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.
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.
Have you savored something today? Appreciated it essence? Have you found something for which to be grateful even if it is too hot, your garden is suffering from drought, and work has perhaps yielded no tangible immediate reward other than a paycheck if you are fortunate enough to have work? Can you taste some good in a mediocre meal–even if it is just reveling in the combination of plenty to eat and having a discriminating palate?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I’ve never understood the t-shirt saying that “it’s all good.”. It just isn’t. This morning I found myself near to tears reading the news of violence, greed, malice, and willful indifference.
I do believe that we need to do our best to respond to everything we face with the greatest good we can offer. The ability to respond from spacious, illuminated awareness for the good and to discover the possibility of good in the most difficult and abhorrent is what yoga and meditation–or any other spiritual discipline–makes progressively more possible. No amount of yoga will make me love crisis, but it will make me better able to experience and offer love when in crisis, so I hope.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I love the Vogels’ story. It is wonderful to witness such an exquisite balance of passion and moderate living. Sometimes there is not much of a why for a thing. “I just like art,” Mr. Vogel said in 1992. “I don’t know why I like art. I don’t know why I like nature. I don’t know why I like animals. I don’t even know why I like myself.”
You may need to cut and paste this link into your browser to see the story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/herbert-vogel-unlikely-ar
t-collector-and-benefactor-of-national-gallery-dies-at-89/2012/07/22/gJQ
ANqOf2W_story_2.html
Think of things/activities you like or which inspire you to passion. Can you really identify why you have come to have and develop certain likes or passions among multiple things all worthy of passion (as distinguished from providing after-the-fact explanations of why such things are worthy of your passionate attention and devotion of time and energy–for example, yoga)?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
I saw these first, two blocks aways from the the rest (see “Cast-Off Objects Around (2 of 2)”). Did someone select these from a larger group of cast-offs and then decide after carrying them down the street that in fact she did not want or need them and discarded them, too? Or was there some kind of energectic convergence that led two neighbors a couple of streets apart to cast off the same kind of books at the same time?
An inquiring mind might ask these questions and then inquire of itself whether there was any need for either the questions or the answers.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Does “black” here refer to the artist who stenciled the letters, to the brickmaker, to the bricklayer; was it painted by someone who is color-blind or who was showing that for one who is red-green color-blind the word “black” would not be visible; or is the painting intentionally asking us what we see when we see the word for a color painted using a different color than that pointed to by the word?
This is such a wonderful demonstration of how words can confuse our understanding of the world as much as they can communicate. I think much attempt to put into words spiritual and mystical thought and experience suffers from this multiple muddling of meaning.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.