Memories, Reason, & Progress (the “missing” Wednesday post, with an excerpt) April 9, 2025

Peace and many blessings to everyone and especially to those celebrating and/or observing Lent & Great Lent!

This is the “missing” post for Wednesday, April 9^th. The practice and the excerpted post include references to the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. The excerpted post also includes a little something extra. You can request an audio recording of this practice or a previous practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

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“Continuity necessary to progress.

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.   In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted; it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in whom instinct has learned nothing from experience.”

— quoted from “Chapter XII — Flux and Constancy in Human Nature”  The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress (1905-1906) — Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense by George Santayana

Memories are funny things. They always “Light the corners of [our] mind” — whether we realize it or not. They also inform and motivate our thoughts, words, and deeds — whether we realize it or not. They are the “retentiveness” of which people speak when they quote (or paraphrase) George Santayana — and they are big part of how we make history.

In the Yoga Sūtras, Patanjali identified memory as one the five types of thoughts patterns (along with correct knowledge, incorrect knowledge, imagination/fantasy, and dreamless sleep) which can manifest as afflicted or not afflicted, functional or dysfunctional. (YS 1.5-1.6) Remember, the afflicted/dysfunctional thoughts patterns are the ones that lead to suffering.

After defining each of the five thought patterns (YS 1.7-1.11) — and after breaking down the practice of yoga — Patanjali outlined siddhis or “powers” that come from the practice. Some of these abilities are related to cause-and-effect, including the ability to understand consequences based on past outcomes (i.e., knowing history.) According to Yoga Sūtra 4.9, “Because memory (smriti) and the deep habit patterns (samskaras) are the same in appearance, the chain of cause and effect is not broken, even though there might be a gap in species [or state of life], location, or time.” Which means, there is power in seeing patterns and understanding [our] history, individually and collectively.

Today, April 9^th, is one of those days rich with history — and, in particular, history related to the progress and maturity of a nation. There are some moments that happened today in United States history that, if I removed the names and year, sound like they happened this year! There are also some full circle moments, lessons in persistence, and examples of people who were committed to being changemakers.

“You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way and it seems to me that your organization has failed.”

— quoted from a Daughters of the American Revolution resignation letter written by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in the Spring of 1939

CLICK ON THE EXCERPT TITLE BELOW FOR MORE.

NEVERTHELESS, SHE SANG: 2019 Kiss My Asana Offering #9

“Everybody’s talking
Nothing real is happening,
’Cause nothing is new
Now when all is tragic
And I just feel sedated
Why do I feel numb?
Is that all I can do?
Yeah

And heaven knows
I’m not helpless, yeah
But I’m only human
I can’t see the use in me crying
If I’m not even trying to
Make the change I wanna see”

— quoted from the song “Preach” by John Legend [Written by John Roger Stephens, Gregory Allen Kurstin, Sarah Aaron]

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “04092022 Memories”]

NOTE: I completely remixed this playlist [in 2022], because while I own a copy of the Marian Anderson’s Lincoln Memorial concert with the speeches, it was not available on YouTube. It is available on Spotify; search for “Marian Anderson Let Freedom Ring.”

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).

“We all were sea-swallowed, though some cast again,
And by that destiny to perform an act
Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come
In yours and my discharge.”

— Antonio, Prospero’s brother, the usurping Duke of Milan, in Act I, Scene i of The Tempest by William Shakespeare

### PERSIST & SING! ###