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Dear friends, Greetings and all the best to you as winter slowly fades into spring. I hope this email finds you well, and as I share my insights and revelations you too can look for ways to bring spirit deeper into your life. In this issue: ·
Applied
Yoga: Learning
Through Life ·
Life Coaching from
a Yogic Perspective: ·
Notices: ____________________________________ Yoga
Philosophy: Consciousness is Everything
I love to read sacred texts, poetry and
cross-cultural stories that tell of the yearning heart and the
longing soul. My favorites
express the simple yet profound understanding that we are intimately
connected to all that we experience through our senses, and as such,
also the divine spirit that is the power
behind all creation. To this
light I find that Tantric philosophy—the core of yogic
wisdom—touches my sensitivities most profoundly.
In brief, it holds that everything has its source in Supreme
Consciousness, that consciousness is everything.
Our opportunity is to refine our awareness to a point in which we
can recognize this and see divinity in the diversity all around us.
Wow! what a powerful concept.
It is both incredibly simple and powerfully unifying.
It can also be profoundly threatening.
Most of us have not been taught to perceive spirit in such an
all-embracing manner; most are taught, in one way or the other, to
separate our spirituality from our everyday consciousness.
To state that there is a Supreme Consciousness that cannot be
separated nor removed from the mundane would require some serious
re-thinking about how inclusive this “everything is connected” thing
can be. How we put ourselves
into the equation and act with responsibility toward ourselves, other
people, cultures, belief systems, politics, economics, and so on, can
profoundly shape a world and change lives.
We may wrestle with comprehending the shades of gray that go
along with making peace between one’s inner journey to spirit and how
they interact with the outer world.
We can easily come to ask, “How do we make sense of this
concept that everything comes from God and is an expression of God when
I don’t see much expression of love and mutual concern?”
I believe the answer lies not in a mental exercise seeking
comprehension, but rather in the cultivation of a refined experiential
relationships— with ourselves, the world and spirit.
As stated above, I love to study the wisdom of our diverse
spiritual cultures and then seek ways to comprehend and apply it to my
own life. Tantra takes me
there and blows my mind in ways that really helps me see the presence of
a higher power coursing through all aspects of my life.
It helps me to understand myself and how most humans are born
into a limited understanding of the relation of Supreme Consciousness
and how it intimately relates to their personal lives.
Self interest, survival, the desire for love, need for
entertainment, and the compulsion to “get ahead” occupy their state
of mind much more than figuring out expanding states of consciousness. Indeed,
Tantra has taught me that an occult view of the nature of reality is the
very aspect of the divine plan that allows for differentiation and
multiplicity. The yogis call
this veil that conceals the truth of our nature maya,
the power of illusion that blankets full consciousness.
They hold that the Absolute playfully hides from us so we can
experience our diversity and differentiation as we act on the stage of
life, and hopefully return to a fuller self-awareness of our higher
nature.
I was recently delighted with the explanation of this as I was
reading the Shiva Sutras, one
of the most sacred text of Tantric Yoga.
It stated that the Supreme Being weaves a web of concealment to
hide that it is the sole actor playing out all the diverse roles in the
dance of life; the actor/dancer takes on the role of the many, all the
while remembering that it is the sole actor itself.
However, we, the diverse characters, are so entrenched in the
roles that we lose sight of the veil of maya and do not recognize our own divine nature.
This explains how we get so caught up in the details of the
roles we play and overlook that we are the Grand Actor itself. We lose
sight of ourselves due to the very nature of the intensity of being
human. Addressing this, the
yogic practice teaches the art of recognizing that our independence is
not a separation from the grand player; it is a recognition that the
mundane and the sublime are interconnected.
We have freedom to act and in doing so are living a limited
aspect of Supreme Consciousness’s absolute freedom—svatantrya
in Sanskrit.
So, if we can accept that we come from the One Source, and
recognize that we currently do not have full awareness of this in our
every-day consciousness, what do we do with this?
How do we use this to make sense of our life and bring in more
equanimity and meaning as we work through our issues and relationships?
The yogic answer is to foster a deeper relationship with our own
true nature and the recognition that there is nothing that does not have
its origin in the sacred. When
we begin to see it all as, what I call, “the beautiful chaos in the
order of things,” there is less disconnect and more understanding that
things are in a state of flux moving towards and away from the light in
their own perfect order. Any
absence of the divine attributes—lightness of
being, freedom, self-awareness, perfection in its own
wholeness—is precisely that, an absence, not its nature.
A shadow reflects the absence of light, not a quality of light
itself. Knowing that the
divine plays the game of concealment and revelation, we can take on the
role of discoverers setting out on a journey of awareness.
Our primary tool of discovery is the process of refining our
perception that our true and highest nature is not our body, mind,
relationships or life circumstances.
These are the tools at our disposal for deepening our
relationship to our spirit and the ever-presence of Supreme
Consciousness. We can direct
our attention inward to explore the presence of intrinsic goodness and
higher consciousness, and as such, come to a greater awareness of how it
is also present in our surrounding environment. This
poetic subjectivity invites us to see the light of the divine in all
things, to look for the connectivity, and know that we are never
abandoned, unloved or alone on this challenging path of being human. ___________________________________ Applied Yoga:
Learning Through Life
It is our true identity that unites us all as differentiated
parts of one resplendent whole. I’ve
learned that when I intentionally look for this unity I can sense it all
around me. Indeed, it is
said that as we learn to drop the veil of separation between ourselves
and the presence of Supreme Consciousness we truly begin to live.
Relative to this concept I’d like to share a couple salient
points that I’ve gleaned from my readings.
The Shiva Sutras (2.8)
states that, “Having attained residence in the true Self of the Supreme Consciousness the sense of limited and limiting identification with the physical body is then released into that great Consciousness as an offering, releasing the sense that the body is the Self.” In the Spanda Kārikā (1.9) it is written, “When all agitations end [limiting your “I” Consciousness to your smaller self identity], then the supreme state of God consciousness is revealed.” And from The Bhagavadgita (4.27), “Offer all your actions as an offering to the fire of the one-pointedness of God consciousness and your life and everything becomes sacred.”
These guiding concepts help me to feel less alone and isolated as
I walk my unique life path. Refinement of attitude creates alignment and action that is in-tune with my heart’s desire. The freedom I experience comes from trusting my path and the knowledge I’ve gained through direct experience. It orients me towards the highest and supersedes social mores, other’s fears, religious dogma and habitual patterns imposed by family pathology. Indeed, the more I follow this path the more I understand how everything manifest is always created in thought and spirit first. The yogic masters fully understand this and its implications of empowered creativity. They study the “map of the world” and are able to act in accordance with the power of the universe in such a way that they create what we call miracles. To them, matter and form are expressions of spirit made manifest, and as such, they can be manipulated and shaped into a desired reality. I recognize that I have not mastered such levels of creativity—yet. I am working more on shaping my life and circumstances in ways that create an expression of my higher values of peace, harmony and abundance. Through practice I have learned that moving with intention and quiet strength gets the job done. Being aware of my thoughts and patterns of perceiving helps me to feed what I want to thrive and diminish that which doesn’t serve my highest intentions. I’ve observed that my sensitivity to who I am from the inside out deepens my awareness of how my inner world shapes the world around me. I’ve also learned that in this world of free will there are things I cannot influence or change; here it is my response to the “outside” that reflects my grounding and steadfast focus on what really matters most to me. My yoga teacher, Elizabeth Rainey, eloquently stated this in a recent newsletter: “As we find ourselves more and more at home in the folds of our inner sweetness we begin to naturally bring this to our interactions with the world around us; intuitively offering more gentle waves of words and response to people and situations. And in so doing, we begin to permeate life with a sensitivity and subtly that brings depth and understanding to each wave of experience on the surface.” Modern mystic Aluna
Joy Yaxk’in, writing in the metaphysical journal In Light Times
(February, 2011 issue), adds to
this in her comments regarding how our times are calling us to expand
our way of being and personal empowerment: “This new time calls us to be authentic and conscious and be aware of what is going on around us. It is about observing an issue or problem, and instead of investing our energy, it is about consciously pulling our energy out of the situation. If we are being drawn into a drama, or some negative issue, instead of fighting it or trying to force it to change, we must realize that we are part of that creation. The Masters say the most appropriate action to take is to actually pull our light out of the situation and know that by doing so, we actually reduce the problem .... Conscious creating is a muscle that has atrophied during the dark cycles in most of us. The more we practice positive intent and conscious creation, the less we will see or be exposed to negative situations. There is a fine line between judgment and discernment that we all struggle with. What we are talking about is simple discernment and simply calling things for what they are. Judgment has an emotional charge that comes with it. True discernment does not…discernment is egoless and neutral. We do not want to be judgmental as this creates karma.” There You Are You're
inside every kindness. When Someone claims to have
evidence that You are inside the soul's How we are during a day,
then at night, Every encampment has a tent -
Rumi ___________________________________ ·
Life Coaching from
a Yogic Perspective: ___________________________________ Notices: Retreat #1
"Making Inner Space" - July 16
(optional date July 23rd)
("Optional date" will be utilized should the weather in
Seattle be uncooperative.) ·
Posters of my art
now available
·
My teaching
schedule: Monday: 12:00 noon to 1:15 pm at Olympic Athletic Club in Ballard Thursday: 7:30 pm to 8:50 pm 7-week class series in my home yoga studio.
Friday:
12:00 noon to 1:15 pm at Olympic
Athletic Club
Saturday: 10 am to
11:15 morning class at the Private Yoga Instruction and/or therapy: For those who want individual instruction and guidance I also teach private students out of my home. I also offer yoga therapy for individual physical concerns. Private classes are $45 for an hour with a pre-paid commitment to ten classes, or $50 for a single individualized session. Also, I’m available for special group classes at your location.
May your heart be filled with peace, joy and light. Namaste,
Will PS. Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to your friends. A link to archived issues can be found at http://www.theyogacoach.com/.
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