Celebrate the Broken, Transform it into Gold
Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in. —Leonard Cohen There is beauty in broken things. This may be most evident in Japan where the fragmented is elevated to the level of …
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List Lovers of the World Unite!
Buddhists love lists. They have a list for love, a list for pain, a list for right living and a list for how to stay in present moment awareness. They even have a list for how to identify a living Buddha. There is the Eightfold Path, the Four-Noble Truths, the …
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Heart Medicine on a Sunday
When all the knots that fetter your heart are loosened the mortal becomes immortal. —Katha Upanishad The Katha Upanishad is a unique and powerful teaching on the heart. It is the story of an ardent student who gets to have a yoga private with the greatest guru ever named …
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Speaking Out Against Injustice
When I was seven, I recall looking up into the high vaulted ceiling of the First Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, CA. From the pulpit, my grandfather’s voice rolled out over the congregation, filling the sanctuary and nave. Now in my eyes, grandfather Little was a towering figure, appearing all the more taller …
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Might Doesn’t Make Right
If there is anything that we learn over time in a yoga practice, it is that you do not advance through sheer exertion. In yoga, you have to be tolerant, learn to honor your limits, and adapt. You have to be flexible! If only our leaders would follow such wise, …
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The Yoga of Mythology
Long before Netflix, Hollywood, Hulu and IG, yogis looked to myth and story to dramatize the trials of the human heart. And if you think CGI generated content is fantastical, just turn to the deities and the demons, the totem animals and supernatural beings that occupy the landscape of Indian …
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Awakening to Suffering
The more you awaken on the path of practice, the more you see how avidya—ignorance—is operative in the world. Each day, we are struck by the horror of man’s stupidity. And each day we are called to see the world through the eyes of compassion. Because we realize how absurd it …
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Lean Forward into the Unknown
To make art, to teach a class, to play the stock market or raise a family, you have to lean forward into the unknown. You have to use not knowing to your advantage. To the ego, this always appears as threatening, for its role in life is to call the …
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In the Spirit of Play
Let’s play. Don’t try to master this life or make yourself perfect. Just play along. For our practice is not about getting it right. If you approach your practice by trying to do it all correctly, you betray the spirit of play behind all creation. For in the mythology of …
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Opening to the New
My resolution this New Year is to stay open to the always new. Each day, each breath, each thought is a new arrival and the art of living is to remain receptive in both heart and mind. Each morning, when I wake up, I sit in silence and ready myself …
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