8 Folded Limbs

I will be attending a Yoga teacher training in July of this year.  It will be an immersion intensive, and I will most likely decompress on this wayward blog.

I seriously cannot move like a normal human this morning.   I did three+ hours of shoulder / hip openers yesterday.   I am taking a 'Vinyasa' form of yoga, peppered with an Ashtanga Primary series that would kick anyone's arse. The evil weed calls to me less and less, but still lives in my rotten brain.  I need something to do with my hands.  I never finished learning the fiddle ...

                               --Feel what you understand-- Emotion, even in Eastern practice, is seen as stronger than reason.  The central problem of our spiritual life is to find emotional equivalents for our intellectual understanding.  Our Perfect Emotion should be an expression of our Perfect Vision.  While that sounds simple, it is truly a task not summoning up our intellects to rationalize events or actions.  Out Vision has gotten us onto the path, and our Emotions are being transformed.       The Path is not easy--learning how to practice this limb of the journey has proven to be the hardest ( so far) of most of the petals .  Not that I have had an issue with compassion, but it is hard to let go of frustrated cravings that have had decades to marinade.  On the other hand (be...

The first step, or perhaps the beginning of the path concerns understanding.  It is called 'right view' by most sources, but by some--and perhaps more aptly put--Perfect Vision. Most of the resources on the Path describe this first step occurring after or during personal tragedy or extreme loss.  It is in these times of great sorrow that we are open to 'see' the way ahead.  Perfect Vision is not only the opening of the path, but the first in a series of 'steps' of the path.  I do not see it as a 'stairway to Heaven', but more of a pathway to inner peace.  The path-- as I understand it--mirrors and echoes most other faiths insofar as how we relate to the World and how we treat others.

~The way out IS the way through.  Most people struggle--in vain-- to find a bright, cheery window to crawl toward during any period of discomfort.  This window is called Heaven by some-- Nirvana by others, but regardless of title it seems to hold the same reward.  ~In our search to lessen pain and multiply pleasure, we place ourselves in a position between Heaven and Hell.