When practicing asana, many try to pack as much activity into their sadhanas as possible. This makes them feel that they've received the maximum value for their time invested. And logically, it seems like more work should produce superior results.
Similarly, many musicians try to impress themselves and/or others by packing as many notes as possible into their solos. And those who judge music intellectually might be impressed by this. However, those who are lured by music's aesthetic qualities will naturally glean that the truly talented artists play the silence as much as the notes.
Likewise, a skillful yogi understands that intuition, stillness and ease are as important as alignment, movement and dynamic expression.
Although, to many, this may sound counter intuitive, some will instinctively sense the truth in these words. The truth that the wisdom of the body, and that wafting through the air, are as valuable as anything that the mind can grasp or contain. Even for those who accept this, it can take years to move from accepting the concept to fully employing it.
It's just one in an endless string of lessons along the way. But it's a profound one that opens the door to an otherwise inaccessible field of potential insights.
There can be no yoga (union of body, mind and spirit) as long as the ego insists on maintaining its dominance. As long as practice is solely about going through the steps, about following given guidelines to a predetermined goal. It's ironic that once the ego relinquishes rigid control, its wishes are granted more quickly and comfortably - with unexpected bonuses. But that's how it is.
Sure, one can improve his/her performance of the postures with diligent practice. But practicing asana is not practicing yoga. Asana practice makes for a healthy body. Yoga practice makes for a healthy mind. Together, they make for a fuller being, greater connection to living and a more gratifying life.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Lessons of Life
The world is our teacher.
We learn much more
when we embrace the belief
that we don't already know.
Shhh ... Listen.
The silence is speaking.
We learn much more
when we embrace the belief
that we don't already know.
Shhh ... Listen.
The silence is speaking.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Humanity
Originally, humanity wasn't a term that identified our species. It signified an ideology of how we're “supposed” to feel, think and act. It symbolized the epitome of our best nature and highest aspirations.
We can rationalize our morals. We can act in accordance with rules, designed to guide us toward behaving humanely. But the nature of thoughts and emotions is sporadic, erratic and easily distorted. It's simply not practical to rely on them to steadily lead us into embodying our humanity.
Hence, my heavy focus on connecting to, and living in connection with, our silent selves. And, in using that to set our bearings. Our individual selves only exist inside of our thoughts. When we release our attachment to them, we naturally sense our interconnectedness with all of existence.
If we can learn to regard our individual perspective as just one of many, and let our eternal and universal awareness be our guiding light, we will genuinely inherit and exemplify our true humanity.
We can rationalize our morals. We can act in accordance with rules, designed to guide us toward behaving humanely. But the nature of thoughts and emotions is sporadic, erratic and easily distorted. It's simply not practical to rely on them to steadily lead us into embodying our humanity.
Hence, my heavy focus on connecting to, and living in connection with, our silent selves. And, in using that to set our bearings. Our individual selves only exist inside of our thoughts. When we release our attachment to them, we naturally sense our interconnectedness with all of existence.
If we can learn to regard our individual perspective as just one of many, and let our eternal and universal awareness be our guiding light, we will genuinely inherit and exemplify our true humanity.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Ahhh
The thinking mind isn't comfortable with the empty nature of our unadorned awareness. So it gathers anything it can find, in order to cobble an avatar together, to act as a stand in for our most basic and enduring being. But, as most quickly learn to prioritize their cognitive capacities over all else, the stand in typically winds up getting credit for being the lead. This is, of course, based on the premise that there is consciousness that exists independent of the body/brain.
However, the onus isn't all on the individual. Being born into a culture that's already succumbed to this delusion, we're taught to accept the falsehood from the onset. Many would look at you as if you were whacked out of your gourd were you to tell them the truth. In fact, they likely wouldn't be able to fathom what you were talking about, because it runs so contrary to the foundations of their self and world views.
We need to have our identities, if we are to act with purpose and direction. Scientists would never make brilliant discoveries after years of research, if they didn't adopt the quest for knowledge as a part of their purpose. Artists wouldn't hone their skills without a sense that expressing the unspeakable was integral to their being. Suffering is curtailed because some embody their charitable nature. And societies are built around the components of people assuming roles.
But our identities aren't nearly as consistent as most assume they are, and shouldn't be guarded or taken too seriously .
Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, aspirations, etc. are constantly changing. Yet most cling to the illusion that their mental activities represent their continuous and stable beings. If this were the case, then, over the course of your life, there have been a great many “yous” inhabiting your body. (Which is also in a constant state of change.) If you review your life, without a fog bias, you'll likely recognize that only the "watcher" has remained relatively unchanged. But most are lost in their mindscapes and go through their lives on auto pilot, essentially sleep walking, as the engrained patterns of their minds repeat themselves, ad nauseum.
It doesn't take any magical powers to step back from our mental activity and rest in that quiet space. It just takes the sincere intention and a bit of practice. And through practicing that, we learn to not take the mental happenings personally.
It may appear and/or feel scary, initially. But it's kind of like looking at the bubbling water in a hot tub and assuming that it's boiling. Once you climb in and get acclimated, it's really quite pleasant. Ahhh.
However, the onus isn't all on the individual. Being born into a culture that's already succumbed to this delusion, we're taught to accept the falsehood from the onset. Many would look at you as if you were whacked out of your gourd were you to tell them the truth. In fact, they likely wouldn't be able to fathom what you were talking about, because it runs so contrary to the foundations of their self and world views.
We need to have our identities, if we are to act with purpose and direction. Scientists would never make brilliant discoveries after years of research, if they didn't adopt the quest for knowledge as a part of their purpose. Artists wouldn't hone their skills without a sense that expressing the unspeakable was integral to their being. Suffering is curtailed because some embody their charitable nature. And societies are built around the components of people assuming roles.
But our identities aren't nearly as consistent as most assume they are, and shouldn't be guarded or taken too seriously .
Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, aspirations, etc. are constantly changing. Yet most cling to the illusion that their mental activities represent their continuous and stable beings. If this were the case, then, over the course of your life, there have been a great many “yous” inhabiting your body. (Which is also in a constant state of change.) If you review your life, without a fog bias, you'll likely recognize that only the "watcher" has remained relatively unchanged. But most are lost in their mindscapes and go through their lives on auto pilot, essentially sleep walking, as the engrained patterns of their minds repeat themselves, ad nauseum.
It doesn't take any magical powers to step back from our mental activity and rest in that quiet space. It just takes the sincere intention and a bit of practice. And through practicing that, we learn to not take the mental happenings personally.
It may appear and/or feel scary, initially. But it's kind of like looking at the bubbling water in a hot tub and assuming that it's boiling. Once you climb in and get acclimated, it's really quite pleasant. Ahhh.
Kick the Habit
(For ease of reading and writing, in this article “thoughts” encompasses all mental activities – thoughts, emotions, images, intentions, desires, etc.)
Thoughts occur in the present, and it's possible to observe them happening in the moment. But 99.999% of the time, people are swept up in their thoughts and lose that larger perspective. In all fairness, it's a pretty advanced practice to not do so. We have to begin by learning to greet them at their source, see how they arise and how they enforce and sustain each other. Then we learn to witness their birth and let them go, as they form. This nurtures a feeling of dispassion toward them, which is a precursor to being able to follow them without being engulfed by them.
There is, of course, no need to break out of those old habits, unless one wants to be unconditionally content and in actual control of his/her thoughts and actions.
When living inside of thoughts, we're drawn along by their currents and easily bumped off course by any other errant thoughts that may collide with us. It's like being the ball in a pinball machine instead of standing outside of it and controlling the flippers. And thoughts are never satiated. If we wait for thoughts to complete themselves, in order to feel satisfied, it will never happen. If we wait for the world to fall in line with our thoughts, satisfaction will arise only in fleeting moments, at the very best.
Habits can be hard to change, but they're just habits. And these habits of mental conduct don't define us any more than habits of smoking or overeating do. And they're no more a given way of being, beyond our control.
Sure, pretty much everyone else does it that way. The same could have been said of smoking 70 years ago. With luck, in another 70 years, the majority will have adopted the healthier habit of rising above, and maintaining perspective of, their thoughts.
I wonder - how can we get the surgeon general to put a warning label on the side of our thought boxes?
Thoughts occur in the present, and it's possible to observe them happening in the moment. But 99.999% of the time, people are swept up in their thoughts and lose that larger perspective. In all fairness, it's a pretty advanced practice to not do so. We have to begin by learning to greet them at their source, see how they arise and how they enforce and sustain each other. Then we learn to witness their birth and let them go, as they form. This nurtures a feeling of dispassion toward them, which is a precursor to being able to follow them without being engulfed by them.
There is, of course, no need to break out of those old habits, unless one wants to be unconditionally content and in actual control of his/her thoughts and actions.
When living inside of thoughts, we're drawn along by their currents and easily bumped off course by any other errant thoughts that may collide with us. It's like being the ball in a pinball machine instead of standing outside of it and controlling the flippers. And thoughts are never satiated. If we wait for thoughts to complete themselves, in order to feel satisfied, it will never happen. If we wait for the world to fall in line with our thoughts, satisfaction will arise only in fleeting moments, at the very best.
Habits can be hard to change, but they're just habits. And these habits of mental conduct don't define us any more than habits of smoking or overeating do. And they're no more a given way of being, beyond our control.
Sure, pretty much everyone else does it that way. The same could have been said of smoking 70 years ago. With luck, in another 70 years, the majority will have adopted the healthier habit of rising above, and maintaining perspective of, their thoughts.
I wonder - how can we get the surgeon general to put a warning label on the side of our thought boxes?
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Illusory Grains in an Ethereal Desert
Some say that we're nothing more than our bodies. Many profess that we are eternal souls, temporarily inhabiting a physical realm. I suspect that we, as individuals, are more like unique ripples, echoes or reflections of an undetectable and unfathomable impetus. A momentum that's not of this realm, yet interacts with it, and has been doing so since long before our species arose.
Our being is evidence of its being, much the way that excessively bending light waves from distant galaxies are evidence of the existence of dark matter. Or the way we know that electrons are there, because of their affects, even though we can't see or pinpoint them.
It's comforting to imagine that there's something enduring, that is specifically and uniquely us, as individual beings. There are many stories and promises of continuing life after our physical death. Some claim recollection of past lives, and express it as though they were entirely personal experiences.
In the world around us, we can clearly see that events happen, and things come and go, as a natural matter of course. Everything being inter-dependent with everything else, and the cosmos represents a grander example of this same causal process. In theory, the greater world is as much a reflection of a non-physical unfolding as we are. So it makes sense that, from a larger perspective, the individual players are only fleeting wisps of smoke, dwarfed by the scale of space and time. And that our notions of remaining whole and consistent for all of eternity are unrealistic and childishly fanciful.
I, of course, know no more or less than anyone else about such things. From our vantage point, we simply can't see. And since it's so easy for us to be misled or to misinterpret things, we shouldn't assume certainty, even if we could.
Speculation can be a fun and inspiring endeavor. But in the end, if we're truthful, we have no choice but to let the mystery be.
Our being is evidence of its being, much the way that excessively bending light waves from distant galaxies are evidence of the existence of dark matter. Or the way we know that electrons are there, because of their affects, even though we can't see or pinpoint them.
It's comforting to imagine that there's something enduring, that is specifically and uniquely us, as individual beings. There are many stories and promises of continuing life after our physical death. Some claim recollection of past lives, and express it as though they were entirely personal experiences.
In the world around us, we can clearly see that events happen, and things come and go, as a natural matter of course. Everything being inter-dependent with everything else, and the cosmos represents a grander example of this same causal process. In theory, the greater world is as much a reflection of a non-physical unfolding as we are. So it makes sense that, from a larger perspective, the individual players are only fleeting wisps of smoke, dwarfed by the scale of space and time. And that our notions of remaining whole and consistent for all of eternity are unrealistic and childishly fanciful.
I, of course, know no more or less than anyone else about such things. From our vantage point, we simply can't see. And since it's so easy for us to be misled or to misinterpret things, we shouldn't assume certainty, even if we could.
Speculation can be a fun and inspiring endeavor. But in the end, if we're truthful, we have no choice but to let the mystery be.
Passing the Baton
BANG! And the race begins. Not a race to a finish line somewhere, but to one sometime. It's not a race that anyone wants to finish in a hurry. No running is required - just persevering. There are no victors - only survivors. But the scenery is unbelievably glorious, the companionship is deeply nourishing and the potential for growth is immeasurable.
Whether we realize it or not, we carry a baton with us from end to end in this odyssey. One that, by natural law, we'll pass on at the end of our race - just as it was handed to us in our pre-infancy. Of course, we don't actually own our batons any more than water molecules own the waves that pass through them.
As we roll along, our batons absorb the essence of both, the lessons we learn, and those we ignore. They record all of our relations, aspirations and interpretations. Our moods and thoughts are etched into their flesh. Through this process, the quality that they had when we received them changes continuously throughout the race. And our cumulative affects on them determine how they will resonate when we hand them off, as we break the tape.
The batons we carry greatly influence who and how we are. As they will the next, in this eternal relay. We may not be able to change how our batons are, immediately, but we are responsible for how we influence them. And we can choose how they mature and how weighty they are when we pass them along.
Of course, this takes more than proclaiming a desire to do so. Continually refining one's intention is the means of directing its development. And the results are commensurate with the diligence, attention and effort applied, over the course of a lifetime.
There's no obligation. Evolution happens on its own. But we are uniquely capable of deliberately re-forming our own batons. And for some, it's uplifting to respectfully consider the future recipients of this life's actions and attitudes.
Whether we realize it or not, we carry a baton with us from end to end in this odyssey. One that, by natural law, we'll pass on at the end of our race - just as it was handed to us in our pre-infancy. Of course, we don't actually own our batons any more than water molecules own the waves that pass through them.
As we roll along, our batons absorb the essence of both, the lessons we learn, and those we ignore. They record all of our relations, aspirations and interpretations. Our moods and thoughts are etched into their flesh. Through this process, the quality that they had when we received them changes continuously throughout the race. And our cumulative affects on them determine how they will resonate when we hand them off, as we break the tape.
The batons we carry greatly influence who and how we are. As they will the next, in this eternal relay. We may not be able to change how our batons are, immediately, but we are responsible for how we influence them. And we can choose how they mature and how weighty they are when we pass them along.
Of course, this takes more than proclaiming a desire to do so. Continually refining one's intention is the means of directing its development. And the results are commensurate with the diligence, attention and effort applied, over the course of a lifetime.
There's no obligation. Evolution happens on its own. But we are uniquely capable of deliberately re-forming our own batons. And for some, it's uplifting to respectfully consider the future recipients of this life's actions and attitudes.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Question(s) d'jour:
What will it take to make our societies and politicians wake up to the reality that we are stubbornly and steadily barreling down a road toward undesirable and irrevocable ends?
What can we do to wake our leaders up, make them understand the urgency and get them to act for our future welfare?
What can we do to wake our leaders up, make them understand the urgency and get them to act for our future welfare?
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Assignment d'jour:
Envision a more practical and sustainable lifestyle for yourself and our communities.
Envision yourself taking steps in that direction.
Put one foot in front of the other.
Envision yourself taking steps in that direction.
Put one foot in front of the other.
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