what one does while one becomes something else

what one does while one becomes something else.

 

 

though I feel like I am a ship off course and trying to steer in uncharted waters, I will enjoy this ride.

Collect moments not things

Things come and go - memories and experiences are imprinted into your soul. Though as we get older our memory lets us down! Mine seems to define older as now.  However these imprints are on a cellular level and will carry on with us.

The things we acquire in life only cause attachment and suffering. Suffering is caused when we lose something/stuff we like, or something gets stolen, or damaged. Imagine not suffering, awesome.

Suffering is also in attachment to thoughts and not just things.  This is the main pillar of Buddhism - below you can see this in the 4 noble truths.

Truths are wisdom for you to learn; hear, absorb now or later (when your suppose to/able to).

Its easy money, take it and run to the bank. The more you let go of stuff, the more you find freedom, peace, happiness.


The Four Noble Truths1. Life is suffering;
2. Suffering is due to attachment;
3. Attachment can be overcome;
4. There is a path for accomplishing this.

The dangers of virtue without effort

You have heard that everything comes at a price - nothing is free.  This is true for a balanced and positive way of life.  If you steal or inherit a bunch of money, and do not understand the value of working your are less likely to live happily. Guilt, gluttony, non connection, no appreciation and no fulfilment might plague your life. Those are not fun feelings to live with.

 

Our emotions create our moment, are moments are movements of which life is lived.

 

As Ghandi's 7 dangers (listed below) of human virtue, when the thing is without the corresponding virtue its risky business.

When someone works without a sense of ethics (doing whats right, treating people and the things with respect), its not good for the company, the people or the individual (karma will be waiting).

 

I liked Ghandi's virtues and thought I'd share. Obvious maybe. Moral of the post (cause it seems right to have one) is everything needs virtue and effort, our key to owning our emotions and our experience in life.

hilar craigslist post: used yoga mat for sale - $1

Pretty funny stuff. had to share.

Here's the full text from the Seattle Craigslist ad below:

Yoga mat for sale. Used once. - $1 (Bellevue)

Yoga mat for sale. Used once at lunch hour class in December 2009. Usage timeline as follows:

11:45a
Register for hot yoga class. Infinite wisdom tells me to commit to 5 class package and purchase a yoga mat. I pay $89.74. Money well spent, I smugly confirm to myself.

11:55a
Open door to yoga room. A gush of hot dry air rushes through and past me. It smells of breath, sweat and hot. Take spot on floor in back of room next to cute blonde. We will date.

11:57a
I feel the need to be as near to naked as possible. This is a problem because of the hot blonde to my left and our pending courtship. She will not be pleased to learn that I need to lose 30 pounds before I propose to her.

11:58a
The shirt and sweats have to come off. I throw caution to the wind and decide to rely on my wit and conditioning to overcome any weight issues my fiancée may take issue with. This will take a lot of wit and conditioning.

11:59a
Begin small talk with my bride to be. She pretends to ignore me but I know how she can be. I allow her to concentrate and stare straight ahead and continue to pretend that I don't exist. As we finish sharing our special moment, I am suddenly aware of a sweat moustache that has formed below my nose. This must be from the all the whispering between us.

12:00p
Instructor enters the room and ascends her special podium at the front of the room. She is a slight, agitated Chinese woman. She introduces me to the class and everyone turns around to greet me just as I decide to aggressively adjust my penis and testes packed in my Under Armor. My bride is notably unfazed.

12:02p
Since I do have experience with Hot Yoga (4 sessions just 5 short years ago) I fully consider that I may be so outstanding and skilled that my instructor may call me out and ask me to guide the class. My wife will look on with a sparkle in her eye. We will make love after class.

12:10p
It is now up to 95 degrees in the room. We have been practicing deep breathing exercises for the last 8 minutes. This would not be a problem if we were all breathing actual, you know, oxygen. Instead, we are breathing each other's body odor, expelled carbon dioxide and other unmentionables. (Don't worry, I'll mention them later.)

12:26p
It is now 100 degrees and I take notice of the humidity, which is hovering at about 90%. I feel the familiar adorning stare of my bride and decide to look back at her. She appears to be nauseated. I then realize that I forgot to brush my teeth prior to attending this class. We bond.

12:33p
It is now 110 degrees and 95% humidity. I am now balancing on one leg with the other leg crossed over the other. My arms are intertwined and I am squatting. The last time I was in this position was 44 years ago in the womb, but I'm in this for the long haul. My wife looks slightly weathered dripping sweat and her eyeliner is streaming down her face. Well, "for better or worse" is what we committed to so we press on.

12:40p
The overweight Hispanic man two spots over has sweat running down his legs. At least I think its sweat. He is holding every position and has not had a sip of water since we walked in. He is making me look bad and I hate him.

12:44p
I consider that if anyone in this room farted that we would all certainly perish.

12:52p
It is now 140 degrees and 100% humidity. I am covered from head to toe in sweat. There is not a square millimeter on my body that is not slippery and sweaty. I am so slimy that I feel like a sea lion or a maybe sea eel. Not even a bear trap could hold me. The sweat is stinging my eyeballs and I can no longer see.

12:55p
This room stinks of asparagus, cloves, tuna and tacos. There is no food in the room. I realize that this is an amalgamation of the body odors of 30 people in a 140 degree room for the last 55 minutes. Seriously, enough with the asparagus, ok?

1:01p
140 degrees and 130% humidity. Look, bitch, I need my space here so don't get all pissy with me if I accidentally sprayed you with sweat as I flipped over. Seriously, is that where this relationship is going? Get over yourself. We need counseling and she needs to be medicated. Stat!

1:09p
150 degrees and cloudy. And hot. I can no longer move my limbs on my own. I have given up on attempting any of the commands this Chinese chick is yelling out at us. I will lay sedentary until the aid unit arrives. I will buy this building and then have it destroyed.
I lose consciousness.

1:15p
I have a headache and my wife is being a selfish bitch. I can't really breathe. All I can think about is holding a cup worth of hot sand in my mouth. I cannot remember what an ice cube is and cannot remember what snow looks like. I consider that my only escape might be a crab walk across 15 bodies and then out of the room. I am paralyzed, and may never walk again so the whole crab walk thing is pretty much out.

1:17p
I cannot move at all and cannot reach my water. Is breathing voluntary or involuntary? If it's voluntary, I am screwed. I stopped participating in the class 20 minutes ago. Hey, lady! I paid for this frickin class, ok?! You work for me! Stop yelling at everyone and just tell us a story or something. It's like juice and cracker time, ok?

1:20p
It is now 165 degrees and moisture is dripping from the ceiling. The towel that I am laying on is no longer providing any wicking or drying properties. It is actually placing additional sweat on me as I touch it. My towel reeks. I cannot identify the smell but no way can it be from me. Did someone spray some stank on my towel or something?

1:30p
Torture session is over. I wish hateful things upon the instructor. She graciously allows us to stay and 'cool down' in the room. It is 175 degrees. Who cools down in 175 degrees? A Komodo Dragon? My wife has left the room. Probably to throw up.

1:34p
My opportunity to escape has arrived. I roll over to my stomach and press up to my knees. It is warmer as I rise up from ground level - probably by 15 degrees. So let's conservatively say it's 190. I muster my final energy and slowly rise. One foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other. Towards the door. Towards the door.

1:37p
The temperature in the lobby is 72 degrees. Both nipples stiffen to diamond strength and my penis begins to retract into my abdomen from the 100 degree temp swing. I can once again breathe though so I am pleased. I spot my future ex wife in the lobby. We had such a good thing going but I know that no measure of counseling will be able to unravel the day's turmoil and mental scaring.

1:47p
Arrive at Emerald City Smoothie and proceed to order a 32 oz beverage. 402 calories, 0 fat and 14 grams of protein -- effectively negating any caloric burn or benefit from the last 90 minutes. I finish it in 3 minutes and spend the next 2 hours writing this memoir.

3:47p
Create Craigslist ad while burning final 2 grams of protein from Smoothie and before the "shakes" consume my body.

4:29p
Note to self - check car for missing wet yoga towel in am.

You think therefore you are not

The famous philosophical contemplation "I think therefore, I am", I do exist. Yes.
However this is the very thing that we must try NOT to do in order to learn to control the mind, our emotions, find peace.
But more importantly realise the soul - so I'd like to adjust (bring up a few hundred years) the quote to "you think therefore you are not". Yes, you exist but not as your true self, the self that is NOT controlled my the mind. You are a passenger along for the ride.

The sufferings of life happen to you. Once you turn off the mind (even for a minute) and infinite peace can be found. You are perfect the way you are. Right now.

Ok, I exist. But if you are asked: who are you? what are you?

You would not list your things - I am not my Lexus SUV, the white picket house, Prada bag. You are not what you have but rather what you do, act and feel.

It is likely you would say things like I am a contributing citizen when I vote, engaged in listening to others, dedicated to providing for my family, a supportive partner, motivation boss, hope giver to friends, etc.

You would also not list your mind right? Maybe your intelligence, your knowledge, wisdom but certainly not the voice, rather that voice is controlled by you, right?

At least this is what we would like to think. To understand the mind, the voice and the power behind it is the key to understanding life. This is the answer to the big question of "why we are here". We are suppose to understand the power behind the voice, the soul, the spirit.  Through controlling the mind, we have empowered ourselves to live a happy life, and learning the lessons we need to learn (in this life) along the way.

Ok, we are what we do, act and feel but there is more.
So if you are more than stuff and the mind, than you are spirit within the body right? It makes sense.

Your spirit is a glimmer of your soul, of God.

Workout to work-in

Yoga attracts many people for a variety of reasons. It could be to get a workout, to be more flexible, to find peace from the day or a step closer to samadhi.

No matter what brings you on the mat, it is certain a physical, mental and spiritual shift will occur. Sometimes your mind might tell you otherwise or tell you nothing, but it is happening.

I read the article below and it was another one that was spot on for me (like it was coming from my hand itself, one day I will write like this!) and is aligns with this post.
http://blogs.yogajournal.com/omchorus/2013/01/from-flow-to-slow.html#.UQLYYW_SsfE.facebook

I was also having a relevant conversation with a friend who wants to do yoga but the few times she did she thought that using that hour to run would yield more of a workout. I have heard this a lot.  There might be other ways to easily feel like you got a workout - more cardio and we natural feel more tired and more successful towards a "workout" goal.
However if you take the right class, push yourself in the right ways, you will learn to get a workout and more about your body and yourself in the process.

We do have to do what makes us feel better. These days there is so much coming at us, confusing life, complicated our experience. We must find a way to shut off, an outlet that gives us perspective, piece of mind, direction, hope and closer to our happiness. Key word is DO.
When we physically are in shape, we just feel better, more energy, more happy. When we have a clear mind and control our emotions, we can navigate out of our emotional web to get closer to being happy now. Yoga does do all of these things - systematically. If you can find an outlet in running, great do it. If you can find it walking the park - great do it.

If you do yoga for a workout, eventually you will be working in - inward growth, spiritual understanding, a fulfillment. These days with hot yoga and all kinds of intense yoga types emerging it is not hard to find a class that will leave you soar for days!

UPDATE: more studies being done about yoga benefits and cardic benefits.
http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/study-cardiac-effects-yoga?cm_mmc=Twitter-_-RunnersWorld-_-Content-News-_-CardiacEffectsYoga



It’s not just the work out, it’s the work-in and the work-through!

Freedom - a luxury we often forget

inspired! amazed by the courage, expression, thought, meaningfulness, purpose, the challenging of what is....

Social Media...the Internet really gives a voice/space to push for change. "Once you feel freedom in your heart, you will never forget"

AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MYFOzP6Xns

2013 - L O V E

Funny we all hear about resolutions, think about this and dare to make a few our selves.  This year I choose a theme for the year - LOVE. Then I saw the image below, perfect!

Happy New Year - as frank sings "the best is yet to come"....