Sunday, April 25, 2010

Openness

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Openness.”

The openness to Life Itself that we cultivate frees us from a great deal of conditioning and many inherent, and inherited, assumptions...Life is not about answers. It is about learning to live in the middle of complete uncertainty, and doing so gracefully.

- Swami Chetanananda

The homework is to catch yourself when you start asking “Why” questions and direct the energy that goes into creating answers into being present with whatever is going on in that moment. It may be helpful to say to yourself that you are asking why questions and immediately direct your attention to the breath and/or to just letting go of all thinking.

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
The BKS Iyengar Yoga School of Southwest Washington
417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Contentment

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Contentment.”

We must live in the now to follow the path to enlightenment. In the lower realms of the mind, where time and space seem very real, we are worried about the past or concerned about the future. These two intermingle and limit conscious awareness. A person functioning in the now is in control of her own mind. She is naturally happier, more successful. She is performing every task with her fullest attention, and the rewards are to be seen equally in the quality of her work and the radiance of her face. She cannot be bored with anything she does, however simple or mundane. Everything is interesting, challenging, fulfilling. A person living fully in the now is a content person.

- Satgura Sivaya Subramaniyaswami

The homework is to bring the same kind of attention that you use to maintain balance in Vrksasana (tree posture) to some of your regular daily activities. Try to be as present as possible while you brush your teeth or when you are eating. Work to bring Dharana, one-pointed concentration and Pratyahara, refinement of the senses, to these activities. Then work to generalize this way of being to everything else in life.

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
The BKS Iyengar Yoga School of Southwest Washington
417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003

Monday, April 12, 2010

Love and Nonattachment

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Love and Nonattachment.”

With love there is no painful reaction; love brings only a reaction of bliss. If it does not, it is not love; it is a mistaking of something else for love. When you have succeeded in loving your husband, your wife, your children, the world, the whole universe in such a manner that there is no reaction of pain or jealousy, no selfish feeling, then you are in a fit state to be unattached…

To attain this nonattachment is almost a life-work; but as soon as we have reached this point we have attained the goal of love and become free.

- Swami Vivekananda

The homework is to notice it the next time you experience pain, jealousy, or a selfish feeling. What should our response be when this comes up? If attaining nonattachment can take a lifetime of work, what is that work? How can our Yoga practice inform this process?

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
The BKS Iyengar Yoga School of Southwest Washington
417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Rising Above Sex

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Rising Above Sex.”

You have to rise above sex – not struggle with it, but rise above it. Because, if you do not have an overall concentrated urge or ambition in life, then the clamour of these little senses becomes a great din in your life. Your life will always be under that clamour. But, if you have got an overwhelming urge for something else, then this clamour does not reach you at all because you are too busy engaging your entire attention in some other direction.

- Swami Chidananda

The homework is to consider the fifth and sixth limbs of Yoga: Pratyahara – refinement of the senses and Dharana – concentration. With the reading in mind consider how the practices of Pratyahara and Dharana can help you cultivate “an overwhelming urge for something else.” What would this overwhelming urge for something else be?

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga
The BKS Iyengar Yoga School of Southwest Washington
417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com
info@rushingwateryoga.com

Serving Yoga to Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver Washington since 2003