Yana Castle, Ph.D., Author, Healer, Tour Leader
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Don't Freeze Windhorse into Ice and Smile at Fear

8/29/2018

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A message from one of my early esteemed teachers,
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche...

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You should appreciate yourself, respect yourself, and let go of doubt and embarrassment so that you can proclaim goodness and basic sanity for the benefit of others. The self-existing energy that comes from letting go is called windhorse in the Shambhala teachings. Wind is the energy of basic goodness, strong, exuberant, and brilliant. At the same time, basic goodness can be ridden, or employed in your life, which is the principle of the horse. When you contact the energy of windhorse, you can naturally let go of worrying about your own state of mind and you begin to think of others. If you are unable to let go of your selfishness, you might freeze windhorse into ice.

and this one from 'Smile at Fear', pp123.
When goodness and virtue are awakened through the sitting practice of meditation, you train yourself to have good posture and to harmonize your mind and your body. The goodness or virtue develops naturally in your speech and throughout your life, and you find the gunuine way of working with other (...) When we are resentful, we are somewhere else, because we are preoccupied with something else. Being a warrior is simply being here without distraction and preoccupation. And by being here, we become cheeful. We can smile at our fear.


image: Windhorse—hand crafted copper repoussé gilded with platinum and gold leaf—mounted with tourmalines, garnet and other gems—mounted on brocade with gilded frame— sold to a private collector. The windhorse is the pivotal element in the centre of the animals symbolizing the four cardinal directions and the idea of well-being and good fortune. Fom the Exhibition of Sacred Art at the Guru Bhumtsok for World Peace 2018 in Hobart, artist Martin Watson.

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Passage from "Belonging" by Toko-pa Turner

8/24/2018

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Wise words from Toko-pa Turner on the unseen worlds and how we lost touch with method of accessing the wisdom the the ancients.
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“There is a world behind this world. The old cultures used to be in constant conversation with it through the sacred practices of storytelling, dreaming, ceremony, and song. They invited the Otherworld to visit them, to transmit its wisdom to them, so that they might be guided by an ancient momentum. But as we succumbed to the spell of rationalism, the living bridge between the worlds fell into disrepair. As fewer made the journey back and forth across the door sill where the two worlds touch, we forgot how to find the Otherworld. At any given moment, we are either turning away from or coming into congruence with our kinship with mystery.”

—Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner




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Poem by Dorothy Walters

8/16/2018

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Dorothy Walters is a dear mentor of mine and I treasure all her writing, guidance and her very being. Andrew Harvey considers her to be the greatest living mystic poet. I feel so honored to have this special relationship with her. Here is one poem of the many of hers I will post on this blog.
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Don't Make Lists

Every day a new flower rises
from your body's fresh soil.
Don't go around looking
for fallen petals
in a fairy tale when you've
got the golden plant
right here, now,
shooting forth in light from your eyes,
your awakening crown.

Don't make lists or explore ancient accounts.
Forget everything you know
and open.

—from Dorothy's book Marrow of Flame

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    Yana Castle

    Adventurer, Researcher, Writer, Dreamer, Buddhist, Feminist, Therapist, Tour leader, Folklorist, Dancer in liminal spaces, Leopard lover.

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  • home
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  • work with Yana
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