In practice Images Arise and Pass...

The other week I found myself supine with the gaze turned inward
the breath grounded and united with body
the next breath in led to a scene of a vast and expansive field
out in the expansive vista, far in the distance-
     came into my view Krishna moving over the land
     blowing wind through his flute
moving along images of the sacred cattle grazing over the grass

from where I sat on the hillside I could sense the rising tingle
up my spine and a warm flow of energy

it was the in-breath that deepened the experience and hung
in the sky was both the sun and moon- they simultaneously
radiated over the field

it was the out-breath that truly settled me in deeper, calmer, moving
me toward surrender

it was only for a moment when I could feel the heart chakra expand
and the warm expanded to meet my limbs and everything else
all around

all images faded as i slowly prepared to release the pose...

john

establishing divinity

As I sat in contemplation tonight, after a period of reading, these two words (establishing divinity) appeared in my consciousness. I sat and softened into them and what arose was the remembering that it is both important to 1. accept experience, and also 2. cultivate positive experience. Patanjali wrote about this in the context of "cultivating wholesome thoughts". I agree with this, and I would like to broaden thoughts to all of experience. For in psychology, behavioral modification is equally as important as cognitive restructuring. In simple terms, you can engage in positive, joyful experience, just as you can cultivate a mental image of a joyful, positive experience. Both can move one's beingness in a positive direction toward the Ultimate (the experience of connection with something profound), which is had in the present moment. Thus, the cultivation of positive experience, in my view, happens through present moment awareness.

This is the state of mindfulness.

Intentionally directing oneself toward direct here and now experience. For me, the harmonic tapping on the keyboard keys as I type, the music playing in the background, the tightness in my back and shoulders from sitting at the computer. The glare of the monitor slapping up against my glasses. This type of anchoring of the being to the moment. The engaging of oneself through the body to the innate holding onto the life world that the body has. Firmly rooting consciousness in body- I believe this to be the path toward liberation from suffering. And yes, often liberation is found in and through suffering. In and through are aspects of the prefix "trans", thus moving oneself through the various aspects (mind, body, spirit) of existence, one touches the transpersonal. It is through this realization that suffering and bliss are both states of being. As such, they can be cultivated just the same.

Namaste,
John

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stepping on to the mat

stepping onto the mat each day brings forth the grace that constantly flows yet in the constant flow I wonder - how it is so easy to forget that sense of inner divinity i smile at how nothing is as clear off the mat as it is on the mat off the mat i constantly stumble but when on i flow like a rolling thunder heart and lungs driving my locomotive body inhale tadasana to high mountain exhale down to uttanasna inhale ardha uttanasa looking forward and the joyful exhale jump back chatturangua dandasana inhale urdva mukha savasana exhale adho mukha savansana inhale bending the knees looking forward exhaling and end of exhale flying back to uttanasna and inhale rising all the way up high mountain exhale back to tadasana anjali mudra and the vinyasa is complete i am complete whole, so complete and beautiful just as I always was yet so easy i somehow forget all that love and grace

namaste,
john r
love and grace

Padmasana

just pause

you are spectacular in this moment

the wind is blowing just right outside

its Sunday

a fine day to connect to body

move your legs into Padmasana

root down through the sit bones

inhale up and lengthen the spine
let the body find

   a dignified posture

relax the shoulders
relax the jaw

let the eyes fall silent

bring awareness to the third eye

notice the breath

Tuesday Meditation

There is no doubt that the days can be long and by the end the body, mind, and spirit can be tired. That may be one of the better times to sit mindfulness. Even though i am not fresh at the end of the day, it becomes a real practice to see if I can accept fully what it is like to sit while extremely tired and exhausted. It certainly may not be a walk in the park, and a beautiful aspect of mindfulness is that the true emphasis is on accepting what is. So, if the end of the day rolls around and there is nothing but fatigue and an exhausted existence, then simply allow it and welcome yourself home into yourself. Give yourself permission to feel what is there with kindness, love, and acceptance.

Food for thought and comment: What do you do for practice at the end of the day when you feel tired and worn out by a busy day of work?

Namaste.

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On Mind

If you stay in the mind and never exit the mind
 You can never get to know the mind
For there is no contrast

One who is all mind can never question mind
 Mind pervades

The path to exit mind is spiritual and psychological work
 Deep inner work in relationship with environment

In meditation mind is observed
And thus mind becomes known

In knowing mind, mind is seen to not be ruler
 Mind can take its role as servant
 To a much greater guide

That guide is both within and without
That guide is All Divine
Divine is not separate
Divine fills All of Life

All Of Life is All One

Letting it be

An essential question that comes up in mindfulness practice is the question of what to do with all the ’stuff’ that comes up. Well, one way to work with all that ’stuff’ in the practice is to just let it be. Letting it be does not mean “push it away!”, rather it means to continue to be with that which arises in experience in a gentle and nonjudgemental way from a place of unconditional acceptance. Mindfulness encourages radical acceptance, that is the complete acceptance of changing experience. The key word here is changing, it is about the acknowledgment of that the objects that arise in awareness are impermanant and will continue to evolve and transform into something else. This is an inevitable, thus if one can just let it be, one will naturally observe that experience, just like everything else is evolving and in flux. As the old saying goes, ‘this too shall pass’. Namaste.

Practice

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Meditations

Monday

As part of my mindfulness practice, I enjoy a reading at the end of sitting that stirs the mindful way of life inside of me. The poem read today was an Octavio Paz poem entitled: “Between Going and Staying”. Toward the end of the poem, Paz writes:

“I find myself in the middle of an eye,
watching myself in its blank stare.
The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause”

I interpret Paz’s words in the context of mindfulness in that while in sitting meditation I am able to further develop the capacity of witness consciousness, i.e., the aspect of my being that is capable of taking a step back from experience to make objective observations of what is happening in the present moment. The “watching myself” connotes a kind of witness to one’s own experience, however what is even more interesting is how Paz notes the “blank stare” and the tendency to “stay and go”, while I can never be sure what his meaning was, I interpret these words for myself as reminders of my ability to get lost in mind which leaves my present-moment bodily experience a ‘blank stare’ and through this process I get lost in a kind of coming and going, or in Paz’s words “stay” and “go”. Mindfulness teaches us how to awaken our innate capacity to be present. While there is great benefit toward having intellectual and rational mind, for this is the mind that allows for many great scientific achievements caution is needed so as to allow this mind to not take one away from being. One’s being simply is. No thought required. Mindfulness cultivates being by increasing one’s awareness of the extent to which one is living in the mind, rather than living in the world. While mindfulness practice is truly nonstriving and not attempting to necessarily achieve a particular state, it is nevertheless a path toward liberation that requires practice, thus I will close this article by inviting you to your own being.

Week of Feb 1, 2009

I came across a quote by Chogyam Trungpa this week: “The goal of warriorship is to express basic goodness in it’s most complete, fresh, and brilliant form. This is possible when you realize that you do not possess basic goodness but that you are basic goodness itself.” In mindfulness practice one learns to embody the warrior through sitting in stillness despite the spattering of consciousness of difficult feelings, memories, images, and painful body sensations- all of these arising as one sits motionless on the cushion. One is able to come into a full acceptance of these mental objects through a realization that they are “mental objects”- figments reconstructed by the mind. They may represent events that DID happen, the important piece here is that they are memory from the past. The event itself is not reoccuring, by being grounded in mindfulness, one achieves a capacity to be in the present moment without judgement or attachment. Therefore, warriorship is achieved through sitting peacefully with all objects of the mind while breathing despite their content. Through this process one will eventually achieve a state of acceptance and equanimity.

One should procede with caution in mindfulness practice if there is a history of severe trauma, as mindfulness is a form of exposure. Without the guidance of a trained spiritual guide, teacher, or transpersonal/spiritually oriented psychothreapy one may get lost in the trauma and re-experienced it to a degree that is not in service of psychospiritual integration and wholeness.

Namaste,

John