The Power of Discernement

Tags

action, discernment, spiritual practice, yoga

We are often faced with the advice of “letting go” of certain things in our lives, so that we may be able to “lighten the load” and move forward on our path, whatever that may be at the moment. I have often, repeatedly, given this self-suggestion to myself – “let go of that which is weighing you down”. However, as all of you well know through direct experience, it is much easier said than done.

Why is the process of “letting go”, even of that which does not serve us well any more, and worse yet, may be actively or passively causing us and those around us much pain, distress, and even outright harm – so difficult to act upon?

One possibility is that we cannot seem to bring ourselves to what we believe to be correct action, is that our power of discernment has been weakened. What is discernment? One simple definition is, the ability to judge well. How do we regain, strengthen this ability to discern well so that we may act well?

According to the Bhagavad Gita, our power of discernment is connected to Yoga. Yoga is deemed to be philosophy in action. Yoga comes from clarity and our power of discernment. Discernment is that which leads to a completely volitional and dynamic, action based participation in our life! There seems to be little doubt of the influence that discernment can wield in our lives. So, how do we we regain it?

The first step to regain discernment is to be willing to first acknowledge that we may have lost it in certain areas of our lives. Then, we can look at our actions and habits, and separate the ones that meet the ‘dynamic participation’ criteria from the ones that don’t. Next, we decide to give more fuel, more energy to those actions that elevate us from within. After regular practice, we may find that our dynamic, volitional, life-elevating actions, a habitable home in our heart.

With positive feedback from our heart, our discernment shall grow. We may then find ourselves becoming aware of “holding on” with discernment rather than focusing on “letting go”. We find ourselves “holding on” to actions fueled by joy, love, light, delight, lightness, lightedness, delightnedness and more.

Discernment empowers us to put philosophy in action. We beome practitioners of Yoga!

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. We invite you to join us to discuss ‘The Power of Spiritual Discernment’ – Sunday, January 28th 2018 at 9amET/2pmUTC on twitter. Namaste, and thank you! -Kumud.

The bee hovers, uses discernment to be a dynamic action based participant in life!

On Spiritual Rescue and Rehab

Tags

action, rehabilitation, rescue, spirituality, yoga

We are like turtles on the path of life… we often develop hard shells to protect our soft cores from life’s many attacks – sometimes our shells get cracked – we may even lose half a face and an eye, get a cracked lower jaw, barely able to eat or drink, left for dead, paralyzed and bleeding in the middle of the road that we were simply trying to cross – and then, along comes One who has the heart of a rescuer, compassion in action, who takes that extra moment to pause and examine, who does not judge whether we are worth saving or not but simply acts – and before we know it, a sling is fashioned from a scarf, we are placed on a pillow in the back of the car, and brought to the warmth and relative safety of a garage to spend the night, hopefully to rest and receive a bit of healing…

We all have felt the intervention of those who have literally rescued us from a path of self-destruction, or after being ‘run over’ by the world around us… for some of us, this ‘rescue’ has happened more than once, perhaps because we needed to be rescued (again and again)… we weren’t strong enough to get out of rehab just yet, we hadn’t healed enough, our shell was still cracked from that first battle, and we decided to take on the world again…

Morning came, and I was almost reluctant to step into the garage to check on the patient. At first glance, she looked awfully still in the open box. I walked away, to return a few minutes later. A little nudge of t5ht he box, and she poked her head out a bit from under her shell. Relief. At least she had made it through the night. The rescue work of my wife (trained nurse), ably assisted by my daughter (nurse in training) and her visiting friend (aspiring veterinarian), had bore fruit in the very short term.

It often takes a potential tragedy to bring out our best rescue and rehab skills, for us to discover our hidden strengths, and to perform actions that are in harmony, excellence and alignment with the greatest good of the moment… that is true spirit of Union, of Yoga… the moment(s) where all of our spiritual practice(s) meet higher, selfless action.

At 9am, as soon as the local Nature Center opened, we received a call in response to the message we had left last night. “Bring her in. We would love to try and rehab her”. Off to the nature center we went, for the next step – a chance at rehabilitation by trained specialists who would do their best at healing and perhaps a full recovery. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a full recovery, with a release back into the wild in our neighborhood. We hope to meet “Sally Ride” once again.

The entire rescue and rehab effort brought a lot of folks together – we (re)connected with the local science and nature center, received very good advice from a turtle rescue center in North Carolina, connected with a reptile expert in Southern Ohio, and tapped into many online resources online and YouTube movies about shell repair and restoration… my daughter is even considering to a summer project about the life of turtles (and maybe even Ohio wildlife)…

I am sure you have been witness or beneficiary of such Yoga in Action too – what was the situation? Who was the rescuer/the rescued? What resources and energies came together to affect the rescue and rehab? How did the experience affect you, your (long and short term) spiritual outlook on life and nature? Share your stories with us in #SpiritChat on twitter – Sunday, June 25th 2017 at 9amET/1pmUTC. Let us celebrate International Yoga Week with Excellence in Action.

Kumud @AjmaniK

On Spirituality and Yoga

Tags

practice, spirituality, yoga

A few weeks ago, on a Sunday in June, the international community held an observance called “International Yoga Day”. A first of its kind, it was an initiative that attempted to highlight the health and relaxation benefits of performing Yoga as a daily physicalpractice. Whatever the physical benefits of any Hatha Yoga practice, when performed under the tutelage of a ‘qualified’ teacher may be, we are here to go a bit beyond physicality and physics…

In his book, “Light on Life” (amazon link), one of the most widely known and respected Yoga Masters of the west, BKS Iyengar, delineates the greater benefits of Yoga. Iyengar’s thesis, arrived at through diligent practice over many decades, is that the mental and emotional benefits of Yoga follow from the physical benefits. For those of us who are considering adding a daily Yoga practice to our toolbox, this is welcome news indeed! But wait. There is more. If there are physical, mental and emotional gains to be derived, can spiritual benefits be far behind?

The aspect of Yoga that is of equal, if not greater importance to the spiritual aspirant, is delineated by the Indian sage, Patanjali. In his treatise called the “Yoga Sutras”, his definition of Yoga is simple and succint:

Yoga is the cessation of the mind stuff ~ Patanjali

Keeping this definition in mind (no pun intended!), we can immediately see the spiritual benefits of Yoga practice. So, one may view the physics and physicality of hatha Yoga as the skin, the outer layer of Yoga. The multiple layers that reside underneath the outer skin, are uncovered through an eight-step practice. Each step of the practice requires greater commitment from the practitioner, and builds on the gains of the previous step. These eight steps are:

1. yama ~ practice of a universal code
2. niyama ~ practice of a personal code
3. asana ~ body postures (this is the well-known hatha Yoga)
4. pranayama ~ breathing exercise, discovering the life force
5. pratyahara ~ understanding the emotions and senses, and what controls them
6. dharana ~ developing the power of concentration
7. dhyana ~ one interpretation is the practice of meditation
8. samadhi ~ perfect union, becoming yoked, or in Yoga with the divine

At first read, the above list may appear daunting. Some may assert that it is not exhaustive. However, it can provide a framework for those who may be looking for one, and can bring some clarity to the diverse practices that are given the tag of #Yoga. As we scan the list from step 1 to step 8, we may be able to identify the steps which need more work than others. For example may be already attempting dhyana (step 7, meditation), and wondering why it is not working for us like we thought it would. The answer(s) may lie in the preceding steps. Maybe we haven’t quite yet learnt the nature of breath, or our emotions are running wild as we try to concentrate!

Needless to say, it is way beyond my ability, and time and space does not permit, to talk about all the intricacies of Yoga in this short post. There are many, many qualified teachers and masters who can explain Yoga to those who would like to learn. My intent for this short post was to provide a spark and introduce you to the (for me) life-affirming works of Iyengar and Patanjali. The ocean of Yoga is vast and deep ~ we can sit on the shore and watch the waves, wade into the water and get a bit wet, get on our surfboard and skim the waves, or do a deep dive.

The ocean is patient. It will wait for us with her gifts…

Namaste,

Kumud

P.S. We will make an attempt to touch on some aspects of Yoga in our weekly #SpiritChat on twitter on Sunday, July 12th at 9amET/1pmUTC. I will bring some questions, and some tea. I invite all of you to bring some cookies to share. Come join us!