Life is a series of stages and transitions, a holding on… and a letting go…
a vinyasa, a flow.
Hands closed, hands opened.
We breathe, we move–on and off the mat.
All the while held and guided by the life force, the supreme Shakti.
“Leap, and the net will appear!”*
But don’t forget to breathe…
We laugh and smile, and cry and be sad…
We leap and let go!…
And, my dear friends, let’s not forget to breath!
*John Burroughs
Yoga and meditation for me are like the most nuanced and honest of mirrors of my being and most intimately this human heart. They not only clarify the here-and-now but the vistas before me.
The mirrors of yoga and meditation are self (and Self), as well as life, illuminating.
With great love and respect, I welcome them each day on my yoga mat and meditation cushion.
“Mirror, mirror on the…!”
There is no “perfect” pose to attain.
Take this to heart!
This is a pose of a lifetime to learn!
The funny thing is it feels pretty good sometimes to try the impossible, knowing it’s really not possible.
You might just find you attain what you need!
And this, my friend, can feel pretty dang amazing!
Yoga and meditation are like hugging a tiger. The once fierce and destructive tiger can come to be filled with warmth and affection.
So too yoga and meditation over time can tame and transform our destructive tendencies like anger, jealously, greed, and fear into compassion and love.
Fierce butterflies and hugging tigers… silence in sounds–through the practices, we come to see, feel, and be more at home with these mutually existing and marvelous paradoxes that somehow still the mind!
Bliss takes all forms–
A wedding…
a baby shower…
balloons at a 5-year old’s birthday…
a salute to the sun, the chest opening…
fresh lettuce from the garden…
a delicious bite of…
holding hands…
a big fat paycheck…
a little old lady with a walker…
Bliss… takes many many forms!
Try to initiate action in asana from the center of your being, and let it radiate out from there.
The heat of the sun originates in its core.
The deeper in our core we originate action, the greater our radiance.
Feeling disconnected is a bit like a fish not sensing it is swimming in water.
Life vibrates within us and all around us.
We teem with life–inside and out. We are awash with it!
Yoga and meditation can awaken us to this flow of life, dissolving a sort of numbness.
Gradually, we awaken more more to this amazing sea of life within and around us!
In a laugh, in a smile, in a loving hug, in the sweet scent of a rose… there’s a light like a child’s innocent eyes.
These are glimmers of the life force that yoga and meditation can help you come to know as closely as your breath and heartbeat.
Like lost and forgotten best of friends, you become reunited through yoga and meditation.
When we do yoga and meditation, we offer ourselves to these practices.
You trust them. Thank them for their support.
With your sustained trust and practice, you will come to see that they will always hold you like the silence that holds and hugs sound.
The Every Day Yogi 