Want The Change . . . Rainer Maria Rilke

April 1, 2012 (Edit)

Want the Change. Be inspired by the flame where everything shines as it disappears. The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much as the curve of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness has congealed. Is it safer to be gray and numb? What turns hard becomes rigid and is easily shattered.

Pour yourself out like a fountain. Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.

Every happiness is the child of a separation it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming a laurel, dares you to become the wind.

– Rainer Maria Rilke, The Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII

Mother Teresa: “Do It Anyway”

February 19, 2011 (Edit)

The verses below were written on the wall of Mother Teresa’s home for children in Calcutta, India and are attributed to her:

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and the Divine. It was never between you and them anyway.

Perfection from the Inside Out

November 29, 2010 (Edit)

In our culture, we are continuously being fed images of “perfection” especially through the media. What does it look like to have a perfect body? What does the perfect life look like? What does the perfect holiday celebration look like?

The words of songwriter Leonard Cohen suggest a deeper perfection that is inherent within the apparent imperfection. In his song “Anthem” Cohen sings, “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.”

In Sankrit (the ancient language of India) the word for perfection is Purnatva. It is also the word for wholeness. When we practice yoga, the intention is not to try to look like a picture in a book — an ideal image of what a yoga pose should be — but rather to do the pose from the inside out. When we bring the totality of our Being into the expression of a yoga pose — we ring the bells that still can ring — and in that way, in that moment, we express our full unique self, we come to know ourselves more fully, we experience our own innate perfection.

There is an innate perfection in the beauty of the trees, a newborn baby, the glory of sunrise, and there is an innate perfection in each of us. May our yoga practice help to unveil the perfection inherent within each of us, and from that wellspring of wholeness may we recognize the perfection of the body we are inhabiting, the life we are living, and the celebrations we are experiencing.

Geri Portnoy: Theme for yoga class on Saturday, November 27, 2010

What Does Namaste Mean?

February 18, 2010 (Edit)

Namaste is the greeting we use at the end of yoga class. What does it mean? And how can the use of this word improve our lives, our relationships, and the state of our world?

This month Yoga Journal Magazine (March 2010 ) featured an article on Pastor Eddie D. Smith Sr. who introduced the word ‘Namaste’ to his congregation in Georgia. He saw how so many of the young black men in his community were killing each other. He instructed them to begin to greet each other with the word ‘Namaste’ which means: “The Divinity within me salutes the Divinity within you.” He suggested that by seeing the spark of Divine in one’s self and in the other, a natural respect arises.

Our yoga practice invites us into a direct experience of connecting to a deeper part of ourselves where we feel our own Divinity, worthiness, and fundamental essence. From this connection to The Source of Life within us it becomes easier to connect to that same place within the other. To paraphrase Pastor Smith: If Namaste were really understood, the world would be a better, more peaceful and safer place.

Click on the video below to watch the (2 min.) video clip of Pastor Eddie D. Smith teaching his congregation the word Namaste.

If this video doesn’t show up for you, click on this link to view it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izzNFCtFyyY

Has my Heart Gone to Sleep?

December 5, 2009 (Edit)

Has my heart gone to sleep? . . . No, my heart is not asleep. It is awake, wide awake. – Antonio Machado (19th century Spanish Poet) Complete Poem Here

I just returned from teaching in Mexico City. I was surprised to see people there grappling with the same issues that confront us here in the USA: financial instability, environmental degradation, the fast pace of life, and a deep longing for a better way of life that invites forth more of our humanity and dignity. Yogis all over the world are choosing a practice that invites change, that calls us into the arena to be more open, to feel more deeply and live with greater passion and aliveness — so we are not just a “stranger on this dark earth.” (Rilke)

We are called to open our hearts to feel more fully, this is an ever deepening journey of intimacy with ourselves and the world. As yogis we want the flexibility to be able to open our hearts when appropriate and close our hearts when necessary. This pulsation of opening and closing is called spanda in Sanskrit

May our yoga practice today, awaken us to the spanda of our own hearts that we may be aware of the times when we are closing and the times when we are opening, that we may live more skillfully, more consciously, with a greater ability to give and receive Love.

Slowing Down to Hear the Music of Life

October 25, 2009 (Edit)

The rate of change in life is accelerating. Everyone and everything is moving faster and faster.

The Wahsington Post recently put Joshua Bell, one of the greatest violin masters in the world, in a busy Washington, D.C subway station . They video taped him playing violin while people rushed by. They wanted to see if anyone would pause and notice that a master musician was playing some of the most exquisite music on the planet. You can watch the video by clicking here: “Stop and Hear the Music”

[Read more...]

Celebrating Yoga Del Mar – a poem by Nikyta

September 21, 2009 (Edit)

We shape clay into a pot. But it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. -Tao Te Ching #11

like this space / how an empty room / without furniture / No pictures hanging on the wall / bare wood floor and draped windows

How an empty room / can hold so much [Read more...]

The Underground Currents of Being

September 15, 2009 (Edit)

Ask Me

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.

— William Stafford

[Read more...]

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