How the gym at the Y is like a past life monastery and a psychic on the spiritual path

I don’t need to try to convince you.  It wouldn’t do a bit of good in the least anyway. Some things you know, that’s all.  And it’s not because my work is doing psychic readings—everybody has things they know but can’t prove.  Past lives can be like that. Of course there’s also wishful thinking and self-delusion that has to be ruled out but like I said, if you know you know.

Its that way for me and Tibet and also the monastic way of life–feel certain I was a lowly and not very evolved monk once.
Still am in many ways I think; yet the monk thing is the topic for this post.

And the gym at the Y too.  I’ve been a swimmer there for a year and just in the past month have felt the attraction to climb the stairs to the upper level–the location of the gym.  (Maybe the intuition guided me there, knowing before the mundane mind did that I was going to need some muscles to lift and move boxes.)  Anyway…

I love it up there nearly as much as I love the pool, but no, the pool is my first love.  Yet, the gym reminds me so much of my lifetime as a monk in a monastery.  How’s that?  Well, it’s like this…

Every body, including the body of this self, has these ear-buds in the ears listening to their favorite music–or at least that’s what I’m doing.  (Michael Jackson’s song and his music is the muse for me.)   Nonetheless, whatever they are listening to, they all have earbuds in and they are all focused inward!  Yet together in the same place walking by one another, barely nodding, aware of others to a minimal extent and focused inward maximally.

Wow!  Respect, consideration, harmony but most everyone not plugged into anything but the inner self, the workout plan and their own body.  Love that!  Just really dig (to use an old hippie term) all that inward-ness aligned with the body and music.

Totally makes me think of a different lifetime in which I danced ballet in Russia–my parents pushed me and I had to dance but used it mostly to escape my body and my life.  It’s very similar to what I do now especially on the treadmill.  The machines do require a bit more focus and presence–but it’s still all inward.

I miss the Y but realize I’m getting attached to going—and we know that’s NEVER a good thing.  I have clients today and am using it as a rest day anyway since I did a lot of moving boxes into storage units and helping my sister pack, stack boxes and clean her carpet over the weekend too.

Balance in all things–that’s probably something learned in that ballet dancing lifetime in Russia.  I wonder if most of those peeps in the gym would relate their work outs on the machines and lifting weights as a type of meditation.  If they thought about it at all, I’m sure they would.

PS — i love the weight assisted chin up machine the best.  I’m lifting more of my own body weight than I did at the start.  I love the progress I see and of course the whole meditative experience of it and being with others sure does make me think of my days at the monastery — everybody in their own world then too, but in a whole different way!

Tomorrow I swim!  Wasn’t I a dolphin once? 

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Impressions, Imprints, Cyber-footprints in SAMSARA

SAMSARA and IMPERMANENCE

Impressions!  Imprints!  Cyber-footprints!

I don’t think about that often enough.  Or so I recently realized!  I tend to work through my rough days on my blog, hoping that as I do so that a reader out there somewhere may be helped through the insight that I, myself, seek.    But before going further, there must be an understanding conveyed.  One that I don’t convey as often as I should; one that should go without saying but that I forget to say–perhaps even forget to say to myself!  But look, it’s not easy to stay awake sometimes!  Life is full of … well, the most efficient way to say it is through one word SAMSARA.

Let me get an official Buddhist definition of that word [SAMSARA] and this from Wikapedia seems as good as any others from Google:  Saṃsāra (Sanskrit, Pali; also samsara) is a Buddhist term that literally means “continuous movement” and is commonly translated as “cyclic existence”, “cycle of existence”, etc. Within Buddhism, samsara is defined as the continual repetitive cycle of birth and death that arises from ordinary beings’ grasping and fixating on a self and experiences. Specifically, samsara refers to the process of cycling through one rebirth after another within the six realms of existence where each realm can be understood as either a physical realm or a psychological state characterized by a particular type of suffering. Samsara arises out of avidya (ignorance) and is characterized by dukkha (suffering, anxiety, dissatisfaction). In the Buddhist view, liberation from samsara is possible by following the Buddhist path.

I use divination to help me find peace because the process of  looking for insight puts one in the mental framework wherein one shifts or better said begins to detach from the mental affliction long enough to look for insight. [My profession involves divination after all; its a habit.  LOL.]

I’ve been conversing through private text on my Facebook account with a blog follower who summarized the last few years of my life in a few lines that made me startle a bit, thinking ‘Man o man, my life really sucks!”   But of course it doesn’t, and it is full of just as many ups, downs, attractions and aversions as anyone else’s here in Samsara!  No better or no worse, at least potentially, as anyone else’s life who is aware of their mind where it is all located anyway!

Here’s the last bit I wrote this morning, sharing a paragraph from the communication that I’ve been having with a reader:

I think one comfort is that we are never alone in what we experience since the human condition seems very universal… in that no matter what kind of dilemma one is in, one can always find so many others going through the same illusion or experiencing the same dream (or nightmare); so that on some level there is comfort when we can do as the Buddhists do which is Tonglen … basically to say, ” May all of us, may we join together , all of us, and may I be the one to gather it all up here, now;  and then may we all be free of our delusion and wake from the dream and be liberated! And how does the liberation happen”?

What kind of  liberation? Mental–for that is how it all occurs anyway, in the mind.  So, to look at life and hear, see, experience it without aversion or attachment, either one… to just say “Oh, now it is this and now it is that or now it is ‘not’  this and now it is ‘not’  that… hmmmm… okay… and that’s how it is or isn’t…. and now I notice that there is a regret thought, or a memory thought, or a judgment thought, or a happy thought, or a silly thought, or a sad thought, or whatever it is.”   Just looking at the mind.  Well, that’s pretty simplistic  sounding, but most Buddhist teachings are and that’s why I, for one,  like them. LOL I may blog this. Don’t be surprised if you see this text again!

Some  last thoughts:  IMPERMANENCE!  This is a good one to reflect upon too.  That helps put it all in perspective as well… the Buddhist perspective of the “precious human life.”   I have to often remind myself not to become caught up in self-cherishing; this, too, being the source of difficulty and suffering.  And then if all else fails, I hit the pool and go swimming to focus on my kick, stroke and lap times while everything else falls away!

This, That and Tonglin, a Buddhist Meditation Practice

ૐ  Just a bit of comings and goings in this blog post….

ૐ  trees are really coming out with their leaves here now and i can barely see the houses beyond…

ૐ  hostas are coming right up and hydrangeas are starting off well too…

ૐ got newsletter out on time this week; an accomplishment worth mentioning since I’ve been late too often in recent months…

ૐ   fed my daughter’s cat and fish and took my niece to counseling session…  it is good to be ‘of service’ to others

ૐ  the new apartment that my sister and I are renting in a month or so is getting new carpeting and appliances; I could see the guys working on that unit today and removing the old stove and refrig…

ૐ   we will have all new appliances and upgrades….

ૐ a blue jay sitting on the balcony railing looks at me before flying up to the bird feeder, then spreads his blue wings and majestically flies away and there’s god in that moment just now

ૐ   paused the packing yesterday for my swim, accomplishing the 66 lap mile and enjoying every lap!

ૐ  It’s a little above 60 degrees today but its going down to 32/freezing degrees tonight they say; a mixture of spring and winter….

ૐ   i plan to sort through clothes and utility and clothes closets soon… my daughter brought more boxes last night for me… need to pick out a date for a garage sale….

ૐ   daughter’s fish seems depressed or is that a projection?  no@!

ૐ   I may mix up a salad and settle for that for dinner.

ૐ  I could be writing a new country song, “My life is going back in storage, yes again.”

ૐ   Maybe before the year is out my name will come to the top of the waiting list for my own apartment in a more desirable place — or maybe my move-in with my sister will be permanent, eventually at a new location?

ૐ  These things are being worked out somewhere else right now… and i don’t feel fully part of that divine conversation yet.  Maybe I don’t want to be, to know.

ૐ   Not sure about a lot right now. but letting that be okay.

ૐ   Its Holy Thursday and tomorrow is Good Friday–so says my old catholic programming.

ૐ   One of my daughters reported the deaths of two people she knows from work; i always feel such compassion for those left behind.  My heart goes there, knowing the soul crossed over is alright, always.

ૐ  I feel a very long meditation is in order right now, doing the Buddhist Tonglin practice that i feel called to do; with this grand cross and eclipse energy, i know that there are those who could use extra good vibes…

ૐ  …feeling as if the elders are asking for my participation with this Tonglin meditation now especially for the souls of the loved ones left behind.

ૐ  So i will find a place where the Sun shines through my window and comply as soon as i hit the “publish” button here.

Some of you may not know about Tonglin.  So here’s a video of a Tonglin medition with the Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron … if you consider yourself a lightworker or world server, you may like to listen through the 4 minutes of how to do this meditation.  Won’t you join me?