Summer of Lovingkindness Invitational

layers of lovingkindness ©2010 Mahala Mazerov

Calling all practical idealists, hidden mystics, and people of good heart!

Please join me for 2 months of creative focus on love and lovingkindness.

Starting today, (July 1st) through August 31st, I invite you to share your words, art, wisdom, and stories — your questions, contemplations and experiences — in the Summer of Lovingkindness Invitational, #SOLI for short.

Take part in whatever way works for you.

[update: Some of you have voiced concern that you're afraid you won't be able to keep up with the project. I want to assure you this is not a post-a-day or even a post-a-week project. The idea is to learn to bring lovingkindness into you awareness more frequently than you do now, and to share some of your experience with the rest of us in your creative form of choice.]

You can join in as frequently or infrequently as you like.

You can post on your blog. Write twitter poetry. Fill FaceBook. Wherever you show up on the internet is the place to publish.

Here’s why:

One thing I hear all the time is how much people struggle to make time for spiritual practice. I understand. I’m a huge admirer of people who spend hours in traditional meditation, and still my own practice time falls short of what I’d like it to be. At least, it did until I started redefining what I meant by practice.

When my definition included expressions of lovingkindness, compassion and other qualities throughout my day, the tug of war for practice time came to an end. It turns out, you can practice almost constantly.

In your tradition you may have another name for it, maybe you don’t call it lovingkindness. But you still have something that expresses the same fundamental quality and I would be thrilled to learn about it from you. Maybe you don’t even have a “tradition,” a path you identify with or practices you follow. Even so, you can bring the essence of love into every aspect of life as you live it.

Which brings me to another reason to join in:

Positive change. In 1996, Tibetan monks from the Dalai Lama’s monastery sent blessings over cyberspace.  Tibetan Buddhism views space as an absence of obstruction. That absence, whether in our minds or in cyberspace creates potential for something new to arise. The nature of what arises, negative or positive, harmful or beneficial, depends on the motivation of the one creates or uses it.

Participating in this project will create a result. Possibly subtle, possibly life-changing, but a positive result nonetheless. Even if you create only a few  #SOLI offerings between now and August 31st, your intention to bring more lovingkindness to the world will make a difference.

This positive result won’t only be for you. The fact we’re turning our hearts and minds in the same direction supports us all and moves outward in unexpected dimensions. There’s no way to predict what will happen. No way to predict what you’ll receive. No way to know who will find your #SOLI blog post when they most need a dose of lovingkindness.

That’s why I want you to join in, instead of me just blogging about loving-kindness by myself for 2 months.

Creating Space

My intention is to invite. To create a space for your heart and your insights, for things positive and unexpected. To that end, I hope you’ll think of me as someone who has simply built the campfire, in hopes that you will gather around, share your stories and send them lovingly across cyberspace.

Please join in. Spread the word. Jump into the fray. Let me know what can I do to make this a wonderful experience for you.  Let me know, too, if you have ideas or gifts you’d like to add to the #SOLI experience.

Moment of truth

Are you in?

Take part in whatever way works for you. This community is open to prolific and slow bloggers (artists, identifier of choice) everywhere. If you’ve got love in your heart or if you’re afraid you’ve misplaced it in the chaos of daily life, we welcome you!

Please sign the list below which includes a link to point us to your #SOLI offerings.

Next up I’ll have a list of questions and writing prompts to get your ideas flowing. But for now thanks for reading this far, and special thanks and blessings for the first 5 people who sign up (so my heart can start beating again.)

[update: I'm hearing "I'm in" from a number of you, but not seeing your name on the link list below. It's OK not to sign up if it feels too public or like it puts to much pressure on you to participate. But it's probably the key way to show up as a like-minded person so we all can find and get to know you. Just a thought.]