Quiet

I love the feeling of quiet. I love it so much that I can easily sink into a state of inertia. Nothing wrong with that, but had I succumbed, I would have missed the brilliance of my dog tonight at agility class.

And after class I got home and made a delicious lentil soup for tomorrow. Life is good. It's fun. It's so many things.

Leap year

Watching my dog look over the edge of the bed, and then he looks back at me, then looks over another edge of the bed, and looks back at me, makes me think of how many times I was told to look before I leap. Well, looking back, I wish I would have lept. No regrets, just acknowledging that "right action" (yoga term), is who we are, and who are any of us to judge the actions and decisions of another?

Game on

When push comes to shove, someone has crossed the line.

In the air

There is always something on the air - thoughts, particulate, objects. It's our relationship to those things that matters in terms of our happiness. There will always be "something in the air tonight." thanks Phil!

Is enough really enough

How enlightened is enough? Can someone say "I'm enlightened enough?"and is there anything wrong with that? Surely it must be ok to stay where you are for awhile. Isn't that what is meant by "chilling out," "smelling the roses," or just "being?" what if there is a time when you really are content?

And arent we "conscious" beings often quick to judge those who choose a different path? A path that doesn't center around consciously evolving?

I just realized how close "evil" and "evolve" are. Kinda freaky. If we evolve with a holier than thou point of view, have we really evolved!

Yoga asana

Yoga asana- the physical aspect of yoga. Yes, it's all the rage. And yes, it is probably over-emphasized, but I remember when it was the only thing I could do to get out of the hamster wheel of negative thinking that was my mind. When I could put my attention somewhere else, instead of criticizing myself and others or life in general, I would emerge from a yoga practice feeling lighter in my body, and that helped me change my attitude, or at least give me a chance to feel like something else was possible. I felt better in my body, better in my self, and as a result, better in the world. I used my body to help change my mind. (Perhaps that's what people are trying to accomplish with plastic surgery.) but at some point I decided I wanted to feel that way all the time, not just after a yoga practice. That's when it started to get interesting. And the effects became longer lasting. The path of Self inquiry and Self discovery became the yoga practice. Yes, I still practice asana for various reasons which I will keep to myself for now, but someone asked me if I could give up yoga. Yoga asana? Yes. Self discovery? Never. Because what else are we here for?

Glad to meet you

As we bridge the gap between physical and the Divine- could one exist without the other?

The physical is the external expression of the Creator. We are just the projection . And in turn, we create the concept of Divine. Is this our way of trying to recognize our Self? And when we do, then what? After the party I mean...

Bridges

What a great thing that we humans are physical and non-physical. Our brain is matter and it thinks thoughts that are not yet matter.

It's as if humans are the bridge between physical and that which some might call the Divine.

And in being a bridge that means we touch both worlds.

It's like the heart which has been called the bridge between higher and lower chakras. We can't live without it.

Handle with care

One thing that helps me when I'm tempted to start judging the behavior of others- we are all children, doing the best we can. And most desperate or judge-able behavior is usually a mask for fragility.

Just look at the mirror, snow white, and the evil queen- fragile as the mirror o evil desperate one!

choices

We’ve made our New Year’s Resolutions. And they are most likely jam packed with a bunch of things that we think are “good for us.” So we start doing them and at a certain point we start to get pissed off because someone is eating a buttery scone in front of you, while you eat the fruit plate. And you don’t really like fruit. And you don’t really like scones, but they can have one and you can’t so all of a sudden you feel deprived. Now what? Well, I can give myself a bunch of self talk about how great fruit is, I can’t get irritable and lash out at someone on the freeway as I drive home – deprived and hungry, I can eat the scone and then a couple more just because, then feel like crap and judge myself for not being strong enough, and also because I didn’t even like scones.

When we do something just because it is “good for us,” it might be a good idea to see where that “good for us” rule is coming from. Is it from the past? Is it because we think it will get us what we want in the future? Or is it because we know in the moment that is the choice to make?

As we continue to constantly make choices that are “good for us,” we may start to develop a set of rules to play by, which can turn into dogma, and following our dogma, fall into a feeling of self-satisfaction, which may move straight into self-righteousness. We did it and they didn’t. Which means I’m better than you. Why aren’t you doing it my way? Can’t you see it’s the best way because it’s good for me? Separation. Judgment.

The other side of the coin is to do something that makes us happy. The trap there is that we may not actually be in the moment when we make the decision.

So which is better – doing something because it’s “good for you” or doing something because it “makes me happy?’

Of course the answer is both or neither. When we focus on the external result, we’ve  kinda missed the boat to happiness. What if we just focus on not judging? What if we focus on staying in present time instead of the past and the future? If we focus on not judging, and that includes ourselves, others, situations, the weather, the state of the world etc… we develop a unique kind of compassion that will actually help us be in the moment. If we focus on staying in the present moment, we will start to drop our judgments because judgments are based in the past or future.

When we are in present time, aka “the moment” we will make the choices that are “good for us” because those are the choices that will make us happy. But hey, you be the judge.

Filler

Some people talk a lot and some don't. How much that is said is really communicating? How much talk is just to take up space? If we fear silence, what is it that we are afraid of hearing?

The next question

The real question, and possibly the only question is "who am I?" If the answer has to do with our thought constructs and ways we identify ourselves, we may be either proud or uncomfortable with the answer. When we can answer without either emotion, and answer from a place of Knowing, then we are close to recognizing who we really are. Once we know that, fear disappears.

Traveling

Wherever you go, there you are. Ask the question "where am I?" and the degree of accuracy we answer with will be the degree to how efficient the path is to getting where you want to go. Dare to be as accurate as possible. Very fiery, that path. Which will ulstelu lead us to the next question...

Courage

A wise person said that courage is acting in spite of fear, and to act fearlessly, means that you act from a place void of fear. Awesome distinction. And as I proceed on this journey, I keep measuring how much courage vs fearlessness I have, and that helps shine a light on the areas in my mind that doubt the constant presence of Divinity. Thank you.

Yoga Sutra 2:48

In YS 2:48, patanjali tells us that the result of yoga asana practice is that pairs of opposites cease to have impact. As this starts to happen, our meditations become sweeter, because isnt the running off at the mind, the distractions that make it hard, aren't those just a bunch of pairs of opposites?

Benefit

To give someone "the benefit of the doubt" is ridiculous. If there is a doubt, why even go there? A doubt is probably the thing you believe will really happen, so when you give the benefit of the doubt, you are most likely setting yourself up for disappointment. The fact that there is doubt shows that you don't really believe or know that it will work out the way you want it to, especially because this whole scenario is one that depends on the actions of someone else. I finally am beginning to understand the craziness if this social moray, and it has cost me thousands of dollars in giving this doubt a benefit for me to even start understanding what it even means. Good thing it's only money.
😊 so all in all it's a pretty cheap lesson.

Tantra - the nutshell

If you love life and all it contains, you could call yourself a Tantric. Of you love life and want to love all that it contains, and are taking conscious steps to do so, you are a Practitioner of Tantra.

Change your hair, change your mind

Isn't it amazing how dogs act differently after a bath or haircut? Same as us. We feel something has changed, it changes the lens of our perception.

Bridging

Awesome classes tonight! The spine is the bridge between head and feet/heaven and earth, and so are humans. We have the capacity to know there is a heaven and earth, thus our consciousness is the bridge between them. As a bridge, we have both simultaneously. Nifty.

The Judge

Who am I to judge the choices of others? That would be playing God. And if I was God, I wouldn't be judging.

Recipe and Popeye

Popeye knew that when he needed strength, a can of spinach would do the trick. All we need is to find our "can of spinach." The result - happiness.

We are all personally responsible for our own happiness. To look for it outside of our ourselves is disappointment waiting to happen. But what if we are truly seeing everyone and everything as an extension of ourself and we are still not happy? We must still look within to see what perception or action we can change, in order to increase that happiness factor. When we start seeing all the frustrations, situations, people, things as shining a light on yet another area inside of us that was unconsciously running the show, we have then embraced the 24/7 approach to yoga. At that point, in order to stay sane, we need to let go of expectations from things outside of ourselves. We need to stop judging outcomes as good or bad, and behavior as right or wrong. Ultimately, as we stop judging others, we will stop judging ourselves, and vice versa. All I know is, the less I judge, the better I feel, the happier I am. And I am what I am. And so are you.

This being said - the next series of blogs will be about how to find your can of spinach. And can you imagine if Popeye ate the spinach when he was already feeling strong? Wow! Now that's what I'm talking about! That's when your life becomes your own, can of spinach your reality, and you stop living in crisis management mode and start living more joyfully in the present moment.

Creative or...

So if I think I'm a creative person, yet I don't actually create, am I still creative?

If a creativity happens and no one else experiences it, was is still creative, or just a pointless exercise in spending time? And then, could that creativity have been just as effectively experienced in the mind of the creator?

And if according to the belief that we are all made in the image if our Creator, then aren't we all creators creating anyway? And then what is so "special" about being creative?

Maybe the "specialness" of the creative person has nothing to do with creativity, but their ability to acknowledge the Oneness in all things, experiences, thoughts, ideas. Maybe creativity is nothing more than being a Creator, which is who we really are.

So in that case, am I still a creative person even if at the end of the day I have nothing to show for it? Or if my choices weren't to create, but to consume? Can we simultaneously be consumers and creators? And does this relate to "doers" and "be-ers?"

Humans doing vs humans being?

Or maybe I am just trying to figure out if I really like to play guitar, make art, write, etc... anymore, or maybe its me not allowing myself to choose what makes me happy and inspired, or me avoiding the possible pain not being acknowledged for what I've created. Or maybe it's inertia. Or laziness. Or something else.

Or maybe I genuinely don't care anymore. And is that such a bad thing? To not care whether or not I'm a creative person?

And what about this discourse? Creative? Indulgent? Procrastinating?

Or maybe it's time to hit the mat of life and stop taking it all so seriously.

Wanting

There is a fine line between wanting, needing, desiring. As we release the attachment to achieving our desires, we may also stop desiring as much. When that happens, if we have been driven, motivated from a place of desire, we may fall into a place of free fall, limbo-like, as our motivating tool falls away. At that point, we are challenged to go deeper, to find another way of being in the world. When we start to lose desire for the physical, how does this affect our wil to live? If our life's purpose has been simply driven by physical desires, we may be left feeling empty. Life may take on a quality of pointlessness. At that point, we can expand beyond our physical comfort zone, and open ourselves up to the possibility of something more. The possibility of happiness beyond the physical. Either that or we try to go back and find some sort of joy or thrill that is based in the physical. Or we may oscillate between these and other ideas and explorations until we find the path we are willing to pursue. The thing that can be damaging to this state of exploration, is judgment. If we remember that everything is perfect, we provide a space for ourselves to allow a new reality or to allow a new relationship to reality. At times this limbo may feel like inertia, but do we call it inertia because we need an excuse to keep doing?

New-ness

Beginning of 2012. The fog of transition aka food coma is gone and the wonder of newness is in the air. Resolutions. Resolve. Setting the tone. Remembering that the future is shaped in the present moment, so staying in the present changes our old reality, aka destiny.

Sometimes I feel like a speck in the vastness of creation. No greater than or less than though. Nothing profound or meaningless. So choose fearlessly. Just do it. Now.