The world never stops but we can at any time. I do every day – snatching a quiet reflective breath whenever I think of it, or perhaps 20 minutes before breakfast. But sometimes, it is good to take more time, to go deeper, to spend time with your loved ones so that relationships are fresh and alive and not running on AI.
“There is no path to peace, peace is the path.” Gandhi Reading the story of how one woman, tuned in to trauma dynamics, helped deescalate a hostage situation, brought back memories of my own brush with a potentially violent situation. Unfortunately, the incident last week at a Trader Joe’s in California resulted in an innocent …
It has been four years now in CommuniChi’s current location on Mount Baker and 2017 was our best ever. I say “our” because to each one of you who came for acupuncture, I give thanks, not only for supporting my work, but for supporting your own path of healing. We are all connected. Supporting each …
“Wilderness is a state of mind”, as the saying goes. Nonetheless, there are places left on this planet where vast tracts of relatively untouched forests and mountains exist, and solitude is found in abundance. The Bailey Range in Olympic National Park is one such sanctuary of pristine beauty. The paths are often faint or non-existent, …
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.
Eliminating so-called evil people with retaliatory air strikes not only literally misses the mark – the perpetrators are rarely harmed and more innocent civilians die – but even when war criminals are captured, killing them is not a solution. According to the law of karma, the mind of this life continues into a future life. If seeds of killing are planted in this life, those seeds ripen in future lives. We need to plant seeds of compassion, love, and understanding.
But the wildness of such places offers a unique opportunity in our face paced lives to slow down and look within. To live one moment at a time without being glued to our devices and schedules. To feel connected with all living and inanimate things. Such an experience enriches one’s life. On my last day, I thought of how much I loved my family, of ways that I could live more authentically, with greater love and awareness. This is why we need to protect wild places like ONP, and visit them from time to time.
Polish a dirty mirror. Take the garbage out. Each act connected with sacred intention. Even scrolling through my Facebook feed. We need to look within, find the peace within us, before we can share it. There is no other way.
Tapping seeds one by one gently from the envelope, I pause to remember internal cultivation in the infinite fields of the mind: May all beings pull the destructive roots of ignorance, anger, and greed from within! May they plant positive seeds of kindness, love, compassion, joy, equanimity! May they harvest excellent and tasty crops, in all dimensions of reality – internal and external.
2014 is about to disappear forever. What do we wish to take with us? Leave behind?
