FTWMI: “The Center of the Puzzle” July 13, 2024
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Changing Perspectives, Healing Stories, Kundalini, Life, Mathematics, One Hoop, Philosophy, Science, Tantra, Vairagya, Wisdom.Tags: anatomy, chakras, Ernő Rubik, hatha yoga, kinesiology, Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Magic, Tantra, vinyasa, vinyasa krama, yoga
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Many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone putting together the pieces for peace, freedom, and wisdom (inside and outside).
For Those Who Missed It: The following was originally posted in 2021. Class details (and some formatting) have been updated/changed or added.
“How is life like a puzzle? Or not like a puzzle?”
— quoted from the beginning of the practices on May 19th and July 13th
If we really think about it, it is not just our lives that are like puzzles. Our practice, our mind-body, even our relationships are like puzzles. There are all these different shaped pieces that sometimes fit together and sometimes don’t fit together. There are all these pieces that look like they could fit together, but don’t actually fit. Then there are all those little clues — like hard edges and different color schemes or patterns — that indicate what fits and what doesn’t fit.
When you are solving a puzzle (especially if it has a lot of pieces and/or it has an intricate design), it’s always helpful to have a picture of the finished product. It’s also nice to know that you have all the pieces (or, at the very least, that you know what pieces you have and which pieces are missing). In this way, our physical bodies — and, therefore, our physical practice of yoga are very much like a puzzle. We know the ankle bone is connected to the shin bone; the shin bone is connected to the knee bone; the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone; the thigh bone is connected to the hip bone; the hip bone is connected to the back bone; and that this construction is duplicated in the upper body. We also know that the muscles, nerves, tendons, and other connecting tissues fit together (and work together) in certain ways.
For instance, we know that the hamstrings and quadriceps work together to extend and flex the knee when we walk. We also know that if one leg is shorter (or stronger) than the other that that difference will affect the way we walk and will affect other parts of our bodies — even parts we don’t automatically recognize as being connected. The same is true if we are missing all or part of one leg or if all or part of one leg isn’t mobile. Even if you consider yourself “able-bodied,” you have probably had an injury that affected your mobility — or maybe you went hiking and messed up your shoe in a way that affected your gait. Or, maybe, you just got a rock in your shoe. Either way, take a moment to think back and consider how the change in one area affected all your other areas as you moved.
“The Cube is an imitation of life itself — or even an improvement on life.”
— Ernö Rubik
When it comes to our physical practice of yoga, our sequencing considers how the mind-body is mentally and physically connected and we also consider the energetic aspects of how we are connected. By building each āsana (“seat” or pose) from the ground up, we are able to ensure maximum amount of stability so that we can stretch and/or strengthen with intention and integrity. Similarly, we build the sequence from the ground up so that the mind-body is prepared to do each subsequent set of āsanas. This awareness of how things are connected is particularly important when we are practicing vinyāsa and/or implementing vinyāsa karma in order to achieve a “peak pose.”
While vinyāsa is often translated into English as “flow,” it literally means “to place in a special way.” Classically speaking, the poses are placed so that we exaggerate the body’s natural tendencies and, therefore, engage natural movement (even when moving in a way we might not normally move off the mat). When we forget the intention behind the movement we may find ourselves moving in a way that is counterintuitive and contraindicated by our basic anatomy and the fundamentals of kinesiology. Moving “in a way that is counterintuitive” can be subjective and is not always a bad thing. We definitely learn and grow when we play around with different types of movement. Also, while doing the same practice over and over again can be a great way to gauge progress and master a certain skill, getting “outside of the box” can also highlight bad habits that we’ve been “practicing.” Ultimately, one should always listen to the teacher within and consider if they are really ready to do certain things — especially since, not being mentally ready to do something can be just as dangerous as not being physically ready to do something.
On the flip side, movement that is contraindicated may not always be obvious — especially if we move fast enough and use momentum, rather than alignment and breath, to “muscle into” a pose. However, moving too much and too fast often results in injury. This can be a problem with some “flow” (or even “vinyasa”) practices that are not alignment and breath-based. Remember, just because we can do something (if we do it fast enough and with enough muscular force), doesn’t mean we it’s a good idea. Ideally, a practice works its way towards a “peak.” Maybe that peak is Śavāsana and a deep-seated meditation or maybe it’s a “peak pose” — i.e., something that a random person couldn’t walk into a room and do without being warmed up. Either way, this is where vinyāsa karma comes in handy. Vinyāsa karma literally means “to place the step in a special way.” In other words, it is a step by step progression towards a goal and it is a practice that can be utilized even in sequences where there is no “flow.”
Naturally, we can come at the physical practice of yoga (hatha yoga, regardless of the style or tradition) from a purely physical viewpoint and sequence accordingly. However, the system of yoga includes a mental and subtle body awareness which can also be accessed and harnessed through the poses and movement. Kundalini, Tantra, and Svaroopa are some of the yoga systems that specifically engage the energetic and subtle body through the practice of āsana; however, there can be tantric elements in any yoga practice that considers the way the mind-body-spirit is “woven” together. For instance, when I mention how the energy of our “first family, tribe, and community of birth” contributes to how we cultivate friendships with people we may perceive as “Other,” that is an element of tantra. When we warm up the core in order to have more stability in balancing poses, that is an element of tantra. When we open up the body in order to loosen up areas that may be holding stagnant energy, that also is an element of tantra. Notice, (especially as it relates to the last example) that any of these examples can happen outside of a “vinyasa” practice. Notice, also, that there is no reference to balancing the different types of energy associated the difference sides of the body… although, that too is tantra.
“The problems of puzzles are very near the problems of life.”
— Ernö Rubik
So, you can see how our mind-bodies and, therefore our practice, are like puzzles — like a giant Rubik’s Cubes. On a certain level, however, our lives — and relationships — are different from a physical puzzle; because we don’t start with a picture of the finished product and we don’t know if we have all the pieces. Let’s be honest, we don’t even know if all the pieces we have are for a single puzzle. Despite these differences, we can take a page from the life of the creator of one of the most popular toys of the 80’s: we can visualize the picture we want; see what fits and what doesn’t fit; be open to the possibilities that are around us and inside of us; and use the tools at hand.
Born in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary on July 13, 1944, Ernö Rubik started off as an architect and architect professor. He studied at the Secondary School of Fine and Applied Arts, the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (where he joined the architecture faculty), and the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts and Design, also known as the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (where was a member of the Faculty of Interior Architecture and Design). As a professor, he wanted to build a three dimensional model he could use to help his architecture students develop spatial awareness and solve design problems. He started off with 27 wooden blocks, which would have worked great if he just wanted a static three dimensional model. But, Rubik wanted something he could easily move into a variety of shapes. That was his vision.
Now, one thing to keep in mind is that this particular creator didn’t just have a background in architecture (with an emphasis on sculpture). He was also the son of two parents who were themselves creators: his father being a world-renowned engineer of gliders and his mother being a poet. Although, Rubik is quick to credit his father as one of his inspirations, it’s best not to ignore the fact that he grew up watching both of his parents creating things that delighted others.
So, he had a vision and he had pieces to his “puzzle.” He even knew how everything fit together. He just didn’t know how everything would move together. Then one day, while walking on a cobblestone bridge in Budapest, he looked down and realized if the core of his model resembled the cobblestones he could twist and turn the pieces accordingly. Violá!
Ernö Rubik had the vision (a “picture” of the final product); the pieces and how they fit together; and he was open to different possibilities so that when (metaphorically speaking) he stumbled on the cobblestone, he recognized the opportunity. Finally, because of his father’s experience as an inventor, he knew how to apply for a patent and what was needed to take something to market. Even though he ran into a few problems along the way — after all, he was doing all of this under a communist regime — he eventually licensed his invention, the “Magic Cube” to the U. S. based Ideal Toys. Invented on May 19, 1974 and renamed “Rubik’s Cube” in 1979, the toy was introduced to the world in 1980. The toy was so popular that it led Ernö Rubik to create more three dimensional puzzles, including Rubik’s Magic, Rubik’s Snake, and Rubik’s 360.
“If you are curious, you’ll find the puzzles around you. If you are determined, you will solve them.”
— Ernö Rubik
Even though all of Ernö Rubik’s puzzles can be viewed through a geometric and mathematical lens — and even though they mostly rely on the engagement of a central core — there are some differences between the puzzles. Rubik’s 360 requires a certain amount of manual dexterity that is not required to manipulate the other toys and Rubik’s Snake can be a bit like origami, in that the toy can be made into different shapes. But, perhaps the most puzzling of all is the original Rubik’s Magic.
The original Rubik’s Magic has eight interwoven black tiles with rainbow rings painted on the front and the back. In its “unsolved” (flat, rectangular) state, the front of the tiles show three rings side-by-side and the back of the tiles show pieces of three rings that will be interlocking when the puzzle is solved. The puzzle can be manipulated to make a ton of different shapes, like a star, a box, a bench, and even a toy chest. In fact, in the “solved” position, the rectangle becomes heart-shaped. The tiles fold and unfold horizontally and vertically, in tandem and individually — which means they flip into each other, over each other, twist, and can be rolled like a wheel. Later iterations of the puzzle featured images (like the Simpsons going to the beach, Harry Potter playing quidditch, and dinosaurs) that create a bit of a story.
Take a moment to consider what happens if your life is like the images on a Rubik’s Magic. Yes, you might see your life as disconnected circles or you might see yourself as separate from the other people around you. Consider, however, what twists and turns, flips and rolls, get you connected. Or, more accurately, get you to recognize that you are already connected. If you see one side of you Magic as the image of how your life is at this moment, consider that the other side is the image of some goal, desire, or experience you’d like to achieve. The pieces are there, again, you just have to flip, twist, turn, and roll things so that you’re relaxing on the beach or grabbing the golden snitch.
Again, the pieces are already there; it’s all just a matter of “placing things in a special way.” When we look at our lives — or even other people’s lives (if you check out the link above) — through the energetic system of our practice, we start to develop more awareness about the puzzle. We even might start to realize that we are the center of the puzzle.
“Our whole life is solving puzzles.”
— Ernö Rubik
Please join me today (Saturday, July 13th) at 12:00 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 myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Saturday’s playlist available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for the “06032020 How Can We See, Dr. Wiesel” playlist.]
“A good puzzle, it’s a fair thing. Nobody is lying. It’s very clear, and the problem depends just on you.”
— Ernö Rubik
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.
### Only A Little Puzzling ###
It’s Not About What We’re Saying… (a short post with links & an excerpt) May 25, 2024
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Changing Perspectives, Healing Stories, Hope, Japa-Ajapa, Karma, Karma Yoga, Life, Mantra, Meditation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Suffering, Tragedy, Twin Cities, Wisdom, Yoga.Tags: Aaron Lindsey, chakras, Counting the Omer, Eastertide, George Floyd, India.Arie, mantra, Ralph Waldo Emerson, United States, Veterans, Yoga Sutras 3.15-3.16
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Many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone observing Eastertide, Counting the Omer, and/or working as a force of peace, freedom, and fulfillment (inside and outside).
“Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. A lady of my acquaintance said, ‘I don’t care so much for what they say as I do for what makes them say it.’”
— quoted from the essay “Social Aims” in Letters and Social Aims by Ralph Waldo Emerson (b. 1803)
Yesterday, a group of United States veterans reportedly spent part of their Memorial Day weekend in Greensboro, North Carolina with the intention of asking people at the Republican National Convention to honor the basic principles of the “republic, for which it stands” and they were (reportedly) escorted out of the area. Even if I don’t talk about it, this practice is about that and the about the idea of still serving even after one’s official service is over — and about how people react to that.
Four years ago today, George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis. Even if I don’t talk about it, this practice is about that and the about the importance of treating someone you perceive as being different from you with respect — and about how we seem to keep forgetting that.
Two hundred, twenty-one years ago today, Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts. I often say that I am blown away by the fact that his words are still relevant to our present circumstances. And, even if I don’t talk about it, this practice is about that.
The excerpt below is from a 2021 post. Click on the title for the entire post.
Please join me today (Saturday, May 25th) at 12:00 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 myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “05252022 Pratyahara II”]
Thank you to everyone who Kiss[ed] My Asana!
We surpassed the overall fundraiser goals & one of my personal goals!!! Whether you showed up in a (Zoom) class, used a recording, shared a post or video, liked and/or commented on a post or video, and/or made a donation — you and your efforts are appreciated! Thank you!!!
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.
### “Continue to breathe / In honor of your brother / That’s what your heart is for” ~ India.Arie (Aaron Lindsey / India.arie Simpson) ###
Making Connections, Part 2 [in the New Year] Part 2 (the “missing” Saturday post) February 10, 2024
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Art, Books, Changing Perspectives, First Nations, Food, Healing Stories, Life, Meditation, Music, New Year, One Hoop, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Religion, Science, Suffering, Wisdom, Women, Yoga.Tags: Boris Pasternak, Carnival, chakras, Contemplation, David Bowie, Durga, Edith Clarke, friendship, Gupta Navaratri, James West, Jerry Goldsmith, Jim Whittaker, Kevin Murnane, Lou Whittaker, Lunar New Year, Luther Standing Bear, Magha Navaratri, Mahatma Gandhi Canadian Foundation for World Peace, Navaratri, relationship, Robert Fulghum, Roberta Flack, Sam Hui, Season for Nonviolence, Season of Non-violence, Shailaputri, siddhis, Spring Festival, Year of the Dragon
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“Happy (Lunar) New Year!” and/or “Happy Carnival!” to those who are already celebrating! “Nine days and nine nights of blessings and happiness if you are celebrating Gupta (Magha) Navaratri!” Peace, ease, and contemplation throughout this “Season for Nonviolence” and all other seasons!!!
This is the “missing” post for Saturday, February 10th. It includes some previously posted information (updated for 2024) and links to related posts. You can request a recording of the related practice(s) 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. Donations are tax deductible.
Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.
“I am going to venture that the man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures and acknowledging unity with the universe of things was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization.”
— quoted from the “What the Indian Means to America” in Land of the Spotted Eagle by Luther Standing Bear
The “Season for Nonviolence” word (for February 10, 2024) is “contemplation,” which is what I always encourage — especially on Saturdays. This year, during the Saturday practices, we are using energetic and symbolic aspects of the body to focus on how our past, present, and future are connected and how different aspects of our lives prepare and inform us. We started with the lower body and our foundation in life and this month we have moved into the realm of relationships, particularly friendships we make with people we (or others) might perceive as being different.
Some of our earliest life lessons revolve around friendship, who is considered a stranger (and therefore a danger), and how we view (some described as) a foreigner. This is part of the reason Robert Fulghum’s “all I really need to know I learned in kindergarten” is true. Kindergarten, pre-school, daycare — and even Sunday school — are all laboratories, sandboxes, and playgrounds (if you will) for the things we learn in our first family, tribe, and community of birth. These are the places where we first put our early life lessons to the Litmus test, to see if they hold up (or prove true) beyond a theoretical idea. Sometimes we have experiences that cause us to carry those early life lessons throughout our lives. Other times we have experiences that cause us to re-examine what we were taught by out elders.
To be clear: We are all strangers and foreigners to someone. We could also all be friends to someone who is different from us. However, for many people (especially in the United States), our initial experiments in “cultivating a good heart” occur with people who have a shared culture: same history (i.e., similar tragedies and triumphs), same language, same food, same religions and philosophies, same rituals and traditions, same music, and same calendars. On a certain level, shared culture also translates into shared expectations. This does not mean that we will not have disagreements, misunderstandings, and disappointments (just because we share a culture with someone). It does, however, mean that we have to be mindful of how expectations can be a major source of conflict (and suffering).
First, we have to be mindful of the fact that we all come into relationships with expectations. Sometimes we are very aware of our own expectations and how they may be different from others. Sometimes we are even good at communicating our expectations and being open to others having different expectations. More often than not, however, our communication and listening skills are underdeveloped because we assume that people with a similar background (i.e., shared culture) have the same expectations and/or that our expectations are the only reasonable expectations. As I mentioned last week, technology has created opportunities for us to encounter — sometimes at an early age — people who are perceived as being different from us. So, in some ways, we all have to go back to those childhood lessons.
Our capacity to cultivate friendships with someone different from us can be aided or hindered by the lessons we first learn in our homes. For instance, I learned early on that other people had different cultures and that sensory information (like scent) can be a trigger “a remembrance of things past.” Someone else might have learned that other people had “strange,” “weird,” “odd,” “exotic,” and/or “primitive” cultures and food. The latter characterizations can manifest as an aversion to new experiences (at best) and the worst -isms, -phobias, intolerance, and fetishes. The former characterization can create an openness that allows one to discover common elements.
We can discover that an unfamiliar ritual or tradition has the same underlying meaning as something very important to us. (Similarly, we can discover that something that looks the same on the outside has different meaning on the inside.) We can find that we have the same favorite musician as someone in Münster, Germany and/or the same favorite foods as someone in Xinyuan, China and New Delhi, India — even if we have never visited those places. We can share a hobby or a profession with someone from a different background and, therefore, share an experience — like climbing a mountain that very few will climb — that cements our bond. We can develop deep lasting friendships with people who are currently celebrating a new year, celebrating the end of a season, observing a holy time, and/or preparing to celebrate a holy time — even when, to us, it is just a regular time.
“财神到 财神到
Caishen dao caishen dao [The god of wealth has come! The god of wealth has come!]
好心得好报
Hao xinde hao bao [Good news]
财神话 财神话
Caishenhua caishenhua [Myth of money, myth of money]
揾钱依正路
wen qian yi zhenglu [if you follow the right path]”
— quoted from the song “Cai Shen Dao” [“The God of Wealth Has Come!” by Sam Hui, lyrics in Hanzi [Chinese characters], pīnyīn [“spelled sounds”], and English
Today is the beginning of the Lunar New Year. The Chinese lunisolar calendar designates this year is the year of the (wood) Dragon. While many East and Southeast Asian cultures celebrate at the same time — and even though there are some similarities to celebrations held at other times of the year — each culture has different rituals and traditions that connect people with their extended families, ancestors, and heritage.
In parts of China and the diaspora, the beginning of the New Year is also the beginning of the Spring Festival, a fifteen day celebration that culminates with the Lantern Festival. Even though each day of the Lunar New Year has a special significance, each region has different stories and traditions related to that significance. For example, according to one Chinese creation story, different animals are celebrated depending on when they were created; thus, today is the birthday of all chickens. Others are celebrating the birthday of the water god and, therefore, will not wash their hair or their clothes on the first two days of the new year. Some Buddhist people celebrate the birth of Maitreya Buddha on the first day of the lunar new year and spend New Year’s Day, as well as several days leading up to the first day, chanting, praying, and/or meditating (depending on their beliefs). People will also light candles and make offerings at the temple before their feasting begins.
Even though there are some differences between regions and cultures in celebrations of the Lunar New Year, there are some common elements. The Lunar New Year celebrations generally include extended family coming together; the welcoming of ancestors and (in some households) the welcoming of household deities (like the water god); red clothes, red decorations, and red envelopes; fireworks, parades, and loud noises, a bit of feasting, and (of course), the wish, prayer, blessing, or shout for prosperity: “Cai Shen Dao! [The God of Wealth has come! in Mandarin]”
In 2024, the Spring Festival celebrations begin on the last weekend of Carnival, which is the lead up to Mardi Gras (which is the lead up to Lent for Western Christians), and coincides with a “hidden” or “secret” celebration of Navaratri.
“‘There is no demand for women engineers, as such, as there are for women doctors; but there’s always a demand for anyone who can do a good piece of work.’”
— Edith Clarke quoted in a March 14, 1948 Daily Texan article
Navaratri (which means “nine nights” in Sanskrit) occurs four times on the Hindu calendar and is a celebration of divine feminine energy — specifically of Durga, the divine mother, in various manifestations. Each Navaratri begins by celebrating Durga as Shailaputri (“Daughter of Mountain”). Shailputri is the daughter of Himavat, the Mountain King or Guardian God of Himalayan Mountains, and is recognized as a divine manifestation of Mahadevi and a reincarnation of Sati (the wife of Shiva), who then reincarnates as Parvati. In art, she holds a trishula or trident in her right hand and a lotus in her left hand, all while riding Shiva’s bull Nandi, whose name means “happy, joy, and satisfaction.” Although extra emphasis is put on the celebrations in the spring and fall, Magha Navaratri (which begins today) and Ashada Navaratri have special significance in certain regions and are referred to as Gupta Navaratri, meaning they are hidden or secret — not because no one knows about them; but, because the celebrations are not as big and obvious as the celebrations in the spring and fall.
Since the (secular) Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar, the Lunar New Year falls at different times according to the Western schedule. This year’s celebrations begin on the birthday of several musicians, a mathematician, a couple of mountain-climbing twins, and someone whose work allows us to hear more clearly. Their backgrounds are different, but their stories (and work) are all ultimately about making connections.
Click here for the 2021 post about the electrical engineer Edith Clarke (born today in 1883), the award-winning poet Boris Pasternak (born today in 1890, according to the Gregorian calendar), the award-winning composer Jerrald “Jerry” King Goldsmith, the mountain climbing twins Jim and Lou Whittaker (all three born today in 1929), the award-winning musician Roberta Flack (today in 1937), and the 1972 “earthly debut” of “Ziggy Stardust.”
NOTE: The second half of the 2021 post is related to a different date.
Click here for 2023 post about the inventor and acoustic engineer James Edward Maceo West (born 1931).
Saturday playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
“Describing the experience later, he said that when things happen that he doesn’t understand ‘… I have to figure them out. I have to learn. And that’s essentially what led to some of the discoveries that I made, you know, the curiosity. Well, why does nature behave in that way? You know, what are the compelling parameters around the way nature behaves? And how can I better understand the physical principles that I’m dealing with? You know, it’s still a big part of my life.’”
— quoted from the Biz & IT section of Ars Technica, in an article entitled “Listen up: James West forever changed the way we hear the world — Now in his 80s, the legendary inventor still pursues research and fights for education.” by Kevin Murnane (dated 5/8/2016)
### Contemplate & Celebrate! ###
2024 / “For Those Who Missed It (& those who still don’t get it): Divine Remembrance” January 27, 2024
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Faith, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma, Life, Loss, Love, Music, Mysticism, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Religion, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.Tags: Allen Mandelbaum, chakras, Cliff Eisen, Daniel Goleman, Dante Alighieri, Dov Forman, Dr. Viktor Frankl, Eli Wiesel, Experimentum Crucis, Franz Vesely, hatha yoga, Herman Abert, Holocaust, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israel "Izzy" Arbeiter, Jessica A. Botelho, Lily Ebert, Muladhara, President Joseph R. Biden, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Selma van de Perre, Stewart Spencer, Trevor Noah, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Peace and safe passage to all on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
This is the “missing” post for Saturday, January 27th. It includes an introduction related to the 2024 Saturday practices and the 2022 version of a 2021 post (with the 2022 “preface note” moved to the end. This post and practice references political conflict, war, and genocide. You can request an audio recording of a related 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.
“I promised myself when I was in very deep in this terrible situation that when I came out, I will tell the world what can happen.”
“I know what it meant because I came normal, in a normal family [from a] normal country and suddenly— And it doesn’t begin with killing, never. It begins only with words. and then it gets worse and worse.”
— Lily Ebert, a Holocaust survivor and co-author of Lily’s Promise: Holding On to Hope Through Auschwitz and Beyond—A Story for All Generations explaining why she tells her story in the 2022 Home Office video “Holocaust Survivor Lily Ebert’s Story” (featuring Lily Ebert, her great-grandson and co-author Dov Forman, and then-Home Secretary Priti Patel)
During the 2024 Saturday practices, we are exploring how this present moment (every present moment) is the culmination of past moments and how this present moment (every present moment) becomes the beginning of the next/future moments. There are several ways we could go about this exploration. For obvious reasons, I am (primarily) using paradigms based on the chakra system in Yoga and Āyurveda as they come to us from India. During January, we have been focusing on the lower body and lessons we learned from our first family, tribe, and/or community of birth.
Some of these lessons were directly and intentionally taught to us. However, others were inferred and/or completely unintentional. No matter what age we are, there are some lessons we absorb and soak in and others that we reject. Either way, those lessons make up our foundation in life. With regard to the first chakra, which is energetically and symbolically connected to survival, these lessons are also related to trauma — and, in particular, generational trauma.
On a certain level, it doesn’t matter if (or to what degree) you believe in the energetic, symbolic, spiritual and/or religious aspects of this practice. Neither does it matter, on a certain level, what you believe about some of the egregiously atrocious things that have happened — and are happening — in the world. Our belief or doubt does not change the big “T” Truth and Reality (of our past). Our belief or doubt only changes how we understand the world and our place in the world. Our belief or doubt only changes how we engage the world — which means our belief or doubt can change the world (of our future).
My hope is that you come along for this ride — on the mat and/or on the blog — and that, somewhere along the way, your heart gets bigger and your mind becomes more open.
“What we create, experience, and suffer, in this time, we create, experience, and suffer for all eternity. As far as we bear responsibility for an event, as far as it is ‘history,’ our responsibility, it is incredibly burdened by the fact that something has happened that cannot be ‘taken out of the world.’ However, at the same time an appeal is made to our responsibility—precisely to bring what has not yet happened into the world! And each of us must do this as part of our daily work, as part of our everyday lives. So everyday life becomes the reality per se, and this reality becomes a potential for action. And so, the ‘metaphysics of everyday life’ only at first leads us out of everyday life, but then—consciously and responsibly—leads us back to everyday life.”
— quoted from “Experimentum Crucis” in Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything by Viktor E. Frankl (with an introduction by Daniel Goleman and an afterword by Franz Vesely)
For Those Who Missed it: The following was originally posted in relation to the January 27, 2021 practice and re-posted today in 2022.
“Io non mori’ e non rimasi vivo;
pensa oggimai per te, s’hai fior d’ingegno,
qual io divenni, d’uno e d’altro privo.”
“I did not die, and I was not alive;
think for yourself, if you have any wit,
what I became, deprived of life and death.”
— quoted from Dante’s The Divine Comedy — Inferno, Canto 34 (lines 25 – 27), translated by Allen Mandelbaum
“I did not die, and yet I lost life’s breath: imagine for yourself what I became, deprived at once of both my life and death.”
— A popular, oft quoted, translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy — Inferno, Canto 34 (lines 25 – 27)
In November 1301, Florence, Italy was the site of a great political upheaval that destroyed much of the city, established a new government, and resulted in the death or banishment of many of the previous leaders. One of those people exiled from their hometown was Dante Alighieri, who was banished on January 27, 1302. Dante had very briefly served as the city’s prior, one of its highest positions, and when the new government — ruled by his political enemies — took over, he was accused of corruption, ordered to pay a fine, and to spend two years in exile. But, the poet didn’t believe he had done anything wrong and, more to the point, his assets had been seized by the new government. So, his sentence was changed to perpetual exile (with the threat of death if he returned without paying the fine.)
Thus began the poet’s bitter wandering. He was in his mid-30’s; and while he would participate in several failed attempts to retake Florence, much of the remaining 20-odd years of his life would be devoted to writing The Divine Comedy, a long narrative poem divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. In the poem, the poet (and his soul) literally travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven (or Paradise) — and metaphorically travel towards God. He is initially guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil, who represents “human reason;” but it is Beatrice, who symbolizes divine knowledge/love and who first appeared as the object of the poet’s great love in his “little book” La Vita Nuova (The New Life), who guides him from the end of Purgatorio into Paradiso. The poem reflects Dante’s medieval Roman Catholic beliefs and draws strongly from the teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas, one of the great saints he meets in Paradise.
“Article 1. Whether the soul was made or was of God’s substance?
Objection 1. It would seem that the soul was not made, but was God’s substance. For it is written (Genesis 2:7): ‘God formed man of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man was made a living soul.’ But he who breathes sends forth something of himself. Therefore the soul, whereby man lives, is of the Divine substance.”
— from Summa Theologica (1a Qq. 90, volume 13) by Saint Thomas Aquinas
Even when we have different theological and/or philosophical beliefs, we can agree that breathing is a sign of life, of being alive. However, there are medical situations where someone is breathing and there are no other signs of life. Then there are medical and existential situations where someone is alive, but not living. This latter can be very subjective. Yet, I would argue that there are situations under which almost everyone can categorically agree that it would be really hard to truly live (and feel alive). Those same situations are the ones where it would be hard to take a deep breath in and a deeper breath out.
I think, perhaps, Dante felt that feeling (of being alive, but not living) to a certain degree when he was exiled from his home and had almost everything familiar to him stripped away. However, Dante could still roam, and to a certain degree freely. He lived out his life in relative comfort and he was still free to worship according to his beliefs. He was not persecuted for his beliefs (only, for his politics) nor was he tortured because of his gender, ethnicity, height and appearance, or simply because he had a sibling born on the same day. He could write what he wanted to write and received recognition for his efforts. Furthermore, with the exception of what would happen if he returned to Florence, he did not have to fear being killed for his beliefs — or any of his personal attributes. He may have felt, metaphorically, as if he was “deprived of life and death,” but he still had some control over his life and his ability to live it. On the flip side, the millions of people rounded up, persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and killed during the Holocaust, spent many of their days in a reality much like the first part of Dante’s poem: they were actually deprived of life and living.
“‘I [will never forget ‘the very bad things’….] I was there and had to see this with my own eyes,’ he said. ‘My mother and my father, and my 7-year-old brother, were murdered in another camp in Treblinka, which is not far from Warsaw.’”
— Israel “Izzy” Arbeiter, a 95-year old Holocaust survivor and lifelong rights activist, telling his story in “Auschwitz survivor reflects on Holocaust Remembrance Day” by Jessica A. Botelho (for NBC 10 News, WJAR, 1/27/2021)
The persecution during the Holocaust started with social and physical segregation; it escalated into government-sanctioned destruction of property; and eventually progressed to the establishment of concentration camps across German-occupied Europe. Millions fled their homes. Millions more would be held captive and tortured. An estimated two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population was murdered while the world stood by, in some cases in disbelief. In addition to the approximately 6 million Jewish people who died, the Holocaust claimed the lives of an estimated 5 million Slavs, 3 million ethnic Poles, 200,000 Romani people, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people, and 9,000 members of the LGBTQIA+ community (mostly identified as gay men). This horrifically tragic destruction of society and community during the Holocaust was not, cannot be, over-dramatized. It also should not be forgotten.
In November 2005, the United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 designated January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In addition to establishing a day of remembrance and calling for an outreach program, the UN’s resolution also “urges Member States to develop educational programmes… in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide…; rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part; and condemns without reservation all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, wherever they occur.” The original resolution is reinforced by UN resolution 61/255 (issued in January 2007), which reaffirmed the General Assembly and Member States’ strong condemnation of Holocaust denial and noted “that all people and States have a vital stake in a world free of genocide.”
January 27th was chosen as a day of remembrance as it was the Saturday, in 1945, when Auschwitz-Birkenau (the largest Nazi concentration and death camp complex) was liberated by the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. The liberators found approximately 7,500 survivors — not realizing at the time that these “survivors” had been designated as too sick or weak to be transported (i.e., marched) to another site as the Allies were closing in on the Nazis. The Red Army also did not initially realize that the camp complex had held at least 1.3 million prisoners, most of whom had been or would be killed before the other camps were liberated in April and May of 1945.
“For in my tradition, as a Jew, I believe that whatever we receive we must share. When we endure an experience, the experience cannot stay with me alone. It must be opened, it must become an offering, it must be deepened and given and shared. And of course I am afraid that memories suppressed could come back with a fury, which is dangerous to all human beings, not only to those who directly were participants but to people everywhere, to the world, for everyone. So, therefore, those memories that are discarded, shamed, somehow they may come back in different ways, disguised, perhaps seeking another outlet.”
“What is a witness if not someone who has a tale to tell and lives only with one haunting desire: to tell it. Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.
After all, God is God, because He remembers.”
— quoted from an April 7, 2008 All Things Considered: “This I Believe” essay by Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel was one of the most famous survivors of the Holocaust. He was a teenager when he and his family were sent to the concentration camps. His parents (Sarah Feig and Shlomo Wiesel) and his sister Tzipora would not survive the camps. He was reunited with his older two sisters (Beatrice and Hilda) at a French orphanage. For 10 years, Professor Wiesel went about the business of living his life — but he did not speak or write about his experience during the Holocaust.
He did not speak or write about his younger sister or about how his father guided him with reason and his mother guided him with faith. He did not speak or write about the guilt and shame of being helpless or about how (and why) he maintained the will to survive. Then he began to write and speak and advocate for change. He advocated not only for Jewish rights and causes, but also for non-Jewish people oppressed in places like South Africa, Nicaragua, Kosovo, Sudan, and Armenia. In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and he received a plethora of awards from around the world, including the United States’ 1986 Medal of Liberty and the 1992 Presidential of Freedom.
Anne Frank was born less than a year after Elie Wiesel and would spend much of Germany’s occupation of the Netherlands in hiding. A mere five months before the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was liberated Anne’s family and friends were discovered and sent to the concentration camps. She was 15 years old, basically the same age Elie Wisel had been when his family was rounded up. Anne; her mother Edith; her sister Margot; their friends Hermann and Auguste van Pels; and Fritz Pfeffer, the final person to hid in the Annex, all died in the camps or while being transported between the camps towards the end of the war. Anne’s friend, Peter van Pels, died 5 days after the camp he was in was liberated by the Americans. Peter’s parents (Hermann and Auguste), and Fritz Pfeffer all died in the camps.
Otto Frank was the only person hiding in the Annex who survived the camps. He was one of those designated as “too sick” or “too weak” to be transported and therefore was at Auschwitz-Birkenau when the camp complex was liberated on Saturday, January 27, 1945. He would soon discover that his family and friends had not survived. However, a piece of Anne and the family’s history had survived.
Miep Gies, his former secretary and one of the six Annex “helpers,” had held onto Anne’s journals. Those journals, which Anne called “Kitty,” were full of the day-to-day minutia of their lives in hiding; Anne’s thoughts about the state of the world, her feelings about her family and the others in hiding; details about her first kiss and budding romance with Peter; her personal ambitions and desires; and her passions. She wrote about the things that gave her hope: a tree, a patch of blue sky, fresh air, and music.
In fact, on more than one occasion, Anne Frank wrote about being inspired by music. She wrote about receiving a biography of the composer Franz Listz and about listening to “a beautiful Mozart concert on the radio” with Peter. It is presented as a date, a little living in the middle of hiding. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was born January 27, 1756, might have especially appreciated that she wrote, “I especially enjoyed the ‘Kleine Nachtmusik.’ I can hardly bear to listen in the kitchen, since beautiful music stirs me to the very depths of my soul.”
“…music, in even the most terrible situations, must never offend the ear but always remain a source of pleasure.”
— quoted from a letter (dated September 26, 1781) from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his father, as printed in W. A. Mozart by Hermann Abert (Editor: Professor Cliff Eisen and Translator: Stewart Spencer)
Saturday playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “012701 Holocaust Liberation & Remembrance”]
A 2024 MUSIC NOTE: The playlists are slightly different, as some music is not available on Spotify. The YouTube playlist also includes videos of Holocaust survivors telling their stories (one of which is embedded below).
A 2022 NOTE: As I mentioned
yesterday(and in the previous post), I find it twisted, upside down, and backwards that we need to remind each other that we were all born to be loved (and to love).Similarly, it boggles my mind that on this day of remembrance there are still people in the world who want to brush the unsightly bits of our collective history under a rug or deny that certain atrocities even existed. Just as bad, in my mind, are people who just refuse to get that staying home and/or socially distancing so that a disease doesn’t kill them or someone they love, is not the same as hiding in an annex so that you or someone you love isn’t murdered. Wearing a mask (of your choosing) is not even close to wearing a yellow star — and it hurts my heart to realize some folks may actually believe otherwise.
I’ve added an embedded video from
last year2021. And, even if I’m “preaching to the choir,” I’m going to keep preaching.
“I first learned about the horrors of the Holocaust listening to my father at the dinner table. The passion he felt that we should have done more to prevent the Nazi campaign of systematic mass murder has stayed with me my entire life. It’s why I took my children to visit Dachau in Germany, and why I hope to do the same for each of my grandchildren — so they too would see for themselves the millions of futures stolen away by unchecked hatred and understand in their bones what can happen when people turn their heads and fail to act.
We must pass the history of the Holocaust on to our grandchildren and their grandchildren in order to keep real the promise of “never again.” That is how we prevent future genocides. Remembering the victims, heroes, and lessons of the Holocaust is particularly important today as Holocaust deniers and minimizers are growing louder in our public discourse. But the facts are not up for question, and each of us must remain vigilant and speak out against the resurgent tide of anti-Semitism, and other forms of bigotry and intolerance, here at home and around the world.”
— “Statement by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on International Holocaust Remembrance Day,” released January 27, 2021
Sssh. Listen. Selma is speaking!
### PEACE IN, PEACE OUT ###
### AUM ###
FTWMI: Simple and True, with Music January 10, 2024
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Faith, First Nations, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Mysticism, One Hoop, Philosophy, Poetry, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.Tags: 9 Days, Anodea Judith, Benjamin Boone, Bird Flight, Caroline Myss, chakras, Charlie Parker, kabbalah, Phil Schaap, Philip Levine, pranayama, prāṇāyāma, Saint Teresa of Ávila, sefirot, Sioux, WKCR 89.9, yoga
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May you breathe deeply, and with awareness, because you are stable, steady, comfortable, at ease… and maybe even joyful.
FTWMI: The following is the expanded and revised 2023 remix of a 2022 post. Class details plus some links and formatting have been added/updated.
“Some days I catch a rhythm, almost a song
in my own breath. I’m alone here
in Brooklyn Heights, late morning, the sky
above the St. George Hotel clear, clear
for New York, that is. The radio playing
‘Bird Flight,’ Parker in his California
tragic voice fifty years ago, his faltering
‘Lover Man’ just before he crashed into chaos.”
— quoted from the poem “Call It Music” by Philip Levine
Breathing is something we all do. It’s something we all must do in order to survive — and, yet, it is all to easy to forget about it. Even in this day and age, it is all too easy to take our breathing for granted. So, take a moment to breathe.
Just breathe and pay attention to your breath.
Catch the rhythm that is your breath, the rhythm of your life.
Breath — and the awareness of breath — is the guiding teacher that we carry with us where ever we go. Our breath can be a true reflection of how we are living and/or surviving in any given moment. It can tell us if we are about to soar like a bird and/or if we are about to crash into chaos.
“The perfect sunlight angles into my little room
above Willow Street. I listen to my breath
come and go and try to catch its curious taste,
part milk, part iron, part blood, as it passes
from me into the world. This is not me,
this is automatic, this entering and exiting,
my body’s essential occupation without which
I am a thing. The whole process has a name,
a word I don’t know, an elegant word not
in English or Yiddish or Spanish, a word
that means nothing to me.”
— quoted from the poem “Call It Music” by Philip Levine
There are any number of words in any number of languages that could come to mind when reading the words of the poet Philip Levine, who was born January 10, 1928, in Detroit, Michigan. Of course, the word that immediately springs to my mind is the Sanskrit word prāṇāyāma. Defined as the awareness of breath and the extension of breath, prāṇāyāma is the fifth limb of the 8-limb Yoga Philosophy. It is the second half of the physical practice of yoga and it bridges the gap between the mind-body and our awareness of our mind-body.
Although there are many techniques, basic prāṇāyāma is a very simple practice: focus on your breath for a set period of time. While the practice is just that simple, it is not always easy. There are lots of things that can get in the way. However, one of the great things about this practice is that paying attention to the breath is also the true way around those obstacles. I would even argue that nothing is more simple and true than breathing and bringing awareness to that automatic entering and leaving.
“Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker,
the glass of water, the absence of light gathering
in the shadows of picture frames, they must be
naked and alone, they must stand for themselves.”
— quoted from the poem “A Simple Truth” by Philip Levine
Philip Levine was the second of three sons (and the first identical twin) born to Jewish immigrants just as the Nazi party was getting a foothold in Germany. He had the unfortunate experience of watching anti-Semitism rise in is own (proverbial) backyard and to also witness how racism (and other -isms) created a schism between the different people who made up the working class. Following in the tradition of Walt Whitman, he started giving voice to America’s voiceless and — even after he left the “mitten state” — he wrote poems about the plight of regular people in his hometown.
In some ways, Mr. Levine followed in his parent’s footsteps. His father, Harry Levine, owned a used (car) parts store; his mother, Esther Priscol (Pryszkulnik) Levine, sold books; and, starting at the age of fourteen, the poet worked in auto factories as he pursued his literary degrees. After graduating from Detroit Central High School, he earned his Bachelor of Arts, in literature, from Wayne (State) University and then “unofficially” attended classes at the University of Iowa. He earned a mail-order master’s degree and then returned to the University of Iowa to teach and pursue a Masters of Fine Arts, which he completed in 1957.
By the time he graduated from the University of Iowa (1957), he was beginning to gain significant recognition as a poet. In addition to teaching at a plethora of major universities around the country, he was lauded and recognized with national literary awards, including the two National Book Awards (1980 and 1991), Guggenheim Foundation fellowships (1973 and 1980), the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1995, for the collection The Simple Truth), and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (1987). He served on the Board of Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets (1000-2006) and as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (also known as the U. S. Poet Laureate) from 2011-2012. In collaboration with saxophonist and composer Benjamin Boone, Philip Levine created a collection of jazz poetry, “a literary genre defined as poetry necessarily informed by jazz music” — which was released in 2018, almost exactly three years and a month after his death. As a writer, he not only protested the Vietnam War, he kept speaking for the disenfranchised using simple truths… truths that could not be denied.
“Can you taste
what I’m saying? It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, the metal we call salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live on it.”
— quoted from the poem “A Simple Truth” by Philip Levine
The sixth chakra, which is located around the third eye (and about in inch into your forehead, half an inch above there), is symbolically associated with big “T” Truth — and with our ability to seek it, perceive it, and recognize it when we encounter it. The energy of this area is a curious energy, in that it continually pushes us to question everything. It supports healthy self-inquiry when the energy is balanced; however, when out of balance, it can manifest feelings of doubt or an inability to “see the truth” when it is right in front of you.
In Wheels of Life: A User’s Guide to the Chakra System, Anodea Judith, Ph.D., connects the sixth chakra to “knowledge, understanding and transcendent consciousness,” as well as to intuition. In Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing, Caroline Myss, Ph.D. further connects it to the Christian sacrament of Ordination and the sefirot (“emanations” or Divine attributes) of Binah (Divine “understanding”) and Hokhmah or Chokmah (Divine “wisdom”). Similar to the love described in the sixth mansion of Saint Teresa of Ávila‘s El Castillo Interior or Las Moradas, ordination distinguishes and elevates the faithful. Note, also, that in the Kabbalah-inspired system I have previously mentioned, the “higher” or mind-related sefirot are not included in a physical practice of the Divine attributes.
My standard summary of how the energetic and symbolic elements manifest in our lives goes something like this: Consider how where you come from determines the friends you make (or don’t make); how where you come from and the people around you play a role in how you see yourself; and how where you come from, the friends you make along the way, and how you see yourself, play a part in how (or if) you embrace yourself (or others), embrace a moment, and extend your gifts out into the world — or not. Consider also how where you come from, the friends you make along the way, how you see yourself, and whether you extend what’s in your heart connect to how you express yourself, how you know (or don’t know) the truth when you perceive it, and how all of that contributes to your experience of this present moment.
That summary can be extrapolated and applied to a variety of scenarios, including how we cultivate new habits and achieve our goals, dreams, and desires. Consider, for instance, that the first chakra is related to physical survival and physical form – which means it is our matter. It is also our plans. Friends are our support system, cheering us on and/or providing guidance, while also providing accountability. When I think of the third chakra, the solar plexus – as it relates to our self esteem, our personality, and our sense of self — I think of the idea that we have “fire in the belly.” We can think of this idiom literally, in terms of digestive juices – which is a whole other conversation — and we can think of it as the internal element that keeps us physically motivated. To continue the metaphor, it’s what makes us hungry for more.
Then there is the heart, which connects the physical with the mental and emotional. It’s the energetic-emotional connection between the mind and the body. Here, it is the connection between the idea (the pattern) and the manifestation (the matter). This is also the idea of purusha (pure consciousness) and prakriti (elemental, unformed matter or substance). When we get into the throat chakra — related to mental determination and willpower — we are starting to move into the intangible. Those parts of our lived experiences that are “barely describable” and can only be indicated (lingamatra) and those things that are “absolutely indescribable [because they are] beyond any point of reference” (alinga).
Consider that last bit a moment. As you think about that last part, also think about the idea that your goals and desires, your wishes, hopes, dreams (and yes, even your fears), are fully formed somewhere in your heart… and maybe the back of your mind. Somewhere out in the ether, that possibility is real. But there are a lot of steps between conception and manifestation. And until we take the first step, they all feel like giant leaps.
To make life even more challenging, anybody can give anyone a metaphorical road map about physical survival and what it takes to sustain the body. We know the body’s basic necessities and there are people who are dedicated to breaking that down into what different body types need to survive at a peak level. On a certain level, people can also create road maps for the mind — and we do, all the time, which is why the self-help industry is so massive. But, there’s still a part of the journey that can only be experienced by the person taking the trip. There’s a part of the journey that is barely or absolutely indescribable. It’s the part of the journey that can never be duplicated. It’s the journey between what’s in a person’s heart and what’s in their head.
Even if someone explained how they got from point A to point B — and even if that explanation came with a Jean-Paul Sartre nauseous-level breakdown of how they felt and what they thought along the way — the only thing the rest of us could completely replicate would be the physical aspects of the journey. But, that part in between, it’s like getting lost, stuck in a traffic jam, and not knowing where you’re going — all while on a schedule.
“The longest journey you will make in your life is from your head to your heart.”
— possibly a Sioux statement, although it is often attributed to “Anonymous”
Please join me today (Wednesday, January 10th) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a virtual 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 myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “01102023 Simple and True with Music”]
NOTE: The end of the YouTube playlist includes a special recording of the Bird Flight radio show, hosted by Phil Schaap on WKCR 89.9. I couldn’t find it on Spotify (maybe because I’m like “Lazy Bird” — which is what rounds out the Spotify playlist).
Did you see that I re-posted a surprise from 2022? It’s the first step in a journey (that we’ve already begun and finished)!
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.)
### Always Get Into The Habit ###
The Mo You Know (a mini-post w/ music) November 5, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Changing Perspectives, Fitness, Food, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Life, Men, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Science, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Yoga.Tags: Bryan Adams, cancer, chakras, colon, Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes Day, J. B. S. Haldane, Jonny Greenwood, Men's Health, mental health, Movember, Muladhara, No(shave)mber, rectum, Sam Shepard, Svadhisthana, Thom Yorke, vegan, vegetarian
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May you be peaceful and happy / May you be healthy and strong!
“I wish I had the voice of Homer
To sing of rectal carcinoma,
Which kills a lot more chaps, in fact,
Than were bumped off when Troy was sacked.
Yet, thanks to modern surgeon’s skills,
It can be killed before it kills
Upon a scientific basis
In nineteen out of twenty cases.”
— quoted from the poem “Cancer’s a funny thing” by J. B. S. Haldane
Today, Movember 5th, is a day when I typically sport a mou’ that is a cross between one associated with Guy Fawkes — because he was arrested today in 1605, making today Guy Fawkes Day — and one similar to the ones in pictures of J. B. S. Haldane (b. 1892), who died of colorectal cancer at the age of 72. For slightly different reasons, I associate both of these people with their fabulous facial hair and with the first two chakras or energetic “wheels” as they come to us from India. First is the root chakra (which is symbolically and energetically connected to the lower body) and then there is the sacral chakra (which is symbolically and energetically connected to the hips and lower abdominal cavity). Today’s practice features poses from a sequence recommended for the colon and highlights the feeling of being grounded/supported.
Today is also the anniversary of the birth of Sam Shepard (b. 1943), as well as the birthday of Bryan Adams OC OBC FRPS (b. 1959) and Jonny Greenwood (b. 1971) — three mostly mou-less guys (two of whom are featured on the playlist)!
“So do not wait for aches and pains
To have a surgeon mend your drains;”
— quoted from the poem “Cancer’s a funny thing” by J. B. S. Haldane
Please join me for a 65-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Sunday, Movember 5th) 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 “Movember 5th 2022”]
“A spot of laughter, I am sure,
Often accelerates one’s cure;
So let us patients do our bit
To help the surgeons make us fit.”
— quoted from the poem “Cancer’s a funny thing” by J. B. S. Haldane
If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.
White Flag is a new app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.
If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
Revised 11/05/2023.
### The mo you know, the betta! ###
Simple and True, with Music (the “missing” Tuesday post) January 11, 2023
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Faith, First Nations, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Mysticism, One Hoop, Philosophy, Poetry, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.Tags: 9 Days, Anodea Judith, Benjamin Boone, Bird Flight, Caroline Myss, chakras, Charlie Parker, kabbalah, Phil Schaap, Philip Levine, pranayama, prāṇāyāma, Saint Teresa of Ávila, sefirot, Sioux, WKCR 89.9, yoga
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This “missing” post related to Tuesday, January 10th is an expanded and revised remix of a 2022 post. You can request an audio recording of either year’s 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.
“Some days I catch a rhythm, almost a song
in my own breath. I’m alone here
in Brooklyn Heights, late morning, the sky
above the St. George Hotel clear, clear
for New York, that is. The radio playing
“Bird Flight,” Parker in his California
tragic voice fifty years ago, his faltering
“Lover Man” just before he crashed into chaos.”
– quoted from the poem “Call It Music” by Philip Levine
Breathing is something we all do. It’s something we all must do in order to survive – and, yet, it is all to easy to forget about it. Even in this day and age, it is all too easy to take our breathing for granted. So, take a moment to breathe.
Just breathe and pay attention to your breath.
Catch the rhythm that is your breath, the rhythm of your life.
Breath – and the awareness of breath – is the guiding teacher that we carry with us where ever we go. Our breath can be a true reflection of how we are living and/or surviving in any given moment. It can tell us if we are about to soar like a bird and/or if we are about to crash into chaos.
“The perfect sunlight angles into my little room
above Willow Street. I listen to my breath
come and go and try to catch its curious taste,
part milk, part iron, part blood, as it passes
from me into the world. This is not me,
this is automatic, this entering and exiting,
my body’s essential occupation without which
I am a thing. The whole process has a name,
a word I don’t know, an elegant word not
in English or Yiddish or Spanish, a word
that means nothing to me.”
– quoted from the poem “Call It Music” by Philip Levine
There are any number of words in any number of languages that could come to mind when reading the words of the poet Philip Levine, who was born January 10, 1928, in Detroit, Michigan. Of course, the word that immediately springs to my mind is the Sanskrit word prāṇāyāma. Defined as the awareness of breath and the extension of breath, prāṇāyāma is the fifth limb of the 8-limb Yoga Philosophy. It is the second half of the physical practice of yoga and it bridges the gap between the mind-body and our awareness of our mind-body.
Although there are many techniques, basic prāṇāyāma is a very simple practice: focus on your breath for a set period of time. While the practice is just that simple, it is not always easy. There are lots of things that can get in the way. However, one of the great things about this practice is that paying attention to the breath is also the true way around those obstacles. I would even argue that nothing is more simple and true than breathing and bringing awareness to that automatic entering and leaving.
“Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker,
the glass of water, the absence of light gathering
in the shadows of picture frames, they must be
naked and alone, they must stand for themselves.”
– quoted from the poem “A Simple Truth” by Philip Levine
Philip Levine was the second of three sons (and the first identical twin) born to Jewish immigrants just as the Nazi party was getting a foothold in Germany. He had the unfortunate experience of watching anti-Semitism rise in is own (proverbial) backyard and to also witness how racism (and other -isms) created a schism between the different people who made up the working class. Following in the tradition of Walt Whitman, he started giving voice to America’s voiceless and – even after he left the “mitten state” – he wrote poems about the plight of regular people in his hometown.
In some ways, Mr. Levine followed in his parent’s footsteps. His father, Harry Levine, owned a used (car) parts store; his mother, Esther Priscol (Pryszkulnik) Levine, sold books; and, starting at the age of fourteen, the poet worked in auto factories as he pursued his literary degrees. After graduating from Detroit Central High School, he earned his Bachelor of Arts, in literature, from Wayne (State) University and then “unofficially” attended classes at the University of Iowa. He earned a mail-order master’s degree and then returned to the University of Iowa to teach and pursue a Masters of Fine Arts, which he completed in 1957.
By the time he graduated from the University of Iowa (1957), he was beginning to gain significant recognition as a poet. In addition to teaching at a plethora of major universities around the country, he was lauded and recognized with national literary awards, including the two National Book Awards (1980 and 1991), Guggenheim Foundation fellowships (1973 and 1980), the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1995, for the collection The Simple Truth), and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (1987). He served on the Board of Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets (1000-2006) and as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (also known as the U. S. Poet Laureate) from 2011-2012. In collaboration with saxophonist and composer Benjamin Boone, Philip Levine created a collection of jazz poetry, “a literary genre defined as poetry necessarily informed by jazz music” – which was released in 2018, almost exactly three years and a month after his death. As a writer, he not only protested the Vietnam War, he kept speaking for the disenfranchised using simple truths… truths that could not be denied.
“Can you taste
what I’m saying? It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, the metal we call salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live on it.”
– quoted from the poem “A Simple Truth” by Philip Levine
The sixth chakra, which is located around the third eye (and about in inch into your forehead, half an inch above there), is symbolically associated with big “T” Truth – and with our ability to seek it, perceive it, and recognize it when we encounter it. The energy of this area is a curious energy, in that it continually pushes us to question everything. It supports healthy self-inquiry when the energy is balanced; however, when out of balance, it can manifest feelings of doubt or an inability to “see the truth” when it is right in front of you.
In Wheels of Life: A User’s Guide to the Chakra System, Anodea Judith, Ph.D., connects the sixth chakra to “knowledge, understanding and transcendent consciousness,” as well as to intuition. In Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing, Caroline Myss, Ph.D. further connects it to the Christian sacrament of Ordination and the sefirot (“emanations” or Divine attributes) of Binah (Divine “understanding”) and Hokhmah or Chokmah (Divine “wisdom”). Similar to the love described in the sixth mansion of Saint Teresa of Ávila‘s El Castillo Interior or Las Moradas, ordination distinguishes and elevates the faithful. Note, also, that in the Kabbalah-inspired system I have previously mentioned, the “higher” or mind-related sefirot are not included in a physical practice of the Divine attributes.
My standard summary of how the energetic and symbolic elements manifest in our lives goes something like this: Consider how where you come from determines the friends you make (or don’t make); how where you come from and the people around you play a role in how you see yourself; and how where you come from, the friends you make along the way, and how you see yourself, play a part in how (or if) you embrace yourself (or others), embrace a moment, and extend your gifts out into the world – or not. Consider also how where you come from, the friends you make along the way, how you see yourself, and whether you extend what’s in your heart connect to how you express yourself, how you know (or don’t know) the truth when you perceive it, and how all of that contributes to your experience of this present moment.
That summary can be extrapolated and applied to a variety of scenarios, including how we cultivate new habits and achieve our goals, dreams, and desires. Consider, for instance, that the first chakra is related to physical survival and physical form – which means it is our matter. It is also our plans. Friends are our support system, cheering us on and/or providing guidance, while also providing accountability. When I think of the third chakra, the solar plexus – as it relates to our self esteem, our personality, and our sense of self – I think of the idea that we have “fire in the belly.” We can think of this idiom literally, in terms of digestive juices – which is a whole other conversation – and we can think of it as the internal element that keeps us physically motivated. To continue the metaphor, it’s what makes us hungry for more.
Then there is the heart, which connects the physical with the mental and emotional. It’s the energetic-emotional connection between the mind and the body. Here, it is the connection between the idea (the pattern) and the manifestation (the matter). This is also the idea of purusha (pure consciousness) and prakriti (elemental, unformed matter or substance). When we get into the throat chakra – related to mental determination and willpower – we are starting to move into the intangible. Those parts of our lived experiences that are “barely describable” and can only be indicated (lingamatra) and those things that are “absolutely indescribable [because they are] beyond any point of reference” (alinga).
Consider that last bit a moment. As you think about that last part, also think about the idea that your goals and desires, your wishes, hopes, dreams (and yes, even your fears), are fully formed somewhere in your heart… and maybe the back of your mind. Somewhere out in the ether, that possibility is real. But there are a lot of steps between conception and manifestation. And until we take the first step, they all feel like giant leaps.
To make life even more challenging, anybody can give anyone a metaphorical road map about physical survival and what it takes to sustain the body. We know the body’s basic necessities and there are people who are dedicated to breaking that down into what different body types need to survive at a peak level. On a certain level, people can also create road maps for the mind – and we do, all the time, which is why the self-help industry is so massive. But, there’s still a part of the journey that can only be experienced by the person taking the trip. There’s a part of the journey that is barely or absolutely indescribable. It’s the part of the journey that can never be duplicated. It’s the journey between what’s in a person’s heart and what’s in their head.
Even if someone explained how they got from point A to point B – and even if that explanation came with a Jean-Paul Sartre nauseous-level breakdown of how they felt and what they thought along the way – the only thing the rest of us could completely replicate would be the physical aspects of the journey. But, that part in between, it’s like getting lost, stuck in a traffic jam, and not knowing where you’re going – all while on a schedule.
“The longest journey you will make in your life is from your head to your heart.”
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– possibly a Sioux statement, although it is often attributed to “Anonymous”
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Tuesday’s (2023) playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
NOTE: The end of the YouTube playlist includes a special recording of the Bird Flight radio show, hosted by Phil Schaap on WKCR 89.9. I couldn’t find it on Spotify (maybe because I’m like “Lazy Bird” – which is what rounds out the Spotify playlist).
Last year there was a surprise posting! Did you see it? It’s the first step in a journey (that we’ve already begun and finished)!
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### Always Get Into The Habit ###
FTWMI*: Introducing….Your Mind-Body October 18, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Changing Perspectives, Healing Stories, Health, Life, Music, Mysticism, Philosophy, Yoga.Tags: American Heart Association, Amit Ray, Banani Ray, Carry app, chakras, marma, nadis, yoga
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[*This time last year, I mentioned that the Carry app had won an American Heart Association startup grant and was in the running for a second national grant. While we didn’t win the public popularity vote, the initial grant is funding the videos we are currently filming – videos featuring some new (to Carry) yoga teachers and a wide range of pregnant and postpartum people. During our first day of filming, we completed videos suitable for all trimesters – and the things one might experience during the different trimesters: different moods and schedules, as well as different aches and ailments. There’s a little something for everyone, and I think everyone experiencing the journey of parenthood will see themselves reflected on the app.
For Those Who Missed It: A variation of the following was originally posted in October 2021. References to a “floating holiday” have been deleted.
“Enormous activities are going on in our body; in our brain, in our heart, in our digestive system and in every cell of the body. Few people are aware of their physical beings. Body is the starting point in the spiritual journey.
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The dynamic play of the energy of pure consciousness is taking place in each cell of our body, in every moment. The subtle vibrations and the movement of the energies in the body are the doorways to realize the Divine union.”
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– quoted from OM Sutra: The Pathway to Enlightenment by Amit Ray and Banani Ray
It is easier to remember that other people have had experiences that I have never had than it is to remember that I have had experience that other people have never had. For instance, I am amazed at how often I have to remind myself that everyone – even people with whom I have shared the practice for over a decade – haven’t taken every class; read every blog post, article, and book; seen every movie, play, ballet, and concert; and/or heard every dharma talk, sermon, parashah, lecture, interview, and TedTalk that I have taken, read, seen, and/or heard. Sometimes I actually chuckle at the number of times a week that I have to remind myself of Yoga Sūtra 2.20, which states that we can only see what our mind-intellect shows us and we can only understand what we are shown.
So, every once in a while, I chuckle at myself and remember to reintroduce some foundational aspect of my practice.
Today is one of those foundation days.
Since I am not teaching on Zoom today, people on the Wednesday class list, will receive links to previously recorded practices. If you are not on the Wednesday list, 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.]
The playlist that we originally used for this practice is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “07112020 An Introduction”]
Alternatively, another playlist that will also work is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “05252022 Pratyahara II”]
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, playlists, 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). If you don’t mind me knowing your donation amount you can also donate to me directly. Donations to Common Ground are tax deductible; class purchases and donations directly to me are not necessarily deductible.)
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### WHAT ARE YOU PRACTICING? ###
One More Kiss (My Asana)! April 30, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 7-Day Challenge, Books, Changing Perspectives, Donate, Fitness, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Karma Yoga, Life, Mantra, One Hoop, Pain, Science, Suffering, Tragedy, Volunteer, Wisdom, Yoga.Tags: anatomy, bija mantra, chakras, KISS MY ASANA, Matthew Sanford, Mind Body Solutions, Sahasrara, seed mantra, yogathon
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Happy Riḍván!” to those celebrating the “the Most Great Festival.” “Ramadān Mubarak, Blessed Ramadān!” to anyone observing the holy month of Ramadān. Many blessings to all, and especially to those celebrating or observing Eastertide or Counting the Omer!
The links in this particular post will take you outside of my blog. Quick Update: Thanks to all of you, I have helped raise 1% of the yogathon’s overall goal! If a few more people donate, I could double my personal goal and help raise 2% of the overall goal. Please consider donating today! Donations will be accepted until midnight on March 15, 2022.
Introducing…the top of the head (part of the seventh Chakra).
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I’m excited to once again participate in the Kiss My Asana yogathon, which is Mind Body Solutions‘ biggest fundraiser and a way to spread the message that a greater connection between mind and body can help all of us live with improved comfort and ease, no matter our condition, age, or ability.
I started Joyfully participating in the 2014 yogathon because I believe in the transformative, healing, and joyful experience of yoga. I also believe there is a practice for every mind/body/spirit – every veteran, every person with disability, every survivor of sexual assault and other trauma, every elderly person, every person living with chronic pain, every person with a terminal illness – and Mind Body Solutions is helping people find their practice!
Mind Body Solutions’ mission and message reach all walks of life – people living with disabilities, terminal illness, chronic pain, trauma, and PTSD – to name a few. Best known for their Adaptive Yoga Program, which provides adapted yoga opportunities for people around the globe. MBS also offers training and workshops for yoga teachers, healthcare professionals, and caregivers (so they can share this work in their communities, too).
Each year, in addition to hosting a fundraising page and making my personal donation, I offer a blog post and/or a YouTube post – sometimes even a whole practice. This year, I am making videos highlighting different parts of our bodies and, in doing so, different parts of our lived experience. Many more connections exist than the ones I’m highlighting. So, keep in mind that these videos – like the classes I lead – are just the tip of the iceberg.
What happens at Mind Body Solutions is the whole enchilada!
If you have two more minutes to spare, I’d recommend you also check out the Mind Body Solutions video (below) so you can see exactly how your donation will help! Thank you for taking the time and for showing your support – and don’t forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate or join!
Mind Body Solutions: Come Find Us
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Please Keep Kiss(ing) My Asana! April 29, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 7-Day Challenge, Books, Changing Perspectives, Donate, Fitness, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Karma Yoga, Life, Mantra, One Hoop, Pain, Science, Suffering, Tragedy, Volunteer, Wisdom, Yoga.Tags: Ajna, anatomy, bija mantra, chakras, KISS MY ASANA, Matthew Sanford, Mind Body Solutions, seed mantra, yogathon
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Happy Riḍván!” to those celebrating the “the Most Great Festival.” “Ramadān Mubarak, Blessed Ramadān!” to anyone observing the holy month of Ramadān. Many blessings to all, and especially to those celebrating or observing Eastertide or Counting the Omer!
The links in this particular post will take you outside of my blog. Quick Update: Thanks to all of you, I have helped raise 1% of the yogathon’s overall goal! If a few more people donate, I could double my personal goal and help raise 2% of the overall goal. Please consider donating today!
Introducing…the center eye (part of the sixth Chakra).
*
I’m excited to once again participate in the Kiss My Asana yogathon, which is Mind Body Solutions‘ biggest fundraiser and a way to spread the message that a greater connection between mind and body can help all of us live with improved comfort and ease, no matter our condition, age, or ability.
I started Joyfully participating in the 2014 yogathon because I believe in the transformative, healing, and joyful experience of yoga. I also believe there is a practice for every mind/body/spirit – every veteran, every person with disability, every survivor of sexual assault and other trauma, every elderly person, every person living with chronic pain, every person with a terminal illness – and Mind Body Solutions is helping people find their practice!
Mind Body Solutions’ mission and message reach all walks of life – people living with disabilities, terminal illness, chronic pain, trauma, and PTSD – to name a few. Best known for their Adaptive Yoga Program, which provides adapted yoga opportunities for people around the globe. MBS also offers training and workshops for yoga teachers, healthcare professionals, and caregivers (so they can share this work in their communities, too).
Each year, in addition to hosting a fundraising page and making my personal donation, I offer a blog post and/or a YouTube post – sometimes even a whole practice. This year, I am making videos highlighting different parts of our bodies and, in doing so, different parts of our lived experience. Many more connections exist than the ones I’m highlighting. So, keep in mind that these videos – like the classes I lead – are just the tip of the iceberg.
What happens at Mind Body Solutions is the whole enchilada!
If you have two more minutes to spare, I’d recommend you also check out the Mind Body Solutions video (below) so you can see exactly how your donation will help! Thank you for taking the time and for showing your support – and don’t forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate or join!
Mind Body Solutions: Come Find Us
A Joyful Practice 