Beauty quote

Because our present habit of  mind is governed by the calculus of consumerism and busyness, we are less and less frequently available to the exuberance of beauty.

[Beauty] enables us to go with, rather than against, the deepest tendency or theme in the universe.

-- John O'Donahue, from Beauty p. 7

Best season poem

Ten thousand flowers in spring

The moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer

Snow in winter.

If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary

Things, this is the best season of your life.

- Wu-men

Varanasi, by Mary Oliver

VARANASI

Early in the morning we crossed the ghat,

where fires were still smoldering,

and gazed, with our Western minds, into the Ganges.

A woman was standing in the river up to her waist;

she was lifting handfuls of water and spilling it

over her body, slowly and many times,

as if until there came some moment

of inner satisfaction between her own life and the river’s.

Then she dipped a vessel she had brought with her

and carried it filled with water back across the ghat,

no doubt to refresh some shrine near where she lives,

for this is the holy city of Shiva, maker

of the world, and this is his river.

I can’t say much more, except that it all happened

in silence and peaceful simplicity, and something that felt

like that bliss of a certainty and a life lived

in accordance with that certainty.

I must remember this, I thought, as we fly back

to America.

Pray God I remember this.

_______________________

Mary Oliver
A Thousand Mornings
(Penguin, 2012)

IV., by Wendell Berry

IV.

A man is walking in a field
and everywhere at his feet
in the short grass of April
the small purple violets
are in bloom.  As the man walks
the ground drops away,
the sunlight of day becomes
a sort of darkness in which
the lights of the flowers rise
up around him like
fireflies or stars in a sort
of sky through which he walks.

-- Wendell Berry, from Leavings

Lost, by David Wagoner

"Lost" [by David Wagoner]

Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

-- David Wagoner
(1999)

David Whyte poem

Enough. These few words are enough.

If not these words, this breath.

If not this breath, this sitting here.

This opening to the life

we have refused

again and again

until now.

Until now.

- David Whyte

The 3 Malas

The idea of the 3 malas comes from Tantra Yoga, specifically Kashmir Shivaism.  I first heard of the concept in an Anusara Yoga Teacher Training.  The 3 malas are found on the "Tattva" map, which I don't really understand, but is supposed to be a map of how "Consciousness" splits into everything that is.

This strain of Yoga philosophy believes that we are all pure Consciousness.  We are perfect and whole, but we forget that perfection.  The 3 malas are the 3 ways Consciousness is "veiled"; the ways we feel imperfection.  In my mind it is very much related to the idea of self-esteem.  We could think of it with this metaphor: we are each a crystal clear mirror, but we have layers of dust.  These layers of dust are the malas.  Why do we have them?  Why is Consciousness veiled?  Who knows.  Some say Consciousness is veiled so that we can remember our perfection.  We don't like in our perfection, but we can remember it.

The first mala, the mother of all the malas, is called Anava mala.  It is the feeling that we are not good enough.  We do not measure up.  We could also say it is an over-emphasis on individual self.

I am not good enough.
I am fat.
I am not smart enough.
I am not successful enough.
I am not good-looking enough.

The second mala comes from the first and is called Mayiya mala.  We could say it is an emphasis on others.  We feel separate from others.  We feel as though other people are judging us and noticing our imperfections.  We feel disconnected.  We feel small.  We have forgotten that everything is Consciousness (according to this strain of Yoga) and that we are inseparable from everything else.

"Feeling unworthy goes hand in hand with feeling separate from others, separate from life.  If we are defective, how can we possibly belong?  It's a vicious cycle: the more deficient we feel, the more separate and vulnerable we feel."  from Radical Acceptance, by Tara Brach, p.7

Radical Acceptance is a good source for ideas mentioned in this post.  It is a Buddhist text, but reflects the malas nonetheless.

The third mala is Karma mala, the idea that we are not doing enough.  This is the deep feeling that our self-worth is based on what we accomplish.  It is also the feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness-- like we don't have the power to act-- we're stuck.

The quality of our yoga practice is not a reflection of what we 'do'.  Our goodness as a person is not a reflection of what we 'do'.

"I have enough.  I do enough.  I am enough."  -- source unknown