Kali Durga Namo Namah
(yourself and your loved ones)
Several years ago, when I still had a working art studio in my house, the favorite thing to do of a friend’s child when the family came over was to go into the studio to see what I was painting. I had just finished a piece on which I had painted the words, “Sometimes I have nothing to say.” D was five or six at the time — just learning to read full sentences. He chortled delightedly, pointed to the painting, and exclaimed, “I get it! I get it!”
As I have been studying and contemplating yoga philosophy in a group setting recently, I have been thinking about the tension between saying and not saying, the conundrum of yearning to communicate the indescribable, and the countervailing desire just to experience and not to try and describe or communicate.
I woke up this morning remembering. How could I not? People all over the world are remembering and thinking about the events of 9/11 and how they changed the course of global society.
And yesterday morning I woke up at my friend’s house in the East Bay to the news of the explosion in San Bruno. Even as we enjoyed the city and got together with another friend, the frightening and intense tragedy going on just a few miles away was not far from my mind. How is it that but for having read the news, we would not even have known?
This morning we will be going to hike in Muir Woods. I will be embracing nature and friendship, but still remembering. It is, I think, by loving and embracing life to the fullest that we can remember and have the most strength and will to offer of ourselves and move towards a more compassionate existence, and I think that is the true teaching of the tantric yoga.
What are you doing today? How are you sharing your memories and your dreams? What are you doing to help make the changes you wish to see in the world? I am asking myself these questions even as I am sharing them.
It isn’t sadhana unless it is steady, repeated, and over a long period of time (though form or emphasis might change).
United States Supreme Court, June 28, 2018
