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 write a diary for the DKos Sangha, 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.
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Practice can be seen as our day to day, moment to moment experience, for everything we experience throughout each day is a part of our spiritual practice; each step throughout the day, a step along the spiritual path. Every experience is grist for the spiritual mill.
Practice can also be seen as movement towards balance, and towards harmony. It is not, of course, a linear straight movement; but as we move deeper into our practice, we do move towards balance and harmony. We move deeper into the inner peace that comes with being in harmony with, not in opposition to, the world through which we move each day.
Since everything we experience throughout the day is part of practice, then practice requires vigilance. However, at the same time, practice requires letting go of the "I" that thinks it has to be vigilant.
Every perceived obstacle or challenge that arises along our path each day must be met with an open, loving, and welcoming heart; for everything that is held within, all of the conditioning, trauma, stress, drama, must be met and allowed to dissipate, allowed to eventually fully release. For this reason, we can see the arising of obstacles as grace; for it is through the meeting of our conditioning, our resistance, our conflict, that progress along the path is made. We welcome, and are thankful for, these opportunities to release our conditioning and move deeper into the inner peace of our true being.
As we become less in conflict, and more in harmony with our world, then our movement through this world is more peaceful.
Most people live lives of inner turmoil; throughout each day it can seem as if something is always wrong. And when we look around us, at our neighbors, family members, our communities, our nations, we see turmoil there as well. For both of these, the inner turmoil and the outer turmoil, there is a path towards peace. For each of us, the path is unique to us; we must find our own way towards inner peace. We may receive help from teachers and dharmas, but we must do the work, meet the obstacles, day to day, ourselves.
There is no difference between the inner turmoil and the outer turmoil; their causes are the same. As we move deeper into the stillness, deeper into harmony and balance, we see that there is no separation between inner and outer; everything arises within the stillness. And as there is no separation between inner and outer, as there is no difference between the causes of inner and outer turmoil, the path to peace for both is the same.
On this path, selfishness and greed fall away, blaming and finding fault with ourselves and others falls away, jealousy and hate fall away. The path towards inner peace and the path towards world peace is the same path; it is a path of compassion and love for all beings.
And it begins each day, each moment, each now, right here; right here where each of us is now in this moment. Just breathing. Meeting the reactive conditioning that is arising within us. No blaming, no guilting; being compassionate with whatever is arising in this moment. Letting go of the stories about what we think we know, letting go of the resistance and conflict, and opening the heart; meeting whatever is held, whatever is causing resistance, whatever is causing mental pain, discomfort, distress, dis-ease, moving out of the stories "about", moving out of the mind, moving into the area of the heart, opening fully, letting go of the resistance, being compassionate towards ourselves; being compassion. Just being. Just simply and fully and open-heartedly being here now with whatever is arising.
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Namaste
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You are welcome to join us each week in our Monday night group meditation here at DKos Sangha. This online group meditation is hosted by Ooooh, and the diary is posted at 7:00 Eastern. So that we are able to be together for as many here at Daily Kos as wish to participate, the meditation period runs from 7:30 to 10:00 Eastern. This group sitting is open to beginners and advanced, and is not restricted to any particular traditions or practices. It is not expected that you sit for the entire period; sit for as long as you like, when you like. The idea is that we are here together; supporting each other, holding space for each other.
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Enjoy your day!
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