Liberation On My Lunchbreak

Forgiveness, when it is tasted, it is like settling honey at the bottom of a teacup;
it is sharp and brilliant, it is alive and sweet.
It turns sour fruit into sugary pies.
Forgiveness, when it is true, showers the plains, suns the shaded woods,
melts thwarting ice and quenches dry riverbeds.
Breathe it in, the sweet taste
of forgiveness.

How do we bring kindness to the surface? By looking deeply into each of our cells, by knowing our faults and imperfections. When it’s realized that we wear the same flesh, we’re less likely to stiffen our tongue’s fist, and tighten our mind’s noose. If we felt with truth, we’d see the violence in placing people into the dark chambers of our opinions.

What is relative on our walk together? How does our blood pool in this ocean of humanity? We swim in the same tides under one moon. Is it how we are different that repels our unity? If a painting were one color, would it entice the tasting of our looking?

It’s diversity that propels uniformity. Understanding multiformity ripens one form. What we give one name, Earth, is the harmonious blending of individual articulation. As in yoga, through awareness comes the merging of the mind, body and spirit; the things under the light move toward the light as one. Spreading this light of awareness over the branches and leaves of our humanness brings blessed seasons to the orchard of humankind.

“The yogi understands the faults of others by seeing and studying them first in himself. This self study teaches him to be charitable to all.” B.K.S. Iyengar

Curled up under bookends of
a sun.
The moon dallies like a jester
expressing its favors
whispering in our ears its desires.
Asking if we could say when
last the sun was seen.
We laugh and make love under it.
Silly moon doesn’t know
how beautiful it is alone.
Once a month it hides  and
we watch as the stars form a
search party.

With each cell in your body, go lightly through life with forgiveness. It brings us into the now. When we are trapped in the inability to forgive we are stuck in the past. Its as if we are dragging an anchor in deep sand with our sails filled; we are working toward today’s mission, but we are not moving forward. Whether our anchor has settled into the sea floor of personal mistakes or the mistakes others have committed against us, if we lay in this unforgiving bed, we deny ourselves the beauty of life by veiling our ability to see it. The flowering of the heart can’t happen if it is constricted by resentments. Let the photons of forgiveness lift the pedals of the heart and begin to bask in the glow of the present moment.

I narrow the pathway to liberation when I expect from life only the shiny things, the tasty things and the painless things. It is all things that, through consciousness, we have the privilege of expanding our life upon. There would be no growth if not for the shadows. How could we know to appreciate light?

When you are constantly working toward a future heaven, you are constantly removed from right now. Even when the future comes it can only be experienced now; dreaming of a better place, or hoping for a more blissful life is done in the present. If you are dreaming and hoping now, then your focus is in the future and not here where beauty is in front of your eyes. Even if there will be a future heavenly place, think of how much more heavenly it will be if we can begin to see the heaven hidden in the heart of all things revealing splendor in this very moment.

Why is it important to become aware of the actions that we take in life that steer us away from our goals? Because, when we become aware of what is diverting us we can remove it. When we do this, we begin to create a refined attention and focused flow of energy that directs us toward our truest wants. This gift of heightened consciousness nourishes our truest self and gives our choices and actions power. The courage to remove old habits that anchor forward progress elevates our ability to control how we shape our lives.

 We are always taking some action. Knowing this, why not bring more quality to your thoughts, words and deeds. Why not bring more value to the actions that you take. In this moment there is opportunity to bring excellence into our lives.

 “The same way that you pick your produce at the market, your day must be chosen. If time is what we have, if it is the platform on which we experience life, than each thing must be chosen with wisdom, as if each act is a vital nutrient in the body of a blissful life.” Jason Galbraith

Imagine if when you were a child your mother told you to stay away from a hot stove that you became curious about. If you listened you may have experienced the pain of frustration for a few minutes because you couldn’t fulfill your curiosity. But if you failed to listen, the pain from touching the hot stove would out last the tiny fit of anger.
The pain within us is like our mother asking us to listen. When we continue to ignore it, the pain increases and will continue until we respond with alert attention. The painful choices in life are always the ones that need all of our attention. Those are the roads that lead to growth.
We often seek pleasure and steer clear of pain. Because of this we run from our true self and miss the point. Now, life is not only about pain, but pain is inevitable and it is important that we revise our views on pain. In yoga when I am performing an asana (yoga posture) that uncovers stiffness in my body, and stiffness always announces its presence through pain and discomfort, I understand that this area of stiffness is an opportunity for me to grow. If I avoided this particular asana because it was painful, I would deny myself access to a more expanded me. But if I work on it each day with compassion, the pain will lesson and liberation reveals itself.
It is the same in life. If we are willing to explore the discomfort that life often brings, freedom and joy will grow.

How is it possible that under the same roof, one person is remarkably positive while another is unremarkably negative? If you asked the negative person, they would create a list of reasons why the other person is so cheerful. Perhaps they make more money, or have a loving spouse. Maybe they are kissing the boss’s behind. They might say something like, “They are phony, it’s all fake. No one is really that happy!” The truth is, the positive person is looking for the beauty in life, is making the choice to surround herself with people that she loves and who love her. She accepts life as it is, she is grateful and wants to be the best person that she can be. She knows consciously or unconsciously that complaining gives away her power and does not serve her best life.

Life is only as horrible as we create it. We can make this place hell on earth and set fire to the sky, but is that what we really want? We can cool the burning coils in our heart by looking for the beauty in life and by lessoning the complaints we hold on to.

When we complain or gossip, what we are really doing is diverting ourselves from the subject of our true disgust. Its much easier for us to point out the rudeness of a salesman or the unfriendliness of our neighbor rather than notice our own bad behavior. When someone else is wrong it makes us right, which is tasty ego food. But if we were practicing awareness we would notice dysfunction in our hearts. The negativity of complaining and gossip is like an emotional cancer in our own bodies and in the body of humanity. It can be healed by softening our tongue and opening our hearts.

Success is made up of non success elements; small failures that are the mortar in achievement. Destinations are reached only by the roads that lead to them. It is the small things wrapped in the “now” that bless our footsteps forging ahead….