Be Gentle with Yourself

Each moment we carry with us the moments our attachments.
Each moment the person we are with is carrying their own attachments.
We may not even know why or where these burdens come from.
It doesn't matter.
Be gentle with yourself and others.
It helps lighten the load.

The Source of Peace

I love knowing what will happen next.
I love being comfortable.
Unfortunately, I have discovered that I very rarely experience this comfort.
Simple everyday moments of playing with a baby or when I am in the depths of concentration are moments of freedom.
Freedom from holding onto what I know, what I want and resisting what I don't want.
They are moments free of fear.
In the moment, with absolute focus, it is just the experience of freedom.
And yet, there are no moment where this does not exist.

Enjoy those moments this season.

The Power of Intention

In the book "The Power of Intention'" by Wayne Dyer, the main point is that the intention with which we do things is the what defines it. I have just bought a yoga studio. Prior to the purchase, I asked myself why I wanted to do this. I wanted to ensure I was doing it for the 'right' reasons. I felt I was doing it from a place of wanting to serve.

Now as I wrestle with the reality of marketing and budgeting, staffing and scheduling, I am less excited about my decision. My struggle with fear has me contemplating getting out. Those thoughts lead me to examining my intention again. I realize I have an even deeper intention. I made this step in order to also protect my position, my identity as a yoga teacher. After years of self study, I know teaching is my calling. I also know that fear of not being able to ensure my identity as teacher with a different studio owner was also a motivating factor in the purchase.

The Yoga Sutras state that non attachment and practice are the keys to freedom from suffering. As long as I hold onto the need to ensure the identity I have created for myself, I will suffer. Certainly in the many hard routes I have accomplished as a climber this was true. Only when I gave up the desperation for success on the route could I actually successfully climb it. So, it is I have come to notice when I give up worrying about the financial success of the studio, and focus on the content, the teachers and the community, my experience of my day is so much freer.

How could you live without plans?

We are all right.

I heard a story years ago that goes like this...
Two men were arguing in the marketplace. Each defending his position with great enthusiasm. A crowd had gathered and were watching the dispute unfold.
A sage happened by and was stopped by one of the onlookers. "Oh sage," he said, "you can solve this. Declare is X right?"
The sage replied, "Yes, x is right."
"So you mean Y is not right."
"No, Y is right."
"But sage, that cannot be true. Both cannot be right."
The sage replied, "we are all right from our own view."

And we are. But we are also limited by our ego, our sense of I-am-ness. This creates the idea that there is a right and a wrong. My way is right and the other is wrong. The sense that there is winning and losing.

How do we undo this sense that someone has treated us badly? According to Byron Katie, we recognize the truth that we treated ourselves badly when we trusted that individual. We recognize that the person must really feel separation, their own great sense of "I-am-ness," to have behaved as they did.

Then we hold both ourself and the other with compassion.