Welcome to day 29 of mindfulness with the moon.
Wow,
You all,
Today is our final day in the waning crescent phase before going into the new moon again.
Let's just take a few deep breaths with the fact that,
Wow,
We did it.
We did it.
29 days with the synodic month of the moon.
Today we are talking about integrating and letting go.
So what are we integrating?
We're integrating the lessons that we've learned from mindfulness with the moon.
We're integrating understanding parts of who we are.
We're integrating slowing down and quieting the mind.
We're integrating Buddhist teachings,
Dharmas,
To awaken the heart to love and connection.
We're integrating what it means to be forgiving and compassionate.
And integration means we take what we've learned and we live them.
We live the teachings.
We live the dharmas.
We don't speak about the dharmas.
As my husband,
John says,
Be the dharma.
Don't speak about it.
Be about it.
That's what John says.
Be about it.
Be the change.
Be the awareness.
Be the kindness.
Be the compassionate.
Be the forgiving.
Be the equanimity,
Finding that middle path.
One of my teachers and dear friends,
Kelsey Brown,
Shares with me on a regular basis when challenges are arising.
And she reminds me to do the practices.
Be the practices that I share.
Right?
Because we can speak about the practices all day long.
But at the end of the day,
We integrate the practices by living them.
So go back to the lessons that you feel curious about.
Take them again and again and again.
Allowing for these times in meditation to seep into who you are as you return home to yourself.
If you're interested in learning more about this mindfulness meditation teacher certificate training program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brock,
I would be honored to share with you about my experience,
Which was truly wonderful.
It's been a transformative experience for me,
Just creating mindfulness with the moon alone and sharing it with you.
I've been reflecting on these meditations and they've gotten easier and easier the more that I've done them as practice is.
Practice makes permanent,
Remember?
And it feels that this mindfulness with the moon is a true integration of everything that I've learned in this teacher training.
And it also feels that this course is a full expression of who I am and the teachings that I've learned from teacher after teacher after teacher.
And it feels like a legacy that I'm able to leave right now.
With you and the humbleness that I feel to be able to have shared so many teachings of which I pulled many direct quotes and phrases and stanzas and structures and conversations and quotes from Jack and Tara's work from this MMTCP program and so many of my other teachers.
As I've been figuring out how to communicate in my own voice while borrowing others language as well.
These dharmas,
These teachings,
So that we can truly come to a peaceful place in our own hearts.
With my business,
The Macaranda Method,
Our mission is to teach humans how to heal themselves through actively listening to the mind,
Body,
Soul,
Spirit,
And nature to find peace in the present moment.
Together we discover your unique expression of wholeness and health.
That is our mission.
That is what we do.
And the number one tool is mindfulness meditation.
Pema Chodron says,
Interrupting our destructive habits and awakening our hearts is the work of a lifetime.
Interrupting our destructive habits and awakening our heart is the work of a lifetime.
Isn't it though?
Isn't it though?
Isn't that our work?
To be with the feelings as they arise and to let them move through.
To be with our thoughts as they are without clinging and identifying to them.
To being mindful of our words because our words have power.
To be loving at our core and to be joyful because fundamentally that's who we are.
You know,
I was listening to Pema Chodron speak and she has many courses that I've taken online.
And one time she said,
People in the West,
They're always wondering about happiness.
Like what is the whole deal with happiness?
Like what is the whole deal with happiness?
Like that just,
We'd rather have other things.
And Pema is originally from New York,
But has done a lot of studying abroad.
And she said she goes to the East in Tibet and in India.
And people are like,
What do you mean?
Why are you questioning happiness?
Happiness is everything,
Everything,
Everything,
Everything.
And so when we get to this point where we're integrating and letting go,
We're looking to find a peaceful heart.
We're looking to feel all of the emotions,
All of the habits,
All of the thoughts that we carry so that we can awaken ourselves to joy and happiness and all the other emotions that come along too.
So that we can drop the walls that we've put up to keep us safe and ultimately trust Trust in the present moment.
Trust in our ability to know and to trust ourselves.
Trust comes from within.
So often people think that trust is out there.
But ultimately,
If we can slow ourselves down and integrate these teachings,
And if we get a dissonant chord in our body,
We get a,
Oh,
I don't know about that.
Oh,
That doesn't feel so right.
My body just pulled away a little bit.
We can listen to our own intuition and say,
I don't know if I trust that.
And it has nothing to do with anybody else.
Can we learn to trust our own instincts?
Can we learn to integrate the lessons and then let go and be in the moment just as it is?
And I'm practicing right there with you.
Let me tell you what,
Every day I'll say to myself,
Eleanor,
Are you doing the practices?
Are you sitting with yourself?
Are you coming home to yourself?
Are you being your own refuge?
Are you being kind to yourself and to others and to the earth?
I'm reminding myself there is nowhere to get to.
Only,
As Alan Watts says,
The eternal now.
So,
Let's do our final mindfulness with the moon meditation today.
You'll hear three bells to begin and three bells to close as you integrate and let go.
Noticing which posture feels best to you today and allowing yourself to drop inside.
Perhaps that looks like closing your eyes,
Taking some breaths,
Just grounding yourself right here.
Enjoy the music,
Integrate the teachings,
And let go.
So,
Just practicing letting go on the exhales as you release,
Surrender to the thoughts and the sensations and the feelings that arise.
Simply staying with your senses here and now.
So,
How much can you loosen your grip?
Surrender to the moment now,
Right now,
Right here.
Breathing here,
Present.
It's such a gift that you give to yourself and you give to all beings everywhere when you're here,
Just here.
There's really nowhere else to be.
So,
Taking some deep breaths with yourself,
Slowly bringing your awareness back.
Wow,
I am sitting here with my hand on my heart,
Feeling your presence,
Feeling the presence of the birds around me from my home in Baja,
California,
Sur,
Mexico,
And as I share with you my deep gratitude and excitement and joy and longing for Mindfulness with the Moon to continue to be the web,
To continue to be the mycelial network that reaches all the way from Earth to the Moon.
I bow to you in reverence.
I bow to you in honor.
I bow to you in gratitude.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for sitting with yourself and for making peace an active part of what you're choosing to bring forward in your life.
When we bring peacefulness and stillness through,
That's who we become and that's what we emanate in the world.
And that's a big deal,
I think.
It matters.
How you be matters.
The ripple effect goes so far beyond what we can imagine.
Perhaps even all the way up to the Moon.
I'd like to honor all of the teachers who have supported this course and I'd like to honor my sweet husband,
John Medina,
For every single song that he wove together in the background of our meditations.
How I know that music supported us tremendously and the magic that those vibrations of music wove together for us,
I am so thankful.
And I'd like to thank the Earth and the Moon.
Thank you to the Earth.
Thank you to the Moon.
Thank you to you all for sharing your energy with me and with all of us.
I'm not going to say I'll see you tomorrow because I won't see you tomorrow.
I'll say may the light in me shine and honor the light in each and every one of you beings.
Namaste.
