We are facing dark times, indeed. Yet there is always hope, as the courageous Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pointedly reminded us: only in darkness can we see the stars. So with great gratitude, humility & reverence, I would like to dedicate this practice to Dr. King in celebration of his birth on 15 January 1929 and its observance on 18 January 2021.
May we forever remember his wise words promoting peace & pride, nonviolence & justice, hope & healing, freedom & equality, liberty & LOVE. And honor all of the brave souls—past, present & future—with the courage to stand up for what is right and just and true in the name of LOVE, so that we may ALL be FREE AT LAST.
Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars…It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence.
—The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as expressed in his final speech I’ve Been To the Mountaintop delivered on 3 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A., just one day before his violent assassination
Please read on for the edited transcript from my
Dharma Lesson &
Guided Meditation
during Saturday Sangha
on 16 January 2021 with
The Present Center of Mindfulness & Healing
Aloha, fellow Starlings and welcome to our Saturday Sangha. Mahalo for being here as we hold space for all the feels that have arisen over the past hours, days, weeks, months, years—even lifetimes. At times it can feel like there is so much to hold, so perhaps we can remember that we reside in an infinite Universe that is eternally expanding!
Now with the intention to possibly begin expanding our own range with Lovingkindness to hold all that is with a sense of peace, I’d like to begin with a little check-in.
Feel free to state your name and where on planet Earth you are connecting from. And while reflecting on your personal practice over the past week—also checking in with ourselves to see what arises in the present moment—try describing in just a few words what is something you would like to release and something you would like to receive? With this in mind, how can you use Mindfulness as a tool to manifest, transmute, surrender, trust—just BE?
I’ll begin with an example while you gather your thoughts and prepare to form them into expressions of your present truth: My name is Stär and I am Zooming in from Kaua’i island. Feeling grateful to be here today with all of you, while also noticing the heaviness of recent events—which also inevitably conjure the weight held in memories and stories and emotions of past events, present challenges and future unknowns.
Using Mindfulness, I have increased my daily meditations and boosted my body care with the intention to focus on my health, wellbeing and personal growth so that I may be a part of our collective healing by giving from a place of abundance.
And with this gravity, I intend to use its weight to receive more grounding as I am learning to surrender to its experience, listening to whatever it has to tell me, allowing for all the unknown as I openly and willingly continue to trust in the healing process with patience and grace.
Most of all, I wish to receive—and to reciprocate—Forgiveness.
And what I would like to release are the guilt, shame, doubt and any blockages holding me back from forgiveness, namely the desire to be fully understood in order to feel safe in being me. This is a great vulnerability that shows up in my life almost daily, reflecting back into the deep wound of what being misunderstood meant, as we see reflected in current events. So yes, receiving and giving the gift forgiveness all while releasing the blocks to achieving it.
And now on to…
Beautiful. Mahalo, thank you all for sharing your experiences, hope and authentic truth with all of us today. As I heard all the shares, it brings me back to that idea of the breath, where sometimes our only job is to just keep breathing. It also reminds me of the Latin saying…
Dum Spiro Spero:
While I Breathe, I Hope.
And now with the intention to remain present, I’d like to begin with a meditative practice I call The ALOHA ∞ ALOHA Breath.
In Hawai’i, as you may know, Aloha is not just a greeting or a farewell, yet a way of being. Possibly Hawai’i’s most well-known and revered word,
‘Aloha may mean Love, affection, compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity, kindness or grace.’ I like to think of it as the embodiment of empathy. ‘Aloha is an essence of being: Love, peace…and a mutual understanding of respect. Aloha means living in harmony with the people and land around you…’ Just as ‘Living Aloha is defined as the coordination of mind and heart within each person.’
—As defined by University of Hawai’i and Skyline Hawai’i, respectively
As in living with and in the Aloha Spirit.
And so with today’s meditation, I invite the Spirit of Aloha to join us here today, feeling free to call her into our hearts as we begin this journey together into the next breath in the spirit of our intentions today, to release to receive, and to receive to release.
I now invite you to begin exploring a position that is most comfortable for the body in this moment, perhaps sitting with the spine erect. Perhaps imagining the spine as a mighty trunk, rooted into our Mother Earth, still flexible in a storm and bendable in a breeze all while reaching high for the sky.
Now closing the eyes or lowering the gaze while drawing in a deep breath down into the diaphragm, through the body, preparing to begin our meditation by releasing all the air we drew in so that we may receive the next breath that’s waiting for us.
And now as we prepare our minds, our bodies, our spirits to experience the sound of the bell, I invite you to the possibility of releasing to receive it. So in your next exhaling breath—in rhythm of the resonance of this sacred singing bowl—
Sigh the breath out loud as if your soul is also singing: I AM ALIVE.
[Bell ring & Resonance]
Continuing to breathe naturally, out first, then in, exploring now how new perspectives can shift our consciousness, sometimes simply by turning two things around to experience them from their opposite ends.
Just like releasing to receive. Breathing out to breathe in. Exploring how we can open up a space to receiving the new by releasing the old, all while honoring everything it has given and taught us. Aloha Aloha.
We may often think of the breath as the motion of in and out repetitively, yet today I invite you to explore a shift in perspective using the breath by breathing out to breathe in. Aloha Aloha, we breathe.
Breathing out with our Aloha goodbyes and breathing in with our Aloha hellos.
And as we continue saying goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021—whatever that happens to mean to us— perhaps while holding space for the full spectrum of grief and gratitude, sorrow and joy, confusion and wisdom, death and rebirth, welcoming all of these new perspectives—and perhaps our new selves, just as we would a new year—with HOPE. Aloha Aloha. Aloha out, Aloha in.
With hope & intention & compassion & Love.
And so welcoming in this next new breath with all of these possibilities, letting the old breath go with gratitude for all its nourishment to our bodies, brains, minds and spirits, perhaps in many ways that we’re barely conscious of. Aloha Aloha.
This is how healing happens: deep within. Down to the recesses of the breath. And back again. Releasing to receive. Out & In. Goodbye Hello. Aloha Aloha.
The same word with different meanings—opposite meanings at times—like so many things in this life. Aloha Aloha.
And yet in the same instance, an end is really a beginning of something new, just as a beginning is an end. Just as the old breath must be released for the new to be received; the cycle’s end is really its beginning. Aloha Aloha.
And as thoughts come passing in, we may say Aloha Aloha to them. Remembering that everything arrives from a conscious thought. There is nothing inherently wrong with thoughts; in fact in meditation they’re completely necessary. If we didn’t have thoughts, we wouldn’t have anything to return to the breath from. And so as thoughts arise, we say hello and we say goodbye. Aloha Aloha.
Now focusing on the breath, experiencing it as one being in two parts—an exhale and an inhale—holding space for both, integrating their seemingly opposite ends as one fullness of Life. We may even begin imagining the origin of the breath—and even ourselves.
So now taking a moment to reflect on the origin of the very breath we are breathing in this present moment.
Yes, it may appear to originate quite literally under the nose, entering through the face in front of us yet what is its true origin story? Will this next breath be from a breeze that floated through the trees? Bringing with her the scent of cheery cherry blossoms.
Or was she once made from a blade of grass that before becoming breath, sucked in some sunshine which now radiates through you? This exchange of Life & Light & Love. And now perhaps your breath regenerates the very nature it originated from.
And perhaps now we can reflect on expanding that idea to the the Origin of that Light, of our Sun, our planet, our solar system—even the very vessels we reside within, the body was indeed another Sun. We are all made of stars and that stardust has now become our lifeforce energy. Aloha Aloha.
The breath that runs through us evolved from an exploding star, a supernova turned nebula turned nursery turned galaxy. A beautiful Big Bang, born of chaos to bring about great change—the origin of all Life. The origin of this breath. Aloha Aloha.
Now here we are, breathing in this gift of life, creating new breaths with our own bodies that help keep the very Earth we depend upon alive.
And when we take care of ourselves with this breath, we take care of the precious creatures that provide these life-giving breaths, and we can honor this symbiotic relationship and the interdependence it brings. We can contemplate the thought that phytoplankton account for every other breath we take. Forming clouds.
We rely on these Microscopic beings. Our bodies being more bacteria than human cells. These amazing organisms that go on breathing out and breathing in, often without our conscious awareness—and certainly without our effort—as long as we ourselves keep BREATHING. Aloha Aloha.
Breathe like a tree. There are more trees on our planet than there are stars in our galaxy; and every single one of them—3 trillion in all—is breathing new Life out into our world, as we exchange our Life-giving breath back to them.
Every breath is a gift. We receive it, then we give it away. We feed the Earth as she feeds us. No need to try nor strive, as it all unfolds naturally.
Breathe like the sea. Each ocean wave taking her turn to speak to the shore before returning to the vast expanse newly transformed, ready to wave back again.
Breathe like the breeze. Life giving energy. Fuel for our fortitude. Aloha Aloha.
Remembering we can all be fueled by many things—be it fear or hope or anger or determination—yet always led with the breath. Sighing out into the space we not only occupy, yet influence and even feed, ready to step into a new breath before us. Ready to receive. Aloha Aloha.
The only thing you need to hold onto is for the ride.
Stär Zen Wave
Flowing in, flowing out. We often have to say goodbye to say hello. Inviting the emotions in. Aloha Aloha. We cannot let go of something we’ve never grasped. We cannot breathe out a breath we’ve never breathed in. Sometimes it’s helpful to embrace—and even allow ourselves to be embraced by—the emotion, by the experience. Creating space and holding it in place. Even for just a moment. Then gently letting it go. Aloha Aloha.
Expanding and contracting while creating a wider view, considering new perspectives to perhaps open up the frame of being. Seeing the unseen, perhaps for the first time, like discovering a new color.
And seeing it all with open eyes as we say goodbye, so we can then say hello to The Great Unknown. Aloha Aloha.
And now as we begin ending our practice today in the Aloha Aloha Spirit, I invite you in preparing for the sound of the bell as it resonates out into the world, just like our breath.
ALOHA ∞ ALOHA
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