happiness

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April 23, 2009

Allow

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, happiness, insight, life, meditation, one-pointedness, spirituality, stress, transformation, vipassana | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[24] Comments 

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I heard a very wise man speak last night. He spoke about the full circle that seems to happen within spiritual work. Many spiritual traditions have cropped up over time to meet needs of humans who have a desire to be different than they are. It is a catalyst to begin the work in the first place–this suffering, this not being happy or content with the way circumstances are. So one begins to walk a path looking towards those enlightened beings who have walked it before, wanting what they have so one might not experience suffering any longer.

So we circle back to suffering.

But eventually, one realizes that they key to success is accepting, allowing, circumstances to be as they are, internal or external, and remaining neutral. It is within that freedom that liberation is experienced. So, one goes from experiencing suffering and rejecting it, to experiencing suffering and not rejecting it, and then and only then can one taste freedom of the internal persuasion. Getting intimate with the sticky bits, the sharp, scratchy, gnawing ones, serves us.

That word allow. I am taking it on as my word for 2009. In fact, I am going to put it up over my desk, as well as on the fridge and in the car.

 

 

March 23, 2009

Contradictions

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, change, happiness, hope, insight, life, listening, meditation, one-pointedness, spirituality, transformation, Uncategorized, vipassana | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[25] Comments 

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“Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.” ~Walt Whitman

 

Recently, blogger Alex, the fem de force  behind gypsygirlsguide, asked what she would see if she were allowed a peek inside. Inside us, the reader. It caused me to pause and think about this. And to feel it, the inside. And to ask what is there. And when I closed my eyes and sat with all of it I experienced the vastness that I contain. The multitudes that Whitman speaks about. 

At once there is storm and rain, but also deep blue skies the hues of which my conscious mind has only dreamt of experiencing. There is rich fertile soil juxtaposed with sand from a desert devoid of moisture. There is light so bright it is blinding, and a darkness so complete it feels impenetrable. There is wild laughter from a heart light and free, and deep despair that brings me to my knees with the weight of suffering. There are birds chirping and coyotes howling at the moon. There are frogs croaking their  delight at being submerged in mud up to their eyeballs, and sweet cats curled up in late afternoon  sunshine streaming in through a glass window. There are a million cars honking all at once on a busy street in Mumbai, and if you pause for a moment, through it all, there is a quiet stillness so vast it teeters on the edge of extinguishing all of it.

And this ever-morphing all-of-it, it’s me. Vectoring towards the vast quiet stillness, but allowing the dark, the light,the filth, the purity, the noise, the quiet. That word allow, I am taking it on as my mantra for this, the dawn of my thirty-fifth year.

 

 

March 5, 2009

Marie-Ancolie Romanet

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, change, faith, happiness, hope, illness, insight, life, listening, meditation, one-pointedness, photographs, photography, pictures, spirituality, transformation | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[22] Comments 

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I met Marie-Ancolie on the blogosphere recently. Marie lives in France and self taught herself photography in 2005 after she underwent a big open heart surgery. She says, “One day in my room in the clinic, looking through windows, the sky was blue but not the same blue as before, the cloud, pure white floating in the air as light as a silk scarf…It was the end of August 2005. I was almost 55 years old and I was alive…From the dark comes the light and the life.” 

Well said, Marie. Her book of photographs can be previewed at The Light of a Soul - check it out if you have a moment or two. Some of these photos literally made me stop breathing. They are exquisite. The one of the single dandelion seed floating through the air will be hanging on my wall in the near future. She will sell individual prints. If you wish to contact her she is available at marieancolie at gmail.com. Both photos in this post are hers.

I was moved by her photos and her spirit. Anyone who goes through what she did and comes out with this kind of love and inspiration, is inspiration to us all.  And the fact that she self taught herself  photography at the age of 55 and takes these kind of pictures 4 years later is motivation to all of us to get on with it.

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March 2, 2009

Turmeric for Good Health

Posted by Molly under arthritis, awareness, be present, change, faith, happiness, hope, ibs, illness, inflammation, inflammatory bowel disease, insight, life, listening, meditation, one-pointedness, spirituality, transformation, Uncategorized, vipassana | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[23] Comments 

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I am feeling the need to extoll the health benefits of turmeric today. I discovered turmeric as a panacea when I became very sick in 2007. When you aren’t sure if you’ll ever walk normally again, you’ll do just about anything. Well it turns out that turmeric, which is also known as circumen, is  a member of the ginger family and has been around for thousands of years. It is revered as a staple in Ayurvedic medicine, among its many uses being taken in a warm glass of milk three times a day to ward off colds and flu. In Eastern religions it is used in ceremonies and pujas. And women actually wear it on their skin for good fortune. 

I started putting a half a teaspoon in water and drinking it once a day, and I have recently started doing this twice a day. Turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory, therefore it helps sufferers with diseases like arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. It is used widely in cancer prevention. It inhibits cancer cell growth and metasteses. It improves liver function, lowers cholesterol, protects against Alzheimers, and cardiovascular disease. And it is inexpensive. I buy it at the Vitamin Cottage in Boulder in bulk and it costs $4.16/lb (I buy a little over a 1/4 lb at a time). Or you could buy it in pre-packaged capsules, but it is far more expensive and you don’t really need the gelatin capsule. Note: I read somewhere that it takes a couple of months of regular use for the health benefits to take effect.

I can’t say that the turmeric alone is making the difference in my life, as I eat a clean diet, I exercise, meditate, do yoga, get acupuncture 2-3 times a month, and keep things simple. But it resonates for me that I should include it, so I do. And I live a fairly symptom-free existence these days. Except for when I break down and eat sugar and other unwholesome foods, which does occasionally happen. My how the body becomes the barometer.

Here is a good article on the health benefits of turmeric, and there is far more research out there on the world wide web. Western medicine is finally catching on.

 

 

February 27, 2009

Owning It

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, change, happiness, insight, life, meditation, one-pointedness, spirituality, transformation, vipassana | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[10] Comments 

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I was speaking to a friend last night. We were discussing a situation that had arisen in her life, one that she was having difficulty confronting. She said that she was finding it difficult to take action because she didn’t want to hurt the other person.

As we continued to speak, what finally came to light was that at the root level, the reason she couldn’t take action actually had nothing to do with the other person. It had everything to do with an uncomfortable feeling within herself that she was avoiding by not taking action. On the apparent level she didn’t want to hurt the other person. But what she really didn’t want to do was be with the uncomfortable feeling that would arise when she was honest. It was easier not to go there.

Shining the light inside is difficult, and helpful. Of course it is so much easier to be aware of someone else doing this than it is when we do it ourselves. Therein lies the practice.

 

February 23, 2009

The Distinction

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, happiness, insight, life, meditation, one-pointedness, spirituality, vipassana | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[21] Comments 

562980590_622b8fd4ff I read something recently that’s a simple statement but has a profound impact on my direction:

 

“We need to make a very clear distinction between what is in our ego’s self-interest and what is in our ultimate interest.”

~Sogyal Rinpoche

 

Those words facilitate a smoother change of course when necessary. They have me bowing down in front of challenging situations where maybe I couldn’t before. 

 

February 18, 2009

Keeping It Tidy

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, happiness, insight, life, meditation, one-pointedness, spirituality, vipassana | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[12] Comments 

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Since I returned from my last ten-day, I am needing to keep things in my life tidy. I have this necessity  to move towards wrinkle-free. I am not talking about the physical environment around me, although I have always been organized and do like to keep it clean–”Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, they say.

I am talking about interpersonal relations. For example, a situation arose at work recently, and I reacted in a certain way. Upon closer examination, and with a little time, I was able to see that the way in which I reacted contained judgement and I was not entirely fair to the other person. I saw him for the first time since the incident and felt moved to apologize for it. Although he hadn’t really thought about it since, and it really wasn’t that big of a deal, he was really appreciative of my apology.

As I move forward, I want to plant seeds that bear sweet fruit, not sour fruit. The seeds we plant today do in fact bear the fruit of tomorrow. 

This doesn’t mean I have to be perfect in all of my dealings, it just means that if and when I catch myself making a mess, I clean it up. Not sweep it under the carpet  (or tatami mat) to fester, even though most of the time we aren’t even aware we are doing this.

When I walk into a house that is clean and tidy, with no dust bunnies lurking under the couch and cobwebs in the corner, it does feel good.

 

February 16, 2009

On The Thought For The Week

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, happiness, hope, insight, life, meditation, one-pointedness, spirituality, vipassana | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[19] Comments 

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As you guys know, I love Rumi. Love him. In fact, in a past life I am convinced I sat on a dirt floor drinking tea and being mesmerized by his words. In a wishful thinking kind of way. At any rate, I wanted to comment on the ‘thought for the week’.

“Whoever finds love beneath hurt and grief disappears into emptiness with a thousand new disguises.”

You read the words and you think (well, I do), how right he is, and how romantic it sounds. “Yes, turn my hurt and grief into love!”

The truth of the matter is that I will not actually be disappearing into emptiness with a thousand new disguises today, tomorrow, next week, or next month. Because taking hurt and grief and doing anything with it is so much more difficult in the moment than it sounds. My practice is to observe sensations at the level of the body. If I can actually remember to do this in the moment when I am stewing in either hurt or grief, then it is true, the strong emotion/reaction I am feeling, be it hurt or grief or anything else, fades much more quickly and I am less likely to react to the other person. But it is a practice, and I have not perfected it yet. It certainly doesn’t feel like I am about to disappear into emptiness with a thousand new disguises.

But I can see that with continued practice the time spent steeped in the negative emotion does become less, and I am able to come out of the reaction far more quickly, and therefore return to a place of love more quickly. So Rumi’s words, although seemingly a lofty goal, are attainable. In this life. If we are able to come into and really be with the negativity which is arising within us, which is not actually caused by someone else, I suppose that we are on our way to “disappearing into emptiness with a thousand new disguises.” 

If you actually get there for more than a few moments at a time, let me know. I might just have some questions for you.

 

February 12, 2009

The Puzzle Piece Analogy

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, change, faith, happiness, hope, insight, life, listening, meditation, one-pointedness, spirituality, vipassana | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[18] Comments 

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I was thinking recently (when I wasn’t supposed to be indulging in thinking, but just couldn’t help myself), that we are all puzzle pieces. And that which defines us, our borders, is ever-morphing in response to our own growth and transformation. So one day we might fit neatly into the larger puzzle, and then a few weeks, months, or years later, either we’ve morphed or the collective has morphed so we don’t fit any more. Then it is time to move on. Whether a friendship, a job, a location, whatever it happens to be. And it isn’t good, bad, right, or wrong. It simply is. Too often I believe we feel the need to overanalyze, to condemn it if it no longer works for us. But really, it is that the fit just isn’t a good one any longer.

Typically, I think, if it resonates it is working. And usually we know this on the gut level if we are paying attention.

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the pull of what you really love…”

 

 

 

February 9, 2009

Live and Let Live

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, change, depression, faith, happiness, hope, insight, life, listening, meditation, one-pointedness, spirituality, transformation, vipassana | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[17] Comments 

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The ten days of silence were quite productive. Excruciating at times. Wonderful at times. But productive, which is what we are going for here. I felt moved to share an insight for today’s post. Not anything we don’t already know. But I got it on a much deeper level.

I was able to observe my energy and how it reaches out and tries to wrap itself around another’s “dysfunction”, for lack of a better word, and fix it, change it. Or it could be something someone is talking about which is absolutely false. Or it could be someone excruciatingly overanalyzing a situation. I tend(ed) to take it on as my own burden to try and correct, fix. And it takes an immense amount of energy to do so. And usually it doesn’t feel good to me. Upon really close observation I see that it is my ego’s way of trying to correct things to fit my world view. To make it right. But we don’t all wear rose-colored glasses. In fact, I would venture to say that all of our glasses are slightly different shades of many different colors. 

When appropriate, it is far simpler just to observe whatever reaction I might be having to what someone is saying or doing, than to step in and try and alter things in any way. It feels better. There is almost a sense of relief that comes with not needing to defend anything. Even though I still have the urge to do so. In silence there is immense freedom.

 

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