Inviting New Voices

I have decided that the mission of this blog will best be served by turning it into a collaborative weblog. A few years ago I ran the Healing Words Press webzine that had an attached blog called Inspiranote. Inspiranote was a collaborative weblog that grew to 7 editors in the end. Each editor had their own section and would post at least once per month. The sections were Good Books, Inspiring Movies, Personal Growth, Good News, etc.

I am wanting to do something a little less structured now, but with the same basic idea. There is such a shortage of blogs that have anything uplifting to say, that it was even hard to find other bloggers to invite to participate! The blogosphere has the same negative mindset of our news media, yet it tries to present itself as an alternative. Who needs another way of seeing from a threat-mentality?

There is much that is not being reported and what is omitted does have a particular characteristic, but it's not about conservative media leaving out liberal viewpoints or liberal media demonizing conservative viewpoints. It's about the voices that emphasize threat drowning out those that emphasize possibility and joy.

The alternative I am looking for is one that provides insight and inspiration, reminding people that life can be one of great fulfillment, depending on what you do within it. We are not powerless. What we do makes a difference, both for ourselves and for others. So leave a comment with your contact information if you would like to be a part of the new "Being Bliss" that will start in November. Each contributor submits at least one entry per month, any topic, that is aimed to inform and inspire. Ella of PassionCity has already signed on and I hope to see the list grow to about 4-6 regular bloggers.

Daily Spiritual Practice

Many people think of spiritual practice in terms of seated practice. You sit on a cushion and meditate or do a sadhana. But actually those are preparatory steps and the practice happens after you get up and go out into the world.

The real practice comes in our dealings with others. It's easier to develop the proper frame of mind during seated practice since there are controlled circumstances. It is quiet. We are alone with ourselves. We have a clear intention to do nothing but develop ourselves in terms of patience, joy, clarity, peace, etc. It is a good learning lab.

Then we go out into the world that is filled with distractions, focused on materialistic gain and self-aggrandizement, and characterized by competition (and even cruelty) in much of human relations. The practice is to maintain the view and intention of our spiritual paths in the midst of that. We practice. That means we try and fail then try again, repeatedly.

I have met so many people who present themselves as advanced practitioners who I see as absolute beginners. They make no real effort at integrity in the way they live their lives, and seem to have even missed the teachings on the value of simple kindness and human goodness. You know, the kindegarden kind of stuff. I don't care how many retreats a person's been to; if they lie, cheat, steal, and abuse people as their daily fare, they need to pick up a spiritual practice.

And they need to start with the beginner's material, not the advanced stuff. When people begin beyond their level, they never truly begin. A person can spend 20 years acting out "spirituality" with no actual progress. They may have a shrine room, membership on the boards of a dozen religious organizations, and privileged access to high officials in their faith, but if they aren't living their daily lives with integrity and kindness (even when they know they won't get caught), they have not yet begun the path.

If you recognize yourself in this description, my heartfelt advice to you is "No regrets. Just start." And start from where you are with great joy and humility. Begin at the beginning and you will find yourself swiftly moving up the mountain path, with a spring in your step, at last.

[This post was revised on Oct. 26, 2005]

Bringing the Work Out

As I engage the process of bringing my book out to the public, while simultaneously maintaining the view of Dzogchen, I discover that this process is going to be a major challenge and lesson for my practice. There is an ongoing dance on a very fine line between having intent for a certain degree of success and witnessing with openess and a willingness to fully rejoice in whatever comes. There is a great deal of trust involved.

Since the bookreading on Wednesday evening I have fluctuated between feelings of great success and great disappointment. You would think it would be one or the other, but really I don't seem to know what to make of it.

Sometimes I see, "wow, people were so deeply moved, and so many bought books, and there were some people there who I know will benefit tremendously from the book who I am so grateful to have reached - this was a huge success." Then I look from a different angle and I think, "I spent more on advertising the event than I made on author commissions and I did not earn as much for the bookstore as I had hoped I would, given all their support for my work. And even selling a dozen books at a time is still an awfully slow process. I had what it took to write the book, but do I have what it takes to successfully get it to the people it was written for?"

Dzogchen says, watch what happens and recognize it as the natural flow of both samsara and nirvana. There is always both beauty and horror, ecstasy and suffering, within this existence. The thing is not to get lost in believing any of it is absolutely real. It is all relative reality, hence the duality latent within it. But absolute reality is beyond dualism. The only lasting peace that can be found will be found within that.

As a Dzogchen practitioner, on a daily basis I am doing the practice of learning this by observing my own inner experience as I engage life. This high-stakes endeavor gives me yet another opportunity to see these dynamics at play - and once again I do see that it is so. I think of the people I had hoped would come to the reading, who couldn't make it; then I think of the young man who bought a book who was so traumatized because days before someone had randomly beat him up as he was walking down the street near his home, and yet he ventured out that night to attend the reading - and my heart fills with such compassion, as waves of love and comfort go flowing out towards him, and I know that the book will be something that can move him into a place of healing that will eventually leave him even more free, even more joyful, than before the attack.

And so I watch the play of duality within myself and keep reminding myself to relax, release and witness. This is my way of bringing the work out. It isn't driven and demanding or self-glorifying and I realize that is the idea espoused for effective marketing. Instead it is the fruit of the same process the book itself teaches, because this is a way of life, not just a way of thinking.

I am doing a presentation for a group called Swell-Women in another month and will be sending out lots of free review copies of the book to magazine editors over the next week. I stay busy with it all each day. And I trust that those the book was written for, will find it just in time.

Book reading coming up

Now that the lama is gone it is time to focus on my work again. I have a bookreading and signing coming up this Wed. at Maui Booksellers in Wailuku (@ N. Market St & Vineyard) from 7-8:30 pm. Hope some of you can make it.

Jamei will be playing music on his marimba as people enter. Then we will have a brief 10-15 minute meditation centering us in the heart and connecting the group's energy. After that I will read excerpts from the book. Hopefully it will also work out that some people feel like talking and conversation will develop on the ideas in the book. We'll see how that flows.

I am really looking forward to getting to share my work with others in such a setting. A little nervous, performance anxiety, but mostly just looking forward to it.

Enlightened Moments

For just this moment
I do not fear pain
though I know it will come.
Like an avalanche
thundering down a mountainside
it will come.
And I will be its witness.

In this small instant
I do not seek safety,
not in walls to guard
nor in love to affirm.
I sit defenseless and ask only,
"Show me my true face."
Then I wait and bear witness
to whatever shows itself,
Surrendered once more to the awe
of this sacred moment.

This peace is not always with me.
No, I am not one of the ones wearing the hat
that says, "enlightened one."
Like sorrow and joy, fear and hope,
gain and loss, it comes
and it goes.

Past and future pull at me.
A tendency to get lost in each
causes me to miss this moment
again and again.
The clamor of Delusion promises me
that I am this fragile, solid thing
that must be defended and promoted
at all times.

There is something that needs doing.
There is something to regret.
What does it all mean,
and what about her?
Surely these noble calls are more worthy of attention
than this still, silent moment
that has only the morning dew
to sing its praises.

Sometimes I believe you are a body
and that I am a body too.
Those are painful moments of longing,
as if all my joy was someplace else.
Then I realize we are not these bodies
and I know I cannot be separate from you.
I am you,
and that is good enough.

For just this moment
I do not grasp at the victory banner
called "enlightenment."
I sit here simply as willing witness,
a soldier having laid down her arms
a pause in hostilities
a chance to rest in "yes."

I say yes to this moment,
just as it is.
The next moment will come as it likes.
It needs no call nor shaping from me
and neither can it be averted.
I sit here as still witness,
with a prayer that when it comes
I will find the clarity to say "yes" again.

-- By Indigo Ocean