Heart News

Align - Love - Thrive

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Our heart team proudly curates a set of teachings, practices and information each month and season to help you live the life of balance and alignment: yoga! Click through regularly to explore, learn and grow on the path. 

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In the One is the All

My sweet friends,

 

As you snuggle in with this month's newsie (as we loving call it at Heart), I offer first the brilliance of Buddhist teacher Thich Naht Hanh to shed light on this month's wisdom set: In the One is the All. In the One is the All is another way of saying that all is interconnected, deeply unified. Thich Naht Hanh himself coined a new word for this universal truth, "interbeing". Enjoy his poetry below. 

 

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in a sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. 

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"Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix "inter" with the verb "to be" we have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud, we cannot have paper, so we can say that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are. If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that that sunshine is also in the sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in the sheet of paper. And the logger's father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way we see that without all of these things, the sheet of paper cannot exist. 

 

One of the most powerful transmissions or learnings of inter-being that I had experienced was during my time at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia. Our retreat included lay people, monks and nuns intermixed and practicing together. Yes, there was sitting and chanting as one might expect, but there was also deep sharing, listening and gazing. We forget how profound it is to really connect with another human being. We forget how profoundly we can sink into inter-being, inter-feeling, inter-knowing, inter-humaning, together just by offering time and space. When was the last time that you simply sat and listened to someone with your whole being, without a single interruption? When was the last time someone gifted this to you? When was the last time you looked so deeply into someone's eyes that you could relax your whole being into that familiar and loving space? Perhaps some of you cannot answer any of those questions (and I would invite you to Heart). By the end of my time there I had sat with every single person for a long time and I left feeling so whole, present, and deeply held. No matter the walk of life, the choices, the seeming same or difference, we were each other, every last one of us. There was one person there that my heart struggled with and as I sat one quiet day in the library, with my hand on my heart, I quickly saw that the "cloud is in each paper". During these times, slow down and really look. Slow down and feel. Place your hand on your heart and remember your belonging to every last person that you should meet. Spend more time in the places and spaces that create friction in your body, your breath, your heart. Spend more time in the places and spaces that easily breathe you into remembering that you are the sun, the moon, the stars, the universe and beyond. Breathe and be. 

 

We practice all month long, together.

 

With all the heart,

Meg and Team Heart  

 

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Full transparency... We need your help! As we began 2020 we felt confident in our ability to provide meaningful space and programming for our community. Insert pandemic. While your support has been incredible these many months, we are struggling to cover the basic expenses required to keep our building. As we seek to offer another year of Heart-centered goodness, we need your feedback to understand how to both best serve all of you and keep our beloved space. There are many of you that we have not seen since the onset of pandemic, your insight is so vital. Click HERE to take a survey or send us an email directly. We love you and hope to support you for another year+!

Special thank you to those of you who have already filled out the survey!

Past Newsies:

November 2020: In the One is The All

October 2020: Ready, Set, Rest

September 2020: Attract Beauty Today, Create Tomorrow and blogging by the sangha

August 2020: Refuge in One and blogging by the sangha

July 2020: Awaken Your Voice and blogging by Meg Lucks

June 2020: The Spirit of Sangha and blogging by Brenna Kempf

May 2020: Just as You Are and blogging bits from Heidi Nehring

April 2020: The Next Buddha is Sangha

March 2020: You and I Are Essentially Infinite Choice- Makers and blogging bits by Heather Kolvenbach

February 2020: Mudita: Taking Delight in the Happiness of Others and blogging bits by Amy Griebenow

January 2020: I am and blogging bits by Heidi Nehring

December 2019: Give the Gift of Presence and blogging bits by Michelle Marrero

November 2019: We are All Royalty by Roy Grant

October 2019: Rekindle the Heart and blogging bits by Brenna Kempf: Interview with sangha member Heidi Nehring

September 2019: Where Your Intention Goes, Energy Flows + Blog by Meg Lucks, Big Love: Loving Like Buddha

August 2019: Come Home & Be Anywhere + Blogging by Madelaine Eschrich, Come Home..., Interview with Maddie HERE

July 2019: Paradise is Now + Blogging by Roy Grant, Paradise is Now & Rich

June 2019: Let Peace Be Your Superpower + Blog, An Open Letter to My Sisters and Our Allies by Keia Wegner

May 2019: Play is our Pathway to Possibility + Blog Playtime is Now by Stephie Overman

April 2019: Give Yourself Room to Bloom + Blogging Bits by Brenna Kempf

March 2019: Living Your Highest Truth by Meg Lucks

February 2019: Out of Love, Our Path Can Lead us to Serve

January 2019: True Belonging is the Spiritual Practice of believing in and belonging to yourself...