|
A
treasured friend, Dr. Alejandro Junger, medical doctor
and true warrior of the spirit, often gives talks
in which he elucidates the concept of ATTENTION.
The concept relates profoundly to our practice of yoga and our lives.
Everything
that we are is made of the same building blocks,
atoms. Those atoms are made up, ultimately at their core,
of photons, LIGHT. Since our biceps and our brains
are all made of the same core energy,
we can work with our minds the way we work with our bodies.
In
our practice of yoga, we put our attention, for example,
onto our back leg in most standing poses to inner spiral
the thigh muscle and root the femur bone back into the hip socket.
This requires our ATTENTION.
Our thigh muscles are always there, but when we put our
attention there, we bring more energy - light -
and then can safely deepen our pose.
Now
we come to our thoughts,
the activity endlessly occurring in our minds.
Last month we spoke about taking time during the day to sit,
making time to consider from where within us each
thought itself is derived... and choose our priority every moment.
This is challenging and difficult.
We begin now to simply watch it all.
Taking
a snapshot of ourselves a few times a day is one way to begin.
It's a way to "see" our state,
both externally and internally, WITHOUT JUDGMENT.
I find that it's helpful particularly when i'm having a tough moment
to stop what i'm doing and sit still, take the snapshot,
see literally where in my physical body the confusion begins and ends,
and use my breath to lighten it up.
This practice helps us to be more creative and much less reactive.
It's yoga for the mind, enhancing our
ability to see clearly what we're doing and to
consciously choose where we put our attention, our energy.
Exactly
as in any pose, this practice combines with our
physical practice to yield an awareness of the light,
the attention we're sending around our bodies
to the exclusion of unnecessary thought.
Our
aware attention on our thoughts, as Mark Epstein
so aptly states in his book Thoughts Without a Thinker,
is ideally similar to a child playing with a new toy for the first time:
filled with abhuta, wonder, about our own thought process
and how it begins in our body. Without clinging or condemning,
we realize that it's all Divine energy, all a part of the
experience of having this body. We begin eventually to see
glimpses of that divinity in play as we watch
ourselves with a sense of humor.
"The
only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to
other people is that they trigger confusion in us that
we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with.
To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately
at OURSELVES, we feel confident and fearless about
looking into someone else's eyes."
-
Pema Chodron
with great loving gratitude to dr. alejandro junger,
for your attention and clarity.
have a wonderful warm month of may.
e
|
|
 |
