One pointed focus concentration to find Truth

If Dhyana is meditation (finding truth/ journey to Samdhi) then Dharana is the map to getting there.  

Never limit your life--never giving up. 
There are five ways you can live your life

TIRE--used like a tire and eventually replaced
FLIER-flee the situation.  Find excuses
CRIER-I can't do this.  The pitiful way.  The victim Mentality
LIAR- Looks good on the outside but on the inside totally lost

TRIER I am never going to give up.  I may have been knocked down but I am going to get back on.  I am never going to limit my life. Derek Clark (Rapper Dad with a story to tell)
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I want what I want when I want it 

Paraphrased: This idea of attempting to hurry along the Divine Intelligence is something we do all the time.  This principle of detaching ourself of outcome having infinite patience is part of our development.  If you have a certainty of outcome then patience is easy.  When you trust in God you trust in the wisdom that created you.  You can never be separated from that Divine wisdom.

Let go and let God

It came to me in yoga today that "A good yoga teacher coaxes you into the rhythm of the soul"
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“I refuse to be defined by how I am supposed to behave”
 
I got the best piece of advice indirectly from my son in law who said to my daughter once.  “Your mom is so reactive.’  It was years ago when my daughter confided this to me.
 
Lately I am affirming the need to allow and not react.  This is a challenge as I am quick ‘on the draw’ or should I say highly responsive to that which comes my way. 

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra says: "Study thy self, discover the divine" II.44
 
What if:
After 911 we did nothing and just allowed ourselves to be the victim that we were. 
 
What if:
Our bodies didn’t have the robust response to the flu—would so many of us have died?
 
What if, …
We abstain from getting the last word in
 
What if…
We aim for peace instead of being right
 
What if…
We eliminated most of our laws or just simplified them
 
What if…
We didn’t try to eradicate weeds & pests
 
What if…
You can fill in your own blanks….
 
What if…
We just allowed life to happen on its own terms? Could we trust in a higher order of things to sort itself out?
 
What if...
​We didn’t react to these words but just took them in?
 
The great Tao flows everywhere, both to the left and to the right.
The ten thousand things depends upon it; it holds nothing back. 
It fulfills its purpose silently and makes no claim. 
It nourishes the ten thousand things,
And yet is not their lord.
It had no aim; it is very small
The ten thousand things return to it,
Yet it is not their lord.
It is very great.
It does not show greatness,
And is therefore truly great.
​Lao Tzu

 

​When I was very young my parents didn’t have much money that is until they gained a modest inheritance when my grandmother died when I was 14 years old.  My mom was thankfully thrifty and she would stretch out the meals so that they were affordable and would say that she would make enough for six even though there were seven of us, that way nothing went to waste. 
 
My brother Doug is the kind of person who would rather be hungry than full.  He has a delicate stomach and it doesn’t take much for him to overeat and become uncomfortable.  When growing up he sat at the end of the table and would serve himself last when there was hardly anything left.  By nature he is quiet and easygoing unless someone gets the ire of his temper and then it’s a different story.  At meals though he seemed less engaged than the more boisterous ones of us (that especially being me.)
 
A few times there wasn’t anything left in the serving bowl when it got around to him and he didn’t even speak up until my mom noticed.  She’d ask us to divvy up some of what we had so that his plate wouldn’t be empty.  After dinner he would sometimes lie on the floor and quietly take in his digestion.  Digestion of the rajasic energy left when we were finished.  He often would sleep in the bathtub at night liking the feel of its cold austerity.  He was a shy introverted kid but ironically quite popular in the family and with his peers.  He wasn’t trying to prove anything just living life the way he thought it should be lived. 
 
He did have his share of wild, adventure and fun.  A doer and a daredevil.  The only one of us that jumped out of an airplane and scaled the chimney on the side of our house scaring my sister half to death.  As an adult he can now be found in a cross fit type class or running a marathon.  He still is lean and tends to not overdo it with a meal. 
 
One of his best friends Stephanie exemplifies the meaning of tapas too. A burning heat of turbine austerity.   As one of his other friends remarked to Doug, ‘she doesn’t have an off switch.’ She has set a world record for rowing the longest amount of time at one sitting and runs marathons and triathlons and ultras.  I had heard that she even teaches a yoga class at the gym.  I had assumed when I heard about her yoga that is was just the physical exercise kind.
 
I found that I was wrong though when I practiced behind her at a class last Christmas.  I was somewhat surprised by the beauty of her asana flow but what impressed me most was how quiet she could be when we started the class in meditation.  During class she dialed in the pauses, moments of quiet, the spaces and repose.  She’s the real deal, that Stephanie and how apropos a good friend to my bro. (Doug is in the grey t-shirt.  You can tell he looks a little full in the picture; he just finished his pasta dinner the night b/f the Marine Corp Marathon.)


“The cause of illness is too many foods and too many thoughts.”
Quote from The Yoga of Discipline Swami Chidvilasananda

The story is one I often wish to share with parents who worry, "will my kid be ok?"
 
There's hope for your kid do not despair!  
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In third grade I was at a new school and it was more of a hippy style of learning.  I had two teachers and we were housed in an "open classroom" the divider doors open to one conjoined room with at least 40 kids.  There was a make-believe jungle with things hanging from the ceiling. I have fond memories of feeling free as I ran around the room pretending to be a monkey.  One of the teacher's was more academically inclined than the other.  She would give out assignments and expect us to finish them.   I was quite unruly and would just skip them or give them perfunctory attention, having little interest in what was required to complete them.  Any piece of work with a "bad grade" would go into the garbage. When my parents asked about how I was doing.  I would reassure them well! and I thought I was. 
 
During story time and share, I would make up tales that we took exotic trips during school vacations that mimicked some of my peer’s stories.  The teacher's seemed to take a keen interest in my made up account of what I did during the breaks as they later brought them up to my parents during the teacher conferences.   When my parents got home they were furious with me that I not only fabricated stories on how well I was doing but also was telling people about trips that we hadn't taken.  I think my father was especially upset him being a teacher and all. 
 
My mother was all about truth telling.  She tried to hit home in me the importance of being honest and the importance of being conscientious in my facts. She gave the example of the book The Boy Who Cries Wolf, and how when you lie there might just come a day that no one believes anything you say and then you are in big trouble. I did find the book intriguing and mildly disturbing and tended toward honesty after that.  
 
My older sister who had her own struggles found the book downright traumatizing and after hearing it just once, requested to hear the story over and over again for years afterwards.. Each time the story was replayed she then had a million questions on why did the boy get eaten?  We all needed to reassure her that the wolf wasn't coming to get her.  Well not unless she trailed off from the truth....

A very long time ago a friend and I had a conversation on what is the most important yama and he said Satya—arguing, ”it is the first one, isn’t it?”  But for me the last one has the most significance, Aparigraha. 
 
In retrospect, maybe for him he needed to work on truth and for me, non attachment, non grasping letting go and letting things be as they may. 
 
As Lao Tzu said, “Do nothing and nothing will be left undone.”

• Go with the rhythm of life.  If traffic isn’t moving then stay and do not effort ahead.  If life has roadblocks don’t fight them, heed them.
• Avoid forcing, Effecting. 
• Forgive.  Let go of the hold that the past can have on you 
• Be present. Do not strive too hard for the future.
• Do not cling to things too tightly.
• Respect and cherish what you have but let go of the fear of losing it. 
• Be careful of desiring as it can lead you to ‘nowhere.’  Instead be ‘now here.’ 
• Be watchful of accumulating for the sake of having. 
• Be clear on wants verses needs. 
• Be simple in all things both thoughts and actions. 
• Release habitual patterns that are destructive
• Notice discontentment and bottomless wishing. 
• Notice the hold that things, events and even people can have on you and how they can deter you from simplicity and joy.

 
Do for no other sake but for the sake of its own.

"I move gently with love."
​ "I respect all beings" 
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 Positive thoughts 
Mindfulness
Find forgiveness when a mistake has been made
Avoid  cursing and harsh words
Eat healthy and consciously
Be Kind
Only touch out of love, communion or deep and helpful compassion
Notice and change addictive patterns 
​Avoid hurting anything or anyone especially yourself
Recognize the harmful nature of guilt on the body/mind and the necessity to confront shame for healing

and sometimes it is better to LET IT OUT than hold it in

Post Note: 
List above is from 2004 and the below mention is from an assignment for PRYT, yoga therapy training in 2003--in which we were asked to pick a yama or niyama.  

Ahimsa: Be kind to your body, be kind to your heart, enrich your mind.  Be patient with your soul.  Leave judgement at the door while acknowledging your shadow.  Greet others in the same way with compassion because their truth is their own to discover.  

Santosha is a sanskrit word that means contentment, and in the last few weeks since returning from Guatemala,  I have contemplated its meaning...

May 14, 2016: The work week thankfully has ended, and its Saturday. My energy is inward, and the effort to bring it outward is taxing even though I had very few clients and many cancelations. I am feeling that the Universe has my back, and I am grateful that I can be in a state of reflection.
 
This morning, I am scheduled to run a 5k.  My only wish is to enjoy it and be happy with the outcome.  As I think back to the Yoga Forest and what I learned I remember Ingrid’s Mayan reading.  She says that in the future I need to be happy and comfortable. I had said this to a friend who is a therapist recently and she dismissed these words with, “Do you know how many times I hear that from people?” 
 
Ingrid reassured me though that being happy is necessary for my equilibrium and stability as I move forward. I will embrace this.  Happiness and comfort.  I am worthy of this.  In the words of Joseph Campbell in the “The Power of Myth” in an interview with Bill Moyer he writes, “The way to find out your happiness is to be aware of the moments when you feel most happy—not excited, thrilled but deeply happy.  This requires some self-analysis.  Stay with it no matter what people tell you.  Follow your bliss.”(Page 193.)
 
I will do this.  I will start to notice these feelings when they come up.  I will mark them and follow them.  Follow them to where they lead me.  Follow them to where I need to be. When you follow your bliss there are dangers involved and outcomes obscured. Moving beyond the ancestry familiar into the land of unchartered and unknown.  The trek foraging for ground and paving the way to the new is never tread lightly but with a sure foot of hope and care towards ones’ destiny and for all destinies to come.  

 Later in the day...
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​I ran my second Earthfare 5k today and did better.  Did a lot better! As I was running I kept me eye on my shadow which was in front of me. Just where it needed to be. I think I placed 4th for my age group. Not bad, I reflected as I started the walk home. My neighbor Suzanne had dropped me off earlier so I was without my car.  Walking the mile or two towards home I had my hands full with the freebies of coconut water and quinoa chips and other stuff. I walked up the hill past the projects, a poorer section of town.
 
A man was sitting on a bench as I crossed by and looked over to me and said, Whatyougot there?  He gazed curiously at the box I was carrying. “Food,” I smiled, “I ran a race.” “You win?” No, but I had fun and I did well.”  Another smile from me, but he had already looked away his mind elsewhere. I wasn’t a winner, story over it seemed.  As I walked on I felt happy and contentment and thought to myself about my path and the steps I am taking in my life now and how if the path was safe then it really wouldn’t be very interesting at all. It is perfect just as it is.