BEYOND

As I continue my learnings with the New York Zen Center, there has been some deep soul searching.  What is mine to do?  Heal first was clearly the answer.  December is always a month of self-reflection.  As a young child, my mother would have us reflect on the coming year during our birth month.  We could opt out of sports teams or talk about what new things we wanted to learn.  December is my birth month.  This year because of the deep explorations of my studies, I was primed for new planting, weeding out some deeply rooted ugliness and fertilizing the soil.  New planting.  New healing.  New Inspirations.

The practicum at the Caring Place is going well.  Humbling yet our new year opening session created an atmosphere of accomplishment and synergy.  We did meditative walking.  Breathe-Step-Breath-Step.  There was a wonderful sense of calm and peace.  Blessings were prayed.  It is wonderful to be serving from experience.  To really know what their experience is like yet respecting the differences.  I have found Joy in this service.

FEELING THE WORLD: DISCOVERY

I have been feeling the world's energy acutely.  In the supermarket.  Over the phone.  I was watching the news.  Now, if I am watching it, I watch under it.  Listening for the frequencies, feeling the vibrations.  When October 7, 2023, happened I did not know what to say beyond the platitudes.  It was like I wanted to know more.   I called my friends.  I sought history.  I wanted to understand which of course sent me into Inquiry.  There were glimmers of solidarity between Traditions, but the demonstrations were noisy too.  I often wondered what a silent "protest" would look like.  Everyone is shouting at everyone else. I discovered that there were many wars and humanity destroying conflicts in the world happening.  In America, at least on my newsfeeds, we were only seeing two. The divisions were deep and seemingly unsolvable.  The destruction of humanity:  one nation’s goal of annihilating another nation, culture, race, religion was not limited to the two major conflicts that were prominent on the 24 hour news channels.

As I sat, I didn’t get angry or depressed.  I sat and there was this calm.  I was afraid that I may lose a couple of people who were dear to me because I wasn't taking sides sort of speak.  I just sat in zazen.  There had to be something to glean that would give me, us, you the power to feel empowered.  So I sat, quietly....  LET ME BE THE PEACE. LOVE. HEALING. MERCY that I want to see in this world.  LET ME BE.  This became the point of spiritual inquiry that I sat with for most of the months of November and December.

And my Guidance asked, "Mercedes, what is beyond God?"

BEYOND

If I have learned nothing else from my Foundations of Contemplative Care course it is this... I MATTER. YOU MATTER.  WE MATTER. On the tiniest of micro thoughts, actions, prayers, my contribution to the world matters.  The smile.  The gesture.  The seeing you.  You seeing me.  The pause to consider.  The word of hope.  The speaking kindness into a person.  The walking slowly, softly, deliberately.  I MATTER.  YOU MATTER.  WE MATTER. What I know from my work is everything is energy, frequency and vibration. Everything... Even God.

What is Beyond God?  What Guidance was really asking me is what is beyond my perceptions and assignments that I had of God?  Was my beliefs of what God can do? of what God can be? Of what God provides limiting G~D the Infinite Source.  The Energy of G~D, The Frequency of G~D, the Vibration of G~D unlimited by my containers and categories.

AS I HEAL MYSELF, I HEAL THE WORLD

I have been sitting, running the frequencies through my body that I have been gifted.  I allow and receive, The Love.  The Healing.  The Peace. The Mercy. As I receive, allow and accept these frequencies I become these frequencies, unblemished by nouns, pronouns, adjectives, rules or statutes.  Love. Healing. Peace. Mercy.  LET ME BE.  This is my prayer. This happens in my home, within my body temple, at the altar for the world.  I have not even gathered a circle...yet. I have to be able to get underneath and hear what is always present. I have to attune to hear the hum of peace, the harmony of love, the voice of mercy and the scales of healing.  Take note, this is not a call to be more loving.  This is a Call to BE Love. Not unconditional love.  Not passionate love.  To love your Neighbor love.  The only one vibration, unencumbered by our categorizing. LOVE the vibration, embodied within us.  Literally vibrating Love like you are humming the note of C on a chorus scale.

If your tradition calls you to pray unceasingly. Love unceasingly. Love when it is irrational.  Love with innocence. Love beyond.

LOVE BEYOND THE NOISE, MAKE QUIET.

As I am coming out, I have CDs recorded, prices on the Sacred Qi site for Listening Deeply and Sacred Soul Ignitions, Guidance is calling for focus.  Do not be discouraged by the action of man.  Do not feel disempowered.  Do not succumb to the divisions. Seek to understand and heal. See beyond the borders, traditions, cultures, and races.  BE THE and see IT BEcome.

LOVE BEYOND THE BELIEF, TAKE CONSIDERED ACTION

What are the tenants and principles of your Tradition.  Go beyond the recital and move into the blessing.  The frequency of the principle contains a richness and wealth that activates the generous spirit.  Take one blessing.  One key phrase that moves your heart and sit  in contemplation with it until completion.  What does sit with it until completion mean?  You sit until you can feel its wave throughout your body and you can act through it without having to think of it first.  Go beyond the words in a book into the vibrational energy of each word's wisdom.  Take considered, wise, embodied, action, lovingly.

LOVE BEYOND THE HISTORY, BE THE NOW

History has dictated our tribes.  History drives fears, norms, customs, borders, and boundaries.  Is the holding onto the emotions of the historical past, shunning the Light available to us in this moment?  What history is prudent to remember?  What history is holding us prisoner to hatred, murder, violence, and greed.  Is retribution the only way to power?  Or, is power the standing on sacred ground and holding the principles of your faith?  How does being in the present moment, being in this breath, become a way of inspired solution?

LOVE BEYOND THE RHETORIC, INTO THE PRAYER

Every word is a prayer.  Weaponized words are as damaging as the sword.  What is the direction?  Are we manipulating or trying to move someone into our condition or position?  Do we value the silence between each word and another's choice to speak through their silence.  Silence is not complacency. I for one can be silent and be in prayer at my altar.  Can we choose not to retaliate, isolate, judge and harm through a blessing and a prayer?  Can we choose to remain silent while taking considered action?  Can we allow space for G~D's Presence to emerge from the terrain's fog?

LOVE BEYOND. ONLY ONE

When we go beyond what we love or define as love into being in the frequency of the only one Love we dissolve the divisions.  What is coming next is going to be hard to take in.  The love a murderer has as they suppress and push life out of another human’s body is the love of power. This love is the same frequency of the love we make hold as divine.  The One Love. The Love we feel for our children. Is the same one love.  Our opportunity to bridge those gaps we are facing is to understand this.  The question that heals us is, “What are they loving in this moment?  The second we qualify love into unconditional love, or puppy love, or passionate love, or motherly love. We have qualified and limited the blessings of the ONE LOVE.

Why is these wars persisting?  What is the leadership advancing as loving its constituents? What qualifiers are being used to define and demand the rights of one population over another? What do we love so much that we are grasping with a fist of propriety at the expense of our collective humanity? What are we loving so much that we would push another human being into a corner, a strip of land, a reservation or a mindset?

Love, the Energy, Frequency, and Vibration, holds no judgement or definition.  It Just Is.  We have allowed love to be defined for us.  We have terrorized into belief systems. We have commercialized love into success or failure, beauty or ugliness, rich or poor, and more.

What are we loving in this moment?

LOVE BEYOND YOUR MEANS, WHAT IS YOURS TO DO?

As I have been writing for the last couple of months.  What is yours to do is yours?  This is A Call to Presence.  We are all equal.  This is not about what building we sit in.  It is not about having the resources to build something.  We all do not have to have a special T-shirt, shawl, book or button. Sit. Inquire. Start with Love and allow your vibes to inebriate you.  HEAL yourself.  Explore your pre-judgments.  See Life in everything.  See Life's cycles as the natural order of things so that we do not fear death, minimization, or starkness. Ponder the value and the purpose of planting, fertilizing, resting, sprouting, maturing, fruiting, ripening, and being stripped down into decay.  What cycle are you in?  What cycle I your community in? What cycle is humanity in? What cycles are our relationships to each other? What cycles are our Traditions in and each relationship to other Traditions?  Really bare yourself naked within the Principles of your Tradition.  Slow down. What do you want to see in the world and BE that.

The images are the covers for a 2-disc CD set that I have recorded during my evolution during the months of November and December.  These are available for sale as part of my fundraiser to cover my school expenses and travel to my graduation in May.

A CALL TO PRESENCE CDs

We delve into the Frequencies.

Namaste.

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