Ilana in the Sanctuary at the Omega Institute in the late 90s! Choosing a Spiritual Practice © by Nancy Rowe Hello! My name is Ilana (Nancy) Rowe and today we will be considering spiritual practice. In the spirit of evoking the sacred, let’s begin with a prayer written by John Davis in the book, Honoring the Earth: A Journal of New Earth Prayers by Roberts and Amidon. I prayed for humility, and I saw a mountain towering above me. I prayer to know the truth and I heard the stream. Ilana in the Sanctuary at the Omega Institute in the late 90s! Choosing a Spiritual Practice © by Nancy Rowe Hello! My name is Ilana (Nancy) Rowe and today we will be considering spiritual practice. In the spirit of evoking the sacred, let’s begin with a prayer written by John Davis in the book, Honoring the Earth: A Journal of New Earth Prayers by Roberts and Amidon. I prayed for humility, and I saw a mountain towering above me. I prayer to know the truth and I heard the stream. I am delighted to be sharing my thoughts on Spiritual Practice with you and to guide you as you discern which practice is right for you at this time. I invite you to contemplate your choices, spend time in quiet ways, and to ask your Inner Guidance to help you to select a spiritual/transpersonal practice that serves you, your life, and others at this time of your life. Today, you will learn about spiritual practice in general, be introduced to a few varieties of spiritual practices and begin to select a few practices to “try on”, so to speak. What is a Spiritual Practice? Before you hear my perspective on spiritual practice, consider this question for yourself. What is spiritual practice? Stop for a moment, perhaps go outside under the sun, stars, or clouds and journal for a moment…Take about ten to 15minutes to journal about the following questions What is a spiritual practice? What does spiritual practice do for me and how does it support my life? Why is it important for my relations, the Earth, and me? Why do I think that it is important for me to participate in a spiritual practice as part of my studies? Take note either in writing or in your heart or both. ____________________________________________________________ What were your thoughts? Here are mine: A spiritual practice is how we cultivate qualities that helps us to connect to the sacred in everyday life. It helps us to connect the head and the heart….so that we can walk in this world with reverence and respect, and in relationship to all that is… It is the time or an act that we set aside, to pay attention or slow down and hear the still voice inside of us, to listen deeply to intuition and to spirit’s call! It is our unique way of praying, giving gratitude, contemplating, walking through life, and maintaining a deeply spiritual foundation so that life and our actions can spring from the place of understanding. It is what we do to move into deeper relationship with Spirit, our true selves, and others, to all of creation. Spiritual practice brings us back to Source and to our center. One of my teachers, Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim, of the 13 Indigenous Grandmother’s Alliance, says that there is only 18 inches between our head and our heart and that this is the longest journey we will ever make. Our spiritual practice helps us to make that connection. Spiritual practices open our heart so that it can lead our way. It is our prayer and our way of connecting to self, Spirit, and others. Spiritual practice is essential to our learning at ITP/Sofia since we are a transpersonal school and hope that our students learn with their heart as well as their intellect. It really doesn’t matter what we choose to do as a spiritual practice, it is that we do it with intention, consciousness, and discernment. It raises our consciousness. So, we ask ourselves: What is the unique form of prayer or spiritual practice that will help me to open my heart, to be in right relationship, and to bring me into greater awareness so that I can cultivate my sense of the sacred in everyday life and in all beings? What can I do, to connect to Spirit more deeply, in whatever way I define Spirit? There are so many spiritual practices. The key is, to find a practice that you resonate with and that brings you to full aliveness and connects you to the sacred in everyday life. Varieties of Spiritual Practice There are as many varieties of spiritual practices as there are people. In this section we will begin looking at many ways that a person can practice their spirituality on a regular basis so that we can open our heart, be in right relationship with others, and cultivate the sense of the sacred in everyday life and in all beings. In this part of the course, I will share a few practices so that you can begin to consider which practice is right for you at this time In my work, I am often in position of guiding other as they find the practice that best suites them. One of the first thing that I ask my students and clients is: What is opening for you right now in your life, in your inner world, in your personal life? For example, one of my students recently gave birth to a child. She was torn between spending time with this new love in her life and her schoolwork, which included participating in spiritual practice. We explored how being a new mother could be part of her assignment and practice. She came up with a practice that included her new role as a mother. She decided to spend 30 minutes each day being unconditionally present to her newborn child and gazing lovingly at her baby. This practice enhanced her ability to make a deep spiritual connection to her new child and to herself. Her gift to her child helped her to be more attentive to her new relationship, to herself as a mother and to her child. Said in another way, it cultivated the qualities of love, presence, generosity of time, relationship, and attention. On the other hand, sometimes a practice can have exactly the opposite effect. I recently read about a monthly practice between a father and daughter that cultivated an appreciation for who the two were outside of their father-daughter relationship so that they could bring their parental- child relationship to a new level. Each week, they would gaze at each other and say, “I am not your father, I am not your daughter” and begin to see each other as unique individuals who are walking this world in unique ways. This practice helped them to appreciate not only their relationship as father and daughter but also their relationship as a person on a unique path. My own spiritual practices have varied over time. While I am no longer practicing my birth religion, I appreciate my early training during the Lenten season where I contemplated my shortcomings and spent 40 days doing one thing to open my heart more fully. I believe that this was my first conscious, intentional practice and I honor this. While I presently view spiritual practice as more integrated in everyday life during the whole of the year, setting aside those 40 days each year was deeply meaningful to me as it raised my consciousness about my spirituality in this world. What follows are a variety of spiritual practices from meditation to earth honoring practices. These are only a handful of ways to connect to self, to others, and to all of Creation. Notice which practices you connect with and which you do not. Where in your body do your register your resonance or lack of resonance? What does it feel like? Meditation Meditation is a popular spiritual practice and there are so many types of meditation for so many purposes. Many of you already have a meditation practice or are aware of these practices. For some of you these concepts may be new. I once read that meditation practices could be thought of as a “1” or a “zero”. In other words, meditation is designed to bring you into union with something (1) or empty you (0). I will describe practices that do just that. Some of the other types of practices that I speak about later are also an extension of this concepts and meditation practices. Mindfulness Meditation Mindfulness meditation is a method for training attention and exploring the mind, that is larger than the thinking mind. This mind includes our feelings, emotions, perceptions, and other levels of mental states as well. Tar-thang Tulku, a Tibetan lama, once said, "You do not nourish the mind by putting more things into it. The way to nourish your mind is to move it to quietness, so it can rest calmly and open.” Meditative practices, where you sit on a cushion, walk mindfully, or practice attentiveness in daily life helps you to be calm and clear and to be aware of feelings and thoughts without reacting to them. It is a process for transforming the heart and mind. Fredric and Mary Anne Brussat, authors of the website, Spirituality and Practice.com suggest that attention, in any form, helps us to stay alert to life so that we can notice “moments of grace, opportunities for gratitude, evidence of our connections to others, signs of the presence of Spirit.” Attention can be practiced anywhere, anytime, in the daily rounds of our lives…with family, by ourselves, in the natural world. It can be practiced by focusing attention on something or can be practiced more holistically as a way of observing self in relation and in the context of the greater whole. It can also be practiced as a way of intentionally drawing attention to a quality that you wish to develop. Meditation doesn’t have don’t be done for long periods of time. Stephen Levine suggests that you spend 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening in meditation. Carolyn Myss thinks that five minutes can be sufficient if done with intention. John Welwood says that in hectic moments, one breath with intention, attention, and consciousness can be helpful in centering yourself and bringing yourself into alignment with spirit. There are two basic types of meditative practices. The first type works through the power of concentration while the second type focuses on increased awareness. Meditative practices that focus on concentration ask us to place our attention on an object like a lit candle, an idea like the “interconnectedness of all beings”, on our breath, chant, or mantra. This approach helps us to cultivate our attention, and to connect ourselves with the focus of our attention. As we begin to become less distracted, we become calmer, more creative, and more centered. This practice can lead to qualities such as peace, joy, and transcendence. The second method of attention, mindfulness meditation, which can be found in Vipassana or Insight meditation, is a practice where we simply open and become aware of all our experiences, without reacting to it. Through mindfulness meditation, we merely notice what we are experiencing like emotions, thoughts, bodily sensations, without judgment or intervention. We stay present to ourselves rather than thinking about ideas, plans, memories, and analysis. Practices of attention enhance our awareness and balances distraction and stress. To Consider… There are many excellent books and websites that teach you about meditative practices. If you are interested in pursuing this type of spiritual practice, I suggest that you search the Internet or books for instruction from established teachers such as Pema Chodron that can instruct you on the techniques. The website http://www.marc.ucla.edu which is UCLA’s mindfulness awareness research center provides short audiotapes to practice various types of mindfulness meditation that use body and sound, loving kindness, breathing meditations. It is an excellent sample Better yet, join a meditation group where you can learn how to sit properly, how to breathe and how to get the most out of this. If you choose a sitting practice, I suggest that you find a way that works for you and to keep it simple. The most important thing is to practice on a regular basis with intention and attention. The assigned website on spiritual Practices provides you with a list of teachers who are experts in this area. Spiritual Body Practices There are many spiritual practices such as yoga, Tai Chi, Authentic Movement, Qui Gong that are designed to bring us closer to spirit and meant to be practiced in very prayerful ways. Yoga is one of those practices. Bodymind therapist, Donna Martin, co-author of Seeing your Life through New Eyes, reminds us that yoga was meant to be a prayerful experience and that if we focus merely on the physical experience, as some people do today, we lose sight of the reference and sacredness of Yoga. Underlying the practice of yoga is the premise that there is a connection between all sentient beings, the world, and the universe itself. Yoga is designed to help us experience this connection. Donna Martin reminds us: “my mind is my body, my body is my spirit, my spirit is your spirit, and my life is an expression and celebration of spirit, as is yours.” Yoga and other body practices can cultivate qualities of surrender, appreciation of oneness, unity, and wholeness. It can cultivate peace, gratitude and open-heartedness, consciousness, awareness, love, and unity. Authentic Movement A body discipline that is very prayerful to me is the weekly practice of authentic movement. Authentic movement is a form of contemplative dance done in partnership. In Authentic movement, one or more movers move in silence and with eyes closed in the presence of one or more witnesses for a pre-determined period of time. When I do authentic movement, I follow my bodily felt sensation and move from inner impulse. I surrender to the movement rather than controlling it while in a deepened state of consciousness and mindfulness without thinking. In this state, I experience personal narrative, connect with the collective unconscious, or experience transpersonal information. I may uncover personal pain, trauma, access healing energy, or experience deep prayerfulness. I merely listen to my body and notice what arises. The witness, the person who observes the mover, is simply present to the experience of the mover” in a nonjudgmental and compassionate fashion so that the mover can feel safe, both physically and emotionally. This allows the process to deepen. The witness also becomes aware his or her inner experience while witnessing. In a sense, it is a dance where body listens to body, suspending thinking and judgment. In this space, the witness cultivates presence in its fullest sense and in this spiritual practice, it feels like a privilege. The practice of authentic movement has helped me to cultivate non- judgment and deeper levels of unconditional regard. As I witness the movement of others as well as myself, I have been in awe of the beauty of our interior lives and how profoundly it can inform. I have felt deep compassion in the witness role, and when I remember to move this awareness into life, I can be kinder to others. I can witness rather than judge. When I remember the witness role, I more easily flow with life’s rhythms, with all its ups and downs. Authentic movement has helped me to grow, to mature, and to uncover my authentic self. Authentic movement has also helped me to connect with Spirit in a more embodied way. For me, it is akin to prayer, a means for inviting Spirit to speak to me and through me without an agenda and especially without thinking. Through this form, I have also grown to understand what it means to think of the body as temple. I feel honored as I experience the movement of Spirit and grace within my personal being and the being of others. It is what I think of when I say, “Namaste”. And all this can be applied to my daily life and my relationship with others. Authentic movement has been very helpful to me when I witness sacred ceremony. It has allowed me to participate as a witness in these ceremonies in a prayerful and totally participatory way. It has opened me to the experience of the dance. Gratitude Another spiritual practice is that of gratitude. This practice opens our hearts to the gifts of daily living and is quite powerful. Many years ago, I saw Maya Angelou at a conference. At the time, I didn’t even know who she was. Her presentation was magnificent but what touched me more than anything else about her talk was the answer to a specific question from an audience member. Maya Angelou had experienced a very traumatic and difficult life and yet found a way to transcend many of her difficulties. The participant asked her how she gotten from a life filled with difficulty to where she was at the time of her presentation, spiritual teacher. She remarked, that even during the most difficult times of her life, she was grateful for the little things, for the things that went well in her life and for what she had. What she described to me was a practice of “gratitude”. The practice of gratitude can be done in many ways. Some people keep a gratitude journal where they record, daily, things that they are grateful for. Others practice daily prayers of gratitude, sometimes at mealtime, sometimes at specified times during the day, sometimes in connection with a medicine circle or an evening or morning prayer. Gratitude opens you to a positive frame of mind and to a life filled with appreciation for all of life and experiences, whether these experiences are happy or challenging. The practice of gratitude helps you to express appreciation for everything: people, animals, material things, music, art, memories, and dreams. It is a way of counting your blessings and praising our Creator. It is a blessings way. By blessing others, we ourselves are blessed. Compassion The spiritual practice of compassion includes practices that open the heart…. practices that help you to open to all emotions including pain. It increases our capacity to care and to have empathy for others, but equally important it increases our capacity is to have compassion for our self. There are many practices that can develop compassion. One popular practice is the practice of loving kindness, which can be found across all religions, but is best known from the Buddhist tradition. This practice opens the heart and helps a person to develop selflessness, altruistic love, and in changing old habituated negative patterns of mind. Dhammapada said, "Hatred cannot coexist with loving-kindness, and dissipates if supplanted with thoughts based on loving-kindness." Of all Buddhist meditations, loving-kindness has the immediate benefit of sweetening and changing old habituated negative patterns of mind. It produces qualities of love, friendliness, compassion and appreciative joy, and equanimity. It cultivates empathy, reduces jealousy. This practice always begins with developing a loving acceptance of yourself and then sending it out to others. Loving-kindness is a powerful practice and is best taught by an experienced teacher. As in any practice, it can bring up issues that can be painful. I suggest that you learn this practice from an experienced teacher who can guide you in the early stages. While the Buddhist practice of loving-kindness is a structured practice and an extension of mindfulness meditation there are other practices of love. Choosing to work on unconditional love with one other person might be such a practice. If you have ever received unconditional love and personal regard from another person in your life, you know the healing potential in this. Ram Dass, in an audiotape on spiritual path, gave an example this. He describes a meditator who had a very difficult relationship with her mother throughout her life. Her mother had continually expressed difficult and hateful words toward her daughter. The daughter through meditation had cultivated a degree of nonreactivity. Even on her deathbed, her mother kept saying painful things and expressed her hatred toward her daughter. The daughter decided to merely be present during this time without reacting to her mother and to give her unconditional love. She just listened and continued to be present at the time of her death. For most people, giving unconditional love to a person where there is pain is too difficult; however, perhaps there is a person in your life, like a sibling, that could use unconditional personal regard without judgment. A spiritual practice might be to spend time practicing unconditional love and loving-kindness in response to this person. Or perhaps you find yourself being self- critical and you wish to cultivate radical self-acceptance. You might practice noticing times when you criticize yourself and then let them go, and not be attached. Imagination & Creativity Some of my favorite forms of spiritual practice are through the imagination and intuition. There are many ways of using the imagination and intuition as practice. Mathew Fox speaks about the arts as meditation, a practice that uses art, poetry, writing, music as a way of connection to our own intuitive, creative self, to the ultimate Creator, or to others. Merely creating from a place of connection with spirit is a spiritual practice that opens one to beauty, spirit, and truth. A lovely spiritual practice is that of keeping a devotional Journal. My friend, Cait Johnson, speaks about her Devotional Journal. It is a journal that uses images and words to honor life process and connection to the Mystery. At the early stages of her practice of keeping a devotional journal, she spent each day finding images from magazines, poems, song lyrics, words, ads that she identified with in the moment. Later, she realized that her life was just too busy to do this daily and now finds that spending 30 minutes to an hour twice a month works beautifully in her life. She is amazed at the beauty of this visual record of her journey and feels that this devotional practice is a tribute to her unique ways of living, being, and knowing. The process brings her home to her deeper self in ways that feel nourishing and completely fascinating. She feels that it is both a profound self-exploration and a beautiful map of her own unique path. It also helps her to open to her own creativity and poetry, which she shares with the world. Finally, the practice of art or music has so often been described as spiritual practice, whether you are the creator or the witness to this sacred process or both. Art opens our awareness, and it opens our perceptions to others or to the natural world when done with intention and sacredness. If this practice appeals to you, dedicate regular time to open to spirit through your art or music. Or spend time each day listening deeply to beautiful music, taking in spiritual icons or images, or seeing how nature photography or the natural world reflects your personal awareness each day. Spiritual Practices in Nature The final set of practices that I will describe, in this short time, are those related to nature. Many of us find our connection to Spirit in the natural world and there are many ways to develop this connection more fully in Nature. I will start with a Ute prayer that is written in Earth Prayers from around the World edited in Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon. Earth teach me stillness As the grasses are stilled with light. Earth teach me suffering As old stones suffer with memory. Earth teach me humility As blossoms are humble with beginning. Earth teach me courage As the tree which stands all alone. Earth teach me limitation As the ant which crawls on the ground Earth teach me freedom As the eagle which soars in the sky Earth teach me regeneration As the seed which rises in the spring Earth teach me to forget myself As melted snow forgets its life Earth teach me to remember kindness As dry field weep with rain. Ute Prayer Here are a few simple practices that may help you to be open more fully to our friends in the natural world, Earth Circle One very simple way is to make a circle in your yard and each day merely face each direction…east, south, west, north, up, and down and spend time in attention and gratitude for what each of the directions means to you. This can be done formally or just informally as a way of giving gratitude. I lived in a hollow in the Catskills Mountains and my home is by a stream, surrounded by mountains. My circle found me and for me, I stand in each direction with gratitude and in relation to the beautiful beings that I am facing, hearing, seeing. I listen very carefully and open my senses to all of life. Standing in my circle honors the relationship that I have with the soul of all of creation, to the Spirit that I am embraced by and to our Earth mother than supports me. For me, it is a path of gratitude and deep appreciation, a path of increased. … or a mystic path of finding myself in relation to all beings. This is where I often pray, where I often seek guidance. I have developed a relationship with this circle and the stream, mountains, and wildlife with whom I share the land. One of my teachers at the Center for Sacred Studies, Bob Boyl reminds us to always give back to the earth. He shares water with earth each day. Some of you might have your personal way of honoring earth and your connection to all beings. You don’t have to live in the country to feel the connection to earth…the sky, the sun, the wind, flowers, trees, ground, birds are all around. Find a way to bring them into your heart and honor your connection in your own way! Gardening and walking in Nature Another practice that has perhaps connects me more to spirit than any other, is that of gardening. It is the first thing that I do during spring and summer, and it is a time of prayer and feeling connection with the co-creative spirit that exists in our universe. In the garden I can love, release sadness, appreciate the gifts of the Universe, pray, and connect with nature spirits. I can connect with the cycles of life and get a perspective on my own cycles. I can see great beauty and to connect with all more deeply that is. Putting my hand in the soil and in Earth is the most precious gift that I know. I don’t know why but somehow, my connection to spirit through earth is huge. Finally, another practice that has great meaning to me is to consciously walk or kayak with awareness of the natural world. Consciously opening my perceptions so that I can take in the world around kayak, noticing who is speaking or me, noticing which beings come to me as I walk or kayak and to whom and noticing who responds. As an example, each summer I spend time on Lake Alamoosic in Maine. I have learned to know when eagle is flying overhead because Loon announces it to other loons. Loons warn each other that Eagle is coming. I am sure this is survival…but they hear eagle way before I do. So, when I hear a particular quality of voice when loon speaks, I go outside to watch for Eagle. This awareness is to me, a spiritual practice that can be cultivated through awareness, intention, and attention during my walks. It opens me up to my connection to the greater world and helps me to honor and be grateful for all of life’s beings and cycles. There are so many practices, too many to speak about here, so I will name only a few more. As you read these, notice which ones you feel good about and which ones don’t inspire you! Daily Journeying Ceremony Prayer through Inipi Sitting in Circle Dreamwork Sacred Activism Structured prayer Daily reading of sacred text Working with your relationship as spiritual practice Caring for others as sacred path Earth Prayers Sitting in silence Making amends for your actions Sacred drumming Soul Collage Creative Writing Meditation Mantra Music There are so many practices and ways to combine practices How do you know if your spiritual practice is being helpful and if you have chosen the right one for you? The ultimate purpose of spiritual practice is to walk on earth in a more centered and grounded way and to open yourself more fully to yourself and life around us. Spiritual practice helps us to connect more fully to ourselves and our gifts, no matter how ordinary, so that as we walk through life, we come from that place of sacred gifting of ourselves. So, as you work with your practice, ask yourself over time, how your life has shifted, changed, opened, and brought you into deeper connection? Has your practice helped you to see your life’s path with more awareness, understanding, and appreciation, and peace, even during difficult times? A word of caution As your spiritual practice moves you toward greater wholeness, you will notice that you are faced with looking at all parts of yourself more fully. Sometimes this is painful as you are asked to look into a mirror your heart. Expect that you will encounter all parts of yourself. Cultivating a practice brings yourself to light… your beauty and your shortcomings. Spiritual practice is not to be taken lightly! If you find that you are looking at painful material, you might consider contacting a spiritual guidance counselor. Finding the Practice That is Right for You Finding a spiritual practice that is right for you is an individual choice, one that only you can make. It is one based on your spiritual goals and your personality and your own way of connecting to spirit in life. So: begin to choose your practice. 1.go to the website http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com with a beginner’s mind…a mind that is curious and open to possibility, change, and potential? And as you glance through the various practices, consider your felt sense, how reading each of the practices feels inside your body and heart. Just notice this…notice intuitively when you shift as you read about various practices. What is the “felt sense” your intuitive sense as you read or say the practice to yourself. Try this for a section. You might also want to take the survey on the website to see what spiritual practice is “prescribed” for you by this means During the next few weeks, I invite you to choose a few practices that you will try on to see how you resonate with them and if they are possible in your full life. Experience them like a new relationship with a sense of curiosity. Today, like every other day, we wake up empty And frightened. Don’t open the door to the study And begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. Jala lal-Din Rumi (1207-1273)