Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
Today’s Addition to the Yoga Chalkboard Graffiti Wall (Durga Yantra)
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Interconnectedness
This morning, on my last full day of vacation, on my way to leave my bags in the office of the bed and breakfast where I was staying before I walked about in Santa Fe for the day, I walked back through the breakfast room, where I had eaten an hour before.
To my happy surprise, good friends from home (a former co-worker and his wife, whom I’d just been thinking about because I knew how much they like New Mexico) were there finishing their meal.
We spent much of the day together, until I had to leave to catch the train to Albuquerque to be ready for tomorrow’s early morning flight back home.
It felt a perfect completion of a trip made to study yoga and be in community for the week.
Not Knowing
Quakers speak of allowing the way to open, Buddhists of resting in a space of not knowing.
Today I turned in my federal ID, computer, and keys, after over 30 years as a civil servant. What a privilege to be able to allow myself the freedom not to have made any significant plans for what comes next. After all those decades of focused work, to rest in the spaciousness of not knowing.
A friend whom I first met through work came and shared a meal and helped make the day festive.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
The Paths Are Many…
The yoga texts speak of a number of paths to enlightenment–the instant one (for those who have spent many previous lives on the path), the path of action, the path of knowledge, and the path of devotion. They are not completely separate. They intertwine and support each other. Individual practitioners do, though, tend to find themselves drawn more to the methods of one path than another. We have the greatest likelihood of staying and progressing on the path, if we do not fight with the practices, but go with what suits our nature.
That being said, it good also to challenge ourselves by trying practices that push our buttons. Those are the practices that truly give the opportunity to learn to be grounded, at peace, and centered in the face of frustration and discomfort.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Shadows and Light
In discussion of erudition and spirituality, much use is made of the metaphor of light. Light takes us out of darkness, reveals the truth of illuminated wisdom, is the truth, is pure consciousness, etc.
When I noticed the shape in the sidewalk pavement culminated by a shadow, I found myself thinking that we cannot fully experience light without shadow. Not because we cannot understand something (e.g. good) without experiencing its opposite (evil), but because absolute light blinds us to the point of destroying the ability to see even the light. We need shade or dark sunglasses to see what is differentiated when the sun is at its most glaring.
Just as the stone in the photo would not be revealed as a heart but for the shadow crossing it, so too, we cannot know the deepness and authenticity of love or spiritual teachings and practices until we discover that we can stay true to them through challenge and adversity. The shadow does know, just as the light reveals.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
