No Matter the Season

No matter the season: 

solstice is over - and now winter lies ahead in its bitter entirety, a difficult season for me to face. It's the season of my surrender, a refusal to fight my way through it, no matter temperature, wind, nor dark emotions. I've let go of this seasonal battle, content to be home within myself...

whatever winter brings.

for me, it's never been seasonal depression, but a deepening of a low level melancholy that's present through the year and only happens to worsen through the darker days of winter. I realize that I've been fortunate that this is so as many friends and family members have suffered with depression, some to the point of not wishing to move from bed, struggling to grasp even the slimmest hope of light. I've been fortunate indeed, more so, even blessed as my own struggle seems to have lighted through the years for no reason other than the grace of my acceptance.  

somewhere along the line...

I just let go.

allowing myself to struggle, no longer refusing to love my sorrow, not hiding in darkness, nor even searching for the slightest glimmer of light - but simply relaxing in the presence of whatever's offered, without any need to force an internal change of scenery. 

and somehow through it all,

spring arrived.

light.

completely on its own. 

so no matter the season...I will love myself, accepting everything that's offered, even the things my heart and mind struggle to accept. I will love my resistance, recognizing the gift of self preservation. And I will love myself through darkness as well as my reach for light, no longer seeing it as a battle between two forces. 

I will simply love myself.

no matter the season.

and this makes all the difference.

~

Love, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Luminosity

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Luminosity

Luminosity; 

just a bit more light now, that's the promise of winter solstice - and today, I accept this fraction of grace that's given to me. Knowing that the entire spectrum of luminosity...a light that's synonymous with the furthest reach of love,

is found through smallest gleam.

~

Love, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Radical Responsibility

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Radical Responsibility

Radical responsibility: 

we're asked for no less than radical responsibility, acknowledging our role in the play of life's projections, relinquishing judgement of all that occurs, and seeing straight through to the original innocence of others -it's with this acceptance that we begin to heal the world. 

everything is our responsibility. 

if only at the most subtle level of involvement.

consciousness is participatory.

this means the world, how we live and view it, is entirely our creation. One of the most meaningful lessons of A Course in Miracles asks us not to seek to change the world, but to choose to change our minds about it - and it's through this alone that the world will change. Again, it's radical responsibility, not blame, just acceptance of our own role in salvation. 

we're meant to heal the world.

because it's our creation.

a projection, really.

and seeing this, 

truly so...

our world then begins to heal.

~

Love, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Phrases

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Phrases

Phrases: 

many years ago I read a book titled Zero Limits by author Joe Vitale and it's subject was on the Hawaiian art of forgiveness and reconciliation called Ho'oponopono. This was originally a traditional shamanic practiced performed by a spiritual leader, called a Kahuna, and members of a family or community that were at odds with each other. It involves four phrases that are repeated in an act of cleansing psychic and emotional wounds and can be a very profound act of forgiveness.

here are the four phrases:

I love you

I'm sorry

Please forgive me

Thank you

done faithfully, with clear intent, it's a powerful cleansing agent for anger and resentment, freeing the practitioner from the harmful effects of their projections. I'm often asked if it truly works, and do I actually believe that the use of these four phrases can actually bring about a change of heart, behavior, and even some outer circumstances of my life.

and my honest answer is...

I don't know.

it doesn't really matter though, as I have little interest in the esoteric principles of any healing method. My only concern is the value of its practice. For me, it's a tool, a means of practicing forgiveness in a concrete way that brings it instantly into my heart-center, being a theme that plays gently though my mind in very meaningful way. So the four phrases have become a useful tool in the practicality of forgiveness, similar to Lesson 46 from A Course in Miracles: 

God is the love in which I forgive.

it's another phrase, cleansing in it's heart-felt practice.

but it's the end result that matters.

and here's the thing, it's the heart that cleanses itself, words are simply a performance, rituals of remembrance. In the end, there's only forgiveness. It happens entirely on it's own. Words themselves are just reminders that this is so. 

we are already, 

and always,

forgiven. 

~

Love, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Instructions

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Instructions

Instructions: 

I like instructions, explicit and directly to the point, most especially in matters that concern my own well-being. This is why I've been drawn to those paths that provide the most clear way ahead, such as yoga, Buddhism, and A Course in Miracles, they provide a blueprint for lasting peace and happiness. Even enlightenment, if you will. I love too the fact that Jesus was so precise with his instructions - love God with heart, soul, and mind, as well as too love others as we love ourselves. 

clear.

there's no room for negotiations here.

Jesus also pointed in the exact direction for us to find heaven, stating several times that the kingdom was only found within, and yet we still continuously look elsewhere. As a Christian, the path is definitely clear, and if more were needed than the Sermon of the Mount gives even more detailed instructions. Nothing more is needed for a meaningful, loving life than to follow the way of Christ. 

if that is your path, of course. 

with Krishna, the path of yoga is laid clear in the Bhagavad Gita. This is the way of surrender, laying aside attachments to the fruit of our endeavors, and living in the simplicity of an inner-directed life. Buddha too gives an eight-fold path that leads towards awakening. There's really little guess work involved here, it's just a matter of following these instructions. 

for me, the directive is forgiveness.

A Course in Miracles continuously points towards healing a fractured world, placing the responsibility solely upon my own practice. The instructions are quite simple: forgiving others as would wish to be forgiven. That's it. But it's a profound practice, not easy, as it shifts my beliefs away from blame and judgement towards a reality of absolute grace and a love without conditions. 

yet the instructions are clear.

forgive,

and further still...forgive some more.

until I heal a fractured world. 

~

Love, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Return

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Return

Return: 

for the past few days I've allowed myself to sleep in just a bit, only an hour or so as I recover from a virus that's been particularly stubborn in it's stay. With this I've made a few adjustments, dropping a few asanas from my earliest yoga routine, shortening my pre-dawn walks - little things that might not seem important but have a noticeable affect through the rest of the day. 

I feel like I'm behind, in need of catching up. 

yet there's nothing that I'm chasing.

my most recent days, over the course of the last few years, have become monk-like in their structure. With little room for negotiating those extra few minutes in bed. It's not so much a matter of discipline, no, being more so a spontaneous plan that guides me through the day. 

I just go where I'm told.

and live my life this way.

these past few days though, it feels like I've compromised that plan, listening to demands that aren't really for my best interest right now. And the reason is that I don't feel better from that extra time in bed, I'm playing catch up with the thing I've most enjoyed. An hour doesn't seem like a lot of time, bit it's enough to cause me to consider how my day is served. My most cherished moments are the morning hours, quiet, contemplative, and completely my own. 

it's my time with God.

Brahma Muhurta.

holy hours.

and they now ask for my return.

~

Love, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit; Happily Sipping Coffee 

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Happily Sipping Coffee

Happily sipping Coffee: 

without need of writing anything at all, no effort given to reach a sense of inspiration, my coffee at hand, content  - and even these few words bring me great joy in their arrival.

 I am a happy writer now. 

a great change from days when I was fearful of an empty page, wondering if inspiration would show, or if I would be left without a single satisfying word after a morning's worth of writing. None of that seems to matter any longer, writing happens on it's own. 

I simply write what's given.

or abide in silence.

happily sipping coffee. 

~

Peace, Eric 

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