Rose Garden Yoga – Page 401 – Yoga inside the Beltway

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Ten Years Ago Today
ByElizabeth September 11, 2011September 11, 2011

Ten years ago today I was in Peru”s sacred valley. I was walking the spiral meditation garden at the retreat center where I was staying when the owner called out to me, “America has been attacked! The others said you would want to know, that we should not wait until you were done with your meditation.” Completely shocked by this summons, I left the spiral by walking across it and followed her into her private home to see the news on CNN via satellite. I felt incredibly, intensely far from home, especially since by mere happenstance none of my fellow travelers were Americans.

Today, I am again thousands of miles from home, having flown on United from Dulles airport to San Francisco, though obviously, California is not nearly as far away from many perspectives. As with my journey to Peru, my trip to California this week is partly to serve my continuing inner journey, partly outward exploration and appreciation, and partly birthday celebration (not on the 11th).

One of the things that was so remarkable about the immediate aftermath of 9/11 witnessed from abroad was how friendly and sympathetic people were who otherwise were not disposed to think kindly of Americans. What an opportunity we had as a country to embrace global unity. What a chance we missed by instead going guns blazing into these obscene wars. We now have to live wih what we have done and start fresh. What can we do to seek peace now? I am working hard from a personal perspective, and I am much more at peace with myself than I was 10 years ago. I have a friend who would tell me that I am only responsible for myself and not for the whole of society, but I wish I could come up with a great and global workable plan of action that would move us towards peace and away from war, but I have not found one yet. In the meantime I will try my best on a personal level because that I can do.

Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation

It Was a Night to Stay In, But I Needed to Go Out
ByElizabeth September 9, 2011

It was not the kind of night to go across town to run an errand, but it was one that could not wait until after I cam back from vacation (picking up my passport from the company that processes visas for India). I did not really feel the need to go shopping in Georgetown and would have rather gone straight home, but the rain was getting heavier and heavier and traffic was abominable. A taxi would have been a pointless exercise in watching the meter while we barely moved.

So I checked out “Fashion’s Night Out” in the stores near the bus stop. I had a great time visiting with the DC Roller Girls, who were at the Lush store in Georgetown. When the sales people start describing the products to me–they are always very enthusiastic–I often find myself telling them that I know what I need to know about Lush; I first shopped at Lush when it was a single store in Covent Garden.

When it was evident that the rain was not going to let up, and I’d had enough of window shopping from inside, I caught the Circulator bus and enjoyed myself taking photographs. When there is little choice about going out in the rain, it is best, as my teachers remind me and the practices inspire me, to find the beauty and the delight.

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Art and Culture | Community and Family | Quaker

Peace and Reactions to 9/11
ByElizabeth September 9, 2011

Much of the reason that I began attending Friends meeting again several years ago after a long hiatus was to help me find peace within myself as I witnessed and sought to change, in my own way with my own skills, this country’s impulse to war following the attacks on 9/11. As quiet and unlistened to as voices for peace might have been, I still needed to be among a community of people speaking about peace.

One of the questions Friends Meeting of Washington invites attenders to consider, which has become a core contemplation for me, is “what do you do personally to eliminate the causes of war?” For me, this extends not just to how I vote, what work I do, and what charities I support, but what I eat, what energy I consume, what media I read and support, what I wear, and how I interrelate in this complicated global web of consumption and interchange.

Here is a letter from the American Friends Service Committee that I wanted to share with all of you.

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Art and Culture | Community and Family

Signs Around Town (see also “Sculptures Around Town”)
ByElizabeth September 8, 2011September 8, 2011

As remembrances and articles of 9/11 start to proliferate in anticipation of the tenth anniversary, I thought I would share this work of art that has become part of my work neighborhood. Change comes from all action, and even the most horrific things can bring small joys in unexpected ways.

Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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Art and Culture | Community and Family

Sculptures Around Town
ByElizabeth September 8, 2011September 8, 2011

For more information, see “Signs Around Town.”

Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Meditation

John Friend and Cate Stillman on Disease & Rhythm
ByElizabeth September 7, 2011

I just received Cate Stillman‘s e-newsletter, which highlights an interview with John Friend on Disease and Rhythm.

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Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Gardening | Photos

Walk to William Penn House Class (Tuesday Nights @ 6:30pm)
ByElizabeth September 7, 2011

It is beautiful rain or shine, bright or dark, every season of the year. Come join us if you are in town. All levels welcome. Therapeutic and more advanced alternatives offered where needed.

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Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos

Puddles (and Prakasha and Vimarsha)
ByElizabeth September 6, 2011

In the tantric yoga philosophy, two key concepts are that of prakasha and vimarsha–light and reflection. Prakasha is the fullness of the light of consciousness itself; vimarsha, the reflection of the light that is our own individual recognition of the light of consciousness in ourselves. The sweetly mysterious joy we get in seeing reflections in a puddle is the reminder we are given of the pulsing dance between the light and the reflection of the light, neither of which we can know without the other.

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Art and Culture | Community and Family | Photos

Signs Around Town
ByElizabeth September 6, 2011September 6, 2011

Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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Art and Culture | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc)

New Toy (and Samskaras)
ByElizabeth September 5, 2011September 6, 2011

The guy in the Apple store in Georgetown who showed me why I really wanted to walk out of the store with the IPad 2 had never heard the song “New Toy.” The year it came out, I was in London studying and being tragically hip; he was a year old give or take a few months. I suggested he find it on ITunes.

Three days of Ipad 2 ownership later, “New Toy” kept running through my head. Oh my god, and then I started hearing Nina Hagen infiltrating from the past. Was I really in New York when this song came out and kind of out of my mind? Yes I was. Does anything we experience ever completely fade away? Probably not, which is why the great yoga masters advise us to be careful what we bring into our consciousness, lest we establish new samskaras that draw us away from the light.

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