the three Pees

Practice, Patience and Persistence ... I have some good news and some bad news - which do you want to hear first? Ok, the bad news is life's ups and downs persist forever. The good news is our Practice does create a toolbox, haven, armor, however you see it that also persists forever and is ever upgrading and changing to meet the unfolding demands that present to us.

We need to cultivate Patience with our whole being, that includes our idea of self and our ideas of others. Remember to find the silver lining in every cloud, the hidden gift in every adventitious moment, the hidden teaching in every adversarial interaction, the beauty in every encounter. Cultivate Discernment - that inner wisdom that discerns true happiness from false, biased, inflationary, mythic happiness with meditation and insight. Hold to our practice and acknowledge the ripple effect as it spreads like a contagion to reach the hearts and minds around us. Painful sad angry and fearful emotions are there for us to change with equanimity, compassion, loving kindness and sympathetic joy.

Being in the present moment with as much attention as you have the energy to allow is essential to our Practice. For this we need to be as healthy as we can be in body and mind. Aware that memory is a construct of the imagination and the future is utterly open ended, anything is possible, unexpected and unplanned for, exciting and amazing, wonderful things are always happening for us. We have to be awake to see them. That which offers all to us deserves our fullest attention.

​How can we pass up this moment by being inside our head? It takes a lot of energy to be present, awake and aware and cultivating that energy takes constant assessment, evaluation and tweaking of our lifestyle, diet and activities. It's a full time job to be alive, but what an amazing adventure that is. It often involves challenge and difficulty but those allow us to fully appreciate the joy and pleasure of being. We keep at it to benefit others, to bring joy and pleasure to others, our Noble Friends known and unknown or unknowing around us. That community is where our roots and fibrils extend to and where we contribute and derive sustenance from.

​Sadhguru says we are responsible for/to all that is. Meaning we can respond to everything we perceive. Not that everything is our fault or due to what we do but that we can respond if not act on everything we know of consciously and subconsciously. I was once told by a high school teacher that we could not be aware of subconscious thoughts and perceptions but I disagreed then and I still disagree with this today. Is the pond not aware of the mud in its floor? of the life in that mud? That is as much the pond as the water itself. As the currents and depths that stir it. As the light and wind that move on its surface. We are awake to much more than we are conscious of and feel those stirrings and respond to them not with thought, speech or action but through our innermost energy patterns and chemistry. We become more and more aware of these deeper layers of being as our Practice unfolds.