It's Blue Out There

I've been so busy recently that I haven't gotten up many images.  It seems with this warm weather, flowers, trees, weeds and bushes are exploding into buds at once. The Blue Bells are quite early this year and the cooler weather, now that they've bloomed, is holding them pretty steady.

A week of cloudy weather set the stage for the Spring Blues:

 

 

 

I don't know if the resolution will show this, but this close up has the backlit Bluebell, the beginning of a spider web and two jets in the background.  A lot going on here.

Bluebells, spiders and jets

 

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Breath, Bliss and Liberation

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I'm looking forward to joining up with my colleague Larissa Carlson at Kripalu Center in a few months, teaching Exploring the Energy Body: Teaching Pranayama and Meditation, part of Kripalu's professional level 500-hour yoga teacher training.

The program is already full with a wait list, so we're looking forward to ten days with 60 yogis and yoginis breathing deep, paying really close attention to what happens in moment-to-moment awareness and learning how to guide others into non-ordinary states of consciousness that arise from these practices.

After many years of yoga practice I found myself more drawn to 'just sitting, ' particularly in the Theravaden Buddhist tradition.  I've found, though, there are times when the pranayama techniques have been amazingly helpful in my practice and I'm rediscovering how powerful they are for cultivating concentration, working with pain and preparing the body and mind for intensive meditation practice.

Larissa just wrote a great article on "Reinvigorating a Pranayama Home Practice" you might enjoy.  If you have the opportunity to study with Larissa, do it.  She's incredibly knowledgable and compassionate.

 

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A Prayer from the Intensive

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I'm back from leading the Energy Intensive at Kripalu Center this weekend with my cohorts Shobhan and Danna Faulds.  We've been leading this three-day 'blow out the tubes' weekend for twelve years.

Shobhan shared a prayer that many asked for and as promised, here it is:

May you be happy and healthy.
May you prosper in all ways.
May your studies be illuminating.
May your practice being you deep realization.
May you find joy in serving others.
And may you awaken fully, in this very lifetime.

A Meeting of Mentors

 

For the last year or so we've been revamping and revving the IMCW Mentoring Program.

Having some quality 1-1 time with an experienced meditator can not only keep you inspired, but can keep opening new doors as you deepen your practice.

We started with 8 and now we've got 68 folks who do their best to make themselves available to support you.  Check out the site for more information.

My personal vision is to create a solid mentoring program we can share with other communities.  In the meantime, we're trying different approaches to supporting both mentees and the mentors.  It's a group process.

 

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Living In the Body

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A senior teacher at Spirit Rock once told a story of when he went to Burma to study meditation. This was decades ago, before meditation hit the mainstream.

He made his way to a monestary and was assigned a little hut for his practice.

His teacher gave him this instruction: "Keep your awareness in your body. We'll check in in a week."

That was it.

Not "Watch the breath at the tip of your nostrils."

Not "And this is how you do walking meditation."

Not "Here's how you do mindful eating."

 

"Keep your awareness in the body."  From there, we apply the practice in all the different ways we sense, feel and move.

This was the basic theme for our daylong retreat on Saturday, "A Meditative Journey: Movement, Meditation and Deep Relaxation."

Here were the two other instructions:

1. Relax 2 Pay attention.

That's pretty much what we did all day while doing conscious movement, body scans and various forms of seated meditation.

Consciously shifting your attention from the story to the experience of the 'here and now' is a radical act.

Inevitably you start to relax. When you relax you begin to feel more. You notice more. You start to recognize what's between you and feeling free.

I'm always amazed at what happens when I pause even if just for one breath, relax and notice what's happening.

One breath.

What's happening right now?

 

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New Retreat Location

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Our retreat this Saturday, "A Meditative Journey; Movement, Meditation and Deep Relaxation," has moved to St. George's church in Arlington.  Here's a map.

This is a 'practice retreat' with rounds of movement, relaxation and vipassana meditation and less emphasis on dharma talks, though I'm sure I'll have something to say here and there.

Most of the day is in social silence, but we will have time for questions and discussion at the end of the day.

I believe we still have a few spaces available and you can register online here.

This is one of my most favorite retreats.

 

What I Did On My Winter Vacation

It had been a long while since we'd taken a real vacation, so Tara and I headed out for an adventure filled with the following criteria:  quiet, warmth, swimming, snorkeling and diving. We went to St. John's in the USVI, which is about 80% National Park, looking for time away to renew and sharpen our skills in the art of Having Fun.

 

We settled on the south side of the island, which is more desert-like, undeveloped and remote.

 

We were also shielded from the northern swells, which were particularly rowdy on our arrival.

 

With the grace of good health, we explored many of the cays and points on the south side, most of which were only accessible by 4wd, hiking or boat.

There's something edgy about snorkeling in remote areas.  While we are both confident swimmers and with wet suits, felt both warm and buoyant, I was aware that at the furthest point in many of our ventures we were often a half-mile swim to a half mile rock scramble to a rutted road to a long drive to anything remotely medical.

 

Fortunately we had nothing but good fortune.  While the reefs had degraded in the years we'd been away, there was still a raw beauty that continually kept me inspired and awake.  We swam with turtles and tracked an octopus swimming and then magically congealed into a little ball under a rock.  A big manta ray swam inches under me in shallow water and we watched crabs stuffing themselves on sea veggies as we floated by.

At one point the variety of fish racing around the coral outcropping was so overwhelming I started laughing.  Who invented these crazy-looking creatures?  Occasionally I would wonder if I was dreaming.

It seemed clear that the process of natural selection was exquisitely precise and conditional.  The little blue fish with the sparkling sides seemed only to exist only between three and ten feet of depth and only with a certain type of coral, while the long-nosed, spindly ones never seemed to go more than six inches under the surface, and only in a specific temperature.

Each day we learned more, saw more of this exquisitely sensitive world.

 

Ten days I think is the perfect length for a getaway.  Like being on a meditation retreat, it takes time to let go of the past and get immersed into the present.

 

 

 

 

(As an experiment I took all photographs on my iPhone and edited them on my iPad with the the Snapseed photo editor.)

 

What We See

My family were camera buffs. Many an evening was spent looking at slides of our adventures in nature. My first camera was a Brownie.  Then I moved on to someone's discarded Minolta, which led to picking up a Photomic Nikon from a wealthy kid in high school who wanted to upgrade.

A professional level camera led me to countless hours in the darkroom, working for my high school and college papers. That led to a job as a stringer for the Rockford-Register Star, the second largest paper in Illinois next to the Chicago Tribune. From there, freelance work.  I actually made money.

I've had a large format camera down to a tiny Rollei with a Zeis lens. That little camera didn't have a viewfinder. I did 'hyper focal distance shooting,' which means guessing. Amazing shots with that little guy and an increased confidence in shooting.

Now I'm using my iPhone a lot.  I just love the instant feedback and capacity to edit on the fly.

It's shaping what I see and the mundane comes so much more alive.

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What Remains

 

 

There's an old joke that claims your first and last birthdays are similar.  Someone  explains to you it's your birthday and there are a lot of strangers standing around looking at you.
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My father turned 87 on Sunday and I drove up to Pennsylvania to join in the celebration with some family members.  My sister-in-law made his favorite raisin cake, which his grandmother would make on a coal-burning stove.  We sang a very out of tune "Happy Birthday" and all the residents of his Alzheimer's unit who were present enough joined in the treats.
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My dad loves the company and attention.  He's never quite sure who I am, but he recognizes me when I walk into the room and listens attentively when he asks me where I live and what I do.
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Despite the nature of his mental decline, his trademark sense of humor remains.  It's fascinating to see how much his sense of comedy now relies immediately on the present moment.
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Any laughter or smile lights up something inside.
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The Men's Retreat

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We just completed the 5th annual Men's Retreat this weekend.  Almost 70 men rolled in to share the adventure.

Movement, breath, social silence and meditation drews us inward and inquiry and sharing in partners and small groups drew us into relationship with each other.  Differences in wealth, professions, cultural backgrounds and sexual orientation seemed to melt as we explored common inquiries into what it means to be a man in these trying times.

Our final round of questions took me to the heart of what it means to be awake in heart and mind:

What am I most committed to in my life right now?

What do  I need to be feel more whole?

Some find it easy to respond to the first question.  The second question takes us into a deeper sense of vulnerability and into a more profound sense of relationship.

If you're interested in exploring more, a new group is starting up in DC called Men Meeting for Meditation, or M3.  Here's a link for more information.

This is a recent start up and you are welcome to join in.

 

 

Wise Speech

"What You Can't Communicate Controls You." When I first heard that edict year ago, I instantly recognized how true that was for me.

In difficult communications I could never find the right words and found myself thrown around by my anxiety around conflict, namely my need to be liked and my desire to do as little harm as possible.

Often my communications would err on the side of not being truthful and sucking up some hurt or would boil over in frustration or anger, resulting in a much more complicated mess.  I erred on the side of not even trying and felt amazingly confined and bottled up.

Then I learned some models for communication that helped me speak with less blame and more ownership of my experience and I could feel my heart flowing again.

The Buddha taught extensively on  Skillful Speech.

A quick summary:

1. Be kind

2. Tell the truth

3. Be aware of how the other person is listening and

4. Be timely

These guidelines are challenging.  The only way we can be kind and tell the truth is  when we shift our consciousness to a place that lessens or removes blame.

I've found Non-Violent Communication (NVC) to be a most amazing modality for communication, particularly when it comes to difficult conversations.  NVC forces us to reflect on:

1. What can we agree actually happened?

2   What do I feel?

3. What's the unmet need?  What was I hoping for?

4. What life-affirming request might I make?

These inquiries slow down the process and force us to investigate what's true.  Oftentimes these questions reveal our 'story' which is usually colored by embellishments or tinged with some form of aversion, clinging or delusion.

Eventually we discover the corollary to that initial statement:  What you can communicate sets you free.

Some links you might enjoy:

More on NVC

The NVC DC community

My talk on Wise Speech

 

Image of the Week: Geese in Flight

It's always a debate as to how much to edit an image. Some say the right thing to do is leave the image as natural as possibly while others claim it's OK to tweak a bit ... to lighten shadows, saturate the color just a wee bit to bring out the best in the image.

I was in the Keep It Utterly Natural Camp, but since I've been doing photo editing on my iPad I'm having a blast in the Manipulation Camp.  This morning I took off for the river with the fog dense, thick and smoky, hoping  to get some good shots as it would burn off.  Most of the shots I took were grey with little color available as there was so little light.

So I took to my editing tools and came up with this.  Cool.