Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
Love “the Cow Lakshmi” Part
Fascinating video about Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi.
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This Evening on the Catio
The snow pea shoots were
Especially exquisite.
And the kale flowers.Hydroponic tomato from one of the farmers at the Penn Quarter Thursday market and organic avocado, tossed in tahini and then sprinkled with fine balsamic vinager, supplement sprouts grown on the counter and an assortment of tender garden greens.
Cool infusion of peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, and licorice mint.
The season has turned.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Slow Cooker Granola (and Intentions)
It is my intention to write a newsletter talking about the shift in my life that is leading me, effective this week, to take a partial sabbatical from teaching yoga. I will still have my Tuesday night class at William Penn House and hope to see many on at least an occasional basis. I will also be available for single and group privates and expect to teach a workshop or two in the Fall. But after eight years, I will no longer be traveling up to Takoma Park every weekend, currently on Friday nights and before that Saturdays, to teach. In this shifting, I have much to say about Kali–goddess of sequencing–and moving within the limits of time and space and some other things beside.
In the meantime, while I am wrestling with how to say what I believe are among the things I want to express and as I deal with a bout of being very busy at work and spending far too much time at the computer to want to spend more time writing in the evening, I just want to mention that it is indeed possible to make decent granola in the slow cooker. I experimented with that today, in between conference calls and emails and document reviews (slow cooking, after all, takes very little consistent attention). The cooking reached its conclusion while students and I gathered for Wednesday night practice. More important than requiring little attention after the initial preparation stage, the slow cooker doesn’t heat up the kitchen, and I refuse to turn on the oven if it is going to be 80F or above. Slow cooker granola is an excellent compromise between no homemade granola in the hot months and turning on the oven.
When I’ve experimented some more, perhaps I’ll create a recipe, adding to the many dozens on the internet. My first attempt was relatively low fat and no refined sugar. Yum. And if you’re a local, do come join me this Friday for a sweetly nostalgic and celebratory evening of restoratives. 5:45pm-7:15pm, Willow Street Takoma Park. Drop-ins and make-ups welcome.
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Looking Within
The great texts and teachers of meditation exhort us to look within with the promise that by so doing we will find great peace or bliss or splendor.
For many, though, initial attempts at meditation are just as likely to reveal troubling aspects of the self or agitating thoughts as any sense of beauty or quiet and the reaction can be a dismissal or disbelief in such teachings.
The exhortation to look within is not directing us to introspection or the self-examination of therapy (which are also useful in appropriate circumstances), but rather is inviting us to open to seeing that the beauty and specialness that we might believe of and recognize in others is also within ourselves.
Only when we can first look inside ourselves with love and empathy, can healing, change, growth, and compassion begin regarding those things that make introspection scary and challenging.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Found Exhortation
I prefer the exhortations: be careful, be mindful, pay attention. It is good to heed what is around us, being open to the optimal next step on the unfolding path.
But if we get too wary or fearful, if we spend too much time watching out for and guarding against danger, then we may well miss opportunities to enhance our lives and those around us.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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The Price of Enlightenment?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Stormy Clouds
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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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.
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Mostly Anticipation (State of the Garden)
It changes daily this time of year. In the sink, the last of the spinach that over-wintered. Making way for new plantings. A garden can only be this full at the beginning, if there is a commitment to thin constantly; otherwise the garden would suffocate itself. This kind of gardening plans on picking shoots and baby vegetables, while things that need to mature progress. A constant harvest, though because of the limited space, I need to supplement–mostly from local farmers’ markets for produce.
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Camellia Blossom
Thunder clouds pelt rain
Strewing winds reveal beauty’s
Soft ephemera.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
