What is discriminative intelligence ?

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering discriminative intelligence.

Mind is consciousness which has put on limitations. You are originally unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limitations and become the mind.

                                                                   -Ramana Maharshi

Much of our daily behavior is conditioned by forces deep below the conscious level of our minds. This means we are limited to a conditioned, automatic way of thinking and responding to the events of life around us. When such a conditioned behavior is strong, we think of it as a fixed part of the personality. Othello is jealous, Hamlet indecisive, Macbeth ambitious; that, we say, is their nature. To many biologists, this is something that is built into our very genes.

I do not agree. Jealousy, vacillation, competition, and the rest are not permanent mental furniture; they are a process. A mental trait is a thought repeated over and over a thousand times, leading to words repeated a thousand times, resulting in action repeated a thousand times. At the beginning it is only a burgeoning habit of thought; you do not necessarily act on it. But once it becomes rigid, it dictates behavior. It is possible, through the practice of meditation and the other disciplines, to go against these conditioned ways of thinking and actually change ourselves from the inside out.

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

The homework is to evaluate areas in our lives where we are holding on to rigid ways of being that are not healthy for us or those around us. See if you can use your Yoga practices as a way to challenge this rigidity and create positive change.  Start by challenging yourself when your mind encourages you to avoid a posture or come out of a pose.  Instead of following your mind see if you can observe the thought and use your discrimination (viveka, see Patanjali's Yoga Sutra II:26) skills to make a more informed decision about what you want to do.  Then generalize this discriminative intelligence to situations 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

Oneness

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering oneness.

"This is myself and this is another." Be free of this bond which encompasses you about, and your own self is thereby released.

                                                                   -Saraha

To love completely, it is not enough if I care deeply; I must also be detached from myself. To know what is best for someone, I have to be able to step aside from my own prejudices and preconceptions, slip into that person's shoes and become one with her temporarily, looking at life through her eyes rather than my own. When I step back again, I will have seen her needs from the inside; only then can I see clearly how to serve those needs with detachment and compassion.

Why, then, do we find it so difficult to get ourselves out of the way? The reason, quite simply, is that we live rather superficially, on the surface of life. On the surface, we feel that it is natural for people to quarrel, for nations
to go to war. "It's only human," we say. Only in the depths of the soul can we realize that quarreling and fighting are not natural at all. What is natural is loving everybody, seeing everybody as one.

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

The homework is to consider that the practices of Yoga are centered around the idea of oneness.  Oneness in the pose, oneness with our environment, oneness with each other, oneness with God.  Learn for yourself how practicing the eight limbs of Yoga moves you towards a state of detachment and how that places you in a position to experience oneness.  What would this experience of oneness be like?

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

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering how a contemplative practice can support us in uncovering 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”.  See if having a contemplative practice has 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

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 (no, not Spanish appetizers!)

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering Tapas (no, not Spanish appetizers!). 

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

                                                                        -Albert Einstein

The teachings of great spiritual figures such as the Buddha are practical, not theoretical. The Buddha will say beautifully, "I have no theories." It's one of his most disarming statements. He did not engage in intellectual discussion, and often he would meet questions with a noble silence.

The scriptures are meant for translation into our daily lives over a long period of years. And in order to practice the teachings of the Compassionate Buddha, or any other teacher, we need an immense tool like meditation by which we can work on our consciousness. In this, it is not of much help to have only an intellectual understanding.

The Buddha doesn't talk about theory. Like all great teachers, he says, "These are things that you can verify for yourself." He is a supreme scientist who will say, "Undertake this experiment and discover the results for yourself."

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

The homework is to work on understanding your Tapas.  Tapas means to use burning effort under all circumstances to achieve ones goal in life.  In other words what is your work?  What should your experiment be on right now?  Yoga is 100% experiential and the results are unique to each person.  Discover what your results are!

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

Awareness and our habits

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering awareness and our habits. 

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

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.......a practice to keep coming back to.

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering Ahimsa.......a practice to keep coming back to. 

All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.

-Leo Tolstoy

There is nothing easy about learning to love. The real romantic must be very practical: it takes a lot of hard, unromantic work to sustain any human relationship. Naturally there are going to be differences between you and your partner. Identical twins have differences of opinion, so why should two people from, say, New York City and Paris, Texas, expect life together to be smooth sailing?

Even on the honeymoon there may be difficulties. You open Pandora's box expecting a lot of doves and out come a couple of bats instead. You have to be ready to say, "The doves are there; they're simply lying low. Why don't we get to work and shoo away these bats?" Rather than dwelling on the negative, try to respect the potential in the other person and help him or her to realize that potential through your support. If you want a relationship to get deeper and deeper with the passage of time, you will go on strengthening it all your life.

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

The homework is to check in with your commitment to Ahimsa - non-harming or Love.  Consider it using the principle of ahimsa in your relationships.  B.K.S. Iyengar writes that "the yogini, grounded in the practice of ahimsa, acts from a place of love and respect for all beings, including herself. This begins a new cycle of love and respect instead of harm and pain."

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

Character Development

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we are considering character development. 

You are not the same, nor are you another.

- The Buddha

The Buddha is saying that we change from moment to moment. Personality is not cast in a rigid mold; the whole secret of personality is that it is a process. The nature of a process is that it can be changed. For a time, it is true, the changes you are trying to make will not seem natural. When someone is rude to you, you will still feel a wave of resentment inside. It does not matter; at the outset, it is enough to act kind, to pretend to be kind, to stage a sort of kindness performance.

Gradually, if you put your whole effort behind this transformation, using the tool of meditation, the seething will subside. Then it will not just be a flawless performance, you will actually transform anger into compassion. You will feel sorry for the person who has offended you. You will not be the same angry person you used to be; and yet you will not be someone else, either. To be patient, kind, and secure is our real nature; anything else is being false to ourselves.

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

The homework is to learn how our Yoga practices help us discover our true nature.  To see how the practices of Yoga involve character development.

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