Attention Metro Detroiters!

Great inspiring interview with Terry Bean of Motor City Connects! Whether you are a business owner or looking for a job, if you are in Metro Detroit you need to check this group out!

Labyrinth Journey

I’m just in from a morning labyrinth walk.  The walk was very grounding, centering and revitalizing.  When I came to the center of the labyrinth I meditated and felt my heart and soul flood with bliss and gratitude!

After completing my journey  I stood facing the opening, reflecting on my travels, enjoying my sensations of bliss and gratitude.  As I stood there  a chipmunk came to within a couple of inches of my left foot.  He sat there as if to mirror me, the two of us perched at the entrance of the path gazing onto the labyrinth.

Then he darted across the labyrinth pavers, scampering to the other side.   On a labyrinth walk of his own, perhaps?   As he did so a bird of prey swooped down in effort to catch him but the chipmunk escaped triumphantly.  I rejoiced in his success and counted it as my own!  My chipmunk labyrinth partner and I will sit with our experience of today’s walk in gratitude and relish our next adventure on the labyrinth and in life!

Emptiness, Enlightenment, Unconditional Love

Everyday is a new day, a new adventure.  That’s how my life continues to unfold.  There is no past or future there is only now.  The more I realize that concept and embrace it the more magical my life becomes.  That’s not to say there is no pain… we all have pain, things that don’t quite turn out the way anticipated, or sometimes things that actually fall apart.   When that happens now, I can realize that there is a lesson to be learned.  Sometimes what transpires is even better than I could have planned for.  Sometimes not.  But there is always a lesson and a richness of life to cherish and be grateful for.

I have gotten this message over and over in the past year.  The Universe seems to send me messages on a regular basis reminding me to not be attached to the outcomes of my efforts.   It is my place to sow seeds and trust.

Most recently I attended the teachings on the Diamond Cutter Sutra in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition at UpDog Yoga in Rochester, MI.  The class was taught by Ben Kramer and Kendra Rickert, students of Geshe Michael Roach.

Geshe Michael Roach, after 20 years of study, became the first Westerner in 600 years to pass the rigorous test for the title of Geshe, or Master of Buddhism, at Sera Mey Tibetan Monastery. An honor graduate of Princeton University, Geshe Michael has received the Presidential Scholar medal at the White House. He is the author of  the international best seller The Diamond Cutter, which is featured and available through the Amazon link found  on my blog.

I read The Diamond Cutter a couple of years ago, so I was familiar with the principles Geshe Michael promoted.  I was intrigued with his story  and very impressed with how he successfully and anonymously (no one was to know that he was a Buddhist Monk) applied Tibetan Buddhist principles to become a successful businessman in New York’s Diamond Trade.

Breaking into New York’s Diamond Trade is no small task!  It is an industry  dominated by Hassidic Jews;   a closed society of family owned businesses comprised of sons,  cousins, nephews.  Trust is everything as there are no theft detectors for diamonds.  Fortunes are contained in small shoe boxes.  Getting into this industry was a accomplishment in itself!  When I heard that Geshe Michael’s students would be teaching at UpDog I was certain that I needed to be there.

Just a week later Brian Granader, owner and director of Red Lotus Yoga in Rochester Hills, taught a Tibetan Heart Yoga class, complementing the Diamond Cutter teaching,  at the Northville Yoga Center and I again found myself in attendance and very grateful for the opportunity to study with these teachers.

These classes focused on the emptiness of everything.  Emptiness, not in the sense that nothing exists, but in the sense that the nature of all things is emptiness and we project on to everything.  We literally “build” our world through projection.  This was also the message that the Landmark Forum delivered when I attended last November.

So should I be surprised that yesterday when I was moving things in my office I discovered a funky little book I purchased from a used bookstore months ago that again delivers the same message?   This little book was  first published in 1972 and uses word’s like groovy.  (Really, no joke! — I checked the copyright date when I saw that the book originally sold for $2.95!  lol!) ) It’s  the “Handbook to Higher Consciousness”, Ken Keyes Jr.    It features 12 Pathways to becoming an Enlightened Being…  that is to the higher consciousness planes of unconditional love and oneness.

The key to higher consciousness is to love everyone unconditionally, including yourself.  By emotionally accepting what is here and now in our lives we can begin to stop struggling with life.  We can begin to flow with life, with the people and things around us.

To get a clear perception of ourselves and the world around us takes constant inner work.  It is worth the effort though.  It is the only way to be truly happy and fulfilled in life.  When our emotions are triggered  our perceptions get confused.  We can’t see ourselves and the world clearly.  These emotional triggers spring a trap for us and the only way out of that trap is the emotional acceptance of the previously unacceptable.

When we can see clearly through emotional acceptance and love, we see that we are all one. We only appear to be separate from others when we operate from fear and distrust.  Freedom is found in being centered, loving and sensing the oneness that connects us all.  The Beatles had it right… all you need is love!

Kissed by the Universe

I never cease to be amazed at the richness of my life.  From meditating and  performing Primordial Qigong with my Sifu to meditating and chanting Om Namah Shivaya with a friend/spiritual guide to  deep philosophical discussions with my Rabbi (in the Shul parking lot, no less)  ; )  I am blessed with many spiritual guides and teachers!  That  is not even to mention my coach, other coaching colleagues and my therapist.

I am fortunate to be immersed in a group of folks who vibrate at an extremely high frequency.  For my part… I try to keep up! ; )  I try not to be a bull in the spiritual china shop, complicating people’s lives!   It’s my goal to be devoid of drama and to absorb the positive energy where ever I find it.  As I  absorb this energy and vibrate at a higher level myself, I am  transformed, and in turn transform my life and relationships.  It is an ongoing healing process, one that leads to personal and world healing as it radiates out from each of us.

Amazingly this energy affects everything in my life.  I am finding it everywhere!  Casual contacts and acquaintances become puzzle pieces that “fit.”  Every turn presents another growth opportunity or another soul stirring awakening.  On occasion I find myself  swimming in emotions or issues that I have kept buried or at bay for decades.

I have learned that the only way to process these emotions is to honor them, to sit with them, without judgment and just “be.”  They pass.  They are not me… they are transient.  They are only a problem if kept bottled up.  Sometimes I am afraid to go through an experience or emotion, but I’m finding that anticipation is worse than the actual “going through.”

By surrendering and being with these emotional patterns, they clear.  As they clear I am making space for new energy to flow through me.  I am making space for love… and love is finding me, because I am allowing it!  Self acceptance is key!  My relationship with myself is being healed along with vital relationships with others.  I feel like I’ve been kissed by the Universe!