What makes you so free?

Static free
anti-cling
de-grasp the self.
let go
recognizing impermanence
like a cool refreshing breeze
on a hot summer day in New Delhi.

embrace what is, and enjoy the breeze.

this moment will pass also.
this moment
these thoughts, any pain or discomfort.
This body will grow and then decay...like everything.
The self IS impermanent.
IT IS empty of inherent existence...like everything.
Point to the self...where is it really?
Did you find it?
Just like the table it is made of many elements.

Compounded elements that continue to change,
and with the right conditions the compounded self will even evolve.

Just like the cool breeze, this awareness of emptiness is true freedom.
For when we understand this we can live without clinging to life, self, others, and things!
This cling state IS ignorant, watch it lead you again and again to suffering.
Again and again to extreme emotions that seem uncontrollable.

Like a dog chasing its own tail...the harder he trys to bite his tail the more he suffers,
but he continues to do it anyway.
Round and round we go when we stop no one knows.

But there are many ones that make up this whole. And many stop to listen.
Their own silence introduces them to their awareness, which stops them from the ignorant circles.

Be aware.
Be bear aware.
Take time to retreat in silence to cultivate inner awareness. For the winter, for a month, for a week, for a day, for an hour, for 10minutes, with a breathe.
The more you practice wise awareness, the easier it is to flow with life.

Let go of the willows and flow down river!

Stop the clinging, and you will finally enjoy that which you so desperately cling to.

Ah the sweet wisdom of the four seals.
Shakyamuni Buddha sealing truth.
this buddhadharma--the awakened path
the way of truth
eyes wide open from the inside--------outside.

Now now, don't turn your shoulder up at this "religion," for it is far more a science.
It is for the truth seeker that resides in each one of us.
Alas, you do not have to run to some confession hall, temple, or shave your head and take on a life of robes, caves, and long silences...

NO!!! We those they call the lay people need to engage ourselves by being fully aware of the reality as it is.

Just remember...

"Fundamentally it is not the act of leaving behind the material world that
Buddhists cherish BUT the ability to see the habitual clinging to this world
and ourselves and to renounce the clinging.
--Dzsongsar Jamyang Khyentse
from the book, What makes you NOT a Buddhist

so be static free and you will finally be free.

The Dalai lama speaks...

H.H. arrives to speak to the tibetan youth.

We post up under a shady tree to absorb his presence, engage his words, and smile with his laughter.

We listen half the time in English and the other in Tibetan.

Even though i can not understand the tibetan, i prefer to listen to his voice directly.
I sit up tall, close my eyes, and practice absorbing the vibration of his words.

And with this I feel the great calm.
As expansive as the Ocean.

For a moment all time ceases.

And I just am, no beginning
no end.
just am apart of it all.

and with this I find release.

before the curious thoughts exhaust my mind again.

Ah, it is these moments that recharge my spirit

in this time of waiting.

ease and release

Waiting waiting, ambiguous waiting. Will he get the visa or will we be faced with collecting more papers to prove our love? Ah, bureaucracy---US combined with Indian might be our worst night mare. Slow and overly diligent, with a dash of corruption makes this process well one that takes super human power patience.
The tension rises like waves, coming and going, the breathe is my one grounding force.

Yet then with space to reflect i feel this ease and release when I simply let go...
let go of any and all delusional ideas of reality, i.e. that I can change this fucked up process, and just let go of this need for control
this need to plan my life ahead.
just let go and flow with it, accepting the process ...
as it is, in all its fucked upness.
And just see it AS IT IS.

The light is there,
shining through from the end of this narrow
dark tunnel.

It is our choice to aggravate the time by stressing the mind with what ifs and whys and hows
OR to release this tension and just be present with the darkness of this tunnel--
By just being here now.

Standing from the feet up.
grounding down so that the mind may be lifted up.

And realign your emotional balance.

Accept it.
Bureaucracy sucks. But IT IS.

oh magical visa,
we wait patiently.

may all those awaiting the bureaucratic process find peace through
this art of patience.

may all beings be happy.
may peace prevail on earth, and
may bureaucracy embrace logic one day.

june 16, 2009

My mind is refreshed by these words illuminating what yoga IS. It strikes a chord in my chest as I embark on a new teacher, a new day, a new breathe.

"Yoga itself is based on the interaction of physical, spiritual, and psychic phenomena,
in so far as the effects of breath control (pranayama) and posture (asana) are combined
with mental concentration, creative imagination, spiritual awareness, and
emotional equaanimity."
--Lama Anagarika Govinda,
The Way of the White Clouds