Toning the Om » Stillness

Peace Is Here and Now

Mary Anne — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:28:08 +0000

In their new book, Peace in the Present Moment, Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie remind us that stillness and peace exists in the present moment.

The most import, the primordial relationship in your life is your relationship with the Now, or rather with whatever form the Now takes, that is to say, what is or what happens. If your relationship with the Now is dysfunctional, that dysfunctional will be reflected in every relationship and every situation you encounter. –Eckhart Tolle

I don’t know what’s best for me or you or the world. I don’t try to impose my will on you or on anyone else. I don’t want to change you or improve you or convert you or help you or heal you. I just welcome things as they come and go. That’s true love. The best way of leading people is to let them find their own way. –Byron Katie

Yes, Peace is Now.
Mary Anne

The photograph was taken by Michael Penn. To see more of his brilliant photography go to: http://michaelpennphotography.com/

OM Meditations & Contemplations

Mary Anne — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:15:30 +0000

Let’s celebrate the summer with some sweet thoughts and questions and allow them to enter your heart. Gift yourself a few moments of going inside and listening to stillness. Watch your thoughts flow and become waves in the ocean. Just be.

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.

The kinder I am to myself, the more kindness I attract.

If it is not love, then it is an illusion.

How much am I carrying around with me as a form of comfort or because I want to hold onto it to feel more secure? What am I willing to let go of?

What is something that teaches you to hurry up and wait?

The answers appear as the question of the heart.

How are you growing the garden of you?

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.

We are all one.
Mary Anne

Ahhh…Nothing to Do

Mary Anne — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:37:33 +0000

Summer seemed so exciting as a kid until the day came when I had nothing to do. I became bored on days when none of my friends were around or rainy summer days. I would mope around the house and tell my mom, “I have nothing to do.” Her reply was, “I’ll find something for you to do.”
Translation: house chores. (I was a master with the carpet sweeper.)

In her book, Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put On My Pajamas & Found Happiness, Dominique Browning has a wonderful perspective on the theme of nothing to do:

“Today I am happy to find myself sitting on the ground wanting nothing to do — no, not even wanting it, simply accepting that I am enveloped in nothing to do. I begin to understand how nothing to do is its own state of grace, difficult to find deliberately, near impossible to recognize. Nothing to do means I can sit and look and let my mind wander, then empty, then fill again, with wonder or with grief, with anything or with nothing at all. “Nothing to do” is not the same as “Nothing can be done.” One is hopeless; the other, the place from which hope becomes possible.”

As the summer days start to fill with plans for the beach and weekends away, I long for days filled with nothing to do. I am inviting the adult in me to give myself permission each day to sit and do nothing.

Choose to do nothing and see where it takes you.

Mary Anne

Monthly OM Meditations – January

Mary Anne — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:52:29 +0000

In my last post, I shared about my Happiness Project and offered some ideas on how to start your own. One of my happiness project themes included “self-care” and that meant setting aside time daily to meditate, even if it is for 10 minutes. These meditations have been so powerful and sweet that I have decided that every month I will post some of the questions and thoughts that have flowed from these contemplations.

What is your love poem to God/Spirit? Speak it, share it, sing it.

What is the spring from which everything flows?

Supplies of the heart are abundant.

Be love. The rest is just details.

I will wait for you – always. In your time, I am here.

Go with what is and the rest will take care of itself.

I am aware of what my breath is teaching me in this moment.
I am present to my breath.

There is a sunburst of light waiting to glow in the sky of each heart.

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 meditation (without judgment). Feel free to start with a mantra that calls to you.

My experience of the mantra OM is beyond language–it’s a powerful vibration–the sound before sound.

See what makes you feel happy and follow that rhythm. I would love to hear about your meditation experiences – drop me a line anytime!

OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti,
Mary Anne

Creating a “triZENbe” in 2010

Mary Anne — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:54:32 +0000

As 2010 arrived with anticipation, so too did all the questions. What do I want to happen in 2010? What are the deepest contributions I can offer others this year? What is my focus/theme for 2010? What I am willing to do afraid?

At first, these questions became quite overwhelming. To answer them, I decided I would get still and just listen. I repeated the questions over and over as mantras. My focus for 2010 came to me with the words ZEN and TRIBE. I want the peace of stillness and the love from gathering people in welcoming, generous, and supportive ways.

Can I create a new energy of both ZEN and TRIBE? Yes, because it already exists inside of me. I am naming this new energy: triZENbe. This year I will focus on being still before leading, gathering people in whatever ways I can to generate more tribes, and creating community meditations. The triZENbe definition is still unfolding and it is very exciting. I hope you will join me on this journey.

What contribution will you offer yourself and others? What are some things you are willing to do afraid? Create your own triZENbe. Experience the whole you in 2010!

Here is to Zen filled peace and the fullness of gathering in tribes,

Mary Anne

Stillness in 20-Zen

Mary Anne — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:39:08 +0000

As we start the New Year, may it begin with stillness. In the quiet places of our hearts, may we take a moment each day to breathe slowly and deeply, and then step into our day from a sense of peacefulness. I am not one to make resolutions, however, I do look at my year and set goals with clear action steps, and time for reflection. I am also starting a new accountability project with a friend that will allow us to share where we are at with our goals, express our learning, and any roadblocks. I am holding myself accountable to writing more and slowing down the pace. This might mean attending less events and an emptier calendar and it feels the perfect way to start 2010 (aka 20-Zen). In an effort to take this Zen approach this year, I offer some of my meditations as a way to explore stillness in 20-Zen.

“We are all just a thought away from stillness.”

“Do it afraid. Do it despite yourself. Do it anyway.”

“You hold the Master key to the prison of your mind.”

“Bring love to all your work and inspired action will follow.”

“Rest in the place of great love.”

“I smile. You smile. The world smiles.”

“Life is full of music. What song are you singing?”

“Forgiveness is the window of the soul through which only light shines.”

“When stressful thoughts arise, breathe them, bless them, and blow them away with love.”

“Saying a prayer is expressing a big part of you to a bigger part of YOU.”

“How you breathe and how you feel are related. Breathe love.”

“Begin a resting practice of noticing the space between the words.”

May 2010 bring you a love-filled year with unshakable peace. Happy 20-Zen!

— Mary Anne

How Much Is Mind Chatter Costing You? Stillness is Free.

Mary Anne — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:38:43 +0000

Last month in meditation, I sat on my blue meditation cushion with my eyes closed, crossed my legs and started some conscious breaths. I wanted to experience a quiet space within that would allow my heart to expand into the awareness of stillness. There I was on my cushion breathing in and out, slowly and deeply. On this particular morning, as soon as I started my breath work, my mind chatter began sprinting in my head like a racehorse out of a gate. Immediately, running thoughts and questions began: ‘What are you doing…Can’t you do more…Can’t you keep up…Other people are thriving, Don’t you want to be like other creative people…Your week is too busy…You are not doing enough’…and on and on and on. I watched then as my breath became faster and faster until I became light headed. Suddenly, my entire body exhaled. I was exhausted.

I breathed slowly into each part of my body with awareness and intention. I breathed into my feet, my legs, my stomach, my abdomen, my heart, my arms, my back, my neck, my eyes, my head over and over again. Each breath was a gift to my body. I noticed the absolute silence in the room. I found myself with a big smile on my face swaying to stillness. As clear as day I heard, “How much is mind chatter costing you? Stillness is free.”

I have been taking an inventory of my mind chatter. I have noticed and watched the impact my mind chatter has on my body, my energy, and my spirit. It’s not a matter of shouting to my mind chatter, “Shut Up!”, because the chatter will only get louder. Instead I watch the thoughts float in the air and imagine them on the sands of a beach and with each wave I ask the water to wash them into the sand. My mind chatter begins to get swept up by the waves of the ocean until they completely disappear and I can no longer hear the thoughts.

How much is mind chatter costing you? How do you release mind chatter?

I invite you to breathe into all parts of you. Breathe into your body and wait for stillness to emerge.

Wishing you the gift of stillness – Mary Anne

What Are You DOING?

Mary Anne — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:57:05 +0000

“What are you doing?” was the question asked to me by a co-teacher while we were facilitating a weekend intensive. We had co-created our agenda and after lunch we were going to do a guided meditation with the whole group. The plan was for me to go to the center of the room and use a large white singing bowl to create an attunement and raise the vibrational tone to start the meditation. So, on cue, I went to the center of the room, and sat down on a seat cushion to prepare to play. My co-teacher began speaking, and suddenly looked down, saw me sitting, and asked, “What are you doing?” I looked up as if caught with my hand in the cookie jar. I responded, “Nothing.” She continued, “No, really, what are you doing?” I just stared up and was quiet. In my mind I was thinking, I am doing what we said we were going to do at this time, but remained silent. Meanwhile, the rest of the class looked on thinking this was either a skit we were performing or a way of engaging them in the next experience. Slowly and calmly, I picked up my seat cushion and returned to my space in the circle.

My co-teacher went on to explain a whole new exercise she thought would work better, but had not had the chance to explain to me about the change in schedule. In her mind, she knew what she was doing and I knew what I was doing. I realized a few things in that moment, other than it is a good idea to tell your co-teacher the agenda has changed. I realized I wasn’t “doing” anything. I allowed myself to become quiet and realized it had nothing to do with “doing”, that it is about “being.”

It was a lesson about how easy it is to get caught up in the doing and the defending. I could have easily voiced back that I was getting ready to lead the meditation like we agreed, but in that moment the real lesson was just being. Every day, there are so many things “to do”, that we can forget “to be.

In a recent conversation I was reminded again of a non-doing stance. I was struggling with all the doing and wanting to answer every question. The response that came was, “There is nothing to do…Nothing…I promise…Just breathe…Nothing at all to do…You are perfect as you are…IT is all good…Do nothing…It is not about DO-ing…Just feel and let it be what it is…”

So, the question now becomes, who are you being? Practice doing nothing. See what happens. Notice the stance of non-doing and the place of being and watching and feeling and allowing. Just watch.

What are you doing? It is perfect to not have an answer.

Mary Anne