Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: Buddhism

I am Made of You

You do live in a physical world,
but there is nothing about your physical world
that is not spirit-based.
There is nothing about your physical world
that is not Source-based.

~ Abraham Hicks

October 2019 I started reading books about non-duality by Rupert Spira. Yesterday the same friend who introduced me to Spira’s writing last year suggested I check out his teachings on being aware of awareness. This comes at a perfect time for me as I am working on the sensory systems information published in Healing with Language, the SCS/NLP training manual.

This comes at a perfect time for “us” as we are bombarded by input from the world through these sensory systems! If some of what you see, hear, think and feel, is keeping you awake at night or causing your blood pressure to go up, causing your concern by concretizing your perceptions of separateness, read on.

Simply put: Whatever we are experiencing, we are aware of that.

Most often, however, this simple experience of being aware is overlooked.

Spira gave a powerful example of this. Think of a flashlight. We can shine light on everything else, but we cannot shine the light on the light bulb from which the beam is shining. The light beam is the source — it can only shine on something that is “other than.”

This flashlight of awareness shines light on your thoughts, feelings, sensations, tastes, smells, memories, beliefs, perceptions, and opinions — all “other than.”

If awareness is incapable of turning around and looking at itself, then how are we going to know our true nature? Let your attention relax or sink or fall backwards into its source….

Let go.

Relax.

Fall backwards.

Sink.

This reminds me of “How to Activate your Diamond Light Body” from Frequency: The Power of Personal Vibration, by Penney Pierce.

1. Quiet yourself, center your attention in your body, be in the present moment 100 percent, and create calmness and receptivity. Recall some past positive experiences.

2. Imagine that behind your back, your diamond light body appears. This body looks just like you but is made of pure transparent light and has no wounds or blockages. Your light body radiates wisdom, love, harmony, and the knowledge of abundance. Your light body steps forward and puts its hands on your shoulders.

3. In your imagination, feel the higher vibration of your light body; welcome it and attune to the frequency. As you do, your light body steps inside you, merging with you seamlessly and easily.

4. Your light body matches up with your physical body perfectly, each light body part finding its physical body part: the light heart merges with the physical heart, the light cells match the physical cells, the light brain joins the physical brain. Take some time to scan through the various parts of your body as this process occurs.

5. Allow yourself to let go into the light body as it takes over, saying, ‘You know how to run this brain, this heart, these lungs, how to use these hands, this voice. Please show me how. I trust you to renew me, reorganize me, and teach me.’ Fall into your own light and feel supported.

6. An odd thing happens as you let your diamond light body take over to guide you, a saturation point is reached where you ‘flip’ and realize you are the diamond light body. Your identity shifts. As you hear the voice of guidance from the light body, you realize it’s your voice. You might say, ‘I am here now, and I know what’s real.’

7. Let your diamond light saturate not only every cell, but your emotions, feelings, and thoughts as well. Let it work on your brain and body, dissolving shadows, filling in gaps, upgrading all your systems, erasing worry and doubt, opening new pathways, and reprogramming you with updated frequencies. Remain in the silence.

8. Now, ‘strike the tuning fork’ of your diamond light body’s vibration and let waves of your light and your original tone ripple through every tiny space in your body and out through your skin into the space around you. Let it expand as far into the universe as it wants. As your own diamond light expands, it joins with the diamond light it encounters in the presence everywhere. In the center of the light, is your home frequency.

In the Christian New Testament (Galations 3:28) this idea is stated clearly, and in churches all over the world people sing the truth: In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.

In Meditation is Simply to BE, Rupert Spira says it this way:

It is this disinterested but completely allowing contemplation of the body in the world that the body loses its ‘me-ness’ and the world loses its ‘not-me-ness.’ In this way bodily sensations no longer cry out ‘I am separate, I am exclusively you” and perceptions of the world no longer cry out, ‘I am separate, I am not you.’ Everything sings out, ‘I am made of You.’

If you find yourself tempted to shine your light on republicans or democrats or those who agree or disagree with you, relax into your diamond light body.

Let go.

Relax.

Fall backwards.

Sink.

Our home frequency, our Source, knows I am made of You…

(*Note – Send email to debra@scs-matters.com if you would like my audio recording of How to Activate Your Diamond Light Body.

October 25, 2020
Our Window of Tolerance

“Resilience is not something
we have or we don’t have.
It is something that
we can train
in our minds and bodies.”
~ Liz Stanley

I’ve made a promise to myself to post a blog each day until after the Presidential election. Putting my fingers on the keyboard grounds me. I am choosing to widen my window of tolerance.

Trauma can narrow our window of tolerance, and human life inherently exposes us to trauma (admittedly, some more than others).

I recently was listening to a Sounds True podcast with Liz Stanley and Tami Simon about stress arousal and the way past trauma relates to our ability to think creatively, solve problems, and access choice in any given situation. The podcast is where I heard the phrase “window of tolerance.”

Whether or not we consciously know it, humans have both a “survival brain” (bottom-up processing) and a “thinking brain” (top-down processing). Even without knowing the terms, you do how good it feels when these two processing systems are collaborating.

We have been expertly trained at powering through situations — often ignoring our body’s emotions, sensations, and physical pain. Stanley refers to this common phenomenon as “thinking-brain override.”

“Survival-brain hijacking” is when the heavy emotions trigger stress arousal and impulsively drive our behavior, sometimes with horrific results.

Meditation (training in mindfulness) can help “widen” our window of tolerance and assist us to react more skillfully and to avoid destructive extremes.

Here is a simple tool for any time you notice yourself feeling stress: Move your attention to the information coming from your senses. “Feel your feet on the ground, notice where your butt is touching the chair; pay attention to the breath coming in and out through your nose; notice the air is cool on inhale and warmer on the exhale; listen to the waves or the wind or the motor of the refrigerator.”

Notice… notice… notice.

Smell some essential oils.

Slowly dissolve a lozenge or small piece of hard candy in your mouth. Perhaps that is why the ones with holes in the center are called Life Savers!

Just looking out your window helps….

Here are the east and west views from my window this morning during yoga.

Over these next two weeks, let’s each intentionally widen our window of tolerance….

October 24, 2020
Pondering Becoming a Pundit

“You’re braver than you believe,
stronger than you seem
and smarter than you think.”
~ Christopher Robin

A precious friend told me about 45 years ago that I should be a political pundit. According to Wikipedia, a pundit is a person who offers to mass media their opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically political analysis, the social sciences, technology or sport) on which they are knowledgeable (or can at least appear to be knowledgeable), or considered a scholar in said area.

Having watched the 2020 Presidential debates, I began the day today by asking for a revelation of truth about all of this.

From my journal:

V:
How would you articulate what you already see?

D:
1. Whomever is elected, we will still have some navigating to do.
2. Whomever is elected, we can choose peace.
3. Whomever is elected, we can continue mean-spiritedness.
4. Whomever is elected, the need to tap into the well of wisdom remains.

V:
There is nothing more you need to see.

My soul longs to hear leaders courageous enough to speak the truth to a collective courageous enough to recognize truth when they hear it: “I know uncertainty can be unpleasant. While we want definitive answers to what we will do and what we will encounter, the truth is, we don’t yet know. I can promise you I will remind myself over and over that we access more wisdom and creativity in unity than in divisiveness. I assure you I aspire to have the humility to ask those who see things differently to help me see what brought them to their conclusion so we can gain wisdom together. It is without a doubt that I would be lying to make campaign promises to you beyond these truths….”

Perhaps we would do well to make Stephen Covey’s 1989 book,7 Habits of Highly Effective People, compulsory in all education forums. You might appreciate a summary of the 7 Habits.

Habit 1: Be Proactive® …
Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind® …
Habit 3: Put First Things First® …
Habit 4: Think Win-Win® …
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood® …
Habit 6: Synergize® …
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw®

For the theme of today’s blog, lets focus on Habit # 6:

Innovate and problem solve with those who have a different point of view. To put it simply, synergy means “two heads are better than one.” Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn’t just happen on its own.

“If the person you are talking to
doesn’t appear to be listening,
be patient.
It may simply be that
he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”
~ Winnie the Pooh

In 2004, Covey published The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. It seems most fitting for us now:

The crucial challenge of our world today is this: to find our voice and inspire others to find theirs. It is what Covey calls the 8th Habit. The 8th Habit is the answer to the soul’s yearning for greatness, the organization’s imperative for significance and superior results, and humanity’s search for its “voice.”

“A little consideration,
a little thought for others,
makes all the difference.”
—Eeyore

* Special thanks to Winnie the Pooh and friends for the powerful pundit points!

October 23, 2020
On the Shark’s Terms
Like my parents taught me,
‘There are no monsters in the sea,
only the ones we make up in our heads.’
~ Christina Zenato

A friend shared an amazing video of a woman swimming with sharks. But this woman is not just “swimming” with the sharks. Christina Zenato, a professional diver, is removing fish hooks caught in their flesh!

Christina says, “It’s done on the shark’s terms, not mine.”

Amen!

Christina has a box containing over 300 hooks….

I wrote in my journal earlier today:

Dear Holy Spirit,

I am so impatient with John. What will help me be kind?

(Note* The catalyst for this latest round of impatience was him wanting to use the tablet Stacey gave him instead of lugging around the huge 3-ringed binder. He went the home of a music friend who has software he likes a lot. John returned minus his tablet, excited that his friend was going to set it up for him. Soon, John’s friend came, unable to complete the download without my email address. I get triggered into frustration at having to manage John’s technology as well as my own, especially when it is something I am not fluent in. True confession: I do not know how to work this Android tablet, nor do I know anything about this software….)

The VOICE in my journal responded:

V: The impatience is not with him, it is within you. Like so many humans currently, strong emotions around the helplessness related to the pandemic are arising. Are you providing enough space for all you are experiencing? We know you are navigating a lot, but so was Viktor Frankl.

Man’s Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Living through horrific happenings, Frankl was able to find purpose and positive feelings using his psychotherapeutic method.

A quick search brought up this quotation:
During the Oakwood Retreat, John Orr shared having asked Aaron why human incarnation is so difficult. Aaron said we choose incarnation because the catalysts for growth are so readily available on this heavy density plane. Aaron said there is a plane on which soul growth can happen without so much difficulty, but without a physical or emotional body (only a mental and spiritual body), the soul growth is soooooo slow, like millions of years. Aaron said, “Soul’s who are impatient for growth choose the earth plane!”

Between stimulus and response there is a space….

You can watch for “divine” themes in each day. Howard Thurman’s Word for the Day from Gratefulness.org : Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.

In that space is our power to choose our response….

And the Deep Spring Center Thought for Today from Aaron:
Perhaps as you sit there by the water, let’s use a big sloppy wet dog as example, the dog comes running along and jumps across your lap. You’re wet, you’re covered with sand. You have a scratch where his claws dug into the flesh. He’s licking your feet and it’s an unpleasant feeling. Ultimate reality has not gone anywhere; pure awareness hasn’t gone anywhere; but for the moment you can’t access it. Your mind and body come back to a lower vibration. You breathe a few times. A friend comes over and dries you off with a towel. You open up, see the dog frolicking so happily, catch his joy a bit, and you open back up into pure awareness.

In our response lies our growth and our freedom….

May all beings experience the beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.
October 18, 2020
Mercury Retrograde! October 14 – November 3

Belief can be overrated. If one did not believe in gravity, would gravity still have an effect? Of course, it would. It is likely that astrological influences are having an effect on us in much the same way.

Mercury went retrograde on October 14, where it will stay through November 3.

Tuesday, November 3, 2020, is election day….

How Mercury In Retrograde Is Affecting Your Body And Energy Levels – It’s all happening! by Susannah Guthrie

Expect to have more or less energy than you’re used to, particularly of the nervous variety.

October 2020’s Mercury retrograde will either sap you of your usual zest and leave you feeling lethargic, or fill you with chaotic, scattered energy that might have you feeling restless, unfocused and anxious.

In our third year of Dharma Path, Barbara Brodsky and Arron (check out Aaron’s new blog) have us working with a wonderful practice to navigate strong emotions in a way that prevents us from being overcome by them.

Here are the basic steps of “Akashic Field Practice.”

1. I open myself to this field in which there are both spaciousness and calm and peace, and disturbances. Because of the essence of my practice, I am willing to experience the disturbance. I’m not afraid of the disturbance, because I know that the spaciousness is much vaster than the disturbance. And so, instead of focusing on the disturbance, I focus on the spaciousness.

(We are encouraged to think of holding and comforting these uncomfortable emotions like we would hold a distressed baby, seeing the baby as a more infantile consciousness, and we ourselves are able to hold that infantile consciousness with mature consciousness. Saying to ourselves, “It is going to be OK. I love you. You are safe.” This holding, comforting, supporting is based on our highest intention for highest good of all beings, harm to none, and lovingkindness.)

2. Invite spirit (God/Higher self/Love) to support your choice for kindness.

3. Ask in your heart of any entities (angels/guides/masters) that come, “Do you come for the highest good, in service to all beings, and harm to none?” Wait until you get a clear YES.

4. Invite all loving beings (entities) to get closer as you clearly state your need. “My body is shaking. I really feel rotten. I’m not emotionally scared so much as my heart is pounding and I feel the fear in my whole body. Please help.”

Imagine feeling a warm energy moving throughout your body; loving energy surrounding you; energy clearing, as spaciousness opens up inside you.

Remember YOU always have access to this energy. This is always available.

Music can help your “mature” consciousness calm your “infantile” consciousness, especially kind during this Mercury retrograde over the next few weeks. I love Karen Druker’s Gentle with Myself, and Cecelia’s Amazing Grace (with whale sounds!).

October 14, 2020 Daily Word: Let Go, Let God

I work in divine partnership to accomplish great things.

A surfer harnesses the ocean’s power to complete the exhilarating ride to shore. I, too, place myself within the divine wave of God’s power. I neither move out in front of it by forcing my will nor do I hold back out of fear and insecurity. Only when I center myself in the wave can I discern the answer or direction I seek. I let go into the magnificent power of God and ride the wave that is my inner guidance and direction.

In prayer, I release the need to know what is going to happen and trust that my highest good is unfolding. I do what is mine to do, leaving the greater part to God. I listen to my intuitive knowing, heed the guidance I receive, and then follow through on my inner promptings with deliberate, purposeful action.

You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.—Psalm 31:3

October 14, 2020
Let it Shine!
We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

~ Pema Chödrön

This week’s Oakwood Retreat has been very intense. Staying at home for retreat has some benefits. You don’t have the expense of lodging or travel time, and you get to sleep in your own bed. Like all of life, though, everything holds its opposite.

The morning instruction on working skillfully with distortion and heavy emotions was soooooo relevant…

I have had one of the decidedly most unskillful weeks I have had for decades. When you are sitting in meditation for 6-8 hours, day after day, stuff will come up. The catalyst for my stuff was the (hopefully) last of the work to complete home repair related to the mold remediation. But vital to realize the catalyst (whatever the catalyst) is not the distortion. The distortion is how we relate to the what is triggering us.

On one walk, I saw two crickets. On another, about a half dozen earth worms. Twice I had a red-bellied woodpecker hanging right on my window! Every day that shrub is filled with the comings and goings of sparrows. But one morning I heard a disturbance, opened my eyes and saw that a hawk was actually in the middle of the shrub. I had six Blue Jays at the feeder one morning, and this morning I had four big crows.

Cricket totem: A sign of good luck in many cultures, cricket symbolizes initiative and intelligence, and having the gift of foresight.

Earthworm totem: Working old ground; examining the past and its effects upon present conditions; including exploring past lives.

Sparrow totem: Integrity, empowerment, persistence, hard work, peace and wisdom. Guides us to learn to work hard with all.

Woodpecker totem: The power of rhythm. Discrimination. Connected to the heartbeat of Mother Earth herself. Symbolizes the stimulation and awakening of new mental faculties. New ways to look at things — new wisdom and new rhythms to dance to.

Hawk totem: Represents focus, strength, and poise, and can show you your hidden abilities to lead yourself and others to a more positive outcome.

Blue Jay totem: Symbolized by assertiveness, determination, and above all, intelligence.

Crow totem: Watchful creatures with sharp and powerful foresight. An omen of transformation and change.

When you go on retreat, you practice noble silence. This does not just mean not talking. You are excused from any of the normal social politeness. No small talk, no anticipating others needs, no distracting yourself with discursive thought. You see clearly the weeds in your own garden. So I wrote a poem.
During the final sitting, my mind went back to some trauma I experienced while traveling to Europe in 2011 — this exact same week! Mind was churning trying to remember the details. What was the name of the country where I had gone to the exotic gardens? Thinking, grasping, trying to remember until I let my mind soften, like taking a step back, and simply intended access to the information. Pop! Monaco….

This is not a new lesson for me. I remember leaving the house a bit late with my earrings in my hand. Pulling up to the stop sign, the left earring slipped in but I could not find the hole in my right ear. The next stop sign, I tried again. Again without success. At the third stop sign I asked for help. Pop! The earring went right in and I heard a voice say, “We would have helped at the first stop sign if you had asked.”

I have wired lamps, lifted heavy objects, remembered things, found things, and received guidance regularly for a very long time. Our teacher, Aaron, was speaking of how the mundane mind can be very helpful to orchestrate some tasks. One student asked Aaron if he uses Barbara Brodsky’s mundane mind for working with the technology. Aaron replied, “No, I just invite the computer to co-create with me.”

The current conditions are chaotic. We need all the co-creation with spirit we can access. As Aaron said, “How can I save anyone if I can’t save myself?”

This week I saw a quotation by Thich Nhat Hanh: “The next Buddha may be a sangha.”

It definitely took a sangha to offer this wonderful week of focused dharma practice. Sharing a few notes from my journal:

You have come as midwives. You can be the midwife who is there in the room being calm or the one running around the room saying, “It isn’t coming quickly enough!”

Be with things as they are. Not stoically, but lovingly. Liberation means walking on the unstable ground and finding your own balance.

Allow the practice to ground us in the innate perfection without denial of the conditions.

Say, “I consecrate this effort to the good of all beings.”

Each time you are able to offer kindness in a difficult condition, it changes the world around you.

One day when we sang “This Little Light of Mine” the teacher said it is really a great big light, so I wrote new words to the tune:

This GREAT Big Light of Mine
(sing it to the tune of This Little Light of Mine)

This GREAT BIG light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine
This GREAT BIG light of mine
This light is divine
This GREAT BIG light of mine
Isn’t even really mine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it

Let it shine around your town
We can let it shine
We have help, we’re not alone
Please just let it shine
Let it shine when fear appears
We can let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine
October 10, 2020
Bless the Sea Snakes

Joel has been having ongoing challenges with his gmail account. I reached out to Rebecca, our wonderful webmaster, and she is on it. When he wrote saying, “I think I must have been cursed by the gods of the internet. What did I ever do to them….” I wrote back:

“Well, bless the sea snakes!!!! Rebecca is going to see if Geek Squad can help her help you!”

The following morning, Joel responded:

I don’t remember how the sea snakes got in this. They play a prominent role in Coleridge’s “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.” Everyone on the ship has died except for the “hero,” and the ship is floundering and adrift. The only person left alive on board is about to die. He has to bite his tongue to have enough moisture in his mouth to speak, but with what he thinks will be his last words, he blesses the sea snakes surrounding the vessel. With the blessing, the wind comes up, and the ship makes it back to England.

Recently I was listening to a dharma talk by Kyoun Sokuzan. Sokuzan met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a preeminent teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, in late 1973 and became a student. In 1974, Sokuzan attended the first session of Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. In 1975, he established the Dharma Study Group of Battle Creek, Michigan. The group is currently meeting via Zoom. When someone asked Sokuzan if we need protection from the coronavirus, Sokuzan answered, “You don’t need protection, but you ask for protection. You participate in the realm you are in.”

Continuing, “Everything is temporary. Work with it however it shows up in your neighborhood.”

This all comes as I see my mind grasping for a safe way to be with friends and family. I hear Sokuzan say, “Go into the darkness. That is where the light is.”

Human experience is polarized. I was one of those odd ducks who was anti-abortion and pro-legalization of abortion. A woman desperate not to birth a baby will take dangerous measures to end that pregnancy. Coat hangers are just one… Truth. Some people argue that making abortion legal motivates more women to choose that option. This is just not truth. The same argument is happening around the legalization of marijuana. Truth?

Sokuzan: “It’s all relative truth. You can’t see the truth.”

A friend stopped by briefly yesterday, willing to do me a huge favor. I had placed the two chairs on our front porch at the furthest distance. I donned my cute little kitty mask (a gift from my sister, Janis) and went out onto the porch. As my friend got out of her car, she saw me in my mask. “Do you want me to put a mask on?” she asked. She had one in the car. I said I would appreciate her putting on a mask.

My friend was obviously not comfortable in the mask she was wearing. Every few seconds she would need to adjust it. The mask just did not fit her face well. As I watched, I had the thought it was more like a thong than a bikini. I hate when my underpants ride up in the crack of my butt. I have never understood someone wearing a thong. Maybe it is like Erma Bombeck’s having said she does not eat chocolate cake — she just smears it on her hips and thighs because that is where it is going to end up!

Early in the pandemic, I began making masks that are fun. Many of those iterations have been shared in previous posts. Why? Because, as Sokuzan says, “It’s all relative truth.”

If my friend or I had been an asymptomatic spreader of the virus, would our actions have been enough to protect the other? Sokuzan said we don’t need protection but we do need to work with things however they are showing up.

Sokuzan used a Buddhist teaching term I had not previously run into, unless I had heard it and did not yet fully embody the dharma these words are pointing to. Trycycle has an excellent article on the teaching if you are interested. Here is the link: “Drive all blames into one.” From the article:

“Conveniently, blaming others allows us to avoid looking into our own role in the problems and conflicts we encounter. We look outward, but we do not look within. And even in looking outward, once we have assigned the blame, we go no further. So we do not get to the root of the problem. We stop short, satisfied that we are off the hook and someone else is at fault.”

I think a lot about my family. I take drive all blames into one to heart. If we went for a visit (as we soooooo want to do) and one of them was an asymptomatic spreader, and John or I got ill and/or died, who would be to blame?

“This slogan {drive all blames into one} is quite radical. Instead of blaming others, you blame yourself. Even if it is not your fault, you take the blame. It is important to distinguish this practice from neurotic self-blaming or the regretful fixation on your own mistakes and how much you are at fault. It also does not imply that you should not point out wrongdoing or blow the whistle on corruption. Instead, as you go about your life, you simply notice the urge to blame others and you reverse it.”

If my action exposed me to the virus, not even the virus is to blame. But if my action exposed someone else to the virus, I am responsible. It is simply how things showed up in the neighborhood. Drive all blames into one….

“Pay attention to how blaming arises and what patterns it takes. See what happens when you take on the blame yourself. Notice what changes in your own experience and in what you observe around you.”

A friend rented a hotel room near her daughter’s cottage as the extended family gathered for the Labor Day weekend. My friend took her own provisions, and she was masked and maintained safe-distance as she joined them for the wonderful celebration of her grandson’s 25th birthday.

Other friends are leaving this weekend to visit their son and family out of state. They, too, will stay in a hotel and enjoy time with the family out-of-doors.

Soon, in the Northern hemisphere, it will be winter. “What then?” you might ask.

Bless the sea snakes….

Everything is temporary.

September 11, 2020
Song for Someone

Sacred Stories

Feeling a sense of self-judgment and doubt, she asked for guidance related to whether a spiritual group she was practicing with was right for her.

In Buddhism, the antidote to doubt is faith, an active willingness to suspend self-judgment and to see for yourself what is true.

“A Song for Someone” by U2 came on and the line in the lyrics she heard was:

There is a light you can’t always see!

She realized this was the answer!

If there is a light
You can’t always see
And there is a world
We can’t always be
If there is a dark
Now we shouldn’t doubt
And there is a light
Don’t let it go out

She could see the mind state of doubt for what it is. And she was willing to see for herself what is true.

And this is a song
A song for someone
This is a song
A song for someone

July 8, 2020
49 Days

Sacred Stories

Chanting GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA from the heart sutra for 49 days to-the-day of transition is a significant act of love in the Buddhist tradition. PARASAMGATE means completely gone to the further shore. The prefix SAM is intensive in meaning: completely, thoroughly, altogether.

She had been chanting for the husband of a close friend.

“Saturday is the 49th day,” she told her friend.

“Saturday? Saturday is March 7. March 7 is his birthday!” her friend exclaimed.

They were both brought to silent awe realizing the perfection of the date of his transition positioning the 49th day of chanting to be on his birthday.

Completely gone to perfection.

Thoroughly blessed.

Altogether in love.

March 7, 2020
Hearing, Sitting, Touching, Breathing

For those who believe, no words are necessary.
For those who do not believe, no words are possible.

~Attributed to Saint Ignatius in Think of an Elephant : Combining Science and Spirituality for a Better Life (2007) by Paul Bailey, but earlier attributed to Franz Werfel, Philippine Studies (1953) by Ateneo de Manila, p. 269; also in Everest : The Mountaineering History (2000) by Walt Unsworth, p. 100.

I spent October 6-13, 2019 at a Deep Spring meditation retreat at Oakwood Retreat Center in Selma, Indiana. Great advice on how to respond to the question if you had a good retreat is to simply smile and say, “It was Divine.”

Truly, for those who have a practice of Vipassana (mindfulness), no words are necessary. For folks who admit to being terrified by the mere mention of seven days and seven nights of silence there are no words possible to describe the depth of experience.

This is from the Deep Spring website: A meditation retreat is a wonderful opportunity to experience our own inner being while sharing in the support of others. Mindfulness throughout the day will be a focus, with alternating periods of sitting and walking practice. The retreat will be held in silence, free of conversational talking. This kind of retreat may not be appropriate for all people. If you have concerns about your emotional stability under the pressures of a deeply introspective meditation experience, please discuss your concerns prior to registering.

More specifically, this was our week’s schedule: First sitting 6:30 am. Breakfast at 7:30 am. 8:45 instruction and sitting. 10:15 walking meditation. 11:00 am sitting. Noon lunch. 2:00 sitting. 2:45 walking meditation. 4:15 various afternoon programming. 5:15 dinner. 6:30 pm evening sitting. 7:15 dharma talk. 8:30 final sitting. 9:00 rest. (It is almost incomprehensible that one could lie awake staring into the darkness much of the night after such full days, but we often did.)

The theme of this retreat was experiencing light within the darkness. Sunrises were exquisite!

We were guided to stay present with the aversion or dislike, the wanting to escape. You can hold attention skillfully with openness of heart. Being present with kind attention, you are including everything in your experience.

It was easy to see beauty within destruction on the Oakwood campus because they sustained severe wind damage a few weeks ago. The bridge between the meditation hall and the teaching space was roped off, but brave meditators ducked under the “CAUTION” tape and gingerly tiptoed across to the other side.

Breath-taking beauty resulted from branches having been cut off a pine tree.

Perhaps it is true that beauty grows up through the cracks of our pain.

People came to this retreat with genuine human burdens: incurable cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, history of abuse, addiction, loneliness, anger, sadness, grief, physical pain.

And we each sat with what we brought…. sitting in meditation is done for relief for all sentient beings.

Pain. Unpleasant. Fear.

We were instructed to understand the difference between armoring and shielding. It is very appropriate to shield. We appropriately shield without moving into a place of armoring. Shielding with physical pain might mean applying some arnica cream or taking an aspirin.

The armor does not just appear. There is a feeling ‘unsafe.’ There is a wanting to armor. There is a wanting to feel safe. There are stories made up.

On Tuesday morning I noticed I had been gently rocking back and forth as I sat in the instruction periods. I vividly remembered having done that often as a child, and even into my adulthood, to comfort myself.

“Hindrances come as stepping stones to awakenings,” our teachers assured us.

The Buddha said, “It it were not possible, I would not ask you to do it.”

I reflected about so many of the attendees sharing deep agony of their habit patterns of self-loathing and self-criticism. I wrote in my journal: Perfection is present in every stage. The perfection of an infant only capable of lying and being held. The perfection of a toddler beginning to walk. A preschooler running with abandon. Teenagers active with hormones raging. A mother walking a child to the bus. A grandmother being helped to walk down the street. Every age has its inherent beauty.

I was given this focus for my practice: “You love so deeply. You support so many. But you often ask, ‘Did I do enough? Could I have done more?’Spend this week really feeling what it is to truly cherish yourself. You are enough. Cherish yourself.”

Thursday afternoon we had darshan with the Mother. There were very few words spoken. I wrote these down.

What if there were no right or wrong?

You are loved. You don’t have to earn that love.

You carry family karma. You did not cause it, but you must tend to it because you carry it.

I wrote in my journal: I set my intention for total relief of the karma of sexual guilt.

People found ways to skillfully process the heavy emotions. Like this art on the table in the dining hall:

I wrote a haiku.

Shadow Haiku

Stink bug in window
Its shadow toys with my mind
Are there one or two?

Who leads? Who follows?
Shadow looms larger than life
Illusion brings fear

Lips curl in a smile
Such games the light plays with me
I let myself play

Bees buzz and birds fly
Butterflies flit and then land
So brief their sweet lives

Does some distant God
Watch with curiosity
As I move through life

Perhaps we are all
Light and shadow just dancing
Nothing ever dies

Debra Basham
10/08/2019
Oakwood Retreat

I wrote “Am I Enlightened” and shared it at the campfire when we were invited to share about our week:

Am I Enlightened?

Many people have said I’m the most enlightened human being they’ve met. I don’t know what enlightenment is.

Am I enlightened because I think to close the door softly when my roommate is sleeping? Or when I pick up a piece of trash remembering the day the sheet of paper was sucked off the front seat of my van while I was driving on the highway leaving me with no way to retrieve it?

Am I enlightened when I taste the soil and the sun, and the sweat from the hands of the laborer, and the smoke from the cigarette held by the yellow-stained fingers of the delivery man on the bread I toasted dark brown and slathered with jam?

Am I enlightened because I celebrate like a 2-year-old every time I poop? Am I enlightened because I find no satisfaction in getting even or getting done?

Am I enlightened because I have felt a baby’s birth and an elder’s death and I know they are the same?

Am I enlightened because I crawl into bed at night saying, “I love my bed,” humbled knowing based on national reports, it’s estimated that no less than 150 million people, or about 2 percent of the world’s population, are homeless, and about 1.6 billion, more than 20 percent of the world’s population, may lack adequate housing?

Am I enlightened because unloading silverware from the dishwasher and putting it into the drawer, I hear the bell that rings calling us to meditation when I am on retreat?

Am I enlightened because I remember I am walking on the home of ants and moths and moles as I walk across the grass still wet from the morning dew?

Am I enlightened because I heard Ella tell me hers was a perfect incarnation for someone who desired to feel loved and wanted every second of their life as I was making the hour drive to be at the hospital to baptize her knowing a baby born with anencephaly might be stillborn or survive only a few hours to a few days after birth?

Am I enlightened? I do not say I am for I know wisdom and kindness and ignorance and cruelty and I know I am none other than All That Is.

Debra Basham
10-11-2019
Oakwood Retreat

October 14, 2019