Aligning with Grace

I go to take my Anusara Yoga class today at noon with Suzie Hurley, the wonderful director of Willow Street Yoga Center , after a hiatus of a couple of weeks. I had forgotten how delicious it is and how it feeds my soul. As always, Suzie is bursting with joy and enthusiasm as she bids us to embody "shri" - beauty - like spring blossoms, as she deftly reviews the leg principles. We play with ankle, shin, thigh, and pelvic loop as we align more deeply with the Divine in our practice. I make a mental note to review these with my own students when I begin my session in a week. A good friend is now able to take this class with me - in fact, she is the one who told me about this class years ago, when I taught during this very same time slot, never imagining myself to be free at the time. We drive over together, sharing insights and and seeking out each other's wisdom and simply enjoying one another's company... I come home to settle in for a little afternoon work in my off...

I found this poem online where Rumi speaks of God. I included excerpts from it in my entry a few days ago but wanted to share the whole piece... "When His love shines without a veil - neither the sky remains nor the earth, not the sun, not the moon. God embraces all... There is nothing that is not a part of him already. Remember God! His remembrance is the strength in the wings of the bird that is your soul The souls of all friends of God are connected with one another. You must seek anything that you wish to find Not so with the Friend... You begin to seek after you find him." On the World The world is a mountain Whatever you say, good or bad, it will echo it back to you. Don't say I sang nicely and mountain echoed an ugly voice... That is not possible. The human intellect is a place where hesitation and uncertainty take root. There is no way to overcome the hesitation... except by falling in love To reach the sea and be happy with a jug of water is a waste the sea has p...

The river calls, it beckons, and I come down to its banks in the early morning...I step inside, and baptize my feet... It is quiet, and still, and beautiful, and I think to myself, it doesn't get much better than this... I think once again of the bumper sticker I saw last week - it haunts me, in a good way: "Happiness is a choice..." Yes it is - it is a choice we must make again, and again, and again... I also recall so many beautiful passages that I have read lately by Yogananda: "The laughter of the Infinite God must vibrate through your smile. Let the breeze of His love spread your smiles in the hearts of men... You have the power to hurt yourself or to benefit yourself... If you do not choose to be happy no one can make you happy. Do not blame God for that! And if you choose to be happy, no one can make you unhappy... It is we who make of life what is is... Remember that when you are unhappy it is generally because you do not visualize strongly enough the great t...

For the first time in months, I am on break from teaching my yoga classes, so I go down to the river on this magnificent Monday morning to launch Grace. I come down in a tank top and shorts for the first time in months. It is hot, and there is not a cloud in the sky. It feels exhilarating to push off from the boat launch and step into the water in my crocs, wading around without boots and the protection and insulation they provide... I reflect on a bumper sticker I saw a few days ago: "Happiness is a choice." So true. But not always easy to internalize. I reflect on how the readings of Paramahansa Yogananda are addressing this very topic at the moment in his Spiritual Diary ...I also recall sage advice from Rumi, recorded yesterday: "Sadness is a thief. It steals our energy." Such sayings of wisdom coming to me from so many sources... I contemplate such insights and others gained during the wonderful training I did this weekend with Todd Norian, a gifted Anusara Yog...

Tomorrow I will share more of Todd Norian's wonderful insights and inspirational thoughts. Todd is a gifted Anusara Yoga teacher who was in town these last three days for yoga therapy training. This early morning, as I was driving to the other side of the river for the conclusion of the workshop, I listened to a program on NPR on the ecstatic poetry of Rumi. I only caught the tail end of the program, but it was enough to feed my soul, as I traveled to a venue where I would also feed my body. These are some of the incandescent words which set my heart on fire, and which I drank in like the sweetest nectar: "Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world. The heart has its own language. The heart knows a hundred thousand ways to speak. If you don't plow the earth of your heart, nothing will grow in it. I am on fire. If you doubt that - touch me! Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love. Sadness is a thief. It steals your energy. If anyone seeks a fairy,...

I am spending three days with Todd Norian this weekend, who is one of my favorite Anusara Yoga Teachers. The focus of the weekend is Anusara yoga therapy, but last night's class was a general practice and its theme was "planting seeds of joy." I am going to summarize some of Todd's opening comments: " Anusara Yoga is a tantric practice that is life-affirming. Tantra is really the art of thriving. Joy is the basis of Anusara, and we are continually striving to cultivate this virtue and attribute... Anusara is a path of radical affirmation - it affirms that life is good - and is meant to be an adventure. Spring is the season of affirmation and new growth. It is also a cleansing season for the body and the mind, and the season invites us to let go of our self-limiting beliefs. Weeds grow in our minds during this season as well. Anything that is not an affirmation is a self-limiting thought of things I can't do. Whatever thought you nourish grows deep roots. W...

It is a beautiful day, and the start to a very busy weekend for me, so I am drawn to go down to the river for a visit mid morning... I love this river - it has taught me so much in the last year and half since I have been visiting it. There are so many lessons and insights that have come from deeply communing with it, or from the ruminations of the heart and soul that have poured out of my depths by its banks. It is quiet, sunny, breezy - and the river is still swollen. I sit down on a clump of grass by the well worn path leading down to the shore by the riverbank that is now under water... I watch two beautiful geese - gliding down the river in tandem, without a care in the world. I observe how every rivulet and wave dissolves and merges with all those surrounding it - a constant reminder of both the impermanence and the fundamental unity of all things - realities I know and accept on a cognitive level, but have difficulty internalizing on an emotional level... I consider discussions ...