Yogafly2

If You Want to Live Your Soul

If You Want To Live Your Soul

The soul within our individual souls
Loves the one who runs and falls down
more than the one who sits and watches.
The soul within soul lives in a lover.

  Consider this metaphor: how you love is
open sky. These personal selves are
the separate roofs of a town. Your tongue,
the guttering where words flow. If the
roof's not clean, the water-words get thick
and murky. Some people have elaborate
systems that drain water from other roofs.

This is not wise. There's a false eloquence
to it. A lover is one who waters a garden
from the rain barrel that fills under his
own roof. Roses that grow from that have
tears in them. Sometimes the scale pans may
weigh correctly, but the balancer is off.

A sweet doctor may give bitter medicine.
A foot finds the right shoe in the dark.
Love moves on its way through the pleasures
it feels. Even though the time you live in
is violent and frightening, you're safe in
Noah's boat. If you want to know who someone
is, hang around with those close by. They
know. The rule that covers everything is:

How you are with others, expect that back.
If you want to know God, enjoy the company

of lovers. If you want to be thought a great
person, learn some subtle point and say it
with many variations as the answer to every
question. If you want to live your soul,
find a friend like Shams and stay near.

'The Soul of Rumi' Translations by Coleman Barks

from Nirmala Devi's "Daily Inspirations"

let it go - e.e. cummings

let it go - the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise - let it go

it was sworn to
go

let them go - the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers - you must let them go

they were born
to go

let all go - the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things - let all go
dear
so comes love

-e.e. cummings

Surya Yantrasana

The Golden Compass pose - an awesome hip opener and heart opener.  See how Dave Willocks heart sings in the Asana - big smiles - open face and heart.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b87/klanuza/SuryaYantrasanabyDaveWillocks.jpg

This pose can certainly restructure and restore your hips.  I remember a class where Amy Ippoliti adjusted me in this asana and POP! - great big chiropractic adjustment and I saw GOD!  Or at least, I was able to release my right hip in such a beautiful way and voila - the hips just can't help but keep opening.

Make sure your hips are quite open and you've done a bit of warming up before you try this.  Por favor.

HOW TO:

1) Fold the left leg in so that the sole of the foot is towards your right leg.

2) Rock the baby - right leg hip opener.

3)  Place the left hand on the top of the right foot - hold the foot steady.

4) Lean forward.  Major inner spiral - take that right hip and buttock in and back and apart.

5) Reach the right hand under the right leg and plant it on the floor.

6) Push down into your right hand and right sitting bone and extend the right leg as you open the heart to the left.  Gaze up at the Sun and Smile.

Repeat on the other side!

Be Golden.

Shine like the sun!

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b87/klanuza/SuryaYantrasanabyDaveWillocks.jpg

KIRTAN This Friday Night, Oct. 6

Join us!

Date & Time: 2006-10-06 8:00 PM Location: Integral Yoga Institute

~ DOORS CLOSE at 8:30pm ~ * Don't miss this inspiring evening of ecstatic CHANT & sacred TEACHINGS! * For the pdf flier visit: http://iyiny.org/Class_Schedule/7/IYI_PremPrakash_kirtan_10.6.06.pdf Come revel in *KIRTAN BLISS*! Join KAMANIYA & DAMARU for a joyful evening of sacred chants & songs from different traditions, accompanied by The Kirtan Tribe: the divine *groove*meisters* Tommy Be & Terrence Pompey on drums & the lovely Kristina Lanuza on support vocals. (And if we're very lucky, Tommy Be will delight us on guitar...) We are honored to be joined by esteemed special guest PREM PRAKASH. A compelling & authentic teacher, he radiates warmth & beauty. His pragmatic & dynamic teaching style & vibrant, spontaneous kirtan will fill your heart with devotion! He is the author of the highly acclaimed books, 'The Yoga of Spiritual Devotion: A Modern Translation of the Narada Bhakti Sutras' & 'Three Paths of Devotion: Goddess, God & Guru'. Co-director of The Green Mountain School of Yoga, VT, he has taught yoga for over 15 years, & his writings have appeared in prestigious Yoga magazines. Prem Prakash's Oct 27-29th RETREAT at Ananda Ashram promises to be wonderful! 'Yoga for the Soul in All', a weekend retreat with practice & discussion of classical yoga with Prem Prakash. (Plus a Sat. nite kirtan with Prem ji!) For details visit http://anandaashram.org/eventDescription.php?id=100666

Posted by: *Kamaniya*

The Chaos of Others

HOW CAN I AVOID BEING DRAWN INTO THE CHAOS OF OTHERS?

How can I stay living "authentically" when others in my life try to draw me into their chaos?

Authentic power is the alignment of your personality with your soul.  It is exercising your ability to create consciously. It is also recognizing that you create moment by moment.  Creating authentic power requires responsible choice - a choice that creates consequences for which you are willing to accept responsibility. There is no place in this picture for a victim. A victim sees himself or herself at the mercy of others, and attributes to others her state of consciousness, such as anger, jealousy, bliss, etc.  Your friends are not necessarily attempting to draw you into their circumstances. They are being who they are.  Their lives are as difficult and complex as your own.   If you do not take your interactions so personally, you will be able to see that they offer you opportunities to resent others, become jealous of them, etc., and also to have compassion for them.   In other words, you can see yourself as a victim who reacts to your circumstances, or as a creator who chooses your response to the circumstances of your life.

Experiment with allowing yourself to choose your response the next time you feel drawn into the turbulence of others instead of reacting without thought, feeling, or intention.

~ Gary Zukav

"I Would Die Loving you"

From Nirmala Devi's daily inspirations:

Opening to What is

by Heather Ash
May 2001

Angry with his teacher's words on loving all things, a man confronted
him with the question: And what if I pulled out a gun and killed you
now? And his teacher smiled, looked deep into his eyes, and replied: I
would die loving you.

At this time of rebirth and renewal, Muktananda's words remind us of
the power of practicing loving forgiveness in each moment, no matter
how extreme the moment may be.

We are habituated to closing down energetically and emotionally when
confronted by negativity, either externally or internally. But avoiding
pain or unpleasant emotions only serves to deaden our senses and limit
our choices. By not grasping or holding, and not pushing away, we can
learn to simply be with each moment and open to what is. This allows us
to become larger and more alive energetically.

Imagine being in a house filled with ghosts of grief and anger and
judgement. You can hide in one room and pretend they are not there. You
can clutch onto them, saying this is who I am, this is who I am! I am
this anger, I am this grief, I am this fear! You can believe that you
deserve to live in a house of fear. You can feel they have nothing to
do with you: They belong to someone else, damn it. Who let them in to
my house?

Fear teaches us to chase out all the ghosts and lock the doors tight.
Or to open every window and door and let every negative emotion run
wild because they are ours. We then get so disoriented by these
emotions we lock them in the house with us. We ask them to guard us
from further pain.

Rumi advises: open the door wide and let them in! Greet pain and fear
and grief as you would greet joy and bliss and ecstacy. Hello dear
friends! All are welcome here.  In each moment, you can choose to invite
love to sit with your sorrow, joy to mingle with your pain.

Resurrection comes when you stop defending or judging yourself or
others, and actively shift your energy toward love and forgiveness. You
can believe yourself to be the tiny person in the house, searching the
rooms for a scrap of happiness, running from the hungry ghosts of fear.
In truth you are the house, you are the fields of flowers surrounding it.
Go outside and listen to the flowers whispering the secrets of joy no
matter where they are rooted. Whatever the surroundings, Life
flourishes. The flower blooms, offering its fragrance and color to the
world, whether it is growing wild in an abandoned lot or being admired
in a garden.

Choose to allow every experience in your life to open you more deeply,
more fully, to the Divine laughter that surrounds you.