Sars cov-2 journey through me

I have this vision of the virus after it enters the body. It enters the physical and the emotional/mental body. With an industrious single pointed focus to travel through the nerves. It does not need a vehicle as its spikes are the oars and the wings. Feels like an out of space science fiction vision. The body goes into a full alert mode! A slugfest between the virus and the body(s). Wherever there is resistance, illness, weakness the spikes will anchor and like a parasite make a home. How did I counter it? Slow, deep, long breaths in and out. I follow this path of breathing, with no other thought in mind. A settling calm appears. I meditate, sit in the sun and breathe in the outdoors as i look out at the lake in the far distance. I watched a serial on Netflix to keep my mind occupied with stories of other people. Today is day six and the feeling is like I have allowed the body to do what it needed and the virus did what it needed. I welcome the antibodies to the virus and pro-bodies to health and well being.

Navigating a day

We go about the day moving our limbs and the torso in unison, in a rhythm. 

• I pause, to notice all inner workings that makes and supports this movement.  This pause and this noticing seems to ride on bringing attention to my breath, the inhales and the exhales. 
• In the pause sometimes senses are evoked.  
• The thoughts, what am I thinking? 
  
  
  
• How and where is my feeling, and what emotions are riding in this physical body?

The pause, with all these subtle questions, grounds me and provides an attentive rhythm to the flow of the day. 

Its a lot to 'unpack', and who has the 'time' to go deep into each of the above self inquiry, and then one can also ask "why"? 

Maybe its enough to bring attention to any one aspect, like a thought, a feeling or a sensation, and take few deep breaths.  

And then notice the effects.

These are basics, to snack on, to slowly build the mind muscle of awareness.  

Just as we build other muscles through physical  exercise; we continue to build the mind muscle through being mindful and aware.  

The question "why", then finds the answer in how we navigate through daily life and living.  

Today in meditation

Sometimes when we sit in meditation, the thoughts and the ideas, the mental activity feels like pouring rain.   

The timer is set, so we are assured that if we can find an “anchor” to place our attention then we will complete our “practice”.

Today was one of those sittings. Using the inhale and exhale  as the anchor, i waited as i sat in my meditation practice.  Every movement the body wanted to make, i acknowledged it by focusing on the axis from the sitting bones to the crown.  Using the exhale to ground me into the body and the inhale to lift the awareness into this moment. The words, ‘now is always here’, like a mantra and a reminder. 

The bell chimed, a deep gong sound. 

The realization that i had dropped between the thoughts into a space, a shelter from the raining thoughts, a shelter of peace.

Bridge the gap

The "is'm" exist in what "is" and what "is not".

Awareness connects this duality of life, the is and is not, to Consciousness.  Consciousness holds them both, yet it is not affected by either. 

Meditation techniques help build the bridge of awareness, connecting us to the Consciousness, the One, the Source...

Life feels full, complete, and manageable even in moments of challenge, when we choose to walk on this bridge.

The Miracle of Mindfulness

Thich Nhat Hanh - An introduction to the practice of meditation

Pratyahara in daily living

In yoga terms pratyahara is the ‘withdrawal of the senses.’  It is considered one of the eight limbs of yoga as passed down in the teachings of Sri Patanjali.  Pratyahara allows one to move into the area where the next step is that we begin to notice or see the "fluctuations of the mind".  

Yoga when practiced within the context of the 8 limbs of Yamas , Niyamas , Asanas, Pranayama , Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, encourages us to bring the underlying essence, called peace/liberation/source/oneness etc.,  into our daily living.  

So what is Pratyahara?

We can begin to look into the two components of Pratyahara, withdrawal and senses.  The five senses as we know in the physical or gross body /realm are seeing, hearing, touch, taste and smell.  These senses are directly connected to the organs of the body.  Indirectly these senses combine to create other sensations e.g sense of balance, temperature, pressure, pain etc.  

So how could  one withdraw from the 'senses' and which are the various techniques developed to bring about such withdrawal.  All humans might be similar in their feelings, thoughts and their expression but at the same time understanding the amazing complexity, which is to be human and we realize that "different strokes for different folks" is not a cliche.   

Returning back to Pratyahara.  Withdrawing from the senses is not the same as "shutting out", instead it begins with the  "opening" of the awareness of the senses.  Acknowledging each of the senses and their underlying complexity we look for an anchor that would hold us when we withdraw the senses.   The anchor replaces the continuous chatter of the mind.  Use of breath awareness in the inhales and the exhales, keeping attention on a candle flame, picture of a deity or a mantra, are some of the examples of such an anchor.   The anchor begins to build the mind muscle that allows us to ‘focus.’  

Here we begin to see why do we need to practice "Pratyahara?"    We live in a world where our time is rationed.   Sometimes the conflicting demands on the time does not allow us the luxury of savoring and lingering or just taking "our sweet time".  We are not able to process our experiences, instead we skim on the surface, moving from one ‘excited’ state to another.  

Being continuously ‘connected’ has its downside of not having a free moment unless we consciously turn off the cell phones and other media.  Even with this disconnection our minds have a challenge, the mind is a highway of racing thoughts.  

So where can one look for, to create a feeling of "timelessness"?  Besides  the vacation, daydreaming, and visualization, which itself generally happens at the cost of time, practicing Pratyahara seems to be a sustainable mode of being.   Regular practice builds a conscious awareness, which allows one to focus on the task/moment and not be bogged down by the emotional energy of what happened and will happen in another moment or hour.  It develops the Zen way of being here and now.   We begin to connect the dots of life and living by understanding Pratya.hara. 

Life unfolds each moments and the best laid plans have no strength to withstand this unpredictability of life.  

Our drives and desires.  Hungers and conflict begin to become a little more clear when we understand not only our physiology,  but the senses and their workings.  

A space or a pause starts to be felt   This pause is the freedom we all seek.  For some its the peace of mind.  

Jupiter aligns with Saturn

Jupiter is optimism, Saturn the practical.  

Jupiter is the celestial body associated with the Ajna chakra, our third eye where intuition resides.  The pineal gland, and where we tune into our seat of meditation. A space where we find Dhyana.  

Optimism for me is also to see life, situations as they are happening.  Without associated fear or drama to them we are in the moment to do what needs to be done.  To accept and go past the obstacles caused by our thoughts.  Maybe to begin to see another perspective.  Maybe to change our view of life, change our reality.  

Saturn the celestial body rules the root chakra, the Muladhara.  Makes us feel safe and grounded.  Knowing we have food, shelter, the ability for self preservation, to pro-create or co-create our life.   Our fight or flight response begins to calm down, we feel safe. In the home within, where we are is reassuring. 

Thinking of this alignment of the two celestial bodies, where the practical aligns with the optimist.   Feeling reassured that the planets are reflecting me and vice versa. 

Prayer Is The Cry Of A Soul ~Sri Ravi Shankar~

"We often hear people say that behind every successful man is a woman. I will modify this by saying, behind every success, there is the Divine, saying, "I am behind you". The Divine dawns in you when you pray for Grace; when you cry for it.

Prayer is a vital tool to improve your life. What you can do, do it. What you cannot do, pray for it! When you feel the obstacle is too much to handle, deep prayer can work miracles. Whatever you do, know that a higher power has the final say and you can tap that power through your prayers.

You don't need any special qualifications or abilities to pray. Whether a fool or a wise person, rich or poor, anybody can pray. Prayer doesn't mean just sitting and chanting some words. It's about being in that serene, calm, meditative state. That is why, in vedic tradition, dhyana, meditation, is done before prayer as well as afterwards. When the mind is focused, prayer becomes far more powerful.

Prayer is the cry of a soul. To whom you pray is not so important. Whereas religion puts words to the prayer, and adds symbols and rituals to it, prayer itself transcends them. It happens at the subtle level of feelings; feelings transcend words and religion. The act of praying itself has the power to bring transformation.

When you pray there should be total involvement. If the mind is preoccupied elsewhere then that is no prayer at all. When there is pain, there is more involvement. That's why people turn to prayer when they are in pain. Prayer happens when you feel grateful or when you feel utterly helpless. In either case your prayers will be answered. When you feel helpless, prayer happens by itself. That's why in Hindi we say 'Nirbal toh Balram'. If you are weak, God is with you. Prayer is that moment when you get in touch with your limitations, your boundaries.

Usually when you love something, you want to possess it and you pray for it. True prayer, however, is just the opposite of wanting to possess. It's about honouring and offering everything to the Divine. Honouring brings devotion and leads to surrender. Devotion heals.

True prayer can't happen without devotion and faith. Having faith is to realise that God's protection is there for you. Devotion is inner flowering; it starts from where you are. Unless you are lit in devotion to the Divine, your life will remain restless. In devotion, longing will arise in you and true prayer happens by itself.

Be sincere in your prayers. Do not try to outsmart the Divine. What type of time do you give the Divine? Usually you give time that is leftover; when you have nothing else to do, no guests to attend to, no parties to go to, then you go to the Divine. This is not quality time. Give prime time to the Divine. You will definitely be rewarded. If your prayers are not answered, it is because you have never given quality time.

There are four types of people who go to God -- first, those who seek the truth (knowledge and freedom); second, the wise ones (gyanis); third, the ones who seek material comforts (wealth) and fourth, ones who are in misery. The wise one does not pray for something. His life itself is a prayer.

If at all you have to pray for something, pray for happiness of all the people in the world. 

"Loka Samastha Sukhinou Bhavantu"-- May everybody be happy."

My friend and soulmate

Desire and the yearning to fulfill those desires propels, inspires and gives the heart the fuel to move.  The energy produced by each thought that supports the feeling and the desire, is what keeps the spirit alive. Otherwise we are only a walking skeleton, a facade or a mask.  Living the life only by repeating the stories we have heard.  Defining and expressing oneself through only the physical world.   

The passion of living life fully in each moment comes with the feelings created when we "desire".

Surely any desire has an outcome or goal "attached" to it.  When the outcome or the goal is not met, what then?  How does one deal with the disappointment or the un met outcome and its "attachment"?

Is it possible to have a desire without any attachment?  

If one is able to trace the desire to its origin, the thoughts that started the desire the associated feelings, then the outcome or rather the attachment to the outcome starts to lessen.   Feelings and their source become clear allowing one to not only be able to feel the feeling but somehow know why and what we are feeling.  

Somewhere in this introspection or contemplation the awareness of the impermanence of life becomes clear.  

We start to appreciate each moment knowing that it's all in the passing.  The feelings become clear, the passions driving our desires become a moving flow.   We begin to tend to the roots of our own feelings.  We become sensitive to how the other person feels.  Seeing who I am, with my conditionings and my stories and accepting that allows me to stop the inner turmoil and conflict.  A compassionate way of being becomes the peaceful identity.  

We befriend ourself and become our own soulmate.

To bring what is called happiness and joy to our life and the lives of those we touch. 

Reminds me of a saying that one can begin to apply, towards oneself first, and to all those thoughts that we think and say in each moment. 

"Let each word pass through three gates, what I am saying is it: true, necessary, and is it kind." ~Sufi saying~

Shadows or Reflections

Costa Rica, November Full Moon

The above words came soon after I finished meditating on the beach in Cahuita.  

The last five weeks have been busy, spent with six students, guiding, coaching and assessing them in their yoga teacher training.  

Each person who immerses themself in this journey of yoga comes out on the other side - changed in more then one way.  The long hours of the training are challenging and demanding.  Sometimes a person is faced with their fears and at times the strong filters of conditioning are brought to the forefront.  

Through all this, I am happy that Malorie, Lyndi, Chelsea, Joice, Rhéline and Miranda, came out smiling, confident and ready to share their practice.  

And now it's time to relax in Cahuita. A full moon dance, a day spent in the sunshine of the beach, sand and ocean and this evening teaching and sharing a yoga practice by the evening light, besides the poolside.  

The clouds parted and the full moon was a sight to behold, brilliant and shining, reassuring as the next breath.  

Meditation

The birds have flown into the sky,

The last cloud drifts away;

We sit together, the mountain and me,

Until only the mountain remains.  

Lao Tsu

Pratyahara in daily living

http://www.canadianyogi.com/irum-naqvi.html

In yoga terms pratyahara is the ‘withdrawal of the senses.’  It is considered one of the eight limbs of yoga as passed down in the teachings of Sri Patanjali.  Pratyahara allows one to move into the area where the next step is that we begin to notice or see the "fluctuations of the mind".  

Yoga when practiced within the context of the 8 limbs of Yamas , Niyamas , Asanas, Pranayama , Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, encourages us to bring the underlying essence, called peace/liberation/source/oneness etc.,  into our daily living.  

So what is Pratyahara?

We can begin to look into the two components of Pratyahara, withdrawal and senses.  The five senses as we know in the physical or gross body /realm are seeing, hearing, touch, taste and smell.  These senses are directly connected to the organs of the body.  Indirectly these senses combine to create other sensations e.g sense of balance, temperature, pressure, pain etc.  

So how could  one withdraw from the 'senses' and which are the various techniques developed to bring about such withdrawal.  All humans might be similar in their feelings, thoughts and their expression but at the same time understanding the amazing complexity, which is to be human and we realize that "different strokes for different folks" is not a cliche.   

Returning back to Pratyahara.  Withdrawing from the senses is not the same as "shutting out", instead it begins with the  "opening" of the awareness of the senses.  Acknowledging each of the senses and their underlying complexity we look for an anchor that would hold us when we withdraw the senses.   The anchor replaces the continuous chatter of the mind.  Use of breath awareness in the inhales and the exhales, keeping attention on a candle flame, picture of a deity or a mantra, are some of the examples of such an anchor.   The anchor begins to build the mind muscle that allows us to ‘focus.’  

Here we begin to see why do we need to practice "Pratyahara?"    We live in a world where our time is rationed.   Sometimes the conflicting demands on the time does not allow us the luxury of savoring and lingering or just taking "our sweet time".  We are not able to process our experiences, instead we skim on the surface, moving from one ‘excited’ state to another.  

Being continuously ‘connected’ has its downside of not having a free moment unless we consciously turn off the cell phones and other media.  Even with this disconnection our minds have a challenge, the mind is a highway of racing thoughts.  

So where can one look for, to create a feeling of "timelessness"?  Besides  the vacation, daydreaming, and visualization, which itself generally happens at the cost of time, practicing Pratyahara seems to be a sustainable mode of being.   Regular practice builds a conscious awareness, which allows one to focus on the task/moment and not be bogged down by the emotional energy of what happened and will happen in another moment or hour.  It develops the Zen way of being here and now.   We begin to connect the dots of life and living by understanding Pratya.hara. 

Life unfolds each moments and the best laid plans have no strength to withstand this unpredictability of life.  

Our drives and desires.  Hungers and conflict begin to become a little more clear when we understand not only our physiology,  but the senses and their workings.  

A space or a pause starts to be felt   This pause is the freedom we all seek.  For some its the peace of mind.  

Way

Y Road to the unknown. 

The known invokes some feelings and the unknown some other. 

From the distance a form seems familiar, when one is mistaken? What difference does it make? Is it in the invoked feelings.  

And so what is known? A place, a face of another.   All that can be felt with the senses. 

Beyond and between the senses are a few unknown moments.  They come from silence.  

 Face the known and the unknown.  

Embracing the change...

A few mornings back I awoke to this line from the Beatles song, it was the first thought: "let it be, there will be an answer, let it be"...

Answers come to questions seemingly unasked, yet are they answers to unasked questions? Or to questions we have asked of our deepest core, when we take the courage to face the inner conflict.

Excitement and living on the surface is a distraction we choose, but when life is only lived with "distractions" the soul starves the spirit evaporates...

Meditation, introspection and contemplation comes to feed the soul, nourish and nurture the spirit...

Walking by lake Ontario on the water trail, my senses captivated by the water, the ducks, the birds, the dogs, the joggers, the planes in the distant and the barren trees awaiting spring dressing...

I brought my attention to my heart and in that space a pink lotus flower bud began to bloom.  Each thought, each emotion, each feeling was the unfolding of another petal...
I continued to breathe into the petals, each inhale the awareness of passing thoughts and the their feelings, each exhale the unfolding of yet another petal of the lotus flower...

many moments passed, my breathing nurtured the soul, the spirit was alive.

With so much gratitude i allowed the lotus flower to stay in my heart, its flexible stem grounded far beneath the ground I walk... deep into the core of the earth

North America - Houston calling...

The last few days back in North America, to the luxuries of living in a first world, concrete world….immense gratitude for being with the family and friends. And then the news - as I watched the cruise ship and its 4000 some passengers going through their personal stories of discomfort as the systems broke down on the luxury liner….unhappy people with unmet expectations. They paid for the few days of time off to relax and get away, to pause - all the reasons why we take vacations. Now we are talking about protecting the "planet from space"…. a meteor hitting Russia and a close call from an asteroid. One in a million chance of two cosmic events happening on the same day… I cannot help but think of Oscar Pistorius….an inspiration for many, those who met him speak of his kind, gentle and friendly disposition. Our behavior and interactions with others is the mirror, it is the outer projection of who we are. So are we to stop taking people at their "face value", the nicer you are the more hidden demons within? Not! yet it does reinforce the belief that the outer masks need to come off. Not only to express our inner demons, but for each of us to get closer to how we feel, in any and every given moment. The awareness of ones' feelings, without outer distractions - allows one in finding the thoughts surrounding those feelings. This awareness not only help to diminish the intensity of the emotional outburst but allows one to channel that energy; with the hope that the internal conflict does not result in a "volcanic" eruption. Awareness then becomes the freedom to "pause between the stimulant and the action"… Once the comfort level with being with the feelings becomes acceptable, then the "expression" of those feelings becomes manageable, it changes from hostile to compassion for self and for others. As a society we have been conditioned to start the outer relationships in order to feel good inside, could this be the unachievable approach or just another distraction. How about we start a relationship first with oneself and then with others. Life and living is not linear, its now with all its happenings, and all the cosmic coincidences are just another reminder. A daily pause, a ritual to find the space to pause. As essential to life as the breath. This is the journey we want to be on, the pauses and vacations to take from the hustle bustle of every day commitments. Just as the breath and breathing keeps the body alive, the awareness of each moment keeps the soul alive. Is it time to get back to the basics. Take time to appreciate, the laughter of a child, the one meal and each bite each person gets to eat. The joy of loving with just this moment, the presence, the immense ocean of compassion which drowns out all the dramas. Time to think and live simply, finding the beauty in the here and now. In the laughter shared, the mistakes called life, the freedom to feel without the outer distractions to numb this moment. To be simply humans, living and approaching life with the passion and acceptance - two sides of the same coin. The glamour, the perfection, and the inspiration we seek from the external and the outer - causes an imbalance if the inner is not touched. Taking time to be by oneself, to be introspective and contemplate. It is all inside - the outer seeking by so many becomes the destruction of "one"- sometimes the means destroys the end.

In the exhale is the release….

Life is like the breath, it continues to happen irrespective of whether we are aware or not.  

When we exhale with awareness it brings a deep release, a sense of peace and relaxation... the inhale becomes more conscious and we begin to breathe deeper, slower and allow ourself to move quietly and silently.   

How similar to life and everyday living.  Going about the hustle bustle of the day in each moment, each breath we breathe is shallow each moment lived on the surface.  

How then to find the treasures that lie deep within each of us?  Maybe pause more often to notice the feelings; as we notice the thoughts wrapping those feelings, pause and focus on the exhale, in the exhale is the release...  

A little practice then becomes life itself.  We begin to release our attachment to the thoughts and the feelings change, with more smiles in our heart we find a space to live with a lightness in each step; our footprint on this earth becomes hardly noticeable.  

Fall Equinox

Fall for 2012 begins in the Northern Hemisphere on September 22, 10:49 A.M. EDT, in Costa Rica that would be 8:49 am. On the first day of fall—the autumnal equinox—day and night are each about 12 hours long (with the actual time of equal day and night, in the Northern Hemisphere, occurring a few days after the autumnal equinox). The Sun crosses the celestial equator going southward; it rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west. And so on with the facts and figures…

Comes a time for reflection, maybe a time for drawing the warmth of longer evenings, or withdrawing in to shorter ones.

Beyond our thoughts, arising from the left hemisphere of the brain, comes the space to find the silence of existence…
the falling leaves,
the impermanence of life,
the passage of time and the changing of seasons…
to have lived each season to its fullest, learned lifes' lessons, loved with ones' heart, the passion in the doing and in being…

a message received in meditation, sounds so simple, so direct "accept and move"… a dream that a return is not always to the known, that in not remembering lies a freshness, a new life and a new world…to borrow these lines from Khalil Gibran: "And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?"

November Full Moon and 11.11.11

i sit here on my computer, less than 24 hours away from the full moon in November....a time of contemplations, realizations, of acknowledgement, of release and manifestation.

If Existence is an expression of the Universal Conciousness, then through thoughts, words, feelings and actions this expression is shared. We relate through this expression…

Rituals, are also a mode of expression...we meditate at the time of the full moon, and in the night have our release and manifestation ritual around the fire....turning into 11.11.11 at 11 am we will be doing our 108 sun salutations….

As we focus on what or how we want our lives to be, somewhere, somehow the realization will dawn, "which of my fears and conditioning can i let go"....

We awaken to peace and joy...

each one of us is the world.....

The concept of who is a human person and how each person is tied to the well being of this world is becoming more transparent.  We have become more and more aware of the destruction of the earth, the soil and the ocean.  The grass root movements for the awakening of the human conciousness, the discussions around the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012, the effect of climate change, population, and the list continues.......sometime it seems that with each breath some new evidence in the health and well being of the human race is being raised and discussed........

What happens to an individual............a human is born with its blue print.  From a yogic philosophy, we can explain that the first root chakra is the grounding and security of the individual.  This is where the loyalties, to the family and tribe are secured.  From the grounding and security we move towards the second chakra.  This chakra is the source of power, sex and creativity.  The third chakra, is the area around the solar plexus, where we honour ourselves and our relationships.  We move up to the fourth or the heart chakra, the seat of compassion.  The fifth chakra is the throat chakra, which is the source of our communication.  The sixth chakra, is the area in the mid brain, also known as the third eye, the command center of the higher intelligence.  This is where our intuition resides.  From the sixth chakra, we open into the divine wisdom, our seventh chakra. 

The chakras weave  around the central nadi, or energy field, which is also known as the universal energy.  The chakras signify, the area of concentration of the energy, which results from our thoughts and our actions.  When the chakra energy is balanced, with no blockage, we feel centred, calm and in a state of Being.  In this state the duality of doing and being unites, as the observer, observed and the object of observation becomes one. 

Each chakra is signified by an element.  The first chakra is the grounding, the earth and the soil, where the seed of creation is implanted.  The second chakra is the water element.  Third chakra is the sun, the fire.  The fourth chakra element is air.   The fifth chakra is the communication, the sixth is the conection to our intuition, away from the logic and knowledge of the egoic brain.

When we look at the human body system and turn our vision outward in to the world, we can begin to connect the dots and see the pattern of blockages, happening in the world.  The scale is exponentially the six billion plus people in the world.

The soil has been erroded, we search for the "pesticide" free organic soil.  The evidence of land slides, is an indication of this erosion and destruction, can we consider this the blockage of the first chakra field of our world.

The second chakra, destruction is happening in the oceans, with the pollution, the oil spills and the erosion of the coral reef.  The gloom of lack of fresh water is being raised.

The global warming, can be associated with the third chakra destruction, as temperatures rise.   Will we see more forest fires?

The air we breathe, is polluted, as the heart of this world becomes constricted.  As the lack of oxygen, and the ability to breathe deepy causes toxins in the mind and body, such is the happening in the world.

The means of communication, is widespread, yet the energy is blocked. people don't talk with each other.  Relationship breakdown occurs when the communication breaks down.  Are we speaking the truth, or we say what is self-serving. 

We have lost the trust, we don't trust ourselves and our instincts, we don't trust the other, and the universe continues to deliver the distrust we spread.   

With all the chakras of this world blocked, where are we headed.  The universal energy of the world is blocked.  Each individual is feeling this within, and in the outer world, we live in the inner and outer world where nothing flows.  Toxins accumulate in our mind, body and spirit and in the world we live in.  What happens when the body is full of toxins? 

Will we be able to find the divine wisdom by connecitng with the seventh chakra?   We have to have the hope, to find the divine wisdom, to heal ourselves, and this world, as both are one.