THE WILDERNESS IN YOURSELF GUEST BLOGGER MARA
Maybe you've seen the PBS documentary series from Ken Burns these past two nights called: The National Parks: America's Best Idea. As I am watching the stunning images from Yosemite and Yellowstone and hearing the eloquent words of John Muir, I am moved. For I too feel the call of the wild. It is when I am in wilderness that I more easily reconnect to the core of who I am and find my connection with the web of life.
One of the things I love about Tantra Philosophy is this idea that the divine is revealing itself through the material world: through each waterfall, each mountain, each sunrise and through each one of us. We don't have to wait for the afterlife to touch the divine's will...there is a temple of nature here for us each and every day. People describing John Muir said he had a "bizarre rapture" with life. He was in love with his world and this gift of having our breath taken away by nature taps us back into this sweet love of life itself.
Similar to nature, yoga has helped me reconnect with a bigger spirit than myself and my thoughts. As I practice yoga, I begin to slowly peal back the layers of the preconceived notions of who I think I am or who others think I am as I slowly reconnect to a deeper truth. In Tantric Philosophy, we call this forgetting of our true nature, a veil, cloak or mirror that is called Maya. The Maya creates the 'dust' on our heart's mirror and shows up as fear, anger, sadness, guilt and shame. It cloaks the big picture and conceals the truth of who we are so we don't see as clearly. A steady yoga practice can help us start blowing the dust off the mirror so we can begin to reconnect with the fountain of life that is within each of us.
We may not be able to get to a National Park this year but through our yoga practice we can find the wilderness within our very selves. Why not think of your practice today as a chance to go on a journey. What is your body telling you? Listen to yourself and your soul....what does it want you to hear? What does it want you to remember?
Song- by John Muir
Here is a calm so deep, grasses cease waving.
Everything in wild nature fits into us as if truly part and parent of us.
The sun shines not on us, but in us.
The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing.
The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and; tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song,
Our very own and sings of our love.
9/30/2009
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One of the things I love about Tantra Philosophy is this idea that the divine is revealing itself through the material world: through each waterfall, each mountain, each sunrise and through each one of us. We don't have to wait for the afterlife to touch the divine's will...there is a temple of nature here for us each and every day. People describing John Muir said he had a "bizarre rapture" with life. He was in love with his world and this gift of having our breath taken away by nature taps us back into this sweet love of life itself.
Similar to nature, yoga has helped me reconnect with a bigger spirit than myself and my thoughts. As I practice yoga, I begin to slowly peal back the layers of the preconceived notions of who I think I am or who others think I am as I slowly reconnect to a deeper truth. In Tantric Philosophy, we call this forgetting of our true nature, a veil, cloak or mirror that is called Maya. The Maya creates the 'dust' on our heart's mirror and shows up as fear, anger, sadness, guilt and shame. It cloaks the big picture and conceals the truth of who we are so we don't see as clearly. A steady yoga practice can help us start blowing the dust off the mirror so we can begin to reconnect with the fountain of life that is within each of us.
We may not be able to get to a National Park this year but through our yoga practice we can find the wilderness within our very selves. Why not think of your practice today as a chance to go on a journey. What is your body telling you? Listen to yourself and your soul....what does it want you to hear? What does it want you to remember?
Song- by John Muir
Here is a calm so deep, grasses cease waving.
Everything in wild nature fits into us as if truly part and parent of us.
The sun shines not on us, but in us.
The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing.
The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and; tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song,
Our very own and sings of our love.