Archive for the ‘Spirituality’ Category

Posted on January 8, 2011 - by Joanne Del Core

Blessed Partnership

Relationships are to be consoled as it is to console myself

A beautiful pure soul moves with the flow of his body

In the direction of the tide of his love

The love that soothes, feeds, nurtures and pardons.

His love comes from the ultimate force

And it’s symbiotic with the needs, desires and deepest yearnings of my spirit.

He is the ultimate partner

The one that holds a shield of protection even in the darkest of moments

He doesn’t play Russian Roulette with my heart

But rather plucks the delicate strings that make up the sweet tune of my essence, my purpose…my momentary existence.

He makes partnership easy, respectful, delicate and in tune with all that is real, meaningful and intangible.

My head knows it’s not about me

My heart knows it’s hurt

My body knows it’s tired

And my spirit celebrates my learning.

It has passed. I have overcome my demons.

Posted on March 21, 2010 - by Joanne Del Core

When does forgiveness become real?

I’ve often heard of the idea of forgiveness being the way to the ultimate in freedom. It’s written everywhere. In the Bible, Jesus says “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you”. Ghandi said, “the weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” (An eye for an eye makes everyone blind). Mother Teresa said “if we really want to love, we must learn to forgive.”

How do we get to the point of forgiveness when someone has done you wrong? A wrong that hits you below the belt, that cuts off your oxygen supply, that disenables you to the point of paralysis, depression and hate. What do you honestly do then? I mean, how do you really live through it? How do you start to forgive in this state? When I have felt anger I’ve been guilty of going directly to this thought: will the wrongdoer really get what they deserve? Is there such a thing as comeuppance or karma? What I’m curious about is how do you get to the point of feeling that you were wronged to showing love toward that person. It seems like a huge leap.

I was reading an article this morning about vengeance. A woman was writing about her 3-year torturous struggle with emotions of bitterness and vengefulness toward her ex. Her husband left their 17-year childless marriage (by choice) within 6 months of meeting someone else who had 4 children of her own. Just after the breakup, her ex insisted that they remain friends – he still loved her after all, he just couldn’t live with her and wasn’t in love with her (that’s another blog posting unto itself). But the one thing that struck me about this situation was the feeling of vengeance. How do you really go on when all you ever consistently feel is this hateful, I want to hurt you feeling? How do you get past the imprisonment of the pain?

The Greek philosopher Plato often said, through the main character of his stories, Socrates, that it’s better to suffer injustice than to do injustice. Plato being an agnostic but one who enjoyed religious stories, argued that doing the injustice creates the most harm. I think what Plato is getting at is that at its most basic and fundamental level, the deepest most fulfilling experience in our human lives, is our connection to other people – and when we damage that connection and endanger it by doing wrong to others, we hurt ourselves in the most real sense. Human beings may be able to put the things they’ve done out of their conscious mind, but in the back of our brains we always remember our past deeds and vices. Someone once told me that their teacher used to say that all of us carry around a ‘catalog of concupiscence’ in our minds, always reminding ourselves subconsciously of the wrong things we’ve done and feeling shame and desperation because of them; a large part of life is getting rid of that shame and dealing with those perceived wrongs so that we can be more fulfilled.

I’m a big advocate of self-care and feeling the feelings: getting in touch with the basic right to feel (second chakra) which is related to your emotional identity and its orientation toward self-gratification.  A healthy emotional identity means you can clearly identify your feelings and their sources and can experience them and work through them appropriately. When you know your own feelings, you are less likely to project them onto others or become dependent on others for your well-being. This sense of knowing what you’re feeling, promotes well-being and is a natural healing force. So next time you’re feeling anger – feel it, scream into a pillow and let it rip. Find a way to safely express your anger. It will then morph into another emotion. Possibly frustration. Let yourself feel frustrated. Keep going and allow the emotions to work through you (whatever wants to surface). You will eventually get to the point of love. Once you’re there, forgiveness is a step away.

The beauty about being human is that we’re able to feel all the emotions of the rainbow. And what benefit does that have you may ask? Emotions allow us to fully step into growth, change and possibility in our lives. We become renewed and fully self expressed. And that to me, sounds like freedom. The ultimate freedom.

Posted on August 15, 2009 - by Joanne Del Core

Food for thought…or thoughts for food

When times are good and when times are challenging, there’s always a need for a comforting word to ignite our spirit. I wanted to share with you the phrases I was struck by when I listened to the Dalai Lama speak in October of 2007. Here are a few gems and golden nuggets I jotted down in my notebook as I heard him speak. I wonder which ones will resonate with you?

 • A mother’s affection is paramount to healthy growth.

• A healthy community must come from the individual.

• Warm heartedness is the factor for a healthy individual and community.

• Constant fear is almost like suicide.

• Whether you love them (others) or not, your existence depends on them.

• We have to stop with demarcation and shortsightedness when we use the words “we” and “they” – we should instead say, “our planet, our home, our brothers and sisters”.

• The destruction of your neighbor is the destruction of ourselves.

• The concept of war is out dated.

• World peace must come from inner peace.

• Genuine peace must come from inner peace.

• Peaceful resolution comes from dialogue – we need to make an effort to promote the concept of dialogue.

• Weapons are useless – we spend billions of dollars to never use them.

• Problems will always be there even when we have peace. As long as fear and distrust are there it will be hard to find peace.

• Compassion is not a sense of pitiness (or a sense of superiority), it comes from a biological factor (affection and compassion are very important for the social animal). Compassion can be limited and biased when it’s mixed with attachment. Biased compassion doesn’t reach your enemy or extend to strangers – it’s limited. Compassion has a seed by nature.

• Compassion combined with (unbiased) intelligence is the real form of compassion and we need to promote it.

• Secularism is a form of religious rejection – we need to work on respect for all religions and have equal respect for those who have different views and for those who are non-believers.

• More education brings warm heartedness. Education and inner peace equal open mindedness.

• Think more!

• Materialism cannot bring peace of mind or fulfillment.

• There are always causes of conditions – always question them. Depression comes from a cause – do your research!

• “Happiness” is common sense – no explanation is needed.

Posted on July 23, 2009 - by Joanne Del Core

Filling The Spaces…

There’s a place that I call the in-between stage that I’m fully aware of today. It’s a place where you sit in momentary silence while you’re waiting for something to happen, (which can occur a hundred, maybe even a hundred million times a day). It’s that really tiny space in time when you’re waiting for the subway to arrive as you stand patiently on the platform and hear it barreling down the tunnel, or when you’re waiting to receive your change from the cashier at the grocery store and she hands you back your receipt in hand. Or perhaps when you’re in the waiting line, queued up for the ATM machine during rush hour traffic.

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Posted on July 16, 2009 - by Joanne Del Core

Humility – respecting the past, the present, the new, the possible

I was encouraged by the idea of becoming “enlightened” one October evening in 2007. I was scheduled to see the Dalai Lama and I was buzzing with curiosity and intrigue. I felt incredibly awake, like as if all of my senses were functioning at a higher frequency, like as if my body already knew that this would be an event to remember and that it would resonate very deeply with me.

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