Angels and Essence and Roman Gelato

I love gelato.  I especially love gelato in Rome.  After dinner, with good friends, lots of laughter, and all the city sounds around, it's one of the best things matter has to serve up.  Of course, there are a great many other things matter has to offer, like the smell of fresh coffee early in the morning, strenuous hikes to breathtaking mountain views, astonishing music, afternoons on the beach soaking up the warmth of the sun, or a relaxing massage.  The physical world is also where we experience a great deal of pain and dis-ease, but it is usually the realm we focus on.  The bottom line is that, in general, I think of my sensorial experiences as simply being what they appear to be.  I think of mocha gelato as being what it is, by itself. 

But the Yoga Sutras say not.  And so do other wisdom teachings.

     Cynthia Bourgeault has a wonderful little book called The Wisdom Way of Knowing, and in it she writes about the energetic continuum of densities running through all of creation, a concept I find especially intriguing in light of yoga.  "Virtually all Wisdom teaching recognizes that between the endless unity of God and our own physical universe there are intermediary realms, all with their own modes of being and specific roles to play in the divine hologram.  Realm (kingdom) is the word Jesus himself used to describe one of these, the one most closely entwined with our own.  And he was at constant pains to remind us that how well we connect with this realm has everything to do with how well we are able to play our part here on earth" (p. 45).

     If you diagrammed it, the continuum would look something like this:

Pure Consciousness 

(Spirit)

Psychic Force 

(Energies of attention, will, love, prayer: realm perceivable to an awakened heart)

Energy

Matter 

(the physical world)

     The lower three levels would make up what we think of as the manifest world.  Bourgault writes, the "wisdom model stresses the fluidity of movement along this energetic continuum and the presence of divine consciousness at every level, regardless of the outward form" (p. 46).  I think this fluidity of movement is exactly what T.S. Eliot is alluding to in Little Gidding when he observes, "There is only the Dance."  And it's also what physicists are addressing when they ask the question, "Is light a particle (matter) or a wave (energy)?  Well, the answer is YES.  It's a dance.

     (I'm curious where the yoga sanskrit words would fit on this continuum:  would svarupa (essence, own true splendor) correspond with Pure Consciousness?  Would prakrti (primordial matter) and its three gunas correspond with Matter?)

     But what does all this mean in practical terms?  Very simply, I believe the awakened heart can influence the material world.  We read in the gospels that Jesus did this all the time.  He healed the sick and raised the dead and walked on water and turned well water into the finest wine.  Patanjali writes

You gain

The body of perfection:

A form of light itself;

A frame of diamond strength.  (Yoga Sutras III.47)

     In How Yoga Works Friday observes, "Throughout history there have been reports of miracles.  I mean, maybe it's a woman in a boat with a few close friends on the great Ganges River.  And she walks to the side of the boat, and out onto the water itself, and walks away upon it, some distance from the boat, and turns, and stands there, with her arms open wide.  And you see, it is all because of the seeds in her own mind.  In that sense it is no miracle at all; it is the simple result of patient, dedicated gardening of the seeds within her own mind.  She has perfected the art of self-control: she is perfect in never harming a single other living creature.  And the water is helping, you see: it is . . . not wet by itself:  it is only the seeds in our minds that make us see it so.  And her seeds . . . are different: they are perfect.  And when she looks down at the water, when she steps upon it, it is as solid as marble itself" (p. 387).

     So, essentially, there is not a qualitative difference between healing a bad back with yoga (an idea most of us are pretty comfortable with), and healing burned, scarred skin into healthy skin (an idea that takes us out of our comfort zone), or healing gnarled, arthritic hands into smooth weaving hands (another idea we're not comfortable with).  It's simply a quantitative difference on an energetic continuum.

Stay in that one pure thought,

And never forget it;

That single most important thing:

Things are empty

Of being what they are

By themselves.  (Yoga Sutra I.43A)

     Friday asks the big question: 

Is this green stick a pen [how a human would see it]; 
          or is it something to eat [how a cow would see it]?

The answer is Yes.

Is this flesh--born only to die; or is it pure and loving light?
The answer is Yes.

And there will come a time

When they [beings of light and pure love] invite you

To take your place with them. (Yoga Sutra III.52A)

     "Are there Angels?  Can we become like them, light and our love?  Can we learn to make others that way too?" asks the Captain in How Yoga Works.  Friday answers, "It is what each of us is meant to be, and deep inside, you know that" (pp. 170 and 287).

     But until we become beings of light, we can become more fluid travelers on the energetic continuum bound by time, opening our hearts and minds and bodies to the wonders of the dance, planting our seeds thoughtfully, purposefully, and in full awareness.

Namaste


   

Getting On My Head and Telling the Truth

Notes on Practice This Week:  My hamstrings finally seem to be loosening up a little.  I can finally touch my toes and stay there for a while without thinking a bad word.  Downward dog is still uncomfortable for me as I try to get my heels lower to the floor.  I'm trying to do dogs throughout the day, as well as in daily practice.

My goal is to get a full practice in every day in the evening, but that hasn't been happening--so far, it has been more like 4-5 times a week.  I'm always glad I've done a practice afterwards, so I'm not sure why it continues to be difficult to start one out.  Creating good habits takes a while.  I've been using Rodney Yee's basic poses video; I like his gentle energy, but he doesn't refer to the Sanskrit names of the poses, so in class I always feel behind in remembering those names.

This weekend I was determined to get into a headstand.  I put a thin foam pillow on the floor against the wall, fit my head into my clasped hands and surprised myself by going right up (yay!) for a moment. However, I crashed right over to the side!  The floor was wood, so it was pretty forgiving.  I tried again and got my legs into the air and was able to hold it by really working the core, but, of course, the wall was holding me up.  I noticed my head hurt, so I tried to put more weight on my arms.  Then I tried to come down gently, floating the legs down; I bent my knees and imagined a beautiful, slow descent.  However (again!), my legs surprised me by crashing to the floor, and I landed on my knee caps.

Okay, that really hurt.

So.  I went outside into the front yard which has a lot of nice soft St. Augustine grass and tried to do it there.  However (again), I couldn't get my legs up and balanced at all in the grass.  Maybe I was tired or not focused enough or thinking about my poor knees.  (And my next-door-neighbor called to see if I was ok--geeez, how embarrassing.) 

My kneecaps are fine and not even bruised. So  I'm gonna try again tomorrow.  (I won't be home at all today.)   Sorry I don't have a photo to share of me splatted on the floor.

Notes on This Week's Reading:
Telling the truth is very hard.  I found this out a few years ago when I read The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz.  One of the agreements (with yourself) is to "Be Impeccable With Your Word."  Most of us think we're pretty good at telling the truth, but I realized very quickly I'm not good at this at all.  He writes, "We have learned to lie as a habit of our communication with others and more importantly with ourselves."  That's the hard part--the lying to ourselves.  We create dramas and stories in our own minds and then buy into those.  For example, I might say to myself, "I HAVE to go to that meeting" (no I don't--it's always a choice) or "I don't think that person likes me very much" (I'm probably never even on that person's radar, one way or the other).

How Yoga Works expands on this whole idea of being impeccable with our words.

The second form of self-control

Is always telling the truth. 
(Yoga Sutra II.30B)

This means "striving, as we speak, never to create even the smallest misimpression in the mind of the person listening to us" (How Yoga Works, p. 264).  (I love the idea of getting a bag of black and white pebbles or marbles and keeping track each day through an internal "compassionate observer" of how may times we plant a good seed or a bad seed.)

It is also important when teaching others a valuable tradition to be extremely accurate in what we relate.  For example, if we are teaching someone else yoga, we have to be careful to teach it impeccably, not throwing in some of our own ideas without stating that these are are own ideas, and not leaving out any important ideas that are part of the tradition.  I know I struggle with this myself in teaching my managerial students the Enneagram.  It's so easy to simply toss in some of my own ideas off the cuff, as if they were part of the tradition.

There are three ways to plant good seeds with our words.  The first is to "avoid ever speaking in a way that might split people up--that might make them upset at each other" (p. 290).  The second is to "avoid ever saying something to someone else that would hurt their feelings" (p. 290).  And last, and most difficult of all, is to avoid useless talk.  "Most of us like to talk all day long, whether there's anything important to say or not. . . .  I'm talking about just talking for talking's sake" (p. 291).  

I agree that the hardest way of telling the truth is to avoid useless talk.  I call that chatter.  And I'm pretty darn good at it, and especially comfortable with it when I'm with family and very close friends.  This one is a challenge.  I look forward to exploring the beauty of silence more.  Actually, this is something I've been working on for a few years, and it's always a difficult work in progress for me.  I have noticed that I get very, very tired now when I'm around extended chatter.  I've also noticed that when most people don't have ideas or insights or new thoughts to share, they often talk about other people. 

So my specific goals this week are to practice the asanas on a daily basis, work some more on my headstand, and be very aware of what is coming out of my mouth.  

I saw a great acronym this week:

Namaste

The Mango Seed

                               

                                    In How Yoga Works, Friday says to the Captain, 
           "If we discover that a worldview does not work--if it does not help people, 
   if it does not really bring real happiness to people--then we must have the courage 
           to stop following it and correct it, and not blindly pass on to our children 
  something which will not work for them either, something which may even hurt them"  
                                                  (Chapter 34, p. 257).

This made me think of some quotes and a cartoon I've seen in the last few years.  

First, when the Dalai Lama was asked what surprised him most about humanity, he replied, “Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.  Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

And Ellen Goodman writes, "Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."

So it seems our typical worldview is not working well for us on a number of different levels: we structure our days in non-nurturing ways, we insist on seeing things as black or white politically and religiously, we live in fear that creates an "us" and "them" mentality, and we feel the compulsion to accumulate and hoard because we believe if others have something we want, there might not be enough left for us.   All these ways of seeing things seem to grow out of a dualistic way of thinking:  If I'm right, you must be wrong.  A can only ever be A.

To me, yoga seems like a wonderful way out of dualistic thinking.  Jesus' teachings do, as well.

Franciscan Father Richard Rohr writes in What the Mystics Know, "Jesus said that it took parables to subvert our unconscious worldview--and thereby expose its illusions, even to us.  Parables should make us a bit uncomfortable if we are really hearing them. . . .  A parable confronts our world and subverts it.  It doesn't call for discussion, debate, or questions; it is not God-as-information.  Rather it is God-as-invitation-and-challenge.  A parable calls us to insight and decision.  A parable doesn't lead us to endless analysis; it's either a flashing insight or it's nothing.  Like a joke, ti leads up to the punch line.  Either you get it or you don't" (pp. 67-8).

In yoga, the ultimate self control is "how we see things, for this view of the world--this worldview--is what will determine what all of us do in our words and actions, and what we pass on to our children for them to follow" (How Yoga Works, p. 257).

The universe is abundant, in every sense.  If we give and share and nurture, good seeds will be planted, and more good seeds will result.

"No seed is ever wasted: nothing we ever do, nothing we ever say, nothing we ever think ever fails to plant a seed. . . .  Seeds in the mind, over time, grow: they expand, and get bigger, just as much as seeds in nature do. . . .  Are not even the hopes that drive people to work at an occupation for their entire lifetimes, for decades, born in a single idea as they begin their careers?  Mental seeds don't grow any less than mango pits, and probably a lot more. . . .  We all have a job to do.  We have to try to get at the old bad seeds--the ones already planted in our minds in the past, by mistake.  Whatever old good seeds we have need reinforcement, and cultivating. . . .  In short, we must become experts at the intelligent management of our mental seeds" (How Yoga Works, pp. 209-12).

We must become

As gardeners.

(Yoga Sutras IV.3B)

Karma and Konsequences

Weekend musings:  In yoga, karma works through the seeds we plant from moment to moment.  When we are kind to someone else, we plant a good seed within ourselves.  And if we are unkind to someone else, we plant a bad seed.  And seeds, at some point in time, will germinate and grow and bear fruit.

       "Since everything works through seeds then we finally  have a choice in the matter:
we can consciously and purposely design and build our own future into a garden paradise."
                                                           (How Yoga Works, p. 230)

This lazy fall Saturday morning was great to wake up to.  Some sun salutation stretches, a hot cacao smoothie, and chapters from How Yoga Works, with cats purring and dogs sighing nearby.  The pages look back at me while I read--that's always fun!

(Here's my own personal yummy cacao recipe; I've been enjoying this most mornings for several years.  It's a secret weapon for anti-inflammation, a good dose of magnesium, adrenal support, and morning energy.)

1 T. raw organic cacao nibs
2 T. Dandyblend roasted dandelion powder
1 T. raw maca root powder
2 heaping T. collagen hydrolysate (amino acids)
1 tsp. He Shou Wu
1/2 tsp. raw lucuma powder
1-2 T. raw coconut oil
2 drops Food for the Immortals stevia
2 1/2 cups hot chaga or gynnostema (Spring Dragon) or adrenal support tea
Blend for a moment in the Vitamix, get cozy with your critters, and enjoy!

And this is Gracie and Sam chillin' with me and my cacao.  Sam (he's half greyhound) got into it with a possum or squirrel, but he's healing right up.

I'm sitting in on a philosophy of yoga class taught by Anne-Marie Schultz, and she is the inspiration for beginning this blog.  It feels very odd to be writing personal observations outside of anything but a private journal, so this is a new journey for me.  I'm not exactly following the course instructions for structuring the blog, since I'm just sitting in, and I hope she'll forgive me that.

This semester is a heavy one--I'm teaching a managerial communications class, 3 business writing classes, and a technical writing class for engineering students.  In addition to these 5 classes, I also have a University 1000 class of new freshmen students to take good care of.  All in all, this adds up to a lot of prep and a lot of grading, so taking time to blog a bit seems like a huge luxury, but perhaps a much needed one.

After reading this morning, it was time to do some Native American smudging to help bring in the new fall season.  I keep a pile of dried herbs going outside from the herb garden, so there's always a steady supply of sage, oregano, chives, rosemary, thyme, and bay to go into the chiminea for yard and home smudging.  I smudge my whole body, too, while I'm at it, but I've found I can't breathe in very much of the smoke, so I don't stay in the middle of it for very long.

It's almost fall equinox, and the fall Italian kale is coming in nicely.  My son David spent a summer in Costa Rica farming right after he graduated from high school, and one of the things he learned from the head gardener he worked with was to fill edible gardens with DNA to give the plants and soil plenty of information about any healing needs.  So I try to do that, soaking seeds in my saliva before planting them, and adding water from washing feet and hands (there's a nice discussion of this practice in the Russian novel Anastasia).

(For me, it feels odd to take photos of daily life.  It seems to take away the focus from the actual experience, take the photographer out of the moment, and create a bit of disconnect between the subject and object; but I'm going to try it for a time and see how it continues to go.  I don't like the sense of "if I document it, it will be more real."  But on the other hand, I ask my own communications students to "document" their daily experiences by writing memos once a week of their own observations and processing of class readings; when they apply what they've read thoughtfully and specifically to what they observe in daily life and then tell tell their stories, it facilitates deeper processing and application.  It helps grow information into knowledge, and even knowledge into wisdom.)

Well, back to Saturday morning....  Some of my fellow monks are traveling for a few weeks in Ethiopia.  I would love to have been able to go with them, but, of course, there is work.  Here's a photo that just came through--I never realized what a beautiful country Ethiopia is; and they're finding the people there simply amazing (no surprise).  Evidently, the group has gone dancing quite a few times, so they must be having fun!  http://theooow.com

So my thoughts are with them as they travel.  And with my daughter in Panama, who is working on reforestation and helping the local community get personal vegetable gardens growing; and with my son, who is a senior this year at Baylor taking 18 hard hours while working 2 part-time jobs.  He sells open coconuts at the Waco Farmer's Market--they're an awesome drink!

I'll end out today's musings with some thoughts from last yoga class.  We touched on the differences between Essence and Soul and our compassionate "observer" and our ego/personality constructs. When I visualize these different aspects of our Selves, it helps me to think of the ancient Sufi metaphor of Essence being WATER, and each soul being a smaller body of WATER (like a lake or pond), and our personality/ego constructs being the ripples and waves on the surface of that pond.  I suppose the observer would be the part of us that is thinking about this metaphor.  The part of this metaphor that's comforting to me is to know that each and every lake and pond is made up of WATER, or Divine ESSENCE.

So my commitment this week is to become aware of good and bad seeds I am planting through my words and actions and even my thoughts.  Awareness brings a heightened ability to make good choices.

 Namaste.