Anxiety, Stress, Pain

I have tired of fighting that fight. And I have tired of fleeing from it as well. I have stopped asking where they came from. They will reveal their source in time. And I will stop asking what they mean, as they are only reactive sensations and not something to which meaning can be ascribed.

When I feel the pangs of anxiety or stress, the ones that cause the prana to surge in my arms and legs, stomach, and head, I am not going to fight them. That just produces thoughts about future scenarioes, most of which will never exist. I know that I am not more prepared for the future by having dwelt upon it.

I am not going to withdraw and ignore these feelings, as they will only return stronger. And, besides, where would I go to hide when I ignore these feelings. That only leads to a withdrawal from life. It leads to a disconnection that holds no yoga with spirit, family, friends, self, and loved ones.

Rather, I am just going to accept these feelings as they arise and thereby render them powerless. They will simply be my companion and I will silently seek them out and observe them.

Hidden Within

How much joy goes undiscovered? What capacties do we have that could take us by surprise, if we would only let them? Deep within each of us are talents and capabilities just waiting to burst forth. We are all incredible and have talents placed within us at birth that are seeds sitting frozen in our heart, waiting only for awakening in our spring, needing only warmth and sunlight to burst forth and produce flowers and fruits.

Last week Susan Boyle had her moment. Imagine a talent like that being unrewarded for decades... until she was 48. She began to sing at 12, but the world was not ready for her until April 11, 2009, when her talent was revealed on a TV talent show (Britain's Got Talent 2009 Episode 1 - Saturday 11th April). That was her Spring. A long winter she waited for that moment to burst forth with her inner brightness.

It makes me wonder what joy is inside each of us, undiscovered.

Mine, Yours?

You say something is "yours" but really, is it? What does that mean? Whatever it means, it means not yours truly fixed in space and time. We can understand this on many levels -- that "mine" and "yours" are both perceptions in a place and time, and not absolute. Because everything is always moving and changing, no thing is constant, and thus all that can be ours is in an instant only a concept and not a thing in the first place.

Complete and Incomplete

How can one understand complete without knowing incomplete. Perfect without imperfect. Only by withdrawing from completeness could God create our incomplete and imperfect world. And only by being incomplete can we endeavor to know the completeness and perfection of God. If we were complete, then we would not be at all. God already knew perfection. Infinity knows only completeness. He created us in the material world so that he could tollerate and experience our imperfection and know even more his own perfection.

Challenge and Posture

Difficult circumstances or people in our lives are like difficult or challenging postures on the Yoga mat. Some postures are both diffucult to embrance and hard in which to find ease. Yet these postures add texture and depth to our practice, and they prepare us to take on the challenges that life offers. They prepare us to take on even greater challenges, those that we all eventually face. By standing on the edge on the mat we learn that can handle being on the edge in life. From the edge we can see what lies beyond. Informed, we can imagine moving beyond where we currently rest. We also learn that we don't have to face these challenges alone, or better said, that we never do face them alone. There is always grace to support us.

The Conveyor Belt

I imagine God watching us working on the conveyor belt of life. Here we are, people at work were trying keep up, as if there were a finite number items on the line.

But what if the belt was a figure 8, and every item we moved off of the line and put onto the other belt was just being returned to us later. Or what if there is in infinite supply?

Pretty funny?! Think about it.

We often worry about limits of the finite, but perhaps we are actually operating in the exception, not the rule. I think we are in the eddy of the stream.

On Creation

The below is explained by Rebbe Nachman in Likutey Moharan #64:1 (based on the Etz Chaim by the Arizal). It describes how a contraction (tzimtzum) from the infinite (Ein Sof, without end) light of God, blessed be his name, is the source of the creation of our world.

I think this is consistent with the theory of the "Big Bang." Consider, for a moment, that there is Ein Sof. That is, I am suggesting that the fundamental nature of the universe is infinite energy. God is infinite. Endless. Without end. Pure light, energy. And even if you don't have faith that this is God, then simply accept for the momemnt that the fundamental nature of the Universe is infinite energy, and call that what you want. But fundamentally, there is energy that is all one, alone, compeltely conected, and infinite in power and endless in light and heat.

Now, consider what would happen if this endless infinite light were to contract away from itself, leaving a void. Perhaps leaving a portion of its infiniteness behind in the center of that void. A portion of energy equal to the energy contained in the world that we know.

As the infinite contracted away from the finite energy left behind, perhaps what then occured was the Big Bang, as the gravity and pull of the infinite away from what was finitely left behind caused the finite to rapidly expand out towards the infinite. And as that occurred, the light became strings of matter, and eventually these gathered into atoms and created space, and created time, that make up our physical world.

Wouldn't this explain why the Universe that we see is expanding outward? Because it is returning to the infinite. It is returning to Him.