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    Found Exhortation?

    ByElizabeth

    When I was walking past this sign with a regular reader of my blog and stopped to take its picture, I said in response to the raised eyebrows, “found exhortation–triumph New York City.”

    “It’s just the local Triumph dealership.”

    “If one just read the sign, though,” without knowing of the brand, it surely could be read as an exhortation to New York City.”

    What a perfect example of how hard it can be to understand each other through only language. That words can have so many ways of being construed shows how much empathy and compassion for ourselves and those with whom we are in communication we need to foster in order truly to listen and be heard.

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

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    It Doesn’t Matter At All, But It Matters A Lot

    ByElizabeth

    I am in the middle of reading a book about a movement/organization centered on one of those forms of meditation that was brought to the West by an Eastern spiritual leader and drew millions of followers around the globe in the 1960’s and 70’s and beyond. One of the things in the book reminded me of something said to me several years ago by a long-time practitioner of a similar practice, with a different leader. This practitioner had said, as if he had discovered an actual truth for his meditation practice, that he had learned from the organization and movement that as long as one meditated, it was OK to be a jerk. At the time, I had two reactions: (1) surely that cannot be right; and (2) it is such statements that make people at best skeptical of meditation and the kind of people who invite others to meditate.

    What triggered this memory was a statement in the book, attributed to the spiritual leader, that it does not matter what you do to make the world better if you are not also working on yourself.

    Taken literally, I suppose someone who behaves like a jerk and an irresponsible and callow citizen could use it to feel good about himself for meditating and continuing not to care about relationships to others and the planet, but I do not think that was the intent of the teaching.

    The yoga teachings require us to work on ourselves, which includes how we are in relationship to the world. If we are trying to “do good” for the world, but still treat ourselves and our intimates badly, we will not be the best we can be because we will still be far from individual enlightenment. In that limited sense, it does not matter if we are a “do gooder,” but only in that very limited sense. Also, if we slip up and do something jerk-like, it is said that a guru (for those that have one), like a true friend or loving family member, would not reject a sincere devotee for the slip-up, but would just point again to where the practitioner needs to go on the path. The enlightened guru would still see the good in the devotee, however much work might remain for him or her.

    If we act like jerks and irresponsible and uncaring citizens we are not seeing the divine (whatever that means to you) in all beings and acting in recognition of that universal divinity, which is the point of the practices. We are also building up negative karma that imprints itself and makes our spiritual work that much more challenging. But we are not booted off the path, and we are still worthy of love if we slip up. Thus does it not matter; but truly, it matters a lot.

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

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    Sort of Like Happiness

    ByElizabeth

    The other day I noticed this “do not disturb” warning on the sidewalk and today, when I was walking past it again with a friend, paused to photograph it. I cannot imagine that most people who walk over or past it even notice it or read it, much less contemplate or know how to disturb it. When I found myself being led to wonder how I could disturb it (or perhaps what is inside or underneath it), I thought about how as soon as someone asks whether you are happy or you ask yourself or notice that you have been perfectly still or at peace or in complete meditation, the state of perfect being without thinking dissolves.

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

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    Ignorance is Bliss Only If You Do Not Care What Happens the Welfare of All Beings (Do You Know How Your Tax $$ Are Spent?)

    ByElizabeth

    If you are a true renunciate yogi, then the horsemen of the apocolypse don’t phase you.  The ultimate bliss is leaving your body anyway.  For those of us who are engaged in the world, care about what we eat, care where we live, care about the well-being of family and friends, then learning, understanding, and acting — knowing of course that we can control that and how we act, but not the outcome — is a critical part of a tantric yoga life.

    It’s great to know how to place one’s hands for optimal alignment in downward-facing dog, but do you know how your tax dollars are spent?  Here’s a little overview worth sharing widely.  And perhaps it will make all that noise in Washington about the budget and the debt ceiling seem a little more important.  Check out the “People’s Budget,” which enhances domestic programs, increases participation in paying for our society by the rich, and decreases defense spending and military action.

    And then I highly recommend standing on your head or balancing on your hands or otherwise going upside-down, getting twisted, and knowing that the practice will help you stay sane and steady and able to act.