Monday, February 28, 2011

Day #57

Today’s favourite poses: Warrior I

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: zero

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: Zen Proverbs:

"After enlightenment, the laundry.”

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Day #56

Today’s favourite poses: Plank, Dolphin, Cobra, Tiger

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10ish

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from YouTube)





Saturday, February 26, 2011

Day #55

Today’s favourite poses: DAWG, TREE (A Mother Fuckin’ Redwood Baby!)

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10 or 15

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Dalai Lama’s Book of Wisdom – The Essential Teachings)

Since compassion is the wish that others should be free of suffering, it requires above all, the ability to feel connected to other beings. We know from experience that the closer we feel towards a particular person or animal, the greater our capacity to emphasize that that being. It follows, then, that an important element in the spiritual practice of developing compassion is the ability to feel empathetic and connected, and to have a sense of closeness with others. Buddhism describes this as a sense of intimacy with the object of compassion; it is also called loving kindness. The closer you feel towards another being, the more powerfully you will feel that the sight of his or her suffering is unbearable.

There are two main methods in Buddhism for cultivating this sense of closeness or intimacy. One is the method known as ‘exchanging and equalizing oneself with others’,. Although it stems from Nagarjuna, it was more fully developed by Shantideva in his Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Bodhicaryavatara). The other technique is known as the ‘seven-point cause and effect method’. This emphasizes the cultivation of an attitude that enables us to relate to all other beings as we would to someone very dear. The traditional example given is that we should consider all sentient beings as our mother, but some scriptures also include considering beings as our father, or as our dear friends, or as close relatives, and so on. Our mother is simply taken as an example, but the point is that we should learn to view all other sentient beings as very dear and close to our hearts.

The Seven Point Cause and Effect Method:
The seven points are: recognizing that all sentient beings have been our mother in a past life; reflecting on the kindness of all beings, meditating on repaying their kindness; meditating on love; meditating on compassion; generating the extraordinary attitude of universal responsibility; and the actual development of bodhichitta.

Before we can apply the seven-point cause and effect method to ourselves, we need to cultivate a sense of equanimity towards all sentient beings, which is expressed through the ability to relate to all others equally. To do this, we need to address the problem of having thoughts and emotions that fluctuate. Not only should we try to overcome extreme negative emotions like anger or hatred, but also, in this particular spiritual practice, we should try to work with the attachment we feel to our loved ones.

Now of course, in this attachment to loved ones there is a sense of closeness and intimacy, as well as an element of love, compassion and affection, but often these emotions are also tinged with a strong feeling of desire. The reason for that is rather obvious, because when we relate to people toward whom we feel deeply attached, our feelings are highly susceptible to emotional extremes. When such a person does something that is contrary to our expectations, for instance, it has a much greater potential to hurt us than if the same thing were done by someone to whom we do not feel that close. This indicates that in the affection we feel there is a high degree of attachment. So, in this particular spiritual practice, we try to level out the attachment we have to certain people, so that our sense of closeness to them is genuine and not tinged with desire.
The key point in this preliminary practice of equanimity is to overcome the feelings of partiality and discrimination that we normally feel towards others, based on the fluctuating emotions and thoughts associated with closeness and distance. It really seems to be true that attachment constrains our vision, so that we are not able to see things from a wider perspective.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Day #54

Today’s favourite poses: Snake, Dog, Bird

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 15

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Dalai Lama’s Book of Wisdom – The Essential Teachings)

We need to cultivate a compassion that is powerful enough to make us feel committed to bringing about the well-being of others, so that we are actually willing to shoulder the responsibility for making this happen. In Buddhism, such compassion is called ‘great compassion.’ The point is emphasized again and again that great compassion is the foundation of all positive qualities, the root of the entire Mahayana path, and the heart of bodhichitta. Likewise, Chandrakirti says in his Entry to the Middle Way, that compassion is such a supreme spiritual quality that it maintains its relevance at all times: it is vital at the initial stage of the spiritual path, it is just as important while we are on the path, and it is equally relevant when an individual has become fully enlightened.

Generally speaking, compassion is the wish that others should be free of suffering, but if we look into it more closely compassion has two levels. In one case it may exist simply at the level of a wish – just wishing the other to be free of suffering – but it can also exist on a higher level, where the emotion goes beyond a mere wish to include the added dimension of actually wanting to do something about the suffering of others. In this case, a sense of responsibility and personal commitment enters into the thought and emotion of altruism.

Whichever level of compassion we may have, for the development of bodhichitta to be successful it must be combined with the complimentary factor of wisdom and insight. If you lack wisdom and insight, when you are confronted with another’s suffering, genuine compassion may arise in you spontaneously, but given that your resources are limited, you may only be able to make a wish; ‘May her or she be free of that pain or suffering.’ However, over time, that kind of feeling may lead to a feeling of helplessness because you realize you cannot really do anything to change the situation. On the other hand, if you are equipped with wisdom and insight then you have a much greater resource to draw on, and the more you focus on the object of compassion, the greater the intensity of your compassion will be and the more it will increase.

Because of the way insight and wisdom affect the development of compassion, the Buddhist literature identifies three different types of compassion. First, at the initial stage, compassion is simply the wish to see other sentient beings freed from suffering; it is not reinforced by any particular insight into the nature of suffering or the nature of a sentient being. Then, at the second stage, compassion is not simply the wish to see another being free from suffering, it is strengthened by insight into the transient nature of existence, such as the realization that the being who is the object of your compassion does not exist permanently. When insight complements your compassion it greater power. Finally, at the third stage, compassion is described as ‘non objectifying compassion.’ It can be directed towards that same suffering being, but now it is reinforced by a full awareness of the ultimate nature of that being. This is a very powerful type of compassion, because it enables you to engage with the other person without objectifying him or her, and without clinging on to the idea that he or she has any absolute reality.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Day #53

Today’s favourite poses: The Dawg, Pigeon, Child's Pose, Triangle, Tree

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 15

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Dalai Lama’s Book of Wisdom – The Essential Teachings)


The Two Altruistic Aspirations

1. The aspiration to attain enlightenment.
The highest form of spiritual practice is the cultivation of the altruistic intention to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, known as bodhichitta. This is the most precious state of mind, the supreme source of benefit and goodness, that which fulfills both our immediate and ultimate aspirations, and the basis of altruistic activity. However, bodhichitta can only be realized through regular concerted effort, so in order to attain it we need to cultivate the discipline necessary for training and transforming our mind. This does not happen overnight, but through a gradual process. Although it is true that in some cases instantaneous spiritual experiences may be possible, they are rather unreliable and somewhat shortlived. The problem is that when sudden experiences occur, like bolts of lightning, the individual may feel profoundly moved and inspired, but if the experiences are not grounded in discipline and sustained effort they are very unpredictable, and their transformative impact will be rather limited. By contrast, a genuine transformation that results from sustained concerted effort is long-lasting because it has a firm foundation. This is why long term spiritual transformation can really only come about through a gradual process of training and discipline.

The potential for perfection, the potential for full enlightenment, actually lies within each one of us. In fact this potential is nothing other than the essential nature of the mind itself, which is said to be the mere nature of luminosity and knowing. Through the gradual process of spiritual practice, we can eliminate the obstructions that hinder us from perfecting this seed of enlightenment. As we overcome them, step by step, so the inherent quality of our consciousness begins to become more and more manifest until it reaches the highest stage of perfection, which is none other than the enlightened mind of the Buddha.

2. Working for the welfare of others
The other aspiration of the altruistic intention (bodhichitta) is the wish to bring about the welfare of other sentient beings. Welfare, in the Buddhist sense, means helping others to attain total freedom from suffering, and the term ‘other sentient beings’ refers to the infinite number of beings in the universe. This aspiration is really the key to the first, namely the intention to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. It is founded on genuine compassion towards all sentient beings equally. Compassion here means the wish that all other beings should be free of suffering. So it is said that to be at the root of altruistic activity and of the altruistic intention as a whole.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Day #52

Today’s favourite poses: Dolphin, Pigeon, Warrior III, Down Dog Baby!

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: TBA

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Dalai Lama’s Book of Wisdom – The Essential Teachings)

The Qualities of Bodhichitta, The Altruistic Intention

The definition of bodhichitta is given in Maitreya’s Ornament of Realization, where he states that there are two aspects to altruism. The first is the condition that produces the altruistic outlook, and this involves the compassion that a person must develop towards all sentient beings, and the aspiration he or she must cultivate to bring about the welfare of all sentient beings. This leads to the second aspect, which is the wish to attain enlightenment. It is for the sake of benefitting all beings that this wish should arise in us.

We could say that bodhichitta is the highest level of altruism and the highest form of courage, and we could also say that bodhichitta is the outcome of the highest altruistic activity. As Lama Tsongkhapa explains in his Great Exposition of the Path to Enlightenment, bodhichitta is such that while one engages in fulfilling the wishes of others, the fulfillment of one’s own self-interest comes as a by-product. This is a wise way of benefitting both oneself and others. In fact I think bodhichitta is really and truly wonderful. The more I think of helping others, and the stronger my feeling for taking care of others becomes, the more benefit I reap myself. This is quite extraordinary.

In a sense we could say that the practice of generating and cultivating the altruistic intention is so comprehensive that it contains the essential elements of all other spiritual practices. Taken alone, it can therefore replace the practice of many different techniques since all other methods are distilled into one approach. This is why we consider that bodhichitta practice lies at the root of both temporary and lasting happiness. Now the question is how we can train ourselves to develop bodhichitta. The two aspects of bodhichitta, the aspiration to be of help to others and the aspiration to attain enlightenment oneself, have to be cultivated separately through separate trainings. The aspiration to be of help to others has to be cultivated first.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Day #51

Today’s favourite poses: Down Dog, Pigeon, Cobra, Child's Pose

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 15

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from my cell phone)


I tend to keep a lot of messages on my cell phone. In fact, ever since my friend passed away, and I found out about it a few days after I had deleted a few of his texts, (which of course I now deeply regret), I am AFRAID to delete most of them now. Some I look back at and smile or laugh, and some really make me think. In fact there are quite a few I have kept for months because they seem to come in handy when I need to resurrect them for some purpose (whether that is to give me a lift, re-enforce a decision, or make me look a little closer at something).

Recently I have been reading a lot about the Buddhist practices of altruism, compassion, and bodhichitta and how it all ties into suffering, enlightenment etc. It's really interesting stuff. As I was reading it, I remembered a text that a good friend sent back to me in Sept (at 2:30 a.m. no less, I cannot possibly imagine what we were talking about at that hour that spurred this particular statement, but of course when I consider WHO sent it, i.e. none other than 'the Sage', it doesn't surprise me in the least that it has now come to mean something deeper than I originally thought........


The text simply said: "We'll all reach enlightenment when no one else suffers."


So for my next few readings/posts, I will enlist the help of none other than the Dalai Lama to reinforce and elaborate on my friend's wise words. Stay tuned.......

Monday, February 21, 2011

Day #50 - Half Way!

Today’s favourite poses: Pigeon, all the Warriors, Tree

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 5-10

Today is Family Day in Canada, so I have been reflecting on how BLESSED I am to have such an awesome one, starting with my daughter, who is the most beautiful girl on the planet, extremely smart and funny, creative and athletic. She is caring, compassionate, and such a unique and amazing individual. My father, who taught me to be strong and honest and hard working, with a strong work ethic, to have, and value integrity, to have a positive attitude at all times, and to love nature, is my hero. My sisters, are smart, supportive, sweet, caring, and giving beyond measure. Vince, who I've known over 30 years, who helps me to raise our daughter, and is an absolute genius, and dear friend, who makes me laugh until my sides ache. And finally, my mother, who is so sweet and beautiful inside, and who taught me to have the ability to perservere when things are dreadful and awful, to laugh at life and MYSELF! She taught us all to be kind, compassionate, caring and giving, and to LOVE GOD. She also taught me to appreciate beauty, simplicity and serenity, such as in songs like these (which I dedicate to her):






Sunday, February 20, 2011

Day #49

Today’s favourite poses: Child's Pose

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10-15, give or take 15....kidding. (a solid 15)

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from ZEN - Insight)

It has been asked, "The principle and knowledge of the subtle truth of suchness is mysterious and profound: how can those of shallow perceptions gain insight? One should not misrepresent Buddha - Buddha did not speak in this way. All things are neither deep nor shallow in themselves - it is just that you yourself don't see, and think that means extreme profundity. When you have insight, everything you see is subtle; why put the bodhisattvas on a pedestal, or particularly set up sages? As Master Sheng said, "It is not that knowledge is deep- things are deeper than knowledge." This is just an expression of lament that knowledge cannot reach things. Don't be discriminatory, don't keep a grasping and rejecting attitude. For this reason it is said, "Truth has no comparison, because it is not relative to anything." The scriptures have body and mind for their meanings: the Flower Ornament scripture says, "The body is the treasury of truths, the mind is the unobstructed lamp. Illuminating the emptiness of all things is called liberating people."




Hui-chung

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Day #48

Today’s favourite poses: Pigeon, Bridge, Treeeeee

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 25

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from ZEN)


Friday, February 18, 2011

Day #47

Today’s favourite poses: Double D, Warrior 1, 2, Dancing Warrior, Plank

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle)

What is God? The eternal One Life underneath all the forms of life. What is love? To feel the presence of that One Life deep within yourself and within all creatures. To be it. Therefore, all love is the love of God.



Thursday, February 17, 2011

Day #46

Today’s favourite poses: Today I was diggin' on the Dog, and the Dolphin

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 7

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle)

The reason why romantic love relationship is such an intense and universally sought-after experience is that it seems to offer liberation from a deep-seated state of fear, need, lack, and incompleteness that is part of the human condition in its unredeemed and unenlightened state. There is a physical as well as a psychological dimension to this state.

On the physical level, you are obviously not whole, nor will you ever be: you are either a man or a woman, which is to say one-half of the whole. On this level, the longing for wholeness – the return to oneness – manifests as male-female attraction, man’s need for a woman, woman’s need for a man. It is an almost irresistible urge for union with the opposite energy polarity. The root of this physical urge is a spiritual one; the longing for an end to duality, a return to the state of wholeness. Sexual union is the closest you can get to this state on the physical level. This is why it is the most deeply satisfying experienced the physical realm can offer. But sexual union is no more than a fleeting glimpse of wholeness, an instant of bliss. As long as it is unconsciously sought as a means of salvation, you are seeking the end of duality on the level of form, where it cannot be found. You are given a tantalizing glimpse of heaven, but you are not allowed to dwell there, and find yourself again in a separate body.

On the psychological level, the sense of lack and incompleteness is, if anything, even greater than on the physical level. As long as you are identified with the mind, you have an externally derived sense of self. That is to say, you get your sense of who you are from things that ultimately have nothing to do with who you are: your social role, possessions, external appearance, successes and failures, belief systems, and so on. This false, mind-made self, the ego, feels vulnerable, insecure, and is always seeking new things to identify with to give it a feeling that it exists. But nothing is ever enough to give it lasting fulfillment. Its fear remains; its sense of lack and neediness remains.

But then that special relationship comes along. It seems to be the answer to all the ego’s problems and to meet all its needs. At least this is how it appears at first. All the other things that you derived your sense of self from before now become relatively insignificant. You now have a single focal point that replaces them all, that gives you meaning to your life, and through which you define your identity: the person you are “in love” with. You are no longer a disconnected fragment in an uncaring universe, or so it seems. Your world now has a center: the loved one. The fact that the center is outside you and that, therefore, you still have an externally derived sense of self does not seem to matter at first. What matters is that the underlying feelings of incompleteness, of fear, lack, and unfulfillment so characteristic of the egoic state are no longer there – or are they? Have they dissolved, or do they continue to exist underneath the happy surface reality?

But there comes a point when your partner behaves in ways that fail to meet your needs, or rather those of your ego. The feelings of fear, pain, and lack that are an intrinsic part of egic consciousness but had been covered up by the “love relationship” now resurface. Just as with every other addiction, you are on a high when the drug is available, but invariably there comes a time when the drug no longer works for you. When those painful feelings reappear, you feel them even more strongly than before, and what is more, you now perceive your partner as the cause of those feelings. This means that you project them outward and attack the other with all the savage violence that is part of your pain. This attack may awaken the partner’s own pain, and he or she may counter your attack. At this point, the ego is still unconsciously hoping that its attack will be enough to induce your partner to change their behaviour, so that it can use them again as a cover up for your pain.

Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain. Whatever the substance you are addicted to – alcohol, food, legal or illegal drugs, or a person – you are using something or somebody to cover up your pain. That is why when the initial euphoria passes, there is so much unhappiness, so much pain in the intimate relationships. They do not cause pain or unhappiness, they bring out the pain and unhappiness that is already in you. Every addiction does that. Every addiction reaches a point where it does not work for you anymore, and then you feel the pain more intensely than ever.

This is one reason why most people are always trying to escape from the present moment and are seeking some kind of salvation in the future. The first thing that they might encounter if they focused their attention on the Now is their own pain, and this is what they fear. If they only knew how easy it is to access in the Now the power of presence that dissolves the past and its pain, the reality that dissolves is the illusion. If they only knew how close they are to their own reality, how close to God.

Avoidance of relationships in an attempt to avoid pain is not the answer either. The pain is there anyway. Three failed relationships in as many years are more likely to force you into awakening than three years on a desert island or shut away in your room. But if you could bring intense presence into your aloneness, that would work for you too.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Day #45

Today’s favourite poses: Child's Pose

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 0

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle)

Unless and until you access the consciousness frequency of presence, all relationships, and particularly intimate relationships, are deeply flawed and ultimately dysfunctional. They may seem perfect for a while, such as when you are “in love”, but invariably that apparent perfection gets disrupted as arguments, conflicts, dissatisfaction, and emotional or even physical violence occur with increasing frequency. It seems that most “love relationships” become love/hate relationships before long. Love can then turn into savage attack, feelings of hostility, or complete withdrawal of affection at the flick of a switch. This is considered normal. The relationship then oscillates for a while, a few months or a few years between the polarities of “love” and hate, and it gives you as much pleasure as it gives you pain. It is not uncommon for couples to become addicted to those cycles. Their drama makes them feel alive. When balance between the positive/negative polarities is lost and the negative, destructive cycles occur with increasing frequency and intensity, which tends to happen sooner or later, then it will not be long before the relationship finally collapses.

It may appear that if you could only eliminate the negative or destructive cycles, then all would be well and the relationship would flower beautifully – but alas, this is not possible. The polarities are mutually interdependent. You cannot have one without the other. The positive already contains within itself the as yet un-manifested negative. Both are in fact different aspects of the same dysfunction. I am speaking here of what are commonly called romantic relationships – not of true love, which has no opposite because it arises from beyond the mind.

On the positive side, you are “in love” with your partner. This is at first a deeply satisfying state. You feel intensely alive. Your existence has suddenly become meaningful because someone needs you, wants you, and makes you feel special, and you do the same for him or her. When you are together, you feel whole. The feeling can become so intense that the rest of the world fade into insignificance.

However, you may also have noticed that there is a neediness and a clinging quality to that intensity. You become addicted to the other person. He or she acts on you like a drug………


….….OMG HAVE I LIVED THIS!!! But as my dear friend Greg, (my Jedi Master/ Sage) tells me, “Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.” – Carl Jung. (He includes his writing in this, but that I don’t buy! =) ;)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Day #44

Today’s favourite poses: Child, Pigeon, Down Dog, 3 Legged Dog, Plank, The Warriors

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10(IsH)

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle)

The first part of the reading starts off with someone asking Tolle the following:

“I always thought that true enlightenment is not possible except through love in a relationship between a man and a woman. Isn’t this what makes us whole again? How can one’s life be fulfilled until that happens?”

(He answers);

“Is that true in your experience? Has this happened to you?”

“Not yet, but how could it be otherwise? I know that it will happen.”

(He answers);

In other words, you are waiting for an event in time to save you. Is this not the core error that we have been talking about? Salvation is not elsewhere in placed or time. It is here and now.

Most people pursue physical pleasures or various forms of psychological gratification because they believe that those things will make them happy or free them from a feeling of fear or lack. Happiness may be perceived as heightened sense of aliveness attained through physical pleasure, or more secure and more complete sense of self attained through some form of psychological gratification. This is the search for salvation from a state of unsatisfactoriness or insufficiency. Invariably, any satisfaction that they obtain is short-lived, so the condition of satisfaction or fulfillment is usually projected once again onto an imaginary point away from the here and now. “When I obtain this or am free of that – then I will be okay.” This is the unconscious mind-set that creates the illusion of salvation in the future.

True salvation is fulfillment, peace, life in all its fullness it is to be who you are, to feel within you the good that has not opposite, the joy of Being that depends on nothing outside itself. It is felt not as a passing experience but as an abiding presence. In theistic language, it is to “know God” – not as something outside you but as your own innermost essence. True salvation is to know yourself as an inseparable part of the timeless and formless One Life which all that exists derives its being.

True salvation is a state of freedom – from fear, from suffering, from a perceived state of lack and insufficiency and therefore from all wanting, needing, grasping, and clinging. It is freedom from compulsive thinking, from negativity, and above all from past and future as a psychological need. Your mind is telling you that you cannot get there from here. Something needs to happen or you need to become this or that before you can be free and fulfilled. It is saying in fact, that you need time - that you need to find, sort out, do, achieve, acquire, become, or understand something before you can be free or complete. You see time as the means to salvation, whereas in truth it is the greatest obstacle to salvation. You think that you can’t get there from where and who you are at this moment because you are not yet complete or good enough, but the truth is that here and now is the only point from where you can get there. You get there by realizing that you are there already. You find God the moment you realize that you don’t need to seek God. So there is no only way to salvation; any condition can be used, but no particular condition is needed. There can be no salvation away from this moment. You are lonely and without a partner? Enter the Now from there. You are in a relationship. Enter the now from there.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Day #43

Today’s favourite poses: Child's Pose

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 25

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from a poem I wrote a while back when I was going through a bitch of a time. I left out the first half because I no longer feel the angst that I did when I wrote it. None the less, it calmed me writing it, and today, I need calm. I really liked the comment Nate added to it the first time I posted it, so I included that on the bottom along with my response). Peace.


I dwell in
light

I dwell in
laughter

I dwell in
peace

I dwell in
joy

I dwell in
Love

I dwell in
hope

I dwell in
clarity

I dwell in
serenity

I dwell in
sweetness

I dwell in
wisdom

I dwell in
healing

I dwell in
courage

I dwell in
strength

I dwell in
kindness

I dwell in
compassion

I dwell in
truth

I dwell in
stillness

I dwell in
goodness

I dwell in
Grace

I dwell in
balance

I dwell in
Me


Nathan said...
There is nothing we are not.

kourtney said...
and yet, we are nothing.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Day #42

Today’s favourite poses: (Today I did Yoga at sunise, which was awesome! Fav. poses were the Sun Salutation series/Vinyasa)

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 12

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from the Bible)

So the LORD said to Moses,
“I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”

Then He said,
“I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”


Some of my favourite verses:

"Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation." Corinthians 7:4

"But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." James 1:4

"But though, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." Timothy 6:11

"Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices with strife." Proverbs 17:1

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" Corinthians 3:16

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from and evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." Hebrews 10:22

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Day #41

Today’s favourite poses: .........I cannot even describe what just happened to me. I started to do some poses and suddenly switched to these tantric, joyful, belly dancing, Bali/Hindi goddess type movements. Something took over. What a trip! I hope that happens again! wheeeee =D

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from my nightly prayers)


Dear Lord,
Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for the health and safety of my family. Please watch over them and keep them safe and healthy, no matter where they are, no matter who they are with, no matter what they are doing. Thank you for the health and safety and happiness of my wonderful parents, my wonderful sisters, myself, and MOST of all, my beautiful daughter. Please keep her safe from harm whether it be from accident, illness, malice, evil, heartache or otherwise. Thank you for the health and safety of our friends and family. Lord, please take care of those who are sick, and those who are suffering (especially the children!) Please watch over all those who are sick, scared, starving or suffering, or anyone who has had/has a serious illness, accident, or disease, especially where children are involved. Please be with them, and show them Your Love, Your Mercy, Your Comfort, Your Compassion, Your Grace and Your Glory, as you’ve shown me. Thank you Lord, for all my blessings, especially my family, my career, and my home. Please forgive me for my sins, my selfishness, my insecurities, my mistakes, my inadequacies, and my shortcomings. Please help me to be a better person Lord, and a better teacher, and MOST of all, a better parent. Please help me to have patience, wisdom, kindness, compassion, courage, strength, hindsight, insight, foresight, energy, and a sense of humour.


Please say ‘hi’ to Ricky, tell him I love him and miss him. Please watch over those that I have loved, including Jacob and Nikita. Thank you Lord, for the people you have brought into my life that have been my blessed teachers, like RICK, ERIK, GREG, NATE, JOE, THERESA, DALE, INGRID, JAYA and CYRUS.



Once again Lord, I thank you for ALL of my blessings, especially the health and safety of my friends and family, and most of all, my beautiful daughter, Kyla.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Day #40

Today’s favourite poses: Tree, Dancing Warrior, TREE!

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 5 (ish) ....Something VERY weird is happening with my laptop. Seems like a Malware issue.........must - call - computer - nerd.

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: From the Dalai Lama himself (again)


….By nature we are compassionate, and compassion is something very necessary and something which we can develop. It is important to know the exact meaning of compassion. The Buddhist interpretation is that genuine compassion is based on a clear acceptance or recognition that others, like oneself, want happiness and have the right to overcome suffering. On that basis one develops some kind of concern about the welfare of others, irrespective of their attitude to oneself. That is compassion.

Your love and compassion towards your friends is, in many cases, actually attachment. This feeling is not based on the realization that all beings have an equal right to be happy and to overcome suffering. Instead, it is based on the idea that something is ‘mine’, ‘my friend’, or something good for ‘me’. That is attachment. Thus, when the person’s attitude towards you changes, your feeling of closeness immediately disappears. With the other way, you develop some kind of concern irrespective, of the other person’s attitude to you, simply because that person is a fellow human being and has every right to overcome suffering. Whether that person remains neutral to you or even becomes your enemy, your concern should remain.

Actually genuine compassion and attachment are contradictory. According to Buddhist practice, to develop genuine compassion you must first practice the meditation of equalization and equanimity, detaching oneself from those people who are very close to you. Then, you must remove negative feelings towards your enemies. All sentient beings should be looked on as equal. On that basis, you can gradually develop compassion for all of them.

It must be said that genuine compassion is not like pity or a feeling that others are somehow lower than you. Rather, with genuine compassion you view others as more important than yourself…………..[sound familiar???!] ;)




Thursday, February 10, 2011

Day #39

Today’s favourite poses: Tiger, Pigeon, D.D., Dolphin

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: (Do the minutes doing yoga count??? I'm gonna count them).

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: From the Dalai Lama himself

The Dalai Lama gave a series of lectures in the UK in the mid to late nineties. He describes a scientist that made the statement that it is very important for research scientists to adopt the methodological principle of not being emotionally attached to their field of inquiry. This is because attachment has the negative effect of clouding and narrowing your vision. This is why, through the practice of equanimity, we try to overcome these feelings of partiality so that we can deal with everything and everyone even-handedly.

When we practice developing equanimity, sometimes it is helpful to use visualization. For example, you can imagine three different individuals in front of you; someone who is very close to you, someone you regard as an enemy and whom you dislike, and then someone who is completely neutral, and to whom you feel indifferent. Then let your natural emotions and thoughts arise in relation to these three individuals. Once you are able to allow your natural feelings to arise, you will notice that towards the loved one you feel a sense of closeness and also great attachment, towards the person you dislike you may feel hostility and a sense of distance, and that towards the individual who is neutral you will hardly feel any emotion at all.

At this point, try to reason with yourself. ‘Why do I feel such different emotions towards these three individuals? Why do I feel so attached to my loved ones?’ You might begin to see that there are certain grounds for your attachment; the person is dear to you because he or she has done this and that for you, and so on. But if you ask yourself whether these characteristics are permanent and whether the person will always be like this, then you may have to concede that this is not necessarily the case. Someone may be a friend today but turn into an enemy tomorrow. This is especially true from the Buddhist point of view, when we take many lifetimes into account – someone who is very close to you in this life may have been your enemy in another. From this perspective there are no real grounds for feeling such strong attachment.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Day #38

Today’s favourite poses: Tree, Warrior 3, Plank

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 9.5

Today’s thoughts:

One area of practice that I have been working on over the past few weeks, is judgement. I don’t seem to have found a balance between seeing more good in someone’s character than they actually possess, and judging people too harshly or quickly. Lately when I meet someone new, I am rather guarded or sceptical (I guess I just don’t have a lot of faith in people anymore). But until someone has PROVEN that they aren’t worthy, then I really think I need to try to be more open and trust a bit more. (In all honesty, usually my mistake is that I trust/give people too much credit, and then I end up paying for it. Sometimes dearly). I’m also guilty on some occasions, of putting people into categories because of the way they look. Not in a negative way, but whenever I meet someone that’s a little TOO good looking, I tend to assume that they might not be kind or intelligent, or interesting, so I usually just write them off. Perhaps I feel that they won’t have as much to offer as someone who hasn’t been able to coast through on their looks all their lives. In other words, if the package is too pretty, I think it’s not really worth opening up. But in a few cases now, I have been dead wrong about that. However, honesty, courage, respect, and substance are still the most important qualities.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Day #37

Today’s favourite poses: Triangle, Tree, D.D., Pigeon, Plank, Child's Pose

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: Negative 7


I thought after yesterday's rant I should lighten it up a bit. So here is a peaceful little tune I found on YT. I also liked the comments that followed, which I have included below the vid. Enjoy. :-)




• Sixth word...Akaal Moorati (pronounced Akaal-Murat)..Kaal means time..Akaal means beyond the effects of time. Moorat means form. Nanak is describing that God has a form that is beyond the effects of time, so that people don't assume God as an outcome of a thought process or a fantasy. It also rules out anything in the universe, including humans such as gurus, prophets, saints being God. That's why we can't capture God in our imagination...we need to transcendent time-space equation to realise G

• Finally, Gurprasaadi (pronounced as Gurprasad)...since God is all the above, he can only be realised through the grace of a true guru, true knowledge, God's own grace.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Day #36

Today’s favourite poses: Cobra, Warrior, Plank, upside Down Dog (right side up)

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: .....are you kidding me?!

Today’s not so interesting thoughts/rant:

True or False??

Over the weekend I had a conversation with a friend from another province. It was about whether or not someone can call themselves a “true Christian”. That term/phrase has always bothered me. But now that I am trying to expand my ‘spiritual horizons’, it REALLY bothers me. What gives anyone (other than God or Jesus Himself), to JUDGE if someone is a “true Christian”?? I have also recently heard the term “false teacher” when describing people like the Dalai Lama, Buddha, or Lao Tzu. Which begs the question, what exactly is FALSE about them?? Certainly not WHAT they are teaching, (these are all intensely peaceful human beings who teach us to love one another, end war, take care of our precious planet, and love GOD. Isn’t that exactly the same thing Christ taught us??). And they are not claiming to BE God, so they can’t exactly be classified as any sort of ‘False Idols.’ They don’t run around proclaiming they are the second coming like some lunatic cult figure. They are simply wise, peaceful teachers/people who are spreading messages that I’m sure God/Jesus would totally agree/concur with, because in many ways, they are virtually identical to the principles that the bible/Jesus taught us! (which in itself, makes them NOT evil, or ‘false’!) Again, just because someone agrees with their principles/teaching/messages, does NOT mean they are saying you should follow or worship them like Christ. While they might have slightly varying beliefs, none of them EVER say follow me INSTEAD OF Jesus. And let’s not forget, as far as ‘spiritual literature’ goes, most of the sacred texts followed by Eastern faiths were around hundreds or even thousands of years before Christ/the bible, and they are still relevant today. That is saying something! But I’m willing to bet that the majority of self-proclaimed “true Christians” have never even picked up the Yoga Sutra or the Bhagavad Gita for example, (because if they had, they just might find something they like or that really resonates with them, even more so than many parts of the bible). And let’s also not forget, if there is a God (which of course there IS), then HE CREATED Buddha, the Dalai Lama, Ghandi, etc. in His image as well.

As far as I know, Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life, not the ONLY way, the ONLY truth, the ONLY life. Of course He said that the only way to the Father was through him, but that doesn’t mean that He ALONE had the only message worth listening to, or could be the only one to tell/deliver it. (In fact didn't He Himself have apostles to help spread His message??) He did not say “Be sure to discount every other wise, peace-loving being (which again, he created!) that has ever walked, or ever will walk the earth. He did not say that there can be NO OTHER route to envelope/assimilate the concepts of love, hope, peace, charity, and respect. He did not outlaw any other forms of aphorisms or spiritual texts or say “If you get this message anywhere else, IGNORE it as it isn’t True.” That’s ridiculous. It’s the SAME message, just in a different (and usually more poetic) form. Of course you aren’t supposed to go around WORSHIPPING ‘false Gods’, but God is different to everyone. Some know Him as simply the creator, some as Allah, Yahweh, Spirit, etc. We have come a long way since the days where science couldn’t explain everything so we assigned every natural phenomenon a deity, but that just brings up a whole other can of worms. I am definitely not arguing the existence of God. But while we are on that topic, (well, I am, anyway), the people who try to use LOGIC or REASON to dispute there is a God, just don’t get it. Faith is not something you acquire by logic or reason, so it certainly isn’t something that can be used to erase it. And while we’re on the topic of faith, why is it that you can only prove your faith by going to church?? Am I faithless and not a spiritual being because I have a PERSONAL rather than an INSTITUTIONAL relationship with God?? And of course let’s not forget the 1 day a week Christians (or the ones who claim to be ‘devout Christians’ but live the VAST majority of their lives like soulless, immoral TWITS and are MEAN to the people they supposedly “love”). Anyway, not that it matters, but I actually LIKE going to church. But I also LIKE doing Yoga, and exploring other avenues of spirituality such as Buddhism, Taoism, etc. And I don’t feel guilty about it. Why is there pressure/judgement to conform/choose?? Can’t a Christian (which I consider myself to be) draw the essence of Christ/Life from other sources as well?? My God, is not a jealous or insecure God. He knows he trumps ALL other beings, and he knows I know it! I am not CONFUSED, I KNOW who to pray to (and I do, daily), and I KNOW who to thank for ALL of my blessings.

I’m not trying to offend anyone or incite any sort of argument, and I certainly don’t mean any disrespect. I am just stating what is in my HEART. (I’m sure the 6 people who read this blog agree with me anyway). And I’m not looking for any sort of absolution. (That can only come from my God) I truly believe, that if I have screwed up about this, God will eventually show me, and forgive me, cause that’s the way my God rolls. So before anyone hits me with the Law of Non Contradiction again, remember that I am speaking MY truth, and from MY heart (and didn’t you say you really liked that I ‘tell it like it is’)?? I may be naïve, and I may be a little rough around the edges/wet behind the ears when it comes to this kind of stuff, but THIS is how it is for ME. And I don’t like that I have to defend it. Live and let live people. I don’t judge you, please don’t judge me. As I’ve always said, I believe that at the heart of everything in the entire universe, is indeed, God. But I am also deeply moved by so many aspects of the Buddhist and Taoist path/faith that perhaps I don’t even WANT to be called a “true Christian” (whatever the hell that is……)

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Day #35

Today’s favourite poses: Plank, Child’s Pose, 3 Legged Dog, Warrior 3, Tree

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 15-20

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (indirectly taken from We Are Awakening)

I would like to dedicate this post to my friend Nate, who wrote an extremely interesting little book, that I think we ALL need to read. After I read it, I ‘happened’ to come across a few videos, (which I have not had the opportunity to check out the organizations that produced them yet), but that I think provide very complimentary/compelling perspectives/arguments as to WHY Nate’s message is so important. They illuminate the present ill state of our society and world today, and emphasize the critical need for change. (But also offer the hope that changes/ awakening ARE happening as we speak).

The title of Nate’s book is “We are Awakening”. I believe it contains the very essence of the change we need to make. He reminds us that we have gotten to the way we are “as a result of how we live, and that it seems we are prepared to drive ourselves to our own destruction”. I fully agree with this, and personally feel that what we need to do, to bring us back to ‘source’, is firstly, to each go on an ‘inner journey’, back to GOD, through meditation, through prayer, through spending time in nature, and perhaps most importantly, as Nate points out in his book, to realize (remember) our unity, our Oneness. (We are all parts of the same whole!)

The following comment (left on Nate’s blog), were my first reactions to reading his book. Each time I pick it up though, I find another stunning revelation that stops me in my tracks.

“Words are signposts to something greater”. This is definitely the case for this wonderful book! It opens a door to our consciousness, our Oneness, the essence of our Being. It sheds light on dualism, paradox, separation, relativity, and where we ultimately came from. It is a reminder that a shift in perspective, from separation to unity, is really all that is required to redefine/remember what it is to be a divine part of the divine whole. There are really no WORDS to describe this peaceful beacon to clarity. It has to be read, and experienced.

Thank you, Nate, for ‘unboxing all this’ for us! :-)


I implore anyone who gets this message, to go to his website http://we-are-awakening.blogspot.com/ and order his book! It is very POWERFUL stuff and I promise you, you will not be sorry!






Saturday, February 5, 2011

Day #34

Today’s favourite poses: Dog, Cat, Mouse, Chicken (kidding!) Plank, 3 legged Dog, Child's Pose and Warrior

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 20

Today’s interesting/thought provoking video:

Friday, February 4, 2011

Day #33

Today’s favourite poses: Tiger, Pigeon, Down Puppy, Child, Superman.........(cuz I did them with the kids in my class!)

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom The Essential Teachings and The Case for GOD by Karen Armstrong, and the Tao)

Another connection between Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity:

Paul said, "In your minds, you must be the same as Christ Jesus. There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself, so that nobody thinks of his own interests first, but everybody thinks of other people's interests instead."


(From the Tao):

The Sage has no interests of his own, but regards the interests of the people his own. He is kind to the kind, he is also kind to the unkind; for virtue is kind.


(From the Eight Verses on Transforming the Mind):

Whenever I interact with someone,
May I view myself as the lowest amongst all,
And, from the very depths of my heart,
Respectfully hold others as superior.




.....Ok, this one was written JUST for ME!:

When someone whom I have helped,
Or in whom I have placed great hopes,
Mistreats me in extremely hurtful ways,
May I regard him still as my precious teacher.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Day #32

Today’s favourite poses: Tiger, Pigeon, Tiger, Pigeon, Tiger, Pigeon, Tiger

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: zippo so far

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Case for GOD by Karen Armstrong)

I started off this post wanting to talk about Plato. But for some reason, a beautiful piece of writing caught my eye in the above book about Saint Augustine (a Neoplatonist):

We cannot pray TO the Spirit, because the Spirit is the ultimate innerness of every being, ourselves included……

Augustine was appalled by the instability of the material world, which seemed to tremble on the brink of nothingness……

……Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! Behold, you were within and I was without and there I sought you, plunging unformed as I was into the fair things that you have formed and made. You were with me, and I was not with you. I was kept from you by the things that would not have been, were they not in you……

God was “within” but Augustine could not find him because he was “outside himself”. As long as he confined his quest to the external world, he remained trapped in the fragile mutability that so disturbed him. When he questioned the physical world about God, the earth, the sea, the sky, and the heavenly bodies all replied “I am not he, but it is he that made me” But when asked, “What then, do I love in loving my God?” Augustine knew that, like the Upanishadic sages, he could only answer, “neti….neti”:

No Physical beauty, no temporal glory, no radiancy of light that commends itself to these eyes of mine, no sweet melody of songs tuned to every mode, no soft scent of flowers or of ointments or of perfumes, no manna, no honey, no limbs that can conceive corporal embrace.

[Sounds a bit like Shakespeare!]

But God was all these things to my inner man. There it is that a light shines on my soul that no place can contain, a sound is uttered no time can take away, a fragrance cast that no breath of wind can disperse, a savour given forth that eating cannot blunt…..This is what I love in loving my God.

Scripture told us that we had been made in God’s image and it was therefore possible to find an eikon within ourselves that, like any Platonic image, yearned toward its archetype…..

Memory gave us intimations of infinity, but to encounter the divine, it had to strain beyond itself to the intellectus, the place where the soul would encounter God in deepest intimacy. When Augustine spoke of “intellect, he meant something different from a modern intellectual……..In the ancient world, people saw reason as a hinterland, bounded on the one hand by our power of discursive rationality, and on the other by intellectus, a kind of pure intelligence, which in India was called buddhi……..



So there you go. I love it when Western philosophy connects to Eastern philosophy, just like I love it when Spirituality and Science merge or converge. (Why does it have to be East OR West, Science OR Spirit??) Although Augustine developed the doctrine of original sin (which I highly disagree with, but will forgive him for, being that he was likely traumatized by the fall of Rome), he does however get points for his stance that the bible is not ALWAYS to be taken literally, and that science does play an important role in our understanding of God and the world:



Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Day #31

Today’s favourite poses: Child, Pigeon, Cat, Warrior, Mountain

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10


Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from YouTube)


Check this out G!!! Our man C. Gustav Jung is in it! ;) Oh, and vid #2 is for you too, my Synchronistic Soul Friend =)








(Before anyone gets excited about this, I only believe it is possible if GOD either wrote them himself, or He made/hired/assigned someone/thing to do it!! ;)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Day #30

Today’s favourite poses: Child’s Pose, Cobra, Pigeon, Down Dog

Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10 ish

Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire by Deepak Chopra)

If we could learn to live from the level of the soul, we would see that the best, most luminous part of ourselves is connected to all the rhythms of the universe. We would truly know ourselves as the miracle-makers we are capable of being. We would lose fear, and longing, and hatred, and anxiety, and hesitation. Living from the level of the soul means diving past the ego, past the limitations of the mind that harness us to events and outcomes in the physical world.