Similar Posts
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc)
Yoga is Skill in Action (R.I.P. Prince)
The texts say that yoga is skill in action. To me, this means learning how to most efficaciously engage in life as it comes, practicing and developing the technique to meet our challenges such that we can transform them into art. I was led, by the new of Prince’s death to watch some videos of his performances.
Prince’s performance at the 2007 Superbowl (which, I of course, did not see when it was first aired) I think is an exemplary demonstration “skill in action.” From my only know him through video and sound recording and some news articles over the years, think he lived what a yogi would call his dharma, he practiced steadily, and he transformed his experience of both adversity and joy in equal measure into his art. It is receiving a teaching to be able to witness such an artist.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Gardening | Meditation
State of the Garden
One of the key teachings about yoga sadhana (practice) is that results best or sometimes only can possibly come with steady commitment for a long period of time.
The red maple in my front garden (really more of a giant tree box) was barely the height of the porch roof when I bought my house. Now, almost 25 years later, it is as tall as the house. And even more stunningly, blazingly, Kali-like red every fall.
Signs Around Town (and a Tantic Philosophical Conundrum)
I haven’t photographed the t-shirt with the statement “it’s all good” to go with the sign below “needs work,” but I would need to if I wanted to show the apparent philosophical tangle of tantra.
The tantric texts do tell us that it is all good; more accurately, they tell us that all is divine and perfect, and that we are just an element of the “all.” It is hard to believe that when we can see suffering and bad behavior (including some of our own) all around us.
The tricky thing about the declaration that all is divine is that it does not mean that there is no work to be done. The work, though, is not to fix ourselves or what is wrong or bad. Rather, the work (sadhana) is to study so that with discrimination (viveka) we can determine what is out of alignment and causing our own suffering or contributing to suffering of other beings and move towards and unveil the perfection and fullness that we are.
It is sort of like finding a great treasure that has been neglected and misused out of ignorance or carelessness at a yard sale. It takes knowledge to recognize that the cheap, discarded thing is a treasure and skill and effort to restore its intrinsic worth.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.





