Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Returning to love

Ahhh. I have just been reading Thich Nhat Hahn's, Taming the Tiger. He has so many ideas for returning to love and compassion and letting go of anger. I'm not him--although i reserve the right to harbour aspirations.

So, what has helped me to return to Love when my heart is full of anger?

Breathing.

Getting some space.

Fully experiencing the pain of holding on to the anger. This can be a real incentive to let it go--when you can actually feel how it is killing you.

Reconnecting to love of the other. Sometimes i get the gift of the sensation of how much i love the person i am feeling anger towards. This gift helps me to completely change my perspective and then the anger seems so small and silly it's easy to let it go.

Invoking courage. I blogged about this one here. Courage opens the heart. Sometimes you just have to connect to your courage and pass through the eye of the storm.

Sitting still in nature. Again, this seems to be about re-centering and grounding--when i see the beauty, simplicity and elegance of nature, i can't hold on to the anger. My heart opens.

Enlisting the help of others. ( I am feeling angry. I am suffering. I need your help.)

And the biggie...the really tough one...the essential practice...self-forgiveness. When i find i have persistent anger, it is almost always rooted in self-anger, harshness, or self-hatred for something i have done, said, thought, or omitted. I can't let go of my feelings of anger towards others until i have dealt with the roots of the anger towards myself. I find it far more difficult to forgive myself than anyone else. And so i have begun practicing sending love to myself lately as a preventative measure.

Thanks for this question, Raffi. I have appreciated the opportunity to think about it some more. It occurs to me that simply asking this question is a profound step on the path to achieving it. The simple awareness that it is desirable and possible to reconnect the heart to love and not dwell in anger is a powerful tool in itself.

And so...the next question...

What does center mean to you?

Saturday, May 13, 2006

dropping ripe into open space


“We are all ripening in our own way, at our own pace. Ripening is going on all around us, naturally, ineluctably. Eventually we let go and drop -- pure, beautiful, ripe, juicy -- into open space. Existence is fully awake already, just waiting for us to drop into emptiness.”

from Meredith of Graceful Presence