All Blog Posts (596)

We are all born into this world naked and screaming.  That’s just one of many experiences we all share as human beings, even if we don’t remember it.  My wife and I were fortunate enough to witness this miracle first hand when our daughter, Izabella Luna, was born on April 18th.  What a wondrous experience it was.  But what a rude awakening it must be for a baby to be thrust from a warm, dark, safe environment, where all of her needs are met, to a bright, cold, unknown world full of lights,…

© 2012 Howard McQueen

 

This veil between me and everything 

 I understand to be of my own construction.

 

Understandably, I relied upon others 

 to make sense out of all this everything I experienced.

As a result, during my youth and thereafter, 

 I manufactured a myriad of:

 

  - strategies  of avoidance

  - strategies of accumulation 

  - strategies of conformity

   …

Post from www.vasisthas-yoga.com

III.13 “By the apprehension of the perceived or the knowable, consciousness becomes the living soul and is apparently involved in repetitive history.  When the false notion of a knowable apart from the knower (consciousness) ceases, it regains its equilibrium.”

The soul, or the jiva, is the result of identifying with the…

We're looking. For something so simple.

So simple, that we can't hold it in

our hands. Or in our heads.

So we look to him. To her.

To them. To there.

We look to everywhere but here.

To when. To then. But not to now.

It's hidden just beyond our cleverness.

So we presume it's out there.

But perhaps it's here.

 …

“Learn to live a natural and spontaneous life, contentedly.” According to the sage

Vasistha, that is the point. It is to this end, that we will direct our efforts, so that you may

know the power of real tranquility. By clearing away our false…

© 2012 Howard McQueen

Well before confidence,

well before courage,

the well-spring of faith is fed.

The journey of my life,

 when well-lived

 is an exploration in discovering and removing

 my inner obstructions blocking this spring.

In my journey my faith will waver:

  I will become afraid and numbed down.

  I will become overheated with anger.

  I will experience the delusional…

Do you ever experience periods of overwhelm regarding the amount of things that need to be done? If so, you’re not alone. Lately I have had a lot of projects calling me in different directions. With a new baby on the way, a great deal needs to be done to prepare the house for her arrival (which is coming in a few days!).  In addition to preparing for a new miniature resident, I have to keep up with my work.  It’s the busiest time of the year for our business, and I have been struggling to…

© 2012 Howard McQueen 

Dearly Beloved,

  you take my breath away

  and you fill my lungs,

  again and again,

  all without an iota of effort needed from me.

All that seems needed from me is to remember:

  When I invite in and worship fear, separation and exclusion,

    I am diminished.

  When I invite in and worship love, connection and inclusion,

    I am one with you,

   …

© 2012 Howard McQueen

In this string of moments I’ve known you,

I’ve been absorbing the all of you.

Even through the seeming distractions,

your humanity penetrates to the essence of me,

reawakening in me

the great desire to love

through my fear

and doubt.

I release myself from all hesitancy,

willing to be lost in love,

blinded, in order to see clearly

all that…

© 2012 Howard McQueen

Make your way

back into your own gateway,

your center,

where all potential is present,

where heaven and hell are recognized

as arising from interpretation 

shaped by perspective

and expressed through intention.

This trinity: interpretation, perspective and intention,

when opened

and navigated with patience and reflection

provide the journeyer

with the necessary…

© 2012 Howard McQueen 

 

How can we continue to believe

that there is security

in what is stale,

in what we’ve already harvested,

in what we’ve already celebrated?

 

Many times in this life,

we hear the not so faint calling

to build our new nest,

and we turn away from the calling,

planting our heals

and our hearts

in the…

© 2012 Howard McQueen 

I am appreciating this gift of life.

I have not always felt this way about life,

or about my life.

For the longest time, it seemed to me

that there were injustices done to me

that were patently unfair.

Then, over the course of time,

I sowed those injustices upon others,

becoming initiated and intimately aware

of the suffering already loose in this…

© 2012 Howard McQueen

It starts out innocent enough,

 a casual conversation begun.

Goodwill is opened, friendship warmed,

 all this seemingly under the auspices of genuine inquiry.

As the questions continue however,

 there is the sense of a rigid and analytical agenda firming up.

Information about me is highlighted and then inflated,

 supposedly on my behalf.

The conversation is herded along so that a…

© 2012 Howard McQueen

 

All too often

 we wait to celebrate being together - till we are leaving.

 

Everyday we have the opportunity

 to be radical daredevils

 and let escape our words,

 profusely professing

 our love for each other.

 

Why are we still…

Words by Howard McQueen; Inspiration by Fred Lansford

I am slip-sliding, ever-shifting perspective and awareness,

 collapsing and expanding

 entirely outside of my control.

I am sometimes a tiny sliver,

 weak, frail, sometimes feeling desperately incomplete

 and sometimes connected to such a wholeness

 and profundity as to see

 mother earth as a pearl in the great Ocean.

I seek sometimes the reunion…

© 2012 Howard McQueen

We seem to always be offered the same two choices when we encounter conflict:

            To enter into judgment

            <or>

            To enter into inquiry

One choice leads us on the journey towards a peaceful understanding.

The other choice continues to blind and bind us to our ignorance. 

© 2012 Howard McQueen

If something is not quite right with this moment;

Perhaps,

 you have yet to bring your full self into the moment.

Perhaps,

 You are remembering that its not all about what you think

 AND it is all about how you choose to interpret and respond.

© 2012 Howard McQueen

Version 1.1

To practice your artistry, your mission, your […],

i.e. your own unique vision for a richer, connected humanity.

Encourage yourself to be more and more fearlessly

 comfortable and alive within your own skin.

 And then, 

 go forth and occupy the richness of this imperfect,

 often conflicted, external world.

A nod of appreciation for the contributions of William…

© 2012 Howard McQueen

Our mind,

when faced with not knowing,

wants to fill in [ … ] for us.

What it tends to fill in, depends,

to a great extent,

upon what it chooses to fetch

dust off

and then make up.

If the mind expects a fearful future,

it may manufacture caution, avoidance

or [ ... ]

If the mind expects a pleasurable future,

it may throw…