Still Hot

Posted on May 10, 2012 by carole

I have fond memories of my children’s lengthy bedtime ritual which included reading fabulous books to each other, saying our reconstructed prayers, and my taking them on guided visualizations as they made their way off to sleep night after night, year after year.

Author Maurice Sendak was an important part of that ritual for us. There was a time when I could recite “Where the Wild Things Are” by heart, and I remember the uncountable evenings laughing heartily as my children ‘roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws’. We hugged as they became the monsters that we all know we can sometimes be. We embraced each other, and in doing so, very deeply embraced the reality of life and the power of love.

Though publishers weren’t initially sure that inviting monsters into children’s bedrooms at bedtime was a good idea, Sendak persevered. The lasting popularity of his book showed that he was right, and I’m one mom that’s grateful. On the news of Sendak’s passing, I am reminded what a powerful ritual embracing our inner ‘wild things’ can be. How essential to be taught how to sail off through the night to the land of our shadow side. How important it is to find the courage to tame our inner beasts by telling them to ‘Be still!” and to see these wild things clearly by “looking straight into their eyes without blinking once”. How empowering it is to become ruler over these beasts, and then to realize we are lonely in that world alone, and to choose to come back to our true ‘home’ and there to allow ourselves to be nourished by love.

Sounds a lot like a spiritual yoga practice to me!

So go ahead. Make mischief. Let the wild rumpus start. Become sovereign and rule over your inner beasts. Then come back and love. After all, your supper is waiting….”and it is still hot”.


  

Maurice Sendak. Beloved Artist, Illustrator, Writer. 6/10/28-5/8/2012. May you rest in peace.

 

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Growing Whole in Time

Posted on May 3, 2012 by carole

Poem One

I want to play in the dirt—rip open the winter soil, scratch wounds of possibility, fertile, aching for life.

I want to expose the hostile, the hardened, the hidden capacity of life to rebound, rebirth, to spring forth.             I want to plant seeds and water them, and weed out aggressors that threaten relentlessly to take over and block me from the sun.                                                              I want to extend roots and make connections; I want to crack the shell and know myself free.

I want to become fragrant for the sense of smell, colorful for the sense of sight, textured for the sense of touch.                       I want to blossom, emerging out of the frozen, hard times we inevitably find ourselves cycling through. “That’s the nature of things”,  I’m told.                                                                           And now it’s finally time. I want to drink in life from the earth–and from the sun—offering blessings and growing, growing into whatever it is that I am here to become.                I want to live today fully, unabashedly, even exhaustingly…but not alone.


After all, it’s Spring. Wouldn’t we look better in a bouquet?

 

Go dig in the dirt for a cause:  Habitat Restoration this Sunday, May 6th, 1-4pm.

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A Word from the (truly) Wise…

Posted on April 27, 2012 by carole

It isn’t everyday that one has the opportunity to visit with such a major player in the world’s spirituality scene as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and am I certainly glad I didn’t miss mine yesterday morning!

Describing himself as a ‘simple Buddhist monk’, or an almost retired ‘simple Buddhist monk’, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. greeted thousands at Loyola University and urged each of us to do the work of ending unnecessary violence by beginning  to cultivate peace within. He spoke to the young adults of the next generation, essentially saying that he had  both good news…and bad news for them. The good news was that even in the face of great challenge there is always the possibility of hope and optimism (and since there are no guarantees in life, we might as well be optimistic); and the bad being the fact that this generation has left them a pretty challenged world to try to become optimistic about. He advocated creative responses to the world’s problems through increased awareness, and  spoke of true learning as having stages that include acquiring knowledge from study; expanding and analyzing that knowledge base with broader, and even contrary perspectives; and then seeing that that knowledge is integrated into the actual experiences of your personal life.  Be the learning. Be the change. Start with just you, and let it impact those around you as you live your life.

As you would expect, His Holiness also offered ideas on non-violent social change, but cautioned that non-violence does NOT mean non-action, and forgiveness never means that you don’t bother to speak up for your truth. Even harsh actions might be needed sometimes, but they are always to be taken with a compassionate heart.  So where might your action be needed, and where might your voice be heard?

Organized by the TIBETcenter Chicago, this event amazingly raised over $200,000 for charitable causes. Such can be the power of the word.  (Contact them for more info.)

 

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Your Mother’s Calling…

Posted on April 20, 2012 by carole

The 42nd anniversary of Earth Day is  this Sunday. According to the earthday.org,  ”the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans fr0m all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement.” I find it absolutely amazing that according to their count more than 1 billion people will recognize April 22nd, 2012 in some way–making it the largest civic observance in the world!  But should Mother (Earth) be proud?

Earthday.org is calling out for a billion acts of ‘green’, and I do hope you will visit their website and pledge yours.  The fate of all of us is absolutely tied to the actions of each of us.  As global citizens, we aren’t in this environmental mess–or out of it–alone. But is it an abdication of responsibility to delude ourselves that even a billion small acts are enough?

To help us understand the severity of the current environmental crisis, Robert Watson, an environmental consultant, states that what “people don’t seem to realize is that it is as if we are on the Titanic, and we are no longer trying to avoid the iceberg. We’ve already HIT the iceberg. The water is rushing in down below. But some people don’t want to leave the dance floor, and others don’t want to give up on the buffet.”  I cynically hesitate to believe that even a billion small acts will reduce the direction we are environmentally headed. The problem is larger and in the hands of far fewer. It is their consciousness that needs to be changed, and we are the ones that need to advocate for that change. But what a billion people thinking about their place in the universe and their footprint on the planet might just do, however,  is raise environmental consciousness to the tipping point where it will become a given–a new norm.  Maybe what our small acts can do is make the issue real to us, and remind us that change is possible. And in doing so empower us to come together and use our collective voice to make the larger change a reality.

For this year’s Earth Day, I’ve pledged to blog more often on environmental issues including “global weirding” (It is a bit odd how early all of the spring flowers bloomed and are now gone, isn’t it?) and actions that we might collectively participate in that work towards structural change.

Hey, if the power of collective voice can get Starbucks to take the crushed bugs out of their strawberry frappucinno’s (that’s another story!) in less than one month, perhaps we can collectively have an impact on an impending environmental disaster before it is too late.

Are you listening?  Your Mother (Earth) is calling. And she’s counting on you…

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Green and Clean

Posted on April 12, 2012 by carole

Spring Cleaning either brings a smile to your face followed by an eagerness to get rid of the old and bring on the new, or makes you want to crawl back inside like a groundhog hoping for a few more weeks of, well, procrastination…

Although I can’t say much here to make the work less intensive (whistle while you work?), I hope to help make it a little less detrimental for your health. Either way, it’s inevitable that the weather has changed, and now is the time to get to it done!

It is widely known that a large percentage of the every day cleaning products we use in our homes (and have used for years) contain toxic chemicals and compounds–even known carcinogens! Yet somehow fortified with years of TV commercial conditioning, we purchase them anyway believing they are the best, and perhaps the only way to get the job done. There are options, however. Companies like Ecover and Seventh Generation (among others) provide alternatives to conventional toxic brands. And those of you more adventurous will find that making your own products is an accessible alternative to all ready-made cleaners. Four common household ingredients–soda, lemon, borax and vinegar will get you started in a powerful way—-ok, not as rewarding as baking strawberry-rhubarb treats with the first harvest of the season, but rewarding nonetheless!

Treehugger.com has offered a complete overhaul to your Spring Cleaning…let me know how it works for you!  If you prefer some in-person advice,  join me at the Mt. Prospect library on May 14th 7pm where I will be presenting: “Green Simplified: Tips for a Toxin-free Lifestyle!”

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Senseless Meaning

Posted on March 29, 2012 by carole

 

Like so many, I am still trying to find ground after the recent unexpected death of a 20-year old young man in my spiritual community.  The son of two wonderful people, Avi Kurganoff knew how to touch others and take risks. An avid outdoorsman who loved sports such as river rafting and snow boarding, Avi met life head on, and lived it fully.  I have much to learn from his all-too-short life.

Time is not well spent trying to make sense of such events. Even if there was something to understand, it wouldn’t change reality anyway. What I am coming to realize, however, is that life doesn’t have to make sense in order for it to have meaning—and more importantly, there are very real things we can do to make meaning out of the things that happen in life that simply make no sense.  The power lies in the bonds we are willing to form with each other. Each authentic connection we are willing to make sparks a light of love in the heart that is a knowable and useable form of ‘enlightenment’. In the sacred space between us where we serve as witnesses for each other, we incrementally increase the light available to help us find our way in times of greatest darkness.

I have known my own set of challenges this year, but nothing like that of losing a child. Still, my circumstances led me to explore deeply the yogic notion of surrender, and to understand what an important part of healing it truly is. To let go—to surrender—is not to give up, give in or give away. It is an invitation to recognize that we simply cannot control as much of life as we’d like to, or as much as we think we should be able to. Surrender teaches that what we can do, ironically, is practice becoming truly present to the often hidden spark of the Divine in ourselves and others, and let go of having to ‘do’ anything else. In moments of just ‘being’ we can authentically see others and be seen by them.  Together we can hold space for what is, and hold each other with the acknowledgement that there is sometimes simply nothing that can or should be done. This shared witnessing of life, this being ‘present in the present’ to the realities of life, is a great salve indeed for the inevitable heartbreaks that come with being human. I have been blessed with being held by others in this way this year, and I am ever grateful to them for their kindness.

This is the hope, and also the promise of our personal mindfulness practice.  The practice invites us to just ‘sit with it’, no matter what ‘it’ might be. Little by little we learn to sit, to stop and to surrender. Sitting brings about a pause. Connecting to something outside of ourselves in that pause supports us in holding space for the randomness, the chaos, and the uncertainty of life.  With time, faith deepens and serves to help mediate our fears. Over time we become stronger and more able to experience wholeness in a world that has undeniably gaping holes. Sitting in time, we learn to give ourselves time to heal.

I guess what I want to say is best said if you will let me take liberties with a beloved Rumi poem:

Out beyond the fields of sense and order there is yet another field—I will meet you there.

In that space, may we find the courage to connect, to make meaning, to heal, and to expand our capacity for becoming ever more fully alive.

Namaste.

 

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A Good Squeeze…

Posted on March 8, 2012 by carole


I wanted to share that great I feel great today…not because it’s sunny and hinting of Spring, nor because I got in a great practice this morning, and not even because I feel I’m riding on top of the wave of today’s full moon (instead of being taken down by it)…I’m feeling great because I’ve been JUICING.

In wanting to blog with you my ideas about healthy, sustainable living practices,  I want to look at the quality of  the environments that we put our bodies in, evaluate how we move our bodies in those environments, and also contemplate the things that we choose to put into our bodies. Healthy living of body, mind and spirit can be sustainable and available to each of us. And juicing can help.

The benefits of juicing are many, and have been confirmed over time. Juicing gives you access to fruits and vegetables and their many vitamins, minerals and nutrients in one small glass, all which are more easily digestible and more readably absorbed in juice form. Many websites are available to both educate and inspire you!

Advocates believe that juicing helps with liver detoxification, and has numerous benefits for the heart. The Living and Raw Foods website suggests that juicing can ward off cancers, assist in weight loss, and increase energy. Juice fasts can give the digestive system a rest, and assist in a much-needed system detox. March–National Nutrition Month–is a great time to consider a juice fast as part of your ‘spring cleaning’…feel free to contact me if you want more information for a safe fast.

Using well-washed organic vegetables as often as you can eliminates the risk of pesticides in your juice. Supporting local farmers when the season allows is an important consideration, as less distance provides a more nutrient-rich drink. Better yet, start thinking about a small amount of space in your yard where you might plant, tend and harvest your own vegetables for juicing.  No yard?– try container gardening. No room for containers?–check in with your city to see if there is space available for you in  a local community garden. There isn’t one yet? Consider starting a garden at a nearby house-of-worship or school! Don’t know where to start?–check out Evanston’s own Talking Farm. Nourishing ourselves in community is sustainable for the body and soul!

Although I have used several juicers in the past, I’m currently hooked on ‘slow juicing’….  The Hurom SlowJuicer extracts/crushes rather than shreds, leaving less pulp behind, and provides a more nutritious drink.  Click for a demo video and see for yourself how easy and nutritious juicing with the Hurom can be! According to their website, “The slow RPM ensures that it does not disrupt the cellular structure of fruits and vegetables, eliminating oxidation and separation. Thus, it preserves the precious enzymes and nutrients that are closest to its natural form.”  Although I really can’t comment on the science, it does produce a dense, rich, and colorful juice. And as long as I keep feeling this good, my Hurom and I will be seeing a lot of each other in the months to come!

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Informed in Form

Posted on February 25, 2012 by carole

 

What you might not know about me is that I collect beads. A lot of beads. They are from travels all over the world, as well as the bead store down the street, and I find them truly beautiful. Unlike most ‘bead people’, however, I don’t really make anything out of them…at least not yet. Sure I dream of a time where I am making beautiful trinkets to adorn the goddesses’ necks that cross my path. I tell myself that at some time in the future I will most certainly put all these beautiful treasures to use.  But for now, they are all in a box. (OK, a big box.) For now, I just collect beads.

My teacher Dasa has been known to say, “I’ve got a fabulous collection of important books”, as a warning to us students–ok, to me personally– to beware of the ego’s desire to collect knowledge. I will admit to you that I am a knowledge junkie. New thoughts interest me. Thinking thoughts lights me up. Conversing about thoughts turns me on. But even as I continue to collect knowledge–as I read, re-read and add to my own collection of fabulous books full of wisdom–I am clear that their being on my shelf, and even their having been read, does not, and cannot, make me any wiser.

Wisdom does not come from collecting knowledge. My personal experience tells me undeniably that wisdom comes from using knowledge. Wisdom comes from acting with the knowledge that we might have collected from ancient sages or from the school of hard knocks. Wisdom is a result of informed, conscious actions.  The ritta, the order, of this process is essential. You act, and then reflect on your actions, and then let that reflection inform the actions you choose to take next. Certainly our actions aren’t infallible. We will fail and err. But because we are capable of conscious reflection and conscious action, growth becomes possible. Wisdom becomes possible. Wisdom becomes knowable directly as the growing and evolving of yesterday’s you into a better version of yourself through today’s actions arising from an ever-deepening self-study and self-awareness. In doing this, wisdom becomes a verb. And being “informed” becomes not the collection of knowledge, but rather the experience and engagement of being ‘consciousness in form’.

Although teacher Douglas Brooks has offered that we should strive to “Keep great company–because you will become the company you keep”, it’s not enough to collect good people. We must let our mentors and friends inspire us to be great—and then consciously choose to act that way. Then even as those around us may fall from grace, they will have genuinely inspired us to be better, and we will have been.

The practice of Kriya yoga suggests to me that in this process of making our lives a kriya—a conscious volitional action wherein we are better today through our cumulative, conscious actions everyday–we are able to become more enlightened beings–informed in form.

With inner and outer eyes opened, we finally learn what all the knowledge continually points to: ultimately all we can control is our own self-reflection towards our own more conscious actions in the world. And that is wisdom worth collecting.

May all that we collect bring beauty and joy into our lives so that we can offer it today to all those whose lives we touch, and whose lives touch ours.

What are we waiting for?

 

 

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Get Real.

Posted on February 17, 2012 by carole

Having just finished a visit to Orlando, I am taken again by the magic of fantasy, and our personal and social hunger to escape our common reality through fantasy–by the busload, and at great expense!

Don’t get me wrong–I’m enthralled by the possibility of it all—the desire to enter the fantasy story, the opportunity to make it real to us, and the longing to make us real to it! Wandering through Hogwart’s was decidedly magical. Hugging ‘Thing 1″ and “Thing 2″ actually quite special. But the concern I have is when the lines seem to blur. When we live our lives, and sell our children that ‘happily ever after’ awaits all of us, that good always triumphs over evil, and that the lines of reality in our own lives can be blurred as we create stories to live in. Then it becomes frightening, and possibly dangerous.

I was intrigued by a park that you may not know exists in Orlando–The Holyland Experience. A hard-sell theme-park celebration of Judeo-Christian thought packaged for the teen and under set just off of Holyland Way. Is the hope that our children will adore the characters here as they do their beloved Mickey or Little Mermaid? That they will see these stories as fantasy to escape to, or stories to make real in their own lives? I’m not sure.

What do we think about selling spirituality as a fantasy-land experience? I can’t help but think of the planned Anusara playground being built in Encinitas, California. Certainly given the unfolding waves of grief as long time teachers and students look to cull out reality from fantasy in their relationships with John Friend and Anusara, this fantasy-land will take on new meaning.

The thing about fantasy is that it tries to be real. If its good, we think it’s real. In yoga, we often refer to this as maya, illusion, or advidya, non-seeing. In psychology we might define it as projection and/or denial. Either way, mistaking our own projections for reality we run the risk of  re-writing history to fit a version of the story we want to tell.  Yoga urges us to integrate so that we might see reality more clearly. That is our work. Fantasy is only an escape.

Driving out of Orlando back into the ‘real world’, the theme parks disappearing behind me , I wondered what is real, and what is an illusion.

Back to the mat to get real.  It’s a practice.

Blessings.

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Standing Tall in the Light

Posted on February 9, 2012 by carole

It has been a challenging week in the Anusara Yoga community. As an Anusara-Inspired teacher for over 10 years, I am unsettled at best. Amidst allegations as well as personal disclosures of less than ethical behaviors, Anusara teachers and students are called to sit and contemplate—if not judge—their beloved founder, John Friend. You might think that yoga calls for ‘non-judgement’, and that non-judgement is some kind of radical acceptance of everything and anything. But I believe that would be a dangerous and disingenuous misuse of the teachings.

Let’s be clear…the study and practice of yoga does not make us less human. Rather, it seeks to yoke us to the understanding that we are spirit having a human experience, and to explore what living with that understanding might mean. It calls us to move with intention rather than from habit, and to see the very real consequences of what we can and do make happen in the world. Anusara yoga asks us to see ourselves as Divine and in so doing inspires, requests– and maybe even requires–us to be better humans than we would be without the practice. The practice provides the opportunity to live in a place of greater honesty, of less misuse of power for self, and of greater empowerment so that we might see ourselves connected to those around us with integrity and be of service in the world. So what happens when we fall short of living the teachings?

To me, owning our mistakes is an important beginning, but only a beginning. Making reparations is an imperative, and I hope to find that John has done or plans to do whatever might need to be done. Moving forward with actions that are informed by owning his transgressions and following through on promised reparations will be important steps for the community on the path towards healing.

Certified Anusara teacher Bernadette Birney blogs the following:

“We all love John. We all are grateful to him. We must also–all together–hold him accountable. We must decide–as a community–what it means to hold him accountable. There must be no circling of wagons. There must be no spin. We must not stand for it. “

In comments to her post she is asked,

“Why are people upset– because John turned out to be human?”, and she importantly responds “No, we are upset because we have an agreed upon ethical standard and meeting it is not optional.”

Living a yogic life means being conscious to our agreements, our words, and our deeds. In fact, each Anusara teacher is required to sign a code of ethics yearly when we pay our dues. It is a chance to decide if we want to call ourselves to live in alignment with those ethics for another year, and in signing, we take on the obligation to do so. Living with disregard to those ethics makes the system meaningless. I assume they apply to John as well.

I refer you to the comments by Douglas Brooks as he speaks about moving through this time as a community:

“…we must learn to yoke ourselves to each other, learn to become accountable to ourselves and to one other; we answer to our family, our community, to humanity for our actions. For we are exactly what we do whether those actions manifest inside or outside.

The things we do in this life matter, our actions need to be judged, and we must learn how to hold each other responsible for actions.  No one gets a pass. No principle like ‘guru’ or the ‘divine’ stands beyond our evaluation of its value in our lives.  The consequences obtain; ramifications, present or delayed, affect others as much as they charge us to lead evermore authentic lives.  To cultivate our self-awareness we must rely on more than our individual experience because nothing is more delusional than isolating or compartmentalizing experience. Our spiritual life is more than our life within: it must happen with nature and in society. The dignity we offer to each other in honor of our private lives does not leave us less accountable to the world. We meditate when we enter into these conversations and emerge accountable to more than our individuality.

Reaching into that greater sense of responsibility we create kula, community. Kula–the conversation of community holding itself to standards of accountability and reckoning. This is the place to find guru: the weight that implies we are experiencing something important. Community begins with self-reckoning and we are always judging. The issue isn’t whether we will judge our selves or others: we will, we must. Rather how can we arrive at our common humanity in the conversation that avers us to account for actions.” 

And so today I come to the mat to find the grounding so many of us are seeking. I hug in to the core of what Anusara has taught me, I offer gratitude to my teacher John Friend (as I always do), and a familiar equanimity begins to shine out. But I know all too well the pain of this betrayal. I have struggled with it personally all year. Do people who act unethically get to be considered great yoga teachers? Are we able to–and should we– receive the teachings from the teacher and disregard how they live their lives?

I don’t know. I’ve learned the hard way that we must accept human-messy-ness, yet be diligent never to let it be an excuse. It is our actions in the light of our failings that define us. May the practice lead us all to step again into the flow of grace.

Shanti.

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