Saturday, September 19, 2009

It Can Take a Long, Long Time


It’s so easy to slip, it’s so easy to fall
and let your memory drift and do nothing at all...
Lowell George

...life is more an art than a science.
Ganga White

reading yoga books
listening to Miles Davis
and sipping red wine

...have had a relatively steady daily meditation practice for the past few months...after many failed attempts over the years...and suspect my relative success this time is due, largely, to ignoring most of what I’ve read or been taught...for now simply working on the ability to sit still and resist temptations to go and do something else...

I practice compassion towards friends and enemies
but all these motherfuckers tryin’ to hate on my serenity...
Arj Barker

...and yet, somehow, even with all this meditation and yoga, everybody’s pissing me off lately...particularly myself...but everybody else, too...excluding, of course, people who read this blog...usually...and, of course, I’m far more bothered by people who don’t...who, clearly, have failed to study the ancient and revered Yoga Cynic Sutras sufficiently...particularly Sutra 53.657: Those who do not read the Yoga for Cynics blog* will endure one billion incarnations as dung beetles**...but that's really not my point...

...ancient wisdom (fake and otherwise) aside, pissed-offness doesn’t come from nowhere...and only festers when pushed back in...though tending to breed when let out in company...so it’s gotta be faced, and dealt with...which can take a long, long time...namaste for now...


* The use of the word blog in this sutra, millennia before the invention of the internet, has made interpretation quite difficult for scholars. Until recently, the term was usually loosely translated as harsh etchings on rocks.

** Various third, fourth, and fifth century commentaries (as well as a couple of sixth century commentaries, but they’re crap) point out that the billion incarnations refers only to those who fail to read the blog at all. Those who read it occasionally average far fewer dung beetle incarnations. Regular readers, of course, are rarely more than a post or two away from transcending form completely and becoming Floating Glowing Beings of Pure Love...

19 comments:

Bob Weisenberg said...

This is very, very funny. Thanks for making me laugh.

Do those who write longer and more enlightended comments glow brighter than those who don't?

Just in case that's true, and to make sure I don't suffer any dung beatle incarnations (by the way, what do you have against dung beatles. Are they not Brahman, too?)here's a blog I once wrote about Yoga and being pissed off at others:


Can Yogis be jealous?

A fellow blogger asked me recently.



I replied:

Sure, yogis can be jealous.

But then we step outside ourselves

And view our jealousy with pure awareness

Without judgment

and without ego.



At that point

We become blissfully purely aware that

We also want to strangle the other person.


Bob Weisenberg
http://YogaDemystified.com

Karin Bartimole said...

As always, I'm chuckling as I read your words, but I am also appreciating the quotes you've chosen and main message (at least the one I'm taking) that this stillness thing, that the practice of going deeper and getting to know oneself while freeing oneself, is a dedicated one.
In my own practice, I sometimes have found that during meditation I experience feelings of anger, sorrow, or happiness, that are nearly overwhelming - like so much more than the anger I personally could have, or the joy I personally have. I believe when we go to that deeper place we tap into the universal experience of these emotions and are connecting to the energy of them on that level - it can be intense. Being able to channel it in out and through is essential...

Brooks Hall said...

Can't I piss you off? Saying that your readers are excluded makes me feel a little left out... I mean I guess it's generous of you to confer flowy-glowlicious status on regular readers like me, but maybe I want to be pissed. Yeah!

And meditation--the way I think about it is similar to what I saw in your post. Just sit there. And let the anger take its course... Meditation--for my two cents is about being with your truth, just letting everything be there. Even pissed-ness. Don't indulge in emotional cleansing--I don't think that's real.

Rhiannon said...

Say what?...:o)

Very good warped sense of humor you have here.

namaste

Anonymous said...

Your mind rocks!^^

Eco Yogini said...

Congrats on meditating! I still struggle, some days it's just laughable how much my mind moves and flits about.

I'm happy to avoid the dung beetles, i hear they smell.

roseanne said...

I'm glad that the people who *don't* read your blog piss you off more than the ones who do. Lovely, entertaining and thoughtful post, thanks Dr Jay!

Bob Weisenberg said...

Read this and see if all of you can continue be so mean to the poor little misunderstood dung beetle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dung_beetle

Deborah Godin said...

Okay, by your own definition, I think I'm going to be all right...

earthtoholly said...

Hi drjay...mmm, Miles Davis and red wine sound awfully soothing...

I do hope your pissed-offness is not the kind that keeps you up at night then weighs on you first thing when you wake. I hate that kind...usually stems from family stuff, at least for me.

Now, if you had said chocolate cake beetle, then I'd be outta here, but dung beetle? I shall continue to subject myself to your writing...no matter how funny and inspiring. Yes, inspiring!

Lana Gramlich said...

There are a lot of decent concept in Eastern philosophies, of course, but that doesn't necessarily mean that work (or whatever,) isn't going to get to us. No one can be at peace all the time. Perfect balance = perfect stagnation, after all. Again I recommend puppies.

Me-Me King said...

If you like country with a boogie beat he's the man to meet

If you like the sound of shufflin' feet he can't be beat

If you wanna feel real nice, just ask the Rock and Roll doctor's advice

Lydia said...

Nice to feel safe, as a regular reader should.
Your description of pissed-offness coming from somewhere and having to be dealt with seems the same as panic, which I'm pissed off about having lately. It's the end of the world. No, it's just the end of this comment.

Daisy Deadhead said...

I've long believed its far better to be pissed at ideas and concepts and the politicians/celebs that embody them, that it is to be pissed off at people I actually know.

But every now and then, the two categories CROSS, as in my Andre Bauer incidents... I dislike him as a CONCEPT (born-again, self-righteous, interfering noseyparker Republican), but as a REAL PERSON and CUSTOMER on my job, he is unfailingly polite and friendly to me and others.

Damn, I HATE when that happens...

the walking man said...

I can out pissed off you Jay, having practiced that ancient art of pissed off far longer. But the only reason I say this, though true, is that i do not want to return for a thousand lifetimes as a dung beetle.

Melinda said...

Well, don't I feel special--knowing I must be one of those "Floating Glowing Beings of Pure Love..." Wow. I'm floating now, Jay!

There must be something in the air--or perahps my green tea. I've been highly irritated myself lately--although that could have to do more with the painful dental work I am in the midst of . . . that's enough to put me in a pissy mood just about any day.

Melinda

Nothing Profound said...

I got to this post a little late, but I got here, so I hope that saves me a few dung beetle incarnations. Being pissed off is just the prelude to not being pissed off, so by the time you read this you'll probably have moved on to serenity and joy.

. said...

Red wine is not for sipping. Red wine is for drinking. And not from those fancy store-bought long-stemmed glasses neither nohow.

bereweber said...

i read i read!!
no more dung beetle incarnations for me, por favor :D

i read i read, i don't always comment, and now i'm busy 'cause i am moving but soon i'll be back for more Dr. Jay's prescriptions for life

take care and hope you are enjoying your human incarnation so far ;)