We are all spiritual

“…to become fully and completely human and to attain spiritual realization are the very same thing….This means that the arenas of spiritual practice and everyday life are also not separate. … the spiritual journey does not involve distancing oneself from “samsara,” from all that is physical, worldly, impure, and problematic; quite to the contrary, it is a process of deeper and deeper entry into those very domains of our existence. We discover that it is precisely within the interior “space” of those aspects of our fully embodied, ordinary, human lives that the most important discoveries occur and our true spiritual journey can unfold.“

Excerpt from , ‘The Training and the Path’ by Reggie Ray.

Photo by J. Giacone. Majorcan lemons

What Is Love? Gratitude (a poem by Rumi from the 13th century)

Don’t unstring your bow.

I am your four-feathered arrow

that has not been used yet.

I am a strong knifeblade word,

not some if or maybe, dissolving in air.

I am sunlight slicing the dark.

Who made this night?

A forge deep in the earth -mud.

What is the body?

Endurance.

What is hidden in our chests?

Laughter.

What else?

Compassion.

Don’t ask what love can make or do.

Look at the colours of the world.

The riverwater moving in all rivers at once,

Photo by J Giacone, Ibiza

Shouldn't we just get to it?

“The sailing ship of our life is ..moored at the dock of conventional thinking. But ships were made to sail. Our vessel is ready and is calling us to cast off the moorings and set out on the open ocean of our larger life, of Life itself… Why would we hang back now? Shouldn’t we just get to it?”

(From Reginald A Ray’s book, The Practice of Pure Awareness’, p270, conclusion).

Photo by J Giacone, Ibiza July 2020

Stand Still

Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here....
Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you."

(David Wagoner.) 

Es Vedra (photo by J Giacone)

Lie down, breathe and let yourself relax

Truly effective breathing involves long slow exhalation and natural ( not forced or excessive) inhalation.

Lie on the floor in a supine position

Place your hands on your belly, palms down to let them be heavy.

Breathe deep into your belly as if the breath could meet the touch of your hands there.

Feel the warmth of your hands on your belly.

Feel the breath down in the core of your body. Feel it in your back. And in your sides.

Let yourself relax.