Happiness

Your happiness doesn’t depend on everything around you being just so, It depends on you being just so with everything that’s around you.

The Nature of Being

"I" am an illusion
an image
an idea
existing solely
within my own mind
I'm not a thing
or a somebody
I'm a happening
A process
An expression
Potential incarnate
I'm a wave
set in motion
by the plunge into life
the echos of joyous laughter
the flow of ancient glaciers
the unfurling of a blossom
the beat of a bee's wing
My mother is
the cycling of the seasons
My grandfather
the spinning of the galaxies
I am
in that
I happen

Universal Unfolding in a Microcosm

The moss creates a comfortable cushion between the rock and my buttocks. The sounds of water playing over the rocks, wind dancing through the trees, and the birds and bugs joining in chorus flood my ears and lull my mind to peace. The breeze strokes my beard and pushes the musty earthen smell aside with a mild fragrance of blossoms as the current cleans the sand from between my toes before they plunge again. Spikes of sun light feed the ferns and warm the side of my nose numbing one eye. Squirrels chase up one tree and leap to the next like miniature monkeys playing in love. Water striders skate above the tad poles and crayfish while leaves float freely by. A less fortunate stick gets mired in a foamy eddy created by last years cast off branches embracing a rock. The sun is cooled by a passing cloud as I instinctively stretch, spurring a frog to dive into liquid safety. The rustling of rummaging draws nearer, the hunter, still invisible to my eyes, somewhere near a previous generations trunk, now turned to fertile loam. My body has become a playground for a variety of crawling, inching and flying friends - very much a part of the unfolding moment. A smile erupts as the brief melody from my pursed lips lofts away.

Alert and present, never feeling more connected and welcome. Time is a distant notion. Self has dissolved. It all makes perfect sense and bears profound significance, even as the faint morning moon reminds me of the miniscule proportions of it all.

Giving Thanx

Not to be a curmudgeon, but I'm really not all that big on holidays at this point in my life. They don't yield me a reprieve from school anymore. I don't receive pay for a day of leisure. I can't exited just because it's the anniversary of someone or something's death or birth - including my own. Most are relevant only for one nation or people. And all are built around replicating traditions, which strikes me as wholly uninspired. Yet they do bring joy to the lives of most; and for that, I'm grateful. Today, in fact, is the one holiday that I can really get behind. Not that I care to celebrate the time when Europeans first began their genocide of the Native American people. And as for the feast, over eating just makes me feel bad; and I feel even worse for the millions of fowl and swine who's lives were brought about and then ended just for the sake of upholding this one tradition. However, it's a great thing to encourage everyone in the nation to spend a whole day being grateful. (OK, admittedly for many, it's just a few uncomfortable seconds during their turn at sharing around the table.) I think the "good will towards all" (Note my leaving out the limiting "mankind".) aspect of X-mas is equally great, it just tends to get lost amid all the pomp and packaging; and is theoretically, only for those who have sworn allegiance to a particular book.

Gratefulness is a practice that broadly benefits the individual and has the potential to infect others, as well. I'd like it if Thanksgiving was taken as more than just a day to be thankful, but as a day to practice or reinforce a sustained attitude of gratefulness.

We live in a country where the media, our friends and our neighbors are always showing off their most recently acquired possession or touting the greatness of the latest version of ... whatever. There's always a prize dangling in front of our nose, like the carrot hanging from a stick leading the donkey onward.

We'd be some much happier if we could instill a fraction of that energy into being thankful for what we have and for that which we used to have and for those who grace our lives and for the privilege of life itself. And as emotions and attitudes are contagious, others can then be thankful for our gratefulness, in turn.

I am daily thankful for my imperfect yet brilliantly fitting and appropriate partner, Bashka. As stressful as it was to create and as much work as it takes to maintain, I'm so thankful for our home; and by extension, all those who helped us to bring it into being. The time between sessions always reinforces my gratitude to my students, the centers and for my having the opportunity to share my heartfelt thoughts and lessons in class. My rickety old Accord that was given to me a decade ago, rusty and squeaky and leaky as it is, is a blessing for me. I love the interior jungle that freshens the air in our house and the squirrels that play in our trees and dig up our gardens. I hold great appreciation for all of Bashka's cyber-friends that I've never met, yet who help to sustain her spirits every day. I feel enriched by the color and clarity that musicians, scientists, poets and sages have added to the human condition throughout my lifetime and over the centuries. Despite their glitches and short comings, I'm ever so grateful for having such a brilliant body and so healthy a brain. I relish the mind numbing awe that the universe and the mystery of the future inspire within me. I love that I have this day, this moment, this chance to say what I feel and to touch another with my words.

If you have trouble finding something to be thankful for, just stop breathing for a few minutes and see how much appreciation you can have for one single breath.

Namaste
　
　
　

Here Now

Being here now isn't some magical state of mind, mingling with the cosmos; it's timelessly inhabiting every cell of the body, and being open to every sensory perception, feeling, thought, emotion and inkling, as it happens, in the ever flowing moment.

Exercise is great, but expanding awareness is more important than expanding range of movement. To move toward yoga's greater intention, practicing yoga postures should be about tuning in, not toning up, about nurturing the body and spirit, not pleasing the ego.

From the perspective of the habituated mind, it's typically frightful to seek union with the quiet presence that lingers behind/above/beneath the thoughts, emotions and images. The ego lives within the delusion that it's king, and once it yields to the greater presence within, it becomes apparent that this is not the case. Even considering this notion can be extremely disconcerting. It essentially requires accepting an entirely different and contradictory understanding of one's self. However, the body, being an integral part of the ego's identity, feels like a safe place to allow awareness to reside. And as awareness settles into the body, it's naturally drawn out of the normal mindset. The level of perceptual transition being proportionate to the level of attunement to/absorption in the body.

Is this really important? Well, the way we use our minds affects the way we interpret our lives, which affects the way we feel about ourselves, others and life in general, which then affects our actions and our influence in this world, thus affecting how others around us see, feel, act and influence. In short, our immediate happiness, the course of our lives and the future of the world, all depend on how we attune ourselves. This may sound like far-flung logic and fanciful notions, but it is, in fact, accurate and truthful. This is what Ghandi was talking about when he said "You must be the change you want to see in the world".

There are really only two options. To be content, living in this world and feeling connected to all there is, or to be perpetually unfulfilled, living in an internal fantasy world and feeling ever alone and isolated.

Hmmm. Tough choice, eh? It's OK, you can think about it for a while.