just be it It’s about the work involved in establishing a dedicated practice to feelings of a bigger belonging through practices aimed at increasing feelings of compassion, gratitude and forgiveness
December, 2009

On the Nature of Matter(ing)

Saturday, December 19th, 2009
The road of the heart is straight.

The road of the heart is straight.

Science has now shown that we’re just air…that everything has no concrete substance…even concrete.  Yet, when conditions were right, we somehow manifested into these bodies and eventually developed a sense of self-consciousness, developing a sense of mattering.  Many claim this ego happens with the cognitive stage of what’s been called ‘object permanence’.  This is recognized when you show an object to an infant, and when it’s taken away, they track to see where it’s gone, looking behind an obstacle to find it.  Up to this point (the first half year of life), if it’s out of direct experience, it’s gone.  You can show them the cutest rattle and when it’s taken away they’re on to the next perceptual experience.  In essence, when the ‘matter’ is taken from site, it simply didn’t ‘matter’.  It’s really quite a divine place to be and something many spiritual teachers espouse as a path to lasting happiness.  So what happens?

It seems that before we conclude that we’re separate, we live a wonderful life of being nobody, unaffected by ‘not mattering’ as long as our biological needs are met.  This level of consciousness is very rich and it’s why I relish the look of seven month old eyes.   Their gaze is intimate as they see you as not being separate from them.  And then, what many call a ‘pre-wired’ condition, we develop a sense of separateness (subject vs. object), the dualism of language and thought grows, and we work the rest of our lives stepping into our self consciousness, otherwise known as our ego or identity.  With the right support, we eventually develop a sense of mattering.  We’re driven to ‘make a difference’, ‘find our purpose’, ‘change the world’, ‘be the best’, ‘make the most’, and on and on it goes.  Yet, none of us escapes the doubt.  We’re continually looking for validation to our ‘mattering’.  We ask, “Am I enough?”, “Do you like me?”, “Am I good or better than the other?”, “Did I win?” and so it goes.  If we’ve grown our power over others through our material wealth or position, we will be surrounded by those who say we ‘matter’.  We’ve concluded that our success depends upon others’ approval.  And then we realize that our ‘mattering to them’ is conditional.  We somehow know that a lasting happiness can’t result from continual search from others for our sense of mattering.  Maybe if we get more power, more fame, more money, more friends, more recognition…then…then we’ll reach complete happiness.  And yet, if you’ve lived enough years you eventually discover that you simply can’t find lasting happiness through your notions of being ‘somebody’.  So how can we nurture a sense of well-being…a sense for having ‘lived the good life’, somehow ‘mattering’?

There is a sugar buzz high from giving to others and from feeling good about helping someone.  Yet, the real test of lasting happiness is found in how well we handle another’s rejection of our giving or helping.  How solid are we when we step forward, in hopes of feeding relationships, expressing how another matters to us, only to have it denied, rejected or ignored?  What happens to our sense of ‘mattering’ when the rest of the world seems to have a different view?  Previous cultures honored the elderly and used them as a valuable resource for wisdom circles.  Their life experience mattered.  Our American culture takes a different view, growing nursing homes and retirement communities.  Those who last in Congress have accumulated tremendous power and sometimes develop a deeper awareness to the stewardship of our country.  Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Byrd are two that come to mind.  Their sense of mattering seems to have come from the heart.  They both seemed to carry a deep sense of connection with more than their self interest.  The results of their ‘mattering’ will live in my heart as long as I’m matter.  And isn’t this all we can do…aim to be the best we can in alignment to our heart’s desire simply because we’ve been given the opportunity to participate?  It’s a movement beyond our limited self-consciousness.  It’s movement from feeling separate to feeling connected, from nobody to somebody to somebody else. We had lost contact with that ‘feeling’ of connection known previously as an infant.  And now, with that feeling rediscovered, we come to experience all things as us in what Buber called the “I-Thou” relationship.  The insecurity of living as somebody lessons as we move to this new ground. We’re much easier about insisting that we have the right answers.  We’re more courageous and willing to explore deeper questions.  We know that we matter, even when others don’t seem to think we do.  And when we’re no longer matter, we’re at peace with our life and the actions taken while we were in this functioning body.  We’ve paid attention to mindful speech, thought, action…taking care to leave a result that some day may matter.

So outside beginnings and endings, we all matter.  We’re connected and it’s just our realization of it that varies.  The extent to which we cling to our notions of being Somebody will determine the harm we’ve done.  The extent to which we’ve loved others as ourselves, particularly our enemies, will determine our contribution.  Belief systems that limit our level of belonging will cause harm.  Belief systems operating in unlimited circles of belonging will nurture our health.  God (Love) is a circle whose center is everywhere, whose circumference is infinite.  In short, the circle has no sides; everything matters.  While it’s difficult as we age and our matter dissipates along with our sense of ‘mattering’, our solidity and lasting happiness comes from this capacity to be in the infinite circle, outside notions of right and wrong, judgment, doing and non doing, having and not having, and artificial boundary.

Heart…Just Be it.

Soul…Just Be it.

Love…Just Be it.

Joy…Just Be it.

Grateful for the gift of opportunity to participate, in relief to know we all matter, no matter what, even when we’re no longer matter.  Poof….somebody else.  So what really happened to the caterpillar?  Did the wave disappear when it crashed on the shore?

Real Security

Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Eternal Vibration

Eternal Vibration

So where do you find your security?  Isn’t it when and where, here and now, you’re in the full embrace of all that’s contributed to your being you?  Isn’t it when you can move from any feelings of separateness to the full, complete, felt sense of wholeness, even when everything seems to be going wrong?  Isn’t this a space that stands completely outside the realm of belief, attachment, and restlessness?  Real security is spiritual, accepting all that is within this moment, yet participating fully to our opportunity to ‘take care’ of this moment as we’re taking care of the universe.  In essence, real security is love without boundary and condition.  Real security gives us courage to be curious.  Real security lets us stand like a mountain when the earthquake happens, secure in the ground of our Being, outside time and space, breathing in ‘Yes’ to life and increased awareness, breathing out ‘Thank you’ for the opportunity provided within the arising moment of the next breath.

Solid…Just Be it

Mountain…Just Be it

Holding Joy in the Face of Deteriorating Conditions

Friday, December 11th, 2009

“How do you live in this complicated reality?  How do you face the moment when the earthquake suddenly happens?  How do you handle yourself in a moment that is beyond your control?  When a moment appears, there is only one thing that controls you: the capability that comes from your spiritual practice, your ability to face impermanence and deal calmly with the conditions of every moment.  So, before the earthquake happens, before your mind starts to work and you want to run away, accept every moment as an opportunity presented to you to practice facing reality as it really is.  When a moment arises, you don’t know the reason why it exists, but you have to accept it and face it, whatever happens.

You have to do your best to face every moment, because this moment will never come again.  The moment that you are living right now is a very important opportunity to make your life vividly alive.  If you want to live with spiritual security in the midst of constant change, you have to burn the flame of your life force in everything you do.

When you play sports, work at your job, write a poem, or whatever it is that you do, that is an opportunity to burn the flame of your life energy.

When you forget yourself and put your wholehearted effort into facing every moment, you can do something, and simultaneously you can rest in the continuous flow of life energy.  Then you really enjoy life.” from Each Moment is the Universe by Katagiri Roshi

Understanding the ‘present moment’ requires an examination of how we look at time, in particular, our grasping of impermanence and interconnection. Katagiri expresses it this way:

“…the way is produced by impermanence and interdependent co-origination.  What produces impermanence and interdependent origination?  That is time and occasion.  Time and occasion are nothing but the activity of time, which is called time arising.  What produces time and occasion?  According to Buddhist philosophy it is emptiness, but Dogen says it is just arising only.  That is a more positive way of understanding it.  Emptiness, arising only, means that real time is completely beyond time as an idea you can discuss.  Time is identical with action, motion, or energy.  There is nothing to hold on to, because everything in the universe exists as arising only.    p. 33

…you cannot understand it (way) objectively because to understand real life is to be one with it.  This is not only Buddhist teaching; this is life.  For example, if you want to be a cross-country skier, you can objectively understand what cross-country skiing is through research, but to understand skiing perfectly you have to go skiing.  At that time the root of the way is dynamically working and you can become one with skiing.

Oneness with skiing is possible because everything lies in the one source of existence and is unified there.  This is the place that is called Buddha or universal consciousness or whatever you say.  This is the place where you are.  The root of the way is present with you wherever you may go, constantly working freely in peace and harmony, so you can always use it.  All you have to do is just tune in and accept it.  That’s why we practice zazen and try to refine consciousness of our minds.  This way of practice is not based on trying to do something good and getting a reward.  The final purpose of this practice is to leave no trace of individual experience.  How do you do this?  It depends on the attitude you take from moment to moment.” p. 44 Each Moment is the Universe

This may be why Tolle says our most important relationship is the one we have with this present moment.

Brother David says we’re to fill with the ‘feeling’ of gratefulness, moment to moment, for the sheer opportunity to participate.  Understanding time as action, motion or energy, it’s a moving thing to be engaged in with full attention, in harmony and rhythm to the way, doing our best, but releasing any “trace of individual experience”.  Could this be where we find our humility and our courage, standing solid as the mountain in the face of impermanence and inter-Being (interdependent co-origination)?

This has been ‘working me’ a lot lately.  How can I stand solid, in joy, facing deteriorating conditions?  It seems we’re in a culture lacking the courage to face the present in concern for a well stewarded future.  We want to nourish the seeds of the positive, accept the existence of the negative, and compassionately move to giving our best in participation to healing that which we have harmed.  And we face the inevitable dissipation of energy (entropy; Second Law of Thermodynamics).  Can we accept what “is” in peace and yet, have the courage to dedicate in stewardship to the art of taking care of this moment, knowing it’s our best shot at taking care of the future for coming generations (beings we’re interconnected with outside our notions of time and space)?  Or do we go to sleep?  Or worse, do we actively work to feed the poison of denial, joining the ranks who deny science and our impact on the planet and one another?

This moment is so precious.  I hate to let it go, and yet, I can’t capture it.  I can only hope I’ve met it well, awake to the gift of what was there, if only glimpsed in its arising.

In everyday life you cannot always regulate and harmonize your body and mind.  The “ only thing you can regulate and harmonize is you attitude.  When you take the proper attitude toward your activity—zazen, skiing, or whatever it is—simultaneously, beyond your human effort, refined practice comes up and there is a total dynamic working between you and your object.”

Day after day, moment after moment, just take care of practice, leaving no trace of technique and no trace of practitioner.  This is a very fundamental attitude toward human life.  If you do, finally you will be great: a great skier, a great artist, a great musician, a great poet, a great philosopher, a great businessman, or a great religious person.

There is final verification. “Here I am!”  That’s all.  That is completely wonderful.  That is final proof of you life.  You feel alive!  There’s nothing to say, but you feel good.  It’s more than feeling good, it’s feeling that your life is worth living.”  p. 36

Poof…no longer addicted to approval, control, security and power.

Deepok Chopra’s The Ultimate Happiness Prescription describes it as follows:

“One side of the coin is that we crave approval because it bolsters our self-image.  The other side is that we fear disapproval because it diminishes our self-image.  All of this is known as object-referral, which means that you identify with objects outside yourself.  The opposite of object-referral is self-referral, which means you identify with your true being, entirely an inner experience.  True being has five qualities, none of which is created by external events, or other people:

  1. Your true being is connected to all that exists.
  2. It has no limitations.
  3. It has infinite creativity.
  4. It is fearless, and willing to step into the unknown.
  5. Intention from the level of being is powerful, and can orchestrate synchronicity (a perfect meshing of outside circumstances to bring about your intention).”

‘Just Be it’ is a phrase aimed to true being, breaking the barrier of dualistic object referral.  There’s great peace, joy, confidence, and harmony in facing the unknown, meeting the surprise of the arising moment…even in what appears to be deteriorating conditions.

This is hard work.  It takes tremendous resolve.  Our mind says we’ve worked hard enough and it’s time for mindless, unaware activity.  Maybe have a beer or two, eat a chocolate or ten, watch TV, smoke a joint, daydream, text or phone or whatever we do to step away from the moment’s arising in momentary pleasure.  But it’s always there, the arising moment.  It never stops, as hard as we may try to believe it does, with our notions of retirement, victim, death, winning, etc.  Science now validates our inter-Being and the reality of continuous change.  The harmony and rhythm of the universe is better understood as technology advances.  Yet, we step from our awareness in denial to the song and dance arising in front of us, traveling at greater speeds of mindlessness.

“I am though you so I” ee cummings

“Our awareness itself is a fathomless mystery” Brother David

“I am the manifestation of the unmanifested” Jesus

“The greatest thing happening in our time is that we’re taking down this theistic God from the limitation of being somebody else…we’re totally embedded” Brother David

“When conditions are right they manifest, when they aren’t they don’t” Buddha

With regards to “Difficulty”, I wrote this in 2003 after studying with Brother David Steindl Rast:

Difficulty

It’s more difficult to be a meadow on a mountaintop than on the plains.

It’s more difficult to live as a wave in a pond than an ocean.

It’s more difficult to be a mountain on it’s own (volcano) than one within a full range.

It’s more difficult to live a live driven by common sense and true being when surrounded by extremists.

It’s more difficult to live a life of peace when surrounded by those finding joy in violence.

These insights came to me when flying at thirty-five thousand feet, returning to Minnesota from California.  Flying over the landscape I had a much deeper felt sense for the ‘fractal’, how cellular energy tended to manifest in like ways, where the texture duplicates under influence of the energy around it.  Moving from ‘Difficulty’ to the power of intention, I wrote the following:

If you want to be of integrity,

Be around people of integrity.

If you want to fill your body with toxic foods,

Surround yourself with toxic foods.

If you want to be physically fit,

Be around people that are physically fit.

If you want to smoke,

Be around people that smoke.

If you don’t want to smoke,

Don’t be around people that smoke.

If you want your children to be grateful,

Surround them with grateful people.

If you want your kids to be expressive,

Surround them with expressive people.

If you want close minded children steeped in a strong belief system,

Surround your children with closed minded people steeped in strong belief systems.

If you want children open to receive a deeper question,

Surround them with people curious to explore a deeper question.

If you want children of fear,

Surround them with fear driven people.

If you want courageous children,

Surround them with courageous people.

If you want to be angry,

Be around angry people, listen to angry music, and watch angry TV

If you want attention,

Be around people that want attention.

If you want to be square,

Be around square people.

If you want to feel abundance,

Be around people that feel abundance.

If you want to hold on to the feeling of victim,

Be around those who hold the feeling of victim.

And in the end, all we can do is ask, “Is it working for you?  Is this the quality of live you want?”  We all have to answer this for ourselves, outside notions of righteousness.  And yet, when I look at nature and see all the “unique communities”, I can see I want to be around a community where people celebrate life, live without fear, in a sense of stewardship to the earth, one another, the cosmos…in full joy and wonder for the mystery.  I want to be around “awake” people.  And so it goes:

If you want to be a scavenger or a parasite,

Be around those who are scavengers and parasites.

If you want to appreciate the value in seeing the big through the small,

Be around people who appreciate seeing the big through the small.

If you want to erode your character and talents,

Be around those who erode their character and talents.

If you want to be sick,

Be around those who whine about their injury or sickness.

If you want to be strong,

Be around those people able to be hope in the healing to their suffering.

If in your life journey you become lost, and if you meet with an obstacle, be on the look out for more of the same.

Look at the clouds and see how they assemble as a family

And as we come to experience our tribe

Can we hold the ‘‘feeling’ of a bigger belonging

Never separate from those we’ve failed to meet from fear

For their difference or apparent weakness?

When I look into your eyes

It’s when I see my heart

It let’s me see myself

I know we’re never apart

I know I can’t hold on

I’ve got to let you be free

And then I clear my heart

For all eternity

Love is

Paying attention

Answering the door.

Giving it my best, in wholehearted action

Joy and happiness

Deeply listening, here and now

Touching silence

For Our World

Mattie J.T. Stepanek

September 12, 2001

We need to stop

Just stop

Stop for a moment

Before anybody

Says or does anything

That may hurt anyone else

We need to be silent

Just silent

Silent for a moment

Before we forever lose

The blessing of songs

That grow in our hearts

We need to notice

Just Notice

Notice for a moment

Before the future slips away

Into ashes and dust of humility

Stop, be silent, and notice

In so many ways, we are the same.

Out differences are unique treasures

We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts

To nurture, to offer, to accept

We need to be

Just Be.

Be for a moment

Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting

Like children and lambs

Never judging or vengeful

Like the judging and vengeful

Differently, yet together,

Before there is no earth, no life,

No chance for peace

And now, let us pray

Differently, yet together,

Ride at Washington Square December 17

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Come out and play with us this last gig of 2009.  We’ll be transforming for the first quarter of 2010, so Spring will be our next roll out.

Season of Light

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Morning Moon Shining

Morning Moon Shining

Yesterday we celebrated Buddha’s enlightenment 2439 years ago.  The word, Buddha, comes from the root of “to wake up”.  During this season celebrations around the world abound across a multitude of cultures and religions, all touching our deeper desire to connect with one another as we break darkness with light,  stirring our sleep with greater awareness and awakening.  We celebrated with morning meditations starting at 4:30, followed by silent conscious outdoor walking as we moved to the Mississippi River in search of the morning star.  The many Christmas lights and the moon served as our light in this early morning hour.  We touched a bigger hope in appreciation to our total connection with everything.  We later celebrated this day with our practice group at Rush City state prison.  We honored the lineage of our teachers, the effectiveness of the teachings in pointing us to a way for lasting happiness.  We discussed the difficulties of the season in a prison setting and how this practice can relieve suffering through a deeper sense of interconnection that breaks the boundaries of the prison wall.  In meditation, the men were directed to simply be aware of breathing in, and then aware of breathing out.  They were led in using the breath as a tool to return to the present moment, unbinding them from the thoughts generating their suffering.  The men spoke to the peace found through this practice expressing their gratitude for freedoms they didn’t know were possible in their setting.

We all bind ourselves in thought.  This limitation causes suffering.  Jesus and the Buddha taught us to relieve this suffering through ‘letting go’, through conscious forgiveness and compassion.  They both changed the world by shedding light on our interconnection with all people and things.  The message was simple, “Love one another as you love yourself”, “Forgive others for your perceived harm as you’d have them forgive you”, and align your actions with your heart for conscious, humble, mindful living in stewardship to body/mind/spirit, family, community, nation and planet.  Jesus brought light through the parable, drawing upon his listeners’ heart felt inner authority as he challenged them to their own truth.  Neither commanded their followers from a position of superiority.  They simply spoke from the light of love, forgiveness and gratitude, forever asking why we don’t behave as we know we must.  They spoke to the poisons of greed, ignorance and fear, to the darkness that engulfs us when numbed in awareness to our true heart’s desire.  They spoke to a lasting joy found within the present moment’s awareness.  They spoke to a joy that couldn’t be taken away, one that would not be dependent upon externals, a lasting happiness found in gratitude for the very gift of the given.  Outside of desire and attachment to past events or anxiety about future events, there’s a place of deep peace.  This is prayer for never ending joy, a deeper meditation touching the felt sense of our connection with all, beyond any notions of birth or death, right or wrong, etc.

In this season so often filled with anxiety for events that may not turn as expected, may we follow their advice and light the candle of love, forgiveness, and gratitude, diminishing the poisons of greed, ignorance and fear?  May we lay down our ego’s desire to be ‘right’, to judge, to persuade another to change to ‘our way’ as we find courage to just sit in joy for the very gift of being?  In this space, we’re solid.  In this space we grow courage and curiosity.  In this space we unbind ourselves from limiting barriers. In this space we speak less and listen more. In this space we’re not afraid to touch or be touched in loving compassion for one another.  In this space, in honor to Buddha and Jesus, we shine our light.

Exactly Who “Is” YOU?

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Mother's Light

Mother's Light

As we explore deeper awareness to our feelings, thoughts, emotions and actions, we can determine whether they’re joining or separating.  Do they lead us deeper in love to our felt sense of interconnection, or away from love with felt sense of separation and restlessness.  Linguistic structure generally favor’s ego’s desire for us to separate.  Certainly, there is a language of the soul that facilitates a joining response.  Semantically, we can play it through poetry, prose and musical lyric.  Syntactically, we can attempt to pull the rug from the separated response by tense and emphasis.  Rather than exploring the separating question of “Who am I?”, how about digging into “Who is ‘I’?”  Or how about moving from, “Who are you?” to “Who is you?”  Can you feel the difference? One has me drifting on the surface of life, tossed around in anxiety by people and events.  The other carries me to a more solid, connecting place.

My mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer November, 1979.  After a month of struggling with her body deterioration I filled with selfish anger at the prospect of not having the physical presence of a mother through my life journey.  I had attached to all the wonderful support a mother gives her son, and no doubt, my challenge to achieve had been most fed by her.  I’ll always remember her syntactic/semantic play in a question that’s changed my life and fed my spiritual exploration.  She said, “Randy, WHAT are YOU holding on to?”  It struck as lightening as I came to peace with her transformation from form to formless.  Here was a fifty-four year old farm wife/teacher/funeral singer, steeped in conservative Norwegian Lutheran belief, providing Buddha’s deepest Noble Truths in a phrase that pulled the rug from me.

The YOU was no longer attached to all I identified with.  The question was bigger than any question previously asked of me.  The YOU wasn’t what I had achieved; it wasn’t what I had accumulated; it wasn’t what I identified with.  The WHAT was empty and full.  There was a deep relief in feeling we could never be separated.  It was like she asked me to find my original face, before she had been born.  Can you imagine that?  My mother was asking me who I was before she bore me…as she was peacefully transforming from her body to the unknown.

I’ve since come to learn that our physical dying is often a lengthy process.  While she still had a month to go before her last breath, there was a bluish/yellow/green halo that I perceived around her as she spoke that day.  Many have called these experiences moments of enlightening.  Tomorrow we celebrate the Buddha’s enlightenment and a few days later we celebrate the light baby Jesus brought to us.  These are all joining experiences, enlightening moments of joining, smashing ego’s temptation to separate us from our linguistically based thoughts.  While the ‘big belonging’ unified experience is usually dissipated from language, for me a deeper study of language and how we use it semantically and syntactically can do a lot for facilitating the unified experience.

Who 'is' YOU?

Who "is" YOU?

Joy

Monday, December 7th, 2009
Cross...illumination burst where ice meets water in transformation

Cross...illumination burst where ice meets water in transformation.

This photo was taken December 5, 2009.  Ice forms to about one hundred feet from shore.  The sun reflects on the water and when the light hits a different form (ice) the light expands.  Notice the cross.  Light expands as essence crosses change of form, water to ice.  Just as wave form continually changes, crashing on the shore to realize it’s always been water, it seems it’s during our moments of transformation, changing from one form to another, that light expands, transcending our previous notions of ‘knowing’.  Poof!! No birth…no death.

There’s joy in pleasing oneself, but it’s fleeting.  There’s longer lasting joy in pleasing another.  Yet, both eventually leave a vacuum created by desire and consequent suffering.  As youth, we fantasize the day we’ll have the resources of adults so we can have the material freedom we were ‘deprived’ of.  For me, it was unlimited chocolate candy bars.  I’ll never forget the day of awareness, recognizing that time had come and gone without my recognition of it.  I’ve since had days where I’ve eaten harmful quantities of candy, only to feel guilty and sick at the conclusion.  When it comes to giving to others, it feels better.  The joy is longer lasting, and yet, I’ve not arrived to that place of unconditional giving, that place where I’m immune to being kicked in the teeth after giving.  I know the key is to trust the heart’s intention with the courage and strength to not take another’s response personally.

Yet, there is a better way, a way to maintain joy in a constantly changing universe, even in the midst of suffering.

“When we look at the ocean, we see that each wave has a beginning and an end.  A wave can be compared with other waves, and we can call it more or less beautiful, higher or lower, longer lasting or less long lasting.  But if we look more deeply, we see that a wave is made of water.  While living the life of a wave, it also lives the life of water.  It would be sad if the wave did not know that it is water.  It would think, “Some day, I will have to die.  This period of time is my life span, and when I arrive at the shore, I will return to nonbeing.”  These notions will cause the wave fear and anguish.  We have to help it remove the notions of self, person, living being and life span if we want the wave to be free and happy.  A wave can be recognized by signs–high or low, beginning or ending, beautiful or ugly.  But in the world of water, there are no signs.  In the world of relative truth, the wave feels happy as she swells, and she feels sad when she falls.  She my think, “I am high,” or “I am low,” and develop a superiority or inferiority complex.  But when the wave touches her true nature—which is water—all her complexes will cease, and she will transcend birth and death.”

“We need the relative world of the wave, but we also need to touch the water, the ground of our being, to have real peace and joy.  We shouldn’t allow relative truth to imprison us and keep us from touching the absolute truth.  Looking deeply into relative truth, we penetrate the absolute.  Relative and absolute truths inter-embrace.”

The Heart of Buddha’s Teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh

There’s lasting joy in deepening awareness to our non-separateness.  There’s no longer the illusion of trusting another since we are each other.  Expectation of others diminishes as we move to unconditional love, free from the binding of judgment.  For sure, I’m now in this body, as wave, dealing with the challenges of living and the suffering from desire and attachment.  Yet, my solidity and lasting joy comes from the ‘felt’ sense of always being water.  Isn’t it strange that our lasting joy in an ever changing, impermanent world, comes from touching the permanence of our interconnection?  Wave…just Be it.  Water…just Be it.  Change…just Be it.  Non-change…just Be aware of it. Joy…just Be it.

Store

Friday, December 4th, 2009
Please find below some of the clothing items and bumper stickers we’ve come up with.  For now, if you see something you like, shoot me an email at randy@just-be-it.com.
Breath...Just Be it    Black  s, m, l, xl   $14

Breath...Just Be it Black s, m, l, xl $14

Breath...Just Be it   White  s, m, l, xl           $14

Breath...Just Be it White s, m, l, xl $14

Yoga...Just Be it    Black  s, m, l, xl      $14

Yoga...Just Be it Black s, m, l, xl $14

Yoga...Just Be it  White s, m, l, xl     $14

Yoga...Just Be it White s, m, l, xl $14

Peace...Just Be it logo   White  s, m, l, xl      $12

Peace...Just Be it logo White s, m, l, xl $12

Aloha...JBi logo    White s, m, l, xl          $12

Aloha…JBi logo White s, m, l, xl $12
Yoga...Just Be it Blue s, m, l, xl        $14

Yoga...Just Be it Blue s, m, l, xl $14

Just Be it Sweatshirt Black  s, m, l, xl          $36

Just Be it Sweatshirt Black s, m, l, xl $36

Sweatshirt Front
Sweatshirt Front

PeaceMeal Holiday

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Join us this Sunday for PeaceMeal, 6-8pm.  Standards and some holiday specials in the blues/jazz format.  Always a great sidedish to your meal.

Just Be It…the book now available

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009