Keep It Simple

Excuses exist in the mind. So stop right now and go sit. In the bedroom, bathroom, parked car, right where you are.

Close your eyes and keep watchful yet be rested. Don’t try. Just watch. Notice the discomfort, the voices, the settling in, the restfulness coming upon you, the deep sigh, the quiet.

See how big that quiet can get. Watch it with fascination. Make it the most attractive thing you’ve ever been consumed by.

Don’t let the mind rule your life. Choose for something much more delicious instead.  Go sit. And I’ll see you in that immense quiet space.

Innocent Synchronicity

I find magic every day. I know a lot of you do too – that you have many days where there are connections and a flow that is other-worldly. When this is happening we feel like we are on-purpose, in the right place at the right time, and just plain loved by Source.

There is often a detrimental twist, however, when we experience this synchronicity. It is that we can carry a slight judgment determining this experience to be better than when it shifts to a flatter or more constricted one. Can you see how judging something to be better-than requires every experience to be held in attachment to the past – when things were worse-than?

Consider it – when you are in the flow and that experience changes to a less fluid one, there can sometimes be a sense now that something is wrong. Ultimately, that sense comes simply because what was being experienced has changed – nothing more, nothing less. When we are innocent with our experience, we are able to see the judgment thoughts for the very thing that determines that our good has been jammed-up, taken-away, or otherwise, dismantled. Paying attention to these judgment thoughts is a very old and deeply engrained habit. But you can step back and know the innocence of purely experiencing what is.

So, your mission – if you choose to accept is to watch for the judgment thoughts to arise on whatever your experience is. This is true on the meditation cushion as well as in daily life experience.  Noticing these judgment thoughts may trigger you to tally up how judgmental you are or how well you are doing at NOT being judgmental. Don’t go there.

This assignment is meant to be a way for you to become very aware of how you are stopping your own greater good by paying attention to and believing these judgments. You’ve been doing it so long – listening to your head, that you think that this voice is you and that it is right. See these old habitual thoughts come and begin to make a new choice away from their pull. You may find it to be freeing and that is allows for more experiences to not only to be acceptable, but joyful, even!

You may begin to see how you have missed so much more of the synchronicity in life coming to you. You’ve done this by continually believing this voice that already knows what the experience of synchronicity is like. The you beyond that voice doesn’t need to already know because it is perpetually innocent and fascinated by what is arising now. Become a master at seeing where judgment arises and move into a state of innocent fascination. Consider letting your awareness be super wide and looking more deeply: is there really something amiss, or has something simply changed in your experience?

Have fun with this investigation!

Namaste – Rodasi

The Flip

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how to meditate, how to reduce stress, ishayas' ascension, meditation, meditation practice, mindfulness, stress-reduction, the bright path ishayas, tm, transcendental meditation, vipassana meditation

 

"no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should." - Max Ehrmann

A certain kind of effort is required to rewrite the internal programming – a dedicated commitment to one’s practice is absolutely essential. The grit it requires to sit over and over again, to stay as alert as possible while going about our day, is the most worthwhile effort we will ever make. It can reveal to us how much effort we’ve spent trying to manage, change or ignore so much in our lives. That sort of efforting brings about stress, struggle, pain. The other kind of effort allows for a restful alertness to bloom. From here, all effort begins to burn away. The effort that it once seemed to take to sit for practice no longer exists. The effort it once took in the beginning to stay alert is no longer experienced as “work.” Instead, there is a magnetic desire to sit and bask in the infinite waters of peace. While walking around mindfully, it is more attractive to remain highly alert. This is the flip. Disciplined effort of our practice rewrites that internal program which says that life requires a lot of effort leaving us with a deliciously effortless experience.

Enjoy discovering this for yourself!

Namaste – Rodasi

Nothing Is Wrong

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chakras, how to meditate, meditate, meditation, meditation techniques, methods of meditation, mindfulness, relaxation, spirituality, stress-reduction, stress-relief, ways to meditate, what is meditation, yoga

When things change in our world, we typically think that “something is wrong with me, my partner, my child, my boss, my politicians, my body, my ability,  my life.” Change seems to generate a subtle thought that says, “something is wrong,” rather than, “something has changed.”

Coming from a recovering seeker-of-how-to-fix-me-and-everything-that-is-wrong, let me tell you, it is way more fulfilling to discover how to surrender to what is. I’ve gone from seeker to finder. You can too. What’s tricky is that you have to be willing to admit that you are addicted to seeking the answer to “why.”

“Why is this happening to me?” The New Age movement has given us a lot of fun tools to play with to answer this question in many complex and lofty ways. Ultimately, they are a waste of our time if we are not willing to do the real work. What is the real work? It is to put everything we think we know aside – especially all of the spiritualism we’ve all picked up, and discover innocently what is.

Like the change in our environment and noticing it’s affect on us, the mind has it’s own fascinating mechanism at play. The only way to really know what this is like is to give it a go yourself. You have to sit and watch your mind. You have to have a practice that takes your awareness inward. You have to ask, “what is it that is watching the mind?” It helps to have guidance, too. And from here we naturally awaken to exactly how things are in this moment. From here we get to have our own experience that fellas like Eckart Tolle, Rumi, and Thich Nhat Hanh speak of. I read all these teachers and like so many others was left wondering, “How do I get there?” These guys sounded like they were having great experiences – where was my own living experience of the present moment? Well, it is and always will be right where it has always been…right here – same place yours is, too, by the way. Turns out, they were right. But I wasn’t going to get the experience just from hearing about theirs. I had to do the work. And if you want it, so do you.

So how do you awaken to the present moment – to what is? Simple. Stop. Notice. Begin with just watching the mind. Your mind will begin to talk to you and you will want to pay attention to it. Don’t do it. But if you do, who cares! Simply begin again. You can hit the reset button an infinite number of times – it is a practice. You are creating a new habit – just because it sounds like it happened over night for some people doesn’t mean it will for most of us. Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that it must not be working or you’d be experiencing a certain kind of experience. That is another thought generated by the belief that “there is something wrong.” It’s not that you have a whole ton of junk left to uncover, you infinite being of love and light…it’s that you are addicted to having problems to fix and that you believe that one, little, tricky thought that says, “there is something wrong.” Stop it. You can. I know because I am practicing doing it every day, myself.

So are you willing to notice your addiction to seeking? Are you ready to set your toolbox down as you rest right now and be with what is? And if so, can you do so without engaging the lifelong habit of needing to control as soon as you recognize anything arising? If so, you will discover great wonder and freedom on the other side. I wish this for you. As Buddha said, “May all beings be free from suffering.” In my experience, this is not gained from generating a certain mood, (ie: controlling our experience) but rather from surrendering to what is – even and especially when you don’t like it.

Best of luck to you, Cosmic Explorer. This is a time to celebrate and enjoy our existence. Great good forces are afoot and you have a role to play. If you choose to accept the above challenge, there are many treasures waiting for you to discover. You are not just the mind/body you’ve been given to experience life through. Step off into the well-rooted, endless sea of infinite possibility. You won’t be alone. We’re all waiting for you to rise up to the plate of your god/ess-hood and be everything you are meant to be.

Deep, Expanding Peace – Rodasi

Paying Attention

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ascension, ishaya, meditation, mindfulness, vipassana, zen

What are you paying attention to?

Really. Consider what you are placing your attention on. Is your attention following your mental activity? Is your attention being spent on body sensation or to external noise?

If you are asked to put your attention on your right knee, you do so quite quickly and naturally, right? If you place your attention on your breathing it is the same. In your practice, when you’ve sat watching the space from which all movement of the mind seems to rise from and return back to, you will begin to pay more attention to THAT. And this is where your freedom lies.

So, first do a little experimenting with where your attention is drawn. Get to know the inner workings of you. Then notice that your practice is training your attention to be still. Next pay all of your attention to that space…the Source of all movement – the Source of infinite peace and eternal freedom.

Practical Application

The dance we do on the meditation cushion, is the dance we do in life. There is no difference. We do not say, “now I am meditating,” only to then get up and re-engage life in the same old way. We get up mindfully and stay alert. We watch. And when we discover that unconsciousness has come over us, we hit the “reset button.”

It is not that we should expect to never be affected by our lifelong habits. It is that we move from our meditation cushion and allow for the practice to move us into our life. We let it carry us. We discover our edges of leaning into (or falling right over the edge) unconsciousness. It is like falling asleep. And when consciousness returns – when we become aware again, we simple relax into mindfulness.

That means being willing to make that uncomfortable amend, paying the debt we’d rather forget, using self-restraint when anger arises, not making commitments we can not keep, noticing all of the places we are compromising our integrity, our heart, our energy, and being willing to do something different.

It is a dance – practical application of our practice, and some people seem to be more graceful with it than others. But to be sure, everyone choosing this path is faced with a unique version of “life on life’s terms,” while becoming evermore alert to both the limitations of the mind, as well as to the infinite source of all good. We pay more attention to the infinite and are willing to surrender our will (our old and limiting habits) to a greater will. We are willing to dance on the edge and live life from our practice on the meditation cushion.

Allowing Expectations to Dissolve

Age of Discovery by Joe Jesus

Expecting an outcome. What happens when our reality does not meet our expectations? We all know the answer to this one. We are typically disappointed or even angry. We may begin to go into a story of how life sucks or how someone or something has victimized us. Yes, we know about this aspect of expectation. But what happens when reality meets or exceed our expectations?

Living life from the present moment doesn’t include expectations – it only includes curious discovery. It is being engrossed in the experience at-hand. There is no room for expectation. Therefore, even with an expectation that is met, we are building an erroneous story that we are “right.” Who is this “I” that is “right?” Any story that supports a past, a present or a me is counter to living life in the present moment.

Fully immersed in now, there is only pure experiencing. Watch all expectation fall away as you keep with this present moment.

Supreme Contentment

I’m achy. My head and other spot on the body just ache. It’s a rainy day. A reminder from a friend to pay attention to the fullness of this present moment inspires me to rest back and just watch.

I notice that my mind says that the ache means there is something wrong. I don’t like it. I want it to go away – to change. But magically, somewhat simply, the circumstances don’t matter when I focus just here, in this moment.

It’s like placing my attention on the sun rather than my shadow. Everything else is but a wisp of fog quickly burnt up in the power of the sun’s rays. Thanks friend.

Living Life From the Present Moment

It doesn’t need to take this whole life, or many years, or even another breath to discover the fullness of the present moment. It is a sad and erroneous belief that it has to take a long time to find even a taste of living life from the present moment. It just isn’t true.

I grew tired of reading what it could be like from the perspective of others who seemed to have gotten “it.” And when I did, the path swiftly unfolded for me to discover that one’s true nature is firmly rooted always and forever in the present moment – there never was anywhere to go; nothing to get.

I just want you to know this because some of you out there are tired too. And you deserve to recognize your true nature, to rest in that. What’s more is that this path can be not only swift, but joyful. As always, don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

Namaste – Rodasi

Re-Committing to Sit

Yesterday during a class, a lovely woman asked how anyone could turn away from or forget the benefits of our practice. I curiously watched myself admit my own distractions that have lasted for moments or hours and even days or weeks or months out of my life over these 12 years of practice.

The subtle programming in the mind is such that any slight veering from the one-pointed focus we attain through our practice can shift us back into the chaotic movement of the mind and leave us feeling like we’ve “gone backwards.” This shift in our attention allows for the mind to begin to move outward, making anything more important than the peace of the present moment; more important than our daily, eyes-closed practice.

This humble truth leaves me with a renewed sense of commitment in making my close-eyed practice and the gift of alertness to the present moment more important than the next breath. The best part is that it is always right now. Easy, simple, natural, effortless and sustained, nurtured, and cultivated only through the willingness to just sit every day.

In Gratitude – Rodasi