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A Reason to Get Out of Bed
Today, when I was trying to burrow more deeply under the covers when invoked to wake by the usual sounds, I thought about the way young children or pets are eager to get out of bed and to get you out of bed, even if it is for nothing more than to say good morning or eat breakfast. The moment they open their eyes, the day looks promising. At what point does bed (even if we have had enough sleep) come to seem more desirable than getting up?
I am not particularly eager to go to work today — things are rather stressful at this juncture on my project. I do know, though, that sitting for meditation is always good. I also know that on the days I practice fully in the morning, my day is more enjoyable no matter what happens. Knowing that I have the time and space to practice if I wake timely is always a good reason to get out of bed and is what drew me out of the comfort of lying under the covers this morning.
Now that I am done with my practice, I can also enjoy what spectacular weather is on offer today. An added bonus.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc)
Worrying (and the kanchukas)
This morning, woken by the purring cat from an anxious dream in which I was not doing enough to make things better (I am not making this up), my first thoughts were of escalating war in Afghanistan and deepening economic crisis at home. It felt almost strange and abstract to be worrying about these things from my warm comfortable bed.
I think worrying can have a positive place in our lives. If we just get worried or anxious about things and get trapped in not doing or growing or reaching (both inward and outward) for a sense of connection and spirit, then worrying will cloak or limit us. If we recognize worries as showing us limitations, then we can use them to grow and change and spur us to action.
After the 25 tattvas describing the physical world and our being and understanding of the world that correspond in both the classical and Kashmir Shaivist systems, are Kashmir Shaivism’s six kanchukas — cloakings or coverings. The kanchukas are niyati (limitation of place), kaala (limitation of time), raaga ( attachment), vidya (limitation of knowledge), kalaa (limitation of action), maya (illusion of individuality/manifestation).
From a tantric perspective, experiencing ourselves as thinking, individual beings in the manifest world, constrained by time and space, only binds us if we think that is all we are. If we get completely entangled in these constraints, then our sense of spirit is cloaked, just as if we get stuck in worrying, instead of using worries as a spur to work for change, we become miserable.
I meditate and practice asana, as taught by my teachers, to reveal the restraints of physical being as only part of my being. Spiritual practice can serve to enable us to experience freedom of heart and mind, to bathe in the bliss of the essence of ourselves that is universal and unconstrained by the limitations of individual manifestation. The point of these practices not to escape our individual selves or to gratify them (that would still be “cloaked”), but to find the strength and stability to serve better and to work for a world in which all beings have an equal chance to seek the spirit and experience the bliss of connection.
Wherever You Are, Whatever You Are Doing, However You Are Feeling
I give thanks to and for all of you and wish that you find a true sense of gratitude in your very being.
FYI–Info on Bystander Intervention–Do’s and Don’ts
The other day on one of my now only occasional walks out, I saw a man on the ground at the entrance to the CVS and several cops. Rather than trying to stay completely away, the first thing I did was get out my own phone and then only walked on when I had confirmed that someone else was already standing witness and filming. Earlier in my life, to film would not have been my first reaction. I’ve also had unfortunate opportunity to be called to help out in the face of witnessing harassment more than once since 2015. We all should know what to do. Here’s a good resource:
https://www.afsc.org/bystanderintervention?emci=d4f309b3-0e1a-eb11-96f5-00155d03bda0&emdi=03d69ace-741b-eb11-96f5-00155d03bda0&ceid=319218&utm_source=weekendreading103120&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekendreading
