Prayer for Courage

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it. Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield but to my own strength. Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved but hope for the patience to win my freedom. Grant that I may not be a coward, feeling Your mercy in my success alone; But let me find the the grasp of Your hand in my failure.

bengali poet - rabindranath tagore - 1916

Photo: Tiffany Jones

Last of the winter vegetables.

Celery, onions, leeks, potatoes, parsnip, carrots, cauliflower,

Low Self Opinion

Part of the song entitled 'Low Self Opinion' by the Rollins Band

I think you got a low self opinion man
I see you standing all by yourself
Unable to express the pain of your distress
You withdraw deeper inside
You alienate yourself,
And everybody else
They wonder what's on your mind
They got so tired of you
And your self ridicule
They wrote you off and left you behind

You sleep alone at night
You never wonder why
All this bitterness wells up inside you
You always victimize
So you can criticize yourself
And all those around you
The hatred you project
Does nothing to protect you
You leave yourself so exposed

You want to open up
When someone says
Lighten up
You find all you doors closed
Get youself a break from self rejection
Try some introspection
And you just might find
It's not so bad and anyway

At the end of the day
All you have is yourself and your mind

You sleep alone at night
You never wonder why
All this bitterness wells up inside you
You always victimize
So you can criticize yourself
And all those around you
The self hatred that blinds you
Binds you grinds you keeps you down

The world falls down around you
You build up walls around you
You war disgust like a crown
If you could see the you that I see
When I see you seeing me
You'd see yourself so differently
Believe me

The Way to Long Life

The Yellow Emperor approached from below upon his knees. 

Kowtowing twice upon the ground, he said, "I am told that you are in possession of perfect Tao. 

May I ask how to order one's life so that one may have long life?"

Kuangch'engtse jumped up with a start. "A good question indeed!" cried he. 

"Come, and I will speak to you of perfect Tao. 

The essence of perfect Tao is profoundly mysterious; its extent is lost in obscurity. 

See nothing; hear nothing; guard your spirit in quietude and your body will go right of its own accord.

Be quiet, be pure; toil not your body, perturb not your vital essence, and you will live for ever.

For if the eye sees nothing, and the ear hears nothing, and the mind thinks nothing, 

your spirit will stay in your body, and the body will thereby live for ever.

"Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without for much knowledge is a curse.

"Then I will take you to that abode of Great Light to reach the Plateau of Absolute Yang. 

I will lead you through the Door of the Dark Unknown to the Plateau of the Absolute Yin.

"The Heaven and Earth have their separate functions. 

The yin and yang have their hidden root. 

Guard carefully your body, and material things will prosper by themselves.

"I guard the original One, and rest in harmony with externals. 

Therefore I have been able to live for twelve hundred years and my body has not grown old."

The Yellow Emperor kowtowed twice and said, "Kuangch'engtse is surely God.

"Come," said Kuangch'engtse, "I will tell you. 

That thing is eternal; yet all men think it mortal. 

That thing is infinite; yet all men think it finite. 

Those who possess my Tao are princes in this life and rulers in the hereafter. 

Those who do not possess my Tao behold the light of day in this life and become clods of earth in the hereafter.

"Nowadays, all living things spring from the dust and to the dust return. 

But I will lead you through the portals of Eternity to wander in the great wilds of Infinity. 

My light is the light of sun and moon. 

My life is the life of Heaven and Earth. 

Before me all is nebulous; behind me all is dark, unknown. 

Men may all die, but I endure for ever."

Chuang-Tzu

Photo by Albert Vila

Where Did You Learn the Tao?

"Where did you learn this from?" asked Nanpo Tsek'uei. 

"I learned it from the Son of Ink," replied Nu Yu, 

"and the Son of Ink learned it from the Grandson of Learning, 

the Grandson of Learning from Understanding, 

and Understanding from Insight, 

Insight learned it from Practice, 

Practice from Folk Song, 

and Folk Song from Silence, 

Silence from the Void, 

and the Void learned it from the Seeming Beginning."

Chuang-Tzu

Photo by Tiffany Jones

But How is a Human to Live?

"Tao gives him his expression," said Chuangtse, "and God gives him his form. 

He should not permit likes and dislikes to disturb his internal economy. 

But now you are devoting your intelligence to externals, and wearing out your vital spirit. 

Lean against a tree and sing; or sit against a table and sleep! 

God has made you a shapely sight, yet your only thought is the hard and white."

Chuang-Tzu

"Ah," said Great Nebulous, "nourish your heart. 

Rest in inaction, and the world will be reformed of itself. 

Forget your body and spit forth intelligence. 

Ignore all differences and become one with the Infinite. 

Release your mind, and free your spirit. 

Be vacuous, be devoid of soul. 

Thus will things grow and prosper and return to their Root. 

Returning to their Root without their knowing it, 

the result will be a formless whole which will never be cut up. 

To know it is to cut it up. 

Ask not about its name, inquire not into its nature, 

and all things will flourish of themselves."

Photo: Tiffany Jones

Fasting of the Heart

Directions for Fasting of the Heart

"Concentrate your will. 

Hear not with your ears, but with your mind; not with your mind, but with your spirit. 

Let your hearing stop with the ears, and let your mind stop with its images. 

Let your spirit, however, be like a blank, passively responsive to externals. 

In such open receptivity only can Tao abide. 

And that open receptivity is the fasting of the heart."

Quote taken from Chuang.Tzu

Photo: Tiffany Jones

108 Names of Shiva

108 Names of Lord Shiva

OM SHIVAYA NAMAHA

Obeisances to the Auspicious One

OM MAHESHVARAYA NAMAHA

Obeisances to the Great God Shiva

OM SHAMBHAVE NAMAHA

Obeisances to the God who exists for our happiness alone

OM PINAKINE NAMAHA

Obeisances to Shiva, who guards the path of dharma

OM SHASHISHEKHARAYA NAMAHA

Obeisances to the God who wears the crescent moon in his hair

For a translation of the entire 108 names, go to Stephan Knapp

The Lankavatara Sutra

The Lankavantara Sutra


"The Tathagata-garbha, therefore, whose psychological name is Alayavijnana, is a reservoir of things good and bad, pure and defiled. Expressed differently, the Tathagata-garbha is originally, in its self-nature, immaculate, but because of its external dirt (agantuklesa) it is soiled, and when soiled—which is the state generally found in all sentient beings—an intuitive penetration (pratyaksha) is impossible. 


When this is impossible as is the case with the philosophers and ignorant masses, the Garbha is believed sometimes to be a creator (karana) and sometimes to be an ego-substance (atman). 


As it is so believed, it allows itself to transmigrate through the six paths of existence. Let there be, however, an intuitive penetration into the primitive purity (prakritipurisuddhi) of the Tathagata-garbha, and the whole system of the Vijnanas goes through a revolution. 


If the Tathagata-garbha or Alaya-vijnana were not a mysterious mixture of purity and defilement, good and evil, this abrupt transformation (paravritti) of an entire personality would be an impossibility."

Yoga Workshop, Espern, Hamar, December 2009 - Part Seven

Yoga is a beautiful system developed to help remove physical, mental and emotional blocks.

Now we’ll be talking generally about yoga, how yoga can help us, and the side effects of hatha yoga.

The side effects of hatha yoga seem endless. The positive body shape changes, the awareness of self, the calm, the grounding, the joy, enjoying the simple pleasures. Talk to people who practice yoga, or play at yoga on the weekends. They always speak about the rewards they gain in their daily lives.

But the final outcome, the reward at the end of the game, is connection. Ultimate and beautiful connection to the life force energy, constant, wonderful, living, breathing, beautiful life.

You can feel the cells, the life within, seemingly ‘jumping for joy’ in existence.

And it’s a ‘realisation’, a revelation, an unveiling, of the mystical truth of what we have been searching for all along, all of the love we have thought we never had, all of the insistence of our little voice in the darkness, all of it, is for this great cosmic connection. 

At Onement – Atonement

Unity

Yoga

Self Realisation

The Tao

God Consciousness

Call it what you will. Give it a name, if you want to, but it remains the same, regardless of your religion, of your belief system, or of your up bringing. We remove the blinds of our eyes, we remove our blockages, and we reveal, at the heart, the most beautiful centre you can imagine.

Present Moment Awareness

The body is a great help in training the mind to release its hold on thought.  It is always right here, right now. It holds patterns of the past, postural patterns, and memories, the excess food, the signs of accidents, the scars, the small wounds but it exists in the present moment. The body is our key, in hatha yoga, to unlock the present moment.

• Yoga is integration of all levels, the heart, the mind, the body, and all embraced by the spirit.  The spirit is pure connection on all levels.

When practicing physical yoga poses, be careful not to get hung up on ‘perfect’, there is no perfect in yoga, apart from the ‘right now’ which is perfect. Right now is perfect, but its not found in a pose. It’s the moment that is continually present. This is what we are practicing.

The mind seems like our greatest enemy and yet, is a great tool, a great gift,  if we can use its skills, rather than be its slave.  Part of understanding our new relationship to our mind, is acceptance rather than resistance. 

What does the mind do? It goes around and around and around in thoughts. Its constantly likened to a playful and naughty monkey, but it can be incredibly dangerous. The world as we see it today, is in existence because of thoughts that came up in someone’s head, and then those thoughts were put into action, that’s the world we live in. 

• Bring the mind into present moment awareness by concentrating on the body, living in each moment. We’re increasing cellular awareness. The cells are alive, jumping, receiving information, sending information, alive in the moment.

We can feel/experience oneness through the energetic body, through the inner exploration, but its difficult to see it/feel it through the mind.  This is why, in many cases, the mind is viewed as an ‘enemy’ of the spiritual journey.

However, the mind can be our most powerful ally. How do we make friends with a wild animal?

We are patient. We are calm. We don’t show fear. We are kind, and caring, and giving. We do not hate, or hit, or blame, or resist or regret.

• Bring the mind into the service of the heart. That is, we need to train the mind, and it takes some time, especially after the lives we have been living of consume and enjoy as much as possible. 

Of course, if our mind is geared to ‘enjoy’ and we don’t enjoy, what happens? We become resentful and unhappy and a whole load of other problems begin.  The mind will buckle and kick against this sudden about face. So take it easy, relax, one step at a time.

• Remember that yoga doesn’t ‘add’ anything to you, it’s the opposite. It takes away blockages. It returns us to simplicity, rather than complexity. Into oneness, rather than separateness.

• Cosmic consciousness  is expanded consciousness. A consciousness that is not limited by ideas or thoughts or emotions. It is a consciousness that surpasses the petty demands of the little self.

There is no where to go, you’re already here. Its just a matter of removing the blinds from out senses.

The time is NOW. 


Part  One of the Workshop
Part Six of the Workshop