Looked at from one perspective, the yoga teachings say that outer peace will come from the cultivation of inner peace. I do think that it is hard to wage peace on a global level if one does not truly cultivate inner love and peace. Where I differ from some is that I do not believe it is sufficient to take care of your own inner peace without a care for how one fits into the global web.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
A friend wrote an email to me this morning that in a recent office move, the plaster ganesha he’s had on his wall broke. Not to worry, though, he had been given another one to sit on his computer. Ganesha, though sometimes hailed as the remover of obstacles, does not so much remove them as help us navigate through life so that the inevitable challenges and hurdles will feel less like insurmountable obstacles and more like opportunities to move in new directions.
It seemed almost everywhere I turned in India, I bumped into another image of Ganesha. He’s a powerful one. I did not attempt to photograph them all, and these are not all the photographs. One of them is not ganesha–sometimes an elephant is just an elephant, even in a sculpture devoted to the gods.
If you are enjoying one of these images in particular, click on it so that you get to it at the largest size and then right-click to make it your wallpaper or background. Enjoy!
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
My earliest exposure to eastern mysticism was through Salinger and the Beats, which I read avidly in high school and even junior high. The Beats were hipper and smarter than I could ever hope to be (and they weren’t so good to the women, but that’s another avenue to discuss and explore), but I could check out the Beats call to the east. One of the reasons I found the Beats use of the eastern imagery so compelling, was that I wasn’t expected to believe, I was just expected to understand how the imagery could open me up to new experiences and understandings of the deeper self and how it fits into the web of being.
I just finished reading Deborah Baker’s A Blue Hand, The Beats in India, which is an unsentimental, not particularly flattering, but most interesting account of the Beats and their time spent in India and how it influenced their work. This particular passage resonated with one of the issues that I wrestle with as study yoga and its underpinning philosophy and its relationship to my personal experience of “spirit”: “Mr. Jain explained to Allen [Ginsberg] that all gods are unreal, but most Hindus choose one and use the image of that god (either a picture or a statue) to focus on during prayers, to quiet the mind and soak the heart in the gentle vibes it radiated. Or, after taking your measure, your guru might assign you a god. Apparently, there was a personal god for everyone, Allen [Ginsberg] reported to Jack [Keroac], tailored to your temperament, desires, or inclinations.”
Have you found that the characteristics or image presented by one of the pantheon resonates more deeply with you than the others?
Other interesting books about the Beats experiences in India: Indian Journals, Allen Ginsberg, Passage Through India, Gary Snyder
The photos of the aftermath of the earthquake are horrific. I cannot really imagine what it must be like. I found myself today thinking about how it is that I trust that the images are real even though those who offer us “entertainment” give us similar pictures through the same media. How do we stay keenly open to truth and sympathy when our receipt of truth and fiction comes through the same channels? My heart goes out to all those suffering.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
When feeling overwhelmed by the state of things, I’ve been trying to look for comfort not with the “old normal” methods, but in positive possibilities for the future–building community and sharing sustainable nourishment.
