Fruit of Independence Day!

Happy July 4th everyone! As I type, I'm kicking it in the backyard sanctuary with Martin Luther King Jr's book, "Stride Toward Freedom," on my left and my journal on my right, and bloggin' it up in the middle! It's a good 4th so far. July's theme was the suggestion--fruit. This theme came up after we went on a wildflower walking meditation as a community. The flower fruit was popping and we were fortunate enough to soak it up in that moment in time. Brainstorming this theme of fruit, I'm pondering two aspects:

1) Fruit happens when natural order guides it into being. Natural law is always in the director's seat--for instance, take our lovely wildflower friends, no one plants them, waters them, or cares for them in any way, shape or form except creation/natural order (wind, rain, soil, sunshine, insects, etc). There is a natural cycle to the bearing of fruit.

2) Fruit happens when conscious effort has been applied. Wait, didn't I just say creation rules? Yes, indeed, and we are agents that either help it along or hinder it. No rain? Go get the watering can! If within us, with diligence and effort, we move towards goals, be them material, personal, or spiritual, our thoughts, actions and words will precipitate the development of fruit. Take one of my favorite Freedom Series peeps, Martin Luther King, Jr., by his non-violent ethics and sheer determination to uphold these principles, a nation and its people were transformed. He had conviction the fruit would ripen, even though with his efforts it had only begun to take seed.

This is a deep theme, ya'll! Be heartened, for it's summer and we're going to pop whether we like it or not and yet...I'll be getting up and finding a watering can if someone is in need. It's my day of independence as I commit to look closely at what I'm allowing to ripen without interference and what I'm consciously helping along or arresting based on my thoughts, actions and words. I feel a blessing coming on...

~By Their Fruits
Plant the seed, watch it grow--
Poison Oak or
Sunflowers?

June 21 Summer Solstice Sweet Devotion

Hiya, Loves, today is the longest day of the year, the time in which light inhabits the land the longest....and the day the light was shown on the fact that a Lake Tahoe Mindfulness Community (LTMC) blog article hasn't been written since April! Where does the precious time go? Into the light, of course, oh right.

Today's LTMC morning was once again off the charts as we celebrated the union of two sweetheart sangha* members who just this week got happily hitched! They first met at LTMC where cupid's arrows were a flyin'. Although we're pretty sure they would have meet either way, as destiny would have it, LTMC is happy to take the credit! So, today we celebrated our two beloveds and then moved to discussing the native ceremony of Sundance, happening this time of year all across the country. The drum was played as we added a song to our repertoire--Temple Heart, sung originally at the newlyweds wedding day. Conversation then moved to a beautiful Eastern ceremony called Touching the Earth and a story of the Buddha, who was presented with those who doubted his ability to attain enlightenment.  He was asked to produce a witness who could vouch for his ability to be so mindful. Buddha touched the earth as his witness, which of course responded immediately, and in doing so, all doubt vanished. In its place, the morning star appeared, shining brightly in a clear night sky. When we perform the ceremony of Touching the Earth, we consent to our own ability to transform our suffering and practice living in a state of clarity. Summer Solstice and the ceremony of Touching the Earth seem to go hand in hand (pun intended), encouraging every person's ability to tend and grow the light within. Well, as you can see--it was a full morning, good thing we have all this daylight today!

LTMC wishes everyone a beautiful and light filled Summer Solstice with the morning star shining ever bright upon your practice.


*Sanskrit word meaning, "community"

Shining Light on Devotion

The month of June is dedicated to the theme of "devotion," and like every perfect theme, opportunities presented to practice with this North Star quality this weekend. The following is a poem of thanks to all my beloveds who took the time and heart to come to a day that will be forever remembered as one of the most treasured yet in my sweet, sweet life. Your gift of devotion has strengthened our community, thank you:

Afterglow
©June 4, 2017 Karla Johnston InnerConstellation.com

June 3, 2017 Lake Tahoe, CA,
although, it could be anywhere…

The gift:
“Has the entire community assembled?”
“Yes, the entire community has assembled?”

“Is there harmony in the community?”
“Yes, there is harmony.”

Noble community, please listen:
Transmission of the Jewels,
the Five MindfulnessTrainings
serenely, reverently.

A gentle feast follows: cherries, strawberries, mixed fruits,
chickpea, quinoa and pinenut salads, almond cookies,
homemade jam, almond cheese and unleavened bread.

The seal:
Shining Light…
Vowing that every word spoken will be from a place of love,
knowing that shining light on one star,
shines light on our entire constellation.
Round and round and round:
I am remembering who I am,
we are remembering who we are:
open, authentic, curious, imaginative,
searching for wisdom, lifting up,
pure-hearted (please pass the tissues!)
enthusiastic, sensitive, courageous, gentle,
eternal, fearless, leading with the heart,
magical, clear-seeing,
feeling deeply, effortlessly, ease-fully,
honoring where we’ve come from.

Dear Thay, spiritual and blood ancestors, beloveds,
What have we transformed?
Suffering
How?
Dwelling happily in this present moment
in full awareness.

I love you,
I love you.

We are pinpoint luminaries,
interwoven among equally bright nations:
none more advantaged,
all sparks Eternal.

We are remembering

who we are. 

Fearlessness...GRRRRRR

Month of May brings snow to Tahoe and fierce resilience as bright Daffodils push up and out in spite of stormy elements. Tahoe spring seems the perfect metaphor given our theme of "fearlessness." What does it mean to be fearless when one is committed to practicing peace, compassion and understanding?

A mindfulness training comes to mind:

Aware that words can create happiness or suffering, we are committed to learning to speak truthfully, lovingly and constructively. We will use only words that inspire joy, confidence and hope as well as promote reconciliation and peace in ourselves and among other people. 

It goes on to say...

We will do our best to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may make difficulties for us or threaten our safety. (9th Mindfulness Training (of the 14): Truthful and Loving Speech)

Fearlessness is required when engaging in Truthful and Loving speech--not to be carried away by another's words or actions but staying anchored to our commitment to practice peace and understanding. Yet, as we engage with our world, this training recognizes that situations of injustice will arise and we are obligated to do our best to speak out in a truthful and loving way.

Whom are examples of people modeling and living such fearlessness? Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Hafiz, Malala Yousafzai, Maya Angelou, we could go on. It's the fruits of such teachers that enable us to know with certainty that we too can be fierce in choosing freedom, love, peace, and understanding above all else. Doing so on a moment-by-moment basis becomes our fearless acts of resistance.

True fearlessness seems to require open-heartedness, not turning away or shielding ourselves but engaging fully, using North Stars we hold dear: kindness, compassion, freedom, peace....GRRRRRR, we're kittens, but we're also lions!

Four Questions...

I approach this day with an open heart.

Some mornings as eyes open to morning light, a sweet little invocation slips in. This particular morning, I shared the above snippet with a friend of mine, Hillary, who remarked that the words were "timely and timeless." Indeed, it seems that with rest and stillness, comes clarity that transcends time and space and befits situations we may find ourselves in.

Recently while care-giving and doing Metta for a beloved one, four questions came to mind:

1) What is your suffering?
2) What can I do to help?
3) What are your joys?
4) What can I do to lengthen them?

When our hearts stay open and we listen deeply, the answers to the above questions materialize. As life unfolds and we care for our beloveds, interact with our "not-so-beloveds," have fun and manage difficult situations, it's possible to look deeply and discover--What's your suffering and how can I help? What are your joys and how can I lengthen them? We can ask these four questions to ourselves as well, taking care of our pain and remembering to also water seeds of peace and joy as we move through this glorious life. In every moment of the day, we have opportunities to practice keeping our hearts open and free....

Emptiness Is Not Nothingness

Avalokita 

This week in community the topic of "emptiness" was explored with much sharing about the realization that when we hold onto a specific form, we suffer. Instances were mentioned regarding our felt sufferings when a loved one passes away. A dear one in attendance had experienced the loss of an immediate family member just a few days ago and related.

It's interesting that in Native American tradition, when a loved one dies, it's believed that we gain fuller access to their wisdom ~ for there is no longer a form keeping us separate. What a lovely idea to practice with.

Discourse on Absolute Truth comes to mind with the following directives:

When seeing, hearing, or sensing something and considering it as the only thing that can bring comfort...one is always inclined to get caught in it and rule out everything else as inferior.

Why is spiritual form less than physical form? Perhaps we fear the nothingness of ourselves or our beloved one, but is that ever possible? Or perhaps we've become attached to the idea of our loved one being a form we can see, hear, and experience physically. Zen enjoys immensely the questioning process for it promotes concentration and ultimately insight.

Come stretch, feel, pull, experience with LTMC, the great wonders that are outside our perceptions of solid space and time this week. It's our commitment to practice with emptiness as a space full of possibilities. We are interwoven, connected beyond the boundaries of a separate self, free of identity or form. Is your head spinning yet? We'll see you next week :)

MP3 of Avalokita Heart Sutra
Sutra lyrics

Sowing Seeds (And Digging Up Roots)

I just returned from a Deer Park retreat in Escondido, CA, a mindfulness practice center in the tradition of Plum Village/Thich Nhat Hanh. The retreat theme was, "Turning Outward with Inward Stability," with the encouragement to increase our engagement with our world. Mindfulness practice is twofold:

1) taking care of suffering 
2) cultivating happiness and freedom

Another way to look at this might be to know the mud, but to also know the lotuses. How do we cultivate delight everyday? How do we encourage the lotus to grow and push up through the muck? 

These questions corresponds nicely with the April mindfulness theme of sowing seeds. How do we plant seeds of peace, love and understanding in our daily lives? When we engage someone with our smile, hold the door open for an elder, shovel snow for our neighbor (spring in Tahoe:), we sow seeds that can't help but grow beautiful flowers. These simple acts could be called right conditions. Using our spring gardens as metaphors--with fertile ground, sunlight and rain, the cherry tree blooms effortlessly. Consciously cultivating the right conditions in ourselves and in our loved ones is our mindfulness practice. When we do so, suffering is lessened right away.    

I feel a poem coming on...."In the garden of a clear mind, a flower blooms..."