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Consider the Environment that Holds Your Spirit (mostly the music and links) April 2, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Changing Perspectives, Faith, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma, Life, Music, Philosophy, Suffering, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
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“Ramadān Mubarak, Blessed Ramadān!” to anyone who was observing the holy month of Ramadān. Many blessings to all, and especially to those observing Lent or Great Lent!

“And if I take an animal body, only the animal desires will come up, and the good desires will wait. What does this show? That by means of environment we can check these desires. Only that Karma which is suited to and fitted for the environments will come out. This shows that the power of environment is the great check to control even Karma itself.”

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– quoted from the commentary on Yoga Sūtra 4.8 from Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda

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“Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan’s egg.”

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– quoted from the children’s story The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen (b. 04/02/1805)

Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, April 2nd) 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 “11142021 A Day for Children”]

Here’s a little excerpt from my 2019 post on this date: “Pretty much everything Kęstutis Kasparavičius wrote about books, in his 2019 International Children’s Book Day message, can be stated about yoga. There’s something that happens when you get on the mat, when you tap into the breath – even when you move with the breath. Like reading, practicing yoga is accepting an invitation to explore.” Click here for to read the rest of the post and to practice the featured pose. 

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.)

“’No? then I don’t understand you. You may have thousands of my days, but I have thousands of moments in which I can be merry and happy. Does all the beauty of the world cease when you die?’

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‘No,’ replied the tree; ‘it will certainly last much longer, infinitely longer than I can think of.’

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‘Well, then,’ said the little fly, ‘we have the same time to live, only we reckon differently.’ And the little creature danced and floated in the air, rejoicing in its delicate wings of gauze and velvet, rejoicing in the balmy breezes laden with the fragrance from the clover fields and wild roses, elder blossoms and honeysuckle, and from the garden hedges of wild thyme, primroses, and mint.” 

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– quoted from the children’s story The Last Dream of the Old Oak by Hans Christian Andersen (b. 04/02/1805)

 

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What Grows & Blooms Is What We Planted (mostly the music and links) March 26, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Faith, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma, Life, Music, Philosophy, Robert Frost, Tennessee Williams, Vairagya, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
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Many blessings to all, and especially to those observing Lent or Great Lent!

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.”

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– excerpt from the poem “Mending a Wall” by Robert Frost

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“The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. The world thirsts after sympathy, compassion, love.”

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– excerpt from the play Camino Real by Tennessee Williams (The first sentence is also the epitaph on his grave.)

Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, March 26th) 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 “05222021 Take A Look at Yourself”]

Here’s a little excerpt from a 2019 post on this date: “There are people in the world who will say you haven’t read poetry until you read Robert Frost, and Southerners in the world who will say you haven’t seen a play until you’ve seen Tennessee Williams. Born 37 years and over 2,000 miles apart, these two literary icons shared a birthday (3/26) and way with words that can make you pause, look again…and again. Once or thrice you may even wonder how many ways you can see/interpret/understand what has been said, and how it applies to your life.” Click here for to read the rest of the post. You can also check out this short 2020 post, which is one of those “many ways” referenced above.

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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Powerball (just the music) March 19, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Music, Yoga.
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Many blessings to all, and especially to those observing Lent, the Baháʼí 19-Day Fast, and/or Great Lent!

 

Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, March 19th) 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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Another Walk? (mostly the music w/a link) March 12, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Gandhi, Music, Yoga.
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Many blessings to all, and especially to those observing Lent, the Baháʼí 19-Day Fast, and/or Great Lent!

“‘Wherever Divinity and humanity are found together – with humanity armed and ready to fight wickedness – there also will be found victory in the battle of life, a life expanded to Divinity and crowned with prosperity and success, a life of adherence to dharma, in tune with the Cosmic Plan. I am convinced of this.’”

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– Sanjaya, the minister, speaking to the blind old King, Dhritarashtra (18.78) in The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners by Jack Hawley

Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, March 12th) 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 “04062021 Salt Satyagraha”]

 

If you are interested, please check out my 2019 post about the Dandi Salt Satyagraha!

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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Your I-ness (just the music) March 5, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Karma, Music, Yoga.
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Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, March 5th) 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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Changing Your Destiné(tion) (just the music) February 26, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Karma, Music, Yoga.
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Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, February 26th) 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 “01132021 Karma Cash I”]

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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Ways and Means (mostly the music) February 19, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Karma, Life, Mantra, Meditation, Music, Philosophy, Science, Swami Vivekananda, Wisdom, Yoga.
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“In India there was a sect called the Râsâyanas. Their idea was that ideality, knowledge, spirituality, and religion were all very right, but that the body was the only instrument by which to attain to all these. If the body came to an end every now and again, it would take so much more time to attain to the goal. For instance, a man wants to practice Yoga, or wants to become spiritual. Before he has advanced very far he dies. Then he takes another body and begins again, then dies, and so on. In this way much time will be lost in dying and being born again. If the body could be made strong and perfect, so that it would get rid of birth and death, we should have so much more time to become spiritual. So these Rasayanas say, first make the body very strong. They claim that this body can be made immortal. Their idea is that if the mind manufactures the body, and if it be true that each mind is only one outlet to the infinite energy, there should be no limit to each outlet getting any amount of power from outside. Why is it impossible to keep our bodies all the time? We have to manufacture all the bodies that we ever have. As soon as this body dies, we shall have to manufacture another. If we can do that, why cannot we do it just here and now, without getting out of the present body?”

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“Concentration. Concentration is Samâdhi, and that is Yoga proper; that is the principal theme of this science, and it is the highest means. The preceding ones are only secondary, and we cannot attain to the highest through them. Samadhi is the means through which we can gain anything and everything, mental, moral, or spiritual.”

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– quoted from the commentary on Yoga Sūtra 4.1 from Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda

Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, February 19th) 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 “08222021 Fire Thread”]

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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Absolute Liberation (mostly the music) February 12, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Changing Perspectives, Music, Philosophy, Yoga.
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“Happy Spring Festival!” to those who are celebrating.

“But we can see the past, though we may not claim to have directed it; and seeing it, in this case, we feel more hopeful and confident for the future.

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The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name—liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names—liberty and tyranny.

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The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty.”

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– from an address at a “Sanitary Fair” on April 18, 1864 in Baltimore, Maryland by President Abraham Lincoln (b. 02/12/1809)

Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, February 12th) 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 “07282021 The Difference A Day Made II”]

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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