When you do all you can with what time and resources (internal and external) you have, there is a beautiful place of fruition. If you stay too long, if you cling to what was, the fruit will rot. This is the place of the daily LY 365 eblasts.
For 2 years now, Elena and I have made this a daily practice. This, being, offering our practice, as we feel and know it in our bones and hearts.
If we stay for another year, we might start to get cranky and resentful. If we try to eke out another day, we might bring on sadness or regret. If we try to continue doing as we have done for the past 730 days, we will grow tired and old and start to grip around the idea of "loss".
So, as with our years' travels, we will find New Beginnings, Shed this old form, Let Go of what we need to in order to find a new direction to better share the practice, Be Fearless in the face of change and natural evolution, Be Warriorlike in our fierce determination to continue to practice lovingkindness and compassion to all beings everywhere. Where Seeds are Planted, there is a need for vigilant gardening: constant weeding, to reep and fruits of a positive Harvest.
Remember, if you plant an acorn, an Oak Tree is the only organism that can grow.
If you plant kind thoughts, kind actions from you and toward you are the only actions that will grow.
If you plant thoughts of truth, only words of truth and truthful actions will sprout.
Be very careful. Every thought wave counts. Make every breath meaningful.
Begin now, if you haven't yet.
Review this year. Review the previous year. Keep the postings of LY365 close to your heart. Read and re-read. Practice and stay vigilant.
The world needs more kindness. The world needs more compassion. If you look out upon your co-workers or your family members and all that you can do is complain about something, go inside. Be quiet. Stop talking. Start doing. Start by facing your own mind stuff. It is the only way to attain true, everlasting happiness.
You can read all you want. You can listen to lectures and attend yoga classes and conferences all you want. You can watch YouTube videos of the Dalai Lama and high priests or rabbis. You can do all of these spiritually materialistic acts and hope that you look like you are making progress. But, you will only be fooling yourself.
Give more of yourself to yourself. That means, sitting, alone. Face a wall. Stare blankly until you lose sight of the wall. Fall into conversation with yourself. The conversation through the heart, which is only conducted in stillness. It can be very scary, until you begin to realize that under all the layers of thoughts, likes, and dislikes, resides the real Self. This Self is all-knowing, fearless, kind and compassionate.
Elena and I bid you all adieu! We wish you well on your journeys home!
--Charry
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Hey everybody,
I've been doing some Louise Hay mirror work recently.
I love her refusal to think a negative thought.
for example she doesn't use the word "should" and only
talks about that which she wants in her life...and it turns up!
Another thing she'll do is say "Out!" to a negative thought.
I've been doing this and it helps. Thanks Louise. I love you
and your work.
I love that.
and I love you.
Cheers
Bruce
I've been doing some Louise Hay mirror work recently.
I love her refusal to think a negative thought.
for example she doesn't use the word "should" and only
talks about that which she wants in her life...and it turns up!
Another thing she'll do is say "Out!" to a negative thought.
I've been doing this and it helps. Thanks Louise. I love you
and your work.
I love that.
and I love you.
Cheers
Bruce
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
When the community is ready, the teacher will make the studio appear.
When the the studio is charging the community in the utmost selfless way, serving the Yoga with all of its offerings and classes, the community will support the efforts of the studio. It will be sustainable and mutually beneficial.
It's a bit of the chicken and egg phenomenon. What comes first, the community or the studio? The teacher or the student? Maybe it all happens simultaneously out of good fortune and fruition of effort on everyone's parts.
It is a tricky business, this yoga studio operation and ownership. It takes a very clear, simple vision. It is easy to get distracted. It is easy to lose the way. Keep good friends. Keep good company. Listen and be open to the cares and concerns being voiced. Know what is said in truth and compassion and know what is said in greed and judgment. That could make all the difference. Discrimination.
If we speak and act from the truth, we will invite those things into our life. If we do the opposite, it will have the opposite effect.
If we speak and act out of non-harming and non-violence, we will invite those things into our life.
No matter what our business, no matter what we do to pay the bills, how can we do these things from a place of kindness for all beings everywhere?
How can we speak for those without a voice? Without understanding? Without being witness to the decisions that will ultimately affect them the most?
It is exactly what politics is. It is a position of such servitude and should be entered into with such humility and compassion for all people, all lands, all water, all animals, literally, all beings everywhere. Instead, on both sides of the aisle (why are there only 2?) we have greed. Greed for more power. Greed for more money. Greed to "be right". For what? To lay waste to our landscape, plant more corn, drill more holes, create more war, more violence, more fear?
Can you see the connection to the little yoga studio?
We need more mindfulness. More fearlessness. More clarity, truth and non-violence. We may need to start over.
Oh, just like in our meditation practice! Everyday, beginning anew. Trying harder. Concentrating more.
Yes, it is all a practice. It all starts with the tiniest seeds we sow.
Be brave! Be the change you want to see in the world. Now is your chance!
--Charry
When the community is ready, the teacher will make the studio appear.
When the the studio is charging the community in the utmost selfless way, serving the Yoga with all of its offerings and classes, the community will support the efforts of the studio. It will be sustainable and mutually beneficial.
It's a bit of the chicken and egg phenomenon. What comes first, the community or the studio? The teacher or the student? Maybe it all happens simultaneously out of good fortune and fruition of effort on everyone's parts.
It is a tricky business, this yoga studio operation and ownership. It takes a very clear, simple vision. It is easy to get distracted. It is easy to lose the way. Keep good friends. Keep good company. Listen and be open to the cares and concerns being voiced. Know what is said in truth and compassion and know what is said in greed and judgment. That could make all the difference. Discrimination.
If we speak and act from the truth, we will invite those things into our life. If we do the opposite, it will have the opposite effect.
If we speak and act out of non-harming and non-violence, we will invite those things into our life.
No matter what our business, no matter what we do to pay the bills, how can we do these things from a place of kindness for all beings everywhere?
How can we speak for those without a voice? Without understanding? Without being witness to the decisions that will ultimately affect them the most?
It is exactly what politics is. It is a position of such servitude and should be entered into with such humility and compassion for all people, all lands, all water, all animals, literally, all beings everywhere. Instead, on both sides of the aisle (why are there only 2?) we have greed. Greed for more power. Greed for more money. Greed to "be right". For what? To lay waste to our landscape, plant more corn, drill more holes, create more war, more violence, more fear?
Can you see the connection to the little yoga studio?
We need more mindfulness. More fearlessness. More clarity, truth and non-violence. We may need to start over.
Oh, just like in our meditation practice! Everyday, beginning anew. Trying harder. Concentrating more.
Yes, it is all a practice. It all starts with the tiniest seeds we sow.
Be brave! Be the change you want to see in the world. Now is your chance!
--Charry
Friday, October 12, 2012
Nearing... again...
There is truly a time and place for everything in our lives.
This year of yoga is coming to an end. I feel the fruition of the work. I am ready to harvest the efforts.
As long as we steadily practice, all is truly coming. Not in grand effect. Not in total enlightenment where we are lifted up to the heavens like angels, but in total engagement in this life.
What would be the point to know everything all the time?
What would be the point to have all the answers?
Be like the child just out of the womb. Open. Receptive. Curious. Amazed.
As we wrap up and take stock, notice the bounty that is your life. Each breath is a gift. Each moment with our loved ones is a gift. Whether or not we are rubbing up against something that is uncomfortable or something that is really pleasurable does not matter. Being present in the state of Being is all that matters.
Keep improving. Keep doing the daily sitting practice.
This year of yoga is coming to an end. I feel the fruition of the work. I am ready to harvest the efforts.
As long as we steadily practice, all is truly coming. Not in grand effect. Not in total enlightenment where we are lifted up to the heavens like angels, but in total engagement in this life.
What would be the point to know everything all the time?
What would be the point to have all the answers?
Be like the child just out of the womb. Open. Receptive. Curious. Amazed.
As we wrap up and take stock, notice the bounty that is your life. Each breath is a gift. Each moment with our loved ones is a gift. Whether or not we are rubbing up against something that is uncomfortable or something that is really pleasurable does not matter. Being present in the state of Being is all that matters.
Keep improving. Keep doing the daily sitting practice.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Nearing
We are nearing the end of Living Yoga 365 as it has been for the last 2 years. We hope that you have benefitted from the journey. Please let us know if there is anything you would like to see happen next year. Thank you, Charry
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Why the September sun feels so good...
Because it is unexpected.
The sweetest lessons come when we least expect them.
The greatest teachers enter our lives when we least expect them.
We learn the most when we are expecting the least (or nothing at all).
We grow the most when don't think we can grow anymore.
Of course, you have to go outside to feel the sunshine.
You have to keep studying to learn.
You have to keep practicing to encounter your teachers.
You have to keep planting seeds to have any seeds grow.
If you experience or receive a message from a messenger that you have already labeled harsh or critical, the message my seem harsh or critical. Know when to accept the message as a gift, instead of being stuck in your own critical mind.
Be thankful for each meal you "have" to cook, each floor you "have" to sweep, each essay you "have" to painfully grade, because you never know when it will be your last.
Be careful of the expectations you place on those around you and how you view their actions and words.
The themes of these last 11 months are percolating:
Lovingkindness, compassion, letting go, shedding, fearlessness, new beginnings, planting new seeds, nurturing new growth, opening, warriorship, balance, and equanimity.
They are all lenses into the heart. They are all practices to gain understanding and acceptance. They are all ways of understanding our Self.
Why?
So that we don't move through our days carrying the heaviness/guilt/sadness/elation/expectations of the past. So that we can live in freedom, in this moment, breath by breath. So that we can Be!
The "simple" practice of sitting, whether for 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 20 hours a day is there as a tool to show us how to live each moment for what it is in that moment. To see each person before us for who they are in that moment. To experience each event in our lives, whether it is birth or death or everything in between with the same open hearted fearlessness.
No one is better than anyone else. No one can "help" you if you don't do the work. Yoga is the path of action. You must act to benefit. One thought at a time. One breath at a time. Do your own work. Continue to do the work. Be patient. Be receptive. Surrender all efforts to the Grace of the Divine within you that is within all of us. Connect to That!
The sweetest lessons come when we least expect them.
The greatest teachers enter our lives when we least expect them.
We learn the most when we are expecting the least (or nothing at all).
We grow the most when don't think we can grow anymore.
Of course, you have to go outside to feel the sunshine.
You have to keep studying to learn.
You have to keep practicing to encounter your teachers.
You have to keep planting seeds to have any seeds grow.
If you experience or receive a message from a messenger that you have already labeled harsh or critical, the message my seem harsh or critical. Know when to accept the message as a gift, instead of being stuck in your own critical mind.
Be thankful for each meal you "have" to cook, each floor you "have" to sweep, each essay you "have" to painfully grade, because you never know when it will be your last.
Be careful of the expectations you place on those around you and how you view their actions and words.
The themes of these last 11 months are percolating:
Lovingkindness, compassion, letting go, shedding, fearlessness, new beginnings, planting new seeds, nurturing new growth, opening, warriorship, balance, and equanimity.
They are all lenses into the heart. They are all practices to gain understanding and acceptance. They are all ways of understanding our Self.
Why?
So that we don't move through our days carrying the heaviness/guilt/sadness/elation/expectations of the past. So that we can live in freedom, in this moment, breath by breath. So that we can Be!
The "simple" practice of sitting, whether for 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 20 hours a day is there as a tool to show us how to live each moment for what it is in that moment. To see each person before us for who they are in that moment. To experience each event in our lives, whether it is birth or death or everything in between with the same open hearted fearlessness.
No one is better than anyone else. No one can "help" you if you don't do the work. Yoga is the path of action. You must act to benefit. One thought at a time. One breath at a time. Do your own work. Continue to do the work. Be patient. Be receptive. Surrender all efforts to the Grace of the Divine within you that is within all of us. Connect to That!
Thursday, August 23, 2012
From Emy!
organized is overrated. make sure you can find the key things you own,
and enjoy life. especially mothers of young children!
xx
emy
and enjoy life. especially mothers of young children!
xx
emy
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