One of the things that I missed the most, during the early months of the pandemic, was going to the gym. For many years I’ve enjoyed an ever-evolving form of weight-training that typically interweaves a bit of qigong, some yoga asana, some spontaneous dancing ~ with the actual free-weight or circuit training. So, when suddenly all the gyms and recreation centers closed, this was a sad moment. …
Practice Notes
Practice Notes: A Bird In Hand
The well-known adage—A bird in hand is worth two in the bush—is typically used to encourage being grateful for what we already have, rather than pining for something currently out of reach. Putting aside, for the moment, the usefulness of such advice, let’s utilize the imagery itself to explore the notion of separation … Experiencing & Identifying the Birds Imagine I have a bird—say, a …
Practice Notes: Alicorn
Was thinking of unicorns the other day—curious, in particular, about whether their one horn was also called a “unicorn.” It made sense to me that this would be the case, but I wasn’t certain, so set off to explore … A few Googles later, here’s what I had learned: The root of the word unicorn is the Latin adjective unicornis (having one horn)—from uni (one) and cornus (horn). The horn …
The Body Politic
Nature's intelligence shines clearly in her choice to protect, within various organisms, what is most valuable. Consider, for instance, the human body: Its brain is nestled within a sturdy skull, and the spinal cord within the fluid stronghold of the spinal column. The ribcage forms a protective barrier around other vital organs—heart, lungs, kidneys and spleen. And this is wise! Now, …
Ancient Promises
Every now and again, I discover a poem that I wrote many years ago, and had since forgotten. I love these little surprises, a voice (clearly my own) both distant and intimate. Often these poems are hand-written on pieces of paper that have been folded into a book. Here's one that recently dropped out of Sri Aurobindo's Bases of Yoga—a slender little book hidden among other slender little books …
Practice Notes: Tension, Entropy, Awareness
Question: If the essence of all phenomenal appearances is Awareness, then presumably the appearance of a corpse and the appearance of a living organism (human or otherwise) would be experienced within (what Mahamudra refers to as) the “one taste” of Awareness. So how, then, should we describe the distinction between an organism that is considered to be “alive” and an organism that is considered to …
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