Balanced Action?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Found Exhortation
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Another Spectacular Sky
On the walk home from Union Station after teaching the Friday evening gentle/therapeutic class at Willow Street Takoma Park. Come join us some time. It is a fine way to spend Friday after work “happy hour [and a half].”
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Tying Oneself Into Knots
Some think of yoga as folding or knotting oneself into pretzel-like shapes. No one wants to feel that they are tied into a knot in life, and those who make fun of yoga may do so because it seems silly to them intentionally to make knots with the body.
But carefully learning how to stretch and fold and bend and mold oneself into the shapes of the various asanas paradoxically can free one from feeling bound up or constricted by the knottiness of existence.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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What Do You Think It Means?
Can you imagine looking at this photograph without ascribing to the image what you know of red and white stripes coupled with stars on a blue background and of a circle divided by lines in this particular pattern?
How much differently would an Indian Hindu look at a painting of an elephant than would an American voter in the weeks leading up to a Presidential election?
If you don’t know all the meanings carried by an icon, what message do you get from a picture of such icon? If you think it is anything other than a pretty picture, but think a meaning that is not its iconography are you just suffering from deluded ignorance?
Is knowledge binding (jnanam bandaha) or does it liberate?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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How Do You React? (and Dharma)
How do you react when you see signs of neglect, disinterest, disregard for the health and well-being of the earth and other beings? Do you get stuck in a sense of helplessness or rage? Do you think we’re all screwed anyway and decide no effort to make things better is worth it? Are you moved to political action? Are you moved to take better care of self, family, and friends, even if you think you cannot make much of a greater impact beyond your intimate circle? Can you remain engaged and still find joy, whatever the apparent immediate results and how hard the battle seems to be?
The Bhagavad Gita, says that to live a life of yoga, we must do the last of these. The first teaching from the Bhagavad Gita on this point is that we must live in accordance with our dharma (duty). The second teaching, and more important for having peace of mind in a life of duty, is that of “actionless action.” The true yoga is to live a life of action in accordance with dharma, but without attachment to the outcome (i.e., live in an orderly way, accepting the tendency of the universe to be chaotic).
Dharma in the Bhagavad Gita, of course, contemplated rigid roles in terms of livelihood and place in society. In the paradigm of citizenship in a democracy that does not so narrowly circumscribe one’s livelihood or place in society, I wcould argue that it is all of our dharma to participate as a citizen, voting, speaking out for our beliefs, and otherwise using the freedom we have to live a life that best supports the twins of individual and common good, including not just human good, but the whole ecology in which we exist. The actionless action part is to keep seeking (without despairing) to make things more in alignment even if the forces against healing, nurture, and alignment seem to conspire against positive results that we will see or actualize ourselves.
Are you registered to vote? Have you watered your trees? Casey Trees reminds us that this week in DC is dry; trees need about 25 gallons of water or 1 1/2 inches.
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Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Photos
Found Exhortation
Deferring gratification may make sense for all sorts of reasons–pursuing a goal, keeping on a budget, sticking to a healthful diet or lifestyle. But even if you are with discrimination (in yoga terms viveka) choosing to defer gratification…
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Holy Cloud Formations, Batman!
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
“What I Like About Yoga”
As I read the news stories of the “failure” of the world champion gymnast who merely came in third and therefore could not continue to compete because each country can only send two gymnasts to the medal competition (that’s the basic gist, though I might not have it quite right), I thought of what a friend had recently said about yoga.
“What I like about yoga,” he said, “is that it is not about competition, but just about doing it for its own sake.”
“Right,” I replied. “The only prize is enlightenment, and if you are doing it for the ‘prize’ you are still not fully doing yoga.”
What an extraordinary achievement it is just to be in the Olympics. And yet those who have none of the skills or talent or drive or fortune to compete feel free to call anything other than a medal a disappointment, a failure, a let down of team and country and family. Perhaps a little yoga would help give perspective.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
