Movin’ Multiplyin’

Jumpin’ around every which way.  I think I will be re-grouping and gathering my summer postings here:

http://isanghamahal.multiply.com/

I am trying to find a place to download my pics and Flickr (regular account) has a limit in terms of how much I can download each month.  We’ll see if Multiply works better.

Santi!

Thay: A True Sangha & Obama

The Beloved Community, an online dharma talk by Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh.  Thay talks about Martin Luther King’s idea of the Beloved Community ~ The Sangha and how we as the sangha can offer our support to President Obama.   Check it out here.

“Buddhism is made up of non-Buddhist elements.”

“When Barack Obama manifested, I regretted a little bit, because Martin Luther King, Jr. was not there to witness the fruit of our efforts. … But finally, I saw that we are the continuation of Martin Luther King. He is happy to know that everything he has done has borne fruit.

Obama is not an individual, Obama represents a Sangha. So our work is to keep the Sangha close to Obama, to offer our support. I offer this for you to reflect on it. There must be a way. Wherever there is a will there is a way.”

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Tumblin’ & Flickrin’

Summer postings gathered here:

Suroeste Dharma Journeys

Isanghamahal Pics

“Unmistaken Child” (2009)

A devoted disciple’s teacher passes away.  And now, he is charged with finding his teacher’s reincarnation.  This film follows the four year task of Tenzin Zopa’s search for his teacher reincarnated as a toddler.

A film about guru devotion and reincarnation.

I haven’t seen it yet, but the trailer is attached below.

Now playing in cities throughout the U.S.

Catch it when it comes through your neighborhood!

Opens in San Diego on July 24th, 2009 – Landmark Theatres

More info: http://www.unmistakenchild.com/

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Countdown to South+East Asia

South+East Asia is coming ’round the corner!

Gentle Birth Dharma Gateway

“You have seen the path, do not fear anymore.”

~Thich Nhat Hanh

May all preparations and details

leading to the departure gateway day

proceed with great ease.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For the time being, moving Summer 2009 postings to:

Suroeste Dharma Journey + Isanghamahal Flickr account

Changing…

In between

the moments in between

the being in between

being in between

Changing…

One of my colleagues, the one who brought me “on board” and has been a great supporter, friend and ally through it all…through it all…

she will be ending her last year of teaching in the next few weeks,

ending, graduating, retiring.

REJOICE!!!

Rejoice of course!

Rejoicing, and then a bit, hmmm…”sad” as well.  Bittersweet.

Memories of the good ole’ days (which weren’t always good) but somehow, there was a fondness to them.  A fondness to how we gathered together to create a different kind of reality for the students with whom we worked.  We struggled and we discussed, in ease and laughter as well as frustration, all the details of the things we said we would do.

I felt on the edge of my teaching praktis in community.

I felt on the  edge of my teaching praktis in a community of other teachers, educators each of us bringing our edge, expertise and knowing to the table.

There was something memorable about that “being at the table” experience.  The good ole’ days is how I will recall them.  The good ole’ days…

Somehow, through the changes, the mindheart remembers things in fondness.  Fortunately, because there was some fondness to be remembered.

And what will become of things new year, and the ones to come?  Who knows?  Changing…things changing.

So here we go…

Taurus Astrology ~ May 2009

Good news for my Taurus self this month:

The new moon in Cancer on June 21 is an interesting one, because it will initiate a period of increased travel for you, a theme that is to pick up speed in coming weeks and months.

(HELLO SOUTH+EAST ASIA!) <–my addition

Check out the astrologies of U at astrologyzone.com by Susan Miller.

Namaste Universe…

Touching Happiness,

Jnaseh

Quieting…

School year closing down

just two mo’ weeks!

And there’s a great deal to complete

and a great deal to “close down”

put away, pack away, throw away, and begin

to put things to rest…

for the time being.

Shutdown.

Openings and closings.

In breaths and out breaths…

A quieting down inside though the outside

seems like a crazy storm of activity.

The eye of a the storm, as a friend would say.

Quieting,

Quietly…

completing

closing.

Quietly

preparing

for the

“commencement.”

Ready to release and

enter the Gateway.

Marathon Gateway!

“I feel like I can do anything,” he shared!

Congratulations to my lil’ brother for completing his first marathon!

Gateways coming from all directions and in all forms!

Yes, kaya natin!

Inner and Outer Dis-Ease

Seven pm, Sunday night.

Preparing to return to work.

We only have about 11 more school days left, so there’s not much extra time to catch up and such, especially for my class of seniors who need some continuous nudging along the path.

Still feeling a bit under the weather as they say.

Breathing in, I get up slowly…

Breathing out, I working staying close to my breath…

- – - – - – - – - -

Recovering slowly, doing a little better today. Hopefully good enough to make tomorrow a work day. If not, then off to the doctors we go.

I feel like so much has passed through me these last two days of being sick. In the body and the mind. Moments and periods when I tell myself to just stay in the moment and breathe and feel and allow and then moments when the mind races in its own direction and wants to figure it out. Figure out what? You sick! But it does, and watching it, observing it, saw a great deal, processed a great deal. At least that’s how it settles in my memory. (Will try to write more about that later…)

Feeling better, regaining my health, slowly, is a gift. Times like this really show much energy is necessary to do something as simply get up! With a big fever headache, it was not easy. Pain, pain, pain. The head was full of heat, on fiyah at some moments, sweating profusely at various points in the day, changing my clothes, drinking water, placing a moist towel over my head, wiping myself down. I haven’t felt this “sick” in a while, at least not like this.

A friend says, maybe it’s a cleansing before my South+East Asia trip. Yes, I reply, perhaps. I can see how that might be the case. Easier for me to want to get better than to think about the why’s of my sickness and current dis-ease, and then there’s also the wanting-to-get-better-push-it-away-now feeling rather than allowing, and seeing this time, experience, “message” for what it is.

In the meantime, glad to be back in some shape and form. My lil’ house retreat the last few days. Periods of cleaning the house and then having it go back to disarray. All good, all good. I am breathing still, and I know I am breathing. Begin and end there.

- – - – - – - – -

Been feelin’ sick the last two days. Moments and moments of body on fire and then shivers at night. And this headcold headache or something. I get a bit hypochondriac-like in moments like this.

Anyways, in the midst of me stopping and settling to feel my body doing its thing…in the midst of allowing the moment to be felt and communicated and understood versus tryna change it, “heal it quickly”, drop hella pills on it to make it go away, I realized how MESSSSSSY the house has gotten. I have my routines for cleaning up but this time, I’ve really let it go. I mean usually the inside of the house is okay (nothing I can say about the front+backyard though, sorry…)

But today, I woke up and have begun to clean up the space, finally! Don’t know about feng shui, but surely, the feng shui is funky in this house right now.

And this with the realization too that I will be leaving in a few weeks!

WUT!

Slowly, looking around and putting things that have been removed from their place, displaced and disorganized from their place, back, back, back. Maybe my mind knows this and is struggling with all this “stuff all over the place” and is telling me, LOOK, clean up, clean up, clear it up outside and the inside will follow.

Or maybe a trip to the doctor is really what’s needed. Cringing at the moment.

Release. Clear. Purge. Prepare. I can’t enter the Gateway with all this “baggage!”

I’m glad I write with a bit of lightness about this today.

A couple of nights ago, it was an entirely different thing.

Let’s see how the days goes.

Santi,
Jnaseh