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    Making Your Practice an Offering to Yourself

    ByElizabeth

    This morning, when I was walking to work, a young mother stood on the sidewalk talking with a friend. Her daughter, who was perhaps a little over a year and new to walking, lit up with a huge smile when I came within range. She dropped her mother’s hand and ran over to me, holding out a flower petal. That her hand was slightly grubby and the petal crumpled only made it more adorable.

    Nearly eleven hours later, as I get ready to leave the office and head up to Takoma to teach a restorative yoga class, I find myself recalling the offering, with such innocence and joy, of the flower petal.

    What we want to do with our practice and teaching is to have it be, at least on one level, such a spontaneous, delighted, and innocent offering that any perceived obstructions or interference with a sense of grace (such as a long hard work-day and attendant fatigue) dissolve. We can melt into the knowledge that practicing and making offering is just the right thing to bring us back to our own fullness (purna).

    What we choose as the particulars of the practice, of course, will be tempered by our physical and mental condition.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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    Petting the Temple Cows

    ByElizabeth

    After a day of teaching and more discussion and emails regarding the upheaval, I had a memory of petting one of the temple cows at Chidambaram.  I was jetlagged and in sensory overload, and then I petted a most wonderful cow.  I dropped into a space where I was perfectly at peace and unaware of the time and all the things going on around me.  This space is always there for us, even in the absence of a sacred cow, and we practice so that we can find it more and more consistently, especially when we are being challenged.

    I did not photograph the Chidambaram temple cow, although a nice Indian lady asked me if her husband could photograph the two of us with the cow, so she has a photograph of herself with the strange American lady in a sari who was petting the cow.  I stopped to pet many cows after that.  In one town, a man told me, as I was scritching a cow between ears and horns, that the cow would enjoy a banana.

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    A New Landmark on Capitol Hill (Unveiling of the Dragon)

    ByElizabeth

    The weather was perfect last Sunday.  It had been misting and drizzling all morning.  At mid-day, the rain stopped, the temperature went up that which promises spring, and it was almost possible to see things sprouting green all around.  This promise of new growth couldn’t have been a better day for the unveiling of the neighborhood dragon.

    Thanks to friends and neighbors at the Kagyu Drupgu Chodzong, there is a new landmark in the neighborhood.  I was privileged to me among those who were present for the unveiling of this most auspicious dragon for all to see and to enjoy.  Whether or not we will be able to recognize any auspiciousness it might bring, it most certainly will be bringing delight not only by its beauty as a work of art, but from the knowledge that our friends and neighbors made the effort to offer such beauty to all of us.

    Much gratitude for good neighbors.

     

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    Signs/Objects Around Town (Dirksen Senate Office Building)

    ByElizabeth

    Because the Senate, like any group sharing an office building, would need a little love if the fire department is wanted.

    Come to think of it, the Senate needs a little love all the time; I like this heart being here to call in loving energy. Those who are working to care for those most challenged in our society, to protect the environment, and to seek fairness and justice for all need support to keep serving. And with an influx of love, perhaps those digging their heels in for greed, power, corruption, and violence, might be influenced to make a shift.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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