"You can build up your strength to the point where you are not influenced by your surroundings; in fact, you can influence the surroundings instead. You can change the environment if you have the strength of mind; but even if your mind isn't that strong, you can still have the strength not to be affected by the environment.
Learning not to be affected is an important step. If you were influenced by a situation, how can you change it? If 15 people are crying and you go there and join them in the crying, you're simply added one more miserable person; you have not done anything to benefit people. Instead, if you're really strong and can maintain your own equanimity, all 15 people will be benefited by your strength." -Swami Satchidananda Don't give your power or peace of mind away. To anyone! Retain positivity and don't engage in negative conversation!
0 Comments
"What I know for sure is less and less:
that a hot bath won’t cure loneliness. That bacon is the best bad thing to chew and what you love may kill you. The odd connection between perfection and foolishness, like the pelican diving for his fish. How silly sex is. How, having it, we glimpse our holiness. What I know is less and less. What I want is more and more: you against me-- your ferocious tenderness-- love like a star, once small and far, now huge, now near." "What I Know" by Lee Robinson from Hearsay. © Fordham University Press, 2004. Once again, hearing exactly what I need to hear, having something profound reflected back to me... I was thinking throughout the day that I would do my best to sit with Swami Hamsananda today at lunch, so that I could glean more wisdom and continue my line of questioning from the talk on Saturday. The topics of our discussion ranged from a movie with Brendan Fraser, to her visits to the various Yogaville Ashrams around the world, fasting, traveling, and what I do for a living and abit about me. When I described what I do and how much I love it, and how I get to come here, her comment was: "It sounds like your life is perfect!" She continued with, "What do you need...do you need anything? It sounds like you don't." I answered that I need a more consistent practice because I "fall off the wagon", and get back on--though now I'm getting back on. "Why?", I need more discipline, but it is returning. "Well, that's good," she smiled!
She inquired about my comment of staying put for at least two years, before I move abroad again, and as to why I move around so much. I reminisced in a split second about always running away, and how that started very young, (in the literal sense of running away from home); how I have moved around so much since I was 17, never really grounding in one spot for too long. I explained how in my past most likely their was a subconscious reason for running or that I was running from/to something, but after much self-analysis, I now understand that the reason behind my sojourns is that I truly love to live in different countries, experience various cultures, and learn from those cultures; it broadens my view and opens my mind. She stated that I don't really need to think about two years yet, when I have Now and Now is good. She reminded me how lucky I am to have the freedom to live abroad because of the work I do. Yes! My eyes filled with tears as she reflected back to me that yes, my life is perfect! As I acknowledged that realization and held it close, I felt so happy and full of gratitude. I felt grateful for the knowing, and I felt grateful to have someone to help me recognize it. Really and truly, my life IS PERFECT: I have everything I need right NOW, I LOVE my work, I have transportation, I have money to visit Yogaville when I wish to, I have freedom to express my creativity at work, I'm running again and returning to radiant health, I have time and ability to express my creativity through drawing and writing and music, I have time and money to enjoy my favorite passé temps, my sense of security and grounding increases daily, I have returned to my "home" of yoga lifestyle and practice, my prosperity is increasing, my surroundings are Hygge and I feel good in my home space and life space, and ... it's all really perfect and I'm perfectly happy. I'm in that Space of Equanimity--Middle Way-- I have sought to create. My Light is shining again so that I can be a beacon to others and most especially, my students. I am fulfilled in offering my service to others. I am creating inner peace and happiness inside and in my world. I am living the Tao, satisfied in myself, without need to search for the answers outside myself or in another person. I am achieving my life purpose and it is good. I am so, so , so infinitely grateful! |
iGallivant...... Loves to lie amongst the warm rays of sunshine and read, read, read, learn, learn, learn, and live, live, live, vicariously between the pages! Archives
August 2021
Categories |