Inspirations: Archives

We are in the three days, known as Wesak, that honor Buddha’s birthday. This year the Wesak full moon fell in Scorpio, a powerful symbol for one who transformed life to embody compassionate enlightenment. Buddha, literally meaning ‘one who is awake,’ denotes anyone arriving at supreme compassion and wisdom, transcending desire and suffering. “Oh, if only we could,” we murmur. But no matter how much caffeine, or driven desire spins each moment, that totality of wakefulness eludes. Despite understanding that the yearn to be different, that what, and who I am creates my unhappiness, I continue to wish life different than what is. While appreciating all that most moments offer, there is a twisty angst for it to be better. Great and wise sages through the ages advised that wanting something other than what-is, creates our pain, and our enslavement. But how to shift? How to grow? How to transform? Isn’t that wishing life to be different, enlightened even? Holding the polarity in one of my favorite Yoga poses, Ardha Chandrasana/Half Moon, I ask this imponderable question, looking to the physical for a satisfaction of knowing. If I can feel how to hold four oppositions, creating a firm and contented center, then perhaps I shall begin to hold the oppositions of Buddha’s path. While my chest revolves to open upward, I question the heart, “How do I remain happy just as I am, yet not lose the desire to grow, to be awake?” Perhaps if I were fully awake, I would be only with the moment of opening into Half Moon, knowing that all else will evolve from its centering joy. Even two seconds from now is too far in the future. Perhaps I dis-honor the glory in this moment by moving beyond it, or out of it, when it… Read more »