Dharmachild

For Transformation

Jaya Julienne Ashmore — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 11:58:53 GMT

This is an extract from Jaya’s online mini-talk and guided meditation on 9 April 2026. It was released on July 11, as a featured meditation in the “Connection and Lab” channel on Open Dharma’s Patreon, the Dharmacosm.

I think that we have a chance now for some transformation.

The way that it seems to me, human beings—at the very beginning of our lives and at the very end of our lives—have a chance for transformation. And in the middle we’re a bit more stubborn. And unreachable. Less tender. Less shaken by the weirdness.

So even if it’s a hard time, and it’s easy to feel wrong or wrongness as a main focus, I would ask you to consider getting into how this may be a perfect time for being in touch with reality. Rather than being better at something or making something better.

And of course, you’ll still do the work that you can do. But from this place of recognizing how weird this all is, the work will flow better anyway. Putting central what’s central—rather than putting judgments in the way.

And if you feel well and progressing, then: letting go of time. And hope. Even though it’s not in your hands, it’s easier to step off the wheel from the top, on an up.

So just in case, this time now—and maybe these few years now—may be sometimes harder, sometimes easier, but maybe overall a bit harder than we would like. Maybe even a lot harder than we would like. But that it can also be a time of letting even suffering be for the good—for transformation. Rather than proof of what’s wrong with us. Rather than a reason to shut down.

Please feel that whatever is going on—an up or down—wherever you are, and whatever inner unfolding landscape you find yourself in, you can...
Be in touch with reality.
In all its weirdness.
In all its:
Can’t be thought-ness.
Can’t be spoken-ness.

And what about trusting more? Trusting your ability to feel a quality of wholesomeness or wholeness rather than hope or fear.

(The meditation begins...)

Please be comfortable if you can. Just resting into the little bit or a lot of comfort that’s possible today. Leaving room for wherever is uncomfortable in a growthful way—where you feel unsettled or uneasy in a creative way. Leaving room for that, not as a thought process, but as an organic process.

Body and consciousness, more than thinking, have their growing edges going on all the time.

So being open to rest, and comfort, and simplifying, and relieving burdensomeness. And also being open with the shakiness and uneasiness of transformation going on.

Resting into the restfulness.

So that there is room for what is in more of a place of unease in transforming.

Letting go of maps and assumptions, and resting into more intimacy with here.

With here and with now, and through here and now, into spaciousness and timelessness.

When possible, in its own timing, and its own way.

www.jayaashmore.org

Subscribe now

We are what we long for

Jaya Julienne Ashmore — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:38:35 GMT

What if we are what we long for?

What if we have what we need—not through being a separate individual who has a
complete set of everything, forever. (Where would we put it all? How would we manage
it all?)

What if we connect with what we need through a shift from head to heart?

A shift into receptivity.
Receptivity to nondual reality.

When we go “out there” to try to get love or awakening, we’re not here to receive it.

Going “out there” means being guided by thoughts and expectations—small mind.

Going “out there” means being driven by a feeling of not-enoughness, and a fear of that bottomless hole.

How could we find vastness and subtlety with such small-mind tools?

On the other hand, whether we’re feeling high or low, large or small, the innermost heart can feel a “yes” to what we love most… what our cells and being know is most
important.

What is the felt experience of freely receiving even a little care, reciprocity, or love?

How does it feel to love freely?
What does it feel like when you find yourself even a little bit free—free from demand, free to feel enoughness? A little bit of relief, a little space, or friendliness. A little laugh, a little awe.

What happens if we let ourselves love what we love—and just humbly and wholeheartedly feel our way along, guided by an open heart rather than by thinking?
Actively knowing that we can’t know through our usual thoughts, we leave room for another way of knowing, moving and meeting life inside and out.

It’s easy to try to go outside of ourselves for what we don’t feel inside. We get entranced by promising ideas, workshops, ancient texts, images, and practices of something special.

It’s so easy to forget we may be trying to feel…with a tool that can’t feel. Trying to
discover with a tool that only knows how to play the past. Trying to trust with a tool that only knows how to doubt. Trying to open with a tool that is about contraction.

We often miss what we’re looking for because we’re looking for something recognizable—something we can re-cognize with our small mind, something that will
match our small expectations.

Sometimes, we miss what we’re searching for because we’re so sure that it’s out there, and then we don’t receive it in here. Even when we succeed in getting something from out there, we can’t enjoy it for long—can’t have it, digest it, incorporate it, create with it, thrive with it, share it, circulate it.

What we want and need is something we don’t have a good name or image or
description for. It doesn’t promise us anything. It doesn’t play on our potential to feel not-enough.
It’s in here and out there.
And so are we.
Our heart can rest into that kind of paradox.
And resting, leaving life a little freer in and around us, we rediscover the power of
receptivity—how much can come through us when we let it, when we let life move in an unprogrammed way.

“We are what we long for”

ONLINE PROGRAM WITH JAYA ASHMORE

March ~ April 2026

This two-month online program is about this shift from head and disconnection,
to heart and an embodied nonduality.

We will meet weekly, for Dharma talks, conversations and deep listening.

Tuesdays 18:30-19:30 CET (that’s 12:30-13:30 ET)

~ Note: no session on March 31st
~ There are also options to join the Signal group for this program, one-to-ones with Jaya, and weekly inquiry listening in pairs, with questions that Jaya suggests in accord with the unfolding of the conversations.
~ For more support and fun, you can also join or listen to the recordings of the twice-
weekly online meditations with Jaya (separate registration here).

Join here

Subscribe now

Weaving Life

Jaya Julienne Ashmore — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 19:44:58 GMT

Big questions, small practices, deep listening, & heart-led shifts of consciousness ~ into the embrace of aliveness, for the benefit of the whole. “Weaving Life” is an online gathering happening in January - February 2026. You’re welcome to join.

Along the last decades, I’ve had the sense of society coming unwoven—through doubt, distraction, dissociation and disassembling of community. Our culture seems to leave gaps in loving support, inside us and between us. People, cultures, species…we are falling through.

I’d like to be part of life’s reweaving.

Examples of reweaving include the way an insight reorganizes the psyche. The way it feels good and is good for us to be in touch with other people. To have and to give support. To create and to listen. To lie on the ground, to see the sky, to eat the berry, to hear the water. To feel how being in our juiciest connectedness is good for us and for the world.

And part of reweaving is to rediscover how we humans can dovetail together—each coming with our specific leanings, doubts, compassions, growing edges and wonderings...each of our paths distinct yet mutually generous.

Each of us finding and resting into what helps us and what calls us.

Each of us getting a visceral sense of what kind of difference our listening presence makes in us and in others…What kind of difference it makes when we hear our life calling or feel our heart move.

What kind of differences happen when we rest into aliveness? When we trust joy and tenderheartedness more than contracted mind.

Each of us listening together to the heartbeat of this shared moment in history.

When we weave and are woven into life, life can circulate in and through us more gorgeously—as finer love, simpler kindness, more creative intelligence and help. As a sense of purpose beyond words. As joy, friendship, wonder, resonance, insight, transformation, awakening.

The goodness of the flow is abundant, good for us and for the common good.

In this homeward shift to let life flow in and through us, trust is a key.

But we cannot force trust.

What might help trust to emerge naturally?

Before saying more about themes of this online gathering~ here’s an overview of the structure.

How will we explore?

~Dharma talks and dialogues, every two weeks

~Optional Signal group

~Optional organically emerging gatherings

~Deep listening practices…each optional so you can adjust your participation level to specific needs and leanings:

Trios with Jaya & other participants

Inquiry in pairs with other participants

One-to-ones with Jaya

We will do our best to schedule listening trios to fit the schedules of those who join. There is limited space for Trios.

And back to a few more questions and pathways towards trust that are calling me these days ~

Questions

What reorients us, helps us remember what is important?

What allows wider circulation of our deepest resources?

What helps us know, in embodied and transcendent ways, that we are part of—that we cannot exist apart from—this wider organism of life, wider breath, of life wider than biology?

What tends us towards awakening? Towards the happiness of service to life—the gladness of not being dominated by thinking, habit and conditioning. Our sail full of wind, heart free, mind in trust.

Some potential elements of a path we will explore ~ different flavors of trust, or of an open mind, heart and body, through which life can reweave itself in our world:

Okayness ~ lowering the alarm and feeling enoughness

Wonder

Appreciation

Flow and presence ~ where the quality of our being and doing is important for right now, rather than only towards an outcome

Intuition and creativity~ where we’re willing to be weird, or simple, exploratory, or timely and specific, etc…

Responsiveness ~ including in subtle ways, such as when someone comes to mind and we can just simply reach out with a little connection

Connecting in the web of life and care ~ growing, harvesting and/or cooking food, for example

Community ~ being present with people we are close to and people we don’t know as well

Kinship ~ acknowledging aliveness in all creatures, and even in a nondual way in all things

Availability ~ working to come out of the trance of busyness, right-and-wrong and other agendas

Spontaneity ~ leaving space for unexpected co-emergence

The mystery of trust—not in someone or something

I’m so glad to have these easy ways to gather with anyone who wishes to join me in this loving exploration.

You can register here.

Welcome!

Subscribe now

What to Do?

Jaya Julienne Ashmore — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 18:03:20 GMT

You are not alone if you are not sure what to do in this crazy and mysterious life—uncertain of what could be adequate or fulfilling or even worthwhile.

If you’re lucky enough—and have listened and crafted and failed and kept going enough—to feel 100% aligned with what you do—or with something you sometimes do— wonderful.
Be grateful, to yourself and to all that helped you come into this life so fully.

And please note: Don’t think that everyone should do what you do. Don’t think everyone should do it the way you do it.
Also, don’t assume no one wants to join you, if invited sincerely.
The more right you feel, the harder it may be to hear you, much less join you.
How right do you feel, on a scale of one to a hundred?
Be that careful. Be that tender.
Are you 50% certain of your rightness? Please consider being 50% more aware of ways you might not be listening…ways you might be doing what you’re trying to undo.

How about a few Dharma questions that may help us get out of our own way in finding what to do?
What to do, not instead of what you already do—not instead of calling your grandmother and your government. Not instead of supporting those who support life.

What to do, alongside and throughout all the things we already find integral to our lives?

1. What about those who went before us?

Are we so special? Are these times so unprecedented?

People have walked their original, bare-bones, razor’s-edge paths in all kinds of imperfect and even terrible situations. Rumi was a refugee from war. Many Zen poems walk us through landscapes of famine, flood and battle.
Who knows why tragedy is with us throughout history?
Some people say that suffering is here to help us wake up. That’s nice. I think there’s no logical explanation. I think it’s beyond comprehension; mind-blowing.
And realizing that we can and do live beyond comprehension is indeed part of waking up.

Also mind-blowing:
We have capacities that can help us live a real life—generous and free. Throughout time, people have sometimes found ways to stay true to what is important, in all kinds of conditions—the worst, the good, and the most ordinary. People have sometimes found ways to help others do the same.
Housewives, warriors, vegetable sellers, royalty.
Some Indian sages did their meditation and ceremony in forest ashrams, and considered the protection of nearby towns and villages to be part of their spiritual life. Not that the sages would go into politics, but that the political forces would be influenced by the sages’ meditative power. Today, this idea sounds laughable, but maybe there’s room for some new approaches. Alongside what else you already love doing.
Maybe there are ways to be here. Maybe each of us can find our ways to stay true and be of help, too.

What to do? How to know what to do?

2. How much does thinking help? How wise is emotion?

Very occasionally, a helpful thought comes up, doesn’t it? From some gracious alignment with life and love. Through someone’s loving listening. When just arising from a meditation or a nap.
But how often has a helpful thought come out of trying to figure out what to do?

When we care about something, including the question of What to do?, we may worry about it. We want to get it right. When we worry about something, we may tend to think a lot about it.

Does worrying help? Does worrying offer up our best thinking? (If not, what does?)
It’s easy to believe that worrying helps us connect with what’s important. A sense of lack, a problem to be solved or battled, can give a rush of energy. It gives us an occupation. We may feel like at least we are engaged with the problems; “at least we care.”

But are we empowered, or have we just shifted to alarm from the self-sustaining energy of love?

Worry is where we fall, when we can’t bear how much we care.
Does worry bring you closer to what you care about? It’s a contraction, not an opening. It’s activity spent in ourselves. Lack helps us feel conveniently, solidly, certainly inadequate.
In reactivity, we lose. In the spell of lack, we lose ourselves, our togetherness; we lose our openness. We lose access to our best wisdom.

I recommend letting the thinking-emotional self be the last part of you to know what you’re up to.
Just humbly get on with your best guesses, with your juiciest unflashy why-not experiments, with your persistent riding along in the undriveable vehicle you find yourself in—your body, mind and life-stream.
When we don’t rely on thinking and emotion as if they were friends, we are more open to other guides, other ways of knowing.

How to know what to do?
Not by reactive thinking.
Not by emotional charge.
Not from a belief in lack as the fundamental nature of things.

3. If not lack, then…where is enoughness anyway?

Many of us get stuck in feeling like an individual particle—we lose our wave.
We keep on forgetting that we are somehow already in the middle of being alive, and therefore probably filled with life. A life we didn’t make and don’t understand. A life that interweaves among many seeming individuals. A life that blinks between matter and energy and space…

Life is so ungraspable, it is no wonder that so many people feel a sense that something is missing. (And many people who don’t seem to be conscious of feeling not-enoughness, sure seem to be acting it out.) Our individual power to act and influence society is not enough by itself. We’re not even in control of our own inner control freak.
But maybe the feeling of lack can be a kind of starting point. A starting point for discovery of what we really are.

Rather than shame and blame about our not-enoughness, we might start to accept that it’s true: as a separate individual, I am not enough to solve the problems of the world. As a separate individual, I don’t feel quite right. Something is not quite settled. Something is missing.

Also: as seemingly separate individual, I sure notice a lot of grace—or shall we call it luck, the things happening but not in my control: heartbeat, outbreath, color.
Am I what I thought I was?

Enoughness is in the wave we already are. Moving together, without regard for thought or emotional charge.

So.
Because we care, we need to break up with thought and emotion as our primary guides.
We need fresher news, more nuanced and human communication. Because we care.
We need deeper, subtler responses.

Because we care, let’s practice engaging those spiritual muscles that stay, that hold space for life to come through. Muscles that allow us to remember again what is already here. That allow us to feel the wave. To be the wave.
Muscles like intrinsic belonging, like feeling welcome exactly as we are. Like not knowing, but staying wholeheartedly in anyway… And being already in, we find that we are already participating—already in life. We’re in.

We can shed reactivity for responsiveness…and then let responsiveness sprout into ongoing participation. Not just responding to things that happen, but being part of the happenings. From shutdown to engagement to a free and open mind and life.
If we are already part of the whole, and we participate with openness, perhaps we can feel what is starting to happen before it happens. To hear the news before it becomes news. Maybe sometimes we can participate in ways that protect life and support awakening. And whatever happens, we may be less stuck in shock. Whatever happens, we can love; we can be in it together, letting it rest on the ungraspable wave.

And meanwhile, speaking of news…when you hear, see or read it, please notice: what is happening with your breath? Are you breathing? How far down into your belly or legs? What is happening with your body?
Is your breath halting, diaphragm tensing, presence leaving the ground or heart collapsing? Do you have a lower body?
Feel it all gently, and feel how life wants to be. In your breath, and in your body.
How life wants to be free from this interference. This interference with the heart.

It’s so hard to bear the tragedies…the mysteries…and even the beauty.
But we need our openness; we need our wave; we need to care…like we need to breathe.
When you fall into blame and shame, please notice: where and in what way are you hurting?
What pain pushed you into duality?
Is duality serving you or life?
Isn’t it a dead end?
Please restfully receive: What do you really need?
A hug, a mug, a swim, a cry, a run, a shout, a hand, a canvas, a conversation, a pen, a song, a rest?
Whatever sweet release or simple support you may need—it will not be the answer resolving all the suffering of the world…or that of a friend or even ourselves.
But the connection delivers us back into the ungraspable here. Where, together, we have so many resources. And life…it’s so weird. Who knows what could happen if we get weird, too?
When we don’t rely on rightness or wrongness as a friend, we are more open to other friends, other kinds of power, vividness and connection.

4. Wonder.

Like other kinds of openness, wonder helps us connect with reality. Connecting, we realize we are part of reality. Being part of reality, we can enjoy being moved by life. This is where we might be moved to act, to do, without knowing why. Without knowing how we found out what to do. Not needing a comprehensible reason and being willing to be moved anyway are a great start. And enjoying is a simple key.

Let us remember every day how weird this world is. It’s not only our suffering that is beyond comprehension.

An ear. A cell. An atom. An electron. An elephant.
A solar storm.
A thought.
We are born! We eat food that comes out of the ground!

Accepting mystery, we grow our capacity to bear what we thought was unbearable. Not through growing callouses. Trying to think it through was indeed unbearable, but perhaps reality is a different challenge.

Perhaps our heart can stay here as we befriend ungraspability…as we discover that spaciousness that can act like a spine, from which everything else can organize, hang, move.

5. What if non-duality is not just a concept?

In reactivity, we tend to lose track of reality—and its nondual nature. In hard times, it’s easy to feel against-ness. We see walls everywhere, and in turn, we cut off. It’s hard to perceive a wall and not build a wall of our own. It’s easy to fall into the aggression of those may indeed be out to get us.
Instead, in deep rest, we could organize around what we are longing for—rather than around its lack. Opening towards care where possible, we could have room to ask questions.
We could have complex conversations that lead away from the answers we demanded…and perhaps meander into community.
We could find out how much of a world each person is.

We could find out how much we have been blocking exactly what we most need, and how many doors are open right now.

We could find that we already have some answers to the question, What to do?
We may have been doing something fulfilling all along—just under our own radar. Something perhaps unsophisticated, unglamorous, embarrassing. Miniscule; electrifyingly non-egoic.
We could let this pursuit, this happening, this practice, this doing come out of the corners. We could acknowledge what we love and how. And we could find out that we need company to keep remembering that it might be enough to keep following this unmapped path.

Maybe your singing or photography or lolling around or patience—your unoccupied presence—is a protective spiritual force for society. Who knows? Life is weird enough, and we are desperate enough, that it might be worth a try.

Whatever you do, let it be love. Let it organize around ungraspability. Around openness.
Let your thinking self be the last to know.
Let what you do be the (sometimes terrifying, embarrassing) enjoyment of the unfettered, whole heart.
And note: please don’t be too right about it.

"What to do?" online program with Jaya Ashmore

October 1 - December 15, 2025

To register: https://forms.opendharma.org/view.php?id=77803

Email: shahar@opendharma.org

This online gathering is for adaptive support and encouragement towards unbinding this precious life—leaving room for each person’s uniqueness and our common need for togetherness.
Jaya would like to work closely with a small group of dedicated meditators, exploring the question of discernment and freedom of action both in meditation and in the world.

~ What specific ways are you noticing goodness or fruition in meditation, and what are you feeling called towards in meditation?
~ What about freedom of action in the world—what works well for you and where do you feel you are in a more uncertain, messy process?

Each of us is probably aware of some inspirations for shaky or exciting next steps—inwardly and outwardly.
And we are probably also unaware or helpless with other places where we want and need to let go of something and come more fully into our lives.

With a sense of being in unique yet human process alongside others, we will also encourage individual trails to open up. Someone may want support and encouragement towards doing more art or activism, or getting to know plants, playing with pranayama, or just resting without any agenda.

~ Dharma talks with Jaya and the whole group—We will normally meet on 2 Mondays per month, 4.30-5:45 pm CET.
(Followed by the regular weekly online meditations at 6 pm CET, open to all.)
Dharma talk and meditation dates:
October 6th and (Sunday) 19th.
November 3rd and 10th.
December 1st and 15th.

~ Deep listening trios, with Jaya
Every 3 weeks or so you will meet with another participant and Jaya in a group of 3 for listening inquiry of about 30 minutes. Jaya will propose a relevant question to inquire into, and you can always propose the question you would love to be asked instead.
You will each have a 10-minute turn as a speaker, and as either a more active listener or a witness.
Not a regular small group meeting, this is a focused deep listening practice.
*Trios will be scheduled on weekdays (Monday-Thursday) sometime within the following time frames: 9am-12pm, 2-4 pm, 4-7pm and 7-9pm Spain time.

~ Inquiry pairs. In the optional weekly one-to-one inquiry practice, you will be paired each week with a new partner from the group for inquiry on a relevant question.

~ Optional weekly small group with other participants (without Jaya). We will provide suggestions for structuring the meetings. Perhaps participants would like to take turns keeping track of the time, etc.

~ Sharing group on the Signal app, for ongoing connection and sharing. This group helps us stay in touch between live sessions, and is highly recommended.

~ If there is enough interest: We will meet for "Mindless Gatherings"—a time when you can come online and do your thing while being together with others in a virtual space.

~As always, you can sign up for one-to-ones with Jaya at https://calendly.com/jayajulienne/25min

On generosity

Jaya Julienne Ashmore — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 13:02:57 GMT

If you break the cherry tree

where are the flowers?

But in the spring time, see how they bloom!

The vast flood

Rolls onward

But yield yourself.

And it floats you upon it.

~Ikkyu,

transl. Robert Blythe

The word dana in Sanskrit means the human power to recognize what gives essential support to life, and to nurture that support—like knowing the value of water compared to gold. We experience this power when we listen with openness, and the listening brings a qualitative shift in the conversation. When we let go of what is not needed, we can feel the relief and freedom of dana. Dana, usually translated as generosity, is a practice of trust that there is enough. Tradition tells us that generosity is the basis for all other spiritual growth.

Teachings towards living a fulfilled life are priceless gifts—passed down for generations without a fixed charge. Teachers and students mutually support each other. In this spirit, within Open Dharma, teachers and organizers offer our time and skills freely. We are embodying a revolutionary economic model of enough-ness and friendship, rather than obligation or debt. This way, each one of us can feel more free, already intrinsically valuable to the whole, supported by the whole, and sharing responsibility for the welfare of the whole. The modern idea of paying a fixed fee for a workshop or coaching session can trigger “small mind”—trying to "own" something or "get our money's worth." This consumer mindset blocks us from feeling our power and the fresh “happening” of Dharma.

The tradition of generosity allows participants, organizers and teachers to give and receive from a place of fullness. Sometimes people ask how we survive on dana, as if it were impossible that people would freely give enough support. But dana has ensured the unbroken flow of spiritual teachings for centuries. And somehow, since 1999, freely given donations have been enough—enough to bring us all the way here, and for teachings, retreats and resources to happen. With your gifts the flow goes on.

Thank you to Jaime Hagel and Ghadir Shafie for this video.

www.jayaashmore.org

www.patreon.com/jayaashmore

www.patreon.com/dharmacosm

Willing to die,
You give up
your will. Keep still
until, moved
by what moves
all else,
you move.

~Wendell Berry

(US, 1934-), New Collected Poems

Subscribe now

The Human Heart

Jaya Julienne Ashmore — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 08:58:02 GMT

Let yourself rest…

And let go into your inbuilt capacities for life…

This article breaks open our concepts about the human heart inviting us into what is already happening there:

“Research is proving the heart may be as intricate as the brain, referred to as "the little brain." The heart-brain actually sends more communication to the head-brain than the other way around.”

It invites us into the heart’s electromagnetic field and how we can support ‘heart-brain coherence’, (the energetic alignment and cooperation of heart, mind and emotions).

My deep rest meditation ‘The heart’s rest’ is an invitation into this support and is available for free on Dharmacosm on Patreon and OpenDharmaCosm on Spotify.

With love.

May the heart’s electromagnetic field be your superpower.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/building-the-habit-of-hero/202011/the-hearts-electromagnetic-field-is-your-superpower

For more resources and support:

www.jayaashmore.org

www.patreon.com/jayaashmore

www.patreon.com/dharmacosm

www.facebook.com/opendharma

www.instagram.com/opendharma

Photo by Omer Salom on Unsplash

Slime and Life Intelligence

Jaya Julienne Ashmore — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 10:00:10 GMT

Dogen in Japan 800 years ago:

If you are wandering about in your head, you may miss the vital path of letting your body leap.

(translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi in his book Enlightenment Unfolds)

One of my favorite ways to transmit a feeling of being moved by/in this non-conceptual aliveness...is with the metaphor of an amoeba or slime mold.

We are often caught in the trap of hating lack--I so DON'T like NOT having nourishment, fulfillment, safety, peace...
But we can use this trap as a way to awaken an openness to nourishment, or to the fulfillment of being with "things as they really are," as Gautam Buddha puts it.
Notice how uncomfortable and unpleasant it is to not like not having.

Simplify the equation. Let that discomfort be a living guide. If the focus on lack is uncomfortable, why?
Perhaps it's life intelligence...the beginning of letting life simply disregard non-food.
And be open to food.

A slime mold explores its environment and recognizes food as food. It simply stops hanging out with non-food. It simply moves towards safety and nourishment.

We could unleash this directness in ourselves, and shift from the natural pain of focusing on lack...and shift into an openness to what we need.
Even if I don't have food, I could stay tuned to how I love or would love food.

This image of slime mold is from the New Forest National Park website, taken by photographers Jim and Dawn Langiewicz. You’ll find more photos on the New Forest website.

I love the amoeba as metaphor, and as kindred practical intelligent fact.

You can listen to or read an article on recent Harvard studies of slime mold and watch an old video of slime molds solving mazes.

"...a unicellular organism that grows to be centimeters-to-meters large and sometimes contains thousands of nuclei..."

"They keep time...exhibit memory...detect objects at a distance...

They can even recreate the hyper-efficient Tokyo subway map when oat flakes—their favorite food—stand in for population centers."

"Many people conceive of cognition as a 'chemical process driven by neurotransmitters in the brain,' says Levin, but slime mold 'gives us some insight into different forms of intelligence.'”

Dogen again, with more context.

The real way circulates everywhere...
And yet,… if the slightest discrimination occurs, you will be lost in confusion.
You could be proud of your understanding, or acquire outstanding wisdom…
Still, if you are wandering about in your head, you may miss the vital path of letting your body leap.

The full Dharmachild Directory ~ coming soon

Jaya Julienne Ashmore — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 13:37:24 GMT

Apart from browsing the Dharmachild posts, you’ll also be able to access hundreds of Dharmachild resources all in one place! From podcasts, to book recommendations, articles and recordings, we’re working on a searchable directory.

Here’s a reminder of the categories and sub-categories in substack to get you started:

HUMAN TAPESTRY

Here we dwell in the human realm, from the inner fabric of our biology, through to how we relate, psychology, the mind, racism, meditation and the pinch points. Through the gateway of human we meet beyondness...