Month: November 2020

In this beautiful essay, Joanna Macy reminds us that our healing must begin with gratitude.

Well worth reading all the way through (10-15 mins). She spends time reflecting on the important lessons from our Indigenous siblings and their wisdom gratitude practices. Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

“We have received an inestimable gift. To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe—to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it—is a wonder beyond words.”

“There is so much to be done, and the time is so short. We can proceed, of course, out of grim and angry desperation. But the tasks proceed more easily and productively with a measure of thankfulness for life; it links us to our deeper powers and lets us rest in them. “

“The great open secret of gratitude is that it is not dependent on external circumstance. It’s like a setting or channel that we can switch to at any moment, no matter what’s going on around us. It helps us connect to our basic right to be here, like the breath does. “

“There are hard things to face in our world today, if we want to be of use. Gratitude, when it’s real, offers no blinders. on the contrary, in the face of devastation and tragedy it can ground us, especially when we’re scared. It can hold us steady for the work to be done.”

Dear friends,

Today, I bow deep in gratitude for all of you and in remembrance of the love of the earth that supports and sustains us. May your days be filled with love, light, health, and joy.

This post came today from the Inayatiyya and is a wonderful reminder that I wanted to share:

To Thee We Dedicate Our Feast

In chaos whirl the blasted leaves
And summer’s birds are no more seen.
The grain is bundled into sheaves
As ravens stop to squawk and glean.

Magenta glows the harvest moon
And yellow gleam the dimming days,
Abounding in the lavish boon
Of emerald squash and amber maize.

Praise in excelsis be to God,
Beneficent beyond compare!
Thou give us bread from seed and clod
And give us breath from swirling air.

To Thee we dedicate our feast
And humbly offer up our psalm
For all of autumn is Thy priest
And in Thee rests our golden calm.

~ Pir Zia Inayat Khan ~

With deep gratitude to sister Basheera for bringing this to my attention today. An appropriate and lovely blessing of gratitude for this time of thankfulness.

We call upon the earth, our planet home,
with its beautiful depths and soaring heights,
its vitality and abundance of life,
and together we ask that it
Teach us, and show us the way.

We call upon the mountains,
Saddle Mountain and Wahkiakum Mountain,
the Willapa Hills, the summits of intense silence,
and we ask that they
Teach us, and show us the way.

We call upon the waters that rim the earth,
the waters of our great river the Iyagatthl Imathl,
the waters of Willapa Bay, and all of the waters,
the flowing of our rivers and streams,
the water that falls upon us,
and we ask that they
Teach us, and show us the way.

We call upon the land which grows our food,
the nurturing soil that sustains our lives,
and we ask that it
Teach us, and show us the way.

We call upon the forests, the great cedar trees
reaching strongly to the sky, with earth in their roots
and the heavens in their branches,
cedar tree, the keeper of all knowledge,
and we ask them to
Teach us, and show us the way.

We call upon the creatures of the fields and
forests and the seas, our brothers and sisters,
Lilu the Wolf, Mulak the Elk, and Mawich the Deer,
Ch’akch’ak the Eagle, the great Whales
and the Sturgeon, and the Salmon people
who share our Chinook waters,
and we ask that they
Teach us, and show us the way.

We call upon all those who have lived on this earth,
our ancestors and our friends,
who dreamed the best for future generations,
and upon whose lives our lives are built,
and with thanksgiving, we call upon them to
Teach us, and show us the way.

And lastly, we call upon all that we hold most sacred,
the presence and power of the Great Spirit
which flows through all the Universe,
to be with us to
Teach us, and show us the way.

~ Chinook Blessing Text ~

Our Sufi Book Club recently read and discussed this amazing book and it truly opened up a new way of seeing the world for me and many of us. In the most recent Emergence Magazine post, they sent the following that felt so important for these days of uncertainty and fear. Please follow the link below to read this beautiful essay.

In this excerpt from the new introduction to her acclaimed book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer draws upon the creation story Skywoman Falling and the wisdom of plants to guide us through our present moment of deep uncertainty. Her words of hope, transformation, and courage feel especially poignant at this moment as we look to find ways to heal and address the monumental challenges that lie before us.

I have been blessed with an opportunity to attend a webinar with Andrew Harvey (Embrace the Dark Night to Become the Phoenix Rising) in which he is guiding us through practices and learning from enlightened beings such as Sri Aurobindo, Mirra Alfassa (known as The Mother), and Father Bede Griffiths.

Andrew gave us a practice that I’d like to share which has been a wonderful reminder of the importance of faith and persistence (‘Mu’min’ is the Wasifa or Sufi aspect of the Divine in Arabic for faith). And then this morning, a deep bow of gratitude to sister Jamia who posted a link to the words of Hazrat Inayat Khan with deeper lessons on faith and remembrance that I include below as well.

The practice is this: Sit comfortably, breathing deeply and getting in touch with your body. Feel the deep connection to the earth and to the Divine all in all. Allow that feeling of connection to deepen until you begin to feel it permeate every cell of you body. Feel that golden light of truth and joy literally lighting up every cell and filling it with tingling warmth and love.

When you feel permeated by this golden joy, stand carefully and begin to walk. This can be out in nature (ideally) or even just in your home. Walk calmly and purposefully, feeling each connection with the earth, feeling gravity holding you in its loving embrace, feeling the air move past your exposed skin, feeling your center move in and out of balance. As you walk use a mantra on your breath. Andrew Harvey recommended Om Namo Bhagavate which he translated loosely as being held in joy. I like to use Alhumdullilah (all praise and gratitude to the Divine) as a prayer of gratitude but the sense of holding that joy, love, and beauty within is the important part, so use any mantra that works for you. For me doing this practice led to a place of embodied joy that as Hazrat Inayat Khan says is, “something we can depend upon, something nobody can take away from us.”

As I completed this wonderful practice this morning, I returned to my computer to find the message I noted from Jamia, and it was so perfect that I share that with you here:

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(Words from the Sufi Pir Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan have been edited for gender neutrality):
“There is a natural tendency for the seeker on the spiritual path to wonder if they are really progressing. Very often, they begin to wonder from the day they set foot on the path. It is like asking, ‘Shall I be able to digest?’ while one is still eating. The spiritual path leads to selflessness. The more we worry about ourselves, the less progress we make because our whole striving should be to forget the self. It is mostly the self which obstructs the path. The path is made for the soul, and it is natural and easy for the soul to find it. Therefore, when a person is wondering about his progress, they are wasting their time. It is like standing still on the path on which one must go forward.

“Can anyone distinguish how their face and body change day by day? No, for one cannot point out distinct signs of change from one day to another. If one cannot properly distinguish any change in the external self, then how can one expect to distinguish change in the inner process? It is not something that can be weighed on the scales as one weighs oneself on coming back from a holiday and sees that one has gained or lost several pounds. There is no such gain in spiritual progress.

“Then there are some who imagine that they have progressed for a certain time, but they are then going backward. They are discouraged and say, ‘I thought I had arrived somewhere, but surely it must have been an illusion.’ But life is like the sea, and the sea is not always calm. There are times when the sea is rough, and then the boat naturally moves up and down. To think while the boat is moving downward that it will sink is a mistake. It is going down in order to go up. This is its movement, and this is natural. A mureed [spiritual seeker] is subject to such experiences on the path of life. Life will take its own course. The one who sails will many times meet with a rough sea, and they have to be prepared for this and not be frightened or discouraged. They still have to go on through life. If life’s journey were soft and smooth, then there would be no need for spiritual development. They have to have control of the rudder to be able to go through both calm seas and storms.

“…one begins to feel a joy, a happiness. In spite of that feeling, however, it is possible that clouds of depression and despair may come from without, and one might think at that moment that all the happiness and joy which one had gained spiritually was snatched away. But that is not so. If spiritual joy could be snatched away, it would not be spiritual joy. It is not like material comforts. When these are taken away from us, we have lost them; but spiritual joy is ours, it is our property, and no death or decay can take it away from us. Changing clouds like those which surround the sun might surround our joy; but when they are scattered, we will find our property still there in our own heart. It is something we can depend upon, something nobody can take away from us.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan ~
Volume X – Sufi Mysticism, The Path of Initiation and Discipleship, The Attitude of a Disciple.

In the past few days, I’ve been struggling as I expect many of us have, to hold on despite the chaos and fear engendered by the crumbling edifice of our society. This election has been so very difficult to watch unfold as the patriarchy desperately use every tactic they have to hang on to their power. It is discouraging and frankly extremely saddening.

Yet, I have had my heart uplifted by a few of my favorite mystic activists and I wanted to share some of their wisdom that has been a balm for my wounded soul.

First , Matthew Fox and Mirabai Starr shared a webinar speaking about the work of Julian of Norwich who lived through a similarly challenging time and wrote so beautifully of her connection to the Mother God that allowed her to see the light in the darkest of times. Here is a short excerpt from their talk. NOTE: This is from the Shift network, so they are advertising a longer program they’d love you to pay for – feel free to ignore that and enjoy this short (6 minutes) video clip: Mirabai Starr & Matthew Fox on Julian of Norwich

Then, I’ve been enjoying a 6 part seminar from Andrew Harvey in which he is exploring the possible imminent re-birthing of our human culture into something new. Many people have spoken of these times as metaphorically like moving through the birth canal of the Universal Mother. Some indigenous elders have said we stand at a portal which, if we can move through, has the possibility of transforming us into the divine beings we truly are.

Yet, Andrew and many other seers and mystics also acknowledge that many still desperately hold onto the old paradigms and that there still exists the possibility they will drag us all into the abyss of pain and darkness and the end of this beautiful planet that has sustained us so long.

But even within that radical acceptance, Andrew shared a beautiful practice that deeply moved me. That is to recognize that in this darkest of places, we have a choice to not only passively accept that pain and suffering, but to actually embrace, welcome, and even celebrate it! Why would we do such a crazy thing (I thought and you might be thinking!)?

It begins with our being willing and able to truly believe, feel, accept, and hold the reality of opposites. Holding dark and light, yin and yang, sun and moon, earth and sky, sorrow and joy, birth and death, all with a deep sense of calm, peaceful, acceptance.

If we can attain that state, then we move into a place where we can celebrate each new sorrow, chaos, and suffering, as the ultimate evidence and indication of an infusion of light, joy, and healing energy which is actually and truly co-created as the opposing and balancing energetic.

We can not only accept and breathe through these difficulties and challenges but actually revel in them and dedicate any pain and suffering that we are experiencing to the balance of energy in the rest of our human and more than human family.

For me, this has been a beautiful, timely, and inspiring reframing that has allowed me to lift my head up one more time and move back into the work. I hope it helps you as well.

I was playing music during my workout, and this randomly arrived right at the end during my cool down dance. Such a perfect message for these times and for this day.

“I release control
And surrender to the flow
Of love that will heal me.”

~ Written and performed by Alexa Sunshine Rose ~

I suspect all of us are struggling right now with so much looming and the unending barrage of confusion, despair, and disorienting events in our lives. But each time I feel pushed into the mud, I hear a song, or a child’s laughter, or see a golden leaf dance to the earth, or feel the living soil – and I remember – “this joy that I have… the world didn’t give it to me!”

This video made me weep with joy and allowed me to also feel and acknowledge the pain: