Contemplative Essays
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Recipe
Life is the approximation of cooking, not the exactitude of baking. It’s a messy project, not a calculation, more art than arithmetic. There are an infinite number of ways to proceed. Be curious, consider the methods used by everyone you meet and, in doing so, find your own way. Develop your recipe and never hesitate Continue reading
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Alchemy
The peacock struts around eating things that are brightly colored: plants, insects and snakes. Much of what it eats is poisonous. May we learn to move closer to pain, invite in the Lady of Sorrows to sit it at our table, as if she were our neighbor, as if she were a weary Continue reading
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No Rush
You don’t have to rush. You don’t have to be in such a hurry all the time. You don’t have to feel pulled in a hundred different directions. It’s only the energy of the society around you, and has nothing to do with the conversation your life makes with the world. When you give up Continue reading
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Making Use of Heat
Originally posted on C.M. Rivers: Then you come to that place of burning through the atmospheric fabric of consciousness. You learn how to make use of the intensity of heat, and you use it to burn through thoughts and emotions, fears and desires, to purify and transform. Because you are not your thoughts, emotions. … Continue reading
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Making Use of Heat
Then you come to that place of burning through the atmospheric fabric of consciousness. You learn how to make use of the intensity of heat, and you use it to burn through thoughts and emotions, fears and desires, to purify and transform. Because you are not your thoughts, emotions. You are not the sum of Continue reading
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Rasa
(Rasa is a Sanskrit word literally meaning juice, essence, or taste. It also refers to an ancient concept in Indian arts concerning the aesthetic of a composed piece of visual, literary, or musical work. More specifically, Rasas are the feelings evoked in the reader or audience by the artistic work.) Your life, this life, not separate. Continue reading
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The Illusion of Separation
Ubuntu is an ancient South African term meaning “connectedness to others”. It points to the human virtues of humanity and compassion. Yoga is a Sanskrit word meaning “union”, “connection”, or “to join”. Between all the reading I’ve been doing and my recent journey into yoga teacher training, I have noticed an idea that comes up Continue reading
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Weather Report
To better understand nature you need to spend some time in it alone, observing. The more you do this, the more quietly aware you’ll become of what is happening there – the order, science, art, survival. The same applies to one’s body and mind, habits, tendencies, perpetual states, thoughts that come and go, emotions that change and pass. The solid and fluid. The Continue reading
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Say Yes
Say yes to storms, stillness, success, failure, silence, noise. Yes to high winds, bitter cold, sweltering heat, crushing loneliness, joyful connection, isolation, liberation. Yes to the broken and the unbreakable. Yes to the shaken and the unshakeable. Say yes to danger, safety, pain, pleasure, exhaustion, energy. Yes to the suffering you’ve known and the gifts you’ve been Continue reading
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Working With Coyote
In working with Coyote – the trickster who tricks even himself – there can be no rigid thinking, no frame around the picture. Perceptions are dissolved, expectations are deconstructed. One must take oneself less seriously, welcome laughter, crack open the shell of one’s own ego. An open heart is required, and it is like the Continue reading
C.M. Rivers 