As my year-long spiritual/meditation retreat continues, I surround myself with stacks and stacks of books seemingly pulled to me by a magnetic force. I was looking for Ramakrishna And His Disciples by Christopher Isherwood and found two of them. Apparently, I am meant to reread it although I do not recall reading it the first time.

I found several books on breathing practices which I plan to utilize when off the meditation cushion, as the spirit moves.

Since the beginning of the pandemic and the witnessing of Tomaso’s last breath, I am consciously preparing for my own death. Meditation with Will Johnson throughout 2021 is one such preparation. Awakening the body and communing with it makes dropping it at some point a friendly proposition, in that we are working together, not against to prepare for the inevitability. The body is serving it’s purpose and the more I love it, the more the flow and dance can grow.

The body and the mind can enhance honest inventories about where suffering occurs, how my mind clings to the suffering, and where I am stuck. It is no longer “my suffering” but the transformation to “the suffering.” It is no longer “my compassion” but “the compassion” once again calling in impersonal awareness to the common trip we all share. As I recognize where my mind clings to old paradigms, the mystery behind all shared experience can elevate how we look at these commonalities and raise them to new heights of consciousness. We can’t be happy by denying the suffering of the world.

Tombstone Inscription:

“Dear friend, please know as you pass by,

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, so will you be,

Prepare yourself to follow me.” Anonymous