What Comes With… (mostly the music) September 3, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Philosophy, Yoga.Tags: Christopher Isherwood, gunas, Malcolm Gladwell, prakiti, purusha, Swami Prabhavananda, vasanas, Yoga Sutra 1.18, Yoga Sutra 1.30-1.31, Yoga Sutra 1.39, Yoga Sutra 1.5, Yoga Sutra 4.24, Yoga Sutra 4.25, Yoga Sutra 4.26, Yoga Sutra 4.27, Yoga Sutra 4.28, Yoga Sutra 4.29, Yoga Sutra 4.30, Yoga Sutras 1.3-1.4, Yoga Sutras 2.10-2.11, Yoga Sutras 2.18-2.22, Yoga Sutras 2.20-2.21, Yoga Sutras 4.15-4.23
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“I think a lot of people [have misunderstood] a little bit of what I was arguing and have overstated the argument in ways that I had… I had not anticipated. … And also, people have felt that that number is hard and fast and in truth it’s a kind of – it’s supposed to, it symbolizes the fact that the amount of time necessary to develop innate abilities is longer than you think. So, it’s – it’s a metaphor for the extent of committment that’s necessary in cognitively complex fields.”
– Malcolm Gladwell (b. 09/03/1963) talking about the 10,000 hours / 10 years idea to HeavyCheff and CliffCentral reps at BCX Disrupt Summit
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, September 3rd) 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.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
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.)
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ForSeekers (mostly the music) August 27, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Philosophy, Yoga.Tags: Christopher Isherwood, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, gunas, prakiti, purusha, Sri Chinmoy, Swami Prabhavananda, vasanas, Yoga Sutra 1.18, Yoga Sutra 1.30-1.31, Yoga Sutra 1.39, Yoga Sutra 1.5, Yoga Sutra 4.24, Yoga Sutra 4.25, Yoga Sutra 4.26, Yoga Sutra 4.27, Yoga Sutra 4.28, Yoga Sutra 4.29, Yoga Sutras 1.3-1.4, Yoga Sutras 2.10-2.11, Yoga Sutras 2.18-2.22, Yoga Sutras 2.20-2.21, Yoga Sutras 4.15-4.23
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“Only through the realization of great goals a person reveals his strong character.”
– Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (b. 08/27/1770)
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, August 27th) 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.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
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.)
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The Courage to Be, Right Here and Right Now (mostly the music) August 20, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Philosophy, Yoga.Tags: Christopher Isherwood, gunas, Paul Tillich, prakiti, purusha, Swami Prabhavananda, vasanas, Yoga Sutra 1.18, Yoga Sutra 1.30-1.31, Yoga Sutra 1.39, Yoga Sutra 1.5, Yoga Sutra 4.24, Yoga Sutra 4.25, Yoga Sutra 4.26, Yoga Sutra 4.27, Yoga Sutra 4.28, Yoga Sutras 1.3-1.4, Yoga Sutras 2.10-2.11, Yoga Sutras 2.18-2.22, Yoga Sutras 2.20-2.21, Yoga Sutras 4.15-4.23
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“The courage to be is the courage to affirm one’s own reasonable nature over against what is accidental in us. It is obvious that reason in this sense points to the person in his center and includes all mental functions. Reasoning as a limited cognitive function, detached from the personal center, never could create courage. One cannot remove anxiety by arguing it away. This is not a recent psychoanalytical discovery; the Stoics, when glorifying reason, knew it as well. They knew that anxiety can be overcome only through the power of universal reason which prevails in the wise man over desires and fears. Stoic courage presupposes the surrender of the personal center to the Logos of being; it is participation in the divine power of reason, transcending the realm of passions and anxieties. The courage to be is the courage to affirm our own rational nature, in spite of everything in us that conflicts with its union with the rational nature of being-itself.
What conflicts with the courage of wisdom is desires and fears.”
– quoted from “Chapter 1. Being and Courage – Courage and Wisdom: The Stoics” in The Courage To Be by Paul Tillich (b. 08/20/1886)
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, August 20th) 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.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “01312021 Merton’s Mystical Day”]
“There is a saying by Sri Ramakrishna that one needs to continue fanning oneself on hot days, but that it becomes unnecessary when the spring breeze blows. When a man attains illumination, the breeze of grace is continually felt and the fanning (the constant practice of [discernment] is no longer needed.”
– quoted from How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (4:25 – 4.28), translated and with commentary by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood
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.)
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The McGuffin’s MacGuffin (mostly the music) August 13, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Philosophy, Yoga.Tags: gunas, prakiti, purusha, vasanas, Yoga Sutra 1.18, Yoga Sutra 1.30-1.31, Yoga Sutra 1.39, Yoga Sutra 4.24, Yoga Sutra 4.25, Yoga Sutra 4.26, Yoga Sutra 4.27, Yoga Sutras 1.3-1.4, Yoga Sutras 2.10-2.11, Yoga Sutras 2.18-2.22, Yoga Sutras 2.20-2.21, Yoga Sutras 4.15-4.23
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“Hitchcock’s example of the MacGuffin emphasizes its impossible status: not only is the object that one [never has], but one cannot even isolate it as an idea. It remains necessarily empty, and yet functions as an engine for the Hitchcockian narrative. The emptiness of the MacGuffin as an object permits spectators to locate their satisfaction in the striving that it unleashes rather than identifying satisfaction with the discovery of its secret.”
– quoted from “The Empty Object” in “27. Hitchcock’s Ethics of Suspense: Psychoanalysis and the Devaluation of the Object” by Todd McGowan (as published in A Companion to Alfred Hitchcock, edited by Thomas Leitch and Leland Poague)
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, August 13th) 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.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
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.)
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More Cause + More Effect = More Momentum? (mostly the music) August 9, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Philosophy, Yoga.Tags: gunas, prakiti, purusha, vasanas, Yoga Sutra 1.18, Yoga Sutra 1.39, Yoga Sutra 1.6-1.11, Yoga Sutra 4.24, Yoga Sutra 4.25, Yoga Sutra 4.26, Yoga Sutras 2.10-2.11, Yoga Sutras 2.18-2.22
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“Then the mind is inclined….”
– quoted from Yoga Sūtra 4.26
Please join me today (Tuesday, August 9th) 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.
Tuesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “08062022 Cause + Effect”]
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.)
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Cause + Effect = Momentum (mostly the music) August 6, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Philosophy, Yoga.Tags: gunas, prakiti, purusha, vasanas, Yoga Sutra 1.18, Yoga Sutra 1.39, Yoga Sutra 4.24, Yoga Sutra 4.25, Yoga Sutra 4.26, Yoga Sutras 1.3-1.4, Yoga Sutras 2.10-2.11, Yoga Sutras 2.18-2.22, Yoga Sutras 2.20-2.21, Yoga Sutras 4.15-4.23
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“Then the mind is inclined….”
– quoted from Yoga Sūtra 4.26
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, August 6th) 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.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
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.)
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Coming To The End of The Questions (mostly the music) July 30, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Philosophy, Yoga.Tags: gunas, prakiti, purusha, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Swami Jnaneshvara, vasanas, Yoga Sutra 1.18, Yoga Sutra 1.39, Yoga Sutra 4.24, Yoga Sutra 4.25, Yoga Sutras 1.3-1.4, Yoga Sutras 2.10-2.11, Yoga Sutras 2.18-2.22, Yoga Sutras 2.20-2.21, Yoga Sutras 4.15-4.23
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“But when the mind opens, and reveals the laws which traverse the universe, and make things what they are, then shrinks the great world at once into a mere illustration and fable of this mind. What am I? and What is? asks the human spirit with a curiosity new-kindled, but never to be quenched.”
– quoted from the 1838 “Divinity School Address” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“All of the questions of life eventually boil down to only a few, such as: Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? After the yogi has explored the many currents and cross currents of the gross and subtle mind, there comes the realization of the separateness from all of these levels and pure consciousness. It is then, that all of these questions cease. It is not a case that they are analytically answered in logical words. Rather, the questions are resolved; they simply evaporate in understanding.”
– quoted from the commentary on Yoga Sūtra 4.25 by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati (as posted on SwamiJ.com)
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, July 30th) 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.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “10202020 Pratyahara”]
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.)
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Reflecting, III: Questioning, with (and on) the Mind’s Awareness (mostly the music) July 23, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Philosophy, Yoga.Tags: Christopher Isherwood, gunas, prakiti, purusha, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Swami Prabhavananda, vasanas, Yoga Sutra 1.39, Yoga Sutra 2.10, Yoga Sutra 2.26, Yoga Sutra 4.24, Yoga Sutras 1.3-1.4, Yoga Sutras 2.20-2.21, Yoga Sutras 4.15-4.23
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“Every combination of individuals or forces in this world has to have a purpose for its action or existence; otherwise it would be just a meaningless, functionless collection of objects, brought together haphazardly. And this purpose must be external to itself. A congress or parliament would be just a collection of noisy individuals in a room, if it did not have the purpose of legislating for a community. A house is just a pile of materials until an owner comes to inhabit and enjoy it. So with the mind—that yelling parliament of conflicting interests and desires. It is nothing but a madhouse, until it is ‘called to order.’ It can only become purposive by the external will of the Atman.”
– quoted from How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (4:24), translated and with commentary by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, July 23rd) 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.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “05252022 Pratyahara II”]
“But when the mind opens, and reveals the laws which traverse the universe, and make things what they are, then shrinks the great world at once into a mere illustration and fable of this mind. What am I? and What is? asks the human spirit with a curiosity new-kindled, but never to be quenched.”
– quoted from the 1838 “Divinity School Address” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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.)
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Reflecting: Awareness of the Mind’s Awareness (mostly the music) July 9, 2022
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Philosophy, Yoga.Tags: Dr. Gerald Edelman, Dr. Oliver Sacks, gunas, Marcel Proust, prakiti, purusha, Yoga Sutra 1.39, Yoga Sutra 2.3, Yoga Sutra 4.21, Yoga Sutra 4.22, Yoga Sutras 2.17-2.20, Yoga Sutras 4.1-4.14, Yoga Sutras 4.15-4.20
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“‘Every act of perception,’ [Dr. Gerald] Edelman writes, ‘is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.’”
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“Many composers, indeed, do not compose initially or entirely at an instrument but in their minds. There is no more extraordinary example of this than Beethoven, who continued to compose (and whose compositions rose to greater and greater heights) years after he had become totally deaf. It is possible that his musical imagery was even intensified by deafness…. There is an analogous phenomenon in those who lose their sight; some people who become blind may have, paradoxically, heightened visually imagery.”
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– quoted from Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Dr. Oliver Sacks (b. 07/09/1933)
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, July 9th) 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.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
“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.”
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– quoted from The Captive, Volume 5 of Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust (b. 07/10/1871)
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.)
ERRATA (That is also a correction): Corrected the date of Marcel Proust’s birthday.
A Joyful Practice 