When considering the ways and means of building your sacred life, it is important to understand, 1) You begin where you are at; 2) Everything that you think, say, or do is part of your practice... This is actually very important... Too often, as taught by our culture, we think in terms of separation: this is for me, that is for "God"; this is holy, that is a "sin"; this is progress, that is another "trail of tears"... No separation is the only way of development the sacred life skill set... Everything comes with the holy stamp of eternity on it...
Even for the most mundane or noxious person, the very same "amount" of divinity dwell within them, through and through... buried, hidden, and unknown, but still, everlastingly present... That being said, it is no small thing that you are now about building your sacred life: deliberately and consciously... Yipee! Yahoo! But when it rains, you'll still get wet... you still have to drive safely, and you also have to attend to the thousand and one details of your one, intimately precious, life... To have awakened to the Love Possibilities within you is of tremendous import... cherish that particular and very sacred awakening... while building towards the next... and the next...
One of the best books to read right about now, you Mystic-Architect you, is The Blue Zones Solution... by Dan Buettner. It is subtitled Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People. Buettner relates how he and his team examined the lives and similarities of the longest-lived folks around the world, and came up with a do-able, short list, of "well-being" lifestyle choices that we could (should) make... They are:
1) Choose a whole foods, plant based diet (naturally low in fat and sugar);
2) Practice stress management techiques (such as yoga, meditation, and Tai Chi);
3) Enjoy moderate exercise (such as walking);
4) Maintain social support and community (tribe if you can, love others, be intimate, find your meaning and purpose)...
And, for additional clarity: Walk as often as you can; "Downshift" by acknowledging all that builds your sense of gratitude, everyday; Stop eating when 80% full; Eat more beans!; Drink a glass of wine @ 5 (or as I do, an Oatmeal Stout with my supper); Build your network of companions; Participate in a faith-based community; and Prioritize your family and life partner... Here's Buettner: What we discovered in every Blue Zone... is that the path to a long, healthy life comes from creating an environment around yourself, your family, and your community that nudges you into following the right behaviors subtly and relentlessly, just as the Blue Zones do for their populations...
This is building a sacred life!
And! it isn't a "big deal"... rather, you should think of it as an artful way to live... If first, we practice the needed gift of renunciation by steadily eliminating fear and hate from our mental vocabulary, unfair or unjust practices from our business or job, and build a desire to celebrate the people around us (and others we might read about like LGBTQ, Muslims, Black Lives Matter, Red-Neck Farmers, an Opposite Political Party, etc.) we just might become ready for the addition of some beatific grace...
Ah, now this is another awakening: right there, in your own home, you are now building a brand new culture! A sacred life is your "platform" and the beatific vision is your "party"... Here's another line from The Blue Zones Solution: What would it be like to live in a community where, instead of dreading traffic or going to work, people were fully engaged with their gifts, passions, and values?
There is nothing more sacred than that of living your life with a super-abundance of depth, wonderment, and gratitude!
Were you back to anticipating a secret ingredient? Well, here might be one: cultivate your passions... and notice, please, that I did not say your greed, deceptions, manipulations, and violent undertones... If you have not already come to know yourself to be a humungous jumble of contrary emotions and hungers, well, you eventually will, or you are lying to yourself... I know that, given the wrong set of circumstances, I am capable of "doing" horrific things. And so are you, and you, and you... However! Just as I fed over two million free meals to hungry and homeless folks, so too, in the jumble of your emotions and hungers, there is a person capable of the most extraordinary acts of kindness, mercy, and justice: this is us! We are human, very complicated beings, oh but also so very loveable, filled with such great potential, and capable of life as incarnations of resolute compassion!
Yes, indeed!
Part Five, coming Monday, December 14, 2020
Even for the most mundane or noxious person, the very same "amount" of divinity dwell within them, through and through... buried, hidden, and unknown, but still, everlastingly present... That being said, it is no small thing that you are now about building your sacred life: deliberately and consciously... Yipee! Yahoo! But when it rains, you'll still get wet... you still have to drive safely, and you also have to attend to the thousand and one details of your one, intimately precious, life... To have awakened to the Love Possibilities within you is of tremendous import... cherish that particular and very sacred awakening... while building towards the next... and the next...
One of the best books to read right about now, you Mystic-Architect you, is The Blue Zones Solution... by Dan Buettner. It is subtitled Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People. Buettner relates how he and his team examined the lives and similarities of the longest-lived folks around the world, and came up with a do-able, short list, of "well-being" lifestyle choices that we could (should) make... They are:
1) Choose a whole foods, plant based diet (naturally low in fat and sugar);
2) Practice stress management techiques (such as yoga, meditation, and Tai Chi);
3) Enjoy moderate exercise (such as walking);
4) Maintain social support and community (tribe if you can, love others, be intimate, find your meaning and purpose)...
And, for additional clarity: Walk as often as you can; "Downshift" by acknowledging all that builds your sense of gratitude, everyday; Stop eating when 80% full; Eat more beans!; Drink a glass of wine @ 5 (or as I do, an Oatmeal Stout with my supper); Build your network of companions; Participate in a faith-based community; and Prioritize your family and life partner... Here's Buettner: What we discovered in every Blue Zone... is that the path to a long, healthy life comes from creating an environment around yourself, your family, and your community that nudges you into following the right behaviors subtly and relentlessly, just as the Blue Zones do for their populations...
This is building a sacred life!
And! it isn't a "big deal"... rather, you should think of it as an artful way to live... If first, we practice the needed gift of renunciation by steadily eliminating fear and hate from our mental vocabulary, unfair or unjust practices from our business or job, and build a desire to celebrate the people around us (and others we might read about like LGBTQ, Muslims, Black Lives Matter, Red-Neck Farmers, an Opposite Political Party, etc.) we just might become ready for the addition of some beatific grace...
Ah, now this is another awakening: right there, in your own home, you are now building a brand new culture! A sacred life is your "platform" and the beatific vision is your "party"... Here's another line from The Blue Zones Solution: What would it be like to live in a community where, instead of dreading traffic or going to work, people were fully engaged with their gifts, passions, and values?
There is nothing more sacred than that of living your life with a super-abundance of depth, wonderment, and gratitude!
Were you back to anticipating a secret ingredient? Well, here might be one: cultivate your passions... and notice, please, that I did not say your greed, deceptions, manipulations, and violent undertones... If you have not already come to know yourself to be a humungous jumble of contrary emotions and hungers, well, you eventually will, or you are lying to yourself... I know that, given the wrong set of circumstances, I am capable of "doing" horrific things. And so are you, and you, and you... However! Just as I fed over two million free meals to hungry and homeless folks, so too, in the jumble of your emotions and hungers, there is a person capable of the most extraordinary acts of kindness, mercy, and justice: this is us! We are human, very complicated beings, oh but also so very loveable, filled with such great potential, and capable of life as incarnations of resolute compassion!
Yes, indeed!
Part Five, coming Monday, December 14, 2020
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