May we all be filled with Loving-Kindness

May we all be well

May we be peaceful and at ease

May we be happy in this life just as it is

and may the new year unfold in unexpected and delightful ways.

From my heart to yours,

Kit

Just got this email from Patricia Schneider in Yellow Springs.  The dates are set for Erich Schiffmann's workshop next fall.  I know we haven't quite finished up this year yet...but still...just so you know...

 

September 7 – 9:   Erich Schiffmann.  Moving Into Stillness...Guided From Within.  Erich is an internationally known teacher, author of YOGA:  The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness and the award-winning video, "Yoga, Mind and Body" with Ali Mac Graw.  His vitality and passion for yoga creates an energizing, enriching and fun workshop experience.  

Cost:  $225 if paid in full by June 30 (early bird discount); $250 after June 30    

Contact:  Patricia email: patricia@brainfingers.com

To be driven by fear is like dying inside.
— Sharon Salzberg in Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

When yoga teacher extraordinaire, Paul Grilley travels to do a workshop...he brings his bones.  Not just the ones that hold him upright but a series of six thigh bones to illustrate the point that while we all have pretty much the same number of bones in our body they are not all shaped exactly the same and that can affect how we work in our yoga postures (and everything else we do!)

 

I'd always hoped he'd photograph the thigh bones for his website for those who haven't gone to his workshops.  Well...he's done that and then some!  Last time he visited Columbus he said he'd gotten access to a whole collection of bones (can't remember if it was Cincinnati or Cleveland) but anyway...he's got them in a photo slide show on his site now.  You really MUST check it out!  He'll be back in Columbus at It's Yoga in Grandview this spring. 

"All the joy the world contains / Has come through wishing happiness for others. / All the misery the world contains / Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself."

---- Indian Poet/Philosopher Shantideva

 "An analysis in Psychological Abstracts of the books and articles published on psychology since 1887 finds 136,728 titles referring to anger, anxiety, or depression, but only 9,150 refering to joy, satisfaction, or happiness!  While it is certainly important to treat pyschological problems that handicap or even paralyze people's lives, it is essential to note that happiness is not the mere absence of unhappiness.  Positive psychology...seeks to study and reinforce the positive emotions that allow us to become better human beings and to get more joy out of life.

 

...think of the value of human existence and its extraordinary  potential for flourishing.  Be aware, too, that this precious life will not last forever and that it is essential to make the best possible use of it.  Sincerely examine what counts most in life for you.  What do you need to accomplish or discard in order to achieve authentic well-being and live a meaningful existence. When factors that contribue to true  happiness have become clear to you, imagine that they begin to bloom in your mind.  Resolve to nurture them day after day."

 

These paragraphs are from "Happiness" by Matthieu Ricard.  The first describing a form of psychology that focuses on building so-called positive emotions and the second from a contemplative meditation exercise upon calming the mind and looking within.

 

 

 

 

How do we know which method or practice of quieting the mind and tuning the heart is best for us?  Sometimes we have a teacher or wise friend who can help.  But here are some questions I came across from Gratefulness.Org today.

 

1) Does this practice help me connect heaven and earth, so that my bliss is well grounded and my practical life is inspired?
2) Does a community of people I trust recommend this practice as being of value?
3) Does the practice address fundamental human values like kindness, honesty, humility, courage, warmth of heart?
4) Can my intuition and reason come to an agreement that this practice is right for me at this time?

On December 10, 1948 the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights  which recognizes and strives to protect the fundamental rights of all people worldwide.  Click here to read the declaration.

My teacher Erich Schiffmann talks about the "pause"...that moment, even if fleeting, where you get present before you move in a yoga posture, speak, decide...maybe its simply a conscious breath.

 

Its been a crazy few weeks...oven broken before Thanksgiving, heat went out on the coldest night of the year so far (of course), double scheduling of a room I teach yoga in involving a quick drive up the street to another location and a very cold room.  I've had many opportunities to choose to go down a path of peacefulness (Erich says peaceful doesn't mean "wimpy" it just means "clear".) or to get upset.

 

If you're thinking I'm now going to say "thanks to my yoga practice I was this peaceful person just floating through the stresses as they arose"...Hah!  But I did manage that sometimes.  And that's the thing.  Not to try and be this perfect person but in as many moments as we can, to have the ability to pause, to choose which path we are going to trod in this moment.  I was happy for those moments where I could choose a more compassionate path, and forgiving of myself for those moments when I could not.

 

Its for the space to find these moments, its for "the pause", that I practice yoga.  There's choice in that pause...even to turn back from the path I've chosen, take a deep breath, and try again.

 

Love, Kit

Rainer Maria Rilke's birthday is on December 4th

 

Here's one of his poems that I hadn't come across before...

 

Moving Forward

The deep parts of my life pour onward,
as if the river shores were opening out.
I seems that things are more like me now,
that I can see farther into paintings.
I feel closer to what language can't reach.
With my senses, as with birds, I climb
into the windy heaven, out of the oak,
and in the ponds broken off from the sky
my feeling sinks, as if standing on fishes.