Tag Archives: prayer

invocation

3jewels.invocation.jpg

— read at the interfaith thanksgiving service on 19 november 2018 —


Inviting of the Bell —

The sound of the bell is an invitation to
inhabit body, heart and spirit with full and loving awareness.

[Sounding of the Bell x 3]

 

Be Aware of the Earth that Supports You —

May we remember and appreciate the First Peoples of this nation
and the indigenous land upon which we all live.*
May we commit to being just stewards of this Earth.

[Sounding of the Bell]

Be Aware of the Space that Surrounds You —

May we appreciate all who are present to share in this experience tonight.
May we honor all that makes us wonderfully different
and that which connects us as people of Faith and Wonder.
May we remember to look upon ourselves and others with eyes of compassion.

[Sounding of the Bell]


Be Aware of the Air from which You Draw Breath
to Nourish, Energize and Sustain You —

May we remember to appreciate each and every precious breath.

[Sounding of the Bell x 3]

 

*Here in Michigan: We are inhabiting the territories of the Ashininawebaki, Haudenosauneega Confederacy,  and Peoria, to name a few.

This invocation was inspired by the gratitude prayer written by the late Angeles Arrien.

embodied prayer | transforming the heart

Through our collective musing last Sunday, it became clear to me that “Transformative Love” is the energy that changes the shape of our hearts and minds.

As I become more and more of who I am — and something new — I am contemplating the question:

What does this look, sound, feel and act like in practice as we cultivate, celebrate, nourish, sustain and dissolve relationships?

Larry Yang’s aspirational prayer reminds us to lead with love girded with the honest and discerning awareness that — where love is not possible or present — we can at least commit to minimizing the harm.

3jewels.yangquote

woman horizontal | done + been done

done and been done
still they appear in dreams
unsummoned

cords cut
but roots regrow

when memory whispers my name
new work to be done and done again

unhook and untether
call back my energy
reclaim my soul

i am not yours
to harbor in distorted reverie

no longer known to you
no longer held by you
no longer the light
by which you warm hands and heart
or take shelter from your own shadow

in my place, i seed
grace, gratitude
and the tenderness of mercy

then raze the tomb where you encased me
and seal the crack you slipped into.

15 sept 2017

practicing through transitions

On Sunday, Sangha came full circle by closing our 7+ months of wholy happy hour in the same way that we opened our practice last fall — exploring the lessons of beginning anew as we shift from one season to the next.

Whether we experience this transition as tumultuous, glorious, or equal parts of both, we recognized that our changing selves require some fresh contents in our “medicine bags” to support who we are becoming on this stretch of the path.

So I returned to the query I put forth during our spring series on justice, liberation + healing and encouraged us to discern “What is your prayer, practice or process?” of releasing what no longer serves us and for calling in sacred strategies that honor who we are growing into. 

For me, it’s a continuous process of self-reflection in which I root into my practice of the 4 Foundations of Mindfulness to assess what is arising, enduring, changing, releasing in body, heart and mind. One poignant question that popped up in my meditation — what are my unmet needs physically, mentally, spiritually, creatively? — was a reminder of how crucial it is for me to take long walks three to four times a week to brighten and declutter my mind. Along with the benefits of movement, the silence, solitude, and moments of stillness I enjoy when I spread out a blanket to lay out in the sun or read (as in the photo below) help me catch up with myself to discern clear decision-making and sort out the tangle of creative ideas.

In the Satipatthana Sutta (and similarly in the eight limbs of yoga), honoring and tending to the body precedes emotions and mental formations. In these and other spiritual practices and healing modalities, the body is the gateway to illuminating, transforming and reconciling the other aspects of our being (feelings, thoughts, perceptions, beliefs, attitudes). Of course, it’s not a fixed sequence but an interdependent relationship so whatever is most compelling, what shows up first or makes itself known most powerfully, may be the access point for looking deeply at how it is impacting each domain.

So I come back to my body. Once established in the full awareness of sensations, I am able to renew the process of seeing clearly and responding skillfully to what needs tending. Grounded and aligned, I can embody the prayer that this transition and new season are calling in.


“Part of being more authentic means being willing to be seen as we pray and live in a spirit that seeks inspiration though is humanly imperfect…

Remember that prayer is a process that changes the pray-er.”


~ Jennie Isbell + J. Brent Bill, Finding God In The Verbs

on kindred practices: prayer, silence + spacious awareness

“In Buddhism, simply resting in a relaxed, open, spacious state of mind without purpose and without a goal is considered the highest form of spiritual practice…

This spacious awareness is considered both an advanced practice and a practice even the merest beginner can do.

This seems pamudra 2.bw (640x480)radoxical, but when a beginner does it, it has the quality and substance of a beginner’s awareness, and when an advanced meditator does it, it has a deeper quality of advanced awareness.

That is why I like to call it a prayer of silence. Prayer is not really something you get “good” at, like other skills — although people who pray regularly have cultivated a prayerful attitude toward life.

A prayer is in essence a surrender and
a supplication to that which is beyond ourselves.

In this sense the Buddhist practice of spacious awareness has a universality that makes it kindred with other religions.”

~ Lewis Richmond
Aging as a Spiritual Practice


[originally posted on 15 Dec 2013 on my former site dharma yoga arts]

restoring memory

On this Sunday without Sangha, a memory from last year (27 Nov 2015 — the day after Thanksgiving) popped up on my Facebook newsfeed.

A verse inspired by a beloved park trail where I’ve logged countless miles in a walking-running-praying meditation and, a hundred times over, awakened curiosity and understanding and mapped pathways toward reconciliation.

❤ today, another verse for remembering to remember…for tending to our wholeness and seeing a feast in all things:

i walk for clarity 

to release those deep + wordless groanings
that tense my muscles, pluck-stretch my nerves, + accelerate my pulse.

movement is prayer — pleading, seeking, remembering, communing,
soothing heart + spirit

is it my favorite posture of meditation — fine-tuning my capacity to listen, discern, + take skillful, compassion-centered action

clearing up space for love-wisdom to prevail

#TouchingTheEarth #EmbodiedPrayer #EmbodiedWisdom #TheHeartAtRest

❤ a prayer for remembering ❤

Related:

Native American Girls Describe the Real History Behind Thanksgiving via Teen Vogue

The History of Thanksgiving You Weren’t Taught In School via attn:

#ZenThanksgiving: A Prayer for Remembering

image

i move along a rain-soaked path

pink tubular bodies stretch out
in full prostration across my trail, beckoning:
feel your heart into those feet,
so every step blesses the earth.

a few, once desiccated, now rehydrated, leave coiled graffiti-like impressions:
life wuz here!
keep it movin’!

gravity relinquishes its pull on my body, offering it up
into the ever-ready hands of spirit

briefly i levitate…
soles soar over a smattering of broken branches + wrinkled leaves…

i see nature’s clues
(autumn’s stand-in for rose petals, i joke)
and picture a young wood nymph pointing me to the altar

trees line the sanctuary aisle
as holy witnesses to my prayer
and as lofty pews
for curious squirrels who ring around the trunks to peek over at me
while jays, perched on high, trumpet my procession

i glide faster,
sweat and breath awaken
memories of land ancestors

i sense the hearts and spirits of
native-born brown
and stolen black bodies

thrumming life — once desiccated — nourished now by over-saturated clouds replenishing the soil

my waltzing cadence drums out the beat of their sacrifices:

tilled, toiled, kept.
loved, honored, bled.
harvested, shared, fed.

song penetrates deeply —
a systolic pressure burrowing
from head to ears, heart to toes
rhythm from beyond yonder
touching me touching the earth

because of them
i continue solid, whole, and free