“Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind rest at peace. The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return. They grow and flourish and then return to the Source. Returning to the Source is stillness, which is the way of Nature. The way of Nature is unchanging.” ~Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching what an extraordinary/ordinary anniversary day marking the 45th moment of sun gazing on the 279th day of the poetic peace pilgrimage in the 9th moon on my mother’s 95th birthday which falls on the International Day of Peace – such a wealth of riches… the energy of 9 is reverberating and echoing and cascading today… harvesting, completion, letting go… a moment of saluting endings/beginnings, evolving into light, expanding into love… embodying 9’s energy as Hermit, Hermes with the lamp radiating wisdom for all to share, riding a peace wave of superabundance flowing in the blessingway of unconditional infinite love and gratitude… may we all rest peacefully in the lap of the divine mother warmed by the embrace of the central sun… and, may this celebration of peace take flight around the world with every breath, in every moment, on every day… may we be peace now and now and now… ~ Chinook Blessing We call upon the earth, our planet home, with its beautiful depths and soaring heights, its vitality and abundance of life, and together we ask that it Teach us, and show us the Way. We call upon the mountains, Saddle mountain and Wahkiakum mountain, the Willapa Hills, the summits of intense silence, and we ask that they: Teach us, and show us the Way. We call upon the waters that rim the earth, the waters of Our great river the I-a-gayte-imas, the waters of Willapa Bay, And all of the waters the flowing [sic] our rivers and streams, the water that falls Upon us, and we ask that they Teach us, and show us the Way. We call upon the land which grows our food, the nurturing Soil that sustains our lives, we ask that they Teach us, and show us the Way. We call upon the forests, the great cedar trees reaching Strongly to the sky with earth in their roots and the heavens in their Branches, cedar tree is the keeper of all Knowledge, and we ask them to Teach us, and show us the Way. We call upon the creatures of the fields and forests and the Seas, our brothers and sisters Lilu the Wolf, Emulak the elk, And Mauich the Deer, Chak-cahk the Eagle, the great Whales and the Sturgeon, and the Salmon people who share Our Chinook waters Teach us, and show us the Way. We call upon all those who have lived on this earth, our Ancestors and our friends, who dreamed the best for future Generations, and upon whose lives our lives are built, and With thanksgiving, we call upon them to Teach us, and show us the Way. And lastly, we call upon all that we hold most sacred, the Presence and power of the Great Spirit Which flows through all the Universe, to be with us to Teach us, and show us the Way. Delivered by Chinook Tribal Chief Gary Johnson in Chinook homelands, November 18, 2005.
on this momentous day, this day of the largest climate action ever on planet earth, this kickoff day of a week of actions and a forty day climate meditation, the pilgrimage lands me in the home of my origin for my mother’s bearthday celebration… today, as people of consciousness all over the earth wake up to the climate emergency and demand change and in honor of all the children of the earth who are asking the adults to join them in solidarity for the Climate Strike today, i am joining in prayer for Mother Earth for 40 days.
Let’s pray for Mother Earth together. Guru Amar Das wrote this Shabad in India hundreds of years ago. We practice it today to bring healing to our Mother Earth. Prayer is powerful. Hold this prayer with us: “When the Earth calls out in distress, the One answers with ease and strength, and there is peace in the land.” We will practice this Shabad 11 times a day for 40 days to help us as human beings break any negative habits that block us from the expansion of awareness regarding the climate crisis. ~ When the earth is in distress, it attunes itself with love and sends out a prayer. The True One hears it, and with total ease is pleased to give Its strength and steadiness. It sends a command to the Power of Rain, and the rain pours down in torrents. The wealth of grain and corn grows thick. A person cannot describe its value. Oh Naanak, appreciate the Divine Identity. You, Divine One, cause the life-giving food to be given to all the creatures. Eating this, peace grows, and the cycle of pain comes no more. ~
By reciting this Shabad 11 times a day (or for 11 minutes) for 40 days as a global community, we can rewrite the destiny of the earth and adjust our habits to develop new habits that serve the highest good for Mother Earth and all.
every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering… ~ ah, a day of winging it across the vast skysea and being a celestial chanting instrument of peace for every moment is pregnant with the promise of peace, our attention and intention manifest it with every breath our consciously saying/feeling… i am peace, we are all peace with every breath… join me now in invoking a peace meditation… ~ We call all noble-hearted people to find within the light of love and divinity that dwells in them from immemorial times, since their souls have existed. May this light … expand on the earth showering her face with peace and harmony. May this light … calm and harmonize the black shadow of war, violence, hate and disharmony . May this light … fill the hearts of all people and the sites of nations where the shadow of violence has found a place to stay. May this light reach the hearts and minds of ALL the Heads of State, of ALL leaders of the revolution from right to left from north to south. We extend our profound gratitude to all the Mamos (Shamans) of the world, all men, women and children from different cultures, races and creeds, from all cardinal directions who have joined us and those who will join us in this effort to raise a prayer for peace and nonviolence . We wash away the cries of the distressed, the blood of the victims of violence, the pain of their families. May they be replaced by the innocent laughter of children, the ideals of youth and the wisdom of life of our elders. May we no longer know the signs of strife: to hear birds singing sorrows, nor watch clouds stained with blood, nor feel breezes intense with heat, nor see rivers swollen by the mountains’ tears . May new fraternal bonds of unity and peace formed through our invocation together embrace humanity in harmony with itself and with nature. ~ shanti shanti shantihi
every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering… ~ This is how you change when you go to the orchard where the heart opens: you become fragrance and the light that burning oil gives off, long strands of grieving hair, lion and at the same time, gazelle. You’re walking alone without feet, as riverwater does. The taste of a wine that is bitter and sweet, seen and unseen, neither wet nor dry, like Jesus reaching to touch. A new road appears without desirous imagining, inside God’s breath, empty, where you quit saying the name and there’s no distance, no calling dove-coo. A window, a wild rose at the field’s edge, you’ll be me, but don’t feel proud or happy. Bend like the limb of a peach tree. Tend those who need help. Disappear three days with the moon. Don’t pray to be healed, or look for evidence of “some other world.” You are the soul and medicine for what wounds the soul. ~ Rumi ~ ~ walking the camino of peace has been such a deepening and widening of the heart of sky transporting me into a cave of illumination and silence and is a perfect prelude to the next adventures including leaving on a jet plane in a few hours to celebrate my mother’s ninety-fifth birthday and begin on friday a week of climate action and forty days devoted to climate meditation. and saturday is the international day of peace and monday is equinox… for the next week, i’ll be meeting you in the field out beyond and on the inner plane as i’ll be unplugged and tuning in through the ethers… namaste’
every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering… ~ a day of listening to falling water and dancing with the rain… a day of walking without feet like riverwater flowing home to source… a day of gathering in the river below the river singing and celebrating motherwaters… a day of rising and falling waves, always being ocean raindrops falling home peacefully to the sea, to the sea… ~ such a delicious day, this next to last day of walking the camino of st francis as a dancing raindrop moving in the rhythm of an ancient sea turtle floating in the akasha re-membering… yesterday marked 2100 days of daily journeying/journaling the poetic peace pilgrimage along this rainbow trail… today is the fifty-sixth anniversary of the horrific bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama taking the lives of four astonishing lights: Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise NcNair and shocking the nation and the world… their tragic deaths marked a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement, ultimately, contributing to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964… instead of provoking a race war, Birmingham Sunday rallied people from around the globe to support the civil rights cause… let us pause for a moment to re-member all astonishing lights paving the way for critical progress and bending the arc of the universe towards justice… today also marks the eighth anniversary of the occupy movement, another bending of the arc towards justice, which inspired me three months later to occupy the abundance of infinite love and gratitude… today i also remember the dream of five years ago of the tidal wave facing me, being in a state of suspension pondering whether i could open myself to the strength flowing through the cosmos, do i have it in me to hold the tension, to feel the dissolution, the loss, can i summon the courage to walk the path with heart… today i see great spirit in the wave in a new way… as a dolphin/eagle/dog… the more i look into the wave, the more i tune into the breath of great spirit, the more i can deepen into breaking through to freedom… yes, Don Juan, all paths are the same for the journey is the destination, it is the process that matters, the coming home to the heart… yes, choose a path with heart, follow it wholeheartedly rejoicing in this moment of the extravagant journey that is life, the quintessential pilgrimage… may we all travel a path with heart open to our ever more abundant cosmos generously gifting us whatever is needed… blissings!
every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering… ~ All paths are the same, leading nowhere. Don Juan ~ yes, Don Juan, all paths are the same for the journey is the destination, it is the process and not the outcome, the coming home to the heart is what it’s all about, this magical mystery tour, the buen camino, the good read road, this project of awakening, this being in the present moment. the now here… so, may we all choose a path with heart, any path resonating as one with heart, follow it, and then rejoice and laugh knowing life will be over altogether too soon… and, may we all cultivate the feeling with every breath of having everything needed for this extravagant journey that is life, the quintessential pilgrimage… as walking the camino of st francis winds down, may i/we continue traveling on a peaceful path with heart, a path where we are at one with the pathfinder… om shanti, shanti, shantihi…
every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering… on this ides of september, with the inbreath i’m re-membering a lucid dream of four years ago when a familiar image re-visited me, a towering tidal wave is suddenly upon me… yes, i have butterflies but no panic as i witness the wall of water for deep inside i know what to do – dive right in and go down into the ocean deeps… this dream brings me right to another celebration of today – it’s astonishing light of being day and today i shine a light on the sacred… ~ We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share. ~ Maya Angelou ~ ~ this coming friday may be the biggest day of climate action ever and may greta thunberg’s (the most prominent voice of the climate movement) dream be rea-eyesed… yes, may we put an end to the war on nature and may we all join in living the Dalai Lama’s Vow… ~ For as long as space endures And for as long as living beings remain So then may I too abide To dispel the misery of the world. ~ while walking the camino and standing in the light of this foretelling moon she declared today that it’s time on the clock of the world to live as one in the deep peace of flowing waters, to honor and respect everything as sacred and interconnected, to stand in the truth of interdependence real-eye-sing we all need each other, it’s survival of the nurturingest… welcome to this brave new world that mirrors the ancient ones, living together on the banks of the river of joy where everything is moving and changing and flowing from moment to moment… the universal stream of life is consciousness, our shared consciousness co-creating a sustainable dream of the earth and bringing us together in a field of love to embody and manifest heavenearth… yes, foretelling harvest moon, we are listening, seeing and feeling the seventh generation is awakening and arising leading us into the promised land of healing and harmony among all our relations with peace and love and joy becoming the coin of the realm, the currentsea of cosmic unity… om shanti shanti shantihi
every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering… as i walk the camino of peace today under the harvest full moon with the sun still shining in virgo, i continue being challenged, appropriately so, in this sacred moonspell of september to contemplate what is sacred to me/us, so sacred that i’d/we’d go beyond usual comfort zones and give the fullest measure of my/our energies… this contemplation is one that plays like a broken record and one where i love bringing up the image of both the inner and outer cosmic blue stars as the whirling primordial space, the womb of chaos giving birth to dancing stars, big dreams, brave new worlds, that space of breaking free of convention and daring to dream with wild abandon… ~ A MIND THAT HAS NO WALLS, THAT IS NOT BURDENED WITH ITS OWN ACQUISITIONS, ACCUMULATIONS, WITH ITS OWN KNOWLEDGE, A MIND THAT LIVES TIMELESSLY, INSECURELY – TO SUCH A MIND, LIFE IS AN EXTRAORDINARY THING. SUCH A MIND IS LIFE ITSELF, BECAUSE LIFE HAS NO RESTING PLACE. – JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI – ~ yes, this is the dancing blue star, free and easy wanderer, imaginal cell i aspire to being and the soul draws me towards… so, dear sangha of free and easy wanderers, what is sacred to you, calling you to break your heart open?
every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering… thousandfold thanks, sister moon, heart of abundance, horn of plenty for this spell of basking in your bounty, bathing in your light, drinking in balance, flowing in harmony, gathering in your generously streaming of quintessence and slowly harvesting the fruits in this turn of the wheel calling us to come within to listen to the song of our soul, the pied piper of life… under this moon of water with a mystical bent, what is our soul calling us to do with our wild and precious life? dance to move your energy through the body to embody the full moon’s energy… let your prayers flow through… this moon under yhe virgo sun also asks us to go within to see how we are being called to of service… how do we express our reverence for earth? what do we need to let go of? what inspirations are welling up collectively? now, let’s take this moment to conspire, to breathe together in gratitude gathering the quintessence re-membering who we truly are… loving sparks of light… ~ I am not these eyes and what they see, I am the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… settle into spacious awareness saying… I am not these ears and what they hear, I am the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… breathing in and out and simply being saying… I am not this mouth and what it tastes, I am the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… I am not these hands and what they touch, I am the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… I am not this nose and what it smells, I am the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… now noticing thoughts arising and memories saying… I am not these thoughts, I am the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… I am not these memories, I am the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… now seeing the whole body and feeling the body from within the body saying… I am not this body, I am the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… breathing in feeling simply loving awareness… breathing out letting go of everything except resting in the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… thank you for filling us with lovingkindness thank you for supporting us in everything thank you for holding us in peace and ease shanti, shanti, shantihi…
every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering… i awaken on this second day of the third year of the most conscious, deepest, and most expansive awakening initiation in the glow of boddhicitta, the awakened heart opening ever wider and wider to the suffering of the world… in the buddhist teaching of love, there are four elements with the first being maitri – friendship, brotherhood/sisterhood/beinghood, loving-kindness… the second is karuna – the capacity to understand the suffering and help remove and transform it – compassion… mudita is the third element – joy… the last element is upeksha – nondiscrimination which is a higher form of love… The four qualities, also call the four unlimited minds, are limitless – infinite love… the bodhisattva of love is in us, boddicitta is our heart… so i’m feeling so softened this day on the camino simply binge totally surrendered in the present moment breathing peace and listening deeply… ~ For Presence Awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence. Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses. Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon. Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path. Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity. May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame. May anxiety never linger about you. May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul. Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention. Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul… ~ John O’Donohue ~ ~ may we experience each day as a sacred gift woven around our boddicitta heart of wonder… namaste, beloveds
