August 2013 Newsletter

Hello, Everyone,

Life sometimes can be painful; meditation has helped me cope with experiences that have been difficult and lonely. Students and friends, please bear with me as I share a piece of my recent journey that resonates still in my heart. For your kindness,I thank you. I am certain that healing will be more peaceful because of your patience.
Some of you were aware that my brother,Bob, was quite ill for some time.There are those who would say that Bob is no longer with us; those of us fortunate enough to have known him are certain that nothing could be further from the truth! Bob lived Life to the fullest. He was a great dad, coach, mentor, husband, brother, and coworker.
When he was a student at Penn Morton Military College in Pennsylvania, he became an exuberant hockey fan; he lived with unbounded enthusiasm for the sport from the moment he spotted a waiting goalie.
His son was on the Providence College Lacrosse team, so, serving the role he lived so beautifully as Dad, Bob would travel 5 hours just to catch the games then turn around and travel back home for work the next day. Never missed a single game.
My sister-in-law’s brother and Bob spent many peaceful hours surf fishing together. Bob couldn’t have been less interested in actually CATCHING anything he just enjoyed the surf and sun, punctuated gently by the wet sand under his feet, aaah Nirvana!
Bob worked for a Mall Management company, and was deeply respected for his ability to listen with compassion, and to keep confidences entrusted to him. From the highest officer in the company to the recently hired, all were able to sit comfortably in his office and pour out even the most confounding dilemmas!
There was a memorial service held at which people told stories about Bob’s life and how he had inspired or helped them in some way. Such endearing terms as deeply missed,irreplaceable, and funny man, were interwoven throughout descriptions of Bob. Simplicity, benevolence,loyalty, patience and faith were hallmarks of Bob’s nature. Although he experienced much pain during his illness, he was endlessly stoic and tolerant. Would that we could all boast such noble and loving characteristics!
A good person he most definitely was. I will always have something to be happy about because I had him for a brother! Bob, I know that Where you are today is beyond our comprehension your Endless Beach provides incredible fishing, there are NO golf fees, tee times are always open,and you can arrange for any team to win the Stanley Cup (yes,even Boston!)
It is my hope that this Newsletter will serve to remind us all of the Gift we are given daily, yet often accept with a casual sense of entitlement. We are humbled by our lack of control over circumstances and fortunes (or lack thereof). We take for granted the extraordinary opportunities we are given with the rising of each day’s sun the thing we can’t truly conceive of NOT being granted: the amazing and truly precious Gift of Life.
We deal with the uncertainty of life as rarely as possible; we don’t want to acknowledge its possible finality; we don’t want to recognize that the Winds of Fortune may not blow according to our instruction; therefore, we are somewhat naively stunned when the Gift is interrupted or reclaimed by its Creator.
A meditation teacher I worked with for many years would advise his students to live a life of good moral values to just be a good person.(See,Bob. Such advice seemed almost too simple to be adequate to apply to the mysteries and variances of Life. Most of us think we must excel in a particular area so that we will be considered worthwhile. My wise instructor, however, insisted that one’s career, accomplishments and stuff are not what make us matter; we matter simply because we LIVE and our legacy is what we leave in the hearts of those we LOVE.

Blessings to you and those you love,
Daniel

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

It is my experience that the world itself has a role to play in our liberation. It’s very pressures, pains and risks can wake us up to release us from the bonds of ego and guide us home to our vast true nature. Joanna Macy American Buddhist teacher

Those we love don’t go away, They walk beside us every day, Unseen, unheard, but always near,
Still loved, still missed and very dear. – Anonymous

When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart,
and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. Khalil Gibran

Lite Thoughts

The moment you start seeing life as non-serious, a playfulness, and all the burdens on your heart disappear. All the fear of death,of life,of love everything else disappears Osho

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator 1830-1890

Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain. Joseph Campbell

RETREATS

Meditation Mindfulness & Connecting with Nature, St Columba Retreat Center, Memphis
November 22-24th 2013 (See attachment for details)

WORKSHOP

I will be having a Conscious Connected Breathwork workshop on Saturday July Saturday August 24th from 1-3pm At Evergreen Yoga Center 1514 Overton Park Ave.

MEDITATION TALKS

“Why Meditate” Whole Foods on Poplar Thursday August 22nd at 7-8 p.m.

Blessings
Daniel