What’s Your Dharma?


Later today I will be boarding a plane to India with the intention of witnessing edifices, art, monuments, and practices inspired, created, and perpetuated in the name of god(s). We are flying together out of JFK airport. I came early to NY to see my family, though I ended up seeing only my older sister instead of the whole family as originally planned. My Dad was supposed to have had hip replacement surgery last week, but it was postponed because he had a bad cold–please hold him in the light as he gets ready for surgery.
Looking out my window last night at the gorgeous view, I wondered how many of those involved in the design, engineering, and building of the Empire State Building thought of it as an inspiration of or tribute to god.
I have yet to see a so-called proof of “god” that does not make a leap of reasoning unsupported by logic, and I cannot think of anything further from the recognition of universal spirit and worthiness in all beings than killing, oppression, perpetuation of social inequalities, and forcing conformity in the name of god. I have, though, time and again experienced awe and delight to the very depths of my being witnessing the outrageously and extraordinarily beautiful and innovative outpourings of human creativity in the name of our multifarious beliefs in some god or gods. What wildly interesting creatures we are–all of us.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
When I was coming downstairs in my building today, I overheard someone say to her colleague, “she said it wasn’t yoga; it was a core workout.”
I didn’t hear anything else. I wonder whether it was the teacher, a student, or an observer who was the “she” being quoted. I wonder what the person I heard speaking and what the person she quoted meant by yoga.
As for the “core workout,”I’m pretty sure, based on the location of the conversation–stairwell in a Federal office building–that by “core workout” it meant a class in the gym focused on toning and strengthening abdominal muscles.
In contemplating this snippet of conversation, I decided that yoga is the best core workout I know, if by core we mean center or essential–the very heart of being. What is yoga other than practicing and applying certain techniques to try and better live and act from the core of our being? Toned abs, if we get them, are just a bonus.
I took the day off from work today to attend an all-day teacher training with Cyndi Lee at Willow Street Yoga. Cyndi invited us to ask ourselves how our yoga teaching informs our practice and how our practice (and the reasons why we practice) informs our teaching? Worthy questions for ongoing contemplation.