Tag: The DailyTejaniya

  • Lily Yeh – Lily, Yeah!

    The 2:00 am WhatsApp “ping” from my Singaporean friend woke me. I was able to fall back asleep, but was then awakened by a dream. These disturbances resulted in my reading the thoughts for today that bless my inbox.

    I followed my passion and was guided by the light inside of me. That light does not belong to me alone. It is innate in all of us. Everyone has it. But more often than not, we choose not to see it.

    ~ Lily Yeh (Gratefulness.org)

    I did not know this author. As I lie in the dark listening to a five-part interview my heart and mind was witnessing the importance of being awake even when the body would seem to need to sleep.

    Now that I am awake and showered in readiness for the 6:30 am EST online meditation with Still Mountain, I am having difficulty keeping my fingers on the keyboard because I am distracted by the desire to find the interview that so moved me. Please search and meet this amazing individual for yourself. I see lots of other videos, but I cannot find what I had and I want that again.

    This now moves me to profound compassion. I know my beloved friends in Canada are likely feeling this as they navigate her journey with Glioblastoma — a highly aggressive and malignant brain tumor that originates from glial cells, which support and protect neurons in the brain. Understandably, Jane Foster understands as she continues to deal with complications of the ileostomy in the aftermath of a 12-hour surgery. Michael, now at Caratel after yet another long hospital stay. He has been in more than out since May. The list goes on and on…. So many navigating so much.

    I also read the daily quote from Aaron:

      There are many ways of working with discomforting arising. They all have one thing in common, which is the opening of the heart. Eventually you may become quite skilled at making space for that which arises in the emotions and at making space for physical sensations and thoughts as well, without reactivity or fear of any of these. You are still caught in the illusion. You are busy being somebody who possesses sensations, emotions, and thoughts. And you are also busy being somebody who works skillfully with them. Eventually you must let go of the illusion without denying the illusion its place as a catalyst for learning. You must come to know who you truly are when you are not somebody who is being busy learning to be skillful.

    Today will be a bit of a break from packing and loading in preparation for our planned departure on Thursday. It seems other worldly to anticipate not sleeping in my own bed for over five months. I am feeling homesick before I have left.

    I will draw from the delicious days spent loving and being loved by family and friends and people I do not even know.

    Another step on the path reading the The DailyTejaniya:

      To recognize whether or not you have the right attitude is more important than experiencing peaceful states, or having a “good sit.”

      Right attitude is accepting, observing, and learning from your experience just as it is.

    AS I WAS LOOKING FOR A PHOTO FOR THIS POST, I FOUND THE LINK TO WHAT I HAD LISTENED TO!

    A Conversation with Lily Yeh: Art is Change.

    May you be free from suffering and know the roots of suffering.

    May you live in harmony and know the roots of harmony, living in the present moment with an open heart.

    May you have peace and know the roots of peace, acceptance.

  • Agitation and Imagination

      Agitation is interesting.

      Instead of trying to make it go away, allow it to be fully present, so that you can watch and learn its nature clearly.

      ~ The DailyTejaniya

    It is difficult to recall how long ago now I saw so clearly the futility of speaking about a situation that is causing agitation. Any idiot can speak about the problem, but only someone with imagination has the wisdom mind to see solutions.

    You are the only one who knows the conditions in your own life that are currently playing this dynamic out clearly, however, everyone has something going on right now that invites feeling helpless and perhaps even a bit hopeless.

    I have previously mentioned my friend having SERIOUS health conditions in Florida over the winter and since returning to Michigan. (See Anxious Feelings – Power of Presence)

    Well, conditions continue….

    Last week I spent the morning with them at the hospital. She was having the long-awaited cardio version to return her heart to a normal sinus rhythm. We had opportunity to laugh at ourselves and one another. She had been desperate for a hair cut. The day before the cardio version she had an appointment, but when it came time to leave the house she refused to put her slippers on, going to the car instead in her bare feet! Helpless to reason with her, he drove her to the salon only to have her unable to navigate the unbearable heat of the blacktop parking lot. (Plus, with all the shenanigans they were already too late for her appointment!)

    While the three of us waited in pre-op they were both willing and able to confess to and laugh at the absurdity they had collaborated. Unfortunately, we are all prone to mind states and habitual attitudes and unconscious catalysts that augment agitation and interrupt imagination, robbing us of the peace we truly are.

    We talked about how counter productive human behavior can become when conditions prevent us from being able to have or do or be what we desire most — and sometimes actually need. You only have to think for one moment about the political or environmental or institutional climate crisis we are experiencing on this planet to understand fully the feelings leaning toward helplessness or hopelessness. Add as backdrop the layer of the inevitability of old age, illness, and death (from Buddhism: This body is subject to breaking up, subject to being laid down).

    So, this morning I am allowing agitation to be fully present.

    I am remembering how consistent I had to become with taking John’s vitals EVERY DAY and reporting them to his doctor EVERY WEEK for over two years now. You can watch and learn agitation’s nature clearly. The doctors’ agitation with the insurance stranglehold is not other than my own. The agitation with delay in getting access to what we want or need. The agitation that is precariously leaning toward helplessness or hopelessness, but also can open us up to imagination.

    This comes from the preface of Imagine Healing: Guided Imagery to Help You Heal, by Debra Basham and Joel Bowman.

    Woven into the fabric of your illness or health crisis, are the emotional, mental, and spiritual dynamics of both “dis-ease” and well-being. That simply means what is in the way, is the way. The use of your imagination can help you heal now.

    By activating your imagination, you will not only be healing the physical ailment, you will be healing on all levels—body, mind, and spirit. Why settle for healing that is just skin deep, when you can activate your innate healing capacities. Although we cannot “unhappen” history, you are able to experience relief from painful memories, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, even as you physically heal

    Agitation is interesting.

    Blessed be.