KOKORO: Intelligent heart, feeling mind

A Sunday post on a Friday (because I couldn't wait til Sunday😂)

Good morning beloved reader,

How can I not share my enthusiasm for

Beth Kempton

’s work?

KOKORO: Intelligent heart, feeling mind.

I’ve been posting this all over social media:

Beth Kempton’s new book, Kokoro: Japanese Wisdom for a Life Well-lived, is the kind of book I want to shout about from the rooftops!

In just the first few pages I’ve already read several paragraphs aloud to my husband Jamie. From the Foreword by Professor Yoshinori Hiroi, at Kyoto University Institute for the Future of Human Society, where he writes:

“We are entering a time of transition, when our very existence depends on a shift from material growth to spiritual growth.”

To the most beautiful poetic language in Beth’s introduction:

“When I was seventeen, Japan wrote me a letter. I couldn’t read it at first, written as it was in one of the most complex and beautiful languages in the world. I stared at it for a long while, until the kanji characters began to swim off the page and swirl around me. They settled on my skin and then melted into it. Japan does that, you see. It arrives quietly and never leaves.”

Oh my beating kokoro. I will be savoring every. single. word. of this book.

p.s. it's not available in the USA until later in the year, however you can order it from Blackwell's in the UK with free shipping.

I’m also re-connecting with the joy and flow of writing in Beth Kempton’s beautiful online class, Spring Light: A Seasonal Writing Sanctuary with Author, where she writes, “This is a place for writing joy.” Sign me up😁

Her guidance includes,

“The only thing I really care about here is that you show up, make time for writing, and that you do your best to let go as you as you write, to capture whatever wants to be written.” 

“To capture whatever wants to be written.” I LOVE that. We get to capture in writing how Life flows through us.

Which brings me to another thing, shared with me by a friend, that lit me up this week. A beautiful Facebook reel from an amazing young woman who calls herself Blu (an acronym for beauty, love & unity.) She also has an inspiring Ted Talk: From Limitation to Liberation where she talks about living life from 3 different levels:

1) Life is happening TO me (SHADOW/victim consciousness)

2) Life is happening FOR me (GIFT consciousness). 

3) Life is happening THROUGH me (SIDDHI consciousness)

And I would offer that the Rising of the Divine Feminine is all about SIDDHI consciousness!

Through being inspired by fellow Substack writer friends like

Jenna Newell Hiott

and

Julie Schmidt

I’ve been exploring and investigating the gifts I have to offer with my writing, and Jenna’s last post, about the GEM archetype, is exactly the permission I needed to embrace my gifts.

As Jenna writes:

In the light, the Gem archetype helps us understand our uniqueness and what we can always value about ourselves. It is through the Gem in the light that we claim and express our inner treasure. The light side of the Gem shows us that it’s okay to flaunt this jewel because everyone has one. It reminds us that our Gem is something to take pride in and, at the same time, there is no hierarchy. All Gems are glorious and equal.

The Gem in the shadow remains hidden. Rather than allowing itself to be excavated from the muck, the shadow Gem sinks deeper. When we’re dealing with a Gem in the shadow, it’s not uncommon to try to find our own value in another’s Gem. Focusing solely on someone else's Gem—either by taking credit for it, destroying it, or simply making comparisons and feeling jealous of it—hinders our capacity to recognize our own unique treasure.

And I’ve identified that my own Gem is an energy that moves towards the evolution of consciousness in myself and others with a particular interest in transforming suffering into spiritual growth and remembering how to connect with joy.

I believe that’s why we’re here having this human experience as spiritual beings — to practice transforming suffering into spiritual growth and remembering how to connect with joy. And this also goes hand-in-hand with my primary archetype of the Alchemist.

My last post was about the Buddhist term ‘Dukkha’ which, similar to Kokoro (and dharma), does not have an exact English equivalent word, but dukkha is often translated to suffering. And of course every single human being suffers at different times, but it's how we're able to transform that suffering into spiritual growth and then remembering how to connect with joy; that is what is of interest to me, and is, in essence what this Substack is about.

I also believe that a significant part of suffering for women over the past 4,000 years of the Patriarchy, is that we women have been prohibited from utilizing our innate Divine intuition and inner knowing of how to transform suffering. And that’s changing now. Further to what Professor Yoshinori Hiroi writes in Kokoro that I quote above:

“We are entering a time of transition, when our very existence depends on a shift from material growth to spiritual growth.”

I believe we are IN the time of transition now.

And I will leave you, beloved reader, with a little piece of writing that was inspired by Beth Kempton’s beautiful Spring Light writing workshop.

Sunlight

A memory takes me back to commuting over the water. I’m 12-years-old and wearing my school uniform; a simple cotton short-sleeve, knee-length dress with a zipper up the front, white with a blue checkered pattern. Through my thin cotton dress and cotton knickers, I feel the cool aluminum bench-seat beneath my bum as I hold onto the side of the 14-foot dingy. Mum sits at the back of the boat with her hand on the throttle of the 20-horse-power Yamaha motor controlling our speed over the flat, still seawater that makes up the tidal estuary called Pittwater where my three sisters and I get to grow up.

Leaving Lovett Bay, before Mum turns the throttle to full speed, over the hum of the motor I hear the sound of a kookaburra laughing. Maybe he’s chuckling at the fact that I have to go to school and he doesn’t.

I look out to the surrounding bays and see Scotland Island ahead. A prolific number of eucalyptus and gum trees rise from the scorched Australian earth. The day is still and the flat surface of the water shows off twinkling sunlight sparkle-dances. My heart soars. Every sunny day we ride across the water I’m struck with wonder and awe bubbling up in my chest as though a force beyond me lifts my spirit up to fly over the land and sea-scape. Soaring through bright blue skies with all my sense perceptions delighting in the world around me and especially the sun’s playful dance on the ocean’s surface. The warm air brushes over my skin as we speed over water.

I inhale the sumptuous summer air, greedily absorbing the light sparkling on the surface of the water, and a longing arises within me to jump in for a swim and feel the cool water envelop my body as I dive deep into its depths. But I’m destined for school today. Only five more minutes of reveling in this morning meditation I get to enjoy on the way to school.