Be Here Now (Var.)
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What An Exquisite Gift
To be able to see (and be grateful).
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Looking Within
The great texts and teachers of meditation exhort us to look within with the promise that by so doing we will find great peace or bliss or splendor.
For many, though, initial attempts at meditation are just as likely to reveal troubling aspects of the self or agitating thoughts as any sense of beauty or quiet and the reaction can be a dismissal or disbelief in such teachings.
The exhortation to look within is not directing us to introspection or the self-examination of therapy (which are also useful in appropriate circumstances), but rather is inviting us to open to seeing that the beauty and specialness that we might believe of and recognize in others is also within ourselves.
Only when we can first look inside ourselves with love and empathy, can healing, change, growth, and compassion begin regarding those things that make introspection scary and challenging.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Anahata Chakra (Part II)
At yoga class tonight, a couple of students advised of challenges with neck and shoulders; another was very tired. After we had centered and done some gentle warm-ups, I led the class into this simple restorative backbend. In the pose, a rolled up blanket (or even a towel or two) is placed across the back, right at the bottom of the shoulder blades, so that the roll firms the shoulder blades onto the back and allows the heart to open, the collarbones to broaden, and the shoulders to drape to the floor. The yogin keeps the legs somewhat active in supta tadasana–supine mountain–pose to make more easeful opening the back and chest.
It was a good day for a quiet, nurturing practice designed to move us into our hearts. When we are faced with tragedy and outrage, but are not personally harmed, it is even more important that we choose to get deeper into our hearts. It is a time when it is good to choose to practice (whatever the practice) to foster clarity of vision, improve individual health and strength, and ground ourselves in a space where we can expand the possibility of responding with compassion, generosity, and common sense instead of unthinkingly reacting out of fear and rage.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Lines in the Clouds
I’ve seen lines drawn in
Sand, but never thought I’d see
Lines drawn in the clouds.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
