Hot Weather Fashion
If you have to go out in the heat, please wear a hat and bring water with you to drink.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Another Self-Induced India Photo Flashback (Roadside Temples)
Another self-induced India photo flashback after a long work day reading and writing at the computer with breaks only for shoveling snow and for eating and cleaning up.
We were traveling on the bus when I saw the Durga temple (the fifth photo–the one with the white glare and flat sky, but an incredible Durga). I suggested to my seatmate that he take a picture with his better camera. I recall it quite reasonably and correctly being pointed out to me the flat, white heat of the midday, humid sky and the glare off of the window would make it impossible optimally to show the intricacy and vividness of the temple.
I snapped a picture anyway. I was seeing things at angles coming and going and with whatever the light was at the moment. I likely wasn’t ever going to be there again and certainly not any time soon.
Sometimes the bus would pause in just the right place for a perfectly composed shot, but mostly it didn’t. In this, the act of taking these photos was much like other aspects of life and practice. Our path is not always certain. Sometimes it is hard to see because there is too little light or too much. Sometimes we have something obscuring our vision. Sometimes we are going too fast and only notice just before it would be too late for that turning.
But even with vision turned or obscured, we are always experiencing something. How can we make the best of each moment of experience? For me, it is meditating and bringing the spacious awareness of meditation to what I am witnessing. Taking photographs helps me witness in a certain way, too.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Signs Around Town
What is it when it seems like something is a sign or a perfectly timed message? Is it a moment of clarity or more illusion? The teachings say that diligent practice over a period of time with the right teachers will help us move towards clarity.
I don’t think I’ve practiced long enough to know whether im yet leaning more towards clarity, but I still enjoy practicing.
What’s your experience/thinking on this?
Windy Walk
Down by the river,
I was blessed to see two hawks
Soaring on the winds.
New Spinach (and Udyamo Bhairava)
The fifth sutra in Abhinavagupta’s Siva Sutras, is “udyamo bhairava” — the great upsurge of consciousness. When we are open and aware, we can witness this upsurge, the very pulsing of life energy in all that is in and around us, from the springing up of thought in our minds to the burgeoning of spring. The more we practice and live attentively, the more we will see the joy in this upwelling.
When I go out into the garden on the early spring days to see what needs to be cut back, what is volunteering, and what is coming up from fall plantings, I approach with great openness. When we plant in the fall, we do not know with any certainty what kind of winter we will have. Although the long-range forecast was for colder than normal with precipitation near normal (which translates into more than average snow), who could have expected three mammoth snow storms?
I plant with hope and some expectation, but am ready for the loss of some perennials, the failure of some seeds to germinate, and the unexpected pleasure of experiments working or welcome volunteers. This steady planting without specific expectation, with openness to discovery, with joy and attention to the miraculousness of what rises up in the spring, is a very tangible example of what I read in the yoga philosophy. It is how I, I believe, we most optimally would approach asana and meditation, as well as all aspects of our daily being.
Below: new spinach coming up in a container from seeds I planted around Thanksgiving from an expiring packet.
