With a new Moon today it’s a time for new beginnings and refreshing your goals. Mercury moves forward in the heavens helping improve communication. Relationships are still a bit wobbly but are slowly stabilizing. Stand your ground as necessary – and ground your idealism in order to achieve productive change. Spiritual deepening is possible especially in forms of physical expression that have a spiritual component. The very heart of yoga practice is ‘abyhasa’ – steady effort in the direction you want to go.~Sally Kempton
It is still not a great time to move forward with big plans for worldly gains, but if needed, this is a better day than recent ones. The Moon unites with Jupiter, which improves one’s sense of well-being, and relationships, especially with women. Intuition is at a high point for the next two weeks, which helps with healing the past and planning for the future. Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.~Oprah Winfrey
The following is a short section of heart advice from His Holiness Penor Rinpoche at New York Retreat in Upstate New York:
At night before you go to sleep, visualize that Guru Padmasambhava, non-dual with the root teacher, melts into your central channel, and abides in your heart. Then from the Guru’s body light radiates and your whole body is filled with light. Have devotion, faith and confidence. Concentrate one’s mind on that. And then go to sleep. And in that way, you can carry on this practice.
This is not a good day to make (rational) decisions. Your thinking is strongly influenced by your feelings, as indicated by the Moon in Scorpio next to Mercury. Verbalizing your emotions comes easily though. So have it out with everyone around you-LOL! But seriously, as emotional communication comes naturally, relationships continue to bring the unexpected. Past and future concerns are highlighted. A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone ‘s feelings unintentionally.~ Oscar Wilde
Challenges continue if you are trying to gain material success or put any new feather in your cap. Yet, there is much promise today for spiritual pursuits. The grounded energy of Saturn supports this for a few weeks. Work deeply with your faith, and transformation may be your reward. Self-nature is like a puff ball. You should pray to see it for what it is: poof! Just like that.~ Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.
The energy is right for creature comforts and social events, but keep on your toes. If you don’t like the unexpected in social events, let someone else throw the party. Venus, the planet of of love, relationships and money is now in the sign of Scorpio for a month, bringing passion and depth to these issues. Continue to practice patience in any conflicts that arise. The time and situation are calling for consistency and patience. Waiting is an essential skill; patience is a powerful force.~I Ching
The energy for conflicts is peaking. Can you hold on to what is essential while stating your position clearly and/or compromising? If so, you can still pursue your goals with zeal, and come to deeper understandings about your past and your future. Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.~Michael J. Fox
For the next two weeks “me first” energy is confused and depleted by the trans-personal, selfless force of the planet Neptune. If you are feeling irritable or discouraged the best way out is through selfless, compassionate activities. The theme of religious, philosophical, and global pursuits continues to be strong. Finish old projects, and wait at least a week to start anything big. True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.~Sadhu Vaswani
The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Tools to Deepen in Your Practice”
We see ourselves in a dualistic way. We have very concrete roles as to how that dualism plays out: in the way that we procreate, in the way that we die, in the way that we’re born. We have very exacting ways in which it plays out because of our belief systems, because of the system of duality. And we’ve had a long time to work out the kinks. So, when we believe in physical reality as being essentially real, we can find all kinds of facts and information and people who will agree with us.
And if you wish to avoid awakening to the primordial state, you’ll have lots of friends, because most everyone is locked into that confusion of the five senses. Like a dream. We know how it is when we’re in a dream. We may on some level understand it’s a dreamlike state, but the emotions are so strong. It just pulls us into it. A dream can be very sensual. It can be very alluring. It can be very stimulating in that you’ve had dreams with interesting things that happen and interesting colors, or something. But we’ve had all kinds of dreams. We’ve had all kinds of phenomena as well.
That’s a terrible obstacle. That’s a mean one, oh boy! Because when you are getting ready to generate the deity, you cannot even allow the deity to arise naturally, as it does, from the from the wisdom that is emptiness because your brain has a better idea. That’s unfortunate, because it is that wisdom that we need.
Here in Tantric practice, particularly with the Nyingma tradition, we are considered the ‘ancient’ ones, the oldest. They say, “How many Nyingmas does it take to change a light bulb? Well, none. We all meditate in the dark.” (much laughter). So we are the ancient ones and we like to meditate in the dark.
So in Vajrayana, what is the most precious capacity is that capacity to simply let go the thoughts, the conceptualization, the products of the five senses—you know, all the conceptual proliferations that we’ve built around what we sensed. It is letting go of that. It is opening the senses to allow the view. That is the wisdom that we really work on that becomes the very foundation for any accomplishment that we have on the Path. That’s the foundation for it.
