Archive for the ‘Meditation’ Category
All We Have Is This Moment (Part II)
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Just as I finished my last blog about living in the moment, I came across this topic in the book I am reading, A Thousand Names for Joy, by Byron Katie. In her book, Katie writes, “Where are you going, other than where you are right now? How can you go anywhere else? The direct path means realizing that the beginning and end of every journey is where you always are.”
Then this past weekend, I picked up the book, Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert and started to re-read all the dog-eared pages. As I flipped the pages, I came across the following lines in the book: “The other problem with all this swinging through the vines of thought is that you are never where you are. You are always digging in the past or poking at the future, but rarely do you rest in this moment.
In my meditation, this is what came through about living in the moment:
You are here. Not knowing, never knew. Never needed to and never will. If your thoughts float to the past, you can bring them back with love. If your thoughts wander too far into the future, you can bring them back with love. When we choose to live in this moment, we choose a direct path to our heart and the divine. Being present to this moment right now means being home. Welcome home.
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To celebrating now with love,
Mary Anne
Summer Sun Meditation
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
Sit quietly..with your spine straight…breathe slowing in and out through your nose. Allow the exhale breath to last a little longer. Keep breathing until your whole body relaxes. Breathe through each part of your body.
Allow an image of the sun to come into your awareness. Allow whatever color of the sun come to you that feels really good. Sense it’s presence just above you. Invite the rays of the sun to come into you. Allow the sunlight to brighten every thought and feeling. As you breathe in, sense the warmth of the sun and as you breathe out, sense the light of the sun. Bathe in the sun.
Connect with your own sun – the light that is you. Imagine sending this light out to someone you love so they can also bathe in the light. Spend some time bathing in the sun. When you are ready, slowly let the imagine of the sun go. The light is always there within, ready to shine. Bathe in the light of you in all ways.
Bring the light into your heart. Know that the light is always available, always there, and always ready to be shared with those around you.
Namaste,
Mary Anne
Sitting in the Abyss of the Vast Unknown
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
Non-doing keeps showing up. I decided to take the summer off from giving workshops, retreats, and healing circles. After announcing this in my newsletter, I thought, “What will I do with all this time off?” Quickly, I began a list of all the things I could “do” this summer. I started to look up classes and programs I could attend as a participant – none of which really excited me. Then my best friend invited me to do nothing – to stay in the abyss of not knowing and see what shows up. This has become my new practice – staying in the abyss and just listening for what is next.
I started with an easy topic – listening for what ought to be my next book to read. I stared at my bookcase for a few moments, reading dozens of book titles. I watched as my hand was drawn towards Byron Katie’s book, A Thousand Names for Joy. In each chapter, Byron Katie reflects about the Tao Te Ching. About ten pages into the book, Katie quotes the Tao, “Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.”
Katie reflects:
“The Master leads simply by being. “Being” looks like doing the dishes, answering the phone and e-mail, shopping, going to work, driving the kids to school, feeding the dog, doing one thing at a time, without a past or future. She doesn’t empty people’s minds. She doesn’t have to (even if that were possible). The way she helps people is by living out of don’t-know, can’t-know, no-need-to-know, not-possible-to-know, nothing-to-know.”
And just as I was writing this blog, my friend Joe Monkman posted a blog about taking a day off and giving ourselves permission to change our routine. In his Fishing for Soul blog he wrote, “Let go and allow your self to do one new or different thing today. Give your self the gift of not doing. Permit your self to BE. What might you create from that place? The possibilities are endless.”
Joe’s blog was another reminder to do nothing – just be and see what gifts arrive. Or as my friend said to me, “Just listen. Nothing else to do.”
I am sitting in the abyss of the vast unknown and have no idea what will appear. It is frightening and thrilling at the same time. As T.S. Elliot said, “Teach us to sit still.”
What gifts are awaiting you in the abyss of the vast unknown?
Mary Anne
June OM Meditation
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
Bathe in the sun and bring the light of the longest day of the year into your heart. Know that the light is always available, always there, and always ready to be shared with those around you. Spend time with some contemplative thoughts and questions and feel free to pass them on to others.
As an invitation, feel free to close your eyes, sit with your spine straight and take a few soft breaths. Then inhale a little deeper through your nose, and on the exhale, repeat the mantra OM (AUM). Do this three times. Allow yourself to really feel everything and become the observer of your thoughts. Feel free to focus on one question or statement below and just allow your experience to unfold.
What do you believe about happiness? What brings you joy?
Rest in the place of a loving and generous heart within.
Peace resides within, always, always…awaiting expression.
Compassion is our capacity to love – without the story attached to it. It’s the acts of doing and the heart of being. It’s being our own best friend & having the capacity to befriend others.
The invitation is to practice compassion with yourself. Notice ways you show yourself loving-kindness. Ask how does loving-kindness and compassion show up in my life and HOW do I respond when it does?
Each person will have their own experience so the invitation is to be open for whatever thoughts flow through you. Allow your mind and body to expand into the experience (without judgment). Feel free to start with whatever mantra calls to you.
May you bathe in the light of you!
Make at least 10 people smile today.
Mary Anne
Imagine Yourself
Friday, June 18th, 2010
Imagine Yourself…
taking time to pause, feeling your breath, & being open…
Imagine Yourself…
sitting quietly, listening to your heart, & creating space inside…
Imagine Yourself…
slowing down & taking time for you…
Celebrate the upcoming Summer Solstice in a
FREE Global Meditation Teleclass on Monday, June 21 at 8P (ET).
The evening includes a summer meditation, silence, and reflection.
The free global meditation class will be on the phone. Call from the anywhere!
Dial in number: 605-475-4875
Access Code: 976552# (be sure to hit the # key)
For more info click link: Toning the OM FREE Meditation Teleclass~
Happy Summer!
Mary Anne
May OM Meditations
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
As we prepare ourselves for a long holiday weekend, let us remember all those who have given their life to serve our country. As one of my teachers, Sri Dharma Mittra, says, “With my sincere wishes and devout prayers to all that you will become lost in constant remembrance.”
As we bring that sense of remembrance into our heart and mind, let us take time sit in meditation and experience contemplative questions as a way to open up to remember our original self with love.
As an invitation, feel free to close your eyes, sit with your spine straight and take a few soft breaths. Then inhale a little deeper through your nose, and on the exhale, repeat the mantra OM (AUM). Do this three times. Allow yourself to really feel everything and become the observer of your thoughts. Feel free to focus on one question or statement below and just allow your experience to unfold.
In every breath, there is love.
In the end it is the love that we already are that brings us home.
Light will shine your path. Love will be your guide.
What allows each of us to remember that light within that is always there?
How do you honor the sacred?
What value do you want to offer others – even when it is difficult – even when your voice is the opposite one of what is being said?
Every breath is a miracle. Every day is a gift. Everyone is love.
There are times when hiding our gifts is more painful than sharing them with others. What will it take for you to open up & risk sharing the blossom of you?
How do you want to create more silence in your life?
Each person will have their own experience so the invitation is to be open for whatever thoughts flow through you. Allow your mind and body to expand into the experience (without judgment). Feel free to start with whatever mantra calls to use.
May you experience the beauty of remembrance.
Mary Anne
Shifting Into Joy
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Every breath is a miracle. Every day is a gift. Everyone is love. (My Meditation)
As I flipped through my notebook to find a blank page to write down my meditation, I saw a few quotes that had captured my heart over the past two weeks. I sat and read each one like a poem, letting them flow. I took a deep breath and with my exhale read a quote. I became calmer, softer, and quieter. The noises that were once disturbing – dogs barking, sirens blaring, cars screeching now seemed like background sounds in the far distance. All I could hear was my breath and my voice. I invite you to do the same and see what shifts in you.
“Be kind whenever possissble…it is always possible.”  Dalai Lama
“Our joy in the beautiful is as native to us as breath, a lyrical act where we surrender but to awaken.” John O’Donohue
“Being the shift means that you claim your responsibility and your power for creating and experiencing the world you desire. Being the shift is about being fully present, sovereign of heart and intimate with all life.”  Judy Kinney
“So, that cracking, breaking, shattering…that’s the husk surrounding the blossom of your heart. Let it go.” Mariel Hemingway
“Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back. You’re done. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to have lunch with the person. If you keep hitting back, you stay trapped in the nightmare…” Anne Lamont
If want to learn about making space for more joy and peace, please join me for an upcoming Resting in Radical Forgiveness 4-Week Course (starts May 26 at 8p ET). http://toningtheom.com/events/?event_id=96
May light shine your path and love be your guide.
Mary Anne
The Power of Silence
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
George Prochnik wrote an editorial in the New York Times entitled Now Don’t Hear This. The editorial shared that last Wednesday was International Noise Awareness Day and that in New York a grass roots organization has been educating people about the harmful effects of noise for more than 15 years. The author said that perhaps it’s not noise awareness we need, but silence awareness. We already know the consequences of constant noise to our health – physically, emotionally and psychologically.
Rather than just talk about the negative effects of noise, we can spend time educating people on the positive effects of silence. Many meditation practitioners have shared that silent meditation increases their ability to concentrate. The editorial reveals that teachers who introduce silence into their classrooms said it fosters learning. And even hospitals that have “quiet zones” received validation in recent studies linking silence and healing.
What would happen if we would take time out in our day to be quiet? Perhaps we would discover more quiet within. We might even discover some powerful listening techniques we never had before. In a society filled with loud sounds of cars, sirens, planes or even the constant hum and buzz of computers, we could think about how to experience more silence. As Prochnik says, “Even a little bit of silence can create a sense of connection with our environment that diminishes alienation, and prompts a desire to discover more quiet.”
How do you want to create more silence in your life?
Here is to connecting through silence,
Mary Anne
April OM Meditations
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
I started the month of April by asking folks to “play the fool” and to bring forth their most outrageous, wild, playful self. In keeping with tradition, I am ending the month by sharing monthly meditations and contemplative questions as a way to open up to more joy and let love in.
As an invitation, feel free to close your eyes, sit with your spine straight and take a few soft breaths. Then inhale a little deeper through your nose, and on the exhale, repeat the mantra OM (AUM). Do this three times. Allow yourself to really feel everything and become the observer of your thoughts. Feel free to focus on one question or statement below and just allow your experience to unfold.
How can we allow empty spaces to teach us, to fill us, to empty us?
Love is reciprocity. Love doesn’t worry about being liked & having approval. Love exists within our inabilities, imperfections, & faults—and our value never decreases.
How do you come out in the world? How do you want to come out fully and shine your light for the entire world to see?
Living authentically means embracing who we are and allowing our full light to shine.
How often do we close our own hearts & need a locksmith to open it and let love in? How do you let love in?
Beloved
Be Love
You are loved. Stay there.
Letting love in, I am healed;
Letting love in, I am whole;
Letting love in, I remember;
Letting love in, I am Free.
Each person will have their own experience so the invitation is to be open for whatever thoughts flow through you. Allow your mind and body to expand into the experience (without judgment). Feel free to start with whatever mantra calls to you.
May you experience letting love in and allowing your heart to expand.
Make at least 10 people smile today.
Mary Anne
Beloved
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
“The Beloved simply is. In fact, in it’s exploration—at the center of that indescribable feeling of simply being, of ishness—the Beloved is discovered spontaneously, self-effulgent, the presence within the presence.”
– Stephen & Ondrea Levine
A Meditation on the Beloved:
Beloved
Let that drop in
Beloved
Go deep inside
Who is your beloved?
Where in your body is the beloved?
Beloved
Is it falling into you yet?
Look back into yourself.
Beloved
Drop in a little more
Beloved
Listen with your eyes
Hear with your heart
Beloved
What are you experiencing now?
Beloved
Be Love
You are loved. Stay there.
Mary Anne
This is dedicated to all who have allowed me to experience the Beloved—Lorene, Val, Paulette, Meredith, Louis, Joe, Greg, and Myron.