OVERWHELMING ABUNDANCE

From Yoga Journal, December 2009.
In 2006 Cami Walker was suffering from recently diagnosed multiple sclerosis when her spiritual teacher challenged her to give a gift every day for 29 days. The gifts could be anything- a pretty shell to a child building a sandcastle, money to a person on the street , a word of cheer to a friend-as long as they were given with consciousness and intention. This experience of reaching out to others, which Walker chronicles in her book 29 GIFTS, HOW A MONTH OF GIVING CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE, resulted in what she describes as a fundamental shift in her mindset, imbuing her with a deep sense of freedom and joy that affected her experience of her illness.
"It turned my life around completely," she says. "I now see I am a small part of a much greater whole, rather than the self contained, deserted island I felt like before. She also says "Yoga teaches us that we are not here to live in a vacuum. We are here to be of service to each other and have a common experience." -Charity Ferreira

When I discovered this book and Cami Walker on the internet, I decided to commit myself to the task of "29 days of giving" and see what that experience was like. It meant going beyond ways I normally give and being very mindful in that. I will let you know what I learn. In the meantime if you are interested go to 29gifts.org to see what it is all about and maybe take up the challenge.

"The Window In"

Everyone seemed to enjoy the readings from this chapter this week.
We laughed as we heard familiar descriptions of what the mind does when it drifts and settles somewhere!!! ... a difficult conversation we had 10 years ago, or a fantasy about the man sitting next to us at a meeting or a retreat. The breath is the one thing that can be a touchstone to come back to. "I am sitting here, on my yoga blanket, breathing in and out", or "I am sitting here in my car stuck in traffic, something I cannot change, and I am breathing in and out." We can let ourselves pause and accept what is without reacting, without entertaining ourselves with fantasy and veering away from reality.
What are we saying to ourselves when we are in a difficult yoga pose..??? Are we in conflict with what is? Are we trying to steer away from what is real in this moment? Did we get hooked in a drama?
The point is if we are always caught up in our fixed reference points it will be very difficult to see things from a fresh perspective and we will miss seeing things as they truly are. We will miss the reality that with every breath we are changing.

Leaving Behind Your Gut Instinct?

How often have you experienced a gut feeling, a sense of knowing, a bodily intuition about something and then proceeded to ignore it? I think we all have. In that moment we may want to go with our "executive ego" as D. Farhi calls it. We have a plan, and even though our heart may be telling us something deep from within, we are not willing to let go of our what our intellect says.
The body and mind are meant to work in harmony with each other. Yoga asks us to learn to relate to the body-mind and the movement of life force. Life force is the energy behind our organs of perception, the shape of our structure or posture, our rhythm and the way we move. Through yoga we can access our own natural wisdom, we become more conscious and "internally literate". Isn't that what Socrates said when he spoke of knowing oneself?
The next time your body gives you a subtle message, practice listening. Trust your inner wisdom.
"To know your life is to know intimately what you are feeling." -Stephen Levine

Mr Duffy

"Mr Duffy lived a short distance from his body".
This is a quote from a short story by James Joyce. This week we discussed "embodied awareness". Many of us live cut off from the wisdom and insight our bodies have to offer. We attempt to extinguish painful feelings with addictive behaviors and disassociating from what is going on in our inner world. We may have negative attitudes to parts of our bodies, longing for so called perfection. Donna Farhi reminds us that aliveness lives in the body. In order to enjoy the richness of being alive we must return to living in the body and not in our heads with an executive ego that controls the body. When we come into the body and the breath, it is a coming home to what is real, coming home to who we are with all our uniqueness and imperfections and knowing that we are always changing. We can then make choices from that "embodied awareness".

"The Freedom of Discipline"

Donna Farhi tells us that discipline is any practice that contains our thoughts, energy and actions so that we can use ourselves in a potent way.
She shares that a longing for freedom is healthy, and a vital component for any spiritual journey.
However, we need to be discerning about how we channel our energy and the choices we make so as not to be "drinking salty water to quench our thirst".
We can become more skillful in our choices by "increasing our tolerance for staying in the pause between desire and satisfaction". In the pause we make our choices.
When we practice, we make room for all of our feelings and yet not allow our feelings to become our identity. The feelings are just " a passing show", they are not who we are. We can be diligent about remaining a witness, a neutral witness to the "passing show" or "mind stuff".

"Today it is rainy but the sky is not wet, tomorrow it is sunny but the sky does not ignite into flames." The sky remains a neutral witness.

The Fourth Brahmavihara

In week # 4 we discussed the 4 attitudes or" brahmaviharas" that Patanjali gives us in the Yoga Sutras. We spent time looking at the last one as this one we believed was the most challenging.
These attitudes are a way to begin "cleaning up our social relationships" and a preliminary step to clearing the mind. The 4th attitude is "Remaining impartial to the faults and imperfections of others". (Yoga Sutra 1.33). Donna Farhi says,"Our spiritual fitness can be tested only in relationship to others". She says, "What we refuse in ourselves, we refuse in others". In other words what we refuse to see and accept in ourselves will make us intolerant of the same in another.
Think of the last time you were critical or harsh with your judgement toward another. How does that manifest in yourself? A good question to ask sometimes is just "And how am I that too?"

Sloth

Donna Farhi writes a whole chapter on "sloth" in her book, Bringing Yoga To Life. "I know no better word than sloth to describe the habitula disinclination to effort that thwarts the potential of the budding spiritual seeker... Sloth makes it almost impossible to establish a firm ground for practice and even if we are able to do so , sloth may prevent us from sustaining any ground."

She suggests that if inertia is a way of life then we need to take a good look at what the cause is and that busyness does not necessarily mean that our actions are purposeful. Busyness can keep us in a stuck place just as much as inactivity.
She suggests that "the contemplation of death might help us to discriminate between what is salient to our very being and what is not... what is important and what is not". Using our energy wisely is part of the 4th yama, Brahmacharya, also expressed as merging our energy with God or the divine.
If in any moment we are aware that our actions are reflecting our values and our life purpose, we are aligning with the light within that is our "true nature".