Circling
Frenzy
without
can only
steal me
Stillness
within
can only
give me
everything
Tag Archives: Mindfulness
Profession
I’d like to talk to you
about a lucrative career opportunity!
It offers fulfillment through good work
and can provide the raise you’ve been waiting for.
It requires no experience, but is quite life changing.
It’s impossible to be overlooked for promotion,
you are your own boss, and everyday feels like a vacation.
The meetings are spectacular.
It’s a new and different endeavor with each breath.
It’s exactly what you’ve dreamed of, been searching for,
and the answer to the questions that keep you up at night.
First off, you’re hired!
Just keep doing what you’re doing –
but fight hard to hold it all in a place of pure love.
Let negativity go and hold each moment
in a bright clear light.
You may not notice anything at first.
But, give it a year of sincere effort
and you will have the wealth of life you knew you deserved.
This work will reward you with perfect happiness.
If you make this career change for entirely selfish reasons –
it doesn’t really matter.
The benefits are universal and undeniable.
Love and let love be our future.
Do it for you!
Do it for me!
Let’s watch our children flourish
in the indigo of our perpetual prosperity,
an ever-glowing example of a lovely life’s work
that endures and continues to elevate.
Opening My Eyes
One day while walking along the Ganges, my teacher was told, specifically, by his Guru , “Witness Everything“. He knew that Swami Rama did not incline towards repeating himself; so, he grunted to acknowledge that he heard the instruction. But, the sound also signified he needed to digest this morsel a bit longer.
“Witness Everything”, what a specific, yet, elusive instruction. As my teacher paradoxically says, “it is simple; but, not easy.”
Often, during the opening of an asana (yoga posture) class, when we begin to focus on the breath, I remind my students we take about 20,000 breaths a day–but, most of them come and go unconsciously. Yet, it is the most essential of all our bodily functions. If we were forcibly made to stop breathing, for even a few seconds, we would suddenly become very grateful for our lifeline!
Why on earth would we want to cultivate this state of detached observation? Witnessing is the essence of mindfulness–the practice of paying attention to and seeing clearly what is happening in our lives.
If we always act from the perspective of the self, life happens to us–it is very personal and selfish. The person that cuts us off is doing that to us personally. The traffic is affecting us personally. When we begin to witness we are able to “see” the person cutting us off is actually thinking about themselves. Maybe they were rushing to an emergency! We begin to see all of the people stuck in traffic–we may even develop compassion for so many frustrated individuals.
But, on a deeper level, when, in our meditation practice, we bear witness to our thoughts (remember, this is done with non-attachment or non-judgment), we begin to notice the patterns, trends, and colors of our thoughts. We begin, without necessarily having to analyze the source of our tendencies, to have more space from the fluctuations in our mind-field. We begin to see the mind as it is, an infinitely creative tool that is a blessing and a necessity to navigate this earth-plane–instead of seeing the mind as a source of our frustration.
Wake up, or do whatever you will…
Discipline
Discipline is ready to love you.
It is a cool, uplifting wind
enlightening this life’s path,
putting one foot mindfully
before the other,
giving faith in each step.
This intricate dance, practiced
will one day be as tight as the drum
producing the rhythm
compelling your advancing feet.
This song of the divine
is only possible
with hard work and cultivation.
This watered and tended
garden gifts us
an abundance of nourishing food.
Since we are what we eat,
our discipline leaves us
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed
at our little corner markets,
offering freely from
baskets of leftovers
even after we’ve had
more than enough.
Embrace the discipline!
Roll up your sleeves and endeavor
to meet the very best you.
With dedication we can feed the world.
The Practice is Perfect
The spiritual path is not a straight line. It is circuitous and meandering. We will all, continuously, lose and regain our “way”. The act of starting again, and again, is the path. Always have faith that you can and will do this. Then begin, again.
Do you have a Philosophy or Direct Experience?
Direct experience is the only “Real” experience.
Peppering the Day with Mindfulness
I try to avoid reminiscing–not reflecting–on the past. Reminiscing means that I there is a longing, a desire for what cannot be, a nostalgia (the root word of which is pain). During reflection, I deliberately consider a past experience, asses if I chose the best course of action, and affirm to continue or discontinue what I was doing.
It is not a lack of sentimentality, rather, I believe (and have been taught), to fully experience one’s life, you have to be awake in the moment–right now.
The highest consciousness is expressing as all of us–right now. During the state of samadhi we are able to realize this consciousness manifesting as us. However, it is not something we can do yesterday, it is a level we awaken to in the present.
My teacher eloquently expressed, you are already in samadhi right now; however, that samadhi is on this human incarnation.
The yoga sutras prescribe five efforts and commitments aspirants should cultivate to assist them in remaining fully, nondually, in the present moment: shraddha (faith), virya (positive energy), smriti (mindfulness or remembering), samadhi (seeking sustained meditation), and prajna (pursuing the highest wisdom).
Smriti is not an obsessive needling, it is a gentle determination to perform one’s actions in a way that holds to attention on the highest goal–assuming that is your goal. Smriti does not pertain to only renunciate, a layperson can practice smriti through their everyday actions. One classic way is offering all actions to where they came from–the highest source.
The Unity Offering Prayer encompasses this concept (there are many variations available):
“Divine Love as me,
blesses and multiplies.
All that I have, all that I give,
all that I receive”.
When we are in our everyday life, there is a perceived duality. Our locus of operation and the Other. Simply, consistently, “seeing” our actions as service to the Highest is a way to remind us of Our True Nature. If we really believe that there is only One, all actions come from the One. Therefore, offer cleaning the car, mowing the lawn, preparing a meal as seva–selfless service.
P.S. As usual, click the links–the one on the five efforts has an exquisite meditation practice on it!
Meditate
There is a question at the center
From which all this emanates
The story of this mark
is what these lines are connecting.
Sticks and stones of habit and bones
are woven under careful roofs thatched.
The chicken came first
because the scheme of the egg
had not yet been hatched.
The three streams converging are quite a map,
diagram upon diagram of your ship and the treacherous landscape.
A much fussed over plan spelling out the means to escape
to a question mark.
Only sheer speculation to give it shape.
Destination unknown.
Is this carrot on a string sufficient bait?
I pursue and at times lash out
hungry and enslaved by fate
But that’s really not me,
just this body on mother earth
Hurling through space.
I am the question and the mark
operating this computer that animates.
I may not know exactly what I am
but I do know I must return home to consummate.
So I embrace living for the mysterious
punctuation at the end of the sentence.
Happy to contemplate…
Lemons into…
Having a 4-year-old daughter is a blessing; it’s also a science experiment. Saturday morning began with a sore throat, it progressed to a fever, then I was in urgent care being diagnosed with strep throat. After a shot of antibiotics that looked like they should have been used in equine medicine, I was in bed for the weekend.
Since I consider myself to be spiritual, as all the self-righteous do, I googled “Best Spiritual Movies”. Naturally, I couldn’t just lay in bed and peruse sacred texts. It was an opportunity to watch some old favorites…
I started out nobly enough with Cloud Atlas, into Fight Club (which is profound and eye candy), then (under the guise of watching a movie with my aforementioned 4-year-old) there was Stardust, and (when they had all gone to dinner at my mother’s house) I snuck and watched Bridget Jones’s Diary.
I tend to overwork myself. I tend to believe that if I push harder I’m doing better. Even with my spiritual practices–although I always tell my students, “you cannot fail or do this incorrectly”. I am not excusing laziness; discipline is essential for deepening our practice. But, the universe in his infinite wisdom sometimes makes you just chill out. I definitely felt immense gratitude for my clean and soft bed. Sometimes 24 hours in jammies is extremely cathartic.
Foresee
Loving freely
intertwined completely
In you there’s a better me
So effortlessly happy
laughing so easily
The best is yet to be
From the Gross to the Subtle 