What is silence telling me?
She holds all sounds, all thoughts, all feelings and emotions….
Silence even holds all “noise” and the constant chatter of our minds.
Silence does not judge any of this.
She is the model of unconditional acceptance.
She holds everything equally.
I love listening to her!
I do yoga and meditation to be her student.
The following came during meditation today, from feelings after a yin yoga class taken two nights ago, and during a visit to the San Francisco Modern Art Museum:
Accepting the crosscurrent of conflicting and/or varied feelings with a benevolent heart reduces anxiety and stress.
Quit denying, arguing with, fighting, or resisting them.
Welcome them as they arise.
Let them be with a smile, a nod, with your heart.
Like a modern cubist work, there is complexity and richness to these disparate feelings mutually existing. There is a great peace and beauty, and maybe even an order, in their seeming disarray.
What is this uplifting energy that I feel when I do yoga and meditate?
I am attracted to it instinctively like a hummingbird to bright flowers.
Even with all of life’s challenges and pains, this attraction and the hunger for more of this sweet nectar has supported my discipline with both practices and earned my love.
This is the same energy I felt 40 years ago with my first asana.
I return to it again and again because I trust and love it so much.
What would happen if in this moment we didn’t feel life needed to be in one way or another different?
What is this dubious notion that somehow life right now is not as it should or could be?
What would it be like as an adult to love and giggle intoxicated with life like a child?
What would it be like to love and live life with more abandon like a discerning Evil Knievel of the moment, more willing to risk?
All of this, and more, in the scent of a rose….
Droplets of water can move mountains….
A regular practice
no matter how long
even 5 minutes a day…
can have big effects
like dripping water wears away stone.
You cannot force significant changes.
Their fragrances arise
stimulating between the eyes
to see more clearly.
During unsettling, distressing, and/or upsetting times, I am especially thankful for the practices of yoga and meditation to try to get more centered and grounded.
They act like a tuning fork that filter through the tumult of chatter in the mind and of emotions and drop me into something deeper, more resonate and loving.
The practices allow me to become more aware of what I am feeling and what is causing this. I start to settle into a less agitated space where I can draw back and determine if and how I’d like to respond rather than just be tossed about at the mercy of the tumult.
I not only do this to bring its strength into my life but hopefully to family, friends, and to you through this blog.
Through yoga and meditation, I have come to feel and see the same life and light is in all of us.
We are all children of the same life force. We need to work at seeing and remembering this.
Respect implies compassion–for where everyone is (and is not) on their path as an evolving human. Not excuses, but respect.
From knowing and feeling this, may my respect and love grow. This will give me greater strength to to be me and to respect you.
40 years ago with this book, I began on this amazing path of yoga and meditation.
Even at that time, it felt important.
I cannot even begin to imagine who or what I’d be like if I’d not found yoga and meditation.
I can only be grateful that 40 years ago in a friend’s basement as I thumbed through the myriad of books on her shelf, this book almost seemed to fall into my hands.
A few questions answered and with piqued curiosity, I headed home and, once there, immediately tried my first asana. I felt something totally new with this first pose–a warm tingle of uplifting energy spreading in my body.
I knew I had found a feeling unique and heretofore unknown to me that I really liked.
I was beginning my journey into yoga and meditation.
Last night my wife and I went to an amazing experience in San Francisco–a sound meditation symphony. The sounds of large gongs and crystal singing bowls with drums, chimes, harp, and Native American flutes vibrated through our very bones!
After about an hour of laying on the floor with 400 others all on yoga mats with our blankets and pillows, these incredible sounds transporting us deep inside, I wrote the following. Enjoy!
Give up being perfect at anything.
Just give it up!…
Settle for effort plus grace–
at times, you’ll soar…
at others, not.
You might even crash
but so did the phoenix,
burned up…
and rose again.
You shall too….
The Every Day Yogi 