June 2022
ASANA (POSTURE)
HEALTH
Walking (is) essential as you get older. So is understanding when not to work out. That’s a significant part of managing age.
WISE ACTION
JOMO, Oh the joy of missing out. When the world begins to shout and rush towards that shining thing, the latest bit of mental bling. Trying to have it, see it, do it. You simply know you won’t go through it. The anxious clamoring and need. This restless hungry thing to feed. Instead, you feel the loveliness, the pleasure of your emptiness. You spurn the treasure on the shelf in favor of your peaceful self. Without regret without a doubt; oh the joy of missing out.
(https://tarabrach.libsyn.com/part-3-joy-present-heart-the-universal-expressions-of-love-2018-02-21)
QUOTE
DEATH IS AN ADVISER (from Carlos Castaneda's JOURNEY TO IXTLAN - Vol. 3)
Death is our eternal companion. It is always to our left, at an arm's length…The thing to do when you're impatient is to turn to your left and ask advice from your death. An immense amount of pettiness is dropped if your death makes a gesture to you, or if you catch a glimpse of it, or if you just have the feeling that your companion is there watching you.
STORY
Perfect Comes From Perfect
A dramatic ballad singer studied under a strict teacher who insisted that he rehearse day after day, month after month, the same passage from the same song, without being permitted to go any further. Finally, overwhelmed by frustration and despair, the young man ran off to find another profession.
One night, stopping at an inn, he stumbled upon a recitation contest. Having nothing to lose, he entered the competition and, of course, sang the one passage that he knew so well. When he had finished, the sponsor of the contest highly praised his performance.
Despite the student's embarrassed objections, the sponsor refused to believe that he had just heard a beginner perform. "Tell me," the sponsor said, "who is your instructor? He must be a great master."
Author Unknown (Copyright © 2022 The School of Practical Philosophy)
POEM
Walk Slowly by Danna Faulds
It only takes a reminder to breath,
a moment to be still, and just like that,
something in me settles, softens, makes
space for imperfection. The harsh voice
of judgment drops to a whisper and I
remember again that life isn’t a relay
race; that we will all cross the finish
line; that waking up to life is what we
were born for. As many times as I
forget, catch myself charging forward
without even knowing where I’m going,
that many times I can make the choice
to stop, to breathe, and be and walk
slowly into the mystery.
MEDITATION
Everyone begins practicing meditation for a reason, but this reason whatever it is - to suffer less or to have better relationships – one’s reasons for meditating always become an obstacle to discovering what meditation truly is. You want to feel better and this you who wants to feel better becomes a meditator, perhaps even a diligent one. But this feeling of you, the feeling that there is something at the center of experience doing all sorts of things to improve experience and to become happy and now is doing this new thing by practicing meditation. This feeling of self is the problem. It is the source of your anxiety and disappointment and sadness and regret. It’s like an arsonist has started a massive fire and now he returns to the scene of his crime pretending to be a firefighter. This is the very person who is guaranteed to be no help at all. The self that is now practicing meditation for a reason is the very person who can’t accept things just as they are. Real meditation is the act of leaving everything as it is. It’s what remains when you have truly abandoned your desire to improve your experience and have abandoned and have abandoned it so fully that the sense that there is anyone or anything to improve totally evaporates.
Meditation isn’t something you do to be more calm or focused. It’s the result of something you cease to do. Right now simply recognize that you’re already the condition in which everything – sights, sounds, sensations, thoughts, feelings – pleasant and unpleasant – everything is simply arising all by itself. What could you hope to add to this and where would you add it from?