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What We Could "Let Go Of in 2013"

15/2/2013

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Alright, try to have a sense of humor, for that is to which I aspire...

I've been thinking lately, you know, the whole 'what's not serving us' and 'what can we let go of' schema. In the midst of that, I've also just been hanging and Facebooking. Thus, in the spirit of discernment, I'd like to offer my community and anyone else who might benefit from it some advice on relinquishment, or at least, like a lenten time abstinence.


Three come to mind - to wit:

FIRST: It's ok to use FB to tell your story, even to market and build your brand... but, your face is not your brand, it's your face... uploading 4 to 6 out of 10 photos to your page that are the contrived "I hold my iphone at arm's length and smile up at it, all Hitchcocky, aren't I sassy?!" is simply vanity!!

Really, attractive or not, if your hoping to brand your yoga, rely on more than your purty face and zany looks that you wrap around your stories... just a thought.


NEXT: OM, maybe you're an AUMer, maybe an Ong Namo-kinda yogi, but OM, let's call it that. Can we let it be OM, and not have it be an 'infix'? An infix is like when you put 'fucking' in the middle of 'incredible' and make the word 'in-fucking-credible'... not a prefix, not a suffix, an infix.

So, stop just slapping OM into 'community,' 'Home,' 'Amazing,' 'Mom' or wherever you find a chance to capitalize the O and M diphthong! Really, let it be and if something is amazing, let it be amazing, for that is a fine word as well.


FINALLY: There's this poor bloke - Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī - can we give the guy a rest?? If you don't know who that is, then it's even more tragic, because he's the oft-most and most-misquoted choice of our community.

Poor Rumi, can we just let him rest in peace, and not contrive another Rumi-Hallmark-ized quote, each and everyday?? Yes, his work and his vision is beautiful and poignant, and yet so are so many others who you've never investigated, so branch out and let Rumi ruminate, and not always be your 'go-to' pontificater!


In honor of the fact I want this light-hearted and because I know I am indeed offering bittersweet food for thought, and not looking to inflame or argue, take it for what it's worth, and I'll sign off before I even go there with the Cat posting... even a blind man can tell when a cyclone is coming!!


Give thanks and praise, just keep your camera faced away, keep OM for OM, and read Rumi, don't quote him!


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Mindfulness - In Your Observations, Your Abstentions and Your Relationships!

11/2/2013

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Big month out there - lots of energetics in the planets, we've got the Mardi Gras and beginning of Lenten Season, and of course, the holiday where we are extolled to show our love by doing arcane actions in a mindless and pointless way - one romantic's opinion.

These times remind me that I work with a concept, personally and in my teaching - it's simple, but as all disciplines, in its simplicity is its challenge. Here is my premise, I've posted this before, but this past week I said it in context in class, and then it was quoted on FB - given the times, it's on point:

Do what you are doing while you are doing it - that's the entire, simplistic and yet most complicated point of this post. Let's break it down.

Do what you are doing - that means approach it like yoga - rather than union, think of linking. Linking yourself completely to the action or moment at hand. Not in projection or obsession on the outcome, but just in an engaged and present way. That also means leaving history in the past; don't approach it with all of the former experiences or occurrences, both good and bad at the forefront of your mind, for in doing so, you are repeating history, not crafting the present.

Let me make it a little more tangible - right now; is your singular intent reading this? Really, I'm flattered, but are you eating or drinking something? Listening to music? Have multiple windows open and actively panning for excitement, or simply just hanging out somewhere in public but checking out some blogs and then some people, then whatever?

The question is, is that how your practice goes? Are you elsewhere, making big or small plans? Checking out ideas in your head, remembering the good times, thinking about what you'll eat later? It's natural, it's the practice, to understand that tendency to disassociate and pull away into reflection, distraction, projection - anything but the experience or sensation at hand.

Can you use the breath, as the yuj - the link - the one thing that binds you to what you are doing? Can you experiment with simply trying to give your fullness to one thing alone? In the asana practice, the linking of breath and body and engagement; perhaps in your life for a selected experiment. A time without multitasking, without rampant sensory input, perhaps driving while not listening to music and making a call while texting!

Perhaps, just to be present to your loved one, to only listen to a song, to just simply read a book. To just do what you are doing while you are doing it.

Perhaps that can be working experiment for you as you transcend your practice from the safety of the laboratory and into the screaming mess we call life. Where do you most easily get distracted? What are your multitasks that are productive, but which are the ones that are distracting... when is the last time that the only thing you did was listen, or read, or think?

Give it a try, let me know what it feels like to feel what you’re doing and do what you're feeling!

Give thanks and praise.



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You say "Mardi Gras", I say "Imbolc 18" - and both are just artifice for consideration and action, not reaction...

21/2/2012

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One of the blessings of making your own calendar and following your own observances is that every once in a while, you get completely lost in the 'normal' folks cycle... So, I guess it's the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which itself is a little bit of  peculiar one.

The Lenten season - in Latin Quadragesima, or Fortieth but later bastardized into Lent from the English, via old German, Lenz for "long" since this  is the periods where days become noticeably longer - is the pentiential preparation of the believer. The penance (necessary when you believe you are born in "original sin" and must atone for being wrong versus believing you are born with an "original debt" which is to be paid back through ethical actions) takes many forms: prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial (and for some, mortification).

I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition and let me tell you, those folks have a penchant for costumes, drama, dressing up and acting out... It makes for an interesting experience, but not one that I continue to resonate with.

However, observance, fasting, reflection, the desire to be better, and to atone for one's misdeeds is ultimately not the exclusive property of one religion, so we see these observances and restrictions imposed willingly by spiritual seekers in every tradition.

So, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, Lententime, Careme, Paresimi, CarnivaKorizma, Carghas or Crawys - it's a time to observe and reflect. It's a time to celebrate the lengthening of the days...

So, let me  ask - how many of you observe some form of self-denial? Are you willing to comment and share? If you do, what do you find to be experience and how do you process it? Are you doing it as a habitual action, or can you ritualize it?? And, does spending 40 days in reflection help you understand the prophets and their periods of fasting and separation?

Beyond concepts of right or wrong, moral or spiritual, tradition or observance - what is the experience?? And, how will that experience inform and serve you??

If you haven't observed the Lenten period, perhaps I can invite you to make this a simple 40 Day Challenge, a personal one. Perhaps, rather than denial and exclusion, you can choose a virtuous aspect or act to incorporate into your days for the next 40 - simply to reflect on the experience of making a positive choice and committing to it?

Are you in? What are you doing? Why? Oh, and you can dance like it's Carnivale for the entire 40, roll on homies!!

Give thanks and praise!
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    Chrispy - Bhagat Singh

    Random thoughts I've had, while teaching, about the teachings, about my teaching, and while talking about teaching.

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