Cultivating an Alertness to Life Without Thinking

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we will be exploring cultivating an alertness to life without thinking.

Reason is like an officer when the King appears. The officer then loses his power and hides himself. Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun.

                                      – Jalaluddin Rumi

Thinking, however useful it may be at times, is not the highest human faculty; it is only a stage in development. If, for example, in the throes of evolution we had stopped with instinct, saying, "This is the highest possible mode of knowing," our human future would have been stunted: I would not be seated here writing these words, nor would you be reading them.

Like instinct, reason is only a way station. When friends and I go to San Francisco to see a play, we sometimes stop halfway along to stretch our legs. But we don't get so involved in stretching legs that we forget to go on to the theater. Thought is a useful but temporary stopping station; it should not be considered a permanent solution to the problems of living. Just as we were able to rise above instinct and to develop reason, we must one day pass beyond discursive thinking and enter into a higher mode of knowing.

We cannot solve the problems of the mind with the mind. We cannot solve our problems by thinking about them, analyzing them, talking about them. In meditation, we often simply leave personal problems behind - we move out of the neighborhood where they live.

Words to Live By: Inspiration for Every Day – Eknath Easwaran

The homework is to use your Yoga practices to encourage a state of being, or an alertness to life without thinking.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

A Life of Selfless Service and Becoming a Spiritual Teacher

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we will be exploring a life of selfless service and becoming a spiritual teacher.

Those who are good and pure in conduct are honored wherever they go. The good shine like the Himalayas, whose peaks glisten above the rest of the world even when seen from a distance.

                                      –The Buddha

People who are good, kind, selfless, and hardworking for the welfare of others will be very deeply loved, very deeply respected wherever they go. It is a simple law of human nature that we love the highest. We want to be like such people, and we want to lead the kind of life they lead. This is the saving grace of human nature: when we see someone who is patient, kind, forgiving, and forbearing, we begin to trust him, to love her.

Such people have such a deep, loving concern for us that they will block our way when we are going astray. They will point out, very sweetly, very tenderly, when we are on the wrong path, and then they will support us and help us to change our direction. This is the role of the spiritual teacher, the person we can trust to stand in our way when we aren't strong enough, wise enough to make the right choice.

Words to Live By: Inspiration for Every Day – Eknath Easwaran

The homework is to imagine a world where we all live life for others and see Divinity in every person we meet – a life of selfless service.  Experiment with and practice this concept of selfless service and apply it to your life.  Look to the Bhagavad Gita translated by Eknath Easwaran for guidance on becoming a spiritual teacher.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

Yoga Sutra I:II

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we will be exploring Yoga Sutra I:II.

Let the wise guard their thoughts, which are difficult to perceive, which are extremely subtle, which wander at will. Thought which is well guarded is the bearer of happiness.

                                      –The Buddha

When the mind has become completely still, when there is no movement at all - neither on the conscious level nor in the unconscious depths - then there is no anger, fear, or greed.

When in deep meditation the turbulent factory of the mind closes down for just a few minutes, we find a soothing stillness which heals the body, mind, intellect, and spirit. In this stillness we feel the enormous draw of the ocean of pure love deep within, pulling us into a union that is complete peace, complete joy, and complete fulfillment. Then it is we realize that boundless joy has been right there within us all the time, joy that cannot be limited by separateness and does not depend on any circumstances outside, but is an abiding legacy that never leaves us. This is what is meant by everlasting life, which we can find here and now.

The stilled mind is spirit - eternal, infinite, immutable, and indivisible. When the mind has been completely stilled from top to bottom there can be no separateness.

Words to Live By: Inspiration for Every Day – Eknath Easwaran

The homework is to consider PYS 1:2, "The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga" (The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Sri Swami Satichidananda). BKS Iyengar writes that "Restraint of the movements of thought brings about stillness (dharana), which leads to silence (dhyana) with awareness." Ask yourself if your practices can transform how you think.

References: Light on the Yoga Sutras, BKS Iyenger , The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Sri Swami Satichidananda and The Essence of Yoga, Bouanchaud

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com