Bhakti on the Outside
The internet connection at my inn has been somewhat uncooperative, so I brought my laptop to the workshop venue and decided to write for a bit during lunch and then go for a walk.
This training is being held at the Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - a home for Carmelite nuns living at the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
This morning's session focused on cultivating our vision by creating a greater opening in the neck and shoulders. We were also encouraged to increase our power of visualization and to soften our hearts by seeing others. We were urged to cultivate our bhakti (devotion for others) on the outside before cultivating it for ourselves. In others words, it is easier, as the Bhagavad Gita points out, to experience love and devotion outwardly, before we can experience it inwardly for ourselves.
There are of course, different schools of thought on this. Some would suggest cultivating lovingkindness for ourselves first before we can do it for others. Certainly both practices have merit.
We continue to work very subtly with energy - but somehow very powerfully. Something deep is shifting inside of me, and I am finding myself feeling a lot very deeply. I am defnitely experiencing the interplay between bhakti on the inside and the outside...
This training is being held at the Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - a home for Carmelite nuns living at the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
This morning's session focused on cultivating our vision by creating a greater opening in the neck and shoulders. We were also encouraged to increase our power of visualization and to soften our hearts by seeing others. We were urged to cultivate our bhakti (devotion for others) on the outside before cultivating it for ourselves. In others words, it is easier, as the Bhagavad Gita points out, to experience love and devotion outwardly, before we can experience it inwardly for ourselves.
There are of course, different schools of thought on this. Some would suggest cultivating lovingkindness for ourselves first before we can do it for others. Certainly both practices have merit.
We continue to work very subtly with energy - but somehow very powerfully. Something deep is shifting inside of me, and I am finding myself feeling a lot very deeply. I am defnitely experiencing the interplay between bhakti on the inside and the outside...
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