Living as an Ocean, Remembering we are the Sky

International Yoga Day was on June 21st and I got to enjoy some amazing talks from some amazing teachers put online and available for free by all through that weekend by The Shift Network's Yoga Day Summit.  I felt so blessed to receive the energy of the teachings via the online talks and even more blessed and excited to share the jewels of the teachings in class.  Here is one from Sadvi Bhagawati Saraswati:

She said our lives aren't as small, heavy, or boxed in as we think they are.  What happens to us in our work lives, home, relationships, and politics becomes our entire world view.  So when these areas have conflict or difficulty, we feel like our whole world is falling apart.  Yoga gives us an expansion around that.  It doesn't change our circumstances but creates expansion around them.

She said, imagine a rock being dropped into a glass of water (and how disruptive that would be). (Think of the rock representing difficulties or challenges).  Now imagine that same rock dropping into a bathtub of water.  Now imagine that same rock dropping into a lake. And next imagine that same rock dropping into an ocean.  (See if you can feel what that feels like viscerally in your own being.  Maybe even close your eyes and imagine it for a moment.)  The ocean represents the expansion of your consciousness.  Yoga can take us there.

The problem isn't the rock, it's that we're living like a glass of water instead of an ocean.  We can't change our circumstances, what we can change is our perspective, what we know about who we truly are, as expansive as an ocean.  Capable of holding all the conflicts in our lives without complete destruction as well as holding the glory and blessings in our lives from our great capacity of space, light, and love.

Pema Chodron uses another image to remind us of our true nature.  She says, "You are the sky.  Everything else is the weather."  Again we are reminded of the expansiveness of our true being, the part of us that isn't identified by our name, occupation, family role, hair color, habit energies (good or bad), just our purity and essence of being.  So expansive are we, capable of holding it all, the good glorious, beautiful weather as well as the worst storms imaginable.

This holding is within us and around us.  Think of nature, Mother Earth, Divine Spirit, God.  Yoga gives us the experience of this when we do our asana practice, sit in meditation, create a mudra with our hands, chant mantra of sacred sound.  So many tools at our fingertips to tap into this energy that is within and around us.

Currently, I have been practicing and using some beautiful mantras that remind us of this teaching at the beginning of class, throughout my day, and as I prepare a beautiful array of mantras and dharma for my next kirtan this fall (keep your eyes out for a September date):

Ang Sang Wahe Guru (shared in a recent blog)
"the dynamic loving energy of the infinite is dancing in every limb and every cell of our being."  This mantra "eliminates loneliness from our hearts and fills every cell of our bodies up with the awareness and the presence of Love."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9BhAbaLym0

Om Hreem Ham Sah So Hum Swaha, There is a Light, It never goes out, There is a Light
Hreem as the seed sound and light of the heart.  Ham sah So Hum: I am that, that I am.  I am divine consciousness, the expansiveness of the ocean, the expansiveness of the sky, the light of God.

Purnamadah Purnamidam
Purnat Purnam Udachyate
Purnasya Purnamadaya
Purnam Eva Vashishyate
That invisible absolute, origin of all things is complete, whole, perfect, and infinite.
This entire creation (including me) is made from that which means all of this phenomenal world (including me) is complete, whole, perfect, and infinite.
Both the absolute and the entire creation remain complete, whole, perfect, and infinite even though This was created, taken from That.

I've been asked what helps us come out when we get caught in a moment of stuckness, difficulty, darkness.  We need a lifeline.  Our breath is the simplest most direct one.  Many teachers in the Yoga Day Summit referenced it as the one tool they would offer to listeners.

A four part breath (pranayama) was mentioned by two different teachers as a practice to use.
Breathe in for a count of 4,
Hold the in breath for a count of 4,
Breathe out for a count of 4, and
Hold the out breath for a count of 4.
Try it for a few rounds and see how you feel.
Try it for 2, 5, or 10 minutes a day, Maybe twice a day, Maybe even during a glorious or difficult moment of the day and see how you feel.  A repetitive practice like this accumulates over time and days and months and years to create a stronger wider pathway to return to our ocean or sky nature a bit more quickly when we need to.

Using the above mantras is a beautiful and helpful lifeline to me.  To be reminded and awaken the energy of each or any of the above three is so helpful.  Listen to a recording of it or say it to yourself quietly, or sing along with the recording, or learn it so well and let your heart sing and sing it out loud to change your vibration.

We are here together to help with the holding and the reminding.  We can be each others life lines by living with authenticity as we feel safe enough to be with those in our lives who are doing the work right along with us.  Anand Mehrotra (in one of his amazing Yoga Summit Talks) said, We are all walking each other to self-realization.  I've heard Ram Dass cited as saying, We are all here just walking each other back home.  It may not always be that sweet in our relationships.  However, going to self-realization and going back home to Living as and Ocean and Remembering we are the Sky is not always a comfortable process.  It is often our difficulties and challenges that break us open and drive us to the necessity of these practices and expand us even further because of the discomfort into our expansiveness.  And, sometimes it is that sweet and it is a loving moment, a beautiful serene moment in nature that brings us to immediate realization.  Stay open to the process.  Written with and sending along to you so much love and wishes for freedom and joy for you!

Join me for a yoga class, workshop, or private session to go deeper into these practices with support and community.  Click the "follow" button on my blogsite to stay informed with dharma sharing and workshop, yoga class, and subbing schedules.  My WEEKLY classes are at Naturally Yoga in Glen Rock on Wednesdays at 1pm; Highland Yoga in Butler on Tuesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 9:45; CRUNCH in Midland Park on Wednesdays at 6am. I will be SUBBING at Naturally Yoga THIS Sunday, July 15th, 8am and NEXT Thursday, July 19th, 9:30am.

Right View

"Our happiness and the happiness of those around us depend on our degree Right View.  Touching reality deeply -- knowing what is going on inside and outside of ourselves -- is the way to liberate ourselves from the suffering that is caused by wrong perceptions.  Right View is not an ideology, a system, or even a path.  It is the insight we have into the reality of life, a living insight that fills us with understanding, peace, and love."

--Thich Nhat Hanh, pg. 54, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

"Peace isn't an experience free of rough and smooth; it's an experience that's expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened."

-- Pema Chodron


"Know that whatever task you do is God's task.  He is giving you the interest, the capacity, and the knowledge to do it.  If you think of yourself as an instrument in the hands of God, you will always succeed in whatever you do."

-- Swami Satchidananda


During the month of August, we have contemplated Right View during our yoga classes and in our lives.  Thich Nhat Hanh teaches part of practicing Right View is recognizing whether we are watering wholesome or unwholesome seeds in our consciousness with our thoughts, words, actions, and livelihood.  We try to recognize that we have both a store consciousness and mind consciousness.  We all have the same seeds in our store consciousness (love, compassion, joy, mindfulness, anger, irritation, jealousy, hatred, etc).  Our ancestral lineage, life circumstances, and habits determine which seeds when watered sprout more readily into our mind consciousness.  If we use the four noble truths to recognize our suffering and the root causes of our suffering, we may be more likely to selectively water our wholesome seeds.  With the support of the energy of the sangha and the teachings of the dharma, we notice our habit energies that keep us stuck in our suffering and work to change our habits to more quickly and easily restore well being and peace.

Interbeing is another foundational teaching in Buddhism and is at the heart of Right View to help us work with our Right Thinking and Right Mindfulness.  I was delighted to hear this beautiful example stated by Lorian and Sebastian in the Childrens' Program at the Day of Mindfulness this weekend at Blue Cliff Monastery.  The children were having their snack and when the sister asked the children what they tasted as they ate their apple, Lorian said a cloud and Sebastian said dirt.  Do you know why?  Because without the cloud, there would be no rain.  Without the rain the apple tree would not grow and without the apple tree, there would be no apple.  (We could have also noticed that the apple tastes like rain and sky.)  And, the seed needs the dirt along with the rain to grow into the tree.  This is the practice of interbeing.  The apple is made up of non-apple elements.  It is empty of a separate self.  It inter-exists with everything...the farmer who tends and harvests the apple, the mother and father who conceived the child who grew to be the farmer.  Do you see?  We can make the same connection between you and me, between all beings.  It is a deep and wonderful teaching.  Don't worry if it is just beginning to root in you.  It continues to grow with selective watering : )

In Saturday's class we discussed more about the historical and ultimate dimensions.  I shared a reading from Thich Nhat Hanh's book about The Two Truths, relative and absolute truth, which to me, in a sense, parallel the concepts of the historical and ultimate dimension.  Again, this is a deep teaching, so I'll try to describe briefly.  Just know that this is the beginning of watering the manifestation of understanding of it.  We have our whole lives to let it sink in and root to grow.  That's why we have each other in the sangha and our dharma teachers to keep discussing it and applying it in our lives.

We live in the historical dimension.  Our speech, actions, livelihood, and diligence are examples of how we exist here and now.  When we get stuck in our suffering, we may tell ourselves stories about life and the others in our life and even ourselves.  We narrow our view and perception because we are stuck in attachment or aversion.  We think we know what is true.  But what we are caught in is relative truth.  Sometimes we may find ourselves stuck in suffering and all of a sudden a bell of mindfulness may open our eyes to nature or to another perspective.  That bell can be setting foot outdoors, seeing the eyes of your child or beloved in a new way, catching a glimpse of the mountains or sky while driving as if for the first time, etc.  We wake up and see that there is more to life than our limiting thoughts and views.  There is a grander bigger existence.  We see the solidity of the tree and know that solidity is in us.  We see the freshness of a flower and know that freshness is in us. We see the expansiveness of the sky and we know that expansiveness is in us.  We taste it when we sit still and breathe or stand in nature and take a deep breath, when we really absorb the joy of a child, the beauty of a sunset, when we do our yoga practice with pranayama (breathing practices) or asana (postures) that balance us, restore us, open us up to these absolute truths -- interbeing.  We find that we can touch the ultimate dimension even though we are walking in the historical dimension.  We don't need to go anywhere, just arrive fully in the present moment.  Thich Nhat Hanh says the Kingdom of God can be found in the present moment.

We look deeply into our suffering in the historical dimension to notice the patterns (habit energies) that exist within us and recognize this as our relative truth.  In naming our suffering and working to identify the root causes of our suffering insight can arise to help transform the suffering.  Perhaps with insight we touch the absolute truth of interbeing which fortifies and eases the way back to well being, the cessation of that moment of suffering.  So we don't belittle or dismiss the historical dimension or relative truth.  We live in them and we need to look deeply into them to touch the ultimate dimension, the absolute truths, here and now -- in this lifetime, in this body -- that we might exist more often or navigate our lives more often from these more expansive places and more fully enjoy this historical dimension.


I will close with the lyrics to this Plum Village practice song.  You may have heard me sing it in class.

I have arrived, I am home, in the here and in the now.
I have arrived, I am home, in the here and in the now.

I am solid, I am free.  I am solid, I am free.
In the ultimate I dwell.  In the ultimate I dwell.