Musings
Many students have asked me to make my "Musings" newsletters available on this website. I am deeply grateful that they have been of use and inspiration.
|
Thanksgiving/Fall 2005 - On the eve of this holiday of gratitude and generosity, may this email meet you with a light-hearted spirit of appreciation and good fortune. Indeed, we need only read the front page of any major newspaper to know just how fortunate and blessed we are, despite our daily challenges in the seemingly complex arenas of home, career, finances, relationships, and spiritual aspirations. Life is full. Life is demanding. Life is a precious gift. [Read More] New Year's Eve//Winter 2005 - Indeed, no matter how persuasive the words may be, it is sometimes difficult to actually feel and experience the joy and brilliance that lie at our core. There's no way around it: For many of us, this is a season characterized by strong, conflicting feelings and emotions: On one hand, we have moments that feel like genuine joy, love and generosity of spirit. On the other hand, we may be feeling tired, sun-deprived, cold, stressed out, and overwhelmed by the wild mind of to-do lists, deadlines, social commitments and overstretched budgets and waistlines. [Read More] Valentines Day/Winter 2006 - The whole notion, or concept, of Valentine's day gets right to the heart of Yoga philosophy, as well as to many teachings of the Buddha.. Indeed, this day of roses and chocolate underscores the "stuff" of our deepest, most heartfelt longing -- our need to love and to be loved. To quote Swami Rama, "Love is the Lord of Life. Life without love is like an infertile, barren field. No matter how much it is tilled, nothing grows."[Read More] Easter/Spring 2006 -There is an auspicious quality to this coupling of warmth, sunshine, new blossoms and the celebration by many of resurrection, rebirth and new beginnings. Millions around the world are celebrating Easter, and here in the Northeast we are witnessing the imminent transition from cold, hard, colorless earth to a topography that is warm, pliable, generous and colorful. While one form of rebirth, or fresh start, requires a degree of faith, the other asks only that we open our eyes and expose our skin in order to make direct contact with the ineffable energy of reawakening. Read More] Memorial Day 2006 -May this email find you in happiness and sukham, or good, sweet space. Indeed, many wisdom traditions -- including Yoga -- teach us that we are inseparable from the vast, spacious and delightful goodness that permeates this sacred world in which we live. Oftentimes, however, amidst life's daily vicissitudes, we forget that we are made of the very same indescribable goodness that comprises the sublime beauty of the phenomenal world. Yet, when wakeful, with senses open, we may marvel at the strength, vibrancy and delicacy of spring's fresh blossoms; relish the cool, refreshing water of a spring-fed pond as it touches our warm skin; savor the flavors of fresh cut herbs, the calming scent of blossoming lilacs, and the melody of a bird's song. Do we dare to delight, for a moment, in the contours and colors that compose the face of a loved one? Read More. Independence Day 2006 - Today is Independence Day and, alas, I find myself contemplating the following questions: what does independence mean to me? And from what sense of dependence am I seeking emancipation, or liberation? How do the choices I make in my life contribute to my experience of freedom, on the level of body, mind and spirit? Do they inevitably lead to even more dependence and suffering? Do they offer a short-term, illusory feeling of independence and freedom. Or, are they leading me closer to an unshakeable, indestructible "independence," or freedom? Read More |