Thoughts Provoked On Breathing
Being vacuous is the new luxury. Vacuous defined as, ‘empty, void, vacant.’ The modern inference is, lacking intelligence. But the truly vacuous state may be the most intelligent after all. When we are empty – are we not available for filling? When was the last time there was space to not do-YOU? When was it [...]
Read more Serene As A Fish
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A newcomer to class, observing a Shakti Yoga Dance for the first time, told me he was surprised at how strongly it affected him. He asked how I chose to put them together, why connect those particular Asanas? Surprised by the question I had to question, how do these dances grow out of the mat? [...]
Read more Sometimes When We Dance
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Last week I wrote about ‘right relationship.’ This week, I un-expectedly return to that theme due to an article in the NY Times on 1/5/12, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Life,” by William J. Broad. It has gone viral in the Yoga community, and despite being well written, and informative, has created tremendous fear and [...]
Read more Love & Loathing
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For some strange reason- the world decided to begin a new year in winter’s thickness, when natures turns in, and the north wind summons silence and long sleep. Perhaps winter’s slow and quiet offers needed space to review and consider how best to begin again? It takes fortitude, desire, and generosity to forgive and surrender [...]
Read more Right Relationship
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At the revolutionary beginning of America, Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together now, or we shall most certainly hang separately.” In this Last Breath of 2011 I’ll echo Ben’s advice, ‘be your own best revolutionary.’ We must be the source of our inspiration, and our happiness. We can’t roll over hoping for our [...]
Read more Resurrection
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On this Solstice night, Declaring winter, The year’s closing sigh relents By-gone months of Broken selves strewn Untidily in cobwebbed corners, Dreams shrugged From shoulders bowed in Disappointment and desiccated hope. Effort and agony-the excellent products. On this longest, darkest night Let us sit silent in review Lest we miss angelic, “Hurrah” For failure and [...]
Read more Winter Solstice
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This time of year takes us into the dark, our inner core of sustenance, which does not have to be mysterious, but when given half a chance-is. As explored in last week’s Breath, we are in that straddling time of endings and beginnings, of work and celebration, of fall into winter, of questioning past results [...]
Read more Mystery & Mastery
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Straddling is not easy. When we are of two minds it’s difficult to make clear decisions. Emotionally, when we are un-committed, neither fish nor fowl, we stew. Straddling is more difficult with big changes such as divorce, losing a job, a child arriving, or a parent dying. This requires we figure out new energetic pathways [...]
Read more Straddling
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The stranger arrived five days ago. I see him stride along the storm-line Stooped and blood weary Yet resistant to surrender, Walking miles with himself Watched by those inside Warm by fires, wondering Does he want friendship? Is he hungry to be seen And sit shoulder to shoulder With us as the dogs do? He [...]
Read more The Stranger’s Grace
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How much room does expectation take up? Where does it live? Who does if feed? How do we see it? When is it at its worst? And…if you did not expect ‘it,’ would there be room for more delightful things such as contentment, awareness, lack of angst, and more turkey? It’s hardest when we expect [...]
Read more Holiday Minefield
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We can choose to perceive the mundane as a grand, and weird mystery, or a boring dump. We can, and do, edit our viewpoints from multiple perspectives in every moment: spiritual, self-absorbed, short-sighted, hopeful, angry, in awe, confident, un-knowing, detached, add-on ad-nausea. As Buddha said, if you are sad, wait until the next breath. In [...]
Read more Engaged In Mystery
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Dear Wayfarers and fellow travelers, I am in need of help, your fine perspicacity, your thought-filled-feedback. ‘Tis Scorpio’s season, and in her required depth charge I have returned to questioning the why of it all yet once again. It is not a serene Yogic-place. It is swampy and stanky, filled with odors of discontent and fear. [...]
Read more No Serenity/No Surrender
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The dark life remembers What it lives without. The shadowed psyche undresses Strewing torn garments Across grass, flattened by first frost, As the bone white sliver, Pushed by damp clouds, Rises in twilight indigo. The imagination unfolds, Excited by lost affection, hapless wounds, Careless words of what we idolize And demonize, What we pray for [...]
Read more Preparing The Celebration
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Last week the Breath was about karmic relationships, today- it’s physical relationships… of the body-type, and how we perceive those relationships among this/that/these & those. Body parts reverberate to one another in much the same way we vibrate personally to one another. Not only is the body in constant re-balancing left to right, but it [...]
Read more Mysteries of Relationship
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This fall calls for us to be clear about who we are, to be as authentic as we know how, and to unhook from what, and who no longer represents us. Life always demands this, but if we don’t, or can’t now, we shall be lost in the tsunamis of change. Few of us are [...]
Read more Karmic Connections
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All life connects/links/sequences/combines in some way, usually in many ways, on multiple levels. Sequencing brings continuous states of union and dissolution that inform and relay intuitive and conscious information. Part of the difficulty in forming these connections is the early training we received. When very small, were you taught consequences? Forgiveness? Friendships? Did you learn [...]
Read more Translating The Light
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Despite the dizzying sense of speed, the structure of fall’s equinox provides a moment of stillness, a symbolic cross road that divides the year into one of its four seasonal quadrants. Like spring’s Vernal Equinox, along with the Summer and Winter Solstices, Autumn’s equinox is an astrological transition when we open a door to the [...]
Read more Autumn’s Equinox
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If “the goal of the journey is to discover yourself as consciousness,” as Joseph Campbell said, then what revelations did this summer’s wing-ding of an Astrological force-field bring you? These past months of inner heightened intensity and emotional landmines, seen via the outer picture through ‘The Arab Spring, the Japanese tsunami and nuclear spill, the [...]
Read more The Really Big Picture
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In late August Chromatic scales slur and thrum, Ricocheting tree to tree On a million Cicada legs. The scordatura made more brilliant by Layered crescendos of Skylarking bird, and squirrel in sharp exchange…. Except at Brahma Mutra. This first light of defining silence Is the conductor’s inhale, Arms lifted, finger extends ‘Wait-Wait-Hold Now! The arm [...]
Read more Last Summer Prelude
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One of my great teachers, Daniel Orlansky, quoted another great teacher, Osho, and I was reminded of my first great teacher, Helen. They have all said or demonstrated the same profound rule in different ways, but when something is completely true, it is true for all time and in all circumstances. This is one of [...]
Read more Good & Great Non-Commandments
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