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We Are What We Think
It is surreal that I posted my previous blog just yesterday. I did say this self-selected social isolation may not last forever, it may just feel that way.
Actually, I don’t really mind the solitude. Last evening Barbara Brodsky asked our Dharma Path group to notice how very little is different about this from retreat, which we all love.
Well, one difference is that on retreat we have no news.
The Awakened Heart group was asked to ponder these points:
1. Please reflect on some ways you are able to ground yourselves in Love even with the fears and other emotions brought forth by Covid-19.
2. How can we each become a true power of Love in our present world, offering the expressions of Love to help release suffering?
3. “We are what we think; with our thoughts we make the world.” (Dhammapada)
4. What if the whole world were to shift from negative, fear-based thoughts about this virus, into a strong, clear compassion?
5. How does our practice help?
6. How to we practice with fear and anxiety?
Aaron says a high vibration makes your energy field like Teflon, so the virus is unable to stick.
People Quarantined in Italy Join Together In Song From Balconies During Coronavirus Lockdown.
In California they are calling it “safe sheltering.” One friend said they scheduled a noon concert on their street. They arranged a playlist and everyone came out on their porches and played their instruments.
I am going to suggest virtual playing of “Farkle/10,000” with friends Linda and Larry. We can each have our set of five dice and we can be on FaceTime or Zoom for the game. Like safe sex, it is a game where everyone wins….
We are what we think. With out minds we make the world.
Let’s get creative to see how many ways you can find to keep joy and fun and lightheartedness alive to balance the inconvenience and fear.
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One
Much of my life I have felt out-of-step with much of the world. Decades before smoking in public places was banned, I put up a “Thank You For Not Smoking” sign on my door. Some friends—even some family members—refused to come over.
The Way of the Wolf: The Gospel in New Images by Martin Bell was first published in 1968. “What the Wind Said to Thajir” is about a young boy, Thajir, who goes out to play and the wind speaks to him. This is what the wind said:
“Regardless of what anyone else tells you, regardless even of what your own experience might lead you to believe, everything that is, is good. At the center of things, life belongs to life.”
You can hear a delightful reading of the short, significant story by Obi.
The wind went on, “Regardless of what anyone else may ever tell you, regardless even of what your own experience might lead you to believe, you are everyone who ever was, and everyone who ever will be. You are the whole of creation—past, present, and future. Decisions that you make today, in what is called the here and the now, will validate or invalidate everything that has gone before, and make possible or impossible everything that is to come. Anything that hurts anyone, hurts you. Anything that helps anyone, helps you. It is not possible to gain from another’s loss, or to lose from another’s gain. Your life is immensely important. Everything depends upon you.”
You must listen to hear what the wind said about destiny and hopelessness overcoming joy….
Messages of hope and a choice to feel joy, especially in the wake of COVID-19 in March of 2020, are immensely important. Joy depends upon you.
Here is a photo of the order to cease doing business in Michigan. Bars, restaurants, fitness centers, theaters…. all mandated to close through the end of the month!
This sort of disruption of daily life for WEEKS is unprecedented for those who live in the U.S. We have never hidden in the attic from the Nazi’s. We have been spared genocide. Our idea of starving has been being late for dinner.The financial impact is worldwide. The shared humanity is world wide. We will get through this…. and good can come from it.
In the Christian New Testament, the letter to the Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 28, we read: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
The wind told Thajir everything that is, is good. How in the name of heaven can we call this pandemic good? By finding the good within.
David Wagoner wrote “Lost” in 1999, and it is perfect for 2020:
Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.— David Wagoner
(1999)Pamela Chappell, recorded a CD titled, “One” and in the title song by that name she sings, “What if we are one? What if we are angels sent to one another? What difference would it make every day in the world?”
For the very first time in human history, we know the truth of Thajir’s wind. Humanity is one.
Draw from the depths of your faith, intelligence, kindness, wisdom, and compassion. Your life is immensely important. Everything depends upon you.
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Out of Control
Hearing Barbara Brodsky speak candidly about her husband, Hal, being so very vulnerable in the nursing home. What if the facility goes on lockdown and he can’t have the therapy so desperately needed. She wonders if she should bring him home. “I want to know. I don’t know. Does anybody know?”
Barbara hears Aaron, “Come back into your heart. What does your heart tell you? What is the most loving thing in this moment? How can you do what you need to do without panic?”
We are in a place of “DON’T KNOW.”
This is the sympathetic nervous system, and this system has no “immune” system. This is the most vulnerable space during the global crisis related to COVID-19, because it is the most vulnerable space related to everything.
Life feels out of control. But is it really any more out of control than life itself simply is? Nothing inner has really changed, even though many outer conditions have changed.
Hand sanitizer is difficult to find. Rubber gloves are out of stock. Even medications necessary for survival are in short supply.
These conditions are current.
School closings, restricted travels, stock market reactions, global focus on COVID-19…. these conditions are current.
You cannot directly change the outer conditions.
As my fingers float across the keyboard I am watching the video of our Dharma Path class from March 10, 2020. I am including some of Aaron’s words in quotations below.
“Everything will change and again and again….”
“Your attitude, your energy—you have control over that much…”
“When you are honest with yourself, this is where you have control…”
What is out of control is the fear. This is not a new condition for humans. Fear is so familiar it feels natural, but it is neither natural nor healthy.
“What can one person do? Look at the fear…. beyond fear, almost panic…”
“Unconscious fear is just adding fuel to the fire….”
“Talk about your fears in a nonjudgmental way….”
My dear friend and yoga teacher, Kathy, and I were sharing such gratitude for our yoga practice. Yoga is mindful movement. The body is different every time you come to the mat. Your practice is to stay aware and to move from within.
Earlier this morning, upon the draw, the poker machine gave me a straight.
“We all want certainty….”
“Everybody wants to be healthy and have their loved ones healthy….”
“It is one world…. You wanted the problem to be their problem.”
“Whatever is happening to a baby on the other side of the world is happening to you….”
Life is a poker machine. You can only play the cards you are dealt. You know the game. You know what to save.
“How can I handle this in the most loving way….”
“Any virus is still a sentient being in some degree. It may not speak your language but it works with energy just as you do….
When enough of you come together and say, ‘No, you may not take over and kill.’…. Start speaking to the virus. ‘If you attack us and we die, you will die….’ Said in love, not in hatred and disgust. ‘Every sentient being deserves happiness.’ Praying for this virus. Is anybody here praying for the virus that it may have well-being without destroying others? This is where it starts…. The next step for the higher conscious of humans….”The following poem was written on 3/11/2020 Lynn Ungarhttp://www.lynnungar.com/about/ Barbara Brodsky sent the poem to our class. It is timely, poignant, and clear.
Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20“Unless you do not take care of the world’s population, you cannot take care of yourself and your family….”
“Holding hands with your comrades and asking where is love here…. Thank you for coming as a teacher…. Now we are learning what we need to learn….”
“You are here to help the consciousness of earth to a higher consciousness….”
“I cannot destroy with hate to support love….”
“You are capable of this….”
“You have the ability to handle whatever comes with love….”
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FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
Here in Southwest Florida things are heating up, and I am not just referencing this week’s 80 degree temperatures. Following two deaths in Fort Myers—confirmed coronovirus—many are practicing voluntary social isolation with an eye toward protecting those most vulnerable.
A Michigan colleague, Jane Oelke, N.D., doctor of homeopathy, just published a great newsletter article. Please take time to read the entire article as “What’s in Your Cupboard?” provides some very wise steps we can all easily take.
The simple things are often most powerful.
For example, keep your mouth moist. We have all heard to “drink plenty of liquids” but did not know viruses thrive in a dry mouth.
That makes perfect sense as a dry mouth is one of the first signs of stress or anxiety.
We love the doTERRA Breathe drops, but sucking on a lemon drop or hard disc is good because your body being in parasympathetic nervous system helps your immune system stay strong. See Debra’s Wellness Tip “Vagus Nerve Stimulation” for more about that.
The closing paragraph in Jane’s article is very significant:
Most important – Stay positive!
Recently I read a mind-body manual that states viral outbreaks come at times of mass negativity. Do you think we have too much fear and other negative messages going on right now?
Rise above any negative thoughts you may have and take positive action toward believing in your own healing ability and support it with your activities.
Focus on the blessings in your life and create positive conversations.
Jane Oelke, ND, PhD
Natural Choices, Inc
www.naturalchoicesforyou.com
269-429-9554
You can schedule online at this link.While negativity can be subtle, the body knows.
Yesterday, while out riding my bike I saw a yard sign: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ANYONE BUT TRUMP IN 2020. This is not a political commentary, it is a vital truth: Supporting anyone but anyone for anything is insane.
Can you imagine going to a restaurant and ordering anything but anything?
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, you have a heart and a brain and a gut for good reason.
And you have an immune system to keep you healthy.
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Hari Om, Holy Spirit
Whoa…. fear can spread like wildfire. We can put that fire out.
A friend/colleague is part of several groups I attend here in Florida. She has cancelled the meditation group she hosts in her home and has reached out to another of our mutual groups suggesting the meetings be cancelled because “at least one, and possibly two, deaths in the county from corona virus.”
Her closing line in the email message is quite telling: I’m sorry to miss the group if you do go ahead and meet on Monday.
Admittedly, her husband is an epidemiologist, and we do not yet know the extent of risk.
But we do already know the results of fear.
Last evening I received (and passed along) a very mindful message from the Dzogchen Center and Foundation:
Dear Dharma family,
Lama Surya has asked that we lend our energetic support tomorrow morning. He will be leading a prayer ceremony in Northampton, Massachusetts, and has asked that, if possible, we take the hour from 9 AM to 10 AM EDT (Sunday, March 8th) to chant or pray with the clear and specific intention of pushing back on this destructive coronavirus, COVID-19, and purifying and supporting all those who have been / will be infected or otherwise impacted.-19,
He has specifically asked that we practice where we are, rather than trying to participate in person.
We look forward to holding the energetic space with you tomorrow as we lift our body, speech and heart-minds in unison, in support of our beloved Lama, on behalf of all beings.
Don’t forget to put your clocks forward tonight before you go to bed if you are in a place that uses daylight savings time. Oh, and don’t forget to wash those hands!
Warmly,
The Dzogchen Center and Foundation
I got up in plenty of time to chant for the hour with this group. I have recorded voice memos of many of the chants we do on retreat. Hari Om is one of the chants I did this morning. In Sanskrit, “Hari” is a mantra to remove troubles and pain. In Hindu, Hari references the god Vishnu, remover of bondages.
Omniscience (/ɒmˈnɪʃəns/) is the capacity to know everything. In monotheistic religions, such as Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, God is omniscient. “God” has the capacity to know everything. In Jainism, omniscience is an attribute that any individual can eventually attain.
Since the 6th century BC, and continuing today, Jainism has three guiding principles: right belief, right knowledge, and right conduct.
Here is another of the chants I sang this morning: Seems like such a long time, Holy Spirit, waiting, since I’ve drawn your breath in, silent and all pervading.
It is important that we DO something with the energy of fear that can get stirred up. We can sing, pray, chant. We can dance. I clean. My sister sleeps.
It is vital to remember we are able draw in the breath of the holy spirit and extinguish the raging wildfire of fear.
Life depends on us….
If you have requested email updates for posts, click on the image below to listen to the audio of the Hari Om chant:
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Enough!
Autumn Leaves are falling down
autumn of my life this is
I must choose to liveWatching baby breathe
innocent and fresh new start
coming from the heartHands wrinkled from work
burdened by beliefs not mine
wake before too lateShe is blind but sees
his deaf ears hear love’s true call
death’s doorway beckonsI stand numb yet here
garden gate gapes wide with pride
flowers sing welcomeRich soil grows wisdom
rain settles the dust at last
soon all will be pastDebra Basham 03-06-2020 (WC 84)
One month from today we expect to arrive back in Michigan. It would be denial to say the mold saga has not given birth to worry, fear, and concern. Is it gone? I am not just questioning the mold, but referencing also the freedom turning ever-so-surely into curiosity that has momentarily replaced the worry.
Putting multiple thousands on my credit card, writing checks for more multiple thousands. Grateful access to what we need. Thoughts, too, of those families helped financially by our plight.
It is said we do not fear death, but we fear dying as the great unknown. Yet, truth-be-told, we have been practicing living with dying since our first breath. We outlived puppies and kitties, and uncles and aunts. Cars and clothes, and friendships. All these no longer are the way they were.
Fragile at best, this bed of impermanence upon which we rest.
Mind goes to the blowing of the wind outside the window. Wondering when it is not blowing, where or what wind is.
Before I was “I,” what was I. And long after, hereafter.
Suddenly the idea! I can spend all of my earthy accumulations to run a full-page ad in the newspaper telling of the inner journey.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, hardly anyone reads newspapers any more. Trees are relieved. So am I.
News is depressing. Of course, the really good stuff gets ignored.
Disaster and doom, debauchery and damage—this is what people read.
All arises from the conditions. When the conditions are present, wind will arise.
Death, too, arises—like the sun—when it is time.
I write an open letter to the tiny house:
To whom it may concern,
The problem was more extensive than we anticipated, but we have done what we can. We are optimistic what we have done is enough.
Love,
DebraMy goodness, that is perhaps the words for the ad in the newspaper: WE ARE OPTIMISTIC WHAT WE HAVE DONE IS ENOUGH….
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How Do You Go On?
The phrase “Winter of Discontent” is from the opening line of William Shakespeare’s Richard III.
While the weather in Michigan has been mild, by winter’s standards, that very mild weather is the impetus of discontent for some who live along the shores of Lake Michigan. The absence of an ice shelf, coupled with high water levels, has brought worry to some, and loss due to erosion to others. Special WSBT.com report: Dreams Swept Away.
In an email exchange about all of this with a friend, I wrote, “People lose money in investments or business ventures, and homes to fire or flood. To lose a home and the land and have insurance not cover the loss seems so much more difficult.”
I often recall the comment Barbara Brodsky made when I was grieving the removal of the tree on our property. I told Barbara how unskillful I felt, not being able to feel the everlasting peace as well as the sadness. She said kindly, “Who dies? What dies? Does the tree still live in your heart?” (See: Does the Tree Still Live in Your Heart?)
I cannot imagine the sense of loss the Smothers family is going through. It is my hope they have something to sustain their hearts. People often say they can go on because they have their loved ones.
How do you go on when it is your loved one you are grieving? “What dies? Who dies? Does your loved one still live in your heart?”
People often say they can go on because they have their health.
How do you go on when health is lost?
Today the corpse prayer by Jarem Sawatsky keeps cycling in my thoughts. (See: Corpse Prayer)
Corpse Prayer
Be not afraid.
I give thanks to god who created all things good.
In christ, all things hold together.
I am not entitled to life without death.
I embrace sacred life.
I embrace sacred death.
I embrace the growing and crumbling in between.
Smile at yourself in the silence…
~ Jarem SawatskyEverything about these words soothes my heart. Nothing about it soothes my mind. Perhaps minds are built for worry and hearts are built for love.
I hope you will appreciate a recent poem about all of this:
Out of our Heads!
Addicted to worry we’ve been
a feeling through which we can’t win
It’s not like the bliss
from a passionate kiss
It’s unlike the joy that flows
right under the tip of your noseThe chains of the free
this habitual worry
A robber of peace
and theft of our ease
Its time we move past
give up worry at lastCome sit under a tree
remember we truly are free
We’ll hear a bird sing
and enjoy every thing
The sun and the rain
the wind and the calm
Fretting won’t help
fear’s false alarmPurveyors of doom
leave us no room
For the gifts of the day
life’s sending our wayLet’s make up our minds
give worry a shove
Out of our heads
do this instead—
live only from love!Debra Basham 02-11-2020 (WC 133)
May all beings come to the end of suffering. We may never come to the end of loss, but perhaps we can live only from love.
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Wild Places Need LOVE
The lessons of the mold continue….
We did not know where, but the air quality test taken in our home indicated more mold was present. This week we know where the mold was hiding. The condensate line from our HVAC was dumping water into the belly of our mobile home, saturating the insulation, creating a perfect growing condition.
Here are photos of what used to be our laundry room floor and the wall behind the utility cupboard:
I have felt a lot of resistance to this news. I have felt that resistance as a knot in my stomach, tightness in my chest, and a lump in my throat.
Others are going through challenges related to diagnosis, prognosis, pain, and fear of death. Our planet itself is going through challenges.
On a guided walk this morning we heard a naturalist speak of the threads of connection between everything. He spoke of the water and the fire and the species overlapping: WE are interdependent.
From the Conservation Foundation website:
Wild Places Need You
Why?
Because they are fast disappearing. And with them goes safe habitat for wildlife, rural ranchlands, the protection of clean water, and beautiful places to hike, swim, and fish. With support from people like you, Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast has permanently protected more than 12,000 acres of critical lands. But time is running out.
You are the last generation that can save this land. Together, we will ensure that the human and natural worlds of Southwest Florida flourish together.
Whether it is mold remediation, a diagnosis and healing sought, or environmental balance we are speaking about, the answer is universal: LOVE.
Reports of Aborigines healing broken bones, muscle tears, and illnesses of every kind using their didgereedoo point us in a direction. Harmony and healing is possible.
Transcript from “LOVE” channeled by Barbara Brodsky, my meditation teacher:
Q: Are you suggesting that many of us here are able or will be able in this life to invite broken bones, divided cells to merge…
Love: You all are perfectly capable of that.
Q: In this life now?
Love: Of course! Now! Your limiting beliefs stop you from doing it.
We know the truth of this. At the center of our being truth resonates.
Q: So, in my daily life, how can I practice this?
Love: Choose a space, a place that you pass by often in the day, like a doorway or a specific tree, and hold the intention every time you pass that space to pause, take a deep breath, and say, “I am love, and I welcome love. I choose to invite love.” It may only take a few seconds. “I am love. I am open to love. Thank you.” Allow yourself to feel it and then walk on. But if you do this 20 times a day, eventually it’s going to take root. Okay?