Early Spring
It was warm enough this evening to sit on the ground in the back yard and meditate. The sun had gone down, but the sky was still blue, everything around me was black.
An owl flew down and landed on a wooden pole just across the fence from me, just watching me. I have read in several books that wild animals can sense the psychic activity when someone is tapping into the earth’s energies. I don’t know one way or the other…But I do know that that owl and I looked at each other like we shared some common thought before he flew away.
It feels so fabulous to be doing my yoga again.
I have been reading another good book, too, “Yoga from the Inside Out”, by Christina Sell. It is really reminding me of things that I knew before, but lost track of.
“This book is about yoga and body image. More specifically, this book is about the journey through the issues of addiction, self-love and spiritual practice.”
“Being on a spiritual path, or living according to one’s faith, means that a person aligns his/her self to a set of principles and values different than the everyday waking consciousness of our modern culture. I assert that all the variations of consumerism, violence, environmental degradation, human exploitation, broken relationships, psychological dysfunction, betrayal and corruption we witness as commonplace today are all manifestations of a fundamental belief that we are separate from God and therefore separate from each other. Yoga philosophy tells us the truth that we are not separate – that we are part of the One, that our essential nature is divine, pristine and immortal. Yoga philosophy asserts that we are also unaware of that essential truth, dreaming instead a self-centered fantasy that we think is real. Although we walk around and animate a life that seems real, in which we look and act awake, in terms of consciousness potential we are asleep and dreaming. We inhabit the Sleeping World.
The Sleeping World functions according to laws of separations, competition, judgment, domination, submission and division. In terms of body image and self-esteem, the Sleeping World holds us hostage to ideals for the human body that are unrealistic, often unhealthy, and founded on a lack of respect for our essential worthiness of goodness. The diet industry, the fitness industry, the fashion industry, the cosmetic industry, the entertainment industry, and even the yoga industry, bombard us with images that narrowly define beauty, while setting an unrealistic value on its attainment. An inordinate amount of our time, money, and mental, emotional and spiritual energy are spent in the pursuit of an essentially empty ideal. The Sleeping World is like a big machine that functions to reinforce the myth of separateness, fear, and unworthiness, while convincing us that those meaningless pursuits will relive our existential suffering. The machine tells us that the suffering we feel is due to conditions such as our looks, our financial status and our psychology.”
This book has reminded me that trying to attain societies “perfect body” is an exercise in futility, designed to make me miserable, and take all my time, obsessing about food and working out. I have to make peace with who I am now, and do what I know is healthy, but not to obsess about not being stick thin.
I had gotten to a place where I really hated myself, and sort of detached from my body, disowning it, which is when the arthritis symptoms came back and the 25 extra pounds appeared.
I am getting back in touch though, and suddenly it’s an early spring –I have been hibernating for 3 or 4 months, but I am awake again – finally!
An owl flew down and landed on a wooden pole just across the fence from me, just watching me. I have read in several books that wild animals can sense the psychic activity when someone is tapping into the earth’s energies. I don’t know one way or the other…But I do know that that owl and I looked at each other like we shared some common thought before he flew away.
It feels so fabulous to be doing my yoga again.
I have been reading another good book, too, “Yoga from the Inside Out”, by Christina Sell. It is really reminding me of things that I knew before, but lost track of.
“This book is about yoga and body image. More specifically, this book is about the journey through the issues of addiction, self-love and spiritual practice.”
“Being on a spiritual path, or living according to one’s faith, means that a person aligns his/her self to a set of principles and values different than the everyday waking consciousness of our modern culture. I assert that all the variations of consumerism, violence, environmental degradation, human exploitation, broken relationships, psychological dysfunction, betrayal and corruption we witness as commonplace today are all manifestations of a fundamental belief that we are separate from God and therefore separate from each other. Yoga philosophy tells us the truth that we are not separate – that we are part of the One, that our essential nature is divine, pristine and immortal. Yoga philosophy asserts that we are also unaware of that essential truth, dreaming instead a self-centered fantasy that we think is real. Although we walk around and animate a life that seems real, in which we look and act awake, in terms of consciousness potential we are asleep and dreaming. We inhabit the Sleeping World.
The Sleeping World functions according to laws of separations, competition, judgment, domination, submission and division. In terms of body image and self-esteem, the Sleeping World holds us hostage to ideals for the human body that are unrealistic, often unhealthy, and founded on a lack of respect for our essential worthiness of goodness. The diet industry, the fitness industry, the fashion industry, the cosmetic industry, the entertainment industry, and even the yoga industry, bombard us with images that narrowly define beauty, while setting an unrealistic value on its attainment. An inordinate amount of our time, money, and mental, emotional and spiritual energy are spent in the pursuit of an essentially empty ideal. The Sleeping World is like a big machine that functions to reinforce the myth of separateness, fear, and unworthiness, while convincing us that those meaningless pursuits will relive our existential suffering. The machine tells us that the suffering we feel is due to conditions such as our looks, our financial status and our psychology.”
This book has reminded me that trying to attain societies “perfect body” is an exercise in futility, designed to make me miserable, and take all my time, obsessing about food and working out. I have to make peace with who I am now, and do what I know is healthy, but not to obsess about not being stick thin.
I had gotten to a place where I really hated myself, and sort of detached from my body, disowning it, which is when the arthritis symptoms came back and the 25 extra pounds appeared.
I am getting back in touch though, and suddenly it’s an early spring –I have been hibernating for 3 or 4 months, but I am awake again – finally!
posted by Amethyst Rising at 9:44 PM
2 Comments:
I don't know much about spiritual lore, but isn't an owl a good sign from the spirit world?
In the Mojave tradition, it is said that the souls of those who were not cremated became night owls.
In my beliefs, the owl is a symbol of the Goddess. I like to believe that the owl was a symbol from the Goddess, giving me a sign of her support and approval of my current path.
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