Found Exhortation
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Softness (as part of the first Anusara principle)
In this society, we tend to think of softness as a negative. If being soft is collapse, laziness, inattentiveness, etc, then it would indeed be a hindrance to growth inner and outer.
We need to soften, though, in order to open or change. When baking a cake, we allow the shortening to soften so that we can cream it with the sweetener. When a seed germinates or a fledgling emerges, the shell softens so that the new life can burst forth.
When I soften as part of the first alignment principle, it is not a collapse, though it does have an aspect of easefulness. It is necessary to soften to invite the support of the subtle energies, to fully experience all the pose has to offer, to expand with light from the inside out. Softening when we start a pose is like the softness of early spring that allows the vigor of full growth to expand.
Being soft in this way — on or off the mat — makes possible the growth of inner brightness and strength that actually makes us less vulnerable then would creating or keeping a hard and brittle shell that can bind or break.
Akasha (space)
When we can connect to the essence of the element of akasha, space, within ourselves, we feel less crowded by things pressing in on the outside, whether it be actual confinement or overcrowdedness or the sense of crowding from having too many pressing things to do. For those of us who live in the District of Columbia, this weekend, with the extra million or two or three people in our neighborhoods and using our transportation systems is a great opportunity to discover the spaciousness within.
Practice dwelling in a supremely spacious place in your heart when you meditate this week. Start by visualizing a vast space just beyond your third eye (the point between the eye brows). Once you can visualize that space, the chidakasha, draw the space into your heart and rest there. Then, when you go out onto to the Mall or onto the metro or onto crowded streets, bring enough of your consciousness into the vast inner space that you can feel comfortable with the crowding outside. When dwelling in the inner and outer at the same time, it will be easier to marvel at the outside crowds.
For those of you who are extroverts who get exhilarated by crowds, of course, this practice would seem less critical. I invite you to give it a try anyway.
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Blogging by Blackberry (after thoughts on discipline and freedom)
When I pause to think about it–something I try to do consistently with the fruits of technology–it is an extraordinary marvel that I can be telling stories to the world from a little device I am holding in my hand, one that also has let me speak and exchange notes while I am away from home with friends, colleagues, and business connections.
What I cannot do (more likely because I haven’t yet learned how than it is not possible) is to be my usual careful self when posting entries. I have not done hyperlinks to attrbute my sources, nor have I spell-checked. At home, I would not hit the “publish” button without doing those things.
Under the circumstances of being away from my regular computer, my library, the ability to check my references, and to provide proper citation, but being brimful with enthusiasm for being with my teachers, colleagues, friends, and the practices while I am at the teachers’ gathering, it seems better to post than not, using the means at hand. I sacrifice some of my usual discipline to share the joy.
All of life is like that. We may have ideals of what is proper, what are our standards for appearance, for work, for sharing a meal or our homes. When circumstances limit our ability to meet our own standards, it is part of the yoga to see whether the standards are binding us or serving to help us better connect. I believe that we should always strive to be more precise, more technically accomplished, better able to convey a sense of grace and beauty. But that effort should not cut us off, bring us to a halt, disempower us, prevent accomplishment of things. Most of all, it should not deaden a sense of spontaneity of gesture–the part of art and relationship that reveals our true spark.
