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- Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
Found Exhortation (and “Opening to Grace”)
I was contemplating today the Anusara yoga principle of “opening to grace,” one aspect of which I always understood to be seeking to pause and listen in and from a place of luminous spaciousness before acting or responding to what one does or encounters. Ideally, the intentional practice of yoga opens the possibility of doing all this simultaneously and immediately, but most of us need to reduce the speed at which we approach or take in things if we are to experience and engage the fullest and most nuanced relationship with the wild extraordinariness of what is in and around us.
If we move too quickly or push effortfully or immoderately past our limitations, we are at risk, as I have recently reminded myself in a rather clumsy way. When through our own actions or happenstance we are pushed past our healthy capacity, it is time to slow down, to pause, to reflect, to reinvite and reexplore the basics and seek a deeper level of understanding and capability if we are to expand our capacity to live with grace.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Statues Around Town
I was feeling a bit melancholy at work this morning, so I went across the street at lunchtime and soaked up some beauty.
I am indeed blessed (by a combination of conscious choice and effort and good fortune) that I am able to take a lunch break on many days and that there are multiple opportunities to connect to beauty steps from work and home.
Dreaming of Rain, Actuality, and Viveka (yogic discrimination)
Last night I dreamed that it snowed a couple of inches and then turned to rain, which melted the snow. As happens more and more often with my dreams, I was conscious that I was dreaming and knew that the snow still fell madly outside. As I practice more and more over a long period of time, I am experiencing a growing ability to discriminate between dreaming and waking. Yoga talks about the principle of viveka, the ability to discriminate between the real and the unreal. Being able to distinguish among the four states of being (waking, dreaming, unconsciousness, and turiya — the fourth state) is part of this practice.
As I practice more, I have experienced that when waking, with this type of discrimination, I am more subtly able to discern the difference between empty wishes or anxieties (so as better to release them) and what are possibilities (so to be able to expand my boundaries and awareness). Cultivating such discrimination can bring greater personal peace by allowing for a combination of fuller acceptance and growth.
Although I was disappointed the snow did not turn to rain, I will do my best to enjoy it. I’m not going to be able to melt it anywhere but in my dreams.
Practice Every Day
It isn’t sadhana unless it is steady, repeated, and over a long period of time (though form or emphasis might change).

United States Supreme Court, June 28, 2018




