The Beauty of the Universe

Universe (via jurvetson)

Imagine your body as a universe - a vast cosmic landscape in which every planet and every star is a point of energy signifying one of your particular qualities, talents, or aspects of your identity. Imagine each of these coalesced points of energy as a marker of some aspect of your life. Now imagine recognizing that that vastness, that sense of limitless possibility, that ever-expanding tapestry of seen and unseen, darkness punctuated with flashes of illumination…is your very essence.

Just as a star pulses, expanding and contracting energetically, so do we. When you feel depleted mentally, physically, or spiritually, when you have a hesitation of the heart - anxiety, self-doubt, or feelings of unworthiness, hug in to your inner universe - to the constellation of your own complexities. By moving inward, we become expansive. This is not a contradiction. It is an essential fact of the natural world. A dense and compact seed contains the promise of a tree. At the core of our bodies, we find infinite potential. In Anusara yoga we call this pulsation muscular and organic energy. We hug in toward the center of our bodies to tap into the expansiveness that resides there. This enables us to unfold and open, to extend and become spacious.

While it is still warm at night, go outside. If you need to, find an open space – a park or a rooftop. And just look. Receive the lessons of the inky and infinite sky. Welcome the night air into your body. Soften until there is less separation between you and the sky. Commit to recognizing your own vastness - to not getting stuck in one small corner of your personal universe. Commit to seeking out options. Step into your own enormity. And recognize that the endless night sky is a reflection of you.

The Beauty of Alignment

John Friend as SuperOM

“The future is about responding in alignment” - John Friend 9-11-10

Daily life is an ever-shifting process of aligning and realigning. You wake up and realize it’s raining or that you forgot to buy food for breakfast. Maybe you check your email and see a message that adds a layer of complication to your day or one that makes you excited about how your day will unfold. Perhaps you make the most perfect breakfast and the coffee has never tasted so delicious, or instead you forgot to pick up milk and feel vaguely disappointed. You imagined this, but now you have to readjust to that. Every moment of your day instigates a series of tiny shifts and adjustments. Each adjustment is a point of departure from which your actions and choices ripple outward, affecting your life and the lives of the people around you. So the essential question becomes: how do you align with those incremental shifts and changes - with what was, with what is and with what might be?

As my teacher John Friend reminded us this past weekend in Boston, everything is microcosm-macrocosm. The shifts of our bodies and minds mirror the processes of the world around us. If we deny those processes, we become misaligned. If our knee suddenly feels tweaked and we decide to run 5 miles or sit in lotus position for an hour, that’s a misaligned decision that will result in injury. If we decide to address that unexpected shift with rest or a theraputic physical practice, we have responded intelligently, realigning with what is, and setting a positive path for what might be.

The more aligned we are as individuals, the more skillfully we align with those around us. We become proficient at navigating the vicissitudes of life, which enables us to more positively affect our world. We are less likely to lash out in anger when provoked, less likely to be devastated by sadness. If we can align with the small shifts, we can better address the life-changing ones.

So try this:

First, notice some small unexpected shift in your plans or expectations.

Then observe: How is this change affecting my thinking & mood?

Then ask yourself: How, at this moment, can I best align with what I’ve been given so that I can move forward in a positive way?

The Beauty of Beginnings

Yellow Leaf (via My aim is true)

It’s officially September. No ocean weekends, roof deck urban sunbathing, or persistent flip-flop wearing can deny it. For many of us, this signifies the bittersweet trailing off of summertime heat – a regretful goodbye to the radiant openness of our bodies that offers us a similarly open state of mind. For others, the transition into September is filled with the excitement of the new – the cooler weather activating our motivation, our work ethic – a shift into focusing and goal setting. So I remind myself at the onset of Fall that this season can be about possibility and freshness, an opportunity to create a new way of thinking, to set new habits, to shift emphasis from something that didn’t serve us to something that holds potential. An opportunity to make our someday into our now.

I begin my Fall by committing to some particular practice for 5 minutes each day. Seriously - 5 minutes. A few years ago, I committed to a 5 minute a day Pranayama practice. I knew that committing to 5 minutes would make it impossible for me to fail. Even when I had a head cold and was in a state of exhaustion I did it. In the process, I fell so in love with my practice that I often continued for a half hour or an hour. But achieving 5 minutes was so reasonable that I was easily able to honor my commitment to myself. It provided a calm and expansive backdrop to my days.

My teacher Dr. Douglas Brooks says, “If you make a mistake, don’t do it again. And then, if you do it again, then don’t do it again.” This is such a generous way of looking at human nature, offering the reminder that every time we begin something again, we are actually beginning it anew. Every recommencement is a new beginning, regardless of associations or familiarity.

So what will you commit yourself to this September? 5 minutes of running, writing, asana, meditation, drawing, stretching, dancing, apartment cleaning, singing? Remember to be kind to yourself. Offer yourself the present of a practice. And don’t beat yourself up for occasionally forgetting about it entirely. But if you do forget, then don’t forget again. And then if you do forget about it again…then don’t do it again…and so on.

The Beauty of Knowledge and Wisdom

Pablo Picasso-Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (detail) 1907

Knowledge is different from wisdom. Knowledge is acquired information, facts, or technique, like how to speak another language or do a handstand or bake a cake. There is external proof of your knowledge in the form of visible accomplishment. Knowledge enables you to make an educated decision, to get things done, and is the foundation for wisdom. Wisdom, however, is what you do with knowledge, how you apply acquired information to the rest of your life. Wisdom is far more subtle and elusive than knowledge, and is not measurable. It is a refinement or an expansion of knowledge. Wisdom is how poetically you speak that language, the radiance of your handstand, the transcendent, “oh!” of the cake.

In Sanskrit the word jnana means knowledge and the word vidya means wisdom. Vidya is the intelligence, creativity, and artistry of how you apply what you know to what you do. One is not more important than the other – both are necessary to live a rich fulfilling life. You can live less brightly without vidya. But you can’t even make your breakfast without jnana. Jnana is the foundation that allows for vidya to flourish, as long as you cultivate it. But vidya is what offers insight, makes beauty and art, and makes life worth living.

Before Picasso turned toward increasing degrees of abstraction in his work, he painted in a highly realistic manner. His contemporaries could also render in a visually accurate technical style. They all had the jnana. But they did not all have the vidya. How Picasso applied his knowledge was his wisdom – his genius – his vidya. He pushed the boundaries of jnana so much that he changed the rules.

So how does this relate to you?

In what areas of your life do you need to acquire more knowledge, more jnana?

In what areas of your life do you need to cultivate wisdom, vidya?

How can you build your knowledge as a point of departure for the wild creative leap of your wisdom?