Similar Posts

  • | | | |

    Each One, Reach One

    ByElizabeth

    I went with a friend from volunteering at the youth garden yesterday morning to join with others to heighten awareness of the potential impact on the fabric of our fragile democracy of what the current Supreme Court decides in Moore v Harper, which was being argued.

    We got to talking to one of the fellow demonstrators. I had pictures of N (for more from N, see @blacklivesmattermemorialfence), from a previous demonstration relevant to voting rights earlier in the year. After we confirmed the connection, N asked me if I was a lawyer for the government; it turns out N also remembered that I had given directions and ended up walking a few blocks together to the gathering near the Capitol for the one year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection.

    We all talked about impact and whether it makes a difference if we only inspire a few people. I shared a story about one of the very few comments saying I had inspired being more politically active and outspoken in the yoga context. Maybe, I conjectured, it doesn’t matter if we only reach one person, because we don’t know who is that person and how they will be moved. N plans to make a t-shirt that says, “each one, reach one.”

    To whom will you reach out? What moves you?

  • | |

    Too Busy Gardening

    ByElizabeth

    To write about gardening. I spent most of the weekend in the garden and there is still more to be done to get ready for the fullest experience of summer. I did get to the Sunday contact improv jam for a while (these azaleas are in the church yard outside of where we dance). Now I am off to an evening meeting–yearning to get back into the garden, but intending to enjoy connecting with my community.

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

  • | |

    Creating Healing Energy (and communal knitting)

    ByElizabeth

    A friend of mine who is an avid and wonderful knitter decided to make a shawl for a friend who is about to have surgery.  Instead of whipping out a shawl herself in a few days, she invited other friends to knit squares and bring them to her.  She is going to piece together the squares to create, in essence, a physical manifestation of a gentle, loving, communal embrace.

    I loved this idea.  Though I could not put name to face for the friend who is suffering (I think I would likely recognize her), to support my friend who is setting such a strong intention of sending healing, I am knitting a square or two with some beautiful handspun yarn leftover from a sweater several years ago.

    As I knit, I am setting an intention to infuse the cloth with healing energy.  In having been invited to participate in this project, I have been given the gift of a potent reminder of how strongly our attitude and intention in whatever we create and offer can shift how it goes forth into the world — whether it be gifts, practice, speech, food, work.

  • Dharma without Karma (Please Vote Next Tuesday)

    ByElizabeth

    It’s no surprise:  I find myself more and more consumed by thought and activity regarding the state of the country and what I can do as a citizen (including voting) to make things better.  As I seek to stay engaged, but grounded and without anxiety, I find solace of the teaching in the Bhagavad Gita that true yoga is action without attachment.  To be detached is not the same as withdrawing from action.  In fact, the Gita suggests that the path of action is better than the path of renunciation.

    What is actionless action?  Given the Gita’s fundamental premise that we must act in accordance with our duty (what that means is the subject of much debate that is beyond a simple blog), actionless action does not mean disengaging from the process.  It also does not mean not caring.  Rather, it means that we should act fully in accordance with our principles (which principles should be shaped by the yoga guidelines of non-harming, truthfulness, non-stealing, alignment with nature, non-greediness, cleanliness, contentment, fervor, self-study, and surrender), but with the mental understanding that we are ultimately not in control of the outcome.  We act because not to act is a cop out.  We offer the fruits of our action to forces beyond ourselves.  We act out of love — not selfish love for personal gain — but with loving gratitude for being able to act at all.  We engage fully and then still seek to be free of being unsettled by either pleasure or pain from the outcome.  Whatever the results, we keep acting, we keep doing our duty, fully and with loving engagement.

    See:  BG IV.19-20:  He whose undertakings are free from anxious desire and fanciful thought, whose work is made pure in the fire of wisdom:  he is called wise by those who see.  In whatever work he does such a man in truth has peace:  he expects nothing, he relies on nothing, and ever has fullness of joy.  (trans. Juan Munoz)

    He who has abandoned all attachment to the fruits of action,/ Always content, not dependent,/ Even when performing action,/Does, in effect, nothing at all./ Performing action with the body alone, / Without wish, restrained in thought and self,/ With all motives of acquisition abandoned, He incurs no evil.  (trans. Winthrop Sargeant)

    P.S.  I will have voted in the morning and will be teaching at Wm Penn House on Tuesday so come join me resting in yoga before going home to watch the returns.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.