Tapas

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we will be exploring Tapas - discipline, austerities, heat and effort.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

                                             

                                                – attributed to Edmund Burke

Some of our most trying difficulties are caused by plain old inertia. Inertia shows itself in not wanting to move, not wanting to act - in other words, in wanting to be a stone just lying on the road. It is all right for a stone to be inert; that is its role in life. But it is not all right for you and me to just lie down and try to avoid problems, saying, "What does it matter?"

When I hear the phrase "well adjusted," I do not always take it as a favorable comment. Mahatma Gandhi has said that to be well adjusted in a wrong situation is very bad; in a wrong situation we should keep on acting to set it right. When Gandhi, at the peak of his political activity, was asked in a British court what his profession was, he said, "Resister." If he was put in a wrong situation, he just could not keep quiet; he had to resist, nonviolently but very effectively, until the situation was set right.

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

The homework is to challenge yourself to develop more Tapas not just in relation to your Yoga practices but in life in general. Tapas is third Niyama and is translated as discipline, austerities, and heat.  Tapas can also mean effort.  Through this effort impurities are burned up and we purify our inner and outer environments.

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

Moving from a Selfish State to a Selfless State

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we will be exploring moving from a selfish state to a selfless state.

Love is swift, sincere, pious, joyful, generous, strong, patient, faithful, prudent, long-suffering, courageous, and never seeking her own; for wheresoever we seek our own, there we fall from love.

                                              – Thomas a Kempis

Our English word love has become almost impossible to use. We say he's "falling in love" as if it were something that could happen every day, like falling into a manhole. Is it so easy to fall in love?

Listen to our popular songs; look at our magazines and newspapers. When they say, "I love you," that's not what I hear; I hear "I love me." If we could listen in on a marriage proposal with the ears of Thomas a Kempis, this is what we would hear. The man gets down on bended knee and says, "Sibyl, dear, I love me; will you marry me?"

There is a little undertone of this in almost all relationships. This is how we have all been conditioned, to put ourselves first at least part of the time. Most relationships begin with some passionate "I love you's" and some undertones of "I love me." But if we want our relationship to blossom, we'll gradually change the focus from me, me, me to you, you, you. Then our selfish passion is transformed into pure love.

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

The homework is to notice it the next time you experience pain, jealousy, or a selfish feeling in relationship.  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

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 - Non-covetousness or Greedlessness

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we will be exploring the fifth Yama, Aparigraha - non-covetousness or greedlessness.

O God! make me busy with Thee, that they may not make me busy with them.   

                                                                 – Rabia

Let me continue with the story of the woodpecker. Once our red-turbaned chap had checked out possible areas for working, he settled down at what looked like a solid, unyielding spot and started pecking away rhythmically. He didn't just give a peck or two and then fly off in search of a worm, not to return for half an hour. He went on pecking systematically, with sustained enthusiasm, until he was done. I was amazed at his dexterity. When he had finished, he left such a large hole that if he had gone on, I have no doubt the entire tree would have fallen.

That is the kind of work required to transform personality. For a long time, all we are doing in meditation is pecking away at what we want to change in ourselves. At best it is tedious; often it is downright painful. The problem is that we identify ourselves with the accumulation of habits and opinions, likes and dislikes, which we have developed over the years. We think this is who we are, and are not prepared to let it die.

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

The homework is to consider the fifth Yama, Aparigraha - non-covetousness or greedlessness.  Write down some of the habits and opinions, likes and dislikes that you identify with.  Apply the practice of Aparigraha and pick one or two from each group and work to "let them die".

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 Development of our Character

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we will be exploring using our Yoga practices to help direct the development of our character.

Precious gems are profoundly buried in the earth and can only be extracted at the expense of great labor.         

                                              – Anandamayi Ma

A few days ago I was watching a woodpecker, a creature I hadn't seen since I left India. This one had a red turban. While I watched, he came and alighted on a huge tree. He was quite a small creature, and the trunk of the tree was enormous. I wanted to go up to him and say, "What, make a hole in that huge trunk with your tiny beak? Impossible. Preposterous!"

But this little woodpecker was not intimidated by size. He did not throw up his legs in despair; he just alighted and went about looking for the right place to begin operations.

It is the same with transforming consciousness; you have to look for the right spot. In some people it is a particular compulsive craving; in some it is jealousy; in some, blind fury. Some may be fortunate enough to have all three. Each person has to look for that spot where urgent work is most needed.

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

The homework is to use the qualities that are developed through your Yoga practices to help you notice and then direct your attention to where it is needed most for the development of your character.

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

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we will be exploring going beyond our self-imposed limits.

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger.

                     – William James

We think we are very limited creatures, very small, good for maybe only fifteen minutes of love or patience before we have to crack. Instead of identifying with our deepest Self, we are identifying with some biochemical-mental organism.

But when you calm the mind in meditation every morning, you will see how far you can stretch your patience and your love during the day. You will see for yourself how comfortable you feel with everybody, how secure you feel wherever you go. You will find that you have a quiet sense of being equal to difficult situations.

These discoveries give a hint of the heights to which a human being can rise. Once we see this for ourselves, we will catch the exhilaration of the mystics when they say that because the Lord is our real Self, there is no limit to our capacities.

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

The homework is to see how your Yoga practices can challenge you to go beyond your self-imposed limits.  Learn how going further in your asana practice relates to challenging your limits off of the mat.  Relate this challenge to things other than physical ability.

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 Unity that Embraces us All

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we will be exploring the unity that embraces us all.

If your heart were sincere and upright, every creature would be unto you a looking-glass of life and a book of holy doctrine.

           

                                              – Thomas a Kempis

The pure in spirit, who see God, see her here and now: in her handiwork, her hidden purpose, the wry humor of her creation. The Lord has left us love notes scattered extravagantly across creation. Hidden in the eye of the tiger, the wet muzzle of a calf, the delicacy of the violet, and the perfect curve of the elephant's tusk is a very personal, priceless message.

Watch the lamb in awkward play, butting against its mother's side. See the spider putting the final shimmering touches on an architectural wonder. And absorb a truth that is wordless. The grace of a deer, the soaring freedom of a sparrow hawk in flight, the utter self-possession of an elephant crashing through the woods - in every one of these there is something of ourselves. From the great whales in the blue Pacific to the tiniest of tree frogs in the Amazon basin, unity embraces us all.

Words to Live By: Inspiration for Every Day – Eknath Easwaran (paraphrased to change gender)

The homework is to see how your Yoga practices invite you IN to explore the unity of life.  Learn how to notice the unity that embraces us all through your practices.  This can only come from your own experience as a practitioner.

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

Divine Grace

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we will be exploring divine grace.

At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will.

                                                        

                                                                         – Thomas Merton

The impetus to gain mastery over one's mind and senses does not come from a distant deity. It doesn't come from any monastic rule, or even from one's spiritual teacher. It comes from deep within yourself. You have had a fleeting glimpse of the shining presence within, and in its bright remembered light, all your flaws and blemishes are thrown into sharp relief. You can't wait to start removing them.

To have the desire to travel deep into consciousness is a sure mark of divine grace. To be no longer content to pick up what is floating on the surface of life, and to want only the pearls at the bottom of the sea, this is grace, welling up from deep inside.

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

The homework is to learn for yourself how your Yoga practices encourage you to "travel deep into consciousness".  If your practices are not fostering this process consider how to deepen your commitment to yourself to make this exploration happen.

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