Even though we stayed up well past midnight last night for mahashivaratri, I would not have missed waking up in time to see the sunrise before I head to the airport any more than I would miss my daily practice. Each day it is different, but the same. Always, it reveals something of the heart.
I found myself thinking this morning of the poster from when I was a child that said, “war is not healthy for children and other living things.” I wrote it on the front stairs and then asked myself the question, how do I contribute to the causes of war?” And so that I am not only asking what I must change or stop doing, I also ask myself, how can I foster peace?
I witnessed this family standing on the train platform while I was listening to a teleseminar from Paul Muller-Ortega on the “four stages of the word.” That a family dressed this way was waiting for the train gave rise to much thought for me about how I seek to integrate yoga practice into my daily life in a modern Western culture. How much is compromise or disservice to the “purity” of the teachings and how much of it is a part of a pulsing, growing, changing intersection of peoples and times?
