At first glance, th e exhortation to love all and serve all (Ram Das has said Neem Karoli Baba gave him advice like that) may seem unreasonable and perhaps impossible.
But the exhortation to love doesn’t require liking all or associating with all or tolerating the behavior of all.
And serving all does not mean doing so without boundaries. Sometimes a thoughtful refusal or a limit on giving others what they ask for is the highest service we can offer.
Patanjali provides in the Yoga Sutras (2.32) that the second niyama, samtosha (contentment) is an ongoing practice. It is not something that we can expect to arise on its own and if not, lament its absence.
I feel hope, without which it would be hard to experience contentment, too, is something that requires steady practice.
My personal experience is that only thing that gives me hope when I am feeling despondent about the state of things is to do something, whether it is giving resources or time or connecting and expanding community.
What about you?
In the room at William Penn House where I lead the community yoga class on Tuesday nights, a stained glass image of a rose hangs in the window.
I did not pick the location for the decor, and the decoration long preceded the regular yoga class.
The yoga class has now been held for a sufficient period of time, though, that it might start to appear that the reason for the image to be in the room is that “rose garden yoga” holds a practice there.
It’s a pleasant space and aways a great group of students. Do come join us when you can.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I just received a yoga email advertising classes and workshops that quoted a well-respected teacher as saying not to listen to your mind and to listen only to your heart. I respectfully disagree.
I do believe that if we listen (listening in the deepest and broadest sense) only to our mind, we lose connection with body and emotion, which can lead to ill health and unhappiness. I also believe that individual consciousness is more than mind and includes bodily and emotional awareness as well as brain function and that one of the salutary aspects of yoga practices is to expand our capacity to be aware beyond thought and mere processing of sense perception.
But to listen only to our heart is to be empty-headed, to be without discrimination (viveka), and also presumes that we can process and act on what is in our heart of hearts without using our minds. To dismiss our mind as somehow not being a source for deep listening also defies the tantric yoga notion that all is an essential part of being, of consciousness, of the source of inner bliss (Satcitananda–being, consciousness, bliss). Why would we have minds if we weren’t meant to use them?
Want to be a fully engaged yogi who lives in the world? Go ahead: cultivate, educate, enlighten, and use your mind. Just do it with an open heart and ever expanding sensitivity and awareness of all your being and all that is around you!
Last week, a co-worker stopped by my office to chat. Not surprisingly, the conversation turned to current affairs, and I voiced my every day growing anger and grief and disgust and commitment to seek more ways to have positive impact. My co-worker essentially responded that as a yoga teacher, she thought I ought to know that I shouldn’t get so upset, things weren’t so bad.
As should not be surprising to those who know me or practice yoga with me or read what I post on social media that I explained that my yoga calls for lucid and engaged citizenship and not escape from challenges and difficult emotions. My co-worker demurred, still wanting her own comfortable silence.
The fateful weekend passed. When I returned to the office this week, I found a note and a cookie on my desk. The note basically said, wow, Charlottesville, I hope you’re feeling ok, I thought you might like a cookie. Without addressing the substance of the note, (my own conflict aversion coming to the fore or perhaps my sense that in this case there was little point in pursuing the conversation further and my co-worker has been a pleasant colleague ), when emailing about another matter, I said merely thank you for the cookie.
I’d thought that would be the end of it, but my co-worker then stopped by to thank me for saying thanks for the cookie, I no longer restrained myself from passionately though tolerably politely articulating what I really thought, including what a privilege it is to be able to have a bakery cookie whether for hunger or comfort.
I can relate to wanting everything to be ok, and I’m really glad I have plenty of food and a comfortable home, but I also believe that with my privilege comes great responsibility, now even more than ever. I seek to be more aware not less. What about you?
