I’m happy to say the hours of meditation have brought me mostly back to center and that I am back with a renewed sense of wonder for my own personal practice as well as a new view of who I am as a teacher.  But that means I am a different teacher, and I hope this will be a welcome change for my current students!

Donation Classes in No Name: Same time as above

All Classes when I travel will be on a suggested donation basis as well. This will limit what studios I work with so I hope you will travel a bit to find me if I don’t come to my regular watering holes

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The other day someone asked me the perennial question “how often do you practice yoga”…I know, I know they meant  asana…but sometimes I weary of the question.  Why?  Well, because every moment of my existence is a yoga practice. Sometimes I practice well and I live in this space of a nonjudging, non grasping, non straining observer that flows with life…Other times; well let’s say sometimes practice is not perfect.

Sometimes I forgive myself and others and other times… hey I am only human  after all.

Some days my “practice” includes time on the mat practicing my asanas, other days it only involves pranayama, sometimes meditation, sometimes the best I do is not punch someone (I call that discernment don’t you?)  I can honestly say that my best yogic practice is of Jnana yoga (knowledge) there isn’t a day goes by that I am not studying either a text or myself…a lot of days I prefer the texts, as my own self isn’t always that pretty to look at…back to meditation…it’s a work in progress

But no matter how you slice it yoga is my whole existence.  From studying to devotion, from figuring out how I can best serve my relationship and my self. To letting go of illusions about myself and others…to creating my classes and my playlists, to writing my blogs…but in spite of this very “yogic” outlook there is one thing I refuse to do…and that’s take myself or even yoga too seriously.

I respect the practice, the power of it…I find the words, the history amazing and sacred and I hope to be the best human I can be because of its influence in my life…but alas I still want to be just human.

So please forgive me if sometimes my yoga practice doesn’t look as yogic to you…I may get angry and even say bad words (oh who I am kidding I am practically the “cussing yogi”)  I may laugh too loud, or eat too much,  or drink too much I may stumble and not even be recognizable as a yogi…don’t judge the yoga or the practice on my humanity.

I will pick myself up and try again — an ongoing practice a continual dance of yoga, spirituality, reality, illusion…determining what is distraction and what is playfulness.   So I am going to keep letting  the good times roll, I will continue to live laugh and love within the framework  of my yoga practice and if that doesn’t work for you…well I am feeling very non-judgey so just go about your life and I will do the same.

It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark… and we’re wearing sunglasses.

Hit it.

Did you ever see The Blues Brothers?  I mean besides being a classic an funny, do you really remember what it was about?  do you remember what drove even these “criminals” to do what they did?

What do you have in your life that drives you? How does it feel to do what you do everyday, is it your passion? joy? does it serve the world?

…you have unique abilities and your own way of expressing them. There are needs in this world for which your specific talents are ideally suited, and when the world’s needs are matched with the creative expression or your talents, your purpose – your dharma – is realized”

Dharma defined? Well it has a few definitions … for Deepak and his view of yoga it is defined as Life’s Purpose.

 In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one’s personal obligations, calling and duties(that sounds life purposey)

 according to Wikipedia:  Dharma (help·info) (Sanskrit: धर्म dhárma, Pali: धम्म dhamma; lit. that which upholds or supports) means Law or Natural Law (as in the natural order of things)

 The idea of dharma as duty or propriety derives from an idea found in India’s ancient legal and religious texts that there is a divinely instituted natural order of things and justice, social harmony and human happiness require that human beings discern and live in a manner appropriate to the requirements of that order

For practicing Buddhists, references to “dharma” (dhamma in Pali) particularly as “the Dharma”, generally means the teachings of the Buddha, commonly known throughout the East as Buddha-Dharma.

For Sikhs, the word Dharm means the “path of righteousness”

 The word Dharma encompasses the following meanings in Jainism:

The true nature of a thing

Rationality of perception, knowledge and conduct

Ten virtues like forgiveness, etc. also called ten forms of Dharma

Ahimsa – protection to all living beings

Two paths – of the monks and the laity

Dharma as a dravya (substance or a reality) (the principle of motion)

That’s a lot of defining…From the book Deepak further expounds that Dharma has three components -

1. that the ultimate purpose is to discover your higher self

2. acknowledge and express your unique talents

3. serve others

Expressing your gifts in service to others is the highest expression of the Law of Dharma…

You know it’s funny but I can honestly say I love this chapter of the book, I don’t even feel like I have much to add to it.  Not every word of the book has resonated, not every moment has been a big AHA for me, but this chapter just seemed complete .   I feel like this topic is well covered in the book and it reflects my feelings on the subject beautifully…I seek that Dharma every day and feel blessed to feel that I am well on the way.

My gifts and graces are being served and I believe that sharing them has, at least for a few individuals, made the world a happier place. I continue to refine those skills, continue to work on believing in them and sharing them selflessly.     I am reminded that when things are in harmony they flow and when we push too hard things break…slow down  - pay attention – listen, the answers are all inside of you.

I have so enjoyed this journey through this book and I loved sharing it with my students and the blogosphere.  I hope that you have garnered a bit of info from these reviews/studies.  I recently started reading The 7 spiritual laws of Superheroes perhaps that will find its way into my blog as well…Until then remember to breathe and smile

 Om varunam namah – My life is in harmony with cosmic law.

Indifference looks like detachment, but it is not; indifference is simply no interest. Detachment is not absence of interest — detachment is absolute interest, tremendous interest, but still with the capacity of non-clinging. Enjoy the moment while it is there and when the moment starts disappearing, as everything is bound to disappear, let it go. That is detachment. OSHO

This week I focused on Law 6 from The 7 Spiritual Laws of Yoga (Deepak Chopra) – Detachment

the first line of the chapter from this book states: “…reveals a great paradox of life. In order to acquire something in this world, you have to relinquish your attachment to it. This doesn’t mean you give up the intention to fulfill your desire – you simply give up your attahcment to the outcome” —

the emphasis on simply  is mine…simply? gee if it was simple I don’t think I would be where I am today, how about you?

It’s not like this is a new concept at this point.  If you look at Law 5, detachment is an important part of intention and desire… you can read more about that here.   However it is important in and of itself and is a huge component of living a contented life.

I have come to the conclusion (sort of strong word for me, as always I reserve the right to change my mind based on new information) that the seeking is the problem.  When we seek aspecific outcomes we limit ourselves and create a barrier to contentment that simply doesn’t need to be there.  When we cease seeking and just reside in the experiences, the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly…then no matter what we get or don’t get we can be pretty darn cool with it.

This however is not an excuse to become Eeyore… which was the extreme my father lived in…”best not to expect or hope lest you are just disappointed” …still gives me the heebie jeebies…

this is not about letting go of hope or trying or striving…It’s actually the most hopeful state of being I have experienced so far in life, you have to have a lot of faith in goodness and meaning though so it’s not for the faint of heart.

this is also NOT about sitting on your couch waiting for things to fall in your lap….or an excuse as to why you haven’t ever done anything – we still need to be engaged and active,  but for the sake of the action not the outcome!

Those whose consciousness is unified abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace. But those whose desires are fragmented, who are selfishly attached to the results of their work, are bound in everything they do.
Bhagavad Gita (c. BC 400-, Sanskrit poem incorporated into the Mahabharata)

 

Some of you may prefer the term non-attachment, although I think if we define detachment in the aforementioned manner this is merely a matter of semantics. Too often detachment has gotten a bad rap because people have used it as an excuse to not participate.

To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness
Erich Fromm (1900-1980, German born American social Philosopher and Psychoanalyst)

In Deepak’s Book he states:

the only true security come from your willingness to embrace the unknown, the realm of uncertainty.

But I think many people have discovered this truth for themselves…it’s the old story of the bar soap…the tighter you squeeze the faster it slips out of your grasp.

When you learn not to want things so badly, life comes to you.
Jessica Lange (1949-, American actress)

By letting it go, it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try the world is beyond the winning.
Lao-Tzu(BC 600-?, Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism)

From the perspective of practicing yogaDeepak lay out these three steps:

1.  Practice Detachment – one goal of yoga is flexibility, for which detachment is an essential feature. Attachment breeds rigidity. Allow yourself and those around you the freedom to be natural. Notice that when you force solutions on problems you often created new problems that didn’t previously exist. From the experience of asana relinquish your attachment to an idealized pose. Yoga is not a competitive sport and you will not achieve integration of body mind spirit through force and effort.

2. Embrace Uncertainty –  watch how creative solutions to problems spontaneously emerge out of chaos!

3.Surrender to the field of pure potentiality – focus your attention and intention and the release your attachment to a specific outcome and observe how it easily falls into place.

As with all things we walk the middle road…be wary of those that tell you to disconnect from life to find something.

be wary of those that say it’s all about achieving a specific goal.

Somewhere in the middle is the juicy bits of life, a place of detached involvement that has you living your passion while enjoying what the universe brings your way. Now that’s a JUICYcontradiction!

You cannot change anything in your life with intention alone, which can become a watered-down, occasional hope that you’ll get to tomorrow. Intention without action is useless.
Caroline Myss 

This week we reviewed Law 5 from Deepak Chopra’s “7 Spiritual laws of Yoga” and when I read the chapter I was reminded of when I was introduced to the word Svaha…and falling head over heals with the word. This idea of offering it up to the fires of the universe (or as I learned it “Sanskrit for f*ck it)  A concept there heretofore in my control freakish nature was unheard of in my corner of the world. This concept of setting goals but not controlling every detail was mind blowing for me. And I suspect it is for many of us.

And with further study I also realized that the answer we got to this control freak nature was not serving our needs either. We went  from a culture of do and act and when that didn’t work the answer was affirmation and visualizations. Unfortunately we quickly realized that sitting around thinking about it doesn’t quite work either.

Deepak brings it all together quite nicely (he’s not the first or the only one – but I am reviewing his book)

1. Be clear about your intentions and desires

2. Surrender the outcome to nature

3. Do not allow any obstacles to consume or dissipate the quality of your attention in the present moment

From the perspective of our yoga practice this has such a cooling and softening effect. Our intention for practice can be set but we can give up the need to attain or reach a specific place in said practice.   This builds on the practice of non-attachment (aka detachment)and It compliments the idea of giving and receiving.

Truthfully he goes into the concept of energy and quantum reality – but I think it’s overkill. You can’t get where you want to go unless you know where that is, but you have to be willing to take detours and even adjust your destination…that’s about it…why do we want to make everything so complicated?  Everything I need to know about this law I learned from riding my motorcycle -

If don’t pay attention bad things happen

Silence can help you hear your true thoughts

If you don’t write things down immediately they will be forgotten

If you push yourself past your limits regardless of your original goal it can get dangerous and loses its joy

if you hold on too tightly it’s harder to avoid the bumps

and most importantly – Where you look is where you go

So I leave you with this – where is your attention and intention in your life currently? What areas of your life have taught you about the principle of intention and desire?

This one was particularly interesting because my understanding of it really did change as I taught my classes.  At first it seemed to want us to submit and I saw it as a great excuse to relax and not work very hard. But in the end it isn’t about not working but truly working smarter and not harder, about applying work and effort where it will do the most good…

It’s the idea of leverage and not beating your head against a wall. It’s the idea of choices.

We see the possibility in the moment but we don’t regret the moment. We let go of being upset where we are and we sit with it, we love this experience and trust…trust…trust.

 1. I will practice Acceptance. Today I will accept people, situations, circumstances, and events as they occur. I will know that this moment is as it should be, because the whole universe is as it should be. I will not struggle against the whole universe by struggling against the moment.

 

Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you’re going to do about it.”  Kathleen Casey Theisen

You can rail against the moment as much as you like, you can be angry about it or feel sorry for yourself you can, but will it serve any purpose?  It is. It is. It is. So now what.

2. Having accepted things as they are, I will take Responsibility for my situation and for all those events I see as problems. I know that taking responsibility means not blaming anyone or anything for my situation (and this includes myself). I also know that every problem is an opportunity in disguise.

 

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
Eleanor Roosevelt 

We tend to be on either side of this fence, there are those living in a victim paradigm that feel all responsibility lies outside and on the other side we feel we are worthless and useless and total failures, taking blame rather than responsibility. Being responsible give us options, choices and hope and is not an excuse to wallow on either side.

3. Today my awareness will remain established in Defenselessness. I will relinquish the need to defend my point of view. I will feel no need to persuade others to accept my point of view. I will remain open to all points of view and not be rigidly attached to any one of them

 

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.
Henry Ford 

 

Uhh yeah…I think you should just refer to my blog on Dogma for my take on this….

As per usual I can’t agree with “everything” – it’s a character flaw…defect? Skill? Well any way this particular quote from the book had me questioning…

If you observe nature at work, you will see that least effort is expended. Grass doesn’t try to grow, it just grows. Fish don’t try to swim, they just swim. Flowers don’t try to bloom, they bloom. Birds don’t try to fly, they fly. This is their intrinsic nature.

Does that look effortless to you?

But I think nature does work hard. I don’t think nature quits just because it’s hard. It doesn’t just lay down and play dead. What it seems to do is work with what is there.  Grass won’t grow in the winter, it accepts that it’s too cold and waits for spring. Fish swim upstream against current, against odds, because that is what prepares them to have the best offspring.  Flowers have to push little by little working hard to push through dirt to bloom.  Nature is of course the perfect metaphor but rather than saying we should just flow because nature does I think we should learn to accept that sometimes we will have to work hard, sometimes it is time to rest and wait, sometimes we have to let go…sometimes its not what we do, but when we do it and  nature teaches us that all experiences are good and necessary and when it is all good in our own lives bliss is not too far behind.

The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.

Frederick Buechner

This week I am attempting to work with Deepak Chopra’s Third Spiritual Law from “The seven spiritual laws of yoga”. The first two laws (law 1 and law 2) had this sort of restorative, rejuvenating — uplifting effect on me. But this pesky Karma talk gets me all tied up in knots.   It always has…I feel like just as I’m about to grasp the concept some random nagging thought comes in and sweeps away understanding.  Sometimes I put the book down and say “hogwash” (I generally have that reaction more with Buddhism, sorry Way J )  Sometimes after I declare it all baloney an inner voice tells me that is just my ignorance speaking and it only seems like hogwash because I’m not ready to accept it…I’m telling you Saturday nights are a blast with me!

My first sticking point was “well we just had the law of giving and receiving isn’t that the same darn thing” (I may have used harsher language, I’m prone to that)  It’s not like this was the first time I had studied Karma, and I had heard that admonition that westerns just didn’t get it more than once. Heck I agreed, I didn’t get it and it seemed every time I read something or heard something more on the subject it just upset me more.    It always felt like the old “I before E” rule…too many exceptions to make it a law or rule…[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWzYaZDK6Is[/youtube]

“it’s i before e except after c and when sounding like a as in neighbor and way and on weekends and holidays and all throughout may and you’ll always be wrong no matter what you say!

But then maybe it was because people just saw it differently, or maybe I just get bothered because then I have to look at my life and KNOW that the “issues” I am having are my own damn fault.  OK I believe that anyway, but darn it sometimes I like to pretend that some things were out of my control and I wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for those meddling kids. Or at least some things were “just empty boats”.

“I discovered I always have choices

and sometimes it’s only

a choice of attitude.”

Judith M. Knowlton, author

But as I look at my current struggles I know, I know that they are there to help me learn and to grow past my old ways of doing things and of thinking.

This isn’t easy folks. Don’t let any free wheeling hippy freak tell you that peace, love and tye dye is an easy path.   There are samskaras to face, habits to transmute, releasing to experience – OH MY. And then there are families and relationships and desires to overcome and attachments to errr detach from and and and  ……Bhagavad Gita take me away.

People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead.

Edith Wharton

Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.

Elbert Hubbard

Ok this seems a bit too much like that whole giving and receiving (hey that follows the “rule” of I before E except after C) thing, I do something it comes back to me.  (In the Wiccan world this is why they have the “an it harm none” rule, as not only does stuff come back on you it comes back 7 fold…good and bad)  Oh wait there is no good and bad…Never mind that’s a whole other Oprah.  So I read that to say what we do comes back on us. But wait there’s more…

The law of karma, blessed ones, is not intended to act as a lash, to tear apart the souls of men. The law of karma is intended to instruct and to cause mankind to approach the throne of grace without fear, with the clearness of mind and being that will render them able to receive the pure vibratory action of Almighty God.

ANNICE BOOTH, The Path to Your Ascension

Karma isn’t fate. Nor is it a punishment imposed on us by some external agent. We create our own karma. Karma is the result of the choices that we make every moment of every day.

TULKU THONDUP, Peaceful Death

Soooooo….it’s all about choices?

From Deepak’s book:  The third spiritual law of success pertains to karma; or cause and effect. Every action we take generates a force of energy that returns to us in kind – as we sow, so we reap. (still sounds like giving and receiving a bit huh?)  When we consciously choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success.

So as I read, re-read and re-re-read his chapter on karma, a million quotes and some other online resources this is my take on karma as of today (disclaimer: I never ever assert that any opinion or understanding I have today or any day will be the one I hold on any other given day, my experience of life and all matters therein is ever growing, expanding, changing and transforming – if you are looking for absolutes I don’t think I can help you)

First I think it needs to be made clear that I personally believe in past lives, a continuing soul or personality, ghost energies (or at least I don’t NOT believe in them)  I have a very non-dualistic bent to my philosophy and I guess another sticking point of many Karmic explanations was this idea of punishment and escape from the endless horrific cycle of birth and death.

If you have read any of my other posts you know that I believe the point of life is LIFE, it’s pleasures, it’s understandings, it’s joy, pain, beauty and that nirvana is experienced by living fully not by escaping rebirth.

That said the notion that what I might be working towards is NO karma, that all action creates karma (and this I know is a very boiled down simplistic view)  and our goal is to detach from karma and get the hell out of here. (Ok using the word hell is an interesting choice huh?)

So how does a past life non-dualist experience karma…or understand karma?

I mean if it’s not punishment then why have it?

I believe we are meant to become the best human possible. Not stop being human, but come to a place where we are living our fullest potential.   And to do this we must know all aspects of humanity; to experience being the captor and the prisoner, the victor and the loser; ruler and serf; we must know success and failure; joy and pain.  So for me I don’t see my struggle with finances as punishment for once having money or retribution for taking or anything so linear and exact.  My vision is that I will over the course of many lives have many different combinations of experiences. Born to wealth, gaining wealth, losing wealth… In this life I have been blessed with love that rivals fairy tales and more than once. My guess is that in other lives I have been alone and sometimes even lonely. I am not rewarded per se, but each life is a way to have a different combination of blessings and lessons so in time I will have a complete understanding of the human condition and in that I will be the best human possible for I will have true compassion for all states of being.

In between I get to rest in the heart of my true being and as I rest I come up with great schemes to enjoy or understand some other aspect of humanity.

So do I see that we carry karmic “debt” forward? I just don’t. Nor do I believe we carry karmic “reward”.  I see it as the tapestry of experiences, of a log book that allows us to see some new aspect of our humanness. Perhaps we choose to carry lessons forward because as we rest in pure source we see things we would like to do differently — we challenge ourselves to create something new out of a particular experience. Some people explain this as you keep doing the same thing until you learn your lesson. That sounds a bit like punishment, but perhaps the reality is “you are destined to relive a certain pattern until you are pleased with the outcome”.

Our lives are defined by the choices we make, but nothing is either punishment or reward, this is no nun with a ruler universe.  Merely that ever changing “choose your ending” book, that you get to read and re-read as often as you like to keep getting that different ending. It’s fun, it’s a game – what does your ending look like this life? And next life how will you choose to read that book?

“Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world.”
“Whatever you think people are withholding from you–praise, appreciation, assistance, loving care, and so on–give it to them.”
“You cannot receive what you don’t give. Outflow determines inflow.” – Eckhart Tolle:

“There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life — happiness, freedom, and peace of mind — are always attained by giving them to someone else.” – Peyton Conway March:

Take a deep inhale…deeper…and hold. Hold it for as long as you can and just notice, notice how uncomfortable it is to hold on to something that has to be released.
Exhale…exhale completely…and hold it out…and notice. Notice that discomfort also exists when we resist what we need.

It’s the age old concept of ebb and flow; we can not be filled if we are not empty. We cannot give if we don’t receive.

This is how Deepak’s 2nd Law of Giving and Receiving is described in the book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga (I talk about the 1st Law here)

This is a particularly touching concept for me recently as I have watched a dear friend struggle with self worth. What touched me so deeply is this way she has of seeking and then not hearing or actually letting in when it is laid at her feet. It’s this sense of desperation, of need, coupled with a lack of not feeling worthy. As I watched her self destruct in the face of so many wonderful things (something I myself had done REPEATEDLY in the past) I felt helpless, to empathize so completely with her process and know that her path was her own is to know that no amount of advice or empathetic listening could help her know her worth; it really does have to come from within.

I would love to hand her this chapter, these quotes and a key to that place that knows, just knows that we are all worthy of love and happiness.

To help someone be able to share the feeling and understanding the greater/deeper/more purely you love (without expectation) the deeper the love that is returned to you.

All life is flow… the flow of water, the circulation of breath and blood, the cycles of life and death and rebirth — each cycle is a micro and macrocosm of that essential reality that only when one thing gives can other receive. Inhale to Exhale

To get into the flow of life is to give joy and receive joyously, graciously and without attachment to reward or outcome.

The three practices reviewed in the book, as this principle relates to yoga, are as follows:
1. The breath. Enjoy an effortless flow of breath in your poses. “Anytime throughout the day that you feel resistance in your body because things are not going the way you think they should, bring your attention to your breath and use it to regain your sense of effortless receiving and releasing.”
2. Cultivate the sense of gratitude for the gifts you have in your life. On the mat enjoy the sensation of being, celebrate your existence – just as it is
3. (this is my personal favorite!!) Surrender to the needs of your body. “Rather than forcing your will upon your body to attain a specific pose, practice listening to the needs of your muscles and joints. The impulse to give flows naturally from the experience of gratitude”

The thing that further astounds me about this principle is that it transcends yoga, in that it truly is a universal law…what you give is what you get, not in some moralistic judgmental way just a pure simple truth. Joy Begets Joy. Sadness breeds Sadness.

This is not an reason to say people “deserve” pain or bad things…yes “bad” things happen to “good” people (sometimes it’s just and empty boat) it’s a matter of realizing that we can effect the way people treat us, the way we experience the world, and in the end it isn’t about avoiding difficulties it’s about how we feel at the core of our being no matter what the external occurrences may be. The more love you give the more love you will receive. The more smiles you give away the more they will be reflected back to you. Try it, you’ll like it.

The Suggested Mantra for this practice is just astoundingly beautiful:
OM Vardhanam Namah “I am the nourisher of the universe”

If you aren’t a “chanter” per se – just repeat the mantra in your head to start.  If the sanskrit is too foreign you can start with the translation. I recommend sitting after your practice in meditation and focusing on the mantra. It’s as if the universe holds us it’s hands and vice-versa.

Asana (yoga pose) of the week:

Bhandas: Uddiyana Bhanda Mula Bhanda and Jalandhara Bandha

Practicing our locks helps us feel that awareness of retention, release, holding on and letting go. The bhandas help us create a storage of Prana, not so that we can keep it inside, but so we can shine brighter and share our light with the world.

Is there a place in your heart that is locked? Are their areas of your life that you have blocked the flow of love or joy or happiness or abundance?? How can you bring more flow into your life? Where can you give OR receive more?

When you’re smiling, when you’re smiling
The whole world smiles with you
When you’re laughing, when you’re laughing
The sun comes shining through

But when you’re crying, you bring on the rain
So stop that sighing, be happy again
When you’re smiling, keep on smiling
The whole world smiles with you

PS — one final thought? remember you can be both giver and receiver simultaneously – if you first love yourself first and foremost and most deeply the rest comes so much easier.   And if you love others even with their humanity it will be easier to accept that others could return the favor.

Inhale – Exhale

No More – No Less

If you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear.  Lao Tzu

As you embrace the present
and become one with it, and merge with it,
you will experience a fire, a glow,
a sparkle of ecstasy throbbing in every sentient being.
As you begin to experience this exultation of spirit
in everything that is alive, as you become intimate with it,
joy will be born within you,
and you will drop the terrible burdens of defensiveness,
resentment, and hurtfulness…
then you will become lighthearted, carefree, joyous, and free. - Deepak Chopra

A few months ago at a studio in Scottsdale AZ. -( Zenergy Yoga now Yoga Village) We started a book club, the first book that was selected was Deepak Chopra’s “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga”.   I read it, we discussed it, I moved to Colorado, became a partner in a studio, started riding my bike to work and basically it got moved to shelf; along with the several dozen other yoga, spiritual, hypnosis, self-help, and philosophical books that used to accumulate in my life. (God bless the Kindle and it’s de-clutter effect and it’s help in discernment!)   I decided to dust it off and maybe try putting some of his words, ideas and practices into action.  From there I realized that with my new found responsibilities my classes were fast becoming craptastic re-hashed aphorisms. (everything I vowed I would never do when I started teaching 6 years ago – sure I had a class or two here or there, but this was three weeks of trite, unplanned globs of yoga stuff)  So was born my half cheating/half inspired focus on this book.  So yes I have 7 weeks of built in themes to explore and it was just this jumping off point that I needed to get myself back into fighting shape and back into some deep yoga.

Think what you will about Deepak, about the book etc. (I had some less than positive things to say when I first read it…but sometimes I’m a snob and geek)  In the end the principles a very worthy of visiting and the information is very useful especially if you are newer to the world of yoga.  For me the point is to visit the “laws” and see how we can integrate (or not) them into our practice on and off the mat.

1. Law of Pure Potentiality

“the first spiritual law of success is the Law of Pure Potentiality, which states that at the core of your being you are pure awareness. This realm of pure awareness is the domain of all possibilities and underlies creativity in all it’s forms. Pure consciousness is your spiritual essence and the source of joy in life. The realm of pure potentiality is the home of knowledge, intuition, balance, harmony and bliss. Giving rise to thoughts, feelings, and actions, it remains undisturbed. This domain  is the womb of silence that gives birth to all forms and phenomena in life. It is your essential nature. At your core you are pure potentiality.”

The three practices suggested to cultivate this “law” in your life and practice:

1. stillness – during asana holding and pausing in and between poses and of course a good long savasana
2. witness mode – watch yourself practice, observe the world, especially nature.
3. practice non-judgment – “while performing your yoga postures, relinquish the need to judge your ability”.  As you judge yourself less perhaps you will judge others less – notice how freeing this can be.

The suggested mantra: Om bhavam namah (I am absolute existence)

It was so necessary for me to pick this book up again and to begin here. I have been having difficulty writing, breathing, practicing recently and focusing on this “law” has been a salve.  To first accept where I am and not judge and then to recognize that I still have the potential for all things within me…my mantra has actually become “just for today”.  On Monday evening when I didn’t write as I had planned — I repeated – “just for today” and the more I let go. The less I strived. The more still I became the more I began to open back up.

Where in your life could you cultivate stillness? What space between the breath could you experience? How could you separate action and reaction?  Relinquish judgment? How could stillness and awareness of pure potentiality bring movement and flow back into your existence?

Asana (yoga pose) for the week:

Humble Warrior – bow to the divine, be still, accept today in all it’s perfection and imperfection — move into exalted warrior as you exhale and expand!

Oprah
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“Joy springs from within; no one makes you joyous; you choose joyfulness.”

Unknown