Consent...I've Got Your Back!

Hello, Loves. Getaway café is a breakfast sanctuary for Lake Tahoe Mindfulness Community (LTMC). We go there every Wednesday after our time in community. One morning a few weeks ago during breakfast, it was mentioned that happiness in all its forms: peace, joy, love is available at any moment.  No matter what predicament we may find ourselves in, happiness is also always available. A single word came up to help us practice peace, joy and love in the midst of  a hard time. That single word became our August theme – – consent. 

I had the opportunity to practice consenting this week when I went to the doctors to get pins out of my hand (What!!!???). To my disappointment, the bone wasn't fused enough, and I was told we'd reassess in another two weeks. Two more weeks of no work, no writing, no tennis, no biking, a vacation change...blah, blah, sob. In the time it took for the doc to leave and the tech to come in to dress my hand, I stopped the blah, blah, breathed and consented. The most beautiful truth popped into my head, "at least I have a hand to break!" Was this Pollyanna thinking? Well, yes, but it was also realistic thinking because it's true! On the drive home (with my pinned hand), I noticed the most amazing giant sunflowers growing at the elementary school garden, and the sky was so robin-egg blue. Oh, and that night the stars shone entirely bright. Simple miracles await my engaged attention every day.  Stopping, consenting, breathing and goodness floods in. 

LTMC comrades are flowers, blue sky, bright stars in a clear night. I cannot tell you how many times I've sat in community and just consented, knowing each of us are committed to nourishing goodness. I trust our practice, our teachers, the teachings and can let go. There's a line in a chant that's one of my favorites, "teaching and living the way of awareness in the very midst of suffering and confusion...." This is LTMC's job description! 

Working with trauma survivors, I believe one indicator of resiliency is the ability to hold both suffering and happiness in equal attention. This skill isn't easy, it takes practice and conscious consent to dwell happily in the present moment no matter what comes our way, and...it's easier when comrades have got your back! Come soak in Summer Retreat Sunday, where you'll be surrounded by flowers, spacious sky and Tahoe's brightest stars. 

Summer Mindfulness Retreat August 13, 2017

Six days away, our Pretties, and LTMC is feelin' the summer love of Tahoe after a fabulous torrential soaking, our LTMC signature experience...Sierra Pureland is smelling soooooooo good! If food prep is up your alley, please bring a vegan potluck yummy to share and a plate, utensil and cup to diminish our waste. If not, just bring your sweet self for a day of total abandonment and nourishment! See you all Sunday....

Join the Conversation, FB event page: Summer Retreat 2017

About Summer Retreat 2017

Right View: Dividing Light From Dark

Happy Friday, everyone! Last week there was an Inner Constellation post on the Four Noble Truths. The last Noble Truth is that there is a path to happiness. I don’t know about you, but I’m high steppin’ myself over there! So where is this path to happiness? In answer, the Buddha proposed what's called the Noble Eightfold Path, outlining very concretely the steps to a happy life. I've been spending my one arm days pondering the first step--Right View. 

Often when people see the word, "right," they can get a little hung up, I know I did. Perhaps the word skillful versus non-skillful may be helpful. Right or Skillful View is the ability to differentiate between what is healthy and what is not healthy. One of the ways I like to practice nurturing Right View for myself is by asking two questions: 

• Does this alleviate suffering? 

• Does this encourage happiness?

“…God said, “Let there be light.” I like to imagine that light replied, saying, “God, I have to wait for my twin brother, darkness, to be with me. I can’t be there without the darkness.” God asked, “Why do you need to wait? Darkness is there.” Light answered, “In that case, then I am also already there.”


Every moment we have choice, light is there, darkness is also there. Happiness is there, and so too is suffering. Can we discern the most wholesome choices, moment to moment? On the road to happiness, the first step is identifying what is beneficial to our well-being and to the health of others. If this cannot be defined, then all other striving for happiness will fall short. Separation of light from dark is necessity. Then, once our sights are clear, we can keep steppin’ towards further creation. And that brings us to the second of the Noble Eightfold Path for a happy life…Right Speech. See you for that contemplation next week.

One-Armed Writer & An Experiment With Voice Recognition!

Poor pinky...so dramatic!

So, I'm here in the garden taking a bit of forced R and R. Last week I took a  tumble on my mountain bike, causing a severe break to poor pinky. Surgery followed resulting in pins, and now my writing hand is sufficiently bound and casted. Six days taking it easy, elevating my hand, icing and taking ibuprofen has me ready to figure out the next four weeks of one armed life!  

Thus proceeds an experiment in voice recognition! I've verbally prepared an email to myself, which I then copied and pasted into this blog article. It's a great practice in mindful speech. Please excuse the punctuation :)

With all this pondering time I've been thinking about the Four Noble Truths discovered by the Buddha:

1) There is suffering.
2) There is a path leading to suffering.
3) There  is happiness.
4) There is a path leading to happiness.

A natural tendency was to go over the course of events leading up to the accident and identify bad choices made and the domino effect these now have on my livelihood, my clients and my husband (who is my left-hand man) for the next four weeks. Indeed, there is ill-being and there was a path (quite literally) leading to ill being. 

Ah, but there is also wellbeing...writing is one of my paths to happiness, as is physical exercise and the work that I do. All require my dominant hand! The next four weeks is an experiment in the beauties and adaptations of a one handed world. 

How are we to practice the Four Noble Truths--to recognize suffering and the path of suffering and become more skillful at choosing a path of happiness and wellbeing?  Well, darling, that there is the stuff of life and the school of hard knocks!

The answer to such an exquisite question brings us to the Noble Eightfold path--see you in a couple days to explore these gems....

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.