Right Speech: Open Sky

This week continues the pondering of the Noble Eightfold Path or the path to happiness. Right View is the first of the eight steps to a happy life. It's the foundation for walking into the big wide world. Then, as we decidedly identify and step onto the road of well-being, we can begin practicing the second of the Eightfold Path--Loving Speech (aka Right Speech).

When I think of Loving Speech, I think of the metaphor of a boundless, open sky, recognizing the inherent goodness and limitless nature of every being. When we practice Loving Speech we remember this innate quality and speak to it, again and again. As I was pondering Loving Speech, I pulled a tea bag fortune that seemed to sum up the idea perfectly....

Awww, heck yah! The two questions come to mind again: Are my words alleviating suffering? Are my words creating happiness? Speak to a person's goodness and strengths, call them into remembrance again and again.

Another component often paired with the second step to happiness, Loving Speech, is deep listening. When we stop and truly listen to another we know better what to say, and what not to say. The same two questions can be asked: Do I listen purely to alleviate suffering? Do I listen for ways to water happiness?

The Noble Eightfold Path is a practice. May we enjoy the experiment of speaking and listening in loving ways. Next week on the path to happiness, number three--Right Livelihood.

You Vow To Do What!!!

The word "vow" can cause many people to break out in hives! Itching and scratching yet? However in Eastern tradition the word "vow" implies consenting action. A vow is also made with sovereignty and freedom, not under coercion, threats, or violence. In the West we also tend to think of vows in connection to our relationships, specifically the vow of marriage, where faith is placed in a human being. 

There are Four Vows of an Awakened Being or also known as Four Bodhisattva* Vows, where one's faith is placed not in a vacillating human being but in the sustainability of goodness (my translation). In any situation, no matter how difficult, we can respond mindfully with kindness. This doesn't mean we are stepped on like a doormat. No way! Allowing oneself to be stepped on like a door mat goes against our first and highest ideal--loving kindness! And, if we're not in good working order, love and compassion cannot be extended or sustained. We studied and sang the Four Bodhisattva Vows at the most recent Summer Retreat 2017. They matched perfectly our retreat theme of, "consent."  In our study, we discovered Thich Nhat Hanh's fresh translation of the Four Bodhisattva* Vows:  

The awakened way is unsurpassable; I vow to embody it.

• However innumerable beings are, I vow to meet them with kindness and interest.

• However inexhaustible the states of suffering are, I vow to touch them with patience and love.

• However immeasurable the Dharmas** are, I vow to explore them deeply.

• However incomparable the mystery of interbeing***, I vow to surrender to it freely.

–Thich Nhat Hanh

The Four Vows consent to actively be a source of kindness, peace, compassion to everyone, including ourselves. All suffering stops with us, all happiness begins with us. In these end days of summer may we consent to be happy, healthy and strong, safe and protected, free from inner and outer harm, may we live in the world with ease and grace.  


 *    Awakened Being
**   Spiritual teachings (and the practice of them in our lives)
***  Interconnection with each other and all things

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?