Signs Around Town
Similar Posts
Yoga Ideas Best Put Aside
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!
Philadelphia Walkabout
The Sunday session of the yoga asana workshop I attended was from 12:30-3:00, and my train was not until almost 7pm. I walked for dozens of blocks, taking photos and looking the extraordinary outpouring of public art and murals. Here’s an excerpt of one piece:
Uma a/k/a Fluff Girl
One of the regular participants in the Wednesday night yoga practices called Uma “Fluff Girl” last week. “Right,” I thought. “That suits most of the time.”
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
On the Way Home from Work
I appreciate my walks to and from work; every one brings some delight. There’s a very friendly dog who’s often out when I walk past his house, and he wanted a good petting this evening. When I was almost home, I spied another four-legged neighbor.
