Jai Saraswati (and Statehood for the People of DC)
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“Magic Carpet Ride”
As I was hefting my heavy day pack over my shoulder to get ready to leave for the airport, I said to my roommate for the week, “now is the time I wish I could just take a magic carpet ride.”
“It would be pretty windy,” he replied.
What I wanted from the magic carpet ride was not to have to sit in traffic to get to the airport or deal with the security check in and boarding and potential delays, etc. The fact that the plane can get me from one climate to another in two hours is pretty magical.
I decided to play “Magic Carpet Ride” on my ipod while I was waiting for my flight to send it magic carpet ride energy–on time boarding, no problems with the plane, a smooth and comfortable ride, which it turned out to be. Usually I listen to quiet music or recorded teleseminars for my studies with Paul Muller-Ortega when I am traveling. Yesterday, I decided to see what ipod’s “genius” function would come up with following “Magic Carpet Ride.” First came something by the Clash, not a bad segue. I wasn’t sure that fit my mood, but decided I would go with it until the plane took off.
To my shock, because one would expect a series of rock and roll songs, the next track was an invocation to Lakshmi–kind of rocked out, but still, not what I would have expected. That was followed by a series of chants to Siva intermixed with three different versions of the maha mrityunjaya mantra. “Ah,” I thought, “genius knows I have been practicing yoga all week and then celebrating mahasivaratri. How very extraordinary sometimes the interplay of the subtle energies and technology!”
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
A Flash of Abhuta
I contemplate (practice bhavana on) the yoga principle abhuta (wonder) on a fairly consistent basis. When we can find wonder in sheer miraculous diversity of manifestation, we can enter a space of joy whence we can more likely respond in the highest.
This afternoon, perhaps because I have so recently gone on a practice intensive, I experienced a spontaneous uprising of delighted wonder on receiving an email that would otherwise cause me some consternation and annoyance. Instead, my first reaction was, “My goodness! Another one just like the others, but still new and different! Amazing how that happens. And now I will have to respond.”
I felt that way again as I joined the rush hour crowds on my way from work to go lead the restorative class at Takoma Park. (If you’re in town, drop-ins welcome. Thursdays at 8pm at Willow Street Takoma Park through the end of May).
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Gardening | Meditation | Photos
More Ephemera
Spring flowers are not much more ephemeral than are we from the perspective of infinity (or even geological time). I think one of the central aims of yoga philosophy is to make some sense of the need for recognition of our own place and worthiness, while still acknowledging our undeniable individual smallness in the vast web of being. In that light, it seeks to offer us awareness of some idea of ourselves that is infinite and not just our distinct finitude.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
