First Class Free

AUGUST 5TH, 2010.  What would you say to your best friend, partner, loved one, boss, enemy if you knew they were the last words they were going to hear?

The thing is and what yoga reinforces over and over is that we don't know when the last time it going to be exactly so it is vitally imperative to treat every interaction and every day as the most important.  What would you say?  What have YOU not been saying to the people in your life?

I think of my last conversation with Uzma and how excited she was to share photos of Tuscany with your Tuscany Family of retreat goers and how excited she was to take another trip with us!   What a blessing!!

So in her memory please take a moment and say what you have to say.  Don't hold back.... for we never know when our last chance to say what we mean really arrives.... Love to all, Silvia

TO BE WITH UZMA'S FAMILY SATURDAY IN HER LIGHT

Here is the schedule for Uzma’s ceremonies tomorrow (Sat):

Viewing at 12:15PM

Burnett-Dane Funeral Home120 West Park Ave.,LibertyvilleCorner of 176 & Milwaukee847-362-3009

Service from 1:15-1:40PM

Islamic Center Mosque1751 North O’Plain Road,Libertyville847-406-3730

Burial at approx 2PM

Highland Memorial Park Cemetery33100 N. Hunt Club Rd.Belvedere Rd and Hunt Club Rd.Libertyville847-362-5260

Everyone is welcome to attend any or all of the events.

Uzma has touched many more hearts that I am even aware of, so please forward this to anyone you can think of.

Thanks a lot,Nadeem.

 

JANUARY 18, 2010:  What is on my mind is this base on one of the intentions a TBY student wrote on facebook.  It is one of my all time favorite reminders of self of truth of love:  "Remember always that you are just a visitor here, a traveler passing through. Your stay is but short and the moment of your departure unknown. None can live without toil and a craft that provides your needs is a blessing indeed. But if you toil without rest, fatigue and weariness will overtake you and you will be denied the joy that comes from labour´s end. Speak quietly and kindly and be nor forward with either opinions or advice If you talk much this will make you deaf to what others say and you should know that there are few so wise that they can not learn from others Be near when help is needed but far when praise and thanks are being offered. Take small account of might , wealth and fame, for they soon pass and are forgotten. Instead nurture love within you and strive to be a friend to all. Truly compassion is a balm for many wounds. Treasure silence when you find it and while being mindful of your duties set time aside to be alone with yourself. Cast off pretence and self-deception and see yourself as you really are. Despite all appearance no one is really evil. They are led astray by ignorance. If you ponder this truth always you will offer more light rather than blame and condemnation. You, no less than all beings, have Buddha Nature within. your essential mind is pure. Therefore when defilement causes you to stumble and fall, let not remorse nor dark fore-Bonding cast you down. Be of good cheer and with this understanding, summon strength and walk on. Faith is like a lamp and wisdom it is that makes the flame burn bright. Carry this lamp always and in good time the darkness will yield and you will abide in light."  -Dhammawadaka

 

 

DECEMBER 5TH, 2009: Yoga requires that part of the mind be trained as an observer, known as the Witness, the other, or the higher self. Once you see yourself in the role of the observer everything takes a different look. This point of reference is sometimes called getting a cosmic perspective. Although watching ourselves is often pretty comic too!

Last night I finally went rock climbing! I almost can’t believe it, after so many years of just talking about it I did it. There is a wonderful place right here in Crystal Lake. Anyhow what I found interesting is the similarity to yoga: You are moving in a fluid way smarter and not harder. You can’t think too far ahead but instead you must be present to just what is in front of you in order to make the wisest next move of hand or foot, you can’t get “mad” at your options you just have to work with them managing your mental energy and remaining positive.

This is why yoga works. It helps us practice being. Scoop Nisker writes, “We habitually try to analyze and adjust our environment, as thought it were never quite right. Meditation practice is the antidote to our fears and worries, a way to allow ourselves to be in the world as it is.” You see there is no need to rearrange the outside stuff instead we should focus on the inner world of our thoughts, slowing down and observing ourselves before we take that next move. This helps us step outside ourselves in order to get some distance on our own little dramas. This process helps us understand the personas we wear as the masks that they are. Yoga helps us evolve from seeing ourselves in the third person to the first person.

Well on my climbing adventure this observation game works on two levels: you can learn tons from watching others move up the climb and if you stay calm and clear headed you can actually watch yourself as you are taking the actions to move. Each move reminds you to stay really present to your heart. As Chade Meng says, “A life-time is not what's between, The moments of birth and death. A life-time is one moment, Between my two little breaths. The present, the here, the now, That's all the life I get, I live each moment in full, In kindness, in peace, without regret.”

I hope with all my heart that this practice of yoga helps us all to be more present to the miracle of living life one moment at a time and as we watch ourselves we see how happy we are. I leave you with these words from Dhammavadaka “Remember always that you are just a visitor here, a traveler passing through. Your stay is but short and the moment of your departure unknown. Speak quietly and kindly nurture love within you and strive to be a friend to all. Treasure silence when you find it, and while being mindful of your duties, set time aside, to be alone with yourself. Cast off pretense and self-deception and see yourself as you really are. Your essential Mind is pure. Therefore, when defilements cause you to stumble and fall, let not remorse nor dark foreboding cast you down. Be of good cheer and with this understanding, summon strength and walk on.”

Love to you, Silvia

NOVEMBER 15, 2009: “After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it?” – Richard Dawkins

So here's the theme: how Yoga is the practice of revealing yourself to yourself. The whole thing is about self-exploration. Hope you can rock with me with great music and fun flow to feel for yourself how “Exploration really is the essence of the human spirit.” Here are some favorite quotes that inspired this practice. I also emailed out the actual class plan that I hope you have enjoyed! Love in all ways, Silvia


Whenever there is a reaching down into innermost experience, into the nucleus of personality, most people are overcome by fear and many run away. . . The risk of inner experience, the adventure of the spirit, is in any case alien to most human beings. The possibility that such experience might have psychic reality is anathema to them. – Carl Jung

Creative people who can't help but explore other mental territories are at greater risk, just as someone who climbs a mountain is more at risk than someone who just walks along a village lane. – RD Laing

Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do. It's a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do. - Neale Donald Walsch

If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. - Woody Allen

JULY 17, 2009:  Einstein says that “is there not a certain satisfaction in the fact that natural limits are set to the life of the individual, so that at the conclusion it may appear as a work of art?”  Spiritual practice reminds us that life is very brief.  No matter how many years we have in this body we know that it is impermanent.  Pema Chodran speaks to how impermanence heightens that feeling of preciousness and gratitude.  A fundamental Buddhist teaching says that once you are born, you immediately start dying.

 

Now if that doesn’t put things in perspective I don’t know what will.

 

Mortality is not scary dudes.  The way I look at impermanence is that it reminds us we are all ONE.  There is this yoga uniting all spirits, all nature. Our visit here is vitally important and so why not aspire towards harmony and use this trip we’re on to unite and celebrate one another?  Do we really need to spend any of our time fighting, destroying, rehearsing, dividing?  Is it worthwhile to battle even the difficult people or situations in our life knowing what we know, that life is fleeting?  I’ve spent time fighting against life by working too hard, climbing the corporate ladder too hard, accumulating stuff with almost militant gusto, then my Dad passed when he was only 59 years old.  That changed me forever.  There is no need to push at life. 

 

As I have always said, nature is my best teacher.  And I find great healing in the lessons that trees share with us by their existence.  We live because they live and vice versa.  Trees seem to me the symbol of this synergy of oneness and harmony.   We live in all things, and all things live in us.

 

“I believe in the absolute oneness of God and therefore also of humanity. What though we have many bodies? We have but ONE soul. – Ghandi

 

“We live by the sun

We feel by the moon

We move by the stars

 

We live in all things

All things live in us

 

We eat from the earth

We drink from the rain

We breath of the air

 

We live in all things

All things live in us

 

We call to each other

We listen to each other

Our hearts deepen with love and compassion

 

We live in all things

All things live in us    (By Stephanie Kaza, Earth Prayers)

 

During the course of the practice we get to try different poses. Some we can see as favorites and others as lessons.  The spiritual practice is to embrace all of them as they symbolize difficult and easy people in our lives.  So in the words of Indian philosopher Krishnamurti, “love the whole tree”.  Love your whole life, be grateful for everyone, celebrate each moment for it never comes again.  This is not a rehearsal, the state of harmony we allow ourselves determines the quality of our one life, right now. 

 

 

Love not the shapely branch,

Nor place its image alone in your heart.

It dies away.

 

Love the whole tree;

Then you will love the shapely branch,

The tender and withered leaf,

They shy bud and the full blown flower,

The falling petal and the dancing night,

The splendid shadow of full love.

 

Ah, love life it its fullness.

It knows no decay.    (Jiddu Krishnamurti, India)