Our unquenchable desire for material consumption, personal mobility, and anything other than simply being here and now, in the present moment, has brought us to this precarious moment. And collectively, the dominant pathways of American culture are leading us to the realization that there is little peace, only more anxiety, fear, and disease.
The darkest moment is just before the dawn. Even as an ebbing tide of greed and hatred threatens to drown us all in an ocean of war and environmental self-destruction, a new tide of love and defense of Mother Earth and all her children has already started rising
Now more than ever, each one of us needs to touch that place of inner strength, serenity and peace – individually and collectively. We will need it in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead. So if you have a meditation practice, please go to your cushion now and tune into cosmic love and awareness of the interdependence of all life. If you don’t have a meditation practice, get one. I can teach you. It’s pretty simple really. All you have to do is…..
B R E A T H E.
October 21, 2016 Less than two years ago, I made a $30,000 investment in solar power for my home, trying to be a good citizen and to do what’s right for the world in the age of climate change, and also, doing right for Seattle by mitigating City Light’s need to purchase expensive power on …
I will not tell you who to vote for, or who not to vote for. If you ask for my opinion or advice, it is my duty to respond in a way that empowers you and respects the larger sphere of life. If the words I speak or write seem a bitter pill to your ego, you are free to reject them, or, to consider whether your ego may be standing in the way of truth, conscious evolution, and inner liberation.
How we perceive the world depends upon the stories slide5that we tell ourselves and that depends in large measure upon the stories that we read, hear, and the stories that we create and live in our daily lives. If our stories have kindness and compassion around every corner, then that is the world we will live in, and we will automatically sleep better, experience less depression and anxiety, and feel happier and more peaceful.
What does it mean to be mindful, not merely of my breath rising and passing, sensations of the body and mind, but of my carbon footprint? My white male able bodied, naturalized citizen, English speaking privilege? What does it mean to be mindful of the suffering of sentient life due to my dietary habits and choices?
Our planet is a magical living being with beauty all around. Modern urban living – in a bitterly polarized presidential election year no less – can easily blind us of this truth, driving a wedge of separation between ourselves and the life giving mother which nurtures us all – the ground we stand on, the …
Elwha River – Bailey Range III – Wilderness as a Mind Space Read More »
Why go? I go to the mountains for meditation and healing, for solitude and beauty, which is all around, though too often unnoticed in the hectic modern urban pathways we often follow. Smartphones in hand, we rush like automatons towards our death, clicking here and there, never pausing to see the flowers, or so it …
Mountain Spirits Old Bones II – Long Ridge Trail Hike, July 2-4, 2016 Read More »
All life exists in a very delicate balance. The foundational sustenance of our lives does not come from the supermarket , printed green paper, plastic cards, or graphs of economic data about GNP displayed on a laptop computer. It comes from the web of life, the land, soil, air, water, sun, and indigenous wisdom traditions which hold as sacred every living being.
