The New Dream: Heaven On Earth

I WANT YOU TO FORGET EVERYTHING you have learned in your whole life. This is the beginning of a new understanding, a new dream.

The dream you are living is your creation. It is your perception of reality that you can change at any time. You have the power to create hell, and you have the power to create heaven. Why not dream a different dream? Why not use your mind, your imagination, and your emotions to dream heaven? Just use your imagination and a tremendous thing will happen. Imagine that you have the ability to see the world with different eyes, you see the world around you in a different way.

Close your eyes now, and then open them and look outside.

What you will see is love coming out of the trees, love coming out of the sky, love coming out of the light. You will perceive love from everything around you. This is the state of bliss. You perceive love directly from everything, including yourself and other humans. Even when humans are sad or angry, behind these feelings, you can see that they are also sending love.

Using your imagination and your new eyes of perception, I want you to see yourself living a new life, a new dream, a life where you don’t need justify your existence and you are free to be who you really are.

Imagine that you have permission to be happy to and to really enjoy your life. Your life is free of conflict with yourself and with others.

Imagine living your life without fear of expressing your dreams. You know what you want, what you don’t want, and when you want it. You are free to change your life the way you really you want to. You are not afraid to ask for what you need, to say yes or no to anything or anyone.

Imagine living your life without the fear of being judged by others You no longer rule your behaviour according to what others may think about you. You are no longer responsible for anyone’s opinion. You have no need to control anyone, and no one controls you either.

Imagine living your life without judging others. You can easily forgive others and let go of any judgements that you have. You don’ have the need to be right, and you don’t need to make anyone else wrong. You respect yourself and everyone else, and they respect you in return.

Imagine living without the fear of loving and not being loved. You are no longer afraid to be rejected, and you don’t have the need to be accepted. You can say “I love you” with no shame or justification. You can walk in the world with your heart completely open, and not be afraid to be hurt.

Imagine living your life without being afraid to take a risk and to explore life. You are not afraid to lose anything. You are not afraid to be alive in the world, and you are not afraid to die.

Imagine that you love yourself just the way you are. You love your body just the way it is, and you love your emotions just the way they are. You know that you are perfect just as you are.

The reason I ask you to imagine these things is because they are all entirely possible! You can live in the state of grace, the state of bliss, the dream of heaven. But in order to experience this dream, you must first understand what it is.

Only love has the ability to put you in that state of bliss. Being in bliss is like being in love. Being in love is like being in bliss. You are floating in the clouds. You are perceiving love wherever you go. It is entirely possible to live this way all the time. It is possible because others have done it and they are no different from you. They live in bliss because they have changed their agreements and are dreaming a different dream.

Once you feel what it means to live in a state of bliss, you will love it. You will know that heaven on earth is truth - that heaven truly exists. Once you know that heaven exists, once you know it is possible to stay there, it’s up to you to make the effort to do it. Two thousand years ago, Jesus told us about the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of love, but hardly anyone was ready to hear this. They said “What are you talking about; I don’t feel the peace that you have.” You don’t have to do this. Just imagine that his message of love is possible and you will find that it is yours.

The world is very beautiful and very wonderful. Life can be very easy when love is your way of life. You can be loving all the time. This is your choice. You may not have a reason to love, but you can love because love makes you so happy. Love in action produces happiness. Love will give you inner peace. It will change your perception of everything.

You can see everything with the eyes of love. You can be aware that there is love all around you. When you live this way, there is no longer a fog in your mind. The mitote has gone on permanent vacation. This is what humans have been seeking for centuries. For thousands of years we have been searching for happiness. Happiness is the lost paradise. Humans have worked so hard to reach this point, and this is part of the evolution of the mind. This is the future of humanity.

This way of life is possible, and it’s in your hands. Moses called it the Promised Land, Buddha called it Nirvana, Jesus called it Heaven, and the Toltecs call it a New Dream.

Unfortunately, your identity is mixed with the dream of the planet. All of your beliefs and agreements are there in the fog. You feel the presence of the parasite and believe it is you. This makes it difficult to let go - to release the parasite and create the space to experience love. You are attached to the Judge, attached to the Victim. Suffering makes you feel safe because you know it so well.

But there is really no reason to suffer. The only reason you suffer is because you choose to suffer. If you look at your life you will find many excuses to suffer, but a good reason to suffer you will not find. The same is true for happiness. The only reason you are happy is because you choose to be happy. Happiness is a choice, and so is suffering.

Maybe we cannot escape the destiny of the human, but we have a choice: to suffer our destiny or to enjoy our destiny. To suffer, or to love and be happy. To live in hell, or to live in heaven. My choice is to live in heaven. What is yours?

---

A SUMMARY OF THE THREE MASTERIES AND FOUR AGREEMENTS…

The Toltec created THREE MASTERIES and FOUR AGREEMENTS to guide us out of suffering and return us to our true nature: happiness, freedom, and love.

THE THREE MASTERIES:

1. THE MASTERY OF AWARENESS
   This mastery is the first step towards personal freedom, because we cannot be free if we don’t know what we are, where we are, or what kind of freedom we are looking for. In this mastery, we become aware of the fog that is in our mind. The Mastery of Awareness can also be called the Mastery of Truth.
   

2. THE MASTERY OF TRANSFORMATION
   The goal of the second mastery is to put order into the chaos of all the voices in our mind, to face our fears, to transform our fears, and to find the freedom to live our own life instead of the life of the belief system. The Four Agreements are a summary of the Mastery of Transformation.
   

3. THE MASTERY OF LOVE
   The result of the first two masteries is the third mastery, The Mastery of Love, or The Mastery of Intent. From the Toltec perspective, love or intent is that part of life that makes the transformation of energy possible. It is Life itself; it is unconditional love. Everything is made with love because everything comes from God or Life. When we master love, we master the dream of our live, and when all three masteries are accomplished, we reclaim our divinity and become one with God.

---

THE FOUR AGREEMENTS:

#1 Be Impeccable With Your Word

Being impeccable is not going against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself.

Being impeccable with your word is the correct use of your energy; it means to use your energy in the direction of truth and love for yourself.

Being impeccable with your word makes you immune from anyone putting a spell on you as your mind is no longer fertile ground for negative ideas.

A true Story of awareness and transformation…using the word to judge:

“The first agreement made me realize how much time I spend either judging myself or judging someone else. I live my life in total judgement! I am so determined to reclaim the part of my mind that is simply running a program, that I have begun to track my thoughts by setting the alarm on my watch to go off every twenty minutes. Each time I hear the alarm, I take note of where my thoughts are: Am I judging? I keep a notebook to recored my thoughts throughout the day.

At the end of the day, I look at the list of thoughts and ask myself, “Is this what I want to be thinking?” This simple technique makes me aware of my thoughts and helps me to change the way I use my word. It has also helped me to see if the thoughts I am thinking are truly my own or if they are simply the unconscious program that is running.”

---

#2 Don’t Take Anything Personally

Nothing others say and do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in.

You are never responsible for the actions of others; you are only responsible for you. When you truly understand this, and refuse to take things personally, you can hardly be hurt by the careless comments or actions of others.

As you make a habit of not taking anything personally, you won’t need to place your trust in what others do and say. You will only need to trust yourself to make responsible choices.

A true Story of awareness and transformation…the Judge and the Victim at work:

“I had a boss at work who was very judgemental. No matter what I did, she would find fault with it and make a point of correcting me in a very cynical way. I really struggled with this. I would go to work and ask myself, “Why am I letting myself be abused this way?”

I was ready to quit my job when I read The Four Agreements. What struck me the most was the term “spiritual warrior,” and “the discipline to be ourselves, no matter what.” I decided to use the situation to become a better “warrior,” and began by making a commitment to always do my best.

Over the next couple of months, I discovered that I was constantly afraid of being judged. This actually allowed my boss to be judgemental; I was playing the role of the Victim, and she was playing the role of the Judge. I continued to react to her judgments, and in some ways it was more difficult because I was so aware of my reactions. I would get angry, or feel betrayed whenever she criticized my work.

One day my boss said something to me and the dream suddenly shattered. What I saw was a woman who was fiercely critical of herself. When I finally understood that she was living in her own dream, and I was living in mine, everything shifted for me. In her dream, her own self-judgments caused her to be judgmental toward me, but it had nothing to do with me. In that moment, I felt compassion for her, and I never took anything she said personally.

I worked at this office for another year and even though my boss could still be judgemental, she started to change. She began to compliment me on my work! By having compassion for her Judge and putting my own Victim to rest, our relationship was transformed All I had to do was change my agreements!”

---

#3 Don’t Make Assumptions

Have the courage to ask questions until you are clear as you can be, and even then do not assume you know all there is to know about a given situation.

Find your voice to ask for what you want. Everybody has the right to tell you no or yes, but you always have the right to ask. Likewise, everybody has the right to ask you, and you have the right to say yes or no.

A true Story of awareness and transformation…making assumptions about a handicap:

“I was born with no forearms and small hands that come out just below my elbows. For me, learning not to take things personally, and not to make assumptions was a revolution in my life.

I was raised to believe that my physical disabilities don’t have to limit me, but it wasn’t until I read The Four Agreements that I saw how many choices I had made based on assumptions and taking what other people said or did personally.

I had been struggling with career and money issues for a long time, living off my disability cheque and going to college. I asked myself, “If I do not make the assumption that I am limited in any way, what would I want to do?” I knew in my heart that I wanted to be financially independent, but I had always assumed this was impossible. Now I am studying to be an accountant. I have stopped taking other people’s beliefs about having a disability personally. I know that is their dream. My dream is one of unlimited potential. I used to make the assumption that many doors were closed for me. Now I do my best in each moment, with no expectation of being rejected.”

---

#4 Always Do Your Best

Always do your best means to fully honour your life in every moment.

If you break an agreement, begin again tomorrow, and again the next day. Do not be concerned about the future; keep your attention on today, and stay in the present moment. Always do your best to keep these agreements, and soon it will be easy for you.

“That was then. This is now.

You can always connect with your true nature at any time and be free of everything that went before.”

- Chogyam Trungpa

A true Story of awareness and transformation…no guilt or blame

Always doing my best has helped me to keep the Judge at bay. All I have to do is ask myself: “Was that really my best effort?” If the answer is yes, there’s not a lot the Judge can say. My Judge is harsh, but even my Judge knows that a person can only do her best. If I make mistakes, I do my best to correct them, and if I do my best, then I have fewer mistakes to correct.

---

THE FIFTH AGREEMENT: BE SKEPTICAL….BUT LEARN TO LISTEN

Don’t believe yourself or anybody else. Use the power of doubt to question everything you hear: Is it really the truth? Listen to the intent behind words, and you will understand the real message.

IN THE FOUR AGREEMENTS, don Miguel Ruiz revealed how the process of our education, or “domestication,” can make us forget the wisdom we were born with. Throughout our lives, we make many agreements that go against ourselves and create needless suffering. The Four Agreements help us to break these self-limiting agreements and replace them with agreements that bring us personal freedom, happiness, and love.

Now don Miguel Ruiz joins his son don Jose Ruiz to offer a fresh perspective on The Four Agreements, and a powerful new agreement for transforming our lives into our personal heaven: the fifth agreement. THE FIFTH AGREEMENT takes us to a deeper level of awareness of the power of the Self, and returns us to the authenticity we were born with. In this compelling sequel to the book that has changed the lives of millions of people around the world, we are reminded of the greatest gift we can give ourselves: the freedom to be who we really are.

---

OUR CLOSING MEDITATION

Today is a very special day. Today we open our hearts to love again so that we can tell each other “I love you,” without any fear, and really mean it. Today, we offer ourselves to you. Come to us, use our voices, use our eyes, use our hands, and use our hearts to share ourselves in a communion of love with everyone. Today, Creator, help us to be just like you are. Thank you for everything that we receive this day, especially for the freedom to be who we really are. Amen.

---

Agreement #4: ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST

NOTE: All unbolded text is taken directly from either “The Four Agreements” or “The Four Agreements Companion Book” by Don Miguel Ruiz, and all credit extends to the author. Bolded text is my personal commentary.

---

There is just one more agreement, but it’s the one that allows the other three to become deeply ingrained habits. The fourth agreement is about the action of the first three: Always do your best.

---

When I first began to study the fourth agreement, I noticed that I kept getting hung up on the word “best”. I had a hard time getting past an old belief that doing my best meant measuring up to some standard of perfection. Somewhere along the line, I had adopted the belief that “doing my best” meant “being the best”…which, of course meant that my best was rarely good enough.

Always do your best has nothing to do with being the best. As don Miguel Ruiz explains, it is about fully honouring your life in every moment. The following quote beautifully summarizes the spirit and intention of this agreement:

---

“That was then. This is now.

You can always connect with your true nature at any time and be free of everything that went before.”

- Chogyam Trungpa

---

The first three agreements will only work if you do your best. Don’t expect that you will always be able to be impeccable with your word. Your routine habits are too strong and firmly rooted in your mind. But you can do your best. Don’t expect that you will never take anything personally; just do your best. Don’t expect that you will never make another assumption, but you can certainly do your best.

There was a man who wanted to transcend his suffering so he went to a Buddhist temple to find a Master to help him. He went to the Master and asked, “Master, if I meditate four hours a day, how long will it take me to transcend?”

The Master looked at him and said, “If you meditate four hours a day, perhaps you will transcend in ten years.”
Thinking he could do better, the man then said, “Oh, Master, what if I meditated eight hours a day, how long will it take me to transcend?”

The Master looked at him and said, “If you meditate eight hours a day, perhaps you will transcend in twenty years.”

“But why will it take me longer if I meditate more?” the man asked.

The Master replied, “You are not here to sacrifice your joy or your life. You are here to live, to be happy, and to love. If you can do your best in two hours of meditation, but you spend eight hours instead you will only tire, miss the point, and you won’t enjoy your life. Do your best, and perhaps you will learn that no matter how long you meditate, you can live, love, and be happy.”

---

In India they perform a ritual called puja. In this ritual, they take idols that represent God in many different forms and bathe them, feed them, and give their love to them. They even chant mantras to these idols. The idol itself is not important. What is important is the way they perform the ritual, the way they say, “I love you, God.”

God is life. God is life in action. The best way to say, “I love you, God,” is to live your life doing your best. The best way to say, “Thank you, God,” is by letting go of the past and living in the present moment, right here and now.

You were born with the right to be happy. You were born with the right to love, to enjoy and to share your love. You are alive, so take your life and enjoy it. Don’t resist life passing through you, because that is God passing through you. Just your existence proves the existence of God. Your existence proves the existence of life and energy.

Your own body is a manifestation of God, and if you honour your body everything will change for you. When you practice giving love to every part of your body, you plant seeds of love in your mind, and when they grow, you will love, honour, and respect your body immensely. Every action, every thought, every emotion then becomes a communion with God.

When you don’t do your best you are denying yourself the right to be you. That’s a seed that you should really nurture in your mind. You don’t need knowledge or great philosophical concepts. You don’t need the acceptance of others. You express your own divinity by being alive and by loving yourself and others.

---

Doing your best really doesn’t feel like work because you enjoy whatever you are doing. You know you’re doing your best when you are enjoying the action of doing it in a away that will not have negative repercussions for you.

Doing your best is a great habit to have. I do my best in everything I do and feel. Doing my best has become a ritual in my life because I made the choice to make it a ritual. It’s a belief like any other belief that I choose. I make everything a ritual, and I always do my best. Taking a shower is a ritual for me, and with that action I tell my body how much I love it. I do my best to give to my body and to receive what my body gives to me.

---

On the eve of sharing my first class on the fourth agreement, Always Do Your Best, I was touched by the notion of choosing to make doing your best a ritual in your life. As often happens, spirit guided me to a book. This time I was drawn to one called “A Journey To The Heart”, Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul”. I turned to May 24, the day of the class and the meditation for this day was called “Rituals Connect Us With Faith”. It was so endearing that I share it with you…(I am going to start asking St. Anthony to help me whenever I misplace something) :)

I stopped in at at the Franciscan monastery, a short visit to look around. I bought a keychain, returned to my car, then realized I had misplaced my keys. I went back inside and talked to the receptionist. Just then a short priest joined our conversation. He had a bald head encircled by a short fringe of hair and he wore a flowing black robe. "Let me show you what I do when I lose something," he said. "I ask St. Anthony for help."

The next moment, the priest was spinning in a circle, clapping his hands in a joyful prayer. "St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please look around. Somethings' been lost and cannot be found." He stopped, looked at me, then smiled. "Now you will find your keys," he said. He was right. Within thirty seconds, we found the keys. There were on a counter in a place we had looked twice before. For some reason, we just hadn't seen them.

But I found something more wonderful than my car key. I had witnessed a delightful man expressing pure, innocent joy in a ritual that helped him and others through the days. What are the rituals that are important to you, that awaken joy, innocence, and faith in you? Do you allow yourself to use these rituals freely? What were the rituals you enjoyed as a child, the ones that brought you comfort? Do you remember them? Engage in these rituals. Use them freely. Share them with others, as the priest did with me.

Ritual connect us to faith. They're faith in action. Rituals are reminders of our connection to God. They bring us back to God and ourselves.

- "A Journey to the Heart", by Melody Beattie. Entry for My 24: "Rituals Connect Us with Faith

---

Choose to honour the four agreements. If you break an agreement, begin again tomorrow, and again the next day. Do not be concerned about the future; keep your attention on today, and stay in the present moment. Always do your best to keep these agreements, and soon it will be easy for you.

---

Our Closing Meditation

Today, Creator of the Universe, we ask that you come to us and share with us a strong communion of love. We know that your real name is Love, that to have a communion with you means to share the same vibration, the same frequency that you are, because you are the only thing that exists in the universe.

Today, help us to be like you are, to love, to be life, to be love. Help us to love, with no conditions, no expectations, no obligations, without any judgement. Help us to love and accept ourselves without any judgement.

Help us to love everything you create unconditionally, especially other human beings, especially those who live around us.

Today, clean our hearts and free our minds so that we can live in complete peace and complete love.

---

Agreement #3: DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS

NOTE: All unbolded text is taken directly from either “The Four Agreements” or “The Four Agreements Companion Book” by Don Miguel Ruiz, and all credit extends to the author. Bolded text is my personal commentary.

---

I have read The Four Agreements several times in the past, but this recent deep dive into the book has absolutely rocked my world! I have been particularly astounded by the power of the second and third agreements! It’s actually quite amazing that the simple notion of not taking things personally and not making assumptions can be so profoundly transforming!

Let’s understand why they are so important and why they are so exceedingly difficult to do.

---

We have the tendency to make assumptions about everything.

It is very interesting how the human mind works. We have the need to justify everything, to explain and understand everything, in order to feel safe. We have millions of questions that need answers because there are so many things that the reasoning mind cannot explain. It is not important if the answer is correct; just the answer itself makes us feel safe. This is why we make assumptions.

The problem with making assumptions is that we believe that they are the truth. We could swear they are real.

We literally dream things up in our imaginations. Because we don’t understand something, we make an assumption about the meaning, and when the truth comes out, the bubble of our dream pops and we find out it was not what we thought it was at all.

---

All the sadness and drama you have lived in your life was rooted in making assumptions and taking things personally.

Take a moment to consider the truth of this statement…

We make assumptions about what others are doing or thinking - we take it personally - then we blame them by sending emotional poison with our word.

The whole world of control between humans is about making assumptions and taking things personally.

---

Making assumptions in relationships leads to a lot of fights, a lot of difficulties, a lot of misunderstandings with people we supposedly love.

Often we make the assumption that our partners know what we think and that we don’t have to say what we want. If they don’t do what we want, what we assume they should do, we feel hurt and think, “How could you do that? You should know.”

A whole lot of drama is created because we make the assumption and then we put more assumption on top of it.

---

If others tell us something, we make assumptions, and if they don’t tell us something we make assumptions to fulfill our need to know and to replace the need to communicate. Even if we hear something that we don’t understand, we make assumptions about what it means and believe the assumptions. We make all sorts of assumptions because we don’t have the courage to ask questions.

Because we are afraid to ask for clarification, we make assumptions, and believe we are right about the assumptions; then we defend our assumptions and try to make someone else wrong. It is always better to ask questions than to make an assumption, because assumptions set us up for suffering.

---

We assume that others think the way we think, feel the way we feel, judge the way we judge, abuse the way we abuse. This this the biggest assumption that humans make.

And this is why we have a fear of being ourselves around others. Because we think everyone else will judge us, victimize us, abuse us and blame us as we do ourselves.

This is the way the human mind works.

We also make assumptions about ourselves which creates a lot of inner conflict.

---

Have the courage to ask questions until you are clear as you can be, and even then do not assume you know all there is to know about a given situation.

Find your voice to ask for what you want. Everybody has the right to tell you no or yes, but you always have the right to ask. Likewise, everybody has the right to ask you, and you have the right to say yes or no.

---

Just imagine a day that you stop making assumptions with everyone in your life. Your way of communicating will change completely, and your relationships will no longer suffer from conflicts created by mistaken assumptions.

---

Our closing meditation:

Don’t make assumptions. It sounds easy but it is very difficult.

It is difficult because we have so many habits and routines we are not even aware of. Becoming aware of these habits and understanding its importance is not enough. Information or an idea is merely the seed in your mind. What will really make the difference is action. Taking the action over and over again strengthens your will, nurtures the seed, and establishes a solid foundation for the new habit to grow. After many repetitions these new agreements will ascend nature, and you will see how the magic of your word transforms you.

When you transform your whole dream, magic just happens in your life. What you need comes to you easily because spirit moves freely through you. This is the mastery of intent, the mastery of spirit, the mastery of love, the mastery of gratitude, and the mastery of life. This is the goal of the Toltec. This is the path to personal freedom

---

Oh wise women, I wish you infinite grace and gentleness as you bravely agree to no longer make assumptions!

xo

Patti

Agreement #2: DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY

NOTE: All unbolded text is taken directly from either “The Four Agreements” or “The Four Agreements Companion Book” by don Miguel Ruiz or Pema Chodron’s book, “Practicing Peace'“, and all credit extends to the authors. Bolded text is my personal commentary.

---

The first agreement, impeccability of the word, is completely aligned with our integrity.

The second and third agreements, don’t take anything personally and don’t make assumptions, give us immunity to the Book of Law and to everybody else around us. With that immunity, we can be assured that the outside dream will not choose our beliefs for us again.

And the fourth agreement, always do your best, is the engine that moves us forward; it is the action.

---

To understand the second agreement we must have a strong understanding of the Book of Law and how it operates in our life and the lives of all humans. If you are not able to realize that others are blindly following the rigid agreements in their personal Book of Law, you will always take what they say and do personally. Likewise, if you are not able to recognize and challenge the agreements in your personal Book of Law, you will blindly project your beliefs unto others and create conflict and drama.

The Book of Law is immensely powerful and the only way to break its power is to be aware of its rules and begin to re-write them.

Only then can we even begin to touch the second agreement, don’t take anything personally!

---

Personal importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about “me.”

Nothing others say and do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in.

When we understand this, we begin to see that the hurt we feel by someone’s words or actions is the result of old wounds being touched. With this awareness, we have the opportunity to look at the wounds and uncover the beliefs we agreed to a long time ago, and to choose to direct our attention to a new belief - only then can we begin to understand how nothing anyone says or does can actually hurt us.

When we really see other people as they are without taking it personally, we can never be hurt by what they say or do. Even if others lie to you, it is okay. They are lying to you because they are afraid. They are afraid you will discover that they are not perfect.

Wherever you go you will find people lying to you, and as your awareness grows, you will notice that you also lie to yourself. Do not expect people to tell you the truth because they also lie to themselves. You have to trust yourself and choose to believe or not to believe what someone says to you. 

If others say one thing, but do another, you are lying to yourself if you don’t listen to their actions. But if you are truthful to yourself, you will save yourself a lot of emotional pain. Telling yourself the truth about it may hurt, but you don’t need to be attached to the pain. Healing is on the way. 

You are never responsible for the actions of others; you are only responsible for you. When you truly understand this, and refuse to take things personally, you can hardly be hurt by the careless comments or actions of others.

As you make a habit of not taking anything personally, you won’t need to place your trust in what others do and say. You will only need to trust yourself to make responsible choices.

---

---

A conversation with don Miguel Ruiz:

Question: When I first read The Four Agreements, I was so excited about using these principles in my life. But now I look around and see the people around me living in their own hells, and its discouraging. How do I keep my enthusiasm when I am surrounded by so many people who are in an old dream?

don Miguel: If you know the Four Agreements, by now you know that you don’t have to take personally the way other people dream; you know that their dream has nothing to do with you. But if you really want to help people, you can share the Four Agreements with them. If they know your personal mythology, and if they agree with you, very soon you can share that awareness, and have agreements to support one another. But if they don’t have awareness, they never will try to change, and it’s not up to you to try to change them.

---

The Second Agreement also relates to the Tibetan Buddhist concept of shenpa. Shenpa is usually translated as meaning “attachment”. But, as Pema Chodron writes, it is more akin to trigger, stickiness or “getting hooked”. 

“Here’s an everyday example: Someone criticizes you. She criticizes your work or your appearance or your child. In moments like that, what is it you feel? It has a familiar taste, a familiar smell. Once you begin to notice it, you feel like this experience has ben happening forever. That sticky feeling is shenpa. And it comes along with a very seductive urge to do something. Somebody says a harsh word and immediately you can feel a shift. There’s a tightening that rapidly spirals into mentally blaming this person, or wanting revenge or blaming yourself. It’s a quality of experience that’s not easy to describe but that everyone knows well. It’s called getting hooked.”

— “Practicing Peace”, by Pema Chodron

To not take anything personally is to not bite the hook. And both Miguel Ruiz and Pema Chodron advise to go easy on ourselves if and when we get hooked, take something personally and end up making a big mess.

There are times when the hook is so sharp that we can’t help but bite. When this happens, we return to the fourth agreement of always do your best. With self-reflection and awareness we will learn to catch ourselves before getting hooked the next time.

“The four R’s to not biting the hook:

1. Recognizing the shenpa

2. Refraining from scratching

3. Relaxing with the underlying the urge to scratch

4. Resolving to interrupt the momentum like this for the rest of our lives

You can also begin to notice shenpa arising in other people.  You simply recognize your friend’s shenpa and you practice patience - you give the situation some space. You have the innate intelligence to realize that nothing is going to get through right now because this person has just been hooked. ”

— "Practicing Peace" by Pema Chodron

---

AND, perhaps most importantly…

Just as you have a choice of what to believe and agree with in the dream of the planet, you also have a choice whether or not to believe the voices you hear within your own mind.

You don’t have to take whatever you hear in your own mind personally.

---

Our closing meditation:

If you keep this agreement, you can travel around the world with your heart completely open and no one can hurt you. You can say, “I love you,” without fear of being ridiculed or rejected. You can ask for what you need. You can say yes, or you can say no - whatever you choose - without guilt or self-judgement. You can choose to follow your heart always. You can experience inner peace and happiness no matter where you are.

---

Agreement #1: BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD

NOTE: All unbolded text is taken directly from either “The Four Agreements” or “The Four Agreements Companion Book” by Don Miguel Ruiz, and all credit extends to the author. Bolded text is my personal commentary.

---

From Colette Baron Reid’s Oracle Deck, “Postcards from Spirit”.

Through the word you express your creative power and manifest everything.

We must begin to understand what the word is and what the word does. If you understand the first agreement, you begin to see all the changes that can happen in your life. Change first in the way you deal with yourself, and later in the way that you deal with other people, especially those that you love the most.

The word is the most powerful tool you have as a human; it is the tool of magic. Every human is a magician, and we can either put a spell on someone with our word or we can release someone from a spell. Like a sword with two edges, your word can create the most beautiful dream, or your word can destroy everything around you.

---

Source: Merriam- Webster

Impeccable comes from the Latin pecatus, which means “sin.” The im in impeccable means “without”, so impeccable means “without sin”. Religions talk about sin and sinners, but let’s understand what it really means to to sin.

A sin is anything that you do which goes against yourself.

Everything you feel or believe or say that goes against yourself is a sin. You go against yourself when you judge or blame yourself for anything. Being without sin is exactly the opposite.

---

Being impeccable is not going against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself.

Being impeccable with your word is the correct use of your energy; it means to use your energy in the direction of truth and love for yourself.

Being impeccable with your word makes you immune from anyone putting a spell on you as your mind is no longer fertile ground for negative ideas.

---

During our domestication, our parents and siblings gave their opinions about us without even thinking. We believed these opinions and we lived in fear over these opinions, like being good at swimming, or sports, or writing.

Whenever we hear an opinion and believe it, we make an agreement, and it becomes part of our belief system. These belief systems are hard to break. The only way way to break them is to make a new agreement based on truth.

The truth is the most important part of being impeccable with your word.

---

Practicing Impeccability of the Word:

1. BEWARE OF COMMON PHRASES AND CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS (example: I’m sick and tired, I’m getting to old for this, I’m dying to, I can’t afford to…) Know that like attracts like when it comes to the word.

2.SELF LOVE BEGINS WITH SELF RESPECT
Notice what you say to yourself about yourself every day, are these words kind, respectful and loving? Treat yourself as you would treat a queen or king, an innocent child, or your favourite pet.

3.PUT AN END TO GOSSIP*
Gossip spreads emotional poison, perpetuates fear, and keeps others down. Make a new agreement about the way you communicate with others. Notice when, where, and with whom you engage in gossip. Notice how gossip makes you feel, notice what you enjoy about gossiping. Take steps to avoid gossiping (changing the subject, saying something positive, staying silent).

4. LET GO OF THE NEED TO DEFEND YOUR OPINIONS AND ALWAYS BE RIGHT
Your opinion is nothing but your point of view. It is not necessarily true.

5. USE THE POWER OF YOUR WORD IN THE DIRECTION OF TRUTH AND LOVE
When you are impeccable with your word, you feel good; you feel happy and at peace.

6. SYMBOLIZE THE POWER OF YOUR WORD
Select a meaningful object to symbolize the power of your word, and to remind you to be impeccable with your word. Place the object where you will see it every day.

---

*Gossip definition (source: Wikipedia):

gossip (n.)

Old English godsibb "sponsor, godparent," from God + sibb "relative" (see sibling). Extended in Middle English to "a familiar acquaintance, a friend, neighbor" (c. 1300), especially to woman friends invited to attend a birth, later to "anyone engaging in familiar or idle talk" (1560s). Sense extended 1811 to "trifling talk, groundless rumor." Similar formations in Old Norse guðsifja, Old Saxon guþziff.

Gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling.[1]

Gossip has been researched in terms of its origins in evolutionary psychology,[2] which has found gossip to be an important means for people to monitor cooperative reputations and so maintain widespread indirect reciprocity.[3] Indirect reciprocity is a social interaction in which one actor helps another and is then benefited by a third party. Gossip has also been identified by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary biologist, as aiding social bonding in large groups.[4]

---

Consider making the following agreement with yourself. I recently wrote this agreement out in its entirely on our family chalkboard to serve as a reminder and create accountability with the ones I love the most:

THIS AGREEMENT is made on _____ (date) for the purpose of increasing my happiness and personal freedom. I am responsible for creating my personal dream of heaven on earth, and it begins with the power of my word.
I choose to be impeccable with my word. I promise to honour myself, to speak with integrity, and to choose my words carefully. I intend to use the power of my word in the direction of truth and love. I will pay attention to how I use the word. I will take action every day to keep my word impeccable. I will repeat this action until the habit is firmly established and no longer requires my attention. The symbol of my commitment to this agreement is ________.

Signed: ___________

---

The repeated action of using the Four Agreements will break many of the agreements that make life difficult and unpleasant. It takes a lot of time and courage because it’s easier just to take things personally, make assumptions, and react the way you react all the time. Once you start, you will see results, and it gets easier and easier. Once it becomes a habit, the transformation of your life starts happening fast. You see the changes and your self-respect increases, your enthusiasm rises, and self-acceptance returns to your life.

---

Oh ladies, how I wish you endless curiosity and openness as you experience the many layers to the depth of your inner truth.

xo

Patti

The Mastery of Transformation

NOTE: All unbolded text is taken directly from either “The Four Agreements” or “The Four Agreements Companion Book” by Don Miguel Ruiz, and all credit extends to the author. Bolded text is my personal commentary.

Think of a problem in your life that has caused you to worry or suffer. Imagine that you can view your life through the lens of a magical camera. When you zoom in, you see and feel every detail and facet of your life; anything that touches your life comes into focus with the frame of the viewfinder.

Imagine that you can also zoom out whenever you choose in order to see the larger picture of your life. In the zoom-out mode, your focus is no longer on all the details. The first thing you see is the house you live in from hundreds of feet above the ground. In the zoom-out mode, you observe ever-widening panoramic views of first the city where you live, then the country, then the continent, until suddenly you are staring at the earth from outer space.

Pause for a moment to consider your life from this perspective. Your life and all your troubles are a tiny speck on the face of the earth. All your dreams, all your desires, all your hopes and fears are there in that speck on earth. You are there in the midst of billions of people just like you who share similar emotions and dreams. Stay in the zoom-out mode, and continue your journey into outer space until you can see all the planets in our solar system. Keep going farther and farther until the entire Milky Way is visible from light-years away.

Who are you? What are you? Where is your place in this vast universe? Why do humans suffer over so many small things when there is a universe of beauty and wonder to behold? When we consider the span of eternity, and the entire history of humanity, our life is over in a mere fraction of time. How will we choose to spend it? What will we invest our energy in?

Keep zooming out until you detach completely from your problem and can see that it is insignificant in the greater scheme of Life. Remind yourself that every problem carries the seeds of opportunity to learn, to love, to grow in awareness, and simply be happy to be alive.

Zoom out and keep going farther and farther into space until the cord that keeps you attached to your fears finally snaps. As soon as you detach from the fear, you detach from the problem, you detach from the outcome, and you are free. You are floating effortlessly in the stream of Life. When you have no fear, you have no resistance. And when you have no resistance, the solution to your problem is there in the Light, and it comes to you. The solution to every problem of humanity is in the light.

You are alive, you are free, and you are powerful. You are not a victim of your beliefs, your desires, your society, or your circumstance. You are an active participant in the art of dreaming.

To Master Transformation is to Master the Art of Dreaming…

By using the Four Agreements in our own life, we modify our personal dream, and soon our new dream will modify the outside dream. There is no need to actively try to modify the outside dream. This happens naturally as a result of our own transformation. Deciding to focus on our own freedom isn’t selfish; it is the greatest gift we can give to humanity.

---

Just imagine living in a society where the Four Agreements were a habit for everybody, where this habit was the way they expressed life. Imagine living in a society where everybody practiced love until they mastered love. It will happen; it is just a matter of time. There is already a new dream in this world that is ready to be dreamed by humans. The sun has already changed; the light has changed. We just need humans to dream the new dream.

Mastering The Art of Dreaming:

1. Using your will and attention for the second time (the first time our attention was hooked by other people who taught us how to dream). In the dream of the second attention, you choose to believe what you want to believe, and that includes believing in yourself.

2. Using the Four Agreements to change your actions-reactions. Every choice you make has a consequence or result. When you change the action, you change the result, and you change the dream of your life.

3. Using attach-detach to surrender to the angel of death. The angel of death can teach you to live in the present moment instead of the past or the future. When your attention is in the present moment, you enjoy life more intensely because you are fully alive.

---

THE SECOND ATTENTION

In the dream of the second attention, we live in the same world, but with a difference. We control our attention from the inside, escape the dream of the planet, and create a brand new dream: our personal dream of heaven on earth.

In the dream of the second attention, we find out that we are responsible for our choices. What we agree to believe is our own choice, not the choice of the images we think we are, not the choice from our ego who pretends to know everything, but a choice from our own integrity. In the new dream, we only put our faith in agreements that support Life, which add to our joy, to our happiness, to our freedom.

We don’t need to escape from life; we don’t need to deny our own nature. What we need is complete awareness and self-acceptance. We need to learn to make our own choices and finally control our will from the inside.

Tools for Transformation

1. INTENTION

2. ATTENTION

3. ACTION

4. REPETITION

---

ACTION - REACTION

Dream masters create a masterpiece of life; they control the dream by making choices.

Every action has a reaction, and for all of our life we repeat our actions and suffer the same reactions. Perhaps we cannot see the choices or the actions when we make them, but we are always going to see the reaction, the result of what we do.

The only way to change your life is to change the choices, to change the actions. If there is something in your life that you don’t like, first you have to be aware that it is the result of something that you do. Once you find out what action you took, the next step is to forgive the reaction and change the choice, change the action, and see what the reaction is. If you don’t like the result again, you change it again and again until you have the result you want.

You cannot control what is going to happen around you, but you can certainly control your own reaction. If you can learn to change your own reactions, then you can change your habits and routines, change the program, and change your life. Your reaction is the clue to having a wonderful life.

Tools for Transformation

1. AWARENESS OF THE REACTION

2. FOCUSED ATTENTION TO IDENTIFY THE ACTION THAT CAME BEFORE THE REACTION

3. NOTICE WHICH OF THE FOUR AGREEMENTS WERE BROKEN

4.APPLY THE FOUR AGREEMENTS

---

ATTACH - DETACH

Toltec mythology tells us that the angel of death is always beside us, ready to take everything away from us. Nothing is ours to keep, including our physical body. Knowing this, we surrender to the angel of death and accept the transformation of Life.

What the Toltec call “ surrendering to the angel of death” can also be called “detachment.” Detachment doesn’t mean that we stop loving someone or something; it only means we accept that there is nothing we can do to stop the transformation of Life. Detachment is so powerful because when we learn to detach, we respect the forces of nature, which means we also respect the changes in our own life.

We can detach from agreements and beliefs that limit the expression of our creativity and our love. This frees our energy to create a new dream. And what we create is a masterpiece of art: our own life.

Tools for Transformation

1. Notice attachments to moments, people, objects and especially your beliefs.

2. If you enjoy the attachment then enjoy it as fully and intensely as you can in every moment

3. Be willing to detach and fully let go of moments, people, and objects when they pass.

4. Practice detaching from any belief and knowledge that goes against you or anyone else

---

Our Closing Meditation:

Imagine how your life would be if today was the day of your last judgement; if after today, you no longer judged yourself, and you no longer judged other people.

Imagine if the voice of knowledge in your head no longer talked to you; if that voice in your head left you alone, and you only followed your heart.

Imagine if the voice of knowledge was silent because you don’t need to think about what you know; you don’t need to learn to be what you are.

Imagine if you could express what you are with joy instead of judgement.

What does it feel like? Capture the feeling and remember the feeling.

This is the beginning of a new dream.

---

Dear wise women, if you made it this far, congratulations! I captured and summarized a lot of information here (I became so enraptured, I couldn’t seem to stop)! I hope that you are all able to gleam some gems that feel reachable for you. As you go forward, and as we go forward together, I invite you to remember Don Miguel’s words:

Information is merely the seed in your mind. What will really make the difference is action. If you practice the Four Agreements, you will master the Four Agreements. Eventually, after many repetitions, these agreements will become a habit, and you will see how your life is transformed.

With tremendous excitement for the possibilities…

xoxo
Patti

The Mastery of Awareness

NOTE: All unbolded text is taken directly from either “The Four Agreements” or “The Four Agreements Companion Book” by Don Miguel Ruiz, and all credit extends to the author. Bolded text is my personal commentary.

To be aware of what happened with our mind and with the whole of humanity is what the Toltec call the Mastery of Awareness. Awareness means to open your eyes to see the truth, and to no longer be blind. We are born with awareness, but we accumulate knowledge and we practice not being aware, we learn to deny what we perceive. We are born without knowledge, of course, but we accumulate knowledge when we are domesticated. That knowledge is like a wall of focus that doesn’t allow us to perceive what really is; it keeps us from having awareness.

The challenge is to maintain our awareness in the midst of the fog. More than that, to shift the knowledge, lift the fog, and recover our awareness. If we can practice being aware all the time, just the awareness will change our whole reality.

---

DOMESTICATION

During the process of domestication, we form an image of perfection in order to try to be good enough. We create an image of how we should be in order to be accepted by everybody.

After domestication it is no longer about being good enough for anybody else. We are not good enough for ourselves because we don’t fit with our own image of perfection.

Our image of perfection is the reason we reject ourselves. We know we are not what we believe we are supposed to be and so we feel false, frustrated, and dishonest. We try to hide ourselves, and we pretend to be what we are not. The result is that we feel unauthentic and wear social masks to keep others from noticing this.

We judge others according to our image of perfection as well, and naturally they fall short of our expectations.

Any belief that generates fears or feelings of unworthiness is false; it’s a lie. Our authentic self would never abuse us; it comes from love.

PRACTICING AWARENESS

1. BECOME AWARE OF THE RULES AND AGREEMENTS IN YOUR “BOOK OF LAW”. The Book of Law, even though it isn’t physical, creates a strong and rigid structure made by agreements, and we call it a belief system. Begin to challenge your Book of Law. Ask which agreements lift me up and give me joy? Which ones bring me down? Which ones are based on truth? Which ones are lies?

2. BECOME AWARE OF THE JUDGE INSIDE YOUR MIND, “THE VOICE OF KNOWLEDGE” THAT JUDGES EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE. Is your judge very fair and forgiving, or is it always harsh and unforgiving?

3. BECOME AWARE OF THE VICTIM INSIDE YOUR MIND THAT CARRIES THE BLAME, SHAME AND GUILT.

4. IMAGINE IF YOU COULD TAKE BACK THE POWER YOU GAVE TO THE JUDGE YEARS AGO, AND RULE YOUR LIFE BASED ON PRINCIPLES OF LOVE, JOY, AND FREEDOM. IMAGINE IF YOUR VICTIM WAS TRANSFORMED FROM “POOR ME” TO AN EMPOWERED PERSON.

---

THE POWER OF THE WORD

The word is not just a sound or a written symbol, it is a vibration of sound that has the tendency to manifest its physical equivalent.

The word is a force; it is the power you have to express and communicate, to think, and thereby to create the events in your life.

Through the word we manifest everything; we express our will, our intent, our love, and are faith, which are all the same thing.

Practicing Awareness

1. BEWARE OF COMMON PHRASES AND CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS (example: I’m sick and tired, I’m getting to old for this, I’m dying to, I can’t afford to…) Know that like attracts like when it comes to the word.

2.SELF LOVE BEGINS WITH SELF RESPECT
Notice what you say to yourself about yourself every day, are these words kind, respectful and loving?

3.PUT AN END TO GOSSIP
Notice when, where, and with whom you engage in gossip. Notice how gossip makes you feel, notice what you enjoy about gossiping. Take steps to avoid gossiping (changing the subject, saying something positive, staying silent).

4. LET GO OF THE NEED TO DEFEND YOUR OPINIONS AND ALWAYS BE RIGHT
Your opinion is nothing but your point of view. It is not necessarily true.

5. USE THE POWER OF YOUR WORD IN THE DIRECTION OF TRUTH AND LOVE

---

DREAMING: AWARENESS OF YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF

From the Toltec perspective, your entire life has been a dream. You are dreaming right now with the brain awake, and you also dream with the brain asleep.

The dream is ongoing everywhere, not just in humans, but in plants, in rocks, in everything because light puts all the information that comes from Life inside each form of matter. Light is the messenger of Life; it contains all information, all power, all possibilities, and all potential of Life.

There is only one living being manifesting in billions of forms.

I know this may be a little difficult to understand, but if you use your imagination it will be very clear. Imagine a perfect mirror that reflects what exists outside of it. Of course, we cannot touch what is inside the mirror because it’s only an illusion. What we see inside the mirror is a virtual reality, and we know that it’s not real. It’s the same with the human mind. The eyes, the brain, the mind work so perfectly together that we can swear the image is real. But what we see inside our mind is a virtual reality created by images of light. This reflection of light is the dream.

The dream is alive, and it can change as fast as light, as fast as Life. When our awareness is there - in the light instead of the fog, in our faith instead of our knowledge - we recover our faith, our will, and our power. And we find that we have the power to make choices, to take risks, to project, to perceive, to interact, and to master the dream.

Practicing Awareness

1. UNDERSTAND THAT WE ARE DREAMING AND EVERYBODY AROUND US IS DREAMING, WITH OR WITHOUT AWARENESS

2. BECAUSE WE KNOW OTHERS ARE DREAMING, AND IT IS ONLY THEIR POINT OF VIEW, WE NO LONGER TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY

3. BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT THE DREAM AND THE DREAMER ARE CONSTANTLY CHANGING, IT BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE ASSUMPTIONS

4. WE THEN NATURALLY USE OUR INTEGRITY TO GUIDE OUR ACTIONS, REACTIONS, AND OUR INTERACTIONS WITH ALL THOSE DREAMERS WHO DON’T HAVE AWARENESS

---

Our Closing Meditation:

Your integrity is who you really are, what you really are, the totality of your authentic self. Spend a few moments every day to get in touch with the memory of what you are. Allow yourself to imagine the possibility that you are made by a certain frequency of Light. Light is the messenger of God; it contains all the information, all possibilities, and all power. Imagine that you are made of Light, of Spirit. There is nothing you need to do. There is nothing you need to be except what you really are. Remember what you are, and the dream of your Life will have no limits.

---

Dear wise women, if you made it this far, congratulations! I captured and summarized a lot of information here! I hope that you are all able to gleam some gems that feel reachable for you. As you go forward, and as we go forward together, I invite you to ponder Don Miguel’s words:

Humanity has progressed a lot. Just by having the awareness that the whole society is dreaming, you can see all the possibilities; you can see that we are going in the right direction. But of course, in order to change the whole society, we first have to change ourselves.

With tremendous excitement for the possibilities…

xoxo
Patti

Keep Facing Your True North (and enjoy the side-trips!)

---

Dear Wise Women,

It is almost one year since I returned back to teaching after my surgery. At that time I was very clear about what I wanted to create - I wanted to create a sacred space for women to come together, to share and to heal. I bravely asked for this and it soon manifested. Throughout the past year I have had moments of wondering if I have veered off course, yet I continue to come back to my “True North” and follow the lead of my inner compass. In my experience, this sense and trust of the inner compass has allowed me to consciously appreciate the full range of experiences that life will inevitably present along this road of Life.

I have enjoyed traveling this path with each of you and have deep respect for our unique and divine journeys!

With grace and gratitude,

Patti

---

We finished off our brief exploration of Pamela Wilson’s sweet book, covering the chapters of Anger, Sorrow, Inner Alchemy and Honey’s Detecting Pointers of Divine Qualities. I invite you to take the time to read through again with your own copy and allow yourself to hear the words as they are intended to be heard, like a conversation with Pamela. Pausing to listen when guided.

---

THIS IS IT
(from “Alchemy of The Heart” by Michael Brown)

When we stop running from that which we perceive as uncomfortable and unfamiliar, and instead embrace it, we gradually reawaken an awareness of our heart. This enables us to begin feeling everything more deeply.

Instead of fleeing what is, we start settling into the moment we are always in - no matter what.

We feel the unlimited variations of the radiance of our own presence, and we consciously appreciate this. We feel the unlimited radiance of the presence of others, and we consciously appreciate this. We feel the ever- changing and unlimited currents of energy swirling through every day, and we consciously appreciate this. We feel the presence of nature in all her manifestations, and we consciously appreciate this.

Not surprisingly, the more we consciously appreciate what we allow ourselves to feel, the deeper our capacity to feel becomes. As we allow this experience of felt-perception to unfold, a remarkable discovery dawns within our awareness like a rising sun after a long dark night:

THIS LIFE, THE ONE THAT WE ARE LIVING RIGHT NOW, JUST AS IT IS IN EACH MOMENT, IS “THE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE” WE HAVE BEEN SEEKING.

💚💚💚💚

---

Un-containing our Vastness!

---

Dear Monday Evening Wise Women,

I hope you enjoyed Pamela Wilson’s chapters on The Mind, The Body and Emotions and I encourage you to savour them again this week from your own copy of her book.

May you allow yourself to let the words just land where they land and to fall back into the seat of the witness… watching, accepting and enjoying the play of life in all its forms and flavours!

With deepest gratitude,
Patti

---

Who Are you REALLY? (hint: it has to do with mountains)

All activity is born of rest.

Rest means to Be…

Now, as you rest in the right side of the chest, let’s imagine a vibrant sparkling flame there. The flame is love, strength and clarity, it returns everything to its naturalness. Anything you don’t need…return them to the Source, through the flame. When it feels like there is nothing more to give, give a bundle with your name on it to the flame…

Notice…your attention or awareness can move throughout the body. Now notice it can move outside the body. Awareness can sense all around the body. Awareness, by nature, is open and fluid, a pure liquid intelligence and curiosity.

You ARE this alive, natural, playful intelligence!

- Paraphrased from Pamela Wilson’s book “A Golden Retriever’s Guide to JOY”

---

Dear Wise Women,

I would like to share with you a little bit about my recent trip to Whitefish, Montana. Coincidentally the theme of this week’s blog is fully captured in my experience…including the MOUNTAIN STRENGTH card I drew before class (see below)! You see, Whitefish holds memories that literally cross section every stage of my life and every emotion. In these memories are many reflections of the various “versions” of myself and the “roles” I have played.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are from our family vacations to Whitefish. It was there, at about the age of 12, that I first experienced the freedom of skiing without an adult. I recall zipping in and out of the trees and carelessly flying over ski jumps with my friends and my brother - pure freedom!

In my early twenties, another version of myself took several bus trips full of college educated drunks, where there was more focus on the partying than the skiing.

Whitefish is also where Dave, my husband, and I skied our first runs together. Dave and I met in September of 1997 and as downhill skiing was a big part of both of our lives, we were anxious to hit the slopes together that coming winter. To this day, Dave likes to brag that I am the only girl he ever met that could keep up to him on skis! We went on to share many ski excursions and trips together. In 1999, Dave and I went back to Whitefish for a weekend trip. One morning he took an early run by himself and planted a bottle of champagne beside a tree. Later on he took me to this spot and asked me to marry him. When I said yes, he reached into the snow and pulled out a bottle of champagne!

As soon as our oldest was able to ski, we went down to Whitefish every Family Day weekend. We don’t ‘ski much outside of Whitefish, so our trips there are especially near and dear to our girls.

In 2014, we experienced tragedy. One of Dave’s best friends, Tom Podovinsky, fell into a tree well and suffocated. We were staying in the condo next door to Tom’s family and were first on the scene to comfort his wife and two young children. It was a weekend we will never forget.

Though Tom’s wife has yet to return to Whitefish, she takes solace in knowing that we keep going back. Tom died just off of chair 7 and Dave and I both swear that we can feel him every single time we ride up that chair.

There is another aspect to Whitefish that I wish to share with you. Whitefish has also been the home of many negative experiences stemming from Dave’s past participation in the overzealous consumption of alcohol that seems to accompany the ski culture. In 2015, just one year after Tom’s death, Dave and I nearly broke up in Whitefish…on Valentine’s Day. This trip turned out to be a pivotal point in our relationship, a time in which I courageously turned towards my truth and shed all the various personas and roles I had been playing. Everything we went through that weekend was amplified by the emotional charge of the grief we were carrying.

We emerged with a renewed commitment fuelled by deep respect and love for each other…and we continue to walk this path of ups and downs together.

Whitefish is always a reminder of what matters most to me, and this past weekend, I felt it stronger than ever! This year felt especially significant, as one year ago I was recovering from my breast cancer surgery (Dave and Clara went to Whitefish and Ayla stayed home to help me). This year, as I skied the fresh powder and felt the exhilaration of the wind on my face. I was able to fully experience pure JOY and GRATITUDE for the moment.

Throughout the weekend I found myself face to face with the many younger versions of myself and found that I was able to see PURE AWARENESS behind the various personas of my past…I was able to feel who I REALLY AM! ❤️

---

The massiveness of the mountain in this image - bearing the blanket of snow as spectacular hues from the sun reflect its body - evokes a sense of impenetrable and immovable strength and stature. A mountain’s quiet, resolute immensity leaves us in awe and inspires us to reach for greater heights. Yet, it can also pose challenges.
The firm base of the mountain evolves to the narrower crest in its attempt to reach the sky. More daring individuals become enamoured by the peak and see it as something to conquer, although it can never truly be conquered. When the mountain feels threatened in some way or simply shrugs its shoulders, the strength exhibited can wreak havoc for all beings caught on its skin.

It makes no sense to deny the strength you have at the cost of allowing yourself to be reactive and subject to external influences far beyond what is healthy for you. Imagine yourself as a mountain of strength, solidly ground in the Earth, your head held high as if you were touching the sky. Do so without straining, just as the mountain itself does not strain.

- “Mountain Strength” from Earth Magic Oracle Cards by Steven D. Farmer, PH.D

---

How perfect it feels to now re-share the opening meditation from last night’s circle….

PRAYER FOR LOVE - by Don Miguel Ruiz

We are going to share a beautiful dream together - a dream that you will love to have all of the time. In this dream you are in the middle of a beautiful, warm sunny day. You hear the birds, the wind, and a little river. You walk toward the river. At the edge of the river is an old man in meditation, and you see that out of his head comes a beautiful light of different colors. You try not bother him, but he notices your presence and opens his eyes. He has the kind of eyes that are full of love and a big smile. You ask him how he is able to radiate all that beautiful light. You ask him if he can teach you to do what he is doing. He replies that many, many, years ago he asked the same question of his teacher.

The old man begins to tell you his story: “My teacher opened his chest and took out his heart, and he took a beautiful flame from his heart. Then he opened my chest, opened my heart, and he put that little flame inside it. He put my heart back in my chest, and as soon as my heart was inside me, I felt intense love, because the flame he put in my heart was his own love.

“That flame grew in my heart and became a big, big fire - a fire that doesn’t burn, but purifies everything that it touches. And that fire touched each one of the cells of my body, and the cells of my body loved me back. I became one with my body, but my love grew even more. That fire touched every emotion of my mind, and all the emotions transformed into a strong and intense love. And I loved myself, completely and unconditionally.

“But the fire kept burning and I had the need to share my love. I decided to put a little piece of my love in every tree, and the trees loved me back, and I became one with the trees, but my love did not stop, it grew more. I put a piece of love in every flower, in the grass, in the earth and they loved me back, and we became one. And my love grew more and more to love every animal in the world. They responded to my love and they loved me back, and we became one. But my love kept growing and growing.

“I put a piece of my love in every crystal, in every stone in the ground, in the dirt, in the metals, and they loved me back, and I became one with the earth. And then I decided to put my love in the water, in the oceans, in the rivers, in the rain, in the snow. And they loved me back and we became one. And still my love grew more and more. I decided to give my love to the air, to the wind. I felt a strong communion with the earth, with the wind, with the oceans, with nature, and my love grew and grew.

“I turned my head to the sky, to the sun, to the stars, and put a little piece of my love in every star, in the moon, in the sun, and they loved me back. And I became one with the moon and the sun and the stars, and my love kept growing and growing. And I put a little piece of my love in every human, and I became one with the whole of humanity. Wherever I go, whomever I meet, I see myself in their eyes, because I am a part of everything, because I love.”

And then the old man opens his own chest, takes out his heart with that beautiful flame inside, and he puts that flame in your heart. And now that love is growing inside of you. Now you are one with the wind, with the water, with the stars, with all of nature, with all animals, and with all humans. You feel the heat and the light emanating from the flame in your heart. Out of your head shines a beautiful light of different colours. You are radiant with the glow of love and you pray:

Thank you, Creator of Universe, for the gift of life you have given me. Thank you for giving me everything that I have ever truly needed. Thank you for the opportunity to experience this beautiful body and this wonderful mind. Thank you for living inside me with all your love, with your pure and boundless spirit, with your warm and radiant light.

Thank you for using my words, for using my eyes, for using my heart to share your love wherever I go. I love you just the way you are, and because I am your creation. I love myself just the way I am. Help me to keep the love and the peace in my heart and to make that love a new way of life, that I may live in love the rest of my life. Amen.

---

Ladies, I am so glad you enjoyed sitting back and having this story read to you! I encourage you to continue to “sip” the words from your own copy of her book. 🐕💛

Have a wonderful week!

xo
Patti

Authentic JOY

“Twinkle lights are the perfect metaphor for joy. Joy is not a constant. It comes in moments - often ordinary moments. Sometimes we miss out on the bursts of joy because we’re too busy chasing down extraordinary moments. Other times we’re so afraid of the dark that we don’t dare let ourselves enjoy the light. I believe a joyful life is made up of joyful moments gracefully strung together by trust, gratitude, inspiration, and faith.”

- Brene Brown

---

Dear Wise Women,

Thank-you for exploring JOY with me last night! I am really looking forward to diving into Pamela Wilson’s book “A Golden Retriever’s Guide to Joy” with you over the coming weeks!

I began our gathering by sharing with you my newly formulated mission for our circles. As many of you know, the unfoldment of my work has been purely organic and continues to evolve (doesn’t all of ours?) This past week, I took the time to focus on what exactly it is that I aim to co-create with the women who gather with me. All of YOU have helped develop this mission and to fine-tune our purpose and I could not be more grateful! I have added the following to the about page on my website and am also including here for you to easily take in once again. 💞

---

The mission of Practicing Grace Qigong

To provide a safe, warm, welcoming and nurturing environment for participants to access the healing power of a women’s circle. The primary practice of qigong is infused with teachings from a broad range of traditions. Meditation, sharing circles, and movement are used to cultivate presence, compassion, open-heartedness, vulnerability, gratitude and grace. 

Circle of Presence Purpose and Protocol:

Purpose:
The sharing circle is a sacred space where all who come, come to listen and respect the views of all others in the circle. In our circle, we pass a heart shaped stone to represent our shared desire to open our hearts. Whoever is holding the stone has the right to speak and receive the full presence of the others. The nuance of subtle energy created from using this respectful approach provides a sense of communion and interconnectedness that is not often present in common methods of communicating.

Protocol:

• The person holding the stone has the opportunity to freely express in any way that is comfortable. She is safe to say whatever is in her heart with the knowledge that nobody will criticize it or interrupt it. 

• The person with the stone receives full attention from everyone in the circle. Listeners make every effort to listen attentively without forming mental judgements or comparisons (to listen to what is being said without automatically relating it back to one’s own experience is one of the most divine gifts one can give to another). 

• After all have had a chance to share, participants will have another opportunity to speak by asking to hold the stone.

• Participants refrain from making comments or offering advice about what someone else has shared (positive relation to what someone else has spoken is welcome). 

•  The personal nature of what is shared is confidential to the circle. 

• Connection and communication outside of the sharing circle (during tea time before and after class) is encouraged. Please be mindful an respectful that some participants may want to internalize and not wish to further discuss what they shared in the circle.

•  As the facilitator, Patti may relate or expand on what has been shared in her teachings in a positive and supportive way.

•  Though sharing is without limitation, a conscious effort is made to keep sharing to a few minutes.

•  When passing the stone, visualize it as pure and clean and pass it on.

Resources: 
https://facilitatoru.com/facilitation/how-to-use-talking-circles-for-deep-communication/
www.firstnationspedagogy.ca/circletalks

---

Wise Women, thank-you for your deep honouring of this process and for creating such a meaningful, insightful and interconnected sharing circle! 🙏

Now onto the exploration of one of my most favourite topics - JOY!

---

“When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves”

— The Buddha

“When we lose our tolerance for vulnerability, joy becomes foreboding”

— Brene Brown

---

Joy Is Not An Emotion

When we are involved in the the pursuit of happiness, we assume that joy in an emotion. We imagine that joy is a state other than what we are currently experiencing - a state in which we feel exceedingly happy all the time. This is a major perceptual error.

Joy may be expressed physically, mentally, and emotionally, but it is not an emotion. Joy is a relationship we have with our emotional body.

Joy is a relationship we have with our emotional body in which we allow ourselves to feel all emotional states moving through our field of experience because we embrace the vast array of feelings within these emotional states - especially those that are uncomfortable and unfamiliar - as the letters of the felt-alphabet that empowers us to consciously commune with the vibrational.

In other words, we may awaken one morning feeling an emotional resonance that in the past we may have described as feeling depressed. Instead of reacting negatively to this experience by canceling our activities, altering our schedule, or moaning to others in an attempt to get their attention, we choose to observe our state with awareness. We do not allow ourselves to start telling a story about what we think is happening to us. We do not behave as if something is wrong, or as if this should not be happening. Instead we allow our attention to rest compassionately upon this strangely uncomfortable energetic resonance as we move throughout our day. Consequently, when our day comes to a close, we realize we have experienced our life more deeply. We have felt something.

This is of course not easy. But as we enter heart-work, we realize that “easy” is overrated. Joy is not about feeling good or having life be easy. Joy is about feeling everything and having life be just as it is.

As long as we are still navigating our experiences towards that which is easy, we automatically navigate away from that which makes life real. This is why we enter boredom.

Joy takes us beyond boredom into The Kingdom of Life, where all is constantly created anew through the embrace of the unknown. The pursuit of happiness, on the other hand, is a constant stance of avoid-dance - a dance around the void instead of into it.

- From the book “Inner Alchemy” by Michael Brown (Michael Brown is one of the few authors that my dear teacher, Pamela Wilson, recommends

---

After a full qigong session where we experienced the felt sensation of JOY, we closed with this prayer from Pamela’s book…

---

May you know yourselves to be the Heart that holds everything and may that realization and experience bring you moments of pure JOY!

xo
Patti

Who Am I?

Scientists have recently estimated that the odds of me being born as me (and you being born as you) are one in 400 billion!

---

Dear Wise Women,

The theme of last night’s gathering was ONENESS WITH LIFE. My desire was to dive deep into the essence of the Ho’oponopono prayer and the realization that everything that exists in this world also exists in me.

Who am I?

I am a MIRACLE…and so are YOU!

---

A Prayer by Don Miguel Ruiz..

Please take a moment to close your eyes, open your heart, and feel all the love that comes from your heart.

I want you to join with my words in your mind and in your heart, to feel a very strong connection of love. Together, we are going to do a very special prayer to experience a communion with our Creator.

Focus your attention on your lungs, as if only your lungs exist. Feel the pleasure when your lungs expand to fulfill the biggest need of the human body - to breathe.

Take a deep breath and feel the air as it fills your lungs. Feel how the air is nothing but love. Notice the connection between the air and the lungs, a connection of love. Expand your lungs with air until your body has the need to expel that air. And then exhale, and feel the pleasure again. Because when we fulfill any need of the human body, it gives us pleasure. To breathe gives us much pleasure. Just to breathe is enough for us to always be happy, to enjoy life. Just to be alive is enough. Feel the pleasure to be alive, the pleasure of the feeling of love.

Prayer for Freedom
Today, creator of the Universe, we ask that you come to us and share with us a strong communion of love. We know that your real name is Love, that to have a communion with you means to share the same vibration, the same frequency that you are, because you are the only thing that exists in the universe.

Today, help us to be like you are, to love life, to be life, to be love. Help us to love the way you love, with no conditions, no expectations, no obligations, without any judgement. Help us to love and accept ourselves without any judgement, because when we judge ourselves, we find ourselves guilty and we need to be punished.

Help us to love everything you create unconditionally, especially other human beings, especially those who live around us - all our relatives and people whom we try so hard to love. Because when we reject them, we reject ourselves, and when we reject ourselves, we reject You.

Help us to love others just the way they are with no conditions. Help us to accept them the way they are, without judgement, because if we judge them, we find them guilty, we blame them, and we have the need to punish them.

Today, clean our hearts of any emotional poison that we have, free our minds from any judgement so that we can live in complete peace and complete love.

Today is a very special day. Today we open our hearts to love again so that we can tell each other “I love you,” without any fear, and really mean it. Today, we offer ourselves to you. Come to us, use our voices, use our eyes, use our hands, and use our hearts to share ourselves in a communion of love with everyone. Today, Creator, help us to be just like you are. Thank you for everything that we receive this day, especially for the freedom to be who we really are.

Amen.

---

The Story of Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len

“Ho’oponopono may be the most effective method of solving problems and conflicts ever devised by a culture. It became known mainly through Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len and the record of his work in healing some psychologically ill prisoners. This achievement is considered a therapeutic miracle, and demonstrates the effectiveness of Ho’oponopono. Moreover, it is an acknowledged therapy in the USA.

In 1983 a trusted friend asked Dr. Hew Len to work in the psychiatric department of the state prison of Kaneohe of Hawaii. Thirty prisoners, all psychologically ill, were confined there, with a chronic shortage of staff. There was good reason for this shortage because both the institution and the work were commonly described as ‘the hell’. Most of the employees were either ill, unsuited for the work or gave in their notice as soon as possible after beginning employment. However, Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len agreed to work there - on condition that he was allowed to use a method that he had just learnt. It was arranged that he would only read the prisoners’ reports and would not talk with them.

What did Dr. Hew Len do? In the following four years he read the prisoners’ reports several times daily and asked himself, ‘What is there in me of darkness and negativity, of power and hatefulness, that something similar should exist in my world? What is my part in it that my brother has done such a thing? When he found something of that in himself and in his heart (power, aggression, hatred, vengefulness, envy, jealousy - the whole palette of the depths of humanity), he would say:

I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.

Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len worked exclusively on the cleansing of his heart and consciousness and after one and a half years he had made a Ho’oponopono and changed the mold, atmosphere and climate in the prison hospital. After 18 months, none of the prisoners wore handcuffs anymore. The staff, warden and therapists now came happily to work and the illness figures declined. It became possible to hold therapeutic conversations with the prisoners, and after four years all the inmates, except for two, were cured. The institution was finally closed.

Did Dr. Ihaleakalal Hew Len really cure anyone? Those impacted, say ‘Yes’. However, in an interview Dr. Ihaleakalal Hew Len has explained that he only worked on his own purification and the deleting of information in his own subconscious. He did not speak of cures, but emphasized that the solution to respective conflicts succeeded because he had taken 100% responsibility for the existence of prisoners in his life. ”

— Ho'oponopono The Hawaiian forgiveness ritual as the key to your life's fulfillment, by Ulrich E. Dupree

---

Oneness With Life

“Underneath the surface appearance, everything is not only connected with everything else, but also with the Source of all Life out of which it came. Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself. When you look at it or hold it and let it be without imposing a word or mental label on it, a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you. Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you.

If peace is really what you want, then you will choose peace. If peace mattered to you more than anything else and if you truly knew yourself to be spirit rather than a little me, you would remain nonreactive and absolutely alert when confronted with challenging people or situations. You would immediately accept the situation and thus become one with it rather than separate yourself from it. Then out of your alertness would come a response. Who you are (consciousness), not who you think you are (a small me), would be responding. It would be powerful and effective and would make no person or situation into an enemy.

There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: ONE WITH LIFE. Being one with life is being one with the Now. You then realize that you don’t live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer, and you are the dance. ”

— Eckhart Tolle, Oneness With All Life, Inspirational Selections from A New Earth

---

Dear body....

Dear body:

I am sorry I strayed from knowing how to be with you.

Please forgive me for all the times I mistook you for for my identity. Please forgive me for all the times I focused on your appearance and your function rather than feeling the aliveness inside of you.

I love you.

Thank you.

---

Dear Wise Women,

When we began our gathering last night, I shared the following message from a card that I drew before yesterday’s morning circle:

”The great teacher Jesus Christ said that whenever two or more are gathered in his name, there will be he, also. What this means is that when we work with others for the highest good of all concerned or for a spiritual purpose greater than our own ego needs, we receive more Divine guidance and spiritual power than would be possible through working alone. Understand the power of partnership - whenever you work with one or more synergistically, your power becomes exponentially greater than it could ever be individually.” - Dr. Christiane Northrup

THIS is what happens when we circle and, no matter how many times I experience it, I simply cannot stop marvelling at the MAGIC! So, once again, I thank-you for creating this space and this magic with me!!

---

Last night, we continued the exploration of the Ho’oponopono with a focus on how this prayer can be applied to our physical bodies. It is no surprise that the Ho’oponopono philosophy beautifully supports the traditional teachings of Qigong as well as the more current teachings of teachers such as Eckhart Tolle. Ho’oponopono is a wonderful way to liberate the body.

To begin this exploration, lets first look closer at what Eckhart Tolle calls the inner body:

Equating the physical sense-perceived body that is destined to grow old, wither and die with "I" always leads to suffering sooner or later. To refrain from identifying with the body doesn't mean the you neglect, despise, or no longer care for it. If it is strong, beautiful, or vigorous, you can enjoy and appreciate those attributes - while they last. You can also improve the body's condition through right nutrition and exercise. If you don't equate the body with who you are, when beauty fades, vigor diminishes, or the body becomes incapacitated, this will not affect your sense of worth or identity in any way. In fact, as the body begins to weaken, the formless dimension, the light of consciousness, can shine more easily through the fading form.

Ego arises when your sense of "Beingness", of "I Am," which is formless consciousness, gets mixed up with form. This is the meaning of identification. This is forgetfulness of Being, the primary error.

Although body-identification is one of the most basic forms of ego, the good news is that it is also the one that you can most easily go beyond. This is done not by trying to convince yourself that you are not your body, but by shifting your attention from the external form of your body and from thoughts about your body - beautiful, ugly, strong, weak, too fat, too thin - to the feeling of aliveness inside it. No matter what your body's appearances is on the outer level, beyond the outer from is an intensely alive energy field.

Your inner body is not solid but spacious. It is not your physical form but the life that animates the physical form. It is the intelligence that created and sustains the body, simultaneously coordinating hundreds of different functions of such extraordinary complexity that the human mind can only understand a tiny fraction of it. When you become aware of it, what is really happening is that intelligence is becoming aware of itself. It is the elusive “life” that no scientist has ever found because the consciousness that is looking for it is it.

What I call the “inner body” isn’t really the body anymore but life energy, the bridge between form and formlessness. Make it a habit to feel the inner body as often as you can. Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego. It also strengthens the immune system and the body’s ability to heal itself.

As much as possible in everyday life, use awareness of the inner body to create space. When waiting, when listening to someone, when pausing to look at the sky, a tree, a flower, your partner, or child, feel the aliveness within at the same time.

Your physical body, which is form, reveals itself as essentially formless when you go deeper into it. It becomes a doorway into inner space. Although inner space has no form, it is intensely alive. That “empty space” is life in its fullness, the unmanifested Source out of which all manifestation flows. The traditional word for that Source is God.

- Eckhart Tolle, Oneness with All Life - Inspirational Selections from A New Earth

---

Sinking into the sensation of our inner body and feeling its the aliveness within allows us to release the pain and negativity that has been held by our beliefs about our outer experiences in the world. One very powerful way to access this healing stillness is to practice Ho’oponopono with your body:

I am sorry

Please forgive me

I love you

Thank you

In a Hawaiian temple every physical healing is preceded by a Ho’oponopono, the reason being that the spirit must be healed before the body can be. Healing begins when we accept ourselves, forgive ourselves and love ourselves. I love you. I love myself. ‘I love you’ means ‘I love myself’. The subconscious makes no distinction between the inner and the outer.
- Ho’oponopono, The Hawaiian forgiveness ritual as the key to life’s fulfillment

---

Goddesses of truth, THANK-YOU for our rich conversations and our amazing Qigong practice!

With love,

Patti

I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.

Ho’oponopono: the Hawaiian Forgiveness Ritual

Kalalau Beach, Kauai, HI

---

Dear Wise Women,

What a rich sharing circle we had last night. Thank-you everyone for your contribution and willingness to dive so deeply into the waters with me! For those who missed, know that you were included energetically in the circle and we look forward to seeing you next week. 💞

Ho’oponopono is yet another treasure to weave into the tapestry of oneness, compassion and open-heartedness. This simple meditation flows so beautifully into the practice of Qigong and has the potential to amplify its ability to release energetic blockages.

I have known about this ritual for many years now, but only recently began to integrate it into my daily life and to receive its gifts. For many reasons, including the powerful astral energy of January, I feel that NOW is a great time to bring this powerful Hawaiian prayer into our circle. I look forward to exploring this ancient ritual together over the coming weeks.

---

Ho’oponopono means a return to the Divine Plan…

Ho'oponopono belongs to a system of ancient Hawaiian teaching called the 'Huna'. 'Hu' means 'knowledge', and 'na' represents 'wisdom', and the guardians of this ancient teaching are called 'kahunas' - Huna experts.

The Hawaiians call their group of islands 'The Land of Aloha’, the Land of Love. 'Aloha' contains the essence of the Huna teaching of knowledge and wisdom, and it forms the basis of Ho'oponopono. 'Aloha' means, 'I see the divine in you, and I see the divine in myself'. This carries the understanding that you and I travel a common road, and that there is only one power in the Universe, namely the energy of unconditional love, 'mana aloha' in Hawaiian.

Aloha has a single commandment: never to harm, always to help. The command to harm no one begins with not harming oneself. And thus, to love your neighbour as yourself. 'Mana aloha' is the essence of God's energy, the energy that penetrates and informs everything. The wise Hindu monks call this energy 'bhakti' , meaning 'devotion', and the Tibetan monks call it 'compassion'. By this, they did not merely have in mind an emotion, but a directly experienced energy that influences the environment and creates a new reality. Ho'oponopono is this compassion in action.

Ho'oponopono is a simple way of arriving at unity, inner peace and returning to harmony. It expresses the deep need to live once again in harmony with oneself and with humanity, nature and God. Ho'o means 'to make' and pono is translated 'right' or 'correct'. And so ho'oponopono quite simply represents to 'make rightly right'. To 'make anything rightly right' means to join oneself again with one's Higher Self and the Source of All Being - to be in one's own centre, returned to harmony, and balanced once again so that one is able to realign the environment and reshape reality.

The forgiveness ritual of Ho'oponopono is love in action. You forgive yourself and others for having inflicted any sort of hurt, or for having failed to help when needed. 'Making things rightly right' is a simple four-step procedure that helps you learn to forgive yourself unconditionally, to love, and, additionally to make things better.

I am sorry

Please forgive me

I love you

Thank you

These four sentences seem like a mantra or a magical formula, but they are rather a mediation and a prayer. They operate through time and space, beyond cause and effect, and transmit themselves directly to your Inner Family, the Higher Self, the Inner Child and your waking consciousness. After a short while you achieve inner peace and change from disharmony to harmony.

You move yourself from separation to union while you say:

I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.

- Ho'oponopono: The Hawaiian forgiveness ritual as the key to your life's fulfillment, by Ulrich E. Dupree

---

The Ho’oponopono ritual can be applied to any relationship or situation in which you feel disconnected or troubled. More often than not, you may find yourself saying these four sentences silently… they need not ever be spoken out loud. Please note that when saying sorry you are not blaming yourself rather you are expressing a heart-felt apology for being part of a situation or relationship in which there is disharmony. Ho’oponopono is about opening the heart and liberating guilt, blame and shame - it is a method of accessing the universal energy of unconditional love.

What I most want to emphasize is the power of these four simple sentences when applied to oneself…anytime you feel regret, self judgement, doubt, self-criticism or are otherwise separated from Oneness (aka: Source, God, the Universe, Divinity, Energy, Qi, Presence)…simply pause and say to yourself and to Oneness:

“I am sorry. Please Forgive me. I love you. Thank you.”

Lovely ladies, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being part of our divine circle!

With love,

Patti

---

I thought you would enjoy these amazing photos that my dear friend and wise woman, Cheryl, who lives on Vancouver Island captured of last night’s Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse.

Such incredible images of this powerful cosmic event!

---

Letting Go and Giving Fully

Thank-you, wise women, for creating such a deep and caring circle last night- what a wonderful way to begin our new session together!

As so many times before, the message and intent of our circle is developed in the weeks and days leading up to our gathering as well as from the energy of the circle itself (in real time). As such, much of my class preparation (and yours) is about tuning in and opening up, so that I (we) may be fully present to what wants to arise. Together we weave words and movements to serve our highest good and also for the highest good of the collective (because when we heal we heal those around us).

I had been planning to focus our first class on the energy of this powerful new year and the releasing of energetic blocks. However, I wanted to stay open to all possibilities, so in my meditation on Friday morning, prior to beginning my first class of this session, I asked spirit if there was anything else that wanted to come forward this week?

Apparently spirit wanted me to stick with this theme as I was led to one of my daily meditation books and the message for Friday, January 11th, was entitled:

“Let Go of the Blocks”…

“I wandered into a bookstore in a small Southern California town, browsed for a while, then began chatting with the clerk. “Times are different now,” I said. “Changing fast. Turning into something new, so different many of us can’t imagine.”

”Yes,” she replied quietly and prophetically. “Things are going to be easier. Unless there’s something you’re still hanging on to.”

Is there something you’re still hanging on to? A remnant from the past that’s blocking you from stepping into the future? From stepping into today?

Look into your heart. The answer is there. Perhaps its a behaviour, a person, a belief. Is there an answer from the past that’s blocking your ability to love yourself, to connect with God, life, others? Ask yourself if there’s something you’re hanging on to that has outworn its purpose. Old chains can tie us to the past, to past pain, to a path we’e already trodden, a place we’ve already been.

Now is the time to let go. Gently, quietly, let go. Allow yourself a few looks back and as many tears as are needed. Where you’ve been has been important. It has helped shape who you are. But have faith that where you’re going is important and wonderful, too.

Greatly let go. Be free to step
into your future of joy.”

— Journey to the Heart - Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul by Melody Beattie (meditation for January 11). Book published in 1996.

Beyond the obvious affirmation for my class plans, there is special significance to this meditation being on the date of January 11th. January 11th is my oldest daughter's birthday which was a powerful lesson in letting go (see the footnote below for more on this).

---

The other reading I was inspired to share with you came in an email from Richard Rohr (www.cac.org) and was a sweet little gem written by Parker Palmer…

“Quaker author and elder Parker Palmer writes about his evolving perspective and priorities as he grows older:

Most older folks I know fret about unloading material goods they’ve collected over the years, stuff that was once useful to them but now prevents them from moving freely about their homes. There are precincts in our basement where a small child could get lost for hours.

But the junk I really need to jettison in my old age is psychological junk—such as longtime convictions about what gives my life meaning that no longer serve me well. For example, who will I be when I can no longer do the work that has been a primary source of identity for me for the past half century?

I won’t know the answer until I get there. But on my way to that day, I’ve found a question that’s already brought me a new sense of meaning. I no longer ask, “What do I want to let go of, and what do I want to hang on to?” Instead I ask, “What do I want to let go of, and what do I want to give myself to?”

The desire to “hang on” comes from a sense of scarcity and fear. The desire to “give myself” comes from a sense of abundance and generosity. That’s the kind of truth I want to wither into.

What do you want to let go of in the coming year?
What do you want to give yourself to?
What is keeping you from giving yourself fully?
”

— Parker Palmer, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old (Berrett-Koehler Publishers: 2018), 26-27.

---

What do you want to let go of in the coming year?

What do you want to give yourself to?

What is keeping you from giving yourself fully?

These were the questions that were contemplated during our sharing circle, and, oh, did we share a rich collection of stories, desires and intentions! Sincere gratitude to everyone.

---

The Qigong practice that followed was deep…I could fully feel your presence and it was powerful! Together we gently released and we gave ourselves fully to source. I encourage you to continue releasing, and giving, and filling, and loving in every moment of every day this week! 💗

---

Embracing the Yin of Winter

---

Dear Wise Women,

Tonight we dug into the depths of the earth and pulled up her fertile energy into our bodies through a very yin and earth focused session of Qigong. We connected to the darkness and honoured the power of the Winter Solstice, a time when the yin energy is at its maximum and is just on the cusp of transforming back into the light (the yang). As we discussed, our modern society doesn’t always encourage or appreciate the acts of cocooning, resting, and “ introverting”. In fact, we tend to be “rewarded” for the opposite behaviours of busy-ness, productivity and extroverting. For some of us, it is all too easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the festive season which can lead to exhaustion, depression and anxiety. Today’s class was a reminder and an invitation for us to do what this season is really asking of us, which is to slow down and reflect, connect and rest!

Ladies, thank-you for sharing tonight with me. I wish you all a peaceful holiday, however you may celebrate this season!

Extra blessings to our fellow wise women, Colleen, as she undergoes a hip replacement surgery tomorrow. Colleen we all sent you extra love in our closing circle today! ❤️

---

“Be the melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself” - Rumi

---

“A WORLD SO still you swear you can hear her breathe. Snow glitters with points of light flung like stars across a universe of white. Not even birds breach the air, and there rises within you the notion that stillness is more enriching than motion, listening is more empowering than distraction and slow, measured steps feel more graceful than speed. Ah, I’m growing old, you say - then marvel at how young and new and invigorated it makes you feel.

I AM NOT created or re-created by the noise and clatter of my life, by the rush and scurry, the relentless chase or the presumption that more gets more. No, I am created and re-created by moments of stillness and quiet. I am struck richer by a pure solitude that allows me to feel the world around me and lean into my place in it. I am not the rush of words in my life’s narrative. I am its punctuation. Its pauses and stops. I am my ongoing recharge: in this silence I am reborn.

IN THE DEEP snow moons of winter, there are stories hovering around us. The are whispered by the voices of our ancestors, told in ancient tongues, told in the hop that we will hear them. Listen, in the drape of moonbeams across a canvas of snow, the life of birdsong, the crackle of a fire, the smell of smudge and the echo of the heartbeats of those around us, our ancestors speak to us, call to us, summon us to the great abiding truth of stories: that simple stories, well told, are the heartbeat of the people. Past. Present. Future. ”

— Richard Wagamese, "Embers", One Ojibway's Mediations

---

Womb of Winter: Kidneys, Water

“As the days shorten and darken, and we descend into winter, the time of Kidneys, element of Water, it is a time for deep nourishment and strengthening of that which is most basic, essential, the foundation of our innermost selves. A time for returning to the womb of the dark nothingness, the fertile earth, in order to call forth our own unique spark of light, the miracle of life and light returning in cycle. Kidneys are associated both with Water, Winter, and the color Black, as well as with with our essential Life Gate Fire. Holding this paradox, they are the foundation for our entire body.

Kidneys are the root of Yin and Yang for all other systems in the body, and house our body’s Essence, an interesting concept which includes Qi, Fluids, Yin, Yang, and relates with growth and development, marrow, and brain, as well as the aging process. Kidneys are connected with our genetic heritage, our pre-natal (or “pre-heaven”) Qi, thus providing a link to our ancestry and our world pre-birth; the qi that we come in with (rather than what we gather while we are here). When we are strong and balanced in this deepest area of our body, we are protected and nourished from inside out.

Also corresponding with the Kidney system are bones, inhalation, back, feet, ears, hair, water metabolism, reproductive health, development and growth, the direction North, energy and stamina, Fear, and Will. The Kidneys taste is salty, its sound is groaning.

The aspect of soul/spirit related to Kidneys is Will, or Zhi. Will relates to instinctual power and life force. The Yang aspect of Will is resolution, active effort, volition, life-force, drive. The Yin aspect is deeper and paradoxical: the will that can’t be willed, a direction to an end that is not known until it is reached, which is only understood after manifestation— this aspect of Will is related to destiny and fate, and embodies the mystery of life. Wisdom is the virtue of Will— learning to have relationship with what is unknown and unknowable, trust developed over the course of a lifetime. When this soul aspect is weak, Fear and despair dominate. The Zhi can become exhausted through overwork and overstimulation, through trauma, childbirth, chronic disease, addiction. Healing the Zhi requires trusting in the wisdom of the body and heart, the mysteries of life, using the strength of our will to realign in service with Life’s purpose for us.

This is a time to go inward and rest. The spirit animal associated with the Kidneys is the Black Tortoise, who has the power to store. This is a time to go slow, decrease outward activity, simplify, be still, reflect, consolidate. A time to meditate, practice gratitude, practice not knowing, and honor our ancestors. In Jewish tradition, the healing or repair work we are given to do in this lunar month is to sleep and to dream. Calming physical exercise such as qi gong, tai ji, yoga, can benefit the Kidneys. At the end of the exercise, swallow your saliva down to your Kidneys (Taoists teach that the saliva gathered during meditation and energy work is a healing elixir), and rub your lower back in the area of the Kidneys (in TCM this is around L2, waistline) to nourish them. This is a good time to spend time with water, learn from water. We can massage the bottoms of our feet— Kidney channel begins here at a point called Bubbling Spring, just under the ballpads about a third of the way down the cole of the foot. This point is our umbilicus to the earth.

Nutritional ways to replenish and balance our Kidneys include mushrooms (especially shiitake), bone broths, high quality cod liver oil, vitamin D (found in organ meats, sunlight and D3 from good quality natural supplements, among other sources— most adults and children at this latitude probably need to supplement, often between 1000 and 5000 IUs a day, depending on the individual), root vegetables (turnips, carrots, rutabaga, parsnips, yams), winter squash and pumpkin, seaweed, unrefined sea salt (in food or drink), miso, grilled or slow-cooked meats (such as lamb, chicken, beef, pork), cabbage, kale, daikon, dandelion greens, beans, barley, millet, garlic, nettles, raspberry leaf, rose hips, schizandra berry, cranberry, walnuts, quinoa, ginger, cinnamon, onions… and more! Many of these are also helpful for immunity. In the winter we can cook foods slowly, for a longer time, focusing on soups and stews. Hearty meals cooked at higher heat are also beneficial.

Some people wear an extra layer wrapped around their lower back at this time of year to keep the kidneys warm and protected. A scarf around the neck and a hat on the head are recommended at this time of year to protect the back of the neck (home to the Kidneys partner, the Urinary Bladder), where colds are thought find entrance. Keep those feet warm— also Kidney territory. Moxa at this time of year is very important to protect, warm, and nourish the Kidneys as well.

This time of year is of course the most yin time, the darkest time at least at this latitude. Many holidays at this time are about recognizing and honoring that amazing spark of yang inherent in the darkest yin, the sun returning, the light that is within all of us and ever present. In our culture, it is sometimes forgotten to also honor the nourishment and regeneration that takes place in the dark, the womb, underground. These elements are part and parcel of each other, irrevocably intertwined. We need them both, the dark which gives birth to the light. (I remind again, because I know that I myself need reminding so often.) So even as we find and share the everpresent light and miracle shining within each one of us, let us also remember to take our time to rest, to breathe, go in.”

— Shoshana Urib https://www.manzanitawellness.com/writing/wombofwintere

---

Staying Healthy During Winter

“The final few months of the year often find us in a frantic state of shopping, decorating, traveling, and other high-energy activity. Yet instead of having fun, we often end up feeling ill, anxious, or depressed. The reason, according to Taoist philosophy and traditional Chinese medicine, is that the action-packed schedules we keep at this time of year fall out of sync with the earth’s natural cycles.

”We naturally have less energy to burn during the winter,” explains acupuncturist Carolyn Cohen, L.Ac., who teaches at Yo San University, a college of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in Santa Monica, California. “So when we engage in behaviors more appropriate for summer—staying up late and dashing around town—it’s no wonder that the forced cheer of the holiday season can wear a bit thin.”

Taoist philosophy conceptualizes universal balance in terms of yin and yang, complementary forces that govern the universe. Yin characteristics are cool, wet, slow, feminine, and quiet, whereas yang is the opposite: warm, dry, fast, masculine, extroverted. Winter, the yin season, is a time for storing and conserving energy in the way a bear retains fat by hibernating, or a farmer stores food for the cold months ahead.

In agrarian cultures, people spend the shortest, darkest days indoors by the fire, eating warm, slow-cooked, nourishing food and sharing stories with their families. The incongruity between winter’s restful, introspective, yin nature and the frenetic way many Americans spend their holidays can contribute to seasonal affective disorder, depression, exhaustion, and other manifestations of what is known in TCM as shen (or spiritual) disharmony.

”Winter solstice, just three or four days before Christmas, is the darkest, most yin day of the year,” says Cohen. “Instead of turning inward, we’re celebrating with excess and yang activity. This artificiality creates stress, and many people dread the season as a result.”

To stay balanced during winter, suggests Cohen, conserve your yang energy. Restorative yoga, tai chi, qigong, and walking are best suited for yin season, as they safeguard your energy reserves. “Think of these practices as an investment of your ‘energy paycheck,’” says Cohen. “Don’t use up what little winter energy you have with overactivity and added stress.”

Eating cooked, spicy yang foods provides another good way to replenish energy. Prepare yang-strengthening soups, slow-simmered stews, beans, roasted root vegetables, and warm drinks. Add yang spices such as garlic, ginger, black pepper, cloves, and basil to increase the warming effect. Minimize your intake of yin foods such as raw vegetables, salad greens, and cold drinks.”

— by Laurel Kallenback, https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/winter-wonder-yin

---

Deep gratitude and wishes of hope, peace, joy and love to you and your families!

xo

Patti

Finding Comfort in the Unknown

Dear Wise Women,

Last night we continued our exploration of presence by diving into a (rather uncomfortable) notion of finding comfort in uncertainty. The readings I chose pointed to the power of the simple yet profoundly difficult practice of leaning into our discomforts rather than reacting to them, pushing them away or simply placating them. Leaning into our discomforts, dislikes and our pain requires us to first and foremost observe and witness our thoughts and emotions (rather than believing them), and to do so from a place of gentle and neutral compassion. Only then does the space arise for the energy of the thought and emotion to move, and for a natural and healthy response to emerge.

Our circle of presence beautifully touched on the many nuances of these teachings. As always, I am deeply grateful for your sharing.

---

“True personal growth is about transcending the part of you that is not okay and needs protection. This is done by constantly remembering that you are the one inside that notices the voice talking. That is the way out. The one inside who is aware that you are always talking to yourself about yourself is always silent. It is a doorway to the depths of your being. To be aware that you are watching the voice talk is to stand on the threshold of a fantastic inner journey. if used properly, the same mental voice that has been a source of worry, distraction, and general neurosis can become the launching ground for true spiritual awakening. Come to know the one who watches the voice, and you will come to know one of the great mysteries of creation.”

— "The Untethered Soul", by Michael Singer

---

The Wisdom of No Escape

“The central question of a warrior’s training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort. How do we practice with difficulty, with our emotions, with the unpredictable encounters of an ordinary day? For those of us with a hunger to know the truth, painful emotions are like flags going up to say, “You’re stuck!” We regard disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, jealousy, and fear as moments that show us where we’re holding back, how we’re shutting down. Such uncomfortable feelings are messages that tell us to perk up and lean into a situation when we’d rather cave in and back away.

When the flag goes up, we have an opportunity: we can stay with our painful emotion instead of spinning out. Staying is how we get the hang of gently catching ourselves when we’re about to let resentment harden into blame, righteousness, or alienation. It’s also how we keep from smoothing things over by talking ourselves into a sense of relief or inspiration. This is easier said than done.

Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum. We don’t interrupt our patterns even slightly. With practice, however, we learn to stay with a broken heart, with a nameless fear, with the desire for revenge. Sticking with uncertainty is how we learn to relax in the midst of chaos, how we learn to be cool when the ground beneath us suddenly disappears. We can bring ourselves back to the spiritual path countless times each day simply by exercising our willingness to rest in uncertainty of the present moment - over and over again.”

— "Comfortable with Uncertainty, 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion", by Pema Chodron

---

Acceptance, Enjoyment, or Enthusiasm

Dear Wise Women,

Last night we explored the concept of Awakened Doing, as explained by Eckhart Tolle. By far, the ability to find peace and presence in my everyday living has been the most significant aspect of my spiritual path. It has taken many years of practice and dedication, and I certainly don’t have it mastered, but I can honestly say that my experience of daily life is now infused with enjoyment and peaceful acceptance. As referenced in the image above, I used to spend the majority of my waking hours running towards or away from something instead of just being right where I am.

I hope that these short excerpts from Eckhart Tolle’s book, “A New Earth” as well as the words that were shared in our circle and during our qigong practice inspire you to deepen into your true life purpose.

---

"Your relationship with the present moment IS your purpose.
It is all that matters."
- spoken by Eckhart Tolle in Calgary May 15, 2018

---

“Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary.

The true or primary purpose of your life cannot be found on the outer level. It does not concern what you do but what you are - that is to say, your state of consciousness.

Action, although necessary, is only a secondary factor in manifesting our external reality. The primary factor in creation is consciousness. No matter how active we are, how much effort we make, our state of consciousness creates our world, and if there is no change on that inner level, no amount of action will make any difference. We would only re-create modified versions of the same world again and again, a world that is an external reflection of the ego.

Awakened doing is the alignment of your outer purpose - what you do - with your inner purpose - awakening and staying awake. Through awakened doing, you become one with the outgoing purpose of the universe. Consciousness flows through you into this world. It flows in your thoughts and inspires them. It flows into what you do and guides and empowers it.

The modalities of awakened doing are acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm. Each one represents a certain vibrational frequency of consciousness. You need to be vigilant to make sure that one of them operates whenever you are engaged in doing anything at all - from the most simple task to the most complex. If you are not in the state of either acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm, look closely, and you will find that you are creating suffering for yourself and others.

Whatever you cannot enjoy doing, you can at least accept that this is what you have to do. Acceptance means: For now, this is what this situation, this moment requires me to do, and so I do it willingly. If you can neither enjoy nor bring acceptance to what you do - stop. Otherwise, you are not taking responsibility for the only thing you can really take responsibility for, which also happens to be the one thing that really matters: your state of consciousness. And if you are not taking responsibility for your state of consciousness, you are not taking responsibility for your life.

You will enjoy any activity in which you are fully present, any activity that is not just a means to an end. It isn't the action you perform that you really enjoy, but the deep sense of aliveness that flows into it. That aliveness is one with who you are. This means that when you enjoy doing something, you are really experiencing the joy of Being in its dynamic aspect. That's why anything you enjoy doing connects you with the power behind all creation.

Here is a spiritual practice that will bring empowerment and creative expansion into your life. Make a list of a number of everyday routine activities that you perform frequently. Include activities that you may consider uninteresting, boring, tedious, irritating, or stressful. But don't include anything that you hate or detest doing. That's a case either for acceptance or for stopping what you do. The list may include traveling to and from work, buying groceries, doing your laundry, or anything that you find tedious or stressful in your daily work. Then, whenever you are engaged in those activities, let them be a vehicle for alertness. Be absolutely present in what you do and sense the alert, alive stillness within you in the background of the activity. You will soon find that what you do in such a state of heightened awareness, instead of being stressful, tedious or irritating, is actually becoming enjoyable. To be more precise, what you are enjoying is not really outward action, but the inner dimension of consciousness that flows into the action. This is finding the joy of Being in what you are doing. If you feel your life lacks significance or is too stressful or tedious, it is because you haven't brought that dimension into your life yet. Being conscious in what you do has not yet become your main aim.

Enthusiasm means there is a deep enjoyment in what you do plus the added element of a goal or vision that you work toward. When you add a goal to the enjoyment of what you do, the energy-field or vibrational frequency changes. A certain degree of what we might call structural tension is now added to the enjoyment, and so it turns into enthusiasm. At the height of creative activity fuelled by enthusiasm, there will be enormous intensity and energy behind what you do. You will feel like an arrow that is moving toward the target - and enjoying the journey.

To an onlooker, it may appear that you are under stress, but the intensity of enthusiasm has nothing to do with stress. When you want to arrive at your goal more than you want to be doing what you are doing, you become stressed. The balance between enjoyment and structural tension is lost, and the latter has won.

Stress always diminishes both the quality and effectiveness of what you do under its influence. There is also a strong link between stress and negative emotions, such as anxiety and anger. Stress is also toxic to the body. Unlike stress, enthusiasm has a high energy frequency and so resonates with the creative power of the universe. This is why Ralph Waldo Emerson said that, "Nothing great has ever been achieved without enthusiasm.” Enthusiasm knows where it is going, but at the same time, it is deeply at one with the present moment, the source of aliveness, its joy, and its power. Enthusiasm "wants" nothing because it lacks nothing. It is at one with life and no matter how dynamic the enthusiasm-inspired activities are, you don't lose yourself in them. And there remains always a still but intensely alive space at the centre of the wheel, a core of peace in the midst of activity that is both the source of all and untouched by it all.”

- "Oneness With All Life - Inspirational Selections from A New Earth" , by Eckhart Tolle

---

---

Present Moment Awareness

Dear Wise Women,

Tonight we began a new four week session - welcome everyone! For the next four weeks we will circle as women with the intention to learn, open, heal and grow. Thank-you, each of you, for your courage and honesty tonight. This level of honesty is rare in our society and it gives me great pleasure to create a space where we can gather and simply allow what IS.

The theme of presence seemed to be especially relevant for so many of you, and I hope you are able to carry this awareness into your week and beyond!

---

Here is the breathing exercise we did in our meditation. I highly recommend doing this meditation for 10 minutes per day. 💕

Inhale: “I”

Exhale: “Am”

Inhale: “Here”
Exhale: “Now”
Inhale: “In”

Exhale: “This”

Consciously Connected Breathing Exercise. Say the above words silently to yourself while breathing in and out. Credit to Michael Brown.

---

Here are the readings I shared before our meditation:

“Present moment awareness is a state of being as opposed to something we do. The simplest definition of present moment awareness is to be fully aware of the moment we are in - or, to be present in the moment.

The emphasis isn’t on the moment, but on the beingness we bring to bear on our life experience when we pay full attention to the moment.

A reliable indicator we have entered present moment awareness is if our experience, no matter how comfortable or uncomfortable it may feel at any given moment, is infused with gratefulness.

When I speak of gratefulness, I’m not referring to the kind of gratitude that’s been founded on comparison, such as feeling grateful we are in better health or have more wealth than someone else. Neither is it the sort of gratitude that arises because life is unfolding how we want it to and everything is easy. Rather it’s gratitude that requires no reason - gratitude for the invitation, journey and gift of life itself.

Gratefulness is the one single marker we can depend on as an indicator of how present we are in our experience. When we lack gratitude for simply being alive, it’s because we have strayed from the present into an illusory mental state called “time”.

Because we are born into a culture that exists almost entirely within a world of time, few of us are able to be continually present. This is the curse of modern civilization. We thirst for progress, but in many cases progress leads to the structuring of life in such a way that we are no longer required to be present when it is happening. The more automated our experience becomes, the less involved we are in the art of living.

In the world of time, it’s challenging to be grateful because nothing appears to unfold the way we think it should. The past holds regrets and the future the promise of improvement, while the present requires constant adjustment. We therefore spend our waking moments reflecting on what didn’t work in the past and planning those adjustments we believe are necessary to attain the peace and fulfillment we week. Because those adjustments are oriented to a “better tomorrow”, we’ve forgotten how to have a meaningful today. Consequently, the experience we are having right now is viewed as just a means to an end. because we don’t have access to a different experience to which we might compare predicament, living like this appears normal to us.”

— "The Presence Process", by Michael Brown

---

“To some people, surrender may have negative connotations, implying defeat, giving up, failing to rise to the challenges of life, becoming lethargic, and so on. True surrender, however, is something entirely different. It does not mean to passively put up with whatever situation you find yourself in and to do nothing about it. Nor does it mean to cease making plans or initiating positive action.

Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life. The only place where you can experience the flow of life is the Now, so to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation. It is to relinquish inner resistance to what is. Inner resistance is to say “no” to what is, through mental judgement and emotional negativity. It becomes particularly pronounced when things “go wrong,” which means that there is a gap between the demands or rigid expectations of your mind and what is. That is the pain gap. If you have lived long enough, you will know that things “ go wrong” quite often. It is precisely at those times that surrender needs to be practiced if you want to eliminate pain and sorrow from your life. Acceptance of what is immediately frees you from mind identification and thus reconnects you with Being. Resistance is the mind.

Surrender is a purely inner phenomenon. It does not mean that on the outer level you cannot take action and change the situation. In fact, it is not the overall situation that you need to accept when you surrender, but just the tiny segment called the Now.”

— "The Power of Now", by Eckhart Tolle

---

“I love you. I trust you. You are beautiful and you are wise. You beat in harmony with the greater plan of life. You are my guiding light.”

Say this silently to yourself with your hands placed over your heart centre.

---

Blessings for your week!

Patti

Practicing Grace

Dear Wise Women,

It was so suiting for us to end our eight week session together through an inquiry into the mystery of Grace. Thank-you for your profound contributions and your open hearts!

xo

Patti

---

GRACE AND GRATITUDE

“Grace is always present. You imagine it is somewhere high in the sky, far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart. Grace is the Self. . . .You are never out of its operation.
—Sri Ramana Maharshi

Whether life appears to bring tears or laughter, it is all grace. Grace fills the world, but only a heart awakened to Love will taste its depths. In awakening we understand that grace is always present. There is a basic trust in life’s movement and its goodness. We realize that whatever is here in the moment is a gift, if we can receive it as such. Whatever is here expresses life’s wholeness and can be an invitation back to its Source. Awakening allows us to freely appreciate the gifts of impermanence and continual flow, no longer bound by the suffering that comes from perpetually wanting “more,” different, or unending experiences.

When we realize the movement of grace in our lives, the natural response of the heart is gratitude. Gratitude is not simply being thankful for things we deem beneficial or pleasurable. It is really a way of living and an expression of the peace we discover that is right here in all circumstances.

We may find that:
It is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy. —Brother David Steindl-Rast

”

— Dorothy Hunt is the Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request and in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti. She is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy, author of Only This!, and contributing author to The Sacred Mirror and Listening from the Heart of Silence. For more information, see www.dorothyhunt.org

---

WEAVING THREADS…
(This is the passage I spoke about during qigong but did not read during our circle. At first glance this passage does not seem to be about grace at all…but I chose it because I wonder if the ever flowing and infinite relational energetic exchange of life might just be at the core of what is known as
God’s Grace??)

“If a rational Creator started this whole thing, then there has to be a “DNA connection,” as it were, between the One who creates and what is created. One of the many wonderful things that scientists are discovering as they compare their observations through microscopes with those through telescopes is that the pattern of the neutrons, protons, and electrons in atoms is similar to the pattern of planets, stars, and galaxies: both are in orbit around one another, and all appears to be in relationship to everything else. We now know the same is true in biology, as Robert Lanza’s work on biocentrism so brilliantly demonstrates: “the universe is created by life and not the other way around.” [1] Our word for that foundational life is Spirit, hovering like a brood hen over the formless void in the very first lines of the Bible (Genesis 1:1-2).

The energy in the universe is not in the planets, nor in the atomic particles, but very surprisingly in the relationship between them. It’s not in the cells of organisms but in the way the cells feed and give feedback to one another through semi-permeable membranes. The energy is not in any precise definition or in the partly arbitrary names of the three persons of the Trinity as much as in the relationship between the Three! This is where all the power for infinite renewal is at work:

The loving relationship between them.

The infinite love between them.

The dance itself.

In other words, it is an entirely relational universe. If, at any time, we try to stop this flow moving through us, with us, and in us, we fall into the true state of sin—and it is truly a state more than a momentary behavior. It is telling that the first destabilization of the foundational structure of the atom (in New Mexico in July 1945) created the atomic bomb. With supreme irony, the test site is still called “Trinity” as Robert Oppenheimer first named it.

The divine flow either flows both in and out, or it is not flowing at all. The “trap doors” at either end must be kept open in order to both receive and let go, which is the work of all true spirituality. The Law of Flow is simple, and Jesus states it in many formulations such as “Happy are the merciful; they shall have mercy shown to them” (Matthew 5:7). Or as we cleverly put it “What goes around comes around.” We are conduits.

Gateway to Silence:
Love flows in and out, in and out.”

— Richard Rohr, A Relational Universe www.cac.org

---

HEART ADVICE
from Pema Chodron

“In the morning when you wake up, you reflect on the day ahead and aspire to use it to keep a wide-open heart and mind. At the end of the day, before going to sleep, you think over what you have done. If you fulfilled your aspiration, even once, rejoice in that. If you went against your aspiration, rejoice that you are able to see what you did and are no longer living in ignorance. This way you will be inspired to go forward with increasing clarity, confidence, and compassion in the days that follow.”

— Pema Chodron

---

Ladies, I truly feel that grace has led me to do the work I am doing and my heart is exploding with gratitude to each of you for showing up so willingly and eagerly and open-heartedly to share and grow together! I look forward to continuing our circle with so many of you in the future and to those who I won’t be seeing in the near future, I wish you the very best and trust our paths will cross in the future at the exact right time. 💫

Blessings,
Patti

---