Self' is another word for 'God'. This is the God who is the Absolute, immutable, without qualities, pure Awareness, without beginning or end. - Richard Hittleman
Namaste is a gesture done with hands and palms together in the prayer position and placed in front of the heart or the forehead. In India it is the common way to greet people and bid them farewell. Namaste comes from the root nam, to bow, and te to you. It is often interpreted as “the divine in me bows and acknowledges the divine in you.” This form of greeting differs deeply from the traditional Western style of shaking hands.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, editor of Hinduism Today magazinje explains: “As a test of how these two greetings differ, imagine you are magically confronted with the Divine. God walks up to you on the street. What do you do? Reach out to shake His/Her hand? Probably not. Though suitable between man and man, it’s an unseemly expression between man and God. We never shake hands with God. I mean, what if your palms are sweating? So, you namaste instead. The reason it feels natural to namaste before God is that it is, in its very essence, a spiritual gesture, not a worldly one. For these and other reasons, Popes never shake hands. Kings never shake hands. Even mothers don’t shake hands with their own children.” In addition, Satgurur Veylanswami notes: “Namaste is cosmically different. Kings do namaste. Satgurus namaste and mothers namaste to their own family. We all namaste before God, a holy man or holy place. The namaste gesture bespeaks our inner valuing of the sacredness of all. It betokens our intuition that all souls are divine. It reminds us in quite a graphic manner, and with insistent repetition, that we can see God everywhere and in every human being we meet. It is saying, silently, ‘I see the Deity in us both, and bow before It.’ ” Namaste is frequently used before or after a group yoga class where yogis are invited to bring the palms together, turn to another person and say “namaste”. Some of us strive too hard in working and studying, and become burnt out. While the intention can feel noble, it easily becomes too much and the excess effort gets in the way of the awakening that we seek. - Sister Ocean
Ease is more beautiful than striving; it is also more enjoyable and thus applies to all of life.
- Sister Ocean Breath is a good topic no matter your religious background. The breath doesn’t belong to Buddhism or Christianity or anyone at all. It’s common property that anyone can meditate on. - Thanissaro Bhikkhu
When I was a boy no one seemed to ask where the energies come from. Land, oil, coal, air seemed inexhaustible. Now we are realizing how our very life depends upon restoring not only our balance with nature, but also that balance within ourselves. We are depleting our reserves of spirit, health, courage and faith at an alarming rate. The quiet practice of yoga is, in its humble yet effective way, an antidote. - Yehudi Menuhin
Restlessness arises because we do not appreciate the beauty of contentment. We do not acknowledge the sheer pleasure of doing nothing. - Ajahn Brahm
Drew Carey, American actor and game show host, says he’s forgiven Gareth Pursehouse, the man who is charged with murdering his ex-fiancée Amie Harwick. “After Amie’s murder, I took a week off. Really, I couldn’t function,” Carey, 61, said . When he got back to the show a week later, he explained that they were filming episodes for “Kids Week,” which gave him an opportunity to talk to high school students about Harwick’s death.
I talked to them about how I forgave the guy who murdered Amie,” he said. “I did it as soon as I could, right away because he was mentally ill, the guy was abused when he was a kid and, you know, you have to be able to forgive people like that. You know, I wish he never did it, or I wish he never met her. When you forgive people, that doesn’t mean you have to hang out with them and be their friend.” He continued, “It’s important for high school kids to hear and people in general to hear. It would be so easy to carry around … every day think about revenge, which is not coming. There’s nothing that’ll make up for what he did … I really try to practice instant forgiveness and unconditional love, the closest you can get to that, the better you are and I fall short all the time.” (source: nypost.com April 17, 2020) Meditation is not a form of asceticism. Self-mortification is not the goal. We are trying to cultivate mindfulness, not pain. - Bhante Gunartana
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Victor M. Parachin ...is aVedic educator, yoga instructor, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of a dozen books. Buy his books at amazon or your local bookstore. Archives
March 2024
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