...wouldn’t say I bit off more than I could chew, but definitely a lot that needs to be carefully masticated, tasted, and savored for a long time...allowed to sink in gradually and somewhat systematically into the bloodstream...
...(right now seems more a time for coalescing than conclusion)...(or maybe I’m just lazy)...
...a true transformational experience might be one that leaves you just the way you were, but just a bit more okay with that...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 300:978
...returning home from Shangri-La...however defined...is, it must be said, inherently difficult....leaving so many essential connections forged in such a short span of time....(including, missed perhaps most of all, those who relentlessly made fun of me when I got intense)....only to come home to farewell drinks...lots of farewell drinks...(particularly for a guy who’d been so good for a month)...with a close friend leaving town for good just as I returned....my ego still intact enough to overdo it and strain my back moving furniture...
Don’t try to transform yourself. Move into yourself. Move into your human unsuccess. Perfection rapes the soul.
Marion Woodman
In any case, directly knowing the way things are remains a very different matter than making sense of them. As in music, where silently analyzing the score of a symphony might be instructive but could never replace the actual sounds ringing in the ears, yogic practice must supersede theory.
Chip Hartranft
...though yoga class, certainly, has taken on new resonance...now in technicolor...3-D....IMAX...
...(which doesn’t necessarily mean much...hell, The Maltese Falcon and The Philadelphia Story were black and white 1940’s Hollywood studio product but near-infinitely better than Gladiator, Titanic or any of that plotless characterless glorified special effects trade show crap these days where ya hafta wear those stupid glasses and pay twice as much as ya do for a regular movie)...(but metaphors are never meant to be 100% precise)...
The time to make up your mind about people is never.
Katherine Hepburn, The Philadelphia Story
...as of last Friday, I’ve been to at least one class...and, often, a whole hell of a lot more than that...every day since February 13...when I was busy cross-country skiing in the Rockies and gorging on pho noodles and bubble tea...making forty days in the yoga wilderness...(which, with its ironic Biblical reference seemed a perfect title for a Yoga for Cynics post a week ago, when I didn't get around to writing it)....on Sunday, that turned to forty-two...which I think meant something, or everything, in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy...a couple days ago to forty-five...my current age...yesterday to forty-six, and later today it’ll probably be forty-seven...neither of which, as far as I know has any particular spiritual significance...except that it’s the day I finally managed to get this blog post up...which, really, might be all it needs...
...as I tend to think spiritual significance is where ya find it...would take a fresh baked biscuit over the clavicle bone of some supposed 13th century saint any day...
The scent of these armpits aroma finer than prayer,
This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds.
Walt Whitman
...and, anyway, what really matters isn’t so much what or how much you do as the consciousness with which you do it...and that, as always, is a work in progress...
...certainly, if nothing else, I’ve found an expanded sense of potential...which is a lot, really...though potential, of course, is worth exactly, only and always, what you do with it...
...(right now seems more a time for coalescing than conclusion)...(or maybe I’m just lazy)...
...a true transformational experience might be one that leaves you just the way you were, but just a bit more okay with that...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 300:978
...returning home from Shangri-La...however defined...is, it must be said, inherently difficult....leaving so many essential connections forged in such a short span of time....(including, missed perhaps most of all, those who relentlessly made fun of me when I got intense)....only to come home to farewell drinks...lots of farewell drinks...(particularly for a guy who’d been so good for a month)...with a close friend leaving town for good just as I returned....my ego still intact enough to overdo it and strain my back moving furniture...
Don’t try to transform yourself. Move into yourself. Move into your human unsuccess. Perfection rapes the soul.
Marion Woodman
In any case, directly knowing the way things are remains a very different matter than making sense of them. As in music, where silently analyzing the score of a symphony might be instructive but could never replace the actual sounds ringing in the ears, yogic practice must supersede theory.
Chip Hartranft
...though yoga class, certainly, has taken on new resonance...now in technicolor...3-D....IMAX...
...(which doesn’t necessarily mean much...hell, The Maltese Falcon and The Philadelphia Story were black and white 1940’s Hollywood studio product but near-infinitely better than Gladiator, Titanic or any of that plotless characterless glorified special effects trade show crap these days where ya hafta wear those stupid glasses and pay twice as much as ya do for a regular movie)...(but metaphors are never meant to be 100% precise)...
The time to make up your mind about people is never.
Katherine Hepburn, The Philadelphia Story
...as of last Friday, I’ve been to at least one class...and, often, a whole hell of a lot more than that...every day since February 13...when I was busy cross-country skiing in the Rockies and gorging on pho noodles and bubble tea...making forty days in the yoga wilderness...(which, with its ironic Biblical reference seemed a perfect title for a Yoga for Cynics post a week ago, when I didn't get around to writing it)....on Sunday, that turned to forty-two...which I think meant something, or everything, in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy...a couple days ago to forty-five...my current age...yesterday to forty-six, and later today it’ll probably be forty-seven...neither of which, as far as I know has any particular spiritual significance...except that it’s the day I finally managed to get this blog post up...which, really, might be all it needs...
...as I tend to think spiritual significance is where ya find it...would take a fresh baked biscuit over the clavicle bone of some supposed 13th century saint any day...
The scent of these armpits aroma finer than prayer,
This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds.
Walt Whitman
...and, anyway, what really matters isn’t so much what or how much you do as the consciousness with which you do it...and that, as always, is a work in progress...
...certainly, if nothing else, I’ve found an expanded sense of potential...which is a lot, really...though potential, of course, is worth exactly, only and always, what you do with it...
11 comments:
I'm sorry I haven't been by in a long time - i need to read back through your other posts to catch up, but just want to say I feel an expansiveness coming from this post - I feel it in my chest, and I find myself smiling...
You express things that I so strongly resonate with. …about transformation and moving into ones self and so on. And I find myself wondering what this means for people in relationship. Is it true that people become better partners when they have "moved into themselves"? Or not? Most people in relationships seem to want things from the people they are with. In that circumstance can a person be there for someone else as they become more comfortable with who they are? If you are truly there for someone who is changing, might they also change towards moving away from you?
I s'pose it's a worthwhile risk, but it's not the way that relationships are traditionally thought of. The benefits might outweigh the risk, but who is really willing to do somethin' like that?
We tend to want people to be particular things for us, rather than evolving beings in themselves. Or I should probably say that I have wanted people to play particular roles in my life, and when that changes it can be hard. So hard!
And as I have changed (and my role in the lives of others has changed), I am grateful for the opportunity to make new connections, even as others (and their roles) are also changing…
i love K. Hep...and your posts. :D
Odd thing potential is you never see what you've done with it until you are looking backwards.
Keep masticating. This is going to be an interesting chew...
As you know I am no "head case" I won't be able to leave either a bright or witty comment. If it's not a tun-off for you then you can think of this as a cyberhug from an old and simple minded friend. ;)
Jay,
Loved this. It's all so hard to explain to anyone who hasn't been there -- and it's not even that much fun to try. I like this approach: masticating in public! And your quotes are all great.
Beautiful entry, thank you.
Beautiful post that I was SUPPOSED to read today, for these words: work in progress. Must. Remember. That. Must. Remember.
Work in progress.
It is so hard to remember that simple fact.
Pax vobiscum and hope all is well!
Walking Man recommended your blog to me. I'm on the yogic path myself, and I also have a rather sardonic wit--thanks for making me feel like I'm not alone. Bless you.
Susan
"A heart has its own reasons which the mind cannot understand." Have you heard of that? Even if we push and push our mind, still what's on our hearts will win. But if we accept something by heart and mind, potentials are moved into reality.
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