Being Present with What We Are Experiencing

We are all dealing with the same suffering – no matter what race, religion, nationality or gender.  To become real so we can meet ourselves and meet others right where they are is such a healing thing to do!

The four guidelines for awakening are Look, Listen, Love and Let go.

Look:  Looking is about recognizing what we are experiencing right now.  There is healing in just being present with what is.

Listen: As Stephen Levine says so well, “We leave ourselves when we most need ourselves.”  In listening we give our experience the compassionate attention it needs to be transformed.  This doesn’t usually happen overnight, but each moment of meeting is another moment of healing.  The chances of our pain being transformed by saying ‘I see you and I understand’ are far greater than by resisting it.

Love:  There is nothing within us that doesn’t deserve the healing of our own heart.  We all have wounds and we are all nutty as fruitcakes!!  That is why I love the Zen quote, “Freedom comes when you are without anxiety about non-perfection!”

Let Go:  The more you look, listen and love, the more you can let the old patterns go or they simply let go.

These guidelines allow us to meet ourselves as we are which is the doorway into the healing we long for

Be light, Mary