Dear Yogis,

In our teacher training sessions, and these blogs we have spoken of giving.  To give, you need to be a WARRIOR, because you need to overcome imprints in order to give, and the object of your giving must do the same. You give, they receive… sometimes receiving is harder.

Imagine you are walking across a lawn and you are about to step forward and you notice a bug in the grass.  You almost step on it when it opens its wings and flies off.  Or, you notice nothing, and you step on it.  What has happened here.  A number of things you might find difficult to think about.

Firstly we have karmic imprints but the bug does also! You could not have hurt her unless the had an imprint in her own mind that would force her to see herself being hurt.  As we have learned this imprint was caused when in her past she  had hurt someone else (yes, even bugs or smaller).  You could not have hurt her if she did not have this imprint in her mind.  You would have raised your foot to stand on her and she would have flown away unharmed.

So in sparing the bug you gave her nothing.  You did not protect her.  Nothing depended on your action. EVERYTHING DEPENDED ON THE IMPRINTS SHE HAD IN HER MIND ALREADY.

In the same way if we understand things in this way, any person’s poverty or life of pain cannot be changed unless they learn to give, because the poverty or any other negative experience is a direct result of their own lack of charity.  Their negative karmic imprints…..

When you have reached a state of perfection you will travel through the world constantly looking out for people who need your help, anyone you can serve in any way, from the price of a cup of coffee to the highest gifts of the spirit.

The way of the Warrior or the way of the Fool.  Your choice.  Life is not an obstacle course littered with unpleasant people and things and situations that you must try to struggle against.  Being angry about where you find yourself is the source of your pain.   You cannot get rid of all the unpleasant things in your life any more than you can cover the earth in leather to make walking across it easier.  There is the benefit of honest, of being sincere when someone has hurt you.  Be patient, be kind keep a level head – anger is a useless emotion.  My mum told me “If you are wrong you cannot afford to be angry, when you are right, there is no need”. 

The wise suffer during their spiritual studies.  If you seek only comfort, you will never be wise.  Use your pain as a skill that will serve you.  Find joy in everything you do, even when things are difficult, painful. This does not mean “pink clouding”.

We will speak tomorrow.

Go to CLASSES above to discover when our classes are happening, and the covid restrictions and requirements that apply.

KEEP WELL, KEEP WARM.

NAMASTE – JAHNE

 

Dear Yogis,

We have been holed up with Covid, and may have to go through it again before this cycle is over, until we have learned what we need to know.  If you had to choose one action which would produce an entirely perfect future, if you had to choose one thing which would leave an imprint on your mind that would make you see every single detail and person of the world as completely perfect, as pure light, as pure bliss then what would it be.  Answer –  Tong-Len Meditation. The meditation of pure compassion.

Let us consider Covid.  What would be the good of that perfect world, the perfect garden you have created,  if the loved ones who have passed on cannot see it.  What good is a garden if you are the only one who will ever see it.  If you have made it just for you?

When the suffering (of friends, relatives or the world) started,   when the virus started to effect the brain, invade the gut and shut down the lungs, was/is there anyone who can wave their arms and say a magic word and remove this sickness? I don’t think so.  Not for these people, or for any of the suffering in the world,  anyone,  as long as humanity has lived, and that is what this wonderful little being, the virus has woken up to teach us.

What has caused these people to be ill and die? A virus?  It is a living being and has as much right to life as you do.   According to our yogic training we have learned it is because  at some point those who are suffering now, however they are suffering, any suffering not just covid,  failed to respect life.

We suffer because we have caused suffering to others.  Most of us are completely ignorant that this is what brings us suffering, and because finally, in seeking to protect what we believe are our own interests we respond to evil (the negative) with new evil, and thus assure evil upon ourselves in future as well.

How do we know this?  It is the kindness of our teachers, of all teachers (including you who are reading this) who have come to us to show us that the real source of all pain is the pain we do to others.

Why do we come to you, why do you come to others? We come to make our students think.  I suppose we could have lulled you into the thought that all will be well without you changing anything, without you doing contemplation, study, practice and discussion.  It is not possible.  You cannot understand just because I understand.

Even if we could send everyone who suffered those THINGS they think they need, the new house, clothes, cards and mountains of food they consume in a lifetime, even new body parts, would it help?  No.  There is only one thing that would help, and that is an enlightened teacher. Someone who could show them the path.  They may not take the path in this lifetime, and they might hate you for showing them the path, but one day in the future, maybe in a future lifetime,  they will become an Enlightened One because of your action and they will lead another onto the path.

How do we grow an Enlightened One? By planting totally PURE seeds in the heart, the mind and the body that will make us see ourselves become an Enlightened One.  The Meditation of Compassion is the Path to compassion itself. Sending the water of compassion to all those who are suffering – sending it all out with white light on the breath.  Devote yourself to the practice of taking and giving throughout the day, saying to yourself constantly throughout the day “giving and taking”.  Sending the breath out changes the giver as well as the receiver even if we cannot see the changes.

First you must tidy your own garden, make your own garden beautiful, before you can change the garden belonging to others.

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY.

NAMASTE.  Jahne

 

Dear Yogis,

I was so excited I couldn’t wait to share this with you….

It is a beautiful day, and I thought I may go out in the garden this afternoon, if I have done all the writing I need to do.  I am getting the garden ready for my new bee colony arriving in spring, even getting bee friendly plants growing so that they will feel at home and loved.

A friend gave me a bee book (by Bee Wilson), and although I was reluctant to have another book to read (they are piling up whilst I am stuck on Beatrix Potter), imagine my surprise and delight on flipping through and discovering a paragraph on “honeydew” (honey from heaven).  

Last summer I told you about the connection I had made between the sugar exuded from aphids on certain trees in the garden and a wasp invasion.    I had discovered this “rain of sugar”  whilst sitting meditating under the tree with the wasps. The wasps were so busy with their collection, they couldn’t be bothered with me sitting in their space, and I enjoyed observing their behaviour around this particular tree.  I couldn’t find any literature on this phenomenon, and no-one I spoke to had an inkling about it.  I knew I couldn’t be the first to observe it, but I didn’t know what they were enjoying had been discovered and was known historically “honey-dew”.

In 1634 a Mr Charles Butler wrote about it  and called it “the sweetest nectar which God doth distill miraculously out of the air”  He noticed it occurring on oak trees, I haven’t seen it on oak trees, but I certainly pay attention now.  Once I had got the right word for the miracle called honeydew, I could research and found  it was also noticed by Galen in AD129.  He said that the people of MtLibanus would spread animal skins on the ground to collect this “air honey” as it fell off the trees.

When I first discovered it last summer and followed the trail I realised it was being produced by grey black aphids being “farmed” by ants on certain trees around the pond.  The aphids produced a honey tasting substance which fell like fine rain drops on me as I sat under the tree.  It was this that attracted wasps to the garden.  But the ants and aphis are determined to collect this sugar, and I have to brush the trees down daily to keep the aphid population down, and the wasps away. Butler and Galen were  being very biblical in their musings, but it is actually a whole lot less appealing.  It is actually aphid poo.  

Apparently there are people who consider it a delicacy and it can be purchased at great expense at gourmet honey retailers.  They market it as “heavenly sweat” as I presume “heavenly poo” would be a whole lot less appealing.  Once you know what it is it really does taste like what it is.  Yes, it is sweet, it is also “woody” or you could call this taste “poo’ey” and there is some doubt about whether it is really fit for human consumption.  In my garden, the rain is not heavy enough that I could be bothered to lay out skins to collect it which is probably good  because I would, but I have honey, so aphid poo is not a sugar source I rely on..

Take advantage of COVID.  When you slow down, take time in the garden, and really pay attention to what is happening around you, it is amazing what you can discover.  Go sit in your garden (rug up, it is cold out there).  

Have a gorgeous day.

NAMASTE  JAHNE