The Meditation Mantra of the Month is SANTOSHA, which means contentment/acceptance/fruit of practice. So, in one word, contentment = acceptance = fruit of practice. That’s a big word. I want that word. I want to just get a little whiff of what ever is that fruit of practice. Contentment? Do we get to be “content”now? …
Say these words when you lie down and when you rise up, when you go out and when you return. In times of mourning and in times of joy. Inscribe them on your doorposts, embroider them on your garments, tattoo them on your shoulders teach them to your children, your neighbors, your enemies, recite them …
And You Shall Love, And You Shall Love, And You Shall Love… Read More »
Labor is a craft, but perfect rest is an art. It is the result of an accord of body, mind, and imagination. To attain a degree of excellence in art, one must adjure slothfulness. – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath Do you know what “adjure” means? I assumed it meant abhor, avoid, do not …
Before I had my first daughter I learned in parenting classes about the amazing trick of swaddling your baby to help them calm down and relax. Regardless of whether you have had a child or not, you really must watch this remarkable video below on how to swaddle your baby, using a dog as the …
During my first year of seminary (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) my teaching parish was a small African-American congregation on the south side of Chicago that met in a remodeled Arby’s (or something like that). The pastor of the church was an African-American man with a seriously phenomenal singing voice. When he sang the …
The Grateful Despites Meditation ((Sitting up nice and tall, soften your jaw, let your breath get nice and easy. Start to peel through the layers of you that relate to everyone and everything else. Like you take off your hat and your coat, peel through the layers of you that relates to family, friends, places …
A couple months ago we had a retreat called, “If hope is a muscle, then…”. It was a fascinating for me to look at hope as a muscle that I might; strengthen or weaken, injure from overuse, breaking, and misuse. And more often than not, I just assume hope will keep on working for me …
