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Pilgrims on the Path of Love

by

“Pilgrims on the Path of Love”*

“Not I, nor anybody else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.  It is not far.  It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you
Were born, and did not know.”
—Walt Whitman

Hello, dear folks.

I greet you this week with some wild, crazy energies, as I prepare myself for a journey.
I return to Assisi, Italy, where last year, my heart profoundly blew wide open through the beauty and awe of that blessed city.
I stop, I ponder.
I find myself resisting using the word pilgrim.
It’s a shyness that emerges as I consider that.  
An embarrassment.
Yet, truly, it is the accurate word.

I go as a pilgrim, to discover the parts of me readied to be reunited.
I go as a pilgrim to allow the parts of me needing inspiration and wonder to be renewed.

If you read this today, you too, are a pilgrim.

We are all pilgrims, as Swami Kripalu said, 
Pilgrims on the path of love.
~~~
Speaking of Pilgrims on the Path of Love, here is a meditation, from my heart to yours.  How easy it is to divert our attention to others, to skip over ourselves.  In this, my version of Metta Meditation, we start with the self, always on the platform of Self.  And from there, we connect to others.

Here are the words.

May I be healthy.
May I be present.
May I ride the waves of my life.
May I live in peace,
No matter what I am given.

May you be healthy.
May you be present.
May you ride the waves of my life.
May you live in peace,
No matter what you are given.

May we be healthy.
May we be present.
May we ride the waves of my life.
May we live in peace,
No matter what we are given.

Listen Here

~~~
And for our hearts, here is Sinead O’Connor, oh, what brilliance, what a tortured and extraordinary soul.  
Here is Sinead in all her passionate presence.
Thanks, Dan, for sharing her with us.

 

~~~
One step at a time,
May we walk 
Our own path.

One breath at a time,
May we practice 
Listening within.

One moment at a time,
May we connect
To the world 
Around us
With 
Heart
And
Breath
And
Hope.

One step at a time,
May we walk 
The path
Of
Loving-Kindness.
And when we are not able,
May we bless 
Ourselves
And
Keep
Walking.

Stay blessed,
Aruni

Next week, pictures from Assisi!

* Swami Kripalu

Keep Coming Back

by

Keep Coming Back

This blog post is also available on my Facebook page to make sharing it with friends and family easy for you to do.

“This very moment is the perfect teacher.”

Says Pema Chodron.

This moment.
As it is.

Some moments are miraculous,
Filled with the obvious grace
That is our birthright.

(Yesterday biking through clouds of
Delicious lilac scent.)

Some moments suck,
Which is
Their technical term.

They split our hearts
Open 
Again.
And again,
Wedged with loss
and
disappointment
and
fear.

Yet they, too, hold
Within them
The miraculous.

Just
Oh
So 
Much
Harder
To
Detect.

Each
Is
Our 
Teacher.
~~~

Pema says:

“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.”

Intention counts
Massively.

To commit
To looking,
To seeing,
To opening
To
The
Lessons.

Willingness
Is 
The key
That
Unlocks 
The door
Of the moment.

And—
Permission
To practice!

Going away
From the moment,
Abandoning
The practice
Is both
Inevitable
And 
Sacred.

It is all the practice.

It is the practice.

Keep coming back.

To breath.
To mantra.
To a stone
Resting
In
Your 
Pocket.

Identify
Your
Tether.

Keep coming back.

~~~

“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone,
Including the people who drive us crazy,
Can be our teacher.”

That’s Pema again.
I would add—
Especially 
To that sentence.

ESPECIALLY the people
Who drive us crazy.

They are our 
Greatest teachers.

~~~

Here is a short Pema video, talking with Our Oprah about her greatest teacher.  

No, it is not the guru.  

No, it is not the Rinpoche.  

It is her ex-husband:

 

~~~
And here I am, with a few minutes of a Meditation on Keep Coming Back.

~~~
Dear Friends,
Who are your greatest teachers?
What moments have been the most profound?
Powerful?
Painful?

Transformation is offered
In every moment.

To be with what is.
To befriend it, as best we can.

To keep practicing.

To keep practicing.

~~~
Dear Friends,
Keep it simple.  
One thing
At a time.

May we open our hearts
To the beauty,
May we bear
The heartbreak.

May we dance
Our humanity
With
Dignity
And
Wise
Hope.

Enjoy 
The 
Lilacs!

Stay blessed,
Aruni

Living into Dharma

by

Living into Dharma


Me

IF you knew me,
If you
Really,
Really 
Knew
Me,

You 
Would know
That
Girl Scout 
Camp
Archbald
Probably
Saved 
My life.

Summer
After summer,
I was given
Full permission
To be
My
Idiosyncratic
Self.

I flourished.

I shined.

If you knew me,
If you 
Really,
Really
Knew me,

You would know
That I had
Monogamous
And 
Committed
Crushes 
On counselors.

Of course, I did!

Miss Uns,
My counselor
When
I was ten,
Was blond
And
More-than-Magnificent
In
My
Eyes.

She
Went to
Penn State,
Which 
Was
Just
Another
Word 
For
Mount 
Olympus.

She was 
All-beauty,
All-competency,
All-possibility.

After our cookout
One hot
Summer
Day,
She gathered us
Around the 
Fading campfire,
Half-raw hotdog
Grumbling in my
Belly.

How we listened,
How I listened
To her
Every syllable.

And she said:
(This is a direct quote, 62 years later still alive in my body)

Ladies
(they always called us ladies)
Ladies,
Leave
The campsite
Better than you 
Found it.

Every cell
In my 
Ten-year-old
Body
Knew,
Absolutely
Knew
The 
TRUTH
She 
Spoke.

I just had
No idea
What it meant,
What it might 
Look like.

But I
Felt
Its
Depth
In
Me.

I cleaned off the rocks,
I 
Dusted away the leaves.

I used my little girl sneaker
To smooth out
The earth.

I organized our woodpile
In uneven attempts at order.

What a lifetime
Of
Earnestness
For that
Little girl,
For 
This
Aging 
Woman.

The day ended,
The summer faded
Into another
School year
Into
Another 
And another.

Leave the campsite
Better
Than
You
Found
It.

And I have
Spent
My life
Doing,
Making,
Attempting
To impact
The campsite
Of the moment.

I joined the
Peace Corps.

I worked
In an
Inner City
High school
Forever.

I even
Joined
An ashram,
To my Jewish
Parents
Sheer
And
Unabashed
Horror.

(What about my teaching pension, my appalled father asked?  A good question for today!)

I committed.
I was,
I am
Committed

To be
Part 
Of the solution.

Only now
A thousand years
After that
Little girl
Tummy rumbling
From a hotdog
That fell
Into the fire,
Uncooked,
But 
Nevertheless
Yummy,
Only now
I realize
It is enough
Already
With 
All
The doing.

ENOUGH WITH ALL THE DOING.

It is time for being.

Our dharma
Lives in us.

We are it.

Our purpose 
Unfolds,
Increment
By increment,

Moment 
By moment.

I struggled
To find
My dharma!
To do it—
RIGHT!
To be—
Of service.

Today
Perhaps
I 
Can just
Live.

Right
Here,
Right 
Now,
With whom
I really am.

Perhaps that
Is
Enough.

~~~

My dear friend Kavi Stephen Cope and I came to the Kripalu ashram in the same month, same year.  We think.  But we can’t really remember.  We were always in the same study groups and were just simply always bonded.  A thousand years later, he stands as a ray of love and connection in my life.  

With respect for his brain-iac brilliance and his wonderful yogic heart, here is a ten-minute video of his.  Check out his clarity regarding dharma, living into our authentic purpose.  Spoiler alert—he does not mention Miss Uns once!

~~

Dear Friends,

And what do you notice about your purpose, your dharma?  When do you feel in sync with the flow of the universe?  When do you paddle against the current?  What are you learning about your work on the planet, the work of your heart, that which is inherent in you?  What is the pandemic teaching you?

Keep me posted—please.

All blessings,
Aruni

~~~
ANNOUNCEMENTS—

  • Savoring Life’s Lessons—Grief, Loss, and Renewal

The program is launching this week, please consider joining.  
https://kripalu.org/content/august-5-4-week-live-series-aruni-nan-futuronsky

  • Contact—

My new address is thecoacharuni@gmail.com.   Please make changes to your contact folders.

  • Wisdom Circles—

Create community; connect to yourself, to one another and to the teachings.  You are not alone. For the month of August, our circles will be held only once-a-week, on Thursdays.  Here is the link:

Thursday, August 6, @ 2:00 EST  http://coacharuni.com/thursdaycircles/

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