Yoga Makes You Well
May you be filled with loving kindness, may you be well,
May you be filled with loving kindness, may you be well,
may you be peaceful and at ease, may you be happy.
may you be peaceful and at ease, may you be happy.
Blog
Fences, neighbors, forgiveness
Posted on July 13, 2014 at 8:13 PM |
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Today's guest post comes from Joel Smith. What can I say about Joel? He is a friend from college, so I have known him over twenty years. He and I both have gone through many phases of our personal moons as we traversed our twenties and thirties. Forty brings some disparate threads together and I have found myself feeling the need to weave them into something true and personal as I pass midlife and head into the second act of this play. For Joel, this means letting go of the freedom of flying all around the globe as a flight attendant and going back home to south Georgia (from Hawaii!) to take care of mom and dad. He has made the transition with a great deal of grace and love, as he does most things. Joel meditates and explores religions generally. Back home in Douglas, he has been exploring the faith he and I were both born to and raised in, Christianity. Ghandi wrote that he was often asked to switch to a number of different faiths as he met people on his spiritual journey. He always replied that he thought all faiths were valid and that he was born a HIndu and that was the faith he would remain, although he did see the merit of other faiths. I loved him for that. Joel is honoring the faith he was born into by studying it and applying its lessons. I get such a sense of place as he writes about the bible, neighbors, and summertime watermelons. This poignant little blog post captures so much of what I have always loved about Georgia. ______________________________________________________________________ This morning I read lesson 134
in A Course in Miracles. It invites us to spend 15 minutes with “the
Guide Who understands the meaning of forgiveness … Then choose one
brother as He will direct, and catalog his ‘sins,’ as one by one they
cross your mind...” I sat on the
screened porch with a timer, closed my eyes and was surprised that my
neighbor Paul came to mind. Paul has lived next door since my parents
bought this house over 30 years ago. He is kind, devoted to his family,
and has been nothing but helpful in all these years. Since I’ve moved
back in to help look after my ailing parents, he often calls to me from
his yard to ask about their health. At least this naming of grievances
part of the exercise would go by quickly, because I’ve got nothing
against the guy, really, except that he doesn’t like my dog, which I
understand; she barks at him sometimes. Oh
yeah, and he had called me over to the fence the other day to complain
that my mother sometimes lets the dog out without a leash. That was
really uncalled for. She’s such a good dog; who cares if she gets a
taste of freedom occasionally? He’s just not willing to try to get the
dog to like him. He thinks it’s hopeless to try to train a dog like ours
to be nice to neighbors. I bet he watches a lot of that ridiculous
cable “news” channel where they harp on things like dog attacks. He must
be pretty gullible to believe what he sees on TV over the evidence in
real life right next door. He is so old that really he is set in his
ways. There’s just no hope for him to change. And on and on it went. I
had considered this man a friend, and the list of his “sins” was
surprisingly long. The lesson
instructs me to ask myself, after each “evil thing” I’ve listed, "Would I
condemn myself for doing this?" At first, my answers were along the
lines of “No, of course not. I love dogs. I’m not that gullible. Or that
old.” Then I remembered a Course principle that Jacob Glass recently
spoke about: "ideas leave not their source." These accusations and evil
thoughts never left the mind of the accuser, yours truly. By holding
these grievances about the neighbor - a friend - I was poisoning not
just myself, but my entire experience of life and the world. And if I’m
doing that with these minor complaints about a good neighbor, I shudder
to think what I’m doing with people I actively dislike or fear. The
Course tells us that we are all part of a unified Sonship, that God’s
creation is one with itself and with Him in truth. As Michael Beckwith
shouted to his congregation last Sunday, channeling the Beatles, “I am
you and you are me!” By holding things against this neighbor, I was
immediately contaminating my experience of God. I was the source of
these judgements. I could hold on to them, or I could enter a place of
calm peace by just realizing I have been instructed to love my neighbor
as myself -- because he IS my Self. We are both part and whole of the
perfectly created unified Self. My butt was still in the patio chair,
but my spirit was soaring. Waves of peace and joy washed over me as I
surrendered to this realization and allowed petty grievances to dissolve
in Holy Light. The phone rang before
my timer sounded, and I was feeling too good to get up and answer. A few
seconds later, my mother came to the porch and ended the revelry: “Paul
wants you to go meet him at the fence.” If my life had a movie
soundtrack, the angelic music would’ve stopped suddenly with that sound
effect of a needle sliding across a record. Never in 30+ years had Paul
called on the phone and asked for me. Are we being sued? Had Mom ignored
the signs I’d put on the front and side doors to make sure the dog was
on leash? I donned flip-flops and
dutifully walked toward the fence in the hot sun. I could see this
80-year old man was carrying half a watermelon and a big Ziploc bag
full of sliced cantaloupe. I thanked him as he passed the locally grown
gifts across the fence. He smiled and said he hoped we were all doing
well, then turned to go back inside. As I got back inside our house, I
was greeted by the sound of that timer on the porch. The morning’s
lesson was over, and today it had included a little field trip and a
light breakfast. |
An Engineer Meditates
Posted on June 25, 2014 at 10:34 PM |
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My meditation group meets weekly and brings together all sorts of varied characters. One of these characters is my pal, Karl Rosenblum. He is a meditator and an engineer. He blogs about it at http://karlrosenblum.com/blog/meditate/, so if you like his post, surf on over and check out his site. He is today's guest blogger. _________________________________ I have the worst possible mind for meditating. Not only is my brain
working overtime on ideas and next steps on everything from work, yard
projects, family and blogging, but my job as a strategic planner for a
manufacturing company, has me looking out in intervals of 2, 5 and 10
years in the future. This is definitely not "being here and now." But
that being said, perhaps that's why I decided to meditate. It's easy to
chastise myself about past mistakes and plot a million future
scenarios, but it’s hard to just sit in the present moment and think of
...nothing! Learning meditation in a group environment taught by monks
was just the ticket. So, how did I
do it? Yes, practice and determination were important, but I needed a
few tricks. First off, get centered, no sense thinking about what is
going on outside of the meditation hall. Second, focus on a simple
object to prevent random images from creating a distraction. Call it a
mantra for the eyeballs. And lastly, and the hardest for me, repeat any
mantra over and over to crowd out the sporadic thoughts and imaginary
conversations. Drown it out! Louder and faster is better, although not
out loud. To capture my thoughts I
decided to blog about my experience. In the blog, I describe the
challenges and successes with my meditation practice, including the
details my left brain has decided to catalog. As a result, I have become
mindful of my progress in the art of mindfulness. |
Paddling- Taking the Lessons Off the Mat
Posted on April 22, 2013 at 9:29 PM |
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Paddling- Taking the Lessons
Off the Mat Headwinds The wind started to blow and we could paddle as hard as possible
and not really go anywhere. We paddled
straight into the wind, but the full river still did not carry us along like it
had the day before. In the center of the
river, there were white-capped waves- flowing upstream. It was a surprise and something of a
struggle. Finding the Quiet Place As we passed each other, we complained and shared our
concern. We all had an “are we there
yet?” mentality. Plus we were
tired. Paddling into the wind takes
quite a bit of effort. As we went across
the center of the river, I realized that we had the easiest time when we faced
the wind and waves pointed into them.
They were to be listened to and I got low in the boat, kneeling. The wind, the waves, the river- all required
my complete focus. And so I quieted my
mind. I stopped complaining and worrying
and just started listening to the water and the wind. Characters The first day’s paddle did not star the river. But the second day certainly did. The river and the wind together were having
this conversation that was powerful.
There was nothing to do but to listen to it. And I did.
At the end of the paddle, I felt like I had learned something from
getting still and listening. I was glad
to take the boat out, for sure. We all
were. But there was something focused
and still about working with nature the second day. When I got to know the Altamaha the second
day, I got some new respect for the river, for the wind, for boats, for my
fellow paddlers- and for myself. And it
all came from listening. Meditation in Action Meditation brings focus and awareness to what is, allowing
us to be present with it. When we show
up and are present, our lives take on new dimensions. We become three-dimensional characters in our
own perceptions. Once we become
fleshed-out, so do the others in our lives.
The first day, the river was a one-dimensional character for me. She was beautiful, but ultimately
nondescript- just like every other river.
But the second day, she demanded my presence. And then I got to know her in a much deeper
way. I listened to her. And she spoke. |
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