Rahima Warren's Blog, page 5
March 15, 2013
Hope and Fear: Our Worst Enemies?
Writing and Art Reflections on Creativity, Life and Spirit
By Rahima Warren
HOPE AND FEAR: OUR WORST ENEMIES?
Most of us would agree that fear is one of worst inner enemies, keeping us from taking chances, moving forward—but hope? Doesn’t hope keep us moving, working to make things better? Yes, that’s the problem. Hope keeps us focused on the future, on striving to get the hoped-for reward. Fear keeps us always looking behind or around for the threat or danger. Unless there is a bear or a tiger actually roaring at us RIGHT NOW, fear comes from past experiences of harm, threat or insult. Neither hope nor fear allows us to settle into the present moment, which is the only place where peace, joy and love can be found.
Pema Chödrön explains:
“Hope and fear is a feeling with two sides. As long as there’s one, there’s always the other. This is the root of our pain. In the world of hope and fear, we always have to change the channel, change the temperature, change the music, because something is getting uneasy, something is getting restless, something is beginning to hurt, and we keep looking for alternatives.”
As I read this quote, I have several reactions. First, I get grumpy and grumbly. “Well, of course we want to be comfortable!” Then I get irritated. “Oh, stop! We’re only human. Of course, we have hopes and fears. How could we not in this crazy world?”
But then a sense of recognition sinks in. I know Pema speaks truth here. I remember seeing this myself. Somewhere in one of my journals, I drew a picture of me as a mouse in an exercise wheel, running and running, with Fear behind me snarling, and Hope before me smiling seductively, getting me absolutely nowhere. When I visualized jumping off the wheel, it was scary at first, then exhilarating. And then I landed in myself, in the present moment, in peace.
But how do we let go of hope and fear? Good question. Pema Chödrön is saying to look behind the fear or hope to the discomfort or uneasiness or pain underneath. To me, that means being present and aware of what is arising in us, and just noticing it with curiosity. Where did this discomfort come from? When did it start?
I’ve been feeling grumpy and out of sorts this morning. So let me sit with it and see where it goes. Okay, the first thing that comes up is that I got grumpy when I started dealing with my aging mother’s taxes, instead of writing. Next, a feeling of being overloaded with doing stuff other than what I truly want to be doing, out of a sense of duty and obligation. No wonder I get grumpy!
Phew! The grumpiness is subsiding, but now there’s some sadness. What’s this all about? Is it about my mother getting near the end of her life? Hmmm, that’s only part of it. What else? Is it because I’ve been abandoning part of myself? Ah, yes. Which part? Oh, the playful little girl and the wild woman who both love to be outdoors, dancing with the wind, walking quietly by a gurgling creek in the woods, spying a tiny orange flower or a lizard with an electric blue tail, smelling the bay laurel’s scent, watching a redtail hawk soar. Wow, now I’ve got it, and I feel better, clearer and more settled in.
As Ram Dass wrote, it’s all grist for the mill. Whatever arises needs attention and curiosity, rather than avoidance or soothing. Nothing necessarily has to change, except our inner responses. And these can shift toward peacefulness just from being recognized and accepted.
Contemplation Questions
How do you deal with Fear? With Hope?
Do they run you around in circles, or can you step off that “exercise wheel”?
How is it for you to sit with arising discomfort without judging, avoiding or soothing?
Does noticing what’s going on in you help shift you back to your peaceful center?
February 28, 2013
Butterfly Soup?
Writing and Art Reflections on Creativity, Life and Spirit
By Rahima Warren
February 28, 2013
Are We Butterfly Soup?
The Butterfly has recently been appearing to me in visions and life. A black butterfly woman appeared in one of my paintings; a stained glass butterfly in another. At a retreat, I pulled a symbol from a bag and received Butterfly. So I have been pondering the meaning and message of Butterfly.
Primarily, Butterfly is associated with Transformation, because the caterpillar literally transforms into a butterfly. But, as Maya Angelou says,
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
The caterpillar spins its cocoon, disappearing from our sight, and later, a beautiful butterfly emerges. We don’t think about what goes on in that cocoon. In fact, what happens is that the caterpillar dissolves into a soup, and the butterfly forms itself out of that soup.
In other words, letting go of all it has been and dissolving into nothing is what is required of the caterpillar to become a butterfly. And it seems to be what is required of us too. Eckhart Tolle writes:
“Realize your essential identity as formless, as an all-pervasive Presence, of Being prior to all forms, all identifications.”
I think I may be entering the “soup” stage. I’ve recently been finding that when I let go of all my images, assumptions and beliefs about who I am or should be, all the ways I identify myself, then there is this formless Presence that is universal yet still me somehow. It’s a very interesting state of being. There is no agenda or intention, but there is a readiness to serve, a potential to become. I begin to understand why my spiritual teacher says that once we surrender to our true nature, we become shape-shifters: pliable and able to fluidly adapt to each circumstance that arises.
Perhaps Butterfly has been showing me the path to my true nature. Let’s hear what she has to say:
Rahima: Dear Butterfly, thank you for showing up in so many ways. I welcome you and want to know what you have to tell me.
Butterfly: Dissolution. Letting go. Yes. You are becoming something new. Something you have never imagined. It takes great trust. Let go of knowing where you are going. Rest in the sea of darkness and chaos. Let go.
R: That’s hard to do when I have so much to do in the world, so many tasks and projects.
B: Trust. It is happening. You do not have to do anything. It is a time of change on this Earth. Much must dissolve for the new to emerge. You cannot direct the outcome but only surrender to the Flow, and allow yourself to be transformed into a new and unimaginable creature.
R: OK, Wow, here I go, into the soup! Thank you for speaking with me.
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About Rahima Warren
For over 40 years, author Rahima Warren has been delving into the deep mysteries within, through dreamwork, expressive process art, many forms of inner work and spiritual practice, including vision quests, ceremony, meditation, and her work guiding others on their healing journeys. She has retrieved many gems of wisdom and healing, and, through an unexpected alchemy, those inner gems have been distilled into an enthralling and sensuous adventure of the soul, Dark Innocence: Book One of the Star-Seer’s Prophecy, a story of the journey from evil and suffering to redemption and love, set in an ancient world of blood sorcery and ritual magic. Now available through Amazon.com and other on-line bookstores, in print and all e-book formats.
February 18, 2013
Free-Fall Writing
I’m a bit shyly proud to let you know that I am sharing my tips for writing over on Clarion blog, a well-respected blog for writers of speculative fiction. I call my approach Free-Fall Writing and it is like the expressive art I do. 
Hope you will take a look! Click this link: ow.ly/hP0fO
Let me know if it is helpful or inspiring. THANKS!
February 14, 2013
Happy Valentine’s Day!
The Beatles
February 8, 2013
Messages from Animal Spirits
Today, I’m a guest on Tracie Nichols’ wonderful blog, sharing my latest painting, “Stained Glass Animals,” and messages of wisdom and compassion from Animals Spirits. Please visit:
http://www.tracienichols.com/blog/
January 14, 2013
Avoiding Emptiness
Avoiding Emptiness
By Rahima Warren
Last time, I wrote about Finding Quietness (and thanks for the thoughtful comments!) Yet 
I’m finding myself avoiding emptiness these days. If it isn’t the To Do list or appointments or group meetings, it’s TV or Facebook or Twitter or Angry Birds or Words with Friends. I feel very modern and up-to-date with my smart phone, tablet and laptop!
But I have to ask myself, what am I avoiding? Why am I filling up almost every moment with some activity or distraction? Why am I not letting myself take the time to meditate, or work on editing the second book of my trilogy, the Star-Seer’s Prophecy, or go for a walk somewhere quiet and beautiful?
Anxiety comes up when I ask these questions. There’s that voice again, wailing “But there’s so much to do!” And I sense something deeper: a sense of terror, which was crystallized into awareness for me and many others by the massacre at Sandy Hook. Feeling this terror makes it difficult to settle down into myself, makes me want to run away to some place where kindness and beauty rule, or at least to watch some program where the good guys win.
I’m sensing another layer to my avoidance of emptiness. If I’m not doing something, then … who am I? At first this is a scary, even terrifying, question. “What do you do?” is often the first question we ask someone we’ve just met. We define ourselves so often by our work, careers, accomplishments. Take those away, and how do we know who we are? I recently saw that who I think I am is just a pile of pictures in my mind, poses and attitudes that I assume are me.
Fortunately, I’ve also learned through meditation and other spiritual practices that there’s a quiet presence underneath all my busy-ness and thoughts, poses and plans. Very simple. Very quiet. Very still. Yet present. Awareness without content. Emptiness.
From the busy ego’s point of view, this emptiness is scary. So it takes a conscious choice to let go of all the “to do’s” and go into the emptiness. Yet when I do, it’s like finally arriving home after a long, challenging journey.
Contemplation Questions
How do you define yourself?
Does emptiness scare you, or do you find it restful?
Do you have ways to let go into emptiness?
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Here’s a poem I wrote after spending a few days alone in the desert by Pyramid Lake on a vision quest. I hope it may bring you into that delicious clarity of emptiness that I found there. (Note: the spacing is part of the poem.)
EMPTINESS
Crystal clear
Silence
Sea becoming desert
No desire
Impartial perceiving
Stately circling stars
Changeless cycles
Serene repose
No fear
Endless dance of lizard love
Life is
Death is
Peace within
Emptiness.
