Hello Dear Friends,

This weekend Colleen Caffrey will be leading the Journey! Colleen is awesome and I hope you can join us. She also wrote this amazing invitation. Please read, come, enjoy. ~ Jacob

“Start again.“
“… Start again.”

Some years ago I attended a 10-day silent meditation course. Morning, noon and night, we students gathered on our cushions in the meditation hall. Out of the silence came the recorded voice of the (deceased) teacher of the particular tradition’s lineage saying, “Start again.”  It was an instruction to begin the session and a reminder of what to do throughout the practice. Each time the mind wanders, as it inevitably does, all there ever is to do is to notice and return again and again to the present moment.  No story. No judgment. No drama. Just start again.

I have other practices I try to maintain in my life.  Eat lots of vegetables. Call my dad regularly.  Sometimes I stray. I eat peanut butter sandwiches for days. I get distracted. I don’t call.

Maybe this happens in your life, too?

It used to be I’d go on a big trip about these things. Ate a bunch of pizza? Well then the heck with the gym! (It’s useless!) I’d guilt and shame myself into further avoidance of calling home.  (I’m useless!) More often these days, I find it helpful to coax myself back into simple positive action with the words, “start again.”

Though I haven’t kept up the meditation practice, those two words stayed with me. I use them often to remind myself of the physical sensation in my body and mind — of nonjudgmental presence, a state of being that I’ve better learned to recognize and inhabit through my experiences in TaKeTiNa.

We start with the voice. “Ga. Ma. La. Ta. Ki.”  Words give mind a point of soft focus. Feet come next. Hands follow. It’s a lot to coordinate.  Brain jumps in. Things go awry.  “Gosh, that was clumsy.”  “Did anyone see that?”  The story doesn’t help. Let it go. Feel that in my body.  Relax the judging mind.

Start again.

Voice reminds feet
Syllables guide body
meets Rhythm

Rhythm
where it always, only, ever is
–now.

Mind wanders.
Start again.
Voice. Feet. Hands.

This is presence made palpable.
In community.  (Bonus!)
Chant turns to song.

~~

I’ve been away from facilitating TaKeTiNa for a long time. And honestly, I’ve been caught in quite a story about it.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to let that go. And for the invitation from Jacob to be your guest facilitator this week. I look forward, humbly, to leading all who feel called as we join together in a playful practice of the skill of starting again.

Ta. Ki. Ta. Ki.

Start again.

And hey, bring yer friends.