About Meditation

A piece of wisdom from Tenzin Palmo.

"Our minds are like junk yards.  What we put into them is mostly rubbish!  The conversations, the newspapers, the entertainment, we just pile it all in.  There's a jam session going on in there.  And the problem is it makes us very tired.

When we normally think of resting we switch on the TV, or go out, or have a drink.  But that does not give us real rest.  It's just putting more stuff in.  Even sleep is not true rest for the mind.  To get genuine relaxation we need to give ourselves some inner space.  We need to clear out the junk yard, quieten the inner noise.  And the way to do that is to keep the mind in the moment.  That's the most perfect rest for the mind.  That's meditation.  Awareness.  The mind relaxed and alert.  Five minutes of that and you'll feel refreshed, and wide awake.

People say they don't have time for "meditation".  It's not true!  You can meditate walking down the corridor, waiting for the computer to change, at the traffic lights, standing in a queue, going to the bathroom, combing your hair.  Just be there in the present, without the mental commentary.  Start by choosing one action during the day and decide to be entrirely present for one action.  Drinking the tea in the morning.  Shaving.  Determine, for this action I will really be there.  It's all habit.  At the moment we've got the habit of being unaware.  We have to develop the habit of being present.  Once we start to be present in the moment everything opens up.  When we are mindful there is no commentary - it's a very naked experience, wakeful, vivid.

Meditation is not about sitting in a cave for twelve years.  It's everyday life.  Where else do you practice generosity, patience, ethics?  How much patience did I have to have sitting up in my cave listening to the wolves howl?  Ultimately the Buddha dharma is about transforming the mind, which in Buddhist parlance includes the heart.  The transformation of the heart/mind cannot be achieved if we only sit in meditation and ignore the dharma of our everyday life."

Yesterday, I tried to be fully present while putting away the dishes.  It's difficult.  I work everyday at being present in my yoga practice but in my mind, my practice is where I allow myself to practice awareness.  Doing the dishes is often where I allow my mind to wander, to follow crazy paths, to get worked up or get sad.  

Bringing awareness and becoming present in all of our tasks is the challenge.  To quiet the mind and the garbage, to feel with our hearts.

A Thought

And another thought from Glimpse by George Murray.

"It's not easy to be me, but I know that's true for you too."

It's important to remember this sometimes.  We all have bad days.  We all have good days.  We all fear.  We all love.  We all cry.  We all steal.  We all lie.  We all have secrets.  We all have dreams. 

Wisdom From a Novel About Knitting

I'm reading the book The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.  Here's a little excerpt from the beginning of one of the chapters.

Casting On

"The only way to get going is to just grasp that yarn between your fingers and twist.  Just start.  It's the same with life.  Of course, every beginning won't be the same: There are dozens of ways to cast on and they vary based on skill or design or even just relying on the tried and true.  My point?  Sometimes what works for one piece isn't the right way next time.  You have to experiment to see what works.  But there's a similarity no matter the method: you either try or you don't.  So form a slipknot; make a series of twisted loops on one needle and then use its partner to reach through and make a stitch.  Casting on is as much leap of faith as technique."

I guess I'm sharing this with you because as much as we can relate yoga to life, so can we relate other hobbies or interests that we have.  How I dealt with learning how to knit again after 20 years can be similar to how I may tackle life.  How I practice yoga can be similar to how I deal with a job interview.  So just get started.  Get the ball rolling.  It doesn't matter how you start.  Just that you do.

Via

Practice

Do you ever wonder why a practice - be it yoga, writing, painting, tai chi or soccer - brings you peace, tranquility?

In the book, Glimpse - Selected Aphorisms, George Murphy puts it beautifully.

"Routine breeds sameness; shields mediocrity, and creates happiness."

Happy birthday to my LW, who without, I would be searching for the divine in a cloud of mist instead of that which lives within us all,  I would not have these wonderful books lying around the house and I would not be staying up late playing video games and laughing with you.

Sense of Obligation

I have this sense of obligation to people sometimes.  It isn't necessarily a bad thing because I think it makes me who I am but it can sometimes cause me an immense amount of stress.

I admire people who can say no easily or feel no guilt when they change their minds about something.

This is my work in process.  To do what I want to do without feeling guilt or an obligation to people who really don't matter.

"Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is . . . impossible."

                                                         - Richard Bach

"If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are slave."

                                                        - Wayne Dyer

Make It A Habit

Just a thought for a rainy Saturday.

Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss, from Happy Birthday To You

It appears I am on a bit of a Dr. Seuss kick.  But something about his words are so simple and so very profound.

Today, I was asked, how are you?  A girl who I chat to occasionally at the yoga studio asked me this question.  What amazed me by this question was that she meant it.  It was not a passing polite hello.  She actually stopped and took the time to look at me and ask me how I was.  It floored me because it isn't often we are asked this and we are expected to respond truthfully.  But it felt good to be asked and it felt good to be genuinely listened to by someone who doesn't really know me.  Even if it was just for a couple of minutes.  I really appreciated it.

Namaste. 

Be Yourself

This is the simplest truth.  I have been trying to tell myself this lately.  I feel like I've been having subtle and maybe not so subtle confrontations with people in my life lately.  These people aren't all that important, maybe they are, who knows.  But the point is, I need to let it all go.  It really doesn't matter what these people may think of me because I think well of me and those who love me think well of me.  And all I know is that I try to be the best of my best every day and if that isn't good enough for some people, well then, they just don't matter.

Ups and Downs

Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings.

 Rumi

I was searching the mighty world wide web for some thing to inspire my required post for the day and stumbled across this quote by Rumi. 

It got me to thinking about all the ups, downs, twists, turns, mountains and deep crevasses we all experience throughout our lives.  Every moment, every thought, every breath that we inhale and then exhale makes us who we are.

Every person in the world is constantly contracting and then expanding.  We are all changing, all growing, all learning.  Embrace that growth, celebrate the small victories and love yourself for those moments.  They make you, you. 

To Know

"Know yourself.  Know what is good.  Know when to stop."

- Lao Tzu

I feel as though it is so important to know when to stop - when to take a step back and evaluate what's going on.  This pertains, not only, to things that do you harm - too much food, booze, drugs - but also to those things that are good for you.  I have been, in the past, obsessed with food and booze as well as exercise and yoga.  I remember not only overeating but also exercising too much.  An obsession with food is, in my opinion, just as bad as an obsession with over exercising.  I used to feel horrendous guilt if I missed a day of yoga or hate myself if I ate ice cream.  It's important to find balance in all things, whether they be "good" or "bad".  I've started to find that balance, especially with food and yoga.  It's OK if I miss a day or two of practice and it's OK if I've eaten a handful of homemade cookies today.

Fear

I've been thinking about fear a lot lately.  The way I am afraid of competing.  The way I am afraid I will be in the same job in 5 years.  The way I am afraid of many irrational things that are out of my control and that are not happening when I am worrying about them.

Iyengar helped me remember that it is unnecessary to worry.  In his book, Light on Life, he says, "Forget about fear.  In the future there is fear.  In the present there is no fear."

I need to live in the moment.  As I practice my asanas in my living room there is no reason to be afraid of the competition because I am in my living room practicing MY yoga.  That moment - this moment - is mine.

Anthem

"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."  

- Leonard Cohen, Anthem

My mum is very adept at placing lyrics to life experiences.  She pointed this lyric out to me this morning and that it relates to yoga.

I see these lines as an invocation to allow yourself to practice yoga.

Take what you have - all that you have - and embrace it without worrying about lack of perfection or faults.  You will find that you can break through whatever is holding you back and the light will shine for you - feed you.

Relax The Neck and Tongue

In B.K.S. Iyengar's book Light on Life, he discusses how we must relax into the poses - that we must relax and open as we hold the stretch, which in turn will also relax the brain.

 "You must relax the neck and head as well.  If you keep the back skin of the neck passive and the tongue soft, there is no tension in the brain.  This is silence in action, relaxation in action." 

Iyengar states that there is a connection between the tongue and the throat and the brain.  We must relax the tongue and the throat in order to relax the brain.

I went into class this morning with this in my mind.  I was going to try to keep my tongue and throat relaxed through my entire practice.  I have noticed, in the past, that my tongue holds a lot of tension when I practice.  I like to press it against the top of my mouth - especially in Standing Bow and Savasana.

It was humbling to have Iyengar's words in my mind as I went through my practice.  I often caught myself with my tongue tense, but took a moment to relax it.  I found the experience of exerting myself to my 100% in the Standing Series but relaxing my tongue and my throat to be almost laughable.  The teacher cannot see my tongue, she would not have known if it was tense, so I could have kept up with this action with no one being the wiser - except for me.  I feel like I've taken a step in a different direction with my practice today.  I'm not sure where yet - but I know I picked up Iyengar's book Light on Life two years ago and could not finish it.  Right now, I am loving every word that he has written - devouring it.  Our teachers tell us Yoga is a journey.  I think that, today, I actually realized what that means.

Philosophy of Yoga

"Yoga is a fine art and seeks to express the artist's abilities to the fullest possible extent.  While most artists need an instrument, such as a paintbrush or a violin, to express their art, the only instruments a yogi needs are his body and his mind.  The ancient sages compared yoga to a fruit tree.  Fom a single seed grow the roots, trunk, branches and leaves.  The leaves bring life-giving energy to the entrie tree, which then blossoms into flowers and sweet, luscious fruit.  Just as the fruit is the natural culmination of the tree, yoga, too, transforms darkness into light, ignorance into knowledge, knowledge into wisdom and wisdom into unalloyed peace and spiritual bliss."                                                                                                          - B.K.S Iyengar

I like the idea that I am an artist and that my body, mind and spirit are my pieces of art.  I've read somewhere, and I really wish I could find this quote, that people get the same sense of relaxation or meditation from painting, writing, creating and from yoga.  We are all artists in charge of creating our own masterpieces of our Self.