Principle 11-

Not really sure why this one was not grouped with or next to Principle 6, it is rather similar. 6 to refresh you stated: Our life has universal and personal nature. Both dimensions must be respected if we are to be happy and free. Now for 11:

11- There is a personal and universal uncounscious. Turning awareness to the unconscious brings understanding and freedom.
Now just to point out, when we are aware of something it doesn't mean we become that or become aware of that. As I said yesterday we are not to become cold and distant like Vulcans nor be mindless drones like the Borg. So this is not saying we are to shut down and be unconscious. Its saying that we already are. To become aware of this, to observe it, to know it, respect it and accept it only then can we become awake where we need to or just let go of the suffering of control where we need to.
If there is Consiousness, or enlightenment, or being Awake, then like yin and yan the balance of the universe, there is the unconscious. In our personal lives we are blind, or unconsious, to many things about ourselves, our family, our neighborhoods, and the rest of the globe. Society as a whole, or even narrowing down to nations, communities or groups will have there own blindspots, or be unconsious, to manythings within there structure\system, to neighboring structures\systems, to the rest of humanity. Whether individually or universally this blindspot is commonly refered to as Ego. Where fear and desire are incontrol all the time, hurting, 'protecting' and blaming. The endless battle of 'im right and your wrong'. This false idea of thinking we have control, and our struggle to over power and obtain more control. A good question onced asked, how can we control anything, if we can't even control our own emotions?

A passage from Deepak Chopra: 'Buddha saw that suffering and evil are rooted in a mistake about how life works.'

Rolf Gates highlights this thought further in saying: 'The first affliction, the one from which all the others flow, is our mistaken view about how life works. We do not know who we are, and therefore we make poor choices about how to proceed. Accoding to yoga, the mistake we make is to identify with the external.
'In macrocosm, this can be seen when countries struggle with past wrongdoing. Elements within Fench society today, for example, are unable to come to terms with the Vichy government's culpability in the death of over three hundres thousand French Jews during World War II. Identified with a false image of France, they cannot simply say, "We were dreadfully wrong, and we are terribly sorry." To do so would be to overturn their image of France, and thereby unalterably change their understanding of themselves. And so, for the last half century, there has been a concerted effort within France to deny and repress the thruth of French treatment of Jewish citizens during the war.
'On the personal level, we arrive on our mats identified with the results of our actions. We are good if we "win", bad if we "lose". We compete with the students to the left and right of us. We bask in the glory of a good day, are crushed by the ignominy of a bad one.
'The emptiness of all this striving to control reality stems from the emptiness of our vision of who we are. The fall of Adam and Eve occured when they began to believe that they were seperate from God. Pollution, war, greed, and hate began when we stopped believing that we are one with all things. You are not your fingers ot your hamstrings ot this book. You are that which is understanding this book and which pervades all things. That is God, you are God, and you share God with all beings. Our time on the mat is a long journey from the idea of separation to the idea of connectedness. Our experiences on the mat, our reactions, our fears and desires are opportunities to find out who we are and who we are not.'

I think he wrapped this up rather nicely. I'm not going to quote these books in this post, however I Highly suggest reading the books 'A New Earth- Awakening to Your Life's Purpose' by Eckhart Tolle, and 'Bhagavad Gita- A New Translation' as translated by Stephen Mitchell to get a clearer, fuller understanding on the Ego, and about letting go of 'right' and 'wrong', 'good' and 'bad'.

Also remember, even those that are Awake are still human, still prone to drinking, swearing, sexing, and bellyaching, because all life is beautiful, ever faset of life is beautiful, if it were a mistake then it would not be.

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The Secret to Non-Suffering!

Jack Kornfield writes : 'It is not given to us to know how our life will affect the world. What IS given to us is to tend the intentions of our heart and to plant seeds with our deeds. Do not doubt that your good actions will bear fruit, and that change for the better can be born from your life.'

This is not to be confused with thinking about outcome or control. Its about having faith that the actions we take will handle themselves, without our constant manipulation. As is written in the Bhagavad Gita - 'to act well without attachment to the fruits of your actions.'

You've heard me write before about letting go and nonattachment. On the small scale we practice letting go in the moment, letting go of harsh thoughts, or anxieties in situations such as getting cut off on the highway or misplacing our wallet when in a checkout line. On the small scale of nonattachment we practice freeing ourselves from our ego dettaching ourselves from our possessions, realizing that the objects we own are not us, that if something breaks or is stolen or lost, that we ourselves are still intact. So how than do we apply these concepts and practices to the large scale? (Well one 'large' vs 'small' scale is all an illusion, its really all the same, every small thing we do is large, and every large thing we do is small, but for the sake of trying to illustrate a point, I will break things apart as 'large' and 'small' in this post.)

Adyashanti writes- 'The great spiritual teacher Krishnamurti once said, "When you teach a child that a bird is named 'bird', the child will never see the bird again." What they'll see is the word "bird". That's what they'll see and feel, and when they look up in the sky and see that strange, winged being take flight, they'll forget that what is actually there is a great mystery. They'll forget that the thing flying through the sky is beyond all words, that it's an expression of the immensity of life. It's actually an extraordinary and wonderous thing that flies through the sky. But soon as we name it, we think we know what it is. We see "bird", and we almost discount it. A "bird", "cat", "dog", "human", "cup", "chair", "house", "forest" - all of these things have been given names, and all of these things lose some of their natural aliveness once we name them. Of course we need to learn these names and form concepts around them, but if we start to believe that these names and all of the concepts we form around them are real, then we've begun the journey of becoming entrance by the world of ideas.'

Jack Kornfield firther writes - 'Freedom from views is like a cleaning of the glass, a breath of fresh air. Zen master Shunryu Suzuki calls this open-mindedness "beginner's mind". Listen to Rachel Carson, the great naturalist, as she evokes it: "A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over all the children, I should ask her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life."
'When we are free from views, we are willing to learn. What we know for sure in this great turning universe is actually very limited. Seung Sahn, a Korean Zen master, tells us to value this "dont-know mind". He would ask his students questions such as "What is love? What is conciousness? Where did your life come from? What is going to happen tomorrow?" Each time, the students would answer, "I don't know". "Good", Seung Sahn replied. "Keep this 'dont-know mind'. It is an open mind, a clear mind".'

And my favorite Dove chocolate wrapper quote, 'Marcel Proust-"The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes".'

The 'large scale' example of letting go and nonattachment is letting go of the illusion that we have any control over anything outside of our actions in this life. We must learn to not be attached to any outcome 'good' or 'bad'. True satisfaction, and utter peace is knowing we have no control, and being ok with that truth.

'It is not given to us to know how our life will affect the world. What IS given to us is to tend the intention of our heart and to plant beautiful seeds with our deeds. Do not doubt that your good actions will bear fruit, and that change for the better can be born from your life.'

posted from Bloggeroid

Yoda and Yoga

'On this path no effort is wasted,
no gain is ever reversed;
even a little of this practice
will shelter you from great sorrow.' - 'the wisdom of yoga' as said in the Bhagavad Gita- A New Translation by Stephen Mitchell

That quote is going to be the only serious thing in this post, the rest is just lighthearted, goofy, and fun. I know littered through out this blog I reference and quote many films and television shows and books- in yoga the wise man learns to see the world as his teacher, to break away from selected reading for guidence and finds his own through nature, work, loved ones, media, art, etc etc. Star Wars however is not my yoga teacher of the day. No no, far from it, I just noticed some goofy comparisons.
It started out yesterday when I was unpacking an old box of decorations I had in storage. In this box is a sculpture of a Buddha head, and it made me giggle because its kind of short, making his face shape very similar to that of master Yoda. Not only does Yoda look like Buddha, check out his name, Yoda is Yoga, just with the 'g' upside down (depening on your font face). And that got me to thinking about Yoda and how much of a Yogi he is and how 'The Force' is like 'Consciousness' also known as 'Awareness', and well here are just some fun yogic ties between Star Wars in a galaxy far, far away, and Yoga on Earth =P. :

So forgive me if I misquote this, I am a nerd, but I'm not nerdy enough to have the Star Wars script memorized. But we are all pretty familiar with the 'knowledge' of fear leading to hate, hate leading to anger and anger leading to the Darkside, right? Well fun fact Bhagavad Gita is a poem dating back to the first century C.E. and quoted here passage 2.62 :
'If a man keeps dwelling on sense-objects,
attachment to them arises;
from attachment, desire flares up;
from desire, anger is born;

from anger, confusion follows;
from confusion, weakness of memory;
weak memory- weak understanding;
weak understanding - ruin.'

Worded a little differently, but the concept is the same, if you let your ego and emotions take control, you'll be lost.

Yoda is like a Yoga Instructor, trying to teach Luke to clear his mind, be focused on the moment, letting go of the outcome, and letting it happen. Yoga students in the beginning are often times like Luke feeling frustrated and wanting to 'learn a cool move'.

Jedi are like Buddhist monks, you have one training another, who will then train another, and so on it goes, wearing their distinctive robes, staying away from romance, all living together. - Sexy =P

There's always that one guy in class that embodies Jar Jar Binks.

There are aliens with dread lock type ears? Hair? Scalps? And in portland at least you get a lot of students with dread locks, esp chicks.

Luke when he got more advanced was doing hand stands, advanced yogis do handstands.

Luke was doing sweaty hot training in the swamps with Yoda, in Bikram studios students train in 105 degrees F.

Jedi's get lightsabers, yogis........

Anikin lost his mom, yogis mom's think we're crazy.

Jedi's listen to dead people, yogis listen to dead people.
Jedi's have figured out how to remanifest themselves after death in a holigramic ghost form, yogis have learned how to carry on after death is written form.

And then there are always these guys:

Anywho, I'm just playing around. =)
However for those interested, it turns out that there is a book called 'The Dharma of Star Wars' (and for those who don't know, dharma in yoga means the ultimate truth) and this is a serious book comparing the yogic truths and buddhist philospohy that's in the films written by an ordained buddhist monk of the Thich Nhat Hanh's Buddhist Community, named Matthew Bortolin, currently on Amazon.com for $14.42.

I hope you all are having a fun day, enjoy the start of the week. =)

~Stephanie

posted from Bloggeroid