Similar Posts
Steadiness
I woke up violently beset with cold/flu symptoms on Tuesday (fortunately, I’d voted early). I hardly got out of bed for two days and while I was able to work some from home because there were deadlines that needed to be coordinated, I ‘m days from being better. Instead of being out this week bearing witness, I’ve contributed extra to support recount efforts and am glad for the steadiness of committed monthly giving. I am concentrating this long weekend on recovering because this is for the long haul. And look at this beautiful tree, which clearly has enjoyed the overly wet autumn.

Aerial View
If I had been born a different person and chosen an entirely different career path (say a secret service agent), I might have had a view like this today. Would it have been worth it? So interesting to watch the dance of intention and fate. This, by the way, is the view from the cafeteria at the Department of Labor, so I can have it any other day. If you look closely, you can see where the podium was set up in front of the capitol. The pictures in the next post are mostly from the park just north of the capitol — so they would be just outside of this shot on the left.

- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
The Terracotta Warriors of Emperor Qin (and Iccha Shakti)
I went today with my younger sister and brother-in-law to see the Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the National Geographic Museum. Even with only a few of the warriors and photographs of the site, it is possible to imagine the sheer magnitude of the vision of thousands of these life-sized images living underground at the tomb of the Emperor. I then thought of how vast must have been the Emperor’s yearning for power and the wildness of his vision of this extraordinary tomb for it to have become manifest. Trying to expand my imagination to understand the reality of such ambition and creativity I thought of the principle of iccha shakti. Iccha shakti is the very will of consciousness to be, to creatively manifest, to become diversified embodiment out the universal. Ego and will are not themselves bad, but our very freedom allows us to choose a path that is out of alignment with the principles of joy and unity.
The Terracotta Warriors show the immense possibilities of exercising will. In their very existence and the manner of their coming into being, they evidence both enormous cruelty and disdain for life and a wondrous manifestation of human creativity, collaboration, and effort. One of the goals of yoga, in teaching us the possibilities of our own freedom and creativity, is to lead us to choose a life that is progressively better aligned with nature and with all of beings. This is the path of one who practices, and I find it ever a challenge.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Trishula
The trishula represents all the philosophical threesomes:
sat cit ananda (being, consciousness, bliss);
iccha, jnana, kriya (will, knowledge, action);
siva and shakti and the dance of relationship between the two.The me and the you and the us–for where there are two ones there is also the third and all the play (lila) and pulsation (spanda) that is part of the dance cosmic and divine and personal.



