The Yoga Path • Omaha, NE

{ Practicing Physical, Mental & Spiritual Health }

March 30, 2010 • 3:29 am 0

Silly Mindfulness

I have this suspicion that when you talk to people about practicing mindfulness, they unconsciously think “I have better things to do then be mindful. What kind of idiot goes around dwelling in the present moment, mindfully walking, drinking, eating when there are a million things to do? My mind is meant for greater tasks than that. Why do one thing when the order of day calls for multi-tasking, complex scheduling, list making, project managing, moneymaking activities?” Bottom line: being mindful is just not worthwhile, why waste the time? I’ve better things to do.

Keep in mind this is all unconscious, but it undercuts even the most sincere effort to pursue this practice of meditation and mindfulness, thus depriving us of life’s greatest secret. Maybe this will help you see it: http://blog.ted.com/2008/03/jill_bolte_tayl.php

Filed under: Education

March 30, 2010 • 2:55 am 0

Right View

Recently in classes we’ve been studying the Noble Eightfold Path. For years I’ve been teaching the Eight Limbs of Yoga which periodically I assign to my students to memorize, and for some reason they never seem to do it. It never seems to stick. These eight limbs have been so ingrained into my brain that I can’t figure out why people practicing yoga can’t seem to just grasp the very holistic quality of yoga philosophy.

Then recently I thought, rather than bring clarity to classic Yoga metaphysics, let’s just muck up comprehension and introduce Buddhist concepts in parallel. The two systems share many similarities, they’re both bundled in 8, and after all Buddha was a yogi. The experiment has been ongoing as you read this, but we started with the Right View.

At the base of our views are our perceptions and in many cases perception is illusory. So right away, of course, there was confusion. This lead to a great deal of discussion about if there is right view, then there must be wrong view and if you have wrong view how can you ever know if you have right view? It was starting to sound like one of those circular argument that you would have in college that could go on all night or until the wine ran out.

So I was looking for an example of how we can be mislead by our perceptions but didn’t have one readily available. Then fortuitously someone sent this link. When you listen to it, notice how you view at the beginning as opposed to the end. Notice how you react and feel; not what you think. Notice the shift of your view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

Filed under: Education, Words of Wisdom