On the Way to William Penn House for Tuesday Night Yoga Practice (and Back Home)
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Murtis Around Town
When is garden statuary merely a decorative object and when is it a murti–an object of devotion, a representation of some aspect of the divine? It may well seem different for the artist, the person who chose its location, and the viewers.
Would you have a different reaction if this angel was on the grounds of a church? What about a temple? A national park? Your workplace? A sculpture museum?
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Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Found Exhortation (and Tapas)
What does it mean to excel, to do well? I think there is no excelling in yoga, at least not the way we conventionally think of excelling in school or career or sports. But to practice in a way that is more than casual, there must be ardor–tapas.
Tapas is often translated as fire, and the texts are full of stories of outrageous physical exertions done to prove the tapas of the practitioners looking for boons from the gods.
There is a fiery aspect to tapas, but I question whether it must necessarily be burning from physical exertion, though that is a path that calls out to many.
The fire of tapas could be thought of as doing what it takes to manifest the will to know something deeply enough to be able to experience the fluency and grace and delight of expertise. It could be the ardor to show up in a disciplined and committed way for hours and days and years of practice, always still wanting deeper, fuller knowing.
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