Caring Meditation - Breathing Practice

April shared this wonderful Caring Medittation - breathing practice:

"You may have read or heard about the so-called positive thinkers of the West.  They say "When you breathe out, throw out all your misery and negativity. and when you breathe in, breathe in joy, happiness, cheerfulness."

Start being compassionate.

*When you breathe in, breathe in all the misery and suffering of all the beings of the world - past, present and future.

All the darkness, all the negativity, all the hell that exists anywhere, you are breathing it in.. And let it be absorbed into your heart.

*And when you breathe out, breathe out all the joy you have, all the blissfulness that you have, all the benediction that you have.

Breathe out, pour yourself into existence. This is the method of compassion: drink in all the suffering and pour out all the blessings.
And you will be surprised if you do it. The moment you take all the sufferings of the world inside you, they are no longer sufferings. The heart immediately transforms the energy. The heart is a transforming force: drink in misery, and it is transformed into blissfulness... then pour it out.

Once you have learned that your heart can do this magic, this miracle, you would like to do it again and again. Try it. It is one of the most practical methods - simple, and it brings immediate results. Do it today, and see."

From The Book of Wisdom : Discourses on Atisha`s Seven Points of Mind Training, by Osho

The Meaning of Compassion

There is a lesson in this that most of us are still trying to learn, from families to the world stage, to how we treat other living things on our planet:
“Twice in my life I have experienced deep depression. Both times various friends tried to rescue me with well-intended encouragement and advice….
In the midst of my depression I had a friend who took a different tack. Every afternoon at around four o’clock he came to me, sat me in a chair, removed my shoes, and massaged my feet. He hardly said a word, but he was there, he was with me. He was a lifeline for me, a link to the human community and thus to my own humanity. He had no need to ‘fix’ me. He knew the meaning of compassion.”
- Parker J. Palmer in The Active Life

A Spiritual Practice: ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY

I just learned that the Rev. Peter Morales, senior minister at the Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden Colorado, and a candidate for President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and I, share the same daily spiritual practice. Each day we visit the Astronomy Picture of the Day:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

There is no better way to contemplate the wonders and beauty of the universe than this site. Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. You peer into a remote galaxy, and realize you are peering back into time. You realize the vastness of the universe, and how small our place in it really is. The beauty of the stars are not just confined to our night sky, but our vision is extended to remote places and times. Troubles fall away, our horizons are expanded; we see the Big Picture. We are refreshed to go about our daily lives with a lot better perspective!

A personal spiritual practice: PLAYING WITH THE DOG (OR CAT)

"Everyone needs a spiritual guide: a minister, rabbi, counselor, wise friend, or therapist. My own wise friend is my dog. He has deep knowledge to impart. He makes friends easily and doesn't hold a grudge. He enjoys simple pleasures and takes each day as it comes. Like a true Zen master he eats when he's hungry and sleeps when he's tired. He's not hung up about sex. Best of all, he befriends me with an unconditional love that human beings would do well to imitate."

- Gary Kowalski, minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, Vermont, and author of several books, including The Souls of Animals from which this quote was taken.

A spiritual practice: WASHING YOUR HANDS

"If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people."
- Thich Nhat Hanh