spiritual discernment

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    Historic Anniversary and Yogic Discernment

    ByElizabeth

    January 6 is yet another day so historic it warrants reflection and impetus to action on every anniversary. (That might be resting, by the way, if you spend much of your temporal, energetic, and emotional resources in the efforts to make change and ward off evil.)

    One of the yoga practices is exercising discrimination and acting with discernment (viveka) in response to changes in the world, the human collective, and ourselves. Discernment requires learning and admitting to the difficult truths and learning from experts and innovators.

    Meditation, contemplation, reflection, and being present to oneself is all very nice, but without study and discriminative participation in the collective, it starts being more like spiritual bypassing than not.

    What are your thoughts on this day? How does staying present to the reality of it make you feel? How are you balancing taking care of yourself and participating in shifting the narrative?

    It seems somewhat fitting that DC has been crippled today by the first significant snow storm in quite some time.

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    Quote for the Day

    ByElizabeth

    My chosen reading for the train journey to New York and New Jersey to visit with friends and to attend a weekend workshop at Dig Yoga with Paul Muller-Ortega and Sianna Sherman is Mariana Caplan’s Eyes Wide Open.

    I have my reasons to have reservations about some of what she says and advocates. I am finding the book interesting and not untimely reading, though, and fully agree with her caution: “To approach spiritual paths and practices with intelligent skepticism is advisable.” I would add to this statement that the discerning, questioning approach should not just be at first experience, but should be cultivated continuously and progressively more insightfully as explorations and relationships deepen.

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