words
by Uma
Writings
Stay Open
Unrecognized offerings from your heart Worse yet, Your offering claimed as someone else’s Your compassionate gesture So desperately needed And so hard to give Conjured up from the depth of your soul Given freely Only to reach the receiver Masked in the hands of someone else Don’t stop. Stay open. Continue to give yourself freely Even in the face of fraud The Beloved within us knows And your love gesture will be carried On whispers of her wind Into the hearts of who it is meant
Read MoreFreedom Over All Else
I choose boundlessness over security Love over convention passion over pragmatism truth over peace (because real truth brings the deepest peace) I choose growth over comfort faith over fear instability over imprisonment messy fights over quiet suffering risking it all over wondering what could have been I choose fumbling around trying to hear the voice of the Beloved speaking to me over pushing Her to silence because what she’s whispering seems impossible. I choose freedom above all else. freedom to try my best and fail freedom to start all over again freedom to stay the course freedom to find my own soul path in this lifetime. without this freedom we have nothing and without this freedom we have nothing to give Freedom above all else.
Read MoreLet Go Into Everything
Clearing the mist of the misconception of separateness Piercing the shadowy vail cast by fear The path of awakening is not a straight line The experience of relaxing into the truth of what is becomes the Shakti presence The feminine path of freedom Not letting go of anything Letting go into everything
Read MoreDevelop yourself into an instrument of courage.
I listened to a podcast the other day where Caroline Myss discussed the courage to combat evil. She described evil as being “the absence of grace” and moments when we consciously choose to disconnect from our conscience. I understand this to be when we let our choices and actions be driven by fear, rather than from an intent to do harm. Spiritual work/light work/love work requires that we have faith and trust in something bigger than us and that takes immense courage. It’s not for the faint of heart. She goes on to say that one of the reasons we have such a hard time having faith in something bigger is because we don’t have faith or trust in ourselves. Faith is something that is built from the inside out. Not something we get by projecting it out into the world with spiritual showmanship or bypassing. We build trust in […]
Read MoreThoughts on isolation as a spiritual delusion and the many masks of ego.
Yoga has never been just about our relationship with ourselves. It is about our connection with our Self as much as it is about relationships and the ability to connect and reflect with others and the world. When we isolate ourselves so much that we just exist inside our own “practice” we detach from the greater Reality and are subject to operate under our own personal version of what is real rather than opening to other perspectives and the divine reflection of others. It’s one of these sneaky ways the ego hijacks the driver’s seat – not wanting to hear what others have to say – and hides under the disguise of things like martyrdom and unconditional love. We can trick ourselves to believing that because we are yogis or meditators or spiritual practitioners, we know Truth and hide away within our own minds instead of leaning into the support […]
Read MoreWho I Was Before The World Told Me Who I Should Be
I’m bored. Bored of being told my instincts are off Bored of trying to keep up with a cadence that exhausts me Bored of being busy under the guise of productivity I’m uninterested in the newest version of global distraction. I’m disenchanted by the same storylines playing out under different masks I’m bored of watching smart people get caught in an age old drama thinking it is something new. I’m exhausted of being told I’m not enough and trying to remember it’s a lie. I’m tired of trying to fill a void that doesn’t even exist. I’m over the notion that if I do what is right for me it will hurt the people I love. I’m bored of having such low expectations of our emotional intelligence and grace. What I AM interested in is remembering who I was before the world told me who I should be. In disentangling […]
Read MoreNothing About You Need Change
My darling, You seek to find me as if I could ever be lost You try to reconnect as if separation was ever an option You attempt to remember that which is impossible to forget Lay down your efforts my beloved What you seek is seeking you You are the answer Simply relax Relax into the loving awareness of my embrace Rest back into the truth of your own essence Allow yourself to be held It is here you will re-cognize Nothing exists that is not me And nothing about you need change We are all that is One Perfect Complete
Read MoreMeet Me in the Heart Space: Relationship is the Highest Spiritual Practice
Heart core work for all relationship sādhanā. I’ve been on the road for 4 weeks. Here I am finally getting some time to listen to my heart space— apparently she has a lot to say.. Dear One, Here is the space of mystery. Your body is the place for pleasure. Your mind is the place of intellectual Eros. Here is the space of wonder. Here you get lost to get found. Rest in this place of adbhuta (childlike wonder, curiosity, astonishment). Where, even for just a moment, you’re completely mystified at the connection and you find yourself lost in the infinite expanse of pure awareness. Where your mind strives to understand, your heart simply melts into auspicious recognition. Increase these moments. Get lost in them longer. If you can’t seem to find this mutual space together. First, find it for yourself within yourself. Then consider if it’s interesting without the wonder. Is it satisfactory without the astonishment? […]
Read MoreSitting with Sita: Working With the Sadness of our Times
I’ve been struggling with being all consumed and devastated by some of the realities we face today. From racism to mass extinction and from oil spills to destruction of the rainforest I sometimes find the sadness of it all to be overwhelming. I used to turn away from that which was not positive, thinking this was somehow the path to happiness. It’s not, it’s called denial. I’ve been sitting with the Goddess Sita. We hear of Sita as the devoted wife of Rama. She unconditionally loves him, trusts him, serves him and has unshakeable faith in their love. She knows without a question of a doubt that they are soul mates. Her love is the unconditional giving that is inherent within everything. Sita represents my devotion to the Divine, the Great Goddess. She is the archetypal role model of self-sacrificing love, trust and faith in the Great Mother, the Universal Consciousness. […]
Read MoreJoy
“We sometimes confuse joy with a society-sanctioned “happiness” which puts a kind of perennial happy face on all our doings. But such happiness is transitory and illusory; scratch the surface and you’ll find just the opposite…. Most people pretend to be happy, because that’s what you’re supposed to be; it’s the acceptable state of being. But true contentment is pretty rare.” Joy doesn’t take effort in the moment. This joy, ananda or bliss in sanskrit, is the underlying current of who I am. If I am trying to be happy or joyful. I am missing the point entirely. “Joy is naturally generous, and relaxed and open. It comes when our emotional energy flows freely in a dynamic of appropriate responses to our experiences. Many of us experience the natural high that comes in running or dancing or other physical activities, when you reach the point where your body is moving […]
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