Whatever the season, I notice the beauty on my walk to work. I see what remains the same and what changes. I invite the sweetness I feel arising spontaneously from my daily walks though the neighborhood, which, familiar as they are, still feel like vision quests, to come into how I experience the rest of my encounters with the world.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
These extraordinary trees are in the parking lot at the Grounds for Sculpture just outside of Trenton, NJ.
I always find articles on the “spiritual” practices of the rich and famous fascinating. Does reading this article make you more or less interested in your own practice or does it not make any difference to you at all? Contemplation on which is your answer (might be a combination) is sure to give insight to your relationship both to society and to your practice.
I am subbing Fusion Flow tonight up at Willow Street. Natalie, for whom – am subbing, has been teaching the yamas and niyamas this session. She asked me to cover “samtosha” tonight.
In contemplating this principle of practice again (it is high on my contemplation list), I thought of the what was drafted by the “Founding Fathers.” We are not guaranteed the right to happiness, but the right and freedom to pursue it.
That leaves open the question of what is happiness and whether and how to pursue it. It contains, I think, a hidden agreement that to keep the right open to all that happiness cannot be realized by the acquisition of external power and things that will prevent others from having the same freedom.
When I get caught up in our current societal vision of what we are supposed to have or be, a reminder that “samtosha” — contentment — doesn’t just happen, but is a practice, always regrounds me. I choose to come back to a space of gratitude, and my my whole self eases. I return to a place that serves me and enhances my own freedom to find happiness, while bringing me to a place that is aligned with that freedom growing for what and whom I touch.
