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Signs Around Town
United States Supreme Court, October 8, 2019
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One Bright Rose
The first wild flush of the rose in the back garden passed a couple of weeks ago. But even in the heat, with leaves distressed by the beginnings of summer black spot, there are still a few exquisite blooms.
Spiritual Unity in Religious Diversity
It has been heart-rending for me to read about the growing rancor and bigotry about religion and race as we approach the mid-term elections. I am concerned as a peace-loving and community-minded citizen. I am also concerned as a personal matter. My great grandparents fled the pograms, and my parents felt free to become members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and bring their children to Friends’ meeting. I both honor my ancestry and religious upbringing and can study and practice yoga without fear of societal condemnation. Current events remind us all too painfully that the importance of religious and spiritual freedom can never be taken for granted. It is a matter of constant attention to seek spiritual unity in religious diversity, to recognize the spirit in every one, no matter the form of practice they choose (including choosing no practice or faith at all).
Today, I received the following email from Joe Volk at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. I invite you to join me in taking action if you are so moved:
At FCNL, we’ve been sick at heart and concerned at the hate speech, confusion, and misinformation about American Muslims that has spread across the country in the last month. Many of you have told us that you share our concern.
The controversy is not over yet. Between today and the September 11 anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, we at FCNL expect another outpouring of bigotry and misplaced anger at the proposal to build an Islamic cultural center in downtown New York City.
In the first eleven days of September, please state publicly that you stand with our brothers and sisters in the American Muslim community. We support their proposal to exercise their religious freedom by building an Islamic Cultural Center in downtown Manhattan, where they have lived and worshiped for years.
Worship, Talk, Take a Stand
Our country needs this cultural center and the public discussion that it is generating. The proposal for this Islamic cultural center can be transformed from an ugly controversy into perhaps the most important public opportunity in this decade to celebrate and exercise the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion.
Many of you are taking this opportunity. From New York to North Carolina and from Maryland to Illinois, we have heard about local community groups using the public focus on the cultural center to organize opportunities for Christians and Muslims to find out what they have in common. To counter the distrust and misinformation, more people need to state publicly that they support the freedom of American Muslims to worship and to gather together.
Please start by signing this petition supporting American Muslims and the proposal to exercise their religious freedom to build an Islamic cultural center in downtown Manhattan. Ask 5 friends to sign it as well. We’ll add the names of those who sign to the bottom of the petition to show the support that’s out there.
That’s the first step, but we encourage you to do more if you can. Here are some suggestions.
- Ask 5 friends to sign the petition too.
- Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper supporting the Islamic Cultural Center.
- Find out if the American Muslim community in your area might welcome a public or private opportunity to get to know your own local church, meeting or community group;
- On Friday, September 10, many local American Muslim communities around our country organize public celebrations of Eid ul-Fitr — the end of the holy period of Ramadan. Find out if Muslims in your area might welcome the participation of people of other faiths.
- Write your senators to ask them to speak out in support of the Islamic Cultural Center.
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Siva’s Ashes
Three layers of cloud
The color of ash stripe the
Forehead of the sky. Puja Cards
How are you going to engage?
A Friendly Reminder
For health and ease in this embodiment, remember to massage your feet every day. Perhaps followed by some time with your legs up the wall.
Expanding Your Edge
Thursday night, I took a dance improvisation workshop at Dance Exchange, the second in a series of three workshops. One of the exercises we did was in groups of two. The game was to do simultaneous improvisation. Without designating a particular person as a leader, each dancer was to try and stay in synchronized movement with his or her partner. When we were done with the exercise, some of the dancers talked about their goal having been to be in control of the lead or trying to push their partner past his or her edge. I had been innocently (or perhaps naively) unaware of these dynamics, as I had been seeking to find where the dance could be the leader rather than either partner.
After the workshop, when I was walking to the metro with the teacher and another participant, both of whom are performers in their 20s, I raised the issue of people trying to push others past their edge (I’d held off raising it in the group as it seemed too many were in a different space). I said that knowing that my partner was a lot less flexible than me, though lots stronger, and knowing his competitive edge, I never would have tried to push him beyond his physical limits.
The teacher said he liked being pushed past where it seemed like a good idea; it made him get to another place. I agreed that it is good to try to expand, to go beyond what we think are our limits. I have been taught, though, by my teacher John Friend, not to blow past my limits. Rather, in the practice of Anusara yoga, we seek to be intimately and exquisitely aware of our edge at every moment, and then expand it. The game with the partner using this paradigm would have been to find the edge and then see if the dance could expand it rather than to try and exert control or see if we could push our partner past his or her limits at our partner’s risk. When we operate in a paradigm of straining and striving, or we push for control or try to compete with ourselves or with others, that is where we get injured. I’ve had my share of dance injuries, I added, but to continue dancing through the decades, I cannot be blowing past my limits, though I am still growing. I was not sure that what I said felt relevant, but I could also tell that it was information that went into the thought mix for later.