© luminarium 2014

Be the Bling

“Time to die,” said my yoga teacher.  Savasana, or corpse pose, is the last asana of each class.  It is a time to give it up; all the stress, negativity, self-doubt.  Surrender any residual thoughts around or of the self.  Raise the white flag, release.

Self-indentiy is fused with universal-identity.  In Western society, we cling to individualization of the self, viewing ourselves as separate and complete entities from the world that holds us.  However, we are not complete without realization of our interconnectedness with other selves and the Infinite.  Individualism to the extreme becomes disconnected autonomy, an illusion of the self as independent from the will of Chance, Fate, God, the Unknown, or The Universe.  Extreme individualism breeds contempt for other human beings.  Viewing ourselves as self-contained vehicles for gain of material wealth or happiness, our sense that perceives the self as One with all selves is numbed; we do not truly know who we are.  As all beings must coexist, so must our souls, or spirit-selves.

A self is constructed upon spirit, or soul.  For now, we can consider the two terms synonymous.  A false-self or ego is like a magnet that attracts material objects.  It has no foundation upon which it can realize itself.  That is why the richest woman on the mountain, surrounded by various jewels and possessions, is unhappy.  She does not know who she is.  Her false identity is comprised of objects, her attachment to which was gratifying and then miserable.  We can be happy with ourselves, by ourselves, as ourselves, without people, places and things that can mislead and misdirect toward something that looks Absolute but is not.  The process of self-knowledge is one of discovery; embrace and honor the self As It Is, without any attachment to the people, places and things that orbit around it.  Celebrate your-self, your spirit-self.  Anything physical disintegrates.  You are eternal.  Connected to your truest, purest, highest self; to the Breath that nourishes and heals the body.  It Is In Your Nature To Be Happy.

Practice “sustainable being.”  We have the power to decide the kinds of energy we invite into our lives.  Energy that quenches the soul’s thirst–perhaps a thirst unrealized until you drink–elevates us to a higher plane of thinking in which we learn to identify what serves us versus what does not.  Love is that Energy.  Embrace and internalize what feeds the spirit-self.  With our spirit-selves, we lead.  The Yoga practice is about kindling the power within to radiate and shine brighter than any “bling¹” that shrouds the soul.  Be the bling.  You are it.  All else will follow.

The light in me bows to the light in you.  Namaste.

¹Yes, as in “bling-bling,” plural for ornamental jewelry that looks really heavy.

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Reviving a Lost Consciousness

As technology advances, needs are simultaneously met and created.  Define technology: applied science (Merrian-Webster).  Define science: a branch of study concerned with the observation and the clarifying of facts.

Crows build levers with stones and sticks.  Monkeys use rocks to crack fruit.  With the right tools, one can get from point A to point B, from want to attainment.  Tools allow us to build, and as we build we discover other tools to accommodate tasks that are more complex.

Today we face an age of technology indulgence.  The constant turning to Personal devices such as Smart Phones and iPads for gratification creates a bottomless dependency on usage, or addiction.  Yesterday, at the nail salon, a little girl was getting a pedicure.  Her mother sat not far away.  She asked her mother for her iPad.  “I’m sorry,” said the mother.  “I left it at home.”  “I need it though,” said the little girl, who was at most six years old.  “I like playing it.  It makes me relax.”  The mother procured her iPhone, which she gave to the little girl, so she could play a game.

Why did the mother give her child the iPhone?  Mindless action breeds ignorance.  The mother did not realize that, by giving her daughter a “substitute” for the iPad as opposed an alternative, she is saying it’s OK to depend on an object for gratification.  Sense gratification perpetuates suffering.  That’s no easy lesson to teach a child, and I don’t condone denying a child of something that he or she so desires.  However, if a child wants to indulge in hours watching TV up-close, or gorge on a large bag of sweets, would you permit her?  Better yet, would you provide her the means to do so?  If a parent does not teach his child by example–for he is the child’s first role model–how to manage and control anxiety rather than band-aid it with a screen (or candy), then the child will have a difficult time forming new, healthier habits as she grows and enters a world where distraction is valued over quiet time to the self.

Please don’t set your child up for a future of silent dinners in the glow of “Smart” devices.  Teach her to communicate.  Conversation is a gateway to the path of truth and self-knowledge.  Knowledge is Liberation.  Ignorance is Bondage.