Going to Seed
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Robin’s Egg Blue (and the Five Acts of Shiva)
This broken egg on the sidewalk served for me as a poignant reminder that one of the five acts of Shiva is dissolution or destruction and that we rarely get to choose the when and how something will come to this phase.
How do we then turn (or at least perceive) what must dissolve or get destroyed into the possibility of creation–the rebirth of the cycle (and the first act of Shiva)?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc)
Found Exhortation (and Happy 4th of July)
What could be more quintessentially American and also generally incompatible with authentic yoga teachings than the desire/exhortation to express one’s individuality? How can we really practice yoga and still honor this inbred privileging of the individual? Are there ways of melding principles of radical individuality with philosophies that say enlightenment is a surrender of that individuality that would serve to harmonize and expand rather than just provide fuel for inner conflict?
Your input most welcome.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Yoga Ideas Best Put Aside
I just received a yoga email advertising classes and workshops that quoted a well-respected teacher as saying not to listen to your mind and to listen only to your heart. I respectfully disagree.
I do believe that if we listen (listening in the deepest and broadest sense) only to our mind, we lose connection with body and emotion, which can lead to ill health and unhappiness. I also believe that individual consciousness is more than mind and includes bodily and emotional awareness as well as brain function and that one of the salutary aspects of yoga practices is to expand our capacity to be aware beyond thought and mere processing of sense perception.
But to listen only to our heart is to be empty-headed, to be without discrimination (viveka), and also presumes that we can process and act on what is in our heart of hearts without using our minds. To dismiss our mind as somehow not being a source for deep listening also defies the tantric yoga notion that all is an essential part of being, of consciousness, of the source of inner bliss (Satcitananda–being, consciousness, bliss). Why would we have minds if we weren’t meant to use them?
Want to be a fully engaged yogi who lives in the world? Go ahead: cultivate, educate, enlighten, and use your mind. Just do it with an open heart and ever expanding sensitivity and awareness of all your being and all that is around you!
