Thoughts from the trail...

Here is the guided meditation script. I invite you to read and follow along as you listen...

Today I want to provide you with a practice that will help you cultivate acceptance. 

Compassionate acceptance is one of the keys to freedom and transformation. Before we start this mindfulness meditation I just want to set the table with several quotes from some of my favorite teachers.

The well known Franciscan Priest, Author, and speaker Richard Rohr says, “When we accept what is, letting go of our hope for a different or better past, we are led into much greater freedom. And as long as there is accountability and forgiveness as part of the process, healing will almost inevitably follow.”

Rabbi Rami Shapiro says in his book “Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent.” “Knowing yourself to be what is, you have no need to resist what it is. Without resistance, there is acceptance. With acceptance, there is tranquility. From tranquility, you can engage in whatever you meet with grace, compassion, and love.” P 134 Rami Shapiro “Perennial wisdom for the spiritually independent.”

“As the trance of unworthiness becomes conscious, it begins to lose its power over our lives” Tara Brach Radical Acceptance page 23.

As Brene Brown says in her book The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace “Worthiness Now!’ page 25 We can practice acceptance now! We don’t have to wait for some mystical experience, or until we feel, or believe that we are worthy.

Another quote that is at the heart of this meditation is from page 417 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous...

“And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, situation —Some fact of my life — unacceptable to me, And I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.”

To accept doesn’t mean that you have to agree with what is. Acceptance is conscious consent to allow what is. Also it is to be with your thoughts and feelings. Acceptance is the willingness to BE WITH whatever comes to mind instead of resisting, rejecting, pushing away, or judging.

This meditation is primarily intended to help you accept and allow what is. It’s been said, “that which we resist persists.” Acceptance, on the other hand, as I explained above causes our triggers to lose their power.

During this meditation, I will make some statements that will make you aware of some things that you might not be accepting.  In some cases, I will encourage you to let go of those things. Like waves hitting the shore, accept and let go. Cling to nothing. 

I might name some things that you may or may not resonate with, or may be difficult for you to accept. Whether I name something that resonates with you or not, I invite you to be with each statement and give it your own compassionate presence. 

Finally, we are going to cover a lot of ground. I invite you to get your journal and make a note of the things that resonate with you and then revisit them later. Or, stop the recording and repeat the pattern I am about to tell you about until you sense a shift has taken place. The basic pattern that we are going to follow is awareness, acceptance and letting go. In order to truly let go you may have to do hundreds of rounds of this process mixed with forgiveness, compassion and a vulnerable conversation with a trusted friend.

Let’s begin by practicing with the breath now.

Get comfortable and consciously accept and receive your next few in-breaths and then consciously release and let go of the out-breath. Breathing naturally accept the in breath and let go on the out breath. Accept the in breath and let go on the out breath. Accept the in breath and let go on the out breath.

Accept and welcome what is. In doing so you make peace with the present moment. 

Take a moment to be conscious of “what is” for you right now. Be aware of your surroundings. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel? Accept all things as they enter your awareness. Accepting and welcoming what is, is the heart of this exercise. Use your awareness to accept and welcome what is. 

Awareness and acceptance are a direct challenge to your small self. Your small self is going to push back and say “you can’t just practice awareness and acceptance. There’s gotta be more to it than that.” Accept the challenge! There’s nothing wrong with the small self, it's just not the best version of you. Accept the small self and what it might say to you.

Accept the seemingly good, the bad, and the ugly. Labeling things good and bad and ugly are all just thoughts. They don’t have to define who you are, or the way things are, unless you let them. Accept the seemingly good, the bad, and the ugly. 

To be accepted you don’t have to go anywhere or do anything. You don’t have to be like anyone else. You don’t have to look outside of yourself for acceptance. You can ACCEPT YOU right here, right now. You are accepted.

Be aware of your “ya buts” For example, “I can accept myself as I am, but I find blank (fill in the blank) about myself unacceptable to me.” Whatever you find unacceptable is the source of your suffering. Breathing naturally breath in acceptance and let go of suffering and pain and the crud on the out breath.

I want to invite you to compassionately accept ALL things about yourself even as difficult as that may be.

In this present moment accept yourself just as you are and let go of whatever story that may arise about your past. 

What surfaces for you when I say “accept yourself just as you are?” What thoughts and feelings surface? Can you locate the feeling in your body? I invite you to go to the feeling now with your presence. Don’t resist the feeling. Don’t push it away. With compassion gently allow and  accept it... And now, if you are ready, on and out breath let it go.

Accept that you are human and have a body and physical needs. You need to eat. You need to sleep. You need clean water and fresh air. Don’t deny your own humanity or that of others. You have feelings and emotions that are beyond your control. With compassion gently accept your humanity. 

Sometimes you make mistakes. You don’t do everything perfectly. Think of a mistake that you have made recently. With compassion gently accept your mistake. On an out breath let go of suffering and pain.

What surfaces for you when I say “accept your mistakes and imperfections?” What thoughts and feelings surface? Can you locate the feeling in your body? I invite you to go to the feeling now with your presence. Don’t resist the feeling. Don’t push it away. Gently accept it.  And now, if you are ready, on and out breath let it go. 

Accept that you are worthy. Worthy of life, abundance, love and forgiveness. If it helps, gently say to yourself "I am worthy." x 3

Unworthiness is caught and taught to us in our conditioning as we grow up and then we reinforce it with our thoughts and actions. YOU ARE WORTHY. You were born worthy. It’s not just a cliche. It’s not something that you have to believe. You ARE worthy. Worthiness and acceptance are in your DNA. Worthiness just is. Accept that you are worthy. 

Accept your feelings. Take a look inside your body. What are you feeling right now? Where is the feeling that you identified located in your body? Be with that feeling. Feelings are never wrong,  they just are. Don’t judge your feelings. Accept your feelings. At this moment, accept what is.

Accept your thoughts. Become aware of your thoughts. Listen to the noise going on in your mind. Watch how thoughts come and go when you remain the observer of them. Choosing to watch and listen to your thoughts without judgment or analysis is acceptance.  Accept your thoughts. On an out breath let them go.

Accept your resistance. Observe and welcome any feelings of resistance you might be experiencing right now in your body. On an out breath let resistance go.

Accept your Enneagram number - Ha! I kind of said that as a joke, but seriously accept your personality and your Enneagram number.

Accept that you might not think that acceptance or this meditation is helpful if that is surfacing for you at all. And now, if you are ready, on an out breath let it go.

Do you ever get the feeling or the thought that you’re not getting anywhere on your spiritual journey? Accept that feeling. Accept those thoughts. You are where you are and that condemning voice does not come from who you truly are. You are exactly where you are meant to be in your journey and you are accepted as you are. Accept yourself as you are.

Accept the ordinary, simple, and mundane. What are some of the simple tasks you have to do each day? Can you be present with a hint of delight and compassion while doing them? Accept the ordinary, simple, and mundane. (Don’t let the previous statement about delight and compassion stop you)

Accept Mystery and the fact that there are things you don’t understand or have the answers to. Accept that there are a lot of things you don’t know or understand.

Accept your genius. What is your superpower? What were you put on earth to do? What are your strengths? Accept them! Delight in it! Appreciate your gifts!

Accept your ability to listen and to be compassionate. These are everyone’s superpowers.  Accept them and in so doing you are accepting others.

Accept your quirkiness. Your seemingly weird, not normal you (whatever “normal” is). Accept your perceived outrageous thoughts and actions. Accept your quirkiness.

Accept your finances. Don’t label them good or bad. Offer compassion to where you are at financially and how it makes you feel. Be aware of your thoughts and feelings around your finances and accept them. Doing this is one of the keys to abundance, but do not do this practice to be more abundant or to achieve success. Just accept your thoughts and feelings about your finances. We may have breathe with this one. Breathe in acceptance and on an out breath release whatever feelings you might be having around your finances.

Accept the things out there in the world and in the news that you think need changing, but you have little or no control over. Again, I think we need to breathe with this one! So take a few breaths. Breathe in acceptance and then on the out-breath let go of the desire to change and control whatever comes to mind when I say “Accept the things out there in the world and in the news that you think need changing and you have little or no control over.” One more time. Breathe in acceptance and on the out breath let go of the desire to change the world. This is one of the ways to be “in the world, but not of it.”

This might be a good place to interject that acceptance doesn’t mean inaction. When you act out of acceptance you listen to your body and to wisdom and leave the result up to the Universe. For example, you vote, but you aren’t attached to the result of your vote. As Rabbi Rami says, “you take non-coercive action.”

Accept the help and abundance available to you by the Universe. Be open to your unlimited potential for abundance and joy. Listen for invitations to any sort of action or ideas that surface. If nothing surfaces, accept that too.

Check-in with your body and your mind. Do you sense any sort of FRUSTRATION?  If you do, on the in-breath breathe acceptance into the place in your body where you sense frustration, and on the out-breath let go of FRUSTRATION and say the word as you breathe out. Take another breath and Sigh it out if you have too.

Check-in with your body and your mind. Do you sense any sort of HOPELESSNESS? If you do, on the in-breath, breathe acceptance into the place in your body where you sense hopelessness, and on the out-breath let go of HOPELESSNESS and say the word as you breath out.

Check-in with your body and your mind. Do you sense and sort of DISCOURAGEMENT? If you do, on the in-breath, breath acceptance into the place in your body where you sense discouragement and on the out-breath let go of DISCOURAGEMENT and say the word as you breath out.

Check-in with your body and your mind. Do you sense and sort of JUDGEMENT? If you do, on the in-breath, breath acceptance into the place in your body where you sense judgement and on the out-breath let go of JUDGEMENT and say the word as you breathe out. Again, sigh it out if you have too.

Check-in with your body and your mind. Do you sense anY sort of FEAR OF FAILURE? If you do, on the in-breath, breath acceptance into the place in your body where you sense fear of failure and on the out-breath let go of fear of failure and say the words FEAR OF FAILURE as you breathe out.

Again, you may need to do many, many  rounds of the above to have a lasting impact.

Accept and appreciate the work that has been given to you to do. 

If you are continually in a state of struggle, accept the struggle. Pause and locate the struggle in your body. Welcome and accept the feeling that is there. Accept the struggle and the feeling it produces. And when struggle appears again, greet it with a compassionate presence. Literally love it to death. You can do that with all of the things we are mentioning during this meditation.

Accept and let go of your ego. Breathe in compassionate acceptance and on the out-breath let go of your desires for security, esteem and approval, control, changing and fixing people, places and things. Breathe in and accept compassionate presence in the space that the ego leaves and on the out breath let go of any residual feelings from trying to let go of ego.

Accept your desire to act out - however that may look for to you. Be nothing. Do nothing. Stop trying to overcome your acting out desires with willpower. Accept the desire to act out and let it go. 

Accept your addict. Accept the things you are seemingly powerless over. Accept the help that is available to you. If you feel any powerlessness right now after you have accepted and welcomed the feeling of powerlessness, ask what’s going on? What does your addict really want? How can you nurture and provide what you REALLY NEED in a healthy way instead of feeding the addict? If you want to just feel better, what’s a healthy way you can feel better? If you’re lonely, who can you reach out to and connect with? What does the Universe want to give you? What gift is awaiting you? Accept and observe the lies and the energy of the addict and watch them fade away. “This to shall pass.”

Accept your doubt. Accept the doubt that you can heal or be happy. Accept the doubt that you can live according to your whole self more often than not. Accept that the care and presence of the God of your understanding is available to you 24/7 without conditions. Accept your doubt. And on an out breath, let it go.

Accept your desire to run away from health, happiness, and wholeness. 

Accept your okayness. You could do nothing and be nothing and be okay because who you truly are is Okay. You don’t need to go anywhere. You don’t need to be anything. You are OK right where you are and just as you are. You were born OK and you are still OK. You are perfectly OK in this present moment and you will be OK in the future. If it helps, and as silly as it may sound say to yourself, “I am Okay and I am going to be Okay.” Accept your okayness.

Accept the delight of the Universe. Choose something to be delighted in right now, like taking the time to do this meditation. Accept the delight of the Universe. 

Accept a smile and let it permeate your mind and your body. From the top of your head down to the tip of your toes. Accept a smile and let it permeate your mind and your body. 

Accept others just the way they are. This is a beautiful way to pray for others. A divine gift you can give to others without them even knowing it. Accepting others the way they are creates space and unconditional love. Bring a loved one to mind and accept them just the way they are. Bring someone to mind who you find difficult to love, and if you are willing to do so accept them just the way they are. Accept others just the way they are.

Open your eyes if they’re closed and begin to come back into the room that you are in.

Namaste 🙏 

Rod

How is this helpful?

How is an experience and understanding of Oneness helpful? I believe the discovery of Oneness, the sense and belief that all things are connected, can help heal all things and will help us discover our True Self in some of the following ways…

Your thoughts and actions matter

When I think of Oneness I am reminded that my thoughts and actions matter. If we are inter-connected then what we do has an impact on others whether we recognize it or not. Everything that we think or do is upstream or downstream from someone else or something else including all of nature.

Inter-being automatically means that if we want the world to be a better place we need to act according to our best self as much as we possibly can. Furthermore, if we truly believe that we are interconnected, then we will awaken to the concept that our lives are not only about us. Our lives are about the stream of Life and everything in the universe.

I find that when I adopt the mindset of being one with everyone and everything, thoughts and feelings of separation seem to just evaporate. Just for fun, the next time you go out in the public imagine that you are one with everything you see.  See if you don’t become more present and less judgemental.

It's not easy, but there is hope

I just want to say that I recognize that none of this is easy. Ideally, Oneness is best expressed and experienced in community, and living in a community is damn hard! In reality, Oneness is revolutionary and the odds are stacked against it. It’s not hopeless though. based on my own experience I’ve had real tastes of unity (one of the fruits of Oneness) and coming together in all sorts of settings like sports, church, and business, and I’m sure you have had glimpses of it too. These experiences of unity are an expression of Oneness and they are a powerful and beautiful thing when they happen.

Oneness and the environment

When I think of Oneness I think of the environment and consumerism. Again, my actions such as recycling and consuming less have an impact on the earth and on others. Acting to preserve the environment and to simplify your life are spiritual acts.

Feeling connected

When I think of Oneness I feel more human and connected to others. I recently heard an excellent podcast with astronomer Jill Tarter and host Krista Tippett entitled 'It Takes A Cosmos to Make a Human' in which Jill made a great case for us being one race of people and that is the human race. She wasn’t diminishing our differences, rather she was encouraging us to see our differences inside the circle of our shared humanity and the entire cosmos.

I don’t know about you, but I find it so easy to notice differences instead of the way in which I am connected. I think one of the most powerful realizations we can have is that as human beings we all suffer and are all just doing our best. For me, the recognition of suffering and that we are all just doing our best helps to cultivate compassion, and empathy for myself and others.

Everyone loves

When I think of Oneness it reminds me that everyone loves, and everyone needs to be loved. Nothing is more unifying than unconditional love. When you love and are loved with unconditional love it helps you and others to become whole again. You become One.

'The already and the not yet'

Oneness is one of those concepts that fall under the category of "the already and the not yet." In a sense, as my vision showed me we are all connected; we are all one. But in our experience, actions,  and conditioning we unconsciously perpetuate the illusion of separateness. In other words, it’s not our fault at least until the illusion of separateness is shattered and we see that everything is connected. Then, as our understanding grows we might be asked to do something about it!

Make peace with the present moment

When I think of Oneness it reminds me that I need to be one with the Now which requires me to make peace with the present moment. Being present is the magic move when it comes to Oneness. It’s interesting to me that my vision came to me while  I was trying to be very still and present. I don’t think that was a coincidence. If this was a Divine experience it further confirms to me that God can only be experienced in the present moment. (9)

Quotes

We’re in a spiritual crisis, and the key to building a true belonging practice is maintaining our belief in inextricable human connection. That connection—the spirit that flows between us and every other human in the world—is not something that can be broken; however, our belief in the connection is constantly tested and repeatedly severed. — Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness”

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. — Jesus, John 17:22-23

We think we are separate from other people, and the result is a breach in our knowing of our underlying shared humanity. —David Benner (2)

I am not alone in my tiredness or sickness or fears, but at one with millions of others from many centuries, and it is all part of life. —Etty Hillesum (3)

There are no strangers. . . . If only we could see each other that way all the time. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and “understood” by a peculiar gift. . . . — Thomas Merton (4)

My dear brothers, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. What we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are. — Thomas Merton (5)

The love of God creates in us such a oneing that when it is truly seen, no person can separate themselves from another person — Julian of Norwich (6)

My only prayer practice is attention. I carry on a habitual, silent, and secret conversation with God that fills me with overwhelming joy. — Brother Lawrence (possibly paraphrased?) (7)

[Prayer] is much more like practicing heaven now by leaping into communion with what is right in front of us. — Richard Rohr (8)

At the deepest level, an 'open heart' is spacious presence, in which the sense of separateness between yourself and the 'other' dissolves and there is the recognition of oneness, of shared consciousness. That recognition is love. Sensing the formless essence in another and recognizing it as one with your own essence - that's what love is. All this is an intrinsic part of the awakened consciousness and the revelation of the spiritual dimension of life. — Eckhart Tolle (9)

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I hope this has been helpful. If you want to talk some more about Oneness in a coaching or spiritual direction setting CLICK HERE

View last blog post - Learning to Trust

FOOTNOTES

(1) Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life, ed. Arnold Kotler (Bantam Books: 1991), 95–96.

(2) https://cac.org/oneness-2019-03-29/

(3) Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork (Henry Holt and Company: 1996), 157.

(4) Thomas Merton, Conjecture’s of Guilty Bystander (Doubleday, 1968), 156-158 

(5) Thomas Merton, Address to International Summit of Monks, Calcutta, India (October 19-27, 1968), published in The Asian Journals of Thomas Merton (New Directions: 1975), 51

(6) Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, chapter 65. Rohr paraphrase

(7) Brother Lawrence https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/

(8) Richard Rohr https://cac.org/a-superior-lens-2021-07-16

(9) Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (page?)

Photos Rod Janz