| | |

State of the Garden

ByElizabeth

I spent most of the day working in the garden. As the darkness of the eclipse encroached, I thought what it would be like if I had not known in advance that it was coming.

Would I have known enough to heed the crows?

I sat with Ganesha, in the aspect of the one who can reveal to practitioners a skillful path amidst the obstacles that necessarily arise from the churning of space and time by the 12 Kalis and which are intrinsic to the fabric of the tandava generated by Siva Nataraja.

Similar Posts

  • | |

    State of the Garden

    ByElizabeth

    20130523-093912.jpg

    The white flowers growing with the tomatoes and cucumbers (cages) and the beans (red supports) are coriander that over-wintered, and gave lots of good leaves from late winter through mid-spring. I’m now letting them go to flower and then seed. I like to use the flowers as a garnish. Still green and newly forming coriander seeds minced, along with whatever greens are still tender on the plant, are delicious in lightly cooked young vegetables. Almost flowery, like some Persian cooking. The fig in the right foreground, alas, has no buds this year. It wants to be planted in the ground on a sunny side of someone’s house. Local readers, if you want a healthy fig tree, comment or send an email.

  • | | | |

    Waxing Moon/Hazy Sky

    ByElizabeth

    The haze is from the wild fires out west. What might you be able to forego—perhaps a plane or automobile trip—or a degree or two less cooling from any air conditioning you might use to help minimize your contribution to global climate change? Sometimes I have better answers for these questions than others and sometimes I am better at following through, as with any practice.

  • | |

    Flying Carpet Yoga

    ByElizabeth

    I have been talking idly with the family at Woven History about having a yoga benefit for members of either local community or where Woven History trades who are in need. On a winter evening after closing hours, using the cushions and carpets for props. Here’s one pose I have in mind. You can also do this with bed pillows in a hotel or guest bedroom.

  • | |

    Found Exhortation (Tantric?)

    ByElizabeth

    Some systems of yoga describe the body as consisting of five sheaths or koshas. The outermost sheath is the annamaya kosha, literally the food body. Food, here, is anything we ingest with the five senses. Including sights and sounds. The tantrikas think of themselves as rasikas–ones who taste the very essence of life, who through the practices refine their senses seeking to be able to discern the divine in all being. All sense perception becomes a fully creative, artistic endeavor.

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

  • | | |

    Full Moon

    ByElizabeth

    The moon had risen in all her glory when I left Willow Street Yoga in Silver Spring (from a talk with Dr. Manoj Chalam about archetypes yesterday evening and headed for the metro home.  I thought about how the moon shines fully no matter what is below:  a pristine mountain lake, a construction site, a palace garden, a land devastated by one of the Four Horsemen, or the street in front of my house.  What I think is the goal of most “spiritual” practice is to find a place where, being able to see the light all the time, one can live with uncertainty and challenge and have a greater capacity to serve from one’s unique place.

  • |

    Louise Bourgeois at the Hirshhorn

    ByElizabeth

    The other day, I went to see the Louise Bourgeois retrospective at the Hirshhorn.  The works are a combination of exquisite technique and in-your-face, challenging emotions.  I had a friend who raged at me once because I had created a piece that was radically, polemically feminist.  “That’s not art; art is only meant to be beautiful and aesthetic, not to be political,” said my friend.  Although he could not have questioned Bourgeois as an artist — her technique is too good — he might still have raged at it.  (The high school group being shown art on a field trip, while I was at the exhibit, was scurried through a room or two, much to my amusement).

    Seeing the exhibit led me to think of the purported purpose of left-handed tantric practices, which are meant to challenge us, turn us upside-down and inside out, and question what we recognize as the divine.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.