Cultivating Unconditional Love

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are considering cultivating unconditional love.

Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love.                         

                                       -Saint Francis of Assisi

Millions of people today suffer from loneliness.  Here St. Francis is saying, “I know the cause of the malady and I know the secret of its complete cure.”  No matter what the relationship may be, when you look upon another person as someone who can give you love, you are really faking love.  That is the simplest word for it.  If you are interested in making love, in making it grow without end, try looking on that person as someone you can give your love to – someone to whom you can go on giving always.

Learning to love is like swimming against the current of a powerful river; most of our conditioning is pushing us in the other direction.  So it is a question of developing your muscles: the more you use them, the stronger they get.  When you put the other person’s welfare foremost every day, no matter how strong the opposite tide inside, you discover after a while that you can love a little more today than you did yesterday.  Tomorrow you will be able to love a little more.    

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

The homework is to work on cultivating unconditional love.  Start by putting others needs before your own without any thought of getting something in return.  Try to extend this love to those closest to you first and move out from there.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Purusha

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are considering Purusha.

If God gave the soul his whole creation she would not be filled thereby but only with himself.

                                    - Meister Eckhart

Today, even modern industrial societies are not always able to provide food and shelter for all of their people. These are very real and important needs. But there are other needs that sometimes are not so easily identified. Even when the most pressing requirements for food or clothing or shelter have been satisfied, that is not enough for the human being. There remains a hunger for something more. We want to be somebody. We want to feel secure. We want to love. Without any better way to satisfy these inner needs, we end up depending on possessions and profit - not just for our physical well-being but as a substitute for the dignity, fulfillment, and security we want so much.

Only by living for something that lasts, something real - rather than for passing pleasure and profit -can we achieve the lasting fulfillment, the limitless capacity to love, that is our birthright.

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

The homework is to use your Yoga practices to explore the concept of "living for something that lasts". Consider the concept of Purusha in your exploration. Purusha means the spacious realm of the Spirit, or higher Self. See for yourself if understanding Purusha from your experience opens you up to experiencing a " limitless capacity to love".

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Practices That Help us "Control the Mind"

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are considering practices that help us "control the mind".

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

                                    - William Shakespeare

Many of the disruptions that take place in personal relationships can be prevented by learning to control our attention, for attention is closely linked with loyalty.

I can illustrate with that most fascinating of relationships, the romantic. Suppose Romeo and Juliet had turned out differently, and the two lovers had married and settled down to a normal domestic life. After a few years, as sometimes happens, Romeo's attention gets restless. Once the sight of Juliet made him think of flowers and bubbling brooks and the "light, sweet airs of spring"; now she reminds him of the laundry and his morning espresso. After a while, his attention falls on Rosaline, his old flame. Now she reminds him of flowers and brooks; his attention seizes her and will not let go.

Today, Romeo would most likely receive the advice, "Follow your desires. That is where happiness will be." But that is just where unhappiness will be. If Romeo's attention cannot stay with Juliet, how is it going to stay with Rosaline? If he cannot get control over his attention, happiness can only recede farther and farther.

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

The homework is to consider how our Yoga practices help us to "control our attention" and why that would be helpful in all areas of life. Ask yourself which practices are most relevant to this work. Dharana? Tapas? Pratyahara? Pranayama? Dhyana? Svadhyaya? Isvara Pranidhana?  

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Tapas

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are considering the third Niyama - Tapas.

You are what your deep, driving desire is.

                                           - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Desire is the key to life, because desire is power. The deeper the desire, the more power it contains.

Most people start life with many small desires. Their power and vitality trickle away in many different directions. None of their desires is deep enough to contain much power. But there are people whose lives are molded by only a few, consuming desires. Such people usually achieve their goals. Because their desires are unified, their will becomes nearly invincible. To desire something deeply is to will it, and to will is to achieve. If they want to become a great artist, build a bigger pyramid, explain the movements of the planets, they devote their life to that, and usually succeed. Wherever you find great success in life, it is fueled by the intense unification of desires.

But the most successful people of all are the rare men and women like Mahatma Gandhi and Saint Teresa of Avila who have but one desire. All lesser desires have been consumed in the great fire of love for God.

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

The homework is to study the third Niyama or Tapas. Tapas means to use burning effort under all circumstances to achieve ones goal in life.  Tapas needs to be applied in three areas: body, speech and mind.  Practicing non-violence towards your own body is one way to practice tapas of body.  Speaking kindly and truthfully can be one way to practice tapas of speech.  Developing an even mind that stays balanced in sorrow and joy and practicing self discipline is tapas of mind. Observe for yourself how unifying this practice of Tapas across these three areas can help you navigate and stay on your path.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Pranayama and Pratyahara

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are considering the fourth and fifth limbs of Yoga, Pranayama and Pratyahara.

The enemy is more easily overcome if it be not suffered to enter the door of our hearts, but be resisted without the gate at its first knock.

                                    - Thomas a Kempis

The body is rather like a city with five gates, the five senses. We are fairly fussy about what enters the gate of the mouth. But just as food enters the mouth and goes on to nourish or damage the body, sense impressions enter consciousness through our eyes, ears, nose, and skin, and in most of us the traffic is somewhat unregulated. We all want to be open to experience, but we also need to be watchful. When impressions come knocking, we need to check IDs.

Take popular films, many of which glamorize violence. We can pretend this is only entertainment, bearing no relationship to real life, yet every year violent crimes enact with terrible precision episodes from television or movies. In our violent society, how can anyone argue convincingly that witnessing casual cruelty on television does not affect us? We all have a personal stake in not supporting any of the mass media when they give us poisonous food for our eyes, our ears, and our minds.

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

The homework is to consider the fourth and fifth limbs of Yoga, Pranayama and Pratyahara. Pranayama teaches the aspirant to regulate the breathing, and thereby control the mind.  Pratyahara teaches the aspirant to discipline the senses, helping free the senses from the thralldom of the objects of desire. If you don't currently practice Pranayama talk to your teacher and consider taking up this art. Additionally learn what it means to practice Pratyahara. See for yourself how the practice of these two limbs of Yoga can work together.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Santosa

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are considering Santosa.

Faults and virtues arise from our companions.

                                    - Sanskrit proverb

According to this ancient saying, what is good in us and what is bad, our strong points and our weak points alike, develop because of constant association. When we associate with calm people, we become calm; when we associate with agitated people, we become agitated. When we frequent the company of people who are wise, we become wiser; when our company is otherwise, we become otherwise too.

We've all experienced this. When we have spent an evening with someone who is overwrought, we come home so agitated ourselves that we can't get to sleep. But there is a positive side of the power of association: we absorb good qualities too, by spending time with people who embody them. Whenever we associate with people, we participate in their mental states.

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

The homework is to consider the second Niyama - Santosa. Santosa can be defined as contentment, reducing desires, becoming cheerful and creating balance of mind. Determine for yourself how to practice Santosa and work to be the calming force in peoples lives. Become the person that others want to associate with.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Oneness

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring oneness or not being separate.

Sages speak of the immutable Tree, with its root above and its branches below. . . . The limbs of this tree spread above and below. Sense objects grow on the limbs as buds; the roots hanging down bind us to action in this world. The true form of this tree - its essence, beginning, and end - is not perceived on this earth.

                                    - Bhagavad Gita

We are all familiar with the unflattering expression, "He can't see the forest for the trees." Similarly, it can be said that most of us don't see the tree for the leaves, that we fail to see the Tree of Life because we are fascinated by the leaves. We are so obsessed by the leaves - the millions of little fragments that grow on the tree - that we are not aware of the tree at all. We do not see that without the tree the leaves do not have any life, that it is the sap, coming from the very life of the tree, that flows into the leaves and supports them.

In our modern world, most of the emphasis is on separateness, on the leaf rather than the tree. Daily we receive the message, "Find your joy in your own way; live your life in your own way; find your fulfillment in your own way." This drive for personal satisfaction is based on a cruel fiction: that the leaf can prosper without the living tree. In reality, none of us are separate; we are all part of the same creation, drawing our strength, happiness, and fulfillment from the cosmic tree.

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

The homework is to observe how your Yoga practices connect you to everything that is.  Yoga means many things including oneness or not being separate.  The challenge is to learn how to apply this experience to our lives in every way and see how it impacts our behavior and choices.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

How the Practices of Yoga Can Help you Formulate, Navigate and Stay on Your Path

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring how the practices of Yoga can help you formulate, navigate and stay on your path - whatever it is.

All mystics speak the same language,  for they come from the same country.

                                   

                                                                                  - Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

What we are all looking for, even though we are searching in the most improbable places, is infinite wisdom, infinite joy, infinite love. In other words, we are trying to discover our real nature. At the very core of our being is a spark of purity, of perfection, of divinity. When we learn to identify less and less with that which is subject to change and more and more with this core of perfection, we are gradually moving closer to this supreme goal.

Though different religions call it by different names, the goal is always the same. It is nirvana to the Buddhist, moksha to the Hindu; Jesus calls it "entering the kingdom of heaven within." To the Sufis it is union with the Beloved; to Jewish mystics it is the return to the Promised Land. No matter what they call it, all the great religions point to the same supreme goal.

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

The homework is to ask yourself why Mr. Iyengar referred to Yoga as the science of religions. Others have called Yoga the mystical path of Hinduism. Why is this? Consider how the practices of Yoga can help you formulate, navigate and stay on your path - whatever it is.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Nine Obstacles and Accompanying Four Distractions

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring Nine Obstacles and Accompanying Four Distractions as presented in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.

                                    - Revelation

We have all seen those signs on the highway, "Go Back. Wrong Way!" Where roads are concerned, we all understand this warning. We turn around. If only we could understand life's signs so easily!

Sorrow is often a warning with the same message: "Go back. Change your direction. You are going the wrong way." Every creature is conditioned to avoid pain; this is a built-in safety mechanism to protect our bodies from harm. When you eat more than necessary, for example, you should feel reassured if your stomach hurts. Your body is telling you, "Please don't do this again; it's not good for me." Mental and emotional suffering often serve the same function.

Once we have connected our sorrow with particular patterns of behavior, we will remember to act wisely more often. Eventually, as we learn its lesson, personal sorrow will fade from our life.

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

The homework is to study Patanjali's Yoga Sutras 1:30 and 1:31 reviewing what are referred to as the "Nine Obstacles and Accompanying Four Distractions".  To learn how to use your Yoga practices to cultivate the connection of our sorrow with particular patterns of behavior and learn to act wisely more often, review Patanjali's Yoga Sutras 1:32 - 1:39. This is where Patanjali presents the ways to prevent these thirteen impediments.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

Tapas

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring the third Niyama, Tapas - to use burning effort under all circumstances to achieve ones goal in life.

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.

                                    - Mother Teresa of Calcutta

In going faster and faster and trying our hand at new adventures all the time, we hope we can forget our emptiness. We try to squeeze as many jobs as possible into a limited span of time. We're in some frantic race, not knowing just why or against whom we're racing.

There is no joy in work which is hurried, which is done when we are at the mercy of pressures from outside, because such work is compulsive. All too often hurry clouds judgment. More and more, to save time, a person tends to think in terms of pat solutions and to take shortcuts and give uninspired performances.

It is often said that life in our modern world is so complicated, so busy, and so crowded that just to survive we have to hurry. But I think we still have a choice. We can insist on working conditions that do not force us to hurry. It is possible to do our work and attend to our duties without being oppressed by time, and when we work free from the bondage of time we do not make mistakes, we do not get tense, and the quality of our living improves.

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

The homework is to experiment with yourself to see if bringing more consistency and dedication (Tapas) to your Yoga practices increase the time you have in the day to develop warm, deep, and personal relationships.  See for yourself if your practices can support simplifying our lives, dropping less important activities, and slowing down our pace of living.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

The Sixth Limb of Yoga: Dharana or One-Pointed Concentration

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring the sixth limb of Yoga: Dharana or one-pointed concentration.

All spiritual disciplines are done with a view to still the mind. The perfectly still mind is universal spirit.

                                    - Swami Ramdas

Meditation is the regular, systematic training of attention to turn inward and dwell continuously on a single focus within consciousness. With practice, we can become so absorbed in the object of our contemplation that while we are meditating, we forget ourselves completely. In that moment, when we may be said to be empty of ourselves, we are utterly full of what we are dwelling on. This is the central principle of meditation: we become what we meditate on.

Eventually, meditation will make our mind calm, clear, and as concentrated as a laser which we can focus at will. This capacity of one-pointed attention is the essence of genius. When we have this mastery over attention in everything we do, we have a genius for life itself: unshakable security, clear judgment, and deep personal relationships.

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

The homework is to bring the same kind of attention that you use to maintain balance in your Asana practice 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 to these activities.  Then work to generalize this "mastery over attention" to everything else in life.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Isvara Pranidhana

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring the fifth Niyama, Isvara Pranidhana. Translated as dedication to humanity or surrender to God.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

                                    - John Donne

The unity underlying life is so complete and pervasive that when we inflict suffering on the smallest creature, we injure the whole. When we refrain from habits that harm others, when we take up jobs that relieve suffering, when we work to put an end to anger and separateness, we strengthen the whole.

There is nothing more important in life than learning to express this unity in all our relationships. Violence, war, and insensitivity to our fellow creatures are external manifestations of the disunity in our consciousness. When we begin to practice spiritual disciplines, right from the first day, however slowly, we begin to transform our character, conduct, and consciousness. When the divisiveness which has been agitating us and making life difficult begins to mend, we get immediate evidence in our daily life. Our health improves, long-standing personal conflicts subside, our mind becomes clearer, and a sense of security and well-being follows us wherever we go.

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

The homework is to review the fifth Niyama, Isvara Pranidhana. Translated as dedication to humanity or surrender to God. To practice Isvara Pranidhana is to dedicate all that you do in life towards humanity. It is an act of surrender whereby we allow the universe to unfold as it is without our judgment or interference. When we surrender to the path of yoga, we leave behind our earthly desires and attachments. Learn for yourself if dedicating all your actions to humanity allows for the reflection of your own divinity and to bringing more healing, health and growth to our world.

References:

Light on Yoga and Light on the Yoga Sutras, by BKS Iyengar , The Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali, by Chip Hartranft, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, by Sri Swami Satchidananda, and The Essence of Yoga, Bernard Bouanchaud

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Pratyahara – the Withdrawal and Emancipation From the Senses

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring the fifth limb of Yoga Pratyahara – the withdrawal and emancipation from the senses.

For the outer sense alone perceives visible things, and the eye of the heart alone sees the invisible.

                                    - Richard of Saint-Victor

The senses - the eyes, ears, touch, and taste - are wonderful instruments for observing the outer world. But these instruments function at their best when they are trained. If they clamor for what is damaging to our health, it is not their fault. It is ours, because we haven't sent them to school.

"Why do you want to eat that?" we ask the palate in exasperation. "You know it's going to add to the pounds."

"I can't help it," the palate replies. "You never trained me."

It may take a long period of education, but the senses can be trained. Then, the palate might clamor briefly for the chocolate mousse, but a friendly "Careful!" brings it back to the fresh strawberries.

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

The homework is to consider the fifth limb of Yoga Pratyahara – the withdrawal and emancipation from the senses. Select a day (or an hour!) to study your sensual experiences. Note which experiences bring up feelings of attachment – “I want more!” and, note which bring feelings of aversion – “Never again!” Consider what actions follow those sensual experiences. Are your actions based on an intellectual decision that you’ve made? Or are your actions based on the unconscious drive for more or less of the sensual experience?

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Patience

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring patience.

Living the Good Life

Patience

Why do we hear so little about patience today?  There almost seems to be a conspiracy in our modern civilization to counsel just the opposite: be impatient, be angry, “look out for number one.”  But what is life without patience?....We seldom realize what power there is in patience.  All the energy consumed in exploding against others, in retaliating, in unkind words, in the anger that brings grief to others and ulcers to ourselves – all that energy can be harnessed as positive, creative power, simply by learning patience…….Imagine someone who cannot be disturbed even if you are rude or unkind to him.  Imagine someone who moves closer to you when you get angry, instead of running away; someone who keeps showing respect even when you try to strike out and hurt him.  Simply being around such people is a joy.  Their practice rubs off.  Gradually we want to be like them.  When we have a selfish impulse, we reject it; we have seen something higher.  Once we have an ideal like this to live up to, we try to stretch ourselves a little every day; we see opportunities in every challenge.

                                                                        -Eknath Easwaran

                                                                      

Yoga Gems: A Treasury of Practical and Spiritual Wisdom from Ancient and Modern Masters – Edited by Georg Feurstein  

The homework is to notice when you are being impatient with yourself and work to turn this impatience into patience for yourself.  Then encourage this practice to “rub off” into other areas of your life.  Start with the little interactions that make up each day and be slower and more patient.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Becoming Small Forces for Peace Wherever We Go

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring "becoming small forces for Peace wherever we go".

And then there crept a little noiseless noise among the

leaves,

Born of the very sigh that silence heaves.

                                    - John Keats

Today I was walking with some friends in Armstrong Redwoods Park and I was astonished at those trees. The more I looked at them, the more I came to appreciate them. It was completely still, unlike our tropical forests in India, where elephants trumpet, tigers roar, and there is a constant symphony of sound.

Here everything was still, and I enjoyed the silence so much that I remembered these lines of John Keats. It is a perfect simile for the silence of the mind, when all personal conflicts are resolved, when all selfish desires come to rest. All of us are looking for this absolute peace, this inward, healing silence in the redwood forest of the mind. When we find it, we will become small forces for peace wherever we go.

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

The homework is to consider why you have taken up the practices of Yoga and how doing so can help cultivate becoming small forces for Peace wherever you go.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Fear

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring fear.

On this path, effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure. Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear.

                                    - Bhagavad Gita

To be truly secure, we must begin to find a source of security within ourselves. Even the bravest among us have many fears. Behind the attachment to money or possessions, for example, you will always find the fear of loss. Attachment to prestige brings the nagging fear of what others think of us. The thirst for power feeds the fear that others may be stronger. Every self-centered desire brings the fear that we may not get what we desire.

One could make a Sears catalog of these fears, but all stem from one fatal superstition: thinking of ourselves as merely physical creatures, separate from the rest of life. As our sense of oneness with the rest of life deepens, we step out of the world of fear to live in the world of love.

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

The homework is to consider how can the physical practices of yoga (bahiranga sadhana: yama, niyama, asana) and the inward practices (antaranga sadhana: pranayama and pratyahara) prepare you for your spiritual path and help free you from fear and move you in the direction of LOVE and the experience of oneness?

  

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

Savasana

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring Savasana or corpse pose.

Dreams are real as long as they last. Can we say more of life?

                                    - Henry Havelock Ellis

When we wake up from a dream into waking consciousness, we do not pass from unreality to reality; we pass from a lower level of reality to a higher level. And, the mystics of all religions say, there is a higher level still, compared with which this waking life of ours is as insubstantial as a dream.

Yet until we do wake up, nothing sounds more absurd than the assertion that we are dreaming, and nothing seems more solid than this world of the senses. Why should this be so? If original goodness is our real nature, why are we unable to see it? The answer is simple: because we see life not as it is but as we are. We see "through a glass darkly," through the distorting lenses of the mind - all the layers of feeling, habit, instinct, and memory that cover the pure core of goodness deep within.

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

The homework is to observe your state of being after Savasana. One of the goals of Yoga is to uncover our true reality or as Eknath Easwaran writes "the pure core of goodness deep within." In Sparks of Divinity B.K.S. Iyengar writes, "The best sign of a good Savasana is a feeling of deep peace and pure bliss. Savasana is a watchful surrendering of the ego. Forgetting oneself, one discovers oneself." See if through your practice of Savasana you can move towards discovering yourself. 

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Dharana

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring Dharana or concentration.

Households, cities, countries, and nations have enjoyed great happiness when a single individual has taken heed of the Good and Beautiful.   . . . Such people not only liberate themselves; they fill those they meet with a free mind.

                                    -Philo

Just as we live in a physical atmosphere, we are surrounded also by a mental atmosphere. And just as the air we breathe may become polluted, our mental atmosphere can be polluted by negative thinking. If trees were not always releasing oxygen into the atmosphere, scientists tell us, all life on earth would suffer. On a smoggy day the trees along the freeway look grey and drab in the haze; they do not seem to add anything valuable to the landscape.

Yet they are performing a vital function: they are taking in our carbon dioxide and giving us oxygen in return.

A person whose mind is free from negative thinking spreads a life-giving influence in much the same way that a tree gives oxygen. Although a selfless man or woman may seem to go through the day doing nothing extraordinary, without them nothing would revitalize the atmosphere in which we think. By being vigilant, and not encouraging negative thoughts, all of us can offer this vital service - which benefits everybody, including ourselves.

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

The homework is to witness the mind and all of its movements or Vrittis. The Yoga Sutras state that practicing the Eight Limbs of Yoga is the key to calming the Vrittis. Study these Eight Limbs and specifically review Dharana or concentration as a practice to help you notice when you are generating a negative thought and discourage the fruition of these thoughts.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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

Letting go of our Attachments

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring letting go of our attachments.

Love the whole world as a mother loves her only child. 

                                    -The Buddha

My grandmother could not read or write, and she was a woman of few words, but by her example, by the very power of her presence, she taught me that we are all children of God, no matter what our country, religion, race, or sex. To use the language of traditional Hinduism, she was aware of the unity of life that binds us all together, and she was able, gradually, to transmit her awareness to me.

A favorite expression of my granny's was, "Life cannot make a selfish person happy." It has taken me half a lifetime to understand the profundity of her simple words, warning that happiness cannot come from possessing another person, or from any selfish attachment. But she would also always add, "Life cannot help but make a selfless person happy." Like spiritual teachers of all the world's religions, she taught that happiness is to be found in learning how to love others more than I love myself.

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

The homework is to observe what it is that your are attached to the most. Learn for yourself what it might take to let go of this attachment a little bit at a time. Start with easier things like chocolate and move on to harder things like people. See how your Yoga practices can nurture you on this path.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

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