Inspiration

Sunday inspiration: The Five Mindfulness Trainings for awakened communities

Many of us are hoping that the Age of Aquarius will bring an enlightened new future after 2150 years of the Piscean Age, and Pluto entering Aquarius is likely to give this a kick-start. There is plenty of bad news surrounding Pluto’s entry into Aquarius and transforming the realms of technology and science (Russia threatening nuclear war, the threat of artificial intelligence taking over), but Aquarius is also the sign of awakening and community.

Yesterday I watched a beautiful biography of Thich Nhat Hahn, the late Vietnamese Buddhist monk, in which he called for ” a real awakening, a real enlightenment. New laws and policies are not enough. We need to change our way of thinking and seeing things.” To support this awakening he has offered a framework of five mindfulness trainings to reflect on actions, thought and speech to create more happiness and peace in the world around us. I have reprinted them here for you but you may want to read them in the original, linked here. “If we live according to the Five Mindfulness Trainings, we are already on the path of a bodhisattva. Knowing we are on that path, we are not lost in confusion about our life in the present or in fears about the future.”

Reverence For Life

Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, or in my way of life. Seeing that […]

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By |2023-03-26T10:31:31-04:00March 26th, 2023|Inspiration|11 Comments

Sunday inspiration: There are no ordinary people

From Advanced Style by Ari Seth Cohen

With Pluto entering Aquarius in a few weeks, the burst of eccentricity and authenticity with which we move through the world is likely to be accentuated. There is nothing ordinary about Aquarius – the Uranian modern influence instills a desire for the unique, sometimes battling against the Saturnian traditional requirement to face the cold hard facts. The innovation which Aquarius brings requires careful study and application in the real world, and yet the urge to create radical change in the world will be unstoppable. This quote from C.S. Lewis is such a beautiful rendering of this duality. ❤️


It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overshelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another; all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals with whom we joke, work, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

–C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

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By |2023-03-11T10:19:18-05:00March 12th, 2023|Inspiration|0 Comments

Sunday inspiration for the Virgo Full Moon: The beauty of aging

Art by Inge Löök

The Virgo Full Moon on Monday puts the focus on the reality of life in a body. Virgo’s primary concern is taking care of the mundane details of life so that the soul, under the Pisces solar influence, can soar. 

No matter how old we are, we are all aging. I love this passage from Thomas Moore and hope you will too. ❤️

Ageing is a beautiful thing. You are moving toward your apotheosis, the thrilling fulfillment of it all. There is nothing to be worried about. The body has to fall apart. You need an invitation to depart. You have to give up this physical existence. How else can you explode into self-realization? …

I don’t know what death is all about or what happens. No one does. But I do know that I have lifed a life that constantly becomes more interesting and more meaningful. I have grown to love life and in particular the life that is in me. Nature has brought me here and I trust that nature will take care of me in my final years and after.

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By |2023-03-05T08:32:43-05:00March 5th, 2023|Inspiration|4 Comments

Sunday inspiration: The power of physics to heal grief

click to enlarge for maximum effect

My sister, a widow, posted this video of Michelle Thaller on Facebook and even though I’m not currently grieving I found it so beautiful and wanted to share it with you. (Here is the YouTube link for those of you not on Facebook.)

As I begin my seventh decade I’m finding it even more important to step back and look for perspective and meaning to navigate life’s gifts and treacheries, and this video opened up so many doors of awakening for me. Pluto entering Aquarius next month will encourage a perspective that lifts us up from our small stories into a more transpersonal perspective, and physics attempts to understand how the Universe works. I hope you find this as relevant and soul-opening as I did. ❤️ (Photo is by astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy.)

 

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By |2023-02-12T07:32:04-05:00February 12th, 2023|Inspiration|12 Comments

Sunday poetry: Finding balance under the Uranus station


Uranus turns direct today on the heels of the Aquarius New Moon. It has been virtually stationary at 15 Taurus since early December and will not move more than a degree until mid-March. Pluto will enter Aquarius during that time as well, and with Uranus the modern ruler of Aquarius the Uranian energy is dominant right now.

Uranus is electrical and sparkly, it inspires innovation and the shattering of old paradigms so that new ones can emerge. It favors technology and new inventions, as well as social justice and equality, but can act rather impersonally and without feeling.

All of this electrical energy can cause us to feel depleted. We may tire easily and feel exhausted if we are not adequately grounded. This poem offers a beautiful reminder to help find balance during this long Uranian period. 


Each night,

before sleep pulls you into slumber

Call back the fragments of your power from where or with whom you may have left it that day,

drawing your energy back into your bones

bringing yourself into your own heart.

Let your power reside in you,

your energy recharge.

Be at peace knowing your power belongs to no one
or nowhere but inside you

resting,

growing,

mending and glowing.

~ Brigit Anna McNeill

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By |2023-01-22T07:55:16-05:00January 22nd, 2023|Inspiration|4 Comments