Aligning with Grace

"Love said to me, There is nothing that is not me. Be silent." ~ Rumi I read this quote a few days ago, and it was perfect in every way. It defined my weeks, and defined my days, so far this crucial year of 2012. And, it even showed up in my theme during my first week back to teaching yoga. Since the holiday season ended, I have had the wonderful and delicious opportunity to make a slow re-entry back into daily activity, and I am grateful for the many wonderful opportunities to slow down. To be still. To enjoy solitude. And to be silent... There have been cold days when I visited a wind-swept river or walked among barren trees in prayer. And even once, on that rare day, when snow flurries came down as well. There have been many moments of reflection. Punctuated by goal setting. Days of assessments made - with one day flowing seamlessly into the next. I began my first week of classes by working the First Principle of Anusara Yoga - "Opening to Grace," as I usually d...

Last week, I began my yoga classes with the first sutra from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras . Today, I began with a key word from the second sutra, or verse, which is commonly translated as something like: "Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind." Or, as one of my favorites renditions by Alistair Shearer : "Yoga is the settling of the mind into silence." The word "citta" is often translated as "mind," though in his new book, The Path of the Yoga Sutras: A Practical Guide to the Core of Yoga , Nicolai Bachman , describes "citta" as "heart-mind field of consciousness," which I find absolutely delicious! So, today in my classes, I continued working with the First Universal Principle of Alignment in Anusara Yoga - which is "Opening to Grace." I chose to work with the aspects of "Inner body bright and side body long," and began my centering by having my dear Monday morning students, envision the su...

This morning, with warm coffee in tow, after a very early morning meditation as the sun rose, I went down to the river. It seems, it is calling me to visit again, as I have on and off, at various junctures, throughout these last three years... Why do I go to the river? I go for companionship. I tell the river my deepest secrets, and things that lie hidden in my heart, and it listens. The river is unconditional. It does not skirt its lessons. I also go down to the river for insights. The river somehow, always manages to teach me what I must learn. On this day, the river is partially frozen again, and the sky is overcast and gray - very much looking as if it will snow, which is in the forecast for tomorrow. Last week, I visited several times. On some days, the river rushed with great power. One day - it was perfectly still. On a couple of occasions it was nearly frozen over. I marveled at how drastically it changed from one day to another - somehow mirroring my feelings and state of mind...

A new month arrives - its welcome energies - crisp and clean - signaling a major shift. The days are growing shorter, and I look forward to the coming fall season and all that it will bring. New months always remind me of opportunities to begin again, and new seasons offer that as well. This time of year invariably issues a call to journey into greater introspection as well... We step into the last quarter of the year, and it issues an invitation - like Anusara Yoga - to step into the currents of grace, on and off the mat. My teacher, John Friend , the founder of Anusara , shared these insights on Twitter in the last couple of days: "Grace = Growing Revelation as Consciousness expands." "Our stairway lies on the whispering wind of Grace." This summer brought illness, unexpected time for reflection and reassessments, and a challenge to grow more deeply in many aspects of my life. Change and growth are never easy, but they are, as John Henry Newman once observed, t...

There are hard edges to every soul... And there are soft edges to every heart... And vice versa...I know...Because I came into this life embodying both... I walk, in the intense heat of the morning, reflecting on so much, and I hear the words of Snatam Kaur , a subtle track, laid underneath a rich mantra, whispered solely for me, given and received as a personal message: "Follow your heart! Fulfill your destiny! Awaken your soul!" At a time of great transitioning and re-imagining my life through a different lens, these words - along with the new personal mantra I have embraced in my meditations - arrive as a precious reminder of the never-ending discovery of my own true purpose... I tell a neighbor, early in the morning, as she is watering her thirsty plants on what will be another scorching and record-setting day, that for too long I ignored my intuition - trusting the insights of others - sometimes more deeply than my own wisdom. But now I have chosen to listen more careful...