Twenty-two

“If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer’s day. Nothing stimulates our appetite for the simple joys of life more than the starvation caused by sadness or desperation. In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse.”

From Dark Night of The Soul
~ St John Of The Cross ~

Twenty-one

“You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.”
~J.K. Rowling~

Twenty

"The trick with fear is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought.  That's what we're going to discover again and again and again.  Nothing is what we thought.  I can say that with great confidence.  Emptiness is not what we thought.  Neither is mindfulness or fear.  Compassion -- not what we thought.  Love.  Buddha nature.  Courage.  These are code words for things we don't know in our minds, but any of us could experience them.  These are words that point to what life really is when we let things fall apart and let ourselves be nailed to the present moment."

BE NAILED TO THE PRESENT MOMENT

From When Things Fall Apart
~ Pema Chodron ~

Nineteen

“It is very difficult for people in our culture to imagine that it is possible to treat ourselves and others with complete respect no matter what previous crimes we or others have committed. Each person will get the results of these actions in the form of karmic consequences, which are manifested as feelings. The suffering produced is not there to punish but to teach. If people are treated with respect, they are much more likely to learn how to avoid the same mistakes in the future then if they are faced with judgment, punitive or vengeful attitudes.

From The Pale of Vengeance
~ Kan Kikuchi ~

Eighteen

Rivers - Mountains - Sea
With you
I will forever Be.

Seventeen

"Encourage the patient and all those present to focus on the breathing and to take in as deep a breath as possible without causing distress or pain. As they breathe, remind them that breathing is what unites all living things and that even plants and bacteria breathe. Remind them that in breathing they bring in what it is bodies need (oxygen) and get rid of that which bodies do not need (carbon dioxide and other impurities).

Explain that those present can also use this breathing to bring in what our spirits need. Lead them gently on a breathing meditation wherein as they breathe in air they also imagine that they are breathing in various good things that are needed for spirits to be at peace—light, energy, peace, goodness, compassion, love, hope, strength, etc. As they exhale encourage them to exhale (get rid of) those things that are holding their spirits back—darkness, tiredness, anxiety, worry, anger, hate, fear, weakness, etc.

Encourage them to concentrate on this breathing in and out for several minutes. Then tell them that they can come back to this simple meditation any time they need to, and to imagine each time that they are breathing in the good and breathing out the problems. Also remind them that each time they use this method, know that all of their loved ones are also breathing with them and in fact all of creation is breathing with them. They are connected to all that is living."

Breathing Exercise for Life and Death from At the Deathbed: Using Symbols and Rituals To Connect with the Spiritual in Times of Death and Grieving
~ Rev David Laurance Bieniek ~

Sixteen

"Our country is in the midst of a great national trial, unlike any we have ever before faced.  We are at war with a deadly virus.  Success in this fight will require the full absolute measure of our collective strength, love, and devotion.  Each of us has the power through our own choices and actions to save American lives and rescue the most vulnerable among us.  Following the guidelines for the next 30 days is a matter of life and death.  This is going to be one of the roughest months we have ever had in our country. We're going to loose hundreds of thousands of people."

~ The President ~
April 1st:  26,473 new cases & 1,049 deaths
215,003 total cases & 5,102 total deaths

Fifteen

"No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee."

~ John Donne ~

Fourteen

Morning Prayer

"Universe,

If there is anyone from my past or present that I need to forgive, whether I remember them or not, I now do so.  I love them - I bless them - I forgive them - and I release them into your care for you to work with in whatever way you feel is best.

And if there is anyone from my past or present that needs to forgive me, especially myself, they now do so. And we are all free to experience and a higher and greater good in our lives."

...The Greater Good...

Thirteen

"There is a Native American saying, 'Today is a good day to die for all the things of my life are present.' This embodies the possibilities of a life reviewed and completed. A life in which even death is not excluded. I am speaking here of a whole death that succeeds a whole life. A life caught up to, and lived in, the present, that rides the breath and knows the power of thought to create the world, experiencing itself in its fullness and emptiness.

"The more mindful we are the less there is to crowd us in our deathbed. When we are living our life instead of only thinking it, nothing remains undone, and if we should die that day we are pleased that our death can be so complete. When everything is brought up-to-date, and the heart is turned toward itself, it is a good day to die."

Book: A Year to Live
~ Stephen Levine ~

Twelve

“Oh Divine Mother 

Please dissolve it all 

Sweet Blessed Mother 

Free me your child 

Of this illusion 

Dissolve the separation 

Take away the pain and suffering 

I’m tired of being alone Mother 

I’m tired of doing it by myself 

Help me - Free me 

Shelter me with your Grace 

Let it rain down on me 

Rain it down on me 

I want to be free 

I’m ready to be free 

I’m ready to be me 

I’m ready - I’m ready - I’m ready 

Oh Mother hear my cry

Oh Mother hear my prayers 

Oh Mother please help me 

Fill me with your Grace”

MC I-AM 

Song: False Dreams

Eleven

“Friend? hope for the Guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think... and think... while you are alive.
What you call "salvation" belongs to the time
            before death.

If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,
do you think ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten --
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the
          City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next
life you will have the face of satisfied desire.

So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,
Believe in the Great Sound!

~ Kabir ~

Ten

“We can reject everything else: religion, ideology, all received

wisdom. But we cannot escape the necessity of love and compassion....

This, then, is my true religion, my simple faith. In this sense, there is no need

for temple or church, for mosque or synagogue, no need for complicated

philosophy, doctrine or dogma. Our own heart, our own mind, is the temple.

The doctrine is compassion. Love for others and respect for their rights and

dignity, no matter who or what they are: ultimately these are all we need.

So long as we practice these in our daily lives, then no matter if we are

learned or unlearned, whether we believe in Buddha or God, or follow some

other religion or none at all, as long as we have compassion for others and

conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is

no doubt we will be happy.” 

~Dalai Lama~

Nine

"it’s also worth reminding each other that “social distancing” – usually a problem and now the solution - only pertains to physical isolation.  we can still love each other.  we must.  we can still communicate over the airwaves.  we can still mean well by each other.  however you do it, keep ‘touch’ alive.  losing touch can result in losing empathy, and that would be one sure way to make a bad situation worse. instead, let the longing build; it will help stave off loneliness and nihilism, and it will keep us feeling.  those of us who have experienced compassion, whether coming from us or towards us, know that it’s always there.  it just needs to be called-up and exercised.  it needs an excuse to show itself, and suffering provides that excuse. one day, we’ll be able to directly share all that affection again, and you can bet it will be with heightened appreciation and passion."

~BJ Miller~

Eight

“There is a safe spot within every tornado and my job is to find it.”

~ David Copperfield ~

Seven

Morning Prayer...

Universe,
Here I am!
Your vessel, ready to be filled with your breath.
Let me touch you as my fingertips touch each other.
Let me see you in the light behind my eyes.
Let me hear you in the sound of my breath.
Let the river of your love flow through me.
Let there be no separation!
No longer an “us”.
Only the one true self.
I am.
Sat Nam.

Six

“We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.”

~David Mamet~

Five

For Today... do not try to understand the how or the why... instead accept what is.

Four

“It is wisdom to be silent.”

~Wayne Dyer~

Three

 “Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”

Into The Wild

~ Jon Krakauer  ~

Two

The Tao by Us.

1.  Let Go and Let God
2.  Be yourself.
3.  There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way.
4.  I am nothing and everything.
5.  What we love we need to learn to let go of.
6.  Follow your heart to co-create with the Universe.
7.  Be of service to those in need.
8.  Do what you do and be who you are.
9.  Enough is Enough.
10.  God resides within us.
11.  Find the empty space within.
12.  Less is More.
13.  What other people think of me is none of my business.
14.  You were never born and you will never die.
15.  Stop rushing through life.
16.  Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.
17.  Inspire by your own example.
18.  Live from your heart.
19.  Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
20.  Own nothing and Nothing owns you.
21.  Stay in the Gap.
22.  Bend during storms.
23.  Rejoice in the now.
24.  The greatest prayer is simply: Thank you.
25.  Greatness attracts Greatness.
26.  Choose calm during chaos.
27.  Leave no trace.
28.  Go gently down the stream.
29.  Surrender.
30.  Make love not war.
31.  Turn away from all forms of violence.
32.  Down by the river.
33.  Know Thyself.
34.  The sun shines on everyone equally.
35.  Release addictions that block true happiness.
36.  Don't worry about being right.
37.  Don't "should" all over yourself.
38.  I am.
39.  I am a cell in the body of the Universe.
40.  Life is a return trip home.
41.  Live the Tao daily.
42.  Be an orphan and you will be embraced by the Universe.
43.  Relax and stop pushing - practice nonfiction.
44.  Practice knowing when to stop.
45.  Don't judge a book by its cover.
46.  Be content with what you have and where you are.
47.  To see the world look within.
48.  Let go of your things.
49.  I am kind because the nature of my being is kindness.
50.  You can witness the end without ending.
51.  The Tao places no expectations on you.
52.  Close your mouth and your ears, the Universe is contained within you.
53.  Respect all life.
54.  My life makes a difference.
55.  I attract the cooperative power of the Tao.
56.  Sit down and Shut up.
57.  Allow rather than rule.
58.  Morning always follows the darkest night.
59.  Give away more - Accumulate less.
60.  Respond from your inner nature.
61.  Get to the low point and let others flow towards you.
62.  Live in the warmth of the Tao - Retreat.
63.  Be Here Now.
64.  Take one step in the right direction.
65.  I know that I don't know.
66.  Lead by serving.
67.  Live by: Compassion, Simplicity & Gratitude.
68.  Do not fight anything or anyone.
69.  Let everyone into your heart.
70.  I am God - You are God - All is God.
71.  My body reflects my mind - release the destructive pursuit of addictions.
72.  All of nature is my Beloved.
73.  Slow down and Speak less.
74.  Dying is Living.
75.  Don't demand too much from anyone - including yourself.
76.  Find strength in flexibility.
77.  Do not hoard - redistribute your wealth.
78.  Approach life as soft as water.
79.  Be calm and Forgive.
80.  Live your best life.
81.  Stay Joined to me and I will Stay Joined to you.

inspired by Wayne Dyer.

One

Musee des Beaux Arts 

“About suffering they were never wrong,..

...In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.”

~  W. H. Auden ~

India

Butterflies fall dead like
Leaves drifting in the
Winds of the thick
Yellow Himalayan air.

Drowning in layers of
Darkness - deep and
Black with the heaviness
Of fear - wakened only
By the sound of monkeys
Screaming in the night.

One voice penetrates
Every memory... Sound
Turning the world into
One bright blinding light
Guiding me back from my
Dreams of hell, repeating
Jai Jai Ma Jai Jai Ma.

Twenty days or Twenty years
One lifetime away
And every ocean on earth
Separating me from
MySelf.

Twain’s India

“This is indeed India! The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of traditions, whose yesterday’s bear date with the moldering antiquities for the rest of nations-the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the world combined.” ~Mark Twain

Gandhi

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

Gandhi

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

Albert Einstein

"Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better."

Bill Bryson

“But that's the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am concerned. I don't want to know what people are talking about. I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.”

Hermann Hesse

“Most people…are like a falling leaf that drifts and turns in the air, flutters, and falls to the ground. But a few others are like stars which travel one defined path: no wind reaches them, they have within themselves their guide and path.”

India

"To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim." – Martin Luther King, Jr