Thinking About the Web of Great Mystery

Moses Shongo's 'Pathway of Peace' meditation invites us to place our being on a very specific path, and on specific stones on that path leading to the  summit of  Great Mystery.  The 'Web of Life' is Great Mystery's web, Creator's web, Creation's web.  Our personal webs are but one among many. Creation is a web of webs. Yes, we are all connected.  We are all interconnected on the bigger web of Creation.

Self-reflection: I am a human being. I have been placed on the infinite web of Creation.  I have a specific place here on this web. I arrived with a path for my unique 'being', with nearly infinite possibilities.  I choose the steps to take on my path.  As part of the greater Web of Life, I will get input along the way re 'my path, my web'.  How discerning am I as to the source of the input? What/who supports my being? What/who diminishes and harms my being?

Gifts of the Cycles of Truth: The Pathway of Peace Meditation

This is a reading of the Pathway of Peace Meditation pages 95-97 in Honoring the Medicine by Kenneth Cohen

Pathway of Peace Meditation


Self Reflection:  Listen to the meditation, familiarizing yourself with the seven stepping stones and their gifts.  It is suggested you take 30 seconds to a minute (or more) at each of the steps to fully integrate the fullness of each stone along the path of the meditation.  This will require pausing the video and taking all the time you need/want before proceeding.  Alternately, over the course of a week, meditate with one of the pathway stones on each of the seven days.

Love Truth and the Way of Our Mind PART TWO

Carolyn Shares: As I sit in meditation and continue watching the thoughts of my mind, always inviting her toward stillness, the flavor of her thought patterns becomes clear. My mind has a story, a number of stories. I recognize these stories aren’t necessarily true. They have been created by my beliefs, which are based largely on my past experiences, things other people have told me, and my observations (which are colored by my experiences, beliefs and information received from others).  As I become aware of the origin of the stories of my mind, I recognize my own influence on my mind’s patterns. What I feed my mind reflects my how I love and care for her. Do I fill her with experiences and images that inspire, uplift and grow? Or do I feed her violence, resentment and fear, a need for power and control?

Self Reflection: To love my mind is to treat her well, and to nourish her with supportive food for thought. To love the Truth of her as she is moment to moment, requires I am willing to see my part in how I have encouraged both her loving and destructive qualities.

Love Truth and the Way of Our Mind

Jamie Sams story of 'Loves All Things' (The 13 Original Clan Mothers)  tells of the destruction we are all capable of when we fail in our ability to truly love ourselves. We falter in our efforts because we have lost awareness of what is the Truth/the much larger picture of our experiences). This is a powerful cautionary tale of despair, destruction and redemption. It is worth reading. 

Our mind is a powerful vehicle for either embracing Truth or obsessing over inaccurate thoughts patterns of a self-created reality. 

How do we know obsessive thought patterns are inaccurate?

• They have a compulsive and intrusive quality. We think of them repeatedly, even when we don't want to.
• Their dominance in our life drives decisions that nearly always end in a bad outcome.
• They support and are justification for destructive actions.
• They tend to exclude others or be against others rather than being inclusive and receptive.
• They encourage us to be defensive and resentful.

Are these are symptoms of an 'unloved' mind? Maybe so. They certainly are symptoms of a mind that has not been provided the support and resources needed to know, receive and experience a Whole Truth.  

The way of shifting the mind's patterns of thinking is very simple, but not easy, as an habituated mind will resist any change that it perceives threatens 'taking care of 'itself'. Just as with our body, we begin by actively and consciously loving our mind. This process of expressly loving our mind is different then our practice of listening to our body. Learning to love the truth of our mind is not through listening to her (we already do that and have, no doubt, experienced the chaos this can cause). Rather, it is by our consistent and deliberate guidance of our mind that we are invited to go ever deeper underneath our thought patterns to know and reveal our Truth. If this sounds like a meditation practice--it is exactly that!

Self Reflection: Am I willing to consistently and deliberately guide my mind toward a larger Truth?

The Lesson of the Waning Moon

Lesson of the April's Waning Moon: Let your mind and heart come together to bring into focus what you most need to learn from this cycle of See Truth. Review your recent journal writings, or spend time reflecting on the revelations of your prayers and meditations from the past month (or the recent worries and ruminations of your mind).  What new ways of seeing yourself are called for? What new ways of seeing others? What new ways of seeing the world? Know too, that there are ways where your vision of self, others and the world is solid, carries full integrity and truth. Honor the wisdom you already hold; open to the wisdom being revealed and brought into focus. The eyes of see truth reveal wondrous visions of what is manifesting to those who are willing to see through them.

Self Reflection:  How are the lessons of April's moon cycle working in me?