Love and Compassion for all

One of the statements we were using in meditation last night provided lots of food for thought for me. The lojong slogan was, Train without bias in all areas. It is crucial always to do this pervasively and wholeheartedly." The part of the commentary that stood out to me was, "It is important to include everyone and everything that you meet as part of your practice."

There were two things that were the most important for me to look at. One was the idea that when I include everyone in my practice that includes me. I have to remember to have compassion for myself as well. I tend to forget that part. It includes having compassion for where I am in my journey at any given moment, what I am feeling, what I am working on, that fact that I am making an effort. Honestly the last ten years of my journey have had some very significant challenges and I didn't always remember to take time to have compassion for myself as I moved through them. Though I know I tried to move through them with as much peace and grace as possible. I will be more compassionate with myself.

The other part that was significant to me was the idea of including everyone and everything in my practice. To me that is quite literal, I need to include people I don't know, people I might have differences with, people who have hurt others. I need to include things that I don't like so much such as poison ivy, mosquitoes and things like hurricanes and tornadoes. What really jumped out at me about this one is that if we are all one, as I believe we are, then if I withhold love and compassion from anyone or anything, then I am withholding it from everyone and everything. That kind of blew me away! If I don't offer you love and compassion, then everyone misses out on it. Everyone.

I will let that be an inspiration to me.  Because if I wouldn't want anyone or anything to miss out on love and compassion then I have to begin with myself and with you.

From What Remains

A poem written today inspired by a moment of seeing my heart with just what remains yesterday. 

From What Remains

Lynda Allen

The goal, my friend, is not to never have your heart broken,

but is rather, the opposite.

Let it be rent wide open again and again

by expansive, fearless love,

by unbearable pain and sorrow,

by gleeful, exuberant joy,

by vast wells of sadness,

by unending compassion,

by uncontrollable weeping.

Yes, let it be blown asunder

and swept clean by the winds of life

Until the shattered boundaries of your heart

fall as easily away as leaves from the trees in autumn.

Until all that remains of your heart is God.

Live then blissfully from what remains.

October 25, 2013

Walking in the Darkness

I'm not sure that this is quite poetry, but I let it be in the form that it came in. I have been pondering walking in the darkness this week and this was the result. Enjoy in joy!

My morning walks sometimes begin in the dark. I am not a fan of this circumstance. The other morning I found myself wondering why I am resistant to this idea. After all I’m not afraid of the dark, right?

Footsteps in the dark seem muffled.
Are sounds quieter in the dark of pre-dawn?
I set out one step at a time
unsure of the uneven ground beneath my feet.
The same ground that is uneven every morning,
now in the dark feels more unsteady.
My well trodden path is more difficult to see.
I move with uncertainty rather than grace.
A rustle in the woods from a source unseen
startles me.

Thus the moment of awakening.
An unknown, that in full light would have brought me joy,
in the darkness brought me fear.

Why?
I knew in either light or dark that the creator of the sound was
a deer friend,
likely more startled by my presence than me by hers.

Yet, without light I doubted my own knowing.

An absence of light brought doubt,
even though I knew the light would soon illuminate the sky.
Doubt in darkness.
Knowing only in light?

Doubt despite the information from my senses being the same,
a rustling, a leaping and a flight through the woods.
The only difference was I couldn’t see clearly.
I was deprived of that one sense.

Then I knew.
It was so simple that I would have laughed,
had I not been so surprised.
Do I really think that people who are blind live their lives in doubt?
Do they not believe what they know just because they can’t see it with their eyes?

Again in the casting of life, I play the fool!
Only in the darkness could I truly see.

At long last the light finally broke,
just when I no longer needed it to see by. 

October 23, 2013

This Holy Moment

This was inspired by a holy moment in the arms of nature yesterday, watching the eagles soar.

This Holy Moment

Lynda Allen

All that is, all that was, all that ever will be,

All in this Holy moment.

I am as one with all

in this Holy moment.

The universe and its intricate dance,

discovered in this Holy moment.

The cacophony of life,

heard in the wind, the cars, the birds,

the voices raised, the crickets and the rushing waters,

harmonized into a symphony

in this Holy moment.

My heart opened, and the Divine revealed

in this Holy moment.

Occupy Your Heart

Given the political situation in the US and in other places around the world, it seems that it's a good time to re-post Occupy Your Heart (below). One thing I know is that change won't happen in any situation by wishing someone else would change. It begins with my heart, with my peace, with my love.

Occupy Your Heart is a choice you can make. A choice to let your heart be your guide. A choice to be the change you want to see in the world. A choice to create our world in a new way.  

Occupy Your Heart is something you can practice anywhere, anytime, in any area of your life – in the workplace, in your school, in your place of worship, walking down the street, each time you vote, on your sports team, in your neighborhood.  With every word, thought and deed you can Occupy Your Heart.  

Occupy Your Heart is about making a commitment to yourself and so to your world to live from and be guided by your heart. 

For me, living my heart means practicing deep listening and stillness. The guidance of my heart is readily available when I can be still enough to listen. It is a feeling of knowing an answer, or of a solution rising to the surface, or an insight I hadn’t thought of before. When I am still it becomes very clear when an answer or guidance is coming from my mind or my heart. The truest answers come from my heart. 

You will have to come to your own understanding and knowing of the difference between the two and learn the joy of them working in harmony. 

There are many wonderful examples of people who live or lived from their hearts; Mother Teresa, Gandhi, the Dali Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jesus, Buddha; the list goes on and on. Add your name to the list.

No matter where you are on your journey of living your heart I hope you will join me in this moment and help create a world of Love and Peace by agreeing every moment to consciously Occupy Your Heart.

Occupy Your Heart 

Occupy Your Heart is a movement, is a way of life dedicated to living from the heart, living always from a place of love. The place we must always begin is within our own heart. It is the greatest gift we can give the world, the only way we can truly create change for the better. We let our heart be our compass. We let our heart lead. We allow our mind to work freely for the heart’s purpose. In all this we know we are contributing to a beautiful world for all.

We look from within with love upon others and see the humanity, the heart within them, knowing we are all one family, knowing there is no separation between us, no artificial boundaries that can keep us from love other than the ones we create and build ourselves.

From a place of love we create a new world.

We create a world where every creature that shares this earth is honored, where the earth we live upon is revered and protected.

We create families that are defined by the love within them. Safe spaces to be the true expressions of love that we are, where that expression is accepted and welcomed.

We create governments that serve the people, all the people, with compassion and respect. We create these governments by serving on them, by voting and speaking our hearts, by participating. We create governments where all voices are heard and honored.

We create institutions and corporations that are built upon a foundation of love and community. We create prosperity and social consciousness at the same time. We create corporations that have the good of the whole at heart and still provide a product or service that is needed.

We create communities where love thy neighbor is the way of life. We create neighborhoods where all are safe and welcome, where all have a home. We create schools where children are honored and nurtured and where knowledge is shared with respect by both teachers and children.

We create a world of love where none doubt their own worth, their own contribution to the whole, where all feel safe and know they are loved.

We create this world by beginning with our own hearts, by creating from the love within ourselves and sharing it unconditionally. 

Lynda Allen
November 18, 2011

 

The Gifts of God Prayer

I pray that we will not live in fear.

When you look at me what do you see? The other?
Do you see my hair, my skin color, my gender, my age, my weight, my freckles, my place of origin?
Have you ever looked at me and seen God, God expressing as a curly haired, middle aged, white girl with Italian heritage and freckles from Jersey?
What if what I am is just God embodying a vessel we call Lynda?
How would you see me then if you knew that?
How would I see you if I knew God was expressing as you?
Then imagine if we were all aware of the source of our expression and so we knew we were looking through the eyes of God?
Then the Divine in me would be looking at the Divine in you.
Namaste.
What if we all lived from that place? That is my prayer for us all, for the Universe.

May we all see with the eyes of God gifted to us.
May we all breathe the breath of God gifted to us.
May we all love with the heart of God gifted to us.
May we all speak with the voice of God gifted to us.
May we all listen with the hearing of God gifted to us.
May we all choose with the wisdom of God gifted to us.
May we all walk the path of God gifted to us.
May we all touch with the tenderness of God gifted to us.
May we all weep with the empathy of God gifted to us.
May we all interact with the compassion of God gifted to us.
May we all celebrate with the joy of God gifted to us.
May we all sing with the harmony of God gifted to us.
May we all pray with the peace of God gifted to us.
May we all live with the Grace of God gifted to us.
May we all shine with the light of God gifted to us.
May we all Be the gift of God to each other.

Amen