On the Way Home from Tuesday Night Yoga Practice at William Penn House
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- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
Kashmir Shaivism (and Ecstatic Fatalism)
I have been told more than once that one cannot technically be a true practitioner/believer in the tenets of Kashmir Shaivism without believing in some form of Godhead. As a nontheist who still finds the teachings and practices informative and useful for how best to live, I ask consistently whether that is really true.
I’m sure a purist (religious or academic) would say there’s no anything to the philosophy without being a full believer. But what I think one gets from practices designed to heighten awareness of a divinely connecting universality in the wild diversity of life without a belief that what is universal a priori points to “God” is a recognition that with all that is troubling and difficult and hurtful and evil in this world, the very complexity and outrageousness of being is yet wonderful and inspiring in itself.
In a word, when all else fails, laugh (and create and live) with an ecstatic fatalism.
Painting by Sandra Dooley. Cuba 2014
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Found Exhortation (Excerpt)
It is a fine thing to reminded to love, but for the most part fruitless to be commanded to love a certain thing or person.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Photos | Quaker
Be Here Now (Var.)
April 19, marching from the Washington Monument to the White House
Found Exhortation (and Sauca?)
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
A Question
How is it possible to feel lonely when the morning sun shines bright on lush gardens? What do we do, if we know we’re one of the lucky ones compared to most, and yet still feel some absence?
I find doing something for someone else (where both needed and welcomed or else it is not seva) helps remind me of my own presence.
