Monday, June 28, 2010

Beyond Struggle

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

Your work really begins when you release struggle. To let go of struggle initiates a change of vibration within you. This change puts you in touch with the flow of Life itself, which is essentially what you are. To cultivate awareness of this flow is your real work.

When you’re in touch with the flow of Life and feel your heart and mind open, you’ll note that a certain presence starts to assert itself. This presence changes your physical chemistry, your feelings, and your mind. It is the spirit itself, starting to inform you about yourself, about it, about Life, and about God. It’s a simple work.

- Swami Chetanananda

The homework is to learn to use your Yoga practice as the training ground to let go of struggle. When faced with a difficult asana observe when you start to struggle. Notice not the physical struggle but the mental struggle. Learn to recognize that you have complete control over the mental struggle and release the energy of the struggle to bring more ease to the asana.

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

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Peace is our Greatest Gift

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Peace is our Greatest Gift.”

Peace is a natural mind-state in every one of us. Peace has been there since the day we were born and it is going to be there till the day we die. It is our greatest gift; so why do we think we have no peace of mind?

Experiencing peace is like looking at our hands. Usually, we see only the fingers – not the spaces in between. In a similar manner, when we look at the mind, we are aware of the active states, such as our running thoughts and the one-thousand-and-one feelings that are associated with them, but we tend to overlook the intervals of peace between them.

- Thynn Thynn

The homework is to learn to notice the spaces in between your thoughts. Use the awareness of your breath to help. Build on the natural pause at the end of your exhalations by gently and slightly extending the pause. Notice the quality of mind during these extended pauses.

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, June 13, 2010

Enthusiasm, The Secret of Eternal Youth

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Enthusiasm, The Secret of Eternal Youth.”

Youth is not a time of life – it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of ripe cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions. It is freshness of the deep springs of life. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul

- Swami Bua, age 100

The homework is to visit your ideals. Write them down. Edit them. Then with enthusiasm, live them.

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, June 7, 2010

Inspiration

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

The mind requires daily inspiration. The conception behind the word “inspiration” is “something breathed in from above,” not from the physical sky but infused transcendentally into a man’s mind: something good, beautiful and true, giving guidance to each individual in his walk of life.

- Hari Prasad Shastri

The homework is to make a plan for how you introduce inspiration into your day and map out the source of your inspiration. Then consistently introduce inspiration into your day. Work to make a habit out of the process be it prayer, meditation or something else.

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

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Eyes of the Soul

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Eyes of the Soul.”

It does not require a large eye to see a large mountain. The reason is that, though the eye is small, the soul which sees through it is greater and vaster than all of the things which it perceives. In fact, it is so great that it includes all objects, however large or numerous, within itself. For it is not so much that you are within the cosmos as that the cosmos is within you.

- Meher Baba

The homework is to choose the contemplative practice of your choice and go inside. Meditate, pray, just sit with your eyes closed, whatever works for you. See for yourself what the cosmos looks like through your own eyes and from inside your own being.

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