Om Namah Shivaya Gurave
I offer myself to the goodness within my heart, the eternal teacher

Satchidananda Murtaye
Whose nature is Supreme Consciousness and pulsates with the greatest joy imaginable

Nishprapanchaya Shantaya
Who is always present and full of peace

Niralambaya Tejase
Whose essence is completely free from limitation and sparkles with divine luminosity

Well, I made it with the ever-renewing Goodness of God's Grace and Light. And it's brighter on the other side I'm standing in now. (I actually like my place better, for now, without all the furniture in it.) I feel tremendously relieved and renewed. The sickness I went through was a healing and purging of the hurt, the tension, the stress I've been going through on every level of my Being over the past several months. I didn't realize how much fear was lurking beneath the surface, keeping me frozen from real growth as I stayed wrapped up in a blanket in my comfortable circumstances. This was one of the main reasons why I knew I needed to release the relationship I was in for the past year and a half. Part of what had me choose the relationship, was a fear of being on my own. For me to be able to choose the spiritual partner who is right for me, I knew I would need to make that choice from an emotionally healthy, not needy, place. So, that is a big part of the growth I am up to now. I already feel so much stronger and better. It's as though the sickness brought me into the depth of my weakness, so I can discover the height of my strength.

I imagine this strength will be reflected in my Yoga practice, and can only wonder what growth and transformation awaits me. One of my Asana dreams is to be able to go from Bakasana (Crow Pose) into Adho Mukha Vrkasana (Handstand). I dream of being able to grow into this place in the year ahead and look forward to realizing the alignment that is necessary within my body, mind and spirit to be able to receive this positive change.

Speaking of finding a spiritual partner, I received this e-mail today from Omega. I love the way Gary Zukav and Linda Francis describe themselves as being spiritual partners.

"Gary Zukav and Linda Francis are in their 15th year of spiritual partnership. Popular teachers at Omega, they are coauthors of two New York Times best-sellers, The Heart of the Soul and The Mind of the Soul, and cofounded the Seat of the Soul Institute."

They are putting on a series of workshop this year at Omega in Rhinebeck, NY, specifically about creating spiritually empowered relationships, both with our own Self and with a significant other. I also love the description of this workshop called Relationships and the Spiritual Path.

"Join Gary Zukav and Linda Francis in this experiential workshop that shows you how to change your relationships into partnerships between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth.

To grow spiritually now requires relationships of substance and depth. This workshop shows you how to use your relationships to grow spiritually and transform your interactions into the most meaningful encounters possible.

We are naturally attracted to harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for life, but when we strive to create them, we encounter parts of our personalities that prevent us. Each of these encounters is an experience of the wise and compassionate universe responding to our intention to create in the most positive way. When you recognize your painful emotions—such as anger, jealousy, anxiety, and vengefulness—as opportunities to develop humbleness, clarity, forgiveness, and love, you begin to utilize them to grow spiritually, and that requires courage. Nowhere is this more evident (sometimes painfully evident) than in our relationships.

Couples and individuals both will find this weekend a priceless opportunity to alter forever your view of relationships."

I believe just like our Yoga practice, a healthy, spiritually conscious relationship requires diligent cultivation. I look forward to cultivating that relationship more and more deeply, first with mySelf, and then one day, experiencing the awesomeness of that journey with a God-given, spiritually aligned, partner.

The following excerpt is from "Lovingkindness" by Sharon Salzberg. I shared this at the Partners Thai Yoga workshop I held at exhale dallas last weekend. The focus of the workshop, besides learning Partner Yoga stretches, was on awakening and healing the Heart Chakra. The Buddhist practice of metta, or lovingkindness, is the practice of the Golden Rule, or as it's known in Christianity as, "loving your neighbor as you love yourself."

"Love can go anywhere. Nothing can obstruct it. "I Am That," a book of dialogues with Nisargadatta Maharaj, includes an exchange between Nisargadatta and a man who complained a great deal about his mother. The man felt that she had not been a very good mother and was not a good person. At one point, Nisargadatta advised him to love his mother. The man replied, "She wouldn't let me." Nisargadatta responded, "She couldn't stop you."

The Pali word metta has two root meanings. One is the word for "gentle." Metta is likened to a gentle rain that falls upon the earth. This rain does not select and choose--"I'll rain here, and I'll avoid that place over there." Rather, it simply falls without discrimination.
The other root meaning for metta is "friend." To understand the power or the force of metta is to understand true friendship. The Buddha actually described at some length what he meant by being a good friend in the world. He talked about a good friend as someone who is constant in our times of happiness and also in our times of adversity or unhappiness. A friend will not forsake us when we are in trouble nor rejoice in our misfortune.

The practice of metta, uncovering the force of love that can uproot fear, anger, and guilt, begins with befriending ourselves. The foundation of metta practice is to know how to be our own friend. According to the Buddha, "You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection." How few of us embrace ourselves in this way! With metta practice, we uncover the possibility of truly respecting ourselves. We discover, as Walt Whitman put it, "I am larger and better than I thought. I did not think I held so much goodness."
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