Making a Commitment to Practicing

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring making a commitment to practicing.

They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart. 

                                                  – Bhagavad Gita

The Gita's hypothesis is that it is possible, by mastering the thinking process, to leave behind unwanted habits and negative thoughts. To accomplish this, the Gita outlines a daily course of training in which we acquire conscious control of our attention, strengthening our will at such a deep level of the unconscious that no compulsive desire or addiction can sweep us away. What is the predicted result? When your will is linked to your intellect at the very depths of your personality, you discover yourself as you really are - secure, wise, compassionate, and intimately connected with all of life.

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

The homework is to create your own "daily course of training" that includes the eight fold path of Yoga (http://www.rushingwateryoga.com/eight_limbs_poster_may2014.pdf). Commit to practicing something everyday for 21 days. Start slow and be consistent. Work to penetrate deep into your own psyche and see what happens. Experiment!

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

Freedom

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring Freedom.

Just as a fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is obscured by dust, just as the embryo rests deep within the womb, wisdom is hidden by selfish desire.

 

                                                  – Bhagavad Gita

This verse is taken from the Bhagavad Gita, a short Sanskrit work of seven hundred verses that has fascinated and inspired mystics, physicists, psychologists, and philosophers of many countries for three thousand years. Set on a battlefield on the morning before a fierce battle, the Gita uses warfare as a metaphor for our personal struggle with the challenges of life.

The Gita's message is simple but profound: our native state is freedom. What we want most from life is to be free of all the mental compulsions that keep us from living in peace with ourselves, with others, and with the environment. This desire for freedom is at the core of our personality, says the Gita, and our failings only hide our real nature like dust obscuring the face of a mirror.

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

The homework is to use your Yoga practices to explore what "freedom" really means. Does practicing the same thing, the same way encourage freedom? Does challenging yourself physically and mentally encourage freedom? See for yourself what encourages the type of freedom referenced in the Bhagavad Gita.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

Patience

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring Patience.

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.

 

                                                  – I Corinthians

To excel in anything you have to have patience; but if you want to love, patience is an absolute necessity. You may be dashing, glamorous, fascinating, and alluring; you may be tall, dark, and handsome, or whatever the current fancy may be. Without patience, you can never become a great lover; it would be a contradiction in terms.

"Well," most of us say, "I guess that leaves me out. Patience has never been my strong point." Very, very few of us are born patient. Our age has been called the age of anxiety, the age of anger; but we could just as easily say the age of impatience. You see it in supermarket lines, on the highway, on the tennis court, in the schoolyard, in the political arena, on the bus. With all this we have begun to believe that impatience is our natural state. Fortunately, love is our natural state, and patience is something that everybody can learn.

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

The homework is to learn first to be patient with your practice of Yoga asana. When you are faced with something you cannot physically do see what it is you can do and be content with that. Patanjali's Yoga Sutras present Adhyatma-prasada means calmness, or clarity, of the inner being,  (1:47) and  Upeksha which means equanimity, (1:33). Together these words convey the meaning of patience. Through the observation in your practice and your experiences off of the mat see if you can move towards this native state of being.

Excerpts from “Living your Yoga, Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life”, by Judith Lasater.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

Ishvara Pranidhana and Sacrificing our own Self-importance

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring Ishvara Pranidhana, the fifth Niyama.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity....It turns problems into gifts, failure into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates vision for tomorrow."

                                                                                                            - Melody Beattie

Consider Ishvara Pranidhana the fifth Niyama. Ishvara represents that living symbol of the divine that is in our hearts and Pranidhana a profound recognition of that which sustains us and gives meaning to our lives. Literally it means surrender to God.

Ishvara Pranidhana is fundamentally about a relationship to something higher than or beyond ourselves.  It may be a higher force, as in the context of traditional religious traditions, or it may be in relation to human values, such as kindness and compassion.  In either case, it will manifest in our lives as the ability to let go of the tyranny of our self-importance – whether it reveals itself as pride and arrogance, or self-pity and low self-esteem.  It will awaken in us attitudes such as gratitude and appreciation.  As a result, we will be able to simply wake up in the morning and say,”Ah, I’m alive another day.”  We will feel grateful in our hearts for the gift of this life.  We will take the time to look and appreciate the beauty around us.  In our relationships we will become open to receiving each other with respect and appreciation.       

Homework:  What does the concept of “sacrificing your own self-importance” mean to you to?   Does this sacrifice have to come before the qualities of kindness, compassion, gratitude, appreciation and respect can be cultivated?  What little step can you take today to begin or deepen your practice of Ishvara Pranidhana?

References:

Quoted and paraphrased from Iyengar the Yoga Master, edited by Kofi Busia, Kriya Yoga: Transformation Through Practice – A Western Perspective, by Gary Kraftsow.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

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

Oneness

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring Oneness.

We have to take the whole universe as the expression of the one Self. Then only our love flows to all beings and creatures in the world equally.

 

                                                  – Swami Ramdas

You and I appear to be separate. We differ in color, size, and shape. Differences in ideas, tastes, and prejudices mark us as individuals to be reckoned with. Beneath this apparent division, however, hidden deep within each of us is the one Self - eternal, infinite, ever-perfect. This is the closely guarded secret of life: that we are all caught up in a divine masquerade, and all we are trying to do is take off our masks to reveal the pure, perfect Self within.

In our present condition, we have forgotten we are wearing masks. Fortunately, the Self will not allow us to forget him, but keeps on calling to us. In order to find the Self, we must look deep within ourselves. When we succeed, our purpose in life will be fulfilled, and all our anger against others will melt into unfathomable love, all our fear of others into unshakable security.

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

The homework is to learn for yourself how the practices of Yoga help us experience the interconnections between ourselves and our environment. Then observe what the impact is from this experience.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

Patience and Learning to L O V E

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring patience and learning to L O V E.

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.

 

                                                  – Saint Francis de Sales

In learning to love, we start where we are - somewhat selfish, somewhat self-centered, but with a deep desire to relate lovingly to each other, to move closer and closer together. Love grows by practice; there is no other way. There will be setbacks as well as progress. But there is one immediate consolation: we don't have to wait until our love is perfect to reap the benefits of it. Even with a little progress, everyone benefits - not only those we live with, but ourselves as well.

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

The homework is to apply your Yoga practices to your practice of Love. Just as in Asana there is always setbacks and progress. Use the patience you cultivate through the ups and downs of your Yoga practices to help you keep coming back to your commitment to Love.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

Ahimsa, Non-harming or Love

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring the first Yama: Ahimsa, non-harming or Love.

Love bears it out even to the edge of doom.  

 

                                                  – William Shakespeare

Most of us can spend years in personal pursuits without ever taking time to know the needs of people in our own home, in our neighborhood, at work. It may be rarely that we give our energy to serving their needs. We sometimes forget that our nascent capacity for love is the greatest thing we shall ever have. To nurture it, we may have to forget our private adventures in profit and pleasure for the sake of others, but that is how love grows.

It takes a lifetime to learn to love. Love does not burst forth one morning with a display of fireworks. It grows little by little every day, by bearing with people, as Shakespeare's sonnet says, "even to the edge of doom." That is what love requires. But if we make it our first priority, no matter what difficulties come our way, our love cannot help but grow.

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

The homework is to learn to make Love your first priority. Draw upon your Yoga practice to support your commitment. One way to do that is to study Ahimsa, non-harming or Love, and learn how to apply this concept in your practices and in your relationships.

Blessings,

paul cheek

Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607

360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com