I have been reading Philip Shepherd’s book New Self New World. Along with many other observations, Shepherd notes that when humans learned how to build houses, the result was they successfully “created a space…that securely shut out the world of nature”. Emphasizing this point, Shepherd adds that the Warumungu of Australia called white men “enclosure […]
As the New Year approaches it is easy to find ourselves thinking about the things we “should” do next year. Our shortcomings become the guiding frame of our New Year’s focus, and our energy goes into efforts at improvement. What if we did something entirely different this year? What if, instead of imposing improvement on
Astonish Yourself! Read More »
We can’t possess anything anyway, so it is funny to me how hard we try. We use things and people to prop our insecurities on. It is like putting chains on these things and demanding them to never move, never change, and be available when we need them to make us exceptionally happy. We attempt
Aparagraha – non possessiveness Read More »
Like truthfulness, Brahmacharya is another “go all the way” yama. In other words, restrain from settling for anything less than wonder, awe, and the sacred. And restrain from anything that keeps you from this place. It is easy to grab our work, sweets, a good movie or romance novel, or get lost in the web.
Brahmacharya – non excess Read More »
Non-stealing is restraining from taking what doesn’t belong to us, what we don’t need, what is more than our share, and what depletes the future. It is restraining from doing others work for them, rescuing them, fixing them, and worrying about them. It is restraining from making ourselves smaller or bigger than we are, or
Asteya – non stealing Read More »
I am intrigued that the restraint here is a restraint to stop at anything short of the full truth. This is a significant leap from the tendency to land in a partial truth and be satisfied. If we begin in the internal landscape, it becomes clear that there are three of us that live here.
We are afraid of outer attack, but the real brutal attacks come from within. Where do we find more violence than what we do to ourselves in the hidden corners of our mind where abusive thoughts run on automatic replay? We are caught up in a cultural myth of self-lack that is keeping us in
To understand surrender, we turn to the gurus, sages, and mystics of all traditions. They all radiate a joy, compassion, childlike wonder, and unfailing trust. They seem to accomplish more for the world than seems humanly possible. And they unabashedly display a constant love affair with the divine. They almost seem like a different species
