“An eye for an eye” and “a tooth for a tooth” is over. We can now drop the Old Testament. We can embrace Love and Be Loved – you know, like Jesus.
What are all the things that keep us from loving like Jesus? Today, I was thinking how “shoulda, coulda, woulda” keeps us in guilt and finger- pointing. If I am thinking of all the things I should have or could have done, then I am not being present for me, I'm not listening to me, and I am not loving me, let alone anyone else.
Judgment of other people is no longer acceptable, nor is self-judgment – the “shoulda, coulda, woulda” kind of self-judgment. Often we'd rather project our judgment onto someone else, and in this way, avoid self-judgment altogether.
It comes as quite a shock to realize we will not live forever in this body – or that the people we love may decide drop their body. But as a friend of mine said today, at the end of a life, the real shock comes when we realize there is no separation between one life and the next, between this life and the hereafter, between this dimension and all the other layers of perception. What a blow to the Ego!
In my year long Meditation Retreat as guided by Will Johnson, breathing through the body wakes up the body, quiets thought and slows the nervous system. As Will Johnson often says, meditating like a statue of the Buddha doesn’t do Buddhism any favors. Nor does it enhance your meditation practice.
The body is often denied in meditation and spiritual circles. For instance, if you are going to hold the body like a statue during meditation practice, natural flow and movement is extinguished.
The body is an intuitive instrument that will tell us what we need to pay attention to. A laboring mother, for instance, is in tune with her body as she breathes and gives birth to a divine soul.
Often cancer is caught very early when a person heeds warning signs, whether it be a dream or an inkling that something is out of balance.
Hollow Bamboo Breathing is such a modality meant to awaken body, mind and soul. It is subtle yet profound. The ego can be tamed to work with us as we sort through Karma and relationships. The more I “practice, and re-member,” the more alive I am.
I always feel better after the Resurrection. How about you? OM