May We Be Healed

It's a windy, windy, truly, uncompromisingly W-I-N-D-Y day. And today the sore throat-cold has progressed into my sinuses.

Late this afternoon I received an email from a Minnesota T'ai Chi Chih teacher who asked that healing energy be sent to another TCC teacher. That person? My dear friend, Anna, who almost died last week from uncontrolled internal bleeding. Needless to say, today was a day that called for T'ai Chi Chih practice.

I dedicated my practice to Anna. And I purposefully imagined her receiving some of the Chi energy that circulated throughout the form. I needed that energy to heal myself and I also knew that Anna could use some of that energy too.

I read a segment in Be the Change today that discussed compassion meditation or tonglen (the practice of receiving and giving). I hope that my T'ai Chi Chih practice today served as a tiny bit of healing compassion for myself and for Anna as described by this quote from Peggy Dylan (p. 157):

We inhale the external pain, the resistance and fear, the great fear at this time in the world. We inhale it and take it in to our heart, where we turn it to joy, to tenderness, to delight, to ease, to healing, to whatever is needed. When it is transformed in our heart, then we just exhale it into the world. We are using the body as a filter for those negative things.

May we be at peace. May our hearts remain open. May we know the beauty of our own true natures. May we be healed....

Resting in the NOW

I was up early this morning. The day was dark, the temperature hovered near zero, and the fresh-fallen snow was not yet visible.

Okay, I thought, I'll get a jump on this day and practice T'ai Chi Chih first. I got a jump all right. It took me several rotations Around the Platter to realize that my movements were racing at breakneck speed to catch up with my mind and intentions.

I'll do my practice, check it off my list, and carry on with my day. At least, that's what I believe my unconscious consciousness had chosen as its agenda. Unintentionally, of course, I lost my present moment awareness. And, thankfully, I re-membered and recovered it for the remainder of my practice.

This morning I started a book about meditation that I purchased some time ago. Be the Change: How Meditation Can Transform You and the World by Ed and Deb Shapiro is a wonderfully motivating and inspiring read. The authors include quotes over one hundred meditation practitioners who speak about their experiences of meditation practice such as this observation by Michael Carroll:

Untimately, meditation is resting in the present moment and discovering how to be fully human. I think it only takes a few moments of sitting to realize that we spend a tremendous amount of time out of touch with our life, that we are typically rushing past our experience rather than actually living it, we are rehearsing what we want to say, recollecting what we should have done, hoping, feaing, having all kinds of internal dramas. Meditation trains the mind to recognize this internal drama, chatter, and panic; it gives us an opportunity to observe the charades. In so doing, we can discover a profound depth to our life that had gone overlooked. (p. 21)

Bingo! I'm grateful for a T'ai Chi Chih practice that brings me back into my body, returns me to the present moment, and opens my heart to the beauty of the experience I'm engaged in right now. May my day ahead be filled with present moment awareness as I cook, wash dishes, do laundry.  May I continue to learn how to linger in the present during the remaining moments of my life....