One of the most important yoga teachings I have received is to make everything puja–an offering of and from the heart. This is particularly challenging with difficult and thankless tasks that nevertheless still must be done.
Whether or not one believes in an uber-creator, such belief is no excuse to abdicate one’s own need to be conscious of how individuals are part of the whole fabric of being and our duty (dharma) to act in recognition of that interrelationship. Taking responsibility for our own lives and relationship to others and our place in the ecosystem is an essential part of aligning with the ideal of the divine.
It is reasonable and perfectly appropriate to practice to enhance our own peace, joy, and well-being. Equally important is that the practices lead us to live with more mindfulness and compassion.
Doing the practices without ever refining how we are in the world is not, as some claim, enough to serve as a grand contribution to making the world a better place, though if we are happier and healthier we are likely to be more pleasant to be around.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
The texts speak of the siddhis–beings with great powers from the steady dedicated fire (tapas) of practice (sadhana).
One of these powers is bi-location — that of being able to be in two places at once. A friend and fellow practitioner once said to me that I shouldn’t want to be able to bi-locate. What that is called, she said, is schizophrenia.
The resting in two places at once that I think we do want, is always to be able to rest in the vast, peace-filled, and gracious space of meditation while we are fully going about the daily business of living.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Or just get new glasses?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
The movement from one moment to the next is always a transition. How then do we sequence most optimally?
Long time neighbors and participants in the rose garden yoga posse, who have now retired and are moving to be nearer children and grandchildren, gave me their yard sign.
I will miss them for practice and around the neighborhood. I like, if they must go, that I will think of them fondly every time I come home to this exhortation and its call to practice.
