Participation Is Yoga Sadhana


This morning Maitri and I participated in Quaker silent worship with Friends Meeting of Washington via Zoom. I have friends offering for the first time, or expanding their offerings through various on-line platforms, of both meditation and asana practices.
For those of us able to do so, it is critical to stay home to slow contagion and alleviate burden on our already stressed by poor and inequitable policies health care system. It is also critical to reach out to elected officials and into our own means to help others be able to stay home and get any needed care.
What capacities for adaptability and generosity might we find in this situation?

Basil, persimmon tomatoes, plum tomato, saqweet banana pepper, turenip and greens, tricolor carrots (the white are maturing much faster than the orange and the red), anaheim peppwer, okra, jalapeno pepper. (Not shown: grapes, kale, and the three cucumbers I had midweek, one of which still needs to be eaten).
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
How we collectively yearn for the light, though we seek it in different ways! For anyone who can tell me exactly where I took each of these photos, I will give a donation to charity in your name (total for all persons guessing correctly $250). Hint: All photos except the last, which was taken this morning, were taken on the solstice, and I did not go out of my way to take the photos.
The texts on sadhana — yoga practice — say in simplified essence that mantra is the fulcrum between the unknowable universal and manifest particulars. What language we use and how we use it can either lead us towards skillfully navigating life informed by illuminated understanding or blundering through things with obscured vision (or, I add, somewhere in between, but which do you want to be your goal?). If you listen for your authentic voice, what words do you want to utter, which do you want to embody, which do you want to offer? The mantra is a tool (in the best sense of the word) to find a source for our own language (thought and spoken) that recognizes the common bond of dwelling together as neighbors (near or far) on this earth, in this universe.
New York City, June 13-14