how to receive it.  How essential is faith to healing?  I have on occasion said to a patient, "Even Jesus couldn't heal people who didn't have faith in him."  Do we limit the gift of healing we might be receiving?  Do we limit the healing we might be giving that comes from an endless Source?

 

And finally, Giving Flows.  "Freely have ye received; freely give."  "I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly."  "Sell all you have and give it to the poor, and follow me."

Our gifts are many: our time, our talents, our wealth, our health…(fill in the blank) are all gifts.  There is a Flow of giving and receiving like the Flow of Nature's great water cycle powered by the Sun.  Our gifts Flow in, received from above, and Flow through us and outward toward our fellow creatures and all creation.  And when individuals, each in our own honest ways, share this in community, this Flow of giving and receiving faith and healing, love and forgiveness, good things happen: creativity, healing, joy, affection, friendship, music, helping one another up with a tender hand…, all the good things we have shared here in community.

 

Love always Flows.  There is no stopping it anymore than you could stop the Susquehanna River at flood stage.  It Flows from an Infinite Source.  We can choose to welcome and embrace its Flowing within us, and through us, and among us.  We can do it right now.  We can do it every day, if only for a few moments or hours.  We do it with each other. 

 

It's all giving and receiving.  It's a faith that can heal us.  It's in forgiving ourselves and each other that our errors are redeemed by grace, and are transformed into lessons for awakening happening in those intersecting dimensions of the Flow of Divine Love that Jesus shows and teaches: 

 

Love & Forgiveness, Faith & Healing, Giving & Receiving.  And when that starts happening among us, He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

 

So now in inner silence, let us feel our way to the heart of this flow of Divine Love in our lives right here, right now, and let it flow within and between our hearts. 

Reaffirming our Intention

We gathered this week with the news of three women liberated from a 10 year imprisonment by a male abductor; it brought to mind all of the women and children around the planet who share the same suffering and our desire to help them.  How beautiful to also see the courage, compassion and love in the hearts of so many, bringing light and healing to this world.  So many lessons in right action on the part of first responders, former victims who work to help those in similar situations and the people (including policy makers) who simply care enough to find ways to help.  More challenging for us may be trying to understand why such cruelty exists and to extend that same compassion to the perpetrators of those acts.  We were inspired by all of the stories that affirm the power each of us has to forgive and bring light to this world.

Here are a few of the things that we shared at sangha...  

From Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change by Pema Chodron (click for more info)

"Fortunately, when we break the commitment to take care of one another, it's easy to mend. We start by acknowledging that we broke it, that we hardened our heart and closed our mind, that we shut someone out. And then we can retake our vow. On the spot—or as a daily practice—we can reaffirm our intention to keep the door open to all sentient beings for the rest of our life. That's the training of the spiritual warrior, the training of cultivating courage and empathy, the training of cultivating love. It would be impossible to count the number of beings in the world who are hurting, but still we aspire to not give up on any of them and to do whatever we can to alleviate their pain."

From Proof of Heaven: a Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander (click for info)

"Pitch black as it was, it was also brimming over with light: a light that seemed to come from a brilliant orb that I now sensed near me. An orb that was living and almost solid, as the songs of the angel beings had been.  My situation was, strangely enough, something akin to that of a fetus in a womb. The fetus floats in the womb with the silent partner of the placenta, which nourishes it and mediates its relationship to the everywhere present yet at the same time invisible mother. In this case, the "mother" was God, the Creator, the Source who is responsible for making the universe and all in it. This Being was so close that there seemed to be no distance at all between God and myself.  Yet at the same time, I could sense the infinite vastness of the Creator, could see how completely minuscule I was by comparison.  I will occasionally use Om as the pronoun for God because I originally used that name in my writings after my coma. "Om" was the sound I remembered hearing associated with that omniscient, omnipotent, and unconditionally loving God, but any descriptive word falls short. The pure vastness separating Om and me was, I realized, why I had the Orb as my companion. In some manner I couldn't completely comprehend but was sure of nonetheless, the Orb was a kind of "interpreter" between me and this extraordinary presence surrounding me.  It was as if I were being born into a larger world, and the universe itself was like a giant cosmic womb, and the Orb (who remained in some way connected to the Girl on the Butterfly 

Wing, who in fact was she) was guiding me through this process.  Later, when I was back here in the world, I found a quotation by the seventeenth-century Christian poet Henry Vaughan that came close to describing this place—this vast, inky-black core that was the home of the Divine itself. "There is, some say, in God a deep but dazzling darkness..." That was it, exactly: an inky darkness that was also full to brimming with light.  The questions, and the answers, continued. Though they still didn't come in the form of language as we know it, the "voice" of this Being was warm and—odd as I know this may sound—personal. It understood humans, and it possessed the qualities we possess, only in infinitely greater measure. It knew me deeply and overflowed with qualities that all my life I've always associated with human beings, and human beings alone: warmth, compassion, pathos .. . even irony and humor. 

Through the Orb, Om told me that there is not one universe but many—in fact, more than I could conceive—but that love lay at the center of them all.  Evil was present in all the other universes as well, but only in the tiniest trace amounts. Evil was necessary because without it free will was impossible, and without free will there could be no growth—no forward movement, no chance for us to become what God longed for us to be. Horrible and all-powerful as evil sometimes seemed to be in a world like ours, in the larger picture love was overwhelmingly dominant, and it would ultimately be triumphant.

I saw the abundance of life throughout the countless universes, including some whose intelligence was advanced far beyond that of humanity. I saw that there are countless higher dimensions, but that the only way to know these dimensions is to enter and experience them directly."

More on a story we shared: Aesha's progress: the healing journey of an Afghan woman whose nose was cut off by attackers and the community that supported her

The lovely song that started off our evening:

Think of all the ways you bring light into this world in the moments you offer courage, compassion or awareness to whatever life brings your way.  We are the ones we've been waiting for!

Have a beautiful day. :)

~Marykaye

Lotus Light Sangha - "Living Beautifully" in the Charnel Ground of Life

This week, we explored the Tibetan Buddhist perspective on life and path by meditating on excerpts from Pema Chodron's new book,   "Living Beautifully". 

Pema Chodren is an ordained Tibetan Buddhist Nun who is a spiritual teacher for many students in the West.   

Pema's teachings encourage us on the life path of spiritual warrior.  She advocates that we find the courage to stay present with our experience of human suffering whether it is our own, that of others we know, or the mass suffering we see in the world. 

By staying present with our pain, we sink deep into our broken heart and find the tender spot within where our compassion can be felt and then expressed in meaningful ways. These acts of compassion are genuine and don't come from a prescribed or dogmatic approach to kindness, mindfulness, or compassion. They emerge from the dark night of the soul and move us toward light as the Lotus flower emerges from the depths of the lake toward moonlight. 

In Pema's new book "Living Beautifully"  (with uncertainty & Change) she outlines her three  commitments:

1.  Committing to "Do No Harm" by being fully present:

Aware of our intentions and actions on others and ourselves. Stay in the middle of our emotions and not move to reacting immediately or becoming numb.

 2.  Committing to "Take Care of One Another": 

Beyond our comfort zone, breathing in pain, breathing out relief for ourselves and others, and this becomes the catalyst for compassion.

 3.  Committing to "Embrace the World As It is":

 There is no where to hide, sometimes we have no control, which she calls groundlessness."

Pema talks about the Charnel Ground where in Tibet, without land to bury the dead, bodies are cut up and left for the birds, tigers, and other animals to devour.  From one perspective, the Charnel Ground is desolate and frightening, but to the animals that visit, it is a delightful banquet. 

All experiences and perspectives are part of the whole of life. To sit with that groundlessness at the Charnel ground of our life and to detach from seeing life based on good or bad is to Be Present in compassion for our journey to light.  

"We work on ourselves in order to help others. But, also we help others in order to work on  ourselves" Pema Chodron 

 

Lotus Light Sangha - Silence Is

Our meditation this week transformed our ideas and beliefs about silence. 

We contemplated a teaching from Ramana Maharshi, an Indian sage. Ramana Maharshi shared his realization that silence is more than the absence of sound or movement. It is detaching from being led by thoughts and perceptions. True silence therefore is possible any time and in the midst of any worldly conditions if we enter it by mastering the mind. For me, this is a great relief since it seems overwhelming to try to quiet the world, but I can work from within myself to enter the realm of silence where true Self is present for the world. 

Ramana Maharshi, What causes resistance? 

...So this need to do, is this resistance? If you think that you have to breathe would that obstruct your natural breathing? Your breathing happens automatically. If you try to breathe, would you be disturbing your natural flow, rhythm of breathing? 

So rather than the need to do which is resistance, is it more necessary to be in tune with what is - with what is i.e., your thoughts, your feelings, your sensations, events in the world - to be aware of these without the need to do. To be aware of them, to be in tune with them, the changes each moment - to watch them. To be in tune means to watch them, not to obstruct them, not to think you have to do. 

So watch what is happening in your mind and the world. To watch neutrally as witness, without judgement, without prejudice. Would  this put you into the flow? And in this flow would actions happen through you just like your breathing, as natural as your breathing? So your actions in the world whether it is concerning your profession, your relationships, or any other sports, hobbies or activities. Whatever your actions, they would be as natural as your breathing - no effort, action but no effort, effortless action. 

So is this what we are practicing in silence? To watch your thoughts, not to be led by them. If you are led by them, then you are not watching them. To watch your feelings and imagination, to watch your sensations, not to be pulled away by these. Is this what we are practicing in silence? 

For if you practice this, if you watch your thoughts, they quiet down - your feeling and your imagination too...

So in silence, in deep silence where there is not a thought, you have dissolved into silence...you experience a Oneness...You have discovered your Self rather than the perception of yourself. So does the understanding come from silence?  

Lotus Light Sangha Blog, The Peace of the Divine Reality

We are preparing for "Frankenstorm" Sandy to move through the area, so its seems like the perfect time to offer you our reading from this week's meditation. As we listened to the reading, we experienced the "aha" that wakes one up and clears the fog. Then meditating deeply, we emerged in present reality.

The reading was written by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Master and is included in a collection of contemplative writings from various spiritual teachers called "Handbook for the Spirit", edited by Richard Carlson, Ph.D. and Benjamin Shield, Ph.D. 

The Peace of the Divine Reality, Thich Nhat Hanh

"I would like to share a poem with you, written by a friend who died at the age of twenty-eight in Saigon, about thirty years ago. After he died, people found many beautiful poems he had written, and I was startled when I read this poem:

Standing quietly by the fence, 

you smile your wondrous smile. 

I am speechless, and my senses are filled

by the sounds of your beautiful song,

Beginningless and endless. 

I bow deeply to you. 

"You" refers to a flower, a dahlia. That morning as he passed by a fence, he saw that little flower very deeply, and, struck by the sight of it, he stopped and wrote that poem. 

I enjoy this poem very much. You may think that the poet was a Zen master, because his way of looking and seeing things is very deep. But he was just an ordinary person, a poet. I don't exactly know how or why he was able to see like that, but it is exactly the way we practice Buddhist meditation, the practice of mindfulness. We try to be in touch with life in the present moment and look deeply into things that happen to us in the present moment. We do that while we drink tea, while we walk, sit down and so on. The secret of the success is that  you are yourself, you are really yourself, and when you are really yourself, you can encounter life in the present moment...

...There is another story about a flower, a story well known in Zen circles. One day the Buddha held up a flower in front of an audience of 1,250 monks. He did not say anything for quite a long time. Suddenly, he smiled. He smiled because someone in the audience smiled at him and at the flower. The name of that monk was Mahakashayapa. Only one person smiled, and the Buddha smiled back and said, "I have a treasure of insight, and I have transmitted it to Mahakashyapa". That story has been discussed by many generations of Buddhists, and people continue to look for its meaning. To me the meaning is quite simple. When someone holds up a flower and shows it to you, he wants you to see it. And if you keep thinking, you miss the flower. The person who is not thinking, who was just himself, was able to encounter the flower in depth, and he smiled. 

That is the problem with life. If we are not here, if we are not in the present moment, fully ourselves, we miss everything. When a child presents himself to you, with his smile, and if you are not really there, you are thinking about the future or you are thinking about the past, or you are preoccupied by other problems, then the child is not really there for you. The technique of being alive, of living in the divine and earthly realities simultaneously, is to go back to yourself. Then the child will appear like a marvelous reality; then you can see her smile and embrace her. "

Lotus Light Sangha Blog - The Art & Service of Helping Others

Many of us feel the increasing tender heart, the heart-felt call to be of service to others and to the world we live in. Wonderful organizations, religions, spiritual communities, and the like are solidly planted in the world to help with the human need that is presented to us daily. Because there are endless opportunities to join in and help, it eventually becomes crucial for each of us to contemplate and answer the question "What is it that I am called to do? How can I help?"

In our community meditation evening this week, we contemplated two perspectives on the question of authentic personal service. Our first contemplative meditation was on a reading from the book A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly, a Quaker and our second contemplation was a Buddhist perspective, a reading from the book The Places that Scare You, by Pema Chodron, the first American ordained Buddhist Nun. What follows is the essence of each of these readings.     

A Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly 

"The experience of Divine Presence wholly satisfies, and there are a few who, like those on the Mount of Transfiguration, want to linger there forever and never return to the valleys of men....But there is more to the experience of God than that of being plucked out of the world. The fuller experience, I am sure, is of a Love which sends us out into the world...For the experience of an in-flooding, all-enfolding Love, which is at the center of Divine Presence, is of a Love which embraces all creation, not just our little, petty selves...I wish I might emphasize how a life becomes simplified when dominated by faithfulness to a few concerns. Too many of us have too man irons in the fire. We get distracted by the intellectual claim to our interest in a thousand and one good things, and before we know it we are pulled and hauled breathlessly along by an over-burdened program of good committees and good undertakings...The concern oriented life is ordered and organized from within. And we learn to say No as well as Yes by attending to the guidance of inner responsibility...A concern is God-initiated, often surprising, always holy, for the Life of God is breaking through into the world. Its execution is in peace and power and astounding faith and joy, for in unhurried serenity the Eternal is a work in the midst of time, triumphantly bringing all things up unto Himself."

The Places that Scare You, Pema Chodron 

"Few of us are satisfied with retreating from the world and just working on ourselves. We want our training to manifest and to be of benefit. The bodhisattva-warrior, therefore, makes a vow to wake up not just for himself but for the welfare of all beings. There are six traditional activities in which the bodhisattva trains, six ways of compassionate living: generosity, discipline, patience, enthusiasm, meditation, and prajna - an unconditional wisdom. Traditionally these are called the six paramitas, a Sanskrit word meaning "gone to the other shore". Each one is an activity we can use to take us beyond aversion and attachment, beyond being all caught up in ourselves, beyond the illusion of separateness. Each paramita has the ability to take us beyond our fear of letting go...

So, these are the six activities of the warrior: 

Generosity - Giving as a path of learning to let go. 

Discipline - Training in not causing harm in a way that is daring and flexible. 

Patience - Training in abiding with the restlessness of our energy and letting things evolve at their own speed. If waking up takes forever, still we go moment by moment, giving up all hope of fruition and enjoying the process. 

Joyful enthusiasm - Letting go of our perfectionism and connecting with the living quality of every moment. 

Meditation - Training in coming back to being right here with gentleness and precision. 

Prajna - cultivating an open, inquiring mind. 

With these six activities of the bodhisattva, we learn how to travel to the other shore, and we do our best to take everyone we can find along with us. "

Lotus Light Sangha Blog - Living Joyfully

There is much that we can do with our simple, daily, human lives to help awaken our own consciousness and therefore contribute to the wellbeing of our collective global consciousness. Yes, there is much suffering in the world in war, over consumption, global warming, and bipartisan political anger, just to touch on some of our wordly confusion.  However, if we can find the courage to slow down and mindfully remember what truly makes a human being thrive, then we have real seeds that we can plant and nurture in our lives and therefore nurture within the global community.

If not now, then when? If not us, then who?

Here is a wonderful reading from Thich Nhat Hanh that will inspire us to keep moving toward what we know is real and valuable.

Community of Mindful Living, from the book Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh

"The foundation of a good community is a daily life that is joyful and happy. In Plum Village, children are the center of attention. Each adult is responsible for helping the children be happy, because we know that if the children are happy, it is easy for the adults to be happy.

When I was a child, families were bigger. Parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and children all lived together. The houses were surrounded by trees where we could hang hammocks and organize picnics. In those times, people did not have many of the problems we have today. Now our families are very small, just mother, father , and one or two children. When the parents have a problem, the whole family feels the effects. Even if the children go into the bathroom to try to get away, they can feel the heavy atmosphere. They may grow up with seeds of suffering and never be truly happy. Formerly when mom and dad had problems, the children could escape by going to an aunt or uncle, or other family member. They still had someone to look up to, and the atmosphere was not so threatening.

I think that communities of mindful living, where we can visit a network of "aunts, uncles, and cousins" may help us replace our former big families. Each of us needs to "belong to" such a place, where each feature of the landscape, the sounds of the bell, and even the buildings are designed to remind us to return to awareness. I imagine that there will be beautiful practice centers where regular retreats will be organized, and individuals and families will go there to learn and practice the art of mindful living.

The people who live there should emanate peace and freshness, the fruits of living in awareness. They will be like beautiful trees, and the visitors will want to come and sit under their shade. Even when they cannot actually visit, they only need to think of it and smile, and they will feel themselves becoming peaceful and happy. "


 

Lotus Light Sangha Blog - The Wisdom of Spiritual Teachers in the World Now

Her Holiness Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi

Sai Maa is recognized and honored worldwide as a global humanitatian, a powerful tranformational teacher, and a master of enlightenment.

The Glory of Seva
Manifest Your True Purpose 

 "This is a golden opportunity to serve your soul, to feel your soul, and to serve yourself so you will serve others even better. The experience of seva is the experience of your Divinity. Its a journey from your self to your Higher Self. It's a vital contribution to your incarnation on this plane.

Seva is service, Service in action, Grace in action, Seva is knowledge in action, is service in devotion and will in action. Evoked for the highest purpose, it is worship. Seva is chanting the divine name; seva is the glory of the Supreme Lord of your own essence. Seva, when practiced with Love, enthusiam, joy, and no expectations, becomes the deepest spiritual practice. As you allow the radiance of Grace and Love to shine forth in every action, you are manifesting your purpose. "

Thich Nhat Hahn, Buddhist Zen Master Teacher

"It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community – a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the earth."

Lotus Light Sangha Blog - Growth is Change

Anam Cara,  John O'Donohue

The Eye Celebrates Motion

The human eye adores movement and is alert to the slightest flicker. It enjoys great moments of celebration when it beholds the ocean as the tide comes in, and tide upon tide repeats its dance against the shore. The eye also loves the way light moves; summer light behind a cloud crawling over a meadow. The eye follows the way the wind shovels leaves and sways trees.  The human is always attracted to motion. As a little baby, you wanted to crawl, then to walk, and as an adult you feel the continuous desire to walk into independence and freedom.

Everything alive is in movement. This movement we call growth. The most exciting form of growth is not mere physical growth but the inner growth of one's soul and life. It is here that the holy longing within the heart brings one's life into motion. The deepest wish of the heart is that this motion does not remain broken or jagged but develops sufficient fluency to become the rhythm of one's life.

The secret heart of time is change and growth. Each new experience that awakens in you adds to your soul and deepens your memory. The person is always a nomad, journeying from threshold to threshold, into ever different experiences. In each new experience another dimension of the soul unfolds. It is no wonder that from ancient times the human has been understood as a wanderer. Traditionally, these wanderers traversed foreign territories and unknown places. Yet Stanislavsky, the Russian dramatist and thinker, said that "the longest and most exciting journey is the journey inwards."

There is a beautiful complexity of growth within the human soul. In order to glimpse this, it is helpful to visualize the mind as a tower of windows. Sadly, many people remain trapped at the one window, looking out every day at the same scene in the same way. Real growth is experienced when you draw back from that one window, turn, and walk around the inner tower of the soul and see all the different windows that await your gaze. Through these different windows, you can see new vistas of possibility, presence, and creativity. Complacency, habit, and blindness often prevent you from feeling your life. So much depends on the frame of vision – the window through which you look.

To Grow is to Change

In a poetics of growth it is important to explore how possibility and change remain so faithful to us. They open us to new depths within. Their continual, inner movement makes us aware of the eternity that hides behind the outer facade of our lives. Deep within every life, no matter how dull or ineffectual it may seem from the outside, there is something eternal happening. This is the secret way that change and possibility conspire with growth. John Henry Newman summed this up beautifully when he said, "To grow is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often."  Change therefore, need not be threatening; it can in fact bring our lives to perfection. Perfection is not cold completion. Neither is it avoidance of risk and danger in order to keep the soul pure or the conscience unclouded. When you are faithful to the risk and ambivalence of growth, you are engaging your life. The soul loves risk; it is only through the door of risk that growth can enter.