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- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Some Thoughts on Sadhana
A regular reader of this blog commented on the consistency of my practice of taking photographs. Thinking about this practice, reminded of something I recall John Friend having said. We have a steady hatha yoga practice (asana, pranayama, meditation), for two reasons. When we’re feeling full of joy and gratitude, we practice to make offering in thanks. When we are feeling disconnected or off-balance or sad, we practice to remind ourselves of our connection in spirit. This pretty much means there is always a reason to practice.
With the photographs, sometimes the sweetest moment of my day was noticing a flower or a cloud. I practice doing so, especially when I’m feeling too caught up in the tumult. In the moment (and on reflection later when I review, select, and edit an image to share, I remember, as I do when I do my hatha yoga practice, my current well-being. Sometimes there is more about yoga practice I can say with a photograph than I could with a paragraph.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Steadiness of Silence
During one of our sessions, one of my fellow students asked whether she was really seeking a life of renunciation because she sometimes really craved sitting quietly for meditation. For her, having first experienced meditation as an adult who has a rich and comfortable life, even the shortest time sitting with eyes closed looking only within felt like it might be a denial of the outer world.
The practices Paul Muller-Ortega is teaching, and as he makes absolutely clear, are very much for the householder and are not the rarified path of a renunciate. Sitting in silence is a blissful and steady; it is going towards the inner world and not going away from the outer world.
We do not have to renounce our lives to sit regularly in silence. We can frankly delight in the sweetness of inner light and stillness and honor our desire to do so (a true renunciate would have to renounce even that desire). Meditation as part of the daily life of a householder, is a bedrock of support so that we can be ever more fully engaged in our lives, no matter how noisy they can get sometimes.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
A Change of Scenery
Today I walked a circuit of the mineral water springs of Saratoga.
