Signs Around Town
That does not mean you have to like them or be without safe and compassionate boundaries.
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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!
At the Airport
This delightful working dog is sitting near while I wait for my plane to Phoenix; I am traveling to Sedona today for a weekolong meditation and study retreat. As part of the retreat, I will take myself away from phone, internet, and email. The airport, though, cries out for electronic communication.
Balance Your Asana and Other Physical Practices
Sometimes active, sometimes quieting; sometimes focused, sometimes with wild abandon–but always do both sides.
The Great Equalizer
I am using my lunch hour to renew my driver’s license. I have been waiting less than 30 minutes so far, and there are only 10 people ahead of me. Moving right along in this mix of young and old, well-heeled and evidently struggling, all races, and apparent levels of education. We all wait in the same line.
Is it moving smoothly (knock on wood) because I wore a necklace with an image of the elephant deity Ganesha (remover of obstacles)? Or was it because I read the website and planned my visit for a day and time that was less likely to be crowded? Perhaps it is a combination of the two.
What I do know is that coming with a good attitude and a meditational (yes, I know this is not a real word) level of patience and acceptance for the process makes it feel a whole lot easier.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
