Author: pmcrose

There is a force, the life force, the prana shakti, that we come to know more intimately through yoga and meditation.

Life in the raw is this force in and of itself, unadorned before it takes on any form… as a thought, a feeling, action, or as a substantial object or thing. It enlivens and creates everything and all of us–our very cells, our breath, our heartbeat… our ego… the birds and flowers… Asians, Africans, Middle Easterners… it is our common bond, this raw stuff of life that intertwines us in its web, the web of life.

Pulsing and scintillatingly lively, the stuff of life we come know more and more through yoga and meditation–life in the raw!

In yoga, we do poses….

but it’s not about poses at all.

There are forms or positions we move into, and through, and out of.

Just as there are roles and situations and events in life we move into and through and out of.

Life is change, nothing static but that. No poses to achieve.

Wow, no more posin’! Just movin’ through it….

As a bee to nectar, we are attracted to the sweetness of yoga and meditation.

Take a sip… many sips as you practice.

Sweet!

I have a confession to make. I thought it time I totally come clean with you.

You probably couldn’t tell. I’m high a lot of the time, and when I’m not, I’m looking for my next fix. I am a user.

Yes, I am an addict–completely obsessed, hooked for life!

Yoga and meditation are my suppliers. They have the really good stuff, man… that pulls me deeper and deeper into the life force, the prana shakti.

Do not try to help me. I am hopelessly hooked for life… on life!

There’s a natural tendency as we get older, especially from 60 onward, to shrink, to hunch over more, for our body to dry out, to get stiffer joints and muscles, to get smaller… even to contract our world view.

Yoga and meditation can help counter this–as we stretch into poses, lubricate our joints, our muscles, and our organs through movement, and expand our world view and enlarge the vision of our heart as we feel the universal life force.

Yes, we will still age, but in a whole new way.

What will it be like to age in this way, to expand into aging?

Join me in practicing, and let the experiment begin!

Needless to say, the life force, the energy of the universe, is very powerful stuff!

Over time as we practice yoga and meditation, it’s as though a bigger breaker is installed in our connection to the life force, the prana.

The energy we can handle or run, that can flow through us feels more, a higher amperage, if you will.

The practices manage all this like a master electrician, keeping us current with the current of the life force amping us up as we are ready and able to handle it.

One way we deepen our appreciation and love for this earth is through travel and seeing its infinite variety of landscapes.

We can do the same for our heart.

Through yoga and meditation, we can travel and view the heart-scape. As a heart-traveller, we deepen our experience of life, our love and compassion, our peace and tranquility, and our evenness of mind especially during difficult times.

But most importantly, we realize our greater unity with all of life–we deepen our connection with this totality of life with which we are one.

There’s a popular expression, “Home is where the heart is.”

I prefer a reversal of this to explain a marvel of yoga and meditation: The heart is where home is.

As we do the practices more, we come more frequently, easily, and more deeply into the heart space–this place of tranquility, joy, love and compassion, and bliss.

When in this space of the heart, we feel at home. It is the natural root, source, and resting place of the mind. It is, if you will, our inner home that is with us for all our life. There is no feeling comparable to this inner home.

Yoga and meditation are a marvel in that they can can take us there, to our inner home.

Practice, my friends, and find your way home!

Hansel and Gretel were lured in by the candy house.

Imagine something sweeter, way so!

This is the lure of yoga and meditation.

During yoga and meditation, as the mind relaxes, it can repose in the heart like a sunbather in a chaise lounge. Ahhhhh!