Why do we practice yoga?

an excerpt from "Eat Pray Love"

"Why do we practice Yoga?" (my teacher) asked again. "Is it so we can become a little bendier than our neighbors? Or is there perhaps some higher purpose?"


Yoga, in Sanskrit, can be translated as "union." It originally comes from the root word yuji, which means "to yoke," to attach yourself to a task at hand with ox-like discipline. And the task at hand in Yoga is to find union -- between mind and body, between the individual and her God, between our thoughts and the source of our thoughts, between teacher and student, or even between us and our sometimes hard-to-bend neighbors.

In the West, we've mainly come to know Yoga through its now famous pretzel-like exercises for the body. But this is only Hatha Yoga, one limb of the philosophy. The ancients developed these physical stretches not for personal fitness, but to loosen up their muscles and minds in order to prepare for meditation. It is difficult to sit in stillness for many hours, after all, if your hip is aching.

But yoga can also mean trying to find God through meditation, through scholarly study, through the practice of silence, through devoltional service or through mantra -- the repetition of sacred words in Sanskrit. While some of these practices tend to look rather Hindu in their derivation, Yoga is not synonymous with HInduism, nor are all Hindus Yogis. True Yoga neither competes with nor precludes any other religion. You may use your Yoga -- your disciplined practice of sacred union -- to get closer to Krishna, Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha or Yahweh.

During my time in the Ashram, I met devotees who identified themselves as practicing Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and even Muslims. I have met others who would rather not talk about their religios affiliation at all, for which, in this contentious world, you can hardly blame them.


The Yogic path is about disentangling the built-in glitches of the human condition, which I'm going to define here as the heartbreaking inability to sustain contentment. Different schools of thought over the centuries have found different explanations for man's apparently inherently flawed state. Taoists call it imbalance, Buddism calls it ignorance, Islam blames our misery on rebellion against God, and the Judeo-Christian tradition attributes all of our suffering to original sin. Freudians say that unhappiness is the inevitable result of the clash between our natural drives and civilation's needs.

The Yogis, however, say that human discontentment is a simple case of mistaken identity. We're miserable because we think that we are mere individuals, alone with our fears and flaws and resentments and mortality. We wrongly believe that our limited little egos constitute our whole entire nature. We have failed to recognize our deeper divine character. We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme Self who is eternally at Peace. Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in dispair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line by Epictetus: "You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not."


Yoga is the effort to experience one's divinity personally and then to hold on to that experience forever. Yoga is about self-mastery and the dedicated effort to haul your attention away from your endless brooding over the past and your nonstop worrying about the future so that you can seek, instead, a place of eternal presence from which you may regard yourself and your surroundings with poise.Only from that point of even-mindedness will the true nature of the world (and yourself) be revealed to you.

Yogis see all this world as an equal manifestation of God's creative energy - men, women, children, turnips, bedbugs, coral: it's all God in disguise. But the Yogis believe that the human life is very special because only in a human form and mind can God-realization ever occur. The turnips, bedbugs and coral never get the chance to find out who they are. But we do have that chance.

"Our whole business therefore in this life," wrote Saint Augustine, rather Yogically, "is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen."

Elizabeth Gilbert ~ Eat Pray Love

Song for the Ocean

A beautiful Song for the Ocean. She needs us now.




http://www.songfortheocean.com/
We are all connected by the ocean. Our everyday actions affect the world in which we live, and all creatures sharing our planet. I wrote "Song for the Ocean" so that, through singing and watching, we can all raise our awareness and get involved in creating positive environmental change.
Sing Brave. Sing Strong. Sing Together. Sing Now...
Song for the Ocean: written, produced and performed by Kristin Hoffmann
Videography and images: Colin Garland and Global Classroom

Time for One Party - the Human Party

More republican women siding with what's good instead of what's politically platformed. Good to see more people choosing human rights and what's best for the planet over political dogma. The Bush women prime examples.

It's time to put away our politics and get it together.

More republican women have been speaking out for what's good for the country instead of what has been platformed by their political party. This goes for women of many platforms in general.

I read recently that the Bush women, for example, have been speaking out for what they believe in regardless of the family's political affiliation. Most recently, Laura Bush was noted as saying on her recent book tour that she is clearly for abortion rights/the right to choose and supports gay marriage (it's a basic civil right). "Why should people who are in love be refused the right to be together?", she says. She also says that anything other than equality for all people is "just old fashioned" and a "generational thing." The time has come for a generational change.

In another recent interview on Fox TV no less, the younger Barbara Bush, Laura's 28-year old daughter, was quoted as saying this in response to a question regarding the recent health care reform bill:

(from Yahoo news.com)
When "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace asked her whether she supports President Obama's health care reform plan, she responded: "I guess I'm glad the bill was passed."

"Why do, basically, people with money have good health care and why do people who live on lower salaries not have good health care?" she said.

"Health should be a right for everyone."

She is president of the Global Health Corps, an organization that champions global health equity.

Barbara Bush's comments come just weeks after her mother, former First Lady Laura Bush, was also asked to comment on the dem party's nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

"I think it's great," she responded. "I'm really glad that there will be three [women] if she's confirmed. I like to have women on the Supreme Court."


We must get past our "partisan" thinking if we are to heal this world. Figures we'd see women doing it first (no offense guys, heh!).

And whomever comes up with the Gulf clean-up... just support it! dems, reps, non-parties, let's just DO IT!!! Who cares who gets credit for stuff already. We have a planet to care for and a world to heal. It begins with us. Kudos to Laura Bush and her daughter. I have always liked her.

addendum -

And forget corporate political relationships (isn't it also time for a ban on corporate financing of political careers?), etc. BP needs to be held fully accountable for the Gulf tragedy - including fines (for destruction of the planet), total clean-up and recovery costs (billions of dollars, yes), and frankly, imprisonment for withholding/falsifying info and other clearly criminal activity. If you do the crime, you do the time. We must set the model now that it is not ok to destroy the planet... for money! (If it's not a crime to destroy the planet, we are even further behind the times - and the evolution of humanity - than we thought.)

The time has clearly come for strong local and global legislation (and strict accountability) for the permanent banning of off-shore drilling and other earth-destructive politics and practices. Greed is no longer an option. The destruction of the planet is no longer an option. Off-shore drilling is no longer an option (indeed it should not have been an option after the exxon or any of the other 20 off-shore oil spills). It is wrecking the eco-system, innocent life, and has global destruction potential that will be felt for generations. And... it serves no purpose other than feeding corporate greed. Let's stop this spill (over 50 days and counting) and focus upon this -- there are so many new and innovative and exciting "clean" energy sources to develop and create. Let's put our focus there - on new and innovative "21st century" technologies. and become the dream we can be.

My Zen Dog, pt. deux

My zen dog Jersey was at it again. Sitting still in the grass, content for moments and moments, watching the breeze move branches against a clear blue sky. Taking it all in. Happy. Easy. Peaceful. Chasing butterflies and catching bees. Life is easy when you are naturally zen.

Earth Keepers

hubby and I were playing earth stewards at the dog park yesterday. we were picking up the garbage we found along the way. eric often does this actually. yesterday we even carried a garbage bag with us. it was fun. here are some of the marshes at our beautiful dog (and horse) park.

Buddah Basics Pt. I - Facing Yourself: Awakening to the Warrior within

You are a warrior when you have the bravery to face who you are, without fear, embarassment, or denial.


"Meditation is key to seeing yourself as well as to seeing beyond yourself. Seeing yourself is the first aspect, discovering all sorts of terrible things going on in you. Facing the possibilities and the realities of that is not all that bad. If you begin to do that, you are being an honest person. Then, beyond that, you have to have further vision. Your honesty allows you to realize your goodness. You do possess Buddha in your heart."
~ Chogyam Trungpa






"Many people try to find a spiritual path where they do not have to face themselves, but where they can still liberate themselves. In truth, that is impossible. We have to see our gut, our real shit, our most undesirable parts."

Facing Youself

Our subject matter is warriorship. Anyone who is interested in hearing the truth, anyone who is interested in finding out about him or herself, and anyone who is interested in practicing meditation is basically a warrior.

Many approaches to spirituality and to life in general are influenced by cowardice. If you are afraid of seeing yourself, you may use spirituality or religion as a way of looking at yourself without seeing anything about yourself at all. When people are embarassed by themselves, there is no fearlessness involved. However, if someone is willing to look at himself or herself, to explore and practice wakefulness on the spot, he or she is a warrior.

The general goal of warriorship is to have no fear. But the ground of warriorship is fear itself.

We could get into further details, but first we should discuss he fundamental understanding of fear and fearlessness. One of the main obstacles to fearlessness is the habitual patterns that allow us to decieve ourselves. People may use tranquilizers or yoga to suppress their fear. They may go to Starbucks or the mall. We have all sorts of gimmicks and gadgets that we use in the hope that we might experience fearlessness simply by taking our mind off of our fear.

Ordinarily, we don't let ourselves experience ourselves fully. That is to say, we have a fear of facing ourselves. Experiencing the innermost core of their existence is embarassing to alot of people. Many people try to find a spiritual path where they do not have to face themselves but where they can still liberate themselves, in fact. In truth, that is impossible. We cannot do that. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to see our gut, our real shit, our most undesirable parts. We have to see that. That is the foundation of warriorship and the basis of conquering fear. We have to face our fear; we have to look at it, study it, work with it, and practice (meditation) with it.

We must decide to look at ourselves and experience ourselves honestly. We need to find ourselves, face ourselves, and beyond that, give up our inhibition. You remain true to yourself if you give up inhibition. You just give up your privacy, your sense of shyness, and the longing to have a personal "trip." It doesn't mean you become an exhibitionist; but you could be a real person.

Then you begin to realize that you have something in yourself that is basically good. It transcends the notion of good or bad. Something that is worthwhile, wholesome, and healthy exists in us all. For the first time, you are seeing the Great Eastern Sun.

But you can't jump the gun. First, let us look at ourselves. If you put one hundred percent of your heart into facing yourself, then you connect with this unconditional goodness.

The heart of the matter, the technique that seems to be the way to realize this, is the sitting practice of meditation. Meditation is key to seeing yourself as well as to seeing beyond yourself. Seeing yourself is the first aspect, discovering all sorts of terrible things going on in you. Facing the possibilities and the realities of that is not all that bad. If you begin to do that, you are being an honest person. Then, beyond that, you have to have further vision. Your honesty allows you to realize your goodness. You do possess Buddha in your heart.

from "Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery" by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Visualize Whirrled Peas...

... and World Peace too! :)

and Bless our animals caught up in the oil spill - our fellow beings on the planet. Blessings to the beautiful species and may they somehow be protected and this mess cleaned up SOON. and may it never, never happen again. may humanity learn from this and stop the maddness once and for all, and those who are still sleeping ...finally wake up. eyesight and love to those that know not what they do. for they are truly the lost souls. peace.