How different do your days look recently? Even without the backdrop of a global pandemic, it’s an uneasy feeling to suddenly have our daily structure pulled from under us. This is where many of us find ourselves, with little warning. On top of a collective unease, we’re looking at a major shift in how our
I don’t have full recall of that evening, and yet obviously either I didn’t ask, or he didn’t give much of an answer. So, something in me doesn’t expect much of an answer, doesn’t expect to get to the bottom of things. It might be family or cultural conditioning, of course, and yet the why is no longer relevant.
As a spiritual warrior, having seen the pattern, the idea is to see what happens when we consciously try to do something different.
When you’re caught in a spiral of overworking, you might want to have a good look at how this started and whether it’s really working for you.
Interrupting such strong patterns takes courage.
Partly from seeing the different effects of these experiments, I’ve noticed how powerful words can be when we’re in conversations.
Now, I try to be more skillful and flexible when talking with other people.
I admitted that I find myself walking through the school halls, head down, hoping no one will talk to me – not because I don’t like them, but because I’m thinking “If I talk to them I won’t get to what I need to do to start my day”.
When I’m in this mode, I’m not being kind to myself and I don’t notice what others need, whether it’s just a smile or a few minutes of my time.
There’s another benefit to a well-honoured space: it brings out all of our hidden fidgets, shining a light on our inability to sit still. When there’s clutter, anxiousness can hide under the auspices of needing to clean and tidy and organize.
Here we share two of the shorter pieces from our Great Healing series, written by Maureen Smith and Richard Nathaniel.
Over millennia, spiritual guides have been saying the same thing, that love comes from within and we’re not lacking – for anything. Yet, how often do we look to others for love or our sense of self worth? In my sexual prime, I took up the challenge to try a year of celibacy. I was
My default state used to be anxiety, with some fear thrown in for good measure. I don’t know why. For whatever reason, I’m just prone to feeling anxious without any apparent cause. Over the last 20 years, though, my anxiety lessened as I learned and then practiced meditation. My first experience was a mindfulness meditation
I now feel empowered to follow the advice of one of the teachers at Clear Sky, to “Take action, and let the chips fall where they may.”
After all, a pattern of confusion stems from and continues a hurt. Being empowered to act brings joy.
Even as we heal and awaken ourselves, then, we affect all of humanity. So go do the work, for the sake of all sentient beings.
Heal your mind – and expand your consciousness – and your body comes along for a much more easeful ride, despite still being subject to death, decay, and impermanence. And the interesting thing is that it works both ways – when we change the body, we also change the mind.
When dealing with something intense, like the loss of a relationship, it can seem as if that feeling completely dominates our reality. To a degree this is true. Yet at the same time, the feelings of pain or hurt or confusion are really only present when we allow ourselves to focus on them.
If you’re wondering why we require a three-night minimum in our cabins, it’s to honor the process of retreat time. Three nights is still a very short retreat, but it does allow for the possibility of something magical to happen between arriving, settling in, and the “I’m leaving soon” thoughts.
One of our regular blog contributors, and the Secretary of our Board of Directors, Dan O’Brien, has just completed another cabin retreat at Clear Sky. Before he went into retreat, he wrote the following thoughts about why he does regular meditation retreats. Dan: One of the key ways I nurture myself is by taking the
Not everyone will agree with our priorities…
Sometimes it helps to remind ourselves why meditation is a consistent priority in the midst of our own busyness, or the opinions of our loved ones.
Being by ourselves in a solo retreat creates the opportunity for three important explorations or insights:
Alone in a crowd: We can examine the concept of being alone
Who is alone?: We can explore the fear of abandonment and death
I’m dancing as fast as I can: We can see our habitual patterns of avoiding connecting with our inner depth
Do you find it tough transitioning from your working day back into your home life? Or going into work on Monday morning after a weekend with friends and family?
It’s a whole other shift of gears to transition into the energy of a retreat center.
It’s always strange being asked where I’ll be going for my two week Christmas holiday, because these past few years it’s always been, “On a meditation retreat.” This response can invoke an inquisitive look, although these days most people I meet know someone who has done something similar. Still, they often have trouble imagining doing
Even someone who meditates is sometimes nervous about going on retreat. Yet, there is no replacement for this extended period of simply being with our arisings to see that they are merely patterns. They come and go, so long as we don’t hold on to them.
After I’d done it, I realized that before, my ego had felt some sort of power and satisfaction from not wanting to do the task.
Does that resonate? How we randomly own a feeling and make it our reality, whether it feels good or not?
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* Personal Retreat Cabins:
OPEN during COVID. We’ve redesigned our personal retreat packages. Check out our Practice and Integrate Retreat, which offers a supportive balance of formal meditation and mindful activity.
* Dzogchen Meditation Retreat (Online)
August 21 – August 31, 2021
Beneath the confusion and distraction of our minds, the Mind itself is empty, spontaneous, and compassionate. The practice of Dzogchen helps us cut right through the confusion to this original, pure, and luminous nature of Mind.
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