Bring the Light

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3 Teaching from Yoga

·      Balanced Action generates a current of prana

·      I don’t see the works as it is, but as I am

·      As I see the world I create the world

(Prana is the yoga tradition’s word for life energy. I think of and experience prana as liquid light – or light mixed with love.)   

I try to remember to pray – before I get out of bed or even open my eyes. My prayer doesn’t have words so much as a feeling or wish that I can do my day in such a way that I generate a steady, bright current of prana inwardly…so that I might see more prana in the world (more light; more love)… so that I might create the world as I see it, a world with more light and more love.

Then I get out of bed and have a cuppa and sit and enjoy the quiet. And then I meditate and practice pranayama.

I love love love to begin my day the way Yoga asks me to begin my day - by making of myself a deep gravity well of listening. Start in stillness. Meditate. Become like the moon listening to the sun. When I do this, the generosity of the sun and the softer more liquid light of the moon, begin to shine more fully in every cell and atom.

By listening in this way, I can also bring balanced action into my day. I take my work orders for the day from the big boss. S(he) is a wonderful boss - the best. I sit down with this Maha-Manager, we close our eyes and wait and listen and I allow the work orders of my day to arise from a still point within.

When I skip my morning practice - because I am sooooo busy - I usually make plans that are too small. and my work day becomes driven by a crowd of mean little Mafioso.

But the Big Boss is generous and gentle - as generous as the sun and as gentle as the moon.  S(he) has a much nicer work day in mind for me and gives me unexpected bonuses of serendipity, surprise, spontaneity and synchronicity. She makes sure I have plenty of time for lunch and even a nap. And s(he) likes to make sure I quit on time – or even knock off early - so I can go outside and play or relax on the couch with my sweetheart.  S(he) is the Best Boss ever.  

I trust the principles of alignment which guide my Yoga practice to help me move through my day in a way that generates a steady current – no brown outs, intermittent power surges or power losses. Whatever I am doing – dishes or computer or teaching -  I try to remember (and I do forget regularly, but I do know how to begin again) to do things in this order:

1.     Soften and Ground. Breathe. First Principle first: come home to the Bright Middle between Heaven and Earth.

2.     Engage Balanced Action – the play between Muscular Energy (stabilizing, firming, integrating) and Organic Energy (opening, expanding, spacious).

Both #1 and #2 are Balanced Action, which generates a steady current of prana.

Balanced Action is Yoga: a generation of Light and Love that happens if you stay in place long enough to hold two poles that are contradictory complements (like inhale and exhale; firmness and suppleness; listening and expressing) in proximity to one another until a current begins to flow more brightly in body, heart and mind. It is an alive technology that both turns on light and grounds the current.

There is a weighty responsibility to having access to Yoga and a knowledge of how to turn on light. I do not see the world as it is, but as I am. I will see the world through a brightening lens – or through a glass darkly. And as I SEE the world, I CREATE the world. My center opens to every center. My heart opens to every heart. (Truly both mysticism and physics, this).

Don’t curse the darkness. Bring the light.

Maharshi