Breathing Meditation with Thich Nhat Hanh

Take a few minutes and practice mindful breathing with Thich Nhat Hanh.

Mythology, and Other Stuff

I was reading a recent post on a "New Earth" message boards on Oprah's site, and came across a profound quote, then I decided to post the links below to the person who is the inspiration for the quote ...

http://www.mythosandlogos.com/Campbell.html

http://jonesthought.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/joseph-campbell-the-power-of-myth-with-bill-moyers/

Tribute to the Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan

Transcendental Meditation (TM)

When I was in university, I, and a couple of friends, enrolled in a transcendental meditation course. TM is simple, just twenty minutes twice a day, and could be practiced any place, even in noisy crowed places. I meditate on buses, planes, and trains, but for the most part, I find a quite place in my house to meditate. For a period I lived in a meditation community, Ideal Village, where there was a meditation building.

Over the years, I would go for months without meditating, but when I resumed practice, it came back with ease. It surprised me that I never forgot my mantra, which came to me without hesitation when I called upon it. TM serves to keep my energy in balance.

Is it Me, or what???

Every individual is different, even identical twins, although may look the same can sometimes be polar opposites. The beauty of the natural world is that we are not designed to be carbon copies of each other. So why is it that we are prone to changing people, seeing them through a veil of how we think they should be rather than who they really are?

I have some single friends who are amazing, strong, and independent. And yet when they are in a relationship they are anything but strong and independent. In as much as they want to be in a healthy relationship, their relationships tend to end, and often with heartbreak.

I am often asked for advice and I try to facilitate an opening for them to avoid the pit falls in their relationships. As an outside observer, it is easier to observe the same patterns that take them down the same path resulting in the same outcomes over and over again. However, if they are not open to listening, you can talk until you are blue in the face and it would not make a bit of difference. But sometimes...

The other day I was being the dutiful friend, listening to woes of disappointment of another friend's failed relationship. Then out of the blue, my friend asks, " is it me? am I to blame? Am I that clingy? " I immediately thought, I can't tell the truth, not when she is so miserable. But I thought, well if I don't tell her the truth, who will?

So I said, yes, it is you. It is your actions that created this out come which is the same out come as your last relationship. But I hasten to add, sometimes we pick the wrong partners, and we have to acknowledge it and move on. If there is no match, no one is at fault, but you have to be truthful to yourself and be able to access when it is not working for you. Don't try to change the other person, accept who they are and maybe they are not the person you need in your life at this juncture.

At the end of the day, you have only one life. And don't you want that life to be happy, content, and fulfilling? Know that you deserve that life and don't be afraid that yes, occasionally you do make the wrong choices, but don't beat yourself up about it. Finally, stop playing that tape over and over in your head. You know the one, the one that goes over every incident that went wrong in the relationship. What you said or did, what he said or did, etc...

Meeting With a Navajo Medicine Man

I traveled to Edmonton, Alberta on business last month. Two weeks before leaving I got a call from a friend asking if I could I pick up our mutual friend, Francis, at the Edmonton airport. I agreed, and called him to say I would pick him up but needed his arrival time. He told me, his hostess had made his travel arrangements and he did not know is arrival time at the moment. I called her, and she email me his itinerary. I noticed when I got his itinerary that he was actually booked on my connecting flight. Francis said, normally this is not the route he takes when traveling to Edmonton, lucky for us it was the perfect opportunity for an uninterrupted visit. Don't you like it when synchronicity works so effortlessly?

I know people who could use the help of a medicine man, more often than not it is when their diagnosis from a medical professional is not very good and usually it is an advanced cancer of some sort. However, many people both non Native and Natives alike don't feel comfortable using a traditional medicine man. Their reasons are varied, maybe it is the mysterious ways in which healing occurs makes people uncomfortable. Possibly it is the lack of education on what a medicine man does, or the proper protocol, or just the unknown which are a deterrent.

Maybe it is the difficulty of finding the best medicine man and not knowing how to properly search for one. My advice, is always do research which is started by asking the right questions. In Indian country, I recommend word of mouth. But the most important aspect is to trust your intuition, how do you feel when you speak to the Medicine Man, how do you feel in the ceremonial room? Do not disregard your feelings they are your most important asset, and if at any point you feel uncomfortable, stop the treatment.

That being said, Francis Mitchell is an amazing world renowned healer, I know and trust him. This link is a journalist's account on him http://ourstrangeplanet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=227&Itemid=9
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Souls Meeting

Is it synchronicity when you meet someone in the most unusually fashion? Should one attach the meeting to a greater force at work that created the event which brought two souls together?

In an earlier post I wrote that things happen because they happen, and that there is no reason for it to happen other than it does. Was I wrong? Is there really a master plan at work here?

What if you met someone who under the normal course of things you would have never met, but only met because you did something out of the ordinary. Something so out of character. What if you met this person under circumstances where the odds were against the meeting. What if a series of actions by both of you were required to have the meeting occur. What if the soul you met also met souls connected to you but in a separate hemisphere, and under different circumstances. 


 What if this soul had an amazing light, energy, and had relevant experiences to yours.  How do you explain the unexplainable, when everything that should happen, occurred, cumulating towards a wonderful meeting of souls.    

It happen to me, and I am so overwhelmed by the occurrence that I am thinking maybe there is a greater force at play here. What does it mean?