Remember these lines, from Rumi? The ones that brought us here in the first place?

A new moon teaches gradualness

and deliberation and how one gives birth

to oneself slowly. Patience with small details

makes perfect a large work, like the universe.

What nine months of attention does for an embryo

forty early mornings will do

for your gradually growing wholeness.

Even though we’re two days out from our official end together — for now.

It’s truly a moment to begin again.

Each day, in some way, offers that to us.

So remember, you always have an invitation to come back to yourself, to return to your practice, if you simply look up and around to receive it.

And if ever things feel painfully slow or stuck or even like they’re backsliding, listen closely for these whispers…

… gradualness

… deliberation

… how one gives birth to oneself slowly

… patience

… small details

… attention

… your gradually growing wholeness

LEAVE A COMMENT: I’D LOVE TO KNOW — WHAT DOES YOUR GRADUALLY GROWING WHOLENESS LOOK AND FEEL LIKE TODAY?

For me, it’s getting precisely clear on when and how and what I put energy toward. It’s saying more NOs, so I can say wiser YESes. It’s trusting I’m exactly where I need to be. It’s going slower than I think and that feeling spacious and GOOD (no longer feeling behind). This is where I am, truly, sitting on the mountain of a DECADE (2 decades, really!) of this work. And tomorrow, I’ll probably forget it all until I remember it again ;) “It’s just like that.”

For today’s practice: Three options.

• Continue with the full Loving-Kindness Meditation (“LKM”) below

• Try an abbreviated version of LKM: A hand to the heart and these lines from The Radiance Sutras:

  “There is a space in the heart where everything meets.
  Come here if you want to find me.
  Mind, senses, soul, eternity — all are here.
  Are you here?

Enter the bowl of vastness that is the heart.
Listen to the song that is always resonating.
Give yourself to it with total abandon.
Quiet ecstacy is here,
And a steady, regal sense
Of resting in a perfect spot.
You who are the embodiment of blessing,
Once you know the way,
The nature of attention will call you to return.
Again and again, answer that call,
And be saturated with knowing,
I belong here, I am at home.”

• An even shorter version of LKM: A hand to the heart and these lines, the Mangala Mantra: “Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu” — “May all beings everywhere be happy, healthy, and free. And may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some small way to the happiness, the health, and the freedom of all.”

• Ok, FOUR! Spend five minutes filling out the out boarding / thank you survey, which will help refine and align this program for you, for me, for everyone else to come in the years ahead. THANK YOU!

xo Cath

p.s. our LAST live is tomorrow at 9:30am ET - details below.

DAY 38 Early Morning Meditation: Loving-Kindness (20 Min)

DAY 38 Quiet Evening Practice (28 min)

p.s. If you’d like a classic lunar flow playlist to go with tonight’s practice, try this or this or this!

Our LAST live together, for now. Come with all the things (or just some of things) you’d need for your “practice plan” after these 40 days (aka maybe a yoga mat, maybe what you need for your meditation seat, a journal/pen). Not sure what that is yet? Just come, come, exactly as you are.

Catherine Zack is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Final 40 Early Mornings Group Live Practice

Time: Jul 29, 2022 09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 895 7291 4152

Passcode: 271073

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