Technique 6: Lunar

This part was written during my recent trip to Greece:


In the background I can hear an accordian, as someone, most likely a child, walks up and down the streets of Athens begging for money.  Next door I hear the voices of men in their work day chatter as they together build what will be a stack of condos, ushering new neighbors into my friend Shiva-Shakti's life.  Noticing, noticing.  


In my own mind, I can hear the chatter around not doing my November Acension post, the Lunar one.  Life picked me up and carried me around for a bit, unsettled so as to write my thoughts on such a vast subject.  But today, in my friend's house in the ancient city of Athens, freshly returned from a magical trip to the island named after the ancient Greek word for water, Ύδρα (Hydra), I turn my attention first inward to find the truth of water and the moon, and then outward, to share that with you.


So what do we know about the Moon?  Well, she is like a mirror.  She reflects to us the light recieved from the sun.    She gives and takes, but does not create.  She moves in cycles.  So, what is the knowledge here?  What might we digest of this that allows wisdom to grow in each of us?  I read the passage from the Ishaya's Ascension document:


The Lunar Attitude develops the intuitive power of the sixth chakra, Ajna, the “Third Eye.” Patanjali describes the result of mastery of the Lunar Technique as complete knowledge of the firmament. Another result of this Attitude is the development of Soma, the glue of the Universe that is responsible for the celestial perception of the second stage of enlightenment, Exalted Consciousness. The Moon is called the “Vat of Soma” in the ancient literature, because the focus on the Moon naturally produces this molecule in the body. Mastery of the Lunar connection opens the aspirant to the worlds of the virtuous, to the Heaven of the Forefathers, to the Path of the Gods.


And once again...I wasn't able to "finish" and so now I add even later from my bed in Balti:


I try to make some sense of the above: "complete knowledge of the firmament" seems to speak to a state of knowledge of all that is so vast that the un-attuned mind cannot comprehend.  And Soma seems to be the stuff that binds all together...echhh...who am I kidding?  This is hurting my brain to try to extract some meaning from that...and so...I will just say what I think of the moon!  I do love that orb in the sky!  Last night we had her full and a 2nd lunar eclipse following the one back in June.  


When I think moon, I think surrender.  I accept this light, I shine it.    That we should strive to develop more peace, faith, receptivity, openness and surrender-like the moon.  And for those who sort of hate the idea of surrender, because it sounds something like "losing" or giving up?  Surrender is the opposite of giving up. It is freeing yourself from the desire to be in control, letting go of how you think things should be. Surrender is freedom.  


And when I think of surrender, I think of water.  The flow.  I recently read a beautiful description of water, flow, and surrender by Osho.  And so I will finally finish this blog post with his words of knowledge, imparting more wisdom into each of our souls:
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When I say 'become like water' I mean become flow...Move, and move like water.  


Lao Tzu says: The way of the Tao is a watercourse way.  It moves like water.  What is the movement of water?  One, it always moves towards depth, it always searches for the lowest ground.  


It is non-ambitious; it never hankers to be the first, it wants to be the last.  Remember Jesus says: Those who are the last here will be the first in my kingdom of God.  He is talking about the watercourse way of Tao.  Be the last, be non-ambitious.  Ambition means going uphill.  Water goes down, it searches for lowest ground, it wants to be a nonentity.  It does not want to declare itself unique, exceptional, extraordinary.  It has no ego idea.
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And here the moon is like water, having no ego.  The moon doesn't shine bright like the sun, producing it's own worth.  And yet in this non-ambition, the moon still functions fully for its exact purpose.  It still provides light and remains steadfast.  All without trying.  The moon reminds us, to let go more.

Om tat sat.

Pterodactyls on the Road to Home

Laela and me in Balti

My sitemate Laela (meaning she is also a Peace Corps Volunteer living and working in Balti) recently invited me to join her for some activities at a center she works with called Drumul Spre Casa (DSC). In Romanian this translates to “the road to home.”  DSC is a temporary placement shelter for youth from at-risk family situations.  This includes such situations as single-parents without the means to support their children, drug or alcohol addicted parents, or absence of parents due to leaving the country to work abroad without taking their children.  Laela arranges one activity per week at the center and last week she invited me to lead a yoga class.  Walking into a new place to teach, no matter the subject, one never knows quite what to expect.  However I do know I will likely be the one to learn something.

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I had met Luda during a previous visit to the center.  She had seemingly flown out the front doors and leapt into Laela’s arms with a loud HELLO!  She had the energy of a fairy and her short pixie hair, sharp light blue eyes, freckles and slightly upturned nose, gave her the look of a sprite.  I loved her!  I joked with her in Russian about Laela’s blue nail polish hiding underneath her purple gloves.  “Surprise!” we giggled.  Yes, Luda is a spitfire. 

When we arrived  for the yoga class, we entered a scene of girls from the local university leading the children in a costume game.  They had all made head-dresses and were singing songs in Russian about friendship and home and then dancing around like “Indians” (yes-Native American is more PC I know).  Hmmm, I thought, this will be an interesting act to follow.  I sat down and watched as the activity wound down.  The college students handed out some treats and the children began to disperse.  The energy was still very high, very rowdy and here came hopping along, Luda.    She took my hand, opened it up and placed a raisin in it.  She was sharing her treat with me!  I was immediately hit with how incredibly generous this was.  Here was a little girl who couldn’t live at her home because her family was either too poor, had left the country or had other issues of abuse or violence, giving ME her treat.  And not only did she give me a raisin, she gave me the little plastic dinosaur toy they had given her too.  It was a blue Pterodactyl. 

I didn’t leave that day with the blue Pterodactyl, in fact I left with a pink one.  A little boy had seen me holding the blue one.  His was pink.  Without exchange of words, our eyes met, we nodded, and we switched.  Using the language beyond words. This entire exchange and relationship is common for a Peace Corps Volunteer-to experience this generosity and selflessness of a people who seemingly have so much “less” than us.

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 I tend to see my life symoblicly, seeing meaning in things others may pass over.   I won’t go into whether this a “right” or “wrong” way of thinking.  I do understand that life is just happening, and that I am the one adding meaning to it. However, I have always loved legends, prophecies, symbols, signs, omens, superstitions.  That’s the way I am and that’s OK. I like meaning.  So when Luda first handed me the dinosaur toy and I told her it was a Pterodactyl, my mind leapt to a reoccurring dream I have about…you guessed it…Pterodactyls… swooping  over me.  It is always an intense dream with me having thoughts of first incredible fear followed by reasoning that this cannot be happening as these animals are long extinct, followed by me realizing I must be someplace really crazy, or that I must be dreaming.  And so at this point I gain the ability to begin to lucid dream-to take control of my experience.  But I always wake up before I can begin...

Luda’s generosity was in turn also a gift in that it encouraged me to finally decipher what it was my soul, my inner knowing, was trying to teach me in my dream state.

I looked up what it can mean to dream about dinosaurs.  Not surprisingly I got this:

”To see a dinosaur in your dream, symbolizes an outdated attitude. You may need to discard your old ways of thinking and habits. Alternatively, being chased by a dinosaur, may reflect old issues that are still coming back to haunt you”

For me this signifies the outdated ideas I carry about who I am, what I am supposed to do with my life, how I should look ect.- based on what others around me say.  It’s a mistake-I know.  It’s our families, our friends, our coworkers, the media…all sources outside of us, and our relationship to them, shaping how we in turn shape our lives, our perspectives.  When I get caught up in the “should” way of thinking, in swoops the Pterodactyl to remind me to rid of that thinking.  Just like the emotions of my dream, these thoughts come out of: first fear (of not being accepted, of not belonging) and then are hit with my reasoning, usually convincing me of why these outside sources must be right, and then the eventual realization that…it’s all an illusion.  The truth is I am in a pretty crazy place here on Earth. But also, I am free to control how I see it, how I perceive…I am in control of me.  And so, I am on the road home.

Om tat sat. 
XOm

Technique 4: Compassion (or, Love Thy Self and then Thy Neighbor)

Who do you love?  (Are you for sure?)

Green Tara, Buddha of Enlightened Activity and Compassion. 

Well geez, don't I need this...for MYSELF!  I am having difficulty to even type the following words, like...sandbags...on...fiinnnggeeeeersssssss......I am turning 30 this month.  There, I said it.  Whew-glad that's over with, now let's move on.  OK-I can't can I?  I need to sit with this-don't I? 

With this blog I have openly saught to create a space where I can be quite candid and quite honest...transparent.  Simple.  Humble.  And so when I am facing something that yes, we can all banter and say, "Nevazhnaya" (AKA 'No biggie' in Russian), the truth is that I am feeling like it IS a big deal and I need to have some compassion with myself about this.  I will share with you this process:

Here I am, turning 30.  I am currently serving in the Peace Corps (oh no, here it comes, my mind-voice that is just KILLING me right now, reminds me that  I should have done this, you know, when I was younger, not in my PRIME marriage-having, child-rearing years)  "Hello?  Who is going to want you when you are done with this?  It will be too late.  No babies for you!  Maybe next life suckaaaa" she jabs.  

This voice also reminds me that, "Thing should look differently now.  Weren't we suppose to be in awesome shape, be married to some awesome man, be working some impressive job with an impressive title at an impressive company?  What the heck?  I'm about ready to pack up and leave your ass!" 

And right then...right there...another voice sweeps in.

"Well, it would actually be quite OK if you decide to leave us you know.  We are rather tired to hear about the 'would have-should have' scenarios.  We really rather prefer to focus on what is here, right now, in our life.  We want to nurture that.  It's your choice: join us here, or you must leave."

Compassion.

In this case the compassion is for myself.  It seems from my readings and experience, only from here first, can that cup overflow to compassion for all:

Compassion "clarifies the relationship of the individual with all"-other human beings, animals, and Self.  "Invincibility in human life is the result of mastery of consciousness" and this is based in harmlessness. (Harmlessness, also called non-violence, is ahimsa in yogic literature-think Ghandi.) True harmlessness is only established by the full development of compassion-the two go hand in hand.  It is impossible to cause harm when we are compassionate.  "Universal Compassion is the requirement for enlightenment...Only those who have proven they will not abuse their power are given the key to Door of Everything."

Abuse of power-huh?  That sounds like something we hear about often.  But do we ever stop to think about the root of this abuse, and the source of this power?  WE hold our power.  It's our responsibility.  And when I spend MY power, MY energy on thoughts about how "wrong" MY life is...it's an insane amount of abuse.  And we're all guilty.

Perhaps if the voice we all have that tells us we are not good/right/enough, were to simply surrender to what is actually happening in our lives, the abuse would cease.  And if we weren't abusing ourselves and creating dissonance in our own well-being, we would never need to abuse power in the outer spheres of influence either. 

If our world outside is a reflection of our world inside (which I do believe, because our world outside is viewed through our personal perspective)...then the lot of us have some serious inner work to do, wouldn't you say?  (Just look at any newspaper, turn on any news show...major disharmony out there!) So get to having some compassion for yourself today, for the love of humanity.  Invite the voice that chides you to either join in the "kumbaya" or catch the next flight to far away from here!

XOmmmm

PS-I am totally aware that 30 is the new 20 and that I have nothing to worry about.  I love who I am and where I am.  I invite more and more compassion to understand and improve upon only HOW I am...and mostly with myself!

Julie Wags Her Tail



Not Julie, but in the same spirit

The other night Diana and I went for our usual evening stroll (you know, the one you pray makes some difference in regards to the bread, butter and jam you managed to fit in with tea after dinner).  Sauntering down the road on one of our usual paths, we came across two young boys chasing one blonde dog down the street.  It was cute to watch and I wanted to help them catch her.  She seemed unaffected by all just moving from one flower to the next and going wherever she pleased.

As I got closer I thought I heard the boys saying, “Julie, Julie, Julie” between laughs and reaches for the little blonde dog.   Ok, I KNOW the world does not revolve around me, but I swear these boys are saying my name. 

I looked to Diana, did she hear what I was hearing?  She told me that perhaps that was the dog’s name, that it was typical in Moldova for people to name their dogs American names.  This couldn’t be.  It was too much of a coincidence…a dog named JULIE in Cricova?  And so I asked Diana to confirm the dog’s name with young boys and sure enough they said with glee, “Julie!”  The Universe finds new and creative ways to humble me.

I was of course in shock and laughing hysterically over the irony of the situation.  You see, I have always had a good laugh at the idea of naming a pet a standard American name.  It’s actually a joke I have with some friends from home: a dog named Robert, a cat named Lauren…and so on.  And yes, a pet named Julie IS funny.  I am getting better at laughing at myself. 

The boys continued to chase little Julie up and down the street, always a few steps behind her unassuming and quick pace as she took in the world around her.  They all enjoyed the game. 

Om Tat Sat.