What (and How) Do You Recollect? / A Strenuous, Deliberate Life Photo July 12, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Art, Books, Changing Perspectives, First Nations, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Loss, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Eastman Kodak, Florence McAnaney, George Eastman, HBCUs, Henry David Thoreau, In Search of Lost Time, Life in the Woods, Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past, Swann's Way, The Captive, Walden, yoga philosophy
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Peace and blessings to all!

The following is a compilation post containing new and revised material from 2020 and 2022, with a link to the 2021 post.

“When from a long distance past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny, and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.”

– quoted from “Overture” in Swann’s Way, Volume 1 of Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust

You’re probably familiar with that old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but what’s the value of a thousand words that paint a picture? For that matter, what of a million? As I mentioned a few days ago, Marcel Proust wrote over a million words about memories and reflections – and, also, about how we recollect. He wrote about the very human thing we all do: look back over our days.

Sometimes we do it intentionally, deliberately – like the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who would end each day by reviewing what he had done between rising and retiring. The stoic emperor’s practice is a good reflection meditation, which can help us be more productive and (sometimes) can help us to sleep better. It’s a way to literally put to bed unresolved issues that might otherwise keep us awake. Unfortunately, sometimes, we find ourselves in bed regurgitating memories that no longer serve us.

“We are able to find everything in our memory, which is like a dispensary or chemical laboratory in which chance steers our hand sometimes to a soothing drug and sometimes to a dangerous poison.”

– quoted from The Captive, Volume 5 of Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust

Memories can also pop up, unexpectedly. We can be eating a madeleine or a biscuit, sitting by a moonlit lake, reading a book, listening to music, sitting down to take off or put on our shoes, or practicing on our mat and suddenly – out of nowhere it seems – we are bombarded with a very visceral memory. It seems as if it comes from nowhere, but it actually comes from inside of us. It is visceral because we not only feel it all the way to our bones, it comes out of our bones, out of our tissues, out of our minds and bodies.

So, how do you show up, in the present, when your mind-body can – at any given moment – transport you into the past? How do you make remembering useful? How do you very deliberately, very intentionally, harness the power of your memories and your ability to reflect?

What I’m really asking is: How do you remember with the intention of Thoreau and the eye of Eastman? (And, if you have that “eye of Eastman” how do you use it without (metaphorically) losing focus of the present moment?)

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

– quoted from a journal entry dated August 5, 1851, as printed in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Journal, Walden Edition by Henry David Thoreau, compiled and edited by Franklin Benjamin Sanborn and Bradford Torrey

Born today in 1817, in Concord Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau was a teacher and a writer, who is remembered as a writer and naturalist. He is also remembered as being very close to his brother John. I have heard that the brothers were close despite having different temperaments. Henry David was introverted and all about the books; John was out-going, extroverted, and fun-loving. Additionally, John supported Henry David’s every endeavor – helping him pay for tuition at Harvard and even started a new school when Henry David was fired for objecting to corporal punishment. They shared a lot of memories.

When John died, unexpectedly, in his brother’s arms, Henry David floundered. He lived with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s family for a period of time and serves as a teacher to the Emerson children. Along with Edward Hoar, he accidentally burned down several hundred acres of Walden Woods. Not long after the fire, Emerson allowed Thoreau to retreat to a cabin located on 14 acres of land, about 1.5 miles from Emerson House.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

– quoted from “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” in Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau lived in the cabin, on the banks of Walden Pond, for two years, two months, and two days. He spent that time writing his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, which he self-published on May 30, 1849. The book was a memorial for his brother and related the story of a trip the brothers took in 1839. He also wrote the work most people associate with the name Thoreau: a collection of essays entitled Walden, or Life in the Woods.

Both of Thoreau’s books are full of words that painted pictures. He was, after all, a “mental picture” taker. After his brother died unexpectedly, Henry David Thoreau was undoubtedly comforted by the images formed by his words, but think of how he might have felt (or might have written) had he and John been born decades after George Eastman.

“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”

– quoted from “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” in Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

George Eastman, born today in 1854, in Waterville, New York, was an entrepreneur, inventor, and philanthropist who founded the Eastman Kodak Company. He and two older sisters (Ellen Maria and Katie) were initially raised on a 10-acre farm his parents purchased shortly before George was born. Unfortunately, their father – a successful entrepreneur himself – died of a brain disorder when Eastman was almost 8 years old. By then, the Eastman family was living in Rochester, NY and life on the farm was but a memory.

George, who had been self-taught until his father’s death, was sent to private school and his mother took in boarders in order to survive. By the time he was 15, the youngest of his sisters (Katie) had died of polio. Soon after her death, George left school and started a photography business. By the time he was 30 years old, he had patented the first practical “roll of film.” Before the age of 35, he had developed the Kodak Black camera, designed to use roll film. Eventually, his company became the first, and the leading company, to supply film stock. Along the way, George Eastman changed the way people remembered – and he incorporated what would become a billion dollar company (all with a made up name).

“What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are.”

– George Eastman

While some of details of their lives are very different, Henry David Thoreau and George Eastman were both very private men, who lived very solitary lives, and who believed in community. They also believed in serving the community – albeit in slightly different ways.

Henry David Thoreau was a transcendentalist and an abolitionist who read the Bhagavad Gītā and believed in civil disobedience. He was criticized for a number of things throughout his lifetime, including the decision to live alone with those regulated to the fringes of society (which some viewed as “unmanly”). His maternal grandfather, Asa Dunbar, led a student revolt at Harvard in 1766 (the first recorded in the United States) and Henry David spent a (very) short period of time in jail for “tax evasion” – which was not the first time he had refused to pay something he thought he should not have to pay. It is possible (and probable) that he also helped others escape tax liens.

“Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained…. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience.”

– quoted from “Economy” in Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

George Eastman also lived a solitary life (in that he never married or had children). He was considered a progressive in the social and political sense. He fought the labor union movement by offering worker benefit programs, which included employee profit-sharing for all employees. He also promoted Florence McAnaney to the top position in the personnel department – establishing her as one of the first women to hold an executive position in a major U. S. company. He also founded “an independent non-partisan agency for keeping citizens informed” in Rochester, which continues to this day.

“If a man has wealth, he has to make a choice, because there is the money heaping up. He can keep it together in a bunch, and then leave it for others to administer after he is dead. Or he can get it into action and have fun, while he is still alive. I prefer getting it into action and adapting it to human needs, and making the plan work.”

– George Eastman

Henry David Thoreau was not a financially wealthy man. However his contributions to the world are priceless. His philosophy and viewpoints regarding “unjust laws” (like the Fugitive Slave Law, which he frequently attacked in lectures), influenced Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. His legacy to the modern world includes over 20 volumes worth of articles, essays, journals, and poetry.

On the flip side, George Eastman was a philanthropist, who donated (often anonymously, as Mr. Smith”) millions of dollars to a variety of organizations including the University of Rochester (which was also the beneficiary of his estate); the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT); and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He established the Eastman School of Music and schools of dentistry and medicine at the University of Rochester, as well as the Eastman Dental Hospital in London, England. Low-income residents of London and other European cities also benefited from Eastman’s generosity as he provided funds for multiple clinics across the pond. Additionally, donated millions to Tuskegee University and Hampton University – historically Black universities.

“Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth….”

– George Eastman

Please join me today (Wednesday, July 12^th) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. 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.

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “07122020 Strenuous, Deliberate Life Photo”]

An “Interesting” Development

If you’re interested in another look at how things “develop,” check out my related 2021 post.

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.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.)

### YS: 1.36 VIŚOKĀ VĀ JYOTIŞMATĪ ###

Introducing… You [and Your Style] (a mini-post with links) July 11, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Art, Books, Changing Perspectives, Healing Stories, Life, Music, One Hoop, Philosophy, Science, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Charles Darwin, Cicero, Diogenes, E. B. White, Herbert Spencer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Socrates
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Peace and many blessings to everyone!

“67. This species of composition which the law of effect points out as the perfect one, is the one which high genius tends naturally to produce. As we found that the kinds of sentences which are theoretically best, are those generally employed by superior minds, and by inferior minds when excitement has raised them; so, we shall find that the ideal form for a poem, essay, or fiction, is that which the ideal writer would evolve spontaneously. One in whom the powers of expression fully responded to the state of feeling, would unconsciously use that variety in the mode of presenting his thoughts, which Art demands….”

“68. That a perfectly endowed man must unconsciously write in all styles, we may infer from considering how styles originate. Why is Johnson pompous, Goldsmith simple? Why is one author abrupt, another rhythmical, another concise? Evidently in each case the habitual mode of utterance must depend upon the habitual balance of the nature. The predominant feelings have by use trained the intellect to represent them. But while long, though unconscious, discipline has made it do this efficiently, it remains from lack of practice, incapable of doing the same for the less active feelings; and when these are excited, the usual verbal forms undergo but slight modifications. Let the powers of speech be fully developed, however—let the ability of the intellect to utter the emotions be complete; and this fixity of style will disappear. The perfect writer will express himself as Junius, when in the Junius frame of mind; when he feels as Lamb felt, will use a like familiar speech; and will fall into the ruggedness of Carlyle when in a Carlylean mood. Now he will be rhythmical and now irregular; here his language will be plain and there ornate; sometimes his sentences will be balanced and at other times unsymmetrical; for a while there will be considerable sameness, and then again great variety. His mode of expression naturally responding to his state of feeling, there will flow from his pen a composition changing to the same degree that the aspects of his subject change….”

– quoted from the “iv. The Ideal Writer” in “PART II. CAUSES OF FORCE IN LANGUAGE WHICH DEPEND UPON ECONOMY OF THE MENTAL SENSIBILITIES” of The Philosophy of Style by Herbert Spencer (pub. 1852)

At least two or three times a year, I mention Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (or, more completely, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life). When I do so, I include a footnote, a reference to The Philosophy of Style by Herbert Spencer, because some people believe that Spencer’s treatise on writing introduced Darwin to the idea of writing about science in a way that would appeal to the masses. There is no denying that the way Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species caused the work to be debated in parlours and scholastic circles, as well as in courtrooms and on lawns.

The way he wrote – the style in which he wrote – that was the overcoat.

“Saepe est etiam sub pallĭolo sordĭdo sapientia.

[English translation: Wisdom often is under a filthy cloak.]”

– Latin proverb (associated with Socrates, Diogenes, and Cicero)

Click here to read about Elwyn Brooks White (born today in 1899) and Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri (born today in 1967) – and about why you probably know them by different names.

Please join me today (Tuesday, July 11^th) at 12:00 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can 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 (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Today’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “07112020 An Introduction”]

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.)

### WHAT’S UNDERNEATH YOUR OVERCOAT? ###

FTWMI: The Origins of Litigation July 10, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Faith, Healing Stories, Life, Love, Music, One Hoop, Religion, Science, Texas, Tragedy, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Aristotle, Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, Butler Act, Charles Darwin, Clarence Darrow, Code of Hammurabi, creationism, Dayton Tennessee, evolution, First Amendment, Galatians 5:14-15, Henry Sweet, Herbert Spencer, intelligent design, John T. Scopes, L. W. King, litigation, Ossian Sweet, Oxford debate 1860, Planned Parenthood v Casey, policy, Roe v Wade, Romans 13:18, Saint Paul, Scopes Monkey Trial, SCOTUS, Thomas Henry Huxley, Thomas Massie, William Jennings Bryan
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Peace and blessings to everyone!

For Those Who Missed It: The following was originally posted today in 2022. Class details and links have been updated. Notes and content updates have been added at the end of the post.

“1. If any one ensnare another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death.

2. If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.

3. If any one bring an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if it be a capital offense charged, be put to death.

4. If he satisfy the elders to impose a fine of grain or money, he shall receive the fine that the action produces.

5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge’s bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgement.”

– quoted from the Code of Hammurabi (translated by L. W. King, as posted on the Yale Law School’s Lillian Goldman Law Library website for The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy)

Before we go any further, let me clarify something important. The title of this blog post can be – and is intended to be – taken in different ways. This is not, however, a treatise on the beginning of how people started taking legal action against one another. Although, to that end, I will say that carved and chiseled tablets from as far back as 2350 BCE provide very clear evidence of Near East, Middle East, and African societies with codified expectations, processes, and precedents. Here in the West, the most well-known of these ancient legal texts is probably the Code of Hammurabi (circa 18^th century BCE), which is recognized as the laws of Hammurabi, sixth king of the First Dynasty of Babylon. Preserved on a stone slab over 7 feet (i.e., over 2 meters) tall, the text contains an image of King Hammurabi and Shamash, the Babylonian sun god and god of justice, followed by several thousands of lines of cuneiform text.

The Code of Hammurabi includes 282 rules and guidelines, which establish what happens “if” someone does something – or is accused of doing something – and what happens “[w]hen” they are proven guilty or “if” they are proven innocent “then” what happens to the accuser. The latter are particularly interesting to me, because there is no double standard: falsely accusing someone could carry the same penalty as having done the deed. It is also interesting to note that (per the fifth code, as quoted above) judges were not above the penalty of law – a rule that underscores the responsibility that comes with judicial power.

In many cases, the penalty for grievances were severe (and final). While some parts of our modern Western society have done away with the death penalty and most have eliminated “trial by river,” we can very clearly trace many of our laws, litigation processes, and penalties through the history of the Abrahamic religions and into the here-and-now – at least, from a purely historical perspective. In fact, the Code of Hammurabi is so historical significant to our modern society that Hammurabi’s image is included in the relief portraits of lawgivers located over the gallery doors of the House Chamber in the United States Capital – right next to Moses and across from two gentleman from Virginia: George Mason and Thomas Jefferson.

“We will now discuss in a little more detail the struggle for existence…. I should premise that I use the term Struggle for Existence in a large and metaphorical sense, including dependence of one being on another, and including (which is more important) not only the life of the individual, but success in leaving progeny.”

*

– from On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin (pub. 1859)

So, again, this post is not about the history of law. Instead, this post is about a trial that started today in 1925. It is not, as any good law professor or lawyer will tell you, the first (or the first significant) trial in the United States of America. Therefore, it is not the beginning of this great nation’s (sometimes way too “great”) litigation system. However, when I think about litigation that set a precedent for the way laws and legal proceedings affect society – and are affected by society – I think of The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, better known as “The Scopes Monkey Trial,” which took place in Dayton Tennessee (July 10-21, 1925).

At the center of the trial, legally speaking, was John Thomas Scopes, a high school biology substitute teacher who was accused of violating Tennessee’s “Butler Act” by teaching evolution during a high school biology class. Tennessee teachers were required, by law, to not teach evolution or deny Intelligent Design (ID) – even though the required text book had a chapter on evolution. By most accounts, Scopes skipped the chapter, but he still provided an opportunity to challenge what some considered an unconstitutional Act. Given the subject matter, it is not surprising that the trial became a carnival-like spectacle. There were vendors selling Bibles, toy monkeys, hot dogs, and lemonade. Despite the summer heat, the crowd size eventually increased to the point that the whole thing had to be moved outside. Those who couldn’t make it to Tennessee and/or the court “room” could listen to the trial on the radio. And, everyone had an opinion. Of course, the legal opinions that mattered came from the lawyers.

“Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals…. If civilization is to be saved from the wreckage threatened by intelligence not consecrated by love, it must be saved by the moral code of the meek and lowly Nazarene. His teachings, and His teachings alone, can solve the problems that vex the heart and perplex the world.”

*

– quoted from William Jennings Bryan’s written summation to The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (as distributed to the press), July 1925

*

“My statement that there was there was no need to try this case further, and for the court to instruct that the defendant is guilty under the law was not made as a plea of guilty or an admission of guilt. We claim that the defendant is not guilty, but as the court has excluded any testimony, except as to the one issue as to whether he taught that man descended from a lower order of animals, and we cannot contradict that testimony, there is no logical thing to come except that the jury find a verdict that we may carry to the higher court, purely as a matter of proper procedure. We do not think it is fair to the court or counsel on the other side to waste a lot of time when we know this is the inevitable result and probably the best result for the case. I think that is all right?”

*

– quoted from Clarence Darrow’s “bench statement” just before the jury’s verdict was announced in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, July 21, 1925

William Jennings Bryan – who was known as “The Great Commoner” and “The Boy Orator” – represented the state of Tennessee and, therefore, the idea that man was created by (the Abrahamic) God and had no relation to “other” primates. By 1925, when the trial occurred, Mr. Bryan had severed the country as a litigator; a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (from Nebraska’s 1st district); and as the 41st U. S. Secretary of State (serving under President Woodrow Wilson). He had also, unsuccessfully, run for president on three different occasions. He was adored by some, abhorred by some, and was nothing short of polarizing. [As a side note, William Jennings Bryan died five days after the verdict came in of the “Scopes Monkey Trial.”]

Then there was Clarence Darrow, for the defense.

Clarence Darrow was prominent member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and had just (the previous year) wrapped up the very public “Leopold and Loeb murder” trial. He was considered a witty, sophisticated country lawyer, who even had the audacity to put the state’s attorney (William Jennings Bryan) on the witness stand. In 1925, Clarence Darrow was already establishing his reputation as a brilliant criminal defense lawyer who fought for the underdog. Just as was the case when he represented Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, his motivation for representing John Scopes wasn’t about whether or not his client broke the law. It wasn’t even, as he pointed out in his summation, whether or not the court would find his client guilty. No, Clarence Darrow’s focus was ultimately about whether or not laws and punishments made sense. As he would illustrate in his later defense of the brothers Ossian Sweet and Henry Sweet (1926), as well as of Thomas Massie (1931), he was about the rule of law and “the law of love.”

“I do not believe in the law of hate. I may not be true to my ideals always, but I believe in the law of love, and I believe you can do nothing with hatred. I would like to see a time when man loves his fellow man, and forgets his color or his creed. We will never be civilized until that time comes.”

*

– quoted from the end of Clarence Darrow’s 7-hour closing argument in The People of Michigan v. Henry Sweet (the second of the “Sweet Trials, involving a defendant from the racially charged The People of Michigan v. Ossian Sweet et al.), May 11, 1926

Clarence Darrow’s “law of love” is the same “moral code of the meek and lowly Nazarene” that William Jennings Bryan cited and, ironically, it speaks directly to the origin of Charles Darwin’s treatise on evolution. That is to say, it is related to how we are all connected and how our survival is based on “dependence of one being on another.” However, those early teachings – which actually predate Jesus – are not always practiced as they are preached. Similarly, evolution as it was debated in Tennessee in 1925 and at Oxford University in 1860, was not exactly what Darwin presented in 1859. In fact, the scientist never even used the word “evolution” in his first text. But, it didn’t take long for his argument to, ummm, evolve (or devolve, depending on your perspective). The way Darwin approached the subject was partially responsible for why it changed and why it can still be such a hot topic.

Portions of the following, related to Charles Darwin, were originally posted on November 24, 2020.

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

*

– from On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

The idea of evolution didn’t start with Charles Darwin. No, even the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BCE) referenced earlier ideas (that predated his life) and contemplated an internal purpose (related to survival). Aristotle believed that this “internal purposiveness” existed in all living beings and could be passed down through generations. So, if the idea existed before Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (or, more completely, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life) was published on November 24,1859, why did Darwin’s work create such an uproar?

To get to the origins of Origins – or at least the controversy, chaos, and uproar around it, let’s go back to 1852, when Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist used the German term “entwicklungsgeschichte” (“development history”), which had previously been used in relation to embryos and single cell organisms, to explain cosmic and biological changes in societies. Spencer would later write an essay coining the phrase “theory of evolution” – in relation to Darwin’s work. However, in the same year (1852) that Spencer wrote about cultures having “development history,” he also wrote an essay called “The Philosophy of Style” in which he promoted writing “to so present ideas that they may be apprehended with the least possible mental effort.” In other words, Spencer advocated writing to make the meaning plain and accessible.

I can’t say for sure how much Darwin himself was influenced by Spencer, but it is very clear that Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species for non-specialists. In other words, he wrote it for the masses. And, as it was easily understood (and written by a then esteemed scientist), it became wildly discussed – in the parlors and in the public. The first big public debate occurred on June 30, 1860 during the British Science Association’s annual meeting at Oxford University. The next big public debate started today, July 10, 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee (USA). In both cases, what people remember is the way two very articulate men squared off around matters of faith and reason, and the moral and ethical implications of believing one origin story over the other.

As predicted by his lawyer, John Scopes was found guilty by the jury. The judge fined him $100 (the equivalent of about $1,670.26, as I post this today). As planned, the case was appealed to the Supreme Court of Tennessee (in 1926). All five of the defense’s constitutional points of appeal were rejected by the higher court. However, the verdict was overturned on a technicality: the $100 penalty required by the legislation was higher than what the state constitution said a judge could apply. Had the jury assigned the fine, it is possible that the case could have continued to the Supreme Court of the United States.

“It has often and confidently been asserted, that man’s origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

*

– from The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex by Charles Darwin (pub. 1871)

The fact that “The Scopes Monkey Trial” is related to Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is tangentially related to why I think of it as a litigation “origin” story. More importantly, as the first United States trial to be nationally ~~televised~~ broadcasted on the radio, The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes set a precedent on how trials are covered by the press and how the public pays attention to such trials. The press was right there, in the court “room” and, therefore, it put the whole country in the jury box; hearing testimony in real time. It was the beginning of a national (even an international) court of public opinion that’s not restricted to the parlors and the streets. Instead, this expanded defacto jury also becomes a judging and legislating body that is quick to convert cases into real world applications (and vice versa). For example, the initial verdict in 1925, led to several state legislations debating anti-evolution legislation – most of which were rejected, but some of which were codified. While Tennessee’s “Butler Act” was rescinded September 1, 1967, there have been similar legal and pedagogical debates in the United States as recently as 2005 and 2007 (hello, Kansas – where evolution is still officially “an unproven theory”). The case also led to changes in science text books (across the country) and changes in the way in which students were taught – and not just about how they were taught biology.

Finally, as a textbook case on how the U. S. legal system could work, ”The Scopes Monkey Trial” was/is a primer for how the constitution can be applied to day-to-day life and how that application can be defended… or rejected. It is a tried and true First Amendment case and, to me, is the origin story of how so many Americans view the legality of their constitutional rights, as well as how they understand their rights to challenge how the constitution is applied and the process by which they might exercise those rights. As so many states (including my own home state) codify things that I view as absolutely egregious (and unconstitutional) – and as SCOTUS shockingly overturns precedent – I see lots of opportunities for Scopes-like ”tests.”¹

As soon as Texas created it’s ”bounty hunter” abortion law, I said there’s going to be some Scope-like cases testing this. Within a matter of days, cases were filed. Just a couple of weeks ago, mere days after SCOTUS overturned Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey, a woman here in Texas was pulled over while driving in the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane. She was cited for not having at least one passenger. The woman, who is pregnant, cited the aforementioned Texas penal code and the SCOTUS decision as ”proof” that she was driving lawfully. She was given a ticket, which means she gets her day in court.² I don’t know anything else about this woman and I don’t know anything about her politics, but – whether her motivations are purely economic or whether they are more expansive – her case will put these matters to the test.

And, how ever, those cases are decided, the world will be watching… and discussing.

”Now, we came down here to offer evidence in this case and the court has held under the law that the evidence we had is not admissible, so all we can do is to take an exception and carry it to a higher court to see whether the evidence is admissible or not. As far as this case stands before the jury, the court has told you very plainly that if you think my client taught that man descended from a lower order of animals, you will find him guilty… and there is no dispute about the facts. Scopes did not go on the stand, because he could not deny the statements made by the boys. I do not know how you may feel, I am not especially interested in it, but this case and this law will never be decided until it gets to a higher court, and it cannot get to a higher court probably, very well, unless you bring in a verdict…. We cannot argue to you gentlemen under the instructions given by the court we cannot even explain to you that we think you should return a verdict of not guilty. We do not see how you could. We do not ask it.”

*

– quoted Clarence Darrow’s statement to the jury, just before the verdict was announced in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, July 21, 1925

Please join me for a 75-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Monday, July 10^th) at 5:30 PM. You can 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 (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

There is no playlist for the Common Ground Meditation Center practices.

The 2022 playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for the “Hays Code” playlist dated “March 31” on YouTube and “03302020” on Spotify]

^{The Law of Love}

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”

– The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans (13:8, NIV)

“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”

– The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians (5:14-15, KJV)

*

“Is it on your grandmother’s or grandfather’s side that you are descended from an ape?”

*

– Bishop Samuel Wilberforce to Thomas Henry Huxley (reportedly), June 30, 1860

*

“I asserted – and I repeat – that a man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be a man – a man of restless and versatile intellect – who, not content with an equivocal success in his own sphere of activity, plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them with aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digressions and skilled appeals to religious prejudice.”

*

– Thomas Henry Huxley to Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (reportedly), June 30, 1860 (from Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, by his Son Leonard Huxley by Leonard Huxley (Volume I)

*

NOTES & UPDATES: ¹Historically, the United States has a history of legal cases that could be considered what I refer to as “Scopes-like tests.” Please note, however, that – up until recently – such cases involved real people, doing real things. John Scopes was an actual teacher in an actual classroom and he was legally found guilty based on the statutes and evidence.

²Brandy Bottone was the Plano resident who claimed her unborn child as her second passenger. At some point in 2022, she was issued a second ticket for a similar violation. She also gave birth to a healthy baby girl. The first ticket was dismissed in June 2022.

### Where Do We [Even] Begin? ###

FTWMI: Contemplating Death, Dying, and All the Living in Between July 8, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Books, Changing Perspectives, Faith, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Life, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Science, Suffering, Tragedy, Vairagya, Wisdom, Women, Writing.
Tags: Death, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Ken Ross, Life, meditation, On Death and Dying, On Grief and Grieving, Philosophy, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, The Miracle of Mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh, yoga
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Peace and blessings to all!

For Those Who Missed It: The following was originally posted today in 2020. Class details have been updated.

“If we could raise one generation with unconditional love, there would be no Hitlers. We need to teach the next generation of children from Day One that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind’s greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.”

– Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D.

“I cannot leave out the problem of life and death. Many young people and others have come out to serve others and to labor for peace, through their love for all who are suffering. They are always mindful of the fact that the most important question is the question of life and death, but often not realizing that life and death are but two faces of one reality. Once we realize that we will have the courage to encounter both of them….

Now I see that if one doesn’t know how to die, one can hardly know how to live—because death is a part of life.”

– quoted from The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thích Nhất Hạnh

Today’s post and class will be tricky for some. Today’s theme is always tricky for some. Although, I would assert that it shouldn’t be. After all, death is part of life. That can come off glib and easy to say – specifically because it is a little glib, or shallow, because it belies the fact that loss is hard and that most of us haven’t/don’t really face the concept of death until we (or someone we love) is dying. The statement “death is part of life” is also shallow because it belies the fact that, even if we meditate on and prepare for death, loss is still hard. Yes, death and dying are something that we all have to deal with, but to just leave it at that is what makes the subject tricky. We have to, as Thích Nhất Hạnh instructs in The Miracle of Mindfulness, go deeper.

“The five stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one[s] we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief. Not everyone goes through all of them or goes in a prescribed order.”

– quoted from On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Grief by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler

Born in Zürich, Switzerland today in 1926, Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was the oldest triplet in a family of Protestant Christians. Despite her father’s wishes, she grew up to be a psychiatrist known for her work on death and dying, life and death, and the five stages of grief. Her ultimate work was in part inspired by her work with refugees in Zürich during World War II. After the war, she participated in relief efforts in Poland and, at some point, visited the Maidanek concentration camp in Poland. As a young woman, standing in a place of destruction, she was struck by the compassion and human resilience that would inspire someone to carve hundreds of butterflies into the walls of the death camp.

Dr. Kübler-Ross originally planned on being a pediatrician. However, she married a fellow medical student (in New York in 1958) and became pregnant. The pregnancy resulted in the loss of her pediatrics residency, so she switched to psychiatry. Unfortunately, she also suffered two miscarriages before giving birth to two children. The loss of her residency and her miscarriages were not her first (or last) experiences with loss. Her marriage ended in divorce and, when she attempted to build a Virginia hospice for infants and children with HIV/AIDS, someone set fire to her home (in 1994). The house and all of the belongings inside were lost to arson.

When she started her psychiatry residency, Dr. Kübler-Ross was struck by the way hospitals in the United States treated patients who were dying. She began to host lectures where medical students were forced to meet and listen to dying people outside of a clinical setting. Her intention was to get medical students to “[react] like human beings instead of scientists…and be able to treat [terminal patients] with compassion the same compassion that you would want for yourself.” As she moved through her career, she continued hosting the series of seminars which used interviews with terminally ill patients. Her work was met with both praise and criticism – most of the latter was because she was so obviously questioning the traditional practices of psychiatry. In 1969, she released her seminal book On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families, which provided a grief model for people who were dying and for those they were leaving behind.

“Those who have the strength and the love to sit with a dying patient in the silence that goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.”

– quoted from On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Dr. Kübler-Ross explained from the beginning that her outline was not intended to be linear and yet, people wanted to be able to step through the stages with grace and ease. The problem with that mindset is… life is messy and so is grieving. A perfect example of the messiness of life and death can be found in Dr. Kübler-Ross’s own life… and death. In 1995, after a series of strokes which left her partially paralyzed on her left side, she found herself confronted with the reality of her own death. Added to her grief was the closing of Shanti Nilaya (“Final Home of Peace”), a healing and growth center which she had established in the later 1970’s (shortly before her divorce) after convincing her husband to buy 40-acres of land in Escondido, California.

Despite a 2002 interview with The Arizona Republic, where she stated that she was ready to die, Dr, Kübler-Ross struggled with the fact that she could not choose her own time of death. He son Ken, Founder and President of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation, served as her caregiver for the last decade of her life. In a 2019 interview with the hosts of ABC Radio’s Life Matters, Ken said, “A few weeks before she passed she said to me, ‘Kenneth, I don’t want to die.’”

“It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we’re alive – to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.”

– quoted from Death: The Final Stage of Growth by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Ken Ross admitted that he was taken aback by his mother’s statement that she did not want to die. It turned out, Dr. Kübler-Ross was not only physically paralyzed; she was also stuck in the anger stage of her own grief model. She caught flak in the media – as if she were somehow above being human simply because she had studied, taught, and spoken so openly and so frequently on the subject of death and dying. She did not stay there (in the anger stage), however, as her family and friends encouraged her to keep living and to keep processing the experience of dying. Her son even literally pushed her out of her comfort zone by assisting her in wheelchair marathons and in visiting her sisters in Europe.

“[She] let herself be loved and taken care of, then that was her final lesson — and then she was allowed to graduate. For years I thought about this and what I realized was that’s exactly what she teaches. [When] you learn your lessons you’re allowed to graduate.”

– Ken Ross in a 2019 “Life Matters” interview on ABC Radio National

“In Switzerland I was educated in line with the basic premise: work, work, work. You are only a valuable human being if you work. This is utterly wrong. Half working, half dancing – that is the right mixture. I myself have danced and played too little.”

– Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. in an interview

Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, July 8^th) at 12:00 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) a joyfulpractice.com

Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “07082020 On Death & Dying”]

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”

“Strange though it may seem to you, one of the most productive avenues for growth is found through the study and experience of death. Perhaps death reminds us that our time is limited and that we’d better accomplish our purpose here on earth before our time runs out. Whatever the reason….Those who have been immersed in the tragedy of massive death during wartime, and who have faced it squarely, never allowing their senses and feelings to become numbed and indifferent, have emerged from their experiences with growth and humanness greater than that achieved through almost any other means.”

– quoted from Death: The Final Stage of Growth by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

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.)

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.

Revised 07/08/2023.

### “People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” EKR ###

Rigid Bodies I & II (the “missing” post(s)) July 5, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Abhyasa, Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Karma, Music, One Hoop, Pema Chodron, Philosophy, Science, Vairagya, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Albert Einstein, Andrew Motte, Caroline Myss, Daniel Adee, David Brewster, Dr. Henry Pemberton, Dr. Robert Hooke, fear, Galileo Galilei, hatha yoga, Johannes Kepler, Karma, laws of motion, liberation, Miles Davis, N. W. Chittenden., Nicolaus Copernicus, physics, pranayama, prāņāyāma, Sally Ride, Sir Isaac Newton, yoga
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Many blessings to everyone!

This is a “missing” post for July 5, 2023 (and also for 2022). You can request an audio recording of either practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

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.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.)

“Every body continues in its state of rest, or uniform motion in a right line, unless compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.”

– “Law 1” quoted from “Axioms, or Laws of Motion” in Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton

NOTE: Some editions use the term “straight line.”

Take a moment to relax, maybe place your hand(s) on your belly, and observe what happens if nothing gets in the way. Notice how your tension-free belly rises and falls as the breath enters and leaves the body. Notice how the “force” of the breath, which is a symbol of our life and a symbol of our spirit, is an agent of change – physically, mentally, emotionally, and even energetically.

You can use your breath, forcefully, to break up and/or release tension. Similarly, lengthening the breath and observing the breath (which can all be described as prāņāyāma) change things when we are practicing on the mat. The way we breathe and the awareness of our breath can also be an agent of change off the mat. We just have to pay attention and stay focused to things that are naturally occurring.

However, paying attention, staying focused, and even breathing deeply in and breathing deeply out can be challenging in certain situations… especially situations involving challenging people… rigid bodies, if you will.

“I most gladly embrace your proposal of a private correspondence. What’s done before many witnesses is seldom without some further concerns than that for truth; but what passes between friends in private, usually deserves the name of consultation rather than contention; and so I hope it will prove between you and me….

But in the mean time, you defer too much to my ability in searching into this subject. What Descartes did was a good step. You have added much several ways, and especially in considering the colours of thin plates. If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

– quoted from a letter marked “Cambridge, February 5, 1675-76” from Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Robert Hooke, as published in Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton by David Brewster

Sir Isaac Newton was just a 43-year old “natural philosopher” when he published the first edition of his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) today in 1687. The treatise included definitions of terms, his laws of motion, and a law of universal gravitation. It was partially based on Sir Isaac Newton’s own observations of the natural world and partially based on the theories, definitions, and observations of others. Those others, which Sir Isaac Newton referred to as “giants,” included Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler – whose laws of planetary motion were themselves modifications of the observations and heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus, yet another giant.

All of the aforementioned natural philosophers – or scientists, as we now call people who study matter and the mechanics of matter in space and time (i.e., physics), started with phenomena that was naturally occurring; could be observe in nature; and could be duplicated on some level. Then they went deeper… or farther, depending on your perspective. For Sir Isaac Newton, going deeper and farther meant having discussions with some his peers and even with some people who were skeptical of his work. He even had an ongoing correspondence with one of his master teachers and precious jewels – someone we might refer to as a “rigid body.”

An object at rest remains at rest, and object in motion remains in motion (at the same speed and in the same direction, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force).
The acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables – the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

– Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion

In physics, a “rigid body” (or “rigid object”) is a solid collection of matter that (a) does not change in size or shape or (b) changes at such a miniscule level that it is not perceptible. In quantum mechanics, the focus is on a collection of points – which, on a very rudimentary level, takes us back to the original definition. Focusing on a collection of points means highlighting a consistent distance between points that allows for the external appearance of stillness. In Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, nothing is absolutely rigid and, therefore, something is only considered “rigid” if it is not moving at the speed of light. This latter understanding means that the issue of something (or someone) being rigid becomes an issue of perception (and relativity).

Just like with the laws of motion – and, in particular with “The Law of Inertia” (i.e., the first law), the idea of a “rigid body” is physical science that can be observed on and off the mat. We can observe it in the way we move – physically, mentally, emotionally, and even energetically. We can observe it in the way holding a pose is perceived as “stillness,” even though there is movement and change. If we just go a little deeper, we start to notice cause-and-effect and how the laws of motion are also the laws of karma. For example, if we do something nice for someone, they can do something equally nice for someone else. When we really pay attention, we start to notice the the ways things (and people) change over time – even when they appear not to change.

“Every relationship you develop, from casual to intimate, helps you become more conscious. No union is without spiritual value.”

– quoted from “Morning Visual Meditation” (Chakra 2) by Caroline Myss

According to Eastern philosophies, like Yoga and Buddhism, everything is an opportunity for practice. In fact, the Yoga Sūtras include many reminders that everything is an opportunity to learn more about ourselves, about our true nature, and about the universe. Yoga Sūtra 2.18 specifically states that everything is an opportunity to liberate ourselves. So, what do we do when we interact with someone who seems resistant to change and/or to seeing things from different perspectives?

We could view them as master teachers, precious jewels, and/or rigid bodies.

Master teachers give us a master classes in ourselves. Precious jewels – like a grain of sand or salt in the shell of an oyster, clam, or other shelled mollusks – can be that irritating source of something we eventually view as valuable. It’s all a matter of perspective. One way to cultivate this perspective is by viewing another person as our reflection. If we are interacting with someone who appears to be “hooked,” we might recognize that we are (possibly) also “hooked” – which is the first step in getting “unhooked.” Similarly, if we feel like we are banging our head up against a brick wall and start seeing someone as a “rigid body,” we might ask ourselves: What/where is the change we are not perceiving?

Remember, according to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, nothing is absolutely rigid. Ergo, change is always happening… somewhere.

It is happening inside the mind-body of people we may consider rigid; it is also happening inside of our own mind-body. We are not responsible for the change that is happening (or not happening) inside of someone else. However, when we notice the possibility of change inside of ourselves, the question then becomes, do you resist the change or embrace the change? Answering that question does not mean that we give up on our ideas or conform to the way someone else thinks. No, it means going deeper and farther… like Sir Isaac Newton.

“‘But this I immediately discovered in him,’ adds [Dr. Henry Pemberton*], still further, ‘which at once both surprised and charmed me. Neither his extreme great age, nor his universal reputation had rendered him stiff in opinion, or in any degree elated. Of this I had occasion to have almost daily experience. The remarks I continually sent him by letters on his Principia, were received with the utmost goodness. These were so far from being anyways displeasing to him, that, on the contrary, it occasioned him to speak many kind things of me to my friends, and to honour me with a public testimony of his good opinion.’ A modesty, openness, and generosity, peculiar to the noble and comprehensive spirit of Newton. ‘Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty,’ yet not lifted up by pride nor corrupted by ambition. None, however, knew so well as himself the stupendousness of his discoveries in comparison with all that had been previously achieved; and none realized so thoroughly as himself the littleness thereof in comparison with the vast region still unexplored.”

– quoted from “Life of Sir Isaac Newton” by N. W. Chittenden, as published in Newton’s Principia: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy; To which is added, Newton’s System of the World by Isaac Newton, translated into English by Andrew Motte (first American edition; New York: published [1848] Daniel Adee, c1846)

*NOTE: Dr. Henry Pemberton edited the third edition of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy).

Up until the twentieth century (and the publication of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity), the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) was the starting point for many scientist as they observed and explored the natural movement of the world. In many ways, that first edition was also Sir Isaac Newton’s starting point.

After sharing his ideas and theories, Sir Isaac Newton went back, reviewed his work, and published a second edition of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), with annotation and corrections, in 1713. He published a third edition in 1726. Eventually, he was recognized as one of the world’s greatest mathematicians and physicists and his Principia became the foundation for classical mechanics – one of the cornerstones of modern physics.

Eventually, Sir Isaac Newton became one of the “giants.”

“A short time before his death he uttered this memorable sentiment: ‘I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.’ How few ever reach the shore even, much less find ‘a smoother pebble or a prettier shell!’”

– quoted from “Life of Sir Isaac Newton” by N. W. Chittenden, as published in Newton’s Principia: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy; To which is added, Newton’s System of the World by Isaac Newton, translated into English by Andrew Motte (first American edition; New York: published [1848] Daniel Adee, c1846)

The playlist for Wednesday, July 5, 2023, is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “10202020 Pratyahara”]

Click here if you are interested in a philosophical take on fear and liberation related to the 2022 practice.

NOTE: The playlist for Tuesday, July 5, 2022, is also available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “05262020 Fearless Play with Miles & Sally”]

### Feel Free… To Move ###

Hope & FTWMI: The Importance of Feeling/Being Safe June 20, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Art, Changing Perspectives, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma, Life, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Robert Frost, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Yoga.
Tags: #WorldRefugeeDay, António Guterres, Antony Blinken, asylum, Emanuel Celler, Emi Mamoud, Hope, Metta, Robert Frost, samkhya, siddhis, svādhyāya, Sāmkhya Karika, Ukraine, United Nations General Assembly, World Refugee Day, Yoga Sutra 2.46
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Happy Pride! May we all be safe and protected, especially if we find ourselves seeking asylum.

“‘Home,’ he mocked gently.

‘Yes, what else but home?
It all depends on what you mean by home.”

[…]

“‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.’

‘I should have called it
Something you somehow haven’t to deserve.’”

– quoted from the poem “The Death of the Hired Man” by Robert Frost

Today’s practice begins with the instruction to go into a position where you feel safe, supported, and comfortable; to make yourself at home. Usually, that rift on Yoga Sūtra 2.46 leads directly into the instruction to go deeper. Today, however, I want to cultivate an extra bit of awareness around the concept of home. That extra bit of awareness that comes in the form of hope.

I have recently noted (in myself) how having a place I call home – and being in that place – allows me to tap into a sense of hope, to have faith when faced with traumatic events, and to feel more resilient – so I can get up after being knocked down. I am super grateful for having this experience of home that gives me this experience of hope. However, I can’t help but wonder what it would feel like to not have that sense of home and the associated feeling of hope.

How would you go about finding “Hope Away from Home” and who would help you?

In the Robert Frost poem, Silas (hopes he) has Mary and Warren. These are people with whom he already has a relationship. They are more like family to him than his own (blood-related) family. Even though they may not see their relationship the same way, there is history there. Yes, the history is complicated and (for Warren) problematic, but it’s still there – and it gives Silas a moment of hope.

How do you find “Hope Away from Home” when there is no prior relationship and history?

For that matter, if you are in your own home and someone comes calling in their hour of need, do you respond like Mary? Or, do you respond like Warren?

For Those Who Missed It: This is an extremely revised version of my post from June 20, 2022. In addition to updating some verbiage, I have re-ordered it and added information related to the 2023 theme. Just a heads up, there are references to the war.

“During my decade as UN High Commissioner for Refugees, I witnessed the resilience and contributions of refugees across all walks of life.

Their perseverance in the face of adversity inspires me every day.

Refugees represent the very best of the human spirit.

They need and deserve support and solidarity — not closed borders and pushbacks.

As we mark World Refugee Day, we confront a startling statistic.

More than 100 million people living in countries rocked by conflict, persecution, hunger and climate chaos have been forced to flee their homes.

These are not numbers on a page.

These are individual women, children and men making difficult journeys — often facing violence, exploitation, discrimination and abuse.”

– quoted from the 2023 World Refugee Day statement by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres

The United Nations General Assembly declared June 20^th as World Refugee Day in December of 2000. In 1951, the United Nations Refugee Convention defined a refugee as “someone who fled his or her home and country owing to ‘a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” Additionally, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees recognizes that “many refugees are in exile to escape the effects of natural or human-made disasters.” Asylum Seekers, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Stateless Persons, and Returnees all fall under the Refugees category. Although they are granted certain rights and protections under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, refugees are some of the most vulnerable people in the world, because we often say one thing and do something completely different.

“This startling discrimination against central, eastern and southern Europe points out the gap between what we say and what we do. On the one hand we publicly pronounce the equality of all peoples, discarding all racialistic theories; on the other hand, in our immigration laws, we embrace in practice these very theories we abhor and verbally condemn.”

– United States Representative Emanuel Celler (D-NY) speaking to the Senate about immigration quotes in 1948

Beware, ya’ll, I’ve got my hammer out; because I feel like some things need to be hammered home.

I could say that that this feeling started when I re-read the quote above (from 1948) and started thinking about how much it (unfortunately) still applies. However, the truth is a little more complicated than that. The truth is that I’m always thinking about “the gap between what we say and what we do” – in any situation. But, I especially started thinking about in relation to refugees when Russia invaded Ukraine towards the end of February 2022. That invasion, and the escalation of a war that began when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea at the end of February 2014, highlighted the fact that refugees can come from anywhere and look like anyone. However, that heightened awareness of who can be a refugee, also reinforced the fact that many people in the world have stereotypes and biases that make life harder for people who are already facing horrific challenges.

Some people, at various points along Ukraine’s border, said they saw no discrimination happening as people initially fled the conflict. Others witnessed and/or experienced racial bias which resulted in people being stranded in a volatile situation. We can all believe what we want – or believe what we must to sleep at night – but if you were paying attention as the events unfolded, you saw and heard newscasters attributing value based on race, ethnicity, and nationality. If you were paying attention, you witnessed countries and local governments setting policy based on race, ethnicity, nationality, and gender.

Even if you weren’t paying attention to any of those things, you could look inside of your own heart and mind and observe how you felt about refugees fleeing Ukraine versus refugees fleeing Afghanistan… or Syria… or Vietnam… or Venezuela… or South Sudan… or the Congo….

“Whoever. Wherever. Whenever.
Everyone has the right to seek safety.”

– the 2022 theme for World Refugee Day

World Refugee Day is an internationally observed day to honor the humanity of all refugees. It is a day to celebrate the strength, courage, and resilience of people who have held onto their families, cultures, languages, and dreams despite being forced to flee their home country either to escape war, famine, pestilence, persecution, or all of the above. It is also a day to raise awareness and solicit support, while cultivating empathy, compassion, and understanding. Finally it is a time to recognize the generosity of host countries.

In his 2023 World Refugee statement, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres referenced the resilience, perseverance, and contributions of refugees and then said, “I call on the world to harness the hope that refugees carry in their hearts. Let’s match their courage with the opportunities they need, every step of the way.” Of course, to do as Secretary-General Guterres suggested – really, to honestly do any of the things required of this day – we must each tap into the power of our own heart (and mind). We must engage and honor those powers “unique to being human” – and, to do that, we must practice a little svādhyāya (“self-study”).

“We will continue to represent the best of American values by saving lives and alleviating suffering, working with our partners at home and abroad to assist the forcibly displaced in their time of need – no matter who or where they are, on World Refugee Day and every day.”

– quoted from the 2022 World Refugee Day statement by United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken*

As I have mentioned before, I can be skeptical of the idea that only humans can cultivate the six siddhis (“attainments” or abilities) that are described as being “unique to being human” in the Sāmkhya Karika. Similarly, I question the idea that certain values can (or should be) described as if they only belong to a certain group of people – especially since so many different groups share the same values. I strongly encourage us, however, to look at our own personal values and what we each (individually) believe to be true. In the process, I also strongly encourage us to look at whether or not what is in our hearts is also in our minds and reflected by our words and deeds. When we do this, we give ourselves the opportunity to look at whether or not our affiliations reflect what’s in our hearts and in our minds. This is one way to practice svādhyāya (“self-study”).

Svādhyāya (“self-study”) is the fourth niyama or internal “observation” in the Yoga Philosophy. I want to emphasis that it is an exercise in OBSERVATION. I often place it in the same category as discernment and contemplation, as those practices appear in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola – meaning, these are ways to note the “interior movement” of one’s own heart, especially in certain contexts. Like discernment and contemplation, svādhyāya can be part of our judgment toolbox, but it’s not about making or passing judgments; it’s about making good, virtuous, choices.

By “good,” I mean something that has meaning and purpose. By “virtuous,” I mean something that is generous in it’s ability to alleviate suffering (i.e., something that does the least amount of harm to the most amount of beings and/or over the longest amount of time).

“According to this principle, a refugee should not be returned to a country where he or she faces serious threats to his or her life or freedom. This protection may not be claimed by refugees who are reasonably regarded as a danger to the security of the country, or having been convicted of a particularly serious crime, are considered a danger to the community.

The rights contained in the 1951 Convention include:

The right not to be expelled, except under certain, strictly defined conditions;
The right not to be punished for illegal entry into the territory of a contracting State;
The right to work;
The right to housing;
The right to education;
The right to public relief and assistance;
The right to freedom of religion;
The right to access the courts;
The right to freedom of movement within the territory;
The right to be issued identity and travel documents.

Some basic rights, including the right to be protected from refoulement, apply to all refugees. A refugee becomes entitled to other rights the longer they remain in the host country, which is based on the recognition that the longer they remain as refugees, the more rights they need.”

– quoted from the United Nations

According to the United Nations, refugees are entitled to certain rights that are, theoretically, human rights. The United States is NOT on the top 10 list of countries who receive the most refugees, however, according to U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “The United States is the world’s largest single donor of humanitarian assistance….” Within those statements, there is a huge contradiction.

The contradiction of which I speak is not the fact that many people believe the U. S. myth and talking point that “people are always coming here.” No, I’m talking about the fact that the United States doesn’t even guarantee all of the aforementioned rights to it’s citizens. When you look at how that contradiction (and, some could argue, hypocrisy) plays out in real time, it’s easy to see how we end up with a conflict between theory and practice. Another way to look at that is: This is one of the reason’s there’s a “gap between what we say and what we do.”

Ok, so, here is the final nail: I think it’s important acknowledge that gap and why it’s here (inside of each of us, as well as in the world). Also, given the 2020 theme, I think it’s important to contemplate what “safety” means to us. The UN has five points that define “seeking safety” means:

Right to seek asylum
Safe access
No pushbacks
No discrimination
Humane treatment

Even with those five points (and the descriptions outlined by the UN), we can only define what it means to us individually. We can only define what finding safety would look like to us if we were forced from our home and from our homeland. Once we do that, however, once we define it, we are one step closer to being able to extend it.

“Once you’ve woken up to the understanding that vulnerable people literally die for their lives

There is no alternative but to decide to care.

So you resolve to care.

You realize that vulnerability is not synonymous with weakness

That all of us are vulnerable in some way. / That some days we’re weaker than most / and that some of us don’t have that option.

So you grieve for those who lost their lives / and you grieve for the ones that you lost too. / Not just during this crisis / but during every one before it….”

– from the poem that begins “The Seven Stages of Grief during Coronavirus: Acceptance.” (see end of post) by Emi Mamoud (@EmiThePoet)

Please join me today (Tuesday, June 20^th) at 12:00 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can 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 (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Today’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.

NOTE: We used a different playlist for 2020 – 2022. Click here and scroll down for the previous playlist.

Emi Mamoud, an incredible poet

Some elements of the above post were included in my 2020 World Refugee Day post, which philosophically focused on Yoga Sūtra 2.25 and the connection between avidyā (“ignorance”) and suffering. Click here to read that post.

*NOTE: Since I made a point (on Juneteenth 2022) of mentioning certain aspects of my own legacy, please note that Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from what is now Ukraine, his maternal grandparents were Hungarian Jews, and his step-father was a Holocaust survivor (and refugee).

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.)

### May we all be peaceful and happy / May we all be healthy and strong / May we all have ease and wellbeing ###

Starting with the Foundation (a prelude) June 11, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Faith, First Nations, Healing Stories, Life, Meditation, Men, Music, One Hoop, Philosophy, Wisdom, Women, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: asana, Benjamin Franklin, Committee of Five, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, John Adams, Lee Resolution, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, William Butler Yeats, yoga, Yoga Sutra 1.32, Yoga Sutras 1.30-1.32, Yoga Sutras 2.46-2.50
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Happy Pride! Many blessings to everyone!!

Yoga Sūtra 1.32: tat pratiṣedhārtham eka tattvābhyāsaḥ

– “To prevent or deal with these nine obstacles and their four consequences, the recommendation is to make the mind one-pointed, training it how to focus on a single truth, principle, or object.”

On and off the mat, we start with the foundation. We build from the ground up. This is standard operating procedure whether we are building an asana; building a life for ourselves; building a relationship; building an edifice; building an organization or a business; and/or building a country. We may have an idea(l) in mind and our desire may be to build from the concept (i.e., that may be what motivates us to build); however, to make the dream come true – to make the idea(l) a reality – we need awareness and material/matter.

That’s the practice. On and off the mat (or cushion), we bring awareness to the foundation and then establish a foundation that allows us to bring awareness to our awareness… or to any number things which can be our point of focus. In mindfulness-based practices, like Yoga and Buddhist meditation, we are very intentional, very deliberate about this method of building. In fact, Patanjali outlined this practice in the Yoga Sūtras. (YS 2.46-50) More detailed instructions (on building asanas) can be found in texts like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Shastras, like Yoga Vasistha, and many modern texts also include details on building a practice. And, we can extrapolate from there – taking the practice off of the mat/cushion and into the world.

On a certain level, reality forces us to build from the ground up. However, there is a difference between just doing it and being deliberate and intentional about it. There is also a difference between deliberately and intentionally building from the ground up and starting [everything] with the foundation in mind. For example, in a seated (or moving) meditation practice, when you loose the “thread,” you go back to the beginning – back to the foundation.

Are you still “sitting” in a way that balances effort and relaxation? If the answer is no, adjust. If the answer is yes, bring awareness to the parts of the breath. Notice when (and what) distracts you. Remind yourself that you are “sitting” and breathing. That’s the practice.

Off the mat/cushion, there is a tendency to forget about the foundation once we really get going. No, I’m not ignoring the fact that this also happens in yoga practices where there is a lot of movement and momentum. What I would like to point out, however, is that part of a practice like vinyasa is being mindful of the pace. Being mindful of the pace requires noticing when you are not breathing deeply; when you are moving faster than your breath; and/or when you are “flowing,” but not “placing things in a special way” (which is the literal meaning of vinyasa). Also, over time, not being mindful of the foundation may lead to injuries and/or obstacles to the practice. (YS 1.30-31)

Off the mat/cushion, the tendency to forget about the foundation also has consequences. People get hurt – on a lot of different levels. And, also, obstacles arise that prevent the fulfilment of the original idea(l). What I mean by that is: Sometimes we end up with a final product that looks nothing like the intention. And, sometimes, things fall apart because the center (which is the foundation) could not hold… was not designed to hold without attention/awareness.

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;”

– quoted from the poem “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats

Today in 1776, the Committee of Five started discussing and drafting a document which would be approved by the Second Continental Congress and presented to England as a Declaration of Independence. Representatives John Adams (Massachusetts), Roger Sherman (Connecticut), Robert Livingston (New York), Benjamin Franklin (Pennsylvania), and Thomas Jefferson (Virginia), worked until July 5^th building what became the foundation of the United States of America.

The final document was approved on July 2^nd, printed on July 4^th, and signed by the delegates of the Second Continental Congress over the course of several months. It contains some of the best and most quoted language associated with democracy and freedom. It is considered, by some, to be the best language regarding an ideal government. Yet, the original language is interesting – as is the language of the final draft. First, the committee originally included language criticizing English people, slavery, and the British slave trade. Ultimately, they decided to exclude the language about slavery, because they thought including it would cost them votes. Another interesting point (of exclusion) is that the words didn’t exactly mean what they said. The words “all men” was not, in fact, applied to all men (let alone all humans).

A portion of the following is an excerpt from a July 2020 post.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

– from “The Declaration of Independence” drafted by the Committee of Five and (eventually) signed by delegates of the Second Continental Congress

The Declaration of Independence was the formal announcement and explanation of the “Lee Resolution” (aka “The Resolution for Independence).” Its second sentence is often referenced as “one of the best-known sentences in the English language” and is possibly the most quoted sentence in American history. It provided justification for revolution and the building blocks for a new nation. It was, however, not completely true. While we may want to delude ourselves into thinking the founding fathers meant all humans when they signed off on the declaration – or even all males – the “all men” was very specific in that it meant “white men only.” And, if we are being honest, there was also a religious subtext which further restricted who would be granted the subsequently mentioned Rights. (Yes, yes, we can go around and around about religious freedom, but there was a definite assumption within the text that “all men,” see above, believed in one God – even if they had slightly different ways of worshiping said God.)

The Second Continental Congress approved the resolution and the declaration unanimously, but it was never a sure thing. There was debate with the Committee of Five as to how to present their argument to the other delegates in a way that would sway things in their favor. Remember, everyone on the committee and every one of the delegates was, at the time, a subject of the Crown – meaning they were citizens of the British Commonwealth – and what they were proposing was straight-up treason. They knew this would be evidence of treason. Furthermore, they knew that they were placing their family, friends, and neighbors at great risk. They also thought freedom, liberty, and independence were worth the risk.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States can be seen as the cornerstone of our democracy or the two visible sides of that cornerstone. Included within the Constitution is the governments ability to propose, ratify, and implement amendments. One could argue that providing such a proviso was the 1787 Constitutional Convention’s way of strengthening the foundation and of making sure future leaders (and their descendants) kept the foundation in mind.

“It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error. But nature has not given to everyone a talent for that purpose; and among those to whom such a talent is given, there is often a want of disposition or of courage to do it.”

– quoted from the “Preface” (addressed “To the Ministers and Preachers of all Denominations of Religion.”) of “Part III” in The Age Of Reason by Thomas Paine

Please join me for a 65-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Sunday, June 11^th) 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 “07012020 Caesar Rodney’s Ride”]

Errata: The sūtra quoted at the beginning of this post was originally identified with the wrong chapter number.

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.)

### OM FREEDOM AUM ###

The Grace of Knowing [Where the Wild Things Are] (mostly the music and a “wild” excerpt) June 10, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Art, Books, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Life, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Philosophy, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Christopher Walken, Hero's Journey, Joseph Campbell, Maurice Sendak, monomyth, Shastra, shastra kripa, Vihari-Lal Mitra, Wayman Tisdale, Yoga Vasishtha
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Happy Pride! Many blessings to all!!

“24. Take the purport of my discourse in such manner, as to leave out what is unintelligible, and lay hold on its substance; as the swan separates and sucks the milk which is mixed with water.

25. Ponder upon it repeatedly, and consider it well in thy mind, and go on in this way to conduct yourself in life (viz by suppression of your desires, weakening the mind, restraining the breathing, and acquiring of knowledge).

26. By going on in this manner, you are sure to evade all dangers; or else you must fall ere long like the heavy elephant, in some pitfall of the Vindhya mountain. (Pitfalls are the only means of catching elephants).

27. If you do not receive my words with attention, and act accordingly, you are sure to fall into the pit like a blind man left to go alone in the dark; and to be blown away like a lighted lamp, exposed in the open air.”

– quoted from (Book 6) “CHAPTER I. Description of the evening and Breaking of the Assembly.” of The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki (translated from the original Sanskrit by VIHARI-LALA MITRA)

Here’s an excerpt from today’s date-related 2020 post:

“How do we keep from becoming, to paraphrase Joseph Campbell, a screaming paranoid person? How do we face trauma, loss, and disability with a smile on our face, as Wayman Tisdale did? Maybe we have to go all the way back to the womb to figure out why some people survive the challenging circumstances they face in life. Maybe we have to go back even farther than that to see why some people just inherently know how to stay connected to their ‘inside stuff’ even when life throws them one curve ball after another fast ball. Whatever the reason some people rebound and some people don’t (or don’t as easily as others), trying to figure out that reason has fascinated people since the beginning of time.

Children’s book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, born today in 1928, in Brooklyn, New York, once said, ‘I only have one subject. The question I am obsessed with is: How do children survive?’”

Here, here be the wild things! Click here to continue reading this 2020 post.

Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, June 10^th) at 12:00 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.

Since music soothes the wild beasts, the goblins, and the cooks, Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “06102020 Here Be The Wild Things”]

NOTE: YouTube is the original playlist and includes the video below.

My all time favorite rendition!

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.)

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.

### “I’LL EAT YOU UP!”• “I LOVE YOU!” ###

FTWMI: Ode to a Poem about Poets, Born Today (mostly the music and links) June 7, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Poetry, Yoga.
Tags: Gwendolyn Brooks, Louise Erdrich, Nikki Giovanni, Prince Rogers Nelson
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Happy Pride! Many blessings to you all!!

For Those Who Missed It: The following was previously posted in 2022. Class details have been updated.

Years ago…

I wrote a poem –

dedicated to / inspired by poets

poets born today [in 1917, 1954, 1943, and 1958].

Then I re-posted it.

This is not THAT POEM.

©MKR 2022

Please join me today (Wednesday, June 7^th) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You will need to register for the 7:15 PM class if you have not already done so. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “06072020 Birthday of Poets”]

(NOTE: The interlude music is different between the playlists. YouTube is the original. The “poem” linked here and above includes a video not on either playlist.)

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.)

### ###

The Journey Continues… (a “long lost” Sunday post) June 5, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Faith, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Meditation, Music, Mysticism, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Religion, Shavuot, Suffering, Super Heroes, Vairagya, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Bill Moyers, Counting the Omer, George Lucas, Gina Sharpe, Harold Bloom, Joseph Campbell, Judith Suzanne Davidson Moyers, monomyth, Moses, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Shavuot, Star Wars
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This is the “long lost” post related to Sunday, June 5, 2022. It is the third post related to Bill Moyers (and the second one being posted for the first time). Links for the 2021 post are embedded below. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

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.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.)

“Joseph Campbell said that all the great myths, the primitive myths, the great stories, have to be regenerated if they’re going to have any impact…. Are you conscious of doing that?”

– Bill Moyers, quoted from the transcript of “The Mythology of Star Wars, with George Lucas”

Let’s talk about heroes, heroines, and great adventures. I love them! I can’t say I was a huge fan of The NeverEnding Story, but I did appreciate the idea and, when I was a kid, I always got a kick out of “choose your own adventure” books. I also loved Star Wars, Star Trek, Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, and almost any series of books with reoccurring characters who went places I had never gone, had experiences I never had, and met people I had never met. Part of what I loved was that I recognized the places, the experiences, and the people. How could I not? After all, they were all the same – just using different names, and dressed up in different clothes and faces.

I don’t remember exactly when I first heard about Joseph Campbell or Harold Bloom, but their works around literature, mythology, and anthropology (as it intersects literature and mythology) seem to be like long shadows towards the end of the day. They’re always there, you just can’t always see them. Towards the end of college, I took a publishing course and one of the people in my small group ended up working at a major publishing house. A few months later, he sent me a big box full of books. Joseph Campbell’s A Hero with a Thousand Faces was one of those books. I knew about it, but had never read it.

If you watch movies, read comics and/or books, or just like listening to someone weave a good adventure, odds are you fall into one or more of the following categories: (1) you love heroes because you’re always looking for someone to save you; (2) you love adventure and fancy yourself as someone who could save yourself or someone else – given the right means and opportunity; and/or (3) you love the life lessons found within a good story. After all, every good story comes with at least one life lesson. That’s one of the boons of living vicariously through a fictional or historical character.

“LUCAS: I guess it’s more specific in Buddhism, but it is a notion that’s been around before that. When I wrote the first Star Wars, I had to come up with a whole cosmology: What do people believe in? I had to do something that was relevant, something that imitated a belief system that has been around for thousands of years, and that most people on the planet, one way or another, have some kind of connection to. I didn’t want to invent a religion. I wanted to try to explain in a different way [than] the religions that have already existed. I wanted to express it all.

MOYERS: You’re creating a new myth?

LUCAS: I’m telling an old myth in a new way. Each society takes that myth and retells it in a different way, which relates to the particular environment they live in. The motif is the same. It’s just that it gets localized. As it turns out, I’m localizing it for the planet. I guess I’m localizing it for the end of the millennium more than I am for any particular place.”

– quoted from the Time Magazine article “Of Myth and Men” by Bill Moyers; George Lucas (published April 18, 1999; based on “The Mythology of Star Wars, with George Lucas”)

Born on June 5, 1934, in Hugo, Oklahoma (and primarily raised in Marshall, Texas), Bill Moyers is more than a journalist who has spent a lot of time talking to and about heroes. He is even more than a journalist who has also spent a lot of time talking to and about people who create heroes. But, he has done all of that… and more.

In addition to being an ordained minister, he served as the 13^th White House Press Secretary (working with both Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson). Along with his wife, Judith Suzanne Davidson Moyers, he has produced a variety of programming, including Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth (filmed on George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch, in 1988); The Mythology of Star Wars, with George Lucas (also filmed at Skywalker Ranch, in 1999); Faith and Reason; and Healing and the Mind. He has also produced and facilitated conversations about a wide range of topics, including evil, racism, prayer, democracy, poetry, art, and the experiences of U. S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. His many books include Listening to America: A Traveler Rediscovers His Country, A World of Ideas : Conversations With Thoughtful Men and Women About American Life Today and the Ideas Shaping Our Future, A World of Ideas II: Public Opinions from Private Citizens, The Language of Life (which is a conversation with poets), Genesis: A Living Conversation, and the book based on the series Healing and the Mind.

More often than not, when I lead a practice on Bill Moyers’s birthday, it centers around Joseph Campbell’s monomyth and references superheroes from comic books and movies. My intention is to highlight how we are all the hero(ine) of our own story – and, additionally, how we can also be someone else’s hero. Sometimes, I even reference a specific historical and/or religious figure. Someone like Moses.

Click here if you are interested in a different kind of journey (from 2021) inspired by the life and work of Bill Moyers.

I mentioned Moses, specifically, because sunset on Saturday (June 4, 2022) marked the beginning of Shavuot. Known in English as the “Festival of Weeks,” Shavuot is the anniversary, the celebration, and the commemoration of the Jewish people receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. It occurs on the 50^th day after the 2^nd night of Passover – making it a moveable feast – and is the culmination of the counting of the weeks, which is observed by the Counting of the Omer. Since the 49 days of counting make up a spiritual journey of preparation, Shavuot marks the end of one journey and the beginning of a new journey. Or, you could think of it more specifically as the beginning of a new time.

Technically speaking, the Hero’s Journey is always about moving into a new time, a new era, or a new season of life. It’s about coming out of an old season, shedding the old skin, and moving forward with that “Ultimate Boon” – that life lesson that serves the heroine and their community. While I often compare Moses’ hero journey to the hero journey of the Buddha (or Jesus), the parallels do not stop with the beginning of their lives and their “calling” to alleviate the suffering of the people in their community. In fact, an additional parallel is found in what some might consider the end of the journey: a path (i.e., a set of instructions or commandments), which can be seen as their own calling/journey.

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.”

– quoted from A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living by Joseph Campbell

Every adventure begins in the “Ordinary World.” It’s not a perfect world; it’s just the everyday, mundane world. If everything and everyone were perfect, there would not be a “Call to Adventure.” But there is a call. In real life, individual people have things they are called to do and then there is a philosophical call issued to everyone who is exposed to systems like the the Noble Eightfold Path (in Buddhism); the 8-Limbs of the Yoga Philosophy (as codified in Patanjali’s Yoga Sūtras); the various paths of yoga (as described in the Bhagavad Gita); and/or the teachings in the Torah, the Christian New Testament, and/or the Qur’ān.

Of course, in the monomyth, the hero or heroine initially refuses the call. The “Refusal of Call” happens everyday in modern times and in biblical history – and for the same reasons. It is a refusal to give up the status quo. It is the rejection of a new way of living. Think of Moses (and Joshua) returning from the Mount to find that the newly freed Hebrew people are actively breaking their newly established covenant. According to Shemot – Exodus (32:1), the people were motivated by fear – specifically, fear of the unknown and fear of loss. If we go deep inside ourselves, we may find that similar fears cause each of us to stray from our chosen path. In Buddhism, all clinging leads to suffering. In the Yoga Sūtras, Patanjali described five types of attachment that lead to suffering. The final type, described in Yoga Sūtra 2.9, is fear of loss/death – and getting beyond that is part of the practice and, also, another practice from another year.

“GEORGE LUCAS: What happens is that no matter how you do it, when you sit down to write something all other influences you’ve had in your life come into play. The things that you like, the things that you’ve seen, the things — the observations you’ve made. That’s ultimately what you work with when you’re writing. And you — you are influenced by the things that you like. Designs that you like, characters you like, moments that you remember, that you were moved by. It’s — it’s like trying to compose a — a symphony in a way.”

– George Lucas responding to a question Bill Moyers asked about the creative process, quoted from the transcript of “The Mythology of Star Wars, with George Lucas”

In some ways, every mindfulness-based practice is like sitting down to write: things come up and all of those things, in the moment, become part of the practice. In fact, one of the lojong (“mind-training”) aphorisms in Tibetan Buddhism is “Whatever you meet unexpectedly, join with meditation.” (16) Additionally, the theme is that “localizing” that George Lucas referenced when talking about how Star Wars fit into the rubric. The theme details, the poses and sequences, even the duration of the practice are simply the unique details of the moment. But, every practice is the same journey.

For every mindfulness-based practice, our breath is the “Supernatural Aid” that facilitates our transition from the external to the internal and then back again. Every practice takes us deeper into our own belly – which can also be that metaphorical “Belly of the Whale.” While they may not all be physically challenging, the practice is a “Road of Trials” with the opportunity to experience the deep love and acceptance of the “Goddess” and the “Atonement of the Father.” There is always the “Temptation” to stay in Śavāsana (“Seat of the Corpse” or Dead Man’s Pose); to give up mid-way through the practice; or to just not show up. There is also the temptation to do more simply because it is suggested.

Finally, every practice has that final Śavāsana-moment – and, even if we are not actually in Śavāsana, that moment symbolizes the death of the practice: an “Apostasis.” All the preparation, all the getting ready leads to a moment of meditation that, ultimately, brings an understanding of every plane of existence and freedom from suffering: that’s the “Ultimate Boon” – that is what allows someone to be “Master of Two Worlds.

That mastery or stewardship leads to the ultimate freedom: “Freedom to Live.” The final stage of the journey is partially defined as the freedom to live “in the moment, neither anticipating the future, nor regretting the past” – which is also one of the goals of Eastern philosophies like Yoga and Buddhism, to be fully present in the moment.

“…really pay attention to what’s happening internally…. Meditation is learning how to get so still, and so calm, tranquil, through the directing of the attention, to this present moment, that we begin to see really deeply…. And so we go more and more and more deeply into the nature of things, and when that happens, and reactivity ceases, then responsiveness arises.”

– Gina Sharpe, Suffering and the End of Suffering

The playlist for this practice is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “06052022 Hero(ine)’s Journey”]

GEORGE LUCAS: […] The average human being has much more awareness of the other cultures that exist — co-exist with them on this planet, and that certain things go across cultures, and entertainment is one of them. And film and the stories that I tell cut across all cultures, are seen all around the world.”

– quoted from the transcript of “The Mythology of Star Wars, with George Lucas”

### Peace ###

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A Joyful Practice

What (and How) Do You Recollect? / A Strenuous, Deliberate Life Photo July 12, 2023

– quoted from “Overture” in Swann’s Way, Volume 1 of Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust

“We are able to find everything in our memory, which is like a dispensary or chemical laboratory in which chance steers our hand sometimes to a soothing drug and sometimes to a dangerous poison.”

– quoted from The Captive, Volume 5 of Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

– quoted from a journal entry dated August 5, 1851, as printed in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Journal, Walden Edition by Henry David Thoreau, compiled and edited by Franklin Benjamin Sanborn and Bradford Torrey

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

– quoted from “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” in Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

– quoted from “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” in Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

“What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are.”

– George Eastman

– quoted from “Economy” in Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

– George Eastman

“Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth….”

– George Eastman

If you’re interested in another look at how things “develop,” check out my related 2021 post.

### YS: 1.36 VIŚOKĀ VĀ JYOTIŞMATĪ ###

Introducing… You [and Your Style] (a mini-post with links) July 11, 2023

– quoted from the “iv. The Ideal Writer” in “PART II. CAUSES OF FORCE IN LANGUAGE WHICH DEPEND UPON ECONOMY OF THE MENTAL SENSIBILITIES” of The Philosophy of Style by Herbert Spencer (pub. 1852)

“Saepe est etiam sub pallĭolo sordĭdo sapientia.

[English translation: Wisdom often is under a filthy cloak.]”

– Latin proverb (associated with Socrates, Diogenes, and Cicero)

### WHAT’S UNDERNEATH YOUR OVERCOAT? ###

FTWMI: The Origins of Litigation July 10, 2023

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– from On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin (pub. 1859)

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– quoted from William Jennings Bryan’s written summation to The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (as distributed to the press), July 1925

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– quoted from Clarence Darrow’s “bench statement” just before the jury’s verdict was announced in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, July 21, 1925

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– quoted from the end of Clarence Darrow’s 7-hour closing argument in The People of Michigan v. Henry Sweet (the second of the “Sweet Trials, involving a defendant from the racially charged The People of Michigan v. Ossian Sweet et al.), May 11, 1926

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– from On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

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– from The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex by Charles Darwin (pub. 1871)

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– quoted Clarence Darrow’s statement to the jury, just before the verdict was announced in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, July 21, 1925

The Law of Love

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”

– The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans (13:8, NIV)

“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”

– The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians (5:14-15, KJV)

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“Is it on your grandmother’s or grandfather’s side that you are descended from an ape?”

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– Bishop Samuel Wilberforce to Thomas Henry Huxley (reportedly), June 30, 1860

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– Thomas Henry Huxley to Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (reportedly), June 30, 1860 (from Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, by his Son Leonard Huxley by Leonard Huxley (Volume I)

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### Where Do We [Even] Begin? ###

FTWMI: Contemplating Death, Dying, and All the Living in Between July 8, 2023

– Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D.

Now I see that if one doesn’t know how to die, one can hardly know how to live—because death is a part of life.”

– quoted from The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thích Nhất Hạnh

– quoted from On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Grief by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler

“Those who have the strength and the love to sit with a dying patient in the silence that goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.”

– quoted from On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we’re alive – to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.”

– quoted from Death: The Final Stage of Growth by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“[She] let herself be loved and taken care of, then that was her final lesson — and then she was allowed to graduate. For years I thought about this and what I realized was that’s exactly what she teaches. [When] you learn your lessons you’re allowed to graduate.”

– Ken Ross in a 2019 “Life Matters” interview on ABC Radio National

“In Switzerland I was educated in line with the basic premise: work, work, work. You are only a valuable human being if you work. This is utterly wrong. Half working, half dancing – that is the right mixture. I myself have danced and played too little.”

– Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. in an interview

– quoted from Death: The Final Stage of Growth by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

### “People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” EKR ###

Rigid Bodies I & II (the “missing” post(s)) July 5, 2023

“Every body continues in its state of rest, or uniform motion in a right line, unless compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.”

– “Law 1” quoted from “Axioms, or Laws of Motion” in Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton

But in the mean time, you defer too much to my ability in searching into this subject. What Descartes did was a good step. You have added much several ways, and especially in considering the colours of thin plates. If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

– quoted from a letter marked “Cambridge, February 5, 1675-76” from Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Robert Hooke, as published in Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton by David Brewster

An object at rest remains at rest, and object in motion remains in motion (at the same speed and in the same direction, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force).

The acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables – the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

– Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion

“Every relationship you develop, from casual to intimate, helps you become more conscious. No union is without spiritual value.”

– quoted from “Morning Visual Meditation” (Chakra 2) by Caroline Myss

^{The Law of Love}

‘Yes, what else but home?
It all depends on what you mean by home.”

“‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.’

‘I should have called it
Something you somehow haven’t to deserve.’”

“Whoever. Wherever. Whenever.
Everyone has the right to seek safety.”