Pre-Storm Sunset


I was browsing; I was looking for a poem to read to a friend because I was not ready to write one myself. I found several that were right for me to read, but not to share, and this one I wanted to share more widely because of the delight it is bringing me to read it:
Karma Repair Kit: Items 1-4
1. Get enough food to eat,
and eat it.
2. Find a place to sleep where it is quiet and sleep there.
3. Reduce intellectual and emotional noise
until you arrive at the silence of yourself,
and listen to it.
4.
Richard Brautigan, The Pill v. the Springhill Mine Disaster
I had a real fondness for Brautigan when I was a teenager. Every once and a while, I will pick up one of his books and remember why. If you enjoyed reading this poem, please go buy a book by Brautigan to thank him.
To be able to be most fully present when being active, it is crucial to pause, to be quiet and still, to nap, to allow enough time for a good night’s sleep.
Resting and being quiet does not just mean practicing meditation, pranayama, and asana while otherwise speeding about and constantly multitasking. The practices are a wonderful way to bring more delight, acceptance, flexibility, awareness, and understanding to everything we do, and make more manageable an overstretched life style.
At some point in our practices, though, we realize that in order to get the most out of the practices and to be able to live what we get from the yoga, we need to be well-rested and consume with all of our senses and eat what best nourishes our body and mind.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
After teaching my classes this morning at Willow Street, I will be studying with Paul Muller-Ortega, who is leading a workshop on tantric philosophy and meditation today and tomorrow. It will be good to study, to learn, to meditate with direction. To be able to teach, it is essential for me to study.