Thanks to Andy for suggesting we visit Ikuta Ryokuchi Park; there are myriad hidden gems I had never previously seen! He and Miku even showed us a shortcut from the station to the park, whereby we have a quieter walk and bypass a traffic signal.

After storing bags and wallets in free coin lockers at Taro Museum, we walked to the grassy hill behind the big protective sculpture.

So glad that everyone enjoyed themselves, including the rain!

After walking over a hill, we enjoyed the carpet-like grass near a rice field.

Thanks to a man walking by who took these photos of all of us.

On the way back, we saw several cats, including Jennie’s Doppelganger:

From the top of a 3 story tower, which itself was on top of a hill, we noted some brown trees.

For Susan, a photo of a manhole cover:

I burst into tears while listening to Frederick narrate the forward of his new book Rites of Passage: Everyday Rituals of Healing And Transformation.

The passage was in the Foreword:

... if I share some of what I know, and do it in a good way, recognizing my teachers,
calling out their names as I stand wobbly on their shoulders to sing to the horizon
they have opened for me, I will fulfill some of what my own life has called me to do.
Maybe it is incumbent on me. These are the things I have to teach.

His words spoke to a deeply known, carefully hidden part of myself, a part of me who feels afraid to teach what I know!

Here is one thing I know. Humans are part of the natural world. Computers and email are in a different layer, removed from the natural world by the concrete jungle.

When was the last time you physically contacted the earth? Today? This week? This month?

If you are in the concrete jungle called Tokyo, join me to physically connect with the natural world this coming Saturday for a walking meditation in Ikuta Ryokuchi Park. (500 yen)

While writing this email, I went out into the rain to Lin’s garden plot. It’s summer but I felt comfortably cool, protected from the sun by clouds. The earth felt soft and welcomed my footprints. Grasshoppers, however, jumped away as I approached. I could feel rain drops on my back as I cut grass (with hedge shears). Picking up handfuls of cut grass, I felt smaller pieces adhere to my skin via rain…

With all my heart, I encourage you to go out and connect with the natural world. Take your shoes off and feel the grass as best you can. If there’s no grass, be creative! Hug a tree; caress leaves; smell flowers.

If you actually do it, please write me back to let me know how it went. With your permission, the best replies will appear in my future Tinyletter emails.

blessings always
- Rob

Morita and I joined Hiro at the top of our local hill for walking meditation today.

Morita said he is a rain man, and sure enough, the rain started about 20 minutes after the event started.

To my delight, we all played in the rain!

Join us next month in Ikuta Ryokuji Park near Mukogaokayuen Station.

Thank you Anna for encouraging me to do more walking events!

Next event will be in a week so I need to get my point cards ready! I sent them off to the printer today! 50 cards for just 2400 yen. Exciting!

The front of the card is from our June event in Yoyogi Park

Often times when we think about the warrior archetype, there’s a sense of it being connected to war and fighting. A soldier might be a quintessential visual example of a warrior.

But today we’re going to talk about the concept of a warrior as someone who gets things done. Who works toward the vision of the goal, and makes sure the steps happen to create that reality.

In what ways or parts of your life do you have warrior energy?

Today, we’re going to help support the warrior. By focusing on systems, as opposed to simply goals.

A goal is a target, and the system is the way that we get there.

So, having a system allows the warrior energy to repeatedly do a process that systematically and automatically moves us toward the goal.

As an example, the goal for a gymnast might be to win a competition. The system is to practice every day.

Another example is a goal of making money for a business. The system is to track inventory, make purchases, sell products.

Having the focus of a system allows the daily activity to create motion toward the goal, even if it’s not visible on a day to day basis. In total, the motion is there, simply by having a system in place.

In David Allen’s Getting Things Done system, the goal is to get things done, and the system is to have an inbox that we put tasks in, and access every day.

What are some goals that you have and what are the systems you have in place to bring them into reality?

One effective way to achieve your goal is to focus now on who you want to be.

What is the daily life of a person who has achieved your goal?

What are the ways you can do to act in the same manner?

Building up these daily habits moves you automatically toward your goal to daily habits become your system.

In groups, share a goal that you have and brainstorm simple daily steps that can help lead systematically toward the goal.

About Weekly Alignments

Weekly Alignments offer tools to get you present with your Self in the now.

Weekly Alignments include a lot of channeled material coming from Source as I receive it in realtime, depending on questions and comments from the attendees present.

Great fun today in Manpukuji Park for our walking meditation.
Y’all shoulda been there because we found wonderfully cool water and fun squishy mud.. and forgot to take pics!

All cleaned up with a faucet afterward and Lin remembered to take a picture.

Join us next month in Ikuta Ryokuji Park near Mukogaokayuen Station.

Wow I just found pics from about 1999 when Astros Field was under construction.

Funny how small the pictures are compared to a “full res” picture today. At least they are in color!!

HI Wende!

Max, Yuma, Hiro, Yuna, and Emico all joined me for the walk around the park and we ended at 13:15 because we had to go around the outer loop.

We walked quite slowly and stopped a couple of times to check how people were doing and what people noticed so I think it was a good balance of walking and checking.

Somehow I think there could be some more introduction or more explanation but it also just didn’t really come up so I didn’t worry about it.

I just went over a general safety piece and had people to take care of themselves so it should be all good.

We got some pictures at the end and then Toko and Nithilim joined us and walked with us toward Shibuya and we went to the new Miyashita Park area for some food on the top floor of the place.

Chilling inside everyone had a good time and Emico was able to tell everyone about her workshop and then I put on my contacts and walked over to Shibuya crossing and by the time I was getting set up everyone had walked over there so I was really happy to see them.

Great day offering eye gazing in Shibuya today.

The big takeaway was that I didn’t have to prepare too much or go out of my way to be stressed about preparation. I just had fun with preparation and did what made sense and did just the right amount so I had everything I needed and didn’t have too much I mean it was very close to exactly what I needed during the thing and I’m really glad about that.

I had eye gazing with all of my friends who were there and then I lost count for a while but I ultimately came up with 11 people who stopped to do eye casing with me while I was standing there.

There were probably about 11 other people who made eye contact in passing but I didn’t count those people because they didn’t stop and settle into the moment of eye contact with me.

At the end I met a man named Christian (sp) who told me he does healing with his family in terms of prayer so he did a prayer for me in Jesus’s name and I thanked him and we talked about religion a little bit. I told him clearly that I recognize each religion has some truth but no religion is the truth. He kept listening so I went on to give the example of satanism as a path toward God via self-service.

We also talked about how the current Corona and covid situation has got people all hyped up and scared and fearful, which is definitely not useful in terms of what I believe. He said basically the bible says “have no fear” and “trust in God” which is exactly opposite of what most people are apparently doing.

There’s a parable of blind men touching an elephant and determining that an elephant is different things based on what part of the elephant they were feeling.

Similarly, we are all blindly experiencing life, each in a different way, and thereby believing into reality a different world for each of us.

Because we only experience the part of our world that we experience, we tend to believe “this is everything” even though it’s not even an appreciable fraction of the whole.

Because our limited perception gives us an imperfect picture, we similarly perceive apparent imperfections in ourselves.

This can cause us to judge ourselves as bad or incomplete because of these (incorrect / incomplete) perceptions of imperfections.

Upon accepting (our incomplete perception of) ourselves, even though we seem to think we are imperfect, we begin a process of loving ourselves and loving what is.

Accepting all parts of ourselves as we are, we experience unconditional love from within. This allows the previously-considered “imperfect” parts of us to be recognized as perfect within the world in which we exist.

Recognizing all parts of ourselves to have value, we begin to allow our parts to express their value in the world that we’re experiencing/creating with our perception.

The expression of ourselves doesn’t have to be overt or even perceived by others, but we can gain intrinsic value by allowing all parts of ourselves to be involved in the experience of living in our world.

A recent overt example of this in my life was allowing the wacky idea of walking across Japan to manifest itself in reality.

A recent private example of this in my life is judging my mother-in-law as a burden in my life. This judgement allows me to realize that I have a judgey part of myself. This judgy part of me hangs out in my head and often accuses me of being imperfect.

Accepting that I have a judgey part of myself can allow me to love that aspect of myself and give it a more useful role. e.g. Recognizing the value of having a “part of me that can make judgment” gives me the option of using said part to make quality decisions in my life.

What parts of you might you have trouble accepting in your life?

How might your experience of life be different if you accept those parts of you and love them for the value they bring into your life?