Gratitude

I read an article today that posited the following:

“Evil is boring.  Cynicism is idiotic.  Fear is a bad habit.  Despair is lazy.  Joy is fascinating.  Love is an act of heroic genius.  Pleasure is our birthright.”

The author asked that we consider that maybe the universe was conspiring for us, rather than against us. 

A cell phone goes off in the middle of shivasana.  What happens inside your head?  Are you annoyed?  Do you open your eyes and look around to see who the idiot was who didn’t shut off her phone before class.  Are you affronted that you were disturbed from your peaceful time by this digital clatter? 

Consider that the cell phone is part of your practice.  That it’s a teacher and a friend.  Consider that the ability to cultivate equanimity and peace while sitting cross-legged in a candlelit room with soft music playing doesn’t come in handy all that often.  In the outside world, where you really need it, those rooms are hard to come by.  That’s why our vinyasa practice sets out to challenge you.  Its goal is to provide you with an opportunity to practice attaining that settled state when you’re under stress.  In class, we cultivate an artificial stress by holding ourselves in positions that challenge our strength, our balance, and our endurance, but the lessons translate directly to traffic, or bills, or deadlines, or arguments. 

When the leg we’re balancing on starts to shake, and our minds start to protest loudly, we train ourselves to reconnect with the positives.  There are other strong muscles that can help to support the weight.  Our breath is available to nourish the body and soothe the mind.  Our awareness can be widened to encompass all the elements of our situation, not just the physical body and certainly not just the left leg.

There are at least four distinct of energies: physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual.    Each of these has its capabilities and its limitations, and each of them exist in every moment, in varying levels of control or awareness.