A Joyful Practice

A Quick Note & EXCERPT: “When Awareness Expands” June 1, 2025

Many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone Counting the Omer, getting ready to celebrate Shavuot, and/or celebrating the Seventh Sunday of Pascha: The Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council.

Yoga Sutra 3.5: tád jayat prajñā lōkāh

— “Through the mastery of that [three-part process of samyama] comes the light of knowledge, transcendental insight, or higher consciousness.”

“When one has succeeded in making this Samyama, all powers come under his control. This is the great instrument of the Yogi. The objects of knowledge are infinite, and they are divided into the gross, grosser, grossest and the fine, finer, finest and so on. This Samyama should be first applied to gross things, and when you begin to get knowledge of this gross, slowly, by stages, it should be brought to finer things.”

— commentary on Yoga Sūtra 3.5 from Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda

Ted Turner’s CNN (Cable News Network) premiered Sunday, June 1, 1980, at 5 PM EST; making it the first 24-hour news channel and the first all-news television in the United States. While other news channels made fun of the new outlet, CNN stayed focused (with the slogan “Go live, stay with it, and make it important.”) and changed the way government made and addressed policy and also the way people interacted with each other and the news.

There was no such thing as CNN back in 1921, when the Greenwood District (in Indian Territory) — also known as “Black Wall Street” — was destroyed in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

CLICK ON THE EXCERPT TITLE BELOW FOR MORE.

NOTE: The post excerpted below does not reference the shooting which happened in Tulsa today in 2022.

When Awareness Expands (a “renewed” and expanded post)

“On Thursday morning, June 2, 1921, one of Tulsa’s many problems was that of optics. A large chunk of the city had been obliterated in a matter of hours and an embarrassingly large portion of the city’s population had a hand in the obliterating. How this was going to look to outsiders was far from an irrelevant concern for many Tulsans, especially the city’s elite for whom pride in the city’s accomplishments was keen…. Would businesses go elsewhere? Would other ‘better citizens’ from other places look down their noses?”

— quoted from The Center for Public Secrets Journal article entitled, “Mask of Atonement: The Plan to Rebuild the Homes of Greenwood” by Randy Hopkins

Please join me for a 65-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Sunday, June 1^st) at 2:30 PM. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra  (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Sunday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “06012021 The Difference A Day Made”]

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is a new app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

### PEACE IN, PEACE OUT ###