Yogafly2

"As a man is, so he sees" ~William Blake

When you read the Beatitudes, think of Jesus entering our dream
world and showing us how we can wake up, just as from a dream,
into a higher reality: the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

Yet until we do wake up, nothing sounds more absurd than the
assertion that we are dreaming - and nothing seems more solid
than this world of the senses. Why should this be so? If original
goodness is our real nature, why are we unable to see it?

The mystics' answer is simple: because we see life not as it is but
as we are. We see "through a glass darkly," through the distorting
lenses of the mind - all the layers of feeling, habit, instinct, and
memory that cover the pure core of goodness deep within.

To explain this, Christian mystics have drawn a comparison with a
glass lantern clouded with oil and soot. To see the light, we have
to clean the panes. In modern terms, the panes are the mind: the
layers of consciousness that make up our personality.

As we might expect, Eckhart uses even more vigorous language.
There are many of these layers, he says, each doing its part to
hide us from who we really are:

A human being has so many skins inside, covering
the depths of the heart. We know so many things,
but we don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty
skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or bear's,
cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to
know yourself there.

From 'Original Goodness' Eknath Easwaran on the Beatitudes

thanks to Nirmala Devi - wow - Daily Inspiration that kicks my ass

Bowl of Saki

The soul is all light; darkness is caused by the deadness of the heart;
pain makes it alive.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Those who have avoided love in life from fear of its pain have lost
more than the lover, who by losing himself gains all. The loveless
first lose all, until at last their self is also snatched away from
their hands. The warmth of the lover's atmosphere, the piercing effect
of his voice, the appeal of his words, all come from the pain of his
heart. The heart is not living until it has experienced pain. Man has
not lived if he has lived and worked with his body and mind without
heart. The soul is all light, but all darkness is caused by the death
of the heart. Pain makes it alive. The same heart that was once full of
bitterness, when purified by love becomes the source of all goodness.
All deeds of kindness spring from it

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

aha

and

apropos

saki Tuesday night with the most delectable melt in your mouth hamachi and a lovely time with an old friend...

my stomach couldn't handle the saki...but perhaps my heart could handle everything else

including pain and loss, delight and laughter, leave-taking and meeting again

my deer family

so I've devoured another book today - The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho - and so to rip myself out of my room and drink tea while I finish the book and collect my thoughts on Coelho's spirit - opening writing, I walked over to Ananda Ashram's dining hall.

And as God and Guruji are always speaking through everything...I was greeted by a deer family on the front lawn of the Ashram.  Momma deer, Daddy-o deer with his two little stubs for antlers (are they growing or did they fall off?) and two baby fawn - the exact same size. 

I stopped and got very still to watch them for a while and Momma deer walked towards where I stood and the two baby fawn with their new white spots and their tiny little bodies ran underneath her while she stood and drank from her belly and Daddy-o came over too and drank some too!  And she stood there watching me as the two fawn continued to drink and Daddy deer left the 2 babes and ate grass instead.  There was something so remarkable about this blessed family.  Something about the mom's total grace, surrender to being Mom, watching for me and any sign of danger and completely present for herself and her tribal unit of four.  I felt like she wanted me to see what it was like to be a Mom.

And some women came out of the yoga class they were talking and began to coo at the scene and I put my fingers to my lips and said shh.  And they said something like "they are so comfortable here." And I said well, "it's because they know no one will hurt them on the Ashram."  And we all watched for a while and as more ladies came out, I walked down the hill towards the dining hall and the deer family walked to the right of me.  Momma deer leading the way.  And I hesitated for a moment because I wasn't sure if they were so tamed by Harvey - our amazing chef - who feeds some of our deer, and I wondered if they knew instinctively that I was going to the kitchen?  And when I stopped, one of the fawn stamped at me - that little protective deer stamp I've come to know they do when they sense fear or hesitation from me.      

But Momma deer just kept looking me in the eyes as if to say - I trust you.  So I kept walking and they followed for a bit then leapt into the woods to the left of me.  And I cried one of my many cries of gratitude and awe at the beauty of having a deer family follow me even for a few steps!! I sent them a little prayer of protection. 

Blessed be nature herself!

what a glorious gift from Guruji

Beeheaven by Carolyn Vanessa Lanuza Vergara

from my sister taken outside her home in california

 

From: 'Grist for the Mill' by Ram Dass

You must come to see every human being including
yourself as an incarnation in a body or a personality,
going through a certain life experience which is
functional. You allow it to be just the way it is at
the moment, seeing even your own confusion and conflict
and suffering as functional rather than as dysfunctional.

The greatest thing you can do for any other being is to
provide the unconditional love which comes from making
contact with that place in them which is beyond conditions,
which is just pure consciousness, pure essence. That is,
once we acknowledge each other as existing, just being here,
just being, then each of us is free to change optimally.
If I can just love you because here we are, then you are
free to grow as you need to grow, because none of it's
going to change my feeling of love.

We're used to having these special role relationships,
thinking certain roles apply to one, yet not to another,
because we're very attached to externals - do you touch
somebody, do you sleep with them, do you beat them, do
you control them, do you collaborate with them, do you
support them, do you pay them, do they pay you? That's
all stuff of the vehicle of the interaction between two
beings; it isn't the essence of the matter. As you
work on yourself through your daily life, more and more
you see your own reactions to things around you as sort
of mechanical rip-offs. You get much calmer in the space
behind it all, and you're able to hear more how it all
is, including your own personality as a part of nature.
The deeper you are in that space, the more there is
available for everybody you meet who is capable of coming
into that space. You are the environment that allows them
to do that. And from within this space all change is
possible. The minute you identify yourself or anyone else
with models, roles, or any characteristic, any individual
difference, change is really fierce. When you live in a
universe where you experience even your living and dying
as relative rather than in absolute terms, it's all free
to change. There's nowhere you have to go to work on
yourself other than where you are at this moment, and
everything that's happening to you is part of your work
on yourself.

Different ones of us are different parts of the corpus
of civilization, and no one act is any better than any
other. If you didn't have the shoemaker, we would go unshod;
you need the shoemaker. Is the shoemaker better than
the psychiatrist, or worse? And what about the garbage
collector? Without garbage collection, you know where New
York would be? Or Boston ? So, is the garbage man more
important than the psychiatrist, or less important? The
whole thing becomes absurd. You begin to see that everybody,
even the president, is just another instrument in the dance,
another part of the total body, and each of us must hear
what his or her particular route through is, and not try
to define, "That's a good one and the others are bad," or
"That's the best one," or "I'm doing the most important
work!' The most important work you can do is the perfect
job for you to do. Discover how to serve people not out
of the fact that you're supposed to or ought to, just do
psychotherapy because that's where you're at. Do therapy
as long as you realize that here we are behind doctorness
and patientness; here we are behind neurosis and relative
neurosis.

a la

Nirmala Devi's daily inspiration e-mails!

nyc is one of the most private places in the world

I realize

it's so public that everyone leave you alone

I remember that refreshing feeling after being in small town Austin - ha ha

it's not even that small...

God's Nature

Sometimes we think what we are saying about God

is true when in fact

it is not.

It would seem of value to differentiate between what is

God's nature and what is false about Love.

I have come to learn that the truth never harms

or frightens.

I have come to learn that

God's compassion and light can never be limited

thus any God who could condemn is

not a god at all

but some disturbing image in the

mind of a

child

we best ignore, until we

can cure the

dark.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote this

St. Thomas Aquinas - my first university - University of St. Thomas Aquinas before I went to St. Edward the Confessor's University.  oh the saints.  and how they set up UNIVERSE - itys = as Guruji says the universe is what we study in the Ashram university.  forget the world - it's too limited for the non-time-and-space bound.

I figured out why I was such a strange child when I was a child.  I did not want to forget who I truly was but the world really wanted me to forget - as they all forgot very clearly.  and I couldn't articulate it except for asking about death all the time.

I knew I was born into a physical body and that it would die.  I knew it at around 4 or 5 and it was intriguing to me that they called it a girl and gave it a name and put clothes on it.  and I used to play games with my mind when I could remember being able to "remember"

and I would work on deja vu by myself and then I would say out loud to myself

"Now"

and laugh and ask where it went?

and then cry and cry and cry at the passing of time and the bizarre world that created nuclear wars and weird things all over the place.  what was this world?  this world is MAYA...mahamaya...

and I obsessed because no one could give me a proper answer - until I met the yogis and the Tibetan Books of the Dead...then I understood and I understand finally - that I must know how to die properly over and over again in order to live.

and the Saints of Catholicism have helped a lot with this

and Rumi again...who said

"let us die

and in dying,

reply"

oh Rumi - thank God for Rumi

thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you:

Relationship Booster

Here is a relationship booster

that is guaranteed to work:

Every time your spouse or love says something stupid

make your eyes light up as if you

just heard something

briliant.

Gainful Employment

These just

aren't words you are reading.

If you churn them, you could have some

good cream.

If you kept working with my poems,

you could open up a shop

and sell the finest

butter.

If you fell in love with Rumi

you could give gainful employment

to your family

and have fun together

hawking my

wonderful

cheese.

the dark night of the soul

this one

Caroline Myss says that we have entered - as a culture - throughout the world - a collective dark night of the soul.  which is the step before illumination.

she says we are in the Age of Energy

where we are working from the understanding that Energy comes before Matter

but that we have not caught up with this yet as a culture so that on a super collective level - we are still walking around with this mistaken understanding that Matter creates Energy...

so we give power to those who seem to have a lot of "Matter" around them.  things, etcetera.  a fallacy.

so we as meditators, those who pray, those who chant and practice yoga are very important.  we hold the balance.  But it's difficult to look at all this suffering in the eye.  See it all for what it is and lift and lift and lift consciousness.  But not difficult as I keep going inward into the Vishnu Granthi - as I dive deeper into the heart chakra - it's easier to release it all.

Love that there are pictures of Superman, Jesus Christ and the Blessed Mary all ripping open their chests to reveal their hearts. 

big lights inside that cut through all the darkness.

the power of mysticism

yesterday a few of us went over to Ma Dorothy's house - gorgeous gorgeous property across the street from Ananda Ashram down a street called

Shadowmere

even that makes me so happy - Shadowmere -

reminds me of something out of Tolkien - whom I love very deeply - thank you Tolkien

and we listened to a CD of a weekend with Caroline Myss - whom I love very deeply, thank you Caroline Myss - and Andrew Harvey

Andrew Harvey is British with a most passionate voice that channeled the great mystic Sufi poet Rumi - whom he spoke of and read from and Caroline Myss began her talk about the necessity of the sacred - the sacred - the sacred in all of our lives and would then talk about St. Theresa of Avila - whom my mom adores.  Whom we all adore.  Who was the saint whom Bernini sculpted in almost an erotic state of ecstasy when she went into her union with God.

And we sat there - the mystical Ashramites - me, Andre, Tina, Dorothy and Bodhichandra - in Dorothy's and Karuna's back porch with this lake around us and the thousands and thousands of birds and geese and listened and stepped out of the physical world together.  And saw.

there it is.

Caroline asks - as she has asked over the past ten years that I have listened to her and studied with her and consumed, devoured and lived her books and teachings on my own:

"for what purpose were you born?"

everyone asks this question

and she says "there is a great purpose.  none of us are here RANDOMLY."

in that wonderful Chicago tough mama voice of hers that commands respect and yet - puts you right in the state of grace.

And she said...which was really very important and I need to listen to ALL the time - my paraphrasing:

many of us are called to serve the invisible world

which is really where true power lies.

now I feel this in myself quite a bit - and as artists - me and my sis especially - have been pulling from this invisible world all of our lives - and it's so indelible

and she says because of our culture that is so all about

"SEE ME!"

"SEE ME!"

"Look what I've done!"

"Look what I've accomplished!"

we don't realize that the accomplishment by that person was only made possible by the grace of a prayer that preceded the act.

I can honestly say that I KNOW my parents and family are constantly praying for me - constantly - and this is how I can honestly live my life with a certain sense of fearlessness.

when I walk through the streets of New York - why am I not scared?

at least most of the time I'm not - I'm more scared of the exhaust from the pollution of the cars than I am of anything "BAD" happening to me physically or even mentally.

Because Padre Pio always walks with me.  I ask him and he's always there.  Why do I believe this?  Because my parents ingrained the mystical world so deeply into my cellular structure that I don't doubt that world at all.  I doubt this mundane plane that most of the U.S. lives in...

except on Ananda Ashram, except with the yogis, except with the mystical Catholics, except in the world of ART, MUSIC, poetry, DANCE...

and then I hear Caroline Myss speaking of the power of Helen Keller who was a MYSTIC - who felt everything so keenly that she didn't need eyes or hearing - who could tell what trees and flowers and plants were in her midst just by sensing them - who could tell who was whom in a crowd of a 100 people simply based on their vibration.

and Emily Dickinson who was a hermit -

who had a light so bright inside her that it made her permeable and too sensitive to everyone and everything around her - so she retreated inside - and created the most wonderful poetry...

I never spoke with God, Nor visited in heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot

- by Emily Dickinson

and how this is a power - as Rumi, Jesus Christ, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, Bach, Helen Keller, Einstein - left us with and continue in US...continue in us...continue in our own lives...

the power of the invisible world.

and this is something - she says - that we cannot put on a resume.

imagine

a resume that says

last night became enchanted and felt like she was "older than the stars" - as Guruji says - we are "older than the stars"

so where do we put it...

ART

and creativity

oh so much grace - it could cut me into a million pieces and serve me for dessert

enchanted

en - chant - ed

en - chant - ing

in - chant - ing

en - chant - ment

en - chant - me

en - chant - si

en - chant - I-AM

in - chant - I-OM

in - chant - I DREAM

in - chant - I die

in - chant - I cry

in - chant - I laugh

in - chant - I sing

in - chant - I'm one

en - chant - ed being

tonight at kirtan with beloved Krishna Devi at Ananda Ashram...supreme enchantment.

and a comment after the song I chanted and led from one of the Ashram guests to me, which I could sleep on for a lifetime or 2...

"your voice is like warm chocolate cake."

in a South African accent

no less

the perfect compliment for this voice that wishes to live through this body - and free all beings from suffering - and believes that - aside from meditation, yoga, Sanskrit, asana, dhyana, dharana and samadhi - chocolate - is one of the keys to this spiritual breakthrough for all of humanity ;-)

The Vital Need for Meditation

by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati 1957/1958

from Highlights from Five Decades: Selected Writings

All living beings struggle for their existence.  Mankind is not an exception to this natural law.  To become victorious in the struggle of life and existence is the aim of every individual in this world.  Lower beings struggle more or less blindly, without any conscious plan and purpose, acting under the influence of their instinct.  But man is a conscious being and uses the superior power of his nature, which is called wisdom, to understand the situations and conditions, the goal and result of the struggle.  By his intellect, he invents and prepares instruments and plans to ensure success. 

Whether he knows it or not, without fail, he always uses his mental and will power before performing any action.  He leads his life in the eternal light of his wisdom.  By this wisdom, he analyzes and synthesizes his own external and internal nature as well as the external and internal nature of the whole universe.

He does not consider only the present, like other animals, but makes a critical study of both the past and the present, and after fully balancing the immediate results of his own as well as others' actions, he anticipates and proposes better and better future programs.  Thus, he deeply scrutinizes the far-reaching consequences of every event and incident.

This is the only difference between a man and an animal:  the latter works under the influence of instinct alone, while the former uses the energy of wisdome in the performance of all his actions.  Thus, man is a rational being.  Desire for knowledge as well and intuition springs from the rational chamber of the human mind.  Meditation is an unfailing means for fulfilling this very reasonable desire to know.  It is not, therefore, a mere luxury or satisfaction of curiosity, but a necessity.  It is not a secondary, but the primary aim.  Philosophy is nothing but the theory of Self-analysis or meditation, amd meditation is the philosophy of life.

Every individual lives in accordance with this philosophy of life and his conception of the world, whether he is thoughtful or thoughtless.  These two types of people each live in their own world.  The difference is that the the world of the sincere thinker is great, like heaven, while the world of the thoughtless is contracted, like hell.  Actually, it is impossible to live without any thought at all, but also it is entirely impossible to find happiness in evil thoughts.  Therefore, the prime duth of the seeker is to practice thinking in a right way.  The choice that is given to us is not between some kind of thinking and no thinking, but is always between good thinking and bad thinking.

Meditation is the immediate and direct way of Self-analysis.  All other ways are secondary to meditation.  Philosophy is the by-product of meditation.  Philosophy explains the nature of reality, while meditation joins the individual soul with that reality.  There is no difference between Self-analysis and meditation.

Meditation does not mean to sit like a stone.  Once a student came to Kwan-Zan to receive personal guidance.  He was asked to shoe the master his practice of meditation.  The student sad down cross-legged in silence, whereupon Kwan-Zan shouted, "My monastery has too many stone Buddhas already.  We need no more.  Get out, you good-for-nothing!"  This type of silence and sitting is prohibitied in meditation.

Meditative silence does not mean paralysis or the mind and wisdom.  We sit in a firm posture to be able to conquer the microcosm and the macrocosm.  And we become silent in the individual field in order to to talk with the Supreme Soul, because one cannot talk properly with many persons all at the same time.  Meditation is Self-analysis, and it is called the philosophy of life.  Meditate constantly and enjoy with the Supreme Soul.

Om Peace

and in the book there's Guruji's handwriting of the same text...lovely, lovely.

www.anandaashram.org

for purchase at the store

dreams

I've been doing this anyway and here it is in horoscope form - below.  good to be in tune with the universe. 

from Rob Brezsny's Leo horoscope for this week:

"I have extensive experience with writing in the dark. Every night for many years I have awoken in pitch blackness to write down my dreams. I also take notes while watching movies in theaters, scrawl poems on redeye plane flights while all the other passengers are sleeping, and jot down my meditations as I stroll in the hills after midnight. I recommend that you try this yourself, Leo. It's prime time to peer inward and think hard . . . to sharpen your perceptions of the invisible world . . . to gather impressions from the edgy frontier where your conscious and unconscious minds overlap."

when John Friend was in town a few weeks ago, I felt like I needed to stay at Ananda Ashram instead of going into the city to study with him and the Anusara gang  (kula).  I studied music instead with Deepak Kumar and Ananda Ashram gang (kula) at Karuna's house.  but before this, I dreamt that John came to me and opened up his Sanskrit notebook - I'm not even sure John Friend studies Sanskrit? - 

And told me that I needed to be more precise in my writing of Sanskrit letters - more precise with my Devanagari script - I do need a lot of help in this arena.  Like he is precise about alignment in the hatha yoga postures and he showed me how he looped and spiralled his Devanagari the way we loop and spiral our arms and legs in Anusara yoga.   I thought this was a message that I should keep on at Ananda Ashram for that weekend instead of commuting into the city. 

and it's true - here at the Ashram, the vibration just gets higher - shoot I'm buzzing right now and crying too and working at the same time - so weird and therapeutic...  I'm listening to Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati chanting the Yoga Sutras now as I work out a PR/marketing budget and plan.  so very good.  spontaneous "psychotherapy"  Guruji said about the Yoga Sutras.

no dreams last night

that's always nice too.

The Law of Detachment

Allow yourself and others the freedom to be who they are. Do not force solutions—allow solutions to spontaneously emerge. Uncertainty is essential, and your path to freedom.

from Deepak Chopra's Web site

www.chopra.com

Transformation

from Deepak Chopra's newsletter:  Namaste

www.chopra.com

Change can be scary. With change comes the unknown…the uncertain. And we often fear what we don’t know. But when you embrace uncertainty and accept it as it is, the universe opens up to you – a universe of infinite possibilities. Perhaps right now you find yourself at a crossroads or are challenged by a particular situation at work, at home, or in a relationship. You have your version of how things are supposed to work out. Maybe it’s not the ideal outcome. It’s simply one you’ve allowed yourself to get comfortable with. Maybe you’ve even become resigned to it. You feel that everything seems to be pointing in a certain direction and there’s nothing you can do anyway. But change comes in each moment. You are not the same person you were when you began to read this. Those few sentences above are now part of your make-up. Every interaction, conversation, meal, thought, and activity you engage in today will shift your physiology and your emotional state. We’re often not aware of these subtle shifts because they happen so incrementally. Yet by tomorrow, you will be changed – even if only a bit. Transformation is a magnificent process that takes you from one state of existence into the next. One of the reasons we fear this change is that we think that once we change , we will be stuck there – doomed for eternity to suffer the scenario you feared most. But what if you could embrace the fact that your transformation never stops. That wherever you are in your mind will change and wherever you end up, that too will change. The person you will be tomorrow will transform again into the person of the next day and the next. Now you are able to see not just the static aspects of yourself but the ever growing, ever re-birthing, ever-evolving aspect of you. And there’s a bonus…each time you transform…you open yourself to an abundance of possibilities which means you have the ability to be reborn in each moment.

tuesday in nyc

looking over some of the days - it's nice to see how a day transpires in retrospect---

tuesday morning this past week

up at 4:00 am

walked down to the Harriman bus stop at 4:30 am

and was hyper-adrenalized

the moon was a tiny sliver

like a wee fingernail

and the air was cool

it's still cold

and I was very alert to the bear - it's a black bear, the friendliest type - that has been hanging out at the Ashram and hereabouts

and all I saw was a deer - who could feel the adrenaline in me and actually stamped at me and made a sound.  stop scaring deer my friend and EMDR therapist Kelly said later on.

on the bus - I meditated and slept- or something like this.  Noted that most of the people on the bus at this hour are men.  both working class and business class attire. 

and then got to columbus circle - starbucks for my green tea chai latte - and

then to Equinox for 7 am yoga

where Guruji taught from 5 decades of his writing

After this - shopping at Whole Foods for essential oils - lavender, eucalyptus and tea trea and freeze dried nettles as natural antihistamines.  for my Ananda Ashram family and me.

and then breakfast with Bao - one of the personal trainers at Equinox who told me he read the Bhagavad Gita everyday and had 5 translations.   because Gandhi suggested to read the Gita everyday.  Go Gandhi.  He'll be at the Ashram...explained that he spent some time at a Zen monastery and that didn't work...

Up to my friend Kelly Ebsary's house, my diva actor, opera singer buddy who is also an EMDR therapist.  We chatted for an hour and then started my EMDR therapy.  love this stuff.  really getting past barriers in the brain.  Kelly rocks the universe.

then ordered Japanese from Obento Upper West Side - salmon teriyaki. 

mmm

I could live on food.

with oh yes, spider roll, spider roll, let me have that spider roll...

And then a foray down to Union Square to see Jeanette Bronee and her office - Path for Life on 11th Street.  Beautiful space where I'll host private sessions in yoga and help her out with PR/marketing.  Got caught in the rain on the way there.

stood underneath an awning for a while with a Japanese dude who smoked and took pictures of the rain  and an Israeli dude who talked on his cell phone.  I love the word "beseder" in Hebrew.  "I'm good."  sounds so good.

got wet.

and into the elevator.  someone made a comment "you are wet."

oh and my answer

"how perceptive of you."

not very nice, K, and the other angel in the elevator who interjected with some kind words

and then meeting Jeanette and her amazing dog Satya

truth dog...

oooh....

then walked on over to 4th street betw. 1st and 2nd to get a massage from the women of wonderful delight.  Jenny is no longer there, but the main woman - my size.  Walked on my back.  Halleluia, praise Jesus.  I grew a few inches. 

and we went over my list of friends who go there now...Katarina, Tuesday and Jeff Cohen being the regulars.  Ashley and more have gone.  it's a treat at $45 per hour.  highly recommended.

and then down to Tribeca Equinox to teach hatha yoga... for an hour.

and then back on the bus to the Ashram. 

the cab driver ashed me if I ran the Ashram.

I nearly died laughing.

yup, CEO.

wisdom from resentment

"Instead of resentment being an obstacle, it's a
reminder. Feeling irritated, restless, afraid, and
hopeless is a reminder to listen more carefully. It's
a reminder to stop talking; watch and listen. It's a
reminder to use tonglen practice to allow some
space...The key to compassionate action is this:
everybody needs someone to be there for them, simply
to be there.

From: 'Start Where You Are' by Pema Chodron

from Nirmala Devi's "Daily Inspiration" e-mails

yo einstein you genius mystic you....

"It is very difficult to explain this feeling to
anyone who is entirely without it, especially
as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God
corresponding to it.

The individual feels the nothingness of human
desires and aims at the sublimity and marvelous
order which reveal themselves both in nature and
in the world of thought. He looks upon individual
existence as a sort of prison and wants to experience
the universe as a single significant whole."

Albert Einstein
From 'The World as I See It'

Nirmala Devi sent this through her Daily Inspiration e-mails.  yum. yum. yum.

funny, I was speaking to Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, as I like to do...and I said something like, "I gave up the world and came to Ananda Ashram."  and I heard something like..."you give up the world, I give you the entire universe."

which do you prefer?

and it's true, it's not like I'm not still part of the world, capitalism, taxes, organizational management, etcetera.  It's just that none of it is so important.  or as Caroline Myss says, "has any authority over me."

wild.

getting up to date

on the heart's new landscape...
a la Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology:

The geography of your heart is evolving. In places, coastlines are disappearing. Elsewhere, new islands have risen out of the sea. Boundaries are shifting, as some nations dissolve and others are born. Even the climate is changing, with warm winds blowing where once there was year-round chill, and monsoon-like conditions invading desert ecosystems. Roads that formerly led to the center of the action no longer do, and highways that used to be peripheral are now main routes. I suggest you take note of all this by redrawing your map, Leo. Get up to date with your heart's new landscapes.

supernatural powers

during our class on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras yesterday with Bharati at Ananda Ashram, we went over the chapter on the "supernatural powers."  Amazing grace what we have in these body-mind-spirit-soul containers. 

And Bharati said something like, "if you chase after power, you will not achieve it.  Your mind goes in many directions and you will be powerless.  But if you sit and meditate and let the powers come to you, then you will achieve true power."

And it's amazing to me how we are taught in our world - the opposite.  Chase after power please through money, title, position, partners, sex, drugs, rock n' roll, coolness etcetera.  I was guilty of this myself but now I'm working hard to change the mind and the inner landscape completely and utterly. 

So it's nice to come home into my heart.

"I've dropped my anchor.
And this is where I'm staying.
This is my home."
-Bjork.

From Baba Bhagavandas, Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati's Guru:

"Whatever you want to get in this world -- remember that you already have everything in your body.  Therefore, sit down and relax completely, to dominate the wanderings of your mind, and try to see what is going in within yourself.

Relaxation means to feel that the body does not belong to us, to feel as if one were present with the whole universe.  The body is only the center, or transmitter and receiver, to express consciousness.  The more one relaxes the more power is concentrated, and then the body is electrified."

It's Rigged

It's rigged---everything in your favor.
So there is nothing to worry about.

Is there some position you want,
some office, some acclaim, some award, some con, some lover,
maybe two, maybe three, maybe four---all at once,

maybe a relationship
with
God?

I know there is a goldmine in you, when you find it
the wonderment of the earth's gifts you will lay
aside as naturally as does
a child a
doll.

But, dear, how sweet you look to me kissing the unreal;
comfort, fulfill yourself in any way possible---do that until
you ache, until you ache,

then come to me
again.

Rumi  (1207-1273)
from Love Poems from God
Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and the West
translated by Daniel Ladinsky

My Lips Got Lost

My lips got lost on the way to the kiss--
that's how drunk I
was.

Luckily though I still connected
with the most tender part
of her.

The moon conceived -- what
a wild looking baby
we are going to
have.

Rumi  (1207-1273)
from Love Poems from God
Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and the West
translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Blood Suckers from Hell

Rumi speaking to a crowd muses:

Watch out for those blood suckers from hell --
cause they're everywhere.

And the crowd wisely retorts:
"That sounds serious--what do they look like, any hints;
are they usually disguised?"

Rumi again:  Yes, usually, they are awful tricky!

"How then to detect them?"

Well,
I have noticed
their eyes narrow and their faces begin to squint
like prunes

if they hear good
poetry.

Rumi  (1207-1273)
from Love Poems from God
Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and the West
translated by Daniel Ladinsky

He Told Me a Joke

My Lord told me a joke.

And seeing Him laugh has done more for me
than any scripture I will
ever read.

Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
from Love Poems from God
Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and the West
translated by Daniel Ladinsky

double take, double time, triple time

from Nirmala Devi:

In a society that almost demands life at double time,
speed and addiction numb us to our experience.

In such a society it is almost impossible to settle
into our bodies or stay connected with our hearts,
let alone connect with one another
or the earth where we live.

~ Jack Kornfield

the above rings so true - part of me is so well-trained to juggle 20 projects at once and I call it "switch pitch" - here Kristina pitch Pepcid, now pitch Seimens, now pitch this client, that client, this brand that brand, everywhere another brand that needs "mindshare" as we say in advertising.

And as I walk to 42nd street port authority through the "neon lights on Broadway..." I laughed today because something about the wax museum guy asking me why I was ignoring the umpteen millionth flyer I've been handed on the streets of NYC and the bodies hurtling themselves through the space, the smoke rising from the manholes and the nut vendors, the Mark Ecko lingerie or porn ads, the taxis, honking horns, sirens - I thought -

"this must be what it's like to have everything happen simultaneously"

total chaos - noise, colors, bright lights, hundreds and millions of arms, legs, eyes, mouths, faces

and I thought about what it feels like to step into one of the umpteen million theaters in the area - both live and movie theater - and how our minds -

all minds, human minds --> love the imposed order

of beginning

middle

end.

we pay for people to create this order for us - through scripts (television, books, theater, music, song, fables, stories)  all with

beginnings, middles, ends

again and again

because our thinking minds are like 42nd and Broadway - neon signs, buildings, brands, television shows, everything SCREAMING for attention all at once.  And we live as Jack Kornfield says above - in "double time" -

"triple time"

and it's nice to just drop it all.

curtains please.

and we begin again.

here we are in the middle.

and then at the end.

I love how Henry Miller starts either Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn (can't remember which book)...

"To sing, you must first open your mouth.  This, is therefore, a song.  I am singing."

and another quote from Henry Miller, the ol' bastard.  Love him for being so frighteningly unapologetically "lascivious" - I remember looking that word up when I read it in one of his books.

"To paint is to love again.  And to love is to live life to the fullest."

joie de vivre