Well, hello, again. If you read the last post, I am still intending to update the True Yoga Blog with more information about the Yugas, but we'll let that come in time...I mean, really...what's the rush...we got a few thousand years, yet, in Dwapara Yuga. Jokes aside, I do plan to update it in the near future because it is fascinating information.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some of what's going on in my world and in the world of Yoga around me. First of all, I am moving and I am really happy about it. I've lived in a great place for about a year now, but I decided, since I am currently unattached, that I would enjoy living with a friend for a while. It's going to be awesome because there is a backyard and I'm looking forward to a lot of Yoga outside. The body can open with such greater ease when we practice Yoga outside. It's amazing what being immersed in the elements does for us on every level, especially energetically. It's no wonder why kids are so full of life because they are in constant connection with the energizing elements of Mother Nature. I'm looking forward to developing and working on many projects while I spend this time with my friend. I am going to be developing Yoga podcasts which I look forward to being able to share with you so you can practice Yoga with me wherever you are in the world. This has been a longtime vision of mine and I am happy it will finally be coming into fruition.

I am experiencing greater Light and positive energy in my Yoga practice than I have ever felt before in my entire 8 years of practicing Yoga. It's awesome feeling this unlimited potential within myself to grow in ways, I only dreamed could be possible. It truly is amazing when we realize everything we could ever need is inside of us. It's not that life doesn't continue to present us with challenges so we can grow, but, those challenges do not have to be struggles. We can see them for what they are and rise to the opportunity, rather than become discouraged. God knows I have grown through many challenging places in the last 8 years of my Yoga practice, and many times, I have felt discouraged. But, I am so much better and grateful for having had to grow through those places. I wouldn't trade it for the world. The perspective we realize through our life experience is one of our greatest powers. I have gone through losing everything and if I had never gone through that, I would not have ever realized that, ultimately, there is nothing to lose. If we have our health, we have the greatest blessing of life. This is why the practice of Yoga is so important for well-being. The Yoga Asanas are intended to keep us in optimal health so we experience the enriching journey of our spiritual experience and evolution. One of my favorite quotes from the SRF Convocation I attended this past August is a quote that comes from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.

"Every saint who has penetrated the core of reality has found there is a Benevolent plan unfolding in all things." - Paramahansa Yogananda

What a fantastic realization. This dissolves any tendency we might have to resist the challenging or uncomfortable experiences life brings us. Instead, we can celebrate them as opportunities for ripening and growth into the realization of this plan.

Interestingly, on the way out to the SRF Convocation I read an awesome book called The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chodron. I highly recommend this book...it has helped me out in many ways since reading it just a month ago. One of the most powerful teachings I received from it is the teaching of bodhichitta. As I open this book up to share some excerpts from it I'm realizing, as a friend of mine said, that I'm going to want to read it again, and again, and again. Like how about this:

Confess your hidden faults.
Approach what you find repulsive.
Help those you think you cannot help.
Anything you are attached to, let it go.
Go to places that scare you.-Advice from her teacher to the Tibeta Yogini Machik Labdron

This following excerpt is from the first chapter entitled:

The Excellence of Bodhichitta

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.-Antoine De Saint-Exupery

When I was about six years old I received the essential bodhichitta teaching from an old woman sitting in the sun. I was walking by her house one day feeling lonely, unloved, and mad, kicking anything I could find. Laughing, she said to me, "Little girl, don't you go letting life harden your heart."

Right there, I received this pith instruction: we can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.

If we were to ask the Buddha, "What is bodichitta?" he might tell us that this word is easier to understand than to translate. He might encourage us to seek out ways to find its meaning in our own lives. He might tantalize us by adding that it is only bodhichitta that heals, that bodhichitta is capable of transforming the hardest of hearts and the most prejudiced and fearful of minds.

Chitta means "mind" and also "heart" or "attitude." Bodhi means "awake," "enlightened," or "completely open." Sometimes the completely open heart and mind of bodhichitta is called the soft spot, a place as vulnerable and tender as an open wound. It is equated, in part, with our ability to love. Even the cruelest people have this soft spot. Even the most vicious animals love their offspring. As Trungpa Rinpoche put it, "Everybody loves something, even if it's only tortillas." (certainly a lot of tortilla lovers in Texas ;) )

Bodhichitta is also equated, in part, with compassion-our ability to feel the pain that we share with others. Without realizing it we continually shield ourselves from this pain because it scares us. We put up protective walls made of opinions, prejudices, and strategies, barriers that are built on a deep fear of being hurt. These walls are further fortified by emotions of all kinds: anger, craving, indifference, jealousy and envy, arrogance and pride. But fortunately for us, the soft spot-our innate ability to love and to care about things-is like a crack in these walls we erect. It's a natural opening in the barriers we create when we're afraid. With practice we can learn to find this opening. We can learn to seize that vulnerable moment-love, gratitude, loneliness, embarassment, inadequacy-to awaken bodhichitta.

One of the other powerful teachings I received from the book is the practice of Tonglen.

Tonglen, or exchanging oneself for others, is another bodhichitta practice for activating loving-kindness and compassion. In Tibetan the word tonglen literally means "sending and taking." It refers to being willing to take in the pain and suffering of ourselves and others and to send out happiness to us all.

Although there are many ways that we can approach tonglen, the essence of the practice is always the same. We breathe in what is painful and unwanted with the sincere wish that we and others could be free of suffering. As we do so, we drop the story line that goes along with the pain and feel the underlying energy. We completely open our hearts and minds to whatever arises. Exhaling, we send out relief from the pain with the intention that we and others be happy.

When we are willing to stay even for a moment with uncomfortable energy, we gradually learn not to fear it. Then when we see someone in distress we're not reluctant to breathe in the person's suffering and send out relief.

The formal practice of tonglen has four stages. The first stage is a brief moment of stillness or openness-a moment of unconditional bodhichitta. The second stage is visualizing and working with the texture, the raw energy, of claustrophobia and spaciousness. The third stage is the essence of the practice: breathing in whatever is unwanted and breathing out a sense of relief. In the fourth stage we extend our compassion further by including others who are experiencing the same feelings. If we want, we can combine the third stage and the fourth stage, breathing in and out for self and other at the same time.

So the first stage of tonglen is a moment of open mind, or unconditional bodhichitta. Although this stage is crucial, it is difficult to describe. It related to the Buddhist teaching of shunyata-often translated to "emptiness" or "openness." Experiencing shunyata at an emotional level, we might feel as if we were big enough to accomodate everything, that there's no place for things to get stuck. If we relax our mind and stop struggling, emotions can move through us without becoming solid and proliferating.

Fundamentally, experiencing openness is having trust in the living quality of basic energy. We develop the confidence to allow it to arise, to linger, and then to pass on. This energy is dynamic, ungraspable, always in a state of flux. So our training is, first of all, noticing how we block the energy or freeze it, how we tense up our bodies and minds. Then we train in softening, relaxing, and opening to the energy without interpretations or judgements.

The first flash of openness reminds us that we can always let go of our fixed ideas and connect with something open, fresh, and unbiased. Then, during the following stages, when we begin to breathe in the energy of claustrophobia and unwanted feelings, we breathe them into that huge space, as vast as the clear blue day. Then we send out whatever we can to help all of us experience the freedom of an open, flexible mind. The longer we practice, the more accessible this unconditional space will be. Sooner or later we are going to realize that we are already awake.

In the second stage of tonglen we begin to breathe in the qualities of claustrophobia: thick, heavy, and hot. We might visualize the claustrophobia as coal dust or as yellow-brown smog. Then we breathe out the qualities of spaciousness: fresh, light, and cool. We might visualize this as brilliant moonlight, as sparkling sun on water, as the colors of the rainbow.

However we visualize these textures, we imagine breathing them in and out through all the pores of our body, not only through our mouth and nose. We do this until it feels synchronized with our breath and we are clear about what we are taking in and what we're sending out. It's fine to breathe a little more deeply than usual, but it's important to give the inbreath and the outbreath equal time.

In stage three, we start doing the exchange for a specific person. We breathe in this person's pain and we send out relief. Traditionally, the instruction is to begin doing tonglen for the ones who spontaneously spark our compassion, such as those we put on our list. As we breathe in we visualize our hearts opening wide to accept the pain. As we breathe out we send that bravery and openness. We don't cling to it, thinking, "Finally I have a little relief in my life; I want to keep it forever!" Instead, we share it. When we practice like this, breathing in becomes opening and accepting what is unwanted; breathing out becomes letting go and opening even further. Breathing in or breathing out, we are reversing ancient habits of closing to pain and clinging to anything comforting.

Some AIDS hospices encourage patients to do tonglen for others who have AIDS. This connects them in a very real way with everyone in their situation and helps to relieve their shame, fear, and isolation. Hospice workers do tonglen to create an atmosphere of clarity so that the people around them can find their courage and inspiration and be free of fear.

When we are practicing tonglen for a specific individual, we always include the fourth stage, which is extending the compassion to everyone in the same predicament. For example, if we are doing tonglen for our sister who has lost her husband, we can breathe in the suffering of other people who are grieving for lost loved ones and send them all relief.

I recommend using tonglen as an on-the-spot practice. Doing tonglen throughout our day can feel more natural than doing it on the cushion. For one thing, there is never any lack of subject matter. When a strong unwanted feeling arises or we see someone hurting, there is nothing theoretical about what we'll use to practice. Right there when it's very real and immediate we breathe in and out with the pain. Daily-life practice is never abstract. As soon as uncomfortable emotions come up, we train ourselves in breathing them in and dropping the story line. At the same time, we extend our thoughts and concern to other people who feel the same discomfort, and we breathe in with the wish that all of us could be free of this particular brand of confusion. Then, as we breathe out, we send ourselves and others whatever kind of relief we think would help.

It is also helpful to notice anything in our daily life that brings us happiness. As soon as we become aware of it, we can think of sharing it with others, further cultivating the tonglen attitude.

As warrior-bodhisattvas, the more we train in cultivating this attitude, the more we uncover our capacity for joy and equanimity. Because of our bravery and willingness to work with the practice, we are more able to experience the basic goodness of ourselves and others. We are more able to appreciate the potential of all kinds of people: those we find pleasant, those we find unpleasant, and those we don't even know. Thus tonglen begins to ventilate our prejudices and introduce us to a more tender and open-minded world."-Pema Chodron

I wanted to get this post out there...I started it the other day but didn't get to finish it as things have been busy. This information has helped me a great deal...I hope it will help you, too. It has helped me not only in my Yoga practice, but in my daily life. When I feel tension, I remember to observe it, instead of reacting to it. As I observe it, I am able to breathe into it, feel it, accept what is there and whatever it is I feel and then let it go, breathing it out for the release from my body and everybody I'm connected to, that we all experience healing both individually and collectively. Ultimately, I know I am only responsible for my own healing, however, it is a powerful practice to breathe with that loving intention in the breath. Instead of reacting against what's happening in our life, or feeling tension about something, we can instead open into our experience through our breath, accepting what we feel to be able to let it go and awaken that healing within us and, possibly, all around us.
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