Karma and the Yoga of Action

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are considering Karma and the Yoga of Action.

God loves a cheerful giver.                                 

                                                            - II Corinthians

In India we have a story about a man who was the perfect model of respectability, who always did what the letter of the law demanded. When he died, he was taken before the cosmic auditor. The auditor looked at the man's record. There was not a single entry on the debit page. The auditor was impressed. Then he turned to the credit page and stared in astonishment. This page, too, was completely blank. He didn't know what to do. The man had never helped anybody; never hurt anybody; never offended anybody; never loved anybody. He couldn't be sent to heaven, but he couldn't be sent to hell, either.

So the cosmic keeper of the books took him to the god of creation, and said, "You made this guy. What shall I do with him?"

The Creator looked at the statute books and couldn't find a precedent to cover the case. And since this is a Hindu story, he said, "Take him to Krishna."

Krishna said, "The buck stops here." He examined the record very carefully and there, almost illegible, was an ancient credit entry: "Gave two cents to a beggar at the age of six." "There," Sri Krishna said, "return his two cents and send him back to earth to try again." Until we have learned to give freely of ourselves, we have not learned how to live.

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

The homework is to review Karma and the Yoga of Action as presented in the Bhagavad Gita (mostly chapter 5). Karma is the universal law of cause and effect, the Yoga of action, for every action there is a consequence or reaction.  This means we are responsible for our actions knowing that we may face them again in some way. Evaluate your present situation in light of Karma and the Yoga of Action and consider what it would mean to become a more “cheerful giver”.

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

Aparigraha, the Fifth Yama

Greetings Sadhakas,

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are considering Aparigraha, the fifth Yama.

It is no little wisdom for you to keep yourself in silence and in good peace when evil words are spoken to you, and to turn your heart to God and not to be troubled with the judgment of others.                                    

                                                            - Thomas a Kempis

Most of us appreciate praise, but it is disastrous to become dependent on it. If we are going to allow our security to be bolstered up by the praise, appreciation, and applause of others, we are done for. I have heard about a well-known movie star who goes to sleep at night with a tape of recorded applause playing. This is going to make him more and more insecure.

Why should we get agitated if someone ignores us? There are, after all, advantages to being ignored. We can go anywhere in freedom. Nobody recognizes us - how good it is! In life, there are occasions when we are ignored and sometimes forgotten. That is the time for us to remind ourselves, "Why do I need anybody's attention?" This attitude can be cultivated skillfully.

Even those of us who are the most sensitive to praise and appreciation can learn to be so secure within ourselves that the word rejected can be expelled from our dictionary. The one person who will never reject us is the divine Self within, and that is enough to make up for all the rejections we may have to undergo at the hands of everyone else.

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

The homework is to review Aparigraha, the fifth Yama. *Parigraha means hoarding or collecting.  To be free from hoarding is aparigraha. By the observance of Aparigraha, the yogini makes her life as simple as possible and trains her mind to not feel the loss or the lack of anything.  Then everything she really needs will come to her by itself at the proper time.  The life of an ordinary woman is filled with an unending series of disturbances and frustrations and with her reaction to them.  Thus there is hardly any possibility of keeping the mind in a state of equilibrium.  The sadhaka (seeker, aspirant) has developed the capacity to remain satisfied with whatever happens to her.  Thus she obtains the peace which takes her beyond the realms of illusion and misery with which our world is saturated.

*Paraphrased from 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

Tapas

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are considering Tapas.

People say, "What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time.                                                       

                                                            - Dorothy Day

It is repeated acts of unkindness that make us unloving and repeated acts of kindness that can make us loving. How do I become patient? By trying to be patient every day, little by little, poco a poco.

We shouldn't expect to go to bed one night the most impatient man or woman in the county and get up in the morning flooded with patience. Every day, every night, it takes continuous practice, continuous striving. If you are doing everything to be patient, you are going to become inexhaustibly patient. If you are struggling everywhere to become loving, you are going to be unfailingly loving.

In the gradual development on the spiritual path, it is better to concede that most of us start with a good deal of inertia. This shows itself as an attitude of avoiding challenges, shutting our eyes to the problems that confront the world. This inertia is slowly transformed into energy, just as ice when heated becomes water that flows - which can be used for irrigation and harnessed for any useful purpose that we approve of. In the same way, all of that locked-up energy can be released. But it requires steady effort, one step at a time.

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