Pratyahara

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we will be exploring Pratyahara.

When thoughts arise, then do all things arise. When thoughts vanish, then do all things vanish.

                                                          – Huang Po

When meditation deepens, and the thinking process slows down, we will find that we don't have to think all the time. It sounds simple, even scary, but it is a mighty achievement that yields unimaginable peace. Thoughts are no longer compulsive.

Just as we turn the key in the ignition of our car when we want to go somewhere, we should be able to find the ignition switch in our own mind. When we want to think constructively we switch the mind on and drive all the way to Los Angeles without any detours or breakdowns. Anger is a breakdown. Resentment is a protracted detour that often makes us forget our original travel plan entirely and then leaves us out of gas in the middle of nowhere. But when we know where to find the ignition switch, we can start the mind out in Seattle on Interstate 5 and drive straight through to Los Angeles. We have a wonderful trip, and when we arrive and our project is completed, we switch the mind off and let it rest.  There may be a certain pleasure in letting the mind wander, but for how long? What the spiritual teacher asks us is simple: Don't you want to decide your destination? And don't you want to get there with your body still healthy and your mind at peace?

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

The homework is to consider the fifth stage of Yoga, Pratyahara, or the withdrawal and emancipation from the senses.  Pratyahara is the transition from the external world to the internal world, to turn the senses inward toward the soul.  In the words of BKS Iyengar, “Here lies the true role of Pratyahara… It is the friend who releases you from the snares of the external world, and leads you towards happiness in the delight of the soul.  Observe how the practice of Pratyahara can direct you away from thinking all of the time and help encourage a meditative state.

References:

Light on Yoga and Light on the Yoga Sutras, by BKS Iyengar, Yoga: A Gem for Women, by Geeta 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 

Yoga Sutra 1:33

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we will be exploring Yoga Sutra 1:33.

Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart -

a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water - I accept with joy.

                                                          – Bhagavad Gita

We can look upon everything we do as a gift to the Lord. If we hoe the garden carefully so that our family - or a neighbor's family, or someone in need - can have fresh vegetables for dinner, that is an offering to the Lord. If we work a little more than is expected of us at something that benefits others, that too is an offering to the Lord. Everywhere, in every detail of daily living, it is not a question of quantity or expense that makes our offering acceptable; it is cheerfulness, enthusiasm, and the capacity to forget ourselves in helping others.

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

The homework is to observe your daily rituals and see where you can forget yourself more and work to help others.  Yoga Sutra 1:33 says that "By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness."   - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Sri Swami Satichidananda

In one of Patanjali's most quoted sutras we are encouraged to cultivate Metta or Lovingkindness, Karuna or Compassion, Mudita or Sympathetic Joy, and Upekkha or Equanimity.  Patanjali suggests that if we do so we can keep the fluctuations of the mind at bay and realize our true nature.

In forgetting yourself more see if you can do so with sutra 1:33 in 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

Tapas

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we will be exploring the Tapas - the third Niyama.

In truth, to attain to interior peace, one must be willing to pass through the contrary to peace.  Such is the teaching of the sages.

                                                          – Swami Brahmananda

I once asked my grandmother, "Why shouldn't we go after pleasant things, Granny? It's only human. And what's wrong with wanting to stay away from unpleasant things?" She didn't argue with me. She just told me to eat an amla fruit.

It was easier said than done. The fruit was so sour that I wanted to spit it out, but she stopped me. "Don't give up. Keep chewing." Out of love for her, I did, and the sourness left. The fruit began to taste sweeter and sweeter. "Granny, this is delicious," I said.

"But you didn't like it at the outset. You wanted to spit it out." That is how it is with spiritual disciplines.

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

The homework is to review the third Niyama - Tapas.  Learn how the discipline we bring to our Yoga practice - part of our Tapas can help us challenge ourselves to progress in our spiritual practices.  Tapas means to use burning effort under all circumstances to achieve ones goal in life. 

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

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

Kriya Yoga

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we will be exploring the concept of Kriya Yoga.

I was held back by mere trifles, the most paltry inanities, all my old attachments.

                                                             – Saint Augustine

Sooner or later, most of us encounter the haunting fear that if we turn our senses inwards, which is what diving into the murky water of consciousness means, we may lose everything enjoyable in life. This fear is one of the most formidable obstacles between us and deepening meditation. But if we persevere, we will see the day when these old attachments will fall away, almost of themselves, and no one will be as surprised as we are.

Gradually, with experience, our faith grows that deep within us the Self is willing and able to take responsibility for our ultimate welfare. Slowly we can surrender our personal will to an immeasurably more profound purpose. Bit by bit, we can work ourselves loose from the grip of compulsive entanglements in the faith that our capacity to love and be loved will thereby be magnified a millionfold.

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

The homework is to study the Niyamas, the second of the eight limbs of Yoga and see where the concept of surrendering our personal will for a more profound purpose fits in.  The Yoga Sutras present the concept of Kriya Yoga.  This would be a good place to start your study.

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

Discriminative Knowledge

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we will be exploring discriminative knowledge.

Goodness is the only investment which never fails.

                                – Henry David Thoreau

Discrimination is the precious capacity to see the difference between what is pleasant for the moment and what is fulfilling always. Today we are surrounded by a bewildering array of glittering lifestyles and models of behavior, most of which deliver just the opposite of what they promise. We need to make wise choices every moment just to keep from being swept away. For a long time, these choices are not easy. Often they go against the grain of our conditioning. It takes real courage and endurance to go on making such choices day in and day out. But once you begin to taste the freedom it brings, you will find a fierce joy in choosing something of lasting benefit.

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

The homework is to study Yoga Sutra II:26 which translates as "The ceaseless flow of discriminative knowledge in thought, word and deed destroys ignorance, the source of pain" - BKS Iyengar.  Mr. Iyengar notes that the seeds of false knowledge are to be burnt up through uninterrupted Yogic practices.  Ask yourself what it means to have uninterrupted Yogic practices and how discriminative intelligence is different than ordinary understanding?

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

Prema or Love Pure and Perfected

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

This week in class we will be exploring Prema or love pure and perfected.

Undisciplined love dwells in the senses, for it is still entangled with earthly things. . . . Disciplined love lives in the soul and rises above the human senses and forbids the body its own will.

                                            

                                          – Mechthild of Magdeburg

In the Hindu scriptures, the Sanskrit word kama means selfish desire, or any kind of private gratification. The opposite of kama is prema: love pure and perfected, a selfless love that does not ask what it can get but what it can give. The first leads only to spiritual starvation; the latter nourishes and heals.

In Hindu mythology kama is sometimes personified as the god Kama, who is a little like the Greek Cupid. Like Cupid, Kama is armed with a bow, and he has five arrows tipped with flowers, one for each of the five senses. Prema might also be said to have five arrows: five things we need to acquire in order to love. The first is time. Second is a one-pointed mind, which is the capacity to direct attention as we choose. Third comes energy, vitality. Fourth, we need discrimination. And fifth, we must have awareness of the unity of life.

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

The homework is to make the connections between the five arrows of Prema to your Yoga practices.  Then evaluate your relationships using the scale of nourishment and healing versus spiritual starvation and see where there is room for improvement.

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 or not Being Separate

Greetings Yogis and Yoginis,

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

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!

Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;

Man marks the earth with ruin, - his control

Stops with the shore.

                                                             – Lord Byron

Alas, Lord Byron, no more! Industrial society's reach has extended deep into the sea. Pollution, depletion of the ozone layer, global warming - threats like these are changing the ocean.

In the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord says, "Among bodies of water, I am the ocean." He does not say merely, "I made the ocean"; he says, "I am the ocean." To me, this is the basis of all our environmental efforts, and it accords with what ecologists tell us about the importance of the sea. The sea supports us, balances our climate, provides a home for whales and seals and dolphins. When we look at the sea, we should remember the infinite tenderness and compassion of God. When we pollute the ocean we are ignoring and abusing that compassion in a manner unworthy of us.

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

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

Blessings,

paul cheek
Rushing Water Yoga

417 NE Birch St., Camas, WA 98607
360.834.5994

www.rushingwateryoga.com

info@rushingwateryoga.com

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