Wednesday, August 17, 2011

MY BODY IS A TEMPLE

"Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come."
Inscribed at the tomb of Jelaluddin Rumi

In preparation for a workshop which I'll be teaching this winter, I've been spending time contemplating the theme of viewing the body as a temple.

Seeing the body as a temple is a perspective shared by many faiths, most notably Hindu Tantra a perspective in which Prana Flow yoga is rooted and that is reinforced many times by my teacher Shiva Rea.

What I'm specifically unravelling like you do when you untangle a 100-foot extension cord that is filled with many knots is the process in which I as a yoga practioner have come to embody this teaching below the superficial level. taking the statement and developing a palpable connection to it, so that whenever I invoke it as I teach, the words carry truth and experienced as authentic.

While I don't know the exact answer, I do think that the only practice is to maintain a constant, self-loving, just-right vigilance including all the waking hours off my mat of holding my body in the highest regard and offer self-forgiveness whenever the sight is lost. There are many times in the past where I've beaten myself up over missing a practice (or not practicing hard enough) or eaten food that wasn't the best for me, but as the inscription on Rumi's tomb reminds us, that we must begin again and again.

Just like breathing, this re-minding and re-focusing on the highest will always be with me because to forget would be to assume and to not practice at all.

Note: Credit for blog entry goes to Christina Sell who has a recently published book called My Body Is A Temple

Monday, August 8, 2011

MUDDY WATERS

Boston, MA - What a journey life has been in the past twelve months! So many people, places, experiences. But my reality is that it's a Monday morning, I have a fog much like the fog that shrouded the city's skyline this morning, and I'm paralyzed into inaction.

It doesn't help that in switching over my website account this past weekend, I discovered my website was out of commision this morning. No problem, right. I hastily created a temporary one-page site but what's another thing to add to the growing list of to-dos.

Perhaps I should wash my hands clean of "all this" and blame it on Mercury Retrograde but that would be claiming no responsibility and falling prey to inaction.

So, I am reminded to initiate movement in my life, begin again with my breath, and re-connect with the rest of the world. As I was talking with my friend, Dazza, last night, life is so precious and to be living at this time in the span of history is so so special.