January 30, 2004
Steve�s Sadhana inSights
Most personal trainers focus their efforts in the gym. My focus has always been in the mind. Rarely is my day not begun by meditation. Near my puja table is a journal. i use it as an insight-catcher. i steadily chip away, year after year, at my afflictions and restrictions of body and mind through conscious breath and deep silence.
my journal recordings sharpen the edge of my dharana (concentration) so that i keep my spiritual bow pulled taut and my zen arrows ready for my next challenge (what non-Practitioners call �problems�). as one of my Tibetan Teachers tried teaching his American students;
�Like your problems like you like ice cream.�
{it has become known to my generous students that i use journals. May Buddha bless you, but you can stop gifting me journals. i have enough beautiful journals to handscribe the entire RigVeda a few times over. giving gifts to yoga teachers is tricky; it puts us in awkward places. we already have what we came Here Now for; your Awareness and your Practice.}
as a coach, my duty is to show. i must be brave enough to speak what i feel may be of help. it�s hard and emotionally scary. it�s kept me an easy target for non-Practitioners through the years. yet, i remain devoted to the same thing as you; a re-turn into Natural Joy.
May all beings know happiness.
head bowed,
your feeble teacher
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The Urge To Do
Our basic nature is to explore our edges.
An infant plies awareness into her sheath of skin with wonder.
A toddler attempts to walk then run. Fear of falling again and again? A low priority.
As grown ups we get so frightened by failure that we get embarrassed
if we take a yoga class and fall out of a balance pose, why?
the ego.
still, we come back to the mat.
we return to the gym.
tied again are the laces of our running shoes.
we keep coming back...why?
because our essential urge is to do.
Our elemental energy wants to do...why?
because
it�s fun.
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There Is No Striving During Inner Silence
getting to know inner silence is like getting to know any other friend.
it starts with a handshake.
grows into companionship.
the speed and degree of attraction to this friend
is
your
karma.
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Intent inspires Insight.
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If kinesthesia means the capacity to sense one�s body in space (coordination) how come there is no word for sensing one�s life force (breath)? i nominate this word:
Pranesthesia; a sensory experience derived from the respiratory and subtle anatomic channels mediated by breath.
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i still charge into my edges in yoga way too fast.
an ongoing metaphor of my spiritual life;
i am driven toward Enlightenment like the
podiums in the sports i did.
i want Enlightenment way too fast.
make spiritual note to self; slow down.
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Everything existing right now
depends on (y)our Mind.
Changing (y)our Mind
changes everything in existence.
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