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Reslience in Challenging Times

3/14/2025

 
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How are you these days? With so much accelerated change and disruption, it can require a lot of courage to keep up, and overwhelm is often only a hair’s breadth away.


It can be healthy to feel upset. It can be healthy to feel grief. Feeling difficult states does not mean there is something wrong with you. And, as I imagine we’ve all noticed, there are more and less skillful ways of being with it all. The less skillful ways tend to lead us further and further down a path of depression and despair, paralyzed by a sense of futility.

The first thing I find I need to do in such times is be still and come home to myself, feeling all there is to be felt. Awareness can be like a safe harbor welcoming in all that feels unsafe, the many sensations like ships returning from the storm. When feeling unsafe, be safety.

If I notice my attention caught up in distressed thinking I track that thinking back closer into the root, and bring whole being presence and acceptance to the direct experience of sensation in the body, for as long as is needed. As we learn to be the sanctuary for our own experience, we learn also how to offer that to others.

In the words of a great Tibetan Buddhist Master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche: "Clarity of awareness may, in its initial stages, be unpleasant or fear-inspiring; if so, then one should open oneself completely to the pain or the fear and welcome it. In this way the barriers created by one's own habitual emotional reactions and prejudices are broken down…This produces a tremendous energy which usually is locked up in the process of mental evasion and a general running away from life experiences.”

When the energy that was caught up in bracing ourselves against our experience becomes liberated, our mind returns to the natural state of curiosity and possibility. Here we can begin to see more clearly into the nature of our own creative agency, and how to bring through some goodness.

Over these last weeks, I found I needed to up level my practice. Dig deeper. Be really honest about habits and limitations. Begin my days in stillness. Listen with my ear close to the ground. Create. Create. Create.

I’ve been sitting with some wise words shared by my teacher Tomas a couple weeks ago: “When the going gets tough, you get what you practice…If I am stuck in feeling battered in negative reactivity and suffering when things are tough, then I need to look at my practices to see what needs to be changed, or strengthened or fine tuned, or perhaps let go of entirely and instead develop new practices that more effectively help me respond to the pressures I feel. How are your practices holding up to these challenging times? So important to be present in this day, this time, this moment. What worked yesterday might not work today, for circumstances have changed and we need to change to meet them.”

This is resilience. A living practice of adaptation and response to change. A native ability to bounce back, to return to love, and to be in service to all that is worthy of our devotion and our protection.
How are you keeping up with the needs of the moment?

Meeting the Moment

3/14/2025

 
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I had a friend reach out about a journey I’m leading in a couple weeks. He’s been going through a particularly rough time in his life and felt curious about what I’m offering but unsure if he had the emotional capacity for more intensity. I get it. I’m guessing many of us can relate to feeling like it’s all too much these days. There's a lot to feel. It can seem overwhelming.

There are times when it’s really wise to recognize that we’re already flooded and we need to find a way to turn down the dial and soothe our frayed nervous system. Time to step away. Take a news fast. Rest. Wrap our blankets around ourselves. Weep. Be simple and quiet.

Sometimes however, like a salmon being urged upstream past a series of waterfalls, the moment we are meeting requires us to lean in with our whole heart. The challenge is calling for more from us. It’s a deeper test of our vision and an opportunity to learn about expanded capacities of courage and perseverance. We’re enough. We have more to reach for and rise in. And in this process we discover how deep the well truly is.

This is the path of initiation. We contract and may become afraid as we’re drawn through the gate, and yet the passage itself, fed by our willingness, leads to a new landscape of wholeness and trust.
How to discern whether it’s time to lean back and rest or lean forward and invoke the warrior spirit?

Deepen our listening. Be willing to tell ourselves the truth and have a keen eye on our own inner bs detector.

Maybe it’s time to rally the warrior. Or maybe you’re just pushing yourself way too hard and you’ll make yourself sick.

Maybe it’s time to pull back. Or maybe it’s just the old addiction to distraction or self-doubt rearing it’s head again.

Who are you Now?

1/11/2025

 
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Who are you now
When you take that final bow
Give it all back to the ground
Who are you now

Whose face do you see
When the crack
it draws you in between
And you remember
all you've been
Who could you be

Anytime could be the last time
We get to say goodbye
What are we feeding
With our precious life

These are made of water
Shining like a river bright
One of these days
they're going to pour back
Into the ocean wide


~~Luke Anderson

Doubt your Doubt

12/31/2022

 
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Doubt your doubt.
Be kind to yourself,
for all our sake.

Doubt the evidence you use to prove
that fear rules the day
and all is lost.


Doubt the voice that says
you’ll never make it,
never have,
the voice that says
you don’t belong,
never did.


Doubt the voice that says
insanity has the power.


These lies live on borrowed time.
They need your daily consent
to keep you captive.
They need your invitation
to occupy your mind and sight.
They need your confusion
to have you believe that you are weak and afraid.


Wake up love!

OK, so you’ve been fooled,
just like the rest of us.
You are also just as worthy as any of us,
just as capable to serve the vast intelligence
and infinite potential of creation,
just as ready to discover this majesty as your true self,
even as you are simultaneously humbled to the core.


Every exhalation
a chance to surrender and release.
Every in breath
an opportunity to open wider.

Fear not, your roots will find their way
to the native trust
that fills every particle
of our one, huge, quiet heart.

Look out at the world from this place
and then tell us what you see.



~Luke Anderson



Sing the circle open wider

8/25/2021

 
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When did the violence start
Who knows who knows
But I know I’ve been a part
The line between good and evil
runs through every heart
Recognize where harm it lies
and listen for the path

Steady as the mountain
willing as the water
forged inside the fire
sing the circle open wider

Ancestor’s swinging swords
carved a river of wounds
and all the love they ever shared
lives now as me and you
How many generations
cut from the ground
Trauma tangled tight amidst the strength
and handed down

So now we meet the tending
of the grieving mending shrine
slow ourselves and feel
until what’s bloody turns to wine
Digging vessels deeper
til the golden thread is found
weave this world a tapestry
with belonging as our sound

Steady as the mountain
willing as the water
forged inside the fire
sing the circle open wider

~~Luke Anderson

Feel it all the way

3/2/2021

 
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Come closer in to the broken heart,
it is love still.
Come closer in to the burning fire,
it is love still.
Belonging means being right where we are
as we're falling.
Life lifts us up and breaks us apart,
it is love still.

Feel it all the way,
let the moment have you.
Stay with yourself don't turn away,
Let the moment have you.
Feel it all the way,
let the moment have you.
Be with yourself don't turn away,
Let the moment have you.

Come closer in to the broken heart,
it is love still.
Come closer in to the burning fire,
it is love still.
Belonging means being right where we are
as we're falling.
Life lifts us up and breaks us apart,
it is love still.

Drop deep darker down the well,
we're not just here to fly
include all the ones you shut outside
the ones in denial and the ones who hide.

Feel it all the way,
let the moment have you.
Stay with yourself don't turn away,
Let the moment have you.
Feel it all the way,
let the moment have you.
Be with yourself don't turn away,
Let the moment have you.



~~Luke Anderson

Resolve

5/3/2018

 
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If life has space for this moment,
then so do you.

If life has already accepted
this moment,
then so have you.

If life is still creating anew,
responding anew,
then so can you.

There is no gap in truth
between life’s capacity
and your own,
fed as we are
by the umbilical cord
tap root
stillness heart
mother of all the worlds.

Everything needed to
love what is in front of you,
behind you,
all around and inside of you,
is right here,
freely given,
exactly as and where
and how and who you are.

Lean in to this life
with radical trust.
Your precise shape
is your simple purpose here.

Set your sight on the invisible tip
of growth’s arrow
and choose alignment
with the visionary streaming,
real world weaving,
of the one eye
intelligence,
awakening.

Our joy in resolve,
a core surrender
in freedom and discipline,
every cell,
every faculty,
willing channels
for the burgeoning momentum
of benevolence in all directions.



~~Luke Anderson

Fertility

5/3/2018

 
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The heart is not a fragile thing
to hide away from this world.

Such a cost in bracing ourselves
against our experience,
keeping our heads
above the surface,
wondering why the desert
comes closer.

Much safer to strip naked,
break into a thousand pieces,
and discover what it is that
we are truly held by.

Grieve well to end the drought.

Water the fields
of all our relations
with these tears,
soften the hardened arteries
of empathic intelligence,
and here
where our rivers converge,
remember our pain is shared.

If you find yourself
in grief’s grey wasteland,
ignore the call to set up home
amidst the bitterness
and half measures,
keep on moving
toward the sword
that would pierce
your whole heart.

Grief unresisted
opens the chest,
til there’s no holding back
the treasure,
the clarity born
of what it is
that truly matters.

All the love we ever knew,
shared,
or even dreamed of,
was never lost.

It is right here now,
overflowing,
seeds to be planted
in the dark soil
at the center of our lives,
made fertile
by our willingness
to honor all that we grieve,
by never taking
this moment for granted.




~~Luke Anderson

Relax Into The Release

1/26/2018

 
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Unbuckle those knuckles
and open to the free fall.
In the grip
of what we think we know
we miss the whole picture.

Unburden us.
We've attended so long
to the madness,
faithful servant
to the map
that held us tight.

Always this moment
time to choose again.
The door is wide open,
but it may not seem so,
the loss of our familiar
felt as robbery.

It takes some native trust
to wander blind into
those hidden places,
alone and friendless
for a while.

Don't hesitate
to remove yourself
from every equation.
Me, me, me is
too poor a bargain
for the heirs
to a transparent universe.
​
Heart broken open
everywhere.
No need to look for ground.
Relax into the release.



~~Luke Anderson

Home

11/10/2017

 
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It's time.
So long outside ourselves,
beside ourselves,
and now we’re returning,
a rare few all at once,
most of us
like layers unraveling
day by day,
year by year.

We leave the maps behind,
trust the instinct
of our star-filled mammal hearts
to know exactly where
and with whom
we belong,
lean into the primal clarity
of yes to this,
or no to that,
or no need yet to know.

Sensing what is true,
discerning what is not,
releasing the habits,
patterns
and choices
that have kept us estranged.

We see through the temptation
to live in threat,
cultivate disciplined relaxation
amidst the storm
lest strung too tight
we miss the simple quiet
that guides the way.

We are willing
to be in the dark,
ready to meet the grief
and shame of generations,
and coming to terms
with the anger and despair.

Running away
has run its course,
a thousand lifetimes
attracted to distraction,
terrified of the core,
distant, walled, apart.

Our intimate intelligence
now inspires and ignites
a thawing of all that froze,
a remembering
of all that fragmented.

We are sanctuaries,
each and every one,
like broad trees we are planted
in the moist earth silence
at the center of the wheel

Here we welcome
each and every traveler.
Undefended again.
Unafraid again.

Imagining movement
that rises in stillness,
awakening wildness,
discovering
we never left,
home always,
our source,
our task,
and our final rest.



~~Luke Anderson

Power

11/10/2017

 
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Less arrogance.
More listening.

If we examine
the nature of the power
we assert when we think
we are right,
what do we see?

Is our power porous,
interested in what we don’t know,
our minds open and curious?

Or are we rigid,
fragile in our so-called certainty?

Is our power married with heart,
flexible, calm, kind?

Or is it a tight shell of fear,
reactive and feeling entitled
to take or hurt,
our voice shrill and forceful?

What do we do
with the social power
we have access to
because of our privilege,
our race, our class, our gender,
our talents, our circumstance?

Do we share this power,
invite in and uplift with it?

Have we believed
somewhere along the way
that any of us can truly win
while another loses?

Are we humble in our power?
not as some kind
of special spiritual ego mask,
but because we have learned
that everything we think we know
can dissolve in an instant?

Are we aware that we are fools
who have stumbled around
in the dark for aeons,
until fortunate enough
to be graced
with moments of wisdom,
now growing
tender buds of discernment,
carried on the backs
of those who walked before?


Has our vision yet revealed to us
the consequences
of our own unconsciousness,
our misunderstandings,
all we once thought we knew?


If so then we have been humbled 
in the awareness 
that our power gives birth 
to more of whatever
state of consciousness 
is driving it.


Unless we are rooted in love
when we express our power
then when we act
we’ll likely be channeling harm,
and there really is no outside
in this world,
it all comes home in the end.

Perhaps we feel
that we are now using our power
for good.
Maybe so.
There are more than enough
opportunities to stand up
in solidarity with the earth,
her creatures and her people.

Let us always remember then
that we live in a hall of mirrors,
that any ignorance we can recognize
in another
has an existence inside each one of us
that needs to be acknowledged
and integrated
if we are really interested
in the healing of the whole.

Let’s not throw our righteousness
around like bullies
because we haven’t yet learned
how to be responsible
for our own pain,
and our own complicity
in that which we seek to change.

There is a transparent power
that is shared with every being
under the sun,
a power not threatened
by appearances,
a power that animates this
and every moment,
steady as a mountain,
quiet in its confidence,
vast as space,
limitless in its potential.

This true power
belongs to none of us
and yet breathes life into us all.
Sharing is its nature.

It doesn't require
our perfection or purity
for us to learn to serve
in this alchemy
of awakened intelligence
for us to learn to cooperate with
the incoming tide
of this evolutionary momentum.
​
What is required
is that we open our eyes and ears,
turn for direction to the wild,
clear and vital,
and stay close to the sincerity
of our deepest heart's yearning.

Less arrogance.
More listening.

Less arrogance.
More listening.



~~Luke Anderson

Joy

11/10/2017

 
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Warmed beside a hearth
of radiant fire,
the center of the wheel,
the home
we share
with each creature
under moon
and sun,
we notice those who glow
with a joy not so shaken
by up and down,
a joy not set apart from grief,
not found in must be must be happy
or any other pretense
at anyone’s expense.

Sensed in their ears
a lifetime of listening.
Seen in their eyes
what it takes to honor the vision.
Heard in their voices
a life filled with willing to be true.
Felt in their touch
a steady heart inspired to move.



~~Luke Anderson

Faith

12/9/2016

 
                                                                                                                         Gratitude for the image :Theories of Light by Jeffrey Smith
Picture


It's one thing to trust
when
 we're flowing downstream,

our hearts buoyant,

choices easy,

effortless cooperation 

in a sweet stream of synchronicity.


How do we fare though

when our way is steep, 


and we meet
 obstacle after obstacle,

only to see the path ahead

lead up a sheer mountain wall?

Do we judge a path to be worthy

solely when it flows with ease?

How would a salmon
answer that question,


or a bird migrating
across entire continents?


There are always deeper tests
of our vision, 


deeper tests
of whatever it is we count on 

to guide us on our way.

At times a lack of flow
can indeed be an indicator 


to help us realize it's time
to release our agenda 


and have the patience
to allow a new pattern to unfold,


a new door to open.

Sometimes though,
relaxing our determination

and our commitment

to a particular direction

would amount to self-betrayal.

At these times warrior lessons 

come thick and fast,


and obstacles are not evidence
of a wrong turn


but an opportunity to learn
about expanded capacities

of courage and perseverance.


If we depend on external signs of ease
for guidance, 


at some time or another
we'll end up lost, 


doubting ourselves
when the sky grows dark


and adversity comes to the fore.

But all of us,
every single one,

are free to know
what truth feels like in our bones


in the silent glow
of our innermost core.


With this core as our rudder,

we can be resolute

no matter the circumstance.

This is the vision, 

the trust in ourselves, 

that can lead us
all the way through.


This is the guide that illuminates
the path worthy of our faith.



~~Luke Anderson


forgiveness

9/21/2014

 
                                                                                           Gratitude for the image Central Neuron by MorpheusZero
Picture
When the pressure builds
and you think you want to blame
someone else,
or even yourself,
breathe into the burning core,
your lungs willing bellows
for the furnace inside.

Offer into this fire
all the ways you know
yourself and other
as victim and perpetrator,
and breathe.

When you open
into the pure sensation,
the full intensity of that which feels
like it could crush you,
you become space.

In this honesty
all stories collapse
into the cauldron
to feed a deeper vision.

Before you have the chance
to see with clarity
you must first admit
you have no idea
what is really going on.

Before you find
your own innocence,
you must first release
your assumptions
about everyone else’s guilt.

So many dead bodies
and tortured souls
on judgement’s
righteous road.

What if there is no outside?

How about we replace
our indignant assertions
with humble curiosity,
claim full responsibility,
each of us,
for our experience,
forgive the world,
forgive ourselves,
return to love,
and then see what happens?



~~Luke Anderson


victory

8/31/2014

 
                                                                                       'Gratitude for the image "one with Nature' by Mukesh Singh
Picture
What do you want?

More than anything,
deep in the heart of your being,
what do you want?

If you surveyed your time
on this earth
from a deathbed,
what would really matter to you?

What are the memories
that would engender
the peace
of nothing essential
left undone,
a life well lived?

Never forget
what is most important to you.

Allow yourself for a moment
to imagine a you
who has held steadfast
to the clarity of your vision,
who has overcome all obstacles
on the path,
who has vanquished all doubts,
composted all darkness
to feed the radiant jewel
of a life giving tree,
your unique offering
to the world.

Invoke this liberated,
potent,
awake
version of yourself.

Right here.
Right now.

Any time you feel the fog
of fragmenting voices,
the hypnotic sleep
of superficial agendas,
any time you lose faith
in yourself
and your commitment
or capacity,
invoke the one
who has already made it through
to the very end.

Let your every cell resonate
with the frequency of victory,
and know
that this is no arrogance.

For if you truly listen
to the deepest aspiration
of your heart,
then what you discover
is that your core desire
is a note that serves
an evolving harmony.

Your love seeks above all
to give itself fully
to the world,
with nothing held back.

When you recognize that you,
and only you,
are responsible
for your choices,
for mastering your experience,
for the life you weave,
for delivering your gift,
then no-one
can hinder you.

We are at all times surrounded,
permeated,
by a great intelligence.

Creation moves
unstoppably
toward healing,
the ultimate revealing of
our magnificence
in the beauty way.

Countless allies
come to the aid
of all who align themselves
with this light.

So offer your willingness
to every step,
however faltering,
with all the sincerity,
strength,
and courage
you can muster.

Though you might be daunted
by all
that would tear you down,
though your willingness
might seem insufficient
for the task ahead,
give everything you are.

Your small willingness
will be met by
an infinite supply,
and you will rise up,
and we will all rise beside you.



~~Luke Anderson


Liberation

7/5/2014

 
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There's a time
in this awakening
to open the chest
and step without even a hint
of defense
toward the dark,
a time
when even the slightest
movement
to rid or to vanquish
will be the very energy
used against you.

There's another time,
however,
when you'll be called
to bare your fangs and claws
and wield a discerning saber
with ferocity,
without hesitation.

Summon your dignity
from the center of the earth
and set loose howling spirit winds
to every last corner.
Clear the table.

When the psychic parasites
try to hang on
with claims that you'll be lost
without them,
command them without pause
to the central sun
to be dissolved.
Return them to essence,
to be born anew
in kinder form.

Learn the value
of guardians
who protect the inner sanctum
from any compromise.

Stand sure
at the center of your mandala.
Claim your throne.
Declare this sacred space
for the benefit of all beings
in the confidence
that you are a lion,
whose claws are sharpened
by the clarity
that only love may enter here,
whose fangs are forged
in the annihilating fire
of infinite light.

Your worthiness
to liberate your body and being,
your place of earth and sky,
comes not from any special favor
or privilege.
This worth, this birthright,
is given freely
and without end
from the deepest source
to every particle of creation,
and all of life celebrates
with you
each moment
you recognize your luminous self
and your truest choice
to live as love.



~~Luke Anderson

Healing the love reflection

3/14/2014

 
                                                                                                                                                       Gratitude for the image ‘Metamorphosis of Narcissus’ by Salvador Dali
Picture
When confidence and calm
collapse,
I sit here
trembling
like a frightened dog,
and I’m unable
to soothe the ache,
attached as it has become
to this mirror of you outside.


But even here,
almost overwhelmed
by the sense of being
a victim and beggar
for love,
even here,
I know I must create.


So in the midst of the shame,
I open
to a hint of light
to make space
for the guidance
I’m barely willing to hear:


“Put down the begging bowl,
cast aside the push and pull
of your demand,
and give your love
to all the ones you believed
you needed it from.”


“Give love, without bargain.
When you give love,
you are love.
Be the spring,
and source,
and gift.”


“Lay down your fascination
with neglect.
Lay down your hope
and despair.
Release us, all your mirrors,
with your generosity.
There is nothing to do but love.”


“With all your heart,
even when it feels
like the most impoverished heart
that ever there was,
even when it feels
like you need another’s love
like parched earth needs rain,
love.
Just love.”



~~Luke Anderson

Allowing

3/2/2014

 
                                                                                                                                               Gratitude for the image Sundrenched moss-covered roots by Jeffrey Friedl
Picture
Rain falls,
and we learn to listen
as the ground
draws us in
to moistened roots.

When there are no words,
no answers
to all the questions,
savor the quiet
and rest
as the empty space.

Allow the out breath
to have its time.
Be still.
Trust.
New life arrives by itself.



~~Luke Anderson


Union

2/14/2014

 
Picture


Have you noticed life
is making love with you?

Are you now penetrated,
to the very deepest reach
of your being,
by her breath?

Are you discovering
that so-called ordinary pleasures,
a taste,
a view,
the contact as you lean your head
against a wall,
that all of these
can be ecstasy beyond compare?

Tire soon, beloved,
of the endlessly
disappointing story
in which you wait
for a special someone
to free you
from the imagined separation
between yourself and the all.

You may indeed experience
a temporary release
from isolation
if and when
you encounter another
who also seeks the same,
but as long as you both believe
yourselves incomplete
without the other,
you will lose again
the sacred garden
before long.

The hole inside
that you have been
so afraid of,
dearest one,
and taken as evidence
that you need to be
rescued by another,
this emptiness isn’t in fact
something to fill,
but rather
an open doorway
to intimacy
with the whole universe.

When you find out
for yourself
what is at the heart
of your loneliness,
rather than trying
to seduce another
to fill it
with the fantasy
of a perfect embrace,
you’ll discover we’ve been
in union
with the master lover
all along.



~~Luke Anderson

Trust the Passage

1/17/2014

 
                                                                                                                                     Passage out of the initiation chamber at Newgrange, Bru Na Boinne, Ireland
Picture

Utterly lost,
we knew for sure
we needed to find our way.
Unable to hide
from total failure,
we were humble enough
to receive.
Allowing ourselves
to be broken,
we discovered the whole.


Drink deep
of the medicine in our darkness.
Better to be unravelled by grief
than holding back the tears.
Better falling to your knees
and clawing at the earth
than cold with tight lips
and sarcastic commentary.


Be unafraid
of the full breadth
of your experience.
Travel to the very end,
beyond notions
of what you can tolerate.
Whatever you do,
don’t stop halfway
through the passage.
Don’t settle
for the minor improvements,
the better shade of grey.


Keep on heading toward that
which fills your body with trust.
Every cell in you will sing
as you get closer.
Your eyes clear,
your heart wide,
and you, free, a blazing sun,
filled with the joy that comes
when you find
what you are here to give.



~~Luke Anderson

In Praise of the Dark

12/20/2013

 
                                                                                                                                                                                       gratitude for the image by Maria Rikteryte
Picture
I bow to the dark womb
where all grow,
from which all receive
their nourishment,
and to which all return.

As long as we keep chasing
light out there,
afraid of the dark within,
we'll remain in exile,
bound by myriad confusions.

There is a question
with the power to liberate,
a question which if followed
all the way through,
with devotion and courage,
carves a pathway home.

“Who am I?
To whom,
or to what,
is this experience occurring?”

Here we find

that every idea of self
is an object of awareness.

Discover the subject.

To do so,
we have to be willing to admit
the entirety of our ignorance,
to become intimate
with all that we fear,
to forgive ourselves the suffering
caused by misidentification,
and dissolve entirely
into the void.

When we realize ourselves
as no-thing
we meet the greatest relief.
And when, as that no-thing,
we look out at the world,
we see ourselves
everywhere,
all being one at last.

In this love we know
that light is born in the dark,
movement in the unmoving,
sound in silence.

Here we are free to give

and include
all that we are.

~~Luke Anderson


Gratitude

11/22/2013

 
                                                                                                                                                                       prayer offering on the Ganges river
Picture
The wind and branches whisper
of a grand conspiracy:
everything and everyone
secretly aware of the plan
to wake you up,
to reshape your misery
in the form of endless gratitude.

Be glad that you suffer
when you veer off course,
it’s a true kindness
that helps us remember.

You’ll recognize the way
when you can be thankful
for the pain
that opens your heart,
thankful for your birth
and each breath
that gives you this moment
to love,
thankful for death
that reminds you
to take nothing for granted,
thankful for darkness
that reminds you
through contrast
what you really want
to choose,
and thankful
that no matter what we do
or have done to us
whatever lives
is still made of light.



~~Luke Anderson

Die Before You Die

10/31/2013

 
Picture


Who were you
before your parents were born?
Who are you now
before you believe
that thought?

There is
an imposter in the house.
He terrified your ancestors too.
With many names
he feeds on your fear,
is nourished
by your sorry stories
of better or worse,
of me against you.

There is a short cut,
a way through
this ancient suffering.
Short,
because there's no distance
between the beginning,
middle
and end of this passage
and who you already are.

But it's a deep cut,
a flaming sword
that will take your head
and feed it to the lions,
releasing your heart
to sprout new eyes
that can see
and ears that can hear.

Die before you die.
This is the miracle of life.

Die before you die.
This very moment,
every moment,
give up your fight
against mortality.

With every ounce of your being
bring yourself completely here.
Abandon your distaste
of this earth
and the guaranteed end
of your body.

You come from the stars,
but every world is a true home.

It is only when you meet death
exactly as it is
that you will know the difference
between the vampire
that sucks you dry,
and the eternal light
of the present.



~~Luke Anderson



Vision

10/3/2013

 
Picture

There is a song
that sings to me
with nectar of sweet beginnings.
It honors all
with ears to hear
by bowing
to the end of fear.


I love you
with an endless stream
of hummingbirds
with velvet wings.
The stars pour down
their simple grace.
The moon reminds us
with her face.


There’s death
for joy to heal our life.
There's light enough
for us this night.
The one who weaves
this dance is true,
this vision
offered now to you.


I love you
with an endless stream
of hummingbirds
with velvet wings.
The stars pour down
their simple grace.
The moon reminds us
with her face.


~~Luke Anderson



Possibility

9/15/2013

 
  
                                                                                                gratitude for the image egckiller
Picture

In an instant,
our stories collapse
into a field
of infinite possibility,
and all is still.

We land at last
in our own skin
and there is nothing wrong
with these tender, porous,
earthy creatures.

Stunned by the immensity
of lifelong misperception,
we are finally relieved of
all that kept us apart.

Here we find
what it means
to be truly in awe,
fully alive in the heart
of an open moment.

We see each other
as if for the first time,
no gap between us,
no thought believed.

Remind me,
brothers and sisters,
when I fall asleep again,
imagining I know
who you are,
or what is possible for us.

Remind me to throw away
every one of those tired filters
and step across the bridge again.



~~Luke Anderson



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    Contents

    All
    Allowing
    Belonging
    Confidence In No Control
    Die Before You Die
    Doubt Your Doubt
    Earth Day
    Faith
    Fertility
    Forgiveness
    Gratitude
    Healing The Love Reflection
    Home
    In Praise Of The Dark
    Joy
    Liberation
    Mother Of Us All
    Passion
    Possibility
    Power
    Resolve
    Sovereignty
    Strength
    The Great Choice
    Trust The Passage
    Union
    Victory
    Vision

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