May’s Living Wisdom Questions and Practices

Well, we are still working on our timing here,

but happy to finally be able to write about our new May questions and practices.

I’ll jump right in and keep it simple.

This month we’ve actually decided to take up

three areas of questions

which in themselves form the practice.

In the past months, we’ve chosen one question

and then combined it with different kinds of practices.

Here’s what we’ve been moved by this month,

to take up with earnestness:

Three Questions and The Practice

Every day we ask ourselves three questions, at three different times of the day,

drawing our awareness to what compels us, what fuels us,

what we hold as valuable in our days and our lives.

There are different ways to ask the three questions,

arising out of three themes.

There are different perspectives that can be taken.

That part is up to each of us to discern and decide.

So let me begin.

In the morning, upon awakening, we ask ourselves.

Am I happy?  What makes me happy? 

What is happiness?  When do I feel happy? 

How can I bring happiness to myself and others?

The idea is to explore what it means to be happy,

what happens to each one of us

when we do that, in real time.

The practice is to hold open our sensations,

perceptions and experiences of happiness

in order to form the questions–

questions which can change each day.

By allowing the questions room to grow and flow,

it gives a greater depth and space for awareness

in every moment that we hold it open.

The formulation of the question and the practice of perceiving

and holding it open

is within the presence of  happiness itself.

At noon, we ask ourselves. 

What do I love?  How do I love?  Who do I love? 

What is love?  How do I handle love, give love, receive love?

The practice is holding open the space for all of love to be present

revealing how it lives and grows and shows itself in our days.

By creating our own questions, or upholding these

and watching how insights and intuitions begin to unfold like roses,

petal by petal, moment by moment, person by person,

we are allowing ourselves to see and be and hear and perceive

all the subtleties and delicacies of this undefinable thing called love.

In the evening, we ask ourselves. 

What am I truly grateful for in this day?

Or what brings a sense of gratefulness to my life? 

Or how can I be grateful?  Who am I grateful for? 

The practice is finding that inner place to dwell in gratitude,

to see it, feel it, discover it anew each time,

and understand it in new ways, out of a new awareness,

simply by holding open the space of the questions.

For me,  questions aren’t seeking answers.

They are more like openings into which something new can enter,

something seen, unseen, tangible, subtle.

Imagine stirring water so fast until there is a vortex in the centre,

what enters into vortexes, and questions of openings?

I could say thoughts, or living oxygen, air, words….and that’s the point…..

so many new things can enter, when we are open.

When I was younger, and more introverted,

I would call this inspiration, I had, around asking questions:  Quiet and the Question.

I waited to hear questions as a guiding light for my days and ways of living.

Today, I feel that finding and forming the questions myself, holding them open,

and then practicing staying open with and within them, to them,

in order to be more present in each living moment,

in myself and with others, is essential.

Why?  Because it substantially cultivates,

nurtures, births, renews and creates a living essence of life.

The question itself isn’t really the thing–the question and the answer.

Instead to be willing to be open hearted, open minded,

and willing to participate with deep interest

in how we can create new lives of peace, in love, with gratitude,

happiness, awareness, compassion,

and true concern with purpose, each moment,

with each new imagination, inspiration and intuition,

for ourselves and with others,

is of utmost importance.

 

To be willing to change.  To see the world with new eyes.

To hold and uphold values that cultivate a new culture

dedicated to all the living, breath-filled wisdom around us, seen and unseen,

is, for me, a miraculous opportunity.

And just as there are so many ways to form a question,

there are so many ways to commit to living in peace, in wisdom, in love…..

in joy, in happiness…..

and for me, in my quiet way, I feel it is important

to breathe in and out of our values,

to hold ourselves open to accountable ways of being generous,

becoming evermore aware and awake,

sensitive and conscious of our actions and the outcomes,

every moment, in every day,

the best we can, knowing the world,

our hearts, our intentions, and all the good we radiate

out into the world will eventually find its way into the vortexes of life itself,

into the vortexes of  suffering, happy and undifferentiated human hearts,

into the vortexes of human minds pleasant and unpleasant,

eventually offering love a place to take root,

out of the airborne seeds of light,

right down into the complex networks of cells and dna;

so that true peace will be born,

from the inside out of humanity

aware that we are all in this living reality,

this beautiful living wisdom together.