“Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.” — Thich Nhat Hanh But sometimes the sun is blinding, isn’t it? We can’t look at it directly, though we may want to. And when we try, we look quickly away. Awareness can hurt. It can be too much to observe ourselves and the world around us. There are truths the body needs to approach slowly or through something that helps us see. Like special glasses to observe an eclipse. When I re-read Hanh’s quote, I replace the word sun with Son and something else is illuminated for me. The light is different. I'm not outside of myself. I'm inside the sun. Write three lines.

when everything around you is stirred? There’s a story in the Gospel about Jesus and the apostles in a boat in the middle of a raging sea. His followers are panicking. Jesus is sleeping. He’s still, inspite of what is thundering around him. The mind is that sea. It roils and rises, stirring up all the gook on its bottom. Rife with sharks and scary things. One thought catches another and before long our whole world is churning. How does one stay still within its midst? Yoga Sutra 1.2 has an idea. Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ This sutra is often translated as: Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind. But “yoga” is not forcing the mind to be empty. It’s noticing what is moving and returning to the deeper presence beneath it. Be still and know that I am. Jesus wakes and says to the storm, Peace, be still. And it stills. But for us, the practice begins before we can say anything to the storm. It begins in noticing whether we have become it. It begins with awareness, with self-study, and with daily practice. Jesus modeled how to meet the storm. He fasted. He prayed. He held space for others. Through his service—what in yogic philosophy we might call Bhakti—he brought people back to a deeper understanding of what life could be. He brought them to that still point. Peace. A place in us. Not something we force. The Sutra and the Gospel meet in lived experience: when we stop feeding every thought wave, we can remember the deeper water beneath it. Just for today, when the mind begins to churn, I can pause. I can say quietly: Peace, be still. Where are you right now?

Ultimate supreme/Source/God's power is hidden in this illusion/Universe, a force controlled by Consiousness... This divine power can manipulate reality, making rivers flow in two directions, causing the sun to appear twice, enabling you to be in two places simultaneously, or even allowing an elephant to pass through a needle. All these feats are possible because consiousness governs this illusion, performing these miracles daily. He can vanish the world from your perception during deep sleep, transform a beggar into a king in dreams, and vice versa. He has the ability to instil happiness in those with minimal possessions and induce despair in the wealthiest individuals....

After Alphonso’s share about the way a single stone creates ripples, I wanted to offer a breath practice to sit with that image a little longer. This is a different way of doing Bellows Breath. Normally I’d tell you to do this seated, so you can feel the whole circle of breath moving outward from your center. But lying down on my back after a long walk in the Florida sun, I could feel the concentric circles more clearly. On my walks along the marina in my neighborhood, I purposefully look for the circles left by dolphins. I thought of this as I breathed. The rise for air. The brief arc of descent and the widening circles left behind. It informed today’s practice. Funny how nature does that! So here’s a different way to work with Bellows Breath: - Inhale through the nose and visualize the breath rising through the central channel. Feel the lift of prana, the upward movement of life force. - Exhale through the nose on the “descent” and visualize concentric circles moving outward from the center of you. Allow yourself to gently push out the exhale, feeling into this widening response. If you’re lying down, notice how this can be felt in the back ribs, the side waist, the back of the heart, even the places that usually stay a little hidden from awareness. Let the inhale rise. Let the exhale ripple. Notice how one movement creates another. How the body receives ascent and descent. Practice this for 1–3 minutes and then rest for a moment. Notice what is still moving after the breath settles. (Or, if you're like me, use it to fall asleep!)

Like a stone dropped in the river and creates ripples in all directions, the One becomes the many!...those ripples can intersect and create new ripples and get fooled or fool other ripples into assuming or give the illusion of the source of the initial drop that created the original ripple...it becomes an endless search by primary & secondary ripples of seeking the original ripple...an intelligent one shouts, all ripples are the river 🤔, yes true, but the thought of the cycle ⭕️ of who created the river and the ripples or the stone or even where the stone came from, spirals 🌀...