It is an essential part of any true spiritual practice to question and to doubt, to explore and discover what part of any proffered teachings are authentic for your own experience.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
One can appreciate the beauty of the pre-dawn two ways: staying up through the night or waking up early. I almost never stay up through the night, but find myself waking up in the pre-dawn hours frequently lately, especially when we have not been getting any rain, and the rain finally arrives in the wee hours.
Classical yogis advise that the early morning hours are optimal for practicing. I have been choosing, when I awake in the very early morning, to go into my studio and practice, rather than struggling to get back to sleep.
I find that I am less tired and more productive if I take this invitation to practice rather than worrying about sleep deprivation and struggling to rest.
I interrupted a work conversation with a colleague for us to watch the light and have a moment of awe.
One of my stay at home projects was to expand the garden to the sleeping porch, making for a lovely practice area off the room that serves as the yoga studio. Strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and green beans are arriving.
I think of the yoga practices as a useful tool. No more, no less. Striving for enlightenment or deeming anyone enlightened just creates problems. But maintaining a steady and well-rounded practice because it can make one a little happier, a little healthier, a little kinder, and a little more adaptable in the face of change–that’s all for the good.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
The 17th sutra is “madhya vikasha cittananda labhah,” which is translated by Swami Shantananda as “the bliss of Consciousness is attained through expansion of the center.”
Madyama, in our physical embodiment is the central channel, the sushumna nadi that runs vertically in the space of the spine. One of the key actions of Anusara’s organic energy is expansion from the midline. It is, in its essence, using the body to physically explore the bliss that comes from the expansion from the center.
If we can get bliss just from expanding, then why would we first draw in? In applying the Anusara principles, we use muscular energy first. We hug into our core before reaching out. This parallels the yoga texts. If, for example, one already embodies the perfect bliss of consciousness, one doesn’t need to study the sutras or to practice yoga, one would just live from that place of perfect bliss.
The way I think about it in terms of the Anusara principles, if one were perfectly open to grace and lived being fully open to and expressive of grace, there would be no need to explore, learn, or study any of the other principles. That’s a rare being though. Most of us, and definitely me, need practice to discover and embody even a glimpse of perfect bliss and grace. So the expansion from the center comes after consciously softening and opening, after intentionally drawing in to strengthen and embrace, after making with discrimination further expansion, and after drawing in to contentrate mind and body with honed intensity. With ever more refinement and practice, we then can experience and make offering a deeper bliss when we expand from our center.
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I might say that any belief worth having must be able to live alongside of doubt…