Tried unsuccessfully to locate something you posted about recently -- a sort of mantra about aging/ disease/ death that you recited with friends? If that sounds familiar, I'd appreciate you responding to this post with that mantra.
Love, healing, patience, insight, vulnerability -- the full catastrophe --
I am of the nature to grow old. I have not gone beyond aging.
I am of the nature to be ill. I have not gone beyond illness.
I am of the nature to die. I have not gone beyond death.
All that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will change and vanish.
I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related to my actions, supported by my actions. Whatever actions I do, whether wise or unwise, of that I shall be the heir.
So much appreciation for you as always and all of your humor and links. We finally saw "I'm Still Here" and wow that's an amazing movie. My mother-in-law fled Chile just before the dictatorship so the resonances to there (and here now) were STRONG. Wishing you lots of health and joy!
David!!! It's so good right. So well paced and acted. Sadly, it feels like a training film for us right now. It's wodnerful to hear from you. Sending you and yours lots of love. xox
I love the Carl Sagan quote you began with. Thank you.
I listen to Glennon Doyle’s podcast “we can do hard things” where she absolutely shines. I cannot quite imagine her unique lovely self coming across as well with only the written word.. but I understand her choice to leave this platform. I’m appalled by the mob cruelty that rose up against her, and have attempted to reach out to Glennon with real human connection, yet thus far have been foiled in finding a working contact space.
I can only believe that the mob of hatred and fear will get their own experience of that type of world. People draw to them what they put out.. at least that’s how my brain forms the concept of karma, and I’m referring to the cruel mob of mostly white women who spew hatred. They will have their own experience of this tragedy since it is all they put out.
Glennon, if you’re reading, those weirdos do not speak for the majority.
Sebene, you are magnificent. I love your meditations and your conversations with Dan and Jeff. I love your huge heart, and kind tenacity. You are the type of person others think “I want to be like her when I grow up”. And I aspire to do just that
Thank you for these kind words Teyani. I did interpret a lot of fear in the comments but I did not experience it as hatred. A lot of the comments expressed a lot of love and admiration for her. Perhaps what was really revealed is the scarcity so many feel (fueled by the huge inequalities we are forced into) and how that can have us turn on each other. Thanks so much for being here and engaging with me. Much love. xox
So I clicked on your link "after receiving an immense amount of criticism from alotta white ladies" to find that the source you cited (like you, sympathetic to Doyle) was a white lady.
I have found your writing and classes brilliant, sensitive, nuanced -- even charismatic. Then there's the moment of crapping on the white ladies (many of whom adore you). Fact is, I'll most likely continue to read your work -- although I get the sense that you'd be swallowing a deep-seated disgust of my privilege were we to ever meet.
I'm not one for Native American acknowledgements and email pronouns. Although I genuinely try to grow beyond such preferences, and to deeply consider why others identify or acknowledge in these ways.
Best luck with your health and spirit. You offer so much that is elegant and true to the world. And I'm praying that you can grow beyond the persistent mean-spirited digs at white women.
Hi Nancy. Thank you for this comment and your kind wishes. I appreciate you taking time to write. I am always the first to acknowledge that humor is a hard thing to communicate through language, especially the written word. I don't believe acknowledging race (or any other social identities) is always a negative and certainly not persistently mean-spirited. In fact, I often overtly name race/identity to take the sting out of making a point (in this case that it in fact was almost exclusively white women who critiqued GD's arrival). That's actually kinda my whole vibe (my tagline for many years: we are not separate AND we are not the same). Social media comments are not a good place to discuss race or any other complex ideas, so I'm not going to go into a whole analysis of why, as I see it, what happened is both fascinating and also tracks as a cultural pattern. Again, I appreciate your being here. Many blessings to you.
I'm delighted and surprised that you bothered to respond.
Humor *is* tricky. And microaggressions are real. I've listened to you tolerate assumptions from privileged people with grace more than once over the years. Let me take a moment here to not name names ; )
I believe your claim that there were many white ladies. Just as you no doubt get that Glennon and the cited essayist qualify as members of that group, and no identity group wants to be seen as a monolith. So called "punching up" can rationalize light bullying.
Progressive framing can enable collectively held resentments. Supporting certain tropes bears a cost. And members of the resented group may not be so thrilled to bite their collective tongue with every shock and sting. From my perspective, such humors registers as a species of racially based misogyny.
Maybe some day you'll consider the possibility that this particular humor habit could merit reflection, that someone outside of your own circle might be able to perceive something real that would not occur to you. Or maybe I need to just suck it up. Or maybe both things are true.
Thanks for the appreciation, the blessings. It's cool that you took the time. I appreciate the limits of social media and wish you all the compassionate ease.
Thanks for this, I was at your meditation party at Omega last Fall. I just found out about these dance parties popping up around the country and it made me think of the dance party that weekend. They are called Early Bird (https://early-birds.club/) and they get at the issue of not having the opportunity to dance often when you get a bit older. And how great it can feel to get let loose. So I hope the dancing part continues of future meditation parties 😀💃
I’m grateful for you being here. Choosing to spend your time to benefit others you’ll likely never meet in person should be respected and celebrated. I’ll probably never meet any of you face to face, but i’m not sure that really matters, doesn’t stop the emotion.
Thank you for this kind reflection Marc. Sometimes I can get down on technology and our overconnectivity and then I’m reminded that it also allows for this and I remember to be grateful for all the love here and everywhere. Many blessings to you. 💕
I’m longing to hear anything you and Shawna have to report from explorations about “life beyond money tied to wage labor”, please. PLEASE? Especially the sacred part. And the womanly part🙏💗🕊️
there was an interesting dialogue on Focusing.org the other day with Donata Shoeller and a Gelugpa Monk from Toulouse which was beautiful on “mutual aid”, and connecting deeply there
Always grateful for you pointing me in all these wonderful directions! I always buy books in threes 1, the book I went into the shop for 2, another that catches my eye that is on my TBR list 3, one recommended by my amazing independent book seller who I can talk to for hours about books 📚💜
Yes, please. Books, books, books. And books. We have a tall pile, well, tall piles of books to read. And it's back porch weather, so that's where we'll be. Cheers!
I've been following you a long time. I think you may actually be one of the reasons I finally came to Substack as a writer. My wife writes memoir, so now I'm trying to get her out here too. 😆 I just bought Constructing a Nervous System for her based on your recommendation. Thank you! 💚
I left Facebook a few months ago for a number of reasons and joined Substack, largely through the influence of your buddy Dan Harris, whose podcast I listen to. I believe Substack is backed by a number of venture capitalists. Can’t escape that, I guess… I do like it better than Facebook because there’s more nuance and critical thought (more than zero, I guess!). Also I don’t have to encounter the opinions of a lot of people I know personally, which I prefer. And not just because they’re on “the other side” politically from me—I just don’t like groupthink in general. Re: Glennon Doyle, I followed that drama as well. I had no objection to her being on Substack; certainly she was not going to affect my presence cuz I am not anybody and am not trying to attract heaps of subscribers! I do listen to her podcast. What I will say is that I am a bit uncomfortable with what I feel is oversharing personal trauma and making money from that. Maybe it’s a generational thing. I guess I just think that some life experiences should be kept private? But if they help other people then that’s a good thing. I see that. I’ve listened to some of your talks and meditations and I love your perspective, especially as a Buddhist of color.
Congrats on leaving Facebook!! 🙌🏾 And thanks for reading Martha. 🙏🏾 I hear you about boundaries around sharing and but also it’s been really helpful for me to witness teachers and leaders be vulnerable about their struggles and traumas—it has helped me with any shame around mine. I heard @Nadia Bolz-Weber say years ago to teach “from scars not wounds” and that’s been a good litmus test for me as to whether it’s a good idea to share something or not. Thanks again for being here!
Oh how grateful I am for your thoughts and your heart. Woke up crying a bit today, but after reading all these things that have lifted your spirits I feel a bit better. Now if only I could get my attention span back from the social media algorithm/2-3 minute stranglehold so I could read a damn book for longer, which used to be my favorite thing in the world to do, that would be great. Also your memes are everything. 😅
Cray-babies unite! I was just telling a friend that my reading habits improved so much while I was bed ridden this winter. Not that I wish that in anyone, but it’s amazing how much not being able to move makes a difference. I find I also read more on planes and trains. That’s largely because normally if I’m reading at home I will immediately start putzing around mostly rearranging objects and tidying up things that did not tidying lol. Also I put my phone in another room at night and/or when I want to read… Glad you’re feeling better. 😘
Hi Sebene,
Tried unsuccessfully to locate something you posted about recently -- a sort of mantra about aging/ disease/ death that you recited with friends? If that sounds familiar, I'd appreciate you responding to this post with that mantra.
Love, healing, patience, insight, vulnerability -- the full catastrophe --
NancyA
Hi Nancy. Here you go:
I am of the nature to grow old. I have not gone beyond aging.
I am of the nature to be ill. I have not gone beyond illness.
I am of the nature to die. I have not gone beyond death.
All that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will change and vanish.
I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related to my actions, supported by my actions. Whatever actions I do, whether wise or unwise, of that I shall be the heir.
Thank you.
So much appreciation for you as always and all of your humor and links. We finally saw "I'm Still Here" and wow that's an amazing movie. My mother-in-law fled Chile just before the dictatorship so the resonances to there (and here now) were STRONG. Wishing you lots of health and joy!
David!!! It's so good right. So well paced and acted. Sadly, it feels like a training film for us right now. It's wodnerful to hear from you. Sending you and yours lots of love. xox
I love the Carl Sagan quote you began with. Thank you.
I listen to Glennon Doyle’s podcast “we can do hard things” where she absolutely shines. I cannot quite imagine her unique lovely self coming across as well with only the written word.. but I understand her choice to leave this platform. I’m appalled by the mob cruelty that rose up against her, and have attempted to reach out to Glennon with real human connection, yet thus far have been foiled in finding a working contact space.
I can only believe that the mob of hatred and fear will get their own experience of that type of world. People draw to them what they put out.. at least that’s how my brain forms the concept of karma, and I’m referring to the cruel mob of mostly white women who spew hatred. They will have their own experience of this tragedy since it is all they put out.
Glennon, if you’re reading, those weirdos do not speak for the majority.
Sebene, you are magnificent. I love your meditations and your conversations with Dan and Jeff. I love your huge heart, and kind tenacity. You are the type of person others think “I want to be like her when I grow up”. And I aspire to do just that
Thank you for these kind words Teyani. I did interpret a lot of fear in the comments but I did not experience it as hatred. A lot of the comments expressed a lot of love and admiration for her. Perhaps what was really revealed is the scarcity so many feel (fueled by the huge inequalities we are forced into) and how that can have us turn on each other. Thanks so much for being here and engaging with me. Much love. xox
So I clicked on your link "after receiving an immense amount of criticism from alotta white ladies" to find that the source you cited (like you, sympathetic to Doyle) was a white lady.
I have found your writing and classes brilliant, sensitive, nuanced -- even charismatic. Then there's the moment of crapping on the white ladies (many of whom adore you). Fact is, I'll most likely continue to read your work -- although I get the sense that you'd be swallowing a deep-seated disgust of my privilege were we to ever meet.
I'm not one for Native American acknowledgements and email pronouns. Although I genuinely try to grow beyond such preferences, and to deeply consider why others identify or acknowledge in these ways.
Best luck with your health and spirit. You offer so much that is elegant and true to the world. And I'm praying that you can grow beyond the persistent mean-spirited digs at white women.
Yrs in collaging,
NancyA.
Hi Nancy. Thank you for this comment and your kind wishes. I appreciate you taking time to write. I am always the first to acknowledge that humor is a hard thing to communicate through language, especially the written word. I don't believe acknowledging race (or any other social identities) is always a negative and certainly not persistently mean-spirited. In fact, I often overtly name race/identity to take the sting out of making a point (in this case that it in fact was almost exclusively white women who critiqued GD's arrival). That's actually kinda my whole vibe (my tagline for many years: we are not separate AND we are not the same). Social media comments are not a good place to discuss race or any other complex ideas, so I'm not going to go into a whole analysis of why, as I see it, what happened is both fascinating and also tracks as a cultural pattern. Again, I appreciate your being here. Many blessings to you.
I'm delighted and surprised that you bothered to respond.
Humor *is* tricky. And microaggressions are real. I've listened to you tolerate assumptions from privileged people with grace more than once over the years. Let me take a moment here to not name names ; )
I believe your claim that there were many white ladies. Just as you no doubt get that Glennon and the cited essayist qualify as members of that group, and no identity group wants to be seen as a monolith. So called "punching up" can rationalize light bullying.
Progressive framing can enable collectively held resentments. Supporting certain tropes bears a cost. And members of the resented group may not be so thrilled to bite their collective tongue with every shock and sting. From my perspective, such humors registers as a species of racially based misogyny.
Maybe some day you'll consider the possibility that this particular humor habit could merit reflection, that someone outside of your own circle might be able to perceive something real that would not occur to you. Or maybe I need to just suck it up. Or maybe both things are true.
Thanks for the appreciation, the blessings. It's cool that you took the time. I appreciate the limits of social media and wish you all the compassionate ease.
Thanks for this, I was at your meditation party at Omega last Fall. I just found out about these dance parties popping up around the country and it made me think of the dance party that weekend. They are called Early Bird (https://early-birds.club/) and they get at the issue of not having the opportunity to dance often when you get a bit older. And how great it can feel to get let loose. So I hope the dancing part continues of future meditation parties 😀💃
Love me an early dance party!! Thanks for sharing Mary and for practicing with me. Much love. xox
I’m grateful for you being here. Choosing to spend your time to benefit others you’ll likely never meet in person should be respected and celebrated. I’ll probably never meet any of you face to face, but i’m not sure that really matters, doesn’t stop the emotion.
So, to all, with love. Marc.
Thank you for this kind reflection Marc. Sometimes I can get down on technology and our overconnectivity and then I’m reminded that it also allows for this and I remember to be grateful for all the love here and everywhere. Many blessings to you. 💕
So much good ! Thanks for sharing ❤️
❣️😘❣️
I’m longing to hear anything you and Shawna have to report from explorations about “life beyond money tied to wage labor”, please. PLEASE? Especially the sacred part. And the womanly part🙏💗🕊️
Well, according to the book, it might require the collapse of many systems… but that might be happening soon regardless… oof. 😅
there was an interesting dialogue on Focusing.org the other day with Donata Shoeller and a Gelugpa Monk from Toulouse which was beautiful on “mutual aid”, and connecting deeply there
Oh. Wow. Thanks!
💗💗💗💗💗💗💗
Always grateful for you pointing me in all these wonderful directions! I always buy books in threes 1, the book I went into the shop for 2, another that catches my eye that is on my TBR list 3, one recommended by my amazing independent book seller who I can talk to for hours about books 📚💜
Great, now I’ll never not buy three books at a time lol! 😆
Yes, please. Books, books, books. And books. We have a tall pile, well, tall piles of books to read. And it's back porch weather, so that's where we'll be. Cheers!
Yes to piles and piles of books and books! 💛📚💛 Much love to you Mal. 😘
I forgot to thank you for that wonderful quote by Carl Sagan and the beautiful photo. Brought a moment of beauty into my day. ✨
I've been following you a long time. I think you may actually be one of the reasons I finally came to Substack as a writer. My wife writes memoir, so now I'm trying to get her out here too. 😆 I just bought Constructing a Nervous System for her based on your recommendation. Thank you! 💚
Welcome to both of you! And let me know how it is… it’s in my very long list so not sure when I’ll get to it. Thanks for being here. 💕
You are amazing and thoughtful.
I live in Colorado, and you give me hope (that is currently behind closed doors).
I am putting “I’m Still Here” on my watch list.
May blessings and good health come your.
way.
Janie Hooper.
Thank you Janie. It’s such a powerful film. Especially right now. 😘
I left Facebook a few months ago for a number of reasons and joined Substack, largely through the influence of your buddy Dan Harris, whose podcast I listen to. I believe Substack is backed by a number of venture capitalists. Can’t escape that, I guess… I do like it better than Facebook because there’s more nuance and critical thought (more than zero, I guess!). Also I don’t have to encounter the opinions of a lot of people I know personally, which I prefer. And not just because they’re on “the other side” politically from me—I just don’t like groupthink in general. Re: Glennon Doyle, I followed that drama as well. I had no objection to her being on Substack; certainly she was not going to affect my presence cuz I am not anybody and am not trying to attract heaps of subscribers! I do listen to her podcast. What I will say is that I am a bit uncomfortable with what I feel is oversharing personal trauma and making money from that. Maybe it’s a generational thing. I guess I just think that some life experiences should be kept private? But if they help other people then that’s a good thing. I see that. I’ve listened to some of your talks and meditations and I love your perspective, especially as a Buddhist of color.
Congrats on leaving Facebook!! 🙌🏾 And thanks for reading Martha. 🙏🏾 I hear you about boundaries around sharing and but also it’s been really helpful for me to witness teachers and leaders be vulnerable about their struggles and traumas—it has helped me with any shame around mine. I heard @Nadia Bolz-Weber say years ago to teach “from scars not wounds” and that’s been a good litmus test for me as to whether it’s a good idea to share something or not. Thanks again for being here!
Oh how grateful I am for your thoughts and your heart. Woke up crying a bit today, but after reading all these things that have lifted your spirits I feel a bit better. Now if only I could get my attention span back from the social media algorithm/2-3 minute stranglehold so I could read a damn book for longer, which used to be my favorite thing in the world to do, that would be great. Also your memes are everything. 😅
Have a wonderful week friend. ❤️
Cray-babies unite! I was just telling a friend that my reading habits improved so much while I was bed ridden this winter. Not that I wish that in anyone, but it’s amazing how much not being able to move makes a difference. I find I also read more on planes and trains. That’s largely because normally if I’m reading at home I will immediately start putzing around mostly rearranging objects and tidying up things that did not tidying lol. Also I put my phone in another room at night and/or when I want to read… Glad you’re feeling better. 😘