Bodhisattva


Every day, it seems, another cucumber (though this shall pass soon enough). And baby carrots–first new carrots of the season. I asked friends and neighbors who were at the house this morning whether they would like a cucumber. As fellow gardeners who are also members of a CSA, they denied with almost a shudder. It is evidently a good year for cucumbers not just in my garden.
I came home from the workshop with much to explore in my own practice, and it was good to see old friends from the yoga community and make new acquaintances.
One of the things I appreciated were the demonstrations of therapeutic applications. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen noted that the first issue is survival, observing that since we were all safely together in a nice yoga studio, that we had survival covered.
The second thing, she suggested, before offering healing, is to make sure that both the person receiving and the person making the offering are comfortable.
I add to the latter that having both people be comfortable increases the likelihood that they will be able to stay present and mindful, which should increase the possibility of efficacy.
It appears from my long silence here (but not on other social media, where I am regularly posting photos), whatever I might have to say about yoga has been eclipsed by the fact that when I think to write about anything else, I think about calls for peace and justice and, and, and…
I say this then to those, like me, who are not struggling to have enough food and a safe place to sleep and have either never known or long forgotten what that is like, I use what I have learned from my practice of asana to keep my bones and muscles in alignment and I meditate to keep perspective. I make sure to be contributing in someway to share the safety and abundance I am privileged to enjoy, and I question myself regularly about whether I have the capability and capacity to do more.
And —a key teaching of yoga from my perspective— I let myself have hits of joy from encounters with beauty. Every day.
How are you holding up?
