Amita Schmidt

Buddhist and Non-Dual Meditation Teacher

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Return to the Feminine

A few years ago Molokai Kapuna Alexander Pua’a offered this wisdom to me:

“Each of us has a bowl full of light.  We fill this bowl with stones which are the masculine.  We have covered the bowl of our feminine with stones.  There is too much male energy.  We need to return to the feminine and intuitive energy.  Things heal through the feminine.”

How do we do return to the feminine as Kapuna Pua’a suggests?  Both men and women can do this.  Here are some daily practices I have found helpful:

  • Slow down.  There is a Cherokee saying, “As the world speeds up, slow down. The faster things go, the slower you go.” It is through the masculine quality of quickness/speed that we are getting flooded with anxiety, fear, overwhelm, and over-consuming.  Slow your pace down. The feminine is timeless.
  • Acknowledge the Earth.  Each day recognize the ‘aina or Mother Earth, and with a sincere heart say, “I’m sorry” and “I love you.”  In Hawaii this is the practice of ho’oponopono or making things right.  The earth is our very essence and when we honor Mother Earth we honor ourselves.
  • Speak less, connect more.  Mothers regulate their babies through attunement. Attunement is connection through the eyes, the skin, and the heart rate.  Even as adults, whenever we are at arms length from someone our heartbeat attunes to the other person. Get arms length in real time.  Look into someone’s eyes. Touch them. Speak less. Love more.
  • Focused love.  Each day do some silent meditation, prayerful movement, chanting, or focused practice to remember a power greater than yourself.  If you get quiet, you can call upon a much clearer wisdom than your own thinking.
  • Connection through service.  Give loving service to children, elders, your community, animals, ecology, spirituality and the arts. The feminine connects through kindness, healing, creativity, inclusion and love.
Artwork: “Hatching the Universal” by Judy Chicago

 

 

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Back to Basics Spirituality: The Three Injunctions

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The three injunctions were shared with me by Molokai musician and healer, Zelie Duvauchelle. They were given to her by her Hawaiian kumu (teacher). If followed, they will lead you to a connected and joyful life.

  • Make no judgments

  • Make no comparisons

  • Delete the need to understand

As you will notice, these are simple but not easy.

Most judgments and comparisons are the result of the illusion of a separate self. Look at your two hands right now. You probably don’t spend much of your day judging or comparing your left hand to your right hand. This is because you know they are both part of your one body, and judgment would be futile. As you come to know that you are part of the cells of everyone and everything, comparisons too will decrease.

When I first heard, “Delete the need to understand,” my mind did an emotional double-take. Now, I repeat it often like a mantra, or use it like a big eraser when thoughts pile high. This mantra helps me return to silence.  And in those still quiet spaces a greater Knowing can be found.

Enjoy what you discover with these teachings.