Growing Closer
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Ephemera Around Town
This morning I saw a pretty feather on the sidewalk while I was walking to work past the Senate office buildings.
I squatted to take a close up photo, but a breeze sent it flying before I could snap the shutter. I went after it, replaced it in a sunny patch for best light, and then tried again.
While I was still low to the ground with my camera phone out, a police officer on a bicycle came up to me and said that it was a pretty feather; I could have it if I wanted.
I said I would leave it there for someone else to enjoy. Taking and sharing the photo on my yoga blog would be enough. We agreed that it looked like a robin may have encountered a hawk.
The officer smiled and continued down the sidewalk on bicycle patrol. I resumed my walk to work.
I wondered whether the interaction would have been so pleasant if I hadn’t been a decently dressed (i.e, evidently middle class), small, middle-aged, white woman.
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Gardening | Meditation | Photos
It Is Good
It is good, for those of us who live in the city, to make time to walk in the woods at least every once and a while, as well as to nurture trees in the city.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Signs Around Town
What is it when it seems like something is a sign or a perfectly timed message? Is it a moment of clarity or more illusion? The teachings say that diligent practice over a period of time with the right teachers will help us move towards clarity.
I don’t think I’ve practiced long enough to know whether im yet leaning more towards clarity, but I still enjoy practicing.
What’s your experience/thinking on this?
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Found Exhortation (and Tapas)
What does it mean to excel, to do well? I think there is no excelling in yoga, at least not the way we conventionally think of excelling in school or career or sports. But to practice in a way that is more than casual, there must be ardor–tapas.
Tapas is often translated as fire, and the texts are full of stories of outrageous physical exertions done to prove the tapas of the practitioners looking for boons from the gods.
There is a fiery aspect to tapas, but I question whether it must necessarily be burning from physical exertion, though that is a path that calls out to many.
The fire of tapas could be thought of as doing what it takes to manifest the will to know something deeply enough to be able to experience the fluency and grace and delight of expertise. It could be the ardor to show up in a disciplined and committed way for hours and days and years of practice, always still wanting deeper, fuller knowing.
