Thursday, July 19, 2012

Strange Intersection of Ideas and Events

This post was originally written back in 2011 at some point.  Not sure why I didn't publish it then.

Tonite there are four things that have intersected in my mind and heart in a strange way:


The battle in congress to get UI benefits extended for millions of out of work, and can't find any, Americans


The "It's worse than we thought" continuing oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and on its coast


Eight Principles of Warm Yoga practice


And Jesus' mother, Mary and the difference between Faith and understanding.


There has been a lot of good that's come from humans wanting to know, understand and control things. There's also been a lot bad that has come from the same.


Our massive Unemployment and the unwillingness of too many in Congress to take real steps to end it through true jobs creation, or, at the very least, an unwillingness to continue to keep a safety net under people until the jobs miraculously create themselves, is one huge example.


The BP oil spill and life and soul killing slick is another.


Then there's the concept of faith and Mary who never understood her son Jesus and what he was about but was clearly: "willing to 'stand under' the mystery and mercy of God....the archetypal woman of faith-set in contradistinction to the woman of "knowing" that Eve wanted"(and most the rest of us seem to want) "to be....Mary, willing to outstare the darkness, however long it lasted. This means that she is drawing upon a deep source of inner light, " says Franciscan monk Father Richard Rohr in his most recent email meditation.


I don't think we're not supposed to stop thinking and trying to know and understand totally, but maybe a little humility and wonder might be appropriate? And maybe if we had a bit more humility and wonder we might be less inclined to live so much for the externals and so much under the illusion that we can really understand and control our environment. Because clearly we cant. We can't now in the 21st century and we couldn't back in Jesus time and we couldn't in all of the intervening years either.


We've created some pretty incredible things like wheels and cooking and indoor plumbing and convenient plastics and medicines and cars and airplanes AND we were unable or unwilling to foresee the consequences of these pretty incredible things and now have lots of big messes on our hands because of our extreme love or dependance or addiction to these things.


In all of these centuries we've never figured out how to stop trying to dominate one another or never grown out of the need to do so by "outstaring the darkness" thru "drawing upon a deep source of inner light"


Instead we just keep with the dominating, conquering and controlling. How's that working for us? Not well at all I don't think. Once again insanity defined.


So what do we do? How do we "outstare the darkness" instead of trying to control it all?

The Yogi masters had some, have some interesting ideas, I think, and below is a list of principals that seem at least worth a ponder. They are compliments of Sheri and her blog "Wild Women of the Universe":




1)We are either here or nowhere -- stressing the importance of staying present. ALL life is lived in the present moment. As Baptiste said in the book (pp. 32-43), "'Now here' or 'nowhere.' Interesting, isn't it, how the only difference, really, is a little extra space."
2)Be in the Now and you'll know How -- When you tune into your intuition and into your body, you will find the answers you need. As Baptiste said, "The answer to 'how' is always 'be in the now.'" The answers come from the inside-out, not the other way around.
3)Growth is the most important thing there is -- if you aren't growing you are stagnant, regressing...or dying. Growth is forward movement. It is a choice. Are you growing or dying?
4)Exceed yourself to find your exceeding self -- if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten. Fear is your greatest obstacle.
5)In order to heal, you need to feel -- it's important to face difficult things to get through them and begin the healing process.
6)Think less. Be more. -- Let go of your thoughts and just allow yourself to be. Stay mindful, but not focused on specific thoughts.
7)We are the sum total of our reactions -- Things happen in life and it is our reaction to those things that creates how we experience our lives. Our quest is to widen the gap between the stimulus and the response so we are not reacting to life, but responding to it instead.
8)Let go. Try Easy. -- if we allow our thoughts to crowd in (and possibly take over), we can create tension and anxiety. By letting go, we allow flow in our lives.








3 comments:

Hack Poet said...

Where did you go?

Hack Poet said...

Where are you?

Ailey said...

I kind of abandoned this blog and started writing one on wordpress. Haven't done any posting at that one either for many months because of a big relocation.