Honoring our incarnations....from the Kerala Chronicles

When I started packing for my first trip to India a few weeks ago, I began to think about my spiritual origins.  Even though I was raised as a Catholic, from a very young age I was always yearning for a system of spirituality (and why I use the word "system" I cannot explain) that would make sense to me.  That yearning has led me along many beautiful paths, including the path I walk today, which I call "mostly Buddhist." (In Woodstock we're called Hindu-Bu or BuHindhist). As I was packing for the trip and closing up the Florida cottage, I had to take all the images off my traveling altar and tuck them away. As I took down the images of Christ and Mary, I said to them: "Don't worry. I am not leaving you. I am just going home, to India."

"And how," the Inner Voice of Reason countered, "can 'home' be India if you were born in Massachusetts?"

Clearly, Reason does not believe in reincarnation.  Good thing we don't listen to Reason too much :)

Anyway, I believe in honoring one's incarnation, and this time around I was born into a Catholic family. So be it. When I arrived at our retreat center in Kerala and stepped out of my little cottage on the first morning, I was delighted to notice that I was situated right next to a tiny Catholic church. Here's a picture of it, just over the wall of our compound. The presence of this tiny church, so close by, seems like a beautiful little in-joke between me and my first Teacher: when you honor your incarnation, your incarnation honors you. 
#keralachronicles #@EM_Harrington #beyondthebeyond

There is so much magnificence near the ocean

At this time of year, when I make the transition from sunny Florida back to the Hudson Valley and the Catskill Mountains, I usually go through a period of petulance--or withdrawal, I guess--in which I find myself missing the ocean very much. (Plus, it's darn cold up here on Mead Mountain Road!) But in my daily practice and study I am always encountering the word ocean: oceans of qualities, oceans of merit. I was recently reminded that Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche said my music echoed a line of verse in an aspiration prayer, because it carries "oceans of tones of melodic speech."  And my own refuge name is "Dharma Ocean of Compassion." So I am remembering that we all carry the ocean within us.  Which is a wonderful thing to remember.

The act of missing, of yearning, can often lead to these bright moments of rediscovery: that we are all connected, that separation does not exist. 

As the poet Kabir says, there is so much magnificence near the ocean....
Enjoy this track by Deva Premal and Miten.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFUSEnIF5Ko

Photo: my favorite beach at Hobe Sound