Dharana

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring Dharana or concentration.

Households, cities, countries, and nations have enjoyed great happiness when a single individual has taken heed of the Good and Beautiful.   . . . Such people not only liberate themselves; they fill those they meet with a free mind.

                                    -Philo

Just as we live in a physical atmosphere, we are surrounded also by a mental atmosphere. And just as the air we breathe may become polluted, our mental atmosphere can be polluted by negative thinking. If trees were not always releasing oxygen into the atmosphere, scientists tell us, all life on earth would suffer. On a smoggy day the trees along the freeway look grey and drab in the haze; they do not seem to add anything valuable to the landscape.

Yet they are performing a vital function: they are taking in our carbon dioxide and giving us oxygen in return.

A person whose mind is free from negative thinking spreads a life-giving influence in much the same way that a tree gives oxygen. Although a selfless man or woman may seem to go through the day doing nothing extraordinary, without them nothing would revitalize the atmosphere in which we think. By being vigilant, and not encouraging negative thoughts, all of us can offer this vital service - which benefits everybody, including ourselves.

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

The homework is to witness the mind and all of its movements or Vrittis. The Yoga Sutras state that practicing the Eight Limbs of Yoga is the key to calming the Vrittis. Study these Eight Limbs and specifically review Dharana or concentration as a practice to help you notice when you are generating a negative thought and discourage the fruition of these thoughts.

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

Letting go of our Attachments

Greetings Sadhakas,

This week in class we are exploring letting go of our attachments.

Love the whole world as a mother loves her only child. 

                                    -The Buddha

My grandmother could not read or write, and she was a woman of few words, but by her example, by the very power of her presence, she taught me that we are all children of God, no matter what our country, religion, race, or sex. To use the language of traditional Hinduism, she was aware of the unity of life that binds us all together, and she was able, gradually, to transmit her awareness to me.

A favorite expression of my granny's was, "Life cannot make a selfish person happy." It has taken me half a lifetime to understand the profundity of her simple words, warning that happiness cannot come from possessing another person, or from any selfish attachment. But she would also always add, "Life cannot help but make a selfless person happy." Like spiritual teachers of all the world's religions, she taught that happiness is to be found in learning how to love others more than I love myself.

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

The homework is to observe what it is that your are attached to the most. Learn for yourself what it might take to let go of this attachment a little bit at a time. Start with easier things like chocolate and move on to harder things like people. See how your Yoga practices can nurture you on this path.

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

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