Tag Archives: awareness

Yoga Sutra 1.13, an emotional life

Posted on by
2

Yoga Sutra 1.13 : tatra sthitau yatno’bhyasah

Bernard Bouanchaud’s translation: Persevering practice is the effort to attain and maintain the state of mental peace.

Patanjali tells us here that practice IS the effort to maintain inner peace. I’ve often wondered how I could maintain anything when I am twirling off into anger, or joy, or sadness, or confusion, or any of the other myriad emotions that flit through my being from one moment to the next. Then I re-read this sutra. There is nothing here about annihilating emotions. The practice is the work of maintaining equilibrium of the Self.

I’ve been working a lot with my emotions lately, wondering how do they fit into an awakened life? When am I processing an emotion and when is an emotion taking over? How do the stories I spin in my mind, in reaction to events in my life (shenpa), stir up emotions and feed them? How much leeway can I or do I afford any given emotion on any given day? For years, I’ve sat with the meditation:

I am not my thoughts.

I am not my emotions.

I am not my body.

Though I sat and repeated these phrases, I knew that on many levels I really DID identify myself as any or all of these aspects of my Self and I had no clue HOW one could do otherwise. Really, I know that my body continually changes, ages, and grows tired, but isn’t that big hulking tired person my Self? It’s hard enough to IMAGINE my self with a different body, much less to de-identify with having a body at all!

Thank you meditation.

Thank you savasana.

Thank you restorative yoga.

When I do these practices, I am often able to disengage from identity, whether intellectual, physical, emotional, spiritual (yes, I get caught identifying myself in those trips too!). I can breathe into the larger Self, the connection of us all. It is a spacious place. It is a place of joy. Compassion. Expansion. Beauty. Rest. Stillness. Energy. Awareness. It is nowhere. And everywhere.I am no one. And every one.

In this TED video (yes,I’m becoming a TED junkie :-) Eve Ensler speaks eloquently about the importance of maintaining an emotional life. And true to form, I was crying halfway through. Thank you Eve, for reminding us of our wholeness in this age of fracture.

Waking Up

Posted on by
Reply

malbork (poland) castle door (RKG)

What happens when you first open your eyes in the morning?

What are your first thoughts, and feelings?

How do you transition from sleep and dreaming to “reality” ?

There are a couple of different patterns of waking I have noticed:

  • Acting as if on autopilot, I head to the bathroom
  • Opening my eyes to grumbling-or curse- due to some noise or t’other that has waken me “before my time” –or the sunlight shining upon me little shut eyes
  • Slapping the alarm and jumping head first into the day’s ToDo list
  • Rolling over, keeping my eyes closed, trying to relax back into whatever delicious dream I’d been having–or I begin immediately analyzing the dream I’d just had
  • Acting as if on autopilot, asking my sweet partner if there was any coffee made
  • Savoring the between sleep and wakefulness stage, writing in my mind–listening to my voices
  • Upon realizing physical stiffness and perhaps soreness, I begin stretching in bed

The few moments when coming into conscious wakefulness are precious and there are several practices that can maximize our wakefulness, enabling us to establish a more mindful existence.

  1. Practice half-smiling even before you open your eyes.
  2. Allow the light and any noise you hear to remind you of your true nature.
  3. Observing which nostril is dominant. Observing nostril dominance can remind you of your state of awareness at any time of the day or night.
  4. Simply BE. Be aware of your awareness. Don’t think about it; feel it; be awareness pure and simple. Yoga nidra teaches us that this awareness is always available, always aware–even during sleep–if we are consciously awake during sleep.

Panterra entrance swing (Hardscrabble Rd, Westfield NY)

Living in a state of awareness is a practice. It’s a key to walking through the door of numbness into conscious awareness. Beginning our day “awakened” would benefit the rest of our life. The voices, creative and otherwise will still be there, but we’ll see them existing in this pure awareness of all beings. We’ll begin to know who “we” are.

Yoga poem

Posted on by
1

YOGA

 

 

yoke of body and mind, connection to earth and sky,

sun and moon,

a stretch, a meeting of edges, growth,

this moment and this,

inverting the usual–body, thought, reality,

a twisting into life, into truth, a transformation,

an opening, a deepening, a long draught of air,

a bending in many planes of existence,

an energy, an equanimity, an attitude,

a breathing into challenges, a smiling joy in discipline,

conscious awareness, a vision,

pushing away from the past, pulling into the timeless present,

healing old scars, pacifying old aggression, calming agitation,

meeting the inner core of contentment, peace, bliss,

the heart of compassion, the heart of empathy,

the circle of all beings,

learning to love,

yoga, union.

Lotus (Portland OR - DKG)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much Ado About Nothing

Posted on by
Reply

INTRODUCTION TO MINDFULNESS

Here is a brief introduction to mindfulness by the Nobel Laureate and Peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh:

Thich Nhat Hanh: Intro. to Mindfulness

And if you’d like a further introduction to mindfulness, here is an excellent video with Jon Kabat-Zinn. It is about an hour long, including explanatory remarks, some guided meditation, and a question and answer session. Medium Yogini, you may be particularly interested in Kabat-Zinn’s response to the sleep question. The file was too big to reproduce here, so you’ll need to follow the link below. It’s possible however, to upload it to your computer for future use, if you like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc

FOR FURTHER STUDY: check out Laughing Yogini’s Mindfulness page.