Sadhana
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- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Lady Macbeth (and Bhavana)
The young woman sitting next to me on the train north from New York, who is impossibly tall and has lovely, strong features (i.e., is perfectly cast), is memorizing Lady Macbeth’s lines.
I had on my own lap print-outs of mantras that Paul Muller-Ortega has invited us to memorize as part of our continuing studies.
To enter the character of Lady Macbeth, one of the first steps is to memorize the lines, to know completely what she says and not just to hear it and appreciate it. Memorizing the lines is an essential part of the route to becoming Lady Macbeth.
Paul Muller-Ortega has suggested that the reason to memorize various mantras is not to acquire them, not to be able to demonstrate a superficial knowledge or skill, but to aid in the profound practice of
bhavana–deep contemplation at the heart level. It is not the fact of memorization, but the activity of memorizing. It is no accident that we call memorizing, “knowing by heart.” We seek to learn by heart to invite ourselves into the space of concentration that requires. It is a slow and difficult process for me. I persist, though, because of the deepening and expanding understanding it facilitates.I note for those yogis (and other readers) who might find the idea of learning mantras alien or uncomfortable or apparently at odds with your own religious beliefs or practices, that studying the mantras does not require or make one a Hindu. I think of it as an invitation to understand and embody the highest archetypes and principles they invoke and represent and compatible with my other observances.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Play of Shadow and Light?
Does it matter whether this juxtaposition of the exhortation to love next to a game of hangman was intended by those holding the chalk?
Even if the juxtaposition was not thought out and done for the purpose of later viewers, it raises much to ponder about how we act and live in relationship to the world.
Just one of the questions that comes first to mind is whether it is more ok to play hangman if you it with love?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Found Exhortation
One of my yoga teacher trainers used to say that though he loved all of his students, that did not necessarily mean that he liked all of them or everything about them.
Recognizing and honoring universal worthiness and connection — which I think is essential to our getting along in this crowded world of ours –does not mean that we will not have preferences both innate and trained.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Untitled
In the late afternoon, after it did not really rain again in this pocket of the DMV, I went out in the garden to get fresh herbs and greens to go with tomatoes picked earlier in the day. This was what the clouds were doing. I was called to pause and, with awe and appreciation, observe.
Found Exhortation (and One Person’s Trash Is Another’s Treasure?)
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
