• Discover how small, individual acts of courage, kindness, and self-trust can change our culture's guiding narrative of separation. • Learn how to overcome cynicism, frustration, and paralysis in the face of our current planetary crisis. • Become a more effective agent of positive change through increased awareness of interconnectedness and interbeing. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
I try to practice what I preach; I’m not always that good at it but I really do try. The other night, I was getting hard-hearted, closed-minded, and fundamentalist about somebody else, and I remembered this expression that you can never hate somebody if you stand in their shoes. I was angry at him because he was holding such a rigid view. In that instant I was able to put myself in his shoes and I realized, “I’m just as riled up, and self-righteous and closed-minded about this as he is. We’re in exactly the same place!” And I saw that the more I held on to my view, the more polarized we would become, and the more we’d be just mirror images of one another—two people with closed minds and hard hearts who both think they’re right, screaming at each other. It changed for me when I saw it from his side, and I was able to see my own aggression and ridiculousness. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Having been a psychiatric nurse for the past 29 years, I have seen medication “trends” come and go. Yes, I did say trends. To me…medication prescribing in the industry has the same trend-like quality as you would see as, for instance, in the fashion industry. Instead of top clothing designers of the day dictating the current fashions of the day, in the world of medicine we see the top medication designers dictating how and what medications should be prescribed by our elite medical community. You may be wondering what I mean by my reference to “medication designers”. What I am specifically alluding to is a reference the leading drug manufacturing companies, aka “Big Pharma,” which have an extreme impact, not just within the medical community, but ultimately on our nation as a whole–down to each individual U.S. citizen. This is all made possible by the influence Big Pharma has purchased by lobbying our legislators. You may be thinking to yourself at this point that this view is a little far-fetched or extremist. If so, I think you will have a change of opinion by the time you reach the end of this blog. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
You know the Zen koan, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Usually, of course, we need two hands to clap—and that is the structure of typical experience. We have a sense of ourselves as a subject in here, and the world as an object out there. We have these "two hands" of experience, the subject and the object. And typical experience is a smashing of these two hands together to make a commotion, a sound. The object out there smashes into me as a subject, and I have an experience—the two hands clap together, an experience emerges. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Reblogged from Malingering Normal: Awhile back I posted on emergent tensions in identity politics and self-positioning within the ‘mad movement(s).’ Of course, this issue also affects folks caught up in self definition, psychiatric labeling, and treatment who might not even be aware of a ‘thing’ being referred to as a ‘mad movement.’ ... [click on title for the rest of the post]
Recently I've been listening to some lovely audio files by Music for Deep Meditation. Specifically a whole album of songs that take one through the chakras while chanting OM. It's been phenomenally heart opening and beautiful and intense and healing. Listening to this ancient sound while in meditation seems to assist in the grounding and revelatory experience both. It's clear many folks find these sounds helpful. I'm coming to appreciate what gets labeled "hypersensitivity." In this instance it's a lovely and profound grace to be able to utilize what might also be considered "sound therapy." I call it learning to live well. With this body and these capacities. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Last night I listened to a dharma talk from the retreat on bodhicitta. I like how she calls it the soft-spot. It's a willingness to live in the soft-spot. Another way to consider the soft-spot is to be willing to live from the middle of our pain and our joy. To surrender to the complete depth of life. Much of my suffering, it's becoming clear (and I mean both physical and emotional) has been a resistance to embracing pain. Once we embrace pain our capacity for joy also increases. And embracing pain means understanding the nature of all of humanity. It allows us to grow our empathy and compassion for all sentient beings and the planet too, our home. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
A guided meditation from Tara Brach and some other good tidbits from her work too. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Each string of a wind harp responds with a different note to the same breeze. What activity makes you personally resonate most strongly, most deeply, with the wind of the Spirit that blows where it wills? … [click on title for the rest of the post]
You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes don't see as well and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. "But these things don't matter at all, because once you are real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
You must be logged in to post a comment.