Yogafly2

lov "in" the Leo

"When love is not madness, it is not love," said Spanish dramatist Pedro Calderon de la Barca. But according to my analysis of the astrological omens, you will dramatically disprove that notion in the coming weeks, Leo. In fact, I'm betting that love will make you stark, raving sane. It will calm you down, heal a wound or two, improve your eyesight, help you understand yourself better, improve your digestion, and stimulate you to become more tolerant and forgiving towards the entire world.

a la Rob Brezsny

All or Nothing

Understanding is not a gradual process to be

gathered little by little, with care and patience.

Understanding is now or never; it is a destructive

flash, not a tame affair; it is this shattering that

one is afraid of and so one avoids it, knowingly

or unknowingly.

~ J. Krishnamurti

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

Smile - Music by Charlie Chaplin

lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons

Smile tho' your heart is aching,
Smile even tho' it's breaking,
When there are clouds in the sky
You'll get by,

If you smile
thro' your fear and sorrow,
Smile and maybe tomorrow,
You'll see the sun come shin-ing thro' for you

Light up your face with gladness,
Hide ev-'ry trace of sadness,
Al -'tho a tear may be ever so near,

That's the time,
You must keep on trying,
Smile, what's the use of crying,
You'll find that life is still worth-while,

If you just smile,

Micheline sang this - http://www.michelinemusic.com/

at Joe's Pub.  Love it.

Yoga at Your Desk from Hillary Rubin

happy monday,

it came to me to create a podcast that was 30 min and yoga for your time at your desk. yes you can do it in your suit, dress or jeans.

this is my first attempt at a "boutique" like class and hope you check it and use it..

close the door and put on your ipod and let the breath flow as you pause to reflect on the beauty you are.

cheers,
hillary

stream @ http://www.hillarysyogapractice.com

or subscribe in iTunes: and do a search hillary yoga and it will come up its the latest episode #52

Don't take anything personally

Excerpt from Don Miguel Ruiz's "The Four Agreements"


The second agreement is "Don't take anything personally"

Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because
of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their
own mind; they are in a completely different world from
the world we live in. when we take something personally,
we make the assumption that they know what is in our
world, and we try to impose our world on their world.

Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others
insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. What
they say, what they do, and the opinions they give are
according to the agreements they have in their own minds.
Their point of view comes from all the programming they
received during domestication.

Don't take anything personally because by taking things
personally you set yourself up to suffer for nothing.
Humans are addicted to suffering at different levels and
to different degrees, and we support each other in
maintaining these addictions. Humans agree to help each
other suffer. If you have the need to be abused, you will
find it easy to be abused by others. Likewise, if you are
with people who need to suffer, something in you makes you
abuse them. It is as if they have a note on their back that
says, "Please kick me". They are asking for justification for
their suffering. Their addiction to suffering is nothing but
an agreement that is reinforced every day.

As you make a habit of not taking anything personally, you
won't need to place your trust in what others do or say. You
will only need to trust yourself to make responsible choices.
You are never responsible for the actions of others; you are
only responsible for you. When you truly understand this, and
refuse to take things personally, you can hardly be hurt by the
careless comments or actions of others.

If you keep this agreement, you can travel around the world
with your heart completely open and no one can hurt you. You
can say, "I love you", without fear of being ridiculed or
rejected. You can ask for what you need. You can say yes, or
you can say no-whatever you choose- without guilt or self-
judgment. You can choose to follow your heart always.

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspirations

on Balance & Pulsation by Jennifer Schmid

"These teachings are so vast, if we can touch a piece of them in every moment, how magical that can be.   Like drops of rain, joining the ocean of consciousness.  Though we may momentarily identify with the drops, ultimately we must become aware that we are not separate from the source itself, but infinitely part of it and ever changing.  When I meditate on pulsation I become instantly absorbed  in Nadam, and it is healing because this vibration, this sound of silence, radiates and pulsates through my entire being...my body, aura and the space beyond.  Sometimes I experience this vibration on a more subtle plane, within each cell, organ and limb and then there are times when I feel that my being-ness is the beating heart of all existence, pumping energy through the universe moment to moment.  My growing ability to witness the two and everything in between is how I am able to feel the balance in the creative play: LIFE.  The creativity itself, too, is in one aspect timeless, formless and unchangeable and in another the bright colors of fall, the soft snow of winter, flowers blooming and the warm sun rays kissing my face.  But always, I-AM, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent."

- Jennifer Schmid

Jennifer lives at Ananda Ashram and we went to satsang with Manorama (Sanskrit teacher who studied directly with Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, Guru and Founder of Ananda Ashram) on Monday.  She was inspired to write the above.  I am amazed at what one person such as Jennifer can achieve in awareness and consciousness when the teachings of yoga are applied day after day after day.

Om Namah Shivaya Gurave!

From Dr. Seuss

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
- Dr. Seuss

Thank you, Cynthia Espinal for these words and many others in Spanish and Portuguese :-)

Delicate handling

The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.

~Henry David Thoreau 'Walden'

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

Thank you for taking care of me

I said to my cab driver Steve from Village Taxi in Monroe, New York who picks me up from the bus station on time so that I don't stand in the cold, who brings me snacks and tea so that I'm not hungry and makes sure I catch my bus in the morning for work. 

What a lovely friend to have. 

Thank God for the sweet angels like Steve.

Another angel on the bus one night on my way home took off his jacket and covered me with it because I curled up into a little shivering ball in the air conditioning.  I may never see him again - but his action came from such a kind, caring place - the moment will be forever etched in my heart.

That's all we all really want from each other is kindness - through the difficulties of life. 

And sometimes yes, love is tough.  Love doesn't budge when others try to pull you into madness.  My father taught me this quite a bit when I was young - as he would sit with me through all my emotional spells (anger, questioning, confusion, jealousy, wanting, aching, depression - the yucky stuff) and talk to me through it all.

I called my father on Sunday early in the morning and asked the age old question,
"Dad, why do we suffer so much in this life?"
And he said,
"So that we can get closer to God."

This makes sense to me.

om shantih,
Sumukhi

Emerson's Law of Compensation - Or Why Welcome Hardships in Your Life?

After a grueling five days, you are looking forward to a peaceful
weekend. On Saturday night you set out with your loving wife
seated next to you and your adorable kids lodged comfortably in
the back seat. The family is all set to dine out in their
favorite restaurant. You have been starving yourself the whole
day preparing for the impending feast. Suddenly, the car starts
swinging to one side and you realize that you have a flat.
Swearing, you get down and open the boot. Shockingly it dawns
upon you that the spare wheel too is punctured. Ruing your fate,
you realize that the much-awaited dinner is now not possible.
Then suddenly you compose yourself and thank god for the small
inconvenience he has subjected you to. Your family stares at you,
wide-eyed in astonishment.

There is a harmonious law of adjustment and compensation to which
all natural processes are subject. It plays a balancing role in
our lives. This is an order in which, according to Emerson,
"Every excess causes a defect, every defect an excess, and all
seem governed by the deep remedial force that underlies all
facts." Indeed, it all works out with absolute exactness. Every
sweet hath its sour, every evil its good. Every faculty, which is
a receiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put on it. As a
Danish proverb has it, "After pleasant scratching comes
unpleasant smarting." Every advantage has its tax. For everything
you gain, you lose something, and for everything you have missed
you gain something else.

Emerson's doctrine that every thing has its price - and that it
is impossible to get anything without paying a price for it - is
not less sublime in the columns of a ledger than in the budgets
of states, in the laws of light and darkness, in all the action
and reaction of nature. Indeed, punishment is a fruit that ripens
unsuspected within the flower of pleasure, which conceals it. If
we escape one part we are tormented in another more vital part.
Hence, let us all welcome the small trials, tribulations and
discomforts which life offers us during our everyday existence.
Totalled they will amount to much, and hence save us from the
single, more damaging stroke which nature would otherwise subject
us to.

from Nirmala Devi's Daily Inspiration e-mails

unified theories - or the attempt:

from Wikipedia:

Relativity and quantum mechanics

The modern world of physics is notably founded on two tested and demonstrably sound theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics —theories which appear to contradict one another. The defining postulates of both Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum theory are indisputably supported by rigorous and repeated empirical evidence. However, while they do not directly contradict each other theoretically (at least with regard to primary claims), they are resistant to being incorporated within one cohesive model.

Einstein himself is well known for rejecting some of the claims of quantum mechanics. While clearly inventive in this field, he did not accept the more exotic corollaries of quantum mechanics, such as the lack of deterministic causality and the assertion that a single subatomic particle can occupy numerous areas of space at one time. He also noticed some of the more exotic consequences of entanglement and used them to formulate the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, in the hope of showing that quantum mechanics has unacceptable implications. The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox shows that measuring the state of one particle can instantaneously change the state of its entangled partner, although the two particles can be an arbitrary distance apart. However, this effect does not violate causality, since no transfer of information is possible.

There do exist quantum theories which incorporate special relativity—for example, quantum electrodynamics (QED), which is currently the most accurately tested physical theory ^[1]—and these lie at the very heart of modern particle physics. Gravity is negligible in many areas of particle physics, so that unification between general relativity and quantum mechanics is not an urgent issue in those applications. However, the lack of a correct theory of quantum gravity is an important issue in cosmology.

Even irrefutable evidence can be distinctly contradictory.  Love it :-)

says Sumukhi Yogafly

Gratitude

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

Melody Beattie

Author

just checked an old e-mail from Amy Ippoliti and Manorama's Fall in Love retreat at Ananda Ashram in 2005 where this poem was included

om ajnana-timirandasya

om ajnana-timirandasya jnananjnana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah

 

I offer my most humble obeisances to my spiritual master who has opened my eyes which were blinded by ignorance with the light of knowledge.

raja-vidya raja-guhyam pavitram idam uttamam
pratyak savagamam dharmyam susukham kartum avyayam

This knowledge is the king of all wisdom, the king of all that is confidential. It is the purest and the topmost and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization it is the perfection of all religion and everlastingly joyful to perform.

Bhagavad-Gita, chapter 9, verse 2

from http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/intro.html