Thursday, December 3, 2020

BE STILL

 What is holding you back? 👀

What are YOU holding onto that it is time to be free of. Are you living a repetitive, habitual version of yourself or are you living a TRUE you?... How do you find the "answers" to these inquiries?...STILLNESS,....In my life, so far (still going... 50 plus...) I have had and am still HAVING so many wonderful opportunities and I will forever be a student of life. Recently I have been 'REMINDED' that the reason that I love walking on the beach at sunrise, or free diving and moving slowly under water, or walking in nature and listening to snow fall, or simply watching and/ or listening to the the slow and steady respiration of a sleeping child or animal.... is because it is so quiet.....but, what I remember is ....



I love these things because I love meditation, and meditation is:

sitting in stillness. THIS is the "secret" that is not so secret,... the answers are right there... Already inside... we simply have to be QUIET. In the quiet, we Hear...
The whispers of wisdom, When our minds are filled with chatter, it is a great challenge to listen and observe ourselves,.. and even the observation of how wiggley we can be just TRYING to be still, can be a great lesson. We SAY we want truth in the world, but do you really? The truth is right behind the chatter... so, be STILL and sit with yourself....
There are many versions of YOGA in our day and age,...Yoga takes us on a path, a great journey, ... inward... the journey to/in/of SELF. The asana practice (asana = seat or being steady and at ease) ... These shapes that we make with our bodies are meant to purify the "body" but truly, sitting in stillness with ourselves,....that is where the light is.
What light?


The light that always resides within you,..
It is just beyond your darkness and we vacillate between this darkness and light,...What is NOT important is the story of the darkness but the constant returning to the light. I read long ago,.. what makes us yoga practitioners is not the "perfection" of a shape or asana,.. but the coming back to the pose when we "fall" out of it,... The coming back to our breath when we are distracted by our own chattering mind,... It is in the coming back that we REMEMBER the truth,.... the essence of who we are, ... the light never goes away, but are you quiet enough to see the light, to feel, experience, and sit with the light. Yogi's are activist, we believe and stand for what is right. We read in the Gita about our purpose, our dharma. I believe that when we recognize our gift(s) and follow our path, we will be reminded of our similarities to all beings. When we let go of the end result and simply offer from our hearts what we have to offer, JOY can shine through... It has always been there, the joy, the peace, the contentment. Over the course of our lives, whether you are 50, 90 or 15, we develop patterns and habits. These habitual patterns create grooves in our being and it can become hard to see beyond and outside of these grooves. We can become self created prisoners of our own making.





What can I do?....SIT. Sitting is the way,... sitting with yourself. Meditation. How can you sit with yourself? Just start. Right now, Sit, Be Still and Focus. We are fortunate that through all of the shifting in 2020, we have not lost the opportunity to sit with ourselves, you can even "sit" with others, whether it is in person or virtually. (there are great guides, to support your journey, even right here on FB, Satsang) ... Try a minute, find a quiet spot,... CREATE a quiet spot....and then sit, get REALLY comfortable and lengthen your spine, elevate your hips and lower your knees ( this can be accomplished by sitting on a pillow, a folded towel or blanket), close your eyes and focus for a moment on your breathing. Now, just let the clouds in the mind move away so that the sky is clear. The next step is to simply OBSERVE... Without judging or trying to do a 'GOOD' job,... just sit... with your best teacher,....SELF. and after,.. recline and stay still, rest. We say we want peace and well being but, we have to PRACTICE. This is not a NEW concept, a new THING to "learn",.. This is training to simply shed away the old layers, habits, patterns, stories and REMEMBER the amazing being that is ALREADY inside,... filled with light. It is not EASY, but it IS simple. It takes time to unravel and get to know yourSELF, THIS is the journey,... and when you lose your "balance" and "fall out" of the "pose/asana" or feel the intensity of this life fill you with fear and doubt,... simply breath, sit, become still and focus,... start over again....
Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu
namaste'🙏

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Dec. 1, 2020

 First light is light of stone💎 ....

ॐ असतोमा  सद्गमय । तमसोमा ज्योितर्गमय । मृत्योमार्मृतंगमय ॥ ॐ शािन्त शािन्त शािन्तः ॥

oṃ asatomā sadgamaya tamasomā jyotirgamaya mṛtyormāmṛtamgamaya 

oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ “

Om from delusion toward truth From darkness toward light From death toward life

Om, peace, peace, peace.


Today was a day filled with light for me, I connected  with a lovely new person and spoke on the phone with another lovely new person...2 people who recently have found there way to me via the pull of the universe and it's perfect alignment.  I also, ofcourse had a wonderful day because of the sunshine that lives in my home, my son...and my sweet Poe,... along with clients that I adore and students I am so appreciative of....

The beginning,.... I frequently can be quoted saying, I love coming to the mat, because for me, it is always like a new beginning but,.. we are only really REMEMBERING who we are.... far more than CREATING a new being,.. but on the mat we have this opportunity to recognize our light and darkness as well.

  "in this realm, my path is my experience, and this can create fear,... Seeing the absolutely eternal manifestation in all things allows strength and peace to stream into this experience"... 

We are so fortunate to have the knowledge from thousands of years to guide us on our journey.  If I have a struggle with a meditation,.. I simply invite a sense of appreciation.  This often blooms into more appreciation and then I can sit with those thoughts and then,... maybe stillness.  Today,.. Dec. 1st,.. it SNOWED.  I walked through the trees and on the snow and the quiet brought me such a sense of peace.  I was reminded of being underwater and walking on a sandy beach at sunrise.  The silence and connection with nature...beautiful.  



As winter approaches, there is a growing mood of sleepiness of the world. Through the stories, and songs we bring, and observation of nature, we can experience a settling down. The fallen leaves, the animals in hibernation, the shorter days.

Advent balances the darkness and sleepiness with expectation and anticipation. It is a time of moving through the darkness toward the yearly rebirth of the light, when the days begin to grow longer. Advent is really a four–week festival, the four weeks leading up to Christmas and Solstice, starting on a Sunday evening. Many religions celebrate festivals of the returning of the light. Among those festivals are Solstice, Chanukah, Christmas and Divali.

The mood of Advent prepares us for the light beginning to grow stronger again. If we are quiet,.. quiet like the snow in the woods, quiet like the stillness under the water,... like footprints on the sand. - If we are STILL in this quiet,.. we CAN feel the light growing stronger.....


During Advent, we can deepen our relationship to the world around us through recognizing the strength and beauty in all the four kingdoms of the natural world.

The first week is related to the mineral kingdom, the physical foundation for life. The mineral world gives us a fixed stage, a basis for our ever-changing existence. Without the mineral world we would have no ground to stand on.


भूभुर्व: स्व: ।
तत्सिवतुवर्रण्ये।
भगोर्देवस्य धीमिह ।
धीयो यो न: प्रचोदयात्।।

oṃ
bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
tāt savitūr vāreṇyaṃ
bhārgo devāsya dhīmahi
dhīyo yo naḥ prachodāyāt

“Om
To the divine Light
Which pervades the three worlds
The Light which is Love
On that divine radiance we meditate
May It enlighten our intellect and awaken our spiritual wisdom.”



namaste' with love and LIGHT
Kerry and the YOGA TREE familia 💓


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