Touching the Earth Begins Thursday!

Hello Beautiful Ones. I'm so looking forward to this coming Thursday night. The timing of Spring and Earth Day celebration is perfect for introducing the Three Earth Touchings in the Plum Village/Thich Nhat Hanh tradition, a deeply restorative and grounding practice. It's based on the Lotus Sutra with its components of compassion and loving-kindness. In Touching the Earth, Thich Nhat Hanh writes, "When we touch the Earth, we take refuge in it. We receive its solid and inclusive energy. The Earth embraces us and helps transform our ignorance, suffering, and despair."

I connect deeply with the Earth Touchings as the practice so closely aligns with my Choctaw/Cherokee tradition of honoring ourselves, our ancestors and the earth that holds us. Drum and song will be incorporated from the Western Native American tradition of earth honoring. Each week we'll be working with one of the three Touching the Earth practices, sitting with it, walking with it and adapting it for a good and lasting fit. Join Lake Tahoe Mindfulness Community in honoring ourselves, our loved ones and our spiritual and blood ancestors. The nights promise to be transforming. Any questions or to RSVP, please contact me. Until then....

Inner Constellation Blessing: Sweet Mystery
Sweet Earth, she holds: rain puddles, flower seeds,
past forms of my ancestors.
I bow in reverence,
taking in her comfort.

Discover Your Infinite Depth

I woke with today's blessing: Starry Sky--

When we discover our Infinite Depth, we become lights for others to find their constellation.

The above blessing was inspired by last night's Chants of East and West Class, which was a beautiful evening of going deep in community practice--uniting our Voices and our intentions to one of gratitude, compassion and healing. As we sang and sat in silence I envisioned each of us as a bright star in a constellation, shining well-being to our ancestors, loved ones and our community. Vibrations initiated by us, penetrated and rippled outward, and pulled in the precious stars in our universes.

I got to thinking in the after-glow of last night about the purpose of my Inner Constellation work and the mission of this blog: celebrating that you are an expression of the Eternal: body, mind and heart are the gateways. What gives you an experience of Infinite Depth? For me: singing, writing, sitting and walking meditation, mindfulness practice, using my body to work up a sweat, signing (communicating non-verbally). All my experiences are enhanced and strengthened when shared with others--we then become a beautiful constellation shining bright.

Infinite Depth implies no boundaries or limitations, existing in the holy and the mundane. After singing last night, I ate dinner, relaxed, then woke to a morning slew of business calls, interpreting for a Deaf client who was scared and confused, cleaning my home and catching up on the to-do list--Infinite Depth, no boundary, no limitation.

Blessed weekend, may you fill it with goodness, grace and beauty.

Chants of East & West: Many Hearts, One Beat

Thursday's chanting at The Studio was a beautiful night of community and synchronization. Gatherings like this are what I live for. We parted sharing song suggestions and fueled for our weekend. We sang the following East and West chants:

Ra Ma Da Sa, Sa Say So Hung
Metta Suttra Gate, Gate....
Cherokee Morning Song
Merits of our Practice:

"By the merits of our practice, may all being be happy, healthy and free
from inner and outer harm.
May they live in their world with ease and grace." *

Each song was punctuated by the sound of the bell before and after with a few minutes of stillness following. To close, I pulled out my native hand drum and we sang a Lakota Thank you song as an introduction to next week's focus on Native songs.

I got to thinking about a Time Magazine article I read about how heart beats sync up when we sing together. It also includes a youtube video on studies and findings. In ceremony I've experienced this often. It confirms what I know about the heart and breath--that when we breathe evenly and purposely, our heart beats regulate and reset our nervous systems. How beautiful to do this together. As I pointed out on Thursday night, it's impossible to produce sound when we inhale--singing naturally allows us to balance our breathing, inhale and exhale in sync and sing as one. Nervous systems align, hearts align and bodies relax into the beauty of sound--no where to go, nothing to do, but sing. Look forward to next week at The Studio.

* phrases from the Metta Suttra that I adapted and put to chant

Chanting Coming to The Studio, Lake Tahoe!

Chanting is coming to The Studio beginning this Thursday, April 16 from 6-7p and continuing every Thursday until May 7—which will be our culminating night, with a Native American ceremonial drum and the beautiful voice of Ellen Flynn joining us in offering up gratitude and song. 

Join Lake Tahoe Mindfulness Community each Thursday evening as we experience sound, breath and rhythm--tools for strengthening our nervous systems and boosting our compassion, intuition and devotion.  A portion of your class fee will go to the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, planting seeds of compassion and joyful giving. As a ceremonial drummer and singer for the past 20 years, I look forward to bringing the songs of East and West to community. Each Thursday night promises to be exquisite! Come receive the vibration of goodness and reverberate it out to your friends and beloved ones in support of community.

Mindful Easter Weekend

Happy Easter everyone. Hope your weekend was filled with beautiful awakenings. I spent a lovely weekend meeting new friends at Fresh Breeze Sangha in Davis, CA and then went to a Day of Mindfulness at Wisdom Meditation School in Vacaville, CA. The next DOM is June 27 and it's on my calendar if anyone wishes to ride share. To tie a bow on my beautiful Easter weekend, I then met with friends in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition on Sunday and we had lovely Dharma discussion (scroll to paragraph 3 for a definition of dharma). When I finished, I sat down to sing my thanksgiving for a beautiful weekend and many things peculated inside leading to this gift, enjoy.... 

Wisdom
©April 5, 2015 Karla Johnston InnerConstellation.com

“Wholeheartedly day and night, disciples of the Awakened One should recite

and meditate on the Eight Realizations discovered by the Great Beings.
The First Realization is the awareness that the world is impermanent….”*

All things change—nothing exempt.
River at first glance appears the same;
yet, waters flow anew every moment.

Container, sweet river bank, holds gently the currents:
of loss, suffering, a smile, glance, a loving caress,
knowing their nature to transform.

Breathing in, I allow water’s touch and movement,
breathing out, spacious heart receives its passage,
clean and pure.

*Discourse on the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings, translation and chanted version available for download: http://plumvillage.org/sutra/discourse-of-the-eight-realization-of-the-great-beings/

Mindfulness Series: 5 Essentials

Hiya sweet Mindfulness practitioners. Lake Tahoe Mindfulness Community is gearing up for our 5 week class, beginning April 9, and I wanted to give everyone a peek into the delights that await us. Thich Nhat Hanh is best known for his ability to take classical Buddhist teachings and adapt them beautifully and simply for today's time. He has done this with the "5 Essentials", as I like to call them. Some who have studied TNH might know them as the 5 Mindfulness Trainings. These trainings are based on the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path and outline ethics for a happy life in very concrete and applied terms. Each week we'll explore one of the 5 Essentials, for example: Loving Speech and Deep Listening and dissect it, turn it around, try it on and practice it during our week off the cushion. Then, we'll come back together to discuss its application in our lives and sit and walk for insight into the next week's Essential. The 5 Essentials will serve as precious tools in your personal practice. 

We'll loosely use the following book as our guide: The Mindfulness Survival Kit: Five Essential Practices written by Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh. If you're interested in the class, please contact me to register and reserve your space. See you at The Studio for our first evening together, Thursday, April 9. Many sweet moments until then....

Spring Mindfulness Retreat 2015--A Beautiful Day

LTMC refreshed past Saturday, March 21, 2015

Hello Lovelies, I'm still walking in the Pureland from retreat day on Saturday and wished to linger in the blessings by sharing a few gems that some Lake Tahoe Mindfulness Community Members have asked be posted for our continued practice this spring season.

Firstly, the spring meridians discussed--Gallbladder and Liver both have articles which can be clicked on for more information and a recap of what was discussed. If you suffer from insomnia, it may be worth your time to read these in more detail. Feel free to contact me for a private session to go into more in depth treatment.

Secondly, a beautiful definition of "Dharma" which I read after sweet Robin, asked for a definition:

The Dharma is the teaching of love and understanding. The Dharma is the teachings of the historical Buddha and his descendants in the form of discourses, the commentaries and precepts that show us the path leading to peace and deep insight, love and understanding. The Dharma is all the elements in our world and in our consciousness that guide us on the path of liberation. The living Dharma is contained in every corner of the universe. The floating cloud is silently preaching about freedom and the falling leaf is giving us a dharma talk on the practice of letting go. Every time you breathe mindfully, walk mindfully or look at another person with the eye of understanding and compassion, you are giving a silent dharma talk. (The New Sangha Handbook: Nourishing our Practice, Deepening our Roots, Growing our Freedom, download this fabulous resource here)

Our mindfulness walk at Paradise Park was filled with many treasures and was personally my favorite part of retreat, especially the insights shared afterward. Speaking of insights, here were some beautiful ones from retreat participants left in the discussion basket:

• "With your feet on the ground look to the light."
• "...I invited that every emotion derives from love...."
• "Engage a loving conversation with your mind and heart to act as one."
• Question: "Is TNH Tibetan Buddhist or Vietnamese Buddhist?" TNH was born in Vietnam and ordained in tradition of Zen Buddhism. 
• "I feel like we're at the Plum Village, or where ever Thich Nhat Hahn lives :)" 

The last comment was the highest compliment possibly received as the goal of Lake Tahoe Mindfulness Community is to build a place where we can nurture happiness, love and peace. A Cherokee morning song was sung to seal our time together as thanksgiving for a very beautiful day indeed. Here’s a link to a version of the song I sung on Youtube, by a beautiful group, Walela, with translation.

Oh, and one more request from retreat participants, the Spring Mung Bean Soup recipe, which nourished and sustained us through out the day! Yum, yum, entirely yum!