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May You Trust Your Goodness. May You Trust the Goodness of All Beings.

7/31/2022

 
No matter how wrong or lacking we may feel, how caught in separation, or how trapped by the messages, violations, and inequities of the society we live in, this basic goodness remains the essence of our Being.
                                                                                           Tara Brach:
                              Trusting the Gold: Uncovering Your Natural Goodness


Welcome back to our Co-Creative Mandalas blog!
 
Each month, we share insights, inspiration, and all the ways the

cycles of the Great Mandala uplift you and support your journey

toward Unity.

This month's theme is Goodness.


It really comes down to this. Goodness is our true nature. As

you are connected to the goodness of all Being that dwells

within you, you are nourished from within. The goodness at your

core feeds all the rest of you. It emanates from you. Nourished

from within, you can appreciate that the cycles of creation are

already bringing you what is rightfully yours.


Showing up, embodying your goodness— through your life and

your work in the world — is the most healing thing you can offer

yourself and others. Reclaiming  the goodness that exists within

you, others, and our planet — leads to healing, and awareness

of your deeper humanity.


Does your inner critic get so loud sometimes that it’s hard to

remember your goodness so that you hear your guidance?  “Are

you sure you’re doing this right?” It whispers.  And if I believe

it…a cascade of self doubt floods my awareness.


Your inner critic may be showing up big time right now because

individually and collectively humanity is on the verge of

something completely new. Whenever you stretch beyond what

is known, what feels safe, the fear and doubt are going to show

up.


These fears and doubts are trying to keep you safe but their

intense grip can feel quite suffocating.


Be kind to yourself… gather your courage and face your inner

critic.

Picture
In Buddhist traditions, the concept of “basic goodness” points us

toward accepting our true nature--remembering we are

goodness. It doesn’t mean to imply, in relative terms, good over

bad. According to the traditions, each of us individually and

collectively has basic goodness at our core. How would we

change if we have that outlook? What if we find time for “just

being,” to be curious about and emphasize the quality of

goodness, for our goodness to be our best friend?


It takes commitment and courage to engage with the many

highs and lows of life, releasing the story lines that keep us

caught, and learning to trust that our own inner goodness

guides us step by step toward healing and awareness of our

individual and collective humanity.


Working with clients and doing my personal work, I'm always on

the lookout for a way to access the goodness that I believe is 

inside each of us. We may experience it on a regular basis or

not.  It may be hidden at first, but our goodness is always there.


Einstein is famous for saying that either you regard nothing as a

miracle or everything as a miracle. I'll take poetic license and

paraphrase his words by saying either you regard no one as

goodness or everyone as goodness. A shift to the latter could

be a way to immerse ourselves in miraculous goodness that is

our true nature.  



Say this phrase out loud:

"I deeply and completely accept myself"


What happens in you when you say this phrase?  What do you

notice in your body? What thoughts and feelings arise? How

true is this statement for you? 25%? 50%? 100%? Really pay

attention.


As an Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) practitioner, I find

my clients (and I) sometimes hesitate when saying these words.

It seems there's a resistance to embodying the deeper meaning

of the phrase.


It's almost as if we want to rush to what's wrong...(negativity

bias?) Why is it easier to notice where we think we fall short

while our attention seems to lose focus when we state

acceptance for ourselves? Start to embody our goodness?


So many of us grew up thinking some version of, "I'm not good

enough".   It's likely that our parents and others around us felt

that way about themselves.  Our ancestors may have had a

version of the same belief.  In the West, this belief is all too

common.  The Dalai Lama has expressed surprise at how

widespread this self doubt is in our culture.  Viewed from a

wider perspective does it make sense that we are here to prove

to ourselves or anyone else that we are good and worthy?


What if we start with the notion that we are "good as gold"

already?



I see healing as a process of developing a state of mind and

being that holds both the shadow and the light within.  That

gives us a choice about where to focus our attention.    There

are many ways to achieve that state of mind. I've found that EFT

is a great tool for this purpose.


I don’t think anyone “finds” joy (or goodness). Rather, we cultivate it by searching for the preciousness of small things, ordinary miracles that strengthen our hearts so we can keep them open to what is difficult.
                                                                               Dr. Dawna Markova
This is one of my favorite stories I heard many years ago.


In 1957 in Bangkok, Thailand a group of monks from a

monastery had to relocate their massive, ten and a half foot tall,

2.5 ton clay Buddha from their temple to a new location to make

way for a new highway being built through the city.  They used a

crane to lift the idol, but it began to crack, and then rain began

to fall.  The head monk was concerned about damage to the

sacred Buddha, and he decided to lower the statue down to the

ground and cover it with a large canvas tarp to protect it from

the rain.


Later that evening, the monk went to check on the Buddha.  He

shined a flashlight under the tarp, and noticed a gleam reflected

through a crack in the clay.  Wondering about what he saw, he

got a chisel and hammer, and began to chip away at the clay. 

The gleam turned out to be gold, and many hours later the

monk found himself face to face with an extraordinary, huge,

solid gold Buddha.


Historians believe that several hundred years before this, the

Burmese army was about to invade Thailand, then called Siam. 

The monks covered their precious statue with an 8 inch layer of

clay to disguise its value.  Very likely the Burmese slaughtered

all the Siamese monks, and the secret of the statue’s golden

essence remained intact until that day in 1957. Click here for

more information about the golden Buddha.

Picture
By Kushal Das - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org

/w/index.php?curid=31603643

We are all like the golden Buddha.


Ask yourself… “Who am I,  why am I here and where am I

going?”


What this story so eloquently explains is that inside each of us,

there lives basic goodness, a golden Buddha of light. Our

purpose in life is to rediscover our goodness, to find our "gold"

in the preciousness of life.


What happens over the course of our life is that we pile layer

upon layer of clay over our true nature. The heaviest layer of

clay is our limited thinking along with our unconscious

conditioning. The other layers of clay get added on from

external influences (parents, schools and teachers, bosses and

co-workers, society, the media, the church, government and

corporations). Eventually we are so laden with clay that we

forget that our goodness is there all the time.


We are covered with a protective layer that initially kept us safe

The protection served its purpose at the time, usually when we

were young and vulnerable. But over time our goodness

becomes so covered that the protection no longer serves us.

We forget how to remember our goodness, our true nature.


In her book Trusting the Gold: Uncovering Your Natural

Goodness
, Tara Brach reminds us that:

...the gold of our true nature can never be tarnished. No matter how it might get covered over or disguised by feelings of anger, deficiency, or fear, our awareness remains radiant and pure. In the moments of remembering and trusting this basic goodness of our Being, the grip of “something’s wrong” dissolves and we open to happiness, peace, and freedom.

The paradigm of basic goodness allows us take 100%

responsibility for everything that shows up in our life, see our

contribution to it, and leave behind patterns of shaming and

blaming. The more we are able to remember our goodness, the

more we can see the interdependence of our interactions with

the world, the Unity that exists between all beings and all things.



The Co-Creative Mandala below, "Goodness" is from a

photograph of Rocky Mountain columbine (symbolizes  courage,

spiritual evolution, and expanded consciousness). The colors

are related to your solar plexus, throat, third eye, and crown

chakra. Columbine also represents the blending of differences

and finding harmony. This mandala reminds us to invite our

inner critic to suspend its commentary so that we can remember

and embody our basic goodness.



Let your golden Buddha shine forth at full strength. When we

are grounded in goodness we are one step closer to

experiencing Unity.


Picture
The difference between enlightened beings and us is that they have confidence in their basic goodness and we don’t.
                                                                                           Fleet Maull
Goodness Sacred Practice:


Intention:

The real power of the practice is the intention you place behind

it. Start your day by setting the intention that you are dedicating

time to self-care, to remembering Goodness and

awakening to Unity.  This practice is a simple method of helping

you to honor Goodness.   So with practice, it can be used to

manage stress, promote feelings of well-being and be present,

without conscious effort. With practice, you'll discover that this

inner resource is available to you  for increasing periods of time.


Be gentle with yourself as you discover what nurtures and

sustains you.



Before you begin the practice:


Choose what you need to create sacred space: Flowers that

represent summer, candles that represent the fiery summer

energy, incense, and music can help guide your focus.


Invest time toward moving into stillness.


When you are ready, invite any subtle colleagues, allies, your

guides and helpers to join you in your sacred practice. Wait a

moment for that connection and alliance to form.


Next, invest some time for reflecting on the Goodness mandala.

Let you gaze fall softly on the mandala. Use these following

prompts for connecting your purpose to the energy of the

mandala:


What message does it have for you? What expansive energy do

you want more of in your life?  You may choose to reflect on

your vision statement. How will honoring Goodness support

manifesting your vision?  How will you nurture the mandala of

your life? How will you practice self-care and self-compassion

by welcoming Goodness into your life? How will you bring more

light into the world?



Now, the Goodness practice.


There are two parts to the practice.



Part 1: Facing and Honoring the Inner Critic Through Art.


I ran across this practice from Yoga instructor and wellness

coach Alexandra Cohen and just loved the playfulness and

creativity this practice inspires.Just what we need to bring to the

summer energy and for remembering Goodness.


Get out paper, color pencils, crayons, paint--all the supplies you

need for drawing.


NOTE: If you're hearing the inner critic say "I can't draw",

"I'm not an artist"...or whatever version of the story you tell

yourself, listen for a moment. Then invite that part of

yourself to suspend its judgment for just a few minutes.



1. Draw your inner critic. Like really go there- make it as

outrageous as possible (remember drawing monsters as a kid-

give yourself permission to draw something wild).



Does it have scary eyes, pointy teeth, spiked hair? Does it look

like someone you know?



Take as much time as you want.


2. What do you notice in your body? What feelings arise?

What thoughts do you have while you're drawing?


3. What do you notice in your body after you finish drawing?

What thoughts and emotions do you notice?


4. As the inner critic starts to release, intentionally draw the

energies that take its place. What do you notice in your body?

What feelings arise? What thoughts do you have?

Now, it's time for:


The Goodness Practice

Part II: Seeing and Welcoming Your Goodness--Your Inner

Gold



This is a simple and profound practice.
 

Begin the practice with this statement:


"I can accept myself because__________"


1. Get out paper and pencil and begin writing all the things,

all the qualities, all the ways you show up in the world that you

like about yourself.


2. Keep the list going: What does your best friend say they like

about you? What do Your children? Your co-workers? Your

students? Your pets? Your partner? say they like about you?


3. Read your list out loud. Have a trusted friend read the list to

you. Journal about the impact this list has on how you see

yourself.


Remember, this is not a "one and done" practice. Start out

slowly. It's possible that few people in your past shined the light

on your goodness.


As I mentioned, EFT is a wonderful tool for clearing the blocks

to love's presence, to embodying your goodness by accepting

both your goodness and shadow and laying down the grooves

of new neural pathways. With practice, you continually cultivate 

lots of anchors, inner resources for remembering your

goodness.  When you feel yourself embodying that feeling your

light shines more brightly, your true nature reveals itself.


Peace and joy to your seeking heart,

Picture
    Picture

    Author

    Sheryl Harrell, Gardener
    of the Soil and of the
    Soul & Co-Creator of
    Mandalas. Happy you
    found my Blog!

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