Greetings and blessings friends.
May today greet you with happiness.
May you rise with health.
May you feel peace in your heart.
In the United States we observe a holiday honoring veterans.
It falls just a few weeks before our holiday of Thanksgiving.
The history of celebrating Veterans Day originated following our first World War.
It's appropriate I feel to acknowledge this holiday the same month as the month of Thanksgiving.
In honoring our memories it's important to understand our perceptions and how the mind has maybe filled in the gaps and spaces with some romantic ideal.
It may or may not be reality.
In my own experience as a veteran I can say there is no greater love than shown by one man or woman willing to commit his or her life to another.
This service is something to honor.
It doesn't have to come from veterans.
It has to come from your heart.
A commitment to service may be expressed in your family,
To your lover,
A husband,
A wife,
A friend,
Co-worker,
A neighbor.
When we serve in a way that's compassionate we can put others at peace.
If even just for a few moments mitigating the negative impacts of volatility,
Uncertainty,
Complexity,
Ambiguity in their lives,
Giving them some assurance of safety and security.
In my own meditation practice when I'm seated I'll begin with my hands to heart center known as Anjali mudra.
Our mudras create a circuit of energy in our body,
A circle for prana to flow.
And when I find Anjali mudra I leave a little space between my palms just allowing the fingertips and finger mounds to close but holding that space between the palms to nest my intention for my practice.
Allowing that energy that prana to flow to energize my intention.
And it begins with understanding that space,
Protecting that space.
So my hands serve to both close that circuit of energy allowing it to flow freely and also creating that safe space between the palms.
Even this simple act is a form of service and so even if you just begin in that space begin in that space with intention.
Stack your spine,
Feel your head come square over the shoulders,
Close your eyes,
Come back to your breath.
Hands to heart center,
Feeling the energy that's real in you,
Allowing that space between the palms,
A space to serve your intention.
And an orator said speak to us of freedom and he answered at the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom.
Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.
I in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the Citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.
And my heart bled within me.
For you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you.
And when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.
I'll repeat and my heart bled within me.
For you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you.
And when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want or grief but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.
And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour.
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains.
Though its links glitter in the Sun and dazzle your eyes.
And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free.
If it is an unjust law you would abolish that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone.
See first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride.
And if it is a care you would cast off that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel the seed of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace.
The desired and the dreaded the repugnant and the cherished.
The pursued and that which you would escape.
These things move within you as lights and shadows and pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades it is no more.
The light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.
And pause for a moment.
If you've rested your hands maybe bring them back to heart center.
This simple act is still an act consciously creating space for freedom.
For your intention to grow to manifest not not an ends the practice the means and ends into itself.
The service not for fruits the labors but the love of serving.
May that love fill your hearts.
Bring a joyful smile to your lips.
May you feel healthy truly healthy in that space.
And when you become aware your thoughts your words your actions to preserve that space.
May you know true peace.
The freedom for all that you do.
For all that you think.
For all that you say.
Thank you.
The light the love and me honors the light the love and you in this space.
We are one and we are free.
Namaste.
