On Monday, Marie will facilitate. She shares:
With tragedies unfolding across the world and across this country, I have been exploring practices that bring me peace, strength, and yes, dare I say it, joy. In fact, experiencing peace and joy helps me to generate more strength and resilience. But, how can we do this, in a world that is so full of suffering?
In his book, Embracing Each Moment, Anam Thubten writes about "the sacredness of everything."
"Sacredness is not as a belief system, it is a timeless truth. It is always there, just like the clouds in the sky. Just like the trees growing in the mountains, sacredness is always there. It is part of existence. The consequence of losing our connection with this truth can sometimes by quite dangerous. And when we lose this understanding, we develop a mechanical relationship with the world, within as well as without. We develop a mechanical relationship with ourselves and also with the outer world, the world of nature, and with humanity as a whole."
How can we feel this sacredness? We can pause and step free of our machine-like mind. "The moment you allow yourself to become completely aware of what you are doing, there is a pause in your consciousness. In that pause, your conditioned mind is no longer operating there is a restudies, and if you allow yourself to be in that restedness, then you may feel this sacredness everywhere; the awareness of this sacredness becomes the true medicine."
As I've experimented with this teaching, I've discovered something I'll call an "invitation" to connecting with sacredness. The invitations vary, depending the stimulus around me. I might notice the colors of a dahlia in bloom as I walk to the car and then stop to drink in the beauty of that vision (instead of hurrying to the car). Or, it could be listening to a child and realizing that, despite their words, what they really want is a cuddle (instead of a reaction to their words). The more aware I am, the more invitations I see. The more invitations I see (and accept), the more aware I am of the sacredness of everything. And then, what really helps me is to seek out the invitations. I might have read the newspaper, feel devastated and react with the mechanical mindset that Thubten describes. However, if I seek out an invitation, I can reconnect with that sacredness and strengthen my connection with the world, inside and out.
What "invitations" move you to connect with the sacredness that is always there? I hope you will share these with us on Monday night. Please feel free to bring something, if the "invitation" is tangible.
