I cannot tell you whether the food is tasty or healthy or authentic, but something felt good about this truck that was at Eastern Market today.
Please comment if you’ve tried it.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Ruda, who is both the ancestor of Shiva and another name for Shiva, is known as the howler. Rudra is wild and fierce. Rudra rages. I heard Paul Muller-Ortega recently describe Rudra. He said Rudra rages, but offered that there are lots of things against which to rage, such as injustice and inflicted suffering.
The idea of Shiva/Rudra raging has filled my contemplations for the last week. The questions that arise for me is “what is divinely inspired rage?” “When is fierceness or rage serving to expand love and compassion rather than just destroying the self or others?”
When are rage and destruction necessary to optimize the flow of energy? I think of Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi. I think of a surgeon removing a tumor. When I think of the ongoing war in Iraq; the newest reports of torture; the potential that corporate interests, ignorance, and bigotry may completely undermine this country’s coming to agreement on providing basic health care for all, I think that living a quiet life is not fully engaging a life of the spirit. How do I find a place of non-attached, but fierce action? How do I find Rudra and not get distracted by personal desires for outcome (and personal desires for simple peace and quiet)? When should I howl, to whom should I howl, and what?
This rage, this fierceness, must come from a grounding in the heart with the discrimination of study and practice. If I cannot find it myself, can I at least support those with the courage and wisdom to be directly engaged?
I walked over to the Capitol building at lunchtime to see the rally in support of the Jobs Bill. As I approached, attendees were chanting “jobs not war, jobs not war, jobs not war, jobs not war, jobs not war, jobs not war, jobs not war, jobs not war, jobs not war….”
The act of chanting gathered the energy together. The chanting empowered those at the rally to deepen their resolve. In this instance, their resolve was to seek in an ever more coordinated and expansive way a shift away from war and big finance and to community, environment, education, and infrastructure repair and development, employing the millions who have been out of work in this double recession. Chanting also helped bring the message into the conscious awareness of those hearing the chant, which in its simplicity served as a sign post both for the more elaborate meaning and for a more universal call for unity and change. This power to work both within and without with chanting at a rally can give a taste the powers attributed to the yoga practices of mantra repetition (japa) or meditation with a mantra. Just how mantra and chanting work is a curious and wondrous matter, but it is hard to think of a culture that has not spontaneously used chants for both individual and collective worship and power.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Being curious, I’ve found (assuming I’m safe), helps me relate in a constructive way to challenges of embodiment. That’s a large part of why I like to practice asana slowly.
Whom I brought home today from foster care.
