Touched my heart today.
We are a kula who will continue to build a Beautiful City.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=EXezjFLTl-c&NR=1
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Blessing for Hearts That Are Confused
For the Interim Time
by Irish Poet John O'Donohue
When near the end of day, life has drained
Out of light, and it is too soon
For the mind of night to have darkened things,
No place looks like itself, loss of outline
makes everything look strangely in-between,
Unsure of what has been, or what might come.
In this wan light, even trees seem groundless.
In a while it will be night, but nothing
Here seems to believe the relief of dark.
You are in this time of the interim
Where everything seems withheld.
The path you took to get here has washed out;
The way forward is still concealed from you.
"The old is not old enough to have died away;
Then new is still too young to be born."
You cannot lay claim to anything;
In this place of dusk,
Your eyes are blurred;
And there is no mirror.
Everyone else has lost sight of your heart
And you can see nowhere to put your trust;
You know you have to make your own way through.
As far as you can, hold your confidence.
Do not allow your confusion to squander
This call which is loosening
Your roots in false ground,
that you might come free
From all you have outgrown.
What is being transfigured here is your mind,
And it is difficult and slow to become new.
The more faithfully you can endure here,
The more refined your heart will become
For your arrival in the the new dawn.
by Irish Poet John O'Donohue
When near the end of day, life has drained
Out of light, and it is too soon
For the mind of night to have darkened things,
No place looks like itself, loss of outline
makes everything look strangely in-between,
Unsure of what has been, or what might come.
In this wan light, even trees seem groundless.
In a while it will be night, but nothing
Here seems to believe the relief of dark.
You are in this time of the interim
Where everything seems withheld.
The path you took to get here has washed out;
The way forward is still concealed from you.
"The old is not old enough to have died away;
Then new is still too young to be born."
You cannot lay claim to anything;
In this place of dusk,
Your eyes are blurred;
And there is no mirror.
Everyone else has lost sight of your heart
And you can see nowhere to put your trust;
You know you have to make your own way through.
As far as you can, hold your confidence.
Do not allow your confusion to squander
This call which is loosening
Your roots in false ground,
that you might come free
From all you have outgrown.
What is being transfigured here is your mind,
And it is difficult and slow to become new.
The more faithfully you can endure here,
The more refined your heart will become
For your arrival in the the new dawn.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Tending the Fire of Intention on Imbolc
Two days ago, glancing out an upstairs window at a plum tree, I noticed small green buds timidly making their first appearance. The first stirrings of life concealed in it potential moving towards life revealed in its fullness.
Today is Imbolc, a cross-quarter holy day in the wheel of the Celtic year, and heralds the stirrings of Spring. As I peered once again out the upstairs window at first light, as if from a whispered cue from Brighid, the goddess of this holy day, those timid buds have declared their presence as delicate white blossoms each holding the promise of luscious fruit come summer. That which was guarded in the dark is stirring towards the light. That which was intangible, manifested. Potency took form.
Brighid is the Fire Goddess, the keeper of the flame, and is closely associated with lengthening of days, the brilliant green tips of new grass’ first beginning, snowdrop flowers daring to bloom on the still frozen earth. She is said to hold and tend the flame of the sun during the darkest days between November 1 (Samhain) and Imbolc. Her flame is the fire of potency and creativity that awakens the earth to begin to spring forth with new life. She kindles the flame of sexual desire which will rage fully by the next cross-quarter day (Beltaine in May) when new life is planted in the womb. Her radiance tends to healing the body and alights the intellect with fresh vision. The warmth of her voice stirs the heart and poetry springs forth. She is the keeper of the hearth, and the light in the dark of despair.
On this day, it is a day to tend to the flame of your intention. The year is still new, that which your heart desires and that you have willfully set into the soil of your being, is showing the first signs of its journey from dormancy to one of action. These seeds of intention must still be kept warm and held in protection against becoming frozen, stagnant, dead. In Sanskrit, stoking the flame of your will is called Tapas. Tapas is like the smoldering fire of Brighid warming the seeds of your intention (Sankalpa) so that they begin to extend beyond the protective boundaries of their seed state and move towards the actions that will take root and sprout, blossom and fruit. Whatever intentions or New Year’s resolutions you made (whether you made them at Samhain, the Solstice, or more traditionally in the United States, on New Year’s Day), this is the critical moment to re-affirm the intention. Re-kindle the fire of the will and heat the potential beneath the surface. With an inner whisper of the Brighid, call forth buds and blossoms into their form.
May the highest intention of your heart continued to be kindled by the fire of your will. May your dreams begin to take root and sprout forth into being as we enter into the stirring of Spring. May the stirring of your dreams bring you to the balanced place of effort and grace so that the buds will blossom and the blossoms will fruit.
Happy Imbolc!
 |
| Brighid Sowing Spring by Gael Kitty |
Brighid is the Fire Goddess, the keeper of the flame, and is closely associated with lengthening of days, the brilliant green tips of new grass’ first beginning, snowdrop flowers daring to bloom on the still frozen earth. She is said to hold and tend the flame of the sun during the darkest days between November 1 (Samhain) and Imbolc. Her flame is the fire of potency and creativity that awakens the earth to begin to spring forth with new life. She kindles the flame of sexual desire which will rage fully by the next cross-quarter day (Beltaine in May) when new life is planted in the womb. Her radiance tends to healing the body and alights the intellect with fresh vision. The warmth of her voice stirs the heart and poetry springs forth. She is the keeper of the hearth, and the light in the dark of despair.
On this day, it is a day to tend to the flame of your intention. The year is still new, that which your heart desires and that you have willfully set into the soil of your being, is showing the first signs of its journey from dormancy to one of action. These seeds of intention must still be kept warm and held in protection against becoming frozen, stagnant, dead. In Sanskrit, stoking the flame of your will is called Tapas. Tapas is like the smoldering fire of Brighid warming the seeds of your intention (Sankalpa) so that they begin to extend beyond the protective boundaries of their seed state and move towards the actions that will take root and sprout, blossom and fruit. Whatever intentions or New Year’s resolutions you made (whether you made them at Samhain, the Solstice, or more traditionally in the United States, on New Year’s Day), this is the critical moment to re-affirm the intention. Re-kindle the fire of the will and heat the potential beneath the surface. With an inner whisper of the Brighid, call forth buds and blossoms into their form.
May the highest intention of your heart continued to be kindled by the fire of your will. May your dreams begin to take root and sprout forth into being as we enter into the stirring of Spring. May the stirring of your dreams bring you to the balanced place of effort and grace so that the buds will blossom and the blossoms will fruit.
Happy Imbolc!
Friday, January 6, 2012
Cultivating the "Holy Wow!"
2012 has arrived! May this year bring you more fully into your heart!
These first six days of the new year have blessed us in Northern California with some of the most spectacular sunsets I've witnessed in my years here. Firey reds and expressive oranges have given way to explosive pinks and deep mysterious purples. Every afternoon I have gone out to witness the unfolding light and a swelling of pure amazement pours out in the oh so eloquent, "Holy Wow! Amazing!" And the cool thing is that each day, it seems to get more incredible.
In our journey into the heart, into the space of the great I AM, we are much the same as this ever expansive unfolding light show I've been witnessing. Delving into our practices and fully engaging our hearts into all we do, we bear witness to our own inner expansion bringing us to a state of sheer delight, wonder, and astonishment at who we are. It's a state called "camatkara," which is eloquently defined by my friend and tantric scholar Chris "Hareesh" Wallis as "the state of fully self-aware expansive wonder, where Consciousness is suffused with the sudden rapture of great beauty, vibrating with awestruck joy." (Tantra Illuminated, Anusara Press, 2011)
As 21st Century adults, it is so easy to step into the current of cynicism (anti-wonder). We get sucked into a black hole of thinking we know everything and being amazed by nothing. People think the spiritual path is is meant to take you closer to a void of nothingness rather than a throbbing, pulsating state of expansive wonder. And, rather than being curious about the mysteriousness of 2012, we grasp on to apocalyptic visions of fear. With all this, it is time for visionaries of the heart to join together and proclaim 2012 as:
The Wonder Year.
Amazing. Astonishing. Awakening.
This is a year to soften ourselves back to a place of curiousity, wonder, and delight at the very fact of our embodiment. To be born at all is really quite incredible, if not improbable. To be born into such an exciting time of Consciousness awakening among so many wonderful practioners of the heart is downright jaw-dropping. In my classes, all of 2012 will be dedicated to actively cultivate this "Holy Wow" so that we can shine light into a cynical culture. Together, we will meet each breath, each pose, each sunset with fresh eyes, enthusiasm, and curiousity.
These first six days of the new year have blessed us in Northern California with some of the most spectacular sunsets I've witnessed in my years here. Firey reds and expressive oranges have given way to explosive pinks and deep mysterious purples. Every afternoon I have gone out to witness the unfolding light and a swelling of pure amazement pours out in the oh so eloquent, "Holy Wow! Amazing!" And the cool thing is that each day, it seems to get more incredible.
In our journey into the heart, into the space of the great I AM, we are much the same as this ever expansive unfolding light show I've been witnessing. Delving into our practices and fully engaging our hearts into all we do, we bear witness to our own inner expansion bringing us to a state of sheer delight, wonder, and astonishment at who we are. It's a state called "camatkara," which is eloquently defined by my friend and tantric scholar Chris "Hareesh" Wallis as "the state of fully self-aware expansive wonder, where Consciousness is suffused with the sudden rapture of great beauty, vibrating with awestruck joy." (Tantra Illuminated, Anusara Press, 2011)
As 21st Century adults, it is so easy to step into the current of cynicism (anti-wonder). We get sucked into a black hole of thinking we know everything and being amazed by nothing. People think the spiritual path is is meant to take you closer to a void of nothingness rather than a throbbing, pulsating state of expansive wonder. And, rather than being curious about the mysteriousness of 2012, we grasp on to apocalyptic visions of fear. With all this, it is time for visionaries of the heart to join together and proclaim 2012 as:
The Wonder Year.
Amazing. Astonishing. Awakening.
This is a year to soften ourselves back to a place of curiousity, wonder, and delight at the very fact of our embodiment. To be born at all is really quite incredible, if not improbable. To be born into such an exciting time of Consciousness awakening among so many wonderful practioners of the heart is downright jaw-dropping. In my classes, all of 2012 will be dedicated to actively cultivate this "Holy Wow" so that we can shine light into a cynical culture. Together, we will meet each breath, each pose, each sunset with fresh eyes, enthusiasm, and curiousity.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
The Pause Before the Meal: A Thanksgiving Blessing
"Dear lord, for what we are about to receive may we be deeply grateful. bless this food to our bodies and our bodies to thy service"
My grandfather's words were simple, but said it all. So perfect was the sentiment that 30 years since he passed, I still remember and hold it in my heart. The power of offering a simple blessing before you partake of any meal creates space to take in the beauty and bounty before you; to remember all who took part in it's arriving before you, and to acknowledge that it will become you and give you the energy to offer yourself into the world.
Though I truly think there is no greater pre-meal grace than the one my grandfather offered, this year, I would like to offer to you my own blessing for your Thanksgiving meal . . .
Thanksgiving Grace
May we take this moment of pause to remember the deep connections that gather us around this table of abundance.
On this Thanksgiving Day, as we enjoy this meal, may we take a moment to gaze into each other's eyes and see the sparkle of the Eternal.
As we raise our glasses, may we drink in the beauty of the diversity in which the Eternal offers Itself.
May we fill ourselves with gratitude for all of those who have loved us and challenged us during this year.
May we bow in deep appreciation for the love offered in the form of this food and having been fed with such love, may we make our offerings into the world in service of the Highest.
Monday, August 15, 2011
A Little Time Travel on Anusara's Birthday
August 15, 2005
"Congratulations, Abby! You are a fully Certified Anusara Yoga Teacher!" said Anusara Founder John Friend. "I really love what you wrote for your Grand Finale exam question. You're a part of the grand vision of this method. You have a voice in it, and you can help manifest it."
and in that one phone call, I became Anusara Certified Teacher #146. Years of practice, years of training, years of teaching, and now . . . the future. Manifesting the grand vision: Day 1.
August 15, 2011
Today is Anusara's 14th Birthday! Part of my personal celebration was to go back and read that Vision I had during my Certification process. Here's what I wrote in the winter of 2005. I have to say, it's all unfolding just the way I envisioned it.
Grand Finale Question: What is your dream and vision for Anusara Yoga? How do you intend to help make that dream manifest?
"I was blessed last summer [August 15, 2004] to be on retreat with John Friend at Inner Harmony on the 7th birthday of Anusara Yoga. I have often contemplated my vision of Anusara, as well as my role within the Anusara community since then.
I envision Anusara as a dynamnic, ever-changing, yet centered organization and community. This vision will mean that there will be times when it draws in and then expands back out again. I dream that as members of the community, we will not allow ourselves to become attached to any particular moment or form that Anusara embodies, and that we will remain open-hearted and open-minded to the flow of Anusara while being ever-aware and rooted in the philosophy and foundational tenets of the practice. My role in this vision is to be vigilant in remaining fresh, studied and curious, as well as to continue to ask myself if I am serving at my highest capacity. By keeping my view, my authentic language, my practice, and my service percolating and expanding, it will remain as dynamic and changing as the organization itself. Allowing spanda, not only withing myself, but within an entire organization takes courage and softenss.
I dream that as Anusara continues to grow, holding strong to its core, we as Anusara teachers and students will actively seek the Teacher Within and to rise to new heights. I see a unifed organization that is built around integrity and a desire to serve each other. I dream that from our practices, we will grow an inner strength that teaches us to be less demanding of John Friend and senior teachers. I can help this manifest by continually deepening my own practice. It is within our own expereince that we become who we are and rise up to offer our unique role within the growing Anusara community.
Finally I envision that Anusara will bcome more than a hatha yoga style. I see Anusara as a spiritual culture and lifestyle. Anusara philosophy transforms lives by completely changing how life is viewed. Today, we are pioneers in a new era as yoga has come West. Anusara will play a key role by making a broad-based tantric vision of ourselves, the world, and the Divine accessibile to people in all walks of life, from all cultrues and backgrounds. People will raise their children with a belief in the intrinsic goodness of life in all its manifestations. People will run their businesses based on Anusara's Universal Principles of Alignment. I can make this vision manifest by living in a life-affirming way that does not deny the beliefs, religions, or choices of those around me. I can share my spiritual life in a way that is non-thretening and non-judgemental. I can "first, see the beauty" in all situations. As we live our lives in this way, it grows exponentially, because it is all inclusive, life affirming, and a rich experience of life of this earth."
"Congratulations, Abby! You are a fully Certified Anusara Yoga Teacher!" said Anusara Founder John Friend. "I really love what you wrote for your Grand Finale exam question. You're a part of the grand vision of this method. You have a voice in it, and you can help manifest it."
and in that one phone call, I became Anusara Certified Teacher #146. Years of practice, years of training, years of teaching, and now . . . the future. Manifesting the grand vision: Day 1.
August 15, 2011
Today is Anusara's 14th Birthday! Part of my personal celebration was to go back and read that Vision I had during my Certification process. Here's what I wrote in the winter of 2005. I have to say, it's all unfolding just the way I envisioned it.
Grand Finale Question: What is your dream and vision for Anusara Yoga? How do you intend to help make that dream manifest?
"I was blessed last summer [August 15, 2004] to be on retreat with John Friend at Inner Harmony on the 7th birthday of Anusara Yoga. I have often contemplated my vision of Anusara, as well as my role within the Anusara community since then.
I envision Anusara as a dynamnic, ever-changing, yet centered organization and community. This vision will mean that there will be times when it draws in and then expands back out again. I dream that as members of the community, we will not allow ourselves to become attached to any particular moment or form that Anusara embodies, and that we will remain open-hearted and open-minded to the flow of Anusara while being ever-aware and rooted in the philosophy and foundational tenets of the practice. My role in this vision is to be vigilant in remaining fresh, studied and curious, as well as to continue to ask myself if I am serving at my highest capacity. By keeping my view, my authentic language, my practice, and my service percolating and expanding, it will remain as dynamic and changing as the organization itself. Allowing spanda, not only withing myself, but within an entire organization takes courage and softenss.
I dream that as Anusara continues to grow, holding strong to its core, we as Anusara teachers and students will actively seek the Teacher Within and to rise to new heights. I see a unifed organization that is built around integrity and a desire to serve each other. I dream that from our practices, we will grow an inner strength that teaches us to be less demanding of John Friend and senior teachers. I can help this manifest by continually deepening my own practice. It is within our own expereince that we become who we are and rise up to offer our unique role within the growing Anusara community.
Finally I envision that Anusara will bcome more than a hatha yoga style. I see Anusara as a spiritual culture and lifestyle. Anusara philosophy transforms lives by completely changing how life is viewed. Today, we are pioneers in a new era as yoga has come West. Anusara will play a key role by making a broad-based tantric vision of ourselves, the world, and the Divine accessibile to people in all walks of life, from all cultrues and backgrounds. People will raise their children with a belief in the intrinsic goodness of life in all its manifestations. People will run their businesses based on Anusara's Universal Principles of Alignment. I can make this vision manifest by living in a life-affirming way that does not deny the beliefs, religions, or choices of those around me. I can share my spiritual life in a way that is non-thretening and non-judgemental. I can "first, see the beauty" in all situations. As we live our lives in this way, it grows exponentially, because it is all inclusive, life affirming, and a rich experience of life of this earth."
Sunday, February 13, 2011
RIsing Up to the Challenge
Regarding the Eye of the Tiger Practice, John wrote:
"The Eye of the Tiger practice was my original advanced asana practice that I began in the mid-80’s. The premise was to embody a fierce, single-focus aspiration to become the highest vessel for Spirit so to best serve the Goodness and to be able to fully enjoy life. The image of the Tiger’s eye is when the Tiger is hungry and on the prowl for food. A single focused gaze reflecting a burning desire for fulfillment that won’t be denied. The fire of that longing sparkles in the tiger’s eyes reflecting the tremendous power and energy of a spiritual warrior’s will. "
We named ourselves The Kundalini Kula, because the tiger represents Durga’s tiger, the Kundalini within each of us. As John explains, "This is the ultimate creative power that we ride with great skill since it is dangerous energy which can be used for evolution or destruction."
Take a peek into our time together (accompanied by the practice's theme song):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n__gpHnpfVY
May we continue to rise to the occasion of the practice from the deepest desire to know the truth of our own hearts. Special thanks to Certified Anusara Yoga Teacher Danielle Hougard for the beautiful pictures here in this post.
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