lara simmons

"When in doubt MEDITATE . " --Monk who taught a meditation class I attended at Whistler many years ago Good Morning One and All! Today I would like to let you know about two new meditation Meetup groups I am starting this fall. If you are interested in meeting with others to meditate as we approach the dark days of winter, please join us!  The first is a Violet Flame Meditation Group . I have talked about the Violet Flame Meditation before on this blog (see post here ), but briefly, the Violet Flame Meditation was gifted to the world by Ascended Master Saint Germain for the purpose of transmuting negative energies. We will be meeting bi-weekly on Wednesday evenings (7:00 PM Pacific Time) to practice this meditation and to support each other in releasing any negativity we are experiencing in our lives. For more information or to join our Meetup Group, please click here . The second group is the Being & Becoming Women's Meditation Circle and will also meet on Wednesda...

          Once upon a time there were two siblings who lived together in their father's house. Upon the death of their father it was his wish that they split all of his assets fifty-fifty. When the time came, they divided his houses, his livestock and his money equally.           After this was done, however, they discovered two rings which had not been mentioned in the will. The first ring was made of pure gold, encrusted with diamonds and it sparkled from a great distance. The second ring was made of plain silver. It was old with many scratches and any shine it may have had at one time was long gone.           The older sibling immediately took charge and said,  "As the oldest one in the family the gold ring should be mine, I will give it to my oldest child when the time is right."   The younger sibling did not complain and so ...

Today was supposed to be the day my next book, "28 Days of Stillness," came out. However, based on some feedback I have gotten, it just isn't done. While "finishing" it, I had the feeling that it needed something more, but I wanted to be "done," and so I didn't listen. I pushed. I rushed. And now I need to take a step back, reassess, and start again. A moment of stillness This time of year is good for that. Winter can feel so hard - the cold, the dark, the wet - but it can also be an opportunity, an invitation, to go within, to pause, and to find stillness. I cannot offer you a new book today, but I can offer you this: an invitation. Spend some time today (the shortest of the year), in stillness. Allow what wants to be felt time to be felt. Allow what wants to come up, to come up. And allow what wants to be let go, to go. Breathe. Trust. Allow. Stillness is perfect for this.  

"To listen well, we must attend both to the words and the silence between the words."  --William Issacs in "A Matter of Spirit," the  Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center  quarterly newsletter Listening well is not easy, but it is a skill that can be developed with a willingness to learn and some practice. One of the techniques crucial to being a good listener is shutting the hell up. Also known as pausing. It is easy to get on a roll during a conversation and forget to pause and listen to the other person. This can be especially hard after asking a question. My husband takes a lot longer to answer a question than I do and it can sometimes be excruciating to wait (and wait....and wait....and wait....) for his answer. But it is important to do so. If you think you may need practice, watch the video above and listen for the birdsong. If it is hard for you to wait to hear it, pausing during conversations with others may be an important skill for you to ...

Continuing on with the theme for the week - RELATIONSHIPS - I want to share with you another quote that is really speaking to me today. It is from Deepak Chopra's book "Buddha," which is a fictionalized account of the Buddha's life. In this passage Buddha is speaking to his disciple Assaji: "When you're obsessed with hatred for someone, it's inevitable that you will return one day as his disciple." “Master, I just hope he's better when he comes back,” Assaji said doubtfully.  “He will be arrogant and proud,” said Buddha, “But it won't matter. The fire of passion burns out eventually. Then you dig though the ashes and discover a gem. You pick it up, you look at it with disbelief. The gem was inside you all the time. It is yours to keep forever. It is buddha.”  I have been struggling this week with hatred so this passage really spoke to me. Earlier today I did a meditation in which I spent time inside my heart feeling the hatred and...

"This is the Zen approach: nothing is there to be done. There is nothing to do. One has just to be. Have a rest and be ordinary and be natural."  -- Osho Turns out, I had kind of a hard time RESTING. I kept finding myself DOING. DOING some writing. DOING some Twitter . DOING some marketing for my book . Luckily I had a silent retreat planned for the upcoming weekend. On Friday afternoon I drove to St Andrews House retreat center to participate in a 40 hour do-it-yourself silent retreat with a group of women from Seattle Unity . We had been planning the retreat for a few months and I was really looking forward to it. I arrived a bit harried on Friday night, having hit quite a bit of traffic on the way over, just in time for dinner. I threw my things into the last available room and went right to dinner. After dinner was the ritual to begin the silence and it wasn't until this ended that I could really relax and think about what I wanted my 40 hours of sile...

"Close your eyes  and just BE."  --From "Write Your Life!" Welcome to Week One of WRITE YOUR LIFE! Before you get started, here are a few things it will be handy to have as you move through this process: A journal. Your favorite pen.  A meditation timer.  A quiet spot to meditate.  If you don't have one or more of these things, no biggie, just do the best you can with what you have and you will be just fine. Now let's get started!  Week one is about BEING . Just BEING . That's it. In the fast-paced, ever-changing world we live in how often do you take the time to just BE? Not very often I would wager. So give it a try this week.  First find a comfortable position, sitting cross-legged on a pillow or blanket, or in a chair with your feet flat on the floor, or even lying down with your arms at your sides and your legs splayed out in front of you (in corpse pose ).  Once in position, take ONE DEEP BREATH . Brea...

Even a tree as tall as this one once was is not permanent, AND from this stump now grows a brand new tree "We all develop addictions as a way of avoiding the realities of impermanence and loss."  --Satya Robyn Impermanence and loss. These are  the realities of our human life. And they are hard realities to live with day in and day out for decades (if we are lucky). I agree with Satya that it is out of avoiding these realities that we develop addictions and, ironically, I have found that it is only in facing these realities on a daily basis that we can begin to let our addictions go. Facing the realities of life and beginning to absorb the fact of impermanence and loss, the constant shifting and changing, the impossibility of ever really grasping and holding onto anything (a job, a relationship, a friend, a home) is what ultimately allows us to begin to let go of our addictions and to truly enjoy our lives, every precious fleeting moment. Today I invite you to ask yo...

"Your body speaks to you. LISTEN."   --Inna Segal Try connecting with your body again today through this meditation . What is the message your body has for you today?

My sister, feeling FREE! "Freedom is about cutting off and eliminating a rigid persistence of basic needs. If you are hungry, you want food; if you are cold, you want clothing; if you are sick, you need your mother's and father's love. As you grow older, these many needs accumulate in the heart and mind to trigger emotions, creating every kind of possible sorrow. Freedom is about letting go of all of these attachments, all of these figments of the mind." --Nassim Assefi, “Aria” Wow! I LOVE this quote so much. It pretty much sums up why I began my spiritual journey in the first place - to find FREEDOM. From my Ego, from my many wants and desires, from my resistance to what is, and from the sorrow I cause myself and others because of these "figments of the mind." It is also a powerful quote for us to contemplate this week as things may start to get a bit more squiggly and difficult in our abstinence practice. When you deny yourself the thing you are a...

True confession time. I had grand plans for this post before our 30 Days of Forgiveness began. I was going to have a downloadable copy of my version of The Violet Flame meditation available for anyone who is participating. I was even hoping to record an MP3 of the meditation that I could make available. But here I am, the day before the post is scheduled, and I have neither of those things done nor the time to do them today. Last night I did the Violet Flame meditation before I went to sleep and asked to know what this post should look like when I woke up this morning. And this is what I got: Tell the truth. Forgive yourself. Let it go. So, that's what this post is all about. I didn't get any of these things done, however, I do have some information to share about the Violet Flame so here goes..... Another great way to do forgiveness work, is to use The Violet Flame Meditation . The Violet Flame Meditation was given to mankind by Ascended Master Saint G...

"Just let things be, just as they are." --Evie Chauncey, Assistant Teacher at the NW Vipassana Center Whew! It's good to be home. My intention was to start blogging immediately upon my return, sharing all the insights and inspiration from my latest ten-day retreat , but The Universe had other plans.... If I recall correctly, last year it took me a few days to "plug back in" also and I had a hard time writing about the experience. Oh how I wish I had now. Last year is, in my mind, a lovely memory of a week of great peace and discovery and ultimately, a greater awakening. The things I remembered were the food (delicious!), the walks (peaceful), the naps (also delicious). The harder things are fuzzier in my mind: the early rising (4:00am), the hours of sitting with your legs crossed (painful), and the mind-numbing boredom that sometimes creeps in after 90 minutes (or sometimes 9) minutes of meditation. This year was harder. Much harder. Not being new ...

"Change begins within." --David Lynch

"We are the custodians of our inner world." --David Pond

"It's not about escape, it's about experience." --The Universe

"The precondition to sensitivity is stillness. In the same way that a pond on a still day will visibly register the smallest insect alighting on its surface, but on a windy day it won't, our ability to feel the whole is directly proportional to our ability to become still within ourselves." --Phillip Shepherd

"Breath is the power behind all things. Your breath doesn't know how old you are; it doesn't know what you can't do. If I'm feeling puzzled or my mind is telling me that I'm not capable of something, I breathe in and know that good things will happen." --Tao Porchon-Lynch (a 94-year-old yoga instructor)

"One's heart is the only safe place to be. There's light there, there's company, and quiet." --Anne Lamott

"I think no thoughts, and thus am free...." --The Universe

"Sit down, shut up and pay attention." -- James Ishmael Ford