Good morning! Welcome to the DKos Sangha weekly open thread.
This is an open thread for members of the DKos Sangha and others who are interested in discussions concerning how we integrate our progressive political activism into our spiritual practice. If you have observations about the political discourse of the week, or about practice, or about anything else related to walking a spiritual path through the political world, if you wish to share, or if you seek support, or if you simply want to say hello, please do; this space is for you.
If you would like to host a weekly open thread, please let me know.
If you care nothing for spiritual practice and only wish to denigrate and disparage, please do so elsewhere, and respect that this is a community diary for the DKos Sangha.
A few days ago there was a birthday party for a dear friend; and among the guests was someone else whom I call friend, though I've only met him a few times. Our connection is deep, though I think others in the room that night have that same relationship with him. Most of us know him through his Rumi readings, which he performs from time to time in town.
Those of you who know Rumi know that he was an extraordinarily gifted spiritual teacher. His poems open the heart and deepen one's experience of this present moment. And when my friend reads Rumi, the essence of the teachings pours forth and fills the room. And at the party he read one of Rumi's poems, and the beauty, the truth, of those words once again filled the space, filled my experience.
Silence is a practice, and also a way of describing our experience of the present moment, when thoughts cease to move through the mind and there is only the experience of what is. As a practice, we sit, and breathe, letting go of thoughts, letting go of judgement, letting go of separation; just being, breathing, just resting in our awareness of what is.
Rumi is one of those teachers whose teachings can open the heart into the silence of this present moment. Sometimes just being in the presence of a teacher can deepen our experience of this moment. Sometimes just reading a few words from our teachers will open our experience.
Whether it be through Rumi, the words of your teacher, or the sound of rain as you look out through the window upon our world, deepening our experience of silence, of stillness, of that place within which everything arises, opens us further into who we really are, our true nature, our true being.
And when we find ourselves getting caught up in the stories, getting caught up in the drama, buying into the judgements, buying into separation, with practice, we are ever more able to simply turn to the silence, to take a moment and breathe, touching deeply that place of connectedness, of simply being.
Enjoy your Sunday.