Sangha, 

And just like that, we will be December-ing together!

First a thank you! What an absolutely fantastic year of going deep. We have grown so very much and I can only imagine what more we are capable of in the future! I look forward to more learning, deepening relationships, nourishing and transformational travel, service and so much more! Some of you have heard me say it recently but 2025 is about prioritizing joy, levity and love. Our lightness will lift many!

As for the close of this practice year, we continue with the fourth and final of the 4 immeasurables (*scroll down for the recap just beyond my signature), which couldn't be more appropriately timed. Let's explore uppekha or equanimity. I define this as an active and uncomplicated place of peace that can be found in every human heart. This place is unbounded, accommodating and without discrimination. It is silent, wide open and tolerant.

I agree so deeply with teacher Ram Dass when he says that humans didn't just come here to “stay on the edge” of life but to really climb into it. He further suggests that to act from this space we really have to learn to “keep our hearts open in hell.” Meaning, we need to not just intellectualize but actually find a way to touch that inner omnipresent uncomplicated place of peace if we anticipate living awake, in love and deeply connected. Once we touch it, we can train to linger in the truth of reality, even when it seems too painful to do it. Equanimity becomes our source of confidence or support in an otherwise groundless experience. It is a place to remain fully engaged with what is actually happening, without becoming attached or lost... "we are the sky, everything else is just the weather".

Personally, reflecting on the divisive time that the world finds itself in, I feel grateful to do the work and to support others in their prioritizing of inner looking and developing through the art of lingering; through mindfulness and meditation practice. Such open, clear and honest seeing can support us to not only live awake but to also act by creating solutions to our challenges with compassion and strength. This is how we become instrumental agents of social change.

Getting quiet and taking an honest look must happen before any appropriate action can be taken! It checks out, we need to be available to reality if we have any hope of skillfully interacting within it. While looking at reality is not always so easy, it is simple. It's the basic work of equanimity that shows us our ability to acknowledge how things actually are vs how we would prefer them to be. The basic ground of equanimity is everything together, all at once. I often share that the foundational skill of mindfulness is first recognizing that each of us has this capacity to be available and honest to what is actually going on. Here's what happens: noticing (asking, "what is that?") supports our natural capacity to concentrate, concentration supports our natural capacity to see with some clarity, and finally clarity, paired with the immeasurable facets of the heart, empowers us with the strength to stay with the truth. We can absolutely stay strong, lingering long enough to both see and gain insight. Only through the gift of insight can we supportively respond through body, speech and mind, powered by heart-centered wisdom. We could say that the real fruit of meditation is the practical bandwidth to change how we show up in the world. Meditation is the foundational ground that prepares us for the real mind training that so many of us seek!

Lucky for us there is no shortage of training opportunities. You could say that the humanness of our humanness keeps the challenges coming. We can change our attitude here and consider that each time we are unskillful, we get the chance to practice and work on ourselves. Flex those contemplative muscles and remember some recent moments of reactivity, story-telling, grasping, fantasizing... Truly noticing ourselves is the magic ingredient for real transformation, and let's face it, if you're not transforming, you're simply spiritually entertaining! The work is never done! Pause, linger and slow; refrain from getting swept up in fear-induced habits and stories. Notice how most stories you tell yourself are pretty partial, if not completely untrue, and they likely also don't have your best interest in mind. Stepping back, widening the view and noticing, we experience presence, we can grow and orient ourselves in a much more mindful and less automatic way of being.

In addition to celebrating the myriad opportunities to grow in the humanness of the humanness we must also exercise compassion with ourselves, and each time just center again, quiet again and begin again. With hope, a broader perspective inspires and even motivates the pursuit of an alternative view with fresh possibilities and creative solutions. Wide awake, lingering, balancing atop your inner omnipresent uncomplicated place of peace, we are gifted with space and in floods new, creative ways of seeing and understanding the world, people and situations around us. You were born for this: slow down, get quiet, open your heart, stay at little longer, see with the eyes of your heart, and get to work.

Looking forward to sharing sweet space with you all!

Hands to heart,

Meg Lucks

El Getsu En Dō | "Brilliant Moon, Way of the Circle"

Lay-Ordained, Abiding Guide

The Heart Revival Center for Yoga & Buddhism

*Brahmavihārā Recap: An invitation to again incline your mind toward the in and of-dwelling highest qualities of the human heart! These immeasurable states are basic to our being or humanness and are each equal in their belonging, like the four directions of a compass. These limitless heart qualities are commonly referred to as the Brahmavihārā: metta (loving-kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (empathic joy) and upekkha (equanimity). The heart has four sides or faces and the Hindu deity Lord Brahma (all of creation) is also often depicted as having four faces.

It's no secret that how we perceive the world matters. How we place our attention matters. How we think, feel and act, matters and will ultimately determine the quality of our lived experience. With a little bit of inspiration, intention and practice, we can train in our ability to incline our attention in a heart-centered and connected way. When heart-centered, we can more aptly connect to the brahmaviharas with agency or our willful and conscious ability to extend the faith and motivation required to repair, heal and socially harmonize with one another.