Here’s a true story from my yogi life:

What caused my yogic peace to crumble into teenage angst?
In a word – capacity.
I had not developed the capacity to sustain balanced awareness in the presence of my family.
I had developed the capacity to experience peace and balance in my bedroom – but not in the kitchen.
When I was in my bedroom cave, with my beloved dog, Kubla, I could untangle awareness from the thoughts, plans, hopes, and fears that constituted my everyday state of consciousness.

I could open and follow the breath into a state of undefended, moment-to-moment appreciation for the simple wonder of being.
In short, my capacity to attain and sustain meditative awareness was heavily dependent on a narrow range of conditions.
In the privacy of my room – I had enough capacity. But, I could only stay in my bedroom for so long. At some point, I had to cross the threshold of my room and enter the hallway that led to kitchen. I had to make the journey from the cave to the rest of my life.
And what awaited me in the kitchen?

Three karmic mirrors: my mother, my brother, my sister.
Each reflected, with precise clarity, the state of my meditative capacity. Each revealed a particular pattern of unconscious reactivity within my soul.
It’s the same in your life. In your family, in your work, in your community – there are key people who reveal the state of your meditative capacity.

They are your karmic mirrors.
They reflect with precise terrifying accuracy the reactive patterns of unconscious reactivity within your soul.
Whatever may arise as you face the karmic mirrors, know this:
It’s not their fault & it’s not your fault. It’s the nature of karmic mirrors to reflect and reveal.

Karmic mirrors reveal that which is not yet healed in your soul.
It’s not always pleasant to look into the karmic mirror. (Do I win the spiritual understatement award for that sentence?) But, it is always revealing and, if you turn towards what is revealed . . . healing.

Healing is the primary function of karma.
Karma isn’t a punishment – it’s a healing mechanism. It isn’t a cosmic scoring system – it’s an expression of Life’s unwavering pursuit of wholeness, healing, and integration.
Life’s pursuit of wholeness isn’t an abstraction . . . it’s the nitty-gritty essence of what’s happening in your life; in your relationships; in your family. The pathway to wholeness goes through your present experience – even (or especially) when that experience feels un-endurable.

Life is relentlessly promoting your wholeness and integration.
Life is seeking to realize, embody, and express wholeness through you and as you. How does Life do this? By bringing your awareness to whatever is unconscious, incomplete, and unredeemed in your soul.

Karma is an organic reflective, creative, learning process!
Karma is the process by which Life reveals what needs attention and integration.

It’s all done with mirrors.
For most of you and I, these mirrors come in the form of people.
Specifically those people who reveal the limits of your meditative capacity; in whose presence your mind and emotions spin wildly into familiar, habitual, patterns of suffering.

So, what can you do other than have fights at the breakfast table or hide out in your bedroom? You can develop capacity through cultivating an ever-deepening, daily spiritual practice.
What is spiritual practice?

Spiritual practice is a way of life.
This way of life includes:

• Formal meditation – periods of stillness and inner communion
• Meditation-in-action – whereby you bring the energy and presence of the inner communion out into the “kitchen” – the relationships and situations of your life.

It takes both – the inner communion and the outer engagement to develop the capacity to cooperate fully with Life’s primary agenda . . . to realize, embody, and express wholeness through & as you.

The primary karmic mirrors are your family members.
Your family of origin, your ancestors, and your current “family” of loved ones – are your karmic mirrors. Each reflects and reveals key aspects of your soul.
That is why one of the most powerful – and direct – ways to cooperate with Life is to focus your spiritual practice on your family karma.

Encoded into the emotional patterns of your family dynamics are the keys to your awakening and freedom.

We’re offering two Healing Family Karma programs this summer.

Live Workshop
Healing Family Karma at Omega Institute July 26 – 28, 2013 Held on the amazing campus in upstate New York. A transformational vacation with fabulous food, great music, time in nature, and more.

Online Training
Healing Family Karma Summer Special.
4 week program with recordings, live calls, videos, audios and more.
July 23 – August 20, 2013. Click here.

P.S.
If you have questions about family karma – send them to eric@wisdomheart.org.

The post Yoga, Meditation, and Family Karma (a true story) appeared first on Wisdom Heart.

When habitual thoughts and emotions beckon – what do you do to sustain presence and mindful awareness?

Share your wisdom in the comments below.

P.S.
There are still openings at our Omega Institute retreat:
Healing Family Karma.

Learn more here.

The post Dharma Doodle Friday: Not on my watch (are you watching?) appeared first on Wisdom Heart.

Two things today.

1. We’re teaching a workshop at Omega Institute in July!
2. A video with teaching, chanting, and guided practice.

Ready to Heal Your Family Karma?

Join us for an in-person workshop this July at The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck New York.
Here’s the link.

We love Omega. This weekend program will be a wonderful experience that combines

• meditation
• teaching
• music

and the beautiful lake and nourishing environment of Omega.

BIG YES & BIG NO

We were at a dinner party, when our host brought around a platter of homemade cookies.

“They’re not gluten-free . . . “ she mentioned proffering the plate of steamy, chocolate delights.
“No thank, you,” said Devi, “I’ll just breathe in their aroma . . . Mmmmmmmmm.”

Devi was saying no and she was also saying YES.
She said no to the delicious cookies (and she does love herself some chocolate.) And she simultaneously said YES to her well-being – by passing on the gluten-filled cookies AND affirming her love of chocolate (mmmmmmmmmm).

Whenever you say yes in life, you’re also saying no.
And vice versa.
Yes and No, like Yin and Yang, Day and Night . . . are linked together.

But, not every yes is a BIG YES.
Not every no is a BIG NO.
Knowing the difference matters – to your health, your wealth, and your awakening.
So, what is the BIG YES and the BIG NO?

That’s what this video/meditation is about.
In this talk/meditation, Eric takes you on a deep journey into the Big YES and the Big No – describing how both promote your spiritual awakening.The video includes chanting, music, teaching, and guided practice.

Let us know:
Where in your life are you saying a Big YES or a Big NO?
Share your insights in the comments below.

P.S.
Remember to play the Dharma Doodle Game (and win a free print). Here’s the link.

The post The Big YES (and the Big NO) appeared first on Wisdom Heart.

Two things this Dharma Doodle Friday.

1. The Dharma Doodle Game (Wooo Hoooo!!)
2. The New Moon . . . and Devi’s New Moon Meditation.

It’s the first Friday of the month – time to play the Dharma Doodle Game.

What’s the DDG, you ask!
Allow us to explain . . .

• On the first Friday of the month, we post a dharma doodle followed by a question.
• To play the Dharma Doodle Game – you only need to do two things:

1. Respond to the doodle & the question – by posting your reflections in the comments below.
2. Share the doodle on your Facebook timeline. (After you share your wisdom – click on the Facebook icon below.)

• We’ll collect all the responses over the month and on the last Friday announce the winner. (How will we determine the winner? Our team will read all the responses and choose the one that calls to us. It could be yours!)
• The winner will receive a art-quality print of the doodle. Yes, we will mail the winner an actual physical print that is suitable for framing! (See more examples at www.dharmadoodles.com.)

The doodle:

The question:
What does this dharma doodle mean to you?

Share your wisdom in the comments below.

P.S.
The New Moon is on June 8. This is a traditional time to pause, reflect, and attune to the qualities that the New Moon offers. How? Click here for Devi’s New Moon Meditation of the Month.

The post The Dharma Doodle Game (and the Mystery of a June Moon) appeared first on Wisdom Heart.

Our family moved to San Diego in 1983.
It was a big move both geographically and spiritually. I’d spent the previous decade cycling through a variety of jobs – from short order cook to illustrator/publisher of greeting cards. Mostly I had been self-employed or, as we liked to say, self-un-employed.

I was ready for a change.

Click here to purchase this doodle.

I wanted to work for a corporation.
I was fascinated by the emerging literature on leadership and spirituality, and wanted to become a leadership development consultant; to get a real job in Corporate America. Wow! I’d barely set foot inside a corporation before much less worked for one.

I identified myself as a creative, free spirit.
After all, I reasoned, look at my history: hippie, yogi, artist, making my way in the world through a variety of self-created ventures. It all added up to a sense of self that was identified with the pattern: I am a creative, free spirit.

And then I got hired by the largest employer in town.
In those days, the San Diego economy was dominated by a few large corporations that built stuff and provided services to the Navy & Marines. I was hired by General Dynamics, the biggest of the big players in the military-industrial economy of San Diego.

The move from the world of hippie-dom to the military-industrial complex was a shock to my system.
I found myself surrounded by people who were fixated on something I’d never thought about – retirement. They talked about how many years, months, weeks, and days remained until they would retire. They talked about their savings plans, their nest eggs and the “number” which was their financial goal. They seemed to be totally focused on security and safety. I didn’t get it.

I couldn’t relate to their fixation on safety and security.
I looked down on them for being so obsessed with their financial future that they were compromising their experience in the present. Their emphasis on safety and security, it seemed to me, locked them in a prison of conformity and stifled their aliveness.

What I couldn’t see was how I was fixated on both what I was identified with and what I was dis-identified from.
My conditioned self was composed of both what I identified with – the creative, free spirit – and what I was dis-identified from – the security seeking conformist.

My conditioned self, like all conditioned selves, included both what I believed myself to be AND what I believed myself not-to-be.

To free consciousness from the pattern of conditioning requires two complementary practices.
One is the practice of releasing consciousness from the patterns of self-identification.

The other is the practice of welcoming and embracing the patterns of not-self into the resonance of the heart.

Releasing and transcending on the one hand. Welcoming and embracing on the other. Both are beautiful and either can be limiting.

How does practice become limiting?

Either practice can become a way of defending against that which you do not wish to face.
Over-emphasizing releasing/transcending can distance you from life and blind you to the unconscious patterns that you are dis-identified from – even as they shape your thoughts, speech, action.

Over-emphasizing welcoming/embracing can submerge you in a pattern of living, blind you to the limits of that pattern and how it shapes your thoughts, speech, action.

What about you? Which of these practices do you prefer?

Are you more comfortable releasing or embracing?

Are you attracted to practices and teachings that emphasize letting go, dis-identifying, and moving beyond?

What have you discovered about the strengths and limits of this approach?

Do you gravitate towards practices and teachings of embracing, including, and inviting in?

What have you discovered about the strengths and limits of this approach?

Share your wisdom in the comments below.

The post The Pitfalls of Spiritual Practice appeared first on Wisdom Heart.

Amazing!!

67 people wrote lovely, insightful, wonderous captions/interpretations/reflections for the first Dharma Doodle Dialogue Game. We read them over and over – receiving the gift of your wisdom. Wonderful.

And then I was talking to our son, Aaron, who is visiting from San Francisco.

Aaron is an Aries; a fiery competitor who loves nothing more than a challenging contest to test his mettle – whether that’s intellectual or athletic. He’s been following the Dharma Doodle Game’s development and asked me how it was going. This doodle is based on our actual conversation.

It was both a challenge and a joy to select the first winner of the first Dharma Doodle Game. Here’s the doodle, in case you forgot:

1st Place Dharma Doodle Dialogue Game, May 2013

Jude: We create our own puddles and we create our own shelter.

Most Honorable Mentions:

Susan: A storm of thoughts but in the midst of it, the shelter of being right here in this moment, grounded.

Sharon Rosen: Mindfulness reigns . . . and shelters me from the rain of worries and fears.

ojones: The rain surrounds me. I surround the rain. We are the same.

Kim: What the . . . ?!? You call, I come, you put up an umbrella!

Maria: Oh how lovely and comforting the sound of pattering rain is.

A graduation special:
Order a print of this “graduation” dharma doodle – and we’ll send you a second print of your choosing – for free! (Please email us with your receipt and let us know what additional print you would like to receive. Check out the gallery here.)

Our hearts are doodle-full with appreciation. May the dharma dialogue continue.

The post Dharma Doodle Friday: The First Dharma Doodle Game Winner appeared first on Wisdom Heart.