Paul Cheek / Rushing Water Yoga in Camas, WA

What does the Buddha mean when he says that we become what we meditate on?

2012-02-06T21:52:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering what the Buddha means when he says that we become what we meditate on.

If you let your mind dwell on ghosts, you'll become a ghost yourself. If you fix your mind on God, your life will be filled with God. Now - which are you going to choose?

-Sri Ramakrishna

In meditation, we learn the skill of bringing our attention back to the words of the inspirational passage whenever it strays away. Attention is like a restless puppy, fond of running after anything new that comes along. When it sees an intensely charged memory, it cannot let it roll by; it has to chase the memory and keep yapping, yapping, yapping.

Just as with a dog, we have to call the mind back over and over again, whenever we sit down for meditation. This may go on for years. But if we keep practicing diligently and systematically, the day will come when we can put our attention where we want it with little effort, and it will stay without movement or protest. Then, however unkind somebody may have been, we will not be mastered by resentment; our attention will not turn to the past at all.

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

The homework is to consider what the Buddha means when he says that we become what we meditate on. Can this be generalized to all of our thinking? How can understanding this inform our Yoga practices?

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

The two wings of Yoga: Abhyasa or effort, willpower, and practice; and Vairagya or letting go, acceptance, and detachment

2012-01-30T20:54:00.003-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the two wings of Yoga: Abhyasa or effort, willpower, and practice; and Vairagya or letting go, acceptance, and detachment.

By two wings we are lifted up from things earthly: by simplicity and purity.

-Thomas a Kempis

To soar to the heights, the soul needs two wings. One is purity, which enables us to keep our eyes on the one thing in life that matters: awareness of the divinity within every human being. The other is simplicity: of lifestyle, but also simplicity in our desires.

This raises a worry that many serious-minded people have today. Living in the workaday world, surrounded by all manner of influences we cannot control, can purity and simplicity ever be anything for us but beautiful abstractions? It is one thing to grasp intellectually how we want to live; it is quite another to put our ideals into practice.

Yet, it is possible to learn to tug our attention away from lesser things, and focus on what really matters. And, to our great surprise, we will actually hit on some remedies. One person may start with his teenaged son, discovering a way to give him support that hadn't occurred to him before. Another may mobilize help for children dying of hunger in Ethiopia or help the homeless in the inner city.

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

The homework is to consider what obstacles are on your path that inhibit your ability to move towards "what really matters." Use the two wings of Yoga: Abhyasa or effort, willpower, and practice; and Vairagya or letting go, acceptance, and detachment as your guide. Work to find balance between your effort and letting go of getting anything out of your effort. Take whatever little steps or attempts you can make.

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

The two wings of Yoga: Abhyasa or effort, willpower, and practice; and Vairagya or letting go, acceptance, and detachment

2012-01-30T20:54:00.001-08:00

The Niyamas or the practices of self-purification through discipline and specifically Svadhyaya or Self Study

2012-01-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the Niyamas or the practices of self-purification through discipline and specifically Svadhyaya or Self Study.

Place your mind before the mirror of eternity; place your soul in the brightness of Her Glory.

-Saint Clare of Assisi

We are shaped by what gains our attention and occupies our thoughts. Today, amidst all of the conditioning to the contrary, we need constant reminders of our higher nature, and that is why spiritual reading can be very helpful. The media drown us in such a low image of the human being that it is essential to remind ourselves constantly of something higher.

All of the world's religions provide nourishment for the spirit distilled from centuries of spiritual exploration. It is a wise investment of time to take half an hour or so each day for reading from the scriptures and the writings of the great mystics of all religions. Just before bedtime is a particularly good time, because the thoughts you fall asleep in will be with you throughout the night.

Our consciousness takes on the color of what we think about. By reading the words of a favorite saint or mystic, we imbue our mind with thoughts that are beautiful, true, and full of light.

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

The homework is to review the second path of Yoga - the Niyamas or the practices of self-purification through discipline and specifically Svadhyaya or Self Study. For one week commit to devoting time each day to reciting, studying, and meditating, on an inspired text.

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

Building our Practices on What Endures and From a Balanced and Firm Foundation

2012-01-16T22:26:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering building our practices on what endures and from a balanced and firm foundation.

Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who ever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?

-George Bernard Shaw

Often we try to build relationships on what is pleasing to us, particularly on physical attraction. But if there is anything sure about physical attraction, it is that it has to change. We cannot build on it; its very nature is to come and go.

Physical attraction is a sensation - here one minute and gone the next. Love is a relationship. It is pleasant to be with someone who is physically attractive, but how long can you enjoy an aquiline nose? How long can you thrill to the timbre of a voice when it doesn't say what you like? It's very much like eating: no matter how much you are attracted to chocolate pie, there is a limit to how much of it you can enjoy. Beyond that limit, if somebody merely mentions chocolate, your stomach stages a revolt.

If you want to build a relationship, build it on what endures. To build on a firm foundation, we have to stop asking, "What do I like?" and ask only, "What can I give?" Then there is joy in everything, because there is joy in the relationship itself - in ups and downs, through the pleasant and the unpleasant, in sickness and in health.

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

The homework is to practice some of the postures that you are least fond of. Sandwich them in between postures you are fond of. Challenge yourself to build your practice on what endures and from a balanced and firm foundation. Discover for yourself if this work translates into your relationships off of the mat.

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

Our Perceived Sense of Separateness

2012-01-09T23:09:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering our perceived sense of separateness.

The wine of life is oozing drop by drop,
The leaves of life are falling one by one.

-Omar Khayyam

Like leaves, we come into this life, are here for a few days, and then are gone. Nobody remembers us, and nobody misses us.

As long as we believe that we are separate, we inevitably have to die. Our immortality is in the whole, which never dies. In living just for personal profit and pleasure, no matter under what philosophical name we may call it, our real personality withers away. It cannot be otherwise.

When you become aware that you are not a leaf but the tree, something amazing happens in your life: you are able to act spontaneously, almost effortlessly, for the good of all.

This is the proof of your awareness that you are the tree: everywhere it will motivate you, everywhere you will see what contribution you can make. You won't have to deliberate the pros and cons. You won't need a computer to provide you with a plan of action. You will know instinctively, intuitively, the needs of those around you. What's more, it will seem natural to change even long-established habits, to drop something that before would have given you pleasure, if it means the tree may flourish.

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

The homework is to reflect on how your Yoga practices can help you cultivate awareness of the needs of those around you and your community. And consider the concept that the consistent, dedicated and long-term practice of Yoga can help us eliminate the perceived sense of separateness.

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

What does it mean to move from selfishness to selflessness?

2012-01-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering what it mean to move from selfishness to selflessness.

Those who are selfless rejoice here and rejoice there; they rejoice wherever they go. They rejoice and delight in the good they have done.

-The Buddha

When we live for others, we'll find we are less oppressed by the natural changeability of life. Instead of wanting, even demanding, that everything go our way, we'll feel at peace when everything is going everybody else's way. In other words, we will be less likely to get discouraged or depressed by the normal ups and downs of life.

And when we are able to function freely in all the varied relationships and vicissitudes of life, we will gradually find an inner certitude that we are equal to every challenge. Then, just because somebody is agitated, we won't be afraid. Just because someone is unfavorably disposed towards us, we will not get diffident or annoyed. The Buddha says these outward changes of fortune can never affect our joy, which is permanent.

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

The homework is to witness the process you go through getting your own way. Then experiment with witnessing the process of letting go of getting your own way. Ask yourself where the balance is in-between the two. What does it mean to move from selfishness to selflessness?

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

Considering Tapas and Endurance

2011-12-19T21:43:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering tapas and endurance.

Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.

-The Buddha

People often find that meditation is easy for the first few months; but then, just when they think things are going well, it becomes difficult. It is like digging in your garden. The surface level of consciousness is soft loam, easy digging for the first twelve inches or so. The blade of the shovel is turning over the soil so easily that you say, "This is great! Isn't meditation wonderful?" Then you strike something hard and impenetrable. Your hands sting from the shock, and your arms ache. That is the first stratum of bedrock - a dense, rock-hard layer of sheer resistance. Congratulations! You are getting somewhere at last!

How do you know you have hit something? The most common sign is a wave of sleep during meditation. Your mind is saying, in effect, "My shovel is getting blunted, and my arms are tired. Why not stop digging and have a snooze?" It is extremely important not to yield to this inclination. Sit up straighter and draw away from your back support until the wave of sleep has passed. This problem of sleep may be with you for a long time. You have a lot of strata to dig through, and there is great joy in this digging.

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

The homework is to explore the third Niyama - Tapas. BKS Iyengar writes that, "tapas is a burning inner zeal and austerity, a sort of unflagging hardness of attitude towards oneself which make possible compassion and forgiveness towards others.” Apply the concept of tapas and the idea of endurance put fort by the Buddha to your own life and practices.

Light on the Yoga Sutras - BKS Iyengar

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, patience, forgiveness, and freedom from likes and dislikes.

2011-12-04T18:56:00.001-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering pratyahara, patience, forgiveness, and freedom from likes and dislikes.

The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose; Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference, and Heaven and Earth are set apart.

-Seng-Ts'an (Jianzhi Sengcan)

Happiness and sorrow, good and bad, pleasure and pain - these are the very texture of life on the superficial level. The less you are bound by these dualities, the more clearly you will be able to see the core of purity and selflessness that is the real Self in everyone, even in people who cause trouble.

My grandmother had a pungent phrase for difficult people: "a lash in the eye." We all know from experience how an eyelash in the eye can be so irritating that we just cannot think about anything else. That is exactly how difficult people affect those around them, so naturally most of us try to avoid such people.

But this lash in the eye is an opportunity for learning the skills that matter most in life: patience, forgiveness, and freedom from likes and dislikes. It is only the spiritually mature person who can go and put his arm around someone who has given him a really difficult time, and say sincerely, "Without you, how could I ever have learned to be patient? How could I have learned to forgive?"

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

The homework is to notice when a "lash in the eye" comes your way and be slow to respond. Consider the fifth limb of Yoga, pratyahara and how this practice can encourage the cultivation of patience, forgiveness, and freedom from likes and dislikes. Roughly, Pratyahara is the withdrawal or the refinement of the senses. The concept of pratyahara is found in verse II.54 and II.55 of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

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

2011-11-27T13:40:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering patience.

Acquire a firm will and the utmost patience.

-Anandamayi Ma

We begin our journey towards the supreme goal of life from where we stand. Just as it is good to be patient with others, it is equally necessary to be patient with ourselves. After all, when the desire to live for others comes to us, we can be haunted by our past mistakes, by the amount of time we have wasted in selfish pursuits. But we must accept ourselves with all our strengths and weaknesses.

There are many obstacles on the spiritual path which can strengthen us, and these cannot be overcome unless we have infinite patience with ourselves. If we are patient with others, shouldn't we be patient with ourselves as well? Each of us is individual, with our own special qualities. We start now, where we are, with our partial love for money, partial love for pleasure, partial love for prestige, and a little love for God. We will progress at our own pace. It is not good to compare one person's progress with another's.

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

The homework is to connect how our Yoga path mirrors our path in life. Our practices ebb and flow, frustrations and successes, highs and lows, but a slow progression occurs. Practice being patient with any setbacks and keep coming back to your commitments.

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

Passage Meditation

2011-11-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering passage meditation.

How sweet it is to love, and to be dissolved, and as it were to bathe myself in thy love.

- Thomas a Kempis

In these times, a common prescription for a day packed with troubles is to go jump in your hot tub. Relaxation starts immediately; for a time, at least, the body is at peace.

Now imagine a hot tub for the mind. That is what meditation is; it can bathe your mind in relaxing thoughts. This requires a lot of practice, but when you have learned to jump in the hot tub of meditation at the end of a day, instead of rehashing problems with your co-workers or downing a double martini, you can close your eyes, start in with an inspirational passage, and let the accumulated tensions of the day dissolve.

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

The homework is to review how you choose to relax and let go of your stresses. Consider trying what Sri Easwaran recommends. Choose an inspirational passage that has strong meaning to you. Sit and repeat this passage in your head or out loud for a few minutes. See what happens. An example of an inspirational passage that most westerners know is the prayer of St. Francis.

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

Meditation

2011-11-07T21:18:00.001-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering meditation.

Still your mind in me, still yourself in me, and without doubt you shall be united with me, Lord of Love dwelling in your heart.

-Bhagavad Gita

Children attending their first swimming lessons have a healthy fear of putting their faces underwater. They are afraid they are going to drown. This is the feeling we can get when we go deeper in meditation and begin to break loose from some of our long-cherished emotional attachments.

When I was first meditating, I had the same fears everyone has. All kinds of struggles were going on inside me, and it took time and effort to overcome them. But once the waters closed over my head and I began to get my bearings in these new realms, I knew this was what I had been looking for and longing for, and all my energy went into diving deeper.

When we put our heads under and dive deep, leaving selfishness on the surface, we find a joy that is a million times what any surface sensation can give, and a love that at its fullest expression embraces all of life. Initially we may fear losing the sensory satisfactions that lie on the surface, but waiting far below are joy, love, life.

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

The homework is to sit quietly for five minutes twice a day for a week. Try to do it in the same place and same time every day. Make sure you can sit comfortably and keep yourself upright - use a chair if you have to. Observe what happens.

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

Use the light.

2011-10-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering using the light.

Use the light.

Come home to your true nature.

Don't cause yourself injury:

This is known as seizing the truth.

-Lao Tzu

As human beings, we have been born with the capacity to make choices. No other creature has this capacity, and no human being can avoid this responsibility. Every day, whether we see it or not, we have a choice of two alternatives in what we do, say, and think.

These alternatives are: what is pleasant and what is beneficial. The first pleases us now. The second may be unpleasant at the beginning, as anyone who has begun a physical fitness program knows; but it will improve our health and contribute to our peace of mind.

Both choices promise satisfaction. One we get immediately, but it comes and goes; the other requires effort, but its benefits stay with us and often benefit those around us as well.

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

The homework is to reflect on the hard work, or effort, that you bring to you Yoga practices and how we often do not get to the "final" pose. Work to let the practice unfold by itself watching the progress. Be aware of how the little changes cumulatively make your practice more strong and bring more light to your life off of the mat.

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

Vertical Travel

2011-10-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering vertical travel.

There are many going afar to marvel at the heights of mountains, the mighty waves of the sea, the long courses of great rivers, the vastness of the ocean, the movements of the stars, yet they leave themselves unnoticed!

-Saint Augustine

Today many people who enjoy traveling are not content with visiting London or Paris; they want to travel by camel in the Sahara, or kayak in the Antarctic. But no matter how exotic, this is horizontal travel, where we stay on the surface of life. Much more fascinating is vertical travel - that is, meditation, which takes us to the Land of Love in the utmost depths of consciousness.

For a long time we may not get very far, but if we insist on traveling deep, meditation will become a daring adventure. We will pass through level after level of consciousness, just the way one travels from one country to another. There is this difference: when we pass from the United States into Mexico, we know when we have crossed the border. We must stop and speak to the guard. Then the language changes. We know we are in a new land. In meditation, it is rather different. The changes are likely to take place so gradually that we may not even be aware of it immediately. But slowly and surely we will begin to have a strong feeling of coming home to our native land.

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

The homework is to learn to use your own life, your own experience to study the effects of your Yoga practices. Create the awareness to discover the subtle changes that might be taking place. Study, observe, experiment and use your own life as the research environment.

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

Respect

2011-10-11T08:25:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering respect.

The test of a man or woman's breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.

-George Bernard Shaw

When tempers are frayed, and an argument is in progress, it is very difficult for anyone to listen with courtesy to an opposing point of view. If we could ask the mind on such occasions why it doesn't listen, it would answer candidly, "Why should I? I already know I'm right." We may not put it into words, but the other person gets the message: "You're not worth listening to." It is this lack of respect that offends people in an argument, much more than any difference of opinion.

But respect can be learned - in part by acting as if we had respect. We show respect by simply listening with complete attention. Try it and see: the action is very much like that of a classical drama. For a while there is "rising action." The other person's temper keeps going up; language becomes more and more vivid; everything is heading for a climax. But then comes the denouement. The other person begins to quiet down: his voice becomes gentler, his language kinder, all because you have not retaliated or lost your respect for him.

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

The homework is to make the connection between developing awareness through your Yoga practices to being respectful. How do the practices of Yoga support you in learning and practicing respect?

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

2011-10-04T08:24:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering Tapas.

If someone takes your coat, give him your cloak as well; if he makes you go a mile with him, go with him two.

-The Gospel According to Saint Matthew

If you really want to land a blow at a compulsion, defy it. Do just the opposite of what it says. It is a daring approach which appeals to everyone with a sense of adventure. If somebody has been unkind to you, go out of your way to be kind to him. It can require a lot of endurance simply to be patient with such a person, but we're talking about more than endurance now; we're talking about daring.

Try it: there is an exhilaration in it, and a special delight in seeing the other person rub his eyes in disbelief, "I was just rude to him, and now he's being thoughtful. What's wrong with him?"

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

The homework is to learn how the discipline we bring to our Yoga practice - part of our Tapas can help us move through life as described above. 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.

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

Mediation, slowing down, the practices of Yoga and undoing negative conditioning.

2011-09-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering mediation, slowing down and how the practices of Yoga can help us undo negative conditioning.

Where are you searching for me, friend?
Look! Here am I right within you.
Not in temple, nor in mosque,
Not in Kaaba, nor Kailas,
But here right within you am I.

-Kabir

Many have begun the spiritual search while still suffering from severe personal problems. Saint Augustine was deeply enmeshed in the life of the world, and pulled himself free only after great anguish of mind. Others suffered physically. Saint Therese of Lisieux endured the constant pain of tuberculosis. So there is no need for any of us to feel downcast about our situation or the particular difficulties we face, provided we do everything we can to purify our mind.

Meditation is essentially a discipline for slowing down the furious pace of thinking; if you can gradually bring your mind to a state so still that no movement, no thought, can arise except those you yourself approve, your mind will have become pure. We have no need to teach pure motives to the mind. All that is necessary to make the mind pure is to undo the negative conditioning to which it has been subjected; then we will be left with pure, unconditioned awareness.

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

The homework is to take the awareness you cultivate through your Yoga practices and apply it to your own situations. Challenge yourself when the mind tries to direct your attention towards your own negative conditioning and learn to "approve" your thoughts, undoing any unhealthy conditioning. Consider how slowing down in general can help you with this work.

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

Our divided nature, the practices of Yoga, and moving towards oneness.

2011-09-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering our divided nature and how the practices of Yoga can help us move towards oneness.

Like a ball batted back and forth, a human being is batted by two forces within.
-Yogabindu Upanishad

As human beings we have a divided nature - partly physical, but essentially spiritual. We are constantly batted by two conflicting forces. One force is the fierce downward thrust of our past conditioning as separate, self-oriented, physical creatures. Yet built into our very nature is an inner drive that will not let us be satisfied with a life governed only by biological laws. Some inner evolutionary imperative is constantly exhorting us to grow, to reach for the highest that we can conceive.

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

The homework is to learn how your Yoga practices help you move from the physical plane to the spiritual plane. Ask yourself how you use your body to move towards a state of oneness.

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

Contemplation and the practice of asana....

2011-08-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering contemplation and the practice of asana.

That prayer has great power which a person makes with all his might. It makes a sour heart sweet, a sad heart merry, a poor heart rich, a foolish heart wise, a timid heart brave, a sick heart well, a blind heart full of sight, a cold heart ardent. It draws down the great God into the little heart; it drives the hungry soul up into the fullness of God; it brings together two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love.
-Mechthild of Magdeburg

There is nothing on earth like meditation. Each day it is new to me and fresh. I find it difficult to understand why everyone does not take to it. Millions dedicate their lives to art, music, literature, or science, which reveal just one
facet of the priceless jewel hidden in the world. A life based on meditation penetrates far beyond the multiplicity of existence into the indivisible realm of reality, where dwell infinite truth, joy, and beauty.

In meditation I see a clear, changeless goal far above the fever and fret of the day. This inner vision fills me with unshakable security, inspires me with wisdom beyond the reach of the intellect, and releases within me the capacity to act calmly and compassionately.

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

The homework is to remind yourself that the reason to practice asana is to prepare yourself for a contemplation practice - be it prayer or meditation or something else. Through the practice of asana we learn to direct our attention just like in a contemplative practice. Learn for yourself how to make the leap from your asana practice to a contemplative practice.

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

Using your gifts to the best of your ability and to serve others

2011-08-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering if we are using our gifts to the best of our ability and to serve others.

I look upon all creatures equally; none are less dear to me and none more dear. But those who worship me with love live in me, and I come to life in them.
-Bhagavad Gita

There is no need to compare ourselves with others or to feel our contribution is less important than someone else's. Yesterday I read a story that makes this point very well. It was about a Hasidic rabbi named Susya, who said, "When I die, I will not be asked, Why weren't you more like Moses?' I will be asked, Why weren't you more like Susya?'"

Similarly, the Self is not going to say, "You could have been a doctor! Why were you just a nurse's aide?" He is going to ask, "Were you the best nurse's aide you knew how to be? Did you help your patients not just by your labor, but by your genuine concern for their welfare?" Each of us has a special gift, some special capacity by which we can contribute to the welfare of those around us. What is important is that we use that gift or skill to the very best of our ability.

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

The homework is to reflect about your gifts and ask yourself if you are using your gifts to the best of your ability and to serve others. Consider how your Yoga practice can support you in 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

Kindess and Character Development

2011-08-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering how our Yoga practices can empower us to be more kind to others and to develop our characters.

The words of the tongue should have three gatekeepers.

-Arab proverb

Before words get past the lips, the first gatekeeper asks, "Is this true?" That stops a lot of traffic immediately. But if the words get past the first gatekeeper, there is a second who asks, "Is it kind?" And for those words that qualify here too, the last gatekeeper asks, "Is it necessary?"

With these three on guard, most of us would find very little to say. Here I think it is necessary to make exceptions in the interests of good company and let the third gatekeeper look the other way now and then. After all, a certain amount of pleasant conversation is part of the artistry of living. But the first two gatekeepers should always be on duty.

It is so easy to say something at the expense of another for the purpose of enhancing our own image. But such remarks - irresistible as they may be - serve only to fatten our egos and agitate others. We should be so fearful of hurting people that even if a clever remark is rushing off our tongue, we can barricade the gate. We should be able to swallow our cleverness rather than hurt someone. Better to say something banal but harmless than to be clever at someone else's expense.

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

The homework is to catch yourself next time you start to say something at the expense of another. Instead of directing your energy outward towards someone else direct it inward and consider what it is that you need to be working on. How does coming to the mat every day help you in 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

Dharana

2011-07-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the sixth limb of Yoga - Dharana.

I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power that can move the world.

-Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi provides a perfect example of how anger can be harnessed. As a young, unknown, brown-skinned lawyer traveling in South Africa on business, he was roughly thrown from the train because he refused to surrender his first-class ticket and move to the third-class compartment.
He spent a cold, sleepless night on the railway platform.

Later, he said this was the turning point of his life: for on that night, full of anger because of this personal injustice, as well as the countless injustices suffered by so many others every day in South Africa, he resolved not to rest until he had set those injustices right. On that night he conquered his anger and vowed to resist injustice, not by violence or retaliation, but through the loving power of nonviolent resistance, which elevates the consciousness of both oppressed and oppressor.

We may never be called on to liberate a people or lead a vast nation, but Gandhi's example can apply in a small way in our own lives, when we decide to return good will for ill will, love for hatred, in the innumerable little acts of daily life.

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

The homework is to consider the sixth limb of Yoga: Dharana – concentration. With the reading in mind consider how the practice of Dharana can help you cultivate the awareness needed to turn anger and other unhealthy emotions into something positive. How does the practice of asana help you in 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

Pratyahara

2011-07-17T22:28:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the fifth limb of Yoga - Pratyahara.

The more we have the less we own.

-Meister Eckhart

We have been ruthlessly conditioned to think we can find fulfillment in possessions, to love things rather than people - so much so, that when we feel an emptiness in our hearts, we go to shopping centers to fill it up.

I am all for living in reasonable comfort, but when I go to shopping centers, I cannot help getting alarmed. Not at the money that is being wasted - there is enough money in this country to waste. But there isn't enough will to waste. There isn't enough energy to waste. When we hear of the energy crisis, this is it. All our vitality, energy, and drive is sapped and undermined by the constant propaganda: go after this, go after that, and you'll be happy. Things are not meant to be loved. They are meant only to be used. People are lovable and loving.

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

The homework is to study the fifth limb of Yoga - Pratyahara. Pratyahara is the control, or the refinement of the senses. Ask yourself what it means to practice Pratyahara and how that would help you retain your vitality and your energy.

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

What does it mean to take the “Middle Path?"

2011-07-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering what it means to take the “Middle Path."

Lunch kills half of Paris; supper the other half.
-Montesquieu

I suggest eating moderately. Fasting may not be as easy as feasting, but after a while it is not too different. Both are extremes. It is not hard to go the extreme way, but what is really difficult is neither to fast nor to feast, but to be moderate in everything we do. This is what the Buddha called the Middle Path. It requires great artistry and vigilance. Instead of negating the body and senses, we train them to be valuable instruments.

I try to eat good food, wholesome food in temperate quantities in order to strengthen the body. If my body is not strong, I cannot contribute to the welfare of society, and I cannot give the best account of myself in life. We harness our physical, mental, and intellectual capacities not to make money or achieve power or fame, but to use these faculties to make our contribution to life.

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

The homework is to pay very close attention to the quantity and quality of what you eat. First just notice your habits. Second, try to eat a little bit less and stop before you are full. Be mindful of eating and take the time to enjoy all of the textures, smells, and tastes. Finally, consider what it means to take the “Middle Path” – being moderate in everything we do.

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

Slowing Down the Mind and Resting our Nervous Systems

2011-07-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering "slowing down the mind and resting our nervous systems."

Mental tensions, frustrations, insecurity, aimlessness are among the most damaging stressors, and psychosomatic studies have shown how often they cause migraine headache, peptic ulcers, heart attacks, hypertension, mental disease, suicide, or just hopeless unhappiness.

-Hans Selye

A great deal of psychological stress comes from the rush and hurry of a turbulent mind, which jumps recklessly to unwarranted conclusions, rushes to judgments, and often is going too fast to see events and people as they truly are. Such a mind keeps the body under continual tension. It is constantly on the move - desiring, worrying, hoping, fearing, planning, defending, rehearsing, criticizing. It cannot stop or rest except in deep sleep, when the whole body, particularly the nervous system, heaves a sigh of relief and tries to repair the damage of the day.

Simply by slowing down the mind - the first purpose of meditation - much of this tension can be removed. Then we are free to respond to life's difficulties not as sources of stress but as challenges, which will draw out of us deeper resources than we ever suspected we had. A one-pointed mind is slow and sound, which gives it immense resilience under stress. With a mind like this, we always have a choice in how we respond to life around us.

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

The homework is to work on resting your nervous system even when you are not sleeping. Use the awareness of your breath to provide you with feedback about your physiological and mental states. Use this feedback to modify your thoughts, actions and your breathing to ultimately create the yogic response – a parasympathetic response. Work to learn what it is like to have a calm nervous system. Try to have a little bit of savasana in everything you do.

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

Weaknesses and Relationships

2011-06-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering " weaknesses and relationships."

Love is inseparable from knowledge.

-Saint Macarius of Egypt

When selfish desire is removed from a relationship, there is no hankering to get anything from the other person. We are free to give, which means we are free to love. Then we can give and support and strengthen without reservation.

Interestingly enough, it is only then that we really see each other clearly. The infatuated mind cannot help caricaturing: it sees only what it wants; then, when the desire passes, it sees only what it does not want. Two people who are really in love do not close their eyes to each other's weaknesses. They support each other in overcoming those weaknesses, so that each helps the other to grow.

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

The homework is to reflect about what your weaknesses may be and how those you are in relationship with can help you work through these weaknesses. Consider talking to these people and expressing your desire to overcome these weaknesses and share with them how you think they can help. Next, reach out to those you are in relationship with and offer your help in resolving, or working through, their weaknesses. Work on being gentle, patient, loving and compassionate.

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

Patience and Love

2011-06-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering "patience and love."

Nothing is more beautiful than the love that has weathered the storms of life. . . . The love of the young for the young, that is the beginning of life. But the love of the old for the old, that is the beginning of – of things longer.

– Jerome K. Jerome

Every morning, just after you step on the bathroom scale to make sure you haven’t put on an extra ounce when you weren’t looking, you can step on the scale of love and make sure your ego hasn’t put on any weight. The critical measure is your capacity to be equable and kind in everyday relationships.

We all tend to feel impatient when something we want is waiting round the corner; and we all occasionally get angry when that something slips away. The positive approach is to be aware enough of this cycle to say sincerely, “Tomorrow I am going to be a little more patient than I was today. The day after, I am going to be a little more self-controlled.” Working on equability every day yields results.

Where intimate relationships are concerned, your love should grow. Don’t ever be satisfied with telling your partner, “I love you every bit as much as that first time I saw you going up the escalator at Macy’s!” Love should never be static; it must never become stagnant. Fifty years after Macy’s you should be able to say, “I love you fifty times more than I did that first day.” That is true love speaking.

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

The homework is to work on developing patience and love. Start by cultivating patience and love for yourself. Be gentle and loving with yourself. Forgive yourself when you stray. Use positive affirmations and remind yourself that tomorrow you will be more patient, more loving and more forgiving. Extend this practice to all beings.

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

contemplation

2011-06-12T21:23:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering "contemplation."

My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of sensuous images, that it might find out what that light was wherein it was bathed. . . . And thus, with the flash of one hurried glance, it attained to the vision of That Which Is.

-Saint Augustine

Even when we are not speaking or acting, most of us find that our mind still goes on working - thinking, daydreaming, planning, worrying, eating up precious energy that should be going to the body to maintain health. In a sense, our mind is in overdrive all the time. But in meditation we can learn to shift the mind out of overdrive and down into fourth gear, then to third, to second, and eventually to first. We may even learn how to put our mind into neutral and park it for a while by the side of the road.

When we can do that, a much higher faculty - which the Hindus and Buddhists call prajna, "wisdom," - comes into play. Then we will find that we see deep into the heart of life, with fathomless patience at our disposal. When we have learned to park the mind even for a short period, so much vitality is conserved that every major system in the body gets a fresh lease on life.

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

The homework is to work on developing a contemplative practice. Something like seated meditation, walking meditation, prayer, chanting, or just choosing to be quiet for 10 minutes twice a day. Take this practice “off of the mat” and work to bring the practice into all areas of your life. Take this contemplativeness and expand it.

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

Compassion

2011-06-05T20:11:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering "compassion."

That one I love who is incapable of ill will, and returns love for hatred. Living beyond the reach of I and mine, and of pain and pleasure, full of mercy, contented, self-controlled, of firm resolve, with all his heart and all his mind given to Me – with such a one I am in love.

– Bhagavad Gita

In personal relationships, we all get troubled when we do our best to be kind to someone and that person treats us with hostility or ill will in return. This is common in life today, and most of us quickly reach the end of our tether. “I don’t want to see you again,” we say. “I want to get as far away from you as possible!”

All of us have these human impulses. But that is just where the Gita or Jesus or the Buddha would say, “No. That is the way of the timid. That is the way of the weak.” Stick it out: not by becoming a doormat, not by blindly obeying whatever command the other person gives you, but by resolutely refusing to hurt anyone no matter how much you have been hurt. It is a great art.

Compassion comes with insight into the heart of life, as we see more clearly the unseen forces that drive a person into action. Ultimately, compassion extends to every creature.

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

The homework is, in any inter-personal situation, to pause before you respond. During this pause consider if you are being impulsive or are being impatient, if you are, consider what it would take to turn your energy into compassion. Next remember that when extending compassion to all creatures to include yourself.

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

Junk Thoughts

2011-05-31T11:58:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering "junk thoughts."

Be vigilant; guard your mind against negative thoughts.

-Buddha

Today, many people are very well informed about nutrition. We worry about “junk food,” which is a legitimate concern, but shouldn’t we be just as worried by the low-grade food we sometimes feed our mind? There is junk food, yes. But there are also “junk thoughts.”

Take a close look at the entertainment pages of your newspaper, for example. We have become so used to this kind of fare that we seldom even question it. I can imagine what people who lived in the Dark Ages would say if they say today’s paper from the Bay area: “They think we lived in the Dark Ages! What about them?” Millions of people spend hours every day feeding their minds and the minds of their children with unadulterated junk.

It is not just a few nude scenes or explicit language, which are often more juvenile than alarming, but the terribly unkind attitudes people display toward each other on the screen, on stage, and on the printed page, which they vent in harsh words and harmful acts. All this goes into our minds and gets absorbed; it cannot help but resurface in our behavior. It is not that we want to live in a germ-free world, which is impossible, but we need to remember that mental states are affected by what we see, hear, and read every day.

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

The homework is to notice your thoughts more. Notice your negative thoughts and work to replace them with positive thoughts. Change negativity into love, anger into compassion. Remind yourself that negative behavior starts with negative thoughts.

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

What does it mean to “make a contribution to life” and what is “pure consciousness."

2011-05-14T11:14:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering what it means to “make a contribution to life” and what “pure consciousness” means.

Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to us.

– Leon Trotsky

When the first grey hair appears on our head, it is a critical juncture in life. We go to the mirror with a sinking feeling of dread and try to pluck out the evidence – one here, two there. But the more we pull out, the more seem to come in.

I tease my friends by asking which of them would like to relive their adolescence. It always brings a groan. Youth has a lot to offer, but so does the experience of age. In India we have a joke about a man going to a barber and asking, “Do you have anything for grey hair?” “Yes,” the barber says, “respect.” Just because we don’t have wrinkles or a grey hair, we are not necessarily alive in the fullest sense of the word. Real living comes from making a contribution to life.

This is the paradox of life: when we cling to the body, it loses its beauty. But when we do not cling to the body – and use it as an instrument given us to serve others – it glows with a special beauty, as we can see from the lives of many great saints and mystics. When our consciousness becomes pure, even the body begins to reflect its light.

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

The homework is to figure out for you what it means to “make a contribution to life” and what “pure consciousness” means. Consider how your yoga practice can help you answer these questions and support you in making a contribution to life and to develop pure consciousness.

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

Ahimsa

2011-05-08T11:00:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering Ahimsa.

Ahimsa is the attribute of the soul, and therefore, to be practiced by everybody in all affairs of life. If it cannot be practiced in all departments, it has no practical value.

-Mahatma Gandhi

Ahimsa is usually translated as "nonviolence," but this is misleading and falls far short of the real significance of the word. When all violence has subsided in my heart, my native state is love. I would add that even avoiding a person we dislike can be a subtle form of himsa or violence. Therefore, in everyday terms, ahimsa often means bearing with difficult people.

In Kerala we have a giant, fierce-looking plant called elephant nettle. You have only to walk by for it to stretch out and sting you. By the time you get home, you have a blister that won't let you think about anything else. My grandmother used to say, "A self-willed person is like an elephant nettle."

That is why the moment we see somebody who is given to saying unkind things, we make a detour. We pretend we have suddenly remembered something that takes us in another direction, but the fact is that we just don't want to be stung. Whenever I complained of a classmate I did not like, my granny would say, "Here, you have to learn to grow. Go near him. Let yourself slowly get comfortable around him; then give him your sympathy and help take the sting out of his nettleness."

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

The homework is to practice being more tolerant of people that irritate you. Try to find common ground with these people. Start with little things like we all need shelter and food. Work from there to cultivate more understanding, more respect, more tolerance and more love.

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

The Development of Your Inner Voice

2011-05-03T13:08:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the development of your inner voice.

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
- Proverbs

In the interest of good health, in the interest of a long life, in the interest of loving relationships, it is essential to learn how to deal with our anger creatively and constructively. If we do not, in time it will no longer be isolated outbursts of anger; we will become the victims of an unending stream of rage, seething just below the surface of life, with which no human being can cope.

Through meditation and the mantram every one of us can learn to reduce the speed of our thinking, and install a reliable speedometer in our mind. Then, whenever the speed of thinking goes over, say, fifty-five, one of those recorded voices will automatically whisper, “Be careful. You may not be able to keep your car on the road.”

Positive thoughts travel slowly, leisurely. The slow mind is clear, kind, and efficient; in the beautiful phrase of the Bible, it is “slow to wrath.” Patience means thoughts puttering along like Sunday drivers, taking the trouble to notice the needs of people around.

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

The homework is to develop your inner voice in two ways. The first is to try to notice when your mind is speeding up and take a few deep breaths to remind yourself to slow down. The second is to take the time to determine the needs of those around you and act on those needs. Listen to yourself.

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

Impact of Having Expectations

2011-04-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the impact of having expectations.

A tree is known by its fruit; we by our deeds. A good deed is never lost; one who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and one who plants kindness gathers love.
– Saint Basil

I am the first to admit that it takes a lot of endurance to mend a relationship, especially when your efforts seem to be met with indifference. When you start giving another person your best, especially in an emotionally entangled relationship, he may not notice it for weeks. This kind of indifference can really sting. You want to go up to him, tap him on the shoulder, and say, “Hello, Thomas, I’ve just been kind to you.” Thomas would say, “Oh, thank you, I didn’t even know it” – not because he was trying to be rude, but because he was preoccupied with himself.

To be patient and go on giving your best, you can’t have expectations about how other people are going to respond. You can’t afford to ask, “Does he like me? Does he even care?” What does it matter? You’re growing. You’re learning how to rub off the edges and corners that make human relationships difficult. You are becoming the kind of person that everyone wants to be with, that everyone admires and feels comfortable with.

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

The homework is to work on understanding what your expectations are of people that you are in relationship with. Evaluate these expectations and try to visualize what would happen if none of your expectations were to be realized. What would the outcome be? Consider that expectations lead to disappointment and that having fewer expectations can create space for more joy in your 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

What Does it Mean to Look Within?

2011-04-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering what it means to look within.

A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.
-Eudora Welty

I am sitting in my chair at home in the country, looking out on the green hills. There is everything right here to satisfy me: birds, flowers, trees, reasonable comfort, loyal companions, and the precious opportunity of selfless service. Right here is everything I need for complete happiness always.

But as I look out of my cottage window I see a camper in the distance traveling along the road. Somewhere in my mind is the uneasy stirring of a desire to jump into that camper and go out chasing rainbows to find the pot of gold at the end. This belief that somewhere out there is the land of joy dogs our footsteps wherever we go. As long as we look upon happiness as something outside us, we shall never be able to find it. Wherever we go it will still be beyond our reach, because "out there" can never be "in here."

As Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven is within."

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

The homework is to explore what it means to look within. Consider the idea that all of our happiness comes from within. What would it mean to no longer be dependent on something external to you for your happiness? How would this play out in life? How would this impact your relationships?

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

Choosing the "Joy of the Spirit"

2011-04-12T12:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering choosing the "joy of the spirit".

The joy of the spirit ever abides, but not what seems pleasant to the senses. Both these, differing in their purpose, prompt us to action.

-Katha Upanishad

When we let the senses follow their own lead, they cannot help going after pleasure; that is their nature. As a result, it should come as no surprise to see that most of the world today is on the road to sensory satisfaction.

It takes real toughness, and a lot of practice, to wait out all of the blandishments of passing pleasure when they lead us away from our real goal. When we lack this toughness, despite better goals we may cherish in our hearts, we will not be able to take the road that leads where we want to go.

It is a poignant paradox: wanting only happiness, yet going systematically in the other direction. But if we keep choosing the joy of the spirit, I can assure you, we will reach our goal.

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

The homework is to explore what it takes to choose the “joy of the spirit” over sensual pleasure. What does it mean to pass on sensual pleasure and move towards the “real” goal? What is the “real” goal? How will the discipline you bring to your yoga practice help you on this path?

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

Accepting Change

2011-04-04T22:51:00.003-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering accepting change.

There has never been a time when you and I have not existed, nor will there be a time when we will cease to exist. As the same person inhabits the body through childhood, youth, and old age, so too at the time of death he attains another body. The wise are not deluded by these changes.

– Bhagavad Gita

In our modern civilization we try to cling to time as it rushes past, almost begging time to stop. We want to continue to be what we are now. We don’t want to be subjected to the ruthless physical changes that are an inescapable part of life. Yet it is the nature of the body to change, up to the last change we call death. Anybody who tries to cling to what is changing cannot help feeling insecure.

Yet we needn’t be helplessly caught in time. There are a number of very simple steps we can take to begin to free ourselves. One of the easiest is to get up early in the morning. This gives us the opportunity to start the day with a leisurely pace – to take a short walk, if we like, and then to have our meditation, without worrying about catching the bus or being on time for school.

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

The homework is to work to accept change. As many great mystics and philosophers have said, “change is the only constant” and “change is the only thing you can count on”. Yoga asks that we live in this present moment free from reflection of past events and from too much planning for the future. Explore how to use your yoga practice, and in particular, the breath, to support your efforts to be present and accept change.

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

Letting Go

2011-03-27T22:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering letting go.

Each day is a little life; every waking and rising a little birth; every fresh morning a little youth; every going to rest and sleep a little death.

– Arthur Schopenhauer

My grandmother, my spiritual teacher, used to tell me that the pain we associate with the great change called death arises from our innumerable selfish attachments. One day she illustrated this in a simple way by asking me to sit in a chair and hold tight to the arms. Then she tried to pull me out of the chair. She tugged and pulled at me, and I held on tight. It was painful. She was a strong person, and even though I held on with all my strength, she pulled me out.

Then she told me to sit down again, but this time not to hold on anywhere, just to get up and come to her when she called. With ease I got out of the chair and went to her. This, she told me, is how to overcome the fear and pain of death. When we hold onto things - houses, cars, books, guitars, our antique silver teapot - we get attached and tied down.

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

The homework is to practice letting go. Make a list of some of the things you are “holding” on to. Be honest with yourself. Let the list sit for a few days and then revisit it and see if any revisions are in order. Then choose one thing from your list to completely let go of. Say to yourself, “This moment is the perfect moment to let go.”

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

Miracles

2011-03-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering miracles.

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every cubic inch of space is a miracle. Every square yard of the surface of the earth Is spread with the same. . . . What strange miracles are these! Everywhere . . .

-Walt Whitman

Once when I was giving a talk I used the word "miracles," and someone in the audience asked skeptically, "Tell us about one."

Every moment you remain alive is a miracle. Talk to medical people; they will tell you there are a million and one things that can go wrong with this body of ours at any given instant. It is only because we haven't developed the capacity for appreciating miracles that we don't see them all around us. Life is a continuous miracle: not only joy but sorrow too; not only birth but death too.

But the most precious miracle of all is to see the divinity in every creature - when we see that the divinity in our hearts is our real Self, and that it is the same Self shining in all.

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

The homework is to work to appreciate the little things and find the miracles in the simplest of daily activities. Next consider what it would mean if we all looked at each other as if the other was divine, as if the other was truly a miracle. How would this impact our relationships and the way we treat each other?

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

Reducing Self-Will

2011-03-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic reducing self-will.

Love makes everything that is heavy light.
-Thomas a Kempis

It is love that teaches us our real stature and reveals the heroism we never thought we possessed. The renunciation that might be well-nigh impossible in a vacuum can be blessedly simple when someone we love stands to gain. Turning down a second glass of wine might take some doing in ordinary circumstances, for example; but when you're in the company of an impressionable teenager, you'll gladly set it aside.

Suppose you're tempted to add to your collection of antique fire screens: hard to resist, maybe, if your aim is solely to reduce your own acquisitiveness. But if the money you save can be spent on a tent for family camping trips, it can be a breeze. You feel so good inside! A knack for quiet self-sacrifice is the very life and soul of friendship. Reducing self-will needn't be a joyless deprivation - it can be so many little acts of love, performed over and over throughout the day.

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

The homework is to explore what it means to “reduce self-will”. Consider that reducing self-will is a practice; like asana, meditation, or prayer. In The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Sadhana (practice) is defined as Tapas (burning desire), Svadhyaya (self-study) and Isvara Pranidhana (devotion to God) or together as Kriya Yoga. Sadhana is practice to reach a goal in spite of obstacles. Develop a practice to help you reduce your self-will.

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

Path Towards Self-realization

2011-03-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the obstacles we have on our paths towards self-realization.

We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.

-Plato

We are all capable of flying like eagles high in the sky of love, but often we prefer running on the ground instead.

Have you seen that curious bird, the quail? We have many of them where we live. When we are driving down the lane, they won't get out of the way. They won't fly. They try to outrun the car. It is only when they conclude their number is up that they start flying. They know how to fly, but they would rather stay on the ground.

Most of us are like that. But our wings are there; we have only to spread them to experience the exhilaration of soaring into the sky and looking down to see all life as one.

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

The homework is to explore what obstacles you have in your path towards self-realization. This work should be non-judgmental and supportive in helping you better understand yourself. Use the skills of presence, concentration and awareness that you are developing in your yoga practice to help nurture the skills and behavior you need to open your wings.

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

What it Takes to Fill Your Tank

2011-02-27T12:55:00.001-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering what it takes to “fill your tank.”

Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength. . . . It is therefore able to undertake all things, and it completes many things, and warrants them to take effect, where one who does not love would faint and lie down.
-Thomas a Kempis

Without a tank full of gas, no car can drive very far. The mind, too, needs a full tank of vitality to draw on for patience, resilience, and creativity. Filling that tank every morning is one of the most practical purposes of meditation. The test of your meditation is: How long can you be patient with those around you? In the beginning, you should aim to make it at least to noon acting like the proverbial angel.

Most of us, however, even if we start with a full tank, have little control over the thousand and one little pinpricks that drain vitality as we go along: worry, vacillation, irritation, daydreaming. By lunchtime the indicator may be hovering around empty.

Then it is that you have to be acutely vigilant. The tank is nearly empty, but by sheer effort and deft defensive driving, and using the mantram, you manage to coast through to the end of the day without any serious accidents.

The more effort you make, the more endurance you gain. The next day you may find the tank itself a little larger; you start the next day with a greater capacity for love and patience than before.

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

Note: A mantram is a powerful spiritual formula which, when repeated silently in the mind, has the capacity to transform consciousness. Learn more at http://www.easwaran.org/.

The homework is to learn what it takes “fill your tank.” Work to notice when your “tank” is becoming low and recognize when it is time to nurture yourself. When you find yourself loosing your patience do whatever works for you to find patience, love and compassion.

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

Detachment from Likes and Dislikes

2011-02-13T15:28:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “detachment from likes and dislikes.”

Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.

-Lao Tzu

Detachment from likes and dislikes, habits and opinions, is not a sign of weakness. It is an enormously strong and positive quality. Nor does freedom from likes and dislikes mean that life is insipid for us, but rather that we are not driven compulsively by rigid ways of thinking. Even if we don't get what we want - or if we do get what we don't want - we can still function cheerfully and efficiently.

Detachment from habits does not mean that we have no habits. Good habits can be very useful to cultivate in life. But we should be able to change our habits gracefully, or drop them altogether when necessary, especially if we learn that they are harmful to us or are not exactly endearing us to those around us. If we are used to a cup of coffee every morning with our breakfast and one morning we discover that we are out of coffee, we don't say, "I can't function without my coffee," and go back to bed. We should be able to say cheerfully, "I'll have tea instead - or soy milk."

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

The homework is to cultivate awareness and to evaluate your habits. Part of our asana practice exposes our habits on the mat and asks us to face them, to explore them, and to possibly make some changes – at the least we generate more awareness of what we are doing. Take this “awareness” off of the mat and explore your habits without judgment and try to make some subtle changes in your patterns to better support your practices.

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

Starving our Egos

2011-02-06T22:43:00.001-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “starving our egos.”

Wherever you go, you will always bear yourself about with you, and so you will always find yourself.

-Thomas a Kempis

There is only one way to get a real vacation: get as far away from the ego as possible.

Worrying about your problems all the time makes for misery with a capital M. For getting away from misery, I recommend this "economy plan": do not feed your ego and your problems with your attention. They will slowly lose weight.

When we feed them, constantly begging them to have one more helping even when they are gorged, we acquire obese problems that hug us tightly and weight us down. So if you really want a vacation, do not brood on your troubles. Do not let yourself get jealous or say uncharitable things about anyone. In other words, do not give the ego breakfast in bed; do not pack it a bag lunch; do not fix its dinner; do not give it pocket money for buying snacks; do not even give it a glass of water. Slowly, surely, the ego will lose weight, until one fine day it will be nothing but a thin ghost of its former self.

You will be able to see right through it, to the divine presence that shines in each of us.

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

The homework is to use the concentration skills you are developing in your asana practice to starve your ego. Recall the extra effort you often use in class to stay in an asana a bit longer than you thought you could. Use this attention to help you to become aware of when you are worrying and try to “not feed” your worry.

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

Personal Vitality

2011-01-31T20:03:00.001-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.

– George Bernard Shaw

Shopping for things we do not need, even if it is only window-shopping, wastes a lot of vitality; energy flows out with every little desire. It is a surprising connection, but an extravagant shopper will find it difficult to love. He or she scatters love like largesse all over the department store. We can become bankrupt in love this way.

When it comes to our personal vitality, we have no atoms to split, no windmills to set up, no sun to draw on for an alternative source of energy; we have to conserve what we have and make it last. When we find it difficult to love, we can think of it as a personal energy crisis. By not buying things which are neither necessary nor beneficial, we conserve the precious natural resources of the earth, and we save our personal energy, too.

So if you want a good, stiff test of your capacity to love, go into your favorite store some day – preferably when there is a sale – and see if you can walk straight through, looking neither left nor right, and come out unscathed. It may sound unbelievable, but it can be done.

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

The homework is to explore what vitality and personal energy conservation means to you. Discover what it takes to keep your vitality bank full. Does it involve having more awareness about your desires and not necessarily following through on all of them? How would meeting the needs of others help you to fill your bank?

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

p e a c e and l o v e

2011-01-23T19:59:00.001-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “ p e a c e and l o v e .”

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
-Saint Francis of Assisi

When we ask to be made instruments of peace, what we are really asking for is the boundless determination to empty ourselves of every state of mind that disrupts relationships – anger, resentment, jealousy, greed, self-will in any form. Our first priority is to reform ourselves; without that, how can we expect to help other people reform themselves? It is the living example of a man or woman giving all they have to making love a reality that moves our hearts to follow. We do not need a bumper sticker that says, “You are following an instrument of the Lord.” Our everyday actions speak for themselves.

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

The homework is to notice when you experience a disruptive state of mind and work to turn that disruption with something positive. Try to turn anger into love, resentment into sympathetic joy, jealousy into understanding, and greed into giving.

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

Forgiveness

2011-01-16T21:49:00.001-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
-Saint Francis of Assisi

There are times when past mistakes swim into our vision and do their best to consume us in guilt or regret. At such times it is essential to repeat the mantram and turn all our attention outwards, away from ourselves. Analyzing our mistakes and dwelling on how to repay them is of no earthly benefit at all. If, when you were in Milwaukee, you happened to say something insulting to your girlfriend’s dog, it is not necessary to go to Milwaukee and find your old girlfriend or her dog to make amends. Every dog you treat with kindness will be a proxy for that dog. If you have treated a particular person badly, even if you can no longer win that person’s forgiveness, you can still win the forgiveness of yourself, of the Lord within, by bearing with people who treat you badly and doing your best not to treat anyone badly again. Whatever we have done, we can always make amends for it without ever looking back in guilt or sorrow.

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

The homework is to remember that forgiveness starts with forgiving yourself. Choose a few mistakes from your past and make a conscious effort to forgive yourself. Work to realize this self-forgiveness in your daily life by expressing lovingkindess (metta) in all of your relationships.

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

Learning to Love

2011-01-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “learning to 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
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

Remaking Ourselves

2011-01-02T18:41:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

As an irrigator guides water to the fields, as an archer aims an arrow, as a carpenter carves wood, the wise shape their lives.

– The Buddha

The glory of the human being is our ability to remake ourselves. The Buddha is very rightly called the Compassionate One because he holds out hope for everybody. He doesn't say our past has been dark, therefore our chances are dim. He says whatever our past, whatever our present, the sky is bright for us because we can remake ourselves.

The Buddha says, be a good woodworker. Consciousness is the wood, and you can make it take any shape you like. Just as a carpenter works the wood to build a house or a fine piece of furniture, similarly we can fashion the responses and attitudes we desire: love, wisdom, security, patience, loyalty, enthusiasm, cheerfulness.

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

The homework is to consider how your yoga practice can help you “shape” your life. What does the discipline of yoga have to offer you?

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

Slowing Down Part Two

2010-12-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are again considering the topic “slowing down.”

Hurry blocks our access to our deeper resources. One of life’s most precious skills is learning to slow down and live completely in the present moment.

-Eknath Easwaran

In today’s speeded-up ways of working and living slowing down is an important spiritual discipline. In the modern world we are conditioned to live faster and faster with no time for inner reflection or sensitivity to others. We are only beginning to see that speed makes our lives tense, insecure, inefficient, and superficial.

It is not enough to talk about this; we must learn to slow down the pace of our lives. To do this it is a great help to start the day early; that is how you set the pace for the day. Have your meditation (contemplative practice, ed.) as early as possible. Don’t rush through breakfast. Allow enough time to get to work without haste. At any time during the day when you catch yourself hurrying, repeat the mantram (your chosen word, ed.) to slow down.

In order to slow down, it is necessary to gradually eliminate activities outside your job and family responsibilities which do not add to your spiritual growth. At first you may feel at a loss for what to do with your newfound extra time. What we lose in activity we gain in intensity by learning to rest content on each moment. The British poet John Donne says, “Be your own home and therein dwell.” We can find our center of gravity within ourselves by simplifying and slowing down our lives.

It is essential not to confuse slowness with sloth, which breeds procrastination and general inefficiency. In slowing down, attend meticulously to details, giving the very best you are capable of even to the smallest undertaking.

Creating Calm in Difficult Times: Strength in the Storm– Eknath Easwaran

The homework is to create a “To Be” list instead of a “To Do” list. The “To Be” list is for this life. Be specific, something like “Be more sympathetic to Nathan and Megan” instead of something general like “Be sympathetic.” Revise this list as you use it, to make it really work for you. Be honest and put down only things you really care about.

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

Slowing Down

2010-12-20T20:19:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

The disunited mind is far from wise; how can it meditate? How be at peace? When you know no peace, how can you know joy?

-Bhagavad Gita

Today’s mania for speed strikes right at the root of our capacity for an even mind. How often we find ourselves locked into behavior and situations that force us to hurry, hurry, hurry! By now, most of us are aware that compulsive speed - “hurry sickness” - can be a direct threat to our physical health. But hurry has another alarming repercussion: it cripples patience.

When we lack patience, even a few moments’ delay, a trivial disappointment, an unexpected obstacle, makes us explode in anger. We are not hostile people; we are just in such a hurry that keeping the mind calm is impossible. Without peace of mind, how can we enjoy anything, from a movie to good health?

When we go slower, we are more patient, and when we are more patient, we are capable of enjoying life more. All these benefits can come from just learning to slow down.

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

The homework is to slow down. Begin each activity with one gentle inhalation, followed by a calm exhalation.

When you notice that you are pushing yourself to complete a task, soften and be merciful with yourself. Inhale quietly and exhale gently, extending the very same kindness to yourself that you would extend to another in the same situation. Begin again.
-Judith Lasater

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

What is Really Important in Life

2010-12-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “what is really important in life.”

One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few.

-Anne Morrow Lindbergh

If you are determined to stick to what is really important in life, then from day to day you will see that the unimportant pastimes, the distractions that lead you away from your purpose, will gradually weaken their hold.

On the list of priorities, first and foremost is meditation. It will clear your eyes and bring the detachment and discrimination we all need to make wise choices. So right at the top of your list should be the resolution to practice meditation, and not to let anything come in the way.

Not even the greatest of worldly achievements will satisfy us completely. Nothing finite can ever satisfy us. Sooner or later, all the vitality that has gone into pursuing countless goals in the outer world must flow into one huge desire to discover the divine presence within. This supreme discovery is what matters most in life. We are all born to seek the supreme truth.

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

The homework is to consider how meditation or any contemplative practice can support you in uncovering what is “really important in life”. Will having a contemplative practice have the effects of creating peace, clarity and vision? The only way to answer this question is from your own experience, to practice. Work to establish a contemplative practice.

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

Inner Growth

2010-12-07T15:20:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
-Eleanor Roosevelt

The modern world puts a high premium on youth. By this standard, retirement brings the freedom to take on a second career, or find fulfillment in new hobbies, or to recapture the pleasures of youth. But the last years of life spent in such pursuits are often full of frustrations and regrets.

By contrast, from a spiritual perspective, the second half of life is the natural time to turn from physical satisfactions to inner growth. These are years of opportunity - of continued growth rather than decline. This is the time when we need to concentrate on spiritual development if we are to fulfill our highest potential and realize our immortality. All the world's religions agree that death is not the end of life, only the end of one chapter.

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

The homework is to consider what it means to “turn from physical satisfactions to inner growth.” Ask yourself what steps you can take to develop inner growth? How can your yoga practice help you to answer this question?

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

One-pointed concentration and Love

2010-12-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “one-pointed concentration and Love.”

Familiar acts are beautiful through love. – Percy Bysshe Shelley

By giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we choose. Simple, yet essential to the practice of love! Being one-pointed means we can give the person we are with our complete attention, even if she is contradicting our opinion on tax reform or explaining the peculiarities of French grammar. Once we can do this, boredom disappears from our relationships. People are not boring; we get bored because our attention wanders. When we can give someone our full attention, our attitude says clearly, “You matter to me. You have my respect.”

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

The homework is to work on directing your attention to one thing at a time. Challenge the concept of multi-tasking and work to be present in whatever you do. In your personal relationships practice listening with full attention and when you wander away from being present, draw yourself back in fully.

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

Love

2010-11-24T08:08:00.001-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much.

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Our modern civilization is so physically oriented that when we hear the word hunger, we immediately think of vitamins and minerals and amino acids. It seldom occurs to us that just as the body develops problems when it does not get adequate food, the person who is deprived of love – or worse, who finds it difficult to love – becomes subject to problems every bit as serious.

This doesn’t mean just emotional problems, which of course are included. More and more evidence indicates that lack of love not only leads to loneliness, despair and resentment, but also contributes to the deterioration of physical health. When spiritual figures like Mother Teresa talk about our need to love and to be loved, the need is not metaphorical. She is not talking about some vague spirituality; she is talking about good nutrition. Resentment, hostility, alienation, and selfishness are deficiency diseases. You can have all of the essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals known and unknown but if you cannot love, you are not likely to remain in good health.

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

The homework is to consider where in your life you are being hard on yourself and not loving yourself. Then consider how you can develop more love for yourself in this area.

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

Surrendering All

2010-11-15T19:55:00.001-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

The ultimate attainment is already ours, but the experience of it comes to us only when we are in a state of compete surrender. In this case, "surrender" means the surrender of everything - every effort, desire, thought of attainment or, indeed, anything that represents the thought of any other - as we become centered instead. The person who is able to do this becomes a fountain of consciousness.

- Swami Chetanananda

The homework is to learn to let go, or surrender, through your asana practice. Let go of doing the final pose and let go of getting anything out of the practice. See where this takes you.

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

Freedom

2010-11-08T23:35:00.001-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

When our inner nature is truly free, we find within ourselves a wealth of treasure: love, joy and peace of mind. We can appreciate the beauty of life, taking each experience as it comes, opening our hearts to it and fully enjoying it. Realizing these qualities within ourselves is the greatest freedom that can be gained.

-Tarthang Tulka

The homework is to ask yourself: What is your inner nature? What does it mean to free your inner nature, to know your inner nature? and Why would the freeing of our inner nature lead to a "wealth of treasure?"

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

Discovering the Higher Self

2010-10-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Discovering the Higher Self.”

The Self (Atman) that is free from evil, free from old age and death, free from sorrow, hunger and thirst and whose desires and intentions are real - that you should seek out and know. He who has discovered that Self and has come to know it, obtains all the worlds and desires.

- Chandogya-Upanishad

The homework is to define for yourself what it means to discover the "Self." What is your own personalized path towards Self-realization and how do your Yoga practices support you on your path?

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

Asleep, Awake, Enlightened

2010-10-18T22:42:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Asleep, Awake, Enlightened”.

Yoga classifies individuals as "sleeping," "awakened," or "enlightened." The "sleeping" woman is not aware that she is using only a fraction of her great potential power. She plods her way through life in a conditioned hypnotic state as a prisoner of her ordinary mind and her five senses. She may be "successful" in all of the ways of the world. She may appear to be a woman who is "happy" and "satisfied" in the ordinary sense of the word. And yet, if she has not been able to perceive what lies beyond her senses and has not been able to transcend her ordinary mind, the Yogi will say that this woman is "asleep."

The "awakened" woman realizes that she is not using her great reservoir of potential resources. She knows instinctively that there are powerful forces available to her if she can but learn how to utilize them. The "awakened" woman is intuitively involved in attempting to contact and use her dormant power.

The "enlightened" woman is the ultimate objective of Yoga practice. She has aroused her latent forces and controls them; she has transcended her ordinary mind and is able to integrate herself with the Universal Mind. As such, she is no longer affected by the fears, anxieties, and weaknesses of people still in bondage to these things.

- Richard Hittleman

The homework is to ask yourself if you have fully tapped into your "reservoir of potential resources." Discover for yourself how your Yoga practices can help you uncover and utilize inner resources beyond what you are currently using.

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

Toward Inner Freedom

2010-10-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Toward Inner Freedom.”

The whole trend of modern civilization is towards external freedom. Free expression of opinion, free association, freedom to establish one's personal relationships on one's own initiative, and freedom to pursue a vocation according to one's merits are essentially needed for making life fruitful and happy. But external freedom, in the last analysis, is egocentric, and should not miss its spiritual counterpart in internal freedom. Inner freedom consists in the conquest of lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and sloth. A happy blending of reason and love can alone bring about this freedom and give meaning to all forms of external freedom. The substance of all religions consist in the achievement of this inner freedom.

- Swami Avyaktananda

The homework is to evaluate all of the aspects of your external freedoms. Without being judgmental look at where you are going beyond meeting your basic needs. Apply "a happy blending of reason and love" to your situation and see how you can create more meaning to your external freedoms and at the same time cultivate inner freedom.

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

Iyengar Yoga at Rushing Water Yoga in Camas, WA

Freedom and Happiness

2010-10-04T21:23:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Freedom and Happiness.”

So long as we have not glimpsed our true identity, the Self or Spirit, we are enslaved to the mostly unsuspected habit patterns of our own mind. Even though our democratic ideals include personal freedom, we seldom understand that freedom lies beyond the well-worn grooves of our brain. Thus we settle for the kind of freedom that allows us to merely assert our ego-bound will. Real freedom, however, is living out of the fullness and spontaneity of the Spirit, without guarantees but with unlimited courage and wisdom. Yoga makes our realization of such unparalleled freedom possible.

- Georg Feurstein

The homework is to use the awareness that you cultivate in your Yoga practices to notice and observe your mental habit patterns - on and off of the mat. What is your true identity and how do your own mental habits keep you from recognizing it?

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

Uniting Thought and Action

2010-09-28T07:32:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Uniting Thought and Action.”

During the day do not do one thing while thinking of another. Thought and action must be unified - no thought be permitted without reference to actions or intended action; and no action performed without intention. By this practice all day long the mind and body are taught to act together, without any waste of physical or mental energy.

- Ernest Wood

The homework is to practice unifying the mind and body through your asana practice. Learn to be economical in your movements and actions and to be present by recognizing when your mind wanders from your practice. Apply this practice to your daily life off of the mat.

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

Meditation and Freedom

2010-09-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Meditation and Freedom.”

Thought is not the way to the new. Only meditation opens the door to that which is everlasting new. Meditation is not a trick of thought. It is the seeing of the futility of thought and the ways of the intellect. Intellect and thought are necessary in the operation of anything mechanical, but the intellect is a fragmentary perception of the whole. Intellect can operate only in the field of the known and that is why life becomes a monotonous routine from which we try to escape through revolts and revolutions - merely to fall back once again into another field of the known. This change is no change at all as it is the product of thought which is always old. Meditation is the flight from the known. There is only one freedom; it is, from the known. And beauty and love lie in this freedom.

- Jiddu Krishnamurti

The homework is to observe your thoughts throughout the day. Start to notice how the intellect operates through this observation. Try to be a witness to this process. The practice of witnessing can be the start of a contemplative practice like prayer or meditation.

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

Meditation is Drilling

2010-09-12T20:58:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Meditation is Drilling.”

After a lot of sustained, systematic effort in meditation, we may finally succeed in breaking through the surface crust of consciousness. What lies below is the unconscious, which has many layers - strata on strata deposited by habits of thinking and acting, little by little, every day of our life. Drilling through these strata in meditation means overcoming limitations, all the obstacles created by self-will: the fierce, driving compulsion to have our own way, get what we want, stamp ourselves separate from the rest of life. The biggest leap in meditation comes when we run headlong and throw ourselves over the rim of all duality to land in the unitive state, where nothing is separate. This state is shanti, perfect peace.

- Eknath Easwaran

The homework is to notice when you have thoughts or behaviors that create the feeling of being separate from the rest of the world. Noticing when your self-will encourages you to entertain these ideas or actions is the first step towards taking the big leap towards unity.

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

Watching the Watcher

2010-09-06T21:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

Although we cannot really stop the presence of I-making, we can disengage a certain part of ourselves from it and observe it. And when we observe our thought patterns, we find that the conscious mind begins to change. A different sense of ahamkara comes into being - a different sense of "I" is watching, witnessing, dispassionately observing. Just as there are various levels of consciousness, so there are different varieties of I-ness, and now we realize that in addition to the "I" who is being the typical me, there is another "I" who is watching it all.

- Rudolph M. Ballentine

The homework is to pay close attention to all of your "I" oriented patterns of thought. Observe this I-making process so you can disengage yourself from it. Do not try to stop it, because who would be stopping it? The more we try to control "I" making, the more we reinforce the sense of "I" and the more we lock ourselves into the very process we are trying to disengage ourselves from. Disengaging can be part of the process of observing it. Then ask yourself who is watching the watcher.

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

Surfing Meditation

2010-08-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

When I am out there on the ocean floating on my board, alone with the wind and the sky, I'm excruciating aware of how small and insignificant I am in comparison to the awesome power of the water. It would be presumptuous of me to say that I surf the waves - in fact, the waves surf me.

.......Well, meditation is like surfing. If you push too hard and try to control your mind, you'll just end up feeling rigid and tight, and you'll keep wiping out as a result of your efforts. But if you hang back and exert no effort at all, you won't have the focus or concentration necessary to hold your position as the waves of thought and emotion wash over you.

- Stephan Bodian

The homework is to consider that idea that Yoga involves holding the mind in quiet place so you can be present with life and holding the body in a relaxed place so as to not invite disease in. Then use your asana practice to find the balance between just enough effort and going too far. Practice more holding and less controlling; more observation and being and less doing.

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

One-Pointed Mind

2010-08-26T13:41:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “One-Pointed Mind.”

When one learns to practice awareness and attention while doing even the simplest and most mundane acts of life, a great joy comes.

When water runs in scattered rivulets down the hillside, it hasn't much force behind it. But when it is dammed up and made to come through a narrow opening, it's power is tremendous. Likewise when sunlight is focused through a magnifying glass, that spot of light becomes powerful enough to burn.

So it is with our minds. A mind that wanders distracted, scattered, and inattentive has little power. But when its awareness is focused one-pointedly, it becomes so powerful that it can achieve anything. Such a mind gains spiritual power.

- Brahmacharini Nitya

The homework is to choose a task you do everyday and bring more attention and concentration to it. Choose something that is considered mundane like brushing your teeth. Build on this practice by continuing to bring additional attention and concentration to other mundane tasks eventually applying this practice to life in general.

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

The Power of Concentration

2010-08-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “The Power of Concentration.”

Concentration is like a diamond, a brilliant focusing of our energy, intelligence, and sensitivity. When we concentrate fully the light of our abilities shines forth in many colors, radiating through all that we do. Our energy gains a momentum and clarity that allows us to perform each task quickly and with ease, and we respond to the challenges work offers with pleasure and enthusiasm.

- Tarthang Tulku

The homework is to apply “a brilliant focusing of your energy, intelligence, and sensitivity to your Asana practice.” Then take this practice off of the mat and into your relationships. Without any judgment observe the effects.

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

The Mind is Like a Bird

2010-08-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “The Mind is Like a Bird.”

The mind is like a bird in a field, always pecking at and picking up something; what is important is that it should select wisely. All that the senses report is woven into something which tends either to destroy or to build up the mind, for the mind assimilates that upon which it dwells…..Hatred and fanaticism introduce qualities which coarsen the mind, impairing mental health; but selfless thoughts are pure, for they seek the well-being of all and unite the puny individual with the cosmic Mind, the mind of God, which rules alike the stars in their courses, the electrons in their orbits, and governs the emergence of the infinitely varied forms of life.

- Hari Prasad Shastri

The homework is to consider the fifth and sixth limbs of Yoga Pratyahara – refinement of the senses and Dharana – concentration as a way to help you select wisely and to build up the mind. Learn to apply these two limbs to your Asana practice as a training ground for the cultivation of selfless thoughts.

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

Bringing the Mind Home

2010-08-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Bringing the Mind Home.”

We are fragmented into so many different aspects. We don’t know who we really are, or what aspects of ourselves we should really identify with or believe in. So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings fight for control over our inner lives that we find ourselves scattered everywhere, in all directions, leaving nobody at home.
Meditation, then, is bringing the mind home…

- Sogyal Rinpoche

The homework is to ask yourself what it means to bring the mind home. To help you inform your answer sit well supported and meditate for five minutes every morning for a week. Practice just emptying the mind of all thinking. Observe what happens.

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

The Mind Machine

2010-07-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “The Mind Machine.”

The ordinary mind, being a machine, has but one function: It creates and then goes about attempting to solve problems! It enjoys this game and will continue to play it as long as you allow it to do so, throughout your entire life if it can. It is not concerned that you are suffering in many areas because of its games. You will come to understand through the meditation techniques that you are not your ordinary mind and that it has not nearly the importance which we attach to it.

- Richard Hittleman

The homework is to learn to take the concentration you bring to your asana practice into the practice of observing your mind. Try to be removed from your thoughts and act as an observer of the activities of the mind. Just observe without always following or believing what the mind is suggesting.

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

Prayer and Meditation

2010-07-19T23:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Prayer and Meditation.”

Prayer and meditation necessarily proceed from our ordinary experience of being a subject confronting an objective world. In fact, we can tell their effectiveness by the degree to which they bridge the split between mind and matter, inside and outside. Successful meditation and prayer lead to the state of ecstatic unification in which subject and object stand revealed as the same eternal Being. This ecstatic self-transcendence must be realized not only in special moments of isolated contemplation but also in every moment of active life.

- Georg Feuerstein

The homework is to remind yourself that Yoga is meditation in movement and that it is a preparation for a prayer and/or a meditation practice. In all of these practices the ultimate goal is to live the practice fully in daily life. Our work is to take the Yogic experience into our lives off of the mat.

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

The Unimportance of Death

2010-07-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “The Unimportance of Death.”

Death is unimportant to a Yogi; he does not mind when he is going to die. What happens after death is immaterial to him. He is only concerned with life – with how he can use his life for the betterment of society.

- B.K.S. Iynegar

The homework is to take account of your life and see how you can enhance your contribution towards the betterment of society.

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

Death is a Beginning

2010-07-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Death is a Beginning.”

Death is not an end, but a new beginning. Under the stress of conflicting passions and earthly desires, biological cravings and love of pleasure and power, is hidden an eternal stream of pure consciousness which is not affected by the law of cause and effect and which is ever tranquil bliss and freedom, real love and truth. This is the real Self of man.

- Hari Prasad Shastri

The homework is to practice Savasana.

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

Beyond Struggle

2010-06-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

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

Peace is our Greatest Gift

2010-06-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

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

Enthusiasm, The Secret of Eternal Youth

2010-06-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

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

Inspiration

2010-06-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

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

Eyes of the Soul

2010-06-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

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

Conversing with Nature

2010-05-23T13:27:00.001-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Conversing with Nature.”

Smile with the flowers and the green grass.
Play with the birds and the deer.
Shake hands with the ferns and twigs.
Talk to the rainbow, wind, stars and the sun.
Converse with the running brook
And the waves of the sea.
Develop friendship with all your neighbours,
Dogs, cats, trees and flowers.
Then you will have a wide, perfect and full life.

- Swami Sivananda Saraswati

The homework is to take more time to be outside and meditate on the qualities of nature. Remember that just a few minutes of contemplative time is a good start. Try a walking meditation in LaCamas Park or somewhere else. Observe your practice so deeply that you distinctly feel as if you are part of nature and not separate from it.

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

Conversing with Nature

2010-05-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Conversing with Nature.”

Smile with the flowers and the green grass.
Play with the birds and the deer.
Shake hands with the ferns and twigs.
Talk to the rainbow, wind, stars and the sun.
Converse with the running brook
And the waves of the sea.
Develop friendship with all your neighbours,
Dogs, cats, trees and flowers.
Then you will have a wide, perfect and full life.

- Swami Sivananda Saraswati

The homework is to take more time to be outside and meditate on the qualities of nature. Remember that just a few minutes of contemplative time is a good start. Try a walking meditation in LaCamas Park or somewhere else. Observe your practice so deeply that you distinctly feel as if you are part of nature and not separate from it.
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

Seeing Beauty Everywhere

2010-05-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Seeing Beauty Everywhere.”

Yoga teaches that beauty is everywhere if one can learn to see it, and that complete concentration upon a beautiful thought, scene or object will result in relaxation of the mind and achievement of tranquility.

- Nancy Phelan and Michael Volin

The homework is to experiment with completely concentrating on a beautiful thought, scene or object. Sit in Sukasana supporting the thighs well and breathe normally for a few minutes and then bring into your minds eye the image. If the mind wanders from the image bring it back without judgment. Practice this for 15 minutes a day over a period of time and observe the results.

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

Embracing Life

2010-05-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

You must learn to welcome consciously the most unexpected events of life, to be entirely transparent in front of them, without any motive, either right or wrong. At that moment avoid all judgment, for you do not know what law is in operation.

- Lizelle Reymond

The homework is to determine how to use your Yoga practice to prepare yourself for unexpected events. The Yoga philosophy encourages us to develop Vairagya or renunciation and detachment. Detachment requires total engagement and it does not mean you are uninterested. It involves freedom from passion, abstention and discrimination. Vairagya demands four qualities: disengaging and controlling the senses, carrying out one’s duties without thought of reward and acting with goodness and purity, avoiding desire and stilling the mind, freeing oneself from cravings.

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

Openness

2010-04-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

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

Contentment

2010-04-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

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

Love and Nonattachment

2010-04-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

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

Rising Above Sex

2010-04-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

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

True Love Transforms

2010-03-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “True Love Transforms.”

The highest understanding of Love lies in its power to transform lives, restore health, and bring about a sense of total well-being. It is the other end of the spectrum which is directed by desire – the limited, contracted form of Love – that has a tremendously destructive potential.

- Swami Chetanananda

The homework is to consider how your Yoga practice can help you develop more discrimination, especially as it relates to desires. What is the end result when we become more aware of our desires and evaluate them in light of their impact on our relationships?

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

True Love

2010-03-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

We expect our wives or husbands or children to make us happy by behaving the way our ego desires. We all want others to make us feel important, wise and attractive. So we spend twenty to fifty years living together – expecting and demanding many things from each other – but this has nothing to do with experiencing our love and walking on the real spiritual path.

When we truly love someone, we love the Light within that person. The process of enlightenment is the path of learning to appreciate the Light both within ourselves and those we love, and seeking to allow the full expression of our Self as well as the Self of others.

- Swami Rama

The homework is to determine what Yoga practices you can use to start to appreciate your own innate goodness. Work on developing your own inner Light and then use the same practices to appreciate others innate goodness. Observe the external changes that are associated with the combination of the two practices. Notice if the result is the movement of this innate goodness outward into the world.

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

Love and Sex

2010-03-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

Sex is a sensation. Love is a state of being, a lasting relationship which we can slowly make permanent. That is the deepest desire of all of us, to make this state of union permanent.

- Eknath Easwaran

The homework is to explore for yourself what it means to make Love a permanent state of being. Consider how the various practices of Yoga can assist you in 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

The Law of Love

2010-03-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “The Law of Love.”

The most ancient traveler in the world is called love. Even before this earth came into existence, that omnipotent and omniscient power called truth expanded to create the universe because of love. Love means expansion. And then there is the opposite, called hatred or contraction. Watch what happens someday when you start hating somebody – when someone is not doing what you want, is not fulfilling your expectations. You contract your personality, you isolate yourself. So there are two laws of life: the law of expansion, and the law of contraction.

- Swami Rama

The homework is to notice the next time you start to go down the path of contraction – of not loving. The practice of Yoga helps us tune in more to our physical and mental bodies. In addition to the mental aspects of contraction start to notice how the process of contraction feels physiologically. Use this awareness to help you change your path of contraction to expansion – or love.

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

The Reciprocity of Love

2010-02-28T09:03:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “The Reciprocity of Love.”

For creatures who want to loved, appreciated, even adored, we certainly go about fulfilling our desires in a curiously unfulfilling way. Instead of manufacturing it ourselves in the little love machine inside our chests, we complain about not getting enough of it, search frantically for someone else to give it to us, and try to make ourselves more loveable by improving our looks or earning more money. But the truth is, the Beatles song has it right. The love you take is equal to the love you make. In other words, the most effective way to get love is to generate it yourself.

By cultivating caring, loving feelings you can actually provide yourself with the nourishment you seek. At the same time, by radiating those feelings outward to others, you can touch their tender hearts and naturally elicit the same feelings in them, creating a flow of love that keeps circulating between you and building upon itself.

- Stephan Bodian

The homework is to use your Yoga practice as the training ground to cultivate caring and loving feelings for yourself. When you come to class or practice at home remind yourself that you are perfect just the way you are and that you have unlimited capacity for Love. Know that committing to yourself through your practice is one way to build up your bank of Love.

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

Love is All There is

2010-02-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Love is All There is.”

When there is neither desire nor fear, there is but love.

- Jean Klein

The homework is to look at your desires with the idea that all desire leads to disappointment and to look at your fears with the idea that all fear leads to suffering. Then cultivate the practice of letting go of desires and fears. Make a list of some of the desires and fears you are “holding” on to. Be honest with yourself. Let the list sit for a few days and then revisit it and see if any revisions are in order. Then choose one thing from your list to completely let go of. Say to yourself, “This moment is the perfect moment to let go.” Continue with this practice and all that will be left is love.

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

Love, Sex and Beyond

2010-02-14T18:27:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “Love, Sex and Beyond.”

Ultimately everything boils down to whether we can love unconditionally. At least that is one way of describing the spiritual path.

What we commonly call love is often little more than a sentimental emotion peppered with a good dose of self-interest. The situation is still less appealing when we consider sexual love. In practice, sex and love can be almost mutually exclusive. Love is a matter of the heart, one of the major psychospiritual centers of the body – the fourth cakra. Sexual impulse is anchored by the second cakra which is located in the genitals. If we can engage in sex with an awakened heart, sexual love is indeed a possibility, but our culture deemphasizes the heart and overemphasizes sex.

Since ancient times, Yoga masters have recommended sexual abstinence (called bramacarya) during the first twenty-one years of one’s life. During this time, children and adolescents learn to properly harness the awesome power of the libido. Then, as adults, they are not ruled by the second cakra but engage in intercourse in a wholesome, balanced fashion as an expression of mutual respect and love.

For many people, sex is mere entertainment – a diversion from boredom and everyday anxiety and frustration. The problem is that it proffers only a trickle of pleasure, which cannot satisfy us deeply. We use sexual gratification as a substitute for real happiness.

Yoga is not opposed to pleasure, only to our enslavement to it. It also recognizes that the enjoyment we derive from our senses or the mind is nothing by comparison with our innate bliss. When we are in touch with our true nature, everything we experience is filled with delight, as bliss eclipses both pleasure and pain.

The Yogic path demands of us that we transmute ourselves at all levels. It is not enough to restrain our thoughts; we must also rid ourselves of negative emotions and cultivate positive emotions like love, compassion and kindness toward all beings. This involves regulating our sexual impulses and using that energy to fulfill our spiritual destiny.

- Georg Feuerstein

The homework is to explore your relationship to pleasure and pain on all levels.

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

Breathing Away Fear

2010-02-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

Breathing Away Fear

Let us observe…the way a nervous or anxious man breathes. Such a man does not venture to breathe out fully, he does not dare to empty his lungs and remain at peace until the moment when the in-breathing phase comes of itself. This is a symptom of deep fear and anxiety. When the lungs are empty an anxious man is in dread of the void, and he gives himself over to the moment of breathing in so as to recover his habitual feeling of life and a state of passing relief.

But in the case of a healthy man, that is, a man who is perfectly harmonized, in agreement with himself and the cosmos, breathing has a metaphysical significance, it is the symbol of the rhythm of exchange between the individual and his principle. Each breathing out expresses an entire surrendering of the creature to God and each inspiration signifies the return of the divine influx.

Between the two moments, at the moment when the lungs are empty, the unmanifested divine is approached. Thus we can see how fear hinders us from being and experiencing the formless.

- Jean Klein

The homework is to pay more attention to your exhalations in your Yoga practice and off of the mat. In Yoga Sutra I:34 Patanjali says you can attain a quiet mind by “maintaining the pensive state felt at the time of the soft and steady exhalation and during positive retention after exhalation.” (BKS Iyengar’s translation from Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali) When you are in a quiet place practice pausing briefly after your exhalations and notice the quality of mind during the pause.

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

Flow

2010-02-04T13:18:00.000-08:00

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering the topic “The Breath of Life.”

Flow

When the practice of postures is combined with conscious breathing and deep states of concentration and absorption, prana will sometimes spontaneously “take over” the practice. Suddenly, energy will begin to direct the flow of postures. In these moments we may have a sense of effortlessness, of complete surrender to a force greater than ourselves. This experience can be surprising, compelling, and blissful. And, it appears, to be completely out of our control. We cannot make it happen. We can only let it happen.

- Stephan Cole

The homework is to learn to let your practice happen. While maintaining your effort and integrity work to connect with the breath more and through this connection to the breath allow your energy, or prana, to guide you. To take this practice off of the mat practice letting go of controlling life’s situations and allowing life to unfold.

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

Final Notes on India

2010-01-30T20:03:00.000-08:00

Sunday, 31 January 2010

I have washed off the last bit of the Pune dust from my feet. It’s not really dirt it’s a dusty mix of exhaust, ash, and garbage dust. I have said my goodbyes. Home is the next stop. Mr. Iyengar says that we in the west are born into heaven and we do not even know it. I know it now. I have so much to be grateful for. My family, my friends, my work at the Center for Health Research, my Yoga practice and teaching, my food coop, my neighbors, my students, my teachers, my colleagues, my sweet quiet, clean little piece of paradise in the woods – fresh air. I have it all.

I did not really come to India with any questions nor was I looking for any answers. I have been blown away to see in person, to witness this place as it is. The pace, the poverty, the affluence. The west wants to be like the east and the east wants to be like the west. I wonder how they see us? If this is a race to westernize then we have more problems than I thought. The pollution and garbage is overwhelming. Where is the middle ground here?

I knew I would not find a bucolic place where everyone lived a mindful life based on the eight limbs of Yoga. Hardly. Yoga is definitely more popular in Camas than in Pune. I am kind of at a loss when trying to describe the feelings and emotions about being here and now about going home. All this week I have been ready to go. I have been kind of anxious. What am I running from?

One of my observations is about Iyengar Yoga. After seeing it at the source I am not so sure that that is what I teach. I know I can never have the depth of Prashant and Geeta on any of the relevant levels. But I did not really find very many similarities between how I have interpreted the teaching and how Yoga is taught here. I do feel that by experiencing the teaching here that my commitment to being a compassionate teacher has been deepened. And that is mostly in reaction to some of the harshness I experienced. The practice commitment is present but there is some kind of disconnect related to the teaching. Maybe it is like studying the mystical, spiritual, religious traditions and finding things that resonate with you and things that don’t. Maybe it’s about finding more of my own path and integrating the stuff that makes sense. But it has to also be about the stuff that did not resonate with me. I have to explore why and integrate that as well.

I’ll miss the carefree focus of my existence here. I’ll miss the sound of the sweeping in the morning. If two-stroke leaf blowers ever make it here the pollution levels will take a substantial jump. I’ll miss the food that Anjali prepares.

I’ll miss the people. Ah, the people. All of the loving sweet people I met here and who took me on. Srinath, the trekker, who called me Mr. Paul. What a sweet guy. I am sure our paths will cross again. Anjali and Arwind, my sweet and awesome hosts, and their children and spouses. The sweet guy at the Institute who hangs around the area where the shoes are. Sunil and Shubhanji and their awesome daughter Shraddha. The Chaiwalla boys and the soda boy. All of the people who asked me, “your country?” and who said “welcome” when I said thank you. All of the Indian’s who said one photo please or wanted to have their photo taken with me. The big smiles I received all of time and people calling me Baba, Baba. I truly felt welcomed and loved.

The best thing the trip has provided me so far is perspective - perspective on my path and our shared existence here. I am confident that I have only scratched the surface of what I have learned about myself on this pilgrimage. Kind of like my studies of Yoga – just scratching on the surface. Practice, practice, practice. As a shirt I saw here noted – Go In.

See you in class, in the woods, on the streets, at the coop, at work, or wherever our paths cross. I look forward to it.

Love, light and blessings.

pc

Thirteenth Post From India

2010-01-30T07:51:00.000-08:00

Saturday, 30 January 2010

Geeta has been sick all week so the class last night was taught by Ria (sp?). Even though it was a restorative class my lower back was acting up. I got through the class but I skipped this morning’s class to give my body a rest. The class was fine. He is an interesting teacher. He often says, “That should not happen” after he has talked about what not to do for a while. I did get a chuckle when he used the metaphor in Savasana of the windows opening – like our minds – and fresh air coming in and cleaning up the mind and the room. Fresh air?

Last night when I got home Arwind and Anajli asked me to sit down like they wanted to have a talk with me. They handed me a package and said this was a gift for my mom. It is the most beautiful shawl. When shawls are given to older women it is recognition of their status and the wisdom that women have. They insisted that after I present it to my mom that I take a photo and send it to them. Nice.

I spent some of the afternoon at the Pune museum. I am not too big on museums but it was cool. It was my last trip with Nana. We said our tearful goodbyes.

I am off for my last practice session at the Institute and then my last night in Pune in general.

Twelfth Post From India

2010-01-28T22:44:00.000-08:00

Thursday, 28 January 2010

I skipped the Pranayama class tonight and rested. I finally felt better later in the evening and went out to dinner with Grant. I am at the point on my trip where I will be doing things for the last time. Could that have been the last vegetable platter at the Ambience?

On my walk home my phone kept ringing but with I number I did not know. Since I get a lot of solicitations I did not answer. Then Heather called and said that Sunil and Shubhanji and their daughter Shraddha were trying to get a hold of me because they had a gift for me. When we had lunch at their place earlier in the week I mentioned that I was still looking for gents kurta that was simple but that had a little embroidery on it on the v-neck. When I answered the call we agreed to meet at my flat. They are so sweet. There they were – all three of them – with a beautiful black shirt with simple embroidery on it. They insisted that I try it on on the street and it was perfect. Made my day. What a blessing.

Eleventh Post From India

2010-01-27T20:42:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

No classes today as usual. Just three more days of classes, a ride to Mumbai and then 23 hours of flying and about 8 hours of waiting and I’ll be home. I know how to have fun.

I practiced in my flat this morning planning for what I am going to teach next week. I am psyched to get back to the students and the studio – and the other parts of my life.

I had my final massage with Bhybu today. It was the Chavetty Uzhicull treatment – the one where the feet are used to massage. He asked me to sit in Padmasana. Very funny Bhybu. If there was one pose I was working on while here it was Padmasana. Let’s just say I have not completed the asana yet. Progress yes, completion no. The massage started out like Uzhicull the full body massage. Then Bhybu held onto the ropes on the ceiling and started to use his feet. It was like a dance on the back of my body and he used the same movements and motions as if he was using his hands. Same thing on the front of the body. It was awesome. As I said before Bhybu is the man. Vanseh (one of the doctors) took my picture as I left and they wanted to make sure I emailed them later to let them know how I was doing. Great doctors, great massage practitioners and sweet people.

A student of mine from People’s Coop is a big fan of Meher Baba. I was told that there was a shrine by the place I get my massages so I searched it out today. I wanted to place an offering for my student and take some pictures. I found it after walking up and down the street for awhile. That’s for you Harry.

I must look like a native now. I was talking to my friend Alex and had just told him that if he needs to get something done in India that I was his man. A school boy about 10 years old walked up to me and asked me where the train station was. I said two signals down, go left one block, then right and it is down on the end. He said thanks and walked on. Alex looked at me like I was nuts. I only know a few places here and the train station is one of them.

I have one more task to try and complete before Sunday. The whole time I have been here I have been looking for new blankets for the studio. Nana has been looking all over and we have not been successful. Time is running out but Nana is confident he can hook me up. I am looking for 120 blankets (they are thinner than the Mexican blankets I currently use). The Institute usually sells them but they have been out for a while. These blankets are perfect because they are cotton, they don’t have any bumps and because they are thinner they are more versatile. If I can find them I’ll have to have them shipped and that takes up to two months. The shipping cost per blanket is more than the blanket costs but it still ends up way cheaper to buy them here. It’s India folks!

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Prashant’s class was exactly what we did on Monday.

Prashant Gems.

Learn that in every asana and every pranayama that the breath is different.
Resist taking a consumer approach to pranayama. Don’t think what the benefit is or what your next pranayama will be.
Resist being habitual in the practice.
Be creative when breathing.
Come up with your own vocabulary for the breath.

It seems like everyone I know or have met here that comes from the west gets some kind of stomach upset while they are here. Sometimes severe, sometimes mild. It’s my turn and fortunately for me it is mild. So today I’ll skip the practice session and rest and see how I feel about tonight’s class.