This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond. -Rumi

Bin Laden’s demise may be a political victory.  But since politics is not my game, I am devoid of any feelings of peace or joy regarding the situation. The quote below, by Martin Luther King, Jr.,  resonates with me and perfectly reflects how I feel.  No way could I say it better in my own words.

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

“We practice the Art of Allowing. Which means reaching for the thought that feels best, not the thought that is the real thought, not the thought that is telling it like it is. Telling it like it is only holds you where it is: “Damn it, I’m going to tell it like it is. I’m going to tell it like it is, because everybody wants me to tell it like it is.” Tell it like it is if you like it like it is. But if you don’t like it like it is, then don’t tell it like it is–tell it like you want it to be. If you tell it like you want it to be, long enough, you will begin to feel it like you want it to be, and when you feel it like you want it to be, it be’s like you want it to be.”  – Abraham

By participating in the Radical Forgiveness Ceremony or a Radical Forgiveness 7-Step Exercise, these old patterns of being a victim can be transformed into a new place of peace and understanding. Either process is largely non-verbal, preserving privacy and anonymity, quite likely to change your life—and will be decided upon by the number of participants.  If you’re in the Seattle, WA area, make it a must for yourself and anyone you care for on June 27th  from 2 – 4 PM.  The fee is $30, and you’ll get more than your money’s worth!

The workshop is at East West Bookshop:  6500 Roosevelt Way NE Seattle, WA 98115.  Call 206-523-3726  to register.

Inevitably when I discuss getting in touch with our wise selves, I call to mind The Secret Sits, by Robert Frost:  “We dance around the ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.”  I  have never read or heard that Frost was referring to our wisdom when he wrote that poem; it’s merely what I make of it!

One of the greatest obstacles  people deal with when it comes to success is the fear of failure. The fear of committing to something, giving it your all and best effort and still failing is something people fear so much that it stops them from even getting started on taking action. Most people think that this fear of failure is unexplainable but if you really boil it down to its core you will quickly realize what it comes down to.

Fear of failure basically derives from the fear of embarrassment which then again derives from caring too much about what other people think about you. The easiest way to prove this is to point to the number one fear in the world and no its not snakes, the number one fear in the world is actually public speaking.

Public speaking is so feared be so many people because you are putting yourself 100% on the line and a lot of people are going to be judging you whether you like it or not. If you have never done public speaking I can actually recommend you to attend a toast master seminar and try to do public speaking, the feeling after you are done is indescribable.

But it is really weird that so many people do not even get started on working towards their goals because they fear what people might think if they fail. Start drilling it into your head that it doesn’t matter what people think about you, they can think all they want, you are the one taking action while they are sitting still and judging others. You can actually use this fear to give yourself a great deal of leverage and push yourself to work even harder than you would do normally.

 The way to do this is to publically announce to a lot of people what your goals for the next amount of time are, no matter how unrealistic they might seem.

People might laugh at you or support you, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have now publically committed yourself to achieving these goals, and the fear of what people might think if you don’t achieve these goals is going to push you and drive you harder then you could ever do yourself.

Just remember that life is short, way too short to be wasting on what other people might think about you.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1486671_24.html  

The Gift of Forgiveness is a video I’m posting in memoriam to my brother, Brian, who took his life one year ago today.  He was a lovable and loving, kind, and sensitive man.  He was a physician who did not have the power to heal himself emotionally.  Brian was unable to forgive himself for just being who he was.

I miss him! 

                                     Last Week of Class & Beyond

By now the last class is a blur in my memory.  I remember thinking at the time that there was nothing significant that occurred to write about that was different from the previous classes. Then I was off the next day to a restful and relaxing vacation in sunny Mexico for twelve days.  In Mexico I did not do any formal type of meditation practice.  Instead, I chose to be mindful of being mindful as often as I could.

Now that I’m back home and meditating each day, here’s my report regarding the value I’ve gained from practicing up until now: 1) It’s ever present on my mind to be aware of what’s happening in the present moment;  and 2) I’m becoming better at working the process of detaching from being sucked into being my emotional state.  For example: when I feel sad, I can more easily detach myself from the feeling by recognizing that I feel sad, let my thoughts, including judgments about the feeling float away, and then simply be in the present moment  Then sadness becomes a word with no energetic charge. I realize that I was not sad; I was merely thinking thoughts that caused the emotion of sadness to arise in me.  I find it helps to change my language to I had thoughts that made me feel sad  instead of  I am sad.  [This process of detaching from any emotion requires – first of all - that I desire to feel better. I’ve learned that there’s a part of me that likes the sadness, as melancholy as it might be. Soooo, part of why I have the experience of sadness at all is that, at some level, I enjoy it.] ]]> http://www.brendamiller.org/blog/2010/03/meditation-class-week-6/feed/ 0 http://www.brendamiller.org/blog/2010/03/voice-dialogue-session/ http://www.brendamiller.org/blog/2010/03/voice-dialogue-session/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:18:35 +0000 Brenda http://www.brendamiller.org/blog/?p=134 Voice Dialogue is a great  tool for assisting us to bring balance and peace  to our lives.  View this clip in order to get a picture of what can happen in a session.  It’s truly worth a thousand words!