March 27, 2020

Breathing Compassion

If you are looking for my short novel, A Matter of the Soul, scroll down to the next post or click here.


I planned a post like this a couple of weeks ago, and then suddenly the world changed. Business as usual is no longer possible. People are confused, frightened, sick, dying. It was like we blinked and everything fell apart. Businesses closed, jobs disappeared, store shelves were bare, and every day there are more sick with COVID-19.

People are left wondering how they can cope and how they can help. The advice is to stay at home and to look after your neighbours, particularly the elderly. It’s not very helpful advice. Many of us don’t know our neighbours. And if we do, we might not have shared our digital contact information with them. It is not easy to help someone while you are sitting on your couch.

I care, but what can I do? How often have you asked yourself the same question? Some would say pray, but traditional prayer means calling on someone outside yourself and all you can do is wait and hope they fix the problem. It lets you do something, by speaking the words of your prayer, and is itself a form of connection, but it might leave you feeling like a bystander. It might leave you wishing there was more.

So now what? We have compassion, but what do we do with it?

There is this:

A couple of years ago I read a book by Pema Chodron, a Bhuddist teacher. This was where I first learned about Tonglen breathing, as it applies to Universal Compassion. I myself do not ascribe to any particular teachings, Bhuddist or otherwise, but I have used this breathing ever since because compassion is important to me.

It is deceptively simple. Just long, slow breaths. You breathe in the pain, the discomfort, then breathe out some ease, some relief.

Why might this work?

We are all connected, you and I and your friend shaking with anxiety and the person with Covid-19 lying under a respirator and a South American person sweltering in a heat that never allows their perspiration to dry and the pangolin curled up in a cage.

We are all connected in the Soul. It’s not just your soul or my soul but the Soul of the whole universe, bigger and fuller than we can ever imagine. When you breathe as deep and slow as you are able, you reach to the place where you can sense your soul. You may not sense it at first, but it is there, in the stillness. This is the place where we are all connected. When you breathe in, you can take with you the pain of others. Take it down with you to that place of stillness where it can be transformed, and then breathe out some ease.

Here is something to be aware of about the physical act of this breathing. For some reason, it doesn’t come naturally to us to breathe like this. I think the busy-ness of our lives causes us to become accustomed to short little breaths. You might find it necessary to hold your hand on your stomach to remind yourself to push out your stomach so that your diaphragm has room to move down to allow you to take a deeper breath.

Ignore the voice that says this is crazy or hokey or non-scientific. We don’t have the luxury right now of holding onto rigid ways of seeing things. Give yourself a chance to try this kind of breathing. It can allow you to send compassion to anyone, anywhere. It requires concentration, but you don’t have to maintain it for a long time. Once you have a sense of it, you can do it for a minute here and there throughout your day, according to what you are able.

As the world seems to grind to a halt, except in hospitals, stillness might be just what we need to help us to find true compassion.

March 02, 2020

Introducing: A Matter of the Soul


A Matter of the Soul


Peyton, who lives a pretty ordinary life in our current times, becomes increasingly frustrated by all the things that are going wrong. Sleeplessness finally drives them out of their bed one night, into their car and down the highway.

But Peyton is not as alone in this universe as they think. There are people and circumstances that come together to send them on a spiritual journey and help them find answers to questions they didn’t know they had.



I intended to write a blogpost about my progress regarding the short novel I was working on, but I just kept working on that novel, unable to be distracted. Instead, this post is the official announcement of a completed novel.

A Matter of the Soul is a written, revised and formatted book. It is ready to be enjoyed by others. Personally speaking, this is a first for me and feels very momentous! I’ve written a number of novels and embarked on the revision process, but this is the first time I’ve completed the process. I understand now that this is the first story I’ve written that needed to be completed and shared. The others were all preparation.

I’ve tried to express before that this novel is so much more than just the thoughts in my head. It is so much more than just something written by a single person. For those of us living in the mainstream individualistic society of today’s world, this is a difficult concept to understand or to express. I am one with all of life, with the very universe, and so, this novel comes from me and from all with whom I am connected. I am honoured to have been the one whose job it was to write this story. I believe the Universe, the fullness of life, wants you to be able to read this story.

And so, I am offering A Matter of the Soul in digital form to any who desire it, without restriction. There are those who would say this is not a wise decision. I’ve been told that if you don’t put a monetary value on something, then people don’t think it is worthwhile. But this book is not intended to feed capitalism. It is truly a matter of the Soul.

From a purely financial perspective, I wrote this story in my spare time and as such do not need it to be my source of income. As long as I have a computer and internet access, I can freely offer digital versions. Also, no one is restricted from passing the story on to others. I would love to have print copies; if any money becomes available I will arrange printing according to available funds.

There is a great deal of uncertainty in the world around us right now. My wish for this story is that it gets passed from person to person, taking full advantage of this digital world we are currently living in. I believe there will be people who find some peace within themselves after reading it. I will attach my name to the story, because I am a real person living in the here and now who wrote this book, but I have no need to have my name or reputation become anything more than just me, just one of us.

Edit: to acquire a copy of A Matter of the Soul, you can go directly to this dropbox link to download a copy. In the increasing uncertainty brought about by Covid-19, I want to be sure you can access a copy without having to look for the contact form.

To acquire a copy of A Matter of the Soul, use the contact form on this blog. I will respond by sending you a copy in the format you request, as I am able.

Please note: If you are using a cellphone to access my blog, it might be necessary to scroll down and tap on “View web version” in order to find the contact form.

This book is available in three formats: pdf, epub and mobi. Reading it as a pdf file in a pdf reader may require you to read it by scrolling. A pdf file is the smallest in file size. Reading it as an epub or a mobi file will allow you to read it in book form, by flipping pages. They will require a reading app or an e-reader, but appear from my tests to work best in the brand name apps/ereaders. Most apps are offered freely and can be installed on any device. The file will be sent to you by email, as an attachment.







Contact Form/Request Email Notification

Name

Email *

Message *