Go Barefoot, Use Your Feet
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- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Meditation | Photos
Time to Pause
To be able to be most fully present when being active, it is crucial to pause, to be quiet and still, to nap, to allow enough time for a good night’s sleep.
Resting and being quiet does not just mean practicing meditation, pranayama, and asana while otherwise speeding about and constantly multitasking. The practices are a wonderful way to bring more delight, acceptance, flexibility, awareness, and understanding to everything we do, and make more manageable an overstretched life style.
At some point in our practices, though, we realize that in order to get the most out of the practices and to be able to live what we get from the yoga, we need to be well-rested and consume with all of our senses and eat what best nourishes our body and mind.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Quaker
Shaktipat?
Some of the yoga traditions that include a guru lineage believe that a guru can transmit grace (whatever that might mean) through their presence or touch. Back in the days when I was doing my first yoga teacher training, a fellow student asked me whether I had ever received shaktipat? My answer was yes–when I’d had the opportunity to shake hands with William Brennan. He’s not a guru, my fellow student objected. But he is a being of extraordinary grace, power, and intelligence who has devoted himself to the service of our collective well-being and my being in his presence inspires me to show my best light; isn’t that what’s supposed to happen with shaktipat? I don’t think she was ever fully persuaded by my unorthodox reading, but I had no need to persuade.
I found myself thinking about that discussion today, having gotten to shake John Lewis’s hand when he walked through the crowd to speak at day 2 of the people’s filibuster for health care. In the presence of his inspiration, I am compelled to figure out what more can I be doing.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Photos
Dakshinamurti
Sometimes we call out the names; sometimes they call out to us. I’ve been too tired and stressed to yearn for more adventures in the near term, but this week, I have found myself wanting to be in India, to be surrounded by the colors and the sights and the outrageous display of creative imagery.
The photo is of a roadside temple, with Siva in the aspect of Dakshinamurti–guru of all knowledges (jnana). I have been told that is good to chant to Dakshinamurti when one is looking for support and guidance in teaching.
In my work as a civil servant, I spend much time informally teaching colleagues and the regulated community the details of the complex area that is my specialty. I set my intention to be able not only to be clear, but to convey a bigger purpose even in that which does not readily come to mind as being something of spirit.
